World On A Plate

Bicerin - Gusto de Torino

       

I wrote this post over a week ago as it is related the Olympics. The longer I waited to post the more irrelevant it seem to become as others had the same idea.  But you know what, not so much.  Every post I came across had a different voice and angle.  So without further hesitation here is my version of the story. 

A renowned Torino specialty drink, not to mention a passionate favorite of many is the bicerin (bee-ched-REEN) . To simply call it new-fangled mocha would be wrong.  The drink is going through a bit of a rebirth on the Piazza della Consolata. According to a recent NY Times article the drink "returned in fashion about 10 years ago, with the recuperation of traditional and authentic foods."  Thank you Slow Food.

The elixir was created at the café of the same name and evolved from an 18th century drink made there called the “bavareisa.” It was a favorite of writer Alexander Dumas and many other writers of the city including Giuseppe Culicchia. The Italian contemporary writer once said that this drink is “served with such finesse here, that many customers would come risking the barrage of machine-gun fire in order to procure a chalice.” 

The name bicerin comes from the Italian word for glass, bicchiere, but in its diminutive form means "little glass". There are three ways to order this beverage:

• pur e fiôr – coffee and milk/cream

• pur e barba– coffee and chocolate

• un pô ‘d tut– coffee, chocolate and milk/cream

The concoction is made of 3 equal layers of heaven, a bottom layer of espresso, topped with sweet Florentine hot chocolate prepared with water, intensifying the chocolate taste and topped with whipped cream.

It’s a heavily kept secret recipe in fact café employees’ lips are sealed by contract.  In 2001 the drink was elevated to the “traditional Piedmontese drink by the publication Bollettino Ufficiale della Regione Piemonte. Today it is often served in espresso cups personally I think it's best served up in a glass in order to enjoy the mélange of dark liquid mixing together as you drink it.

Other relateed sites worth a look:

Cafés of Turin (via Exploring the Globe)

David Lebovitz post (such a tease with all this talk of chocolate!)

Faith Willinger’s Version of Bicerin

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

         

Over the weekend , after a long overdue massage, I ducked in out of the cold rain and into Eliza's for takeout. The Chinese restaurant's entry way was adorned with pomelos, tangerines and oranges. As I stood waiting for my soup and dumplings a member of the wait staff came over. Turns out that tangerines and oranges are presented during Chinese New Year as the words for tangerine and orange sound like luck and wealth, respectively. Pomelos, the forebearer of the tiny grapefruit symbolize abundance, and sounds like the word for "to have." 

According to the Chinese today marks the new year 4703.  The celebration, also known as the Spring Festival continues for 29 days. In the Chinese calendar there are three ways to name the year.  Numerically, by mascot, (12-year cycle) we are at the start of the Year of the Dog and lastly by it's formal name Bingxu, which is part of the ‘Stem-branch’ system (60- year cycle (2006 is the 7th year of the current cycle). The calendar is based on lunar and solar rhythms.  The Spring festival historically celebrates the earth coming back to life as it's also the start of ploughing and the sowing of seeds.

The custom and the food on New Year's Eve is deep and closely observed.  Two of the most traditional foods one will find are a type of dumpling and a savory 'cake.' The former, according to Asia Recipe, is one of the most popular dishes served in Northern China are dumplings shaped like a crescent moon and  boiled in water called,  jiaozi.  China Daily, recounts that "dumplings were first known in China some 1,600 years ago. The Chinese pronunciation of Jiao Zi means midnight or the end and the beginning of time. According to historical records, in ancient times people from both north and south ate dumplings on Chinese New Year's Day."  The name in Chinese literally means "sleep together and have sons."

Today however, perhaps because Southern China produces more rice than other regions, they prepare nian gao, a sweet-sticky glutinous "cake" made from rice flour and sugar.  It looks a bit a kind of glutinous white cake in the shape of rectangle. Oliva Wu, in a Feb, 2005 SF Chronicle article, describes it as a "cousin to Japanese mochi and Korean dduk.  Those who know the characteristic chewy-gooeyness of those foods as well as many of the Thai, Indonesian and Southeat Asian sweets, will be perfectly at home with the Chinese New Year Cake." 

As with most cultural traditions there is an abundance of food served up most of  it signaling plentiness, luck and wealth. Other customs include serving chicken presented with a head, tail and feet to symbolize completeness.  Noodles should be uncut, as they represent long life.

Festivities come to a close with the Yuan Xiao Festival, or Lantern Festival.  During this festival another type of dumpling is eaten.  Fillings inside the dumplings called  Yuan Xiao can be  sweet or salty. Sweet fillings are made of sugar, walnuts, sesame, osmanthus flowers, rose petals, sweetened tangerine peel, bean paste, or jujube paste. {Ed note: how fragrant!}.  The savory  variety is filled with minced meat, vegetables or a mixture.

