marlena spieler

I fell in love with greek food when i lived on the island of crete, many moons ago. i've been awash in olive oil ever since. anyhow, for a taste of a agro-tourismo week in zakynthos, my column this week is about exactly that: The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...FDGL080CVD1.DTL the recipes include a yummy homemade cheese that is hung from pillowcases all over the island for about 5 months of the year (alas they cut that out of the article!), and also a dish of peas and eggs. The agro-tourismo week puts you soooo in touch with tradtitional foodways and authentic flavours and sustainable agriculture. its wonderful. Sotiris kitrilakis organizes these weeks (zakynthos is his home) several times a year. In real life he is one of the people who has brought the true good ingredients of Greece to America, first with pelloponnese olive oil etc and now with mount vikos cheeses. if you are eating really good cheese in america, it was probably sourced and imported by sotiris. you can reach their website for these agro-tourist weeks--the next one is next autumn and its all about olives, of course! info@zante-feast.com or you can reach them via my website as I have linked with them. Paula Wolfert is also a big fan of Sotiris and his passion for good greek products.

if you go to original joes and its not breakfast time, order a zabaglione. its not on the menu, they whip it up with lots of wine, egg yolk and sugar. its yummy, a little sweet for my taste, but full of alcoholic punch. LOVE original joes. grew up on their jores special. eggs, ground beef, mushrooms and spinach all scrambled up. i ate it with ketchup. i wonder if i'd still love it now (haven't had it in decades). otherwise, dottie true blue is a delight. and tartine has wonderful bakery goods, in the croissant vein. its on the corner of 18th and is it valencia? in glen park there is a great old time breakfast place, on the corner.....ooops i forgot both name and address exactly. and on west portal there is also a very cute one, really good, about half a block down from the starbucks, oh, its the village cafe. x marlena

I too love like water for chocolate. a few years back, well more than a few, ie when the book was first published, the BBC contacted me to cook the recipes on the air, along with the reading of the book in a serialized form. We--well i--prepared a whole roster of the dishes, including the one with roses and quail. i remember that the day we were taping that was valentines day, and there were red rose stands all over london, and a big snow fell so there were no customers they were practically giving them away, and it was tooo cold to go running around and besides the roses would have frozen, so we went by taxi from this stand to the next, buying up bunches and bunches of red roses. the roses were just to set the scene however the rest of the recipes were crafted and cooked. i had to adjust them quite a bit, as in QUITE a bit. but it was the inspiration and lyricism of the dishes, their descirptions and ingredients that was a dream. a dream to cook, to eat, and most importantly for our radio series, to listen to. very evocative and i have the lucky quality of always feeling as if that book is part of my life, and i in turn, am part of its. at least here in britain. enjoy x marlena

you know, there is a little bar-resto that i like, jam packed with atmosphere of the dissappearing sort, ie time warp in just the parisian way you want it. its dirt cheap as i remember it too. ducky things, maybe a steak-frites, but i think dessert was even less than ho hum, ie the old creme caramel number........etc. whenever i pass i always want to go in and eat, last time we were there we just missed the serving (i think its just the owner who does it all).......very simple, funky, cheap, delightful...........but lets see, as to the name and address: it has le patron in its name, maybe chez le patron? or simply bistro le patron? and its on either rue de st quentin, or more likely, and i am almost sure, rue faugbourg st denis. and its about a 6 minute walk (for me, i'm slow) or less to the station afterwards. terminus nord is great, but the price can add us as stated previously. but i have a further warning: don't get the choucroute which is deliicous, wonderful, a must if you like choucroute, anyhow don't get the choucroute before your eurostar ride if you have a tendency towards motion sickness. choucroute and 270 mph don't mix well (or is it kph?) bon appetit, and bon voyage, marlena

I've been to Mosiman's for a dessert event, perhaps it was a tea? anyhow, while i don't remember too many particulars, as it was a plate of different desserts and i just closed my eyes and went into a deep revery of tasting, pretty much. the lasting impression i had was divine desserts, and i'm not a sweet-hound. i just remember a certain exquisite quality and a lotta lotta flavour. this was a few years back so he could have a new pastry chef, etc, i have no idea what is going on now, but i always wanted to go back and see what they would do with the rest of the meal. oh, yeah, and more dessert too! marlena

