marlena spieler

i know, i questioned what claudia said directly to her when i interviewed her, as from what i've read too felafel made with chickpeas is an ancient traditional food throughout the middle east including eygpt, but claudia was adamant, really adamant. i suppose it was her experience from childhood, but still there are more experiences other than ones own, so hearing about the ground chickpeas found in ancient eygptian tombs makes sense.....the article on felafel ran about 6 years ago, probably before they had an online archive, i don't know, have never tried to find it. as for the whole salad-bar felafel, as my daughter and i refer to the felafel where you add so much stuff, the eggplant, the amba, the onions and arabic salad and cabbage etc,, oh god do i love a good go at those bars of goodies, and i've never been able to eat a fully loaded pitta bread without it coming out from the bottom. sometimes i think i should be shrouded in plastic to eat such felafel! and its never as good if it isn't really really messy, i like the part where, after i've been munching for a few minutes from the salady ingredients on top, the tahina starts softening and eating away at the bottom of the pita first, and then i must switch eating from wherever i am to the bottom, managing to sem the tide of salads and relishes falling and oozing out, i might even suck up a felafel ball from the bottom while i'm at it......i've never had a felafel as good as some of my favourite street felafels in itsrael, though the one at l'as au felafel in paris is pretty darned good--you have to get it with EVERYTHING including eggplant though. and i'm always wanting to eat french food and felafel is so filling that i have to leave a big gap of time if i have a felafel.........another good felafel is at murrays across from beth israel hosp in manhattan (excellent zhug!). im sure there are really good ones in nyc that i just haven't gotten to yet. i mean, i'm always on the bagel breakfast programme (ess a bagel is current favourite) when i'm in nyc and with a breakfast like a bagel it doesn't leave much room for anything else until dinner....... its the middle of the night. i think i'll go put some chickpeas up to soak. i always keep tahina, lemon, cumin and garlic in the house, as delicious yummy tahina sauce is something i often need at a moments notice. nearly three in the morning can be a good time to make and eat tahina. but as for the chickpeas, i think i'll have to wait for the soaking. i know i could use canned but its not the same........ x m ps: i note in reading the schedule of presentations that the conference of mediterranean tastes was presented in conjunction with a photographic exhibition by the student of bezalal art and design school. i have a warm affection for bezalel, as spent a winter when i was an art school attending classes there, a long time ago!

I know this is off-thread, okay lets see i'll say something on thread to keep it here: i put mexican food in the pot with indian, et al, on the subject of cuisine, actually cuisines, of a place. so regional and diverse. yet so distinctive overall. i totally agree with the grilled goose liver from ha-tikvah quarter, yum, if you're gonna create an original dish for a fledgling nation, way to go. on the other hand, when i was interviewing claudia roden for a saveur article on felafel she asserted that felafel, served in a pita with lots of salads, was an israeli dish. other middle eastern countries served it differently, and in eygpt, made from broad beans (fave). okay now my original reason for posting: hey, my dad was a baseball player and played with Joe Dimaggio! it was during the war, when the majors were disbanded and the army, navy and air force had teams. i have a lovely pic of my dads team, and there not far from my dad, is ol' Joe. anyone who wants a photocopy, my dad loves sending them out! marlena

Yes, whenever I see/taste wonderful rustic bread, I think of Lionel. Lionel was a friend of mine, i helped him get started with his london boulangerie. I miss him because he was a wonderful person. and he taught me to appreciate everything about bread, from the flour to the dough to the baking to the eating.... interestingly, he always claimed that he thought the bread was really at its best about a week old......and i agree there is something about pain poilane that only gets better as it ages. i always slice mine very thinly and keep it loosely wrapped, for toast, and to pop into soups....it feels so nourishing, the rye in the sourdough just feels so healthy and delicious. the good thing is that poilane bread is being made, and made as deliciously as ever, and shipped all over, i've found it not only in london where there is a bakery, but also in nyc. you can order it online. after her father's (and mother) tragic death several years ago in helocopter accident, the young daughter appollonia, about 19 at the time, took over the helm. And i have heard that she, and the bakery, are doing magnificently. i am so pleased. lionel would have been very proud. lionel loved sharing the joys of life with his friends. and his bread was one of his greatest joys, to share. his staff who worked for him were, and are, very devoted, and have helped guide the craft that is the bakery, along in the right direction. all of this makes me very hungry for a tartine, and alas, i have only ASDA supermarket baguette. And its nowhere near worth the lovely wedge of ripe brie that i'm topped it with. Marlena

