February 2011
1 post
Moving on up, over, down, whatevs
Hello!
So, I am a bit tired of this space.
Tumblr, this blog, what have you. Maybe I will be back here, one day, but for now I’m abandoning it to the internet-ether.
A testimony to New York, and all.
I’ve moved over here now. Please visit, if you’d like.
January 2011
2 posts
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Well, this one’s for the books.
Winter greens slumped in a warm broth, with toast and eggs— was there ever anything more soulful?
I substituted rainbow chard for kale; also, I was unsure about whether or not to spoon the remaining stock along with my greens into the bowl; frankly, I went all in, and poured a fair amount of the pan juices over my bread. The dish was soupy in the best...
December 2010
3 posts
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“Sir, respect your dinner… Idolize it, enjoy it properly. You will be by many hours in the week, many weeks in the year, and many years in your life the happier if you do.”
-Thackeray
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love is a tender trap
So, some of the fears and trappings of a young, lustful and wistful life:
I have great, gaping fears of getting lost in my work again— by which I mean rather the opposite of my art-work; by which I mean my current menial job. Living to work rather than working to live, etc.
Naturally, there are greater things to work tirelessly toward, greater joys and troubles to be had!
There are...
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Hello.
Hello!!!
I know I’ve been away for a long while. But I’m back, for now, hopefully at regular intervals. Updates, you ask? Well, then:
I am working in a mighty hip pizza place on South Congress that makes mighty fine hand-tossed pies and leaves me sore and tired-limbed, raspy-voiced from yelling over rock n’ roll music, exuding deep musty smells of garlic.
I am reading...
October 2010
4 posts
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NoLa, cont.
My dad drove me out to New Orleans East one day, over a big ol’ bridge. We ordered bahn mi from a Vietnamese bakery and took a (signature) infuriatingly roundabout, aimless drive in search of areas of historical significance; once we found the field where they fought the Battle of New Orleans, all was settled. The two of us sat at a bench under a regal old oak to eat: spicy-sweet plum...
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NoLa
Alright. So, it has been:
Brightly colored houses and warm sun, flowers and flowers, bushes of flowers and flower boxes all cluttered in lovely jumbles in front of houses— sometimes matching the bright purple paint, or stark in gentle & wild contrast. And Bike rides! Brief and surprising torrential rain! Iced tea! ‘Hellos’ to neighbors passing by!
Cream of tomato soup with...
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fall.
one of my last days in New York was an epic fall day, brunch at the Breslin with Rachel, grapefruit with ginger sugar and tiny slivers of mint, poached eggs on a bed of spicy lentils and a hunk of grilled ciabatta. walked it off for 40 blocks on the gorgeous stretch of Riverside Park in Woody Allen’s New York, the Upper West Side.
trotted home to rest my weary legs, my weary everything;...
September 2010
6 posts
4 tags
things I've been liking, and last days
Things I’ve been liking lately:
A big glass of cold, whole milk when I come home really hungry.
Sandwiches on rolls— stuffed to the brim yet modest; a little fistful of perfection.
Jane Austen! She is a delight to read.
Thinking up what it’ll be like to be in New Orleans after so, so long. (I am flying into NoLa, visiting family and that damp and luminous city itself,...
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hello
I have been around. Not here, I realize, and for which I apologize. But, if it makes you feel any better, I have only been around in the world at large in a sort of dream state of excitement and fear and weariness, trying simultaneously to withdraw from the big-city-over-stimulation and also to fling myself out there full force, open to friends and strangers, before it’s all gone. My head is...
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Last Summer, as I recall, was:
caprese salads, dried & fresh red chiles speckled atop everything, salty-sweet prosciutto, boiled green beans & potatoes smashed together with golden olive oil, arugula.
This Summer proved to be of rich fresh mayonnaise, panzanella, sweet corn & heirloom tomato salads, boiled eggs, roasted peppers with capers, salami, salads of tomato, new potato, and...
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highlights from a conversation with my dad
On missing me:
“I keep saying, when is Anna going to come visit and cook something for me?” (My dad is a chef. My heart exploded, like a firework. Sudden pops and streams of light and joy).
On the Grainery:
“You know, if you have a sandwich shop in New Orleans, you have to have po’ boys.”
“Well, I don’t know.”
“You have to.”
...
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August 2010
7 posts
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summer nigh-hi-ts
a busy week of:
late night going aways at the Ding Dong lounge with an early-fall wind outside, some beer and a pool table inside, learning new games and people.
an end of season bbq at my friend Joe’s place; he is a wonder, and his life is the very essence of chilled-out creativity— with his wonderfully homey Washington Heights apartment and its rooftop vegetable garden, his...
