The CDs that Changed Things (2):

When I was about 16, my uncle gave me a CD of Paul Simon's "Graceland" (so, you now know about when I was 16...). Of course, this was in the days before portable CD players or iPods, so my first task was to copy it onto a cassette tape so that I could actually listen to it in my car or walkman. What happened next?

Well, there are probably only 3 or 4 rock/blues albums from my pre-college years that define who I am in terms of my musical tastes and Graceland is one of them. If there was one album that changed me, this was it. Had there ever been an album that combined rock, blues, and folk with these strange, seductive African rhythms and melodies before? Probably. Had a kid from Cleveland, Ohio ever heard it before? Aaaah....No. This was way off in left field.

I went off to Turkey as an exchange student and Graceland went with me. "You can Call me Al" is one of the 5 greatest videos every made, but before I ever saw it, before I was ever "soft in the middle",  I was "Al".

How? Well, imagine yourself at 16 years old and in Turkey. This was 1988 and the U.S. was not too far removed from bombing Libya, having Marines barracks blown up in Lebanon, or from the Iran hostage situation. Names were being called out to match kids with host families and they were calling for someone named, "Alan Gregory". This not being me and there being 100 other kids waiting to find out who their host families were, I paid no attention to this call for someone clearly not me.

99 kids had their names called and I was left waiting. I walked up to a coordinator and asked about the situation and was roundly chastised for not raising my hand when my name was called. "You never called my name", I said. "Of course we did. You are Allen Gregory, " came the reply.

You can Call me Al.

"A man walks down the street

it's a street in a strange world

Maybe it's the third world

maybe it's his first time around.

He doesn't speak the language

he hold no currency; he is a foreign man..."

You can Call me Al.

I spent, now, 2/3 of my life in this situation, learning it as I went along.

This, by the way, cracks me up:

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=BJwsLFDhoqM&feature=related

As compared to the original:

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=HOiVaE-pKqM

The CD's that Change Things (1):

I was walking home from the office today (it's about 2 miles, which makes a nice bit of exercise after a long day of reading) and a song came on the iPod that got me thinking. There are certain songs, and for those of us born before, say, 1990, albums that are so clearly attached to a time and a place. Like the smell of chocolate chip cookies or the ocean, they can bring back memories that are so vivid - sometimes painful, sometimes happy, but always worth having. I thought I might write a few entries about some of those albums from my life and see what memories you, my reader(s), have. Anyway, I'll start with the song I heard today and the album it came from.

(What's the Story) Morning Glory - Oasis (1995).

The song I heard today that prompted this post was "Some Might Say", and it had me thinking back to my first year in Japan. I had first heard of Oasis through a review of the album Definitely Maybe that was on "All Things Considered" on NPR. There was something about Liam and Noel and their tendency to get into fisticuffs on stage that just said, "You have to get into this group" to me. That first CD was fantastic, Morning Glory was truly a CD of its time and place.

I bought this CD in the fall of my first year in Japan for the first time, and while the first set of memories that came back as I listened to "Some Might Say" were of my then girlfriend's apartment and the "Oh god, you're listening to that CD again...?" looks she used to give me whenever I put Morning Glory on, what I really associate that CD with is Karaoke in Gifu.

My gaijin friends and I used to go to this tiny little karaoke bar on the weekends that had probably 8 seats along the counter and room for 4 or 5 more people at one table. I can't for the life of me remember the name of the place, but I am sure I averaged one night per week there over the course of 3 and a half years. They charged 500 yen ($5, or so) cover and 500 yen per drink, and you could sing all you wanted. For some reason this little joint ended up attracting this eclectic crowd of English teachers, office workers, college kids, and borderline yakuza types. I practiced my (very poor at that point) Japanese on virtually any young lady who was unlucky enough to sit next to me, and probably watched Titanic (without sound because people were singing) 50 times.

Somehow, though, a night out there was never complete without somebody breaking into "Don't Look Back in Anger" (Track 4 on the CD). Sometimes it was me, sometimes it was Charlie (our stereotypically depressed Brit), sometimes someone else. I can't really describe it in a way that does it justice, but that was simply the perfect song for 1996/1997 in Gifu, Japan.

