Venezuela's Sweet Treats

If you've been an avid reader of Gastronomista, you already know that we are lovers of the libation, and very loyal to our whiskeys.  Being such ardent whiskey fans (and crack connoisseurs), we would like to think we know good spirits (read, we do).  Whiskey, we're sorry, we are going to abandon you for a little while as we've recently discovered the next frontier - Rum - delicious, complex, Venezuelan Rum. 

Santa Teresa 1796 (featured it in our 2011 Gift Guide), is a rum that will change your opinion of rums.  Who knew rum could be so sophisticated?  Santa Teresa is not a liquor that needs to be served up as a Zombie or a Daiquiri to be consumed, dangerously at that. 

The Hacienda of Santa Teresa was established in 1796 by Count Tovar y Blanco, is now owned by Gustavo Vollmer, and is proudly run as a "family business".  Santa Teresa 1796 was created in 1996 to celebrate Hacienda Santa Teresa's 200th year anniversary.  Let us tell you, this is not your ubiquitous beach resort rum.  It is a structured liquor with a nose of vanilla, banana and apple, while on the tongue one gets more flavors of cocoa, cherries, and molasses.  Santa Teresa is a molasses based rum, and is aged using the Solera method, which ages the rum in four levels of oak casks.  

As if it wasn't already delicious, when paired with a Venezuelan chocolate, it is heaven in one's mouth.   Recommended is the 73% Dark Chocolate bar with Ginger, Green Tea, and Sesame Seeds, made by the New York company, Tu Chocolate with Venezuelan cocoa beans. 

Do check their website for more flavors: White Chocolate with Blue Corn, Salt and Black Pepper, Dark Chocolate with Ground Red Pepper, Curry, and Cashews to name a few!

Santa Teresa is quite delicious to sip straight or with an ice cube.  If you're looking for more action than that, we've got a couple of tasty recipes for you after the jump:

Mosselstoel

Another post from the Dutch artist Zeger Reyers today - a chair made of mussels! 

We know you love them, they are a guaranteed win of an order from the menu, especially when served with frites.  Briney mussels with a garlic white wine broth, when sopped up with crusty bread is pretty much the best thing on earth.  In 2007 Mr Reyers grew some mussels on a chair, and made a gigantic meal out of it. 

Enjoy!

Ceramic Pressure

Mosaics are one of the most magnificent art forms - used all over the world as a durable material to create imagery, text, pattern and texture.  All those tiny pieces assembled together covering ceilings of churches, floor patterns of ancient Roman estates, and entire facades of Islamic Mosques.  It is always impressive to imagine all of the hours spent planning and executing those massive works. 

Which brings us to the contemporary artist, Zeger Reyers, based in the Netherlands.  He too uses the art of assemblage to arrange another form of ceramic - plates.  Dishes, saucers, bowls, serving pieces dangerously stacked as though they've suddenly started multiplying in an exponential Fantasia-like way.  The dishes flow with one another, almost weightless, as though they are feathers or seaweed floating in the currents.  The effect is dreamlike and frightening all at once, a reminder that we must wash our dishes tonight.

Hard Water - 2007

Cosmopolitans - 2002

33cc - 2007

Hard Water - 2007

Want more?  Visit Reyer's website...

Sugar High - Photography of Brittney Meyer

Surrealism, we love you so.  With your wild juxtapositions and transcending escapes from reality, we are always drawn to you.  In these days of over documentation and over sharing, we are always delighted to see reality contorted, twisted, reflected, and made oh-so-wrong in all the right ways.

This brings us to the work of photographer Brittany Meyer.  She sends frozen treats into orbit, letting them melt into sugary contrails.  Eclairs float effortlessly as if they are in outer space.  Cotton candy clouds flirt with cumulus cloudscapes, brewing up some sort of Willy Wonka thunderstorm.  Lemon Meringue Pie hovers above like a satellite or a suddenly spotted UFP (unidentified flying pie).

With all these sweets aloft, we're sure craving something sweet.  Flying pancakes anyone?

For more flying edibles, check out her website.

Arcimboldo Redux

We've adored the paintings of Giuseppe Arcimboldo ever since we first saw them; at first glance, layers of fruits, vegetables, the rogue fluke...and then...a portrait of a man.  A surrealist take on the man vs. feast. 

Which explains why we were so delighted to see the Salad Days feature in the New York Times Magazine curated in anticipation of the "Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations" show at the Met.  "Dresses" featured alongside some of our favorite designers - made out of an abundance of fresh ingredients:

Veggie Couture - Dolce & Gabbana

Pasta Party - Donna Karan

Catch of the Day: Armani

Shrimp Cocktail - McQueen

Pour Some Sugar on Me - Pucci and Viktor & Rolf

Incentive to Send

USPS - we've got a great idea for you.  If you're trying to motivate people to send more mail - how about using Toby Ng's concept for chocolate flavored stamps?  With dark, milk, and white chocolate flavors, it would sure make sending that dreaded rent check much more enjoyable.

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Your Morning Commute...

...just got a little more savory.

Cruising down the Double Fudge Chocolate Highway

A superior alternative to rush hour.

Haven't we all been down that road before?

See more of Christoph Niemann's charming graphics here.