Yurt and garden

August 13, 2005

My garden at three and a half weeks old, is thriving! My yurt, set up at the edge of a vineyard, with views into two river valleys and mountains on all sides, is now little more than a glorified bedroom, shouting distance from the 'real house' in town.

But in one week's time a very special guest will arrive and we will among other things, live, and cook (!!!) at the yurt without the support of a proper kitchen. And because I am not a practical woman by nature, I have my heart set upon the notion that the yurt-cooking menu should consist primarily of food originating from my pre-pubescent garden. So I'm digging my toe in the dirt and wondering what kind of grits can a gal dish up using corn, tomatoes, several kinds of lettuce, rocket, chard, red chicory, mint, basil, sorrel, coreander, and everything but the squeal of a radish and a beet using nothing but a BBQ-for-one and an Occitanian 2-ring burner.

Fortunately, he's a vegetarian.

images from l to r: author slash subsistence farmer surveys her harvest possibilities, yurt lighting, flashed-view from the foot of bed.

Posted by debra at 11:24 AM | Comments (7)

Blighted blackberries, all you can eat

August 05, 2005

In the valley, all of the climbing berry bushes are suffering from blight. Blackberries, raspberries, rusty and yellow leaved are making the locals depressed. My neighbour Jean-Louis tells me, 'Take them all, I just can't stand the sight of it'. 'You want me to take all of your blackberries?!' Even when I offer to bake him a blackberry pie he makes it clear that he just wants the blackberries out of his life forever. As if to spite the bush he tells me that he'll never grow blackberries again.

Maybe it's because they're not wild that they taste a bit bland, maybe it's the over-watering, maybe it's the blight. It'll take me a few summers to know the difference, but I climb in the tangle to duke it out with the wasps, who are for some reason unusually passive this summer. Maybe they also can't stand the thought of a crop of blighted blackberries. They're just buzzing around and don't seem to mind me shooing them off the dull and heavy berries. 'Just please take them away,' they're saying in wasp-talk.

Posted by debra at 09:00 AM | Comments (1)

That's French for BBQ practice

August 02, 2005

Last year I bought my first BBQ, a very cute bbq-for-one sort of thing. The level of my naïvete concerning all things BBQ became apparent when it turned out that there really is no such thing as BBQ'ing for one. After giving her a good shining, I announced to the hungry hoard that it was I who would be preparing that night's dinner on the barbie. There were a few grunts and not a little bit of silver-back posing, but in the end the gents were somewhat content to let me have a go at the girly BBQ as long as I didn't fiddle with their well-composed fires or ask too many questions.

Up until this moment, I thought BBQ'ing was little more than guys hanging around playing with fire, but to my disappointment it turned out that there was actual skill and engagement involved in producing and maintaining a fire suitable to transform a hunk of meat into something amazing. And while I was busy making a dog's breakfast of some dainty sardines on my Barbie-doll-barbie, I also realised that the average eleven year old boy has a great deal more BBQ'ing experience than I do due to his vast experience in playing with fire.

No worries, this year is a year for solving all of life's little problems and now that I am generating loads of burning material in the garden I have the perfect excuse to work on my own fire-making skills instead of facilitating others by making meat marinades. And since we're in Occitania, it seems that it's OK to go around lighting fires on hot August afternoons in your garden if you want to. Tonight we're having dainty little sardines, on the big barbie.

And check out my fire! The ash heap was still hot the next day and when I distributed the ashes thoughout the garden I accidentally cinged a little tomato plant in two. It's like youth serum, fire-making.

Posted by debra at 02:57 PM | Comments (1)

Hibiscus flowers

June 12, 2005

One million years ago, when I was a little girl, I had a piano teacher called Miss Pierce. She was an elegant and graceful woman, and ancient, as far as I was concerned. She was the secret girlfriend of Mr. Greenjeans, from the chilluns' TV show, Captain Kangaroo! We lived in a university town full of orange and date orchards on the edge of the desert, and Miss Pierce was probably one of the few people there that fulfilled for me, in her own wierd and spinster way, the notion of what it is to be 'fabulous'.

I used to arrive at her strangely decorated house for lessons with my neighbour Michelle, who was even more of a tomboy than I was. The two of us played so rambunctiously that Miss Pierce decided to give us 'lady-lessons' at no extra charge. We agreed to the lady-lessons because we just loved listening to Miss Pierce blather on and on about table manners and gentlemen as we sipped hibiscus tea and nibbled girlscout cookies, all the while kicking eachother surreptitiously under the table.

Miss Pierce liked her hibiscus tea incredibly sour but I never added sugar because sugar was 'white death', and I was trying to get my head around enjoying sour things. Hibiscus flowers in their wet form, alive and still on the tree, are forever connected in my mind with my father and his battle against vast herds of aphids. But hibiscus flower in its dry form and as a tea still reminds me of my piano teacher, Miss Pierce, patiently battling to turn me and Michelle into ladies.

Today I'm experimenting with using hibiscus flower as a souring agent in a batch of quick pickles and a vegetable broth intended for a summer borscht although 12°c doesn't really qualify as summer.

Please read more... "Hibiscus flowers"

Posted by debra at 02:25 PM | Comments (5)

Art is, art was fluid last Sunday

June 08, 2005

Due to the good company and delightfully engaged audience, artist initiative Artis in Den Bosch showed this Sunday (05.06.2005) that they really know how to throw a happening. Margriet Kemper opened the salon with a presentation of her book, Speak, Image! (unfortunately only in Dutch) in which she talks about how the image is actually a performer. Kemper cited Allan Kaprow, the Daddy of the Happening, explaining to us the choice of the title of the event, Art Fluid.

A.K.: 'I want the line between art and life to be as fluid as possible'.

A presentation of culiblog was next on the menu followed by a breathtaking poetry reading by Robert Gray (AU) and the Dutch translator of Gray's work, Maarten Elzinga. Wafts of rosey caramel in-the-make were the only distraction as both Gray and Elzinga read for the better part of 42 minutes to a rapt audience.

Now there's only so much reflection and interior thought that an audience can take, and just when we thought we would forever be living inside of our heads, the shy noise band, SPASM performed invisibly from the guts of the cavernous gallery. It was just the lightness that the moment needed and everyone started to beam with smiles so broad they barely fit on their faces. Everyone except the young children who ran around annoyed with fingers in their ears.

