food i've eaten

there is no point to give you a whole long spiel about how i am sorry for being absent from this blog for a while and how i promise to get back into it. the point is that i am excited about recent culinary delights and i'd like you to hear about them so you can enjoy them yourself. also, don't expect any personal dishes in the near future. living at home has its perks- mom cooks better than anyone so why bother? catsitting in the west village also has its perks- seamless- case and point. so this is more of a chronical of bites that i've digested over the past however many months. enjoy, dream, savor, repeat.

chai. pretty much sums up my culinary experience in africa. however, this chai (black tea, freshly pasteurized milk, and a ton of sugar) is a symbol of hospitality. i was served chai maybe four times over the course of my 24-hour homestay with a maasai family. it was delicious and required several pre-emptive immodiums.

 The Rock. the best restaurant and taste of food i had my entire stay in east africa. we took a boat to this restaurant off the west coast of zanzibar. what a treat...

south african white and the BEST chapati. 

pasta three ways: crawfish tomato sauce, fresh pesto and shrimp, gnocchi with vanilla bean

And then there was paris, back to my old tricks.

amsterdam apple pie n' mint tea.

all the way back to montreal

with its summertime corn gazpacho

 

and japanese (kazu for those mtl'ers)

green tea fro yo, yo.

home again, home again lox and bagels. 

jalapeno skillet corn bread with butter ball on top

SALAD. something you learn to miss. 

clinton street baking company--blueberry pancakes with maple butter

 fried potato skins with melted cheddar

new york macarons, jasmine

 grilled sea bass & fresh garlic puree, thanks batali

happy hour oysters on the half shell

 cheese & chutney

burrata BLT @ murray's 

oh yeah

yellow raspberries, home-grown

 blueberry waffles waddup

philharmonic picnics

#sweetlorens cookies

watermelon, heirloom tomato, basil & feta

grilled octopus and hearts of palm relish

chocolate rosemary & salted caramel goat's milk fro yo, YO

seamless. 

brooklyn star fried chicken waffle cone with mash & slaw

 

almost as good as the real thing

 

and some more FRO-YO, YOOO, because, why not?

exam time

it's exam time and all i can think of is this

a piping hot ramekin of near-carmelized onion soup doused with a healthy portion of gruyère and cirspy baguette, broiled to a "T." the process isn't hard, but it requires a lot of lovin' aka time i don't have. 

                                            a side of gnocchi in sage butter couldn't hurt either

                   

                                                             compliments to the chef

i expect this to be my homecoming dinner

love, 

your hard-working near-college grad.

the things i miss

i miss my bunk bed and being able to peek over the top and ask my roommate "are you awake?" i miss my morning pain au chocolat, right out of the oven. i miss my thirty minute commute to kookaboora and my flat white and scone while catching a glimpse of the church on a hill. i miss the early morning bike rides across bridges, and the city bathed in a sense of calm quietness. i miss the three euro cheese, the two euro wine, and the one euro baguette. i miss the red bricks and the fountains of my favorite square. i miss my friends at l'as and the Po'. i miss my apple juice grocer at the market. i miss my shoemaker. i miss closing the cashier at chez janou. i miss the bartenders at candelaria. i miss the views. i miss everything. i miss Paris. i miss this...

 and this...

 and this...

and this...

and most certainly this.

je t'aime toujours.

a winning combination

good company and good food. there is nothing like it, especially in the form of your adoring parents. just last week they joined me in tasting many "firsts" including the ski trip to chamonix i've been dreaming of my whole life. my eyes are open like 5 minute old infant, seeing the world anew! of course i am casually referring to some classic french dishes that i have been saving to savor at the right moment. i'm talking the likes of scalding hot fondue aux cepes aka mushrooms (yes i scalded my mouth taking the first bite #rookiemistake), silky smooth foie gras with saint jacques scallops that melts in your mouth- the most delicate food in the world..."tastes like butta," escargot-- a garlicky mesh of mussel like rubberiness and sweet sweet butter that you pop into your mouth like "new wave" popcorn. in addition to paper thin apple tart tatin, crêpes suzette que flambées au Grand-Marnier- yes, flaming in front of you but not in the touristy asian steakhouse sense, and finally, a stinky, gooey, pungent, cheese cart to which, i must admit, my palate is adapting.

crêpes suzette 

"La Vallée Blanche," the 22 km glacier i skied down spotted with crevasses and views of Mont Blanc #unforgettable

prior to break all my friends were discussing their whirlwind excursions to places like portugal, copenhagen, morocco etc. when they asked what i was doing i said "skiing with my parents in the french alps." their mouths dropped and responded "wow you're so lucky, you are going to eat so well." and that i did. in fact so well, that i feel the need to detox after ten days of two hour feasts with accompanying wine and dessert. after that long your stomach starts expanding and and you arrive at a perpetual state of bliss and horror at the fact that you cannot bend down to tie your shoe for fear of projectiling. however, i do not regret it...

