marlena spieler

I was in England (London, Hampshire, Bath, and Stratford) about 12 years ago, and although I was 13 at the time, I thought the food pretty awful! (Everything else was wonderful and I can't wait to go back!) I was excited to see the articles in Gourmet praising England, for I thought things had changed! Are you telling me it isn't so?!? I do have to say that the Pizza Huts, KFCs and such tasted a lot better over there than they do in America, but maybe we were just starving... ← Good food is the exception rather than the rule. i've lived in inner city east end london, and now in the hampshire countryside. its just not a really delicious place, although i'm sure there are pockets of people who are foodies, and resources of good food. There ARE some wonderful restaurants in london etc but they are very very trendy and expensive. there are also a few terrific ethnic turkish salady kebab places et al and of course indian restos which can all be really good..... but most places to eat you probably don't want to. in the great majority of towns, regions, areas of london, etc are just not good places to eat. and its not just restaurants, i mean, sometimes go to peoples houses for dinner, i'm not naming names, but even some famous ones, but also regular people, some even consider themselves foodies, and its just not a pleasure. especially if they've bought in any of the dips, sauces, ready prepared: ugh. When i taste UK storebought dips (except for the occasional humus) i usually gag. OH GIVE ME A RANCH DRESSING ANY DAY ! (but not from a bottle please). and you're right that junk food and chains and esp mcdonalds took such a strong hold on the uk is because then they came here, they really really were a cut above the ordinary stuff that people ate. and because the idea of eating healthfully was just something that wacky californians who were out of their minds did. britain opened their arms to fast food chains cause it really was better than anything else going. and sometimes, too often i'm afraid to say, it still is. witness my local kfc's popularity. and hey, its a friday night: if i had a camera i'd go out and take some photos! There is a new sort of wine bar cafe in the next to us village, but a burger for two, a shared started and shared dessert lunch with two glasses of wine each, no coffee, will run L45.00 (thats almost $90 bucks). the burger is teeeeeny , though excellent meat, albrit bizarrely seasoned with cumin, and cooked way overdone. grey. not worth 90 bucks. otherwise the local posh place where people go for lunch or coffee is the local cafe in waitrose. oh woe is me, things really haven't changed enough! not for someone who loves good food! except the sandwiches are better. and there is a lot less food poisoning. i mean, food hygiene really has come a long long way...... x marlena

i use a good jack cheese........grated...........a little sour cream helps bind it together, a pinch of turmeric gives it golden colour.....chile, pinch of cumin if you like, little chopped garlic or green onion? lets see, does it have line juice in it? a little finely diced tomato? i forget. i've got a good recipe in my book hot & spicy though its been out of date about 2 decades now, and can't put my hands on it right this minute. gentle heating is important. i do love it. bet someone out there in egullet land has just the perfect recipe! i like it on boiled potatoes and green beans.

I MUST HAVE THIS RECIPE, OR AT LEAST A ROAD MAP IN ITS DIRECTION! oooops, sorry to be so forceful, got overly excited..........heres why: Last year I had the most divine poached egg coated with crisp little crumbs, flash fried (and actually perhaps a little walnutty or hazelnutty tastint) on a bed of greens, maybe watercress, with a little sherry vinaigrette, at Olivetti, in oakland california. i've been trying since then, and have had a few disasters, mainly in getting the crumbs to stick (i used homemade crumbs). the dish was the most delicious dish, the little hit of vinegar, the rich runny yolk, the crisp crumbs, the fresh greens.......... i get happy just thinking about it! marlena

I wonder if anyone knows the ratio of articles written by the British about French food and dining habits as opposed to the number of French articles about British food and dining habits? ← exactement, monsieur zadi! marlena

sorry marlena... i didn't mean to offend, but to me this woman's habit seemed to be a neurotic tick... that and her outrageous fear of oil... ←

I don't know who you are speaking of, as don't watch as live in europe, but i must jump in at the smelling of every bite of food: this is something that i do: the initial wave of scent gives additional pleasure and helps me take more pleasure from the dish. also if it is disgusting and i shouldn't put it in my mouth, that first whiff will tell me so too. i LOVE to smell my food. i love to smell the ingredients too! its sensual, its delish! (and a huge part of our sense of flavour comes from our sense of smell). marlena

