Category: culture

Eating up Easter

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Easter 2016 Menu, in no particular order, because that’s how my brain works.

Roasted chickpea and sun dried tomato hummus with naan chips

Antipasti platter with cured meats and triple cream brie

Duck Curry- roast the duck, pull the meat, use the carcass to make stock for the curry.  Red curry with sweet potato or butternut squash

Mushroom and leek risotto with parmesan and sage

Roasted cauliflower with pine nuts

Arugula salad with olives, sun dried tomatoes , basil, balsamic, parmesan

Roasted broccoli with cheddar cheese melted on top

Saluted green beans or bok choy with soy and sesame seeds or almonds

Charred cream of poblano soup with crispy duck skin

House made naan

Steamed white rice

I want to make Chinese style egg noodles with assorted veg: carrots, zucchini, eggplant, topped with bean sprouts.  Use hoisin and sherry, oyster sauce for flavoring.

Lemon poppy seed cake with raspberries, whip cream, candied almonds

Going over board?  Certainly.  Let’s see how many of these things I actually get around to making today.

Peace, Love, and Colored Eggs.

 

 

 

 

Lucky Rabbit

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Today is a day to find adventure, to appreciate the finer things life- meaning great people, sharing ideas, and embracing the who that you are.  Today is a time to be happy with who you are, to focus all your energy into yourself.  Don’t forget to be who you want to be- that is the most important person.

Musical Notes

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Music is important because it is a lens through which people’s lives are focused.  It is a backdrop, an important motif that supports the theme of one’s life.  Think of how important a soundtrack is to the making a movie truly great and memorable.  If your life has a great soundtrack, then it is going to be better.  Or it can be filled with all the potential that luck can muster, but if low quality expression are prevalent that petty over sex, money, gossip, then your life just may have limits.

Push It

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My head is officially feeling extremely full at the moment.  I cannot even think about all the details surrounding the upcoming events, I am banking on blind faith that all the pieces will fall into place.

There is much to be done this week, a lot of work and a lot of fun to be had.  So there is this Easter holiday coming up, which means that in addition to family dinner, there is padded celebration all weekend long because for most people this is a chill time.  The social demands are no joke, following up after a long weekend of excitement, with opportunities to have fun all week long- but alas to these I must decline.  Too many errands before the rapidly approaching weekend.  Saturday’s day long activities have been booked for months, now there is a very fun sounding after party.  Oh great, wh0 needs sleep these days?  Sunday morning will prove to be a challenge because the restaurant decided that it would be great to host brunch.  So early bird in to get everything baked before the brunch cooks arrive, then hustle to get out to start family dinner.

Oh but that is not all- new dessert on the menu so there is added work for that change.   You make the test, then test the tweaks, then make the dish, then you have to make it again because the batch sizes are small due to potential error.  So, currently we are at the stage of making everything again for the 5th time.  But, I think it’s going to be a winner, stayed tuned to Marigold for the detailed post, including photos!

But that also is not all- the new restaurant experiments and menu development is getting rolling.  Plans are being hatched, and I really need to pick up the pace on getting the menu ready, experimented, tested, tweaked, photographed, and blogged.

This long rant is one of happiness and looking forward to a great week fun of food, fun, and family.  It’s my own fault for going overboard, wanting to do everything, being a perfectionist, a lover of the wine and the dance, and I would have my overactive to-do list no other way.

Made Up Adventure

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This was a throw back to college days adventure weekend: full of fun times, booze, great conversation, exciting stories, seeing old friends, making new ones,  finding new bars, trying new foods, sampling new beers, smiling cheek to cheek, renewing vows of love to nice weather, staying up past bed time for just about a week straight, all around pretending to be a teenager again.  Responsibility is for the birds, tonight we have laugh.

Thursday was a handsome date, Friday was a family celebration of the highest accomplishment, Saturday was drinks with friends of friends involving arcade games, Sunday was dinner at the house with new friends, Monday was Peking Duck birthday bash followed up with soft jazz, Tuesday was fancy cocktails for ladies night out…. and tomorrow is a new day.

This great adventure into the perquisite spring adjustment has reminded me of a valued lesson that I have been taking for granted: wearing make-up everyday, even just for the evening portion, is daunting.  I mean I feel great with eyeliner, blush, gold eyeshadow, highlighted eyebrows, red lip stain, bronzer, perfume, curled hair, jewelry… all the accoutrements to the outfit- but I am so glad that I don’t have to do this routine everyday.  There are many jobs and careers where women are expected to do this every day- it’s professional, it’s what you do.  Well, its exhausting.  I love to keep makeup as fun, as an embellishment. I don’t want it to have to be a daily maintenance, a necessity, a part of the uniform, an expected part of my adult demure.

