Food – Page 2 – The Hungry Philosopher

I had soft fluffy chicken meatballs in classic marinara over creamy polenta. Hearty and refreshing at the same time. The vegetable meatball slider had an earthy mushroom flavor. Small place, great service. The homemade ice cream sandwich was well worth it. The mint ice cream center tasted of actual mint…not artificial mint flavor. Giving the ice cream sandwich, like the meatballs surprising lightness. Love NYC contradictions on a plate.

I CE NY Ice cream Speaking of ice cream. Here is a different perspective in the smashed and rolled ice cream. The frozen treat is created before your eyes on a cold metal plate through a process of folding, smashing, folding again. Human labor powered ice cream churning. I had the Thai iced-tea flavored ice cream with Lychees and condensed milk. It was the unique performance that was worth paying for. Crowded tiny store, like so many NYC establishments.

Prune

Like so many others, it was Chef Gabrielle Hamilton’s words in Blood, Bones and Butter, that drew me to her restaurant. I was not disappointed. Her food was just as elegant, clear and raw, as her writing. We had her classic eggs benedict, oyster omelet, and an unusual breaded, soft poached egg over a light chickpea curry. I want to try and taste her perspective in all her menu items. I bet even the toast will be fantastically precise. Tiny elegant yet unpretentious dining room, almost hidden residential neighborhood. Again, NYC contradictions of elegance and intense personality. The outdoor light fixtures say it all..literary, nostalgia, simplicity, clear and feminine. The potato rosti speaks the same language of crunch and softness, buttery richness and technical lightness in the shredded potatoes. Perfection.

A good place to walk off a good brunch is the High Line.

Chelsea Market: Tukomi Taco

Tuna tartare over nacho chips, no cheese, refreshing, crunchy, smooth, spicy…who knew! Apparently, Tukomi Taco did. Ironically, I didn’t enjoy the namesake, taco as much as the nachos.

La Contenta

One of the most beautiful and memorable meals this trip was brunch at La Contenta. Notice the care in the ice-coffee alone. Three beans perched on a layer of frothy milk over coffee. The chicken enchiladas, guacamole, shrimp and spinach and fish tacos all showed the same care in preparation. This was not heavy cheesy Mexican fare. Here again, NYC strong flavors meet elegant approach in a tiny unassuming space. No grandeur, all skill.

The Metropolitan Musem of Art is another good place to walk off a uniquely delicious brunch. I like to think that my yoga efforts help me convert from this………….

To this…………….

In NYC we embrace that we are always both, struggling and serene. The food shows that duality of effort and skill, beautifully plated and served to a crazy diverse crowd.

Wishing you all serenity and deliciousness,

hungryphil

Cuban Coffee Chronicles – Final Day 9

July 1, 2016June 27, 20162 Comments

Our last day in Cuba ended with a visit to Fusterlandia before we headed to the airport. A crazy Picasso meets Gaudi situation where the artist converted his home and many others in the community into glistening, colorful, funny, joyous celebrations of art, community and Cuba. A very befitting way to end our trip.

What a trip from Santi Spiritus to Habana! In between, I discovered the creativity and resourcefulness of the Cuban people. I was impressed by the role of music, dance and art, by the ration cards that held information about each citizen’s medical needs, by availability and respect for education, by their efforts towards sustainable development, by their surprisingly entrepreneurial spirit, by their awareness of the dangers and benefits of tourism, by their efforts to be energy efficient and ecologically sensitive, by the general safety and scarcity of crime and gun violence, by the active and respected role of women, by their racial diversity and much more. Yes, often the ideology does not translate into reality. However, the effort seemed genuine and hopeful. On the other end of the spectrum, no fishing boats are allowed for fear of citizens escaping to Miami. They import fish while they have fish available off the coast. There is certainly a level of control and suspicion that we as foreigners were not privy to. The dual currency system of CUCs and pesos frustrates everyone to no end. The infrastructure is lacking, as in the case of highways or crumbling, as in the case of old Havana. There is so much in need of repair. Housing and food seemed to be the biggest concerns for Cubans. Given Cuba’s slave trade past, elimination of native population, harsh and exploitive sugar plantations (like many countries) it offers a humble history lesson about working for one’s self and the sanctity of labor.

Personally, I will carry two lessons learned in Cuba onward.

For us, what we own, in particular, home ownership, to a large extent defines us. Cubans seem to define themselves by what they do, instead of what they own (most of what they ‘own’ comes unofficially from family living abroad or the black market..flat screen TVs seem to be the highly prized). This was a worthy reminder for me. What would I do if I couldn’t define myself by what I “own”?
Each home was an independent business in all the towns we visited, whether as a casa particulaire (bread and breakfast), paladar (restaurant) or craft studio. The living rooms of most houses visible from the street were devoted to selling something they made. Despite limitations, there is always something one can offer, even if that is five mangoes and two bananas on a table. What can I do with whatever skills and abilities I do have?

