Of Salty Wine And Clinging Pits And Really Dumb People

Who knew that putting a bit of salt on your tongue before you guzzled a glass of wine could change many of the wine's innate qualities? And who knew that the reason that you sometimes struggle to get the pit out of a piece of fruit is because those sneaky fruit trees can grow BOTH cling and freestone fruits on the SAME tree? Let me backtrack just a bit. Those are just 2 things I learned at Copia, the food and wine education center in beautiful downtown Napa.

Copia is a lovely large airy building filled with kitchens, classrooms, theaters and lots of display space for exhibits on food and wine, as well as a magnificent garden, soon to be expanded by a big new greenhouse, currently under construction. It was founded by Robert Mondavi, among others.

They offer an interesting schedule of daily events and classes. I had told
H(usband) that a particular day was to be devoted just to Copia, so he kindly went along while I explored every square inch of the place. We started with a half hour general tour led by a pleasant and well-informed docent. She pointed out a prominent wall display of Julia Child's famous copper pots, hung just the way they were in her Cambridge kitchen. It was riveting.

We finished in plenty of time to get to the food demonstration "Celebrating Stone Fruits". I'll be honest, I'm pretty critical of cooking demonstrations, but this was a good one. The chef, Sandy Dominquez, was a youngish, very professional and knowledgeable cook, who kept her cool when ONE AUDIENCE MEMBER kept asking her REALLY stupid questions. And NO, it wasn't me.

She had mentioned something about fruits being a wonderful addition to savory dishes. This audience member must have asked her in 10 different ways what the word savory meant. Sandy explained it as well as she could to a totally not comprehending person. All she should have said was that SAVORY MEANS NOT SWEET!!! It turned out that Dumbo was confused by the herb "savory" and the word "savory". Really, what a waste of everyone else's time.

Anyway, Sandy explained that stone fruits are from the same family, Rosaceae, as roses, pears, berries, apples and almonds and that's why many of those are interchangeable in recipes. I hadn't thought of it that way before. Once stone fruits are picked, all sugar production stops, so you can ripen a fruit to make it juicier, but not sweeter. That's the benefit of eating tree-ripened fruit when it's available. (Cherries, by the way, are done when they're picked, they get neither sweeter nor juicier.)

Sandy quickly mixed together a vinaigrette in the blender, spending quite a bit of time talking about emulsions, one of my favorite topics. She explained that an emulsion is a liquid held in suspension by an oil molecule with the addition of an emulsifying agent, which, in the case of a vinaigrette, is often mustard.

She said the ratio of a usual vinaigrette is 3 to 1 or 4 to 1. You will not believe the question that Dumbo came up with! It was a doozy. Ok, I know I'm being witchy, but here it is: She asked which way did the ratio go...was it 3 parts of vinegar or 3 parts of oil???!!!

I KNOW I'm being mean, but really, if I was that stupid, I would NEVER admit it in public and I certainly wouldn't have gone to Copia in the first place, because, honestly, no one is interested in teaching someone that clueless. Okay, sorry, back to Copia.

We also learned that clingstone fruit is mostly used for commercial purposes - jam etc. The reason we get an occasional different-to-remove pit is because a given tree CAN have both types of fruit and it's impossible to know which is which until you cut open the fruit. Also, did you know that nectarines are actually peaches with smooth skins? And that peach growers and almond growers have to communicate closely with each other to determine where each is planted. If they're planted nearby, they cross pollinate and create bad peaches AND bad almonds. Very interesting.

We went from there to a class on "Wine and Food Pairing" and learned about the aforementioned effect of salt on wine. Apparently, that's one reason that restaurants add so much salt to food. It enhances the taste of the wine and makes you drink more and, hence, ORDER more. I wish I could tell you who our teacher was. After several, actually MANY, glasses of wine, I'm lucky I could recognize H. Our instructor was superb, as well as a liberal pourer of wine. She was one of the wine folks Copia has on staff and she works as a winemaker for several local wineries, while preparing to bring her own wine (Wild Sides Celler, I think she said) to fruition.

We tasted a 2006 Geyser Peak Sauvignon Blanc California and a 2004 Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley after sampling various tastes: salt, salty potato chips, lemon, rosemary, dried cherries and chocolate. Basically, this is what we found, although she told us repeatedly that were no wrong answers and that it's a matter of personal preference:

Salt makes the sauvignon blanc taste less acidic and the cabernet less tannic. (That's a good thing, I think.) Lemons complement the cab and make the sauvignon taste sweeter. Fresh rosemary is dreadful with a cab. It gives a metallic aftertaste, almost as if the two are fighting each other. Dried cherries - great with the cabernet, bad with the sauvignon. Potato chips eaten while drinking either wine just makes you want more potato chips. And chocolate goes GREAT with Cabernet.

It was actually fascinating how different a wine could taste with different foods. I definitely want to try more tasting at home, when I can stagger around in private.

Lunch at Julia's Kitchen, was extraordinary...more about that later and then one more tour, this time of the garden, which was amazing. We were allowed to pick lots of fresh herbs off the plants to taste and smell and the plantings were beautiful and impressive. A visit to their well-stocked and imaginative shop capped off our visit.

If you ever find yourself in Napa, try to allow a day for visiting Copia. It's a fascinating, delicious and intoxicating place for food and wine lovers.

Have I Got A Blender For You!

I don't which is weirder...putting an iPhone in a blender or the guy's smile...

HOME in LA

D(aughter) took us to a charming outdoor (and indoor) restaurant called Home on 1760 Hillhurst Avenue in Los Feliz, where we met up with a dear old friend. We DID have to wait 45 minutes for a table on the patio, but it was okay, because we had a lot of catching up to do. It was very relaxed and comfortable sitting at wooden tables in a large outdoor area.

The menu is vast and could suit any appetite. We started with a plate of hummus and pita. Nice. My hummus isn't usually thick enough to serve with a scoop, but I liked it.

Others had a Chicken Caesar Salad,
a Goat Cheese Salad,
a Chicken Pomodoro Sandwich,

and I had a Grilled Veggie Wrap with my fav - onion rings.

I am so delighted that most people eschew the lowly onion ring because of high fat fears. That means more for me and, wow, were they good! Hot, crispy, greasy - but not overly so, salty - but not overly so, large and crunchy. An EXCELLENT rendition. Plus D got to take half my veggie wrap home.

The food was hardy, tasty, appealing to any palate and just kind of like...OMG...kind of like HOME. I get it now.

But my most favorite part of the restaurant was the doggie resting on the steps, THAT really made it feel like home.

