Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, September 12, 2013

Published by Thursday, September 12, 2013 Permalink 0


Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, September 12, 2013

by Simon de Swaan

In most recipes there are encouragingly few pitfalls. One mustn’t go berserk with the thought, but a quarter cup of liquid, a tablespoon more or less of butter, five minutes or so of cooking time are all variable and the sooner the beginning cook learns it the better the food will be.–Craig Claiborne

Craig Claiborne became food editor of The New York Times in 1957. Food editors didn’t really exist before him, at least in not any serious form. Thomas McNamee refers to him as The Man Who Changed the Way We Ate. Frank Bruni of The New York Times calls him “an anxious Southern man named Craig Claiborne sat on a remote island in the Pacific and plotted to turn the American culinary world on its head.” Claiborne also wrote a stream of bestselling cookbooks, including The New York Times Cookbook, The Chinese Cookbook, and Craig Claiborne’s Gourmet Diet.

 

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Easy Late Summer Seville-style Gazpacho

Published by Thursday, September 12, 2013 Permalink 0

Spontaneous Cuisine: Easy late summer Seville-style gazpacho

by Jonell Galloway

Take 4 thick dry or toasted  slices of hearty whole grain bread and tear it into bite-size pieces. Drizzle olive oil over it and add 2 to 4 cloves of crushed garlic, depending on how much you like garlic.

Mix and let it sit for a few minutes.

Take 8 large, extra-ripe red tomatoes. Cut into large chunks, and save all the juice. Mix into the bread and garlic.

Put into blender, with salt and pepper. Refrigerate and let it sit for a half hour or so, or several hours or overnight if possible.

Before serving, taste and then season with more salt, pepper and olive oil if necessary. Add ice cubes if you want it to be colder or thinner.

If you want to give the dish a bit of color or enhance it, add fresh coriander or basil, or a dollop of cream.

This batch will easily feed 4 or 5, and is better the second day, once it has marinated in the refrigerator.

This recipe is my version of a friend’s recipe for Seville-style gazpacho. The friend has chosen to remain incognito for reasons unknown to this writer.

 

This article was originally published on Geneva Lunch.

 
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Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, September 11, 2013

Published by Wednesday, September 11, 2013 Permalink 0


Simon de Swaan, Simon Says, The Rambling Epicure, SwitzerlandSimon Says: Daily Food Quote, September 11, 2013

by Simon de Swaan

Don’t take any recipe on faith.  There are some hostile recipes in this world.–Peg Bracken

One might say Ruth Eleanor “Peg” Bracken was an “anti-housewife”. She did what was necessary to take care of her family, who she loved very much, but did her chores “as seldom as possible.” Bracken wrote a series of humorous books on cooking, housekeeping, etiquette and travel, always conveying her point of view in a witty manner, which many housewives of the 60s related to. Her most well-known book out of the nine she wrote is the 1960 The I Hate to Cook Book. Bracken is quoted often.

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La Semaine du Goût Geneva – Sept. 12, 2013

Published by Wednesday, September 11, 2013 Permalink 0


La Semaine du Goût Genève – Geneva Tasting Week

Swiss tasting week, referred to as “La Semaine du Goût” in the French-speaking part of the country, starts on Thursday, September 12, and runs until the 22nd. Each producer, restaurant and farm participating offers events. I will list a program of events, by day, in the Geneva area.This event is sponsored in part by Slow Food Switzerland. Here is the schedule for Thursday, September 12.

Swiss Fondue, Salone del Gusto 2012 in Turin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Food Poetry: Recipe. A Cento, by Karen Resta

Published by Wednesday, September 11, 2013 Permalink 0

 

Karen Resta Profile Photo, for The Rambling Epicure, editor Jonell GallowayFood Poetry: Recipe. A Cento*, by Karen Resta

after Billy Collins

You are the soup and the fish,
the buttered crumpet and the tea.
You are the cook at the brothel’s stove
and the bubbling beans in the pot.
You are the great eater of the beef,
and the lobster trembling for life.
However, you are not the cheese of the poet,
the hell of the spinach,
or the apples of Eve.
And you are certainly not the Quangle Wangle’s tree.
There is just no way that you are the Quangle Wangle’s tree.
It is possible that you are the sauce to dress the goose,
maybe even the restaurant in Baudelaire’s head,
but you are not even close
to being the grape of Beulah at dusk.
And a quick look in the mirror will show
that you are neither the fat of the child-pig
nor the past alive as madeleine.
It might interest you to know,
speaking of the plentiful imagery of the world,
that I am the corn who’s better than sex.
I also happen to be the hencod’s roe,
the small green face of the freshly shelled green pea,
and the hunger for fried fish in the open air.
I am also the parsley that is gharsley
and the goblin’s cry of fruits.
But don’t worry, I’m not the soup and the fish.
You are still the soup and the fish.

*Lines from Sydney Smith, J.C. Masterman, Polly Adler, Martial’s Epigrams, William Shakespeare, Samuel Beckett, G.K. Chesterton, E.B. White, Lord Byron, Edward Lear, Alice B.Toklas, Baudelaire, Mae West, Charles Lamb, Proust, E.S. Gaskell, Garson Keillor, James Joyce, William Wallace Irwin, Mark Twain, Ogden Nash, Rosetti.

This poem was previously published in Best American Poetry.

_________________________

Karen Resta has had an interesting career history, one part as Executive Chef for Partners Dining at Goldman Sachs in NYC, and another as VP for Goldman Sachs NYC. Her writing can be found at eGullet, The Culinary Media Network, Serious Eats, Book of Rai, Christian Science Monitor, One Million Stories and Rose Red Review.

