7/15/2009
Taxes
Do people really think the proposed 45% tax rate on the wealthy will be the last tax increase? Hey, "middle" class (i.e., everyone else) - your turn is coming.
7/14/2009
I am delaying things
In an effort to delay my weekend's food blogging (I made my version of Jean-George's caviar egg and turbot with Chateau Chalon sauce) I note today this article about the plight of adjunct professors at universities.
I note it because the situation perfectly illustrates my point about European social democracy, below. It is very pleasant, in some ways, for the winners of the system, to be either a tenured professor or an employed European. Both people are almost impossible to fire, have many benefits, etc.
But woe to those who aspire to one of those two classes.
I note it because the situation perfectly illustrates my point about European social democracy, below. It is very pleasant, in some ways, for the winners of the system, to be either a tenured professor or an employed European. Both people are almost impossible to fire, have many benefits, etc.
But woe to those who aspire to one of those two classes.
7/09/2009
Ok, you win
I am reading David Kessler's, The End of Overeating, which describes how the food industry exploits biological reality by relying on fat, salt and sugar to encourage overeating (or, at least, that is the message so far).
The odd thing is that I find the book impossible to read, because Kessler's descriptions of the fat, salt and sugar, even though his descriptions touch on things I don't eat (like mass produced snack cakes) cause my mouth to water so much that I find myself distracted and searching for a mass produced snack cake. This is a little startling. So, point taken, Mr. Kessler.
The odd thing is that I find the book impossible to read, because Kessler's descriptions of the fat, salt and sugar, even though his descriptions touch on things I don't eat (like mass produced snack cakes) cause my mouth to water so much that I find myself distracted and searching for a mass produced snack cake. This is a little startling. So, point taken, Mr. Kessler.
7/07/2009
A note on social democracy
For some reason, my republican cohorts have decided that the way to oppose President Obama is to describe various parades of horribles that will occur if he gets his way, many of which have something to do with Europe. See this overwrought example.
The problem with these is that they are false. In fact, life in Europe is very pleasant. For many people, far more pleasant than here. You are taken care of in sickness. Holidays are long and leisour-ous. Children are valued by the state. Jobs, if you have them, are secure. Retirements are less plagued by worry. Obama clearly intends to import some of these ideas, and people are going to like them.
Not recognizing that second point is going to land us conservatives in trouble. People like the welfare state. They are wrong to do so, maybe, and I think America has the balance between individual autonomy and the state's leviathan more right than does Europe. But the idea that our people will revolt when given Obama's welfare state is just wrong. They are going to like it and ask for more, to our detriment. Our counterattack has to recognize the superficial attractions of that model.
The problem with these is that they are false. In fact, life in Europe is very pleasant. For many people, far more pleasant than here. You are taken care of in sickness. Holidays are long and leisour-ous. Children are valued by the state. Jobs, if you have them, are secure. Retirements are less plagued by worry. Obama clearly intends to import some of these ideas, and people are going to like them.
Not recognizing that second point is going to land us conservatives in trouble. People like the welfare state. They are wrong to do so, maybe, and I think America has the balance between individual autonomy and the state's leviathan more right than does Europe. But the idea that our people will revolt when given Obama's welfare state is just wrong. They are going to like it and ask for more, to our detriment. Our counterattack has to recognize the superficial attractions of that model.
A new book
I received a new book in the mail today (ironically at the same time as I start thinking about what to do with my hundreds of books prior to moving in the near future): Au Revoir to all That: Food, Wine and the End of France. It begins positively, and the writing is very good. I suspect I might conclude that the book is overly alarmist about the collapse of the French gourmet culture, but I am open to being convinced.
7/06/2009
A thought
If my explanation to myself of why I am buying some thing or service is any longer than a few words, I'm going to make a mistake by buying that thing or service.
7/01/2009
A late night boozy snack
My fiancee was out on her own last Sunday night, so I took the opportunity to prepare a snack for her return. The base for my effort was the bottle of blue Sapphire gin I had bought earlier in the day. But gin is the most versatile of liquors, and the range of cocktails one can make with gin is almost limitless. Still, I settled quickly on the Singapore Sling, which has been a sort of inside joke in my family for a long time. (The joke is that my father, who doesn't really drink cocktails, always orders it when it seems like one ought to order a cocktail, and the bartender invariably either doesn't know what it is or doesn't have one of the ingredients or, if he or she is of a certain age, does know what it is but makes a comment about no one having ordered a singapore sling unironically since the mid '60s).
