Where Gourmonds Go to Shop

Sometimes we take for granted our lifestyle and many cultures in the U.S.

One can only hope that food and free trade, if not complete democracy, will make for a more peaceful world one day. I've learned more about other cultures through their food then through any other means.

ok

I've got up a little earlier than usual this morning. To begin with, it's a Windsday outside. The first gale of the season in Lake Arrowhead! The 30 knot breeze outside is blowing apricot-sized acorns down onto my deck and new metal roof - cacophony! I love it.

As long as I'm up, I'll put the pot roast in the slow cooker for dinner tonight. We're having some new potential friends and their young kids over tonight. What better way to impress guests and hopeful friends with the Greatest Comfort Food Ever Invented... Pot roast, with slow cooked carrots, carmelized onions, mashed potatoes, some white corn spoon bread (with butter and maple syrup, pure Heaven), and plenty of fresh pressed apple cider (from Oak Glen, out local apple tree nemeton).

I like Russians and the Russian soul, but frilly food for the sake of vanity isn't a part of my world. Peasant food is rustic, satisfying, and grounding. Grounding is good (unless you're twelve years old and just broke a picture window). I hope to visit Russian not long from now, when my kids are a little older and will enjoy the traveling. Maybe we'll tour Alaska first (I used to live in Fairbanks), and then hop over to Russia; I hear Russia is right next door to Alaska...

Dammit. A typo. Oh, the injustice of typing at 03:42 with NO EDIT FUNCTION! Peterman, add an edit function to placate us typo-nebbish sorts!

Dammit, SEVERAL typos. Peterman, it's getting bad at Chez Eells. You know what it is? My laptop got shipped off yesterday and I'm typing on the kids' laptop. The keys are (to quote Elvis) differ'nt.

My apologies to all. Put off reading anything I type until after I get my MacBook Pro back.

Russian gourmet food? Heck their domestic food includes much of what we see as exotic and glamourous. They probably have a select irregular Caviar -n- Stoli factory outlet.

In my misspent early adult life, I collected wristwatches. I used to seine for them every August, pick them in September, go on driven shoo,

SQuerkkkk.

Naah, it was so long ago, I bought them from xeroxed lists, sent by mail,  where some guy would put a row of watches on the copier and that was his illustration.  I am not even sure how I would find out the name and address of the guy, though I do remember one was from a tiny ad in the Wall Street Journal...

ANYWAY, (Hey it's Saturday, do you have somewhere to GO?) anyway, among the watches I collected is one made in Russia circa 1955 or 1960- the height of the People's Empire. And it is made of elitist 18K pink gold. It is a nice watch, but it just serves to remind me that Yuri and Nikolai and Sergei might have been living with their Honest Utilitarian Goods in the Worker's Paradise, but no matter where you go, The Man still gets the Good Stuff.

I'm on get me a sausage biscuit. Any of y'all want one?

The best Russian food I have ever had was in Helsinki which, Mooselini's claims notwithstanding, really is right next door to Russia. I would be very concerned that the cultivation of the Muscovite palate is in large measure a status symbol, just like being seen in a Moscow McDonald's.

Eells, you're being way too hard on yourself.

I would politely prefer "gourmand" to "gourmond."

Willie,

Sausage biscuits rather than foie gras for me any day.

Among the many aspects of culture -- music, dance, sport, visual arts, etc. -- there is none more fundamental to any given culture than cuisine.  Many people avoid museums and dodge the theatre and there are even some sad souls who don't listen to music (!).  But EVERYBODY eats!  Unless you are a hospital patient being fed through an I.V. needle, you partake in cuisine of one kind or another.

While I share Jonathan's love of good peasant food, I do not share his distain for "frilly" food.  I'll eat anything that doesn't eat me first.  At least once.

To yet again sing the praises of the city I call home, one of the things I love about being a New Yorker is that there are so many cultural cuisines to sample here, almost always prepared and presented by natives of the nation in question.  Russian food for dinner?  You bet!  French for breakfast the next morning?  Absolutely!  Chinese dim sum for lunch and a proper British tea at 4?  Why not!  And then we mosie down to the East Village to consider our dinner options; Ethiopian, Japanese, Sri Lankan, Indian, Philippino, Vietnamese, Thai, or Himilayan cuisine are all at the fingertips.