I was humbled by my Cuba experience and thankful for all the gifts I enjoy. The struggle towards a world without starvation, homelessness, violence, ignorance and sickness are fundamental human material needs (and not mere ideology) practiced there. How we get there is worth ongoing discussion. Cuba is an important voice in that discussion. Viva Cuba!

Cuban Coffee Chronicles – Day 7

June 27, 2016June 27, 2016Leave a comment

Las Terrazas a reclaimed coffee plantation is a self-sustaining community project, a designated UNESCO biosphere reserve since 1984. Bird watching, hiking, horseback riding are among the offering. A community of over 1000 inhabitants and the area has schools, a daycare, a small clinic, library, ration store and a coffee shop. Maria, pictured below was the first to run the coffee shop. The chilled coffee was perfect on a hot day.

One of the residents of the Las Terazzas is artist Lester Campa. We visited his inspiring studio overlooking a lake. His fluid surrealist work combines Cuban landscape with cultural references. He uses reclaimed wood, craft paper, water colors and acrylic.

Lunch at Las Terrazas included some of the best chicken I had in Cuba and chickens roaming around at our feet. Felt wrong. Assuredly the chicken was fresh. Poor chickens.

Next, more dancing at a music school….

We visited an after school guitar and music center where the teachers are volunteers and children shared a few Cuban and Latin rhythms. Very talented.

We were lucky to get a reservation at La Guarida, a paladar that numerous celebrities visited, including the talk-show host Conan O’Brian (we found his picture on the wall). We got there early (riding our 1966 Chevy) to enjoy the view from the rooftop bar. The dinner was elegant and delicious. I had a lamb dish that had been slow cooked for over 12 hours. It was so soft. I also had a delicious coconut milk poured over cake and lime ice cream. Summery combination.

Our evening ended back with our travel friends at Old Havana listening to the music of the Buena Vista Social Club. Intimate atmosphere, amazing music, talented dancers and just such a sophisticated and soulful pleasure.

Cuban Coffee Chronicles – Day 6

June 24, 2016June 24, 2016Leave a comment

After a very brief afternoon of rest at the Varadero resort, day 6 we had a full agenda. Our day began visiting a community art center in Matanzas where African roots of Cuban culture are nurtured. Again we see how art serves to sustain and build a shared history. The installation of heads below was my favorite piece.

Lunch was one of my favorites at Ajiaco, named after a traditional delicious soup. The stew of corn, beans and vegetables, was served in a clay pot, bubbling hot and flavorful. The coffee was prepared the old way, simply strained through a long fabric filter. At the end of lunch, we were introduced to everyone who helped make the meal: the head chef, the baker, the waitstaff and the coffee maker. I really like being able to put faces on the effort we were tasting.

After lunch, we arrived at Cojimar and Finca Vigia, Hemingway’s home. Not surprisingly there were books everywhere. Loved his secluded writing tower. His dining room decorated with his game hunting trophies not my favorite.

As we returned to the bus ready to head to our last stop of the day at Christopher Columbus Cemetery in Havana, we realized that we left our backpack WITH our passports at the paladar where we had lunch. So, instead of the cemetery, we head back to our lunch place with the help of super guide Tracy in an un-airconditioned old Russian car that had exposed wiring throughout and wooden door parts that wouldn’t open on one side. The car had personality and years. Recovering the backpack felt like an adventure. Once there, the staff there had taken good care of it. Nothing was lost or stolen. We were so grateful. I can’t say with confidence that we would’ve gotten the backpack back either in the U.S. or in Bangladesh. That was raw people to people contact.

We met back up with our group at the Melia Cohiba Hotel in Havana. Wow. Havana really felt like a giant city after our days in small town and mid-town Cuba. There were “new” 1990s portions, old and restored portions and old and crumbling portions. There was also more affluent suburbs with big houses reserved for foreigners and embassy employees, as well as Soviet-style housing areas. Everywhere there is evidence of the Soviet influence and pull-out. Most dangerously in the “three-laned” highways, where they abruptly stopped construction having built one side of a six lane highway. Cuba was courted and abandoned multiple times. No wonder there is distrust and also a deep effort to build national self-pride.

