... on caesar salad

I am in love with Caesar Salad. I love Caesar Salad. I want to take Caesar Salad behind the middle school and get it pregnant. I’ve had plenty of Caesar Salads in my career. When I go to a restaurant and if it is on the menu I will definitely order it. Caesar Salad is one of the most famous salads in the world.

Three years before Cardini’s death in 1956, the master chefs of the “International Society of Epicures” in Paris proclaimed Caesar’s salad as “the greatest recipe to originate from the Americas in 50 years.”

Facts about Caesar Salad

·         4^th of July is National Caesar Salad Day

·         On October 20 2007 the Guiness World Book of Records, recorded the largest Caesar Salad of 3,287kg in Tijuana

·         Caesar Salad affected the production of Romaine lettuce

o   In America almost 90 000 acres of romaine lettuce are grown

o   In 1975 romaine lettuce accounted for more than 95% of all the lettuce grown in America

·         Popular TV program “Bewitched” had an episode where Caesar Salad was served

·         The Long Long Trailer was a movie featuring Lucille Ball. Lucy’s character tries to make a Caesar Salad while the trailer is swaying back and forth, very funny!

·         Traditionally the salad is dressed and placed stem side out, in a circle and served on a flat dinner plate, so that the salad could be eaten with the fingers

·         Traditional Caesar Salad is made without anchovies. Caesar’s brother Alex, added anchovies to the salad and it was named Aviator’s Salad in honor of the pilots from Rockwell Field Air Base in San Diego

·         Mrs. Wallis Warfield Simpson (wife of Prince Edward VIII of Wales) introduced the salad in Europe by instructing her international chefs how to make it in the great European restaurants  

Below is the link for Caesar Salad recipes. The one recipe is served at table side and the other recipe is one I created a few years back.

www.gabriel-recipes.blogspot.com 

“Take everything to the table” he said, “and make a ceremony of fixing the salad.” 

... on chewing the bitter

Not only are there more than four tastes, but In 1995, the Physiology of smell took a significant step forward with the identification of the proteins that comprise the receptors of nasal olfactory cells and various types of bitterness have been discovered. Alejandro Caicedo and Stephen Roper at the University of Miami have shown that the human gustatory system is capable of distinguishing various sorts of bitter taste. The Miami studies showed once again, only this time at the cellular level, which the different parts of the tongue are not specific to particular tastes, contrary to a view widely held among cooks and gourmets. The nerve fibers that go out from cells specific to a given class of bitterness seem to be grouped in dedicated bundles that communicate with a particular area of the brain.

Why do we chew in the first place? Everyone knows that mastication breaks up food into smaller pieces—small enough that, having also been lubricated by saliva, they simply degenerate into the digestive system. For each food, then, there  are an optimal number of masticatory movements. In asserting that “animals feed, man eats,” Brillat-Savarin sought to do away with the animal side of our nature—the mere fact that disturbed the Précieuses of mid–seventeenth-century salons in Paris, who made a practice of mousses because they eliminated the need for “the unsightly act of mastication.” And yet who wants to forgo the pleasures of a piece of crusty bread? A sticky dumpling? A crispy piece of bacon? If we are to enjoy the full array of pleasures that the culinary world offers, we must honestly receive our understanding and grow our physiological peculiarities to the benefit of our penchant for nutritious food. As mammals, we chew our food in order to increase the surface area available to digestive enzymes. Indirectly, then, mastication accelerates the assimilation of nourishment.

Small pieces of food are broken up less carefully than bigger pieces. On the other hand, the number of fragments into which a mouthful of food is divided by chewing depends on the mechanical characteristics of food in question. Calculation showed that the cohesion of the masticated food is initially low, then rapidly increases and reaches its highest point after twenty cycles. After that point, it diminishes as the particles become smaller and smaller.

 “The Creator, in making man eat in order to live,” Brillat-Savarin observed, “persuaded him by appetite and rewarded with by pleasure.” Because we take pleasure in eating, we extend our enjoyment by chewing longer than is strictly necessary in order to obtain food particles to bind. Depending on their physical characteristics, foods require a greater or lesser degree of mastication and so continue the pleasure one takes from a dish. The shorter the time that food is chewed, the fewer the number of odorant and taste molecules that are released. More generally, the hypothesis that the body automatically detects the perfect coherence of mouthfuls of food ought to be a source of innovative ideas for the cook who wants to find new ways to integrate sticky, gluey, dry, or absorbent ingredients.

