marlena spieler

oh god yeah. except i use whole grain bread, sharp cheddar, and you are so right though: its the PICKLES that do it! i have a gorgeous photo, believe it or not, of a grilled cheese and pickle sandwich (open faced, its gotta be open faced) in my book. of course, i always think that pickles are cover-girl gorgeous anyhow. sweet, bread and butter, gherkins or kosher dill: they're all delish, just delish, on my grilled cheese. on your grilled cheese. oh god, the tragedy is that i have pickles in my fridge and no cheese or bread in the entire house. and the shops aren't yet open!

it seems as if the night before, ie the 13th, there is often a fireman's bal, an outside dancing shindig sort of late night bacchanal........in paris it might be in different arrondissments? and in paris, a parade on the 14th down champs elysees........ i think that food is such a part of everyday life in france that on this specific celebration there is nothing specific. of course thoughout the land there will be food celebrations all summer and into the autumn. fete du l'ail, fete des chataignes, fete de l'ailoli.......with long benches and tables set out in the town square, big pots of aioli, veggies, fish etc. or the strawberry fest a friend just went to in perigord: a massive huge village large strawberry tart was on the menu and every body had a taste. but try as i might i also haven't come up with that special dish which french people save to celebrate their independence day. cake perhaps? (please forgive.....).

Me, too, Daniel! I like truffle butter comte too......... isn't the combination of truffle and gruyere/comte divine? I always loved the pairing of truffle and goat cheese and then......then i sampled a black truffle on a plate of comte cheese at paris' l'arpege restaurant. it was such a mindblowing combination that I extended it to my grilled cheese sandwich making repertoire. mmmmmmmm.

despite the fact that i don't count it as grilled cheese without some form of bread, i do a fab grilled mozarella sandwiched inbetween eggplant? grill the eggplant on the barbie, or brown in a pan. Sprinkle with chopped garlic all around, then take one slice of eggplant and top it with a slice of fresh milky mozzarella di buffala, a thin slice of ripe ripe ripe tomato, a sprinkle of salt, a leaf of sweet fragrant basil, then another piece of fried/bbqed eggplant. Smash down so it holds together or seal with a big toothpick or skewer. Heat in a pan or over bbq (pan saves the cheese drippings which are delish, you'll want to save them. on the bbq the cheese melts onto the coals and dissappear into a puff of smoke). When cheese inside melts gently to a soft squooshy sigh, its ready to eat. yum.

Perhaps you will sign copies for those of us who are not living within the vicinity?? Look forward to reading, and salivating, over every recipe, Marlena! Thanks for the "heads up"! You bet, Gifted....... I'll sign copies of the book, and even make you a grilled cheese sandwich wherever you are! seriously: i had so much fun writing this homage to melted cheese and crisp bread.....though we settled on fifty ways to make you melt, for space considerations, we could have easily done a hundred recipes......i could write a book of the recipes left over from the manuscript. thanks for........the salivation, and welcoming words....... x marlena

Is this a good place to shamelessly plug my forthcoming new book, Grilled Cheese: Fifty Ways to Make you Melt! (Chronicle books)? due out in the autumn. marlena

last trip last month i loved: lluna basque: their seared tuna in roquerfort sauce, also the potatoes with herbs and vinegar, and the pineapple gratin. town hall. we ate everything there in tiny portions (it was a party). wow. really yum, and a nice buzz too. slanted door as usual, though my shakin beef was overcooked. i'd ask for it rare rare rare next time. everything else was up to its normal deliciousness. and i like a funky el salvatorian place in the mission that makes creamy black beans but don't know if i should share it.......i have to have a think. i kinda like keeping it my little secret, big fear: it would get yuppified......but its worth trawling around the area for these funky wonderful places. heartwarming in more ways than one. . oh yeah and i hated chez spencer for more reasons that i could count for here though a number of the dishes were well executed. foreign cinema is always good, though havne't been there in a while. the couple who own it are fine chefs, the food is stylish, delicous, honest all at the same time. welcome to san francisco, marlena x marlena

Moderator Note: topics merged. If there weren't a lotta lotta other reasons to love you, Mario, and there are, and i'm not even counting the shorts though they are fetching, its the fact that you put LARDO on your pizza, and made LARDO SEXY! And made people all over the country suddently saying the world lardo with great affection, and made the word lardo a fashion statement, a destination word, a word of great desire. this in a country that has been fat-o-ohobic for years! i thought the fashionistas would pass out when they first uttered the word, but there they were, munching on your yum lardo pizza at OTTO, muttering the word lardo, lardo, lardo............ Grazie mille! is there any other food that you are passionate about at this moment that you'd care to share? marlena

mmmmm, this jet-lagged marlena wants a breakfast of double decker pizza, and green pistachio ice cream with glaceed cherries in it! and i'm soooo with you jason, why on earth is not ben and jerrys or someone else, not making pistacio-cherry ice cream? it seems a natural (or at least an unnatural......) one of my new york treats is my semi-regular breakfast: salt bagel, scallion cream cheese, israeli salad on the side, to spoon over (i eat it open faced). i've tried eating this elsewhere and it doesn't taste the same unless its in nyc, at pick a bagel on 3rd ave. while we are on the subject of new york eating experiences, am i the only one who feels that there isn't nearly enough good bread in nyc? where is that divine caraway seeded sour crusty rye of my youth? marlena