Something that really stuck in my craw was a few years ago when Observer food writer Nigel Slater was writing about visiting Paris. He said something to the effect of: "You think Parisians eat baguette and croissant for breakfast! no, they eat what you and I eat, they eat cereal from a box!". That is pretty close to a quote though of necessity (ie the time lapse) may vary slightly. what bothered me is this: bread and croissant are: artisanal (or the better ones are, and they all should/could be). a french cultural icon. and slater was implying that eating cereal was "normal" to the entire world. my personal gripe this this is, also, that the boxed cereal that the whole world eats as normal is no better than mcdonalds or cocoa cola, in the international scheme of make a lot of money selling people this rubbish. okay, though i like grapenuts, puffed grains, and artisanal bran flakes. the other thing is this: hey, a lot of people still eat baguette, rustic bread, croissant for breakfast, and cafe creme, too. its lovely. its personal. cereal from a box is corporate. and a culinary icon for.......? kellogs?

Okay, I was having a couple of food writer colleagues over for lunch, and decided to make truffled risotto. all the ingredients were lined up next to my stove so i could chat and do the occasional stir thing. in fact, i had the rice and onion sauteed/toasted in butter already, so stirring and adding stock and white wine was all i'd really have to do, then finish with butter and truffle. we drank wine, and i started stirring and added a half cup or so dry white white. it sizzled into the pan, i stirred, the rice absorbed. i had lots of meze/antipasti things on the table, and i noticed a smell of vinaigrette, oh lovely i thought. then i poured more wine into the pot, stirred and cooked, and thought: god that vinaigrette smells strong. halfway into the risotto i realized i had been pouring white wine VINEGAR into the simmering rice!!!! instead of white wine. i saved the risotto, sort of: thankfully a risotto needs a relatively long cooking time, the vinegar sharpness dissippaited pretty well, so started adding stock, and the vinegar ended up more a saucey note as in the french chicken in vinegar sauce. i served it with a lot of unsalted butter and truffle oil, shreds of parmigiana, and i hate to say it: it was mighty good. my guests said that perhaps it could use just a touch less vinegar but otherwise quite tasty. i was mortified. and always check the labels of bottles when i use em now. (the bottles of the white wine and the white wine vinegar were almost identical!). marlena

Wow, weird colours, weird sizes! its made me think, though, how much like like the bright colours (though i prefer them without the blue, i'm a green fan myself, and i kind of liked the tan ones as they were a subtle/go-with-anything colour to set off the bright ones. the colour thing reminded me of when, doing a parapsychology excercise, we were instructed to see if we could tell the difference in colours of m & ms in our mouths. AND, i did a version of this in a paper i gave at the oxford symposium of food and drink, in.....2003 i think: subject: eating like a child. what was the result of trying to feel the colours of the m & ms in our mouths? i forget. a good excuse for a little *scientific* experimentation today. Marlena

← The thing that is most charming about m & ms, besides the gay colours and the thin candy shell, is the fact that THEY ARE SMALL! Thats the whole point of their goodness, you can just eat a few and feel really satiated. plus they look good in a jar where they can beckon to you and you don't need to eat them all, only a small handful with a cup of tea, and if they are big BIG then one of their great points of charm is gone. Marlena

That's why I wash EVERYTHING - before I cut into it!! And while touching may be frowned upon, most vendors will let you smell their fruit as long as they're the ones holding it and you make nice! ← Not my guy with the stick! his sign said Non Toccare, and he meant it!!!!!! I"m sure if my husband had stuck his nose in to sniff, he would have smacked him on the nose! good fruit and veg guys/gals encourage a good feel (of the fruit that is) and sniff (ditto). but sometimes in italy (or france, too... other places i can't think of at the moment...?) shopping ettiquiette can be perplexing. marlena ps: but the guy with the melon in fressers first posting. EVEN I don't want that melon after he's finished with it! reminds me of a zucchini scene from what movie was that......?

Ah! But you did not finish the story, Marlena. What happened next?! Did you buy a melon? ← Ah, carrot top, my little carrot top, you know me too well. Okay, well I yelled at the fruit guy in italian that this is not nice of him, he is not a nice man while my husband led me, no dragged me away, but not very far. Right across the street was another fruit and vegetable shop where I ostentatiously purchased a big delicious melon, calling great attention to the purchase calling over to the bad man, and then paraded it in front of the bad bad melon and berry man saying something stupid like: i would buy from you but you are too mean and bad. at this point my husband really did grab me away, figuring that these guys have friends who might be......shall we say important. all this was taking place on a cabbled windy little road. all told, i got to yell at the guy, that was satisfying, hey you don't get to smack my sweetie without my having a go at you, guy! and we got a melon from a nice man and that was good (it was a lovely melon, and i must say, rekindled my affair with my melon baller) . and my husband wasn't injured by the bad man and his stick, though he was a bit frightened once i started yelling at the guy. but all in all, it ended okay. in fact, i felt triumphant! and i went home and believe it or not, carried my melon in my carry-on back to britain, and cut it using my melon baller, and served it just the way i fell in love with it in sorrento, studded with wild strawberries (the rest of the purchase). thanks for asking! Marlena ps god do i love your photo, i think yours is the most popular avatar in egullet, at least my favourite right now! i really think that is you! (please don't tell me it isn't!). (too lovable!)