It is not enough to understand the principles; one needs to know how to manipulate.

... on eating habits of kids

Why do we initiate our eating lives liking such bland foods?

Food minded parents are constantly complaining that their children like only starches (pasta, rice and potatoes), the blandest cheeses, and tasteless meats (especially the white meat of chicken).

Observing the eating habits of small children provides clues to their developing an understanding of food.

How can children be set straight about food before it’s too late?  

First, as parents have long maintained, children do indeed prefer starches and meats. The cheeses they choose are almost always ones with minimal taste and a smooth texture. It may be a sign of times that bread was the starch least often selected, behind pasta, rice, and fried potatoes. The most popular dishes were French fries, small sausages, quiches, pasta, breaded fish, rice, mashed potatoes and ham. Children make little distinction between them, choosing roast pork, turkey and leg of lamb almost universally. But when it came to vegetables, which were chosen less often than meats, preferences were quite clear, depending on the type of vegetable and the nature of culinary preparation. Spinach, which is so widely thought to be disliked by children, was selected more often and consumed in greater quantities than any other vegetable as long as it was napped with a white sauce. Endives, cabbage (raw or cooked), tomatoes, and green beans appealed to few of the young diners, however. It appears that foods with a challenging and fibrous texture (which makes them hard to chew) are more likely to be refused, as are those with a distinct bitter flavour.

How are we to understand all this? It occurred to the sensory biochemists in Dijon to try to understand the selection of foods to their nutritional content. What they discovered was that the higher the caloric value of food, the more often it is chosen (with the exception of cheeses). Is this evidence that natural personalities are still strong in young children? It is a fact that infants who are fed salt, sweet, sour or bitter liquids react visibly with contempt in the case of the last two flavours but show pleasure when they encounter a sweet taste. In this, they resemble fruit-eating monkeys, who identify sweetness with the presence of sugars and bitter with vegetables that contain toxic alkaloids. Gradually children come to understand, through conditioning and culture, to diversify their diet. 

... on fuck you

fuck you/believe in your fucking self/ stay up all fucking night/work outside of your fucking habits/know when to fucking speak up/fucking collaborate/don’t fucking procrastinate/get over your fucking self/keep fucking learning/so fucking what/form follows fucking function/find fucking inspiration everywhere/fucking network/educate your fucking self/educate your fucking client/trust your fucking gut/ask for fucking help/make it fucking sustainable/question fucking everything/have a fucking concept/learn to take some fucking criticism/make me fucking care/use fucking spell check/do your fucking research/sketch more fucking ideas/the problem contains the fucking solution/think about all the fucking possibilities/be fucking brave/grow some fucking balls when the situation demands it/drink lots of fucking water/fucking love your flaws/fuck a lot but love more/fucking hate disloyalty/be fucking original/forget about the fucking people be yourself/be the fucking change/fucking stand up for what’s right/be fucking daring/fucking care about the planet/be fucking aware of your children/fucking start a debate/carpe than fucking diem/fuck the distance, you should be here/don’t cry. just say fuck you and smile/fuck off

...on animal suicide

Do animals commit suicide?

Suicide is "the act or an instance of taking one's own life voluntarily and intentionally," according to Merriam-Webster. Birds, for example, might pull out some or all of their feathers, sometimes completely denuding themselves before proceeding to peck at their flesh. Primates may bite themselves, and dogs  and cats might practice excessive licking (like our cat at home). A pod of 61 whales beached themselves at Farewell Spit in New Zealand a while ago. It’s not clear why whales beach themselves but there are various speculative theories.

Is suicide a thing in the animal kingdom?

Yeah sort of, there is plenty of evidence that animals engage in self-destructive behaviour. In addition to the beached whales, ducks and dogs have been observed drowning themselves, cows have walked off cliffs, and naked mole rats leave the colony to die when infected with a communicable disease. It requires an awareness of one’s own existence, an ability to speculate about the future, and the knowledge that an act will result in death. Dolphins, many primates, magpies, and elephants can recognize themselves in a mirror, suggesting self-awareness.

No matter the motivation, self-destruction appears to be something that exists in even the simplest life forms.

The Romans saw animal suicide as both natural and noble; an animal they commonly reported as suicidal was one they respected, the horse. "Everything naturally loves itself," wrote Aquinas in the 13th century. "The result being that everything naturally keeps itself in being."