Curiosity about the tradition and the food made me wander some on this holiday.  Now it's time to put some won ton wrappers to use.

It's Burns Night, Bring on the Haggis

           

"Haggis have all got the best of ingredients."

James Pirie, Scotland's Oldest Butcher & Winner of 2005 Haggis Championship

Poet, and one might have to suppose, a bon vivant of his day in Scotland. Robert Burns’ birthday revolves around drinking whiskey, eating haggis, reciting poetry and singing a few songs. Today is Burns Night celebrating the bard's birthday, and it is enjoyed by millions of people around the world who salute the ”immortal memory” with haggis, pipes, whiskey and women.

The evening usually begins with whiskey cocktails bearing such odd names as Rusty Nail, Scotch Buck, Scottish Sunset or a Scottish Cobbler.  Following this start a traditional Burns Supper can be divided up into three parts. This traditional order of events is known as the Bill o’ Fare. 

• Food (including the Address to the Haggis)
• The ‘Immortal Memory’ (a fun, witty speech, referencing Burns-- his life and work)
• Various songs, readings and music to end the night

As to the food the first course is a soup, usually Cock-a-leekie or Cullen Skink.  But the central focus comes with the main course of Haggis with Champit Tatties and Bashed Neeps (mashed potatoes and turnips),  beginning with the Haggis Ceremony. This is arguably the best part of the night. Everyone stands, and the chef carries the haggis high on a platter from the kitchen, accompanied by a bagpiper (or fiddler). Everyone, including the piper, is poured a whiskey and raises their glasses in a toast to the haggis, saying ‘Slainte mhath’, pronounced ‘slan-je va’ and meaning ‘your good health’. The host or a guest then reads the poem To a Haggis.

Haggis is, the national dish of Scotland.  It tastes and looks a bit, so I'm told, like a boudin  but instead of rice there is oats, or perhaps somewhat more like a Cajun dish called paunce, which is stuffed pork stomach.  I've also heard it's similar to scrapple. Haggis is under examination these days for possibly contributing to obesity in children.

Surprisingly, after all this drinking and eating a traditional dessert is served which is a sherry trifle called a Typsy Laird occasionally a popular pudding called Cranachan, made of oatmeal, fruit, cream and whiskey served with shortbread.

Pilgrim's Pride

         

Thanksgiving Cupcake, Chestnut Street Bakery, 2004

The Kitchen Sisters

         

The 13-part NPR series, Hidden Kitchens: Stories of Land, Kitchen and Community, is a wonderful, at times heart warming reminder of the cultural and social influence of food.  By exploring the world of hidden kitchens be it street corners, unique kitchens or in this story below, a makeshift kitchen in a prison cell it showcases how people's stories of courage, redemption and resourcefulness connect us.  It also features recipes, via the NPR website, for great regional, local dishes. Small stories that say something big. 

The oral history programs are produced by the San Francisco-based  Kitchen Sisters.  Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva  have been collaborating together since 1979.  Previous efforts were not related to the culinary.  In fact they won 2 Peabody Awars for thier radio series Lost and Found Sound: An Aural History of the 20th Century and for "The Sonic Memorial Project. Now the This audio collection has now been assembled into a book that includes recipes, photos and additional stories that were not featured in the radio effort.  Now the book is being turned into a three-CD audio book, read by actress Frances McDormand. 

If you are in San Francisco on Saturday, Nov. 19, the Kitchen Sisters will be at the Ferry Building Farmer's Market at Noon.

Making Clandestine Candy Behind Bars (link to NPR for audio program)

"Robert 'King' Wilkerson, who created the most amazing kitchen. He was in prison at Angola State Penitentiary in Louisiana for 31 years. Twenty-nine of those years he was in solitary confinement, basically as a political prisoner, because he was a Black Panther. He started a chapter of the Black Panther movement with two of his other friends. They had become a sort of a cause celebre known as the Angola Three.

Somehow, in solitary confinement, he managed to create a kitchen -- and he did it out of a stove made of coke cans, and he burnt toilet paper rolls to get heat. And he made pralines, which we love in New Orleans. He made these delicious candies and perfected the recipe, hidden in prison.

They decided they had made a mistake for locking him up for so long. 'King' had a new trial, and he's out now, and he sells his candies which he calls "Freelines." He does it as a way to help raise (consciousness) about political prisoners. 'King' learned to do it from his friend 'Cap Pistol,' who was in the kitchen at the time and taught him how to make sugar candy. And they are really, really good."

Holy Mole!

Part II of the series that ran last year on Oaxaca and the Day of the Dead.  This post written by Chris Carter.  Who excels in this category of Mexican cooking, his cajeta is fantastico also!

