veggie delights

Guacamole just made my day significantly better. :D

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:16:00 -0400

Guacamole just made my day significantly better. :D

Candy skulls and a torta for the dead. #dayofthedead...

Thu, 16 May 2013 23:48:56 -0400

Candy skulls and a torta for the dead. #dayofthedead #diadelosmuertos #ourglobalkitchen #mexico #amnh (à Our Global Kitchen: Food, Nature, Culture)

Scent dispenser (scent of lemon)!! #lemon #smellovision (à Our...

Thu, 16 May 2013 20:59:24 -0400

Scent dispenser (scent of lemon)!! #lemon #smellovision (à Our Global Kitchen: Food, Nature, Culture)

Precolumbian grocery shopping. (From “Our Global...

Thu, 16 May 2013 20:53:18 -0400

Precolumbian grocery shopping. (From “Our Global Kitchen” multimedia exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History)

wandrlust: Emptying the Fridge, 1985 — Mike Mandel

Tue, 14 May 2013 16:37:16 -0400

wandrlust:

Emptying the Fridge, 1985 — Mike Mandel

Foodswings

Tue, 14 May 2013 16:30:31 -0400

Foodswings

Mother's Day:

Sun, 12 May 2013 22:35:12 -0400

Even though the time I spent with my mom and the rest of the family was wonderful, part of the fuel for this trek out east was for dinner.

The duality of Mother’s Day in addition to Diego, my youngest brother, and my birthdays, results in a unanimous vote for Salvadoran food.

Any opportunity to indulge in pupusas with cheese and loroco with fresh salsa and curtido is a good one, most especially, with good company.

Happy Mother’s Day mum, you know the way to my heart and stomach! :D

itsvondell: donutrabbit: Here’s my 2nd year Calarts...

Wed, 01 May 2013 15:31:16 -0400

itsvondell:

donutrabbit:

Here’s my 2nd year Calarts film!

aaaah i love it

tastefullyoffensive: [via] Bahaha

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:33:42 -0400

tastefullyoffensive:

[via]

Bahaha

Photo

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:32:32 -0400

Sont le même chose!

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 01:25:57 -0400

Black velvet/snake bite

Chowder

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 22:05:06 -0400

I cannot get over how adorable and delicious this cartoon is.

laughingsquid: The Edible Spoon, A Biodegradable Spoon Flavored...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 23:40:05 -0400

laughingsquid:

The Edible Spoon, A Biodegradable Spoon Flavored With Herbs

Sam Smith's

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:34:29 -0400

The most delicious stout ever: chocolate

How I’ve missed you. Duty-free and all. #appletiser #apple...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:56:25 -0400

How I’ve missed you. Duty-free and all. #appletiser #apple #heathrow #uk #jetset (à London Heathrow Airport (LHR))

Photos of the multi course meal prepared the other night in lieu...

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 16:53:44 -0400

Photos of the multi course meal prepared the other night in lieu of going out to eat.

1 - mango, carrot, ginger soup
2 - me enjoying the soup
3 - roquette, grape tomatoes tossed in balsamic vinegar and olive oil
4 - rigatoni stuffed with ricotta, topped with buffala mozzarella and a red pepper-tomato sauce
5 asparagus sautéed in butter with red onions with cod à la marocain (though I prepared the fish, only John ate/enjoyed it).

Gastronomie parisien: 2ème part

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:20:05 -0400

It’s quite remarkable to experience France through my mouth and stomach. Getting up every morning to walk up to a local bakery for fresh croissants and a baguette to start the day with is nothing short of amazing.

On one of the first days here in Paris, I walked over to l’île de Saint-Michel, to buy pain au chocolat as well as some fridge friendly essentials: roquettes, grape tomatoes (which are curiously enough referred to as “cœur des pigeons” in French), orange juice, butter, ground coffee. As I waited in queue to make my purchase, the freshest raspberries I’ve ever seen are being unloaded from a truck into the shop. I had to have them. After adding these juicy, red berries to my acquired items for purchase I quickly made my way to the boulangerie across the street. The smell was amazing and resulted in my excessive bread purchase.

Upon return, John and I began our simple breakfast of coffee, OJ and baked goods. The butter here is just as phenomenal as the bread.

There’s a reason why vocabulary words such as “boulangerie”, “fruiterie”, “boucherie”, etc… were emphasized as essential parts of learning the French language even at a beginners level. It’s simply part of the French (and to a lesser extent the rest of Europe’s) mentality to pick items up from specialty boutiques. The quality is like nothing found in the US. To have the freshest produce brought in every morning and not to mention the freshest bread baked daily (or cuts of meat if you’re into that sort of thing), is a luxury that Americans don’t really have. Hyper-processing and GM products are readily available for the convenience of American shoppers, whereas here in France, a shopper is only really aiming what will be needed now, or very soon. There’s hardly any frozen food for purchase.

For that matter, there are hardly any supermarkets (supermarchés en français) around. Those that do exist only offer the convenience of consolidating the boutique-style of shopping encouraged by traditional customs. A shopper doesn’t have many congealed items to choose from, further pushing the idea of shopping/cooking/eating in the now. For example, while shopping for groceries at Galleries Lafayette for groceries, the lack of freezers instilled the fact that what I was going to purchase was to be used relatively soon.

The layout of this grand marché was not too far off from a typical American market, but that vast difference was the numerous kiosks within that pushes customers to interact with employees standing within. The French are not laissez-faire when it comes to their food and cuisine. To gather up the ingredients I needed for preparing the night’s dinner required a dialogue with cheese, fish, produce and dessert vendors. En français, of course.

While I was interacting with all these keeps, John wandered off to the wine shop to pick up bottles of wine to have at home, including one specifically to accompany the fish (cod) that he insisted I prepare for him. There was simply no objection from me to prepare it for him since our original plans to go out for dinner had to be cancelled since I booked it incorrectly. The issue, specifically, was that despite successfully booking a reservation for 2 at a restaurant, I failed to pay attention to the fact that the restaurant has two locations, one in the heart of Paris, the other in Geneva, Switzerland. Guess which one was booked for Saturday night…

So despite that fumble, we still had a wonderful multi course dinner prepared by yours truly (photos to come shortly)

C’est tout!

Hello old friend (compliments of Galleries Lafayette)...

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 10:31:42 -0400

Hello old friend (compliments of Galleries Lafayette) #grenadilla #passionfruit #fruitdelapassion. (à Quai aux Fleurs)

Stuffing rigatoni with ricotta for dinner. #cooking #cookporn...

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 16:31:49 -0400

Stuffing rigatoni with ricotta for dinner. #cooking #cookporn #pasta (à Quai aux Fleurs)

Prepping for dinner tonight compliments of #gallerieslafayette ...

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 13:31:03 -0400

Prepping for dinner tonight compliments of #gallerieslafayette (à Quai aux Fleurs)