Martin Lane Perspective

While we were in the throws of pulling off our last Home Restaurant.... ML grabbed John's camera and started shooting... The perspective of a ten year old watching her parents run around like crazy! Here is what she came up with... AMAZING!

Declaration of Independence

Every fourth of July we go down to the mall to hear a reading of the Declaration of Independence. John has been studying that Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, often referred to himself as a follower of the ancient philosopher Epicurus.

Here is John on what that exactly means:

President Jefferson who was known to have eaten little in order to truly enjoy what he had, lived by a mantra of moderation and ate mostly vegetables with meat only as a side dish. Jefferson's home, Monticello , to this day is a fabulous garden flush with juicy peaches and a variety of eggplants. All three of these qualities point to a true Epicurean and not the Epicurean-ism of the food channel. Epicurus was known to eat mostly barley cakes and water–a little cheese was a huge indulgence. Like Jefferson, the philosopher known to have advanced a notion of 'what is needed is simple to procure' was an avid gardener and Epicurus even held school in the "Garden."

Epicurean-ism practices a hedonism that can be summarized by the idea that 'the greatest pleasure is to eat when hungry'. Epicureans vowed to limit their pleasures and by doing so opening themselves up to the greatest amount of pleasure. Pleasure for this ancient philosophy was what should lead one AND pleasure must be something determined by the individual in an active practice of discerning what would cause the least amount of anxiety. To eat when hungry seems simple enough but not so commonly understood in contemporary America. For Epicurus pleasure should be an active practice thereby the limiting of pain. The thing to keep in mind is that Epicurus is encouraging us not to let hunger or pain lead us for this would position desire as a lack and pleasure as a stop gap measure. From this limited perspective, pleasure is always in the immediate and never involved in a larger practice. The object of any practice should be pleasure.

The term Epicurean is probably the most misused tag in the history of western thought and has been abused by many competing schools, in a rush to disavow a school, for declaring any form of religious mythology the greatest evil (Jefferson as an act of Epicurean-ism also wrote a secular bible and viewed Jesus as a thinker not a prophet).

Epicurus stands within the series of thinkers that posits desire as productive, a positive notion that produces life–a precursor to Darwin. For anything necessary is easy to get and anything that is not easy to get causes anxiety. Anxiety is to be avoided at all cost and a practice that eliminates anxiety is the highest form of hedonism.

Above everything Epicurus held "Friendship" and believed that public life was a waste of time that would only lead to anxiety management–interesting to think that Jefferson declared his love for Epicurus after he left office... Something to think about as we celebrate our individual forms of patriotism.

Chuppah

When I became a full time florist in 2002 the last thing I thought I would have to figure out, would be constructing temporary mini-tents in which people could get married under. The chuppah is used traditionally in Jewish weddings and symbolizes the home a couple will make together. Chuppahs can be free standing constructions or can be held by symbolic/significant participants of the wedding party. John and I were married under a chuppah held by our brothers, Kenan and Alexander as well as two dear friends Derrick and Melvin. Although part of the Jewish tradition, I am seeing chuppahs used in many non-religious ceremonies. For example I am Jewish and John is not and since we were not religious we were free to appropriate the symbolism and content from wherever felt good–we used a chuppah, broke a glass and were married by a dear friend and long time family astrologer, Sandra ( also a minister recognized by the state of Maryland).
However in my floral practice the free standing chuppah has been a challenge for me. I am not very handy with power tools. I can put anything together using pins, string, tape or even the occasional staple gun but sawing, drilling and bolting always seemed daunting.



In June I had a wedding on top of the Newseum downtown, the couple wanted a sparse simple elegant chuppah to match the construction of this ultra contemporary building. After multiple trips to Home Depot to scout out material just to see if this was possible for me to build, I decided I needed to finally get professional help–put an end to the free standing chuppah angst.



I called my friend Darrell a former professional skateboarder turned carpenter. He was excited about the project although he had just had a co-worker put a nail through the bottom of his foot. Darrell explained that being a former skateboarder he had broken more bones in his body than he could count and that a nail through the foot was not much more than a good excuse to enjoy pain killers. Darrell started making drawings and within two days we had this structure of a cube, a cube without walls in our backyard. He had designed it with metal slats running from post to post to insure stability and piece of mind that our temp tent would not fly off the top of the Newseum and onto the intersection of Constitution and Pennsylvania Avenues. He also created a system of easy take apart and put together bolts for multiple uses in various places. This was like magic to me, in that unless I can hold sticks together by sinking them in a vase with rocks it is not going to happen!



