Totally Tubular
Posted on October 18, 2006 - Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
I’d be a real jerk for not introducing my friends in America to the exquisitely simple pleasures of Dalmatian cooking, and my recent visit to Brooklyn gave me an opportunity to do just that. I walked with Mike and Karen to the farmer’s market in Prospect Heights where, luckily, there was a decent enough fishmonger’s [...]
Read More..>>Polish Danish
Posted on October 5, 2006 - Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
The Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY is teeming with Polish restaurants, meat markets, cafes… and even Polish people! Cafe Riviera (currently my favorite coffee shop on Manhattan Avenue) serves up this dandy of a danish adorned variously with fresh strawberries, blueberries, peaches and others. I think my time in Zagreb gave me a sweet tooth, [...]
Read More..>>On Sausage Pond
Posted on September 23, 2006 - Filed Under Uncategorized, croatia, life | Leave a Comment
Plant yourself at a table under a canopy of giant umbrellas in Zagreb’s Cvjetni Trg on a cool, sunny Saturday afternoon in late September and you’ll understand why sitting and drinking coffee for hours is the national pastime in Croatia. The coffee is strong, the conversation is light and the women are beautiful. Whiling away [...]
Read More..>>The Garlic Lady of Split
Posted on September 2, 2006 - Filed Under Uncategorized, croatia, life | Leave a Comment
You will find her at the market in Split, and you will know her by the radiant glow of rosy good health that can come only from a diet rich in garlic. She visited me in a pungent dream last night, rattling at the air with aromatic plaits of garlic bulbs as she skipped a [...]
Read More..>>Porkburger
Posted on August 30, 2006 - Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
The pork part was a mistake. The burger part wasn’t. The story doesn’t bear repeating here.
No, there’s no beef in this burger, but to one pound of ground pork, I added an egg, a handful of chopped Italian parsley, three tablespoons each of water and extra virgin olive oil, and a tablespoon each of Vegeta, [...]
“Krumpira! Luka!”
Posted on August 25, 2006 - Filed Under Uncategorized, croatia | Leave a Comment
On certain days there are men who walk the streets of Zagreb bellowing “Krumpira!” at the top of their lungs. They are potato hucksters, and some of them offer onions to boot (”Krumpira! Luka!”). If two of them cross paths in the same territory, the resultant vociferation reminds one of a call-and-response field holler. When [...]
Read More..>>What To Do With A Cucumber
Posted on August 23, 2006 - Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Read More..>>
The First Tamales in Croatia?
Posted on August 22, 2006 - Filed Under Uncategorized, food and drink | Leave a Comment
I was given fresh corn, cornmeal, ground veal, onion, tomato, some Emmenthaler cheese and 45 minutes. No cumin, cilantro or limes. I’d prepared some Louisiana-style hot sauce from feferoni peppers the previous day, so the heat was in place. In lieu of fresh salsa or a rich mole (no time), I gave each meaty [...]
Read More..>>Braided Squid
Posted on August 17, 2006 - Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
A firm cluster of squid tentacles is a wonderful tool for mopping up a flavorful dipping sauce, but squid body? It’s not really bite-sized, so it needs some processing with a knife, and that usually means rings. PROBLEM! A squid ring is usually at least 90% hole, which is why I believe cutting the creature’s [...]
Read More..>>Corn On The Brain
Posted on August 16, 2006 - Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Just call me Colonel Cornelius Cobb. I’ve got corn on the brain, and I’ve got it bad. Summer makes me silly for corn. I went running and flailing naked through this corn field near Jastrebarsko a few weeks ago so I could feel the tassles a-tickling and get myself stinky with corn. I mistakenly believed [...]
Read More..>>