St.John? st john is indeed, as i said: simple food. simple presentation. rustic bread. no towers. and of course its in london. but st john is so distinctively st john, in its almost aescetic architecture and plating, its being the temple of offal, that i couldn't confuse it with anything in california or elsewhere. (though actually in all of london's new wave of contemporary restaurants I do indeed see a California/America influence--I mean i've been here for decades and remember who restaurants used to look like and used to serve) st john is its own wonderful self; i should have put the reference to abundance of vegetables and fruits in that description so as not to confuse......... anyhow hope you had a great day out in california sunshine. eat something delicious for me, i'm back in hampshire now and i can assure you, i haven't found anything delicious at all to eat here, except during asparagus season when you can buy a nice bushel from a farm stand and cook it up (i make it with truffled hollandaise). only trouble is, no car now, so i'm stuck in village. and in our lovely, leafy village, people eat at macdonalds and kfc (as well as the local greasy spoons). breaks your heart, doesn't it.

i wrote about and developed a recipe for grilling pineapple and serving it with its own fresh pineapple sorbet ten years ago. i felt it was very original, as i just looked at a pineapple and came up with the thought. but at the same time how many chefs were looking at a nice juicy pineapple with the same thought? great minds at the same times and all that........ now many people do this combination, as when i spoke with chef who said: well, it is a great combination. i wholeheartedly agree, (and i concur, a delicious combination! whether you are in alsace, paris, london, california. or wherever). marlena

Marlena, you should be well aware that a French chef with any pride at all, will refuse admittance to his restaurant of anything genetically modified. Love it, Bux!

I was rather curious to see specifically what she referred to. As I said before, from what I could see (and pointed out) the major influences are from the Alsace. a few impressions on this point: - perhaps he was being polite, you know, while talking to an American journalist and all. - is it possible that he was referring to the inspiration of working together came from when they worked together in Washington DC? Hmm…It is quite clear that Mon Viel Ami is a joint project between Antoine Westermann and Antony Clémot. The menu has both their names on it (this I am sure of now, just checked the menu from two months ago). 1. I am specifically referring to the abundance of fresh vegetables, especially in the starters, the utter freshness and connection to the garden. and while this is not necessarily limited to San Francisco Bay Area or New York City, I felt that almost every dish we ate on the menu could have come from a high quality usa restaurant. It was a certain clarity and straighforward flavour quality. i'm sure it is the case in alsace as well, but it is also the case in certain american dishes/restaurants. rare, yes, but rare in other places too. Simple food. simple presentation. rusitc bread. no towers. i mean, we couldn't have been in london thats for sure. 2. actually chef antony was very emphatic about the american influence, and said that the american chef was the one responsible for the brillliant vegetable quality. he didn't seem to be being polite or worrying about impressing me, just a big smiling wanting to chat about the whole place, the dishes, etc. i doubt that chef antony was only being polite about my being an american journalist as he got into a discussion, had invited us into the kitchen (okay he did know i was a journalist but no word was said about my nationality, he assumed i was english because of something that was said, anyhow, he began speaking about the menu etc, with my british companions before i even trotted over the restaurant and before he heard my pearly vowels. so i say i see the american influence. my dining companions notice it. the chef says iit is the case, two days ago, when i lunched there on friday and the thing is this: I don't care. good food is good food. influences and stimulation as in art, only make the subject more interesting. Marlena ps: the raspberry sign you posted on your response to me isn't very nice in this context.

You missed another big one "le weekend". Pim: I thought we were speaking of influences about food when I said the biggest american influence at the moment........... and if we weren't and our american influence category was extended to le weekend, then why speak of the ' le weekend' as a big influence right now? I mean, "le weekend" was a big concept and influence when i was growing up! hope this clarifies. marlena

two things: 1. perhaps modern european cuisine is very international and there are qualities that go over the border from one country to the next? i felt without a doubt that mon viele ami had an influence from america in the same way chez panisse et co have the other way around. 2. fine if you don't want to believe my impression, we all have our own. however, chef-antony himself and collaegue told me two days ago that they were inspired to open mon vieil ami, by working in america. full stop. also, is american influence a bad thing? after speaking with many french chefs behind the scenes at so many of the multi-starred restaurants, i really don't think its a bad thing at all. we're talking really good american food etc. btw: my british husband thought we were in san francisco at our lunch chez mon viele ami. and, i might add, coming from him, this is not a bad thing at all.

