Cold Summer Drink III

Cherry Juice

I wake up from a dream. In the moment before waking, someone whispers something that seems present and pressing to me at the time, words that don’t mean anything outside the moment of their dream context. Something under my skin is with me all day, but I can’t remember it, or can’t hear it.

I’m standing in the sun after some wandering around, looking for I’m not sure what. I’m drinking cherry juice through a straw from a box. When I turn with the light on my back, I see my dark shadow and a clear red line from my hand to my mouth, part of my shadow’s body.

The taste of the cherry is under something, not as easy and upfront as you might think. It’s under the sweetness. Like how a walnut has a flavor that is below and looks up at you, cherry juice is there being sweet but not knowing it. It’s not missing anything and not self-conscious, looking at you in the eye but saying something in your ear.

Cold Summer Drink II

How could you not get neck-deep in a thorn bush for this?










Wild blackberries found in Central Park make beautiful and tasty cocktails. Press them gently (they're fragile enough that they'll crush if you talk to them directly), strain from their seeds, add a tiny pinch of sugar to the liquid and combine syrup with vodka, ice and soda.

Cold Summer Drink

I love this satisfying and interesting drink-and I've never purchased buttermilk so frequently. A Polish version appeared in Saveur Magazine, and I adapted it. I think there must be a creamy cultured beverage from every corner of the world...

tall glass of cold 1% buttermilk
small handful of chives snipped tiny with scissors
several grinds of black pepper
small pinch kosher salt
large pinch ground cumin
equal pinch ground coriander

When you think about it, these are all things that will NOT make your teeth look awesome afterwards. Stir it up well and drink anyway. And chew. Sound bad? its not. Its great.

June: Another Exercise in Chile

L.I.C., New York-



Attended the 1st Food Film Festival at Water Taxi Beach and saw George Motz’s film Hamburger America, which features (among others), the be all and end all green chile cheeseburger from the Bobcat Bite in Santa Fe. In celebration they flew in fresh frozen green chile from Hatch, NM and applied it to burgers (unfortunately with embarrassing teaspoon-sized portions). Though I have large amounts of chile in the freezer (as well as in dried form), this got me all riled up to visit the vibrant plates of El Norteño.

Santa Fe, New Mexico-



Huevos Rancheros at the Tecolote Cafe, (corn tortillas with eggs -I like poached- and smothered in red and green chile) served with potatoes.



Enchilada Plate at The Shed (rolled blue corn tortillas stuffed with cheese and raw onions, covered in red and green chile (“X-Mas”), with pinto beans, posole, and an egg over-medium. All traditional dishes are served with a small amount of chopped lettuce and tomato. The Shed serves the best red chile. Accompanied by the classic Silver Coin margarita. Not shown, enchiladas from the Santa Fe Bar & Grill, they have a good red too, very dark and smoky. Also had green chile cheeseburgers from the Zia Diner (organic) and fancy Niman Ranch GCC’s from Santacafe. Breakfast burritos from the Baking Company.





A Frito Pie at the Atomic Cafe. A traditional Frito Pie is served in the Fritos bag, with red chile and meat (like a sauce), and beans and chopped raw onions. The Atomic's is served in a bowl with Fritos, green chile, jack cheese, carrots, red onion, tomato, black beans and a slice of jalapeño. They serve some version at the Levee in Williamsburg, but I'm not sure what its about. I assume they're using a form of chili, not chile. Needs investigation.



The most unusual (and therefore appealing for a sucker like me) was the Kobe Beef burger from Bert’s Burger Bowl ("One Location Worldwide"). A funky burger joint that’s been open forever, Bert’s is never run of the mill. They serve “lime Cokes” and “French Cokes” the first with fresh squeezed lime juice and the second with half and half.









I had the burger with green chile of course, and it was good of course. I should have had them omit the yellow mustard and pickles though, which just sour everything up.

Black Eyes in 2007

Happy new year! I hope everyone rang it in safely and in the best ways. New years day I made black eyed peas for good luck. It might be too late to bring luck if you didn't eat them on day one, but they are really good so you should make them anyway. I did an easy simple version:

2 cans black eyed peas
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
some cut up ham
a bay leaf
S+P
a little dried oregano and parsley
a splash of chicken broth
a few cut up canned tomatoes

In a pot, saute the garlic and onions in some olive oil, add the black eyed peas (if they are canned be sure to drain them) and everything else. Cook for a while, until everything comes together. Use lots of fresh ground pepper and remove the bay leaf at some point. Serve with rice or cornbread. Salud!

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.