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

 

After WW1, with millions 'dead or wounded'.....Edith Wharton wrote The Age Of Innocence and Emily Post wrote Etiquette......Watching a few minutes of RBG's 'Formal Funeral'......as pompous as it 'seemed'......I thought of how Diplomacy and Etiquette serve to 'tame' Human's more bestially instinctive combative behavior.... But, where does one 'begin' when the scenario is both highly complex AND was never designed for the common man, to begin with? In this 'picture' of a 'place setting'......are the instruments for courses of hors d'oeuvres, toast points and cream soup?.....and the prerequisite hygienic tools,,,,linen 'lap' napkins, finger bowls and gauze-covered lemon slices? Yet, when animals are aroused, its a combat zone......daggers, unsheathed.....dogs, snarling over 'floor' scraps......ants and rodents, making 'off' to their lairs in the walls....

  After  all of last week's raw calves' heart, sheep's pancreas', and liver pate'......it's time for a 'clean out'..... grated, aged hard blue cheese, atop raw cabbages in a jalapeno/avocado/horseradish mayonnaise; carrots; spicy, dessicated corn; green 'yard' onions; toasted pine nuts and sunflower kernels; and sliced tomatoes, marinated in dill and Prelibato white balsamic vinegar........ staying on course....a plan for tommorow: steamed rice with sliced spicy vegan 'sausage', thin-sliced brussels sprouts, snow peas, carrots, bok choy, pine nuts, toasted sunflower kernels, sliced candied ginger, coconut flakes and roquefort cheese... wok-sauteed with sriracha hot chilis, broccoli florets, sake, garlic, tumeric, coarse ground peppers and Indian super-spicy-hot Kara Boondi, gram dhal, pulverized curry leaves and Poha.........a little of this goes a long way, as it is hot as blazes! served with lots of iced sassafras and ginger r...

  300 calorie lunch: tuna strips in dark, toasted sesame oil, laid across some small spinach leaves, drizzled with raspberry dressing and shredded, stinky-ripe, Roquefort Cheese...and a 'side' of honey-roasted pecans, almonds and cashews....   Add another 179 calories.....for some roasted nuts....... bringing the caloric upload up to 1/4th that of a Burger King's "Bacon King", which 'weighs in' at 2100-2500 calories of salty, greasy 'heart attack waiting to happen-ness', even without its  obligatory 400-600 calorie side of fries and ketchup/mustard...... or a 'souvenir' 5cal/gm frozen BK fried pie, dug up from the bottom of a 'deep freezer'......revitalized in a pan of molten butter...... it seems peculiar that when mold grows on cheddar cheese, it is...usually....tossed to the trash.....yet.....food connoisseurs will shell out big bucks for 'moldy Roquefort and several other cheeses, riddled with blue veins of fungal secondary ...

  I reached into a top hat, containing photos of previous stovetop experiments........drew out the bok choy......hmmm......made some buckwheat griddle cakes with black strap molasses, instead.....moral of this?: you don't have to settle for the past, when you can create the present......the yard squirrels seemed to be in agreement with 'this', as they dropped those bitter acorns and gathered up some delicious pistachios that I tossed into the yard.....then, returned to 'hustle' some black walnuts that I was not as generous with........leaving, with their cheeks filled with sunflower seeds that were a bit rancid for my palate......no takers for the blackstrap......and it's long-lasting aftertastes... ..

                                                                                                                         and a   dessert......to match  

I went to a Chinese Restaurant in an ethnic Atlanta neighborhood.  One restaurant was named "Mai Dung": it served fried bird's vomit, pickled pig's stomach, crunchy fried yak's penis, tandoori duck's brain and braised sliced ox testicles.......This was a challenge, even to me, who claims to have no aversions to strange foodstuffs. Bird's Nest soups are a bit of a turn off, considering that one is eating a brew of bird's droppings; nevertheless, I'm game for a taste, of course......My "problem" areas are RUBBERY, GELATINOUSLY CARTILAGINOUS, BITTER-HOT and CUSHY, as in "lung".....although I love sheep's pancreas with truffles and thrice-boiled foul gizzards in red wine sauce.....And to think....there are those who "don't eat seafood" or "vegetables" much less pig's brains and eggs on toast points with sausage gravy......