Thomas Joiner, a Florida State University psychologist, does take that stand. His new book, Myths About Suicide (I’m currently reading his book and it is awesome), links the suicidal tendencies of living creatures. "Across nature there seems to be the same kind of calculation," says Joiner. "Is my death worth more than my life? Suicides of all kinds involve this calculation, from bacteria and insects to conventional suicide deaths and even suicide terrorists."

Of course, the suicide thing also occurs amongst dolphins, animals considered the second after apes in what concerns intelligence level.

In some animals, sex is pure suicidal, at least for the males. The female praying mantis starts eating the male while still copulating, head first! And in some spiders, in which the male is a pygmy compared to the female, sex is followed by its own sacrifice in the jaws of the female. In the end, males are just a piece of protein for the hungry eggs developing females. Is this a suicidal act of the male? Rather no, as he primarily has sex on his mind.

So where does that leave one of the real, solid examples of animal “suicide” – the worker bee stinging a perceived threat, but dying in the process? The bee’s sting is famously barbed, and as the bee tries to fly away, it pulls out its innards, including the venom gland which not only continues to pulse venom down the sting, but also releases alarm pheromones which attract other bees. The downside is that the bee dies.

I wonder if any other animals are “consciously“(rather than instinctively) aware that they need air to breathe? Could they drown themselves, by understanding that water will kill them? Or fly into the wind shield of an oncoming car? 

So where does it leave “natural selection” and the fact that educated human beings commit suicide?

“Is it the tongue that speaks from the inside

And the voice of silence no more?”

... on gravity

As I was walking home tonight after a long and hot service I looked up at the sky. And the stars I saw! The sky is alight with thousands and thousands of blinking spots. As I have a keen interest in astronomy and I read the works of Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Carl Sagan and the works, my mind turned to gravity. Gravity is what keeps the pan on the flames, the food in the pan, the food on the plate and makes it able for us chefs to create such awesome and beautiful presentations. Gravity makes it able for us to eat, to swallow. Gravity makes the sweat drops fall from my face while I’m plating the food in front of the hot pass. 

Think about it, without gravity we would not be able to plant crops, harvest food; there would be no waves, no natural convection. No wine in your glass to accompany the orgasmic mushroom risotto sprinkled with Italian truffle salt…

And here we are, taking a natural phenomenon and influence that extends throughout the universe as a given.

Gravity makes it possible to keep the world in your hand…

The planning that goes into the food NASA supply the astronauts with, is done in such a way because from the lack of gravity. Tasteless food came in the form of a paste squeezed out of a toothpaste like tube, vacuum sealed containers, air dried and freeze-dried food; semi liquid food that had to be sucked up with a straw. Beer and carbonated soft drinks are not allowed in outer space because of “wet burps.”  

But microgravity food has come a long way. You can now have chicken stew, scrambled eggs (as I was told it tastes like the container it came with), chocolate brownies, macaroni and cheese, pineapples and oranges. Astronauts can design their own seven day menus selected from over a 100 different foods and 20 drinks.

Here’s a link to some recipes that was cooked and served on the Project Gemini Program

gabriel-recipes.blogspot.com

... on mahe

Mahe. Seychelles. Creole food. I’ve got a love – hate relationship with the Seychelles. I took my laptop, two of the books I’m currently reading and I booked myself into a guesthouse in Beau Vallon.

My Sous Chefs: (left) Andre (right) Randolph

My aim – to go and eat as much as possible authentic Creole food and work on my cookbook. So off I went with my camera, notebook and pencil.

Great success!

the brother - Curtis the whitey - Me

I went to eat in restaurants, in family kitchens, in backyards of apartments, at small food stands under huge coconut trees, in grandma’s kitchen, in a mechanics workshop, in the heart of the industrial area; everywhere my two friends Curtis and Charles could take me. I sat on the floor, I sat on a crate and I sat at an old laminated wooden table. 

fltr: octopus guy, octopus, me

I even met a guy who was snorkeling for octopus; we had good octopus curry that night. I avoided the tourist restaurants at all costs. In fact the tourist restaurants have the worst food, the shittiest service and the most unfriendly staff. I couldn’t complain about the service, because I didn’t receive any.

this pic got nothing to do with food. it's uncle Jules - Mahe Mafia. I promised to post this pic for protection

Here is the link to some recipes   www.gabriel-recipes.blogspot.com