Written by Chris Carter

As we stepped through the wide iron gates of the cemetery at Xoxocotlan Cemetery in Oaxaca City well into the evening on October 31st a brass band struck up a jaunty tune. The enclosed space, crowded with people and illuminated in candles, was beyond anything I had seen in magazines about Day of the Dead celebrations– in the United States you rarely see hundreds of people in a cemetery at night, let alone with a brass brand. I was here for two reasons—to witness this cultural ritual first hand and to master the preparation for the king of all moles, Mole Negro Oaxaqueno (black mole). This task would be facilitated through Susanna Trilling and her school, Seasons of My Heart.

Oaxaca, in food circles, is known as the land of Seven Moles. This Mexican sauce made of ground nuts, seeds, chocolate and spices takes its name from molli, from the language of the pre-Colombian Nahuatl Indians in Mexico, and loosely translates as mixture. The Mexican state of Oaxaca is famous for its seven moles, often called the Seven Sisters.

Mole (pronounced MO-lay) preparation and especially mole negro, is complex and a difficult sauce to make. It contrasts greatly with both our culinary practices and general way of life in America. Rachael Ray need not apply as this is no 30-minute meal. It can actually take days to make and generally contains 20 to 30 ingredients. It is also not a simmer all day and forget about it dish either, as it can require a couple hours of constant, attentive stirring. It can actually be heartbreaking to dump a batch of inedible mole down the drain after three days of hard work. In my case it took several of these down-the-drain experiences and a trip South to perfect the dish before I could produce a passable traditional black mole.

The difficulty of the dish is due in part to the fact that the sauce does not lend itself to the rote following of directions. The end goal for a great mole is a single deep rich flavor. How do you know if you are tasting a quality mole? You should not be able to individually identify any of the 20-30 single ingredients, which requires the deft hand of the mole maker to balance all the aspects of the sauce-- the sweetness from the fruit and nuts, with the heat from the chilies, and in many cases the richness of the chocolate added to the mole. Black mole requires a step where you deeply blacken the chilies followed by igniting and burning the seeds of the chilies to give the mole the classic delicate burnt undertones that add distinctiveness and complexity. After all the ingredients are prepared they are pureed together. In Oaxaca this ability and skill is acknowledged with a “buen sazon” which according to our instructor Susanna Trilling means “good taste buds or palate, combined with a good hand for seasoning.”

“Black mole always has to be the star” according to Rick Bayless in his cookbook, Mexican Kitchen. This can be generally interpreted as serving rice and fresh tortillas on the side of the dish to sop up the sauce. In America where meat is plentiful and usually the focus of a special meal, in Mexican cooking the sauce is typically the centerpiece with the meat—turkey or chicken--as a luxury. Zarela Martinez states in her book The Food and Life of Oaxaca “an understated foil to the fascinating textures and nuances of the sauces”.

If you take the time to make the black mole recipe below from Susanna Trilling you will certainly have an extravagant, richly complex, and deeply flavored dish for a special occasion. Relative to all the contrasts between Oaxaca and America listed above, it is actually harder to make Mole here than in Oaxaca where all the ingredients can be ground for you at local molino or mill. Here are a few practical tips to make preparing and serving black mole easier and more enjoyable:  continue on for mole recipe

Photo credit: J. Brophy

Stage 21 - Oui Oui Paris

Reuters

Corbeil-Essonnes to Paris Champs-Élysées | Distance 144km/89.5mi

Bicycling Magazine describes today's challenges as "Dropped champagne flutes, wigs tangling spokes, general hijinks." At least until they arrive at the city perimeter. The cyclists here today have accomplished the unthinkable. 

Many of us, when we think of Paris, think of food, particularly pastry. Pastry history is long and filled with passionate debate on ownership. Records state that Antonin Careme elevated the art form.  Larousse Gastronomique, states that  "Choux pastry is said to have been invented in 1540 by Popelini, Catherine de' Medici's chef, but the pastrycook's art only truly began to develop in the 17th century and greatest innovator at the beginning of the 19th century was indubitably [Antonin] Careme...There were about a hundred pastrycooks in Paris at the end of the 18th century. In 1986 the count for the whole of France was over 40,000 baker-pastrycooks and 12,5000 pastrycooks."

So what does this have to do with bicycling. Before the TdF, there was the Paris-Brest-Paris race.  Every four years, since 1891, riders have 90 hours to complete the unmarked course. Once a professional race the ride has evolved into an amateur one. But don't let that fool you. The next race is 2007.

In the early days of the race a pastry chef along the route was looking to increase his sales during this time put his mind to reinventing his eclairs.  What resulted is now known as the Paris Brest.  It's a choux pastry, shaped as a bicycle wheel it's cut in half and filled with with praline crème pâtissière and topped with almonds.  While all of this sounds impressively complicated, for the most part you can stage everything ahead of time.  Years ago, Joyce Goldstein's Square One served a Paris-Brest pastry filled with bananas and praline custard served up with chocolate sauce.

Recipe for Paris-Brest via Meilleur du Chef (with photos)

Valentines

Credit:  Paris Pastry Shop Window, 2002 by J. Brophy