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sevenswellsSo as promised, here's the first bonus post to The Art of Love and Cooking. An "amuse-bouche" is food in small bites that are usually served between the dishes; sometimes they sum up a whole dish, and anounce what comes next. It litterally means "mouth-entertainer".
Why a bonus post? What will it be about?
Because I did a lot of research before writing this fic, and I learned a bunch of seriously cool stuff about food and chefs along the way, so I thought I really had to share it with you guys, since I know some of you are interested in it.
Take this as some kind of DVD commentary, where you can learn more about the recipes and some aspects of the fic I can't explain or linger on in the chapters. I'll talk about the food mentionned in the chapters, of course, but also food philosophy and great chefs. Although if I realize afterwards that this idea is boring everybody except myself to death, I promise I will stop, be not afraid ^^
How frequent will it be?
I'll post one bonus after each chapter - except if I don't have anything interesting to say, which might very well happen.
Want to share? Variants, stories, experiences, food philosophy, restaurants, favourite chefs or cookbooks, likes or dislikes? Want to trade recipes?
Then be my guest and feel free to comment on these posts, off-topic is permitted as long as it's still food we're talking about, or food-related anyway.
Here we go:
1 - A small take on food philosophy: Puck and Marcel's debate
***Molecular cuisine and Ferran Adrià:
Some of you may already know this, but Ferran Adrià is the owner of the restaurant El Bulli (which is open only six months a year and has already received three Michelin stars along with the title of best restaurant in the world from the English magazine Restaurant). He's considered to be one of the best chefs in the world and more importantly, he's one of the founders of molecular cuisine, even if he prefers to call it avant-garde or "tecnoémocion" (a mix between technology and emotion).
What's molecular cuisine? It's a type of cuisine that uses science and state-of-the-art technologies to revisit and bend the very basis of cooking. The result is meant too be playful, humorous some will say, others would say magic, and sometimes a little confusing. It's about how far you can take a concept, about deconstruction, surprise, about putting the gourmet in danger, or at least in a position where he can't really make assumptions anymore. With molecular cuisine, you can have barbecue-grilled sherbet, cubic tomatoes, chorizo foam, squash oil caramel.
It's the equivalent of modern art in cuisine, so "avant-garde" might not be a misused term, here. Like everything so new and radical, it created a HUGE debate when it first came out in the open. To some people, molecular holds the future of gastronomy. To others, it's much ado about nothing and it's not even that spectacular or doesn't even taste that good. Molecular chefs, when the shine of the novelty wore out, were starting to get called "wannabe sorcerers" or cheap alchemists.
I've recorded a TV documentary about it last year: it was presented as a trend that was gaining more and more in popularity, with both the foodies and the chefs.
Soon enough though, during the summer, an issue of Le Figaro magazine was published (fyi, Le Figaro is a conservative magazine in France, generally read by the upper middle class) entitled "Le retour du terroir" (= "Back to basics"). The article said molecular cuisine was dying, because experimentations and science tricks had their limits, and that the chefs now were going back to classical style, sometimes sticking to recipes that have been invented at the beginning of the 20th century.
(Here I have to explain what terroir means: it's a peculiar notion, very French, and a little hard to explain. To make it simple, I'd say it's traditional cuisine and each region of France has its specificity about it. The quality of the product is very important in terroir (since terroir cuisine in each region uses products grown locally) and the notion implies a lot of local pride. And I mean, A LOT. Terroir literally means "land, earth".)
I wanted to talk about molecular vs terroir debate through Puck and Marcel. Marcel represents molecular cuisine - he really was set on it during the whole season 2 of Top Chef, and had even been criticized and turned into derision by his colleagues on the set for using "foam" with every dish he did. Puck represents the voice of the chefs who choose to stick to terroir and old, sturdy values in cuisine. I've always seen Puck as a little conservative, and I could also very well imagine he would root for simplicity and nice, clean dishes if he were a chef. In my fic, I've chosen Paul Bocuse as Puck's personal hero, and Marcel had been very clear in Top Chef that Joël Robuchon was his (which is interesting because whereas Robuchon doesn't necessarily root for terroir and classical cuisine, he's not too fond of molecular cuisine and often condemns it, even if he admits that Ferran Adrià is a very talented chef).