Anyway, listening to it again today it's remarkable how well that CD stands up over time. "Wonderwall" is still a pretty perfect pop song, even if I have no idea what it's about; "Champagne Supernova" is just as over the top and self-righteous as it sounded 12 years ago; and "She's Electric" still brings a sly smile to my face (especially the "she's got one in the oven/but it's nothin' to do with me" line).

I'll leave you with a shot of the normal goings on from that karaoke bar in Gifu. This would have been Halloween, 1997. Brad, Me, Keiko, Shannon, and Naoko (L to R), with me and Shannon doing our best Puffy (or, Puffy AmiYumi for you Americans). Good times.

 

A Couple of Winners:

Well, dear readers, it's been a couple of hectic weeks at school, but here we are on Spring Break. For the undergrads (and those who remember that experience), that seems to mean trips to Jamaica, Mexico, and other destinations far more exotic than anywhere I ever went for S.B. For PhD students, though, Spring Break means studying 9-6 instead of 8-7 plus 9-11. We've got to recharge the batteries too, you know!

Anyway, that all means more time in the kitchen, so today I have two recipes to introduce. First, is a lovely bay scallop risotto. Now, I much prefer the big meaty sea scallops that brown up nicely, but in a pinch bay scallops are quite yummy. They also cost MUCH less. This week I picked up about 300 grams for $3.00, where the same weight of sea scallops was going for $10. Bay Scallops are small, though, so the sear doesn't work as well as you might like. This is why I tend to use them for pasta sauces, mousses, and this risotto.

Here, I started with a bunch of shrimp skins that we had been saving in the freezer. Those, a clove of garlic, some onion, celery, carrot, bay leaves, and peppercorns went into a pot to simmer for a couple of hours to make a lovely shrimp stock. Following that I went with basic risotto technique. In the last 5 minutes of cooking I added some thinly sliced mushrooms and the bay scallops. When ready to serve, I hit it was some paremsan and some chiffonade of red and green shiso leaves. Shiso leaves, for those who don't know, are sometimes called Japanese basil, though I find them to taste nothing like basil. Still, they are a pungent herb with an incredibly fresh taste. Lovely for this dish. A nice, dry Spanish rose was the perfect wine for this.

In the meantime, I also had the urge for some Mexican food. I love enchiladas and so decided to go with some meatless, black bean enchiladas for something a little lighter. I sauteed up some onion and garlic, and then mixed in a can of black beans that had been drained and rinsed. Add some cumin and paprika to taste, along with a diced jalapeno. You could go with more jalapeno or even a habanero here if you live with someone who likes spicy food (which I do not, so I do what I can to sneak some spice into our food...one of these days she'll get used to it, I figure).

I poured some enchilada sauce on the bottom of the caserole and then warmed each tortilla one by one in a little oil. Fill each, roll them up, cover with sauce, and top with cheese. These go into a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes or so until the cheese is nice and bubbly. I served these with some fresh cilantro, sour cream, and lime juice.

Hopefully I will have another chance to cook this week, but it all depends on how the research papers go...

Tai Murray and the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra:

This past Friday was the 5th of our 6 subscription concerts at the SSO, and actually the last that we will be able to attend. Our 6th concert is on May 9th, and we are leaving for Japan from Cleveland on the 10th, so I'll be giving those tickets to some lucky person here in Syracuse.

Anyway, several weeks ago we heard Jennifer Frautschi play Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole and this time was Tai Murray playing Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E. Ms. Murray is one of the most accomplished violinists, for her age (she was born in 1982), that I have heard. She had an incredibly clean tone, and showed good command of the very technical sections of the Mendelssohn. Surprisingly, Amazon.com does not have any CDs by her available, though I suspect that we will begin to see some in the near future.

With that, it's time to look forward to next year's SSO season.

One of Mina's Favorite Dinners:

I was talking with Mina the other day and asked her which of the meals I had cooked for her over the last 5 years or so she had the best memories of. Pretty quickly she came up with this one, a steak or london broil with cranberry-bourbon sauce and feta cheese. My recollection was that the recipe originally came from foodnetwork.com, but when I looked I couldn't find it. Anyway, it's a pretty simple dish that combines some simple flavors but, as Mina put it, in a completely unexpected way.

