Food and Social Class

One of the greatest descriptions of the relationship of food to mores and social class is undoubtedly the description of Madame Bovary encountering the dining room at the ball given by the Marquis in Flaubert's masterpiece.

What is left unstated is just as important as what is shown.

Emma's shock realization that many of the women had not put their gloves in their glasses (the conventional way for women to notify the servers that they were abstemious in the consumption of wine) is a show-stopper for her - the idea that women of a certain social rank would publicly consume wine is unthinkable to the petit bourgeois society that she is a product of.

The Marquis opened the drawing room door; one of the ladies (the Marchioness herself) came to meet Emma. She made her sit down by her on an ottoman, and began talking to her as amicably as if she had known her a long time. She was a woman of about forty, with fine shoulders, a hook nose, a drawling voice, and on this evening she wore over her brown hair a simple guipure fichu that fell in a point at the back. A fair young woman sat in a high-backed chair in a corner; and gentlemen with flowers in their buttonholes were talking to ladies round the fire.

At seven dinner was served. The men, who were in the majority, sat down at the first table in the vestibule; the ladies at the second in the dining room with the Marquis and Marchioness.

Emma, on entering, felt herself wrapped round by the warm air, a blending of the perfume of flowers and of the fine linen, of the fumes of the viands, and the odour of the truffles. The silver dish covers reflected the lighted wax candles in the candelabra, the cut crystal covered with light steam reflected from one to the other pale rays; bouquets were placed in a row the whole length of the table; and in the large-bordered plates each napkin, arranged after the fashion of a bishop's mitre, held between its two gaping folds a small oval shaped roll. The red claws of lobsters hung over the dishes; rich fruit in open baskets was piled up on moss; there were quails in their plumage; smoke was rising; and in silk stockings, knee-breeches, white cravat, and frilled shirt, the steward, grave as a judge, offering ready carved dishes between the shoulders of the guests, with a touch of the spoon gave you the piece chosen. On the large stove of porcelain inlaid with copper baguettes the statue of a woman, draped to the chin, gazed motionless on the room full of life.

Madame Bovary noticed that many ladies had not put their gloves in their glasses.

But at the upper end of the table, alone amongst all these women, bent over his full plate, and his napkin tied round his neck like a child, an old man sat eating, letting drops of gravy drip from his mouth. His eyes were bloodshot, and he wore a little queue tied with black ribbon. He was the Marquis's father-in-law, the old Duke de Laverdiere, once on a time favourite of the Count d'Artois, in the days of the Vaudreuil hunting-parties at the Marquis de Conflans', and had been, it was said, the lover of Queen Marie Antoinette, between Monsieur de Coigny and Monsieur de Lauzun. He had lived a life of noisy debauch, full of duels, bets, elopements; he had squandered his fortune and frightened all his family. A servant behind his chair named aloud to him in his ear the dishes that he pointed to stammering, and constantly Emma's eyes turned involuntarily to this old man with hanging lips, as to something extraordinary. He had lived at court and slept in the bed of queens! Iced champagne was poured out. Emma shivered all over as she felt it cold in her mouth. She had never seen pomegranates nor tasted pineapples. The powdered sugar even seemed to her whiter and finer than elsewhere.

Six-Packs (the abs, darling, not the beer!)

In French, they are les tablettes de chocolat, consumption of which will definitely not lead to the desired result.

In Which the CC Plays Detective ...

The CC had tapas at a Spanish restaurant quite a while back, and they had served pan-fried Marcona almonds with sea-salt. The CC tends to be more than a little sceptical of all the branding that goes on (Marcona, Shmarcona!)

What was so special about the "Marcona" almonds anyway? They seemed like your basic almonds with an almondy flavor (what else?)

The question was straightforward. Were the almonds special or was the prep special (pan-fried with olive oil with some great sea salt?) Or was it just the copious amount of wine consumed?

Well, the CC decided to replicate the completely obvious recipe (pan-fry, drain on paper towels, add finely ground sea salt) with cheap-ass almonds bought from a local ethnic market.

Bottom Line: It's the sea salt. There is nothing remotely special about the Marcona almonds but the sea salt makes a huge difference.

Almonds with Sea Salt

Chanterelle Dinner

Salad with Fig Vinegar, Pistachios and Gorgonzola
Strozzapreti with Chanterelles and Thyme

Basil Baseline

So the CC bought some basil at a grocery store, and it had roots and was clearly vibrant so he planted it and verily, after a few hiccups it took root and has been flourishing ever since.

