myMEGusta

What Don’t Blazing Saddles and Low Library at Columbia University Have in Common?

OK, there’s a pretty long list, but food is at the center of the question.

Blazing Saddles!

A reception, including food, preceded a recent screening of Blazing Saddles at Stamford, Connecticut’s wonderful Avon Theater (www.avontheater.org), complete with commentary from local denizen Gene Wilder.  Red flags went up for MyMEGusta, as she has had reception food there before and it was impossible to get to and/or eat standing up. But, they cracked the code, with multiple stations (easy to get to) and the perfect little dishes to complement the film: Baked Beans (if you don’t get the joke, Google it…) and Braised Short Ribs, served off the bone, from Bar Rosso (www.barrossoct.com) . Delicious and perfect.

You would think that the sophisticated caterers who service functions Columbia University’s Low Library would have also done a great job on “standing” food, right? Wrong.  We hope it was a one-time occurrence, but at an alumni event a couple of years ago, they served salmon skewers.  They were tasty, but taking one bite caused the whole thing to fall apart, and the floor was littered with pink bits of teriyaki flecked fish.

It’s a delicate balance, literally and figuratively, when food appears where it would not normally occur.

Take airplanes. It is just not natural for a shrimp to be catapulted in an aluminum tube at 35,000 feet, and myMEGusta has never (repeat, never) had a decent one on a flight.

Better are slow cooked, easily reheated items, but soup is usually not a brilliant solution either, unless there’s pretty good certainty that there won’t be turbulence. PS A lot of napkins got used on that flight.

We all have memories of particularly bad airborne experiences, like a particularly outstanding, and not in a good way, Thai curry (bland and cloyingly sweet at the same time) sauce on cardboard mystery fish courtesy of KLM. And the chemical tasting ersatz chocolate mousse that Air France foists upon Les Miserables in Le Coach is always Une Horreur.

Happier memories include an amazing pumpkin seed mole sauce on perfectly braised chicken in First Class on a plane from Mexico City to Chicago, and I still wonder if someone’s Abuelita (Grandma) was hidden in the galley. Coach food can be excellent, too; there was a very capable shepherd’s pie on a recent Transatlantic flight.

Classic Shepherd’s Pie. It can fly!

Common elements?  Dishes that accommodate being reheated, and attention to seasoning/flavors.

It ain’t rocket science, folks. Make a comment to share some of your triumphs and tragedies with standing/flying food!

There Are Fig Trees!

Just picked, still warm from the sun

And they bore beautiful, perfectly ripened fruit, especially sweet and delicious consumed on the spot (or by the pool) in the midday sun of Mallorca, Spain.

Elsewhere on the Continent, Good Eater Bob was enjoying figs with Prosciutto de Verona: “Better than prosciutto de Parma, leaner and less salty. This was sliced so thin you could see through it. And the figs were perfectly ripe.”  This suggests that MyMEGusta needs to do some research at the Arena di Verona for more opera in 2015. www.arena.it/en-US/HOMEen.html

Fresh Figs and Prosciutto de Verona

But, you don’t have to travel to Europe to get wonderful fresh figs.  Thanks to the farmers in California www.Californiafigs.com and elsewhere, even seasonally in New England, these treats are available much of the year, the winter months being the exception.

It wasn’t always this easy. Growing up, I remember thinking that the only way to find a fig was in a Newton, or, dried in a box. Not so long ago, at a book group with a bunch of otherwise worldly folks, I served fresh figs the evening we discussed The Fig Eater (Jody Shields), and several people had never seen them before, a shame, since they are easily obtainable and versatile.

Figs, either dried or fresh, can be tossed into a salad, to make it extra special. Recipes abound for ice cream made with figs, either fresh or dried (different preparations, of course), both delicious in their own way.

Dried figs are hardly a second class alternative, just different, making for a tasty, albeit caloric, snack, or substitute for raisins or other dried fruits in sauces and stuffing.  They are the perfect garnish for a cheese platter, the sweetness being a counterpoint to robust flavors.

Figs are native to the Middle East, where they are still used as a natural sweetener, and they are frequently mentioned in Biblical texts, with some scholars arguing that the “apple” was really a fig (whose strategically placed leaves appear frequently in religious art).

