marlena spieler

Dear "The Other Tony", You wouldn't know where Dean Zanella is from or where his parents/heritage is from, would you? We're leaning towards finding a chef with a sensibility of Italy's mezzogiorno, specifically Napoli, Campania, the whole tomatoes and pasta and luscious sun-drenched thing..... thanks, marlena

i'm looking for a handful of suggestions as to the best italian restaurants and/or chefs in chicago....have never been to chicago before and need the recommendations for....a group of italians! and myself. all suggestions and descriptions greatly appreciated! cheers, marlena

I went about three years ago. I thought the view was beautiful. sadly, i don't remember any tastes and flavours, but everything looked very beautiful. and then the aforementioned view. i was as greedy as i could be, but just don't remember much. this is not a good sign. but it was a long time ago. and its kinda chilly, good weather for snarfing up chocolate and pastry....... let us know how it is, i'm curious as might want to revisit.

this sounds totally worth buying a eurostar ticket for!

omigod this is wonderful news!!!!! i always feel i should be employed as a shake shack pr as have pointed so many food writers/luminaries in that direction...well they might have been heading in that direction anyhow, but my irrational enthusiasm was flowing. it always does when i think about the shack cheeseburger. that piece of perfection burger-wise. i do have a second favorite burger in all the world, but its on the opposite coast. and i mean i live in europe! regardless of where i am at any given moment, though...i'm a shake shack girl through and through, and to think that i won't have to wait til summer....i can enjoy the splendour during the cold months when a burger just tastes so good. brrrrr i can hardly wait. bravo all! marlena

this is a fabulous thread for sumac-lovers, i feel like running right into the kitchen and trying out half the stuff, esp the lemonade. last week i ate a turkish potato salad that was so bright and reviving: boiled diced potatoes, lemon juice, onion+garlic, tons of sumac and lemon juice, a little bit of olive oil. this is my new best friend in the potato-salad department. delicious on a bed of salady greens. marlena

Fat Guy, you are a man after my own heart! toasters make such insipid toast! I use the broiler/grill, and use handsliced bread so that the slices are somewhat irregular, giving lots of peaks and little indentations, where the bread can be even more roasty, crunchy, darkly delicious.....it really enhances my whole experience of toast. ← marlena but what about the fact I only use two slices of bread per day so I have to buy bread and freeze it otherwise its a waste. Or should I buy it cut it and then freeze it? ← hiya, stef, I usually only use one or two slices of bread a day, too..... when i bring it home I slice it up and freeze it in several bags--one bag of thinly sliced bread, one of thicker as croutes for soup such as french onion or agua cotta..... i don't mind the bread being presliced as 1. i'm going to toast it anyway, and 2. its hand-sliced, so rough and uneven. this way I can sort of snap off just what i need. i looooooove my bread-for-toast stash!

Fat Guy, you are a man after my own heart! toasters make such insipid toast! I use the broiler/grill, and use handsliced bread so that the slices are somewhat irregular, giving lots of peaks and little indentations, where the bread can be even more roasty, crunchy, darkly delicious.....it really enhances my whole experience of toast.

I'm of the muffin brigade, basically, though I take a big detour when I have a stash of sourdough bread in my freezer--poilane, sour rye from nyc, acme's levain, or....my fave of the moment: sourdough bread from Napoli or Puglia (I bring it back in my suitcase or beg friends travelling from there to bring me some!). The roughly cut sourdough gets all crunchy in different parts, in a similar way to the [english] muffin. and my fave way of all is to top the eggs with a shower of shredded mature cheddar, a splodge of worchestershire sauce and a drop of tabasco. pop under the grill/broiler til it melts. this dish has it all: tender soft poached egg, melty cheese, crunchy toast and a big ol' hit of umami!