For the sauce, take a handful of dried cranberries and cover them with bourbon. Let these sit for 30 minutes or so. In the meantime, thinly slice a couple of cloves of garlic, and put a fine dice on half of a small onion. You'll also need some demi-glace sauce, though I didn't have any, so I mixed together a little ketchup, worcestershire sauce, and beef stock and let this reduce until thick.

Cook your steak or london broil to the desired doneness. While the steak is on, saute your garlic and onions and, off the heat, add the cranberries and bourbon. Light this on fire to burn off the alcohol and when the flames have died down add your demi-glace. Let the sauce reduce then until it's nice and thick and bubbly.

To serve, just spoon the sauce over the steak, cruble some feta cheese on top, and garnish with a few torn basil leaves (thyme works as well). We had some pan roasted potatoes that were finished with some sea salt from the Noto Peninsula, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, and a salad. A fruity zinfandel or pinot noir would be my red wine of choice with this dish.

A Couple of Recent Dinners:

First, recently, Mina and I have been growing a kit of portobello mushrooms that my mom and dad gave her for Christmas. We finally were able to harvest the first batch, so I've been concentrating on mushroom-centric recipes the last few days.

The pizza pictured here is a portobello mushroom pizza with mozzerella and parmesan cheeses. It came out with a nicely crisped crust and just the right amount of tomato sauce. I finished it with some nice, fruity olive oil just before serving.

Below, is one of the dinners that came out of our trip to the Mitsuwa supermarket. There's saikyo miso marinated steelhead trout, red and white mixed miso soup, steamed white rice, Japanese pickles, a salad. Actually, there's also a sauteed, soft boiled egg, which was one of Mina's most interesting creations to date.

Flavor, flavor, flavor. This couple of meals certainly had it in spades.

Bobby Corno at the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra - Beethoven's 3d Symphony:

Last night was the 3rd of our 6 concert series at the SSO. This was the one I had been waiting for as, knowing Beethoven better than any other composer, I thought this would be the real test of what our orchestra can do. Overall, I felt that they handled a challenging program well, with my notes below.

The first piece on the program was the overture from Coriolan, Op. 62 which, interestingly, I neither own nor can recall having heard performed before, but which I am going to have to add to my collection. The second piece was the 2nd Piano Concertom Op. 19 and the soloist was William Wolfram. The 2nd is probably the most "Mozartian" of Beethoven's piano concertos and I thought this was an interesting choice for this program because it is so much an earlier work than either the symphony or the overture that we heard.

So, the 3rd Symphony, Op. 55...I actually thought the orchestra worked this piece very well. The Musical Director, Daniel Hege, started off with a kind of clinic in which, working from early musical sketches of the symphony from Beethoven's notebooks, showed how the ideas in the finished version came together over time. It was interesting to hear how the complexity of the chord and rhythmic structure developed from an early idea into the piece we know today. Following this, the orchestra went straight into the symphony itself. This is where Bobby Corno came into play.

Who is Bobby Corno, you ask? Well, he is the fictional first chair horn player in P.D.Q. Bach's New York Mills Philharmonic who, on the track "New Horizons in Musical Appreciation", flubs the horn part in the first movement of Beethoven's 5th.

Anyway, there was a Bobby Corno moment in the horn section during the first movement of the 3rd last evening. The horns came together and handled the 2nd and 3rd movements without flaw, though they seemed to drag a touch in the 4th movement and that detracted a bit from the sense of urgency that you usually feel at the end of a Beethoven symphony. The first chair oboist was spectacular, however, and really held things together along with the first flute player.

So, next time it's Ravel, Saint-Saens, and Debussy.

An Interesting Set of Lists:

Returning to my interest in ranking things; I was looking around the web a while back for some recommendations of classical music to acquaint myself with. I am always looking for new things to listen to, especially now that I study 10-12 hours each day and like to have something to listen to other than the bustle of the other PhD students in my suite. So, I stumbled across this page at the Australian Broadcast Company's radio station: a ranking of their listeners' Top 100 Concertos of all time. There is also a link there for other Clasic 100 surveys, where they have the top 100 pieces by Mozart, for piano, among Operas, and of classical music overall.

