In the Labyrinth

Peter Pumpkin Eater Has Competition

Flavorwire has a hilarious set of photographs of buildings created to look like fruit. Total awesomeness. Who wouldn't want to wait for a bus in a shelter shaped like a melon above? Or a restaurant in the shape pf a pineapple? A strawberry? And my favorite...the spires of fruit in Gaudí’s La Sagrada Família – Barcelona, Spain (Click on the images for a larger version.)

Gaudi's famous church

The Zenchilada: Food, Art, and Fiction

Here's another one of those fabulous Kickstarter projects** that deserves support from anyone who welcomes the mix of short fiction, art, and food -- glorious food from around the world happily conjoined in one sumptuous magazine. A feast for the eyes and for the tastebuds! The Zenchilada has been until now a digital magazine but it's now reaching out to a new audience on Kickstarter in hopes of producing the first hard copy issue for Issue # 4, "On the Saffron Trail." Stop by the online version of The Zenchilada to view previous issues -- each organized by delicious themes, watch the film above on the upcoming issue and get inspired to contribute a little something to the project over the next month. As a writer who is always thinking of food as essential condiment in writing fiction, I am delighted at Zenchilada's very unique collaboration of my favorite things.

**Kickstarter is an online source where artists, educators, musicians, and creators of all kinds can pitch their projects and their funding needs directly to the public. There is a limited time in which each project must reach its funding goals -- so if you see something you like, don't wait! Support them now.

What We Ate and What We Drank: Part II

Madonna...it was a feast from the moment we arrived. Here is a sampling of what we consumed: A plate of six different cheeses from gorgonzola and walnuts, grana, fontina, fresh ricotta, several different kinds of goat cheese, three different kinds of raclette melted over potatoes, a creamy Aosta cheese cooked with potatoes, onions and bacon. Sausages and salamis: prosciutto ham (crudo and cotto), bison sausage, sausage with hazel nuts, sausage from goat, from donkey, from pork, braseola (a kind of cured beef) and pate de fois gras. Pasta carbonara, ravioli with squash and funghi swimming in butter, "priest strangler" pasta with gorgonzola and pears, pasta con pesto, a heavy mountain pasta darkly flecked with rye and baked with leaks, potatoes and fontina cheese. Risotto con fungi and risotto con zucca. The most beautiful roasted peppers, sauteed squashes, whole Roman artichokes steamed in olive oil and water on a plate, and sliced artichokes with slices of rare beef and potatoes drenched with olive oil.

And deserts: homemade peach torts and tiramisu that fed fifteen and was eaten with dinner and for breakfast. And gelato -- every day, sometimes twice a day, because it was just too good to pass up. Favorite gelato was Anna's home made vanilla gelato, doused with espresso coffee. Chocolates from Gubio in Torino, and from Shockolat in Milano.

And to wash it down we drank Alpine beers (found only in Stresa, Italy) killer wines (not available in the US), apperitivos, grappa, Chateaux Neuf du Pape, Port, and sempre sempre, tiny cups of coffee many, many, times during the day -- whenever there was a lull in the conversation...with cookies often and sometimes in the morning with brioche con crema.

Back From Travels...Report to Follow

...once the jet lag subsides and I stop feeling in sleep/wake limbo. It's been a fantastic month between getting some much needed work done, some wonderful travel to see friends, and a most unusual book signing event. Photos and menus coming soon...

Spring Spheres...Really?

Ok...some things are just ridiculous. Here's a news article about a public school in Seattle changing the name of "Easter Eggs" to "Spring Spheres," so that the objects in question wouldn't suggest any religious affiliation. That's right up there with "Candy Rabbit, "Winter Fat Guy, and Tooth Confirmed Bachelor." (All of which you hear about in a hilarious bit on the Lightning Fill in the Blank round of Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me on NPR -- scroll down a bit in the transcript...)

Put the Cardiologist on Speed Dial

Oh man, oh man..I could not believe it when I saw this new offering of a Krispy Kreme bacon cheddar cheeseburger on Taste Spotting -- stop by Hopeless Geek's blog to get the full review. I can't look away...