The painter Francis Bacon created geometrical cube-like structures in his paintings. This gesture created a psychological space and framed his abstract portraits. The chuppah does just this as a symbolism of the home a couple will create and a temporary structure. The Jews were originally a nomadic people, malleable in that they could pick up and put down almost anywhere. This symbolism implies an open ended concrete union, abstract in a very real manifestation of home and that home implies nothing more than a shared perspective–a psychological space.


We love this structure in our backyard in the between weddings.

foie gras

Shaun Hill is one of John's chefs and mentors, a master chef and a Irish man who spoke beautiful French and listened to Gregorian chants as he drove his car, literally, over the moors of Dartmoor looking for short cuts home after a long night of cooking. Southwest England was where they met and where Gidleigh Park Country House Hotel was located. A mock Tudor mansion that stood at the end of a winding hedged lane, Gidleigh was a magical place in the late 1980's where you could run into Andrew Loyd Weber or Pete Townsend. Sylvia Plath's Ted Hughes lived down the road and in the local village of Chagford the population was under a hundred yet there where four pubs.

Gidleigh Park was where Shaun Hill made the most beautiful Foie Gras terrines. Marinating well cleaned livers overnight in Armagnac and Port, this almost curing process left you with a product that needed almost no cooking at all. Foie gras is mostly fat so it is crucial to cook slow and low when making a terrine (quite the opposite when sauteing: cook hot and fast). Placed in a bain marie and barely cooked at 200 degrees until the fat just started to melt, Shaun would pull out of the oven and then sit weights on top as the terrine would cool in the water it was cooked in while the pieces of liver melded together.

At Rupperts we made quite a few Foie Gras terrines. I guess the question is given our shift toward more health and ecocentric practices is: If Rupperts were open today would we serve Foie Gras? The city of Chicago has banned it. PETA constantly protests its production. I can only guess that Shaun would find this question ridiculous. A chef in Europe at the level of a Shaun Hill has many times over earned enough, lets call them, "sustainable" credits to be granted the pleasure of working with a completely non-factory farmed product such as the Foie Gras that a Shaun Hill would be working with. Chefs in Europe at this level have been practicing so called slow food, so called locavorism, so called non-factory farming not for any reason other than that they are best practices and produce Superior meals.

Today we started a terrine for a Rupperts guest. They asked us to make them a Terrine to go with a 'glorious' Sauternes they are drinking this weekend. And even though we really enjoyed making this and the livers are excellent from Hudson Valley Foie Gras, I don’t think we would serve Foie Gras if Rupperts were open today. The reason I think more than anything is that eating Foie Gras just doesn't fit with what we are doing now, maybe just a bit too complicated... although I do think we need to find away to get more pleasure into our politics, especially our food politics.

The French have a saying that "eating is learned" and that pleasure is a practice.

Sno-Cone

In July of 2008 we referenced snow cones from Austin. In January we posted about vanilla snow ... Recently we traveled out to Annandale, Virginia to taste a delicious Korean shaved ice at Sheilas Bakery. Well, inspired by these interactions we decided we needed to find a way to make it snow during our nasty DC summers. We found this machine that shaves the most amazing ice. The fact of the matter is that I never thought we would use this thing for anything other than snow-cone parties in the middle of a Washington August heatwave... Well while setting up prep list and menus for 1508 #2 John suggested that instead of making a lavender sorbet why not make lavender infused ice and then shave with our fancy machine. This worked with amazing effect as the delicate texture of the shaved ice connected with subtleness of the lavender. To finish the dish I used local strawberries and cashew cream.... At 1508 #3 we shaved frozen chocolate made with melted bittersweet chocolate that had water and cocoa powder wisked in and was then frozen. To finish this ice we served a slice of early ripening fig that we found in our garden... We seem to have found our greatest successes in our be open to adapting almost anything all the way up to the last minute prior to being served...

kombucha

Kombucha has been used as an alternative medicine for the treatment of cancer... Something we fed my mother among other things during her struggle with the disease...It is funny that at the time I made fun of kombucha and now John and I drink this daily…although Martin-Lane now makes fun of us…