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reflections; bear with me, for I love you.
Recently days have been cool Fall-is-coming breezes, cold summer ale at a glowing bar with little wooden tables, reading on astrophysics with widened eyes, hugs not drugs, trying hard to smile at everyone and look up and wonder.
It gets harder and harder. There are no funny or fascinating stories. Only snatched remembrances of purple flowers or the blue sky or a moment of smiling-tipsy...
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foodstuffs, or, august is the king of summer
An absolutely perfect plum.
Saltie’s ‘The Famous Bun’: on that sea-salty in-house foccacia were thick slices of crumbly sharp cheddar, crisp lettuce leaves, rich summer tomato and snappy homemade pickles; the latter two leaked their respective juices into a healthy spread of thick mayonnaise, making a sauce awash with deliciousness.
A salad of firm-ripe avocado and richly sweet...
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Against all odds, I am still an optimist.
Because I believe in beauty.
Five-hundred Widowers In a Field of Chamomile, John Surowiecki
The yellow, the pollen, the millions of fallen petals
pull us down to sleep; all our dreams have gravity
like the one in which we are about to drift off
in our beds with the windows closed shut
and our wives reading in cones of yellow light,
their knees up like barricades, their eyes
smiling at a...
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what it's all about
Baked gigante beans packed in a light tomato paste and oil were drained and tossed with red wine vinegar to become two sweet little dishes: one with parsley, baby basil leaves, sea salt, and dried chile, served with a sunshiney fried egg; the other, with ricotta, minced garlic, and olive oil, which was rich and cool and perfect.
Ah, and whole roasted chicken leg with lemon and garlic.
Roasting...
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Me? Unable to wrestle an eggplant? Intimidated by that mysterious nightshade? Poppycock!
Tonight I ate some marinated eggplant that I had left to sit all day amongst absurd amounts of olive oil, chopped parsley & basil, capers, dried chile, pungent garlic, and an inspired addition of lightly crushed cumin seed. It was superb, and I piled it atop baguette with ricotta, and also ate it...
July 2010
11 posts
4 tags
hello
Just some foodstuffs for you today:
Cool bowls of creamy legumes: one of roasted sweet potato and borlotti with olive oil, boiled tomato, dried chile, and marjoram; another with more borlotti (such a brilliant texture!) with sweet, clean fresh mozzarella, slivered basil, garlic, a generous squeeze of lemon.
Richly sweet tomato and roasted pepper salad with basil and marjoram, capers, shaved...
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It seems that I’m not very good at eggplant.
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So, I roasted that tilapia in a shallow bath of white wine and lemon juice; also in the pan were a whole jalapeno, some little potatoes, chunks of sweet onion, a few briny black olives. A largeish cherry tomato, quartered, for good measure. The jalapeno became sweet and subtle and the fish was flaky and mild and the potatoes with the olives! It was great. I ate some salt water taffy and felt...
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Summer is all about realizing why everything should be kept as simple as possible.
There was the magic of homemade mayonnaise. We’ll let that stand alone.
There was a soft challah roll split and filled with fresh ricotta, red onion, and prosciutto.
Also, a crusty little olive roll smeared with unsalted butter and stuffed with some more prosciutto, eaten alongside a bowl of cantaloupe for...
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chickpea salad with wilted red onion and ricotta
Sandwiches with homemade mayonnaise have abounded, lately, such as a shining example on multigrain with turkey, sharp cheddar, honey mustard, baby lettuce, and basil, or an epically delicious one comprised of rare roast beef on ciabatta with arugula, red onion, and dijon. (Is it disturbing to comment, on an item comprised almost entirely of a raw egg, that the mayonnaise has only gotten better...
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summer eats
Lovely, slim green beans in a mustard sauce with chopped basil; a chilled pasta salad of orecchiette with garlic & oil, tender green beans, roasted red pepper, basil and shaved sharp provolone; a tomato sandwich with thick wedges of seasoned tomato, a few damp and sprightly leaves of baby lettuce, and some glorious, pale yellow homemade mayonnaise.
That’s right. And it’s so damn...
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Ah, the New York summer.
You know the idyllic image you have in mind of a sweating, seething Harlem with fire hydrants all a-flowing and kids gleefully playing in the deluge? You know the one. I know its nature— composed of a gracious memory and glorified assumption, small and deep set, it is a little kernel in some summer-nostalgia corner of your brain. Nestled, safe. Warm.
Well, two days...
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Oh, Nico, work that melancholy drawl and talk to me some more about leaving in the fairest of the seasons. Lately, it has been cool and beautiful, and eggplants and bell peppers arrived at the market today, and all I can think about is how much I miss home.