Marlena, Thanks for confirming what I had already come to believe about "influences" ... does this mean that the French will someday be able to recreate our vibrant California cuisine and New Orleans lagniappe that we have grown to treasure right here in America? Hopefully ... and le barbecue du sud? c'est possible? I am sure they were always able to recreate our cuisine, I'm not so sure they will ever want to recreate any of it. Maybe that's wishful thinking on my part as I'd like to enjoy the regional differences in cuisine as I travel, but it's also based on what I see as a spiritual or conceptual influence rather than an interest in doing any literal copying. Picaman's illustrated description of his dinner at Mon Vieil Ami shows it as a distinctly French restaurant. There's no recreation of anything one might describe as American. I think what Marlena describes as an evident "contemporary american influence" has little to do with specific dishes but is part of the cross pollination of ideas and philosophies that has allowed the French to refresh their own cooking at a time when it's become a bit stale or stagnant. chef antony and co-chef whose name i don't remember (it must have been the wine with lunch) told me that working in washington d.c. was their inspiration for mon vieil ami, and chef antony especially was very happy to tell of the american inspiration. i thought the other chef was less pleased and proud, though i might have only been interpreting as he was quieter and shy. and he is american. anyhow, definately american is their inspiration! from the horse's mouth so to speak. x marlena

at mon vieil ami we were treated like "old friends" before we even entered the place. as it was a quiet, hot summer day, chef antony came out and started chatting with my husband as he stood with our suitcase waiting for our lunch companion to show. Chef antony didn't know we had reservations and was busy chatting about the good things he was cooking for lunch that day. when husband, aka the british husband, said we are in fact coming to lunch, chef antony grabbed his suitcase and rolled it in, said oh, i'll take care of it. chef antony has the biggest warmest smile anywhere by the way. but i wasn't to know any of this at that moment as i was busy first at the cheese shop across the way, and then at cocoa et chocolate next door. when i did arrive at our table, the chef-owner of islands best sushi resto was already sitting and lunching, along with whatever poor parisian souls were left now that the heat had descended and summer had begun. since we ate several of the dishes reported in the review above, i won't dwell on them, except to say that if you order the carottes et navets caramizee aux epices, canette roti, and you are sitting at my table, i'm afraid you must accept that fact that my fork will find its way onto your plate. and you might find this happening even if you are at a nearby table........be forwarned. i will say that i ate divine morelles, and when i spoke with chef antony in the kitchen later, he said: it is the end of the morels, perhaps i had eaten the last morels of the season that very day. chef antony and his co-chef, from washington dc whose name please forgive me i forget, but blame it on the wine with lunch.....chilled with me awhile after our meal, after "le coude fou" that is the kitchen rush to get the food ready and out to waiting tables. i poked around at what they were cooking, putting away, getting ready for the next meal. it was hot in the kitchen but the food that came out had great big clear flavours and an abundance of freshness. I have huge pangs of remorse over not ordering the cheese plate......... the roasted pineapple with pineapple sorbet was perfect for sweltering summer however. and i only regret that they didn't open earlier so i could have included them in my Williams Sonoma book: Paris, which is due out on the bookshelves this autumn. Marlena

ps: I meant charcuterie PLATE instead of plane. though a plane filled with charcuterie might help me get over my fear of flying, at least for that meat-filled flight. marlena

In the marais I'm always happy with Le Baracane, on rue des tournelles, especially wonderful (and reasonably priced) for lunch, and if a big fat salad is on the menu, do order that! (only thing that really really dissappointed was their cassoulet which they had told me was a speciality. don't order it). wonderful wines and eau de vies from the countryside and great duck, and cheese. la remulaud on rue fauboug st antoine is out near nation, but a nice walk from the bastille. chez leon for tunisienne food: esp the selection of augerbine salads etc, and couscous. and camille on rue francs bourgeouise serves food at all hours, and is a capsule of french life, has never let me down for reliable bistro-ish faves. brunch or wine and a cheese plate/charcuterie plane at coup de fou..........

mmmmm, spent the day at buttes charmant in paris the other day, since it was so sweltering in the rest of the city i just wanted to lay flat on the cool grass in the shade. of course half of paris was doing the same thing which was very very wonderful as an excercise in watching the french, and specifically in watching french style. one thing i was very impressed with was that even under a blanket of hot humidity, frenchwomen were wrapped here and there with scarves: gauzy, airy, swaths of see-through colour, and i thought: this is truely what separates them from us. the scarves transformed the little bits of black or other simple fabric that pretty much formed the simple summer clothing. do you think if i had a gene transplant i could have a french one in which my genetic composition transmogrified into a person able to wear a scarf with such style and panache? marlena

mmmmm, I love duck and i was just staying around the corner. webiste is endearingly tacky....... anyhow the weather is too hot now. when autumn rolls around i shall definately try......... merci, beaucoup, follonica2! x marlena

