[Glasgow and the West Highland Rail]

go to arisaig, on the road to moror and mallaig and stay at any cheap bed and breakfast of which there are many (for awhile there was a government grant/subsidy programme if you opened your home to b and b, so everyone did). you might try the arisiag hotel but it is very expensive (the big fancy one, the one in the village is funky).

there is a little boat that goes to the island of eigg. its wild. pretty empty. wild horses frolic on the beaches. don't know how many ferries a week. there is also a little boat that comes back from the island that serves nothing but whiskey, a zillion kinds of it. you just sit on deck and drink...its just a little boat but it is one of the regular ferries.

its quirky up there, my inlaws come from up there. there are a lot of sheep there and well, i love sheep (check out my website tomorrow for an article wrote on my love of sheep if you like, are we allowed to post this stuff? here goes: http://marlenaspieler.com or go to san francisco chronicle website.

in mallaig there are so many sheep that the villagers had to start locking their doors so that sheep wouldn't just walk in and eat their house plants. i think there aren't so many sheep around now. there is a big fish packing place, though. moror is a beautiful beach, the beach that was used in the movie Local Hero.

[Where to eat in Paris in August?]

He said his 11 year old "complemented" the waiter on the food at Ducasse by telling him their fries were "as good as McDonald's!"

you know, i always hated mcdonalds french fries (too salty, too greasy, too thin, too heavy)...and then, just the fact that i don't like to support major big chains of any sort, etc if i can help it...so, can you imagine my amusement when i had lunch with several well-known french foodies and they discussed the merits of mcdonalds "frites"!

was i scandalized? you bet!

(and felt very affectionately towards my colleagues as well).

[Whitstable]

ah, whitstable, once i went for a walk along the peter cushing boardwalk and then went to sit at the peter cushing love seat by the sea. and who do you think was there? peter cushing of course!

he said: my wife and i used to love sitting here and gazing at the sea. and by the way my dear, have you had the oysters across the way (its right across from the whitstable oyster place).

when he found out my name (marlena) he said: ah, i knew a marlene once...marlene dietrich of course...he kissed my hand..he was so debonair and suave and sweet.he introduced us to the colonel who was the very picture of a major general or at least a colonel. later on, after peter died, the colonel snatched his body from the grave and it went missing for awhile. still, i'll always remember our afternoon with peter cushing in the setting sun of a winters afternoon in whitstable.

then we came back to london on the train, and there was a very drunk glaswegian man who kept saying "ssshhggarrrr" and pulling down his trousers (with nothing under them of course).

[Whitstable]

Re Canterbury: try Cafe Des Amis for lovely Mexican food,

REALLY?

i'm sceptical...but, what did they serve, details please? one of my supreme joys on in this hemisphere would be someone serving good mexican food. otherwise i'm gonna have to open that taqueria and man, i just don't have the energy or money...

[Loomi]

thanks, suvir!

i once spent an entire afternoon in foods of india, too. i was with the food writer julie sahni, and oh oh oh did we have fun going through each and every lentil and grain and spice discussing the good things we could do with it. also the owner, please forgive me i forget his name, is quite a character! it was like a whole wonderful lifetime spent in that shop that afternoon! and afterwards we went to idipi palace a few doors down for idli-sambaar and other goodies.

back to the loomi, though...the funny thing is that this dish is a culinary memory for me, a dish that i loved very very much when my former relatives made it, and i loved that time of my life. and afterwards...well, its not quite the same. i think i made it once, and never could bring myself to make it again. it was basically: lamb stewed to a shredded consistency, with red lentils, the loomi was simmered along with it, probably pricked to give off its tangy perfumed citrus flavour...they called it shami kebab, but the shami kebab i have eaten made by pakistanis is made into patties...though the inside does taste very similar to the shami that my family once made. sometimes i think i'll just go out and get a chunk of lamb and a bunch of other ingredients (I'm sure cilantro was an ingredient and even if it wasn't, it would be in my shami, big-time) and experiment---i already have a big bag of loomi just for the occasion. sometimes too i simmer a couple of loomi with chicken to make chicken soup; i add a little tomatoes, as well.

marlena

[Rosh Hashana]

thank you, Marie-Louise!

thank you very much for taking the time to tell me, it means a great deal.

x

marlena

[Gazpacho]

thanks, Jason! its good to be here.

after yesterdays gazpacho posting, our gazpacho-making chez spieler has cranked itself up a notch. today i've got italians coming to lunch and my menu has veered its way through the med as usual, but with temps hovering around a hundred in merry ol england, we're starting with gazpacho of course. got a good deal on cucumbers yesterday at the shops so i might be heading in a very cucumbered direction, come to think about it, maybe i'll go all tzadziki-ish instead.

menu so far: little bowl of appetizer marinated maroccan-ish carrots, the cucumber gazpacho/tzadziki, porchetta-ish/souvlaki-ish pork pieces with a thessalonika-style pilaff, arugula salad with truffled vinaigrette or a big cypriot salad, maybe green beans with tomatoes and olive oil and cumin, and a light dessert of elderflower gelee with blackberries that I picked last night from my neighbourhood blackberry patch. Then, a cheeseboard of welsh goat cheese, basque sheep cheese, and swiss mountain cheese with mebrillo and thin slices of pain poilane.

god i love to cook.

lugging shopping home is another thing though. which reminds me that one day not long ago, my husband was climbing the hill home after shopping in the once a month farmers market. he was struggling with his bags full of vegetables when a little old lady sided up to him and said: "here, dear, let me help you with your heavy bags. oh, don't you wish that we didn't have to eat? then we wouldn't need to do this!"

does that break your heart of what...........

