phoenix eggs

thoughts on honey

2008-08-03T15:54:00.000-07:00

thoughts on honey (not my own - I'm not so eloquent)
It's the epigram for Anne Lamott's novel Crooked Little Heart.

Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt - marvellous error! -
that I had a beehive
here inside my heart.
And the golden bees
were making white combs
and sweet honey
from my old failures.

----Antonio Machado, from Times Alone

shopping carts

2008-08-02T14:48:00.000-07:00

My new obsession is noticing what people have in their shopping carts at the grocery store.

shopping cart # 1:

4 pre-formed ground beef patties
high fiber cereal
box of white Franzia
chex mix
wine bottle labeled (I am not making this up) "Peach Sparkletini"

pushed by:
middle-aged lady, slightly overweight, really shiny brown hair, wearing black capri pants embroidered with pink palmettos. looked like Ina Garten.

Coriander Grapes

2007-08-02T12:15:00.000-07:00

My sister-in-law requested this recipe from me, so here it is. It's so simple it can hardly be called a recipe!
Take some grapes, wash and dry them. Pick them off the vine.
Separate 1 or 2 egg whites and whisk a little, just until frothy.
Mix together about 1 cup of sugar and about 1/3 c. ground coriander - use more or less coriander depending on what you like.
Drop the grapes in the egg whites, then fish them out with a fork. Shake off the excess white, then roll them in the coriander sugar, using the fork. Us the fork to lay them out on a cookie sheet covered in wax paper or parchment. Try not to jiggle them around too much .
Let them sit at room temperature for one or two days.

If you're concerned about eating raw eggs, you can pasteurize the whites by whisking them in a metal bowl over simmering water until they reach 140 degrees F.

These are great garnishes for drinks - you can cut a slit in them and set them right onto the rim of the glass. If you want to get really fancy, you could spear them with an herb, like rosemary or lavender.

Enjoy!

Happy Meal (sort of)

2007-06-03T08:34:00.000-07:00

We had a cookout the other night, and I decided to finally make the mini burgers I've had on my mind for a month. I've been obsessing about the concept of a mini burger and fries - kind of like a happy meal, but better.
We ended up making mini venison burgers on ciabatta with caramelized onions, balsamic mushrooms, and bleu cheese. Then I made a roasted yellow pepper ketchup and mini fries.

For dessert we had sorbet. I've had an ice cream maker for about 3 years now, and have never used it. We have a lot of honeysuckle growing in our yard, so I decided to make a little duet of sorbets - honeysuckle/peach and blackberry/cabernet. They were pretty good - and super easy! I think I may actually use the ice cream maker again. To make the first one, I just steeped honeysuckle flowers in simple syrup, until it was infused with the flavor, and then aded pureed peaches. Then I pushed it through a sieve to make a smooth texture. For the second, I used some honey from my neighbor, who owns Haw Creek honey. We can just walk down the street to his house, and he has a little honey box with shelves of honey. You take what you want and drop money in the slot. The kind we had in our pantry just happened to be blackberry, so I thought that was perfect. I liked that, although I am not a gardener and live in a somewhat suburban environment, I managed to use 2 ingredients (honeysuckle and honey) from my neighborhood - seriously local food.

Tea Tasting Menu

2007-04-30T14:06:00.000-07:00

My capstone menu:

Duck rillette, ladyfinger popcorn tuile, orange confiture, Earl Grey glaze.
Chicken consomme with carrot petals and white tea butterflies.
I laminated white tea into the pasta, then tied them with blanched chives.
Seared tuna "sushi" on sweet tea risotto rolls with mustard greens and prosciutto, a red wine emulsion, chive oil, and a shitake.
Rhubarb-oolong sorbet, with a frosted coriander grape. (One of my judges said it was the best thing he had ever eaten!!)

green tea-smoked duck, lotus chips, strawbery demiglace, leek puree.

