Food city area

Food as Architecture

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPTv1r1jUW6QZk5ngOy7XqbHX1o_KtGY04DqS-D7TxFRVebgwU_c0SNbYmJ3I1_r-GzDULRHAIQMiBZDiCYSGaOpm0Mwsxl1Jh7Gn5xMO3BsKTEuHsqhqCUXqMRkAeMBBJDPba1tYWa1ka/s1600/turkey4890.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5557586930634951538" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPTv1r1jUW6QZk5ngOy7XqbHX1o_KtGY04DqS-D7TxFRVebgwU_c0SNbYmJ3I1_r-GzDULRHAIQMiBZDiCYSGaOpm0Mwsxl1Jh7Gn5xMO3BsKTEuHsqhqCUXqMRkAeMBBJDPba1tYWa1ka/s400/turkey4890.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 388px; height: 400px;" /></a>Traditional English Christmas dinner: roast turkey, apricot-bread stuffing, cranberry jelly, vegetables -- that's how it was offered on the menu at the resort restaurant in St.Lucia where we spent Christmas. The turkey and stuffing were quite delicious; the broccoli and carrot a bit uninteresting; I did enjoy my meal. However, I found myself questioning why such a straightforward tradition needed such an elaborate and not very traditional presentation. The meat was rolled up around the stuffing, the cranberry sauce piled on top. A sprig of rosemary topped the cranberry jelly, its flavor not especially integrated into the food. Architectural presentations have been a restaurant fad for at least 25 years. At first this style characterized a certain type of edgy restaurant -- I recall being impressed by the sheer height of the decorations at the Coyote Cafe in Santa Fe, for example. Soon everyone was doing it. On the food channel, most demos end with the words "let's plate it up [pause for piling and pouring sauce and picking up a fork]. . .MMMM." No aspiring chef on TV or in real life would just place the food in neat, separate servings on a dinner plate, large or small. A large single-person platter is normal. On the platter's center stands a tall structure. The supporting layer is usually whole grain or mashed potatoes. Next probably a small wedge of meat topped or decorated with vegetables. Small green sprigs, halves of tiny cherry tomatoes, or other garnishes are applied selectively. In the 80's the garnish was often raspberries, but this trend has mercifully declined. Beyond the tower and the garnish, the vast remainder of the smooth china surface must be adorned with swirls of sauce. (Other than the Christmas turkey, most of my dinners in St.Lucia did have swirls of sauce.) <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgccMWX52mHnTyCpJCzKFUS6aM_6_IM8pD_i3CtlTmLDH64KuVwPLvVymu3D_6AtJuJDBxXYFs_kRA2vziGhVxF9S5kW9pEWC3Lq55vQQokAmK0e3Z-6ZJG7tvxoth2kydPurplnmhcHY3f/s1600/duck0337.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5557611963068689010" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgccMWX52mHnTyCpJCzKFUS6aM_6_IM8pD_i3CtlTmLDH64KuVwPLvVymu3D_6AtJuJDBxXYFs_kRA2vziGhVxF9S5kW9pEWC3Lq55vQQokAmK0e3Z-6ZJG7tvxoth2kydPurplnmhcHY3f/s200/duck0337.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" /></a>Cooking shows, blogs, dedicated books, and cooking classes show home cooks how to create food presentations on their own chinaware plates (preferably large, white, and square). When I made the Julia Child recipe for duck a l'orange, it occurred to me that this style had not yet been invented when her book was written in the early 60s, and when I served it, I simply placed the foods on a platter for serving. I've never learned the new way, just the old. Silly me! How many people study these blogs and shows and serve their family a little cylindrical tower of food with a sprig of rosemary? Or do they eat even traditional feasts from a plate piled to the rim with all good things? A plate that looks sort of like this version of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, which is about the same as the English Christmas dinner: <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGU2GPM9lcxp7zm3Ky8X8q1BCbb5RpBR9qy6E-KOBPFBAygDQsPbUP1pc4ZF5wbpyv9CuW6x1uDhqfvr4d64miqrY1LKHKRN9u2DH0Acl-2DJlIuJcd_KJGeDr8Z2tlRrPi4LmrUPNiW1P/s1600/turkey2009.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5557605928636385090" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGU2GPM9lcxp7zm3Ky8X8q1BCbb5RpBR9qy6E-KOBPFBAygDQsPbUP1pc4ZF5wbpyv9CuW6x1uDhqfvr4d64miqrY1LKHKRN9u2DH0Acl-2DJlIuJcd_KJGeDr8Z2tlRrPi4LmrUPNiW1P/s400/turkey2009.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 275px;" /></a> I guess the most extreme presentations in this field are dessert. An article in this week's New Yorker describes the extremest cases -- writer Adam Gopnik explored the architectural trend in dessert. <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/01/03/110103fa_fact_gopnik">His description</a>: "three upright cylinders—small towers of something wrapped in something—with the tops sliced at an angle; a crumbly landscape of some kind; and a reflecting pool running around the edge." The food tower fad has been with us a long time. I wonder when it will be superseded by another trend.

Food as Architecture

Traditional English Christmas dinner: roast turkey, apricot-bread stuffing, cranberry jelly, vegetables -- that's how it was offered on...

