Food, Photography and Bon Mots
Joseph Campbell famously wrote: “Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls.” Good advice but not always easy to do. The bliss I’ve been following at the moment happens to be a cake, and it is a wonderful cake…
I have a parrot, actually an umbrella cockatoo, named Moti. Moti is twenty-seven years old and quite the diva, especially about her food. In Moti’s world there is no sunshine if she doesn’t find a half a banana in her food dish each morning. Moti…
During the Middle Ages, rich European ladies slipped their favorite knights a bit of gingerbread before an important tournament. Sweet, aromatic, crumbly, swoon-worthy gingerbread. How utterly romantic is that!? If you need proof, the painting below portrays a lady and her knight. Theirs was…
Cutting the lemon the knife leaves a little cathedral: alcoves unguessed by the eye that open acidulous glass to the light; topazes riding the droplets, altars, aromatic facades. –Pablo Neruda I’ve always…
Carrots improve your eyesight. Right? Therefore, if you are going to have a sweet, decadent dessert, you are somewhat forgiven for eating carrot cake. It’s a health food, for heaven’s sake! This line of argument works for me. If carrot desserts seem odd to…
I was shopping in Sprouts recently and found myself following the wonderful scent of fresh nectarines wafting across the store when I ran into a young man with a man bun who was on the same mission. “I could smell the nectarines from across…
According to Chinese mythology, Goddess Xi Wang Mu grew immortality fruits in her garden. Most sources say they were peaches. Some say they were cherries. (Both are stone fruits.) Whatever immortality fruit it was, there was one very big problem. The fruits ripened every thousand…
No. This is not a photo of Bjork. This is a photo of Anna Pavlova, the Russian prima ballerina after whom New Zealand’s national dessert was named. (Disclaimer: The Australians and the New Zealanders have been coming to culinary blows for years over credit for…
Homer (of The Odyssey not of The Simpsons) loved them. He called pears “a gift of the gods.” By the time the Renaissance came along, Europeans were even more in love with pears. The powerful Medici dukes, for example, had fruit gardens with expansive collections of…
This recipe recently appeared on a website that I read regularly, David Lebovitz’ site. I’m a sucker for a great review and Lebovitz prefaces this recipe by writing that this cake is his “desert island” recipe, the one cake he would choose were…