Comments on Ingrid Hoffman

I've been receiving a lot of comments agreeing with my initial impressions of Ingrid Hoffman. Unfortunately, I was traveling yesterday and couldn't see her last show. Anonymous suggested I take a look at Ingrid's Red Bean Beach Salad. I did check it out and Anon is absolutely right, it's gross.

Ingrid uses "sweet pickles" in the recipe. I'm surprised that she didn't save herself the chopping and just use hot dog relish, a equally disagreeable ingredient (except on hot dogs).

She says to use either a yellow onion or a red one. Well, there's all the world of difference between them, especially if you're using them raw. Letting the whole nasty thing sit overnight DOES soften the bitterness of the yellow onion. But it ALSO gives that strong onion taste enough time to permeate every other ingredient, so that after you eat it you will broadcasting "RAW ONIONS" for days after. And a half teaspoon of cloves seems like an awful lot for this amount of bad salad.

Making me even more churlish was the fact that it took me far longer than it should have to find this great recipe on the wonderful new Food Network website.

Anonymous sent a long comment about yesterday's Simply Delicioso show and instead of posting it after a Simply Delicioso blog entry, I wanted to highlight it here. (I just corrected a few mispellings...)

"I have to share my indignation with you. I watched as Ingrid made a scallop ceviche yesterday for her beach picnic show. Oh my God! I couldn't stop myself yelling at the tv in horror. Here is what I posted on the FN website:Ingrid mentioned many times in this episode that this ceviche was like the traditional ceviche from Peru and Ecuador with her own unique twist on it. I am from Peru and I can guarantee this version doesn't even remotely resemble a ceviche from Peru, Ecuador or even Mexico.... First, there's no such thing as coconut milk on it. Those ingredients are not a staple from these countries, as a matter of fact they are never found in Peruvian cuisine. Second, there are not coconut flakes on it either. Raisins on ceviche? are you nuts? Most Peruvians will take offense at your carelessness at showing something so far from the real ceviche. You are showing America! At least be true to the ingredients if you are going to call it ceviche from Peru. Also, we don't submerge the raw seafood or fish in lime juice. We dress the seafood/fish with lime juice with other seasonings and onions AND NEVER drain it!! you drain the wonderful flavors of the fish/seafood. This recipe is wrong in so many ways. And yes she calls it Snappy ceviche and not Peruvian ceviche but she mentioned that is like Peruvian ceviche and guess what IT"S NOT! not even close. Rating the recipe as a seafood salad (Thai style) I also give it zero stars since the combination of ingredients does not work. It's not Peruvian, it's not exotic is crazy crap!Oregano is not a ceviche ingredient either!!The other recipes were not good either, they all have odd combinations of ingredients and all together as a meal just did not work. Her bean salad combination is the perfect craving of a pregnant women...yikes!

I reread the ceviche recipe many times over. It does seem strange on many levels. Raisins!!!??? Plus, Anon is so right about not draining a ceviche. And WHAT is COOKED sweet potato doing in a ceviche?! AND what the heck do you do with it, after you've cooked it? The recipe says to set aside and never refers to it again. That's probably for the best.

So not only does Ingrid appear to chop raw vegetables on a meat contaminated cutting board, use the words "baby" and "Wooshie sauce" annoyingly and inappropriately, consider liquored-up jello to be dessert, but, NOW, we learn that her dishes are unauthentic, pseudo-ethnic and, basically, poorly conceived.

LA: Koi's Waitstaff Is Sooooo Snotty and The Little Door Serves BIG Wonderful Meals

Okay, I'll be completely honest and tell you that my story about Koi happened a year ago, but that doesn't make it any less bad. The fact that I'm still complaining about it means that it was pretty egregious.

7 of us were going out to a special occasion dinner and Koi was supposed to be great. We were seated at a nice table. Our waiter came over reasonably promptly, but from the moment he addressed us, it seemed like he had somewhere else to be. He brought us our drinks and then proceeded to take our order. The menu at Koi is very complex. It's lots of little dishes that are basically sushi and you order for the table and stuff gets brought out in random order as it's ready. 7 people can order MANY different dishes. Halfway through taking our order our waiter actually LOOKED AT HIS WATCH. I have NEVER seen such a thing.

He also refused to write anything down, claiming that he always remembered everything. Well, not this time. He got one dish wrong and forgot two, which worked out to be fine, since we had over-ordered anyway. I might have said something to him, but there were a lot of people and it was awkward. So I'm saying it now: Koi has (had?) one really horrible waiter who should be relieved of his misery. Yes, I know, I should have called the restaurant the next day and complained OR done it that very minute...

Okay on to happier topics:
This week we needed a nice restaurant for D's* birthday. I said she could choose, but that I would prefer fusion cuisine and famous people, in spite of my problem at Koi. She gave me a couple of choices and I decided on The Little Door, which isn't the normal Asian/French fusion...it's French with a Moroccan twist. Less than a week before our reservation, I saw on paparazzi television that Posh and Becks had dined there!!! So that certainly counts as a celebrity hangout.

A real Frenssschhhhman greeted us and showed us to our table. I'm pretty fussy about where I sit and I was unsure if we had gotten a bad table. It was the second or third one back on the outdoor patio.

Later on, I decided it was ok, because a world famous director was seated 2 tables away from us. I'd love to tell you who it was, but then I'd have to kill you...Not really. I can't remember who he is for the life of me and noone else knew either. I made H** ask the Frenssschhhhman as we left and HE had no idea. I think Monsieur was actually telling the truth, because he even asked a couple of waiters. The director's identity was further clouded by the fact that I thought he was American, my husband thought he had heard some kind of European accent and the Frenssschhhhman said he was English. Anyway, I KNOW he was famous and I will pursue every lead to track his identity down.

To the food:
D and I started with a Kir Royale. (We were in an island of Frenchland in the middle of LA, after all.) We started with one "Mezze", an assortment of falafel, spanakopita, kibbeh with homemade pita. All were delicious, a little heavy, but fried food keeps you feeling well-fed - a necessary state of affairs in skinny LA.

We had one peach gazpacho, which was glorious. A wonderful base of fresh tangy gazpacho with the added sweetness and aroma of magnificently ripe peaches. So crisp tasting...the sweet and sharp played off each other splendidly.

The last starter that we passed around was a salad with arugula, peaches, gruyere and walnuts in a walnut dressing which was on the list of specials. This being California it was almost a complete meal. Each ingredient was perfect and tasty. The slightly sweet dressing was a good complement.

