Is it a fact or is it merely fiction? Fact or Fiction explores the lesser known truths in the food universe.
Do you ever wonder how chefs and cooks all around the world do it? I mean, they study for years, honing their skills, learning to manipulate ingredients. They blur the lines between what one food is and what one isn’t, and occasionally marry flavors together in ways that either compliment or heighten the tasting experience of the other. Cooking is an adventure in more ways than one. It is about experimenting, and walking paths that few have stumbled through. In this day, the 21st century is leaving less and less undiscovered territory to explore. It almost seems that everything has been invented. No new ideas left in the world. I submit to you my theory: the world is not quite dead yet. There are still new flavor combinations to discover. You only have to open your mind to the possibilities. Some of the things I have discovered, I have done so by accident. In retrospect, I believe that it is quite possible that some of the great cuisines that are available today were also discovered by accident or out of necessity, but seldom by design.
When you type 'Santa's favorite cookie' into Google you will find a myriad of recipes to baking a delicately goldened, moist, sugar cookie adorned with milk chocolate candy shaded ruby red and green sapphire. You know the kind... the kind of cookie that smells like chestnuts roasting on an open fire. The kind of cookie that while baking sounds like the giggle of children dancing in the snow. The kind of cookie that allows you to taste the physical manifestation of Christmas in your mouth. Festively dressed and designed to be Santa's own personal brand of Red Bull during his most crucial hour of need... the Eve of Christmas.
If a pairing is to be unusual it should, I believe, have some element of whimsy about it. After all, truly great food is already a pairing of the profane and the sublime, of the biomechanical process of lifting food to one’s lips and chewing followed by the chemical process of digestion culminating in the down to earth reminder of our common humanity that is shitting it out; coupled with the ecstatic revelation that is taste, which can rapturously transport oneself to another plane of being. This emotional connection, the pleasure and enjoyment that comes from the unexpected revelation of the sublime, I consider to be the third, and silent, partner turning a quirky or unusual pairing into an ecstatic threesome.
Ever been in that space of deciding where you were going to eat, this morning for me it was breakfast and not knowing where you were going?
The big question on my mind today is which you would prefer... Coffee? Or, tea? There are benefits to both coffee and tea but which option is more beneficial...
If you read a lot of labels on food in the grocery store, then you are bound to see some items as gluten-free. In fact, you may know people who do not consume gluten or cannot eat it. Maybe you are one of the people who can’t eat gluten either. What is gluten and how can you determine what foods have it and what foods don’t have it?
Guess who's coming to dinner? Five of the world's most intriguing artists. Be My Guest: Meet & Greet the Artists Would you like an introduction? It's time to get acquainted with our dinner guests.
If someone had told me a year ago that I along with everyone else in the world would be living through a global pandemic I never would have believed it. But alas, here we are. The new normal of course is social distancing and continuous mask wearing. No one knows how things will turn out a week from now, a month, a year. You name it. However, one thing is for sure. To be healthy and alive during such strange times is a blessing. And it is for that very reason that I am looking forward to finalizing the details of my dinner party. What dinner party you ask? Well to put it quite simply, it is a special dinner meant to honour the local everyday frontline workers within my neighbourhood.
The elegant tea cup set presented before you is in dedication to a special artist at his royal dinner birthday party. The party is in honor of the artist named John also known to have many names who passed away, but still here in spirit. The rainbow lights extending from the ceiling hit the fine colors on the paintings exhibited on the wall. The long hallway provides an art walk of John's paintings; for the guest to view before taking a seat at the table.
In the early days becoming a writer, to me, meant hosting or attending sophisticated dinner parties in a brownstone apartment with crown molding and paintings on the walls in some city like New York or Paris. This might explain why I’m a much better dinner party hostess than I am a writer. My capacity for rigid discipline only extends to planning dinner party menus and playing the woman of society.
My daughter and I have a Custom Gulf Stream Time Machine that can go anywhere anytime, and we’re in the mood for a beachside dinner party with a couple of our heroes. On average writers can be a reclusive bunch. There are few dynamic personalities among the authors whose work I admire most. For instance, Hunter S. Thomson knew how to party. That is what made his Gonzo style of writing so engaging. The reader gets to live vicariously through him when he jumped headfirst into dangerous and often self-destructive behavior. We do not have to dodge bullets, get beaten up by a biker gang, or go on lengthy acid trips to know what it is like. As a reader of Hunter S. Thompson’s work, we can get a play by play of the moment to moment smells, sounds, and feels that made Gonzo writing so popular.
Having dinner with Van Gogh is a dream of mine. He is one of the most influential artists of all time, and a favorite artist of mine. He possessed so much genius, so much creativity, and although he left the world too soon, he gave the world a beautiful gift in every single one of his paintings. I was at an art museum once, looking at a self portrait by Van Gogh, and I was struck by the reality that Van Gogh had stood in front of that painting, where I was standing now. His hands touched the space in front of me and created the work of art which was now inches in front of my face. It was almost difficult to fully acknowledge and to really take in. But it got me thinking about how much I would have loved to know him in real life. What would such a genius be like on an average day? These curiosities only heightened when I looked at the painting of his bedroom a few minutes later. It was such an ordinary space, yet painted with such emotion and story.