 

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Switzerland: Antique Apples at Les Vergers d’Aigle et d’Yvorne, a Photo Essay

Published by Tuesday, September 10, 2013 Permalink 0


Jonell Galloway, Editor, The Rambling EpicureSwitzerland: Antique Apples at Les Vergers d’Aigle et d’Yvorne, a Photo Essay

The Renaissance of Antique Apples in Switzerland, a Photo Essay

by Jonell Galloway

The Vergers d”Aigle et d’Yvorne is tucked into the heart of the Chablais region in French-speaking Switzerland. For more than 40 years now, they have been growing a wide range of fruit, grown under strict environmentally-friendly conditions. This fruit expresses the true terroir of the Chablais region.

Their fruit, including more than 40 varieties of apples both antique and modern, are available at producer prices, much fresher than store-bought apples, with more than 20 varieties available. The website lists the expected dates for each fruit grown.

In September, they also sell the cherished Fellenberg plums.

In season, you can pick your own cherries, with a choice of over 10 varieties.

Bertrand et Martine Cheseaux also offer a wide range of local artisanal products, including oils, vinegars, apple juice, eggs (great quality!), honey and fresh vegetables.

This year, in the context of the Semaine du Goût, or “tasting week”, which runs from September 13 to 23, 2013, they will be offering guided tours of their orchard of some 10 varieties of antique apples, along with tasting. This will take place on Saturday, September 21, with visits at 10 A.M. and 2:00 P.M. It is advisable to reserve a place. To reserve, call 41 (0)79 397 59 72 send an e-mail to info@vergers.ch.

Les Vergers d’Aigle et d’Yvorne
Bertrand & Martine Cheseaux
Route d’Evian 32
CH – 1860 AIGLE
Switzerland

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Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, September 8, 2013

Published by Sunday, September 8, 2013 Permalink 0


Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, September 8, 2013

by Simon de Swaan

Life is a combination of magic and pasta.–Federico Fellini

Federico Fellini, an Italian film director and scriptwriter, was born on January 20, 1920, in Rimini, Italy.  Part of the Italian Neorealist movement, Fellini was known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images. His major works are La Dolce Vita and 8 1/2. Fellini. “At least half of all film-makers asked about the directors they most admire include Federico Fellini in their top three,” says The Guardian, and he is considered one of the most influential filmmakers of the twentieth century, winning five Academy Awards, to become the person who won the highest number of Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film in history. He died October 31, 1993.

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Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, September 5, 2013

Published by Thursday, September 5, 2013 Permalink 0


Simon de Swaan, Simon Says, The Rambling EpicureSimon Says: Daily Food Quote, September 5, 2013

by Simon de Swaan

Everything tastes better outdoors.–Claudia Roden

Claudia Roden is a cookbook writer and cultural anthropologist based in the United Kingdom. She was born in 1936 in Cairo, Egypt. A Book on Middle Eastern Food is a classic in the world of cookbooks, and James Beard referred to it as “a landmark in the field of cookery.”

 

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Olive, Parmesan, & Speck Breadsticks

Published by Thursday, September 5, 2013 Permalink 0


 

Jamie Schler, Profile Photo, http://lifesafeast.blogspot.ch/Destination Dessert: Not a dessert, but delicious nonetheless: olive, Parmesan, & speck breadsticks

by Jamie Schler

I am terrified of heights. Put me on the top floor of a building looking down through glass panes or, worse yet, from the edge of a balcony, and my knees buckle as I grasp for a handhold. My heart pounds at the idea of funiculars or Ferris wheels and their anticipatory crawl up into the clouds. That glance down comes with the fear of knowing that when I finally reach the summit I will be staring into emptiness, a deep void, an near-endless drop only broken by the tiny ant-like beings down on safe, sturdy ground staring up at me, ogling, daring me to make the leap so they can break my fall.

 

Roller Coasters slowly, painfully inching their way up until a mere thread is holding me over a dizzying descent make my head spin as my breath comes out, barely, in short, quick gasps. Airplanes, those silver boxes offering me quick passage to my loved ones, have me in a panic when I think of the nothingness holding them up. My very pragmatic, scientific husband refers to this seemingly (or so he says) irrational fear of heights as Cosmic Vertigo, these images in my overactive imagination of climbing up and standing on the edge of a precipice only to be pushed off of solid ground and plunging into emptiness, the unknown. So I never climb onto a Ferris wheel, it is impossible to convince me to climb aboard a roller coaster; as we spin our way up the glass elevator in the Mole Antonelliana in Torino or wander around the top balcony of the Eiffel Tower my eyes stay firmly squeezed shut and I can’t even look through the eyepiece of a telescope, nor am I comfortable wearing 3-D glasses or watching the world spin on Google maps. Yes, I am terrified of heights.

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Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, September 4, 2013

Published by Wednesday, September 4, 2013 Permalink 0


Simon de Swaan, Simon Says, The Rambling Epicure, SwitzerlandSimon Says: Daily Food Quote, September 4, 2013

by Simon de Swaan

Cookery is naturally the most ancient of the arts, as of all arts it is the most important.–George Ellwanger, Pleasures of the Table, 1903

 

George Ellwanger

 

George Ellwanger was a prominent horticulture scientist, born in Württemberg, Germany. Ellwanger immigrated to the United States, settling in Rochester, New York, where he and Patrick Barry formed the Mount Hope Nursery (also known as the Ellwanger and Barry Nursery) in 1840. In 1843, the nursery began publishing catalogs to increase sales.

 

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