And below, endive salad with chamomile-infused mozzarella (which I made myself),

and then a frozen chocolate-hazelnut bombe with chai marshmallows toasted tableside. In the very last picture you can see the cart set up for service. The server used the brulee torch to toast the marshmallows, then plated them individually. It was a big hit, and I think really fun!

My Dinner with President Bailey

2007-02-24T11:05:00.000-08:00

Here are some photos of a meal a made at school this Thursday. There were 6 courses in all, and I cooked for one table of five people. I'm only posting 4 of the pictures here. The first is a layered scallop and truffle appetizer, encased in puff pastry, with pea shoots. Next is the sorbet - it was lemon verbena, and I made a blood orange gelee and glaze to go with it. I had to use a frozen puree because we didn't have enough blood oranges, so the color isn't as vibrant as I would have like. But it tasted good.

This is the entree - Chicken grapefruit scallopini with pink peppercorn sauce, and I just made a classic Market Place potato cake (from my old station there) and a warm arugula and jicama salad to accompany it.

Finally we have mint ice cream with a chocolate curl - those were fun to make, and I just dipped a mint leaf in chocolate as a little garnish. For my first classical dinner lab, I think it went pretty well. I had a good time and didn't freak out (even though I was cooking for the president of our school!). Next time, I'll try to be a little more creative on my plate presentations.

jello shots

2007-02-14T12:04:00.000-08:00

Last week one of my culinary instructors asked if I would like to do a cooking demo for my class. He said I could put it in my portfolio, and that he thought it would be a good experience for me. We've been doing these exercises in class where we take an old Escoffier recipe , or just any traditional recipe, and rework it for today's table. I suppose some people (Anthony Bourdain springs to mind) would like a plate garnished with coxcombs, but not many people these days would be thrilled with random animal parts served as a garnish on a plate, a la Escoffier. So we revamp them, and try to be creative.

The latest recipe we were given was a caeser salad. Somehow I came up with a hot oyster jello shot. It would be served in a shot glass. The first layer is a hot gelee made from juiced romaine and agar agar (which stays gelatinous when hot, unlike gelatin). Then a cream made with a little anchovy, parmesan, and garlic. Then more hot romaine jello (really, you can't have too much hot lettuce jello). Then a foam made from dijon, cream, a little more agar, and foamed in a whipped cream canister with nitrous. Then a fried oyster to top it all. I also added a balsamic "rose" which consists of making a balsamic reduction, then taking the cut off end of the romaine head, dipping it in it, and stamping it onto the plate. If you've never noticed, if you cut off the end of a romaine head, it's shaped like a rose. I've actually seen it used in craft magazines as a rose stamp for fabric. I thought, why not a food stamp for a plate?

This all really began as a joke, because those of us in my corner of the classroom were joking about molecular gastronomy, foam, and the like. I sort of thought of the most ridiculous thing possible, but my teacher saw it and actually liked it. We'll see how it goes. I do have to say that it's similar to something I saw and really liked at my internship this summer. Forgive me if I mentioned it before - it was a seminal food moment for me. Chef Fleer made a shot with juiced iceberg lettuce, set up with gelatin, a layer of peach puree, and then whipped whey on the top, and titled it simply "iceberg, peaches, cottage cheese." It blew my mind. In a good way.

Easy and Healthy

2006-12-29T08:43:00.000-08:00

So with the new year approaching and the holiday season just behind us, I am making an attempt to be healthy. After all of that heavy holiday food, I feel like I want to eat raw fruits and vegetables only for the rest of my life.

With that in mind, I thought I'd share a really easy sauce I made recently. I served it as a sauce on a chicken sandwich with pita bread and almond-raisin cous-cous. But it would be a great light dipping sauce for kebabs or raw veggies or even in a kind of Mediterranean chicken salad.

Here it is:

Ginger-Yogurt Sauce
1 bunch scallions, cleaned and sliced
1 tsp chopped fresh ginger
1 c. honey
1 c. plain yogurt

Sweat scallions and ginger over low heat until scallions are tender, about 5 min. Puree in blender with yogurt and honey.