I know, toliver, this was one of the first things i noticed as a child when we went to these places. i loved this aspect! and always wondered what on earth was going to be next. one place we used to go to had the most divine dish of ordinary humble vegetables, mostly cabbage and chickpeas, but cooked in a stock rich with prosciutto-bone flavour. funnily enough, my family, jewish-enough-culturally, who would never go near anything that appeared to have pork in it, just loved this dish. as for me, porky-girl, i loved every drop of juice, every morsel of vegetable. and when the fries hit the table, i was in heaven. oh, and there were usually set menus for different days. some were great, big stewying meaty things, ravioli day was a big hit in our family, but then.......some of the days were really awful. you had to play it just right. and then: gluttonous bliss! and the long tables were fun! x marlena ps anyone know of any places like this in northern california that are still going strong?

Drove past vacaville a week or so ago, stopped in on the spur of the moment, and did the jellybelly tour. i had been there a few years ago when they first opened, and that was coooool, in that you could walk among the machines, esp the magical ones that look like washing machines or spin dryers and instead of drying your undies are busy whirling about little jelly lumps and covering them with a crispish candy coating. now things are considerably more corporate and no doubt more hygienic, too. agree with carolyn about the christmas tree taffy demonstration (on a little television screen). it was so fascinating that when it was over our little group broke into applause. my favourite flavours? bubble gum, watermelon, cherry, cinnamon, coffee, and some of the brightly coloured straightforward ones. there is one that tastes something like rain-forest or dishwashing soap that i find appealing in a weird way......and i'm sad to tell you that the roasted garlic flavour ones were oddly compelling. but the dirt ones? spit spit spit. eeeeccccchhhhhh. what are they thinking, though audacious they are to go all the way flavourwise. in general, jelly bellys pack so much flavour in one little candy lump. nice. marlena

Nopales: my favourite food! I do what Rancho-Gordo does: boil with an onion (and a bit of cilantro) until the slime just oozes away. Rinse et voila! there are few things that nopales are not delicious in, to my mind: yummy with meatballs (albondigas) and chipotle-tomato sauce. delish with chicken and tomatillos. divine as a salad with diced tomatoes, onions, cilantro and goats cheese. eat em in salsa, toss them in a taco, scramble them in eggs with chorizo, top them onto a tostada........ i've always meant to do the grilling and stuffing with cheese thing, but as i live in britain, fresh nopales are hard to come by and i am often so distracted when i'm rushing about in san francisco that i don't have a chance to take a moment, and stuff some nopales. i'd better put that right next trip! x marlena

mongo, have you never eaten at the basque or italian restaurants in the san francisco area/central vallley area that are sadly disspappering at a fast pace, where the daily menu was brought to the long communal tables.......rustic soups, platters of pasta, trays of meat and fish and potatoes....... or eaten a cypriot meze in a village, where the food just comes out in little plates for the table to share. true, it is usually a table of people who have come togehter to eat......but everyone at other tables is doing the same thing. there was also a restaurant, in the says just prior to and the early days of berkeley's chez panisse that served up rustic french fare on the oakland berkeley border, family style: in big bowls to be shared by all at the table. marlena

mmmmm: favourite tomato sandwich, though i am definately an afficionado of the mayo kind too (esp the aioli kind, or the basil-aioli kind) is the Andalucian can Catalan tomato sandwich: Good crunchy crusted bread, rubbed with garlic, rubbed with tomato, drizzled with olive oil and eaten for breakfast. its the breakfast thing--waking up to it and eating it for breakfast rahter than lunch-- that makes this even more special but a mayo-tomato sandwich for breakfast is okay with me, too, completely. okay okay, a slice or two of jamon on the tomato-bread thing is fab, too, like a spanish version of a blt. marlena

Yum, Nessa, fried injera strips--I've eaten it fried with ripe tomatoes, chillies, garlic etc. Really wonderful!