***Nouvelle Cuisine, Paul Bocuse and Joël Robuchon
Which leads me to the fascinating subject of Nouvelle Cuisine and Paul Bocuse.
First you need to know that Paul Bocuse is considered to be the greatest chef of all times, and it's a fact he's the most awarded ever. He's still alive and running a restaurant near Lyon in France.
Joël Robuchon and Paul Bocuse are part of the founders of Nouvelle Cuisine. It's a culinary movement that began in the 70s in France, when an important cultural revolution was at work : at that time, currents branded "nouveau/nouvelle" (which simply means "new" in French) were born, that raised against conservative and classical values. Cinema had Nouvelle Vague, Literature had Nouveau Roman, etc. And the small world of cuisine in France at that time was dramatically stagnating, because the chefs had to stick to a canon of recipes that were kind of "sacred" and never meant to be changed. There was a very precise way of preparing each dish that were listed under immutable names : sole Dugléré, Tournedos Rossini, etc.
Then Bocuse and Robuchon came along, and even at that time the concept of deconstruction was involved in their new philosophy: no more heavy and greasy sauces that had to be prepared three days before, the food no longer needs to be cooked for hours, nor to be presented whole: in Nouvelle Cuisine, it's served in small portions, bite-sizes, accompanied by small vegetables cut to tiny bits with a technique called julienne. The chefs can also use modern devices, like microwave ovens, sherbet machines, fridges, blenders. The time of cooking is reduced, so the product can be as faithful to itself as can be, some "new" cooking techniques are used to that purpose: steam, stir-fry, grill, etc. Finally, chefs that follow Nouvelle Cuisine principles want to appeal to all five of the human senses, so the artistic aspect of the plate is extremely important too, it has to be pleasing to the eye as well as the palate.
As I said before, new movements are often criticized, and Nouvelle Cuisine got a few scratches too - mainly because some unprofessional self-appointed "chefs" that claimed to belong to Nouvelle Cuisine started to flood the market with ridiculously small bits of food in giant plates and crazy prices. So, Nouvelle Cuisine at some point became synonymous to rip off and held a pejorative connotation for the longest time in France. I mean I grew up hearing about how Nouvelle Cuisine was a fraud, something very expensive that left you very hungry - and before I did my research about it I used to keep thinking along those lines, even though I was completely ignorant of the true principles of Nouvelle Cuisine, which are pretty much the norm everywhere, now.
It's because of Nouvelle Cuisine's bad reputation that Paul Bocuse, who had a very classical training as a chef, decided to drop it and go back to a more conservative style of cooking, and at the same time insisting on simplicity above all, serving dishes in his restaurant that are perfectly executed, without any fancy trick.
It's fascinating to me how cuisine seems to keep going back and forth between classical and modern, between innovation and conservatism. And in France, terroir is always a value you can go back to.
Anyway, Bocuse will appear again later in my fic, so that's enough with him for now. ^^
2 - Puck's sardine, Marcel's oysters
Marcel's dish in his cook-off with Puck has been inspired by a recipe I found in a (veeeeery expensive) gourmet magazine. It's representative of molecular cuisine, with at least two of its founding elements: the ever-criticized foam ("espuma", in the fic, which is Ferran Adrià's term; it simply means "foam" in Spanish), and the flash-freezed meringue made with liquid nitrogen, which is an ingredient very often used in molecular cuisine. The meringue was inspired by the documentary I saw about molecular cuisine: it was served in molecular chef Heston Blumenthal's restaurant, The Fat Duck, in England, except it was yuzu, and not oyster-flavoured. Molecular cuisine often plays on the shape of the food, so the variation of oysters under many forms was right in the theme too.
***"It was almost reminiscent of japanese cuisine, the subtlety with which it was all put together and the fact that it was less about the taste, which was, mainly, iodine, than about the texture."
This sentence can easily be understood if you've ever tasted the japanese dish called oden. Oden is a dish consisting of several ingredients (boiled eggs, cut-up vegetables, fish cakes etc) boiled in a dashi broth; so most of the components taste like, well, dashi. But you really start to understand this dish when you realize that it's not about the taste, which basically remains the same even though it's good, but about the play on the textures of the different components. This is to me the true genious of Japanese cuisine, this whole new dimension to explore.