I have to admit I didn't much notice my husband's salmon, which he said was fabulous, because I was so delighted with my Seven Vegetable Couscous, a restaurant speciality, presented in a wonderful tagine and served with harissa and an onion confit. D ordered a special - Tiger Shrimp with Pappardelle Pasta and Pesto.

Great dishes, just one problem. The servings were immense. Sometimes it's nice to take a dish or two home, but each one (including the starters, which we didn't take home) were just too big. May I respectfully suggest to the proprietors that they reduce the portions and lower their prices? Twenty eight dollars for a vegetable couscous is a bit pricey.

Dessert was a triple sampler of creme brulées. Rich, tasty and SO not necessary after such a big dinner.

The restaurant is absolutely charmingly decorated and very quaint and cosy, but, a little complaint here, it's too dark. It's one thing to have a romantic candlelit glow, it's another not to be able to even identify what's on the plate. The food is so wonderful, it would be nice to see it just a bit more.

*Daughter
**Husband

In And Up In Beverly Hills

Due to the wedding of a great friend’s daughter, we have the good fortune to be in beautiful Los Angeles for a few days, with a little visit to northern points tacked on. We also get the bonus of visiting our LA based daughter.

Don’t be too jealous. After these trips to Paris and California, I’ll barely be able to afford a trip to the corner gas station. Actually that’s the LAST place I’ll be able to go to. Whatever your feelings may be of the Eureka state, the transcendence of the weather cannot be argued with. When you step outside, the warmth of the air and the blue skies (with a little smudgy afterglow) are undeniably energizing.

Every so often, you just HAVE to stay at a wonderful hotel (YOU understand, even if H* needs a bit of convincing) and this is my first visit to the Beverly Hills Hotel. WOW, what a posh, plush and entirely pleasurable experience. It is so welcoming and luxurious all at once that I wish everyone could stay here at least one time.

Breakfast at the supremely deluxe Polo Lounge Patio was flawless, except for one small thing, which to me isn't small. They took away my daughter's plate, while I was still eating. I can stand indifferent food, I can stand poor lighting, a terrible seat...even cold rolls, but what I cannot stand is having plates taken away while someone is still eating. Of course, I really can't stand those other things either, but this ranks as number one on my pet peeve list. Did it affect my opinion of the Polo Lounge? I have to say...not at all. The rest of the service was so down to earth and friendly, yet supremely professional, that it didn't bother me that much, although in principle it does...a lot.

I had the delicious Huevos Rancheros. A tortilla was topped with beautifully cooked black beans, infinitely runny eggs, cheese and rich avocado. There was a sprinkling of diced tomatoes and a bit of cilantro plus a few deeply colored purple and beet red tortilla chips which laced the plate. H had the Chorizo and Avocado Omelet with Jack Cheese and a triangle of hashed browns, which I felt could have used more onion. D** had a scrumptious plate of scrambled eggs and smoked salmon with a slightly larger than a dot garnish of creme fraiche flavored with dill and a bit of caviar. A winning dish.

We traveled to The Grove, my first visit. It's a beautiful outdoor mall with shops ringing the outside and an amazing fountain on the inside area and lots of pathways plus a trolley that takes the overburdened (and let's face it, just plain lazy) visitors around the entire approximately 3 block area. Even the view from the top floor of the parking lot is gorgeous.

The other attraction is The Farmer's Market, which is NOT fruit and vegetable stands (well, there are SOME), but a vast array of food stands and counters. From ONE point in the middle I could see MANY different stands, including Fish Tacos, Flame Broiled Fresh Fish, Lemonade, Sushi A Gogo, Little John's English Toffee, Magee's Nuts, Famous Corned Beef, Donuts, Ice Cream, Pizza.

I bought an adorable little can of Mandarin Olive Oil at Oliviers and Co.

It was just wonderful and D didn't protest too much, when I HAD to buy her a few items as well. Home for her and back to the hotel for us until we meet again.

*long-suffering Husband
**Daughter

David Letterman's Top Ten Titles Of His Recent Blog Entries

There is the one chocolate entry, so I thought this would qualify for a food blog...sort of.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

10 My big decision: hair plugs or hairpiece
9 A summary of today's hate mail
8 Fun places to take off your pants
7 101 reasons why chocolate is better than men -- am I right, ladies?
6 Ways to take down a gator
5 Tuesdays with Shecky
4 Rick, the creepy intern who won't stop staring at me [shot of creepy guy staring at Dave - psycho sting]
3 Are you there, God? It's me, Dave
2 Monkeys or kitties -- which is cuter?
1 How is Scott Baio still single?!?!

Food Network Folks Around Town

We had a quick visit with Ingrid Hoffman on CBS this morning. Who even watches that show? My excuse was that I was waiting for the painters.

The good news is that not only did she not cross contaminate anything...THIS TIME, but she didn’t even TOUCH the long strip of pork ribs that she was cooking.

She talked about the tamarind sauce in her recipe, which she said is "nice and tarty". Immoral or not, I happen to LOVE tamarind sauce. She gave a less than adequate explanation of Aji Panca. At first I thought she was talking about garlic flavored Japanese bread crumbs.

Next she was using "wooshie" sauce, her overly cutesy pronunciation for Worcestershire sauce, telling us that it was made from tamarind, which I cannot believe I didn’t know. Then she gives a few “chica tips” (isn’t that kind of sexist?) for her cole slaw with mango. She says not to use an overly ripe mango. They can be stringy and you don’t get the beautiful clean cut pieces that you do from one that is slightly less ripe. And she says to salt and then press the cabbage to extract as much liquid as possible.

The host (no clue who it is) turns on the blender, without holding the top down. That’s a recipe for a big dry cleaning bill. Ingrid didn't seem to notice.

At the end of the segment they show her unique table setting, which is newspaper (but only the "happy" news) on the table sitting under baking pans, which she’s using as plates. Yup, that’s right…baking pans, baking sheets, baking trays whatever you call them…in place of plates. This is a slightly irritating and useless idea. She also had little brown paper bags on the table, which are actually for the rib bones, but they look alarmingly like those bags you find on airplanes. And THAT doesn’t inspire confidence among your guests.

Quick Tyler note:

He was truly adorable on the Kids Losing Weight Show tonight that Shaq hosts. Tyler's assignment was to prepare a healthy and delicious lunch for over a thousand kids in a school cafeteria that could be replicated by the hardened and wizened lunch ladies, who were definitely not believers. Poor Tyler, it turned out they weren't completely wrong. He went way over the time he had to prepare the lunch and not all the kids had enough time to eat. But he was awfully dishy, even in a hairnet.