The expression, “I don’t give a fig” won’t pass the censors, as it refers to an obscene gesture, much coarser than “I don’t care”, so myMEGusta suggests that readers don’t adopt it.

But, have more figs in every other context!

Mont Blanc!

No, we’re not off to the slopes of Chamonix, France, for a ski vacation, nor are we in the market for an expensive pen (MyMEGusta spends on travel, not on writing implements).

Mont Blanc!

We are celebrating the chestnut in one of its most elegant and delicious incarnations: the Mont Blanc, a delicious mélange of chestnut puree and cream.

The lovely specimen in this picture was snapped by a friend at Angelina’s in Ginza, Tokyo, and he describes it as “Amazing! It is heaven!”,  made with real French crème fraiche flown in every other day.

Angelina’s ups the Mont Blanc ante every September, featuring a purple sweet potato version in addition to the perfectly executed classic. I wonder if they do this, or a Gallic variation, in the original Angelina’s near the Louvre in Paris? www.angelina-paris.fr

Americans may find Mont Blanc from time to time at a traditional French restaurant, or an upscale patisserie, but usually content themselves with hot chestnuts, roasted right on the street, as is done all over the chestnut loving world.  And many families make a chestnut dressing for their traditional Thanksgiving turkey.

As for the nut itself, edible, or “sweet”, chestnut trees used to grow prolifically in the United States, but were virtually wiped out about a hundred years ago by an attack of chestnut blight. Today, chestnuts consumed here are largely imported from Italy.

Water Chestnuts

Don’t confuse thse with water chestnuts. These are delicious tubers which grow in ponds or very wet/flooded areas, and not nuts at all. Not that  most people are interested in farming them, but these are two entirely separate plants, one a delicious vegetable and the other a pesky invasive aquatic plant.

Left: Edible Chestnut
Right: Horse Chestnut

And, don’t stumble across what looks like a chestnut and take a bite: It is probably a horse chestnut, a different species entirely and poisonous.

Paris Then and Now?

Cafe au Lait in the Jardin de Luxembourg

Sitting in the beautiful Jardin de Luxembourg, myMEGusta pulled out the Blackberry and started typing, reflecting on how Paris has changed since the 1970s.

Exercise!!

You rarely see people (other than tourists) in sneakers, but here in the Jardin de Luxembourg and environs is the occasional glimpse of few spandex clad joggers, among them a squadron of young firemen in snappy, red uniforms, running by. We spotted them again later, changing from their gym shorts to fireman’s pants (in the street).

If nothing else, Paris is scenic!

Having walked all over Paris over the course of a few days, myMEGusta espied only one apparent gym, a storefront operation in the 17^th Arrondisement with signage depicting a bikini clad babe riding what looked like an elliptical machine – in a giant tub.

Parisians  walk a lot, like New Yorkers, but in fancy shoes rather than the clumsy foot apparel Americans indulge in. The only amply proportioned people walking about appeared to be tourists, as well as the only ones in sneakers.

Good riddance to Deux Chevaux, Gitanes, and jetons

Gitanes

Deux Chevaux

Two of the three, the funny little two horsepower Citroens, and extremely smelly Gitane cigarettes, are blessedly rare.

Jetons, the little slugs you had to purchase at bars to use a pay phone, are extinct (perhaps from all the Gitane smoke).

Cabine Telephonique

Boudin!

But, one of myMEGusta’s favorites, boudin noir (French blood sausage) was elusive, and we sadly missed out on it this time. Like good Southwestern food in Santa Fe, the local treats are being replaced with lighter, more cosmopolitan and modern fare.

And Turkish toilets

As for Turkish toilets (if you have to ask, you don’t want to know), it is rumored that there is only one remaining in a reputedly tourist trap restaurant in the city. We did not seek it out.

Dear Reader:  Add your memories in a comment!

Almond Joy!

“There are almond trees!”

Almond Tree

And myMEGusta cannot resist any food that is there for the picking, whether chanterelles in the woods or blackberries glistening in the sun.

She really misses living in central New Jersey where U-Pick-It farms could be found in abundance, two favorites being Giamarese Farm in East Brunswick (http://www.giamaresefarm.com/) and Stultz Farm in Cranbury (http://www.stultsfarm.com/).