I found the list very interesting. Especially intriguing to me was Max Bruch's 1st Violin Concerto being in the Top 5. This is a piece that I first heard on a recording by Akiko Suwanai (my favorite living violinst, and someone I've written about here before) in 2002. I had grown up on the Beethoven Violin Concerto and always assumed it would remain my favorite. So it does, but the Bruch had really grown on me over the years as has Bruch's Scottish Fantasy for Violin, which also comes in on the list.

Anyway, for those looking for a primer on classical music, or who want something to guide them to some pieces they haven't heard or considered listening to before, I think these Classic 100 lists are a very nice tool.

Anyway, happy listening.

Mitsuwa Marketplace:

Yesterday, Mina and I took a drive down to Edgewater, NJ to do check out and do some shopping at the Mitsuwa Marketplace (http://www.mitsuwanj.com/en/index.htm), a Japanese supermarket complex. You may ask, "4.5 hours each way to go to a supermarket?", but my answer would be that the bowl of Ramen at the outpost of Asahikawa, Hokkaido's Santoka Ramen (http://www.santouka.co.jp/) was worth the drive all by itself. Santoka turns out to be more of a ramen chain than I would go out of my way to try if I was in Japan - it turns out that in addition to the original shop in Asahikawa, there are 42 branches in Japan, 1 in Singapore, and 5 here in the States), where I usually try to limit myself to one-off shops or at least to the original shops of those that have expanded, but here in the U.S., having not had a professionally made bowl for 18 months, and even not having had a passable bowl of instant noodles for that long? Again, easily worth the 9 hours I spent in the car yesterday to get there and back. The soup was rich, the noodles done perfectly, and the char-sui pork tender and flavorful.

For the lovely Mina, I think the trip was all about sea urchin. If you ask her, uni-meishi (sea urchin roe on rice) is the thing she has most been wanting to eat in recent months, so it was nice to go to a place where the yellow stuff was available. We also picked up some grilled eel and some fish marinated in saikyo miso that we will eat this week. We also picked up a bottle of kabosu (a Japanese citrus fruit) juice that will be nice for making marinades and dressings, top end ingredients for dashi soup, and other items. I also bought a very cool serving dish to add to my growing collection of plates and bowls.

The weather on the way back to Syracuse last night was much less than ideal, but with my belly full of pork bone soup, I really didn't mind.

New Year's Eve Dinner:

Ok, so there is a bit of a story behind this one. Over the summer I spent a good deal of time driving around the U.S. Mina and I went to Maine for our Anniversary, to Athens, OH for my brother's master's program graduation, and to Indianapolis for the formula one U.S. Grand Prix. While on these trips, I listened to some books on CD that I had borrowed from our local public library. One of these was the unabridged version of "Undaunted Courage", by Stephen Ambrose, which is the story of the Lewis and Clark expedition of the American west. In any event, the descriptions of the delights of buffalo meat that Ambrose, Lewis, and Clark give got me to wondering about what it tastes like. I had seen buffalo steaks at the Wegman's supermarket, and thought New Year's was a special enough occasion to splurge (actually, two 6-ounce steaks were $9.99, which is about $13.33/pound - not outrageous, really).

So, the menu: Buffalo Sirloin Steaks, Caramelized Onion Confit, Roasted Garlic and Rosemary Mashed Sweet Potato, Red Wine Braised Mushrooms, a salad, and homemade rolls (courtesy of the Lovely Mina). The steaks I did on our grill pan, 3 minutes on one side and 1:30 on the other, and they came out just perfectly medium-rare. I slathered them with olive oil along with sea salt and black pepper before grilling. Buffalo steaks are incredibly lean, with no noticable fat either marbled or on the outside of the meat, but ours came out juicy and tender. The verdict: In short, I am sold on buffalo. The meat had a very nice mouth feel, and the only way I can describe it is to say that is was somewhat sweet.

The onion confit I had prepared before, and was quite easy. The onions were browned and then simmered, covered, in 1/3 cup of stock, a few tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, and a star anise. After 20-30 minutes, the pan lid was removed and the sauce thickened. The mushrooms I sauteed in olive oil for about 1-2 minutes with garlic, and then simmered in red wine until the wine had reduced by 2/3, finally adding a small pat of butter to bring a little shine to the sauce. The sweet potato was simply boiled in satled water and then mashed with a little butter, some rosemary leaves, sea salt, pepper, and a head of roasted garlic. For the salad, we used some mixed greens, cherry tomatos, kalamata olives, feta cheese, a little sliced bosc pear, and a few slivers of toasted almond.