My most favorite meal in Cuba was at a paladar named: Atelier, near our hotel. I had the national dish of ropa vieja, a shredded beef dish. It was delicious. The atmosphere was dark wood and fine art elegant. Each table had different cutlery and dinnerware as if a different family heirloom was used for each table. There was live house music. Just a magical dining experience. I loved it so much that I asked to meet the chef, chef Michel. So good..food pictures would not do justice….wistful sigh.

The after dinner coffee in cat cups was perfect!

The famed Tropicana cabaret show where dancers wear lit chandeliers, palm trees and more as their head pieces. It was flashy, touristy and quite a spectacle worth seeing. Only once for me. The show with all its glitz and glamor was very different than the humble and uncontrived Cuba we had been touring during the week. Day 6 ended with us escaping the dance party after midnight hoping to find our cab drivers waiting for us. Gratefully they were. Another wonderful day.

Cuban Coffee Chronicles – Day 5

June 22, 2016June 22, 2016Leave a comment

Day five was a day celebrating Cuba’s dance, fashion, and natural beauty. We began our day in the morning visiting the Danzan’s club composed of retired men and women who protect and perform the traditional dance of Danzan involving quite a developed language using hand fans. They were such a fun bunch of people and such elegant dancers! Jim made quite a few friends.

Next, we visited the studio of fashion designer and textile artist Mariella Aleman Orozco. The colorful rooftop runway fashion show is something I’ll never forget. Mariella demonstrated composing one of her current art piece inspired by Frida Kahlo by first placing beads, leaves, and other things. Then she squeezed bottles of vivid and bright natural dyes to create unique patterns of colors and forms. She graciously signed every item we bought at that rooftop. We also visited her husband’s wood-working shop (he built all the machines himself) where he crafts humidors. Her son is a photographer and her daughter is a painter attending art school now. What an inspiring family!

After returning to our resort hotel that seemed so far from the Cuba we were visiting, we had a delicious lunch of fish and fries by the sea. We also had coffee, of course.

We completed our day with some people watching on the beautiful beach and by walking up to Xanadu Mansion that used to be owned by the Duponts. What an amazing architectural monument celebrating local craftsmanship, materials and design. The bar on the top floor has the best views of the turquoise open water.

We had a wonderful dinner with our travel friends at one of the hotel’s many restaurants to end day 5.

Cuban Coffee Chronicles – Day 4

June 21, 2016June 20, 2016Leave a comment

Day 4: We visited Santa Clara Ballet and Dance School and were treated to a dance performance. The kids performing were about 12 and in their second year in residence. When asked what they liked most about being in the school, one answered….dancing. When asked what they liked least, another answered….homework. Universal answers. I have come to realize that I was wrong to try to brush up on my Spanish as preparation for this trip. What I really needed to do is take dance lessons. So much non-verbal communication happens there through dance. My daughters dance here in the U.S and I am humbled by the Cuban love of dance without fancy pointe shoes, mirrored dance studios, and sleek outfits. These kids spend their mornings dancing, have lunch and then attend regular school classes that end at 5 pm (followed by homework). I learned a lot about how much one can do with passion, with so little. Kids smiling and dancing, yes, that certainly was one of my many favorite moments in Cuba.

Next, we had the pleasure of visiting, La Coincedencia Fruit Farm and Ceramic Art where mangoes and ceramic hearts hang from trees. What a magical place! What creativity, passion, and generosity of the owners( who rent the land from the government as long as the farm is productive). They shared the sweet tropical “fruits” of their labor. We also enjoyed visiting the ceramics workshop.

For our final activity of the day, we went to the Che Guevara museum and mausoleum. This was the only place where we felt the presence of the government in the form of guards. It is always fascinating to see how a people imagine their histories and identities through their heroes. The Cuban people have certainly embraced Che as their own.

We concluded our busy day arriving at Varadero, a beach resort popular among Europeans and Cubans. This mid-week shift in rhythm was welcomed. We had dinner at the Melia hotel buffet. Overwhelming and my least favorite of all our meals. Although a beach resort, we had much to learn in Varadero on day 5.

Coffee at the fruit farm was actually a type of tea. Really good.

A Trifle Saves the (Birth)Day!

April 23, 20162 Comments

I wanted to bake a cake for the baby of our chopped and blended family who is turning 12 today. Ree Drummond’s big four layer chocolate cake looked perfectly suited for my BIG personality daughter by marriage, Ava. As my reader friends know, I’m not the best at following recipes. I did wait three hours after the cake cooled to try to assemble it. Okay..fine…maybe two. I just want to stress when Ree gently recommends “freezing the cake layers for best results” it should be more of a requirement.

The cake was delicious, moist and SUPER chocolatey….but not good for building a cake tower. The architect in me wanted to add skewer reinforcements. Once I placed the fourth layer, the cake was just started to slide and slowly fall apart. Oh…. the slow motion HORROR!