What could be a better follow-up to a poetry reading and a concert of noise than a cookery presentation! Together with my fabulous assistants, Stefano and Kaj, I rejoiced in showing other Dutch people how to make the traditional Dutch 'hang-op'. The hang-op had been dripping whey all the livelong day in linen bags hanging from pink string, defining the space of the kitchen. Stefano removed the linen bags from meathooks and helped Kaj scrape out the 'hung' yogurt from within. Kaj then proceeded to beat to a satiny smooth consistency, the yogurt with rose flavoured whipped cream. I know, it was very, very sexy.

While the audience enjoyed a film by Annika Ström and a presentation of Jan van Toorn's (re)releases from the oldies but goodies of avant-garde sound-art, Kaj and Stefano prepared the banquet table with rose petals, rosey caramel, organic local strawberries and little bowls of hang-op.

Aan tafel, I sort of whispered into the microphone.

Posted by debra at 09:57 AM | Comments (4)

Recipes without words

June 05, 2005

Right image: olive oil, green tea powder, ume boshi vinegar. Left image: olive oil, grass powder, ume boshi vinegar.

The images above are from a cookbook of mine in-the-making titled Recipes without words. Or rather, with very few words. More later. I’m about to do a presentation about culiblog in the ‘s Hertogenbosch artists’ initiative Artis. This Sunday’s programme is titled Art Fluid and culiblog is just one of several interesting programme pieces. We will be making Hang op with rose caramel and local strawberries.

Sugar, soy sauce, shrimp powder...

Posted by debra at 03:19 PM | Comments (2)

Leafenware is everything but the squeal

June 02, 2005

A banana leaf is a plate in Bangalore. The image above left shows a Ghandibazaar plate maker producing and selling leafenware on the street. The waste products of his production are eaten by noshing cows. This is 'everything but the squeal' vegetarian-style.

But Delhi is far far away from the banana climes of the South and an artificial banana leaf plate seems to be a logical substitute. This fabric photoshop job was doing duty as a placemat at drinking club, the Standard at CP before we procured it from the owners for the culiblog packaging archive.

Faithful culiblog readers are familiar with the entry just a few weeks ago of the pepesan sans pep dish, wrapped in bamboo leaves. I am curious about whether bamboo leaves bought at a Chinese supermarket in Amsterdam, imported from somewhere deep in the guts of PRChina qualify as ecologically sound plate choices, but I would like to hear from someone with a strong opinion - or better yet - some actual knowledge on this subject.

Q1: Is a one-use banana leaf plate a more sustainable choice than a ceramic plate in a place where banana trees are harvested?

Q2: Is a pack of dried bamboo leaves a more ecologically sound dinner party option than ceramic plates when the bamboo leaves are imported from PRChina and the dinner party is in the Netherlands? or Occitania?

Q3: Is a re-usable (maybe 100 times) fabric plate more ecological than a ceramic plate if the fabric plate is produced locally? (The plate can be rinsed in soapy water and rinsed clean.)

Q4: Are recycled paper plates like the ones shown in this culiblog entry or the tetra-pak plates more ecological than the different sorts of leaf plates if all of the materials come from local sources?

Pictured above are images of leaf plate and other vegetable (and non-veg) trash on the streets of Delhi.

How does one calculate the sustainability of a given object? Ceramic or stainless steel plates are produced under industrial conditions, raw materials possibly imported, packaging distribution all factor in. Imported dried bamboo leaves do quite a lot of travelling. Banana leaves seem ecological (if locally grown) but what are the conditions of the banana plantation and how are the leaves harvested? And what if you already own some plates? And what if you live in the city and don't have a compost pile or animals with four stomaches roaming the streets?

Posted by debra at 09:47 AM | Comments (6)

Pasta that is pasta

May 27, 2005

Posted by debra at 11:01 AM | Comments (7)

Pasta that is not pasta

Finalement, Pasta that is not pasta. In this recipe I use thinly sliced raw courgette/zucchini as spaghettini, and courgette/zucchini and beet slices as ravioli. The main ingredient of the sauce is Turkish pickled and roasted peppers, a product I love because of the bits of charred skin still sticking to the pepper flesh. There is nothing like fire to add flavour to food, as our ancestors, if only they could respond to this blog entry, would readily agree.

Pasta that is not pasta
- courgette spaghettini
- courgette ravioli
- beet ravioli
- roasted and pickled paprika coulis
- rocket emulsion

The beet ravioli recipe you can find here. For the courgette spaghettini, please click Please read more to read more.

Posted by debra at 09:01 AM | Comments (2)

Play with a mandolin

May 14, 2005

The original recipe for Pasta that is not pasta is coming. But first you need to own a mandolin.

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Garlic and beetroot

May 13, 2005

Sliced garlic, marinated with beetroot, lime zest, lime juice, fleur de sel and extra virgin olive oil.

Posted by debra at 01:23 PM | Comments (5)

Which one is the fish skin wedding anniversary?

May 09, 2005

5th Wedding Anniversary Menu for John and Kristi

Pasta that is not pasta
- courgette spaghettini
- courgette ravioli
- roasted and pickled pepper coulis
- rocket emulsion
- even creamier cheese in a can

Pepesan sans pep
- grated coconut tamale with
- smoked mackerel marinated in tamarind and lime leaves
- sweet potato
- not very much sambal djeroek taking into account the delicate Northern palates
- coconut cream

Charlie Trotter's Banana and Chocolate Lava Cake
- w/ roasted mini bananae

Posted by debra at 10:19 AM | Comments (1)

Another short supply chain

April 26, 2005

This time it's dessert! Ladoos, to be exact. These gentlemen are working in the temple compound (Hanuman Mandir, CP, Delhi) 30 metres from the dung fuel sales and manufacturing woman. Their whole production setup takes place within 10 metres, their point of sale is 30 metres away.

A ladoo is a graham flour sweet, sometimes made with puffed rice. If someone would explain to me why one always finds ladoo near temples I would be most appreciative. I think it has to do with religiously sanctioning things that people like to do anyway, and I mean that in the most generous possible way.

Posted by debra at 09:07 AM | Comments (3)

Love those short supply chains

Here in Europe we can't stop talking about 'food miles', that is to say, how many kilometres our food travels before we actually get to touch it. There's that quite famous study of the strawberry yoghurt, It's the same for all products, including cow dung fuel. The images shown were all taken within 20 metres (!) of eachother in the Hanuman Mandir temple complex near CP, Delhi.

Cow - dung collection - patty cake patty cake dry dry dry - fuel saleswoman

Posted by debra at 08:24 AM | Comments (0)

Passover cleaning

April 22, 2005

In December 2004, a Spanish Talmudic scholar named Sinterklaas was cited translating the Torah,

'Passover is the holiday when it behooves
us to clean the barnacles out of our grooves'.

