Glorious, Jewel Encrusted Rot

So, cleaning out the refrigerator is not my favorite job in the world - actually I despise it, avoid it, causing decaying fruits and vegetables to take on likenesses similar to exotic landscapes.  Ew. 

Argentinian artist Luciana Rondolini perhaps hates rotting fruits as much as I do, or perhaps she enjoys the aftermath more than most.  Ms. Rondolini has done a series of work studying rot, but instead of letting pure fruits turn to simply compost, she has bejeweled them - giving them an armor of Swarovski - a grave of glittering, shining rhinestones. 

The effect is mesmerizing.  The frivolity of the whole thing - fruit bejeweled - only left to spoil.  The contrast of hardened skin to continuously softening interior until it has turned to goo. 

Rest in peace, banana: rest in glamorous, sparkling peace.

Clean Food by Terry Walters - Giveaway - CLOSED

So.  It's almost the end of January.  How's your New Years resolution doing?  Given up already?

Let us share with you our New Years resolutions:

1.  Eat more fruits and vegetables.
2.  Eat more fruits and vegetables.

We've recently discovered an awesome cookbook that is filled with tasty recipes that are produce and grain heavy to help us stay focused on those healthy eating goals in 2013.  Terry Walters' Clean Food; A Seasonal Guide to Eating Close to the Source offers delicious recipes for eating well in any season.  Easy recipes from soups to salads, savory seasonal veggies, grains, pastas, desserts, to tasty snacks, this book will keep you excited about each season's offerings, and new delicious recipes to share with your friends and family.

The basic premise of eating clean, is eating as close to the source (nature) as possible.  Which means, less processing, and more seasonal foods loaded up with their natural nutrients!  We love this book because it is full of gorgeous recipes that are very veggie centric, and it's a delicious resource to help us add more produce to our day to day diet.  (It is, after all, too easy for a woman to live on BBQ ribs alone).

Pear Tart, Don't Mind if I Do.

The book is organized into the seasons - making it easy to select recipes with ingredients that are fresh.  Ms Walters also gives direction as to how to cook your foods in order to preserve as much of the natural goodness as possible.  The book is very vegan centric (which we are clearly not), and yet the recipes are not intimidating or full of artificial substitutes.  With gorgeous photography and recipes such as Seared Fennel with Meyer Lemons, Green Tea Poached Pears with Pomegranate Glaze and Pistachios, and Winter Squash with Chestnut Casserole, you're bound to be drooling at the mouth, and (gasp) craving more vegetables!  (Victory!)

And today, we are giving away a signed copy of Clean Food for one lucky winner!

: : : THE GIVEAWAY : : :

Clean Food

A Seasonal Guide to Eating Close to the Source

Signed by the Author, Terry Walters

: : : HOW TO ENTER : : :

1. Leave a comment on the post answering: your new favorite vegetable.  (Kobocha Squash!)

2. Tweet #CleanFoodGiveaway @xxGastronomista and @TerryWalters

3. *Extra entry* “follow” Gastronomista and/or “like” us on Facebook.

The contest closes in one week (12 pm EST). Winner will be selected on Wednesday, January 30th, and will be emailed that day.


Good luck, and many thanks to Clean Food; A Seasonal Guide to Eating Close to the Source author, Terry Walters!



Want more?

Ms. Walters is hosting a live Q&A session about eating clean tomorrow January 24th live at 7pm on Ustream! 

Log on here:


xxG  

Rebecca Horn on Eggs

The egg.  What an amazing object.  A symbol of femininity, food, and fragility.  Ms Rebecca Horn shares our enthusiasm for eggs; she has used them as a protagonist in her work for many years.  Machines often serve as the supporting actor - painting them, throwing them, or buffing their shells.  Other eggs rest perilously under boulders waiting to be crushed, cast into lead for safe keeping, or speared, somehow retaining their proud shape. In all of her works the eggs are made more precious, more fragile, their thin shells exposed and fetishized.

Without further ado, Ms. Horn on Eggs:

Rebecca Horn, Metamorphosis, 2012

Rock, Cast-Iron Skull, Steel, Egg, Light, Wooden Podest

Rebecca Horn, Lolita, 1997

Leather Glove, Ostrich Egg, Copper Rod in Plexiglass Box

Rebecca Horn, Oeufs d'Autruche, 1985

Charcoal and Colored Crayon on Ostrich Eggs and Metal

Rebecca Horn, Ostrich Egg Struck by Lightening, 1995

 

Rebecca Horn, To Sleep as Little Spoons, 1990

 

 

Rebecca Horn, Missing Full Moon, 1989

Copper Sculpture with Goose Egg Set in Lead

Rebecca Horn, Pendulum with Emu Egg, 1987

Aluminium, Emu Egg, Electric Motor

Rebecca Horn, Universe in an Ostrich Egg, 2008

2 Brushes, 1 Blue Coloured Ostrich Egg, 1 Funnel, Steel, Electronic, Motor and Pedestal

A Day in the Life of a Bonacker…. Or Clamming Next to One…

Bonacker: the name for a native people of the Springs Area of East Hampton, New York.