As for Puck's sardine dish, I mainly composed it myself, even though I got the idea of the crunchy sardine out of an expensive book about a prestigious restaurant in Boulogne, Paris. I eat everything and I'm not picky, but sardine to me is definitely not the sexiest fish ever, so I thought Puck would show he's a true great chef if he could make something great out of it - it's like having a haircut that's commonly considered awful and rocking it (like, say, I dunno, a mohawk ;P ). As for the rest of the dish, there you have typical "terroir" with Provençale cuisine. Provence is a region in the south of France, and the flavours are very recognizable - tomatoes, olives, herbs, that sort of thing. The herbs are the most famous part of Provençale cuisine, since there's an herb mix called after the region: "herbes de Provence", tout simplement (its composition is thyme, rosemary, basil, oregano, sweet marjoram, and savory).
3 - Foie gras or not foie gras?
I have to admit first that I'm crazy about foie gras, and it's a delicacy that I find fascinating too because there are major ethical questions about animal rights that are raised with it, and even though nowadays people are widely informed about it thanks to the animal rights associations, even though they know very well how the geese are, let's face it, tortured, they can't seem to quit it. It creates a really strange relationship to it, food!kink in the stricter sense, with the self endlessly battling with the superego "-I shouldn't -But it's so good -But I really shouldn't, it's wrong -And yet so right" -- if you see what I mean.
All I know is that I wouldn't eat foie gras every day, only for special occasions and celebrations, but I also would be very sad in a world where it doesn't exist.
I personally prefer my foie gras dipped in a little flour then seared, with something that adds a sugary taste to it, like bits of pear, or grape. When the foie gras is presented as a terrine, I think it's best to eat it on a piece of black bread with onion jam, or fig jam, and with a glass of Sauternes - or Riesling. My number one guilty pleasure, though, the one that I can only whisper about in the dark is... seared foie gras on a steak, in a burger, Châteaubriand style. It's as guilty as can be, and it makes my toes literally curl when I eat one.
But foie gras will also make another apparition in this fic, so that's enough about it.
4 - Puck's radish toast
Inspired by a recipe found on a fellow French comicker's gourmet blog, A boire et à manger by Guillaume Long. It's a great read, but I'm afraid it's all in French. I changed the original recipe a bit and replaced the cream cheese (well it's not exactly cream cheese, it's a typically French product called fromage frais) by cottage cheese mixed with creme fraiche/fresh cream, the texture is a little lumpy because of the cottage cheese and I find that delicious. There also was garlic in the original recipe but I didn't think it was necessary.
Anyway, it's a very fresh and delicious snack, and it's extremely easy to make, so do try this at home. ^^ I insist on the red radishes, they're the best. Don't put too much fresh herbs, otherwise they'll really be overwhelming and you'll feel like you're munching grass.
Sometimes I put salted butter on the toast first like it's mentionned in the fic, but it has to be really, really good salted butter, because I consider salted butter to be srsly srs bsns!
I'm sorry, that was a very long post because of the part about food philosophy, the next bonus posts won't have to be so long, hopefully.
Okay, done! On to chapter 2, now! ^^
Why a bonus post? What will it be about?
Because I did a lot of research before writing this fic, and I learned a bunch of seriously cool stuff about food and chefs along the way, so I thought I really had to share it with you guys, since I know some of you are interested in it.
Take this as some kind of DVD commentary, where you can learn more about the recipes and some aspects of the fic I can't explain or linger on in the chapters. I'll talk about the food mentionned in the chapters, of course, but also food philosophy and great chefs. Although if I realize afterwards that this idea is boring everybody except myself to death, I promise I will stop, be not afraid ^^
How frequent will it be?
I'll post one bonus after each chapter - except if I don't have anything interesting to say, which might very well happen.
Want to share? Variants, stories, experiences, food philosophy, restaurants, favourite chefs or cookbooks, likes or dislikes? Want to trade recipes?
Then be my guest and feel free to comment on these posts, off-topic is permitted as long as it's still food we're talking about, or food-related anyway.
