Happy Labor Day
To celebrate the official end of summer, here’s a recipe for a Technicolor Labor Day: combine a pink dress, light clapping down a short flight of steps, William Holden, and lots of moonglow. Stir until smooth and easy. Serve.
Posts from the ‘Videos’ Category
Sep 6
Jun 20
Father’s Day
Whether he’s cooking for you or you’re cooking for him, happy father’s day to everyone spending the day in the kitchen! Read more
Jun 2
Hungry on the Cooking Channel
I first read that the Food Network would be launching a second cable channel on Memorial Day in February, when summer seemed a long time away. A few weeks later, a friend recommended me to a production company that was looking for food people to talk on camera about their interest, love, passion for food to promote the new channel. After years in film production, I’d been content to stay behind the camera. If they’d asked me to “audition”, I may have backed down, but they called it a “screen test” instead. Actors “audition” but at a “screen test” you can just be yourself (or Lana Turner). That’s a how I find myself, a week later, getting wired for sound in a New Jersey produce market (very unlike Lana). Read more
Spring Break and Catching Up in April
With the days a blur of pollen and rain showers and my 200th post coming up, I thought it would be a good time to take a break, update my site and catch-up on my reading. ABC New recently posted a list of recent cookbooks on Latin cuisine and I can’t decide if I want to start with Nirmala’s Edible Diary by Nirmala Narine, Jose Pizarro’s Seasonal Spanish Food – a finalist for this year’s Julia Child IACP award for a first book, or Daisy Martinez’s latest – Daisy: Morning, Noon and Night (click here for her interview with A Chica Bakes). I’ll probably go with The Brazilian Kitchen by Leticia Moreinos Schwartz because it’s because it’s been leading my wish list since I tried her recipe for coconut brigadeiros last month. There have also been some interesting one ingredient articles. Now that the weather is fit for wandering, I plan on seeking out new markets and sources to include here. Apart from last week’s look at cilantro, which always elicits strong opinions, John Willoughby’s Pimentón: It’s Spanish for ‘Better Than Paprika’ had me triple checking the denominations of my paprika, and I’m still not sure what the Indian spice asafetida does but can’t wait to find out. That’s my spring break plan – cooking, reading, and shopping. I’ll be back next week, still hungry and with a lot to talk about, unless I decide to ditch it all for sunbathing, flirting with Ivy Leaguers, and bebop. Stay tuned.
Effortless Easter
I had wanted to post an Easter dessert recipe but my over ambitious project for a torticas de mil hojas had to be done over, scaled down, and is now just barely finished (and just barely holding together). I didn’t want to let the day go by without wishing everyone a Happy Easter and including a clip from one of my favorite movies. Fred Astaire made everything looks as easy as taking candy from a baby, or in this case, a bunny from a boy.
Holiday Break
I’ll be taking a few days off to update my site, do some research, catch-up. I wish I were taking a few days off to get a haircut, ride a Vespa with Gregory Peck, eat gelato, and smash a prop guitar in a barge brawl. So while I’m away, I thought I’d leave you with these images. Arrivaderci!
Vicarious Eating
A few weeks, I listened to the Times Talks podcast from November 2008 where Eric Asimov from of the New York Times moderated a fascinating discussion between Anthony Bourdain and El Bulli’s Ferran Adrià. While Adrià’s passion and intellect were in full display, the slide show that accompanied his evocative words was not. While we’re used to watching people talk about and enjoy food we’re not eating, listening on my iPhone to an audience ooh and ahh over the photographs being projected that I also wasn’t seeing, was just sad. Normally, I could let my imagination run wild, but I don’t think my imagination would be a match in this case. That’s one reason I loved this post by the Amateur Gourmet, Adam Roberts, about his visit to El Bulli this month. It’s exactly how I may have imagined my own meal there but in comic book format with video clips. By far, my favorite vicarious meal this summer.
Color Break
With the constant threat of rain, I did my usual food shopping this weekend under a white sky. Along with the usual Mccann’s oatmeal, baby spinach, and salmon, I’m constantly running out for more peppers, plantains, and vino seco since starting this blog, loving the colors they add. Walking through the gray today on a search for coconuts (more on that later), I couldn’t help but feel happy despite the rain. I’d wanted to post this version of Aquarela do Brasil for a few weeks and today seemed like the perfect day, even more so when I read the composer, Ary Barroso, wrote it during a thunderstorm.
Argentinian Spotlight
It seems I’m not the only one pre-occupied with Argentina these days…by far. After posting about my weekend stab at matambra, I saw this New York Times article, “Buenos Aires Spotlights Its Cafes” in yesterday’s travel section. A brief sampling, it highlights interesting cafes throughout the city from the famous ones like Las Violetas to a small bistro operating out of a building where they’d made coffins named Café Nostalgia. Here’s a clip of Carlos Gardel to test the saying that he “every day sings a little better”:
hungry sofia 