Why Iceland?

18 Sep 2015 14 Comments

by scolgin in Humor, Recipes Tags: , , , , , , , ,

My 11-year-old son Flynn is obsessed with Iceland.

“I think I want to learn to speak Icelandic,” he declared to us at some point.

He now has two different Icelandic apps on his iPhone and paces around the house working on his pronunciation.

“Kveðja!” he says cheerfully by way of an Icelandic goodbye to our 5-year-old daughter Imogen as she heads off to summer camp.

Svið (singed sheep's head)

Svið (singed sheep’s head)

Why Iceland? I take some responsibility, having introduced him to the Icelandic band, Sigur Rós, and taken him to one of their very dramatic concerts.

I’ve always been a bit intrigued by Iceland myself. I’m Irish, I like cold and dramatic northern landscapes and broody people who drink a bit too much and write mournful poetry and music. More

O’Connor’s Saag Paneer

11 Sep 2015 9 Comments

by scolgin in Recipes Tags: , , , , , ,

When I re-read the subject line of my post — “O’Connor’s Saag Paneer — it reminded me of the title of some Merchant-Ivory feel-good comedy film, where an Indian family moves in next door to the Irish pub, and heartfelt cross-cultural mayhem ensues.

It wasn’t like that, though.

The big cheese

The big cheese

Our friends, the O’Connors, had invited us to dinner. I was sitting out on the deck mingling with some other guests when I saw Sean waving at me from the kitchen.

“I want to show you something,” he said. More

The Subversion of Quinoa

04 Sep 2015 14 Comments

by scolgin in Humor, Recipes, Starlets Tags: , , , , , ,

The occasion was the Commitment Dinner for my daughter, Imogen’s kindergarten class. Our friends, Casey and Simone were hosting at their home.

The purpose of the commitment dinner is for the class parents to get together, sign up to volunteer for certain responsibilities in the class, hear the pitch for money from our version of a PTA parent, and then drink profusely and eat potluck.

My quinoa salad

My quinoa salad

As you might guess, it is the “eating potluck” part of the equation that, every year around this time, sows fear in my soul. And, this being Topanga Canyon, there is one word in particular I expect to see a lot of in the emails leading up to the event: quinoa. More

Two Takes on Passatelli

21 Aug 2015 20 Comments

by scolgin in Cookbooks, Recipes Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

My ever-generous big sister, Andrea, sent me two cookbooks for my birthday. One was a simple and useful book on tacos and Mexican snacks; the other, a coffee table volume of the most complicated Italian cooking on earth called “Never Trust a Skinny Italian Chef.”

Mossimo Bottura

Mossimo Bottura

I love cookbooks from the art press, Phaidon, of which the latter is one. They are beautifully designed, with full page spreads of food you would never cook, as they tend to honor the world’s most daring chefs. Such is the case with “Never Trust a Skinny Italian Chef.” The subject is Modena chef Massimo Bottura and his acclaimed restaurant, Osteria Francescana, which inevitably lands in the Top 5 of the world’s best restaurant lists, though never seems able to unseat previous #1 El Bulli and current #1 Noma (both subjects of multiple Phaidon titles). More

OMG! Omakase!

15 Aug 2015 6 Comments

by scolgin in Food, Humor, Recipes Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

In Japan, “omakase” means “I’ll leave it to you,” or more precisely, “I trust you.” It’s a common phrase in fine sushi bars, when you put your meal in the hands of the chef and let him make you whatever he feels inspired to moment by moment.

“Kanpai!”

In Topanga, “omakase” means my pal Don Schneider shows up at my house at 10 a.m. to drop off seven or eight different seafoods for a sushi dinner that evening, before he and family leave for a month to Israel to visit an ailing mother. He trusts me. More

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