2011: My Year In Food
As an epilogue to 2011, I’ll be posting a series of year-end lists—because the Internet needs a few more—that includes my favorite discoveries and experiences of the past year.
I traveled quite a bit this past year, starting with Austin in January and concluding with Las Vegas in December. In between those two trips, I spent more time at boarding gates and in the air than with friends and family. In each city, one thing that I looked forward to was at least one good meal—it was the souvenir I took from each destination, along with a few Instragram photos.
Of all creative endeavors, food is the most sensual—whereas an image, song or film can evoke feelings intended by its artists, food allows individuals to hear1, smell, touch and taste the art.
Reading Laura’ Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate taught me that cooking was about expressing your feelings through food, while Alfonse Arau’s film adaptation opened my eyes to the erotic possibilities of cooking (which I haven’t forgotten). Immediately after watching the film, I decided cooking would become my creative expression.
Over the past two decades, meals with friends and family account for most of my favorite memories. While I won’t always remember a friend’s birthday, I’ll remember the restaurant and meal. Here are my favorite meals and recipes of 2010…
Meal: Lamb Burger with Feta Cheese and Roasted Peppers, French Fries and a Kingdom Come @ The Breslin, Manhattan
During a business trip to New York in July, I desperately craved a cheeseburger after an exhausting day of work2, so I wandered into the Breslin. I got a table upstairs—far from the maddening crowd—where I could enjoy (re)reading Haruki Murakami’s South of the Border, West of the Sun with dinner. The lamb burger was nice and smoky; the fries perfectly dry, crunchy and salty. The Kingdom Come cocktail (whiskey, orange essence, black tea syrup, lemon juice and egg white) was a little sour, but I didn’t care: after spending the 20 of the past 24 hours either working in or presenting from PowerPoint, it was nice to have a quiet, lazy dinner alone, with my mind in a book3.
Honorable Mention: Wagyu Beef Carpaccio @ Blue Ribbon Sushi, Las Vegas (if all beef had this much natural flavor, there would be no more vegetarians).
Cocktail: Pimm’s 74 @ RN74, San Francisco
Menu description: Housemade Pimm’s, Campari, Ginger Beer and Prosecco
While I spent most of the year fixated on cocktails that featured egg whites (often paired with pisco or bourbon), the Pimm’s 74 was the most memorable, due to its presentation—in an oversized wine glass, with fresh cut oranges, peaches and pears—and its crisp, fruit-forward taste with just enough ginger, herbs and bitters to tickle the tip of the tongue but not linger. Sexy, tart and confident… like my date that evening.
Honorable Mention: Bluebeard @ Thieves Tavern, Los Angeles (blueberries, bourbon, egg whites, lime and bitters).
Recipe: Marinated Buffalo Mozzarella and Tomatoes
I discovered Yotam Ottolengh’s Plenty in the fall and decided to prepare a dinner party inspired by his Mediterranean vegetarian palette. Of the three recipes I chose, the Marinated Buffalo Mozzarella had that wow factor; it’s prepared toasting fennel, then smashing it—along lemon zest, oil, basil, oregano and garlic—into the freshest buffalo mozzarella you can find. The cheese should be served at room temperature, along with a few tomatoes and pimento peppers for stuffing. The flavor is complex (the fennel, lemon and garlic compete for your taste buds) and simply delicious.
Honorable Mention: Martha’s Macaroni and Cheese, from smittenkitchen.com (I brought a tray to Thanksgiving dinner and everyone fought over the leftovers, continuing to talk about it weeks later. I’ve tried dozens of mac and cheese recipes and this one is the most simple and tastiest, by far. BTW, I used a cheddar levain bread and panko for the topping.)
(1) Hearing, in the sounds of food sizzling in a platter or the heavy chewing of the person sitting besides you.
(2) My work day featured a six-hour new business presentation, which I worked on until 6AM the morning prior. Now that I think about it, PowerPoint was the theme of quite a bit of my traveling.
(3) I suppose it’s ironic that I chose a dinner alone as my favorite meal, considering all the fuss I made about sharing meals with friends and family. But, it was just that nice to have a meal alone, at that time.