Here we go:
1 - A small take on food philosophy: Puck and Marcel's debate
***Molecular cuisine and Ferran Adrià:
Some of you may already know this, but Ferran Adrià is the owner of the restaurant El Bulli (which is open only six months a year and has already received three Michelin stars along with the title of best restaurant in the world from the English magazine Restaurant). He's considered to be one of the best chefs in the world and more importantly, he's one of the founders of molecular cuisine, even if he prefers to call it avant-garde or "tecnoémocion" (a mix between technology and emotion).
What's molecular cuisine? It's a type of cuisine that uses science and state-of-the-art technologies to revisit and bend the very basis of cooking. The result is meant too be playful, humorous some will say, others would say magic, and sometimes a little confusing. It's about how far you can take a concept, about deconstruction, surprise, about putting the gourmet in danger, or at least in a position where he can't really make assumptions anymore. With molecular cuisine, you can have barbecue-grilled sherbet, cubic tomatoes, chorizo foam, squash oil caramel.
It's the equivalent of modern art in cuisine, so "avant-garde" might not be a misused term, here. Like everything so new and radical, it created a HUGE debate when it first came out in the open. To some people, molecular holds the future of gastronomy. To others, it's much ado about nothing and it's not even that spectacular or doesn't even taste that good. Molecular chefs, when the shine of the novelty wore out, were starting to get called "wannabe sorcerers" or cheap alchemists.
I've recorded a TV documentary about it last year: it was presented as a trend that was gaining more and more in popularity, with both the foodies and the chefs.
Soon enough though, during the summer, an issue of Le Figaro magazine was published (fyi, Le Figaro is a conservative magazine in France, generally read by the upper middle class) entitled "Le retour du terroir" (= "Back to basics"). The article said molecular cuisine was dying, because experimentations and science tricks had their limits, and that the chefs now were going back to classical style, sometimes sticking to recipes that have been invented at the beginning of the 20th century.
(Here I have to explain what terroir means: it's a peculiar notion, very French, and a little hard to explain. To make it simple, I'd say it's traditional cuisine and each region of France has its specificity about it. The quality of the product is very important in terroir (since terroir cuisine in each region uses products grown locally) and the notion implies a lot of local pride. And I mean, A LOT. Terroir literally means "land, earth".)
I wanted to talk about molecular vs terroir debate through Puck and Marcel. Marcel represents molecular cuisine - he really was set on it during the whole season 2 of Top Chef, and had even been criticized and turned into derision by his colleagues on the set for using "foam" with every dish he did. Puck represents the voice of the chefs who choose to stick to terroir and old, sturdy values in cuisine. I've always seen Puck as a little conservative, and I could also very well imagine he would root for simplicity and nice, clean dishes if he were a chef. In my fic, I've chosen Paul Bocuse as Puck's personal hero, and Marcel had been very clear in Top Chef that Joël Robuchon was his (which is interesting because whereas Robuchon doesn't necessarily root for terroir and classical cuisine, he's not too fond of molecular cuisine and often condemns it, even if he admits that Ferran Adrià is a very talented chef).
***Nouvelle Cuisine, Paul Bocuse and Joël Robuchon
Which leads me to the fascinating subject of Nouvelle Cuisine and Paul Bocuse.
First you need to know that Paul Bocuse is considered to be the greatest chef of all times, and it's a fact he's the most awarded ever. He's still alive and running a restaurant near Lyon in France.
Joël Robuchon and Paul Bocuse are part of the founders of Nouvelle Cuisine. It's a culinary movement that began in the 70s in France, when an important cultural revolution was at work : at that time, currents branded "nouveau/nouvelle" (which simply means "new" in French) were born, that raised against conservative and classical values. Cinema had Nouvelle Vague, Literature had Nouveau Roman, etc. And the small world of cuisine in France at that time was dramatically stagnating, because the chefs had to stick to a canon of recipes that were kind of "sacred" and never meant to be changed. There was a very precise way of preparing each dish that were listed under immutable names : sole Dugléré, Tournedos Rossini, etc.