It's good hot, warm, or cold. Enjoy!

Marmie's Cupcakes

2006-12-20T08:03:00.000-08:00

Last night we celebrated my mom's birthday. My sister was there with her new baby, Mom's first grandchild, who is only 20 days old. Mom wasn't crazy about being called Grandma or Granny or anything like that, so she and my sister settled on "Marmie", which is what the girls call their mother in Little Women. Very cute.

To celebrate, I made cupcakes using the recipe for Hershey's chocolate cake. It's a great recipe that has been around for years - your mother or grandmother probably made it. Ok, I actually made some cakes and cut them out into little flower shapes, but I wouldn't recommend doing that. It was extremely messy and I ended up wasting more cake than I used. I think I'm going to make the scraps into a mint chocolate chip trifle. Next time I'll just make plain cupcakes.

So anyway, I brushed the cupcakes with a lot of simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water, heated till the sugar dissolves) to make them nice and moist. Then I made up a ganache (melted semisweet Ghirardelli chips and cream) and cut out little holes in the center of each little cake. I spooned the ganache into the hole, for a little chocolatey surprise. Then I made an orange-white chocolate buttercream. I put that in a pastry bag and squeezed little rosettes on the top of each cake, and finished it all with some powdered sugar tapped through a sifter. They were a big hit, and my sister asked for the buttercream recipe, so I thought I'd just put it on the blog. It's a standard swiss buttercream recipe from one of my baking textbooks, except I added white choc. and orange.

This recipe makes 5 to 6 cups. I made half this amount for 8 cupcakes.

1 c. egg whites
1 1/2 c. sugar
pinch cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 c. unsalted butter, softened, cut into chunks
2 tsp vanilla extract

for orange-white choc. variation:
1/2 c. white choc. chips
1/2 c. cream
juice and zest of 2 oranges

The egg whites are unpasteurized, so you need to pasteurize them. Do this by puting them in to a metal bowl over lightly simmering water. Whisk gently until heated to 140 F.

Then add sugar and whisk until dissolved. Add cream of tartar.

Whip this mixture to stiff peak with a mixer. (Stiff peak is when you pull the whip out of the mixture and the peak stands up and doesn't fall over.) This will take a while. Also, be careful not to overwhip them. Stop just when they get to stiff peak. If you're in doubt, it's better to have them a little underwhipped than overwhipped.

Add salt (don't freak out if the whites kind of collapse. Just keep whipping and they will come back to stiff peak) and then put mixer on med. Toss in softened butter chunks a few at a time. (Again, don't freak out if it looks all lumpy and separated. It will come back together. You may need to stop the mixer and stir it with a rubber spatula.) Add vanilla. The consistency should be like icing. You know what that looks like, right?

If you want to add the orange-white chocolate flavoring, put those ingredients in a metal bowl and melt over the pot of simmering water. Then cool it down to room temp, and gently fold into the icing.

And you're done!! Keep it in the refrigerator until you're ready to use it, and then you may want to let it warm up a little at room temp until it's a spreadable consistency. It can also get too warm, in which case, obviously, put it back in the fridge for a little while. Happy icing!

risotto cures all ills

2006-12-04T15:02:00.000-08:00

Today was the coldest day of the year thus far. To celebrate, or perhaps to get into the spirit of the penguin mania which seems to be sweeping the nation, we spent the morning ice carving. Outside. In the wind. I love culinary school. And we get to do it again tomorrow.

Not my favorite thing I've ever done. Tomorrow I plan to wear 2 pairs of pants, several sweaters, and knee-high boots. I wore 3 pairs of gloves today (not kidding) so I don't think I could really layer any more in that area. I may take a cue from a fellow student who wore his motorcycle helmet the whole time. It conveniently has an eye guard, which is not a bad thing when you're standing on slippery ice and using a chainsaw. Maybe with my many many layers of clothing tomorrow I'll get more done than just the heart on the classic "heart riding a wave" design we all have to carve. Or at least I won't have to spend the rest of the day shivering, drinking hot lemon-water, and feeling like I have the flu. Which is, of course, what I've done today.