Kombucha is a tea made with a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast sometimes referred to as a SCOBY or a mushroom... What happens is you brew a tea--I prefer a green tea-- add sugar "to taste" let cool and float a SCOBY in it for about two weeks... after two weeks you have a fermented tea and a baby SCOBY in addition to the Mother you originally floated...separate the baby from the mother and set the SCOBYs aside... Now you bottle your tea in air tight jars, I use small mason jars. Then let bottles sit in a dry airy cool place for two more weeks... Refrigerate and drink when cool... What you have is a carbonated tea that is full of good bacteria and is a pro-biotic similar to yogurt...

Kombucha has been brewed for hundreds of years and is believed to have originated somewhere around the Russian and Chinese border. Only in that last five or six years have we seen it being sold commercially. In the seventies I can remember going to more than one friends house and seeing these creatures growing in large jars on kitchen counters.

John gave me my SCOBYs when I was visiting him in Brooklyn. Evidently there is a lot of kombucha brewing in BK and at 6 bucks a bottle retail I can see why... The secret to success is finding the right spot as the SCOBY collects and grows not only from the bacteria of the tea but also from it's/your surrounding environment. Feeding back into an ecosystem in a micro-form of permaculture...

More buttercream plus the recipe!

After the buttercream, post a few days ago. I received the comment, “Where's the butter cream frosting recipe!!!! vegan or not!” So here is the rest of the story…and the recipe.

So after I decided that I WAS going to make a non-vegan Bittersweet Chocolate Cake with White Butter Cream-–I needed to consult with an active cake maker. ALL of the desserts I made at Rupperts and the ones I make for dinners and home restaurants are assembled at the last minute and never needed to sit all day or be presented prior to eating. Because of this I never really needed to venture in to the world of butter creams and quite frankly I have never come across any I liked. At Rupperts if I needed a frosting like substance nothing could beat fresh whipped cream or a white chocolate mousse. But, alas this cake was going to sit on a pedestal and be presented at a Birthday celebration and I needed it to hold up.

I wrote to my friend Kendall at Kendall’s Cakes. Kendall said that she never likes the way a butter cream feels in the mouth unless is made of all butter and no shortening and this can result in a yellowish butter cream. To get a white butter cream with a delicious taste she suggested a Swiss meringue butter cream. This was a super suggestion from someone who practices caking everyday. I thanked her and promised vegan cupcake and frosting recipes anytime!

A Swiss meringue is the process of carefully cooking sugar and egg whites to dissolve the sugar before beating, cooking them just enough to create a smooth texture. This is a process that I am familiar with that I have used to make many desserts. When receiving an unfamiliar recipe my immediate instinct is to find some way to think in terms of a process I am already familiar with and Kendall’s suggestion opened up my thinking process—I realized I knew this but was very grateful to be part of a network that can spark my memory as well as my imagination in the revealing of what is already in front of me with the confrontation of what is in front of me.

Kendall sent a recipe AND after comparing with some of my recipes AND taking into account the clients request for a “white butter cream” I came up with a recipe I am very satisfied with… as well as an amazing practice exchange–Thank You Kendall!

White Swiss Meringue Buttercream- makes about 12 cups

2 c egg whites (from about 12 large eggs)
3 c sugar
pinch of salt
2 lb 8 oz unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 t vanilla extract
squeeze of lemon juice

1.Combine the egg whites, sugar and pinch of salt in a large metal bowl (do this right in standing mixer bowl). Put the bowl over a pot of simmering water (double boiler-style), and whisk until the sugar is completely dissolved. The mixture will feel hot to the touch.

2.Transfer the hot mixture to your stand mixer and whip on high speed until it turns white and about doubles in size. This will take about six minutes. Beat in the vanilla and the lemon juice.

3.Add the butter, a few tablespoons at a time, on medium speed, mixing after each addition. Raise the speed and beat until smooth; this may take up to ten minutes. The mixture may appear curdled along the way; no worries. Just keep beating and the mixture will become smooth again.

4.Buttercream will keep, covered air-tight and refrigerated, for at least one week. Bring to room temperature, then beat on low speed before using.

