June 2008 archives

I recently read The Pedant in the Kitchen, which Michael Ruhlman also wrote up, and while I found it an enjoyable rant, one vexing thought that stuck in the author’s craw was recipe instructions that call for “a handful” of something. He didn’t know what that meant and wondered why recipes couldn’t be more precise.

Writing a recipe that’s acceptable to absolutely everyone can be daunting, if not impossible. The purpose of any recipe is the guide the cook through the process; too much explanation and overtly-long recipes turn readers off, while short recipes often get accused of not giving enough information. How much is enough, and how little is not enough?

I once saw a three page recipe for chocolate brownies from a famed pastry chef.

Continue Reading What’s “a handful”?…

In the south of France, they’re pretty generous with les glaçons. It’s never any problem to get ice cubes, which are often brought to the table heaped in a bowl, and sometimes even already added to the rosé for you by the barman.

Contrast that with Paris, where a drink with ice may have one puny cube roughly the size of a Tic-Tac, languishing on the surface, tepidly melting away. Which I’ve always attributed to a couple of factors:

Continue Reading Vin de pêche: Peach Leaf Wine…

My favorite travel tip that I rarely advertise is to tell people I’m leaving a day prior to my actual departure.

And tell them I’m coming back a day after I actually return. That way, I avoid all those last-minute crises as well as returning home and being slammed by a few weeks of backed-up panicky messages on my machine.

I think everyone’s figured it out by now and after getting in late last night, today is my day to put out the fires that erupted while I was gone, so to speak. But first, while it’s all fresh, here’s some of the high points of my trip to Nice and the Côte d’Azur:

“Sun-drenched” is a cliché that’s often applied to the food of the region, and at the cours Saleya market in Vieux Nice, as well as others, you can see that it applies decidely well.

Continue Reading Nice and the Côte d’Azur…

“The great thing about socca,” Rosa Jackson told me, as we ripped into our second double order of the giant chickpea crêpe between us, “is that even if you’re not hungry, you can still eat it.”

A few days later, while standing on the square in Vence, waiting while a young man poured chickpea batter onto a very hot oiled griddle, a timid young American woman asked him for a crêpe. He explained, in fractured English, that he only made socca, and she started to walk away.

Continue Reading The Best Socca In Nice…

Enough with all this eating. I’m hitting the beach…

(More pics.)

Recipes?

Who needs recipes?

While you might be familiar with the more famous “Panisse“, these are the real McCoy.

Panisses are made from chickpea flour and shaped into hockey puck-sized disks. Once firm, their texture is similar to cooled polenta, and they’re cut into elongated bars and fried in very hot olive oil until crisp on the outside.

Continue Reading Panisses…

If there’s anything nicer than taking a break and heading to the south of France, I can’t imagine what it could be right now. My first day in Nice, we ran from socca stand to socca stand, tasting as many as we could. Fortified, we hit the wonderful market in the old part of town to select our fixings for a lovely dinner.

The way of life down here, and the cooking, are a world away from Paris. Generous bunches of basil find their way into pistou, which we pounded in the mortar and pestle until almost smooth.

Continue Reading Nice…