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

  NEVERTHELESS, A FEW GRAINS OF SEA SALT BROUGHT OUT ENOUGH MOISTURE TO PRODUCE ADEQUATE FLAVOR AND TEXTURE TO THE LOVE APPLES, DESTINED TO BE SLICED AND PLACED ATOP SOME TUNA SALAD......THEN ENVELOPED IN A TOASTED CROISSANT, SMEARED WITH LEMONY MAYONNAISE.....

A 4 am featureless 'gourmet's hunger attack' seldom leads to beautiful, table-ready cuisine........Here.... an odd, clumsy concoction of pastry, curried vegetables in a creamy asiago cheese sauce with coriander and mango/pear chutneys, pickled beets, walnut powder and the last of the fig preserves and shavings of Membrillo Casero Quince Paste.....To ensure the creation of creative pre-dawn dream sequencing....which, not having been notated, is already forgotten......

out shopping for condiments with a friend earlier today......I bought a '5-bottle pack' of hot 'sauces'.....one was 'Scotch Bonnet Pepper Sauce'.... So, motivated after a conversation with two acquaintances from Haiti....also 'hottie' lovers....I rushed home, cooked some crispy chicken thighs, tossed them with the 'bonnet' sauce, some tangy/sweet Mandarin orange preserves, wild and brown rices, walnuts and shredded coconut.....adding a bit of Green Dragon Sauce to 'make certain' my concoction's Hotness.......Whoa! Tongue-throbbingly assertive...... but Perfect!

this 12 year old post, from a Gather 'food' article that I wrote...for an online NPR Blog....{now, dead in the water, after being de-funded by President Philistine, during his first dictatorial Reign} alerted my brain to insist that I devour the last of the chocolate 'bark' that I made a few days ago....thinking, then, that it would last a week, as it was transformed into various visual projects; however, my favorite 'chocolate blade' has emptied the slab, as I lick the tiny remnants, leaving only regrets that I didn't produce another kilo of satisfaction.........the leftover cauliflower did not fare as well........who would awaken in the middle of the night to eat cauliflower? Maybe, Adele Davis would have...                                                                              ...

  atop a slaw of crinkle-cut radishes, shredded red and green cabbages, toasted dill pickle brioche croutons and red leaf lettuce, drizzled with dill pickle ranch dressing...rests some cold jumbo cooked shrimp, bathed in a bloody mix of horseradish & beet relish and tomato ketchup.......

As I watched Alton Brown....roasting beef bones, then digging out the tasty bone marrow.....spreading it on toast....I began to salivate like a hungry canine.......Having no bones in the fridge, yet....still 'wanting'.....I toasted a slice of sourdough bread, pan-fried it in ghee......and dumped the very last shreds of spicy Indonesian shredded beef and some roasted broccolini onto the fat-soaked caramelized toast, after spreading it with some finely chopped basil, parsley and garlic, marinated in olive oil...... Close Enough, Alton~ Oddly....I've never been fond of bread re-cooked in butter or margarine.....unless a layer of molten hard cheese is atop it.....So, a grilled cheese sandwich would have been my desperation ploy, likely..... .

ARE MANUFACTURED AND DISTRIBUTED WITH VERY LITTLE CONCERN FOR THEIR CONSUMERS  

  The preparation of both the Shark and Pig/or Boar both begin with decapitation, gutting and age-drying, which 'cures' the animals flesh and concentrates that 'bull's penis' texture and lingering 'back of the throat' ammonia taste, mingled with the flavor of rotting Roquefort cheese and a urine-soaked mattresses, retrieved from an under-the-bridge hobo encampment... Rusty spoons and forks, available...just choose 'a clean one'  from the old Spam can, down by the trash burner. Wash these concoctions down with your choice of these delicious snake whiskeys!  

So I think we should be aware of what is in what we choose to consume...... My issue: “Fish are often raised in ponds where they feed on waste from poultry and livestock” And there has been a high rate of FDA  rejection of fish imports from China, where many of these small cichlids are farmed..... they may have been fed the feces of pigs, fowl and other livestock, which may have been contaminated with microbes like salmonella........Itaque: know what you're putting in your body.....where it comes from and what it ate before it's slaughter.....to feed US!.......oh, well.....people are aways saying "Eat Shit!", anyway.....aren't they?  I've been boycotting flash-frozen talapia fillets for a long time, but relented today.......and rolled some in coarse white corn grits, 'herbes 'd Provence' dissicated parmesan cheese and the last of some 'shaker' Creole seasoning mix.....pan fried the little filets in a mixture of butter and olive olive...as h...

      The 1895receipt for the French sculpted mother of pearl handled fork..one of a set of 18, orignally.......purchased by       extravagant Frederick Alvah Miller.....father of Novelist, Agatha Christie..

spicy, herbed chicken with yam/walnut, yellow squash, long green beans and roasted potatoes fried polenta with sun-dried tomatoes and sliced garden tomatoes with pungent coriander/ginger/green chili sauce.......wild greens salad with tabouli, black-eyed peas, shallots, wild onion greens, red peppers and pickled cabbage..

with a single slice....halfed... of smoked bacon, tumeric, cheddar cheese and chopped scallions on a toasted croissant, smeared with cinnamon/apple butter.........an evolved take on my favorite b'fast, since boyhood.....although I'd never heard of tumeric, in my youth, of course.....and utilized red powdered paprika, then.....and baking powder buttermilk biscuits...not having even seen or  heard of 'croissants'...... Or.......some sauteed spinach.....presumably, for those mornings when one feels that ' Iron Tired Blood' and there's no Geritol in the medicine cabinet.....          and....for the 'bacon guilty':      

some fleshy tenderloins on the 'make'....cooked in cognac, lots of garlic and rehydrated (in worcestershire sauce).......after some advice from an amateur nutritionist/meat lover, that I should 'eat more flesh'.....ok.....ok.....the pan 'leavings' and mushrooms will be dumped into a blender and reduced to a piquant, peppery gravy...and served with palak gravy of green chilis, cashew butter, ginger and aniseeds......with a bit of toasted sesame oil.....                                        spinach and wine reduction, in progress.....and fait accompli..... the leftover filet and the last of the spinach got rolled into a pan-toasted flour, avocado oil-brushed, burrito with some Indonesian condiments.....I imagined what Mexican food would be like if the Siamese or Thai had 'explored' the area...instead of  the Spanish........or, if the French had won The Pastry Wars, later......they ...

There was, simply, no way to handle this afternoon's tea time chocolate chip cupcake, cut into slices, spread with jam and bananas, then reassembled and doused with apple butter...without producing a big mess on a plate, fingers , tabletop or lap......So,,,a glass bowl to the rescue....and an antique dessert spoon, thereby saving Lord Darlington's starched plackard shirt bib from what would have been an existentially embarassing dining room peril of clumbsy inappropriation.....You can relax, now, Lord Augustus, the potentially humiliating, egregious breach of etiquette has been thwarted....and, you may discretely lick the antique 'lap of Venus' spoon's bowl , while the rest of us pretend 'not to notice'....That IS the dog's job, you know!