Oh, yeah, meant to include that the other chef whose name i didn't remember, not the smiling antony--i don't know if they are chef-partners, co-chefs, co-owners or what, but definately its a joint project--anyhow he is American. x marlena ps the biiggest american influence i see at the moment is le brunch (i'm purposefully ignoring fast food etc). There was a big cajun thing for awhile, and there is a lot of really bad mexican food, but that is the same all over europe. europe loves its mexican restaurants and they are uniformly terrible. anyhow, i digress. many of the brunches in paris at the moment are wonderful. i like coup de fou wine bar for brunch.

ate at Mon Veil Amie yesterday on ile st louis--wonderful : very clean flavours, vegetables of gorgeous freshness and stimulating combinations, and strikingly delish desserts: vervaine ice cream, and roasted pineapple with pineapple sorbet, two standouts..... anyhow, spent some time chatting in kitchen, with smiling chef antony, and the other chef whose name i forget. anyhow, both worked together in washington DC, and that was the connection and inspiration for their venture in paris. the contemporary american influence, in the best sense, was very evident. anyhow, a perfect place for a summer lunch. closed for first two weeks of august, will reopen in later august when they think it will be cooler. meanwhile i think they are open this coming week,. as always. monday through friday. x marlena

oh, of course, and thank you so much, lucy! sometimes i go there for a solo lunch but i couldn't think of the name when i tapped out that message! Astier it is, then! I do hope they're open this week....... un grand merci, x x marlena

does anyone have any suggestions for the best cheeseplate in a restaurant these days, taking into consideration that i will be taking a whole family of 4 in addition to us, so cost is a consideration. also, i'd like the rest of the meal to match the cheeseboard in quality. which hasn't always been my experience. what about one of the restaurants that specialize in cheese? or the place in montparnasse? though i think that is too expensive for the likes of us...... merci hugely, marlena

How about in Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, where the lead character is stirring and cooking, and her naughty husband comes behind her and grabs her or when he does the same to one of her students.....oh he is so naughty. and she is so sensual....... marlena

Oh God, Mabelline! the edges get crisp and browned, and you gotta keep the yolks soft and liquidy, so that when you cut in you get that combination of soft white, crisp white and almost saucelike yolk. and i like too much s and p on mine. mmmm that crisp bacony edge! ps out here in the middle of nowhere hampshire england, i have discovered that pancetta, thinly sliced and browned in a pan, is the best ever bacon you could imagine. waitrose has a two for one going on now, and the idea of eating pancetta with the lavishness that one might fry a couple of strips of bacon........is too divine dahrling.

hmmmmmm...... gifted. I really did think about entering, and actually there is a little behind the scenes stuff too which i don't want to go into........ but anyhow ii did think about entering and looked onto the website for the rules of the game. cause like i'm thinking: i have at least fifty really nifty grilled cheese sandwiches waiting in the wings to send on off....... then i read the rules: i managed to SQUEEZE through the age limit successfully but then ran into an itty bitty prolblem. And that is this: All submissions will belong to the company putting on this shindig, which is fine if you are a member of the public but not if you make your living at coming up with this stuff. and as my book is a rival to the book being plugged, and as the background stuff which i don't want to go into etc, don't think for a minute i would win. they would simply get my submissions, and heigh ho, a new book is born! or recipes to give away on sandwich makers etc. so thats why i have decided against taking part iof it. but i'd love to see an egulleteer win! ! ! And 10,000 bucks is 10,000 bucks. you can buy a lotta cheese with that!

Shalom Boaziko, hi all, israeli couscous seems to be very well described in this thread, I see it all over the place more or less.......in golders green i think.......in nyc at kalustyans among other places, and paule wolfert is so right, being a nice fat round shape means you can boil it. i think also it is lightly toasted which keeps it light and holding together during its boiling. I like it the best cooked drained than placed into a rich fish broth, maybe with a little tomatoes, garlic etc. Top it with chopped chilantro, a sprinkle of north african spices, and a smidge of hot pepper, or with shreds of basil or parsley.......and if you can, on top of this place a nice grilled (barbecued) fish or piece of fish. very elegant, and the broth makes a nice light sauce and the couscous is delicious in it. lemon or lime wedge to squeeze in........