A tad surprising given all the brouhaha about "commercial agriculture" (as opposed to what, jackasses? "loss-ridden agriculture"?!?)

Results, fellow gastronauts, results!

Chanterelle, Chanterelle, Chanterelle

It may not be obvious but the first picture features a 7-inch mushroom, and the last picture features 3+ lbs. of those babies!

Yes, we have no shame. We ate them all.

Brunch

Scrambled Eggs with Flat Beans and Peas ♦ Olive Ciabatta

Weekday Dinner

Arugula Salad with Roasted Pistachios & Gorgonzola in a Basil Vinaigrette
Pasta with Onions, Flat Beans & Rosemary

Pick a Lane, Any Lane!

One of the worst things that you can do is go to a restaurant that serves multiple unrelated cuisines - pan-Asian, Thai and Vietnamese, French and Thai, whatever. They tend to be confused in their menu trying to please a "generic" crowd. They are likely to serve lackluster meals or even outright garbage.

An exception could be made for French and Vietnamese on the grounds that the latter was a colony of the former for a while.

Of course, there's this particularly egregious specimen that simply makes the mind boggle!

Foraging in Van Cortlandt Park

Best food experience of the CC's life (so far.)

Firstly, there were the wineberries everywhere. A sun-ripe sweet wineberry is the nectar of the gods on a warm sunny hike.



Next up, the golden jackpot! The CC found a large field of golden chanterelles.

Finally, the end result of what the CC did with them.

To borrow a Valley Girl facebook term -- OMG, you guys, OMG!!!!!!

Strozzapreti with chanterelles ♦ Ciabatta ♦ Flat beans with almonds

Going Native

It has been noted by many participants that the CC's posts have a strong region-inflected Italian, Indian, Thai bias.

It's not that surprising. These are the cuisines which the CC understands at a "native" level. The grammar of the conception of the dish is completely transparent to the CC's "mental taste buds" to the point where not only does a recipe translates into a "mental taste" instantaneously but the underlying logic of how to conceptualize a meal has a clearly delineated grammatical structure.

To use an art metaphor, while Indian recipes have the texture and taste of oil paints, Thai recipes are much more akin to water colors in their limpidity and transparency.

(If you have no clue what that last statement meant, you really need to re-examine your understanding of these cuisines!)

Even invoking such a metaphor means that you must first understand the underlying structure (or grammar) by which such recipes are constructed. Needless to say, these structures are accidents of geography and history but isn't that the very definition of "culture"?

Purple Basil

It's a little stronger than regular basil (so tone it down a notch!) with a strong licorice component and it's a near-perfect substitute when you can't find Thai basil (= bai horapa) which is completely different from Holy basil (=bai krapow.)

Edible Babies (not again!)

Jonathan Swift's evergreen satire A Modest Proposal which ruthlessly trashes the gung-ho can-do spirit of the times, and the equally ludicrous schemes to alleviate Irish poverty. In a quite pointed fashion, and in the tradition of satire, he actually introduces the desirable reforms by thoroughly trashing them.

I am assured by our merchants, that a boy or a girl before twelve years old is no salable commodity; and even when they come to this age they will not yield above three pounds, or three pounds and half-a-crown at most on the exchange; which cannot turn to account either to the parents or kingdom, the charge of nutriment and rags having been at least four times that value.

I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection.

I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout.

I do therefore humbly offer it to public consideration that of the hundred and twenty thousand children already computed, twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, whereof only one-fourth part to be males; which is more than we allow to sheep, black cattle or swine; and my reason is, that these children are seldom the fruits of marriage, a circumstance not much regarded by our savages, therefore one male will be sufficient to serve four females. That the remaining hundred thousand may, at a year old, be offered in the sale to the persons of quality and fortune through the kingdom; always advising the mother to let them suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them plump and fat for a good table. A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends; and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter.

Kikunae Ikeda

Who?

One of the two greatest scientific contributors to food (the other would be Louis-Camille Maillard.) Unfortunately, this is the one that the world has never heard of.

He discovered the concept of umami by identifying glutamic acid as the common component of meat, kombu (type of seaweed) and tomatoes!

Prosciutto, White Bean & Mesclun Salad with Basil Vinaigrette

This is really really brilliant. The CC first ate it at a local eaterie and has been hankering for it ever since.

The origin is only vaguely Tuscan in nature pairing off their love for white beans and prosciutto and basil into one lovely salad. The multitudinous textures alone do the trick but this is a meal in and of itself.

The original salad had arugula in it but the arugula was so pathetic locally that the CC bought home some mesclun instead.

It makes a perfect summer meal.

