Empires, Cannibals, and Magic Fish Bones
Join us as we celebrate food, the dinner table, and quite likely empires, cannibals and magic fish bones!
Alchemy is a chemical transformation of matter through air, earth, fire and water, a process characterized by melanosis (blackening), leukosis (whitening), xanthosis (yellowing) and isis (reddening), also known as nigredo (chaos), albedo (release, daybreak) and rubedo (intensity, sunrise); which means through the language of the opus magnum, alchemy is to cook, and specifically for these … Continue reading Alchemy In The Afternoon
I discover Edna Lewis in the pages of the New York Times. Edna Lewis and the Black Roots of American Cooking by Francis Lam casts me into the world of Freetown, Virginia where people lived close to the land, cooking their harvest in wood stoves, using wells and streams to keep food cool. Lam carefully chooses … Continue reading Edna Lewis And Kidney Bean Soup
Oh, Louis Léopold Boilly, you’ve captured the rapture of a gourmand! My turkey still swims in its brine and the duck thaws on the black granite counter, but what about the stuffing and side dishes? First off, thank you Bon Appétit for your Cornbread, Chorizo, Cherry and Pecan Stuffing recipe, which I’m adjusting to Cornbread, Chorizo, … Continue reading Vegetables, Wine, Whiskey, Hell and Smoke Alarms
Above is vision of hell from an unknown Portuguese artist from the sixteenth century. I’m thinking the great Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton movie. Sometimes cooks, foodies, gastronomes, gourmands and everyone else may come off as a bit too celebratory, a bit too awed by food and the culinary world. Sometimes we need a reminder … Continue reading If The Foodie World Is A Family Drama, Then It May Look Like “Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf.”
Following the disastrous flood, Noah built an altar, sacrificed a number of animals who had survived the journey, and when the Lord “smelled the pleasing odor,” (one imagines a grilling here for the ages) he decided never to destroy humankind and the earth again. Joseph Anton Koch offers this 1803 view of the moment, entitled … Continue reading A Covenant With The Future
This afternoon I’m drinking a Wasatch Devastator Double Bock (creamy, malty, yeasty and bananany) as I simmer diced onion and bacon (Revival Farms) in charred leftover bits of sirloin (Augustus Ranch). Grounded in the kitchen? Dwelling and being. I stir the pan and think through rural America, national parks, salmon on the Columbia River, returning … Continue reading Savoir-Vivre: Some Thoughts On Culture In A Bowl