We toasted with Domaine Ste. Michelle Blancs de Blanc, my favorite bubbly, and had some Ravenswood 2005 Lodi Zinfandel to match the buffalo steaks. All around, a very nice dinner to see out 2007.

Syracuse Symphony Orchestra:

Last night was the 2nd concert of the 6 concert series we bought for this season of the SSO. Because I am a student, we got a pretty extraordinary deal on these tickets (12 total tickets for $60) and going downtown for a concert once a month or so is a nice change of pace.

Anyway, last night featured Yefim Bronfman as guest soloist on piano and was the best of the several SSO concerts I have seen to date. The orchestra opened with Duke Ellington's jazz interpretation of the Nutcracker Suite, which was a very nice piece that I had not heard previously. I thought the orchestra handled the "jazziness" of it well, though they didn't swing as tightly as a "Pops Orchestra" that is more accustomed to playing jazz might. I do recommend the piece, though, as a great change of pace. It's available on a CD called "Three Suites", which I have linked to at the bottom of this post, that also includes a jazz version of Grieg's Pier Gynt Suite that must be very cool.

The 2nd piece of the night was Mozart's 22nd Piano Concerto (in E-flat, K. 482) and was the first to feature Bronfman. While this concerto does not, for me anyway, have the depth and intricacy of the 21st, 23rd, or 24th that bracket it, it is a very nice, lush piece and the 3rd movement is familiar to even casual classical listeners. I was struck by two things while listening to Bronfman's interpretation of the piece. First was how, for a larger, gruff looking man, he had such a supple style at the piano. He really only tickled the keyboard. 2nd, and this goes to my not being a piano player myself I suppose, I was struck at the number of passages that I had imagined in my mind's eye were 2-handed runs which were actually done only with the right hand. Quite amazing to watch, really.

The last piece of the night was Prokofiev's 3rd Piano Concerto (in C, Op. 26). It is on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's list of the top 100 concertos of all time (http://www.abc.net.au/classic/classic100/concerto_list.pdf), which I am working my way down, but last night was the first time I had heard it. As you would expect, it was darker and more harmonically challenging than the Mozart, and Bronfman was somewhat more animated in his playing. He has recorded all of Prokofiev's piano concertos, though, so is perhaps more "married" to this piece. As challenging as this piece clearly was, I was impressed with how our SSO handled it.

So, next month we are scheduled to see Ingrid Fliter play Beethoven's 2nd Piano Concerto and the full orchestra to the "Eroica" Symphony, which should be as true a test of their overall sound as we will get in this series.

Link to Duke Ellington's "Three Suites" at Amazon.com

Link to Robert Casadesus' Mozart 22nd Piano Concerto with the Cleveland Orchestra at Amazon.com

Link to Yefim Bronfman's Prokofiev 3rd Piano Concerto at Amazon.com

Better Late than Never, I guess...

A comment from my reader and the end of the semester have combined to get my off my duff to write something this evening. A year ago, I thought the full course load and research assistant duties in my PhD program had pushed me about as far as I could go in 15 weeks, but this year adding a teaching load to that has been even more demanding.

Anyway, with that out of the way, I am on the downhill slope in this adventure. One more required class and a dissertation. How hard can that be...?

So, a dinner. My parents came to Syracuse a while back so my Dad could be a guest speaker in my HR class (he talked about occupational safety) and while they were here he and I made Osso Bucco, or braised veal shanks. This was the kind of meal I really missed preparing in Japan because these bone in cuts of meat are difficult if not impossible to find. Anyway, this was a pretty standard recipe for the dish, and the most interesting thing I did was to modify the gremolata (which usually is made with parsley, pine nuts, lemon zest, and olive oil) by nixing the pine nuts in favor of some chopped up garbanzo beans since my mom can't eat nuts.

We made some garlic mashed potatoes to go along with the veal and downed more zinfandel than maybe we should have...But, a fun night with a spectacular meal.