If you don't have anything in the fridge, it's easier to clean it. Smetvrees, the fear of contamination, is an ancient Jewish tradition and therefore a once yearly scrub-down (and burning!) is on the menu today, the day before Pesach. Before the week of Passover commences, it's necessary to rid the house of all items containing leaven, creating an elaborate excuse for rarely performed activities such as dusting and refridgerator cleaning.

Since March 11 I've been in my home exactly 3 days. The contents of my fridge (l to r, top to bottom) are: 2 eggs, jars of mustard and homemade sambal from January 2004 (a gift from a then-not-yet-ex, indicating the period of time that has passed over since... YIPES = LEAVEN!!!), 1,5 train station supermarket courgettes, leftover film from a photoshoot in 2003. 2nd row; 2 1000 yr. duck eggs, 1 open packet of gari (pickled ginger), pickled daikon radish, 1 jar of anchovis. 3rd row; 1 tin of sheep cheese in brine containing 1/8th of a cheese, 2 tins containing only brine which I will also categorise as clutter I mean leaven, 4 St. Marcellin lait cru cheeses brought from Occitania on Wednesday.

In the vegetable 'crisper', which I realistically refer to as 'the rotter'; 1 piece of burdock from a 2004 automnal dinner, 1 carrot from same dinner, a lot of paper bags that act as an absorbent layer when I'm gone for any length of time ( = LEAVEN), 500ml of half fat milk, bought at the train station, 1 bottle of ketchup from last century. Ketchup is oddly exempt from all dietary law.

Please read more... "Passover cleaning"

Posted by debra at 10:20 AM | Comments (4)

Avocado update

April 21, 2005

Safe and sound back in the Heimatt. Pity la geste Californienne. Compare the image above to the entry of hope before heading off to India and France. Looks like my sense of home in Amsterdam needs a bit of nurturing. My inner mother tells me to return the failed avocado sprouters to their original use as vessles of buffalo grass vodka.

Posted by debra at 08:01 AM | Comments (0)

Sticking to the streets

April 16, 2005

Delhi- Clustering their services in one Connaught Place kiosk are four paan salesmen, each selling a different recipe of this perfumed and intoxicating digestive leaf from the kiosk's cardinal points.

One very interesting thing we learned from two of the Nomadic Banquet participants, John Vijay Abraham and Sanjeev Shankar's street food research at the IIT Bombay, is that street food vending is not always a step on the path to restaurantdom. A case in point, they stated is Muchhad Paanwallah, a paan kiosk in Mumbai named after an impressive ear to ear mustache of the owner's father. The current owner, Jaishankar Tiwari has been immensely successful in his street-side paan business, so much so that his and the families of his four sons all live from it. If you can't visit his kiosk in Mumbai it's well worth checking out his website, where you can place orders for paan online.

In the Nomadic Banquet workshop in Delhi, we discovered street food vendors are an integral part of the social fabric and this is likely to be the greatest asset they offer a community. Muchhad Paanwalla is immensely successful and Tiwari chooses to continue selling from his kiosk instead of going upmarket like oh so many smart cigar shops. This is important for us to realise as the perception persists that the street is an undesirable place (for a vendor) - as if the street is merely a stepping stone on the road to 'something better'. The success of Muchhad Paanwallah and others like him prove that exactly the opposite is true.

Muchad Paanwallah http://www.paan.com/about.htm

Posted by debra at 09:33 AM | Comments (2)

Delhi recycling, in all fairness

March 15, 2005

When is recycling not really recycling? When the recycled or re-purposed item never really had a purpose in the first place. These papers, have been left on the ground (location across the street from Jantar Mantar, Delhi), as far as I can tell, for no other purpose than to be repurposed. The image on the left is a stack of paper left on the street as an offering to the gods of the recycled chaat-bag-makers.

Packaging for chaat is often nothing more than a bag made from old newsprint or repurposed paper, or for the wetter stuff, a leaf plate. The bag pictured on the right was made from some terribly interesting literature about bonds. One can see the imprint of the deep-fried sweet peas contained within being absorbed into the paper making a pretty pattern.

Posted by debra at 01:07 PM | Comments (0)

Black Beauties, wafting truffles from Occitania

March 07, 2005

It wasn't a conventional Valentine's Day gift, but I do think it should become one. I am lucky enough to have dear friends that live in a part of the world where these elephant-skinned nuggets grow underground. Fortune would have it that 2 days before their arrival up here in the Polar Circle a local Occitanian Truffle Fête was in full-swing. and JT and Kristi were wise to bring a bag filled with the little nodules.

They present me with the bag, grinning from ear to ear. I put my face inside, and inhale deeply.

I am confronted with the most glorious, heady aroma, a combination of rich, loamy earth, wafting diesel fuel, fresh ground peanut butter, and fart. Now in just the right combination, that's a good thing.

Here's what I prepared for the 3 of us the very next day:
- Knolsla (celeriac cole sla) with truffled mayonnaise and beet ravioli
- Truffled Chicken in salt crust with 'basically raw broccoli' and truffle butter
- Pots de Crumbly Crumble (truffle-free)

Never have I received such a wonderful Valentine's Day gift; I was given an object but got an evening-filling experience. Thank you JT and Kristi!

Posted by debra at 09:42 PM | Comments (3)

More raw beets for the neighbours

January 31, 2005

Raw beet ravioli. Delicious, beautiful and here I am hybernating. It was time for all of my vegetarian architect neighbours to meet over dinner. Click below for recipe.

Posted by debra at 11:36 PM | Comments (10)

Gullet Girl

January 24, 2005

This is the correct Dutch way to eat a herring.
By firelight.

Please read more... "Gullet Girl"

Posted by debra at 09:31 AM | Comments (5)

Brain Food

January 20, 2005

This terribly sad but well written book by Mark Kurlansky is a gripping history from the perspective of the cod. Kurlansky tells how fishing for this gadiform has deeply affected the wealth and development of many nations and technologies. I'm thinking the Flounder by Gunther Grass that I read back in the day but even more I'm thinking Fish Story, the mega-artwork by Allan Sekula, about the 'sweatshop called the Pacific'. (Sekula's visual history Fish Story was part of the the last Documenta XI in Kassel. One photograph in particular gave me goosebumps. You see a ship painter giving the Exxon Valdez a new name...fishy stuff.)