This is a wonderful thread! I have something to add, though it isn't a food that cures, its a food maker that cures! last spring when i went to visit the water buffalo in campania, for the mozzarella cheese, i had the tail end of a nasty case of bronchitis and was coughing and wheezing from post bronchitis asthma, and in general sounding and feeling pretty bad. When i got to the water buffalo place, my companion, a native napoletana, said: thank goodness you have gotten here soon! when i looked quizically, she continued: yes, when we are children, and we have bad chest illnesses, our mothers take us to see the water buffalo, and they cure us! did it work? i stopped coughing and though i started up again when we left, i only started a little bit and within a few days it was cured! a month or two later, another bad cold/bronchitis (it was a rough spring). this time i went to benevento, and went to visit some pigs. my companion, a different one, said when we got close to the pigs: thank goodness you've come to the pigs, you have come in the nick of time. when we have a bad chest illness as children, our mothers take us to see the pigs! Did it work? i stopped coughing. started up again when i left but within a few days was cough-free. my husband had exactly the same reaction! water buffal, pigs, cows too i hear, they are all there in campania, making food and curing people! i find this wonderful! (and actually think there is something in the air, perhaps the animals hair, or their hay, or their excrement.....something theaputic). x marlena

Welcome Jen! You hit the nail on the head for me, too--when people ask what I look for in a restaurant, I always say that I look for a place that smells good! Marlena

i know this is maybe a different thread, as is different restaurant, but i really like komegashi, a japanese french fusion place on broadway between 21 and 22nd i belive....near the flatiron building......... their miso cappuccino rocks! (but the little fried tofu tidbits that came with it were mediocre at best, actually i didn't bother eating them...) marlena

whoa, i don't think i can top that, but..... i really knew that we were in the wrong place to eat when once, we found a little sort of log cabin place in the santa cruz mountains and it looked cute! it was sunday morning and we were thinking, hey, brunch! (maybe it was afternoon by then, anyhow....) we thought we'd walk in the door and there would be people who all sort of were like us, but when we got in they were all red necks and lumberjacks and i thought we must be in the wrong state if not the wrong planet, and they were all EATING THE SAME THING! And that was: thick gloppy white sauced dryish meat--creamed chip beef on toast i was told later. it was the uck-i-est thing i've ever seen, and we walked through the restaurant looking for a table and everyone, everyone, was eating this, and it didn't smell so good, well not bad but not especially good, and suddenly--the place was surprisingly big, we walked through a lotta rooms, there were 5 of us looking for table.... and suddenly we all broke out into a fit of the giggles, we couldn't see anything except these plates piled up with creamy gloppy meaty stuff on toast, and we couldn't get away from it, it was EVERYWHERE, and we started running, running past the tables from room to room until we finally found the front door, and ran out to the car and drove away as soon as we could. we knew that we didn't want to eat there. it was like star trek or twilight zone, we feared that if we ate there we'd have to eat that thing and we would become just like them. Marlena

apology accepted, Behemoth! i try to avoid sentimentalizing anything, let alone food but the other thing is: the foods of the middle east DO speak to me gastronomically, deeply......and i think they do to many, even those with no roots in the region. ........the chickpeas, the cumin and olive oil and garlic, the rice, the yogurt.....some places the food of poverty, yet some places very expensive.