Asparagus Soup, Pork Roast, and Balsamic Roasted Potatoes:

My parents returned recently from a 40th Anniversary trip to England and Scotland and brought a new Jamie Oliver cookbook (Jamie at Home: Cook your way to the Good Life), which is as yet unavailable in the U.S., for me for my birthday. I like the simple way he cooks and the way he uses classic ingredients and classic techniques to come up with interesting twists. This weekend I thought I would try out a couple of recipes from the book, and we had them for dinner last night.

First was an asparagus soup. This was super easy. Just chop up a rib of celery, some leek, and some onion, and sweat these in olive oil. When translucent, add a pound of chopped up asparagus (saving the tips for later). Into this goes about half a liter of chicken stock and it simmers for 20 minutes or so. The next step is to use an immersion blender to break up the now soft pieces of asparagus and other vegetables. The soup takes on a lovely, vibrant, green color. Season with salt and pepper to taste and add the asparagus tips 5 minutes or so before serving so that they can soften up. Following Jamie's recipe, I served this with a soft-boiled egg (as Mina and I are fans of the runny yolk) and a piece of toast.

Next up was roast pork. I used a 1 lb. roast and rolled it in chopped rosemary, ground fennel seeds, salt and pepper, before searing this into a crust. After searing on all sides, it went into a 375 degree oven until the internal temp hit 155 degrees, then rested 5 minutes (carry over cooking got the temp to 160). Slice and serve.

Finally, the potatoes. I cut a couple of white potatoes into wedges and did the same with a red onion. I also smashed up some garlic. These went into the roasting pan, were seasoned, and hit with a good amount of olive oil. I poured balsamic vinegar over the top and this went into the 375 degree oven for 30 minutes.

In the end, I served this with a 2004 Cabernet from Columbia Crest Grand Estates in Washington, which I found to be well worth the $9 I paid for it. Pinot would have been nice as well. Mina had her usual ice cold beer.

Ken Burns' "The War"

I am supposed to be studying; I have class to teach tomorrow, readings for seminar on Friday and then a short turnaround to seminar on Tuesday next week. However, I finished watching "The War", Ken Burns' documentary on WWII on PBS this evening and wanted to get some thoughts down about it.

First, I have to ask, what was the deal with the Norah Jones song? I am a fan of hers', but can't quite figure out what the point of her tune was. It was completely off the documentary track, far too jingoistic, and seemed to me to be a sappy attempt at pulling at the heartstrings of a viewership who is likely liberal and against the war in Iraq. Uncalled for, I thought.

As to the documentary itself, I was reasonable impressed with the approach Burns took. Understanding off the bat that he is, first and foremost, a filmmaker of the American experience, it didn't really surprise me that he approached WWII from a purely American point of view. It did surprise me that it took him until the last episode to deal in any way with the holocaust, and that he swept under the rug any implications of America's having ignored reports coming out of Europe for 5+ years that these attrocities were going on. "The Soviets must have been exagerating..." is all the explanation we got from Burns and his writers.

Actually, it seems the Soviets were at the root of most everything bad that we Americans did during the war. The firebombings of Dresden seem to have purely been a response to a Soviet demand that we bomb railroad depots that were sending reinforcements to the Eastern Front. Any ethical consideration of the tens of thousands of civilian lives that might have died thus the Soviets' fault. Bollocks, I say.

All that said, "The War" makes a powerful complement to the classics "World at War" and "Victory at Sea". It's not a stand alone documentary of WWII, but Burns never stated that is should be considered to be such.

Spinach Curry with Homemade Cheese (Palak Paneer), Saffron Rice, and Tandoori Chicken:


I had a hankering for my favorite Indian dish yesterday, and decided that rather than buying some pre-made curry, that I would try my hand at making it from scratch. The results were, I thought, pretty good for a first attempt. The recipe was from foodnetwork.com

To make the cheese, bring a half gallon of whole milk to a boil (this made enough cheese for two; double the milk for a larger crowd), stirring occasionally. When the milk reaches a boil, add 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/6 cup of lemon juice and remove from the heat. Stir along the outstide edges of the saucepan until curds start to form in the center. Drain the cheese through a double layer of cheese cloth in a colander. Once it has cooled some, gather up the edges of the cheesecloth and squeeze out as much moisture as possible. Wrap the cheese tightly, place in a bowl, and weight it down with another bowl full of water. Set aside at room temperature for an hour or so.