Hercules

At the end of the school year ML and John went to Mount Vernon with her 4th grade class. John led a group of five girls all from international backgrounds including India, Senegal, Canada, Germany and ML who was born and raised in the house she lives located in the Shaw neighborhood of DC. As they went through the many displays and exhibits they began to take turns reading the kiosks out loud. What struck them were the names of slaves who were owned by George Washington (Charlotte, Jupiter, Matilda…). The girls decided to collect the names of all the slaves they could find, interested in why this home would be billed as solely the home of George Washington when so many talented artisans and craftspeople lived and worked there.

They walked around all day with a pen frantically jotting names on scraps of guide maps and pieces of trash. Later they entered the Orientation Center only to find that Mount Vernon had a small wall dedicated to the slaves of Mount Vernon and on that wall were the names of all known forced to serve President Washington.

Well the girls knew that ML's parents were both chefs and became very animated when they discovered that GW had a master chef from Philadelphia named Hercules. Evidently Hercules was so important that there was an oil painting made of him. We look forward to spending time this summer learning more about Hercules and the many enslaved artisans, technicians and laborers who built the US and contributed more than we could ever imagine...

Gratuitous Photo From Restaurant 1508

photo by abby greenawalt

Restaurant 1508 #3

We had another fabulous home restaurant. In addition to the food, wine and music the energy was fantastic, everyone met someone new and conversation was ….

This menu--spring, Wild Salmon, Morels, Lamb, Peas, Cherries…

Dinner Friday June 26, 2009

Passing
Springfield Farm Roasted Lamb with Mint on Cucumber
Toigo Farm Tomatoes and Red Onion on Grilled Onion with Curly Parsley
Toasted Cornmeal and Pea Cake with Caramelized Onion
Lemon Verbena Martini
(Ch. des Valentines) Cotes du Provence ROSE Estate 2007

Seated
Beet Green Soup with Kohlrabi Relish and Basil
Walnut Bread
(Mestre-Michelot) Bourgogne Blanc "Montmeix" 2006

Semolina Noodles with White Morels, Baby Zucchini, Baby Carrots, Red Spring Onion, Borage, Lemon Balm, Bronze Fennel and Summer Savory
Sesame Bread
(Gilbert) Menetou Salon Blanc 2006 (sauv Blanc)

Ivory King Salmon with Sugar Snaps, Baby Leeks, Baby Blue Kale, Potatoes and Lemon Mustard Vinaigrette with Chives and Parsley
Spelt Focaccia