[Rosh Hashana]

For Rosh Ha Shana I make a sephardic-inspired ginger-marinated two grape chicken. Lets see, it involves rubbing the chicken with a paste of fresh and dried ginger and also cinnamon, bound together with olive oil, a few spoonfulls of white wine or orange juice, and as always, garlic. Leave for an hour or so. or overnight. or ten minutes. its a forgiving bird.

then stuff its little insides with grapes, surround with a few whole garlic cloves, and roast that guy for about an hour. are you going to shul? set the timer. or do it more slowly. it is forgiving unless you are observant and do not do any cooking once dusk falls.

for the sauce remove chicken, skim fat from pan, add orange juice and/or dry white wine, chicken broth, do the deglaze thing, along with the grapes from the inside of chicken, and about a cup each of red grapes and green grapes (all seedless). Cook cook cook til intense and flavorful, balance flavors with honey and lemon.

just before serving, carve chickx and add another handful of each type of grape to sauce. Sprinkle with a whiff of cinnamon to refresh.

anyhow for exact amounts, the recipe is in my Jewish Heritage Cookbook, though the addition of orange juice to the sauce is a new one and you gotta do it, esp for Rosh Ha Shana. if you have the book just write it in. if anyone wants exact amounts i can make a link, or put it up as recipe of the month for my website. which i think i'll do anyhow now that i mention it.......

actually i serve this for pesach too. its so sweet and spicy and modernly jewish.......(my modernly jewish family finds heavy briskety things kind of scary.......where did i go wrong?)

[Israel - Restaurant Recommendations]

is abu hassan the place in jaffa that is sort of a crumbling cement hut, where the chickpeas and ful are cooked in copper vats in the back, and ladled into soup bowls and you scoop it all up, warm, with soft pita, sliced onions and a green zchug?

if so: divine!

[Gazpacho]

As soon as the temp climbs and the tomatoes ripen, i'm makin gazpacho. bread, no bread, cukes no cukes, hit of chile or gazpacho for wimps, its there for every night of the week until the heatwave lifts...........

here is a light one without bread but with a hit of both dried coriander and cilantro.......i ran it in my san francisco chronicle column Roving Feasts, about 2 weeks ago. to access it visit:

http://marlenaspieler.com and click on to July 30, 2003 or go directly to sfgate.com and navigate your way to the wednesday food section archives, and again, find your way to july 30th.

actually, i'm looking for something to make for sunday lunch guests tomorrow.....gazpacho sounds just the thing. i'm also thinking of doing a porchetta just for the hell of it, served with wedges of raw fennel they way they do in the mountains of sardinia. just a though..........

[Loomi]

Foods of India on lexington is a wonderful store!

i get my loomi wherever i can find it, so to speak: london, california, and foods of india! i had former inlaws who used it to simmer with lamb and lentils. yum.

sad note: on my last trip to kaluystans i bought a bag of pozole and when i got it home, little worms were wriggling about the package. the time before it was.....i think rice. anyhow something grainy. i still love the place, but won't be buying grains etc there if foods of india has it instead!

[Loomi]

Foods of India on lexington is a wonderful store!

i get my loomi wherever i can find it, so to speak: london, california, and foods of india! i had former inlaws who used it to simmer with lamb and lentils. yum.

sad note: on my last trip to kaluystans i bought a bag of pozole and when i got it home, little worms were wriggling about the package. the time before it was.....i think rice. anyhow something grainy. i still love the place, but won't be buying grains etc there if foods of india has it instead!

[Greek V Turkish Food]

Having lived on the island of Crete and visited different parts of Greece and Cyprus, I am a huge enthusiast of Greek food and despair of those who distain it, and denigrate it in favour of Turkish food which is also delicous and varied and wonderful and I am a huge enthusiast of. Both cuisines are similar and different, share the vegetables and fruits that grow in the area, and share a Byzantine heritage. But they are also so very different from each other.........

I'd like to say, however, that i think The Real Greek is the most overrated greek restaurant in london. and the real greek souvlaki outpost expensive with very rude and un-knowledgable waiting staff.

Vrisaki, in North London is more real, and you'll be surrounded by greeks, lebanese, israelis, eygptians, etc instead of yuppies. go. eat. drink. break a few plates.

[Mexican]

i too have considered opening a taqueria in london, something on the order of the simple places in san francisco: good, straightforward, authentic (-ish) and delicious (very). the huge expensive always convinces me against it.

however, i'm going to be doing a mexican workshop or evening with Slow Food (Britain). venue to be in london. watch this space!

ai carumba!