To compensate for my horrid morning I made acorn squash risotto for dinner. I roasted an acorn squash on a bed of mirepoix (that's onions, carrots, and celery to you civilians) and 1 slice of bacon. Then I pureed all of that with some chicken stock. I'm crazy about straining, so I then pushed the puree through a sieve. This is a little trick I picked up a while ago, and it's one of those little things that can really take your cooking to the next level. Any time you puree anything, ever, always strain it through a chinoise or sieve or tamis, or whatever you have handy. Thomas Keller says to do it, so I do it. Anyway, then I got some arborio rice and cooked it with chicken stock, adding the stock in increments and stirring, and cooking until the rice is gooey but still al dente. Added the acorn squash puree (not all of it), seasoned of course ( I love salt!!) and it was pretty great. I made a simple roast chicken and a salad with pears and gorgonzola to go with. Not a bad way to spend a rather fluey evening.

leaving room for inspiration

2006-11-29T09:55:00.000-08:00

This Thanksgiving we went to New York. We stayed with my friend, H., who lives in a tiny studio at a very chic address in Manhattan. I volunteered to make Thanksgiving dinner, which was very simple, but I had no idea what I was getting myself into. You have never really cooked until you've cooked in a tiny New York apartment. I won't go into the gruesome details, but here are some highlights:
~ I broke one of her 4 plates (that's right she has, or rather had, 4.) It was her great grandmother's and had little pink rosebuds on it and gilded edges. I felt guiltier about that than just about anything in the recent past.
~ We discussed various coping techniques, such as pretending that one's oven is a dishwasher and "storing" dirty dishes in there, converting one's oven to a counter by scouring Manhattan for a perfectly-sized cutting board to place over the burners, and the weeks of deliberation required before making any kitchen purchase, such as martini glasses, especially if said purchase does not multitask.
~ As I sat on her lovely, vintage, blue velvet couch, H. handed me a bag of sweet potatoes and parsnips, a knife, and a cutting board. Me, "Where should I cut these"?" Her, "On your lap, of course!" Me, silently to myself, "Does not compute. Does not compute."

Another interesting aspect of the trip was the preparation for it. I know I am now a full-fledged member of Asheville's food community, because as soon as it became known that I was planning a trip to New York, I was inundated with an enormous amount of information in the form of magazine articles, maps, food guides, and actual menus from New York restaurants. Some of these menus had actual drawings on them of what each plate looked like, with notes , such as "served with torn Romaine leaves" or, more spectacularly, "red onion foam" , "foie gras powder", and "methylcellulose".

It was literally like I was a pilgrim about to journey to Mecca. I did not want to to tell these people that although I was going to the holy city, I was not necessarly planning on eating as many avant garde meals as possible. Although I am certainly interested in Wyle Dufresne and the like, I really enjoy just wandering cities and seeing where I end up, with no particular plan.

So we ended up with a great dimsum experience in Chinatown, and with Indian at some crazy tiny restaurant, and the strongest margaritas I have ever had - I was drunk after 3 sips!

In fact, the most important food experience I had was not a food experience at all. I was when we went out in the cold and rain and wind on Thanksgiving day and looked at all the Christmas window displays. One in particular stood out to me, and it wasn't until we were driving home and I had time to process all the information I had taken in during the trip that it hit me - I knew what I would do for my capstone piece monte. This simply means that next semester I have to make some sort of an edible showpiece, and I got the most perfect, amazing idea from Bendel's window display. I don't want to share it yet, I'm not even sure if I can do it, but it was a truly exciting moment when it came to me.