Even these excellent farms did not have almonds on the hoof. But there they were in Mallorca, a nutty abundance sitting in trees, beckoning to be plucked down, cracked, and enjoyed.

What fun!  Just a little reaching and smacking with a rock were the two tasks separating myMEGusta from a delicious treat to share.

Alas, part one of the story ends here. These were bitter almonds, which myMEGusta had heard about but never encountered, not edible, even potentially poisonous. They can be processed and made into almond extract, but these specimens all got tossed after one little taste (and spit and rinse).

Part two of the almond saga is much happier!

Gató d’Ametlla

It is called gató d’Ametlla, a rich Mallorcan cake made primarily of ground almonds and eggs, seasoned with a little lemon zest, cinnamon and vanilla extract (although I suspect that every cook has her/his own variation, and they are all delicious), and served with confectioners’ sugar. There seems to be a debate as to whether or not it needs flour, with the flourless contingent reminding everyone that it’s gluten free without it.

The cake was a particularly delicious treat because it was part of a special birthday surprise concluding a spectacular paella dinner at Restaurante S’Arrosseria in a seaside village, Sant Jordi, Mallorca.

Almonds Almonds Almonds

The almond story could go forever: Marcona almonds from Spain, ground almond ice cream at Madu in Istanbul, hickory smoked almonds, sole amandine, almond croissants, the humble Almond Joy (OK mostly coconut) and on and on.

Coming soon: “There are fig trees!”

What came first, the Barb or the…

-ecue? –acoa? –eque? BBQ?

Sausage!

One sizzling controversy which has always annoyed myMEGusta is the notion that when a lady in Connecticut cooks a steak over hot coals, she is NOT supposed to call it barbecue.  Oh,no, she is chastised, barbecue is slow cooking in smoke with special rubs and sauces, takes hours, always results in succulent well-done meat, not that juicy sirloin you are talking about.

Lamb!

Well, MyMEGusta begs to differ.

She is certain that the barbacoa of Spain existed well before the Texans and Carolinians invented their version, and she is here to tell you that it is more like the meat-cooked-over-coals, over and out, version. And, we are entitled to call this treat barbecue, an obvious derivative of the original term.

This little epiphany took place recently in the Mallorcan countryside, with a large group enjoying a banquet of delicious salads, bread, and a parade of grilled meats: intensely flavorful chicken, three kinds of sausages, lamb, and hamburgers. The festivities were typically Spanish in flavor, with plenty of sangria and red wine, and very reminiscent of barbacoa myMEGusta enjoyed years ago in Argentina (undoubtably something imported by the conquistadores).

Escalivada!

One special treat that evening was the Escalivada Catalana, a mélange of roasted red peppers, tomatoes, eggplant (peeled after gently cooking in the oven), onion, garlic, olive oil and salt, served room temperature. (The good news for MyMEGusta was that there were leftovers!!)

Not that the barbecues of the American South are flawed or lesser in way. Every state has its own style, and within a geography, every chef has her own rubs, sauces, favorite cuts of meat, you name it, and they range from sweet to spicy, sometimes with the timing of the application of sauce a big issue. A personal favorite is pork ribs which have been superbly seasoned and slowly cooked in smoke until exquisitely tender, with most of the fat rendered out, what’s left being zesty and crispy, but not too sweet, extra sauce being extraneous.

Southern Ribs!

Although the word “barbecue” or any variant of it would not appear in their native tongues, Asian cuisines also have their variants, Chinese pork and ribs, Japanese yakitori and Korean meats cooked over flames being the most familiar in the US.

And, then there’s the whole issue of “putting another shrimp on the barbie”, a happy nod to our Australian friends who are known to cart their little grills to the beach. A research trip Down Under (for the sake of science, of course) is on the radar!

Sorry, Grandma!

Someone finally replicated my friend’s grandmother’s ricotta cheesecake, a feat never thought possible.

Ricotta Cheesecake

The scene was at Capeesh!, a Stamford, CT,  Italian eatery, and the dessert had arrived with a perky birthday candle and four spoons. Not normally a favorite of MyMEGusta, this ricotta cheesecake was fresh, light, and moist, unlike any other she has ever tasted.

