Cooking With Ideas

Seattle is a Foodie's Paradise. . . .

So, I was briefly in Seattle. And yes, I took a van from my hotel by the airport to down town Seattle and wandered. Hence, the title of this entry. Seattle: a foodie's paradise. Big slabs of fish. Dungenes crab. Chocolate. Chocolate. And french restaurants. Yep, that's what I did. Plus an antique store. A used bookstore. Within blocks of each other a spanish food place (The Spanish Table) filled with cookbooks, wines and varieties of paella rice AND a Sur La Table. I could have spent much more than I did.

Chocolates: Rose's Chocolate Treasures. 1906 Post Alley, Seattle WA 98101. Wow. 1-866-315-ROSE. I just ate a tomato and balsamic chocolate. What an odd idea. And it was swell. I have a tamarind one in the box. And I bought dark chocolate and hemp hearts ones for someone else. Plus a few truly gourmet rice crispy treats. For me and to share: Salt. Port. Lavender. Caramel. Rosemary and pine nut. Mexicali. Cardamon and Espresso. Beet and Tangerine. Wow. And, the proprietor gave me a little gift of chocolate covered cocoa beans.

French Restaurant: Cafe Campagne. 1600 Post Alley. A late lunch/early dinner -- of carrot fennel puree soup. Trout Almondine with potatoes. Baguette. And then a dessert -- a chocolate dessert called Marquis au chocolate (supposedly with blood orange coulis and orange segments; my guess -- no blodd oranges here. But, it was still pretty darn swell.) I didn;t order the fig clafoutis, though I was tempted. And espresso. Wine from Alsace. A bit of people watching. And a bit of reading. White napkins. Service -- well, friendly, but they forgot to charge me for one of my $13 glasses of wine. (I confessed.) On the other hand, they gave me an espresso because it took ages for the dessert to come. Spent a bit more than I wanted ($60 plus tip, just for me.) But the trout was swell. The almonds sweet and lemony. The wine smooth and honey-like. I recommend this place. And, while the official bathroom reviewer was not along, I suspect this place would get a good review, even though it is not a place we've been to together.

Power(less) Lunching?

Ok, I have been lunching out a bit these days. And I am enjoying it. So, here are a few reflections on local (Geneva, NY) lunch spots I have visited in the interest of increasing my caloric intake -- and cholesterol.

Pizza Hut: Here's a Geneva favorite, on Hamilton Street. And, of course, as a chain, you can find it in lots of other places too. Complete with a lunch buffet that features various pizza selections, something that passes for salad, breadsticks and marinara sauce, and the strangest dessert ever (again, a sort of pizza slathered with jam-like substances that is so sugary you can smell it when you enter the restaurant.) I admit it: its self-indulgent to go there. What I like is the very thin crust pizza -- sort of matzo meets pizza crust, covered with lots and lots of pepperoni. Not healthy. But, like lots of chains, its predictable and comforting. I like the (I assume fake?) bacon bits to go on the salad too. And, usually, only whoever I am with notices that I eat them. Wikipedia says it is the largest pizza chain in the universe (click here for their article which, alas, does read a bit like an advertisement). I should, of course, not eat there, given their politics. The Pizza Hut Franchise Association for example, gave 7% of its PAC's donations to federal candiates to Democrats and 93% to Republicans according to opensecrets.org. Not to mention, the old 1999 scandal when their commercial allegedly took a "swipe" at now Senator Clinton's initial senatorial campaign. (Click here for some details.) Still, though, I love that thin thin thin crust.

