In this month’s Chronogram I review some books by local authors: three cookbooks, the Fleisher’s book, and a memoir about earning a degree at the CIA in Hyde Park.
Also, unrelated to the article but impossible not to boast post about, behold the single most beautiful loaf of bread I have ever made:
I know, right? Need some more?
Freshly returned from a few days in the city for spring break (truth be told, I really spent most of it at a Hooters in Paramus, NJ with Camille Paglia working on her script for a musical version of Caligula) I have a renewed sense of purpose when it comes to food. There’s so much about the city that I don’t miss: the parking, the noise, the smells, the noise, the expense, and how loud it is. But the food can be good. Having said that, though, I find that the older I get the fewer restaurants really do it for me. There’s the cheap ethnic hit, sure, and I could never make Indian or Thai meals as well or completely as the places we used to order from in Brooklyn, but beyond that category there are few joints in the middle range that succeed for me. Even among the high-end establishments (which every now and then I get to try) it can be hit or miss. Mostly I like to cook at home.
I forgot to post this back when it came out on Monday. For this month’s Chronogram article, I explored how graduates of the Culinary Institute are building an identity for the region by opening their own restaurants in the Hudson Valley.
After the better part of the week away in Rhode Island–Providence and Newport–it felt mighty good to get home. Something I realize more and more is how dependent I have become on the garden; even lazy weeknight phone-ins often rely on a dozen or so vegetables in various forms. Now the Biggest Little has a burgeoning local food scene, and I’ve eaten at two of the better restaurants in Providence: New Rivers and La Laiterie. (New Rivers was on a previous trip). There’s some very good work being done on several fronts to create a viable and sustainable local food economy; hell, even my alma mater RISD is now sourcing a significant portion of their cafeteria food locally, and using an innovative delivery system to make it feasible.
But the exigencies of travel and meetings and hanging a show and generally being away from home meant that too much of the food I ate was subpar. This was no leisurely gastronomic tour; this was a business trip. There was a bad burger, a good burger, a dozen decent oysters, and one excellent meal at La Laiterie, but there was also some awful road food and too much bad coffee and a salad that deserved a tribunal at the Hague. And there was some food that was fine, but that in the aggregate just sort of dragged the average down so that when I got home I felt thoroughly out of sorts, if also somewhat accomplished. There’s nothing quite like home cooking.
So prior to our dinner with Mike and Claudia, I ran out to procure some libations. Rosé was easy, and yes, I know I’m supposed to be writing a post about the ones we’ve been knocking back with extreme prejudice in this suddenly sweltering weather. (It’s a good thing Al Gore is fat, or I’d really be worried about this climate change hoax that he’s trying to scam us all with). But I also wanted…
For this month’s Chronogram piece I profiled a restaurant across the river that does a pretty impressive job of being as local and eco-friendly as possible. I figured that after nearly 18 months as a food writer, it was about time to do a review. Photo by Jennifer May
It was a busy week, and it’s good to be back; it’s so clear, mild, and perfect here after the tropical heat and humidity. Despite the hard work, there were some good meals (and not a little time in the pool at my gallerists/hosts’ house). Initially, it was just me staying there; the other artists arrived later in the week. I had one evening to myself, so I rummaged around in the fridge to construct…
In Palazzo Spada, near where I lived in Rome, there’s a cute little Architectural folly by Borromini called La Prospettiva: a corridor built in forced perspective to appear much longer than it is, that opens onto a garden with a statue in it. There’s a nice moment that happens as soon as you enter, when you see that the ceiling slants down, and the floor slopes up, and you realize that the whole thing is about…
The June issue of Chronogram is out; this time around Medeski and I tasted our way through many local wines. Go here to read all about it.
The foodfest continued, and I must say that there was a wonderful continuity to the quality (after Porchetta.) Monday we went out to Brooklyn, to eat at Flatbush Farm with Amy and Jonny of We Are Never Full. The restaurant gets all their meat from our very own Fleisher’s, and they try to use local and seasonal produce. It’s the kind of refined home cooking that Brooklyn is doing particularly well, and we had a…