Cheesecakes come in many styles, the best known being the Italian style (ricotta), New York style (baked and made with cream cheese, yielding a smoother texture ) and refrigerator style (also made with cream cheese, heavily promoted by that brand which comes in foil, and not cooked at all, firming up once refrigerated).

Icebox Cheesecake

Speaking of Kraft, their website offers a recipe for a cheesecake made of their cheese, a tub of Cool Whip, and sugar.  If any readers try this, let MyMEGusta know.

Cheesecake is believed to have originated in the Mediterranean, and there are versions all around the world.

Junior’s Cheesecake

Although every bakery (and cook) in New York has their own style, it is generally acknowledged that Junior’s is the best: flavorful  and firm but with a creamy texture. They won a contest many years ago, although that was before they expanded to being a chain. Still, as of the last sampling at the Grand Central Terminal location, the quality was still spot on.

New Yorkers: Please feel free to disagree in the Comments section. This could be a fun debate, also known as a means of generating good leads for MyMEGusta to check out!

Berries!

A good cheesecake needs no adornment, but fruit sauce (alas, often just canned pie filling) sometimes accompanies it. When the garnish is really top notch, like whipped cream and fresh berries, it’s a joy to behold.

Cheesecake Ice Cream with Strawberries

One situation in which an add-on, e.g. strawberries, really does make a nice contribution is cheesecake ice cream, with the tangy taste of cheesecake with an accent of fruit in every bite.

The fall is myMEGusta’s favorite time of the year for cheesecake because that’s the season for pumpkins, and pumpkin cheesecake. She makes it using a classic recipe, substituting pumpkin puree for some of the liquid, and adding a soupcon of pumpkin pie spices, just enough to give a little flavor, not overwhelm the palate.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Maybe pumpkin cheesecake ice cream would be even more heavenly!

Fourth of July Special: A Salute to the Brits!

Yes, as we all hoist a glass to toast Independence Day, let’s also recognize the folks on the other side of the pond and their delicious cuisine.

Now, I know what many of you are thinking, and stop it right now!

Chef Kristen Lacount of Boston enjoying a Chip Butty at the Borough Market

We are not talking about notorious favorites like the Bacon Butty and Chip Butty (an overstuffed French Fry Sandwich) or things many would consider oddities, such as jellied eels.

Jellied Eels

And we are not poking fun at Spotted Dick (it’s a baked pudding with raisins, people), Bubble and Squeak (a delicious vegetable and potato dish) or Toad in the Hole (sausages in a Yorkshire pudding casing having nothing to do with amphibians).

Spotted Dick with Custard Sauce

Take Lamb Faggot, which MyMEGusta enjoyed recently at the excellent  Rex Whistler Restaurant at the Tate Gallery, London.  A braised lamb roulade on a perfectly crafted brown sauce, this was accompanied by a trio of sparklingly fresh spring vegetables: pureed peas, fava beans and pea shoots.  This truly world class dish could compete with any offering, anywhere .

Lamb Faggot

And that’s the whole point.

British food has been revolutionized, and London is a world class dining destination. While you can find a bad meal there (particularly if one seeks out Wimpy’s Burgers and the cheapest possible pub grub), it is remarkably easy to find truly excellent  food.

Start by stopping in at a branch of Feng Sushi, brainchild of Chef Silla Bjerrum who has created an empire on the foundation of fresh, sustainable seafood.

Take a walk through the Borough Market and environs, sampling a sausage or two from the aromatic stands or popping into Wright Brothers Oyster Bar for perfect European shellfish. You’ll find a huge range of just about everything good to eat, including a stand with gorgeous paella and other cooked dishes, and there’s an extraordinary (and huge) cheese store across the street.

Consider Indian food, a British favorite since the Raj, and what used to be generalized as “going out for a curry”.   Make a bee line for Café Spice Namaste, where Chef Cyrus (a member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) and Pervin Todiwala create extraordinary renditions of Indian Classics.

They also feature Indian influenced British classics like Country Captain, vibrant Indian seasonings in the form of a classic shepherd’s pie which was invented many years ago to satisfy the yearnings of homesick British officers. This dish, which myMEGusta was fortunate to sample, was Chef Todiwala’s contribution to the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee luncheon in 2012.

