The Maltese Bacon

Survival Guide to a New York February

1) Korean style ramen (I buy the Nong Shin Ramyun brand which is ready available around here. It's spicy and delicious. Add an egg and scallions and you'€™ve got yourself a real meal.)

2) Soup lady on Mercer and Prince (good beef chili and beef stew)

3) Thoughts of Barack Obama*

4) Pantry and long lasting fridge items to make pasta with (anchovies, sun dried tomatoes, pine nuts, olives, onions, garlic, cans of Spanish tuna, cans of tomatoes and tomato sauce -Murray'€™s has cans of San Marzano for $1.45, sardines, frozen bacon/meats, pancetta)

5) Episodes of The Office on DVD or off Amazon.

6) Stretching/yoga at home (It helps the crunchy, computer shoulders that have been stuffed into winter clothes.)

7) Food that conjures up warmer weather (Keralese fish curry/ Turkish chicken/Cuban sandwich).

8) A steady supply of clementines and broccoli (to boost your Vitamin C to counteract that seasonal affective disorder)

9) Make large pots of food on Sundays, like a short rib ragu.

*gossipy tidbit: The Obama family like to eat at the Calypso Cafe, a good, neighborhoody Caribbean restaurant where I used to work at in Hyde Park, Chicago. (I wore an aqua green Island shirt and Indiana Jones khakis to work.) I didn't know of Barack's existence when I worked there in 2000, but figured it out when I was reading the New Yorker a few years later and they interviewed him in that restaurant. I wondered if the man they amusingly described shaking hands with him as the "hip hop auto mechanic" was my old pal Matt.

Short Rib Ragu

For the short rib ragu, I started by making this short rib provencale from epicurious. (Disclosure: I did not add celery or beef stock. I did add two slices of bacon, a little more wine and a tablespoon of sugar. Next time I would add a ½ more portion of the olives.) Eat that day 1 with bread or noodle. (On day 1, you will be swimming in beef lard.) On day 2, take it out of the fridge and discard as much of those giant globules of fat that you can in 7 minutes. (Otherwise you can pick at it all day.) Put some of the sauce and beef in the pan, with some freshly chopped garlic and heat it slowly with some canned tomato sauce. (maybe 1 part short rib sauce to one part tomato sauce). Add salt pepper and red pepper flakes to taste. Put it on top of some fettuccini.

Sad Songs for Food Lovers

Okay, so I have a song to offer you this week. Brian taught me how to use Garage Band on Sunday and I decided to serenade you with a culinary swing. I will be releasing an album in 2050 that covers all the places around the world I've eaten.

Here you go:

Download drive_myself_to_mexico.m4a

Chinatown My Chinatown

I got this song in my inbox from Dan:
Download mills_brothers_chinatown_my_chinatown_1932.mp3

This is the Mills Brothers version which was recorded in 1932 (but was written in 1910). It appeared in Woody Allen's Radio Days.

...

The post-holiday come down…Can a girl get some quiet? Yes, thank you very much. Oh, wait but it’s really quiet. Too quiet? Mmmm. Okay, maybe a bit, but it is much needed. I myself have been hiding from outings since the New Year started (which translates to restaurants). All the fish at the farmer’s market was nearly sold out on Saturday. The over-fed hoards were tired of red meat!

Been trying to read 5 books. Not really working. I've got ADD right now, 20 pages into one book and I'll find another. Do I want to learn Spanish first? Or read about Hitler’s ascent? Then there's the Elizabeth’s Gilbert’s search for God, love and spaghetti, which I got for Christmas. I finally finished "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" last night, which was so great. Junot is a veritable poet, although I think his book “Drown” had more emotional resonance because it was more dead-pan, less pop. I loved all the references to Lord of the Rings and all, but it did make the voice less serious.

Yes, December nearly did me in. The sheer amount of consumption - cookies, meat, wine, whiskey. We Americans are disgusting! And New Yorkers are probably the worst of them all. But, the capper to last month was the all encompassing Christmas dinner which cousin Tammy planned. Vanee, Caroline and I were her sous chefs. We drove to my uncle’s house in the Maryland country late in the morning. Before we got started we took a little hike around his house, which borders one of the fingers of Chesapeake Bay. When my aunt wanted to talk about having a wedding for one of us singletons in the garden, we tried to deflect the attention and hide. Then we got started in the kitchen. The dinner was for 16 people and it went very smoothly. The moms were impressed that we were so quiet in the kitchen. No bickering or screaming. A new generation!

Stuff eaten: oysters, chicken liver crostini, bacon wrapped cipollini onions, butternut squash soup with sunchokes, rib roast, rock fish with salsa verde, cauliflower au gratin, sautéed cavolo nero, roasted Brussels sprouts and parsnips. My favorite was an inspired grilled romaine appetizer with pomegranate dressing.

Then for dessert we had a cheese plate (including an out of this world St. Agur blue with local honey), a buche, berries, and cookies. A Sauternes was busted out. We debated whether or not my uncle could ever find a fraternity to justify the giant margarita machine (THE MARGARATOR) that his sister in law had given him or whether he should get a more modest sized one. Then we made the long drive home, but no matter…there was 10 years of gossip that different coasts had backlogged.