28 Jan 2014 16 Comments
in Food, Humor, On the Road Tags: Ava Gardner, food, Frank Sinatra, humor, Jim Croce, Koffi, Marilyn Monroe, Palm Springs, Riviera, Twin Palms
As if my previous post wasn’t cruel enough for readers in the American midwest and east who once again suffer the unwelcome descent of the Arctic into their midst, we decided to spend the weekend by the pool in Palm Springs.
Bloody Mary & Imogen poolside
Actually, it was a Sunday memorial for my wife’s maternal grandmother that drew us to the desert. But we thought why not make a weekend of it, and so found a swanky hotel with an atomic age theme and settled in. More
24 Jan 2014 12 Comments
in Food, Humor Tags: barbecue, California, Camping, carne asada, Endless Summer, grilling, Malibu, Mexican food, tequila, Winter
I had just finished lunch of Mexican food and ice-cold beer with my father and brothers, and was now standing outside the Home Depot in my t-shirt, shorts and flip flops, waiting for a customer service associate to swap out my empty Amerigas propane tank for a full one.
I would be barbecuing for friends this evening, and needed my back-up tank full just in case. After all, I’d had to use the Weber to cook my Christmas dinner when the main propane tank went dry. And suddenly, thinking of this, I had a moment of sadness. It was mid-January. Another 80-degree day, another cold beer, another barbecue… and what happened to winter, to whisky and braises?? We can’t even go skiing because there’s no snow in the mountains. As I write this, many of the mountains are, in fact, on fire.
Happy, lightly dressed girls, camping in January
I know it’s difficult for those of you friends in the Midwest, on the East Coast, and in Canada, Iceland, the British Isles and beyond, swallowed by various polar vortices, nor’easters, blizzards, ice storms and so on, to have much sympathy for our plight. More
21 Jan 2014 28 Comments
in Recipes Tags: 99 Ranch Market, Asian cooking, basil, grilled chicken, House of the Gods, Pattaya, pesto, Thai food, Thailand, the Pogues
Whilst shopping for my New Year’s Eve dinner at my favorite 99 Ranch Asian megamarket, I grabbed a big package of Thai basil.
I’m not sure why. I rarely use Thai basil. But I’ve been making vaguely Southeast Asian rice noodles lately as my wife takes one of her periodic breaks from gluten, and so I suppose the zeitgeist was right for the herb to capture my passing eye.
Thai basil is different than Italian basil. When you hold it in your hands and then smell it on your fingers, it evokes not vineyards and villas but temples and tuk tuks. It’s scent is exotic and sultry. Because it is spicy and insistent, I find it less useful for the wide variety of applications appropriate to Italian basil. So I made noodles, I used a little for a sauce in my Asian-accented New Years Eve dinner. And still, the bulk of it was left on the bottom shelf in my fridge. More
17 Jan 2014 17 Comments
in On the Road, Recipes, Starlets, Yoga Students & Quinoa (stories) Tags: eggplant, Kusadasi, Mediterranean, Mehmet, meze, recipes, Turkey, Turkish cooking, şakşuka
It is a noteworthy thing when, having gone your entire life never meeting anyone named “Mehmet,” you meet two at the same time. Of course, it is less remarkable if you are in Turkey — as we were — were every third guy is named “Mehmet.” (The Turkish version of “Mohammed.”)
Cats in the Grand Bazaar
It was more than a decade ago, in the seaside town of Kusadasi, to be precise. Our honeymoon — a friend with a cruise line that I did a lot of work with had arranged the gift of a voyage through Italy, Croatia, the Greek Isles and Turkey. On a day in port, we had gone to see the ruins of the ancient Greek city of Ephesus, and were en route back to our ship when we stopped in a bar for a beer and a bite to eat. More
14 Jan 2014 48 Comments
in Recipes, Sensational Salads Tags: arugula, DASH diet, Harry Potter, Mark Bittman, pumpkin, quinoa, recipes, salad, tzatziki, Voldemort
Somewhere in Heaven or on Mt. Olympus or wherever divine beings congregate, the Food Gods and the Irony Gods are toasting and laughing at me. Because, as I write these very words, I am eating quinoa.
Arugula & quinoa salad with roasted pumpkin, walnuts and yogurt cucumbers
They (those gods) had barely just gotten over their amusement at my new jogging regimen (after years of declaring that I only ran if something was chasing me), and now they had this to entertain them! More
skinny girls & mayonnaise 