Then Bocuse and Robuchon came along, and even at that time the concept of deconstruction was involved in their new philosophy: no more heavy and greasy sauces that had to be prepared three days before, the food no longer needs to be cooked for hours, nor to be presented whole: in Nouvelle Cuisine, it's served in small portions, bite-sizes, accompanied by small vegetables cut to tiny bits with a technique called julienne. The chefs can also use modern devices, like microwave ovens, sherbet machines, fridges, blenders. The time of cooking is reduced, so the product can be as faithful to itself as can be, some "new" cooking techniques are used to that purpose: steam, stir-fry, grill, etc. Finally, chefs that follow Nouvelle Cuisine principles want to appeal to all five of the human senses, so the artistic aspect of the plate is extremely important too, it has to be pleasing to the eye as well as the palate.
As I said before, new movements are often criticized, and Nouvelle Cuisine got a few scratches too - mainly because some unprofessional self-appointed "chefs" that claimed to belong to Nouvelle Cuisine started to flood the market with ridiculously small bits of food in giant plates and crazy prices. So, Nouvelle Cuisine at some point became synonymous to rip off and held a pejorative connotation for the longest time in France. I mean I grew up hearing about how Nouvelle Cuisine was a fraud, something very expensive that left you very hungry - and before I did my research about it I used to keep thinking along those lines, even though I was completely ignorant of the true principles of Nouvelle Cuisine, which are pretty much the norm everywhere, now.
It's because of Nouvelle Cuisine's bad reputation that Paul Bocuse, who had a very classical training as a chef, decided to drop it and go back to a more conservative style of cooking, and at the same time insisting on simplicity above all, serving dishes in his restaurant that are perfectly executed, without any fancy trick.
It's fascinating to me how cuisine seems to keep going back and forth between classical and modern, between innovation and conservatism. And in France, terroir is always a value you can go back to.
Anyway, Bocuse will appear again later in my fic, so that's enough with him for now. ^^
2 - Puck's sardine, Marcel's oysters
Marcel's dish in his cook-off with Puck has been inspired by a recipe I found in a (veeeeery expensive) gourmet magazine. It's representative of molecular cuisine, with at least two of its founding elements: the ever-criticized foam ("espuma", in the fic, which is Ferran Adrià's term; it simply means "foam" in Spanish), and the flash-freezed meringue made with liquid nitrogen, which is an ingredient very often used in molecular cuisine. The meringue was inspired by the documentary I saw about molecular cuisine: it was served in molecular chef Heston Blumenthal's restaurant, The Fat Duck, in England, except it was yuzu, and not oyster-flavoured. Molecular cuisine often plays on the shape of the food, so the variation of oysters under many forms was right in the theme too.
***"It was almost reminiscent of japanese cuisine, the subtlety with which it was all put together and the fact that it was less about the taste, which was, mainly, iodine, than about the texture."
This sentence can easily be understood if you've ever tasted the japanese dish called oden. Oden is a dish consisting of several ingredients (boiled eggs, cut-up vegetables, fish cakes etc) boiled in a dashi broth; so most of the components taste like, well, dashi. But you really start to understand this dish when you realize that it's not about the taste, which basically remains the same even though it's good, but about the play on the textures of the different components. This is to me the true genious of Japanese cuisine, this whole new dimension to explore.
As for Puck's sardine dish, I mainly composed it myself, even though I got the idea of the crunchy sardine out of an expensive book about a prestigious restaurant in Boulogne, Paris. I eat everything and I'm not picky, but sardine to me is definitely not the sexiest fish ever, so I thought Puck would show he's a true great chef if he could make something great out of it - it's like having a haircut that's commonly considered awful and rocking it (like, say, I dunno, a mohawk ;P ). As for the rest of the dish, there you have typical "terroir" with Provençale cuisine. Provence is a region in the south of France, and the flavours are very recognizable - tomatoes, olives, herbs, that sort of thing. The herbs are the most famous part of Provençale cuisine, since there's an herb mix called after the region: "herbes de Provence", tout simplement (its composition is thyme, rosemary, basil, oregano, sweet marjoram, and savory).
3 - Foie gras or not foie gras?
