No Sushi for Lucca

The New York Times just ran a quick little article about how the town of Lucca, located in Tuscany, has banned non-Italian food from its historic center. This is the town that my grandfather's family hails from, which I visited a few years ago with some friends who have since opened a bed and breakfast there. Lucca is a tiny little medieval walled city that you can bike across in about 3 minutes, if you know your way through the labyrinth of streets. As cosmopolitan as I am, I do think a Wendy's or sushi joint would sort of ruin it. Before Lucca, I thought that dark, handsome men in Armani suits riding around on bicycles were a Tuscan travel legend. Until one rolled up to me in front of a leather shop and offered me a gelato. Imagine how conflicted I was about turning down that offer.

Go Sammy!! WOOT!

Sam Kass is cooking the Obama's meals in DC officially, under White House executive chef Cristeta Comerford....hopefully not literally. He has the pedigree you would expect from any Obama pick, i.e. University of Chicago undergrad degree, Michelin-approved training in Europe, and then at the lovley little Avec in the West Loop, before becoming a private chef.

I thought I didn't care about this. But now that a Chicagoan is in the First Kitchen, I'm plenty happy to root for the hometeam one more time. Between the Cubs and Blago, we need to bask in all the sunshine we can get.

Eat, Pray, Love Author in Chicago

Elizabeth Gilbert will be giving a lecture and booksigning at the rather massive Auditorium Theatre in Chicago on March 9th. Tickets just went on sale. She's the author of Eat, Pray, Love, one my favorite books in a while, which documents her long and winding trip through Italy (eat), India (pray), Bali (love) after a soul-crushing divorce. Here's a quote:

Just for a few months of one’s life, is it so awful to travel through time with no greater ambition than to find the next lovely meal? Or to learn how to speak a language for no higher purpose than it pleases your ear to hear it? Or to nap in a garden, in a patch of sunlight, in the middle of the day, right next to your favorite fountain? And then to do it again the next
day?

I'm pretty sure you know where I stand on that.

Nigella Complex

I've been stuck at home with a cold for the past two days. Aside from cleaning out all the cabinets in my kitchen, home office, and bathroom, I've watched about three hours of Nigella Lawson's Express series on YouTube. I don't watch the Food Network or much else on TV, but I had seen her on Oprah and knew I liked her. But after seeing this, holy hell, I think she's fantastic. Ahhh...that we could all be a famous, triple-threat kitchen bombshell with a charm-your-pants-off accent.

The recipe I'm lusting to try as soon as my sinuses give me back my tastebuds: Caramel Croissant Pudding. As in a croissant bread pudding. With caramel. All warm, and gloppy, and sweetly delicious.

Did I mention I adore her?

Taos Ashram Chai Tea

I spent one blissful summer during college living in dramatic Taos, NM, where the mountains are steep and the food is lovingly made by hippies. My favorite place was the Neem Karoli Baba Ashram, where there was always music, flowers, chai, chanting, and a fragrant meal just around the corner - usually served up in one of those giant 10 gallon stockpots you see in movies. I was 20. I didn't have anything to worry about, and neither did anyone else at the ashram, where the kitchen is considered a sacred space.

That was my first encounter with chai tea, which I loved immediately and have been happy to see eventually fill the menus of every barista joint in the nation, even if the mix they use isn't quite the same. The ashram's recipe is from India, and it's far superior. The warming qualities of the ginger, cardamon, and cinnamon are perfect for the middle of winter. It makes three quarts to serve a crowd, or just to last a little while in the fridge:

Maharaji's Taos Ashram Chai

2 quarts water
3 oz fresh ginger, grated
1 tbsp cardamon, crushed
1 cinnamon stick
2-3 black peppercorns
1/4-1/3 cup loose black tea (depending on strength, Assam is ideal)
1/4-1/2 cup sugar (depending on how sweet you like it)
1 quart milk or soy milk

Boil the water with the ginger, cardamon, cinnamon, and peppercorns for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and add the loose tea leaves. Let steep for five to seven minutes. Add the sugar and milk. Bring to just barely to a boil, and then strain out the spices before enjoying.

Start Your Engines: Restaurant Week List Released

The complete list has been posted for Chicago's Restaurant Week. The participants are offering special prix-fixe lunches for $22 and dinners for $32 during February 20-27.

There are some great new places to try on the list (Prosecco, Farmerie 58), as well as some solid favorites (Le Lan, Brasserie Jo, Le Colonial). If you want a weekend reservation during February 20-22, be quick like a bunny.

To kick it off, we're headed for a weekend lunch at Farmerie, which sounds fantastic.

Dirt Cheap Cookware: Not an Urban Myth

My mother is a born domestic goddess, and I'm accepting that she's always right about anything around the house. She has a serious addiction to serving pieces (at last count, there are 20+ sets of dishes in her giagantimo kitchen), some of which she told me she just found at Marshall's.