Barefoot In The Barn

The Barefoot Contessa with Ina Garten

Blueprint Lunch
Avocado and Grapefruit Salad
California Iced Tea
Easy Lobster Paella
Shortbread Hammer Placecards

To get the recipes:
Click here

Well, she's not really running around the barn barefoot, of course, but The Barefoot Contessa IS building a barn that will house her television kitchen near her gracious Southhampton house. Knowing Ina, she'll probably take every opportunity to use it... on tv or not.

She's taking the time to thank the architects for their hard work by preparing lunch for them. But you know, they can probably afford lunch anywhere, how about feeding the folks that are actually working on the barn? Of course, in Southampton, THEY too can probably afford a fancy lunch.

At any rate, she has lunch all planned. Ina's starting with shortbread cookies, which will become place cards, after she's cut them out and written people's names on them. Please don't tell my British friends, but I abhor shortbread. It's not sweet enough, it's not moist enough and it's all crumbly. I look at it as an inferior sugar cookie.

At cookie exchanges, when everyone is oohing and aahing over the shortbread, I'm busy grabbing the Christmas tree cookies. (Okay, so those are the ones that I made, but they ARE the best.) And, anyway, how could good could something be, if you always need a drink to wash it down with? Give me a proper sugar cookie anytime.

Ina didn't ask my opinion, so she's making shortbread and I'm sure it'll be great...if you like that sort of thing. She creams 3/4 lb of butter with 1 cup of sugar, mentioning her usual butter tip, which I have to admit I've never had the nerve to do. She leaves her butter out OVERNIGHT to really soften and get to room temperature. I imagine all kinds of things crawling all over it and I just can't do it. (I could, I suppose, leave it out in some kind of airtight container, but I'm content to do my baking later in the day or just zap the butter in the microwave.) She mixes in the vanilla, telling us not to overbeat. And now the flour goes in (3 1/2 cups, which is a good 30% more than you'd use for a sugar cookie.) See? How can that NOT be dry? She mixes in the flour until it's just incorporated. Sometimes, she says, she adds almonds or toasted coconut.

She tells us we can roll it out and them freeze it. OH!!! That's what I do with my sugar cookies! Oh wait, I jumped the gun. She takes her dough, wraps it and places it in the fridge for a bit to firm up and THEN rolls it out. (At THAT point, she's suggesting, you could freeze it.)

I cannot stand working with dough after it’s been refrigerated. Remember that I'm talking about cookies or pie crust dough...it’s the same difference. The CHILLED butter becomes like cement. It’s really difficult to roll it out nice and thin, so THIS is what I've come up with after many years of rolling out cookies: I mix the dough, then I roll it out immediately between sheets of plastic wrap. I put the rolled-out dough, still between those sheets, on a cookie sheet and into the freezer. When I’m ready to use it, the cookies are able to be cut out beautifully from the frozen dough and I just bake them a few minutes longer. Often, by the time you get to the last cookie, the dough has thawed anyway.

Again Ina didn’t give me a call, so her dough is in the fridge chilling.

She visits with Miguel who’s setting the table, using a “building” theme.

Ina moves on to the beverage. She’s mixing half iced tea and half lemonade. Isn't that what's known as an Arnold Palmer? Darned, if the next words out of her mouth aren’t “This is supposedly all that Arnold Palmer drinks.” Ina and I must share a brain...I wish.

She pours 4 cups of boiling water on 4 tea bags and squeezes 5 or 6 lemons to get 1 cup of juice. She doesn’t even want to hear about any other solution but FRESH lemon juice. Bravo, Ina! She adds ¾ cup of superfine sugar with the lemon juice and 4 cups of water to a pitcher. She stirs in the tea (after removing the tea bags) and adds a few lemon slices. Looks good, but where’s the vodka? Oh, I suppose her guests have to get back on their scaffolding.

She rolls out her cookies and cuts them into hammer shapes after chilling the dough for 30 minutes. She’s using quite a lot of flour. With my trick, you need very little flour. She puts the cookies on parchment (not my favorite, as you know.) and sprinkles them with granulated sugar. She bakes them at 350 deg. Fahrenheit for 25 minutes until browned slightly.

You know, I was just thinking after Ina’s barn is finished, she’s not going to be able to run upstairs for a nap while her dough is chilling. And she won’t be able to run into the back for a few (!!!) herbs or fresh flowers. I originally thought she was building it in her backyard, but it’s being referred to now as “just SOUTH of her home.”

The next recipe is Lobster “Pie-ELLA”. INA, I’m surprised at you! It’s PIE-AY-YUH.

Ina softens onions in a big white Dutch oven (it matches her blouse) for 5 minutes. She adds julienned (rather thickly if you ask me) peppers and cooks for another 5 minutes. Then 5 cloves of garlic (2 tablespoons) go in for just a minute. Now Ina adds 2 cups of basmati rice and 5 cups of chicken stock (homemade, that's our Ina) and then saffron, which she reminds us is from the stamens of crocuses. She puts it in the oven at 425 deg. Fahrenheit for 15 minutes with the lid on.

She goes to a break. (Am I nuts to be falling for that Dawn Direct commercial? They've had it on about 27 times today. It’s just so darned attractive, it makes me WANT to wash a sinkload of dishes.)

Ina takes the lid off the paella pot. She stirs it and puts it back in the oven to cook without the lid for another 15 minutes.

For the icing to write names on the cookies, Ina reams a lemon to get ¼ cup of juice and stirs in 1 lb. of confectioner’s sugar until smooth. She adds ¼ cup of corn syrup, which helps to keep the mixture “freeflowing” enough to push it through a pastry bag. She loads the pastry bag, folding down an admirably large collar to keep the whole thing un-icky. Ina pipes her guests names on the cookies, definitely preferring the short ones! Funny, Ina.

Ina squeezes more lemon for the salad dressing. She whisks it with 1 tablespoon of mustard, salt and pepper and then she slowly adds ½ cup olive oil. (Friends, use a blender, it’ll be done in SECONDS). She deals with the avocados. Now THIS is interesting. After cutting them in half, she runs her finger around the inside edge to loosen the flesh and pops them out of their skins. She immediately turns the avocado pieces around in the vinaigrette to stop from browning. She arranges them on a platter.

She cuts the ends of a grapefruit off and then cuts all the skin off. She cuts out the segments and places them on top of the avos. The juice left in the grapefruit membrane-y pieces gets squeezed over. She sprinkles over a bit more vinaigrette with some salt and pepper. What a wonderful refreshing, yet rich combination. I love it.

