1. Old Depot Gardens just opened. 2. While trying to do too many thing at once this morning, I dropped my iPhone flat on its touch screen and shattered it. 3. It’s chilly and drizzling here.
This confluence of events has me craving something springy, comforting and warming. Cookthink.com suggests, among other things, hogwash’s Caramelized Onion-Fennel Jam and Cook & Eat’s Fruit And Honey Focaccia. Sounds just right.
(Image courtesy of hogwash.)
Not so fast, Claire. You may be onto something.
According to a story today at BBC News, music may affect the taste of wine. Researchers at Heriot Watt University apparently found that, among other things, “cabernet sauvignon was most affected by ‘powerful and heavy’ music, and chardonnay by ‘zingy and refreshing’ sounds.”
When people tasting cabernet listened to the “powerful and heavy” Carmina Burana, they were more inclined to label the cabernet as “powerful and heavy” than the people who listened to the “soft and mellow” music of Michael Brook were inclined to label the cabernet as “soft and mellow.”
“The results were put down to ‘cognitive priming theory’, where the music sets up the brain to respond to the wine in a certain way,” the BBC reporter concluded.
Actually, the whole study sounds kind of sketchy. But as a lover of science, I’m planning a little study of my own. If anybody needs me, I’ll be out back with a bottle of Boudreaux Cellars cabernet and the new Black Keys album. Emergencies only please.
One of the things that I like about coming back from a vacation is getting to catch up on all the stuff I missed—sorting mail, checking emails, listening to podcasts. I feed all my favorite public radio shows to iTunes, including my primary addiction, The Splendid Table.
So I was just listening to the May 3 episode this morning, which was actually a rebroadcast from last year. There was a great segment about Lettie Teague’s book Educating Peter. Teague writes the “Wine Matters” column for Food & Wine and the book is her account of trying to educate film critic Peter Travers about wine.
The segment resonated because I am currently immersed in my own wine education (which grew by leaps and bounds while I was in Tuscany), and so I could really relate to a comment Travers made about how he started off trying to describe wine:
“I could not, in the beginning, relate to what I was learning unless I did it in a very idiot-savant way and related it to movies. I would taste a sauvignon blanc and say that this wants to be delicate like Lost in Translation but it turned out to be a bad Julia Roberts chick flick.”
Having little knowledge of the vocabulary of wine, I find myself doing the same thing, only with music, which is my basic critical vocabulary. I find myself thinking of it in terms of volume, of melodic, harmonic structures, of what the theme is and the counterpoint. It works well enough for an internal dialogue, but I think it’s about time I start speaking the language of the actual thing, instead of the soundtrack in my head.
Any recommendations on where to begin? Favorite columns or books on wine?
Many years ago, the first fancy restaurant that my husband and I went to was La Caravelle, one of the many children of Henri Soulé’s Le Pavillon, New York’s first temple to haute French cuisine.
The chef at La Caravelle was Roger Fessaguet and the maîtres d’hôtel/owners were Robert Meyzen and Freddy Decré. (Freddy was the younger brother of the majestic Martin of Le Pavillon.) The years went on. Freddy moved to Florida. Robert took over La Crémaillère, in Connecticut, with his son.
New owners, the Jammets, took over La Caravelle. The service remained divine as did the food. Now, that it is closed, I miss it like crazy, along with its light-hearted Jean Pages murals. It was a favorite of some of the first round of Kennedys; I miss them, too.
Someday, I will share with you the ultimate put down of a brash and boorish young customer. In the meantime, here’s the recipe for Crème Anglaise that went on almost every dessert at La Caravelle. If a vanilla sauce is too much for what you’re serving, try this classic Orange Sauce instead.
Common wisdom says that when frying you should use an oil with a clean flavor and high smoke point, oils such as canola, vegetable and peanut. This week, when I was adapting Mario Batali’s recipe for sardine fritters, I took him up for the first time on frying with extra virgin olive oil. Batali, who’s obviously focused on Italian food, claims there’s no other way to go.
Here’s what I did: Read the rest of this entry »
Before Angus was born, Chip wrote about what foods might coax the baby boy out into the world.
Now scientists are looking a little earlier into the whole baby-making process to study if and how a mother’s diet at time of conception might influence the sex of the baby.
Several weeks ago, at her NYT health blog, Tara Parker-Pope wrote about a study that found that “high levels of glucose encourage the growth of male embryos while inhibiting female embryos.” Women who consumed more and ate across a wider spectrum of vitamins and minerals were more likely to have sons.
The probability increase is slight enough that it doesn’t seem likely that this knowledge would allow someone to actually manipulate the chances of having a girl or boy. But with more study, it doesn’t seem like a huge stretch. What do you think?
We’ve got the heat on up here and rain’s come and go. I’m craving something rustic, soothing and warming.
Contrary to its name, the Boston Butt comes from the front of the pig. A fatty cut ideal for slow-cooked pulled pork, Boston Butt is a favorite of barbecues. Send us your best Boston Butt recipes for Root Source Challenge #15.
Our favorite recipe featuring Boston Butt will be featured in the Root Source and published on Cookthink.com. The author will receive a copy of BBQ Bash: The Be-All, End-All Party Guide, from Barefoot to Black Tie, by Karen Adler.
Submissions are due by 12pm EST Tuesday, May 27. Send us an email to rootsourcechallenge [AT] cookthink [DOT] com with your name, email address, blog URL and a permalink to the recipe. Please put “Root Source Challenge #15: Boston Butt” in the subject line of your email. Click here for the complete rules and to see past winners. Good luck!
(Thanks to The Lisa Ekus Group for providing us with books for the Root Source Challenge.)
With May comes the first of the summer fruits. The early cherries are low risk/high reward fruits, particularly the Bing. So sweet, plump and juicy on their own.
As for cooking with the Bing, how about Cherry Clafoutis? Or a scoop of Cook & Eat’s gorgeous Fennel And Cherry Salad? A slice of her Rustic Cherry Pie? Honey And Fruit Focaccia? You’ll have to check out this week’s Root Source for more suggestions to sate your cherry cravings.
Coming up Tuesday: the deadline for sardine recipes for this week’s Root Source Challenge.
(Image courtesy of Cook & Eat.)
Well, I’m back.
After eight glorious days in Florence, I’ve returned to my home and my desk. And while the weather here is beautiful enough to cushion the blow, I’m still feeling a vague longing for a view of the Duomo out my window.
And of course, the food.
I don’t think you can go to Italy without raving about the food. Even a simple panini from a back-street cafe tastes better than anything here. On our walks, we enjoyed all the hits: fresh melon with prosciutto, oil-packed tuna with arugula, countless cups of espresso with a thick crema on top, and of course, a near-daily dose of gelato. (My favorite? Blood orange and pistachio.)
I could recount every detail of each day, taking us through the city from east to west, into churches and atop mountains, to walled cities, goat farms, to wine and olive oil vineyards. But I’ll save that for the friends and family who’ll have to suffer through my 600-picture sideshow. Instead, I’ll start here with my three favorite restaurants from the trip.
