food museum blog

Home Cooking from the Mediterranean

In these troubled times of an expensive out-of-control war, food crises, political shenanigans and more, it is always a comfort to, well, eat. But before that, cook something homey and warming and reminiscent of a more tranquil time.
Armenian-American chef and restaurant owner Zov Karamardian's self-published book  ZOV--Recipes and Memories from the Heart offers up multiple tasty, colorful dishes that fill that bill.  The first entries I checked were under "eggplant" in the index, because one of my all-time favorite pleasures was a bubbling rich eggplant casserole perfected by a friend's Armenian-American Mom. To my delight, Zov presents an inviting vegetarian Eggplant Tagine, made with chickpeas as well, typical of the North African stews that combine subtle flavors with slow cooking. She recommends with it Roasted Rack of Lamb with Pomegranate Sauce --the pomegranate, today's latest health juice item,  reminds us of the possibility of enjoying "new" ( albeit ancient) tastes.
Kooba Hamoud, appropriately an Iraqi dish--a "meatball soup with lemon and mint," reminds me of the garlic, mint and lemony dishes we enjoyed as Peace Corps volunteers in Iran.

Can anyone tell me why human beings waste  lives, money, time, energy, spirit and resources in the archaic pursuit of warfare in the 21st century, when we could be sharing aromatic dishes of food with one another?

Fat David, Plus, Foodie is Baaaack; Also, Usage!!

Back, at last, after a long time away, and a road trip across these USSSS of A from St Petersburg to Albuquerque, a journey not noted for its fine cuisine, alas. So while I organize my foodie thoughts, experiences and pix, and prepare to resume, I thought you might enjoy this lovely image at left, forwarded to me, origin unknown. Clearly Dave has returned to his pillar in Florence after a few weeks holiday in the U.S.

Oh--also---consumed with following the Dem primary on line, I am once again urging all bloggers and posters to understand that "loose" means untied or unconfined,  while "lose" means go down to defeat. Also--"led" is the past tense of "lead", as in "she led in the PA polls by 20 points a few weeks ago."  And "lead," the noun, is the stuff appearing in all those Chinese-made toys. Thank you.

Krackers, Manatees, Mermaids...

Last Sunday we plunged into a tad of Florida's roadside Americana. No, we did not eat here (left), but were inspired once again to ponder the age-old American fascination with using K when a C is called for.

We did buy boiled peanuts from the man selling smoked mullet from a colorful wagon, clearly a local, but no, actually he was from upstate New York and no more a Kracker, um, Cracker than say, I am. ( You may recall that "cracker" derives from the crack of the whips used to drive cattle by early folks in Florida.)

These compelling sightings occurred on a visit to Homosassa Springs to wallow in manatee-viewing. The m's decidedly relish their in-captivity diet of carrots and sliced raw sweet potatoes, as well as Romaine lettuce, augmented by green peppers.

But the human highlight of the day was the mermaid show at Weeki Wachee, where the young women of the area have been plunging into the springs, grabbing air hoses, and posing prettily wide-eyed, hair streaming not directly into their eyes and mouths as with ordinary mortals but flowing up and out into the bubbles, since around the time of the GI Bill. ( While wearing tight mer-woman tailed costumes.) The foodish underwater highlights of the show were : A--apple eating and B-- soda drinking. Do not try this at home!

Crawfish, Gators, Armadillo and All That

We had a crawfish festival here in St Pete recently, complete with Cajun bands---and we had a hankering to go eat mounds of the little freshwater mini lobsters but the cost was $12 to enter a park here lined with the usual kind of vendors selling earrings and funnel cake and assorted tacky items, so we passed. After all, the music was so "enhanced" we could hear it for free from blocks away, and my local fish store has crawfish, along with cooked $5 apiece lobsters, and great local clams, and oysters, ditto, though not as superb as Dutch oysters, and a slew of local fish with wild nicknames, as well as flounder and arctic char and , and.....
I ate gator once a few years back, unmemorably--the fish store has frozen gator--but a few days ago a friend visiting from the frozen tundra of Vermont joined me on a walk in a park smack dab in the center of St Pete where we spotted three 12 inch-long baby gators, all sweetly small and stripy, slowly swimming along with their cute schnozzes up out of the water.

ps Just a day before we had seen an armadillo snuffling about in yet another naturey place within St Pete.
Haven't eaten that.....But here's a recipe--oh goody--how does one remove the armor plate, though?

( Thanks to http://www.nuawlins.com/crawfish.htm for crawfish pic.)