(de Montille) Bourgogne Rouge 2006

Cheese with Cracker and 1508 Greens

Cherry Compote with Cornmeal Crust, Frozen Coconut

(Jacques Lassaigne) 'Les Vignes de Montgueux' Blanc de Blancs Brut NV Lassaigne

Shaved, Frozen Chocolate with First Figs of the Season

Mini Maccha Cake
Small Oatmeal Lavender Cookie
Salty Rosemary Walnut Biscotti

The music was inspired by the work of Herbie Hancock. We began with modal jazz funk and moved to variations of Honky Tonk, where HH is playing I think three different pianos with Miles Davis. Recorded in DC in the 1970’s these sets are an extrapolation of the late sixties work In a Silent Way which we also played… I am a sucker for variations and the inability to repeat anything the same –so I love to play these so called same songs back to back…Honky Tonk lasts for more than an hour when you play all five versions together and they bleed into each other… this and silent way are about as far as I can go with electronic Jazz…they have everything I love about Jazz—improv, spontaneity, syncopation and in these tunes funk… I ended with HH first album Maiden Voyage, classic and also The Piano which is solo work which is nice to end on after everyone is a little drunk and tired… a great night… thank you Herbie!
Cantaloupe Island, Cantaloupe Island, Herbie Hancock
Watermelon Man, Cantaloupe Island, Herbie Hancock
Driftin', Cantaloupe Island, Herbie Hancock
Blind Man, Blind Man, Cantaloupe Island, Herbie Hancock
And What If I Don't, Cantaloupe Island, Herbie Hancock
Maiden Voyage, Cantaloupe Island, Herbie Hancock
Honky Tonk, The Cellar Door Sessions [Disc 5], Miles Davis
Honky Tonk, The Cellar Door Sessions [Live] [Disc 3], Miles Davis
Honky Tonk, The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 [Disc 2], Miles Davis
Honky Tonk, The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 [Disc 4], Miles Davis
Honky Tonk (Live), The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 (Disc 4), Miles Davis
Improvisation #1, The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 [Disc 1], Miles Davis
Improvisation #2, The Cellar Door Sessions 1970, Miles Davis
Improvisation #3, The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 [Disc 4], Miles Davis
Improvisation #4, The Cellar Door Sessions 1970, Miles Davis
In A Silent Way/It's About That Time [LP Version], The Complete In A Silent Way Sessions [Disc 3], Miles Davis
In A Silent Way, The Complete In A Silent Way Sessions [Disc 2], Miles Davis
In A Silent Way (Rehearsal), The Complete In A Silent Way Sessions [Disc 2], Miles Davis
Maiden Voyage, Maiden Voyage, Herbie Hancock
The Eye Of The Hurricane, Maiden Voyage, Herbie Hancock
Little One, Maiden Voyage, Herbie Hancock
Survival Of The Fittest, Maiden Voyage, Herbie Hancock
Dolphin Dance, Maiden Voyage, Herbie Hancock
My Funny Valentine, The Piano, Herbie Hancock
On Green Dolphin Street, The Piano, Herbie Hancock
Someday My Prince Will Come, The Piano, Herbie Hancock
Harvest Time, The Piano, Herbie Hancock
Sonrisa, The Piano, Herbie Hancock
Manhattan Island, The Piano, Herbie Hancock
Blue Otani , The Piano, Herbie Hancock
My Funny Valentine (Take 3), The Piano, Herbie Hancock
On Green Dolphin Street (Take 2), The Piano, Herbie Hancock
Someday My Prince Will Come (Take 3), The Piano, Herbie Hancock
Harvest Time (Take 3), The Piano, Herbie Hancock

Cornmeal Cookies

John has been private cheffing on the upper east side of Manhattan. His process usually involves multiple phone calls between us in which we try and hash out the dietary needs of the client as well as how far can we push expectations in our discoveries and experimentation with people and food. This amounts to what we have found to be not additions or multiple random ingredients thrown together but subtractions or reductions to the simplest forms of flavors, textures and colors... A great example of this is John wanted to make a cookie with semolina flour, I found an elegant Italian recipe made with almond meal and semolina flour, brown sugar and butter, just that simple. This worked perfect for his client. However the greater success happened when after visiting the Amish farms last year we came across an outstanding hand ground toasted cornmeal and needing another cookie for our vegan cookie selections we decided to adapt the Italian recipe by substituting the semolina with this toasted cornmeal and the butter with vegetable oil... here is the recipe...

Cornmeal Cookie
4 oz non hydrogenated vegetable shortening
1/3 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup corn meal (I use hand ground toasted corn meal)
1/4 cup ground almonds

Cream shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in flour and mix well. Add the cornmeal and ground almonds and mix to a firm and smooth dough. Pinch balls of dough, roll them into spheres, place on a lined or greased baking tray and then flatten each ball with a fork.
Bake in a 350 degree oven until golden brown.

buttercream

OK so many of you know I am vegan and so is Martin Lane (my 10 year old)... Vegan-ism has come to me basically since ML's birth... For in the time previous to her arrival I was the working Pastry chef for Ruppert's Restaurant–this occupation would preclude a hard vegan practice, in that I tasted cheeses and made many desserts with amazing cream from local farms and butter from France... This all brings me to a recent dilemma non-dilemma I had when faced with the request for the name of a baker who could make an awesome chocolate cake with white butter-cream icing... the dilemma non-dilemma was the hesitation of do I make something I know I make as good as anybody even though I would not eat this thing (tasting would not be a problem John is not Vegan)... My natural course of action is to convince the client of the truth: That any dessert I can make non-vegan I can make vegan just as good if not better... but alas, I knew in this instance that vegan was not an option... so my hesitation is personal just as is my choice of being vegan, that is to say that I do not feel the need to proselytize or force anyone into eating something they are not comfortable with as I expect the same respect from others... Ultimately I do have some ground level principles and if I am going to use butter and cream and eggs they are going to be produced using the best practices possible in order to contribute to the health of my client and to the eco-systems in which we participate... I am looking forward to cracking those farm fresh eggs with their bright yellow yolks, whipping butter with natural sugar and finding a source for raw milk.

making bread

I began to make bread seriously around the same time I met John. I was living in a basement apartment on Connecticut Avenue near Nebraska Avenue. The apartment had no windows and John had given me herbs to grow that I kept alive with grow lights. Doing with–with what I had as there was no room OR space OR light for a garden. Making bread in that apartment was a challenge as well, however at that time I was working as a lawyer and producing a documentary and to work live material with my hands was exhilarating. To make bread is to interact with a live culture and from this perspective I continue to understand the connection between Gardening and Breading.