One might be familiar with the Springs as the home to influential American painters, Jackson Pollack and Willem de Kooning, but the root of the community as home to baymen, fishermen, and farmers go way back some hundreds of years…or so this story begins…

Set to meet my clamming partner at daybreak…errr, 9am (it was a Sunday, give me a break, a girl needs her beauty rest), I made it out to the waters a little after 10am. Not fully awake, wading waist-high through Gardiners Bay, off of Three Mile Harbor, jolted me back to life. Al Lester welcomes me (aka Albie, aka Swampa is a true Bonacker, as well as a craftsman, contractor, jokester, and a real deal swamp man) and has gotten a head start.

He has jerry-rigged a rake attached to a belt, attached to a basket, combing the bay floor for clams and dropping them into another cleverly jerry-rigged basket that sits in hole of a cut out boogie board, keeping the clams cool in the water. As a commercial clammer, he has a order to fill of 800 clams for his family’s farm stand, Round Swamp, which also has incredible pesto pasta salad among other homemade prepared dishes.  By the afternoon and he makes it seem more like meditation than work.

Heading Out

Keepin the Clams Cool

Not so fast, all you eager clammers out there, everyone digging needs to be a local and licensed (read: pay taxes). However, with new rules, resident license holders can bring a guest (Thanks, Mom!). Also in the rules, each person cannot exceed more than 100 clams per person, but, that’s getting ahead of ourselves.

A few tips and how-to’s:

 -   Hold the rake with one hand and with light pressure
 -   A slight bump in the seafloor will indicate a buried clam
 -   Dig by moving the rake back over the bump and scratch the surface back and forth to wiggle the little guy free
 -   Pull the rake directly up towards you and gauge your findings


After a few pulls resulting in only some rocks and barnacles, I felt something suctioning to the bay floor. With a slight tug-of-war, I pried the little sucker free. A buried treasure, an Easter egg of the sea,  I found a clam!

Before chucking him into your basket, as we were told,  measure him against the gauge and toss any that are under size back to the bay. Next summer they will be prime for the plucking.

Al offered some other boy scout tips and tricks of the trade: if you stumble upon a “hot spot” of clams your first expert move is to “take a range” (unsure if that is a nautical or a Bonaker original term). From where you are standing in the water, line up two points on the shore with another two points at another angle of the shore. The intersecting point is where you stand (Consider this post a modern day topography class) and, in other words, a clam haven. Another power move is to rake 360 degrees from that point. As we know from social situations, friends like to hang out in groups, same goes for clams.

This Girl Found a Hot Spot!

Through the midday sun, I was equally worked on my Bonaker’s tan, filling up my basket with bounty and finding more peace than my yoga practice. Chatting with other clammers, you start to feel as if you are inducted into a community. Everyone chats with Al, as he is THE guy and nothing short of famous in these parts. Let’s just say if there was a clam club, he would be VIP (No euphemisms here). Al even regulates the area, quelling drama on the seas when a group of Long Island guys with heavy inflections when they had come back for another round after poaching their allotted amount. A jocular teacher even called out to me for “cheating” when I substituted the rake for my hands to pry a clam loose. Even the novice over here gets her chops busted.

Boat Full of Bounty

Over four hours traipsing and traversing the waters, I gathered a basket full of little necks, cherrystones, chowders, and even a random oysters! 

Here’s a rundown of the different types of clams:

Little Necks: The smallest of the clams. Great eaten raw or placed directly on the grill for a few minutes until they open and served with lemon and garlic
Cherrystone: The midsize guys. Best in Italian dishes like baked clams or linguine a la vongole.
Chowders: The big suckers. Perfect for cooking in dishes like the aptly named clam chowder soup and the Hampton’s Classic, Clam Pie.

With pruned, water-logged fingers and an upper body workout to rival that of any yoga class, I drag my bounty ashore. A day as a true Bonaker, or next to one, I enjoy the fruits of sustainability and the peace of the waters. Until Fall’s scallop season, Om Shreem Maha Lakshmiyei Namah.