To which I replied: ugh. Discount department stores are so much bloody work. Urban life is stressful enough. I need to conserve my shopping resources for things like shoes. And handbags.

Saturday, though, I popped up to their store on Belmont after woefully striking out downstairs in the DSW (no riding boots for me). It was in true form: squeeky escalator, screaming kids, shelves crammed with crap. But then there it was, next to a collection of Le Creuset, a $16 Wolfgang Puck Bistro Elite 2-quart saucepan. Score. I've used it twice and ran it through the dishwasher. So far, it's a thing of bargain beauty.

Ecstasy at MOMA of the Non-Art Variety

When I think back over the past few months, the holidays included, there's one meal that keeps haunting my memory. I co-hosted a group of people in New York on an art tour in October, and we ate well. Very well. But it's always the surprise-and-delight factor when I'm traveling that ingrains a food experience in my memory. The one on this trip happened to occur in the Museum of Modern Art's Cafe 2, where our group of 25 was served a dozen or so small-plate items.

The one among them that I'm still swooning over was a simple cranberry, brie, and walnut panini. How could this be so good? The cranberry was in the form of a sweetened sauce. The walnuts were chopped coarsely and there weren't too many to overpower it. The brie, was melted. Gooey. Oh God. The bread was pressed and toasty, with the whole shebang sliced and served in long, elegant slices - each roughly the size of a large biscotti. How good were they? I skipped dessert to have more.

I. Skipped. Dessert.

That's serious.

I've been resisting urge to buy a panini press after coming to terms with the limited space in my cupboards. But like I said. You don't argue with the food gods.

My Birthday Tiramisu Trifle

My handsome, wizened husband celebrated his 40th birthday last spring, which we marked with a lavish private dinner with friends and family at the exceptional NoMi. It was a big, glittering, memorable night... And so was the check. So when my birthday rolled around a few weeks later, I decided to invite our peeps over for a mellow tapas take-out party at home. It wouldn't break the bank and I still wouldn't have to lift a finger. Except for one critical element: the cake. This, I figured, was the perfect chance to make the birthday confection of my dreams.

Funny thing. When I thought about my ultimate mid-thirties birthday cake fantasy, just one word kept calling: TIRAMISU. Trifle style. Flavored with orange. Ok, that's seven words, and it isn't even a cake. But inspiration takes artistic license sometimes. You don't argue with the food gods.

So here it is. My multi-layered birthday opus that requires no actual baking, and you make it a day ahead. It drew a few gasps on the first bite. And not all of them were even from me.


Tiramisu Trifle with Orange

1 1/2 cups coffee - divided
6 egg yolks at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup Cointreau (you can use brandy or another liqueur) - divided
17 oz. mascarpone cheese
30 ladyfingers
semisweet chocolate square or chocolate leaves
confectioner's sugar

Whisk the yolks and sugar with an electric mixer, using the whisk attachment, on high for five minutes until they get thick and yellow. Lower to medium speed, and add a 1/4 cup of the Cointreau, 1/4 cup of coffee, and all the mascarpone. Mix until the texture is smooth and heavenly.

Combine the rest of the Cointreau and the 1 1/4 cup coffee in a shallow bowl. Dip 1 side of each ladyfinger in the liquid and line the bottom of a tall glass bowl with them. Pour a layer of the cream mix on top and spread evenly. Repeat, alternating cookies with the cream mixture until you have 4-6 layers, depending on the diameter of your bowl.

Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 8 hours. Before serving, decorate with chocolate leaves or sprinkle with shaved chocolate (heavily) and confectioner's sugar (lightly) on top.

Birthday candles optional. Champagne or sparkling Moscato is pretty much mandatory though.

Best Vegan Pizza Ever at Vella

There's a great little cafe named Vella just up the street from us on Western Ave., and I couldn't be happier that they've started serving a dinner menu of gourmet pizzas three nights a week. (You can see my review of them on UrbanSpoon.)

Their vegan Everything but Meat pizza is so fantastic, my husband brought home two of them yesterday and I spent time trying to figure out its magic. Here's what I think is on it:

• Caramelized onion - this makes up the richness of the flavor base, since there's no pasta sauce, cheese or meat on it. The onions are thick and gooey, smeared on the light crust.
• Roasted garlic - mixed into the onion base.
• Olive tapenade with basil - this is the most mysterious mix. It's heavy on the basil and light on the olives, and it's finely chopped and dotted all around the pizza.
• Cremini mushrooms - these are sliced really thin so that the edges get a little crispy under the heat of the oven.
• Roasted plum tomatoes - not sure where they're getting these, or if they make them ahead, but WOW are they packed with flavor and delicious.
• Spinach
• Basil leaves

So now I can start experimenting in the kitchen.