hiya mike, we were warned that they were a bit touristy (ie that everyone would be taxi-ing from the messe after the day of bookfair just ready for the ribbchen and kartoffellen, etc. ) but also that we should go there anyhow. we actually went late--so that we could swim off the calories that were just waiting for use on schweizer strasse, and i think that arriving later, helped in the tourist and crowded aspect, cause neither seemed too terribly touristy, though adolph wagner was still quite crowded. we got a seat at a table with some very sociable people, so in the end it turned into a big hysterical sauerkraut party, i even took pictures of our table-mates putting the leftovers into the doggy bag, i don't know: it turned into a wonderful wacky meat and potatoes filled evening! thought the gruen sosse at gemahlte haus was terrific (ate it over mashed potatoes, licking my chops at each creamy savoury bite), and also liked the handkase mit musik with sourdough rye bread. at adolf wagner i thought my ribbchen and the browned potatoes were sublime (though was less pleased with my sauerkraut, it seemed a little sweet or perhaps fatty, and i'm such a purist with sauerkraut, i drive even the germans nuts with my passion for the stuff); i ended up eating all the potatoes and taking most of the ribbchin ( massive portion!) home in a doggy bag (yes, they provided!), and the next day brought my leftovers to meet up with greek friends at ANUGA, the fancy food show in cologne. I thought about that meat longingly today as I swam my laps, wishing that I could go and eat it again tonight. but i can't, as am back home in hampshire.... (but i am simmering borsht to keep my eastern european spirits matching the autumnal-wintery weather). thanks for the full names and addresses, mike! marlena

Cecillia, Lisa, I am so enjoying this and want to now get my hands on the whole book. when i was very young, i remember hearing tales about The Mandarin and always looking forward to eating there, (when i grew up and became sophisticated, etc) though amazingly and sadly i never did. cecilla's restaurant and its influence on sf dining is legendary as is cecellia herself. how great it is to have her story told...... marlena spieler

go to the kleinemarkethalle, which is a lovely little market, and look at the vegetables and goodies. eat a wurst (knobel is my preference) with sour rye bread slice and blob of delicious mustard. go to konstablerwache market if he's going to be there on saturday, and i think either tuesday or wed. its a farmers market, a little family of a market as i was told, a great place to drink apfelwein at 10 am. by noon its really going, and you can eat waffles, piles of potatoes, potato pancakes, lovely little slices of blackbread topped with sausage, cheese, salad. stuff like that. its like living a bruegel painting. there are two really traditional apple wine restos that i'm thinking about. the adolf wenger and the other one is, lets see, something like gemarkt haus....both right next to each other. at the first i ate ribbchen, big smoked ribs roasted and so delicious lean, with sauerkraut and the most divine browned potatoes. they even gave me a doggy bag, and i met so many friendly people, it was like a sauerkraut fest, the evening was! at the second, i ate: handkase mit musik, a sort of fresh cheese marinated in onions, delish. served with sour rye bread. i ate a wurst (ie frankfurter) with sauerkraut and my friend ate a boiled beef with gruen sosse, which is a real frankfurt thing: the most delicious party dip ever, green with whatever herbs are in season. in fact, i have a recipe in my new book Yummy potatoes, if its not too cheeky to plug it. i loved putting the green sauce into the mountain of mashed potatoes on my plate and sort of mushing it around. drank apple wine both places, so refreshing and autumnal. if you need a place to swim it all off, frankfurt has the best swimming pool ever! right at the end of the number 17 streetcar. an hour there makes it possible to eat all these hefty delicious things! marlena

am headed to frankfurt for the bookfair tomorrow, its a last minute thing. when i was there last i frolicked in green sauce, and had the best of wurst, and potatoey things and apfelwein....and really good dark breads. mmmmm. but this time i'm leaving a few days at the end of this last minute trip to go to berlin where i've never gone. is there anything i should keep my eyes open for, i'm a very very low budget person at this moment in time. and i LOVE sauerkraut. also, does anyone know anything about shpreivald pickles? anyplace recommended to stay cheaply?

