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Category Archives: Food Writing
Pulse and Poetry
I came across a list of ingredients with names in French. Black eyed peas was given as haricots oeil de perdrix which in back translation gives partridge eye beans. Thanks to Dixon Long in Markets of Provence for the compilation. … Continue reading
A Triad of Tricolons
I am a sucker for a tricolon and even more so for a tricolon describing food. The description of the offerings on a market day: On good days—and most days are good—the Provençal sun transforms ripe peppers to fire, honey … Continue reading
Chronomatics
Julia Child on diversions and variations on the adage of the watched pot. Timing: Tripe is far from being a fast-food operation. It needs soaking, and simmering, and the long slow cooking — 5 to 7 hours or more, depending … Continue reading
Stick Stock Stuck
Tick. Tock. Tuck. Autocorrect can lead to some nice surprises: I saw an interesting recipe for soup: take Brussel sprouts and lightly fry with onion and garlic, add turmeric and curry powder. Add stick and let cook. Puree. Seems delicious. … Continue reading
Coach and Coax
In the acknowledgements to Moosewood Restaurant New Classics one finds a remark applicable not only to the whole enterprise of writing cookbooks… Like anchors, Arnold and Elise Goodman, our agents, coach us and coax us, encourage us and challenge us, … Continue reading
Feeding Fashion
Another food poem in addition to the title-bearing poem in the collection by Jack Prelutsky A Pizza the Size of the Sun is the charming two stanza agricultural myth “Spaghetti Seeds” which concludes thusly I planted them year ago . … Continue reading
The Cut and the Cooked
Jane Byers Steeling Effects “Starfruit” The extended comparison at the end of this poem stretches out a food metaphor into a celebration of the plain. Mashed potatoes and turnip are nutrient poor from the endless boil but love doesn’t leach. … Continue reading
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The Almost Forgotten Fairy
Craig Claiborne in the revised edition of The New York Time Cook Book recounts the characters that characterize a fine dressing. An old culinary chestnut states that it takes four persons to make a sauce for salads: a spendthrift for … Continue reading
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Speak of the Hand
A celebration of all good things that can be piled on toast or crostini is prefaced by praise for the hand. I find something intrinsically “right” about eating food while holding it in my hands. It is as if this … Continue reading
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Combo Credo
The evidence is common knowledge (our tastebuds proclaim it) yet this nicely balanced sentence is a welcome reminder of the encounter at the heart of the preparation of good food. Great food happens at the intersection of your ingredients and … Continue reading