The Independent is soooooo the master of the cheap shot esp if it is aimed at America or anything American. Jack cheese is definately an america original, first sold by a ranch owner named captain jack who was originally from scotland. the first monterrey jack (his farm was located in the monterrey area) was what the mexican/indians were preparing from the extra milk on his ranch. he noticed they were making it to use up the leftover milk, he liked it, and then he thought: there might be a market for this cheese. when well done--such as Ig Vella, who also ages it to semi sec and totally dried--it is a lovely cheese indeed. i'm thinking that america does a wonderful job at so many artisanal cheese these days, i'm thinking humbolt fog how good is that, laura chenel, andante, so many so many. in fact, a roque river blue won, last year i believe, a world's best award in the london food awards, beating out both french and english blue cheeses, actually all other cheeses! it was divine! but when it comes to food, you seldom read this sort of thing and as an american writer, you can bet no one is interested in my saying such things. as with so many aspects of life, some publications and some people here in blighty are just so ready to diss anything good from the usa. (but of course, none of our lovely egullet readers who are open minded about food from anywhere and everywhere and would NEVER EVER act in such a way!) but it is sad. and people reading the stuff really believe it. they really think that except for alice waters, american food is burgers and fries. also, i'm not sure that the state of french cheeses is as dire as is often reported, as there are passions still burbling of people who cannot imagine being without these traditional cheeses. the EU dictates about raw milk etc is another story. this is a shame. marlena

There's an Algerian pasta dish that's like that. Sometimes cumin is added as well. I wonder if the texture of the pasta is such because it was freshly made from semolina flour? Also olive oil, I suspect the Palestinians make it in small batches, in smaller stone mills like they do in rural Algeria. My relatives have olive trees on their farm and they cure their own olives and take olives to be mill in the village. There is no commercial equivilant. It's EXTRA EXTRA EXTRA virgin olive oil. Very thick and fruity. ← mmmmm, Algerian dish sounds yummy. Having already said it a million times in a million place, nonetheless I'll say it again: i LOVE cumin! i think the pasta was dried, napoli being afficionados of the dried pasta and the pasta was at a napoli flavours celebration, but handmade, rough and yes, i think you are completely right: made with semolina. it had that proteiny, roughness to it, that holds up so well with the chickpeas. olive oil: i use a big tin of olive oil from a friends olive trees, on the island of zakynthos. its just as you say: thick and fruity, and anything it touches it brings to life. but the chickpeas, man, i think its a combination of where they are grown and what type of chickpea they are, as well as the slow cooking probably over wood fire. i recently read in a book--on indian cooking--about cooking chickpeas in tea, that it brings out the darker colour and a certain depth of flavour. will try....... meanwhile, tell me more more more about this algerian dish of chickpeas and pasta, and tomatoes, and olive oil, cause i GOTTA TRY IT! Marlena

Behomoth, loved this report. wish your family could adopt me, for maybe two eatin and drinkin weeks. have you read The Language of Baklava, by Diane Abu Jaber? I recommend it wholeheartedly. Its Diane Abu Jabers memoir of growing up Jordanian/American in america, the quirkiness of her family, and going back and forth to family over there, back here, and what she ate and what happened and she is such a good writer, that when i put the book down i thought: i can never write as good as she does so i'm just going to throw my computer away! and oh did i want to eat middle eastern food then, it brought back many of my own back and forths to israel, and the ingredients and the dishes, though my family remains in the holy land of california, and while they are a lot of fun to eat with, the food (and ingredients) (and restos) just ain't so good. suburban california (sacramento) has a lot to answer to gastronomically. now, if only my family could eat what YOURS does! thanks for the visit to lebanon, and to your family, and i hope to be able to visit myself someday..... cheers, marlena

The frisson of associating with poverty? Kidding. Just kidding. ← what a thing to say or even think, esp in response to my para above. sorry even kidding, i don't think its very funny. even not addressed at me i don't think its very funny. Marlena

Andy, What a wonderful piece of writing! You've got us all thinking about religion and food, true, and there is a lot to think about, but i'm also thinking about two things: 1. wow, you grew up a Jehovah's Witness! and 2. You are SUCH A GOOD WRITER! x marlena

