tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52897120066283577562024-02-08T09:15:29.618-08:00La Vraie Cuisineà ce que je sache...
This may turn out to be a Devil's Dictionary of Gastronomy. I have a long list of culinary peeves, punctuated by recollections of moments of grateful appreciation, with the occasional account of food that was so good that it made my eyes wet.
I might as well proceed alphabetically.msierchiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10571248466940181335noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5289712006628357756.post-64991279154331241262008-12-27T15:48:00.000-08:002008-12-27T16:04:15.889-08:00Croissant<span style="font-family: times new roman;">A good croissant is nearly impossible to find in America, whereas the average croissant served in any corner café in Paris is very good and often excellent. An acquaintance, upon hearing me voice this complaint, steered me to a local pastry shop with the promise "as good as Paris." I was expecting to be disappointed, and I really wish I'd been wrong, but - they weren't very good. And it was easy to see why - a couple of warm-handed workers were passing the dough through mechanical rollers, in a room that was the same temperature as the rest of the establishment - a recipe for disaster. That, combined with not letting the dough rest and chill after every other working, meant that the final product looked a bit like a croissant on the outside, but was merely a fancy piece of brioche.<br /><br />The problem isn't that we can't get good butter or flour, or the use of mechanical rolling machines. The problem is that there isn't much of a penalty for supplying substandard wares to a less-than-discerning public.<br /></span>msierchiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10571248466940181335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5289712006628357756.post-40971243477080907602008-12-21T11:28:00.000-08:002008-12-21T16:04:59.468-08:00Possessive<span style="font-family:times new roman;">And here's another one - the misapplied possessive. Why, oh why, do some people have the unerring tendency to slaughter restaurant names? <a href="http://www.delfinasf.com/"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Delfina</span></a> is one of my favorite restaurants in San Francisco, but I will begin to question the wisdom of keeping our assignation if you say you'll meet me at Delfina's. Ack. Pppt. I like <a href="http://www.barcesar.com/"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">César</span></a> a lot, too, it's a world class bar, but - and you must trust me on this one - there is no guy named </span><span style="font-family:times new roman;">César, so do you mind terribly not calling it </span><span style="font-family:times new roman;">César's? Thanks. </span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> It's ignorant - it's lazy - it grates.<br /></span>msierchiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10571248466940181335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5289712006628357756.post-5692925279283188352008-12-20T23:24:00.001-08:002008-12-22T13:24:32.329-08:00Bouillabaisse<span style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:times new roman;" >It is often said that a real </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: times new roman;font-family:times new roman;" >Bouillabaisse</span><span style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:times new roman;" > is impossible to create outside of the coastal area of Provence. While purists maintain that a classic </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: times new roman;font-family:times new roman;" >Bouillabaisse</span><span style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:times new roman;" > must always include </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: times new roman;font-family:times new roman;" >rascasse </span><span style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:times new roman;" >(scorpion fish), an ingredient not readily available everywhere, the authenticity of the dish is most commonly violated not by omission, but active transgression. What appears on restaurant and bistro menus is most certainly not a </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: times new roman;font-family:times new roman;" >Bouillabaisse, </span><span style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:times new roman;" >whatever it may be called - i</span><span style="font-family: times new roman;">f it's a dish that's made to order, it isn't even a distant cousin.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: times new roman;font-family:times new roman;" >Bouillabaisse</span><span style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:times new roman;" > was originally a soup prepared by fisherman from fish too small or bony to sell at market. The term itself is a compound of </span><i style="font-family: times new roman;">bouillir </i><span style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:times new roman;" >(to boil) and </span><i style="font-family: times new roman;">abaisser</i><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: times new roman;font-family:times new roman;" > </span><span style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:times new roman;" >(to lower). It is slow cooking, and it is men's cooking - out of doors, in a single pot. While some recipes call for the addition of octopus or sea urchin, these are surely modern refinements. I'm fairly confident that the original dish does not include any shellfish, and that </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: times new roman;font-family:times new roman;" >Bouillabaisse</span><span style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:times new roman;" > is made only from finned fish. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:times new roman;" >The fish is typically served on a platter, while the resultant broth is served in a bowl with toast spread with </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: times new roman;font-family:times new roman;" >rouille</span><span style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:times new roman;" >.</span>msierchiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10571248466940181335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5289712006628357756.post-58530782374274251342008-12-20T22:38:00.000-08:002010-06-07T09:09:06.204-07:00Carpaccio<span style="font-family:arial;">Here's one that really chaps my hide. Anything that's sliced thin and served flat, whether animal or vegetable, is now called </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" >Carpaccio</span><span style="font-family:arial;">. I suppose it's fairly common for a term to be appropriated in this way, but in this case it reflects a particularly unfortunate ignorance of its origins. The dish was named by Giuseppe Cipriani, then proprietor of Harry's Bar in Venice, because the colors of the dish reminded him of Vittore Carpaccio, a painter of the Venetian School. A retrospective of the painter's works appeared around the time of the creation of the dish, and the painter favored a palette full of reds and whites. </span><a style="font-family: times new roman;" href="http://www.amazon.com/Harrys-Bar-Cookbook-Harry-Cipriani/dp/0553070304">The original recipe from Harry's Bar</a><span style="font-family:arial;"> consists of thinly sliced shell steak, crisscrossed with a mayonnaise-based sauce.</span><br /><blockquote><a style="font-family: times new roman;" href="http://www.cipriani.com/cipriani/Consigli/carpaccioe.htm"><br /></a></blockquote>msierchiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10571248466940181335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5289712006628357756.post-70877079192937215762008-12-20T22:03:00.000-08:002008-12-20T22:58:59.118-08:00Aïoli<span style="font-style: italic;font-family:times new roman;" >Aïoli</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> is one of the most abused culinary terms and, since it begins with a dusty A, provides a good place for me to start my rant. Without exception, in every restaurant in the US where I've been served what the chef and menu call "aïoli," the sauce being foisted on gullible diners is a mayonnaise with garlic added.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">Despite the fact that there seems to be some confusion about this, even among recent generations in France, a real aïoli is made without egg yolks. And while I have seen some recipes which use additional starch, or even cooked potato (à la </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:times new roman;" >skordalia</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;">), to stabilize the emulsion, I am quite convinced that the original and authentic version of this condiment has exactly three ingredients: garlic, salt, and olive oil. Without the modern "refinements" of additional emulsifiers, the only satisfactory way of making aïoli is with mortar and pestle. You can see that this method does not lend itself to mass production, but is perfectly attuned with slow food, farmhouse cooking.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">I'll amend this posting in the near future with photos and commentary on several recipes and methods for making aïoli.</span>msierchiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10571248466940181335noreply@blogger.com0