Traditional to the East End of Long Island is the Clam Pie also know as a Bonac Clam Pie. Here is a recipe adapted from my Mom’s clam pie. Her words, “a little of this, a little of that, just go by feeling”.  Thanks again, Mom!

East Hampton Clam Pie recipe by my Mom

Pie Crust. An easy way to cheat is to store-buy your pie crust.  And I’m into the idea of cheating, especially after a full day of clamming. If you are feeling ambitious, follow your favorite pie crust recipe, but there’s no need to pre-bake the crust.

Mom's Clam Pie!

Pie Filling

3 C. of Shucked Clams, about 18-20 Clams 
1/4 C. Clam Broth (Clam Juice from Clams)
3 Small Red Potatoes
1 Onion
2 Stalks of Celery
6 Bacon Strips
1/4  Tsp. Oregano
2 Tsp. Flour
1/4 C. Cream


Preparation

Rinse clams well under cold water.
Steam clams open and reserve clam broth to add to mixture
Cut the potatoes, celery, and onions and the clams in bite size pieces.
Saute vegetables in clam broth, and once cooked, add the clams, bacon, cream, flour, broth, and oregano (and any other of your favorite spices). 
Once cooked, transfer filling into pie crust
Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes

xx Erica Schwartzberg

Feed Your Inner Caveman - Well Fed Cookbook Giveaway! - CLOSED

We're always interested in hearing about how people eat - favorite foods, fetishes, and guilty pleasures.  We heard about the Paleo diet a few years ago (Ms Duquesne pontificated on the Monkey Hot and the meaty trend), and now we've come to learn that more and more people are on the Paleo scene.

 

We were recently introduced to the cookbook Well Fed: Paleo Recipes for People Who Love to Eat by Melissa Joulwan, which follows the rules of the caveman, or cavewoman.  Shes an original Texas Roller Girl, Cross Fit aficionado, part time yogi, all meat lover.

Miss Joulwan

If you're wanting to go Paleo full boar or not, Well Fed is a charming cookbook with lots of delicious recipes for the caveman in all of us.  We sat down with her for a little Q&A about her new cookbook:



Gastronomista: Why Paleo?

Melissa Joulwan:  It should be obvious: big hunks of meat and leopard-print loincloths!

Leopard Print Lion-Cloths, Duh.

I joke because I love. There are a handful of reasons I believe paleo is the best way for just about everyone to eat. Paleo eliminates grains, dairy, legumes, junky seed oils, and added sugar, all of which means our bodies enjoy much more stable insulin responses and reduced inflammation. We’re used to seeing, say, a scratch get puffy and red, but we don’t usually think about the inside of our bodies experiencing that kind of inflammation. That’s exactly what happens when we eat foods that contain anti-nutrients or spike our blood sugar.

The paleo diet focuses on lots of fresh vegetables and fruits, animal protein, and naturally-occurring fats — all in reasonable proportions. Once you get used to it, it feels like a natural, sane way to eat. And that sanity is a gift for anyone who’s had weight issues or been an emotional eater. By breaking the cycle of sugar spikes — and in their evil little hearts, grains are really just sugar — I learned how to “just eat” for the first time in life. It’s enormously liberating.

G: Why and When did you decide to go Paleo? In your opinion, what is the difference?

MJ:  Honestly, I started eating paleo for the girliest, most cliché reason: I wanted to lose 15 pounds and my traditionally “healthy” diet wasn’t doing it. I’d already given up grains on my own, but then I started working with Melissa Hartwig (founder of Whole9) on my nutrition, and she suggested I fully commit to paleo by giving up dairy and legumes, too. There was never such a hissy fit as the one I threw when I was asked to stop eating blueberries and milk for breakfast. But she challenged me to try it for a week to see how I felt. In just two days, I had no bloating and my sleep quality improved. I was sold.

Paleo Motivation

That was three years ago, and I’ve eaten 90% paleo ever since — minus two 3-week trips to Prague during which I consumed a metric ton of schnitzel and dumplings. But the kickass thing about paleo is that when I returned home from the debauchery, I immediately started eating clean again and within four days, I felt like myself again.

Thanks to a thyroidectomy, I don’t have a thyroid gland which presents all kinds of challenges because the thyroid controls metabolism and is really affected by inflammation. Eating paleo helps me manage my thyroid issues, including my energy, mood, and sleep.

G: What's the difference between the Atkins diet and Paleo?