For the curry, steam down 1 pound of spinach and pulse in a food processor. Heat 1/3 cup of vegetable oil and add 2 teaspoons of coriander seeds, 4 whole cloves, 2 whole allspice berries, 1 teaspoon of whole cumin seeds, and a cinnamon stick. Fry these until the cinnamon stick starts to uncurl. Add a thinly sliced onion and saute 3 minutes or so, until golden. Add 4 grated or pressed cloves of garlic and a 2 inch piece of ginger that has been grated. Once these flavors have melded, add two peeled, chopped roma tomatoes and continue to cook. Salt to taste. Finally, add the spinach back into the mix and allow to cook down until most of the visible liquid has disappeared. Finally, add some cream.

For the saffron rice, cook rice as you usually do, just add a pinch of saffron to the water. The tandoori chicken I made occording to the recipe on the side of a jar of commercially available tandoori paste (maybe one of these days I will make my own version of this as well).

I served this with a crisp sauvignon blanc, but an ice cold beer would have gone nicely as well.

Stuffed Tomatoes:

I ran across some beautiful organic tomatoes at the market the other day and decided to make a stuffed tomato recipe I found on foodtv.com a couple of years back. This is a super easy recipe and a delightful, no meat meal. The recipe suggests these as a side, but I've always found them to be reasonably filling on their own, so served them with a side of simple spaghetti with marinara.

Anyway, you take a slice of nice crusty bread and dice it into 1/2 inch cubes. These go into a 300 degree oven for 8-10 minutes, or until they are toasted to your liking. Cut the tops off the tomatoes and use a melon baller to scoop out the insides. Strain out the seeds and put the tomato meat and juice in a bowl with the toasted bread. To this, I add some roughly chopped basil and marjoram (though rosemary, sage, or some other herb combo would be equally delicious), a clove of crushed garlic, some chopped up kalamata olives, salt and pepper, a little olive oil, parmesan cheese, and a small ball of mozzerella cheese that has been diced.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and fill the tomatoes with the mixture just described. Place the tops back on and use a toothpick to hold them in place. Bake the tomatoes for 30 minutes or so, or until they look nice and bubbly. Let them rest for a couple of minutes before serving with a side of pasta. I have made different versions of these using either chopped up shrimp, chicken, or italian sausage in place of or in addition to the olives. Last night I had an ice cold beer with dinner, but virtually any lighter wine you prefer, red or white, would be a good match as well.

Suntory Whiskey:

Like a lot of folks, I think, my tastes in terms of preferred beverage have changed over the years. Where I might have been known to drink a wine cooler or two in my youth, I vastly prefer craft beers, interesting wine, and the occasional whiskey. Also like many young drinkers, I chose to experiment with single malt whiskeys once I had a few coins to rub together. Macallan, Glenfiddich, Oban, and Cardhu were the first that I remember trying, and somewhere along the line I fell in love with the peaty, smoky tasting whiskeys from Islay (Laphroaig, Lagavulin, Ardbeg, etc.).

While living in Tokyo and working for the American Chamber of Commerce, I put together a series of networking events at which member companies acted as sponsors and gave away door prizes and the like. One of our best sponsors was Suntory, which was interested in raising the profile of its Yamazaki series of single malt whiskeys among the international business community in Japan. In putting these events together and working closely with Jun Ago of Suntory, I had my first taste of really excellent malt whiskey not made in Scotland.

Yamazaki Malt Whiskey is generally available in 10, 12, 18, and 25 year old bottlings. The 12-Year Old probably represents the best "bang for the buck", at roughly $35-40 depending on the retailer. The 18-Year Old, with its incredibly complex flavors and aromas is one of my two or three favorite whiskeys in the world, but will run you more than double the cost per bottle of the 12.

In March, 2006 my parents came for a visit to Japan and Mina and I took them to tour the Yamazaki Distillery outside of Kyoto. The plant manager arranged a special tour for us, along with a tasting of the Yamazaki 12 and 18 and the Hibiki 17 and 12 year old blends. It was interesting to see how the guys preferred the malt whiskeys while the ladies preferred the more rounded blends. The highlight of the day, though, was sharing a taste of the Yamazaki 25-Year Old (2,000 yen/$18 per taste), which was simply spectacular. Never in my life do I imagine forking over the 100,000 yen ($900) or so per bottle that Suntory retails this stuff for, but it was a spectacular taste experience.