Water Street Cafe: Turns out when you google "Water Street Cafe" there are loads of them. Not a franchise, though. Just a very popular name. Geneva's is located at 467 Exchange Street and the phone is . . . . well, it is not the kind of place to take reservations. It is what used to be called a greasy spoon -- and it is a very fine example of its genre. I hadn't been there in years, having been driven away by a combination of the odor of grease and smokers. Both sort of hang in your hair and clothes and. . . The suddenly, I have been there twice in the past few weeks. I have always liked their "homestyle" which involves huge amounts of home fries mixed in with eggs as they are scrambled. Order that with crisy bacon and what a recent lunch companion described as "the worst coffee in Geneva" and you have a happy comfort meal. (I, by the way, agree -- the coffee is awful. The eggs, though, are always great. And I can recommend the raisin bread too.) The place makes no sense some times; turns out to be cheaper to get a grilled ham and cheese with tomato and bacon than a grilled ham and cheese. Who knows? But its a great local hang out now that it doesn't stink of cigarette smoke. Hurrah for the no smoking laws! And for good cheap lunches. and the great old pictures of Geneva when Water Street really meant water. . . . .

Waffle Works Restaurant: Now here's another odd place. It serves meat loaf and sandwiches and breakfast all day and, well, I almost always order pecan waffles. (Not Belgian waffles, though they do serve them. Maybe I am an incipient isolationist, but I go for the classic with pecans.) Some years ago, the place changed ownership and all sorts of things got more rigid. Who knew that omelets absolutely had to have the ingredients listed with no revisions? (Have they never heard of a) flexibility or b) mise en place?) And, it has a very strange parking lot. Where is it? On Hamilton Street. The joint is jumping on Sunday mornings, and it is fine for lunch. Well, actually, I seem to eat breakfast for lunch a lot. So, I can't vouch for lunch per se.

I'll never be one of those "ladies who lunch"-- and it'll never be a "power lunch" -- but mid-day dining away from the workplace is worth it. Go for it. Take a friend. Or make a new one. Chains, greasy spoons, and waffle joints. All that food is transformed by the company. (Or is that just an excuse?)

Blog Watch: Planet of the Blind

A new blog site appears under "Geneva-related Blogs" as of September 23. The blog: Planet of the Blind. The blogger -- Steven Kuusisto whose has a new book out entitled Eavesdropping. Yes, he is a Genevan now living in Ohio. I have no idea if the book has anything to do with food -- I am saving the reading so I have time to savor the book. I do know one thing: Steve is funny, smart, warm, and a friend who I am glad to say has reappeared on my horizon. Check it out: Planet of the Blind.

Support Local Businesses. . . Oppose a SuperWalmart!

Geneva, as you may recall, is in the throes of a potential disaster. We have a Walmart. What looms, threatens, frightens is a Super Walmart. Just what we need. But, you say, you're a foodie and this does not matter. Oh yes, it does. Think the invasion of the organic snatchers.

For more information, click here or here.

To support Roll Forward Geneva, which opposes the new store, please consider a donation. Send it along to Roll Forward Geneva, PO Box 442, Geneva, NY 14456.

And pass the word. . . . .

Walmart
Anti-Walmart

High Holidays -- 5767

For those interested in food and religion, Judaism immediately pops to mind. Kosher, I think. Kashrut. Definitely food-related. (Not just food-related, of course, but any foodie who is interested in religion wants to think at least a bit about this topic. Mary Douglas did. So can I!) Besides, a whole series of holidays are coming up. Food and holidays --go together like . . . well, you know the song. And even fasting is food-related, right?

Rosh Hashanah Tish 1, 5767 Sat, Sep 23, 2006

Yom Kippur Tish 10, 5767 Mon, Oct 2, 2006

Succoth Tish 15, 5767 Sat, Oct 7, 2006

Sh'mini Atz Tish 22, 5767 Sat, Oct 14, 2006

Simchat Torah Tish 23, 5767 Sun, Oct 15, 2006

So, I have been thinking about holidays, food, Judaism. And this leads me to a cookbook I love: Olive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World by Gil Marks. What's not to like --olive trees bring to mind peace, honey is sweet, vegetarianism seems somehow so moral. But what I really like is the combination of insight and recipes. As Marks puts it:

If we are what we eat, then Jews are the accumulation of at least thirty-five hundred years of history. In each of the geographical areas in which jews found themselves, the local climate, vegetation, traditions, and events transformed their culinary habits. Over the centuries, Jewish customs and cooking continued to evolve, taking on distinct nuances in disparate places and creating diverse cultural communities. As a result, there is no one kind of Jewish cooking, but rather a mosaic of cuisines from Jewish cultural communities of varying sizes and development, each possessing its own unique history and customs. (p. v)

The recipes collected here are from Mizrachim, Ashkenazim and Sephardim. They span the globe. They make me think about the world differently. Marks provides little discussions of the food traditions of particular areas -- from Alsace to Georgia, Syria to Uzbekistan. And, he offers a discussion of the three sorts of Jewish holidays --the pilgrim festivals (which includes Sukkot), the High Holidays (which includes Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur), and the minor festivals. For me, though, the real treat is the recipes seem to be organized to play a range of variations on each idea. Carrot salads of various persuasions are my current favorites. Shredded carrots and. . . . that's the heart of these recipes. I can obsess about a single idea for a bit (not too long or I risk boring people around me!) by trying those variations on a theme.

What's not to like? An olive tree --and olive branch -- peace. Eat well --and work for peace.

Mangoes and Curry

Mangoes and Curry Leaves is my new favorite cookbook, hence this picture from a day when a case of mangoes and a huge (for me) bag of curry leaves graced the kitchen, all purchased in Rochester at the grocery associated with India House (for Indian restaurants and grocery stores in the Rochester area, click here). I received the book for my fiftieth birthday, but it only recently was "baked enough" to be ready to cook from. I knew it would be worth it -- I loved their earlier book Hot Sour Salty Sweet, also a gift. And, I regularly read from their Seductions of Rice and am amazed. It may lead me to try some red rice I saw recently in Wegmans.)

I have cooked from Hot Sour Salty Sweet for what feels like a long time. Spicey tilapia in coconut milk. A chicken dish made with cilantro roots combined with black pepper and fish sauce. Wraps of shrimp with mint and cilantro and chives and. . . .pickled carrot and daikon salad. . . . hot spicey vinegary sugary dipping sauces. Mmmmm. Hot Sour Salty Sweet focuses on do-able street food from the cultures along the Mekong River. Its subtitle is "A Culinary Journey through Southeast Asia." Mangoes and Curry Leaves is subtitled "Culinary Travels through the Great Subcontinent." Here, of course, the great subcontinent is India. Raita. And shredded grean bean mallum. eggs with curry leaves, okra bits fried in peanut oil with a bit of cayenne or a green chili, tilapia with my first home made green curry sauce, mango kulchi with cardamon (I am not the dessert expert in my home -- I just enjoyed this one -- modified to use honey instead of sugar!)

One recipe I particularly like is the eggs with curry leaves; basically scrambled eggs with curry leaves, scallions and shallots, ginger and a cayenne pepper. The last time I made it, I totally ruined them -- by putting in a pepper that was way way too hot. And I ruined my shredded green bean mallum. Now, when I use the right pepper and newish coconut and green beans, it is a beautiful dish. But: when I ruin it, I ruin it. Its true:it is all in the ingredients.

By the way, recipes from this book go well with ones from another favorite cookbook -- Madhur Jaffrey's From Curries to Kebabs: Recipes from the Indian Spice Trail. Whoever implied globalization was a recent invention has paid no attention to the history of spices.

Anyway, who are these cookbook authors? They are Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid, whose books combine their travels and recipes with delightful photographs (often taken by Jeffrey.) The backflap of Mangoes and Curry Leaves says "the making of this book is the subject of an hour-long documentary commissioned by Food Network Canada and directed by Jacques Menard." Hmmm. Have to see if I can find that! Meanwhile, let's cook! Or read their website and check out their recipe of the week.

