It’s depressing to realize how much care I took with moving my kitchen paraphernalia from the spacious suburban place to the smaller loft unit and how little I have used any of it since I have been here. It’s disgustingly pristine at the moment.
Time to take out the variously shaped tart tins, the pastry scrapers, the double mesh strainers and get to work.
But on what? I lack a theme. I am stumped. Random nibbles? I am yawning as I write this. Substantial salads? I can see the splattered vinaigrette on my new couch, the soggy lettuce that’s been sitting out too long. Oh God, I have to do better than that.
National themes? Last time I meandered over to the kitchens of the Eastern Front, I found my table laden with foods that were as heavy as the granite on my new kitchen counters. It was nice, it was fun, it was then, now is different.
Got it! The theme has come to me as I type this: Urban Foods! How appropriate! How edgy and sleek! How urbane!
Okay, but what do I mean by that? Damned if I know just yet. Write me if you have ideas.
Ummm.... when I think urban, I always think of tall plates. Like Alfred Portale's towering plates of stuff, climbing up, up up. A high-rise on a plate.
ReplyDeletefor me, "urban" is always conflated with "fusion" which I like. those city folks are very brave and tackling an asian/south american/cajun concotion is nothing for them!
ReplyDelete"Urban" food makes me think of food that is eaten in cities, which the way my mind is working today brings me right to bar food, but really good bar food, which would be tapas - more substantial than your typical appetizer, but less than a full meal... you know.
ReplyDeleteI can't recommend a single recipe or example right now because I just had oatmeal for breakfast and my mind is a complete blank. The only thing I'm thinking of is a stew with those little eels but I'm not sure your guests would go for that or that you would care to prepare it.
Hmmm. What about paella? It's not exactly tapas but it is delightful, and very urban in the complexity of its flavors and the long, long list of ingredients.
I dunno, "urban" to me connotes (in a quintessentially American euphimistic way) "african-american", not "fusion". And I have to say, I'm a huge fan of so-called soul food. North American Rotisserie Chicken, just off Monroe, is a great example of the small, funky restaurants you find in African-American communitites in larger cities. Personally I love to cook a variety of traditional southern/caribbean dishes: jambalaya, okra, collards, 3 cheese macaroni (ok, so maybe it's not traditional, but it's love on a plate).
ReplyDeletePaul
I'm jealous of your kitchen. I don't know what urban food is. However, I have another suggestion: make everything with pate a choux. You could make Gougeres (stuff them with tasty grilled items and cheese). You could put the dough on top of some kind of baked dish as a topping (weird, but tasty, I bet). And you could make dessert with it! You could even take ang's idea (piling up high) and make Croquembouche (Cream puffs, piled into a tower, drizzled with caramelized sugar).
ReplyDeleteYOu could even ditch the idea of pate a choux and and go TOTALLY mid 90s. Everything in tower form. Combine my and Ang's idea. I want to cook now.
Of course what you should really do, Nina, is go to the market and walk around and see what's good, and get inspired that way. It really doesn't do to get inspired and then find your ingredients are impossible to come by.
ReplyDeleteNYC street food.
ReplyDeleteJessie
Okay, I think I got it: (Ang, Portales is my hero) tall, with fusion elements, tapas-like, to include pate a choux (croquembouche may be it -- though gougeres are way easier), colors, and stuff from Saturday's market. Anything else? I am a little reluctant to go the "street food" route. I don't know about the south, but I never thought of the northern cities here as having great street food. Hot dogs with sauerkraut look so good from those NY carts, less so from my kitchen.
ReplyDelete