Friday, September 10, 2004

 
"My Paris was uncomfortable pensions on the outskirts of town, cheap meals that started with watery soup and ended with watery flan. It was always being cold. It was hours peering through the gloom of the badly lighted Louvre.

"Colman's Paris was not mine.

"He liked to start the day by strolling through the flower market and listening to the birds. Every morning he woke me with fresh flowers. Then he took me to Laduree for coffee and croissants and we sat there, beneath the ancient paintings of nymphs and angels, bantering with the waitresses in their black dresses and white aprons. After three days we were regulars, and they didn't even ask what we wanted, but simply put out the pots of coffee and hot milk, and the plates of croissants.

"He showed me streets I had never seen before and small, out-of-the-way museums. He took me to the cemetery and we danced around Proust's tomb, and afterward we went to Le Petit Zinc and ate platters of claires and speciales washed down with a cold, crisp Santerre...

"Colman never considered the price. Of anything. He bought first-class tickets for the Metro and front-row seats for the Opera. At night, walking along Saint-Michel, we went in and out of jazz clubs and he introduced me to the joys of La Vieille Prune. I loved the way it tasted, like gentle cognac." (40)

Ruth Reichl, writing about Paris as experienced through her affair with her editor Colman, in Comfort Me with Apples (New York: Random House, 2001).

posted by Open Mouth 2:51 AM

 
John Cage:
I have nothing to say
and I am saying it
and that is poetry.

My one and only astrologer, Rob Brezsny, tells me:
You have nothing to do
and you are doing it
and that's your genius.

posted by Open Mouth 1:26 AM

Monday, September 06, 2004

 
From the Hostess Antoine-Dariaux, resuming from the last post, on the intricacies of liqueur savoring and cheese-crust scraping:

"Many gourmets like to eat the crust of Camembert and Brie, but only after the outer white film has been scraped away, and only when it is not overripe." (139)

"Liqueurs may be savored in small sips...in the case of fine fruit liqueurs, you can first chill the liqueur glass by swirling an ice cube around in it, then empty the glass and pour in a small quantity (about 1/3 full) of liqueur--a true raspberry (framboise) is one of the most delicious. The you take a/ small sip, which you retain for a moment in the cup of your tongue, as you slowly exhale through the mouth to evaporate the alcohol. When you then swallow the remains, the fruit flavor should be very pronounced and perfectly exquisite. Unfortunately, however, it requires tons of fresh ripe fruit or berries to make a natural fruit liqueur, and most of the modern products have been fortified (if not completely flavored) by synthetic ingredients." (222-223)

While administering these small details with perfect accuracy, do not forget the big picture:

"Above all, remember that elegance in entertaining, just as elegance in clothing, should appear to be an everyday habit and not your Sunday best. Even if your secret ambition is for this evening to be the one grand dinner of your life, you should still act as though you were used to dining in the same way three or four times a week." (326) "Most of all, try to be perfectly relaxed, happy to share the things you love with people you like." (374)

"The dream of every ambitious society hostess is to add to her string a few of the leading snobs who then attract the others and thus consecrate a reputation...What work is required, what patience, what humility with the Big Names and what ferocious disdain toward the Nobodies. And most of all--what a bank account!" (314)

And what is your dream as a society hostess?

posted by Open Mouth 6:13 PM

Sunday, September 05, 2004

 
Yum! Lots of easy recipes from Geneviève Antoine Dariaux's Entertaining with Elegance (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1965). Ms. Antoine-Dariaux started her own fashion house and was the director of Nina Ricci. She is also the author of A Guide to Elegance and The Men in Your Life, if that gives you an idea of what kind of person she is.

“The standard minimum of four [cheeses in a cheese plate] includes one mild, solid type (Edam, Swiss Guyère), one aged (Roquefort, Gorgonzola, etc.), one soft fermented type (Camembert, Pont l’Evêque, etc.), and one fresh creamy cheese, which can assume any number of disguises…Two large cream cheeses can be given a new flavor and appearance if one of them is generously coated with paprika, and the other with caraway seeds. Another delicious trick is to split a creamy Swiss-type cheese in half like a sandwich bun, and put it back together again around a thick layer of walnuts.” (109)

After cheese, dessert:

Simple desserts follow rich meals, such as fruit: pineapple and strawberries in a pineapple shell and cantaloupe and peach slices in the melon shell, decorated with mint sprigs (89).

Otherwise, “A fresh homemade compote of fruit, such as strawberries, pitted cherries, red or yellow plums, pears, apricots, peaches, etc.—whatever is in season. The trick is to cook them without a drop of water. Just sugar them and let them stand for half an hour, which will cause the juice to run, and then stew them for five or ten minutes only in a tightly covered pan, until the skins burst. Serve the compote either hot or cold, with little cookies.

"Another fantastically simple and refined fruit dessert for a luncheon is simply dried prunes that have soaked overnight in ordinary white whine with a stick of vanilla in it. There is no cooking at all!” (131)

Richer desserts follow simple meals or if dessert and coffee IS the meal. To make a chocolate-chestnut gateau:
“Chill [a can of pre-sweetened chestnut purée] well the night before. Butter and line with waxed paper a dessert mold in which you plaster the purée, leaving a good-sized hollow in the center. Chill again. A few hours before the party, fill the hollow with whipped cream that bas been slightly sweetened and flavored with vanilla, and unmold on a serving dish./ Melt three bars of chocolate with a tablespoon of butter in a double boiler, cool slightly, and spread the chocolate over the chestnut mold. Return to the refrigerator until serving time” (89-90).

posted by Open Mouth 2:35 AM