Ingredients

1 cup white beans
1 tomato (diced fine)
generous handful of basil

2 servings mesclun
parmigiano-reggiano (thinly shaved)
prosciutto

olive oil
vinegar
salt
pepper

Recipe

The recipe may sound fussy but the hardest part - cooking the white beans - can be done in advance.

Cook the white beans until just under tender. The CC used a pressure cooker. Let it cool down in a refrigerator for a while.

Shave the parm really thin. This may sound fussy but is really necessary.

Blend the basil with some vinegar and salt into a liquidy paste. Mix the white beans, chopped tomato, and 75% of the basil liquid. Season to taste. Set aside.

The rest of the paste should be mixed with some more vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper and made into a vinaigrette.

Serve the white bean salad topped with parm, and the mesclun and vinaigrette topped with the prosciutto.

Death By Chocolate

Quite literally.

The Trentonian reports: Death by Boiling Chocolate.

A 29-year-old temporary worker slipped and fell this morning while loading raw chunks of chocolate into a melting tank, a spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor’s office said.

A blade used to mix the raw chocolate struck Vincent Smith II causing him to fall into the boiling chocolate that was being prepared for shipment to be turned later into candy. The Camden man's screams attracted the attention of his co-workers with one trying to shut the machine off and two workers working quickly to release him, said Jason Laughlin, spokesman for the prosecutor’s office.

Initial reports say Smith was trapped in the 8-foot-deep vat for 10 minutes. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Food Metaphors in Shakespeare

There are any number, of course.

First up, the classic on alcohol and sex from Macbeth on what drink provokes:

Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine.
Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes; it provokes
the desire, but it takes away the performance.
A brief admonition from A Midsummer Night's Dream that the CC emphatically does not agree with:

And, most dear actors, eat no onions
nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath; and I
do not doubt but to hear them say, it is a sweet
comedy. No more words: away! go, away!
Finally, the classic opening of Twelfth Night that tickles the CC in two different ways by combining his favorite two objects in one coherent metaphor:

If music be the food of love, play on.
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.

Louis-Camille Maillard

One of the (two) greatest contributors to the science of food. He first identified the concept of what is now called the Maillard Reaction.

The Holy Trio

Glutamic Acid
Isosinic Acid
Guanylic Acid

Farmers' Market Haul

It's been a really cold wet summer so the first decent vegetables were just hitting the markets.

The CC came home with some tomatoes, onions, spring garlic, flat beans, zucchini and some eggs.

There were some obscure things that the CC considered buying but the prices were larcenious so they have been postponed to a future date.

Fig Me Up, Fig Me Down!

Fig season will soon be upon us so in anticipation the CC gives you two classics:

Figs with Sea Salt

Slice them thin, and lace with your best sea salt.

Just trust the CC and do it!

Spelt Crackers with Figs, Goat Cheese and Orange-Blossom Honey

First, the spelt cracker recipe.

Layer them in that order. You can also use a classic blue cheese or even brie in a dash. The four different textures and the classic sweet-salty-savory combination is the key to magic of this recipe.

This is one of those miracles of life. Don't miss it!

Food Memoirs

Let's be blunt. They are mostly boring and at best, they are one-shot reads. You'll never read them again!

So why would you buy them (as opposed to getting them from the library?)

Well, the publishers figured this one out too a long time ago so it is conventional for these memoirs to have recipes. They figured that these would make people buy them.

Problem is all too often these recipes are the same old recycled junk. Rare is the memoir that features such original fare that it compels you to purchase it. As a general rule, these authors have already put their best work into their cooking magnum opus (or magna opera as the case may be.)

The solution should be obvious.

Read the memoir from the library, and buy a used paperback later if necessary.

Blinding Flash of the Obvious

Don't read food blogs (including your own) when you are hungry!

Red Hot Chilli Peppers

Reuters reports: Red hot chillis to be used in hand grenades.

India's security forces are planning to mix one of the world's hottest chilli powders in hand grenades to control riots and during insurgency operations in the remote northeast, a defense official said on Thursday.

India's defense scientists say they will replace explosives in small hand grenades with a certain variety of red chilli to immobilize a person without killing him.

Scientists said the chilli found in the country's northeast generates so much heat it was enough to startle a person for a while when used as a weapon.

The bhut jolokia chilli is said to generate 1,000,000 heat units on the Scoville scale -- a measure of hotness -- at least a thousand times more than a common kitchen chilli.

Scientists are also hoping to use a coat of the chilli powder in fences around army barracks as its pungent smell keeps wild animals away.