Perhaps we could have planned more carefully, and I could have arrived home wtih my own annotated menus and meticulous plate drawings. But for now, at least, I spend so much of my time doing things like that. I plan recipes for school, and agonize over the exact curves of the lines of food on platters presented to be graded. I guess, this time, I just wanted a freer experience of eating. Less planned, more chaotic, and leaving room for that elusive spark of inspiration.

Bacon, food of the gods

2006-11-06T09:59:00.000-08:00

As with so many meals these days, I'm eating one at the computer right now. I'm drinking a pot of loose-leaf green tea with a raspberry-peach smoothie and a bowl of oatmeal with raisins. Real, not instant.

Why, you ask, am I eating such a healthy meal? Isn't that a little out of character?, Well, I've decided I need some healthy food to make up for the s'mores and wine I had yesterday, and the foie gras and bacon tasting we had at school this morning.

One of the advantages of culinary school is that you get to have things like bacon tastings. One of the disadvantages of culinary school is that you have to have things like bacon tastings. So this morning, before 11 am, I had 2 different kinds of bacon, about 2 oz. of foie gras, a healthy helping of foie gras mousse on pullman toast, 3 different kinds of sausage (one of which I made myself), and some tasso. It was a lot of really salty, really fatty meat. I did not try the beef tongue, which looked exactly like a giant tongue. I know I should be more adventurous, but I don't want to eat something that could taste me back.

Thus, my healthy, and noticeably meat-free meal.

One type of bacon we had was Benton's from Tennessee. I think it's the best bacon in the world, and I'm not alone in that thought. The past two places I have worked (The Market Place here in Asheville, and Blackberry Farm in Tennessee) have used their bacon. If you ever get the chance to eat some - do it! It's amazing. I used to have to hide it when I had it on my station at The Market Place. If I left it unguarded for a minute, half of it would be gone. I caught cooks, servers, even the owner of the restaurant sneaking it. At one point I even tried taping a barricade of masking tape and parchment paper around the bacon. Of course, as soon as I moved to a different station, I stole it from the poor soul who replaced me. That's the way it goes with really good bacon. It destroys your self control.

Phase 3

2006-10-27T15:34:00.001-07:00

As I was just saying to my friend K., I'm really glad I decided to start a blog right now, when I have so much free time. My husband keeps telling me that no one will read my blog if I never post anything, but school is kiling me right now.

Being a culinary student is hard, at least at my school. I hear tales of people who go to CIA and breeze through, but no one, and I mean no one, breezes trough my culinary program. I spent 4 years getting an English degree at Sewanee, which is supposed to be extremely difficult, and let me tell you, it was a cakewalk compared to culinary school.

One of the things I've been working on at school is a big project for my menu design class. This project takes place over the course of the semester, with different phases due at different times. We basically create an imaginary restaurant, throw an imaginary party, and write a six course menu (plus b&b) that fits our theme, the event, and the season we have picked. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but it's a killer. All second-year students are currently walking around mumbling to themselves, with glazed-over eyes, stopping only to accost other second-years and utter our frenetic greeting, "Are you done with Phase 3 yet?" I know for me, personally, there have been many late-night phone calls about Phase 3, some completely nonsensical emails that almost reduced a fellow student to tears, and a total inability to utter anything other than the standard greeting (see above) to anyone I meet, including students who are not in this class, and complete starngers at the grocery store.

But in answer to the only question I can currently imagine - yes!! Yes, I am done with phase 3! Yes, I have created standardized recipes for the required 5 courses! Yes, I did include a recipe for stock in my packet! Yes, I do realize how foolish I was to include 3 separate items in my appetizer alone, nearly doubling my workload! And yes, I do regret the inclusion of such brilliant ideas as "vanilla smoke" stolen shamelessly from Homaro Cantu, and for which it is nearly impossible to write a . . . STANDARDIZED RECIPE.

