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