(So enough already with the bombastic declarations. I’m still shopping at the Columbia market, and it’s because I’ve really...
June 2010
9 posts
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Well, Aimee was just in town, (she left this morning; I was half-asleep and crazy-haired) and while it was brief and boiling hot and we were exhausted, we made the most of it. I made, for us:
sloppy sandwiches on baguette filled to the brim with boiled egg, fresh slivered mint and basil, dijon + mayonnaise, Louisiana hot sauce, crushed fennel seed, and vibrantly ripe tomato, with potato chips...
3 tags
hello!
Let’s back track a bit: Summer has arrived at Union Square— blueberries, zucchini, heirloom tomatoes! (But I’m saving all that for next week).
The recent, sunny days have yielded things such as a drippy sandwich on wheat sourdough w/ coppa (‘poor man’s prosciutto’ indeed! So cheap, so melting and smoky!), salted and peppered tomato, basil, some shallot, and...
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you people are lovely.
Whenever I realize that a handful of people actually read my ramblings here, much less finding some small enjoyment in it, I feel really touched. I mean, I talk so much nonsense. I’m constantly having meaningless realizations. Maybe it’s because I’m in my early twenties (tomorrow is my birthday, and I will be twenty-two!). Regardless, that doesn’t mean the universe has to...
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on moderation
“Everything in moderation, including moderation.” — Julia Child
I’ve been a fool.
Today, I was downtown; I stopped by the Strand and ogled, got some coffee, and successfully bought various bits of dairy (mozzarella, creme fraiche, grana padano) and meats (prosciutto), some pretty multicolored lentils, and a Thai chile pepper at the Union Square Whole Foods for just above...
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southern style
At the market this week: peas, herbs, and cucumbers, oh my! I was running late and the harvest staggered me. Utterly overwhelmed, I sheepishly bought asparagus once more and made mental notes for next week.
But I did get some peas! Fresh shelled peas are absurdly sweet and tender, and they stood out like gems in a salad made up of the tiny beauties with a small handful of mesclun, some shaved...
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salads have once again become as dear a standard —at least one, each excellent, a day— as the sun is through the kitchen window. thank goodness for the heat, which has me lying utterly stationary upon my bed in the evening, with the fan turned my way, sprawled and damp and baffled— I don’t care. thank goodness for summer, and those tomatoes, and fresh thyme.
there have...
May 2010
12 posts
2 tags
I caved.
Lately, I have been in a funk. Now, more often than not, being in a mental funk bleeds over into my foodstuffs (a funk is by nature absurdly pervasive); by some cruel trick of the universe —or, perhaps, the simple logic that when something is as important to me as my daily meals a mental funk obviously affects those, too— in more depressed times, any claim I have of kitchen prowess...
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I’ve realized, as of right now, that I must always, always trust my instincts in the kitchen, if not in life itself.
I need to trust in my instincts, and in my abilities; as for the latter, I tend to doubt my abilities more often than not— which only leads to a frazzled, panicked sort of cooking style that is inevitably a self-fulfilling prophecy. So, in short, I served a pretty lame...
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things have been happening.
And I have been attending to them. Joyous occasions and grand achievements and the visits that come along with such things.
Aimee has graduated; just last week, following a picnic lunch of salad, fruit, baguette, and sunny boiled eggs —the season’s first radishes and strawberries present and radiant in their respective pinks—my mom and I helped her pack up her dorm room for the...
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kitchen talk
Well, this looks absolutely gorgeous and right up my alley. (I linked to the Amazon page expressly so interested parties can ‘look inside’ at the vibrant, stunning photography. I mean, seriously). Leave it to Ottolenghi and his passionate, inspired and winsome love affair with vegetables to steal my heart.
So, now we’re on the right track, some kitchen talk.
All of a sudden I...
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I kind of like peeling potatoes. They smell like damp earth.
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some endorsements
I can only assume you care for my opinion, because you visit this space in the first place. So, here are some things I want to give a shout out to, because they give me joy.
These pants fit like a dream and are relentlessly flattering. Classic, classy, that piece of clothing people talk about— the one that makes them ‘feel sexy’. Ridiculous, but it’s true. I love these.
...
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Aimee’s back in the city!
Last night, we saw Picasso at the Met; the exhibit was full of boldness and energy, and afterwards all we were compelled to do was wander —aimlessly and noncommittally— for a bit; we’d seen enough beauty to last the night. And then there were fresh, cool plates of sushi on Amsterdam: meaty & sweet rock shrimp with avocado, fatty tuna with...