I have to admit first that I'm crazy about foie gras, and it's a delicacy that I find fascinating too because there are major ethical questions about animal rights that are raised with it, and even though nowadays people are widely informed about it thanks to the animal rights associations, even though they know very well how the geese are, let's face it, tortured, they can't seem to quit it. It creates a really strange relationship to it, food!kink in the stricter sense, with the self endlessly battling with the superego "-I shouldn't -But it's so good -But I really shouldn't, it's wrong -And yet so right" -- if you see what I mean.
All I know is that I wouldn't eat foie gras every day, only for special occasions and celebrations, but I also would be very sad in a world where it doesn't exist.
I personally prefer my foie gras dipped in a little flour then seared, with something that adds a sugary taste to it, like bits of pear, or grape. When the foie gras is presented as a terrine, I think it's best to eat it on a piece of black bread with onion jam, or fig jam, and with a glass of Sauternes - or Riesling. My number one guilty pleasure, though, the one that I can only whisper about in the dark is... seared foie gras on a steak, in a burger, Châteaubriand style. It's as guilty as can be, and it makes my toes literally curl when I eat one.
But foie gras will also make another apparition in this fic, so that's enough about it.
4 - Puck's radish toast
Inspired by a recipe found on a fellow French comicker's gourmet blog, A boire et à manger by Guillaume Long. It's a great read, but I'm afraid it's all in French. I changed the original recipe a bit and replaced the cream cheese (well it's not exactly cream cheese, it's a typically French product called fromage frais) by cottage cheese mixed with creme fraiche/fresh cream, the texture is a little lumpy because of the cottage cheese and I find that delicious. There also was garlic in the original recipe but I didn't think it was necessary.
Anyway, it's a very fresh and delicious snack, and it's extremely easy to make, so do try this at home. ^^ I insist on the red radishes, they're the best. Don't put too much fresh herbs, otherwise they'll really be overwhelming and you'll feel like you're munching grass.
Sometimes I put salted butter on the toast first like it's mentionned in the fic, but it has to be really, really good salted butter, because I consider salted butter to be srsly srs bsns!
I'm sorry, that was a very long post because of the part about food philosophy, the next bonus posts won't have to be so long, hopefully.
Okay, done! On to chapter 2, now! ^^
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-06-19 01:14 pm (UTC)I can't say I'm a Foodie at all. I mean I love food, and I love to eat, but I hate cooking with a vengeance. Not other people cooking, because I strive to be a kept woman, I like the idea of someone catering to my tastes, and I occasionally indulge in the Food Network, but me physically cooking? Hate! :D
Before this, I hadn't even a vague idea about the different approaches to cooking, let alone the top chefs owning the scene, so this entry is a real treat!
One of my close friends, who's a total Foodie, recently told me about Michelin stars, so hold shit! Three?! That's crazy! And I had no idea that a molecular style of cooking even existed! I'm super intrigued.
But there is ONE thing I'm familiar with on this list. Salted butter. OMG. Even thinking about it makes me shiver. I've never been huge on butter, growing up on Asian food never really warranted butter, so I've never really had it around. But when I was in Denmark... There's just something about the frickin' butter! And it just wasn't the same back home, so I thought I was crazy, delusions brought on from having to survive on bread and butter alone for far too long. But then when I was in S. Korea (random, I know) I meet this cute Korean girl who lived in Denmark all her life, that informed me that it was because the butter was salted! Mystery solved, and I'm not crazy, it IS different! :DDDD
So thanks again for this! I really appreciated it, I was curious, but a little too lazy to do the research myself, and this entry definitely addressed any questions I might of had, and even some I didn't know existed!
no subject
Date: 2010-06-20 01:05 pm (UTC)because I strive to be a kept woman, I like the idea of someone catering to my tastes
I love cooking, but when it comes to eating, I love others' cooking even more. I mean I find the process of cooking super fun and enjoyable, but I'm often bored to eat my own dishes, because I know what they'll taste like, since I've been there like, all the time, you know? And you've already eaten, like, 75% of your dish while you're cooking because of the smell.
Hahaha maybe that's why I shall never spawn children ("Get the fuck out of my face, newborn son/daughter, I've seen you enough already. I've been carrying you for 9 months and I've been there the whole time, believe me, so you hold no surprises for me anymore, okay? Off with you!")