She takes the Paella out of the oven and stirs in Pernod…using a wooden spoon?? NO, use a fork.

She keeps the pot on low heat for a few minutes, then takes it off to add cooked lobster meat...one and a half pounds worth! She stirs in sliced kielbasa and a package of frozen peas and just lets them steam in the paella for 15 minutes. I’m not sure why she didn’t add the sausage when she was cooking the onions. It would have given the entire dish more flavor. She garnishes the dish with parsley.

The party starts. All the building folk are enjoying lunch. Ina laughingly threatens to withhold the food if it will help to get the barn built faster. I have a feeling she could attract a big crowd to a barn raising if she needed to and a really big crowd...if it involved lunch.

Michael, Where Are You?

Seriously, those folks at the Food Network are spending so much time with their little Food Network Star contest that they seem to be absolutely daft when it comes to their current schedule.

I've already expressed my displeasure at them moving Michael Chiarello from MY prime viewing time of Saturday afternoons to Sunday afternoons. But I do understand that sometimes, just sometimes, it's not all about me. HOWEVER, NOW they've moved him to Sunday's at 8 AM!!! If that's not a diss, I don't know what is.

Who in their right minds is interested in watching FISH TACOS at eight in the morning?! NObody. They think they've placated his fans by also running his shows at 3 pm on weekdays. That's even worse.

Michael, I know you have your winery and your store and there's always NapaStyle on TV, but to me, you'll always be my Easy Entertaining guy and I don't like that fooled with.

Ingrid Hoffman: Simply Delicioso Or Just A Giada Wannabe?

Simply Delicioso with Ingrid Hoffman

Gone Sailing
Arugula, Avocado and Fennel Salad
Michelada
Chipotle Tamale Pie
Lychee Gelatin Shots

To get the recipes:
Click here

Obviously what we have here is a case of the Food Network wanting to capitalize on Giada's enormous success. Just like Survivor spawned The Amazing Race and American Idol spawned Dancing With The Stars which spawned Skating With People who aren't even fifth rate stars and, of course, there’s America's Invented People Losing Weight Along With Their Talent. ANYWAY, the point is that ONCE one thing is successful, it's often given a little tweak and recycled to try to match the success of the original. I feel like that’s what they’re trying to do here. We shall see…

Simply Delicioso uses the slightly dumb conceit of freezing the action as host Ingrid Hoffman is serving a meal - today is lunch on a boat - and then scurrying back to the kitchen to show us how it's done. Not necessary and slightly jejune.

The "anchor of meal" (get it? she's going sailing) is a Chipotle Tamale Pie. Ingrid opens the refrigerator and gets out a package of ground turkey and puts it on the counter. I do not like the way it was just sitting on the refrigerator shelf. I always leave my meat and poultry, and fish for that matter, in the plastic supermarket bag in the fridge. I also leave it on top of that bag when I’m dealing with it before cooking, and then I throw out all the packaging together, AFTER WHICH I WASH MY HANDS BEFORE I DO ANYTHING ELSE. Not a good start.

She adds an onion to olive oil in a skillet and sautés it. Then she adds green pepper to make a light sofrito. Garlic goes in with salt and pepper.

Ingrid places the package of ground turkey on the cutting board, turns it over and unwraps it and, holding on the package (but it still has raw poultry cooties on it), she adds it to the sauté pan. She stirs it with a wooden spoon.

OMG!!! She puts a stick of butter right down on the same wooden chopping board that she had her RAW ground turkey on! The bottom of her square glass baking dish is SQUARELY in the middle of where she unwrapped her turkey. So now, she’ll be carrying the raw turkey juices to the oven, and probably to the table and to the fridge, if she refrigerates her leftovers in that dish. She butters the dish and now places it on the counter, thereby spreading all the germy stuff there too. Great!

Next she’s making a cornbread topping. OK, I really have to get over my aversion to spreading the juices of raw poultry all over the house (not to mention the boat) and into people’s intestinal tracts. PAY ATTENTION to the cooking, Sue! (I make a mean tamale pie. Let’s see what’s in her cornmeal crust.) WHAT???!!! PACKAGED cornbread mix. Not only am I getting food poisoning, but I have to use a mix?! No! Por favor, nunca!

She pauses and says, “I LOVE these recipes. They’re so easy. I always say, if I can do it, then you can do it.” I understand the Food Network has to devote a certain amount of its schedule to the dumbing down of American kitchens, but do they have to be so blatant about it?

Ingrid struggles (I’m not kidding) to get all the muffin mix out of the box. Plus she calls everything “baby”. I guess they feel she’s appealing to their Latin audience. It’s more like an insult to them, I’D say. Plus she is sooooo way overbeating the frigging muffin mix. Goodness, she can’t even do that.

She adds a can of chopped tomatoes to the turkey mixture. She takes 2 big chipotles out of the can. Oh great, those go on the board to get chopped. At least, they’ll be cooked. She adds them and then tells us she’s going to add some of the adobo sauce from the can - one tablespoon…oh no, actually one TEASPOON. (Don’t worry, Ingrid, that’s only a THREE HUNDRED PERCENT DIFFERENCE).

She adds cumin. NOW? Honey, add it AFTER you’ve sautéed your vegetables and BEFORE you’ve added your tomatoes. She really does have NO idea how to cook. She mixes up “this baby”, adds pinto beans and says “baby” at least twice more before simmering it for 5 minutes. She also has an annoying way of holding stuff up to the camera and saying, ”Smell this.” Ingrid, baby, this is television…

Now she’s showing us Chica Shots. Oh, good, now we can participate in the binge drinking epidemic of today’s youth…Just kidding. I love jello shot type things as much as the next person, especially after my 22 year old daughter told me what they were.

Ingrid opens 2 packages of pineapple flavored jello. Well, I guess, I really didn’t think she was going to harvest agar agar from the sea. She adds 1 teaspoon of sugar, because of course, those huge food conglomerates are always under-sweetening things for us health conscious Americans. She whisks in 1 cup of boiling water and 6 tablespoons of the syrup from the lychees. Ingrid adds ¼ cup of light rum. You know if she wasn’t on television she’d be quadrupling that. She fills little plastic cups (the kind that do so well when they’re thrown overboard in a bout of ocean-going jello-shot pong) with the jello mixture and pushes half a lychee in each one.