Unfortunately, I didn't have Benedictine, one of the components of the traditional drink, but I decided to substitute cognac. Otherwise, the alcoholic ingredients were these (from left to right, Remy Martin VSOP cognac, Cointreau, grenadine (fake - boo!), Bombay Sapphire gin, and Heerings Cherry Liqueur.
Unfortunately, Singapore Slings also include at least 4 oz. of pineapple juice, and after all the effort to secure a small bottle of Heerings, I thought it was a shame to just pop open the usual tin. However, I also don't own a juicer, so I did the only thing I could think of - whizz up a pineapple in a food processor and pass it through a sieve. This worked fine, though it is a hassle.
Singapore Slings need to be poured into a collins glass full of crushed ice. I had neither, but approximated the crushed ice by putting my normal ice into two ziplocs as an impromptu Lewis Bag and smashing it with my heavy mortar. Voila - Singapore Slings.
.jpg)
This left the snack. But luckily, my cream puff pastry has gotten better over the past year, so I immediately thought of gougeres - roughly speaking, cream puffs with cheese in. I slightly undercooked these due to the hurry I was in, but I thought they were delicious.
In fact, I proudly claimed they were at least as good as the $8 appetizers at Death & Co. My fiancee scrunched up her nose and said, "Aren't they more like the $5 pretzel nuggets?".
6/26/2009
Places I want to eat
So my list of places I want to eat is growing, and yet I am economizing to save my waistline and budget. After all (as to the latter) we have a wedding and then a moving-in together to fund in October!
So instead of actually dining, let me make lists of places I want to go:
Corton - Paul Liebrandt does some exciting cuisine.
The bar at Adour Alain Ducasse - Ducasse dishes for under $15 at the four person holographic wine bar in the St. Regis.
Eleven Madison Park - People keep talking about it.
Daniel - We have idiosyncratic reasons for wanting to go back to Daniel.
Tailor - Modern food with good drinks.
Wd-50 - even more modern food, also with good drinks.
So instead of actually dining, let me make lists of places I want to go:
Corton - Paul Liebrandt does some exciting cuisine.
The bar at Adour Alain Ducasse - Ducasse dishes for under $15 at the four person holographic wine bar in the St. Regis.
Eleven Madison Park - People keep talking about it.
Daniel - We have idiosyncratic reasons for wanting to go back to Daniel.
Tailor - Modern food with good drinks.
Wd-50 - even more modern food, also with good drinks.
Paris is know for its falafels
Amber points out that Ezra Klein has, unaccountably, been given a food column in the Washington Post. My views about Klein's food writing have been abundantly well aired on this blog, so I'll leave my reaction at this: ?!?!!. Also, ?!.
It had escaped my attention, though, that Klein's diabolically bad food blog, the Internet Food Association, also includes blogging by Matt Yglesias. In this post, he makes a reasonable point about a Slate column (i.e., the column is pointless and doesn't match its title) and then adds the equally reasonable observation that France is blessed by an "extremely high level of pedestrian food". Yes, certainly true. Pate, bread, cheese, hams, vegetables of very high quality, milk, butter, cheap bistros, surely. But no! Yglesias was actually referring to "Vietnamese restaurants and falafel shops that would be huge sensations in the United States".
What is Yglesias even talking about? First, the falafel and Vietnamese in Paris are fine, but pretty plain. This is what you eat in Paris when, after the sixth round of epoisse in three days washed down with pork rilettes, you realize that if you eat any more French food you might die. But in fact the great weakness of Paris as a food city, if a weakness it has, it that its ethnic offerings are far more narrow than some of its competitors, and mostly not as good. (See, New York, London). Putting aside the two supposed examples Yglesias gives, the Chinese food is execrable. There is little Indian. Little Thai. Little really good sushi, and the median of sushi is lower. I could probably write dozens of pages on this topic and not exhaust the point. But the real point is that all this is irrelevant. Paris is one of the greatest food cities in the world because of French food. As you might imagine.
Moreover, sensations in the United States? Yglesias, as far as I know, lives about half an hour from what is arguably the locus of Vietnamese cooking in America. Paris's Vietnamese restaurants would be sensations in that area in the sense that they would be flops, made sensational by the fact that they were flopped French vietnamese restaurants. And the idea that one gets exceptional falafel in Paris, so exceptional that those are the things you would mention as examples of good food in Paris - it's not really clear to me how to respond to that. He's wrong. It's as if I said one goes to DC for falafels. Put another way, wrong.