It turns out that cod in the form of stokvis (wind dried cod) turned out to be some good thinking-man's protein for the Norsemen. That extra portable brain-power enabled them to encounter New Foundland in 1000, where they also encountered the Beothuk People who had already discovered it and were not enamoured with the idea of sharing their space with the pink and hairy people from across the puddle.

Basques added salt to the stokvis recipe to make salt cod increasing the quality of the preservation and enabling Basque fishermen to to travel even farther - to the mouth of the St. Lawrence river. When explorer Jacques Cartier got there raring to claim his 'discovery' he encountered almost a thousand Basque fishing vessels. And a bunch of angry native Beothuk people getting pissy about the incessant attention.

Cod is inextricably tied to land (to dry it) and salt (to preserve it) and Salt is in fact the title of another one of Kurlansky's wonderful books.

Posted by debra at 08:54 PM | Comments (3)

Keeping one's vows

January 19, 2005

Remember in October when I had just bought Roxanne Klein's R A W and I reported how it made me homesick for Laurel's Kitchen? And then upon rereading Laurel's Kitchen I made a vow to 'take cashew cheese seriously' from now on?

Well, I have been taking cashew cheese making very seriously indeed, and I believe I have improved upon the Good Ladies' recipes. Pictured above are some of the steps in this easy process (from l to r: placing the blended cashew butter in a cheese cloth, cheese cloth hanging in the window, cheese cloth dripping with cashew milk and dark winter sky).

Posted by debra at 05:09 PM | Comments (3)

Keeping one's vows

Posted by debra at 05:09 PM | Comments (3)

Juicing, but not frothing, and you?

January 06, 2005

So far this juice fast has yielded quite a number of discoveries, the usefullness of oat milk being one of them. In my opinion grain and nut milks qualify for a juice fast because they are simply the wrung out water in which grain or nut meal has been soaking. These 'milks' don't give the gut flora anything more to do than a glass of apple juice does but they are useful in making things taste 'creamy'.

Other discoveries concern how to make 'comfort food' for the fast yet maintain its nutritional value. Roxanne Klein (and all raw foodies) feel that valuable enzymes in vegetables and fruits are destroyed when heated above 50°c. For this fast I've kept to this parameter while still being able to serve up some warm soup on these cold Occitanian days.

Here are a list of some of the liquids that my ruthless jury has deemed delicious enough to sip even when not on a juice fast: (This is not a menu.)

Cucumber Kiwi Juice
Kiwi Zucchini Juice
Pineapple Juice (fresh squeezed is entirely different from the storebought stuff)
Carrot Grapefruit Juice
Celery Juice

Avocado Zucchini Soup
Celeriac Oat Milk Soup
Green Curry and Carrot Soup
Broccoli Stalk, Zucchini Soup with Guacamole Dumplings
Red Pepper Tomoato Miso Flower Broth

Date and Pear Sorbet (pictured above)
Banana Chai Ice Cream (pictured above)
Pear Sorbet

The juicer that I am borrowing from Fred and Kristine for the duration of the fast is a real Cadillac (Magimix Le Duo). Only crit about this machine is that it doesn't produce foamy froth - like my Braun back in the Heimatt. I think that some of the recipes could be improved with new texture additions. At home I use the foam from the juicer.

Posted by debra at 10:46 PM | Comments (2)

Milk tasting, and you?

January 05, 2005

As I said, not eating solid foods affords you a chance to try new things. Tonight we did a little experimental milk tasting. Because we're on a juice fast and generally behaving as self-righteously as we can we decided to bypass the locally produced cow, sheep and goat varieties and test the locally imported almond, rice and oat milks.

Oat milk was the clear winner in the category; Tastes Like Something I Might Drink Even When Debra Isn't Forcing Me.

Posted by debra at 10:19 PM | Comments (0)

Re-enact creaming

December 13, 2004

Mediamatic and CASCO's performance night titled Re-enact was rife with food related performance art. My absolute favourite performer was Nezaket Ekici who oh so diva-liciously turned cream into butter with her bare right hand. It took 24 minutes or thereabouts. Everyone was aswoon!

Please read more... "Re-enact creaming"

Posted by debra at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

Dabba Wallah - git yer tiffin while it's HOT

December 10, 2004

You're a dutiful wife (actually I'm temporarily in-between relationships) and nothing short of your own love-imbued cuisine will suffice to nourish your office-bound husband for his lunchtime meal. Problem is you're out in the suburbs of Mumbai and he's situated downtown for the lunchtime hours. How are you going to get something hot in Lovey's tummy?

Easy. You pay 150 rupees (EUR2,55/GBP1.70/USD3.40) per month for a Dabba Wallah service and let the 'tiffin guy' or lunchbox carrier bring the Mr. his grub.

Posted by debra at 12:02 PM | Comments (0)

Adam is the genuine article...

November 23, 2004

The very attentive Adam Kuban raced over on his, his, (whatever sort of motorcycle he's riding) to assure me that his weblog Slice is purely about offering the best possible pizza fieldguide and not about I-Pod applications, 'not that there's anything wrong with that...'

One lengthy browsie-browse later and I can't argue with him. Kuban has done his homework, meticulously logging it all onto his I-Pod (and generously sharing it with the world). I'd trust him to find me a slice. Take a peak at Slice or read an interview from the Gothamist about Adam. I have other questions that I prefer to ask in private first. ; )

Adam's Gothamist interview

Posted by debra at 12:10 AM | Comments (3)

La Peche qui brule

November 16, 2004

That was the title of the smoldering peach course on that eventually sultry August evening. We placed the carmelised peaches on the pôts de creme au chocolate brulée. You can't eat one without eating the other.

And that's exactly what a French speaker would say, 'You can't heat one without heating the other.'

As with the previous slideshow, these photos are courtesy of Kristine Malden.

View the slideshow here.

Posted by debra at 05:59 PM | Comments (1)

La Peche qui brule

And that's exactly what a French speaker would say, 'You can't heat one without heating the other.'

As with the previous slideshow, these photos are courtesy of Kristine Malden.

View the slideshow here.

Posted by debra at 05:59 PM | Comments (1)

The Banquet Years

Guess what we did last summer... we had a banquet!
Maybe because my last entry looked so pitiful, the colourful cakes and the leaden November sky. I thought it was high time to upload some images from this summer's culinary activities - and not just to some dank place in the culiblog archives.

As a community we ate off two, 8 metre long rolls of homemade pasta lasagna, into which sage and beet leaves had been pressed (see composite photo above) and when we were done, we rolled up the entire table.