She confesses that she is not a great dessert maker. (REALLY?!) and that she hates to bake. Who could THAT remind us of? Listen, Hon, instead of taxing the limited brain power that you have making this jello crap, you could have learned how to bake a cake or roll out a pie crust. Jello in a plastic cup is NOT dessert. Seriously, this is rather enraging.

These ‘babies” go into the fridge for half a hour. Are you sure that isn’t too much trouble?

To the tamale mixture, she adds one cup of grated cheese and some chopped cilantro, and you guessed it, that cilantro did get chopped on the very same cutting board as the raw turkey. She adds the mixture to the baking dish. You remember the one with the rapidly decomposing juices on the bottom of it.

She adds the cornmeal crust on top. It looks thoroughly beaten down and tough. It’s just been sitting on the counter (in a bowl, she’s not THAT bad). Of course, she probably doesn’t know that any mixture that has baking powder in it needs to be dealt with as soon as the liquid is added. Double acting baking powder means the first action comes after liquid hits it and the second comes from the heat of the oven.

The tamale pie goes into a preheated 400 degree Fahrenheit oven for 20 to 25 minutes. She needs the commercial break to figure out how she’s going to take all this food down to the boat. Uh, duh, let’s see. Pack it up and carry it!!!

She invites us to smell the tamale pie. That is so stupid. When Bobby, who I think invented bringing the food right up close to and underneath the camera lens, does it, he’s cool and charming and you really want to taste and smell the food. When Ingrid does it, I just want to shake her.

She halves and chops her avocados. They go into a big plastic container. She halves and slices a fennel bulb really finely. That goes into the container. She squeezes over the juice of 2 lemons and mixes it up with a little salt and pepper. (She’s NEVER washed her hands, so I, personally, am staying as far away from that salad as I can.)

She’s very proud as she gives us a tip of wrapping cilantro in a damp paper towel and puts it in a plastic bag before transporting it to the boat. Of course, most of us knew that before dinosaurs roamed the earth, but I am impressed that SHE knew that. She mixes up her dressing, lemon juice and olive oil and seasoning. She really shakes “that baby” up. Is she hoping that will become her “Bam”? I sure hope not.

Salt and chili powder get mixed up for Ingrid’s “Michelada” beer mixture. Then she mispronounces Worcestershire sauce at least 3 times, before telling us that it goes in the beer glass with some Tabasco after the glass gets lime around the rim and dipped in that chili pepper mixture. It sounds really dreadful.

She snaps everybody back to life. Oh good, does that mean the last half hour has been a bad dream? They eat. They sail.

Oh, she reminds us again that if she can do it, then we can do it too. Yup…that’s the problem. And it’s kind of a pity. She’s certainly accomplished a lot in various businesses and she seems cute and very likable (at least 50% of the time), plus real Latin recipes are always exciting. Whether this is her or what the FN folks wanted her to be, it’s a shame. And she really must get her kitchen sanitation issues sorted out. That’s just gross. I will really have to think about giving her another chance. Vamos a ver.

Oh, and you know how I was wondering how she would stack up against Giada? Don’t worry, Giada, there is NO COMPETITION. Ingrid is in her very own league or at least a league that includes Rachael Ray and Sandra Lee. Hosts whose appeal is, well, I’m not really sure what their appeal is. Whatever it is, their food is dreadful and isn’t good food kind of what the FOOD Network is supposed to be about?

Michael Chiarello With His Always Delicious Ideas

Did you catch Michael Chiarello's story in August's Bon Appetit? He gives us great recipes for uncooked sauces for pastas and other summer entrees. The only problem is that there isn't ONE picture of the cute chef, except on the contributor page. AND it's not hallmarked as one of their feature stories. Hurrumph!

Happy Birthday To Us

The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that this is the 10th anniversary of when the BLOG was born. Well, more accurately, this YEAR is the 10th anniversary...They cite the date as December 23, 1997, when Jorn Barger began to add links to his blog that he thought would be of interest to his readers. He called it "webpage logging". and the OED declared that to be the root of the word "weblog", which, of course, became "blog". (Jorn looks a little scary and from what I've read, he IS a little scary.)

Anyway, they interview a bunch of muckety mucks, well not JUST...MIA FARROW is in there!! But her blurb is a good one. She encouraged one of her kids to start a blog when she was dissed from the school newspaper and she herself started blogging on catastrophic conditions around the world. You can't argue with the good will out there in the blogosphere.

Of course, the WSJ mentions nary a food blog, but that's ok, we know who we are and our numbers are being added to every minute. I wish I knew how many food blogs are out there. A casual Google search leads to 180,000,000 results for "Food Blogs", even more for "Food Blog", but those, obviously, include posts ABOUT food blogs, as well. Google Blogsearch comes up with 70,611,481 results for food, but only (ONLY!) 188,757 for food blogs. Even an article in Forbes didn't hazard a guess as to the numbers.

Anyway, keep blogging and keep reading our blogs. Maybe one day we'll make it into the Wall Street Journal, but a comment from a fellow blogger or a mention in a post would suit me just fine.

NOTE:
Here's an interesting tidbit I just found:
Why I Hate Food Bloggers by Mario Batali
(Read it all, he's not completely wrong.)

Paris Restaurants, Part Deux

Sending A Message To Senderens:
Get SOMEBODY To Wait On Your Tables

Having your staff walk quickly around the dining room is not a substitute for service, if they don't actually stop at the table (MY TABLE)...like ever.

An eagerly awaited dinner at Alain Senderens' self-named restaurant turned into a waiting game to see just how long it would take for a human being to acknowledge our presence before we got up and left.

We were received appropriately as we entered the restaurant and we were shown our table right away, but the attention stopped there. No waiter, no busperson and certainly not the Maitre D’ approached us or even came close. The service around us was painfully slow as well, but they, at least, had some bread to gnaw on and a sip of water to keep them busy. We had nothing; no bread, no water, no menus, nothing but a growing sense of unease.

As I looked at my watch, I kept thinking about the single best meal I had ever had in my entire life...and that was 12 years ago, IN THIS VERY SAME PLACE, when it was Lucas Carton, a temple of unparalleled culinary excellence.

WHAT had transpired in those years to bring us to the point of walking out in a fit of haute cuisine deprived rage? Well, the first thing that happened was about those Michelin stars. Lucas-Carton was a 3 star restaurant with Alain Senderens at the height of his culinary mastery. He got sick of the whole Michelin system and what it took to obtain and then keep those stars.

"I want to do something different that will be three-star in my heart."

"I want to simplify my cooking, allow myself more liberty and reduce the average check at Alain Senderens to €100. I cannot do this with the level of efforts required to maintain the three-star status."