Mole Sunday

On Sundays my daughter spends the day making Mexican mole -- the deep brown chocolate and chile sauce that fills the house with its rich aroma and the stinging scent of roasting chiles that makes our eyes weep. The ingredients fill every inch of counter space around the stove -- dried ancho and guajillo chiles that are first roasted and then soaked in water, assorted spices that include the grated pit of an avocado, nuts and seeds, raisins, garlic, onions, tomatoes, papery tomatillo, and finally dark chocolate -- its sweetness to balance the heat. She roasts, chops, grinds, sieves, stirs, boils, and then simmers. And some eight hours later we will pour it over chicken or shrimp, or just plain rice and scarf it down with corn tortillas, grilled cheese-stuffed green chiles, refried beans, tangy limes, and cool avocados...more>>>

Russia and Molecular Gastronomy

A while ago I wrote "In Praise of the Cook," an article that looked at the alchemical powers of fairy tale and mythic cooks able to transform simple food into fabulous feasts. Contemporary stove wizards use a new science in their creations called Molecular Gastronomy (coined by French scientist and chef Hervé This) -- a system of cooking that pairs ingredients not on traditional usage, but on the similarity of their underlying molecular structures. Such bold thinking winds up producing dishes that seem hard to fathom -- "caviar and white chocolate, spice bread ice cream and crab syrup, and smoked bacon and egg ice cream served with French toast and tomato jam" -- to name a few dishes.

So I was delighted when the Wall Street Journal published an article featuring Chef Anatoly Komm, a Russian Molecular Gastronomic chef in Moscow who is transforming Russian standards like borscht and black bread into new creations (and from the description, sensations too!):

"The 'gastronomic performance' starts with humble Russian black bread served with fragrant sunflower oil and coarse salt. Only here, the bread is an egg yolk-size capsule of brown gel infused with the sour, coriander flavor, and the sunflower oil is a hard spiral. White-gloved waiters instruct diners to take the silver-spoon portion in one bite, revealing an explosion of flavors made stronger by the reversal of textures."

**The photograph above by Alexandr Antonov is of "transparent ravioli with baked truffle filling" and can be found here in the Moscow Times.

Devouring Books

Oh these are books good enough to eat! Every year around April 1, cities, libraries, and schools in many countries host an "International Edible Books" festival. The International Edible Book Festival website explains the April date for its celebration of food and books:

"April 1st is the birthday of French gastronome Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826), famous for his book Physiologie du goût, a witty meditation on food. April fools' day is also the perfect day to eat your words and play with them as the "books" are consumed on the day of the event. This ephemeral global banquet, in which anyone can participate, is shared by all on the internet and allows everyone to preserve and discover unique bookish nourishments. This festival is a celebration of the ingestion of culture and a way to concretely share a book; it is also a deeper reflexion on our attachment to food and our cultural differences."

The website has links to photo galleries of innovative creations -- some of them witty (and visual puns abound here!) to simply delicious. The book atop is The Book of Pi by Stephanie Krause & Robert Christie in the 2003 NY Center for Book Arts. The book just above is Eat Nature by Japanese artist, Masaaki Tatsumi. (You can see more of the Japanese Edible books here.)

Death and Dinner

I have a passion for food blogs (Chez Pim is a visual treat for example), so I was delighted to find a mention in Paper Cuts (the NYT blog) for The Old Foodie, a brilliant blog devoted to providing readers with 400 words a day on a historical food topic, along with recipes. Today's offering was a splendid piece on the infamous "mortuary dinner" given by eccentric French gourmand Grimod de la Reynière in 1783. Here's the first paragraph of the article:

"The eighteenth century French gourmand Grimod de la Reynière hosted a most unusual dinner party in 1783 which has gone down in history as 'the Mortuary Dinner’. Grimod was known to be eccentric, but even for him, this dinner was a little over-the-top. The invitation to a 'collation-supper' was in the form of an obituary notice, and guest were advised 'The arrival is fixed for 9 o'clock and supper will take place at 10 o'clock. You are requested not to bring neither dog nor lackey as there will be enough servants. Neither pig nor oil will be missing from the supper. You are requested to bring this invitation, without which admittance will be refused.' ”

The whole event is terrifically weird and worthy of a Tim Burton cinematic moment (who could forget the shrimp cocktail in Beetle Juice?) -- plenty of black crepe on the walls, coffins to lounge in, and a silent audience in the balcony to observe the spectacle. The Old Foodie also provides a tasty recipe for Ragout of Pork Chops -- just in case you, like me, have no idea what "plenty of pig and oil" might actually mean. You can read the whole piece here.

The image is from the great Arcimboldo depicting the creatures of water.