 oysters as part of a six-course seasonal prix-fixe menu at "saturne"

 course #4

 escargot avec mashed taters at hole-in-the-wall "le timbre"

quail at "le timbre"

(here we waited for approximately half an hour for the check, a normal amount for paris, a phenomenon of which i have never observed in such formality) 

millefeuille (aka napoleon to us new yorkers) at "le timbre"

to end the week of eating off just right, i went to my newly discovered cousin's bat-mitzvah in paris. after all of the shabbat services, friday night and saturday morning we were treated to familial warmth and classic jewish sephardic food. the tables were laced in israeli salads of hummus, roasted red peppers, potato salads, challah, eggplant dips, marduma (a tomato-y spread), and the list goes on. we indulged, we drank, we sang, we talked for hours. i felt home again even with family i barely knew and half way across the ocean from my home. 

the party. we cannot forget the party. at the King George V Four Seasons off Champs-Élysées, it was quite the soirée. i could survive on the hors-d'oeuvres buffet alone. tables upon tables of specialty foods from zabar's-like smoked salmon-- that smooth buttery salmon i missed so much on a toasted sesame bagel with cream cheese- ah, to sushi and champagne with strawberries, smoked meat, ceviche, mini-bites of fried finger food, and the pièce de résistance...a foie gras table!!! yes, logs of foie gras on little toastettes, and even foie gras macaroons! such indulgence.

foie

 mini baguettes, obviously 

  the dessert plate

des fruits

everything is better "mini"

impromptu crepe making

 classic

 the french got mad style

disclaimer: this dessert buffet will be featured at my wedding.

that is all

♥   אמא ואבא

oh what a beautiful day

i always imagined my 21st birthday would be spent at a bar in NYC with some friends, but this was so much more.

i spent the day like a true parisian. it started off with bikram yoga at a studio in the marais right across from centre pompidou, then a leisurely walk to the city's oldest covered market to pick up fresh produce and flowers. made friends with the grocer boy and he gave me free heirloom tomatoes and a pomegranate! did a little pampering then cooked a "feast" (by feast, i mean a decent enough amount of food that i could physically cook in 3 hours) for my glorious new friends in celebration of my golden year. il y avait beaucoup de vin et beaucoup de pain et c'etait comme un rêve.

oriental meatballs, mushroom, butter and chive toastettes (yes, i made up this word), baked chicken with roasted eggplant, mustard, and grapefruit juice, saffron rice, guacamole, spinach salad with strawberries, mangoes, and nuts with honey vinaigrette, baked brie, malibu guava juice cocktails

gnawing at the homemade tiramisu (thank you Noemie)

après dinner, a few friends and i moseyed on over to my favorite bar and chatted up my waiter friends. met some new frenchies who happen to own restaurants in paris and ny (food havens of the world). out of the corner of my eye i saw kristin wiig, yes the most hysterical woman on tv, wearing bright pink jeans and a top bun. i stormed out of the bar after her, pushed her boyfriend aside (who is actually the drummer for the strokes) and exclaimed, "kristen! is that you?!" she was cute and wished me a happy birthday and i tried to play it cool and chat her up as if we've been pen pals for years, but my giddiness won out. 

 

i think it suits that this picture is blurred, because it truly felt like a dream. 

we cheers, wined, and dined...all the ingredients for a perfect 21st in paris.

a gift unto myself

the pamplemousse is my favorite. 

 february 21st

un bon weekend

the lunch plan was farm fresh crepes, but the place was packed. the next best was pizza. so we wandered into the "pink flamingo." for some strange reason i got the vibe that i was sitting at "pizza jerks" in killington, vermont, on the way home from an icy ski weekend on the east coast. the checkered table cloths, laid back waiter, and the decked out volkswagen van parked in front helped recreate the scene.

even the french can perfect american dishes. i ordered "l'Obama" aka "hawaiian" pizza and it outdid my expectations.

cheese, bacon, pineapple CHUTNEY

my friend stuck with classic french cuisine...

a selection of charcuterie and pickles

 a nice place to hang

for dinner, my dear friend came over to cook for me, though we both chipped in our fair share. 

inventive ingredients

 a first for everything

 the ghetto way to cook chicken

i have to say this was one of my greatest accomplishments...cooking without a recipe. especially the chicken turned out perfect. i smothered it in roasted red pepper and eggplant tapenade, mustard, and grapefruit juice, salt 'n' peppa. the skin was perfectly crisp and the juices were oozing. 

except the poor zucchini shriveled up

 roasted chicken, pesto/squid ink infused spaghetti with creme fraiche, basil, and comte sauce, zucchini, and strange cauliflower-esque vegetable with carmelized onions

this meal required beaucoup d'improvisation, but it was all the better. kwaku stepped in to add the finishing touches. 

we cool

an improvised snuggie

as we eat all meals with candlelight and christmas lights, my photos always come out tinted yellow, but the warmth is palpable. and today i went on a "roomie" date and we enjoyed our carrot coconut milk soup with a dish from my childhood...

 pan con tomate (tomato mush spread) with garlic and oil

c'etait un weekend magnifique.