Making bread I experimented with cultivating a live wild starter from just flour and water and letting this ferment into yeast. This is the process of making a sour dough. I also experimented with using fresh compressed yeast. Ultimately I found the fermenting starter too sour and the compressed yeast starter not rich enough. After months of experimenting and bringing John tastes to the catering company we both worked for at the time, I came up with a process of "AND"– I would make both a starter using fresh compressed yeast AND allow it to sit over night as one would do in the making of a wild starter.

I have made bread almost every day of my life since those early trys and I tell anyone who wants to learn how to make bread that it is a process that is informed by experience– the who, where, why and when. Of course there were experimentations with flours and grains and seeds in those early attempts... However the method of leavening was my most important discovery and this process has stuck with me and grown and changed in its many iterations from Connecticut Ave all the way through Rupperts... I consider my process a method of variation and echoing–Variation in the understanding that each time I make bread I know it will be different and Echoing in that there is an attempt to repeat what is desirable but ultimately this repetition will always be different even if in the slightest variation. I don't consider an echo any less authentic or desirable than my first attempts but all connected and original.

A few structural tid-bits on live yeast cultures whether you are making one from scratch by cultivating flour and water or you are using fresh compressed yeast.

1. Sugar activates yeast or feeds yeast
2. Salt inhibits yeast or kills yeast
3. Cold temperatures put yeast to sleep or encourages a dormancy
4. Hot temperatures will Kill yeast but WARM temperatures make yeast lively

So here again we see the process of "AND"–for you want to feed your yeast AND you want to curtail its growth at the same time... Like most encounters, we desire a lively robust experience and at the same time just enough control in that the potential is not squashed or squelched, while at the same time not being over run (I think of the 'I Love Lucy' episode in which she is literally forced out of her kitchen by a loaf of bread she was baking)...In bread making the "AND" entails being guided by taste. How the saltiness and the sweetness informs your process is usually where you will find your good mixtures in the counter actualizations of seemingly opposing forces that should instead be seen as acting in concert... The same goes for temperature–experiment with letting rise in warm areas or in the fridge depending on what sort of time constraints you may have and what sort of working strategies feel good to you...For if you like to work fast and are a adrenalin junkie you may want to work with higher temperatures or if for example you prefer cross country skiing to downhill skiing you may want to work in cooler temperatures... Temperatures in terms of liquids added and even the temperature of the room...

One final note this post is about the Making of Bread not the Baking of Bread–I will post about that later and here are my loose guidlines to making bread:

Fill a large bowl with about 3 cups of warm water. Add 2 tablespoons of fresh compressed yeast, 2 tablespoons sugar, 2 tablespoons of salt and a cup of flour. Stir mixture and leave at room temperature for 6-12 hours. Slowly add flour while kneading. The flour can be all-purpose unbleached but even tastier and healthier if you use other flours in addition to all purpose flour. Generally I use about 1/2 all purpose unbleached flour with the balance being one or a mixture of the following flours- spelt, whole wheat or buckwheat. Knead dough adding more flour until the dough forms a ball and stope sticking really badly to your hands- this will take at least 8 cups of flour. Set bread aside until it doubles in volume. Then form the dough into your desired shape loaf and let it sit at room temperature for an additional 30 minutes to an hour before baking.

Falafel

As far as falafel goes in DC nothing can compete with Amsterdam Falafel in Adams Morgan. The fixins bar is crazy good, roasted eggplant and fresh beets--...Fresh cucumbers... Pickled veg... We visit often! No matter how formal the dinning experience appropriate to the occasion nothing beats just plain good falafel balled and cooked to order... Our only complaint was the pita bread but recently they have rectified that with really good whole wheat pita.