Hathor, I've been following your adventure of your restaurant and am exhileratingly, blindingly, thrillingly....well, something. maybe envious (in a good way not an evil eye way). maybe simply enthusiastic for you (oh yes!). maybe very very thrilled for you and impressed by your courage (definately!). the conflict of traditional vs modern is difficult to get a grip on or even address, because each wave of modern leaves a souvenir upon the until-then traditional. Nothing, not even traditional cookery, stays the same. It changes (for the good, and for the bad...both). When its a natural progression, when it comes of evolution, or of inspiration, or of excitement, i think it works. if the eaters are ripe to "get it" of course. the worst meal of my life was in a restaurant not a million miles from you, in umbria, and by a chef who had been awarded so many different plaques, stars, awards, etc. the food was just ick. because it was prentious, silly, for the menu rather than the eating, in other words: all for show. i was thinking (with each more disastrous course): where is the italian soul in this food? your photo of those green gnocchi of verdi's, absolutely reeks of soul. on the other hand, i'm now chomping at the bit to taste jamon serrano with jamon powder sprinkled on top, as described by Fat Guy. Its all about good cooking, isn't it. and the passion behind it. I often feel like Babette of Babette's Feast: living in the english countryside as i do, no really good places to go and eat, and people around me not understanding or placing the same value on really good food as i do, or perhaps not having the ability to discern.... i might run away from home and show up on your doorstep, with my wooden spoon in hand... sincerely: if i could eat those gnocchi right this minute, and start off with that ham, i'd be happy. oh, and ripe tomatoes sprinkled with sea salt for dessert. or tiny tomatoes dipped in hot caramel (a trick that a Campanian chef tried one afternoon when we had too much leftover caramel from making a semifreddo. the tomatoes dipped in caramel were better than the semi-freddo. semi-freddo: traditional; tomatoes dipped in caramel: modern. its all about if a food is good (delicious) or not. and our ability to discern the difference...? big deliciously good vibes to you! marlena

bravo! i too love this book! a true labour of love..... and i'm proud of our own peppertrail..... marlena

carrot halva: sweetened, cooked shredded carrot with condensed milk, perfumed with cardomom and rose water. divine. and what about alain passard's famous tomato dessert? has anyone out there tasted it? (i've not managed to eat at arpege when it was on the menu). zucchini and raisin or dried cranberry teacake/loaf. yummy esp when sliced and toasted and of course, buttered.

just back from an ionian island where my breakfast every day was two tomatoes plus a little home-gathered sea salt. sauteed mushrooms with scrambled eggs. sauteed tomatoes with chunks of feta and eggs cooked, sunnyside-like amongst them; when the weather is warm i love cucumber with breakfast, like the aforementioned turkish salad, or like the israeli salads--actually finely chopped vegetables, dressed with evoo and vinegar or lemon, makes the most refreshing breakfast! in milan the other week i had a freshly made vegetable juice: tomatoes cucumbers celery arugula parsley spinach leeks oh it was wonderful! leftover tzadziki is fabulous too: cucumber and yogurt: what better way to start the day if you are a savoury person rather than a sweet one (i'm a savoury one, you see....). toasted sourdough topped with any leftover veg esp greens, or topped with feta and a big handful of herbs: cilantro, dill, tarragon, and a green onion and cucumber spear--one of my favourite breakfasts! and asparagus benedict--i celebrate spring this way every year. possibly the best dish in the world, if the asparagus is fab and the eggs and butter are of highest quality...... happy breakfast to all! marlena ps not to mention the fabulous veggies pickles i just ate at the breakfast buffet in beijing, or the breakfast soup of chickpeas topped with onions in the middle east.....i love breakfast!

“There is a saying that western culture is born of the relationship between man and woman, while Chinese culture has grown from the enjoyment of food”. This is from the preface of the book “Food and Chinese Culture”, in english by Long River Press, California, and Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House , 2005, and i am wondering what the origin of the saying is, and the author if indeed there is one. Is it a well-known saying (that i don't know)? i'll get in touch with the pub house and author if no one here knows, but i thought egullet would be quicker--i mean: egulleteers know EVERYTHING when it comes to food. x marlena

i know, my cousin just sent out invites to her son's bar mitzvah, and the stamp predictably enough, has his face on it! but seriously, though, i'm interested in finding out which countries honor their chefs in this way. i know of only one, and think its pretty wonderful as well as a reflection on the societhy in general's attitude to the importance of good food. and then...maybe I should have stamps made of me!!! maybe of my cat!! maybe of my daughters graduation from med school! the possibilities are endless.