EDIT: Also, as to the substantive point of the Slate article, it is true that French food has declined in quality in the past decade. This has nothing, in my view, to do with Michelin, which after all could only concievably cause a decline in the highest of the high (the Michelin-is-hamstringing-France argument goes something like this - France can't have its own Momofuku because of the Michelin Guide's requirement that a 3-star restaurant be opulent, and therefore its higher end cuisine is staid and falling behind America and Spain) but with a decline in French taste.
Having said that, I do think now is not the time to be serving 130 euro main courses.
EDIT 2: I meant 198 euro main courses. In other words, a main course that costs more than an entire meal at Per Se.
It had escaped my attention, though, that Klein's diabolically bad food blog, the Internet Food Association, also includes blogging by Matt Yglesias. In this post, he makes a reasonable point about a Slate column (i.e., the column is pointless and doesn't match its title) and then adds the equally reasonable observation that France is blessed by an "extremely high level of pedestrian food". Yes, certainly true. Pate, bread, cheese, hams, vegetables of very high quality, milk, butter, cheap bistros, surely. But no! Yglesias was actually referring to "Vietnamese restaurants and falafel shops that would be huge sensations in the United States".
What is Yglesias even talking about? First, the falafel and Vietnamese in Paris are fine, but pretty plain. This is what you eat in Paris when, after the sixth round of epoisse in three days washed down with pork rilettes, you realize that if you eat any more French food you might die. But in fact the great weakness of Paris as a food city, if a weakness it has, it that its ethnic offerings are far more narrow than some of its competitors, and mostly not as good. (See, New York, London). Putting aside the two supposed examples Yglesias gives, the Chinese food is execrable. There is little Indian. Little Thai. Little really good sushi, and the median of sushi is lower. I could probably write dozens of pages on this topic and not exhaust the point. But the real point is that all this is irrelevant. Paris is one of the greatest food cities in the world because of French food. As you might imagine.
Moreover, sensations in the United States? Yglesias, as far as I know, lives about half an hour from what is arguably the locus of Vietnamese cooking in America. Paris's Vietnamese restaurants would be sensations in that area in the sense that they would be flops, made sensational by the fact that they were flopped French vietnamese restaurants. And the idea that one gets exceptional falafel in Paris, so exceptional that those are the things you would mention as examples of good food in Paris - it's not really clear to me how to respond to that. He's wrong. It's as if I said one goes to DC for falafels. Put another way, wrong.
EDIT: Also, as to the substantive point of the Slate article, it is true that French food has declined in quality in the past decade. This has nothing, in my view, to do with Michelin, which after all could only concievably cause a decline in the highest of the high (the Michelin-is-hamstringing-France argument goes something like this - France can't have its own Momofuku because of the Michelin Guide's requirement that a 3-star restaurant be opulent, and therefore its higher end cuisine is staid and falling behind America and Spain) but with a decline in French taste.
Having said that, I do think now is not the time to be serving 130 euro main courses.
EDIT 2: I meant 198 euro main courses. In other words, a main course that costs more than an entire meal at Per Se.
6/25/2009
Green Chartreuse
We had a midweek escapade at Death & Co. tonight. The drinks were as usual terrific, and we got face to face with Green Chartreuse, a deeply herbal French liqueur.
As our bartender noted, doing shots of chartreuse is known as being run over by the chartremoose. It is a startling drink, like sipping on a tree infused in greek fire.
As our bartender noted, doing shots of chartreuse is known as being run over by the chartremoose. It is a startling drink, like sipping on a tree infused in greek fire.
Busy, busy
I haven't blogged because I am quite busy with about 5 different things, but I did want to note our visit last night to Company, Jim Lahey's pizza house (my previous visit is here). The pizzas are still good, and still inferior to Motorino's, though I have to say the meatball was extraordinarily flavorful. And I do not quite understand how Lahey gets away with charging $3 for literally one piece of toast with a spread as an appetizer.
Above all, this really is more a bakery than a pizzeria. Lahey's bread is masterful, without question. I wonder whether the right answer here might not be a pizza bianca, without toppings, and a salad. Our simple caprese was, unexpectedly given the season, magnificent.
Above all, this really is more a bakery than a pizzeria. Lahey's bread is masterful, without question. I wonder whether the right answer here might not be a pizza bianca, without toppings, and a salad. Our simple caprese was, unexpectedly given the season, magnificent.
6/18/2009
The Passionate Epicure
I am in the middle of The Passionate Epicure, a 1924 food novel by Marcel Rouf concerning a gourmet by the name of Mr. Dodin-Bouffant.
The novel raises an interesting, cross-genre question for me. I don't have The Lord of the Rings in front of me, but I remember that Bilbo is renowned for having a particularly good table. Dodin-Bouffant, in the book, is thought to be one of the foremost gourmands in France, and that reputation is not for writing or speaking about food, but for the food at home, and his discerning taste in wine and produce.