Thank you so much for commenting on this entry, I was afraid I would be the only one interested by all these things (which would be understandable, I'm such a nerd about everything!)
One of my close friends, who's a total Foodie, recently told me about Michelin stars
Ack, I knew I forgot a ton of things; the Michelin guide of course! Well, this post was already long enough as it is. Maybe I'll speak about the Michelin guide in another one, maybe not. There is not much to say about it though.
And, yes, salted butter! OMG there is only unsalted butter in your country? Unsalted is good for cooking, but when it comes to taste I can't do without salted butter! If you come to Paris, don't hesitate to tell me, I'll make you taste salted butter where you can see the salt crystals in it, it's TDF.
I am so relieved you found this post interesting, seriously, I can't thank you enough for your comment! Next bonus post will have photos! :DD
no subject
Date: 2010-06-25 12:30 pm (UTC)LOVING IT! :D)
That's kind of what I feel about cooking too! Except take out love, and insert hate. It's just so much work!!! You take forever, slicing and dicing, mixing things together, watching, waiting, and for what?!
You eat it and then DONE.
That's it. It's gone, and now you're left with clean up. Thanks for NOTHING!
I totally don't understand people who like to cook, I appreciate it, because I benefit from it, but I don't get it!
I mean, I like to bake or cook sometimes. But only if it's with friends. Otherwise I find it too boring and too much effort, I'd rather just eat cereal. Also I need Adult Supervision. I have a tendency to wander off in the middle of making something, cue fiery mayhem! I have no patience.
Love your take on children! It makes more sense to me than it really should! How refreshing! Hee hee!
And there is salted butter in Canada, but I think my previous experience with salted butter in Europe was one of those moments in time, where the stars aligned, and everything was just magical. I haven't wanted to fuck with that memory, so I haven't had any since! I'm ridiculous, right? :)
But omg, stop tempting me! Believe you, me! I would love nothing more than to be in Paris right now, gorging on salted butter with salt crystals (MMMMM!!!!), but I'm so poor this summer, I'm keeping my travels strictly in N. America this time around. :(
OMG. Photos?! You are so bad! Not only am I subject to your delicious food descriptions and your Excerpt of ze Month: Uh, YUM (although I wonder how a samosa can possibly be emasculated? How quaint!). But now I have to look at pictures of yummy food?! You're determined to make me wallow in my own drool, aren't you? Evil Woman!
no subject
Date: 2010-06-27 08:34 am (UTC)LOVING IT! :D)
"You're Japanese? I have nunchuks. Wanna see them?"
and your Excerpt of ze Month: Uh, YUM (although I wonder how a samosa can possibly be emasculated? How quaint!).
It's from this wonderful book I'm reading. Jay Rayner is a judge on Top Chef Masters and, if his book is any indication, he has a delightful sense of humor (it's not often that I laugh out loud in the subway when I'm reading a book!). I wanted to quote this whole part just because of the expression "emasculated samosa" which I find absolutely genius - out of the context it's a bit odd, yes, because in fact he says that Muscovites don't like spice in their food, and he's at an Indian restaurant in Moscow where he knows the chef because the latter has a restaurant in London too, except in Russia he can't put any chilli in the food - so the "emasculated" part is because the samosa is not spicy at all! I found the association of the words very poetic and spot on, to describe such a blasphemy.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-19 09:54 pm (UTC)And I know how you feel about fois gras. Damn that shit is good, but....
no subject
Date: 2010-06-20 01:22 pm (UTC)but one ignorant of the traditional French (I actually know more about molecular) this was wildly interesting...
IKR!? I love History too, especially specific history that people generally don't know about or don't really bother to write about, like history of cooking, history of comics, or, I dunno, history of fandom and slash, that sort of thing. That kind of specific knowledge is terribly attractive to me.
There is something I forgot to say, though, it's that if molecular is the equivalent of avant-garde or modern art, Nouvelle Cuisine chefs are similar to impressionists painters, it's pretty much the same concept and philosophy... I find that parallel simply mind-boggling! There is a neverending debate about cooking being a craft or an art, but to me it's definitely an art. ^^
And I know how you feel about fois gras. Damn that shit is good, but....