Evidence of a Debacle:

I listen to Morning Edition on NPR every morning as I am getting ready for the day and like most people like it for its thoughtful, in depth coverage of the news and the way it, like many programs on NPR, mixes brevity with discussion of serious topics.

Over the course of last week, one of the features on ME was the audio diary of a young Iraqi dentist, and I thought this was one of the best features on the program in a long time. Through the week we heard our dentist's stories and got a real sense of what life must be like for an average person in Baghdad. The final installment, as he reports on his best friend's kidnapping and eventual murder and beheading is just incredibly powerful.

As I listened, I thought for a moment that this diary should be required listening for our leadership. It is awfully easy to make decisions about going to war without considering the impact of such decisions on average, local people. The circumstances that have been created by the Unites States' rather arrogant attempt at regime change in Iraq are truly incomprehensible. Unfortuantely, and this may just be the cynic in me coming out, my guess is that a listen to this audio diary would only serve to reinforce the particular politically based opinions about the situation in Iraq of the individual listener. Those who think that we cannot abandon Iraq until the political situation there is stabilized will only feel more strongly that is the case. Those who believe that stabilization should be the responsibility of the Iraqis themselves will only have that opinion reinforced.

For those interested, here is the link to the audio diary on NPR*
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14412383

Photo 4: 1998 - Hikone, Japan

In 1998 I took a couple of interesting trips, one of which was to a little town called Hikone (彦根) in Japan on the shores of Lake Biwa. There is a reasonably nice castle there, though it's not one that I would recommend going to unless you're in Japan for an extended period (Himeji, Matsumoto, and Nijo are the three I most recommend for those on shorter trips). The beef in Hikone, Omi-gyu, is absolutely worth going out of your way for. It is absolutely as good as the Kobe or Matsuzaka types of wa-gyu, but goes for a lot less (though these days the regional "brands" of beef are gaining in popularity in Japan, so this may have changed). I had a fantastic sukiyaki dinner there, though, for about $40 including drinks.

In any event, while I was there, I took a couple more black and white shots that I really like. The swan was one of my luckiest shots ever, as I really had no idea that the "wake" would turn out to be so clearly defined. I remember framing the shot thinking that it would be the white of the swan against the black of the water, and when I saw the way it turned out I knew it would be one photo I would always have to judge anything I took in the future against.

Later that afternoon I was walking through a plum orchard, and while it was September and thus abviously not plum blossom season, I caught sight of this gentleman walking alone. I never got very close to him, but if you think about it, he's probably just an average salaryman. When I look at the 1997 shot of the salaryman rushing through Nagoya Station and compare it to this shot of the same type of guy, I see so many of the Japanese men I know. After a busy day at work, nobody minds a nice, quiet walk in the park.

More Food - Pasta with Sardines:

Talking with Mina this week, we both thought that having some fish over the weekend seemed like a good idea. The fish selection at our markets here in Syracuse is lacking, but at the local Price Chopper there is more of a selection than anywhere else and yesterday I was able to pick up some fresh sardines.

I am a big fan of Jamie Oliver's recipes, and made pasta last night based on his recipe for pasta with sardines (from the Jamie's Italy cookbook). I chopped up an onion and most of a fennel bulb and ground up some fennel seeds in a mortar and pestle. These I put into a frying pan over relatively low heat with some red chili flakes and let them cook for about 20 minutes, getting some good caramelization. In the meantime, we gutted and filleted the sardines, and sliced the filets into bite sized pieces.

Once the vegetables had caramelized nicely, the sardines went into the pan with some white wine, some chopped tomatoes, and some good kalamata olives (Jaime suggests the tomatoes, and I added the olives to the party), and I let the sauce cook down. In the meantime, I boiled water for pasta and got that going. Just as the pasta neared al dente, it went into the pan, and then into the pasta bowl. I topped it with the fennel fronds for color, and hit it with just a little lemon juice and some good extra virgin olive oil. Upon serving, a little finishing salt completed the dish. Pretty darn good, we thought.