But in neither case does the gourmand in question actually cook any food. Far from it - most of The Passionate Epicure is about the process of replacing Dodin-Bouffant's deceased chef, a process that goes so poorly that Dodin-Bouffant is almost left with what Rouf paints as a terrible choice between the great gourmand donning the whites and cooking himself, or going to the mediocre restaurant in town. So from what precisely does Dodin-Bouffant's culinary reputation emanate? Picking really good cooks? Making exorbitant criticisms of others chefs? Menu design? (as to this last, the only really famous chapter of The Passionate Epicure is an account of a meal served by Dodin-Bouffant to a travelling European prince).
Why am I writing about this? Because, of course, I would like to have a culinary reputation of Dodin-Bouffant's kind, in my own small way. But the modern model of that is of a highly skilled home cook - read, Richard Olney. It intrigues me that for a man, at least, that model is of fairly recent vintage, and it has replaced an odd form of food mastery.
The novel raises an interesting, cross-genre question for me. I don't have The Lord of the Rings in front of me, but I remember that Bilbo is renowned for having a particularly good table. Dodin-Bouffant, in the book, is thought to be one of the foremost gourmands in France, and that reputation is not for writing or speaking about food, but for the food at home, and his discerning taste in wine and produce.
But in neither case does the gourmand in question actually cook any food. Far from it - most of The Passionate Epicure is about the process of replacing Dodin-Bouffant's deceased chef, a process that goes so poorly that Dodin-Bouffant is almost left with what Rouf paints as a terrible choice between the great gourmand donning the whites and cooking himself, or going to the mediocre restaurant in town. So from what precisely does Dodin-Bouffant's culinary reputation emanate? Picking really good cooks? Making exorbitant criticisms of others chefs? Menu design? (as to this last, the only really famous chapter of The Passionate Epicure is an account of a meal served by Dodin-Bouffant to a travelling European prince).
Why am I writing about this? Because, of course, I would like to have a culinary reputation of Dodin-Bouffant's kind, in my own small way. But the modern model of that is of a highly skilled home cook - read, Richard Olney. It intrigues me that for a man, at least, that model is of fairly recent vintage, and it has replaced an odd form of food mastery.
6/15/2009
Thoughts
The most interesting thing I read today was the offering memorandum from Milk Thistle Farms, LLC. Food savy New Yorkers will know Milk Thistle as the producer of that excellent but super expensive milk in glass jars at Whole Foods and the Union Square Market. Unable to get traditional bank financing, they are apparently trying to get bond financing from the general public. They have their own counsel, and of course I offer no opinion as to their documents, but I do think they need to be quite careful. When you hold yourself out to the public in this way, danger abounds, and bondholders are not powerless.
Weekend Eats
We had some excellent food at home over the weekend. Some details briefly follow:
- I made french fries with the traditional double frying technique, at 350 F followed by a full drying on a sheet pan followed by a second fry at 375. I think the results were terrific, and I found that the peanut oil I used gave them a great flavor.
- I made a quick hamburger bun for the accompanying burger, though I wish I had actually had eggs. On the other hand, cooking is not always about having all the right ingredients, so I substituted some whole fat milk.
- I tried Bittman's tofu chocolate pudding. It was good, but did not make me forget cream.
- We made margaritas on both Saturday and Sunday at home, with Patron Silver, cointreau* and fresh lime juice. We also played around with increasing and decreasing the lime and cointreau, to see how those changes unbalanced the drink. It was very interesting.
* Yes, margaritas are usually made with triple sec. Cointreau, which I suppose is a kind of triple sec, is better.
- Saturday night I decided to do a little "Chipotle/upscale pseudo-Mexican burrito joint" at home. I cooked pinto beans in water until soft and creamy, and brown rice. I brined chicken thighs for extra juiciness, and then marinated in a dry adobo rub. I made guacamole of good avocadoes, and a fresh salsa supplemented with tinned san marazanos to make up for the poor quality of the tomatoes. The last two items got jalepeno too.
The point to make about this meal is that it could be scaled up very easily for a party. It's no more effort to make half a pound of beans than it is to make five pounds of beans, I think.
- I made french fries with the traditional double frying technique, at 350 F followed by a full drying on a sheet pan followed by a second fry at 375. I think the results were terrific, and I found that the peanut oil I used gave them a great flavor.
- I made a quick hamburger bun for the accompanying burger, though I wish I had actually had eggs. On the other hand, cooking is not always about having all the right ingredients, so I substituted some whole fat milk.