 

 

 

Fresh harvested green beans,  carrots,  potatoes, tomatoes and garlic,   sprinkled with chopped herbs, scallions, dill weed,  and grated aged Parmesan cheese.... some chilli paste, dried coriander and parsley and  some leftover  cocktail sauce with horseradish....Leftovers will go into a Stew, later with the addition of some  other refrigerator   'leftovers'......beets, chopped bell peppers and chiles rellenos poblanos.    

'Butterflies' were the first on the afternoon charcuterie board....Now, to make some savory flowers for them to flit around....and a few crawing insects from capers, radishes, yard weeds, fruit-flavored cough drops, licorice sticks, pickles, chocolate-covered roasted coffee beans, pimento slices and vegetable & fruit 'peelings'.......

  My cooking is always improvisational.....seldom utilizing strict 'recipes'; nevertheless, as far as I remember, this is the rough plan: dip chicken tenderloins in egg yolk, then corn starch that has been combined with rosemary, chervil,  thyme, garlic, tumeric (and whatever other flavors float your boat); as the chicken begins to crust, add pine nuts/or what 'seeds' you have in the kitchen; then add a few spoonfuls of mango chutney/ apricot preserves/ tangerine or orange preserves, raisins, dried apricots, fresh mango pulp/bits and thinly-sliced dates and/or figs, hot/sweet chili oil and Thai green curry....a dollop of artichoke antipasto and some toasted, sliced almonds......after cooking, set aside to "rest"......Then saute some green beans in sesame oil, 'cut' with olive oil, sprinkling toasted sesame seeds on the beans.....combine the beans and chicken.....I prefer this 'dish' at either room temperature or slightly chilled, as this produc...

  potato pancakes with leeks and tomato ketchup!.....'pan' cake blackberry/walnut and chocolate nibs rollup with peach jam, and an old-fashioned ugly tomato/bacon/lettuce and horseradish mayo sandwich....... quicker and easier than a trip 'out' to a restaurant!

  on an old new plate on a new old plate, noontime fare......a vegan-ish crimini mushroom patty with spinach, chopped cilantro, and mozzarella cheese, brushed on one side with crushed over-ripe figs...and the 'other' side, with mango, blueberry/raspberry/pineapple hot Thai pepper salsa, on a crunchy whole wheat toasted muffin.....with some 'garden greens' and bitter dandelion leaves from my back yard......a really late b'fast, actually....with a cup of Laotian coffee, surmounted by heavy cream, sweetened by just a touch of Sand Mountain sorghum, 'cut' from a thick 'cud' that a childhood friend sent from Scottsboro, Alabama......I missed 'sitting on the back stoop having lunch with Ryan L. today!

 

  what a mess!.....'For the hell of it Project'.....making a dozen Thai pan-fried gyoza dumplings....each filled with a totally different 'taste sensation'....the 'sardine-filled' dumpling with apricot-oyster dipping sauce is NOT on my 'repeat' list! An opportunity to utilize that 7" wooden rolling pin that I found behind the stove, earlier this morning.....and the rosewood 'dowel' that was languishing in the Tibetan singing bowl.....Now for a more familiar Southern celery stalk, filled with pimento and cheese!

heavily herbed chicken cooked in ghee, then crusted with picante-asiago cheese and topped with super-spicy piquillo pepper and quinoa and red pepper sauce over mixed field greens with walnut oil, Rochefort cheese, sunflower seeds, walnuts and prelibato white balsamic vinegar......just what I wanted....exactly! The pan-fried oatmeal, ginger cookies were not so successful, and are being re-processed into something sweet, but still undetermined......

  leftover spicy curried chicken thigh slices in well-drained home made tomato linguine, tossed in cold pad Thai sauce with shredded asiago cheese, which quickly melted. I raced to have this on a plate before the "Chopped" contestants finished their red caviar, cotton candy and chicken gizzard challenge.........the asiago with Pad wasn't as challenging as the pink cotton candy and gizzards, however....but a tasty reward for 8 minutes of kitchen time......