We live on the other side of Logan Circle so sometimes we can't make it over to AFH. Fortunate for us a new Falafel joint opened near us at 6th and H. What's exciting about Urfa Tomato Kabob is that they bake their own middle eastern style bread for their swarmas and falafels. No amazing fixins bar but if you are stuck in need of a bite near Verizon Center and Burma (a favorite) is FULL check them out. Urfa deserves credit just for recognizing that bread is a crucial factor in the making of any sandwich.

"To Taste"

In response to, “what do you mean by 'to taste' in the pickled garlic scape recipe?”

This is something we have discussed, thought about and practiced for years. This question brought us back to a familiar discussion and with the help of John here are some thoughts:

"To Taste" is something we read often in recipes... What exactly does this mean? What sort of logic or underlying principles does the direction "salt and pepper to taste" constitute? What is challenging for the novice cook or anyone involved with creating an aesthetic experience for themselves or others is the ability to hold multiple concepts, tastes, flavors or senses in the head at the same time without negating or overpowering any of the contributing forces. For example take the first time one makes lemonade–usually the first experience with cooking we have here in the United States. We start with Lemons, Water and Sugar and we slowly start to build... squeezing fresh lemons... adding sugar... stretching with water or ice... this process is enabled by the act of tasting... I taste-it seems tart-I add sugar... I taste again-it seems sweet-I add lemon... I taste again-it seems too strong-I add water... what is going on is tiny adjustments where all the ingredients form a tension without canceling each other out... I want to taste lemon AND I want to taste sugar AND I want to taste water (yes water is important flavor/texture to lemonade) AND I want to taste the mixture we call 'Lemonade'... This is the logic of the 'AND' as well as the logic of taste where every flavor you add to a dish stands on its own and at the same time contributes to the tension of the whole without canceling the other ingredients out in the counter-actualization of a mixture... The process of "to taste" is really the logic of paradox (an apparent contradiction that implies that things are distinct while not being separate). "To Taste" becomes more difficult when we add more that three ingredients–for example while making a curry you want to feel free to add something like cardamom but you don't want this flavor to dominate yet you want it to stand on its own in a tension–taste distinct while not being separate, a non-dual truth.... Another way to think about this way of cooking is through music and contrapuntal composition. Take Bach's Goldberg Variations, through the entire piece rarely is more than one note played at the same time. The harmonies, resonances, discords and resolutions are the tensions created in-between the striking of notes at different times–apparently contradicting single distinct notes not separate and creating a whole. In other words each ingredient (note) can stand on its own as is, however contributing to a larger whole this single ingredient (note) enters into a series and an artichoke's artichokeyness becomes apparent by contributing counter discords and resonances in its mixtures with other ingredients (notes).... "To Taste" amounts to "Cooking By Ear" the working title of a book I am working on with John.

Daisies

In our first garden on 3rd and M street in NW we grew zinnias, cosmos and nastursium. This was the garden of chefs and not yet florists. That is to say that the Nasturtiums, although delicious, were always destroyed by aphids, the Cosmos were gorgeous in the wildness but hard to use or keep alive in large arrangements and Zinnias a flower a Rupperts' guest once described as earnest always seem to burn up so early in the hot DC summers. When we closed Rupperts I ventured out into the Flower business–doing flowers for the Georgetown boutique Relish as well as many other public and private clients. Needless to say our garden adapted to new needs and when we moved to 6th street the description of an earnest flower stuck with us. And in our most recent iteration of 'earnest' we have been experimenting with DAISIES. We have grown different types of Shasta daisies but have had the most success the varieties Becky and Snowcap. We find it difficult to cut these Flowers when they begin to bloom in June and turn our backyard into a wild meadow–but alas the more we cut the more grow and more importantly fresh cut, they contribute generously to my work as a florist. Also because of a recent daisy blight it is pretty much impossible to get these daisies unless you grow them yourself.

I recently did a Wedding for gardeners where I used blooming pea shoots, herbs and of course big bunches of Daisies– I found creating for gardeners incredibly intimidating, much more than creating for other florists or cooking for chefs... I later received an e-mail saying how wonderful everything was and how they appreciated the time put into the project... Gardening or growing anything is just about as earnest as it gets... To have an abundance of Daisies is a very fortunate thing...