Click for the slideshow here. The images in it are all photographs by Kristine Malden, a friend who thankfully was our guest that August evening.

Posted by debra at 05:44 PM | Comments (0)

The Banquet Years

Click for the slideshow here. The images in it are all photographs by Kristine Malden, a friend who thankfully was our guest that August evening.

Posted by debra at 05:44 PM | Comments (0)

Halalchisch

November 06, 2004

What's wrong with this image?

Posted by debra at 07:52 PM | Comments (2)

Hash Shakes are sooooooooo passée

November 05, 2004

Well, what were You eating one and a half years ago?

Bhang Shake (serves 3)
Aditya and Arjun (not their real names) dosed me with the vivid high of this sublime hash milkshake one and a half year's ago.
What were we THINKING!!!

Posted by debra at 08:58 PM | Comments (7)

Learning through your Ass: The Return of Laurel's Kitchen

October 08, 2004

When I became a vegetarian at the tender age of 13, my parents, fearing that I would stunt my own growth gave me what was considered at the time to be a good introduction to vegetarian nutrition, amino acid chains and global food politics. It was my first cookbook ever and its pictureless recipes for soy-milk, cashew cheese and other 'technically advanced' foodstuffs threw me completely for a loop.

It was California in the 70's but my Mom wasn't about to go foodshopping in a store filled with goat-knitting long-hairs smelling like garbanzo farts, and I didn't know that you could simply go to an Asian supermarket and BUY a ready-made block of tempeh. So when one of Laurel's recipes called for say, soy milk and said, (see recipe page 138) I would actually make the soy milk - often with unsavoury results.

Due to a series of 'intrusive kitchen disasters' my mother decided that I could only do the big preparations for the week's food on Sunday. (Not the fresh things, just the... legume-rich things.) Considering that I had turned the family kitchen into a soybean laboratory it wasn't entirely the cruel thing to do. I would prepare my vegetarian food for the week ahead and microwave it warm each day. For an experienced cook, preparing food in advance wouldn't have posed much of a problem but I had very little PRACTICAL cooking experience. I couldn't tell beforehand if a recipe was difficult and mistakes I made on Sunday were the grits on the table the livelong week. This educational technique is known in some cultures as 'learning through your ass'.

I was cooking outside the repetoire of my family and Laurel wasn't helping. Laurel's Kitchen, although an amazing source of 1970's California anthropology was absolutely a crap book for an inexperienced cook.

But yesterday when I brought home Roxanne Klein and Charlie Trotter's R A W, the first thing I did was pull Laurel from my shelf for one more read.

Posted by debra at 01:09 AM | Comments (6)

Ik lust je R A W

October 07, 2004

Wing flapping all around! Today I indulged myself and bought a cookbook that I have wanted to own for quite some time. R A W by Roxanne Klein (a culinary approach to vegan and raw food cooking) with Charlie Trotter, one of the US's most innovative chefs. Regular readers know that porkatarians like me can't also be vegans but I am still so very excited by this pairing of the minds.

A browsiebrowse through and so far there are lots of recipes that look like watermelon spit-up (maybe she took Trotter's 'froth thing' a little bit too literally) and I think that bit about preserving the enzymes is a load of halookie. If you put a blended something in a dehydrator for 5 hrs I doubt very seriously that there will be any 'living' quality left in the foodstuff. TEST: Put yourself in a sauna for 5 hrs and see how you feel. Now imagine yourself to be a carrot!

B U T

The book is brimming with beauty, love of a rich variety of ingredients and new techniques (new since *Laurel's Kitchen) and I swear I'm going to take cashew cheese seriously this time.

* You're going to have to wait until tomorrow's entry about Laurel's Kitchen, written in 1976 it was THE quintessential bible of Californian hardcore vegetarianism.

Posted by debra at 05:52 PM | Comments (2)

Changes

October 04, 2004

This recipe for Chalupsie has been hybridised to the hilt. Pronounce it however you like, it's just Stuffed Cabbage or Chou Farci and up here in the Polar Circle we need hearty winter fare like this.

C H A N G E S :

It was my Gramma's recipe from the 'old country', from HER mother, but Grams used minutemaid frozen lemon juice concentrate ? something the 'old country' never had. I dropped 'that ingredient' like a load of so much cement over Tchernobyl and replaced it with a spoonful of thai green curry paste plus every single part of a fresh lime.

Some other changes that I have made include fractalising the prep time from 2hrs to 20 minutes. Now instead of reminiscing about chalupsies we can actually eat them. I also replaced the old country hamburger helper and changed the kind of cabbage to one that can be denuded of its leaves in one fell swoop.

Please read more... "Changes"

Posted by debra at 11:15 AM | Comments (6)

Google Recipe Finder

October 02, 2004

The fabulous R.vT. came up with this Google Recipe Search link.
http://theory.stanford.edu/~amitp/recipe.html

Forget typing in turkey, or wild boar. It's just a search engine, go crazy and try tofurkey + lemon curd or monkey + banana + camenbert! Suddenly nothing seems wierd anymore. (Does this mean that I miss China?) Anyway, it's Sukkah, a Jewish harvest holiday conveniently scheduled each Autumn when 'God wants you to try eating something new'. Yeah.

Which reminds me, my brother Aaron made up a game when we were little in which the sole aim was to make the other person barf. The rule was that you had to concoct a mixture of edible substances (no poison allowed) and dish it up to your sibling � and they had to eat or drink it. Yes. Try it sometime, it's much harder than it sounds.

In this game we discovered that toothpaste is surprisingly versatile as an ingredient. Aaron came up with a toothpaste-orange juice and tabasco sauce smoothie that was fairly effective in getting me to gag and I came up with a peanutbutter and toothpaste sandwich which was impossible to swallow. Toothpaste, who would've thunk it?

R.vT. offered to shop for me since my ankle was sprained Wednesday in a bike accident. It's difficult for me to accept graciously because I am able to stand and walk. Even so, he was a right sweetie today and helped me do my shopping at the hippy market. This is what it's going to be like being an old lady. Carrying a shopping bag with the aid of a friend.

(Respect also to the super lief MM, who cooked and shopped and was a rock of gezelligheid when I couldn't walk, as well as neighbours GS and BK who brought packs of frozen beans to discourage swelling.)

