Cooking And Eating....“Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es”

and, dessert!    when in doubt, just use your fingers.......in 1900, Edith Wharton would have had the 'proper silver implement' to transport this roasted cicada over an almond butter and honey-topped Golgappa puri, filled with lemon custard, to one's palate.....

 

Here....without cornbread or sweet pickle relish!  Peas and snaps in a Shitake Mushroom Broth with scallions, 'Reis & Rebecca's Green Tomato chutney', and 'Panorama Orchids' Apple Salsa'...

 

Today is a rare flesh with horseradish sauce and dandelion greens from the yard 'day'....between slices of dense multi-grain, toasted bread......a 'blood sacrifice' to my inner, ancient carnivore genes that have been clawing at my constrained superego that feeds on seeds and berries.....

finishing off a course from today's lunch......vegetable Gyoza steamed, then fried (in walnut/olive oils) dumplings with candied persimmons, white cabbage, sliced red bell peppers, ginger, chilis, garlic, and sweet plum sauce with a touch of green curry and chopped scallions.....

Last night's and Just Now's "hand-held food challenge" a huge, stacked burger, oozing with bacon, ketchup, pickles, onions and lettuce, on a butter-drenched bun ..(a Euro-take on Miss Ann's Ghettoburger); and a crunchy super-thin, rolled tortilla, pan cooked in duck fat and Herbs de Provence, then filled with leftover gnocchi chili, carrot strips sauteed in duck sauce & chutney gravy and my 'special goo' of hoisin and roasted plums......served with no eating implements other than 'hands'.....How would Queen Elizabeth 'deal' with this at a State Dinner in Buckingham Palace? White gloves and tablecloth are de rigueur.....no napkins....no finger-licking! Hint: one may utilize the glass with 'stars'.....Stay tuned for another episode of "Emily Post, Humiliated".... Next week's challenge: eating a pair of popsicles, one in each hand, while on one's back, in the hot sun......upon a white towel.......avo...

yesterday's experimental salmon and okra croquettes.......that were 'almost' fed to the neighbor's dog, since the 'okra' was far too forward in the flavor profile.......However, this morning, after the other ingredients made their move...forward....and the okra regressed a bit......another 'factor'......having been in the cold refrigerator drawer for 12 hours.......set the chemistry to 'correct'.....especially with a tangy, homemade horseradish-forward tartar sauce to dip the crunchy, chill-set fishcakes in.....

I served some cakes with ceramic dolls from my youth as decorations........and was called out as a Racist for what I thought was an innocuously funny  mise en scène!   I still have the old Black Sambo And His Jungle Band recordings on 'Little Yellow Records'.....and the Golden Books of Sambo's Adventures........Is Marilyn Monroe, swimming in 7-minute Icing on 'White' cake also Racist?

Experimental Lunch.....a croissant pastry 'box' filled with crowder and black-eyed peas, okra, onions, scallions, ginger, chilis, orzo, mushrooms, diced dried apricots, green curry, Madras curry, rasam, dried dill pickle, green dragon sauce, olive bruschetta, and sweet red peppers in harissa salsa and 'painted' with hoi sin sauce/walnut oil..... served with a ladle of marinated red peppers, corn salsa, gyoza sauce and hoi sin ....i.e. clean out the fridge......a tasty little loaf...... Served with a bowl of roasted red pepper soup with hot Indonesian curry, powdered onions and garlic paste.......

a late 'lunch' of crispy fried cilantro/basil/redpepper Polenta Cakes....to be 'joined' by a spicy coriander chutney spread......may awaken my brain this afternoon....one of those afternoons that should just have been 'spent' in a hammock...[but for those tiny mosquitoes, on the search for blood......and, we large mammals must 'look like' blood banks to these creatures......perhaps, they will be 'turned away' by the smell of garlic and cilantro........] Maybe, I should have made a necklace of wolfsbane......and swabbed my skin with garlic juice.....Those giant black ants have already carried off the toasted English muffin crumbs, left on a plate, on the ground by the hammock.....as some birds peck their way over the shiny, black 'appetizers'....

 

Quinoa loaf with desiccated okra.....masquerading as a carrot cake, topped with chopped broccoli, served with creamy, spicy lasagna.........