Piemonte has the most delectable tradition of eating cheese at the end of the meal, much as its neighbour, France. Sometimes I joke around that the cheese trolley (cart) is so strong that you don't need to go and get it, it will just roll over to you on its own accord when you whistle. One of my favourite accompaniments to a number of different cheeses is the gelatina, that is, thin light jelly based on wine. delish. Other goodies include: very old fresh Parmigiana in two-bite shards drizzled with as old a balsamico as you can find. and this: mmmmm: rich gorgonzola drizzled with truffle honey (you can put it on a thin slice of baguette for tidy eating). if you can't find truffle honey (or can't afford it as its insanely expensive) simply stir a little truffle oil into a mild honey. another fun thing is to make crisps of Parmigiana: shred, lay out in sort of cookie shapes on a nonstick cookie sheet, and bake in a medium ish oven until it crisps and comes together into a crunchy little wafer. Remove, place on a nonstick place to dry, such as lay over a glass to form a little cup, or freeform shape........ anyhow, this is a start. the best way of sampling too is to eat things as they are: though fresh buffalo mozzarella is divine drizzled with its classic topping, extra virgin and salt and pepper. that sort of thing.

oh yes, ps: the cheeseboard is across the street and down the way from caesars, pretty much right across from chez panisse.

Thursdaynext, if you are going to caesars, and you like cheese, go early enough so that The Cheeseboard is still open. The Cheeseboard is the daddy/mommy of all cheeseshops, it is wonderful. owned and run by a cooperative, you can get almost anything you want there, and such delicious stages you'll find the cheeses in, and the bread/pizza (pizza is divine). The Cheeseboard should be listed as a national treasure. go there. buy cheese. and do take advantage to the well-educated cheese-loving people behind the counters. marlena

Daniel Rogov has brilliantly organized and succinctly stated all of the things about food writing that have been swirling around my head. Distinguish between food writing and restaurant criticism, absolutely. Two such different things requiring different skills. Be an optimist: what a blindingly simple and obvious observation! (which I have never heard alluded to before)..... Marlena

Oh god you guys, vineleaves are my favourite. swisskaese, you are so right, wrapped around and fish and grilled, divine: i add a sauce of garlicky-lemony-tahina and a handful of pomegranate seeds scattered on top, and a few leaves of mint, too, if i'm feeling up to it and they are available...... a great thing too to do with vineleaves that doesn't involve individual stuffing, is to blanch and wrap around goats cheese, then tie into a parcel and warm on the grill.....untie and dig out the tangy melty cheese. i used to make too a stewy dish from eastern europe, meaty spicy stuff layered with vineleaves. the vineleaves added lots of flavour but could be a little bit tough to chew.......the recipe is in my book HOT and SPICY which has been out of print for a zillion years but someone out there might have a copy. if i were making it today however i'd make it without the hot chile. i also used to make stuffed vineleaves filled with meat, pinenuts, and spices such as cumin, etc, then layer the parcels in tomatoes, sliced onions, olive oil, garlic, allspice, cinnamon, and simmer slowly. The stewy sauce with the tangy meatfilled parcels, yum. i added yogurt on the side, but then i quite often add yogurt on the side. i love its cool contrast....... Marlena who wishes she had a vine outside her door, just for plucking the leaves!

The Ritz Carlton in NYC has special "doggie and me" weekend packages, but you'd have to have a rich little doggie to go on one! i'd stay in a hotel that had dogs or cats just sort of stay with you in your room, you know what i mean....... i love it in france when there are doggies dining alongside me. a well placed poodle, or a little hound nibbling at my toes and trawling for leftovers, man, the best appetite enhancers i can think of (though i think in north america its considered the opposite). to me, everything tastes better with a nearby pooch! wish my cat liked to travel. but she really hates it and that is no pleasure. for either of us. x marlena

exactly! thats why i like this identibord thingie: it comes with its own wire rack that keeps it all separate. that was exactly the problem that i had had, and this solved it! and it doesn't take up much space surprisingly! i just have it on my counter stashed behind a door........ marlena, who has the urge to whip up a little homemade mayo and now that we are doing a thread on food safety, is afraid to

Food safety is a pet campaign of mine. Living in Britain it is a more recent phenomenon than in my native California. Having had food poisoning once, i never want to have it again! In Britain I'm considered a fanatic, but in California I'm considered very lax. Still, you can't go wrong with the basics: hot thing hot and cold things cold. Dishwashing is one area: rinsing well etc. And drying the dishes using a less than clean towel! great way to give yourself a nice dose of something nasty! Kitchen equipment is another area that seems to me to be a fountain of germs. Cutting boards and surfaces especially--use the same board for both raw and cooked and the germs left behind could make you sick indeed! i for one am enamoured of the "Identibord" system: a different cutting board (thick, wooden, glorious to cut on) with a colour coding of a big fat dot, on the corner of each board. So you remember: this board is for raw meat, this one for cooked, this one for veggies, this one for fish, etc. its fantastic! a restaurant thing that is beginning to be marketed for home cooks. Does anyone have any other recommendations or hints (or horror stories) about food safety? Marlena

Two things: 1. the fabulous aliwaks is indeed a poet of all foodie things! 2. in my clan whenever we really reallyl really love a food, we make "pirate noises" that is: groans, and aaarrrrrrr, and ggghhhhrrrrr, and well we also threaten to roll around naked on the floor, but i doubt that pirates would do that! too busy ransacking and pillaging.

PS: and even the weird weird weird stuff can be fun too!