And since I can think about nothing else, I'll share my menu (the season is spring):

Morel trio: shot of soup, braised morel with shallot cream, morel-truffle ravioli, morel reduction

Gingered carrot soup, beet coulis, cashew brittle

Rhubarb soda

Geen tea-smoked duck, melted leeks, lotus chips, strawberry emulsion

Lemongrass-nasturtium gelee, baby spinach, pistachio cracker, champagne vinaigrette

Chocolate fondue, cinnamon marshmallows, honey crisps, vanilla smoke

Sesame twists with plum butter

flavor equations

2006-10-15T12:30:00.000-07:00

When I was researching recipes for dulce de leche, I came across this, "A banana dipped in dulce de leche is the taste of a Mexican childhood." That sounded good to me. I'd love to taste a Mexican childhood! (I think.) So with the leftover ddl from our mid-week meal (see last post), I warmed it up and poured it over a sliced banana, sprinkled with cinnamon, and I truly think it was one of the best things I've ever eaten.

Caramel and bananas is a fabulous flavor combination. One of the things I really started learning about last year was combining flavors. They're like little math equations. Some work, some don't. The sous chef I worked for had spent two years at the French Laundry (read - working for God)and really impressed on me the importance of learning which flavors work together. Some of my favorites:
pear + shitake + truffle + celery
banana + caramel + rum
orange + chocolate + black tea (or, more simply, chocolate + Earl Grey)
green tea + duck + leek + plum (or other fruit - cherry is great)
red wine + beef + bacon
lavender + vanilla + cream
bacon + everything

There are many others, of course, but if you know me and eat food that I make very often you'll start to notice that these flavors in these combinations tend to repeat themselves a lot. The cool thing about this is that you can combine these flavors in endless ways.

The handbook for doing this is of course a book called Culinary Artistry, which actually has lists of ingredients, and flavors that pair well with them. It's indispensible.

I've always hated math, but this is the kind I can really enjoy!

autumn dinner

2006-10-13T09:47:00.000-07:00

I think Autumn is my favorite season. The leaves, especially here, are so beautiful with all the oranges and reds, and little purple flowers seem to have poppped up everywhere. I also love fall food - I think it's my favorite season for cooking. Rich, hearty things are so comforting on the first chilly nights of the year.

The other night S. wasn't feeling well, and I had had a pretty bad day. But I had the afternoon off, and it was dreary and misty and perfect for spending the afternoon in the kitchen. When one feels worn out, in body and spirit, nothing is so comforting as a good meal.

Here's what I made:
Boeuf bourguignon(sort of), in bread boules, and then apple crepes with dulce de leche for dessert.
A simple salad of frisee or curly leaf lettuce with a lemon vinaigrette would go well with this meal, as well.
For the
Beef stew, I started with some cubed beef, sold as "stew meat" in the grocery store, and meaning, I'm sure, left over bits. But they were inexpensive and suited my purposes. I dredged them in flour and browned them in olive oil. I then add an entire bottle of red wine to deglaze the pan, brought it to a boil, then poured everything into the crock pot, set to low.

You could of course do this in the oven, particularly if you had a dutch oven, or stovetop, but I found that the crock pot worked very well. I've had it for years and seldom used it, and it recently occured to me that it's really a perfect tool for braising.

Then I started with a cold pan and rendered some diced bacon, and added a diced onion and quite a bit of diced carrot, and cooked it all until the onions were tender and translucent. I drained off the excess fat and added all of it to the crock pot. Then I added some peeled pearl onions, and about 3 tablespoons of tomato paste. Of course I added a good amount of salt and pepper. And that's about it. I let it braise for a good 5 hours, until the meat was really tender.

I decided to serve this in bread boules, so I just took a good French bread recipe and made it into medium rounds rather than baguettes. It was nice, and S. liked that aspect of the meal more than I did, because he love bread more than anything else in the world.

I have been wanting to make dulce de leche, but have been intimidated by the prospect of boiling a can of condensed milk, as many recipes tell you to do. My friend Cynthia, pastry chef at the Market Place, gave me a recipe that I used successfully last year which used whole milk and sugar. But I had a can of condensed milk in the pantry and wanted to try using it.