Posted by debra at 10:35 PM | Comments (0)

Glycemic Index, Glycemic Load

September 23, 2004

Okay Freaks, here is a great article about the definition of Glycemic Index and Glycemic load. Don't mind the fact that you have to go to a diabetes website to read about it. Diabetics, folks with hypoglycemia and athletes need to be experts on glycemic indexes and loads.
http://diabetes.about.com/library/mendosagi/ngilists.htm.

Posted by debra at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)

Eat off the floor? Get the facts...

In Amsterdam if I drop food when I'm cooking I always just pick it up and pop it into my mouth. I eat off my floor - sometimes days after the 'fall'. And what you may ask are my criteria for scrapping or scarfing? With me it depends on whether the food was initially wet or dry. (See semi-unrelated picture above of some mould I grew in 3 weeks time on some wet food.) Foods that become wetter as they get older I tend to scrap. Yesterday I found some old almonds lying quite dryly on the floor of my bedroom. I picked 'em up and scarfed 'em right down in one clean hand motion.

http://www.readymademag.com/feature_9_eatoffthefloor.php

In this old ReadyMade Mag issue there is a funny article about eating off the floor and whether it is unclean. If you have kids you probably have heard of the 5 second rule, 'don't anything that has been on the floor for more than 5 seconds.'
I always thought of this as the 15 second rule. Oops.

There was a Dutch telev�e ad in which one sees a woman bringing her clothes to the cleaners. With some difficulty she peels a piece of salt licorice (type muntje) out of a dirty jeans pocket and tosses it into her mouth. This much to the disgust of the guy behind the counter. It was a licorice ad. What would I have done? Oh, definitely scarf.

Posted by debra at 12:08 PM | Comments (0)

Harvest begins and Summer leaves off

August 31, 2004

At Fred and Kristine's the tomato harvest is in full-swing. This is my adhoc collection of pear tomatoes, the beans are at my feet. They planted 19 other sorts of heirloom varieties but old-fashioned girl that I am, I just prefer the cherry tomatoes. This is evidenced by that fact that I don't appear to have any in my skirt. I have eaten every last one of them.

Earlier that day I had packed my yurt up for the winter and my upperbody ached from lifting yak felt. I was too tired to do any innovative cooking that night.

Posted by debra at 12:16 AM

Leafy Greens

August 16, 2004

Up here at the Chateau there is no shortage of appreciation for leafy greens. Tonight we eat our salad with rapt attention as Kristine sings the praises of yesterday's salad, plucked by a visiting chef. Claire and Valerie recount that their Grandmere not only goes mushroom hunting but salad green hunting in the mountains. They tell us that they have eaten salads of wild greens plucked from the environs with more than 20 species of leaf.

We sprinkle a very subtle vinaigrette onto Fred and Kristine's homegrown leaves, some bitter, some succulent, some meaty. I eat each besprinkled leaf with my fingers. It is ten o'clock at night and the skies have just opened up their guts. We eat the salad together in contented silence, the 5 us, as a precious dessert under an umbrella'd table in the rain.

Posted by debra at 11:56 AM

Will Weed for Food

July 26, 2004

Ikea's new packaging strategy. Actually this is part of an elaborate sneaky garden design by Kristine and Fred. We're looking forward to the recipes but by the looks of these leafy babies we'll only be making weed butter.

Posted by debra at 11:53 AM | Comments (2)

Surf and Turf

July 24, 2004

The results of our adhoc fish and sausage fry, on a private beach along the shaded banks of the Vis. It was a perfect summer's day, a wonderful and unusual conglommeration of people, each one more interesting to me than the next. The day unfolded from pleasure to pleasure, the company, conversation food and location(s) all were perfect. I am so happy to be here.

Please read more... "Surf and Turf"

Posted by debra at 12:30 PM | Comments (4)

Surf and Turf

Please read more... "Surf and Turf"

Posted by debra at 12:30 PM | Comments (4)

Presentation is Everything

July 14, 2004

I feel like this little raisin.

Posted by debra at 11:38 PM | Comments (0)

No Rest for the Rugged

July 13, 2004

There you are, a pre Iron Age chef and you want to whip up a fine bouillon for tonight's f�ete. It's easy as pie... read on.

Posted by debra at 10:42 AM | Comments (0)

If it Bleeds, it Leads

July 12, 2004

That's was one of the more memorable lines in Michael Moore's, 'Bowling for Columbine'. Moore is speaking to a TV producer, asking him to explain why there are so many fear evoking images on the US nightly news. The TV producer replies self-evidently, 'If it bleeds, it leads'.

I thought the line was a fitting title to the next few entries of Culiblog in which I will document a workshop that I followed at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht this last February. Onno Faller led a workshop titled, 'Cooking as Genre' the last two days of which were devoted to a little dead wild boar. Above you see Natasha and a handsome bald bloke, BOTH VEGETARIANS, skinning the poor dead beast.

Although I have killed hundreds of animals for food and skinned them and prepared them, I never find this an easy task. I find myself gritting my teeth as I remove their jackets. I am not repulsed, but I feel sad for the animal, I feel the extreme tension of the killing and of a death that I initiated by wanting to eat the animal. Every animal, even a lobster, fights for its life as we would do. And it never ceases to amaze me that once the animal is skinned, it becomes just a piece of meat to me and my mind switches to the matter of the marinade.

If you want to see the entire process, click further.

Posted by debra at 01:28 PM | Comments (4)

If it Bleeds, it Leads

If you want to see the entire process, click further.

Posted by debra at 01:28 PM | Comments (4)

I Love Smoking: Tea-smoked Salmon and a Dessert Borscht fit for a Foot Massage

July 11, 2004

In 6 steps from upper left;
1. Line a wok with aluminium foil and place a handful of any sort of rice on the bottom.
2. Place a goodly amount of delicious loose tea on top of the rice. Earl Grey is the best choice. You are about to create a smoker in which the rice and the tea are the smoldering fuel.
3. Place some granulated sugar on top of the tea.
4. Set a slab of salmon in a bamboo steamer over the rice, tea and sugar heap (other fatty fish work well too). Dust the fish with sea salt, freshly ground pepper, lime zest and sprinkle with lime juice. Cover with the top part of the steamer.

5. Wrap the entire contraption in alu foil so that the smoke from the soon-to-be-smoldering rice and tea can only go through the bottom of the bamboo steamer and delicately smoke the fish.
6. Place the wok+steamer on a large flame and blast the hell out of it for a good *2-3 minutes. Turn the flame down almost as low as possible and wait until you smell the heady burning tea escaping from the smoker. Every now and again place your hand on top of the bamboo steamer - it should be hot hot hot. After 15-20 minutes open up the smoker and poke your finger through the fattest part of the flesh. It should be cooked or almost cooked.
Serve immediately.
*(Be careful not to smolder the tea too vigourously or you will get a bitter smokey flavour. Instead, just relax.)

