Good Morning, Oysters!

Eggs Benedict w/ Fried Oysters

Oyster Po-Boy

Trip to New Orleans

The CC departs for New Orleans tomorrow.

He will leave with a Mark Twain quote:

New Orleans food is as delicious as the less criminal forms of sin.

Oysters, ahoy!

The Acquisitions

Vast quantities of dried anchovies (bulinaw), tiny dried shrimp, organic sugarcane vinegar from Ilocos(sukang iloko), calamansi jam, and crab roe fat (taba ng talangka.)

The last is a Filipino specialty which is both utterly delicious and heart-cloggingly fatty.

Konkan Café

The CC normally never endorses restaurants but has been known to make exceptions for exceptional ones (duh!)

This is one of them.

In Mumbai, in a tourist-encrusted corner, a man (Ananda Solomon) is trying to make classically home-down cuisine from the coastal regions of Maharashtra.

He has women (yes, women - there are no males traditionally!) come in every morning to grind the spices the ol'-fashioned way using a mortar and pestle.

The results speak for themselves.

Is it expensive? Yes, it is. But attention to detail always is.

The CC (who's a cheapskate at heart) will happily pay out for a meal of this anal-retentive detail every single time!

Yes, this is seafood-oriented (as a true coastal cuisine would be) but if you are vegetarian, just tell the chef to make whatever pleases him, and he will deliver. The coastal regions have vegetarian traditions too. This is India where every goddamn place has a "traditional" vegetarian tradition!!!

(There were a buncha Gujarati losers on the adjacent table who made their way into one of the great restaurants of all time, and ordered mundane crap. It was extraordinarily painful to watch. These money-grubbin' ass-monkeys were, quite literally, not aware of their own culture. The chef, who attended them personally, was a masterpiece of Japanese emotion — inwardly seething while outwardly polite.)

On a more positive note, the squid was ethereal, and the dessert (jackfruit, not very sweet) was so divine that the CC who normally doesn't like dessert would eat it by the bucketful.

This is the food that gods themselves would desire!


banana flower fritters
sol kadhi

jackfruit in coconut milk
Konkan Café.
(Mumbai, India)

Kerala Meal

matta rice, meen (fish) curry, pappadum,
vegetable avial, prawns, lentils

The Haul

Could you imagine the CC going to the Spice Coast and not hauling back massive quantities of spices? Didn't think so!

Without further ado, let's just jump into the haul.

black pepper
green pepper
cinnamon
cloves
nutmeg
cardamom
dagad phool
marati moggu
kudampuli
asafoetida
rosematta rice

The asafoetida is the real thing not the stuff diluted with wheat and rice powder that you get in stores!

India

The CC is off to India for more culinary adventures. Back in a few weeks.

The Haul

The CC was away on a mini-vacation to Lake Placid.

On the way back, at the farmers' market in nearby Keene, he picked up: celeriac, carrots, garlic, red onions, pearl onions, baby potatoes, lamb shanks and lamb kidneys.

On this nippy Sunday evening, a vegetable broth is being prepared. The carrot fronds, and celeriac fronds will not be wasted.

They will glow with the golden song of a late summer.

Fideua in Barcelona

This was a magnificent meal. The CC had the fideua negra (black noodles with cuttlefish in its ink.)

The second dish, pan con tomate (bread rubbed with olive oil, garlic and tomatoes) is deceptively simple. Make it right, and it's so heavenly that you could just eat it all day long. (Once again, pictures do not do it justice.)

Anchovies with olive oil and sherry vinegar
Pan con tomate
Fideua negra

Particularly for the vegetarians ...

Cochinillon (Suckling Pig)

A Spectacular Meal in Córdoba!

This is one of those epic meals that you only encounter once in your life. Naturally, the CC disdains such absurdly romantic notions so he went there for lunch two days later, and experienced it twice!

The picture of tomatoes below is deceptive. A picture cannot do it justice; it was poetry on a plate.

They were "only" tomatoes, sprinkled with fleur de sel (fiori di sale), and drizzled with olive oil. However, the tomatoes had quite literally been picked minutes before from the garden. They were still warm from the heat of the sun, and smelled like TOMATOES.

When years from now, the CC has his "madeleine"-moment, these tomatoes will be it!

Salmorejo, Gazpacho
Ajo blanco (Gazpacho with almonds)
Tomatoes with fleur de sel and olive oil
Frituras de verduras (Fried vegetables)
Rabo del toro (Braised oxtail)
Flan
Espresso

Spain

The CC is headed to Spain for a "long" vacation. Back with wondrous food stories "soon"!

India : Day 8 : Post 2

We're doing a repeat eatery. Original eats post was here.

Why mess around when it's this good, eh?

India : Day 8 : Post 1

Black chickpeas, potatoes, onions, green chillies, black salt, lime.

This shit is addictive, yo!

India : Day 7 : Post 2

Perfectly "ordinary" lunch (by Indian standards.)

Those of you are salivating (and the CC sees you there, in the corner), time for some reevaluation.

Oh, and lunch for four cost less than a typical New York lunch sandwich. And this is a "tourist town" hence "absurdly overpriced".

Capisce, paisano?

India : Day 7 : Post 1

This is the hotel breakfast which was one of the great WTF moments of all time.

It's pan-Indian, and a total mish-mash. It's like having pancakes, and pasta, and pad thai in the same meal. (Clearly, they are catering to some very confused tourists!)

However, the CC is purist but not that purist. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. That's eat breakfast. Especially if it's good.

India : Day 6 : Post 1

We drove to Agra on day 6. Started very early, and stopped at a local dhaba (trucker's restaurant) for a late breakfast.

Vegetables fried in chickpea batter. Nothing like a good nutritious meal to start the day right!

We liked it so much, we ordered a second round (pictorial proof provided below.) It's topped with kala namak, of course.

Piggy, piggy, piggy. Oink, oink, oink!

India : Day 5 : Post 7

We were pigs on Day 5. We skipped dinner. It wasn't missed.

India : Day 5 : Post 6

It's only the fifth day in India, and the sixth food post for the day, and we've just gotten to lunch time.

If you're under the opinion that all the CC did in India was eat and eat and eat and then just for good measure eat some more, you would only be partially right.

We did eat though.

India : Day 5 : Post 5 : Paranthewalli Galli

This is the famous Paranthewalli Galli in Delhi's Chandni Chowk neighborhood. We are talking tiny tiny lanes which are narrow, crowded, and super-filthy.

Naturally, the food is out of the world because nobody but the locals and the criminally insane would go there (so the CC qualifies!)

They only make one thing - paratha's. Stuffed with innumerous ingredients as the first photograph shows. The second word in all the items is just paratha so the CC will just list out all of the stuffings from top to bottom: potato, lentils, fenugreek leaves, cauliflower, radish, peas, paapdi, parwal, carrots, "mixed", paneer, mint, lime, "rolled", "sweet", fruit and nuts, cashews, raisins, almonds, rabdi, "golden", banana, bitter melon, okra, and tomatoes.

The place is pure vegetarian (being run and originally catering to the Brahmins) and the food is cooked in ghee (clarified butter.)

This was breakfast which started the day off on a perfectly healthy note. Hey! The CC was on vacation.

The lassi featured below comes from a neighboring shop. They outsource! And focus on what they do best. (Ricardo lives!!!) If you order it, a boy is sent (child labor laws be damned!) and you can have a complete meal.

Please note that the cup of lassi is disposable and bio-degradable. It's just clay. Elementary, my dear fellows!