I simply emptied the can into a small saucepot and brought it to a low boil over low heat, and stirred it a lot with a rubber spatula - essential tool for this recipe!! It got some brown bits in it, but I just scraped them into the mixture and told myself, "It's supposed to caramelize, those will be the best parts." I kept boiling until it was golden and tasted like caramel, and it only took me about 10 minutes, not the 4 hours called for in many recipes (!!!).

Then I pureed all of it in the blender wtih a little extra milk, pushed it through a sieve, and I have to say, it was one of the easiest and best things I've ever made. If you dod this, be sure to take the middle part of the top off of the blender. The heat can cause an explosion if you leave it all sealed up. Cover that hole with a kitchen towel, and don't put your face right over it.

I sauteed some diced North Carolina apples - perfect right now!! - with cinnamon and brown sugar and vanilla. Then I made crepes, filled them, topped with the dulce de leche, and it was pretty good. Next time I'll make some whipped cream or serve vanilla ice cream with it.

Here's a good crepe recipe:
3/4 c. flour
1/2 c. clarified butter (I actually used olive oil and it was great)
1/4 c. milk
6 eggs
salt

Whisk together eggs and butter (or oil), add flour then milk Season with a little salt. Make sure it's at ribbon stage (this means you can pull the whisk out and begin to write your name with the batter). Adjust consistency with more milk or flour as needed. Let rest in the fridge - it's actually great if it rests overnight, but an hour or even 30 min. will do.

To make the crepes, get a nonstick pan, brush with oil or butter, and ladle circles onto it, preferably one at a time. Try to make them thin. Flip over when they start to bubble, and transfer to plate when done.
It's really just a thin pancake, so don't be intimidated!

So that's my autumn dinner, and I recommend trying it when you need a little nourishment for your soul as well as your body.

wwjd - what would janna do?

2006-10-10T11:58:00.000-07:00

with an afternoon in asheville?

A friend of ours recently noted, with some amazement, that my husband and I really share very few interests. We like different books, different movies, different restaurants, and have remarkably different ideas about fun ways to spend free time. If it were up to S., my husband, we would read books about economic growth in China in the 80s, then go watch an action movie which would be judged on the number of explosions: more explosions = better movie. We would then find a grungey, tiny ethnic restaurant in a bad neighborhood and eat really spicy but otherwise tasteless food, preferably served on paper plates with plastic silverware. At this meal we would discuss such fascinating topics as the entrance of Bulgaria into the European Union and the effect this will have on the euro, the dollar, and both the Japanese and American stock markets. I'm not kidding about this.

Of course the perfect day for him would be spent outdoors getting very dirty and eating ramen noodles. This can be challenging for me, as our friend continually noted on a recent 7 mile canoe trip. He pointed out that there was not one time that he looked over at our canoe and saw me paddling. My theory was that I agreed to come along, which was a big step for me. Plus, I don't think I really would be much help paddling a canoe. Everyone seemed to find this amusing. i was being serious.

My perfect day is about as far away from dirt, politics, and canoes as you can get. Not that I don't enjoy hiking or being outside. I do. I just want to go for about 10 minutes and then shower, put on high heels, and have a nice glass of wine in a cafe.

One of the amazing things about living in this region, is that 2 such polar opposites can find so many perfect days doing such different things. For those of you who, like me, really enjoy the day more if you can look cute while you're having it, let me suggest a great way to spend an afternoon.

Janna's perfect day #1 - Biltmore village.

Start around 1pm. after the lunch rush. Park near Fig. In that same building, there is a fabulous boutique/salon called Wink. It has really beautiful, and surprisingly affordable clothes. If you're looking for a great party dress, this is a good place to start. It's a big, cool space with lots of windows. They also have really good accessories, and a wonderful salon.

Next, check out the apothecary in the same building.