I have just been made aware that China has recently issued a sheet of stamps with the faces of prominent chefs. Does anyone know of other country/countries that have done/do this? thank you marlena

stew a lotta peas with chopped onion and lotsa coarsely chopped garlic that has been softened in extra virgin. Add tomatoes--canned for this time of year, ripe and robust when the season hits. SEason to taste with salt, pepper, and maybe some fennel or thyme...then poach an egg per person into the pea and tomato sauce which should be nice and thick. If it isn't, add some tomato paste. eat it with rustic bread to scoop into the messy eggy-pea and tomato dish. this is one of my fave comfort dishes, brought home from a greek island. there is, however, one secret ingredient: cigarette ashes, dropped into the delicious brew by the village cook who taught me, smoking as she cooked and stirred.

I really liked Pure Lotus, a posh and stylish vegetarian restaurant with a fusion-ish slant. They have two locations, I went to the Holiday Inn Lido, a big shopping center with what I think is the best name for a bowling alley ever: Cosmic Bowling. The food was very creative and sometimes strange, but mostly very delicious. nice noodles with something hot in it and something preserved and sour as well. the dumplings were delish, the imitation pork spareribs very tasty, we fought for the last morsels, trying not to appear as greedy as we really were. tel: 87036668 64376288 the other restaurant that we returned to over and over again, was a simple, homey, and very inexpensive place out in men tou gou district (we were staying out there). the food was so extra-ordinary though the place looked very ordinary: the usual dishes, really wonderful duck, and i thought the fungus, served as a salad, was the best, just super! stir-fries of meat with chillies, a huge menu. i liked the cucumber salad with a dab of chile paste one day, a blob of deep fried chillies another. the pinyan pronounciation of the name is bai hua jia chang cai, and i've been told it means something like "many flowers, home-cooking, roast duck restaurant". during the day the manager speaks english, in the evening there was no one who did. but it didn't matter, as they have a nice menu with big photos, and anyway, almost everything was tasty so it didn't really matter what we got. go with a lot of people and get a lot of things! tel: 010 69826567 marlena

On a recent visit to Beijing I found lots of different beans in the local markets, and several times ate lovely dishes of a variety of vegetables and beans, usually quite saladlike, esp red kidney beans which were tender and sweet, and perhaps because we were eating with chopsticks, each bean was eaten separately, and each bean seemed a reason to rejoice! (they were memorable, delish).

haminados/beitzim/slow cooked eggs with ful..... be still my heart: so delicious! such perfection! the rich earthy brown beans, the lemony tahina, the blast of hot sauce (i always have to add at least a few drops), the perky onions, the rich grassy olive oil........i wish i didn't live so far away, i'd say: take me to your favourite spot for them! xx marlena

Thank you Fat Guy! I"m definitely very excited now! am looking forward to reading about the cooking process in Paula Wolfert's Slow Mediterranean Cooking, and also i'm looking forward to experimenting on my own, or being fed these famous eggs by someone else. it'll happen soon! After all, its spring and as you say: eggs are cheap! and PS: I love your phrase: "pure expression of egg". and Miriam, yes, eggs in their shells tucked into a cholent, or a hamim, is lovely; in the eastern lands they call it haminados, though i'm not sure they always cook it with beans. sometimes i've had them simply simmered in water with onion skins and coffee grounds to give the eggshells a brown colour; and i've had it with the shells of the cooked eggs crushed a bit to give an almost batik-like effect. delicious dipped in za'atar or cumin salt. Or coarsely chopped and drizzled with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and chopped onion. marlena