ex-NYC
We sped eastward to New York City on the wings of a serious snowstorm this weekend. Well, started out speeding (responsibly, of course). Until we hit I-80, at which point we just stopped. Stopped completely still, for an entire hour, some yards before a visual cacophony of police and fire sirens. Five tow-trucks, and a half dozen police cruisers edged by us; never a good sign. After a long frustrating while, I went out of the car and walked down the highway to see what it is. A semi truck was jacknifed across the facing lane. The concrete divider was shattered -- a car flipped over it from the oncoming lane into ours, and four or five other cars crashed into it. I muttered what I always do, "What a horrible night to have a curse."
But we did arrive, on Saturday morning. Danielle and Dave took us in, and fed us insanely good things, and provided great conversation, and showed us around the city a little bit. Dave , in fact, wins the 'best host while being seriously sick and poisoned' award, and Danielle was her usual warm and intense and awesome self. We got to cook with them, and go food shopping in a downpour of a rain (don't knock it until you've tried it, it's addictive), and walk across the Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan into Brooklyn on a gorgeous sunlit pre-spring day.
Their food... Well, those two are really good cooks. Their food disturbs me. It's kind of a religious experience, actually. The only other times I've consistently felt like that was at Chez Francois (which I think is the best restaurant in a 100 miles radius of the Cleveland area), and some holiday meals that yuki_onna cooks. But like.. take these molten chocolate lava-cake things with sour cherries that they made in the muffin tin. Ignoring the fact that I adore sour cherries, and that the chocolate mix was made from scratch.. the whipped cream they served on top was smoked. As in, it was fresh-whipped cream, with smoke powder in it. Who does that? Why would you think of it? But it was obscenely delicious.
I don't know how to explain it without embarassing myself or revealing far too much of my mind-state (but that's what journals are for, aren't they?). Food on that level is like a slap in the face for me. It shocks, it focuses, it says "Wake UP." I'm full of questions afterwards -- why did the cook(s) do this? Why pay so much attention to the food, which is going to be gone in a second? How is it possible to focus just so, on such a transient a thing? Can I learn do this, more often? Will it lose its specialness, if I do?
Anyways. Really good weekend. Still catching up on sleep, for some reason (ok, the Daylight Savings b.s. comes at the wrong time. bleh).
[Edit: Ok, you know how I say they cook some of the best food I've ever had in my life, including at the most fancy restaurants? Well, they're opening a restaurant of their own: Jack: an occasional restaurant - they just went live earlier today. I have no words, man. This promises to be incredibly good. Look them up if you're ever in the area.]
But we did arrive, on Saturday morning. Danielle and Dave took us in, and fed us insanely good things, and provided great conversation, and showed us around the city a little bit. Dave , in fact, wins the 'best host while being seriously sick and poisoned' award, and Danielle was her usual warm and intense and awesome self. We got to cook with them, and go food shopping in a downpour of a rain (don't knock it until you've tried it, it's addictive), and walk across the Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan into Brooklyn on a gorgeous sunlit pre-spring day.
Their food... Well, those two are really good cooks. Their food disturbs me. It's kind of a religious experience, actually. The only other times I've consistently felt like that was at Chez Francois (which I think is the best restaurant in a 100 miles radius of the Cleveland area), and some holiday meals that yuki_onna cooks. But like.. take these molten chocolate lava-cake things with sour cherries that they made in the muffin tin. Ignoring the fact that I adore sour cherries, and that the chocolate mix was made from scratch.. the whipped cream they served on top was smoked. As in, it was fresh-whipped cream, with smoke powder in it. Who does that? Why would you think of it? But it was obscenely delicious.
I don't know how to explain it without embarassing myself or revealing far too much of my mind-state (but that's what journals are for, aren't they?). Food on that level is like a slap in the face for me. It shocks, it focuses, it says "Wake UP." I'm full of questions afterwards -- why did the cook(s) do this? Why pay so much attention to the food, which is going to be gone in a second? How is it possible to focus just so, on such a transient a thing? Can I learn do this, more often? Will it lose its specialness, if I do?
Anyways. Really good weekend. Still catching up on sleep, for some reason (ok, the Daylight Savings b.s. comes at the wrong time. bleh).
[Edit: Ok, you know how I say they cook some of the best food I've ever had in my life, including at the most fancy restaurants? Well, they're opening a restaurant of their own: Jack: an occasional restaurant - they just went live earlier today. I have no words, man. This promises to be incredibly good. Look them up if you're ever in the area.]