As you may have gathered from the David Bowie reference in the title of this entry, my gastronomic life has been undergoing some changes of late. My meat-eating has been minimal over my life, with brief intermissions from vegetarianism when curiosity takes over. For example, while in Italy for two weeks one Summer with an orchestra festival I put my vegetarianism aside to order rabbit and cow brain (on separate occasions of course). Three Summers ago I began eating fish after trying some grilled copper river salmon that my friend had made and insisted I "just give a taste". My most recent departure from exclusive veggie munching began on the beaches of Delaware in late July while reading
Comfort Me with Apples, Ruth Reichl's wonderful autobiographical book about her transition from the world of Berkeley commune living to the upper echelons of restaurant criticism. Her enthusiasm in describing foods/meat that I had never eaten implanted a desire in my mind to once again try new things. A few weeks later, while at Monk's Belgian Cafe in Philadelphia (an amazing place with delicious food and hundreds of top quality belgian beers) I was overcome with a desire to try mussels, creatures that I previously would have wanted to keep as far away from my mouth as possible. They were, however, nothing short of incredible. Steamed with de Kronick, a Belgian pale ale from the town of Antwerp, along with apples, garlic, caramelized leeks and gruyere cheese (the one ingredient I could have done without), these mussels were divine. Of course I had no mussel experience and nothing to compare them to, but I knew I was eating something special. On a whim I went for a Fleisch-filled main course: chicken apple sausage with raspberry mustard. I was euphoric at this point. The next week I went back again and ordered a duck salad. Why not?! So I'll never be able to look at a duck with innocent eyes again, I thought, but I needed to experience this taste. I had read descriptions of velvety meat that almost melts in one's mouth but could not comprehend such a feeling until this moment.
Fast forwarding to today however, I'm in Berlin and Winter has already arrived. It snowed yesterday, and daylight is disappearing. I moved to a new apartment in September. Pluses include living alone and being near my workplace, but minuses include being frustratingly far from and decent farmer's vegetable stand or market. I vow today to make it to the turkish market tomorrow and to return to my blog and good food as I must admit to living on a diet of bread and peanut butter recently.
In the spirit of inspiration, here are two photos from some meals I cooked at the beginning of September when the weather was still good enough to bike long distances for good fresh ingredients and I was freshly inspired by all that I mentioned in the first paragraph of this post. The first photo is of an Alice Waters inspired salad I made. Fresh greens, radishes, chevril (delightful) and a hard boiled egg with a mustard vinaigrette. The second photo is of my kitchen table looking lovely with my first attempt at cooking a sausage on my own, paired with a side of roasted potatoes and fennel bulb and a simple green salad.