To detour back to yesterday's topic, DPR, I think you missunderstood my intention about the comment on inheritance taxes.  I just put that out for thought.  I too, would be most upset if the gov. took from my progeny that which has taken three generations of hard work and discipline to accumulate.  So I am definitely with you on that one!

Now back to good food and good friends.

I am a simple man with simple tastes.

I do enjoy eating a flavorful and toothsome meal. However, the level of enjoyment and appreciation of food, for reasons beyond its basic function of providing nutrition for our bodies and our minds, is such an individual barometer.

So, speaking for myself and any other personalities that may inhabit my body that I'm not consciously aware of, a good meal need not be complicated, nor complex; and it usually doesn't necessitate a mad scramble on my part to find a thesaurus so that I can adequately describe it.

I may well be missing out on something here but I've never been enlightened by eating a meal (with the exception of that batch of brownies I consumed in the early ‘70s), regardless of its ethnic origins; and I do enjoy a wide variety of ethnic foods. The only thing I've learned from eating any meal is whether or not I like the taste of the food, and more importantly, if my body can handle it.

I think there is a PB&J with my name on it.

Bon appetit

The upside of a developing Russian taste for luxury in whatever area could be that Tsar Putin might have a more difficult time re-establishing the USSR, with its grey standardization and state capitalism. Perhaps the Russians now might not be amenable to the 'everybody's equal, but some are more equal than others' philosophy that characterized the previous regime. Maybe. Possibly.

I have friends who've moved here from Moscow (my little city has become astonishingly multicultural, in a way marvellous to behold), and when we have dinner chez leurs, it's always a celebration. Lots of amazing and different food. They're as good at doing wonderful things with potatoes and beets as we Irish! Really different pasta dishes, fabulous desserts, and I'm assured that it's just the common comfort food Russians eat all the time. Of course, when I made fried chicken, biscuits and gravy, sliced homegrown tomatoes, green beans and creamed corn, they oohed and aahed like we were in Paris. It's all in what you're used to, I suppose. Just BE CAREFUL when you party with Russians, because ice-cold vodka goes down way too quick and easy, and if you lose count, you're doomed. I will add that they're very understanding of incapacitated guests, and very good overnight hosts...

Here in Little Rock, it's a well-kept secret that we have all those different cuisines too, now, most of them in a few happily concentrated areas that put them within walking distance of one another. I remember, back in the 70s, when franchise restaurants from Texas wuz fancy eatin', but in the last twenty years or so, amazing things have happened. We have a wonderful Repertory Theatre, several that would be called off- and off-off-Main (Broadway's a few streets over), great symphony and opera, and we get the Broadway Series and concerts going from Memphis to Dallas that used to bypass us. Best of all, a traffic jam here is when you have to slow to 30 mph on the freeway for half a mile on your way home. I live four miles from work, which is easy to do if you like, housing is still affordable, and the meteorological and financial disasters that swirl around us seem to be mitigated by geography and some cultural forces that (so far) have kept us relatively unscathed. As I said, it's a secret-most of the world still thinks we're barefoot and backward (and we do have our share of those kind, just as every place does), and that's just fine by us, so that the only people who move here do so because they really WANT to come on over. So, SHHHH!

It's a fun little town. I've lived in the country too, and I love the outdoors, but I must have ready access to the theatre, museums, symphony, little jazz clubs, and great restaurants, not to mention close friends. Here it's relatively painless to get around, and there's more to do than I can possible keep up with.

Must dash-cute hunk installing new windows today, and I'm sure he needs my supervision, so I might not be here very much this weekend...

Olivia:

I once experienced the being of doomed as you describe among Russians. It ended up with me being nude with a bunch of similary un-attired Russian men and women in a sauna.

YIKES!!!

Olivia,

One, two, three...
Come on we're all waiting for that little faux-timid, hair twirling, offhand query...
Where was that anyway Mark?