......but when i think of one of the best meals of my life, it is this: a friend in tel aviv says: I'm taking you to my favourite place, and we trundle down to jaffa, and she says here is where jew and arab eat together, and its a crumbling shack of a place quite close to the sea, a crowded crumbling shack, and there are two big copper pots cooking: one for chickpeas and one for ful. and we sit outside and eat the BEST HUMMUS....... what i wouldn't give for a hummus breakfast. and to be surrounded by a crowd, in the throes of equal appreciation! Marlena ← Nice post Marlena. You should try Fatteh Shamiyeh or the correct name is Tess'ieh. Which is yoghurt/garlic/lamb/rice/bread...etc and chickpeas. As for Hummus. A very simple technique which is by the way the same technique used in Egypt for Fuul, is SLOW COOKING method. Let it boil and simmer overnight on very low heat. ........... Do you know that in Cairo...... Falafel....is not called Falafel but Ta'amia, you should eat it in the street of Cairo from the small stalls........... There seems to be something, a palate mystique of some kind to eat Ta'amia cooked in oil that has been used one million times with barely washed ingredients. ← Ah, greetings Almass! i am drooling at the thought of fatteh shamiyeh, i love the whole yogurt, garlic (yes, GARLIC MY FAVOURITE FOOD!), lamb, rice, bread.......I never think to make this myself, its always better if i eat it out in a lebanese or turkish resto in london (i'm out in the countryside). it was indeed a long slow cooking, and it was some sort of fuel, not electric, hardly even a real stove. and omigod the chickpeas, the ful......so tender. so flavourful. ah, felafel. once i wrote an article for saveur magazine on felafel, and it took me on a two week shlep through tel aviv and a few other places on the road to fried perfection, and sometimes i found it and sometimes i didn't, and of course i was lead also throughout the middle east though that wasn't really for my story, and a year or two later when i found myself in cairo for about a day, I thought: heres my chance to eat ta'amia, the broadbean (fava) felafel. i checked out the hygiene in a few places, in the bazaar, and then in a moment of insanity, thought: i'm gonna do it. I also got a ladle of ful, which i loved with onions, and egg, and tahina. i ate, and it was all deliicous, and i thought; maybe the germs are making it even more deliicous, and then i thought: its good that this is delicious because it'll probably be my last meal! I ate up happily and then prepared to get sick and die. happily i did not die. i'll never do it again though. (i always say that about tacos on the streets of mexico and my resolve lasts about an hour at most). what is it about Middle Eastern food that is so utterlly wonderful, the tanginess of yogurt, the earthiness of chickpeas and beans, the tomatoey stews, the ever-present olive oil, the unmistakable whiff of cumin (either you love it or you hate it) and my beloved garlic. all i have to do if listen to you mention fatteh, and i feel H A P P Y !!! Marlena

Even though we might know, well we who write about food DO know, at least intellectually, that others shall we say borrow, typos and all, recipes, wording, in other words our work......but it always comes as a surprise when you see your own work, smack dab there, being non acrredited, or credit taken by author, or credit ascribed to an unknown author, etc........i've even found recipes plus my exact words and typos, by a celeb chef, and then tracked down his agent who said. the celeb said he didn't do it, his assistant did. and the agent said its his now as he used it on a television programme. everyone admitted it came directly from my book, it was word for word. oh it goes on..... But, to see it on egullet. must have been a terrible shock! here's hoping that Chris can find his source and get back to them, and correct them of their error! if possible in situations like this we should name and shame. this stuff almost constantly breaks MY heart, and I'm sooooo sorry to see you, Daniel, being the victim. how i wish we could do something about this awful thing, stealing from our very hearts, because when i create a recipe, it is as if i am sitting you (the reader) down at my table and feeding you, i am giving you the work of my heart. to have that stolen makes me feel sick. Marlena what is even worse is when people steal steal steal from you (as i have the unfortunate experience of mostly in britain, its not nearly so bad in the usa) and then they turn around and accuse you of plagarism (as if i didn't have enough to say, or enough ideas to cook, that i had to take other peoples!!!!!) . thats plain disgusting. and alas, a meal that i am forced to swallow quite a bit these days........

chez denise might be total fun for you, though it gets really busy. you gotta reserve! communal tables, like being in a french movie from a different time era......go late at night! you know what might be fun, though its not a restaurant experience, is sunday mornings at the foot of the market at rue muffetard, next to the church, a group of people makes music and sings, old fashioned parisian music hall stuff, and sometimes there is dancing, and someone passes out sheet music to sing along to.....