Guest and composer Daniel Carney has come all the way from Baltimore and said that this tea-smoked salmon is the best thing he's ever eaten 'ceptin the last dinner you made me'. (Better count the silverware.) His t-shirt says, 'I love the Korean alphabet!' The dessert borscht (actually just hangop, lime zest, lime juice and a wee bit of the 'ol white death - baroquely drizzled with beet caramel) is inspired by the chilled Polish summer fruit soups and as well the Polish summer borscht. One bite of borscht and Daniel exclaims, 'Dang, I do believe this is the wierdest dessert ever to have crossed my lips!'

Orly is ecstatic with the dessert borscht and asks, 'What, you want a foot massage?'

(not pictured, Orly's husband and Waimes piano restorer, Gijs Wilderom)

Posted by debra at 04:14 PM | Comments (2)

Taiwanese Bean Beverage

July 01, 2004

Yesterday Dan said that Latvians are lucky.
But today is another day and for breakfast I decided to serve up this Taiwanese Bean Beverage to my Latvian guest *Emils. Just a little good morning experiment. Emils remained cheerful throughout the tasting although shortly after fulfilling his task as guinea pig he dashed out of the house supposedly to buy a shirt - but I think he hauled off and got a bagel.

Discorea Mixed Congee ingredients: water, sugar, adlay(?), discorea rhizome (?), chickpeas, glutinous rice, red beans, kidney beans, millet, oatmeal, oats.

* Emils Rode is a Latvian artist currently participating in the show BREAKTHROUGH in Den Haag. This exhibition in the Grote Kerk spotlights artists from the new European member states. http://www.grotekerkdenhaag.nl

Posted by debra at 02:41 PM | Comments (3)

More Chinese Food!

June 25, 2004

Yes, that's a hedgehog riding a donkey! This Chinese cookie is made from fortune cookie dough. Normally I never eat fortune cookies, but these were so beautiful... that I can't eat them either.

Posted by debra at 11:59 PM | Comments (4)

Moralist hangups

June 20, 2004

It's a day for raucous rejoicing when an immigrant to the Netherlands can help the natives remember their culinary traditions. Hangop is a Dutch summer dessert. It is simply yoghurt hung up in a wet tea towel until all of the whey has drained out of it, thickening the yoghurt in the process.

'Why drain yoghurt yourself?' you may ask. Indeed, why hang up yoghurt when we can now buy perfectly delicious, hyper-thick and fatty yoghurt at Turkish shops. The Turkish version even comes in a handy tub that when recycled works brilliantly as vernacular tupperware.

The reason you should drain your own yoghurt is that this process is beautiful to behold and it yields a urine coloured water called 'whey'. Drink whey as a thirst quencher. Served ice-cold, there is no subsititute for piercing through the thick wall of mucous produced by an 80 kilometer cycling adventure than a good glass of whey.

Please read more... "Moralist hangups"

Posted by debra at 04:35 PM | Comments (3)

Carrot Caramel with Poached Peaches

June 14, 2004

Sometimes you make something so tasty it just boggles the mind.

Carrot Caramel with Poached Peaches

Have ready at hand:
- peaches: poached, peeled and portioned
- fresh carrot juice
- juice of one lemon
- a great deal of white sugar
- a big sheet of baker's parchment laid out on a heat resistant surface

Posted by debra at 04:52 PM

Comfort Food

June 12, 2004

Since I was 14 I've been a huge fan of kimchi (korean pickled cabbage). And lately not a day goes by when I don't eat it. And lately I eat it with noodle-cut tofu, 'white cheese soup', black sesame seeds and wasabi peanuts.

I love the way the different textures of cabbage and daikon radish feel on my tongue, the prickling of the ferment, the mild, soothing tofu, the crunchy sesame seeds and the pungency of the wasabi peanuts. A pool of 'white cheese soup' (recipe follows) with spring onion provides contrast to the kimchi, balancing the flavours.

- fresh bubbling kimchi
- fresh raw tofu cut into 'noodles'
- a white cheese soup (recipe follows)
- sprinkling of black sesame seeds and wasabi peanuts

Please read more... "Comfort Food"

Posted by debra at 04:11 PM

Camper's Flagship Restaurant

June 07, 2004

The wall mural menu at 'Foodball'. These last days in Barcelona I had the opportunity to meet up with designer Marti Guixé to talk about our food-related projects. He showed me the newly opened Camper flagship restaurant that he designed.

It's all about balls.

Posted by debra at 11:34 PM | Comments (1)

KimChi Monkfish Papillot

May 31, 2004

On a piece of parchment place 6 cloves of roasted garlic, a hunk of monkfish, fresh kimchi, butter, scatter with fermented salted soybeans, and drizzle with beer.

Fold and staple the parchment to form a sealed package. Place in preheated oven at 200� for 15 minutes. When it smells good, its ready.

Posted by debra at 09:53 AM

Edibility Stamp

May 29, 2004

Stamp found on a block of tempeh.
Edible, drinkable.
You can eat it, and apparently you can also drink it.

Posted by debra at 01:11 PM

Nature's Bouillon Cubes

May 18, 2004

Roasted cloves of garlic thrown into salted water seem to work as nature's bouillon. I roasted the cloves for about an hour in a hot oven (200� c) and had been adding them to soups like bouillon cubes, but now I'm just popping them into my mouth and eating them like raisins.

Posted by debra at 08:42 AM

A bite of heaven

May 11, 2004

The dumpling is a perfect food. This one is from a shop on the HuaHaiLu in Nanjing.

Posted by debra at 04:53 PM

Clams, mud, blood, bike...

May 09, 2004

You can use the bike to get away from the clams, mud and blood.
(This photo was taken in front of the market in Nanjing, PRC.)

Posted by debra at 04:51 PM

Eat Yer Snakes

May 08, 2004

"Well because my Auntie was a Mormon missionary and she was actually E A T E N A L I V E by snakes. Ever since then I haven't had much apetite for snakes. "

"Nope, not even if they're skewered."

Posted by debra at 04:48 PM

The Tofu Section

May 07, 2004

A tofu stand at the open market in Nanjing.
The black tofu is 'aged' and has a smell that takes some getting used to, but once you get past the aroma it is very mild of taste. It might take awhile to get past the aroma. I didn't succeed.

Click image to see a different tofu stand.

