Ethical foie gras

I love the taste of foie gras, hate the cruelty of machine force feeding. Not that fattened liver is worse than most other industrially raised meats, but I'm uncomfortable with them, too.

Have always thought that it must be possible to use geese' and ducks' natural instinct for gorging before migration to produce fat liver. And then my pastry chef sister sends me this link...

A talk - about 20 min. on You Tube - by Blue Hill chef Dan Barber about a visit to Eduardo Sousa in southwestern Spain. His Patería de Sousa produces natural foie gras with free range geese that stock up on figs, olives and a lot of wild plants and herbs.

No gavage, the geese just follow their natural rythym and stuff themselves in the fall. The foie is only produced in season, and preserved by confitering. His family has done it since 1812. Barber says it's the best, he's tasted. Must try.

på dansk

Back on the farm

Home again. It seems like eons ago, I was eating pastrami sandwiches and salted cukes at Katz's with the girl chef and Jonas... gangsta look.

I love being in this space between homes. For a few days, things I take for granted are in motion. The big choices are visible, before I get into the rythym of this part of my life. Movable feast. Deep and refreshing. A kind of being reborn.

See you!

A fond farewell to take out. Corn, pineapple and It's a beautiful morning muffins. Frittatas, veggie quiche.
Sushi, Korean, thin-crust pizza, a half espresso with a shot of chocolate, seaweed salad, porchetta on a roll, braised greens, sushi.Quick, early morning bagel on the highway.Sushi.
Oops, the girl chef shopping.
Even from supermarkets... Really good self-composed salad and spit-roasted lemon chicken from Wegmann's in Ithaca. From Union Square Whole Foods fresh cut fruit, marinated mushrooms, artichoke salad, sesame tofu and buckwheat noodles. I've only cooked 3 or 4 meals the whole time I've been here. And I'm the cook....

Christmas borscht

Mahla and I weren't the only ones New Year's cleansing in the Russian-Turkish baths on 10th Street yesterday afternoon. I'm glad we braved the masses, my skin still feels like satin.We hit Ukrainan Veselka's for a late dinner, braving crowds again with a half hour wait for a table. I was happy, finally got my bowl of Christmas borscht, traditional pre-Mass fare in Eastern Europe. Nice, light, with the right amount of vinegar and mushroom pierogi floating in the bowl.
And their great rasberry blintzes, thick-ish crepes filled with sour cream, for dessert. Two of the things I love in this otherwise bland and rather heavy, sausage and cabbage based cuisine with alarmingly few fresh veggies. My sister and the girl chef got meat and sauerkraut dishes and swore never to set their legs near Eastern European food again. My sympathies...

Happy New Year!

Spent part of New Year's Eve with my Dad at his favorite food market, Cerrado's in Clifton, NJ. Coming from Dk it's just joyously a lot of seriously good food at great prices.
Sets off my I-am-not-a-foodie refrain. We're not in a market created for discerning gourmets - not a bad word about that. This is a food store, where normal Italian-, Middle Eastern-, Asian- and the odd Anglo-Saxon Americans buy their dinner. Fish, meat, pasta and whole aisles of canned tomatoes and olive oil...Mounds of nice, cheap veggies. A big variety of good cheese sold by people, who know what they're doing. My Dad picked up 12 lbs. of curd to make his homemade mozzarella. Don't mind having those genes.

Godt nytaar!

Midtown windows

An evening foray out of our East Village home base, braving the crowds on 5th Ave, catching the gorgeous windows at Bergdorff's. Wouldn't I loved to have created one of those!
Crazy animals, swimming fish and decorated cupcakes, charlottes and wedding cakes.
Loving the Obama effect with brown models at posh Fendi's. Stock up, girls.