In the fight between ideality and materiality, materiality won today. Freezing the layers may have controlled it’s angry soft moistness long enough to assemble.

The cake is now supported in a trifle dish. Still delicious. All four layers wouldn’t fit in the dish. We have a separate bonus single layer cake. No one is complaining. My other two daughters have generously offered to take care that cake.

Lessons learned:

Maybe try to follow the recipe better next time by freezing the layers before assembly.
Maybe big personality needs containment, whether by temperature control or structure. We all need support sometimes. Support doesn’t ruin our inner deliciousness.

Here is Ree Drummond’s recipe.

Wobblyogi Wednesday Notes

April 20, 2016April 20, 2016Leave a comment

The Yoga of Eating: Transcending Diets and Dogma to Nourish the Natural Self

1. Eat to nurture yourself not punish yourself.

“The yogic approach to eating and diet is to bring oneself into wholeness, to illuminate and repair the self-division, to stop fighting oneself. Yoga, after all means “union.”

2. You absorb the energy of what you eat and how it came to be.

“When you eat something, you eat everything that happened to make that food come into existence. You are affirming a certain version of the world.”

3. Just eat.

“If you read while you eat, you are eating the words. – If you eat when angry, you are eating the anger. – if you eat absorbed by the scenery, you are eating the scenery. If you talk a lot while you eating, you are eating your conversation.”

4. Chew each bite before taking another bite.

“Shoveling more food into an already full mouth corresponds to taking a new breath before the old one is fully exhaled. Swallowing before food is fully tasted and chewed corresponds to exhaling before inhlation is complete. “

5. Eat what nurtures you.

“The central thesis of the Yoga of Eating is….that each person is the ultimate authority on his or her bodily requirements, and that the body will reveal its requirements given sufficient attention and trust.”

Image from: http://www.relaxandrelease.co.uk/cathy-thorne-cartoons-yoga-humour-fun-laughter/

Indiana Candy Making History – Edible Indy

March 25, 2016March 25, 20162 Comments

This week my article about Indiana candy history was published in Edible Indy Magazine! It was a such a fun story to write and “research.” What a pleasure talking with people so invested in their craft! I want to especially thank Warren and Jill Schimpff. They are naturally entertaining and informative teachers. Here are a few pictures from my visit to their store in Jeffersonville. Check out my article for more details on charting your own Indiana candy tour! Visit the Schimpffs and the other candy makers this summer. The issue also includes wonderful and delicious histories of canning, mason jars, breweries and more. Find a copy, better yet subscribe at http://edibleindy.ediblefeast.com/

Traditional Fish Candy referencing the Ohio River

Some of their beautiful and colorful candies

Warren makes Red Hots

My bag of candy that I brought home with me! The Turtles were chewy, crunchy and velvety chocolate smooth

Magical New Year of Eating

January 4, 2016January 5, 2016Leave a comment

Happy to be back here, sitting on my red chair looking out from our end of the cul-de-sac through the picture window, writing to you and with you. I’m excited to report that I ate so well and so intently that I have MUCH to share with you the coming weeks. By virtue of this blog I will savor the two weeks of vacation for another four weeks. Gosh, I so enjoy eating, cooking, reading and writing that have the ability to make time go fast and slow. Magic.

The first discovered taste I’d like to share is this:

Kaboom Books in Houston, where I found this:

What! It was such a magical discovery for THE HUNGRY PHILOSOPHER …..that I started talking about myself in third person!!!

A fun and thoughtful read that proclaims the spirituality of food. Here are a few excerpts:

“The umbilical cord between yourself and the world is the cooking pot. We pass reality through it, and it is indicative of the sort of world we live in. It is a crucible, an alembic in which we are linked with the world, magically if you like.”

“Herbs and spices do for your dishes what grace does for your actions — they give them zest and an inner meaning. The graceless life is the life which has lost it savour.”

“Salvation is to love something real rather than merely having an idea of right or of money or of liberty or whatever. Cooking is a great opportunity for love and therefore salvation. Love the leisure of the simmering pot and the long drawn out thought of the people you wish to please. For God’s sake don’t throw a commonwealth of meat and vegetables into the pot and clamp the lid on in order to have time to look over the agenda for the next meeting. It is the love of ideas which makes us cruel and not the love this bit of meat, these potatoes, this child or wife or husband.”

Hope all of you hungry-philosophers out there had a wonderful winter holiday surrounded by love and good food.

I wish you the magic of eating that makes your world a graceful and kinder place.

More later.

Hungryphil

Tag: Food