I always avoid buying or eating or supporting in any way, any food product called "Smart". it always feels like such a con, most smart choice is just a way of lining the food manufacturers pockets with cash, while playing on the urge of the public to eat well and healthfully and provide this healthful product for their family. but this smart chicken just sounds like a real good chicken, like the french chickens to be honest, and like the one uk brand i think it is label anglais, god is that a good chicken. kosher chickens are usually really good too. most american chickens that i have eaten have been dull, even the rocky the range hen. dull dull dull bird, sorry rocky. i wish the smart chicken people would have given their birds a better name. but as long as it is a better chicken, i'm gonna have to give it a try when i'm in the usa again. marlena

NOT where i live (english countryside of Hampshire). The only restaurant in town that is crowded on a friday night is the KFC and then the line is out the door. no good bread--you would not believe how much sliced white bread is eaten here, it is considered normal bread!!!!! I never even tasted it before we moved here! meanwhile, whatever bread that is edible (though packaged in plastic) is from a supermarket and the same as wherever other supermarkets up and down the land have it (though i take special trips up to london to purchase poilane bread, and greek/turkish breads, etc), and the fruits and vegetables are trucked in from all over the country, and just never as fresh as they might be. ugh and go to restaurants, the food has a nasty whiff which reflects the bad fats used. and most of the country lives on packed meals (like frozen but not frozen). when i go out of the country i often go on to fruit salad binges, just to get my fill of vitamins that i can feel missing in my diet, in my body(the exception being right now there are good italian peaches/nectarines in the supermarket). even the great capital of london, touted by gourmet magazine as the best place in the world, is only a good place to eat for a few. the rest make do with food i don't think you would consider a healthy or inspiring diet. perhaps the typical americans you eat with and watch eat are very different than the ones i do (which is probably true, my home bases in usa are s.f. and nyc) and perhaps you spend more time in europe in places like france, italy, greece, where indeed people do eat fruits and vegetables like crazy, and i'm sure other places too. but the average british diet is even worse than the usa one. except they have some lovely farmhouse cheeses! really good ones. marlena ps: i LIKE ranch dressing (but NEVER from a bottle, tooooo slimey, often that is the only thing to dress the salad of iceberg lettuce my mother serves when i go visit--i have to request a lemon wedge instead). when we first moved to britain i used to mix it up myself, and still do on occasion: mayo, greek yogurt, chopped garlic, a little bit of stock cube, chopped parsley and a few drops of lemon and a little olive oil. around that time i did a radio programme, on either womans hour or the food programme, on these creamy dressings: blue cheese, ranch, etc. i whipped it up and my co-presenters loved it!

recently my husband and i were wandering around sorrento, italy, and stopped at a fruit and veg store, alerted to some gorgeous meloney smells (and strawberry smells too). when my husband picked up a melon to give it a sniff, the owner grabbed a big--and i mean really really big, like 6 feet long-- stick and smacked his hand with it! marlena

my only young-person restaurant experience was working at a dude ranch in the galilee, vered hagalil. they made chile con carne, and coffee with ice cream in it, i washed, and scrubbed and waited/bussed tables, and cut stuff up, that sort of thing. its all a bit of a blur to tell the truth. it was sort of american themed, and it was a real dude ranch: that meant horses--people came to ride! those horses, i didn't go near. i'm still a little phobic about horses, though i'm good with a bowl of chile. Marlena