Little Books with Big Ideas

Some books are ostensibly about one thing -- and open out to more. Others are little books with big ideas. Two of them are sitting by my desk, one a gift and one a recent purchase. Each is filled with little bits that add up to lots more. Each is literally small -- fits well into your hand and carries nicely. And, each is that ideal sort of book for dipping into now and then for a brief respite. A pause. I think pauses are very important in our oh too busy lives. I have too much on my list. And, the list never seems to get shorter. I think this all too often. And, I feel it. Books like these help me pause, if just for a moment.

While my favorite little book is not about food (it is Thomas Merton's Zen and the Birds of Appetite from Shambhala Pocket Classics ), these two are. They're not explicitly meant for meditative stops in your day or week. They involve neither daily affirmations nor the humorous play on them of Andrew Boyd's Daily Afflictions. In fact, they are not daily at all. But they're, as I say, great little vacations once in a while (what Herbert Marcuse called "repressive desublimation.")

The Cooking Companion is filled with little snippets of fact and fancy, trivia challenges and statistics, all oriented around -- you guessed it -- food. In fact, each pages number has a little fact that uses that number; page 49 (year last century in which Elizabeth David wrote her first cookery feature), page 101 (average daily consumption in calories of animal products per person in Ethiopia), page 136 (amount, in milligrammes, of vitamin E found in 15g of wheatgerm oil. And yes, that is how they spell milligrammes.) Snippets of verse. Meanings of words. Films for foodies. Do you need to know all these things? Will you remember them all? No. But worth a pause.

Eat, Drink, and Be Merry: Poems about Food and Drink -- a choice that reveals, perhaps, my closet love for poetry. (Basho is my favorite these days and often is.) One of those lovely everyman's library volumes that fits in your hand and has a red ribbon bookmark. Poems on vegetables and fruit, milk and breakfast. feating and fasting. Kipling on bananas, Marianne Moore on rosemary, Sylvia Plath on mushrooms, and yes, Cole Porter on milk.

Little books. Little pauses. Momentary sabbaticals. Refresher courses.

Mistaken Identity?

To me, fall means roasted vegetables. Roasted parsnips, roasted carrots, roasted onions. So, I bought The Case of the Roasted Onion, anticipating reading it with a sort of autumnal glee. You know, that wait before you read a little murder mystery that you know is not really literature but will roam across your brain in a sort of soothing way? Sweet anticipation sort of like a roasted onion. And I usually like Claudia Bishop's Hemlock Falls series -- in part because she refers to Finger Lakes places like Ithaca, Rt. 96 etcetera. (For a review of part of that series, click here.)

In many ways, The Case of the Roasted Onion, Bishop's inauguration of the "casebooks of Dr.McKenzie" did not disappoint. Yes, there are upstate New York references -- to one of my favorite little towns (Covert), to Perry City Road, to Ithaca and. . . . . Yes, the characters engaged with a lively mystery. And there were occasional references to food.

Wait -- only occasional? The Hemlock Falls series comes with recipes and focuses on a chef and her sister. What about the roasted onion? (I make mine with a drizzle of balsamic and olive oil. Sometimes a sprinklingof fresh thyme. Or coarsely ground black pepper. Or, given my new addiction to Simply Ming, along with other root vegetables, with curry ginger oil. )

I do not joke: the roasted onion is most definitely not to be eaten in this mystery. No, it is not the source of poison -- and I do not give away a plot twist here. As a hint: Dr. McKenzie is a veterinarian. And, the book involves lots of horses. There is even a mention of the Devon horse show, a flash from my past. (I grew up near there and, as a rider for part of my youth, went to the show on occasion and knew some who jumped there.) Of course, the horsey emphasis is obvious from the front of the book. The title, though, fooled me. I certainly will never do THAT with a roasted onion. And, I will certainly never think of the lovely, slightly carmelized onion beside a pork roast in quite the same way. I hope you'll never do THAT with a roasted onion.