And, as a final salute to the Brits, don’t forget that there are lots of good things to do between meals in London, like the theater, the zoo, the London Eye, the museums. I’m ready to go back!

Nutty Crisis!!!!!

What’s a girl to do?

The Jefferson Dairy (”Where Ice Cream Dreams Come True”) in Lake Hopatcong, NJ, is “out” of their pistachio, an icon on their permanent sign.

On two of myMEGusta’s two most recent forays to grocery stores, there were no pistachios! None!  Not the house brand or the identical, overpriced “Wonderful” brand.

Full disclosure: Costco, aka Land of Buying Power, has them.

Pistachios

It’s the drought, and this is one of the many ways in which everyone is starting to feel the pain California is living through. Even though the pistachio bush is native to arid climates and has a very low water requirement, the plants are suffering and yields are off, resulting in escalating prices. The “Wonderful” advertising campaign has, obviously, been put on hold.

So, let’s move to happier thoughts of these lovely nuts, and the first that comes to mind is the extraordinary pistachio ice cream at Madu Café in Istanbul, a delicacy that tasted like icy cold ground nuts bound by gelato. And you don’t have to travel to Turkey to find it; there are over 200 Madu Cafes in the Middle East, Asia, Australia, and even in Bulgaria.

And aren’t we happy that today’s pistachio ice cream has just a light hint of green, from the actual color of the nuts, rather than the neon green dye they used to use in the 50s?

Macaroons at Hakkasan

Pistachio macaroons are wildly popular in Europe, myMEGusta’s most recent tastes having been at Hakkasan in London (yes, French macaroons in a Chinese restaurant) and at Dallayou, the French patisserie where a “free” macaroon accompanies your morning café au lait.

Pistachio Souffle

Another memorable dish, this time at La Grenouille in New York, was a pistachio soufflé, complete with a pistachio scented crème anglaise sauce.

Have you wondered why the nuts are cracked open? This is a natural occurrence when they ripen, although the occasional shut nut does show up. Have you wondered how to open the ones that are nearly shut tight? Just take another half shell and pry it open. Toss the tightly closed ones to the squirrels.

One real pistachio plus is that the nuts are no longer processed with hideous, finger staining red dye which used to serve the purpose of hiding damage. (If you are too young to remember this, count your blessings.)

So, figure it out. Have some other nut to snack on.

Pistachio Bush

Or have the special black cherry ice cream at Jefferson’s, if you are there on the right day.

Eels Before Breakfast???

Eel Wrangler at Billingsgate Fish Market

Not to eat, but to ogle.

Eels Living in Drawers

The scene was an early morning tour of London’s wonderful Billingsgate wholesale fish market, located on Canary Wharf in the Docklands in the shadow of mushrooming bank skyscrapers.

The whole market was delightful, but myMEGusta’s favorite stand was a wall of drawers, full of slithery eels. The nice young man even offered to let her hold one. (No, I’ll stick to cooked ones, thank you.)

This vendor and others also sold delicacies like smoked eel and jellied eel. More on this coming soon in myMEGusta’s Fourth of July Special honoring British food!

In Japan, the best eel is found in specialty restaurants where the creatures live in tanks until seconds before they are killed and cooked, mirroring how lobsters are stored in the United States.

Unaju

Unadon

The best known Japanese preparation for eel (unagi) is grilling with a delicious, slightly sweet sauce known as tare, then served as unadon (eel in a rice bowl, donburi), unaju (eel in a lacquered box, jobako), or in various forms of sushi, sometimes sprinkled with sesame seeds or sansho (a ground dried berry with a spicy/tangy flavor).

Grilled Eel at the Store

You can enjoy grilled eel anywhere there’s a Japanese grocery store. That’s how the Japanese homemaker prepares it, never cooking the dish from scratch.

Moving to the Mediterranean, eels pop up in yet a totally different form, tiny elvers, baby eels known as glass eels.

Angulas!

I know at least one MyMEGusta follower is a huge fan of Spanish angulas, glass eels simply cooked in olive oil with garlic and chili peppers. Alas, these delicious angulas are expensive due to shortages, although most eel on the market is now being farmed and this may mean more for all of us.