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05.48

Here's to Julia Child

For New Year's Eve I decided to make a very retro dinner: duck a l'orange from the first volume of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I neglected Julia's suggestion of simple side dishes and made acorn squash with cranberry relish and kasha to go with it. Our friends Elaine and Bob brought appetizers (spreads from Detroit's fantastic Star Deli) and dessert (a rum cake from a bake sale, made by the wife of the Russian Orthodox priest in town). <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5312059041/" title="nyeve0329 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="nyeve0329" height="333" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5285/5312059041_025e643115.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5312648500/" title="nyeve0330 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="nyeve0330" height="334" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5050/5312648500_7d766170fe.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5312058493/" title="nyeve0336 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="nyeve0336" height="500" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5125/5312058493_7d2d4f79f7.jpg" width="333" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5312648288/" title="nyeve0342 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="nyeve0342" height="685" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5243/5312648288_5b760528d5_b.jpg" width="1024" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5312649000/" title="nyeve0347 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="nyeve0347" height="500" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5050/5312649000_edf6c0d97f.jpg" width="433" /></a>

Here's to Julia Child

For New Year's Eve I decided to make a very retro dinner: duck a l'orange from the first volume of Mastering the Art of French Cooki...

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07.56

Commissario Brunetti Eats Lunch

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjroz0-eplZSr4-x3pke7rrc8ZWZwqaJuIhO76ij5PRhaIta6hZzmgXzeXM39tAMEa9dHwSZgA2iffPeiFLMAnRNxbIJEnKHgAyP40dLLHnYP42btsT9BHwN4WOhCYQFz3OUv6guAwDUhU5/s1600/venice4984.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5556843749948775170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjroz0-eplZSr4-x3pke7rrc8ZWZwqaJuIhO76ij5PRhaIta6hZzmgXzeXM39tAMEa9dHwSZgA2iffPeiFLMAnRNxbIJEnKHgAyP40dLLHnYP42btsT9BHwN4WOhCYQFz3OUv6guAwDUhU5/s400/venice4984.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a>Delightful meals eaten during a crime investigation are among my favorite features of detective novels. For Christmas, I received a cookbook based on the novels of Donna Leon and her detective Guido Brunetti of the Venice police. I could make the delicious meals that Brunetti's wife cooks, such as veal liver with polenta (p. 210) -- which sounded so good in Death in a Strange Country. Or see if I could do better than Paola and Guido's daughter Chiara, who struggled to make mushroom-filled ravioli (p. 85) in A Noble Radiance. I wasn't familiar with this series, so I purchased and read several of Leon's novels on my Kindle. Learning about the detective's favorite food before I read about the detective is really a total reversal! I'm so grateful to my friend Sheila who thought of this gift. Now I have both a Venetian cookbook and a new detective series to love. Brunetti's wife Paola makes food to rival the French home cooking of Madame Maigret, Simenon's detective. I think her cooking sounds better than the food made by Nero Wolfe and his chef. Brunetti's lunches and snacks in typical little Venetian lunch-counters and bars are different -- but make me recall the local color in Whataburger, where Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn eat in the novels of Tony Hillerman. Leon's novels are a bit mannered but nowhere near the exaggerated style of Robert Parker, whose detectives' food habits come close to parody. Food in detective fiction -- a glorious tradition!

Commissario Brunetti Eats Lunch

Delightful meals eaten during a crime investigation are among my favorite features of detective novels. For Christmas, I received a cookbook...

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05.51

Happy New Year

Happy New Year

We're back in Ann Arbor, where little birds do not share our breakfast. And we are planning a nice New Year's Eve dinner with a retr...

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12.54

Soufriere Market

The market in Soufriere, the town closest to us (population around 11,000) offers local produce from very small farmers -- mainly people who grow a few vegetables in their back yards. Farmers with more land sell at the larger markets in other towns. Some of the market sellers have just a small piece of cloth with a pile of yams or green onions; others have tables with umbrellas; I did not see any stalls as large as those at the market at home. The most crowded time was early in the morning, we were told, but there were still many sellers and buyers when we arrived at around 8 AM yesterday morning. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5290292814/" title="market4868 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="market4868" height="375" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5169/5290292814_4d9bea1c33.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5290293312/" title="market4874 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="market4874" height="375" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5206/5290293312_715e230101.jpg" width="500" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5289689693/" title="market4880 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="market4880" height="359" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5049/5289689693_9df562751b.jpg" width="500" /></a> A few people were bringing animals to be cut up by a butcher with a machete. The crowds were especially dense around this area, buying goat meat, pork, and fish. Normally the market is on Saturday, but today is Christmas so the market was yesterday instead; we think that meat was especially popular for the holiday. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5290293672/" title="market4877 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="market4877" height="500" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5288/5290293672_78f6e6fae9.jpg" width="346" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5290293870/" title="market4879 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="market4879" height="375" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5245/5290293870_e677a88ab9.jpg" width="500" /></a> While we were walking around the market with Bonny, our cab driver, there was a heavy rain shower that made everyone gather under the one or two large open-air shelters; when the rain slowed down, they all went into the open air again. The market is right by the sea, and of course one can see the tall volcanic piton, St. Lucia's most distinctive landmark, beyond the bay from there.