Food in rural Alentejo revolves around these six ingredients: wine, olives, bread, cheese, porco preto and eggs. Almost every household will dine on a combination of these for at least one meal a day if not both. Wine drives the Alentejo economy and the stomachs of its workers, from simple house wines to celebrated international award winners. This is my Christmas present to myself — a presentation box of five reds from the renowned Cortes De Cima.
On Thursday, Janna and I shared a lovely lunch at the Bryant Park Grill. I, of course, filled up on bread and made no apologies. The parsnip soup starter was delicious. The Vegan Organic entree was truly awful. If you’re going to offer a Vegan choice on the menu, you need to provide massive chunks of lots and lots of hearty root vegetables, not a chiffonade of greens with a sprinkling of quinoa and a few, limp, tiny pieces of eggplant; and you certainly don’t put the main dish star — the portobello mushroom — in a side cup chopped up like a disrespected, diced, carrot!
Statistics from the latest census were released a week ago, and the news is pretty terrible for all children across the United States and the warnings are especially grim for Black children living in poverty in Washington, D.C.
I love pure Matcha green tea. A Matcha blend is okay, but the real stuff, the really great stuff — is in the natural, Matcha powdered green tea. I dump some of that poofy Matcha into a glass of cold water, or a cup of boiled water, and stir and then sip — and I’m in a completely different state of mind: Calm, collected and insightful.
Of beans and bread we are made — manna for mankind.
Am I the only one who knows how to properly toast bread into a work of art? Toasting is simple, fun and addictive and you can do it with a $9.99 toaster (or a $9.00 toaster if you’re a man). The first rule of toasting is to turn up the heat high enough and long enough so the toast changes color to a golden earthiness and changes texture to a crusty crunch on the outside while the inner mantle is still moist and soft: You want brown edges and tanned face.
