Brains and Balls.

To cook, to eat, to kill.  An animal’s life taken, body split open, applied to fire and torn between teeth.  What are the aesthetic and ethics?  Dan Barber argues that good taste necessitates sustainable farming to table.  Tayyib and Halal mean the animal has been raised in a “good” environment–think ethically sourced and sustainable–and then … Continue reading Brains and Balls.

Chicken Soup For A Friend Who’s Fallen Ill.

Gustav Klimt‘s painting Garden Path with Chickens from 1916 no longer exists.  Hasn’t for awhile.  Thirteen of his paintings stored in Schloss Immendorf castle in Lower Austria during World War II were destroyed by retreating German forces who set off explosives.  Only a photographic reproduction of the work allows us to view it today. Gustav Klimt’s … Continue reading Chicken Soup For A Friend Who’s Fallen Ill.

Thinking About Who’s Sitting Down To Dinner In North Carolina

The first thing you notice about Pieter Aretsen’s painting A Meat Stall With The Holy Family Giving Alms (1551) is all the meat–an ox head with eyes staring at us, pig trotters on a cabbage leaf, whole side of a slaughtered pig split cleanly down the spine, a large ham shank, sausage, smoked fish, herring; … Continue reading Thinking About Who’s Sitting Down To Dinner In North Carolina

Cooking Fish With H.P. Lovecraft

People around the country and in the nearby towns muttered a great deal among themselves, but said very little to the outer world.  They had talked about dying and half-deserted Innsmouth for nearly a century, and nothing new could be wilder or more hideous than what they had whispered and hinted years before.  Many things … Continue reading Cooking Fish With H.P. Lovecraft

The Great Banquet: The Alchemy of Recipes

Here is a description of a food class I’m offering this mid-winter session at The Honors College at the University of Houston.  More news to come. While reading, I suggest you listen to the Presentation for The Mystery Sonatas by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Von Biber. What is a recipe? It’s an All in One complex system … Continue reading The Great Banquet: The Alchemy of Recipes