And so he downsized Lucas-Carton to follow a more informal approach. Knowing this, I was not expecting a grandiose 3 star experience. But I did expect to be allowed to look at a menu and maybe have a sip of water.

When a waiter approached in MINUTE SIXTEEN, I was really ambivalent about whether to stay or go. My husband could go either way. (Remember his bruising experience at L'Arpege, so a croque monsieur would have been fine with him.)

One more thing, I don't go to a restaurant to complain and moan. I can do THAT just fine at home. Nine times out of ten, I will never express displeasure for bad service or a problem with the food. HOWEVER, this time I could not be silent. I looked at the waiter, gosh, he was cute, and I said, kind of laughing (but not really) WHAT is going on? We have been sitting here longer than 15 minutes and absolutely NOONE has offered us a menu, a drink or water? WHAT is happening? He smiled his crinkly smile, apologized profusely and, like a cheated-on inamorata, I fell for it. He was FRENCH after all. The meal proceeded apace after that.

We started with a Raviole de Légumes de Printemps, which was slightly cooked spring vegetables piled in between sheets of pasta, served with a basil foam. It was a lovely presentation, but the flavor was…how you say in French?...BLAH. Yup, that’s right. There was no spark…to be honest, it could have used salt. Sorry, but it’s true.

Our other starter was Langoustines Croustillantes. Now THIS, THIS is what I was waiting for. They was crispy, crunchy, deep but yet delicately fried, sweet crayfish, served with a miniature bok choy. The crust of the langoustine was a perfect counterpoint to the soft, almost silky, texture of the bok choy.

I often require my husband (and me) to draw a line through the middle of each plate as it’s served to us. Then we share, knowing that we each have EXACTLY half of each course. Obviously, that way we can taste more things, EXCEPT when I don’t want to. I didn’t want to this time with our main courses. Mine was Gambas Poêlées aux Epices Thaï, Sautéed Prawns with Thai Spices and I wanted it all (I did let H taste it). It was DEE-licious. They were perfectly seasoned, no lack of salt here, cooked to perfection. One even wanted to crunch on the tails. (Well, I did anyway.) The polenta, served alongside, was accompanied with the unusual Mostarda di Cremona, which is not actually mustard, but an Italian specialty of fruits cooked WITH mustard seeds, as well as sugar. It gave a sweet and slightly sharp zing to the dish.

Hubby’s main course was Tartare de Veau de Lait et Langoustine or a Veal and Crayfish Tartare. I tasted it. Smooth, rich, but I like a bit of manducation with my entrée.

The first dessert, Dacquoise au Poivre de Séchouan, didn’t disappoint, although I didn’t think that the Szechwan peppercorn was particularly evident in the meringue. The Ginger Ice Cream that accompanied it was perfect. It had that slightly stinging, unmistakably gingery flavor - a wonderful partner to the dacquoise. The Assortment of Ice Cream and Sorbets, (vanilla, ginger, mango, lychee, chocolate), offered plenty of diverse tastes with which to end the meal. Ginger and Lychee were my favorites. Best of all the bill, although high at 226 euros, didn’t leave either of us apoplectic.

All in all, the food was mainly excellent, the setting was attractive and comfortable and not overformal. But, malheureusement, the lack of service at the beginning of the visit, although perhaps forgiven, was not completely forgotten.

A Tale of Two Restaurants - Part One

I’m baaack from a wonderful time in Paris. So much running around the last few days, but I must tell you in particular about 2 meals - each with a sprinkling of delicious mouthfuls, but each ultimately disappointing in its own way.

I certainly don’t make regular pilgrimages to the world’s leading temples of gastronomy, but I’ve been to my fair share. However, during my last few visits to Paris, I skipped all of that and just ate at regular places, not even planning ahead. Overall, each meal was terrific, although none was life-changing. This time, I thought I’d plan a couple of amazing meals.

The first restaurant I must report on is Alain Passard's L’Arpege. This 3 star Michelin restaurant appealed to me, because the chef is a true original. Back in 2001, he declared that he was tired of the usual meat preparations and turned his attention to vegetables. He even started an organic vegetable farm some 200 kilometers from Paris, where he grows gorgeous specimens that he uses in his restaurant. Among his favorites are beets, mine too!

For a time, his restaurant was all vegetables, then he allowed non-red meat dishes back in. I had read that he had a vegetable tasting menu. Luckily, or so I thought at the time, my friend, A, obtained a reservation for 3 on one of the nights we were in Paris. I was very excited to be partaking in this trailblazer’s cuisine.

We were greeted warmly and placed at an attractive table, with a good view of the small space. Panels of Lalique glass featured figures of beautiful nudes. There was a single almost round watermelon sitting on each table.

We were attended to immediately (which I came to appreciate based on my next restaurant visit) and the menus were presented. I perused mine for the vegetable tasting menu. None was to be found. I asked the Maitre D’ and he said not to worry that they would put together one. The astoundingly good looking sommelier provided Kir Royales to A and me and Husband had a glass of wine. Our amuses were thin potato slices, fried crisp, crisp, CRISP and filled with beets among other vegetables. Just perfect. Divine, in fact.

After a brief discussion with my husband, who was pretty opposed to the tasting menu idea, because he didn’t want to be there for 4 hours, I won (a Pyrrhic victory, at best) and the tasting menu it was. (He had the traditional tasting menu which had lamb and fish, but was also heavy on the vegetables. A and I went for the vegetable-only one.)

In my defense (which I needed later with my poor put-upon husband), I was handed a menu without prices, which is rather ridiculous in the 21st century. So, really, I had no clue what I was committing to. Then when it was feverishly whispered, I took a moment to think about it and decided that I would forever regret not tasting the fruits of Alain Passard’s labors in this unique way.

I didn’t attempt to write down a detailed description of every last dish and garniture. I was thinking I would be in Nirvana and I would only be capable of a painting a picture with broad strokes. Plus, I had to keep up my energy for the long night of tasting ahead of me.

We started with a heavenly poached egg with maple syrup and vinegar. It was served with whole wheat bread and wonderful salty butter, which apparently is a great favorite of Passard’s, even though it was surprisingly presented in a big lump. The white of the egg was smooth and velvety, the yolk was runny and rich tasting - the flavoring of the maple syrup and the vinegar of Xeres was genius.

Next was the not so new kid on every block - a foam, this one a mushroom foam with a white truffled foamy accent. It was the very essence of woody mushrooms with a very pleasing texture.

