Octopus agrodolce

My high quality midwife sister catches homebirthed babies in NYC, leaving a trail of touched, happy parents around town. One of them is a chef at Aliseo, a great little Italian restaurant in Brooklyn.
We dropped in after an afternoon of checking out Dumbo, trendy area under the Manhatten Bridge. Home of the River Cafe, too. The salt spray from Olafur Eliassons waterfall installation under the bridge has seemingly killed a lot of the Cafe's plants. Oops. Would have liked to see it, though.
At Aliseo we had real food and good wine with roots in Le Marche. Part of this trip is about Food Agency inspiration, this is definitely some.

Home cured salumi, white anchovies in a lemon dressing, scallops in pancetta with great grilled cabbage, braised goat, gnocchi, panna cotta with a super anis sauce, and a winner - Crispy octopus agrodolce. I got a kind of a recipe from the chef:
Boil the octopus tender in water, wine, salt and 'some spices'. Pan fry it crispy and toss with agrodolce. Maybe we'll have a try with the creature in my Dad's freezer.

We drank a luscious Rosso Conero from Garofoli. Big producers, still craftsmen.

China street

Kathrine's happy guy

Redfish... lots of fish

Boy with ducks on hooks

Pretzels from the hippo panda

The ultimate golden gulls.

Latkes - the Chanukah worm says mazel tov!

In the best Chanukah spirit, we spent Christmas Eve with an old friend making latkes, enjoying her childhood tradition of eating them fresh from the pan. The ingredients are:

4 lbs. - ca. 1,5 kg - baking potatoes

1 big onion

2 tbsp/spsk matzoh meal, wheat flour is fine, too

2 eggs

salt and peper

The potatoes were peeled and grated along with the onions on the Acme Special Safety Grater. Dangerous tool. We took turns. No bloody knuckles.

Remove some of the water with a few paper towels. Then mix the egg, flour, salt and pepper with the grated potatoes.
Heat up 1 1/2 inches of oil. Drop spoonfulls of the potato mixture into the hot oil and flatten the cakes. Turn them over when they're nicely browned on the first side. When they're finished drain them on some paper towels to absorb some of the fat.

Latkes are best right from the pan. If they make it to a plate, they're good with applesauce. Mott's is a classic, I'd rather have my mom's.

The latkes were delicious, much better - more delicate - than the ones I traveled uptown to get at Zabar's last time I was in this mecca-city of Jewish cuisine. Secrets, says Melissa, are minimal amounts of egg and matzoh meal, flattening the cakes when they get on the pan and having the right temperature oil.
Happy Chanukah!

Blue Christmas

'Why don't you stay home tonight, we'll help you out at the bakery tomorrow...' Decorating a big custom order of smurf blue and white snowflake shortbread cookies sounded like a breeze Sunday evening with Barbera in the nose. After hours of diligent piping with The Nutcracker on replay in the background we were definitely in the Christmas spirit.OMG, you didn't lick that pastry bag...???

Kind of perfect

Pre-Christmas dinner at my baker sister's place in Ithaca. We went wild at Wegman's. Irma x 50 plus some well stocked veg, cheese, fish, meat, bakery and take-out departments. Quali, quali.

Scallop ceviche with lime, horseradish and chives. Beef tenderloin - I was in scaloppini mode, but the available veal is raised nastily, so it's on the boycott list. Mushrooms, green beans, potatoes in phyllo packs. And the wine...

From Sparrow's Fine Wines. I wanted a light red with a smell that does the same thing for me as good pinot noir. David, the owner - brilliant with food/wine pairings - gave me a bottle of Barbera d'Asti. Montetusa, 1997 from A. Bertelli. Didn't cost much, I would have paid it for the nose. Well... Drank it with the tenderloin. Mami. Food and wine heaven with super company with great palates.

Certain sacrifices

Staying with a high quality baker of a sister, it's easy to get sucked into having to eat her homebaked croissants for breakfast. A couple with discreetly sweetened almond paste. A few plain. And pain au chocolat, one of my all time favorites when they're good.Needless to say...

Indisk jetfood

Et lille haengeparti... det var en dejlig flyvetur over Atlanten, saa godt som det nu kan vaere, naar man er inde i lufthavnenes kunstige verden. Med indiske Jet. Det bedste var, at stewarder og stewardesser havde en skoen ro og varme oejne.

Frokosten var flymad, men en tak taettere paa rigtig mad end saa mange. Man kan vaelge indisk - vestlig og vegetarisk - non-veg. Vi fik indisk veg, 2 slags boenner med ok masala og ok yoghurtsauce. Paa rigtig porcelaen med stofservietter. Metalknive og -gafler, maaske lidt hasarderet af selskabet, efter den krops- og baggagevisiteringen, jeg fik i sikkerhedscheckene.