Yeah... although I have to say, I don't feel all that bad eating it, sadly for the geese. I love animals, but sometimes I'm too busy getting off on how good they taste to care.
Maybe I'll do a post about the trend called "cruel cuisine" in Japan, have you heard about it? Because that's also something I find utterly fascinating (like I do with anything that blurs the boundaries between refinement and perversion, in fact). Plus I think it's yet another dimension that the Japanese have added to their cuisine, it's really very strange and terribly interesting.
Aaah in fact I can't wait to talk about it! *iz desperate case*
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Date: 2010-06-27 11:57 pm (UTC)First off, amazing first amuse-bouche. I you can count me in on future amuse-bouche posts!
After reading this, not only do I have a severe craving for food (and I just had some fruits with honey-yogurt sauce not too long ago!), but a powerful desire to check out some of the food blogs I've subscribed to over the past few months.
Also? Molecular cuisine sounds wicked. Anthony Bourdain interviewed Homaro Cantu (of MOTO), who I believe is considered a molecular gastronomer, in his Chicago edition of No Reservations. The concept seems alien, but brilliant.
I think I might have attempted to dabble in molecular cuisine once a very long time ago. I had tried to make my own food essence. It sounded brilliant: this amazing flavoring agent that has a supposedly very extensive shelf-life, since perishable components of the ingredients were strained away using some method I can't recall--I remember it called for gelatin, though. It didn't work out, but it was an interesting concept I'd definitely want to try my hand at again.
"it's like having a haircut that's commonly considered awful and rocking it (like, say, I dunno, a mohawk ;P )." --WIN! :D
Also, I checked out that link for the radish toast, but all I saw were (really cute) pictures. I couldn't spot the recipe, though!
I'll quit my fangasming/rambling, and say that I am excited for the next chapter of your foodie's wet dream in [Unknown site tag], as well as an amuse-bouch, part two! (: ♥
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Date: 2010-06-27 11:59 pm (UTC)IfWhen I try foie gras, if I find it delicious, I know it'll be a love-hate relationship.no subject
Date: 2010-06-28 10:03 pm (UTC)About the ethics, it's something I find really interesting in cooking too, I really really want to do a whole entry about "cruel cuisine" in Japan even though I don't think it'll ever be mentionned in the fic, have you heard of it?
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Date: 2010-06-29 04:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-14 12:30 pm (UTC)However, it was difficult to be critical as I am sure as many occurrences happen in my home city. The major difference here is that it is not open to public viewing, but is hidden.
I have asked myself many times 'what is worse?' a society where this occurs and everyone is aware, or a society where it occurs, but everyone is in denial?
I still eat meat even though I have seen how it is prepared, but I don't like or want to see it still moving. So I'm a little ashamed to find that I am a bit of a hypocrite. I have to give full credit to the Japanese who are, at the very least, cognisant of reality and not in denial, dreaming that animal slaughter is done in a kind or painless way.
I think western society can sometimes pick and choose our food issues, focussing on just those processes that are in the open and seen by the media, but not necessarily those occurring in our own abbatoirs.
Thanks for the really interesting and informative aside!
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Date: 2010-06-28 09:59 pm (UTC)I think I might have attempted to dabble in molecular cuisine once a very long time ago.
O____o Wow. And you're super young too! What kind of genius are you? Seriously, I'm impressed!
Also, I checked out that link for the radish toast, but all I saw were (really cute) pictures. I couldn't spot the recipe, though!
Ha, in fact, I realized that Guillaume Long didn't precise proportions on his recipe either, so in fact, the whole recipe is already in the fic! I guess how much herbs, cream and cottage cheese you put in the preparation depends on your tastes in the end. ^^
as well as an amuse-bouch, part two! (:
WITH PICTURES!!! °0°/ Hahaha I'm really looking forward to post this. :D
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Date: 2010-06-29 04:42 am (UTC)PICTURES--! \o/
Consider that an Inter-spaz. :P I love food porn. God, visual food porn is WIN.
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Date: 2011-04-17 06:37 pm (UTC)BTW, I tried Puck's radish toast, it's fantastic =]
Regarding foie gras, it's always a polemic question. I particularly don't like it, because I hate every form and source of liver. Bleh.