[Mexican]

on a completely different subject, foodwise, but not heatwise, today was so hot here in the south of britain that i fried an egg on the sidewalk. what do you think of that. and whats more, the yolk got solid, too.

I think that the British are strangely obsessed with frying eggs on side walks and car bonnets, when people that actually live in hot climates sensibly stay indoors and leave their eggs in peace (piece?).

i know, adam, its mad isn't it! when i was a californian and grew up in the hot hot hot central valley where my parents still live and where they mutter little noises such as : well, its getting a bit warm when the thermometer hovers around 110F which is does every summer. anyhow anyhow, i never cooked an egg on the sidewalk then.

here i am in heatwave britain and not only have i cooked an egg on the sidewalk, but today i'm making toast in the back garden! (the thermometer hit 130F in the sun, and i'm telling you, the toast is looking nice and crispy).

[Worst meal at someone's home - Part 1]

As an accompaniment, there's derma (which is literally stuffed intestine, but in this case it has been pulled out of its casing - its spices, fat, and flour) mixed with overcooked tasteless pasta.

but my dear, this stuff known as derma is the wonderful delicacy known as kishke! of course, to mix it with pasta, let alone tasteless pasta, should be worthy of several years in jail at the least. kishke is a very very very heavy substance, and combined with tasteless pasta could well be lethal. eat it roasted with a bit of brisket and oy: so delish!

my husband, who isn't even jewish, has adopted kishke as his middle name. we had a cute kishke experience once, but i won't take the time to go in to it this moment. note that i said cute, not naughty as could perhaps be inferred........with the shape of the kishke and all.........

[The Greek Islands]

varoulko is sort of modern greek. some things delicious and pared down to essentials, but other things a bit overworked in an effort to be more, well, maybe european? had a soup of asparagus and a white fish that was divine, and also a sea bass carpaccio that was beautiful..............but other than that.......perhaps its being a visitor that makes me want to go someplace utterly greek, a little crazy, lots of music and dripping in olive oil, that sort of thing. varoulko is dignified.

oh, but wait: i ate a meal elsewhere that the chef, whats his name, chris......veneris.....? ( i could be wrong on this, but think its right) prepared, and it was exquisite, full of traditional flavours done in a modern lightened, very straightforward way.........

[Mexican]

and don't even ask about southsea...........

I have to ask! Was it Fistful of Tacos? Legendary for selling cheap margheritas to sixth formers... not so great when I tried to 'rediscover my youth' and buy food as well...

it was some dive that my brother-in-law thought looked good, never mind that I have written lets see, a few books on mexican food and have been known to throw tamale-making parties just for the hell of it (and making a big batch of tamales is a certain kind of hell, but worth it). anyhow, your basic crap de los crap, leathery flour tortillas, horrible fajitas of everything except what a fajita originally was (the skirt of meat over the cattle's stomach), salsa that is sweet and well, not to overuse the word horrible, but well, why waste precious brain space on a hot day like today thinking of adjectives to describe disgusting food?

i once ate a chicken dish in london at one of the restaurants said to be okay; it wasn't. the chicken was in a chocolate sauce, but not a mole chocolate sauce, more a cadbury's chocolate sauce. and the chicken itself was wooly and weird as if it had been marinated in a meat tenderizer which had begun to disintegrate the creature.

on a completely different subject, foodwise, but not heatwise, today was so hot here in the south of britain that i fried an egg on the sidewalk. what do you think of that. and whats more, the yolk got solid, too.

[Mexican]

try the cool chile company, though i believe they are the company who sell their chiles at the borough market.

for fresh, including tomatillos, try micheal michaud whose company is called peppers by post. he's in the southwest somewhere......if you have no luck looking him up, ring the food programme or vegtalk on bbc radio 4 as they'll have his details on their files. his tomatillos are great but expensive. he also does poblano and anaheim chillies among others. i have found poblanos and anaheims at harrods in the past but haven't looked in a long while.

i truly do not thing that any restaurant in britain serves good mexican food. in fact, i don't know of any restaurant in europe that serves good mexican food, but i can assure you that i've had some really really horrible mexican food in london. and don't even ask about southsea...........

[The Greek Islands]

if you'll be in athens for a sunday, be sure to go to the street of souvlaki, whose name i forget but perhaps someone else knows it. not far from the plaka, on sundays the traffic is stopped and the street fills up with little wax-cloth covered tables and chairs, its crowded and chaotic, and the souvlaki is divine, all sizzling lamb fat and chopped onions. you can try to order exactly what you want, but the waiter will look at you and say something to the effect of: i think, yes, grilled tomatoes to go with the souvlaki, what about a salad, no forget the peppers today, and beer, definately, its a hot day! tons of wonderful musicians, accordionists, etc, making their way around the tables (i love this kind of stuff). big souvlaki lunch with salad, beer, etc costs about 12 euros.

as i live in london, i am thinking of catching an easy jet one sunday and just going to athens for a souvlaki lunch. if anyone wants to join me..........probably cost us less than sunday lunch in london!

also, Diane kochilas is a great resource for all things greek. she runs a cooking school on the island of icaria in the summer but not, alas, in the autumn. her new book on meze is out soon, perhaps now!