Treats From A Polish Neighborhood

Butter, sausage, and plain pastry totaling just $3.75

Fractal Food

Romanesco Cauliflower

Whisk & Ladle Supperclub

I recently attended the inaugural Whisk & Ladle Supperclub party, which in this case was a many-course buffet-style hours-long feeding frenzy. In the future it promises to be a lower-key sitting-down kind of feeding frenzy. Produced by three young go-getters, W&L is like a once-in-a-while restaurant in a loft. The go-getters are lovely and so is the food. For more information and reservations, go to www.thewhiskandladle.com.

The Secret Life of Cookies

The above objects are packages of butter

Japanese Food For the Working Woman

Sesame Snack Cracker

Bounty (in packages)

Treasure Chest

Dinner Composition

Cute Key Lime Pie in Red Hook, Brooklyn

This wonderfully fresh little key lime tart (three inches across) was from way down by the water, a bakery in a big old brick building that only seems to make things with key limes. (Shakes, pies in three sizes not counting this one). One has to get there by car, and know where to go. There are signs and arrows when you get close. I never remember that I am a fan of this dessert, but this made me think I'd never had any like it is meant to be. Composed of a simple, crumbly, graham cracker crust-almost a little salty, and a creamy, tart, sweet, straightforward key lime custard. It was sunny and it was perfect.

Los Angeles In Early September

gravlox on potato pancakes

fancy bodega

regional chips

beautiful but incomplete and therefore unacceptable mojito (no lime juice)

drive-thru

Green Chiles

Santa Fe, NM- We bought two bags (the size of garbage bags) of New Mexican green chiles grown in Hatch, New Mexico. Purchased in burlap sacks, they are then dumped into appropriately sized turning roasters stationed in the parking lot or wherever one buys the chile. The skin of the chiles becomes black and blistered, and the smell is smoky, powerful, a sign of fall in New Mexico. It gets in the blood. The steaming chiles are then corralled into plastic bags to be taken home for further preparation. The chiles are roasted and left to steam some so that the skin can be removed (it is not easily digestible) and so the flavor of the chile is enhanced and the texture useful. Once in the kitchen, (wearing gloves) the skins are peeled off and all the seeds and some veins removed. We then bagged and froze all thirty pounds. (about seven hours). The chile can then be easily transported, defrosted and used in sauces, stews, quiches, breads, on cheeseburgers, sandwiches, eggs, fries, tamales, enchiladas, and honestly anything and everything else.

Fried Rice Soothe Us

Fall Start

After a hectic morning arriving at the airport to be told I was there a day early, and a false start in a cab ride home with a furious and scary driver, actually getting in a cab that took me somewhere near my house left me needing some comfort. Tucked in at my local corner store awaiting a reliably wonderful egg sandwich, I drank some coffee and watched the neighborhood characters. The cat that lives at the corner store approached me directly and hopped up on my lap and started kneading like it was his job. Though I'm allergic to cats I could hardly protest as "Oreo" leaned against me, collapsed and went to sleep. A neighbor came over to greet the cat and express his jealousy since Oreo had betrayed him this morning. It was one of those times, though the weather was good and I was all ready to go that in fact I was right where I needed to be.

New Cheese

Today I researched raw cheeses. The first time I ever heard of such a thing was when I read a food article in Vogue when I was a teenager. When I have been out of the country, the cheese was an entirely different food experience with textures and flavors never experienced at home. In fact it is illegal to experience these sensations at home. Cheese in the United States since the 1940’s must be pasteurized, and if it’s not pasteurized, it must be aged for a minimum of 60 days in order to kill off the bacteria that could make us sick but probably won’t. So all the luscious raw young cheeses that exist elsewhere must remain an exotic fantasy. I was fantasizing about Turkish cheese (beyaz penir) at the fancy grocery store, and staring at blocks of feta sitting in their cloudy baths, one French, on Bulgarian, one Greek. I tried the french one, which had a lovely flavor, but it was dense, crumbly, and far too serious tasting. I squished the farmers cheeses and fresh mozzarellas in their plastic wrapping and wished for a taste of this Turkish delight in my memory. Not that there is one specific type I know of. The only thing I know is that it is solid enough to be in a cube that can be sliced with a plastic knife, is moist, and springy and has a varying degree of salt. It also tastes like a million bucks. The guy at the cheese counter recommended a fresh cheese they make there, sold in little plastic containers. Its called Menouri, and is a soft Greek-style cheese made from sheep or goat whey. (The liquid byproduct of producing cheese from goat or sheep milk, the first product being the curds). This cheese has been able to sort of satisfy my craving. It is soft, salted, moist, sliceable, with a slight crumble like cheesecake. It’ll have to do. I hear there are places in New York that one can obtain raw, young cheeses, but it might get a little shady. The other options are to drive north, drive south, know a guy, or to keep the fantasy in frequent rotation.

New Bread

At 12.30am I was walking home. The end of Manhattan avenue was filled with the smell of baking bread. I slowed down to savor it and to look at the building. I’m not sure which side is the front because I’ve walked down the other block and it looks the same, a red and white mosaic sign above the door that says New Warsaw Bakery. I’ve noticed the bread in the many local bakeries. I like the way of life that includes buying one’s bread everyday. As I stand under the sign, I look down and there is an open door with a tall rack in front of it, and I can see a huge oven, many feet wide, and a conveyor that extends to the other end of the building. The conveyor ascends away from me and on on it are a couple hundred shining new oval loaves. There is an old man sitting below the belt far in the back and he sees me and gets up. I wasn’t sure if he was coming over, but I continued to stand and he appeared with a greeting and slid the rack away. I said, “it smells good here”. “Oh it must be me”, he smiled. I asked if I could buy one, and he said “now? ok, two dollars”. He reaches over to the belt and puts a gleaming loaf in a big brown paper sack like a grocery bag. As I walk home I tear off little bits of it to eat. The crust is salty and the inside is hot and fluffy. The bread is much bigger than I expected and as I carry it on my hip, it feels like a warm, heavy, living being.

Stay Hungry

Welcome to Marinationwide. Here I will document my adventures and share lists, pictures, recipes, and writings on things that count. Salud!