The Forward article ... ← oy, how i loved those fiselakh! my grandmother always put a few in her soup, and it gave it such a good flavour! we bought the feet at a butchers that did indeed sell live poultry, in a mexican neighbourhood, cause there were no jewish/kosher butchers in the area. a few years ago in spain, we rescued a puppy, and as we were in the hills and couldn't nip down to the nearest village which wasn't so near, our neighbour came over and brought a bag of heads, feet, that sort of thing. she said: make soup for the puppy, chicken and rice soup: its what puppies eat! well i thought: its what THIS puppy eats, too (thinking of myself and family--after all, how much soup could one little puppy eat?)). so i put it all into a big pot and simmered away, it smelled like my grandmothers kitchen. but when my daughters friend opened the lid on the pot to see what smelled good, she saw all the feets bobbing away in the soup, and she passed out in fright! anyhow, all recovered, the soup was delicious, as long as no one mentioned feet. marlena

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! In a perfect world everyone would love okra. and we could all eat together and have okra parties without worrying about anyone going: eeeeuuuuuuchhhhh. i could do with a little okra gumbo right now, or some curried bamye....how an anyone not love okra????? of course, i really don't like parsnips. so there you go..... x marlena

Dear Chrisamirault and Anzu: I love you guys! Thanks, Marlena

Horror in the thrift store bookshelf!!!!! There was a shelf devoted entirely to me, every book i wrote. and of course they were all lovingly autographed to brother in law, sister in law and their three children who were really excited that i wrote cookbooks. however,! my b***h of a sister in law didn't want to cook i guess. I keep telling my husband: No More Cookbooks for Them! AND she chose the thrift shop near ME not HER (neighbourhing village) just to be sure that i found them (she knows i check out the thrift shops regularly). it really hurt my feelings, though i know that its just her little way of being who she is. i guess that is what hurt, that people have to be that way. other than that, i like the woman's day encyclopedia of cooking which i collected until i had all the volumes. they were published in the early 60s i think and were really quite basic as well as sophisticated and real--they managed to stear clear of the packaged silly fake food stuff going around the cooking and eating world during those times. i love the books and always look stuff up in them. james beard, all sorts of people made contributions, there are essays, and collections, and sometimes its useful, sometimes downright quirky. lovely books if you can find them...... Marlena

is that the one in a former barn, with a big fire when you first walk in, and lots of yummy things cooked on the open fire, like peppers, and sausage, and cheese? Marlena ← ← I love this place, too, Russ! Marlena

Just yesterday I tapped out an email that said: why don't m & ms make ones for adults....... though i was referring to the flavour rather than the size and colour. i love the colours of regular m & ms and i love the size, and i even like the taste of the thin candy shell, but the inner chocolate to me seemed in line for a make over, i wanted more dark chockkie flavour! anyone know anything about the flavours of the new ones? or is it the classic milky chock taste? Marlena

lets see if i can remember the exact wording? she did not say that felafel is an israeli dish per se, [because of course we all know that it is an ancient dish, one of the most ancient dishes around, and that is part of its great, i think deep, appeal]. i might have to hunt up my saveur article....anyhow when i posed the question: would you say that felafel is an israeli dish, she said, and i'm trying to be specific and exact here: "well, not the felafel, but the way it is served [in israel]: with the salads and sauces, in a pita". if anyone has the article i believe i have the exact wording there. and i'll check my computer to see if my files go back that far....my office and note keeping isn't as good as it could be. Marlena ps: okay, found it, and here is how i wrote it up: "How, I mused, did this ancient Arab dish of ground chickpea croquettes become Israels national dish? Israeli-born food writer Oded Schwartz says "Felafel can be traced back to Pharoahs Egypt, and probably much earlier. In the millennia since, it has been eaten throughout the Middle East". Claudia Roden, the author of The Book of Jewish Food, concurs. She grew up in Cairo, eating this forerunner of felafel, ta'amia, and adds that "It is the way these bean croquettes have come to be served in Israel, stuffed into pita with a variety of sauces (such as tahina, houmous, mango, Yemenite hot sauce, and so forth) that makes felafel particularily Israeli". note: not sure if i was clear that this is my words and sentiment, not taken from my interview with Claudia: "because of course we all know that it is an ancient dish, one of the most ancient dishes around, and that is part of its great, i think deep, appeal."

I'm totally still replaying in my mind the pork plate i ate at clio about two years ago. the pork plate was so good, so fine, so memorable, that sometimes i think: hey, should i make a pork plate for guests? the belly was particularly wonderful. the shreds were fab. god what else was there? i just remember it as a wonderland of pork, the total star of the dinner! x marlena

love your blog, thanks! a different world, though man if i were there i'd have bought up the okra! what a nice thing to do, go on vacation with your family, and what a nice family you have who wants to go off and do this! question: homemade worcestershire sauce? ? wow. marlena