MJ: As I understand it, Atkins is mostly about restricting carbohydrates, so it includes junk like artificial sweeteners, seed and vegetable oils, and low-carb grains and flours, as well as the processed foods made from them. Eating paleo means eating real food in as natural a state as possible: meat, vegetables, fruits, fats. There are very few paleo “products” because processing is not kind to nutrients. The “no processed foods” thing is also one of the biggest differentiators between paleo and gluten-free eating plans, too. Paleo eschews (yay, eschews!) grains not just because of the gluten, but also because of the anti-nutrients found in grains. Gluten-free cakes, breads, cookies, and other treats, especially the kind found in a supermarket, are not really healthy choices. If it’s made in a factory, you probably don’t want to eat it.

G: One thing that I like about the book is that you emphasize eating real food - what are some of your go-to cooking ingredients?

MJ:  I always say that I like peasant food... there are a few kinda fancy restaurants I like to go to once in a while, but mostly like to eat international food that’s like what you would get if you went to a normal person’s house for dinner in, say, Morocco or Turkey or Prague or Korea. So my favorite ingredients are simple, high-quality things — grass-fed ground beef, pastured eggs, organic collard greens, cabbage, spaghetti squash — jazzed up with sexy spices and slinky fats. One of my favorite things to eat is spaghetti squash,  cabbage, and ground beef sautéed with coconut oil and a spice blend called Tsardust Memories. It’s sweet, spicy, earthy... totally comforting. Having said that, I’m also madly in love with truffle salt. (Eat it on a fried egg and feel your eyes roll back in your head.) And homemade mayo. I plop it on everything in a way that’s pretty indulgent.

Cocoa Cauliflower

G: You mention Middle Eastern Cooking in your book - what recipes in Well Fed are based on this cookbook? What is your favorite recipe from this classic?

MJ:  The Middle Eastern recipes in Well Fed are either recipes I learned from my dad or ones I concocted myself, but I was able to do that because I’ve read Middle Eastern Cooking from cover to cover so many times. There are two recipes on my blog that are adapted from that book: fancy spiced olives (which I make every Christmas, without fail) and a grain-free Chicken Bastila, which is a savory-sweet Moroccan pie made with chicken and almonds. I’d made the original — with phyllo dough and powdered sugar — a few times and just got a bee in my bonnet one day to make a grain-free version. It came out great, and I actually got a Tweet from a restaurant manager in San Francisco who said he liked my paleo version more than the original.

G: What are your favorite recipes from Well Fed?

MJ: I have a soft spot in my heart for the Bora Bora Fireballs because I dreamt them one night. How dorky is that?! I woke up thinking about meatballs made with pineapple and rolled in coconut, and I was convinced I must have read about them somewhere online or in one of my old- school Tiki cookbooks. I spent all kinds of time doing Google searches and looking through my cookbooks, but didn’t find a recipe. I really did make it up in a dream. Nerd!

My other favorites are the ones that were big challenges to adapt, like Char Siu and the Paleo Pad Thai. Asian food tastes so good because it combines sweetness with spice and heat. It was fun to experiment and figure out how to recreate the experience of those dishes — that “takeout” feeling — without the eleventy million kinds of sugar found in both.

And Chocolate Chili. Because it’s chili. And it’s chocolate.

Chocolate Chili

G:  We've always considered Spaghetti Squash to be a magic vegetable - a squash that's spaghetti, what?!? What is the most surprising transformation recipe?

MJ:  Cauliflower might be my favorite sneaky-deaky vegetable. You can turn it into rice, use it as a substitute for cracked wheat (in tabbouleh or kibbeh), mash it like creamy mashed potatoes, and roast it — and all of those versions taste amazing.

The other surprise was jicama. White potatoes are nutritionally worthless, so they get the thumbs-down from most paleo practitioners. But jicama is a pretty good substitute. Well Fed includes recipes for home fries and “potato” salad made with jicama, and they’re some of my most popular recipes. The texture of jicama isn’t quite as starchy, but especially in the salad, the other ingredients — bacon, hard-boiled eggs, homemade mayo — dress it up so much, you can’t even tell it’s not potato. Go, yam bean! (And for astute readers who know jicama is in the legume family, it’s paleo approved because the jicama itself is the root of the plant and doesn’t include the anti-nutrients of the seed, like beans do.)

Jicama Salad

 
G: Going Paleo must take a lot of discipline, how often do you cheat? What's your favorite cheat food?

MJ:  When I’m living regular life, I cheat about once a week, but I call it “having a treat” because I don’t like to feel like I’m doing something wrong. My most frequent indulgences are popcorn (at the movies with butter), corn tortilla chips and salsa, or ice cream from this new shop in Austin called Lick that uses all local, organic ingredients to make flavors like Caramel Salt Lick and Strawberry Basil. I should also confess that a few times a year, I go totally off the rails.  At Christmas, I eat Russian Teacake cookies until I look like a snake that ate a goat, and we really like Barley Swine in Austin. When we eat there, I eat everything they serve me and drink Prosecco with abandon.