Thats The Independent for you. Marlena

I've eaten foie gras in soutwest france, freshly dug truffles shaved over eggs, i've eaten at some of the world's finest restos (love l'arpege, one of these days will get to el bulli). have written scores of cookbooks (so do fair amount of cooking) and have eaten at the table of some of the worlds finest cookbook authors and chefs. but when i think of one of the best meals of my life, it is this: a friend in tel aviv says: I'm taking you to my favourite place, and we trundle down to jaffa, and she says here is where jew and arab eat together, and its a crumbling shack of a place quite close to the sea, a crowded crumbling shack, and there are two big copper pots cooking: one for chickpeas and one for ful. and we sit outside and eat the BEST HUMMUS, tender warm chickpeas that are so silky, so flavourful, so soft yet full of their own character, drizzled with tahina, and served with a bowl of spicy green sauce, a plate of raw onions, and a pile of the softest, freshest, most tender and fragrant pita. i think there was a lemon wedge too. its been about 5 years since then and i've not been back to israel during this time. however, i've been regularly soaking and cooking chickpeas in an effort to duplicate the exquisite hummus. to no avail. to no avail. i think its time for another trip to israel......did the copper pot make the difference, did the slightly smoky scent of the stove contribute?...........i spent much of the morning in the kitchen (if you can call it that, the little room with the stove) watching and asking questions of the owners/cooks, but when i get home it seems i have learnt nothing.......and even if got the chickpeas right there is still the pita to cope with (not being a baker, and not having access to such wonderful pita bread). luckily the green sauce is not a problem, i seem to feel in my very soul, how to make such sauces........ still its not the same eating hummus, freshly made wonderful hummus, alone, in the middle of hampshire england. speaking of which, i also had a chickpea epiphany in napoli this past year--such a fantastic dish of artisanal chewy pasta cooked with a rough textured chickpea puree with tomatoes and olive oil, and have been on a similar quest for the prefect pasta with chickpeas as i ate it there. i bring back chickpeas from naples and everything. well one day i made it for brother in law for the rare occasion when family will eat at my house. and when i served my masterpiece, the chickpeas and pasta, he just looked at it, and was so transparent in his feelings: you have a dinner party and feed us chickpeas? and pasta! chickpeas are cheap food! (not the way i do them, starting from bringing them back from italy, i can assure you). pasta is cheap food! it was a total excercise in non-appreciation and to tell you the truth, it disgusted me. (ps the pasta and chickpeas were divine). what i wouldn't give for a hummus breakfast. and to be surrounded by a crowd, in the throes of equal appreciation! Marlena

and Bulgaria Skopska cheese: roasted feta with peppers and tomatoes and onion, with a couple of eggs cooked in it. and spanish tortillas/italian frittatas. artichoke. eggplant. potato. chorizo. peas. asparagus. and wild mushrooms with baby peas scrambled with fresh eggs til only soft and creamy. eat spooned over toasted poilane bread. x marlena ps and a poached egg in soup, esp parmesan broth a la WD-50.

I too ADORE eggs. When I first lived in Britain a million years ago the eggs were so awful (they tasted fishy) and dangerous (salmonella was a problem in one out of three eggs), and also they were raised intenively, sooooooooo i went abroad for my eggs! I used to always bring eggs back from France, or Greece especially; these were my favourite places for good eggs. had a special plastic container to carry them in and all. But my FAVOURITE dish of eggs is: 2 fresh fresh eggs cooked in lashings of blissfully delicious unsalted butter, topped with a flurry, a pile, a mountain, of fragrant, shaved, WHITE TRUFFLES. You have to eat them no more than about 5 minutes where they have been found, cause only fresh ones will do in this dish, and they begin to lose their deliciousness from the moment they are unearthed. i am getting goosepimples thinking about the fact that its nearly august, and sept follows august, and then comes october, and in ALBA that means one thing. mmmmmmmmmmm. marlena ps chakchouka is pretty fantastic too. Chef Zadi, do you love it as much as I do? and mememen, and asparagus eggs benedict with truffle hollandaise (my recipe), and a poached egg on a bed of rice with homemade salsa, and a brik, a delicious brik a l'oeuf which whenever i make or eat i think: why don't i do this more often? gotta go, its breakfast time and while i'm not usually an egg for breakfast person, somehow this morning its sounding very good. huevos rancheros, thats the thing for this morning!