SSF Mainiacs Visit Fabled Indian Farm

The Summit Springs Farm-ers, ( you may recall their ongoing effort to erect a large greenhouse on their spread,) recently have returned to Maine after an incredible 5-week trip to India, and their spokesperson on all things ag, John Sayles, sent us this report:

" One of the most rewarding experiences of the trip was a visit to Navdanya, an organic research farm and seed bank about 10 kilometers outside the city of Dehra Dun in the Indian state of Uttranchal. The 20-acre site was founded in the 1980’s by Dr. Vandana Shiva, a scientist, environmentalist, and activist, “to support local farmers, rescue and conserve crops and plants that are being pushed to extinction and make them available through direct marketing.” The Navdanya website also notes that the farm is “actively involved in the rejuvenation of indigenous knowledge and culture. [Navdanya] has created awareness on the hazards of genetic engineering,  ( and)defended people's knowledge from biopiracy and food rights in the face of globalization.”

After looking through the small bookstore and administrative center, we walked around this unique farm with a guide. In small plots, different combinations of crops are grown together to see how they do. One plot may have carrots and onions together; another may have carrots, onions, and coriander (cilantro). Crop density is also studied. One plot of wheat has been intensively planted, and another less so, and another even less, but perhaps also interspersed with another grain or even another variety of wheat. Dozens and dozens of these plots cover the farm’s open spaces. Nearby is an orchard, and in the opposite direction is the seed bank.

We took a short walk down a tree-lined lane with bright green parrots flitting about overhead, to reach the seed bank, a modest rectangular building with an adobe appearance. We all took off our shoes and filed in. Over 300 varieties of rice are kept here in metal boxes, plus about 70 varieties of wheat, numerous other grains, and vegetable and fruit seeds. It is probably the most extensive private seed bank of its kind in all of India. The building itself, though, was much smaller than expected, quite modest, and decorated with lively paintings of flora and fauna on the walls. Outside, the spirit of experimentation and variety continued with the compost area. We saw four or five different composting methods being tried, everything from pit composting to compost bins with removable sides to elaborate composting trenches designed to make the worms happy.

  Our friend and traveling companion, Nicole, is an amateur herbalist and was thrilled to spend some time with the farm’s herbal guru. He showed us around his modest plots of medicinal and cooking herbs and also allowed us a peek into his rooms where he dries and prepares the herbs. All of this was followed by an excellent buffet-style lunch in the farm’s mess hall. We took a brief look around the farm’s library and bookstore and purchased a few books, including an Indian cookbook, before thanking our new friends and hitting the road for the drive back to our ashram in Laksman Jhula. The Navdanya experience was moving, inspiring, and thought-provoking. I would love to return for a longer stay and perhaps do some volunteer work there as a way to help this noble effort. "

For more information on the remarkable visionary Dr. Vandana Shiva, a physicist trained at the University of Western Ontario, click here.

(Pix by shaggy, baggy Farmer John who can be seen just above on the right.)

Obama, Japan, Produces "Native Son" Bean Cakes

A town of 32,000 on the west coast of Japan has a bond with one of our candidates. The town is Obama, and apparently the locals there are rapidly becoming fans of that guy with the same name.

According to this AP story, "Obama's name graces posters hung in the main hotel. Headbands and T-shirts with drawings of the candidate's face will be available soon. Local confectioners are designing Japanese-style sweet bean cakes with Obama's portrait on them."

Now that's a candidate with broad, diverse appeal. Come March we expect to hear from the little known O'Bama clan in Ireland, backing their lad, Barry, with marzipan potato candies bearing his likeness.

( Thanks for bean cake pic from http://mtkilimonjaro.blogspot.com/2007/07/fine-find-in-san-francisco.html)

Appetizing Primaries

With the Crabcake Primary coming up on Tuesday, voters continue to gorge across the country. Senator Obama racked up four victories today, in the Oyster and White Wine event in Washington State, the Gumbo Primary in Louisiana, the Meatloaf and Creamed Corn vote fest in Nebraska and the Rum and Fish Soup hubba hubba in the Virgin Islands.

Coming up fast, the Lobster Caucus in Maine, Ribs and Beer in Texas, and Ohio's fabled Pork Chop primary.

Super Super Bowl

See, it's a food thing--a bowl! And the game itself was the best I've seen in years, the most exciting underdog toenail gripping 4th quarter in memory. ( I was, with my Dad, a Giants fan as a kid....and it all came back last night.)

But on to food during the game--mine? Freshly popped corn, with olive oil and chile/herb powder, salt, and, to honor America, some melted butter....an organic "pink lady" apple, a glass of red wine, and thou, Eli Manning.

Post game, apparently the city of Boston is ante-ing up the following to the city of New York--a mayor to mayor thing.