G: Most Memorable Meal you've ever had

MJ:  When I was about 8 years old, Pennsylvania was hit my a blizzard, so my dad picked us up early from school and took us to his restaurant/motel so we could all stay the night. The next morning, we got up and made doughnuts in the restaurant kitchen, then made snowmen in the parking lot.

As a grownup: a picnic on the grass at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. We ate this meringue (along with cheese and wine) and I swear, I have never tasted anything like it. It’s a chocolate cloud on the tongue.

G: Guilty Pleasure

MJ:  Kid Rock, an undying devotion to Nacho Cheese Doritos, sticking Q-tips in my ears

G: Breakfast in Bed

MJ: Chicken Nanking (from the House of Nanking in San Francisco), ordered to go the night before, after eating dinner there and realizing that more Chicken Nanking for breakfast would totally rule. (My husband Dave and I did this once when we were dating, and it was the best thing ever.)

G:  Pick your Poison

MJ: A shot of Becherovka, preferably in a gypsy bar in the Czech Republic. Jim Beam, neat, at a loud punk rock show. Ice cold Prosecco, but only if I’m dressed up and wearing winged eyeliner.

G:  Last Meal

Sharing an extra-large pizza with pepperoni and extra cheese with my husband, in our pajamas, while watching Pretty in Pink, sighing over magic that can happen at a high school dance, followed by awesome making out.





: : : THE GIVEAWAY : : :

Eat Like A Caveman

Well Fed: Paleo Recipes for People Who Love to Eat

Signed by the Author

: : HOW TO ENTER : : :

1. Leave a comment on the post answering: your inspiration for going Paleo (loincloths, spears, etc).

2. Tweet #WellFedGiveaway @xxGastronomista

3. *Extra entry* “follow” Gastronomista and/or “like” us on Facebook.

The contest closes in one week (12 pm EST). Winner will be selected on Monday, August 20th, and will be emailed that day.



Good luck, and many thanks to Well Fed: Paleo Recipes for People Who Love to Eat author, Melissa Joulwan!


xxG

A Giant Taco Walks Into A Bar...

and the bartender looks up and immediately says, "I'm sorry, we don't serve food here."



Image via Mschiot

Tastier in Paper

Being that we spent a good many of our years studying the History of Art, we have always had a soft spot for the still life, specifically those of the Dutch Masters.  Beautifully arranged cheeses, vegetables, fruit, and goblets of wine have made stomachs rumble for hundreds of years.

But now, in the age of gluttony and instagram, we've have literally millions of images to make us drool.  Naturally, we're always appreciative of a new methods of temptation.  That brings us to today's find, the collaborative work of artist Agnes Cecilia Fideli Siri Charlotte Sundqvist, photographer Olivia Jeczmyk, and stylist Joanna Laven, who replicate said still lifes in paper (bugs and all).

We don't know about you, but these beautiful works make us want to rearrange some lighting in our apartment so that every meal is in chiaroscuro!

We love the mix between paper and contemporary ceramic, giving these photographs a bit of a lost in time feel.


via

xxG

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.

The Mighty Doughnut - Emily Eveleth

It's no new news that we really like doughnuts.  What's not to like?  There's something so optimistic about doughnuts - pillowy clouds filled with jams and creams, sprinkled with crystalline sugar and crunchy jimmies, fragile yet so easy to greedily devour.  Guaranteed bliss for anyone who partakes.

What's better than a warm doughnut?  How about a doughnut bigger than you, mere human? Oozing, glistening in the light, opening itself, tempting you to reach out and taste it's sweet-sweet filling.

That's what we bring you today, dear readers.  Artist, Emily Eveleth paints just that - enormous doughnuts - but they are so much more than just paintings of doughnuts.

While doughnuts are a common everyday object, Eveleth's treatment of them brings them to life, giving them personality, and making them human in so many ways.  These doughnuts have personalities and emotions - some are heroic, some defeated, some are confident, some are lonely, some flirtatious, but all of them beautiful and magnificent. 

We find ourselves feeling for these doughy characters.  Wanting to befriend them, comfort them, listen to their stories, and understand how they came to be.

 

 

Mighty, lonely, and poised - these doughnuts are more than kitsch americana - these doughnuts are us. Somehow they speak to the human condition - because maybe we too are filled with jams and creams, sprinkled with crystalline sugar, fragile, yet so easy to greedily devour.


Want more?  Check out Emily Eveleth's website.