The next was a radish dish called a risotto, in which the radishes took the place of the rice. Interesting. The radishes were very delicate, without a hint of sharpness. This is where the growing of his produce seemed to make the biggest difference in quality.

My eagerly awaited beets made an appearance next. They were yellow, red and pale pink (I think) beets served with a final pouring of 12 year old balsamic vinegar. Very sweet, very good, but not the awe-inspiring dish I had been expecting. I was beginning to wonder if I had misled our table on this culinary adventure.

The next course was potatoes served in a foam and my inability to recall the exact nature of this dish says more about ITS lack of memorable-ness than it does about my addled brain.

Leeks came after, beautifully presented, but as I chewed them, I realized I had to REALLY chew them. They weren’t soft and melting. They were STRINGY and, while tough may be an exaggeration, they seemed to be highly resistant to my attempts to break them down.

The next dish was the signature L’Arpege Harlequin of Vegetables, prepared with Argan oil, which, although exotic, did nothing to enliven the flavor of these tiny homegrown veggies.

We were feeling a little let down, I must say, by this point and wondering what was to come. Remember we didn’t see a list of courses on the menu…they were just presenting them to us. The watermelon was removed from the table.

The cheese board, with TWENTY FIVE selections was brought over. Interesting that, with the exception of a single Comte (I think), all the cheeses were goat or sheep’s milk, which was fine with me. I LOVE goat’s milk cheese. I decided to try the freshest goat’s milk cheese and the most aged. They were wonderful and exactly as one would expect, the new one was fresh tasting and lively and the aged one had the typical “smelly” aroma and was melting all over the plate. Strangely, though, no bread was served and no nothing else either. A thought there should have been bread AND perhaps a piece of fig or a leaf of something or other, AT LEAST.

A plate of vegetable macaroons took some getting used to. No, actually, there WAS no reason to get used to them. I like unusual things maybe more than the next person, but these were pointless.

Dessert followed. it was a Strawberry Millefeuille, which was dramatically oversized for this type of menu. It was the finest example of its kind that I’ve ever had, but even THAT was not enough to make up for the misses of many of the courses of the preceding meal. It was too large a portion and somehow just felt out of place.

The problem with L’Arpege was that EVERY single morsel should have hit a homerun. It is a 3 star restaurant, for goodness sake! Every bite should have been totally and completely delectable, delightful, delicious and distinctive. Distinctive it was, ambrosial it wasn’t.

I've had a few days to think about it, and I thought perhaps I would reconsider my findings, that I would think in retrospect that the enormous respect Passard gives to the fruits of the earth would somehow render the meal more appealing. But the truth is, to me, many of the dishes lacked...dare I say it...flavor. I didn't find, in his stylings, a reason to go vegetables-only.

I suppose that at a third of the price I could have lived with it, but with its current astounding price, my conclusions stand. One other note, while the food itself was mostly tarted up pretty well, the dinner service (the plates themselves) and the other dishes were plain almost to the point of ennuie. Plus, although I understand his serving of only one type of bread is intentional to avoid taking the focus off the vegetables, its presentation was lackluster. And certainly with the cheese, a crust of bread couldn't have been out of place.

How much did this meal cost? I’m not being coy, but I CANNOT bring myself to tell you. Email me, if you must know. Suffice it to say, that 3 William McKinley’s would have covered it by a nose.

Next time...a test of patience.

Les Chiens Rule!!!

Since I've been in Paris, I've seen cute doggies everywhere:

In a park


On the metro


Looking out a window


And in a restaurant.

An American In Paris

Happy Fourth Of July!!! I hope you're all having a wonderful barbecue. I've been running around this gorgeous city with nary a firework in sight. But Paris is so beautiful that it doesn't need any artificial conceits to doll it up.

High points of the last couple of days:

• Lalique exhibit at the Musée du Luxembourg


• Musée du Quai Branly, the new museum of African, Asian, Oceanic and American art


• Amazing multi-coursed vegetarian tasting menu (more soon)

• Musée D'Orsay Cézanne to Picasso exhibit


• Delightful multi-coursed Thai fusion tasting menu


• Walking, walking and more walking


• Rain, not rain, rain

• Croque-monsieur, croque madame

• kir royale, kir royale, kir royale (you get the idea.)

Ah, To Be In Paris...

Oh, wait, I AM...Come and join me. We can meet just about anywhere...with the other 3 million tourists that are here.

Yesterday was a wonderful day with my great friend "A". Deux café crèmes first, then off to the Marais and lots of little shops. AND this is SOLDES (sale) season! This shop at 6 Rue de Trésor, Un rien vous manque,

had charming art items like this bowl:

and this lamp made from squares of seashells strung together.

We saw wonderful little shirts and dresses at Comptoirs Des Cotonniers and walked around the Place de Vosges.

We took a needed break for lunch at a café/restaurant on Rue de Trésor. Very delicious - Milles Feuilles of Eggplant - (no puff pastry, just eggplant), served with a tomato reduction packed with flavor

and Composed Romaine Salade that had all kinds of good things in it besides the romaine - parmesan, ham, artichoke hearts, olives and tomatoes.

Then the metro to the Orangerie, where we saw the always magnificent Nymphéas, by Claude Monet, as well as works by Picasso, Renoir and Cézanne and lots of other folks. This is a lovely highly do-able museum that has been completely renovated and re-opened in May of 2006. A bit more wandering and shopping and it was time for a breather before apertifs and dinner with husband.

Another Kir Royale, this one stayed on the table, and over to El Mansour

for FABULOUS couscous. My husband's was a sweet chicken one and I stuck to a vegetable couscous. Couscous, of course, is the semolina grain, which is always served separately. (This one had the chickpeas with the couscous, rather than in the stew, which is customary.)

The chicken comes on yet another plate

and finally the wonderfully soupy vegetable stew comes in its own bowl. AND there was plenty of spicy harissa to go with it all.

The Chicken Fassi was fascinating. The chicken pieces were very sweet and had lots of rosewater steeped raisins cooked with them. The couscous that went with it was covered with whole blanched almonds, raisins, mint and POWDERED SUGAR. It was just yummy.

The Vegetable Stew was swimming with carrots and zucchini and the broth carried the robust taste of the celery pieces.

Our dessert was a Pastilla au Lait,

a phyllo pastry tart filled with a wonderful custard. The filling reminded me of a South African Melktert. It was a delicate, crispy and sweet end to a delightful meal. The only thing that awaited us was a sprinkling of rosewater over our hands, when the last plate was cleared, which allowed us to carry the fragrance of El Mansour into the Paris night.