Do what? Read The Case of the Roasted Onion and find out! Or, don't. Just don't do that!

Granola Heaven: An Interview

Glenn Litwiller is the chap who writes on the back of Mountain View Granola and let’s us in on the fact that the granola was a gift from his wife for his birthday. He is also co-owner, with wife Marcia, of Mountain Rise Organics in Naples, New York. I love the granola – as an earlier article made clear. So, it seemed a good idea to follow it up with a few words from Glenn.

Bibliochef: Can you tell me a little of the history of MountainView and how you came to do this with your life?
Glenn: Well first, we call ourselves Mountain Rise Organics, We became official (with a DBA) in 1998 and were certified organic that same year (We used to be called Mountain Creek Herb Farm, but it was to hard to say and we also do much more than herbs, so we changed our name.). First Marcia (my wife) worked full time on the farm and I did part time. I joined Marcia full time in 2001 and since then it has been our main lively hood. We initially just sold organic produce, herbs and eggs. The granola came a little later. We have always felt strongly about the organic movement and are committed to it.
Bibliochef: Oops. Sorry for getting the name wrong! Wow. Anyway, can you describe a day at Mountain Rise Organics?
Glenn: Up early and work! We never seem to have enough time in the day. We do, however , try to enjoy all moments no matter how busy we are and take time to see our children’s extra curricular activities.
Bibliochef: What’s your favorite product that you /p>sell?
Glenn: Mountain Rise Granola, of course!
Bibliochef: You may know I love your granola. Can you tell me something about how it is made and packaged?
Glenn: Home made and packed here on our farm. We started making it in our house, but had to convert our pole barn to a commercial kitchen to make the quantities we need to supply the demand. We are very thankful for our customers who give us the opportunity to make our granola. We mill wheat berries fresh for each batch we make and it is hand packaged and heat sealed by our wonderful employees. Mary, Melissa, Maria, Denise and Jacqueline. (Its baked by me and Marcia.)
Bibliochef: What is your favorite way to eat granola? Or your favorite granola based recipe?
Glenn: With organic yogurt. My wife makes awesome banana bread with our granola as a nut substitute.
Bibliochef: I love food so I like to ask people who are interviewed a few other questions. Some may sound silly, but. . . .What’s the absolutely best meal you have ever had? What made it the best?Glenn: Salmon dinner my wife made. My brother in law caught a fresh salmon in Lake Huron and gave it to us. It was excellent because it was so fresh.
Bibliochef: What movies or books related to food would you recommend? Why?
Glenn: Can’t think of any. My wife is really the cook.
Bibliochef: What do you eat for comfort food?
Glenn: Ice Cream
Bibliochef: Who would you most like to walk into your store and buy something from you? Why?
Glenn: We don’t have a formal store, but we do sell our products here. My answer though is, no one person in particular. I enjoy meeting all our visitors.
Bibliochef: Do you have a favorite restaurant in the Finger Lakes region?
Glenn: I have 2, Micelis restaurant in Canandaigua and The Brown Hound Bistro in South Bristol. (For the latter, try also here.)

What do you make with your granola?

What's YOUR Chocolate?

Who knew there were so many days identified as special days for special foods.

Today: Chocolate Day.. In honor, it seems of Milton Hershey's birthday.

I dream of chocolate ganache on ginger cake. Or reading a book about chocolate. Sublimation. There are lots, including The Empire of Chocolate: Inside the Secret World of Hershey and Mars (which is a good non fiction read) Diane Mott Davidson's Dying for Chocolate and Joanna Carl's The Chocolate Puppy Puzzle. And Hershey's not the only one. Today's a good day for a Shameless Attempt to Get Free Chocolate (from Nestle).

What will you do to celebrate?

Chocolate
Chocolate Day
Joanna Carl
Diane Mott Davidson
Holida