Bloomberg gets:

--100 cups of New England Clam Chowder from Legal Sea Foods;
--42 pounds of coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts in honor of Super Bowl XLII
--12 dozen Boston Cream Pies and 12 Dozen Parker House Rolls (in honor of Tom Brady’s #12) from Boston’s Omni Parker House Hotel
--100 Kayem Old Tyme franks and 100 al fresco sun-dried tomato chicken sausages, the best-selling dogs in New England
--20 Pizzas from Sal’s – one pizza for each selection on the menu
--5 Cases of Brigham’s Boston You’re My Home Ice Cream and 5 cases of Cherry on the Top Frozen Yogurt Bars from Elan.
--100 servings of Stonyfield Farm Organic Yogurt

Now who will actually take home these goodies and eat them, is not known, at least to me. Maybe Mayor Bloomberg will offer the spread to the candidates feverishly flitting in and out of his city in search of delegates.

(The list cribbed from The Bostonist at http://bostonist.com/2008/01/30/gutbusters_mayo.php.)

Time for Tums?

Seems as if people of all sizes, shape, gender, hue and religious affiliation have been campaigning for assorted nominations in this country for at least two years, eating on the run the entire time or, even worse, forced to sit down at an official fundraiser and chomp down in a relaxed manner while people paying $2000 per meal stared fixedly at their table manners. Senator Clinton referenced pizza as the usual menu du jour, though she was photographed recently trying to get her mouth gracefully around a taco at East LA's King Taco restaurant.

The perils of political eating were well illuminated by President Gerald Ford whom older food freaks may recall munched on a tamale without removing the corn husk surrounding it. How could he know? It was 1976, he was running against Jimmy Carter, and he was from Michigan, for gawds sake.

A day or two ago master dieter and healthy guy Governor Mike Huckabee was asked by a reporter how he felt about fried chicken, after reports circulated that Governor Mitt Romney had been observed removing the skin from his portion of chicken before eating it.

According to CBS News reporter Joy Lin, " Going through the weight loss program I try to eat it more broiled and baked," Huckabee said. "But I can tell you this: any Southerner knows that if you're not gonna eat the skin, don't bother with calling it fried chicken."

In jest, Huckabee said: "I'm glad to hear that (Romney) did that because that means I'm going to win Alabama, Georgia, Tennesee, Arkansas, Oklahoma--all these great Southern states that understand that the best part of friend chicken is the skin."

Oklahoma is Southern?

(Taco pic found at http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/19444197.html)

Scared of Cooking? No Time?

Michael Pollan, author of several well-researched books on American food and eating, recently said in an interview that Americans are making cooking a "spectator sport." And thus many are becoming intimidated by the world's oldest nurturing activity, as if it is the province only of flashy chefs with obscure ingredients at their knife points.

BBC America carries a slew of Chef Gordon Ramsay's shows, including one in which he invites to his restaurant a big crowd of youngish women in an effort to "get women back in the kitchen." The dishes he does for that show are relatively simple and quick to do, especially if you are accustomed to working fast and efficiently in the domain that many women determinedly tried to escape for years. But...several women interviewed still felt that cooking takes much more time than they have available.

What a dilemma--from being tied to the stove in the olden days, with tiny kids awash in a probably cramped house, to today when many have mega kitchens in which they barely prepare coffee, women are....what? Continuing the rebellion?

Apparently this is where Rachael Ray and her 30 minute meals come in. I have not seen the show but have read it being put down in some of the foodie press because Ms Ray has been known to use the odd can of mushroom soup in a recipe, poor retro thing...

People have always been amazed that I regularly cook freshed mashed potatoes. How this simple food became complicated, I do not know. In the time it takes me to peel a few spuds, cut them up "small" and toss them in water, an acquaintance can still be kvetching away about the lack of time for such a gourmandish and outlandish undertaking.

Ramsay grills, steams or sautees much of his food, all quick cooking methods no matter what. Yes, one must peel and chop some veg, maybe even wash lettuce, but this can be done while yacking with one's kids, sipping a glass of wine. We're not talking about stuffing ravioli or baking bread, those these activities, too, can be speedily done with decent planning.( Not so much by impatient me.)

Maybe it's time for a reality cooking show featuring dozens of average unfamous mortals who are competent and swift in the kitchen--with the final 5 minutes always showing a family or group of friends at table, enjoying the food, community and conversation.

Who does not have enough time for that, at least once or twice a week?

ps One of my pet bugaboos and a huge timewaster, is the American habit of involving their kids in organized sports, and attending practices, snoozing through every game, weekend after weekend.We did it too, friends, until finally the light dawned--the kid was a decent goalie but was never going to be of those gifted and balding World Cup goalkeepers--so as a family we took golf lessons, signed up for racketball sessions at the gym and so on. Lifetime sports! What a notion. 

This left much more time for whipping up cranberry walnut bread and making scalloped spuds.