Many Russian Old Orthodox families began to move to our piece of paradise here in the NW some 50 years ago, but since most of them had not lived in Russia for at least a century before, their cuisine has been eclectic and certainly influenced by years in Hong Kong, Brazil or Turkey.  Their relatives may now live in Alaska (just across the bay from their native (?) land but when I visited Soldotna, I found no foods reminiscent of another land.  Plain old 'murrican stuff.

The beverage of choice however, remained the same - vodka - and around here, there is great pride in being the distiller of the best vodka.  The tasting parties are frequently followed by unlimited DUII citations and wrecked cars.  Seems as though in the old country (whichever one that may have been in their journey) your horse could always get you home.  Here, you had to be able to drive the car safely to your home.

While we now have beaucoup Mexican, El Salvadoran, Tex-Mex, Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, and other ethnic restaurant and food offerings, we still have nothing that claims to be anywhere near Russian.  

So I am off to the south of here to enjoy an October family birthday party with authentic Hungarian food tomorrow - Papa Novak is a most genial host and Mama supervises the kitchen with loving care.  We'll all raise a glass of Malna to your health!

Stoney,

It was in Saratov, Russia, during the Yeltsin era. People were NOT aging well (to borrow from an old nostrum, there were no SuperNatashas), and it was about as titillating as, say, spongebath time at a nursing home. In the context, it would have been unsportsmanlike not to do what my hosts were doing. It wasn't as much of a shock as it might have been, because I had previously been through the daunting task of Japanese nude public bathing.

I have gotten affable culture shocks from visiting China and Russia under their former communistic selves, and those times are gone. It's why, right now, I have fantasies of visitiing North Korea and Cuba, you know, where dinosaurs still roam the earth.

mark swaim,

I guess it is just the thought of any group of necked pipples in a number greater than two... gives me da villies.

Jonathan Eells,

I'm craving a good old fashioned Yankee Pot Roast after reading your post!

Olivia,

You make an excellent point when you say "It's all in what you're used to".  As Peter O'Toole says in Ratatouille, "You provide the food, I'll provide the perspective."

But then you go on to say that these Russians are very understanding of incapacitated guests and make for excellent overnight hosts.  My first instinct is to ask, how do you know?  After all, you indicate that you were in no condition to remember that portion of the visit with any semblance of clarity.

Does anyone remember the film "To Russia With Love"? It's considered one of the best Bond films. It starred Daniela Bianchi, an Italian actress. She was 20 years old  at the time. She's still alive.....she's 66 years old today.

Well, that's my Russia story......I got it in just before 9 pm PST

NOTICE:  OFF TOPIC-OFF TPOIC-OFF TOPIC-OFF TOPIC

DPR:  Have you ever seen the movie "Secondhand Lions"?  Watched it the other day with the boys.  I (we) thought it was excellent.  Theme(s):  Truth/Belief

Stoney...Olivia,

One, two, three...
Come on we're all waiting for that little faux-timid, hair twirling, offhand query...

*placing tongue firmly in cheek*

I have NO IDEA what you mean, dear!

Robert-I was informed of subsequent events by a reliable party, so there :P

And Miss Olivia is always in firm control of her bad self when socializing-I was, of course, referring to the actions of others, since I left at the appropriate hour...

Olivia,

Did you say you always have firm control of your bed self??? Yes, you've made that quite clear.

Stoney,

Yes, I loved Secondhand Lions.  A behind-the-scenes story on that movie is very revealing of the performing artist's lifestyle:

Michael Caine and Robert Duvall were in The Eagle Has Landed in 1977.  They became the very best of friends.  Went out for drinks or dinner every night after the shoot, confided great personal stories to each other, cheered each other on, really became brothers.  As soon as the movie wrapped, they went their separate ways, joined their own families, did their own work.  They never saw or spoke to each other again, never exchanged a Christmas card, not out of deliberate coldness but just because each got swept up in life and film projects.  25 years later, they get cast in Secondhand Lions and they picked up as if they had never been apart.

This is how it is in the arts.  Intense relationship, then separate.  Intense relationship, then separate.  Intense relationship... etc.  Gives us some idea about how and why the Burtons married and divorced each other twice!

Robert-I am shocked, SHOCKED, at your impertinence! I'll have you know that I am ALWAYS  a lady, in public!

For shame-apology accepted *giggling*