Cross the street to Blue Goldsmiths. The two ladies who run this place (Lynn and Susan) are extremely nice, and custom-make a lot of their jewelry (including my wedding ring). They will spend a long time talking to you about your lifestyle and likes/dislikes to make the perfect piece for you. When they made my ring, Lynn got out a tray of jewels and put them on my hands. She then covered them up so that I could only see one at a time, and said, "How would you feel if you looked down at your hand and saw this stone for the rest of your life?" We did this until we found the perfect stone for me. It was an amazing experience - it really doesn't get any better than having your hands literally covered in loose jewels. But don't worry if you aren't shopping to buy. Looking is free, and they are very welcoming.

Wander back across the street to Sprig, an eclectic garden store. Even if you aren't a gardener, you'll feel like taking it up once you set foot in here. They also sell really clever cards by Anne Taintor. She takes photographs from the 50s and puts hilarious words on them in ransom-note collage fashion. You'll want to buy one for all of your girlfriends. I'm lookng at one I bought for myself right now. It has a picture of a really glamorous woman with large diamonds and says "frugal is such an ugly word."

Finish the day at Enoteca, the coffeeshop/winebar at Rezaz. They're open all afternoon and have biuld-your-own antipasti platters. I recommend the mimosas, and some of the pastries made by Derek, the pastry chef. He's talented, went to my culinary school, and was on the hot food team (very big deal!!) The desserts are displayed in a lovely glass case, which I always think is a good idea. We got an olive-oil poundcake when I was last there.

So there is installment #1 in wwjd? Please note, all of this can be done in heels, which we all know makes it infinitely more enjoyable.

the communal table

2006-10-09T08:30:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking lately about the way we eat here in America. I'm not talking about how we eat at home, which can vary greatly. I know I personally eat a lot of meals sitting right here at my computer, trying not to drip on my keyboard. But the way we eat in restaurants, in public. People sit, usually in twos or threes, at separate tables. Each person orders their own plate, which is complete unto itself. A meat, veg, starch, sauce, garnish. A tiny little feast, for one person only, not meant to be shared.
I had the amazing opportunity to live in China for a year and a half, and one of the first things that really struck me was the vast difference in the way they eat in public. There are no sad, selfish two-tops. There are large tables filled with big groups of family and friends. The tables are almost always round. People do not order individually. The host (and there is always a host, who pays for everyone) orders many dishes for the table, and everyone eats from the many communal dishes in the center. The experience of eating, then, becomes truly shared because everyone is eating the same thing.
Courses are different there too. I'm not sure if there is some sort of order to how the food comes from the kitchen. There didn't seem to be, but it may have been too elaborate for me to grasp. It seems that food comes out as it is finished, which is kind of nice. One dish comes, perhaps some crispy pork and ginger dumplings. Then another - maybe a beautiful whole braised fish. Then some stir-fried vegetables, etc. etc. You eat a little of this, then a little of that, how about some more dumplings? Those were good, let's get some more. It's a very free and joyful experience of eating.
When I came home, it seemed truly bizarre and sad to see all of these little tables of 2 or 3. It seemed kind of pointless to go out to dinner with other people because although you are sittting in the same room, you are not sharing the experience of the whole reason you are there - the meal! It's kind of like going to the theater with someone, and not hearing the same music. There is something important about sharing a sensory experience with other people, whether it be hearing the same music, walking down the same street, or seeing the same painting. It bonds you together. What could bond you more to another than eating the same meal? Eating is different than just seeing or hearing something. The food actually enters your body and becomes part of you. Why don't we want to share that with others?
Of course, the family table is a communal experience and I'm happy to see that the trend of serving food family style seems to be growing. I know that when I open my public kitchen, in July, one of the things I want to do is to serve a meal once a week where everyone sits at one table and eats the same thing. In a small way, I believe that this can build community through shared experience, and through the simple fact that if you all sit together, you kind of have to talk to tho other people around you.
Until then, I guess I'll continue to wonder at our pervasive a la carte style of dining, which seems to me quintissentially American - independent -with each person eating their own feast, not sharing, or maybe, begrudgingly, just a bite.