I am tired of make-up, I can’t wait to return to my plain face tomorrow morning, to look in the mirror and see myself as I am unadorned, and wear just my naked face that for the whole day straight.

Coffee Shop Moments

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Every time I tell people that I don’t watch movies, or even television, or that I have never actually owned a telly for that matter, the response is pretty much universally the same question.  What do you do instead? is the follow-up response.  There is usually an underlying shock in the question, like it is almost unbelievable that I don’t sit down and stare at a blinking screen for hours on end.  I get too bored, just sitting there, trying to follow some truly unbelievable story line, or watching excruciatingly uncomfortable situations that are supposed to be funny.

I don’t actually know how to answer that question, what do I do instead?  I don’t have a problem wasting time without this diversion.  There are things to do, things to clean, art that can be drawn, a whole system at your fingertips to answer any question that you might have, endless hobbies to adapt, stories to tell your roommate, cats to be chased around the house.  Most people follow up the question with another question, do you read a lot?  Do I read, well yes some, but not like all the time.  From time to time, like before bed to calm down, but not as much as I would like to- I got a list of things to do, all of varying importance, but still they are on the to do list.  Today at the coffee shop, the other employee answered the question for me very well: living, she lives instead.

The Self Conscious Pee

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Gender defined bathrooms, not only is silly, it is unfair because the women always have to wait like literally a thousand times longer. To add insult to impatience, the children go with the women to stand uncomfortably in the forever line.

Its not just that is in unfair to women waiting in the lines drawn, it is unfair to assume that everyone fits snuggle into these two categories.  How is men’s pee different from Women’s?  Why is it taboo to sit on a pot after a dude just sat on?  There is no difference in excrement, there is no gender defining reason why a toilet has to be different.  A toilet is a toilet and we should leave it at that.

I look forward to a situation where bathrooms are universally labeled as a water closet/ a loo/ a rest room/ a pee palace, where gender becomes less of an issue, where the mirror is outside of the stall so that we can all pee faster and in a non discriminated fashion.

El Che Ingredients

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I got a sneak peak at the menu, and I saw some things that I would like to incorporate into the pastry menu:

Duck eggs- maybe a custard?  What else highlights eggs in dessert other than a custard of sorts?  Noting, the answer is nothing.

Yerba Mate- I want to use this as a sauce, it can add a bitter and fun element, good for the Argentinean theme.

Brioche- do I make this?  Probably time I figure that out. Can I stuff it with cheese, and deep fry it?  Gooey fried dough, with a sharp cheese.  Delicious.

English peas- to go with a strawberry dessert, a freeze dried strawberry pavolva, the peas with a cream, or ricotta.  Ricotta flor di latti?

House ricotta- I want to make cheese and ricotta is great in dessert, just ask the Italians.

 

Elemental Inspirations

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The four elements of western culture are earth, air, fire, water.  The goal is to include these concepts in the dessert menu, to create a memorable experience and one the ties the diner to a deeper meaning than simply consuming food.  Eating, we take for granted, simply because since it is done so often it becomes mundane.  I am not of the opinion that Americans truly value everything that goes into their mouth as building block of who we physically are and who we become.  Dessert is not nutritious by nature, and I am not trying to make “healthy” desserts.  Dessert is a treat, and should be viewed as one- something special, something to make you feel good.  The reasoning behind wanting to incorporate classical earth elements is to subconsciously tie you back to the history of food, to mimic fundamentally how modern cuisine was formed, to tie the present into the constant past.  We are a reflection of our ancestors, we have a lineage drawing back to the basic building blocks of life.

How can I show respect to the four corners of life through a sweet dish?

Sounds like a challenge.

Ongoing Goals

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I want to write a book, which I have like 10 pages done, but you see, I haven’t worked on it since I got a job that I like and since I found a partner to pour energy into.  Now work is only going to get busier, and summer is coming which means that I cannot put off socializing because its too cold to leave the house.  When will I write this book?  So that I can supplement my career with a publication?  No, in case you were wondering, the answer is to not give as much attention to this fictitious book that is actually nonfiction as I give to Marigold- she is not going anywhere, my fictitious self helps me in so many immeasurable ways.