- I tried Bittman's tofu chocolate pudding. It was good, but did not make me forget cream.
- We made margaritas on both Saturday and Sunday at home, with Patron Silver, cointreau* and fresh lime juice. We also played around with increasing and decreasing the lime and cointreau, to see how those changes unbalanced the drink. It was very interesting.
* Yes, margaritas are usually made with triple sec. Cointreau, which I suppose is a kind of triple sec, is better.
- Saturday night I decided to do a little "Chipotle/upscale pseudo-Mexican burrito joint" at home. I cooked pinto beans in water until soft and creamy, and brown rice. I brined chicken thighs for extra juiciness, and then marinated in a dry adobo rub. I made guacamole of good avocadoes, and a fresh salsa supplemented with tinned san marazanos to make up for the poor quality of the tomatoes. The last two items got jalepeno too.
The point to make about this meal is that it could be scaled up very easily for a party. It's no more effort to make half a pound of beans than it is to make five pounds of beans, I think.
6/12/2009
Top Chef: Masters
A quick note to laud Top Chef: Masters - judging from the first episode only, won by Hubert Keller, it's a very pleasant, light hearted show. The challenge posed, to cook a three course meal off a hot plate, microwave and toaster oven in a Pomona College dorm room, put these top chefs (and they are top chefs, rather than pseudo top chefs - Christopher Lee especially, who finished in 2nd place, is a New York star) in interesting situations. Keller even ran for the bathroom to refresh his pasta.
All in all, a good laugh.
All in all, a good laugh.
Weekday dinner - pasta with tuna and capers
I had the opportunity to rush out of my job a little earlier than usual last night, and was so delighted to be able to cook during the week for once. Still, even getting home "early" (i.e., 7 pm) doesn't leave much time too cook before it gets too late to eat a lot. So I opted for one of the fastest meals I know - pasta with tuna, onions and capers.
There's literally nothing to this. Slice onions and sautee on medium heat until golden brown. Add garlic. Add half a can of San Marzano tomatoes. Add good italian tuna (the kind in the jar packed in olive oil). Add good, salted capers. Cook your pasta, add to the sauce and cook until the pasta is done, and serve.
Can you make the same dish with normal stewed tomatoes, normal supermarket tuna, and the capers packed in that odd vinegar brine? Obviously. And it will taste really pretty good. I happen to live in Astoria, and there is an excellent Italian deli at the foot of the train station. So I go there rather than the supermarket when I can. But all of those premium ingredients are just the cherry on top of a dish that's always good.
Having said that, the premium italian tuna I'm talking about is exceptional. Dressed with a little lemon and quality olive oil, it's dinner for two with perhaps a tomato salad on the side.
There's literally nothing to this. Slice onions and sautee on medium heat until golden brown. Add garlic. Add half a can of San Marzano tomatoes. Add good italian tuna (the kind in the jar packed in olive oil). Add good, salted capers. Cook your pasta, add to the sauce and cook until the pasta is done, and serve.
Can you make the same dish with normal stewed tomatoes, normal supermarket tuna, and the capers packed in that odd vinegar brine? Obviously. And it will taste really pretty good. I happen to live in Astoria, and there is an excellent Italian deli at the foot of the train station. So I go there rather than the supermarket when I can. But all of those premium ingredients are just the cherry on top of a dish that's always good.
Having said that, the premium italian tuna I'm talking about is exceptional. Dressed with a little lemon and quality olive oil, it's dinner for two with perhaps a tomato salad on the side.
6/10/2009
A puzzle
Here's something I don't understand at all. Why does commercial peanut butter have the same nutritional values (calories and fat, primarily), as peanut butter made of only peanuts?)
I suppose the answer is that the commercial peanut butter producers add oil to equal the fat content of pure peanuts, but it still puzzles me.
I suppose the answer is that the commercial peanut butter producers add oil to equal the fat content of pure peanuts, but it still puzzles me.
6/07/2009
Vegetable Stew
This is my version of Jacques Pepin's grandmother's vegetable stew, normally served as a side dish with roast chicken (as I served it) or fish, or with anything else. There really is no technique here whatever - cut up all the vegetables that are the freshest available, drop them into a pot with some olive oil, and cook for a minute. Add flour to make a sort of roux, cook the roux for a minute, and add water. As it cooks, the stew will thicken.
Pan roasted skate with Salad
There's really nothing difficult here. Extremely fresh skate, roasted briefly in a pan on medium heat. It is served with some very peppery watercress that I tamed with fingerling potatoes and olive oil vinaigrette.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