Posted by debra at 02:50 PM

Duck Entier

May 04, 2004

A complete duck, completely chopped. Note bill.

Posted by debra at 02:37 PM

Nomadic Banquet

May 03, 2004

Mobile kitchen number 59.

Please read more... "Nomadic Banquet"

Posted by debra at 01:43 PM

Don't Spit Everywhere

May 01, 2004

No one seemed to be paying a whole lot of attention to these wonderful posters.

Posted by debra at 01:32 PM

Cooking out of doors

April 30, 2004

An outdoor kitchen on a Shanghai street corner. This restaurant was serving breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Posted by debra at 01:30 PM

New Logo

April 27, 2004

This is not a KFC.

Posted by debra at 01:18 PM

A Single Grain of Rice

April 25, 2004

Yi Li Mi = A Single Grain of Rice in mandarin neon. A Single Grain of Rice is a project for a culinarily oriented fasting restaurant that I am initiating. Future entries will explain this project in greater depth, but at least I've got the neon sign.

Posted by debra at 12:49 PM | Comments (1)

Water Distribution by Bike

April 24, 2004

2L PP PD = Two litres per person per day.
Get it out there.

Posted by debra at 06:09 PM

Nomadic Banquet

April 20, 2004

A tea jar holder in a taxi.

Posted by debra at 12:24 PM

The Single Most Delicious Pork Fat

April 14, 2004

Cubes of marinated and roasted pork fat atop aromatic stewed seagrass. So far this is the most delicious thing I have eaten in China.

Posted by debra at 11:33 AM

No Drinks in the Lecture Hall

April 11, 2004

Nanjing University Students leave their thermos' of hot water outside the lecture hall and somehow remember which one is theirs when they leave the building after the lecture.

Posted by debra at 11:21 AM

Attempt # 2 at Acquiring a Taste for Stinky Tofu

April 08, 2004

I like the i d e a of stinky tofu but I haven't yet acquired a taste for it. The version depicted above is fried. I thought this would diminish the aroma reminiscent of human excrement that this foodstuff can't help but exude. Sadly the frying seems to have had no affect upon the smell of stinky tofu. It's a pity that I can't yet upload an ODOR.

Posted by debra at 11:05 AM

Eaten Alive

April 04, 2004

"Well you see, my maternal grandfather was a merchant marine and he was actually EATEN ALIVE one day by an octopus and ever since that day I just can't eat octopus anymore..."

"No, not even if its dead and skewered."

Posted by debra at 10:37 AM

The Most Beautiful Dumpling in the Entire World

March 29, 2004

This is an image of what I consider to be the most beautiful dumpling that I ever have seen. It was also rather delicious, and the texture was... curious.

Steamed rice gluten, chopped spinach interior with egg and spring onion.

Posted by debra at 09:22 AM | Comments (1)

Sparkling Dumplings

This image shows what a little tapioca can do to an ordinary steamed bun.

Posted by debra at 09:15 AM

Attempt #1: Learning to Love Stinky Tofu

March 27, 2004

The Chinese call it 'Stinky Tofu'. And they're not lying. It's aged tofu that many a left coast university student has inadvertently made by just leaving the tofu to its own devices.

Eating Stinky Tofu requires acquiring an acquired taste. Every image of this food in my Chinese Food point-it will represent an attempt to acquire a love for this dish.

Posted by debra at 08:27 AM

Duck Entier en plastique

March 25, 2004

Duck under plastic wrap at a food-court style restaurant in Nanjing, PRC

Posted by debra at 08:12 AM

Juice fasting, Soup fasting

March 20, 2004

enokisoup.jpe

In preparation of my trip to PRChina I am fasting this week. Liquids only� primarily fruit and vegetable juices, but also broths and froths. It is exciting to present myself with the opportunity of creating new juice and soup recipes as well doing a survey on rice, soy, and barley 'milks'. I had never fasted during the winter and this gives me the opportunity to focus on developing satisfying and warming liquid foods of culinary interest.

Enoki mushroom and roasted garlic broth:

enoki-th.jpe

Posted by debra at 10:32 PM

culinary experimentation dream

September 29, 2003

last night I had a very long and vivid dream that I won't get into just now, (because it was long and vivid and completely unsuitable for a culinary blog, that's why!) but one of the funniest parts of this dream was a cooking moment making it my first ever culinary-experimentation dream.

<dream>
I was preparing an informal dinner for my extended family and friends in what seemed to be our communal home, tastefully decorated in entirely too much white. le plat du jour? a bolognese of jumpers on a duck-feather duvet!

happily I began the preparation of this gargantuan pizza-like course on top of the large white (naturalement) kitchen work-surface that somehow invisibly contained a heating element. I was carefully warming the duvet (no, not a new one) on the large surface, cheerfully ladling liberal amounts of an excellent homemade bolognese sauce onto the jumpers that I had laid out on top of it. the jumpers were soaking up the sauce greedily and I seemed satisfied with the direction the meal was going. mmmmm mmmmm good. my cousin rebecca looked on and we chit-chatted as I continued with the cooking process.

at some point I left the duvet to fend for itself (yes, on a low flame) and became pre-occupied with the re-purchase of our neighbour's recently stolen brompton folding bike from some junkies. (they were only asking 25 EUnits and if you changed gears in a certain way the brompton became amphibious, sporting a self-inflating colourful rubber dinghy.) an amazing shower of events ensued (the vivid part) but eventually I returned to my cooking only to find that my darling duvet bolognese..... was burnt on the bottom. damn! how the gods punish the non-chalant cook!
</dream>

Posted by debra at 03:12 PM | Comments (2)

culinary experimentation dream

Posted by debra at 03:12 PM | Comments (2)

00ze: GooseFood4HumanFood

September 15, 2003

00ze. That's zoo spelled backwards, sort of. Natalie Jeremijenko has asked me to be the culinary artistic director of her 00ze project - bat bars and goose-steraunts. Animals and humans come into more competitve contact in a situation in which they actually share the same menu.

The Goosesteraunt is gearing up for a November gig. I have been experimenting and so far there is high-res documentation and 24 distinct recipes. Invite yourself over if you're interested in a taste-testing session. Recipe testers needed.

'Mock Larva' Dumplings
(description: rice flour dumplings. Looks like larva)
- Watercress dumpling
- Seeds (black seeds) dumpling
- Sea coral (nl. zeekraal) dumpling
- Seed and sea coral 'worm-cigar' dumpling

Posted by debra at 05:50 PM | Comments (2)