Obsession: Chez Robert Rodriguez

A few weeks back, my mom and I took a trip to the French country side. Without much planning, we ended up in Carcassonne - an old fortress town. While the town itself was quaint, but underwhelming, the meal we had made up for it. Chez Robert Rodriguez (this place) was one of the most spectacular meals I've had in a while. The chef's focus is on local products, changing menus, and creativity. Also, the wine selection is amazing.  This tiny five (or six) table restaurant is kitschy, warm, and totally worth the trip.

 Scallops with Local Veggies 

Saumon Fumé

Escargot

Veggies and Quinoa Pancakes

Goat Cheese with Honey, Fig Reduction and Almonds 

The Franceman 15

Contrary to popular belief, I will not be returning from France weighing over 300 pounds. While I have enjoyed the (not-so-)occasional pain au raisin et café...

... to wake me up before 3 hours of teaching "head, shoulders, knees and toes" to over-energized seven year olds, I have also never seen this much fresh produce. There are markets everywhere. One of my favorites is the St. Aubin Market every Sunday which, since there is absolutely nothing open on Sundays, is packed with people from around the city. I promise to work up the nerve to take pictures of the cheese trucks and the paella stands soon. Another favorite is the Bagatelle Market which is a transplanted Moroccan souk - olives, dates, and vendors that love to haggle. 

In the meantime though, I had the pleasure of traveling to Paris (en route to Berlin and Belgium) where I wandered through a pretty spectacular market. It is on the corner of Saxe and Breteuil (every Saturday until 1:30 ish... allowing you to sleep in). I highly recommend finding the man with Tabouli. 

And lastly, if all else fails - I have found 'diet' chocolates from Belgium... Still unsure how this works.

Experimental Food Society Spectacular, Brick Lane, London

On Friday I went to an event called the Experimental Food Society Spectacular. Basically, it was live food porn, and I loved it.What up ConnColl


"Snack Box" - lamb testicles, dried mealworms, jellyfish salad... not my ideal snack but ok


Design your own tea!


Fancy coffee contraption


Teeny cupcakes baked inside of quail eggs


Curly Whurly Eiffel Tower


London likes cupcakes

A Royal portrait, in fondant

If only macarons really did grow on trees...

Delizie italiane

Last weekend I visited Milan and Cinque Terre and enjoyed some tasty Italian delicacies. Fun fact: Cinque Terre is the birthplace of pesto (thank you!) and limoncello (gross... un-thank you) Here are some of the best gastronomical creations that Italy has to offer!

Pizza, duh.

GELATO.

So good.

The tastiest cappuccino I've ever had the pleasure of drinking.

A cat who tortured himself by staring in the window of this seafood restaurant as the chef prepared fresh fish.

Oh Honey, You're Bee-Utiful!

Honeybee hives in Wisconsin in the late afternoon sun

As it gets colder out and the beautiful fall colors start to fade, or at least here in the mountains of dear ol' Colorado, I reminisce about the warmer days. Last month when summer was coming to an end, I was invited up to Wisconsin by my boyfriend's family to help them with their annual Honey Fest. They, along with two other close families, keep honeybee hives throughout the year and each year come together to collect the honey from the hives.

Beautiful honeycomb frame from the hive. Golden Delicious.

It was only within the past few years that I've come to appreciate the role bees play in the complicated web of ecosystems. They are a very important player in pollination and the circle of flora life. I read an article from the International Herald Tribune (or New York Times, you choose) that stated that bees are accountable for pollinating one third of crops in the United States. These crops include almonds, peaches, soybeans, apples, pears, cherries, raspberries, cranberries, watermelons, cantaloupes, cucumbers...ok you get the idea. So bees are important. They aren't only irritating insects making a buzzing noise around your head, they serve an important role in nature and they are indeed very good at it. But it's not all hunky dory. There has been a depressing trend of many bee colonies suddenly disappearing. A lot of bee colonies are slowly dying out. It's called the colony collapse disorder. Scientists believe this phenomenon is from issues like increasing globalization (bee pathogens can travel from bee colony to bee colony faster than ever) to lose of natural habitat. So even if bees are good at their job, there need to actually be bees around. There's a growing trend of urban beekeeping. Communities take care of bee hives in urban environments.

Some of the honey in jars after being filtered three times

Anyway, last month I loved being a part of the honey collecting tradition. It was a lot of hard work though by the time we finished we had processed and bottled approx. 30+ gallons. We used an electric centrifuge which spun out the honey from the frames and then filtered it multiple times before putting it in jars. What's remarkable is the honey will taste different each season because of the variety of plants the bees are exposed to. For instance, one year, a family had honey that tasted like lavender because the bees had access to lavender. By the end of the day I'm pretty sure I had honey in my hair, on my pants, on all my fingers and probably behind my ears too. That sticky sweet stuff gets everywhere. It's delicious to eat any time of day for any meal or even to bake with. I substitute it with sugar sometimes when making muffins or cakes or put it in my tea. It is also the only food that will never go bad. How about that!?

Using a heated carving knife, we cut off a layer of wax before putting it in the centrifuge to spin the honey out. You can then melt the wax and use it for something...candles anyone?

Moroccan Cuisine - Two Directions

This article is from the New York Times. Appropriate for our culinary anthropological blog we have going on here. Click on the word "article" or click here.

El Mercado - San Vicente, El Salvador

[These pictures were taken while my camera was half hidden in my bag. Sorry there are not more pictures, but the market is the best placed to get robbed, and I kinda like my camera!]