I'm soooooo glad you liked NO MANS LAND wine, about a decade ago I was taken by the owner down to his vineyard right on the border between bulgaria and macedonia. He said: I call my wine NO MANS WINE because it is here, in no mans land (and it was, the soldiers of both sides were right there, focuing their rifles right at us!). i'm thinking that things are calmer now (that was during the war in the former yugoslavia), and i'm so glad that the wine is as good now as it had promise to be those years ago. its from the very south of bulgaria, near a monestary that used to take in paying guests as a sort of hotel, i forget the name. in the rila mountains somewhere, and not far from the big monestary there, maybe an hours drive. the fellow who owned no mans land wine was really full of good vibes and energy, and i'm pleased to hear of his success! ciao, for now, Marlena

Nickarte, I've confessed NEARLY everything in my life, but never ever ever, before this, did i confess to loving burnt popcorn! And ain't it grand that there are others out there too! I love you all! x marlena ps sometimes i slice a couple cloves of garlic into the pan with the popcorn. i kinda like burnt garlic too....... and have you ever made popcorn using a wok? its easy to get a real lot of burnt stuff, cause the surface of the wok is so big in comparison with the volume.

melnik is really small. i'd ask around before i go there. a friend who sources artisanal cheese has bad news on the cheese front, in that much of the bulgarian cheeses and yogurts are now made by huge companies using powdered milk so that they can make cheese/yogurt all year round. the way around this is to only eat artisanal cheeses/yogurt if possible. there are little restaurants, oh i forget what they are called. there was one i really loved near the place where the silkworms grow, on the way from varna to sofia, somewhere in the balkans. its the sort of place that serves traditional foods instead of grills, kebab, rice etc. you'll need to ask around. we had friends in bulgaria and had great experiences food wise. i visited bulgaria about every year or so for much of the nineties, right through all the changes. cabbage (esp when stewed with beans) is fantastic. stomach soup, yummy, be sure to spoon in the garlic vinegar they'll serve it with. stuffed red peppers, yummy, and of course the cheeses and cured meat if you can get it. they make this weird drink called bohzhah, or something like that, fermented yeasty wheaty stuff, its kinda beige grey and slightly sweet. perhaps an aquired taste but if you see it, try it. probably now everything is cocoa cola instead....feh! there is a nice dish called skopska cheese in which some cheese and peppers and tomatoes are roasted in a ceramic bowl with an egg or two. its fabulous. also skopska salad which is a pile of raw vegetables topped with grated white cheese. fresh and good, but it needs olive oil for me to fully enjoy, and bulgaria isn't a land of olive oil one thing you m ight think about is staying in a monestary. not sure if you can still do it, but there used to be monestaries that acted as hotels/b and bs, i went to one in the south, not too far from the macedonia border, somewhere in the rila mountains. in varna i ate some tasty stuff barbecued in the street. kebaby things, pork mostly, wrapped into rolls and sprinkled with onions. the wine is quite nice too. x marlena

I am so happy that i'm not the only one wolfing down those char-ry bits of popcorn! there is some strong appeal for the burnt edges of toast too! and the burnt marshmallows. and crusty edges of any meat being barbecued. it tastes so savoury and bitter and crispy. oh probably terrible for us! maybe like chocolate, red wine, and olive oil, scientists will find out that its healthy! in the meantime i just eat the stuff every once in a while. and now, i don't feel alone! like pam R said: tasty, not sick! now, i think i'll go burn some toast. hand sliced, crusty wholegrain seeded cranks bread. i like the way the seeds toast after toasting in the hot dry heat. marlena

its been awhile since i was there, but the little town/village of melnick had a wonderful restaurant with typical dishes, owned by a lawyer who did the cooking too. i think its near the house of the wine merchant which is something like a museum...... cheers, marlena