marlena spieler

its grey-green, pureed but very vegetal. i once ate an artichoke soup at Olives in Las Vegas. it was a food writers gathering, and the course in question was shellfish which i am allergic to. So todd english, the chef-owner said: 'i'll make you something special.' so he made artichoke soup, not a pureed artichoke soup but one with slices of artichokes in it, and a lemony base. it was yummy. i think it might have had cepes in it...... marlena

Irish Cream, thanks for putting the link to your post-greece blog, what a wonderful and evocative visit to greece that little several minute visit is! i mean, talk about being there! wonderful. i'm reminded of a british food writer who specializes in greek food and fancies herself more of an expert than she really is (do we want initials?) : not long ago she harrangued me in public about how i knew nothing about greece or food in greece, and to prove it she cited the fact that no one any longer has you go into the kitchens to point to what you want rather than order it from a menu. 'those days are over!' she exclaimed. it made me wonder if it wasn't HER who hadn't been there in a while. i don't think that the greeks (or the turks,either) will ever stop pointing out their cooking foods in the kitchen, though there certainly are more menus around than there were in the old days, and more people (ie waitstaff) speaking english too. but not off the beaten track, and sometimes not on it, either! looking at your blog makes me want to go back to greece, and its only been a week or so since i left! meanwhile, i just might whip up some dolmathes tonight. i have the vineleaves...... x marlena

mochihead: hope to see you with those macadamias, and meanwhile, keep up your sheep and goat speaking, you never know when it will come in handy! Meanwhile, i've been over visiting Helens blog and am reminded of shiratiki, and how much i fell in love with a shiratiki in san francisco that was made from yam and tofu! i just loved it! one night i made a soup using both fat udon and thin yam-tofu shiratiki, with baby bak choy, and diced tofu, and i think some white miso too. soooooo umami. i'm a slut for umami! x marlena

Wonderful question, Helen. My US food history and UK present food environment are not as different as your Western history and Eastern food environment, but it is something i think about. i've lived in the Uk for over 18 years now. when we first moved here the food scene was very different. at first my daughter and i tried to eat more natively, but we found much of the food too heavy for our tastes and we reverted to our lighter california and mediterranean fare. we were very shocked at what the children were eating for lunch at her school! (bag of crisps, chocolate bar, can of fizzy drink. standard lunch). once my daughter brought a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on whole wheat, for lunch, and her friends were very interested: we've seen it on television and in the movies, but never in person, they all exclaimed at her pb and j! they loved her lunches and soon i was packing tacos, pita-wiches, salad nicoises, veggies with dips, stuffed grapeleaves, and all sorts of things that are more of the british eating habits these days than they were then. when i spend time in the usa i realize how european i've become in my eating habits. i don't like snack foods, seldom buy anything snacky either savoury or sweet, cookie or cracker, unless its a nostalgia thing. american restaurant portions are too large. but then eating in the uk is never very reliably good. i hate the flavour of bad fats that permeates even today, too much of the food in eating venues. in fact, i don't like to eat much in uk restaurants as the service thing is weird, and the food is not reliable. packaged food, including ready meals, is considered a normal thing in the uk. supermarkets, even waitrose, have rows of them for sale. have you ever tasted these things? i did a bbc radio tasting for them, and even the highest end ones were awful. about the only good thing you could say about our selection was that they weren't horrible. that was the best thing and that was only one or two meals. i like a much more ethnic way of eating than my surrounding environment, and i mean: i like some of the american things i grew up with, and my own eastern european jewish thing. i often feel as if i'm a traitor when i cook my homey comfort foods. my husband is never happy, but i feel as if he's afraid of the neighbours. the neighbours are all very nice, but would never ever want to try my food. people--and i mean especially my professional colleagues in the food bizz--love to put down american food, and i get very tired of hearing about it. very very tired. they'll eat the stuff but complain because its american! my sandwiches american style are just looked at as if they are rather dirty, in that they are filled so generously, and with mayonaise rather than butter (or marg). still, when anyone bites into my tuna they come back for more, dispite any culture claims they are holding on to. in san francisco where i live my alternative life, EVERYBODY wants to talk about food and taste whatever i'm making! here, too often its considered bad manners to mention the food--until recent years that was the accepted manners: that its impolite to mention the food, or to praise it, while you're eating. but i'm always surprised at things in america too: people are terrified of cheese! terrified of butter! so many people won't eat duck, or lamb! they eat their meat too well done (i must be french in that regards: rare is tastiest, juiciest, well done is tough and sad). they have their tastes molded by chain restaurant and packaged products, ick. sometimes i think everything tastes too sweet, and that american cooking schools are turning out chefs and teachers who start all recipes by caramelzing onions, and not everything needs to start with caramelized onions! and i love eating cheese at the end of a meal; my american friends do try but don't find it a natural progression. britain has brilliant cheeses and isn't afraid to eat them! i think that living in europe--and by that i mean the continent--my food gets streamlined in essence and not bogged down by too many un-necessaries. in america people can add too many ingredients to things and the flavours get muddled. and i don't even want to comment about cooking in britain because if i do, i'll get a whole slew of british egulleteers complaining, regardless of what i say and how true it is. in both the uk and usa people get a funny idea as to what is the correct way to make or eat certain foreign foods (but that is probably true all over the world. i've seen some weird california specialities in europe, but mostly in the uk) (okay this is too awful not to share: in tesco magazine a few years ago a well known food writer ran a recipe of california food and included this speciality: a hot waffle, topped with caesar salad, maple syrup over this, and bacon, and crumbled blue cheese too(maybe gorgonzola? i forget). (this was an editor who scoffed at using me for a california story. can you imagine how i feel about this stuff?) is it any wonder why ordinary people who read these publications think that california/usa food is awful? so, yes, i do feel a rather different person from either of my cooking environments. and i really feel like a foreign creature when i'm cooking in greece, or france, or italy.....but not in a bad way, in a good way......... i carry with me all of these layers of cooking, of food styles, and i feel very enriched by them, and unique because of it. oh, i could rant on forever. and i could be much less discrete too. but instead. i think: hot chocolate. the weather is so cold. and i'm trying to get up the courage to walk the hour up the hill to the swimming pool. and then the hour back. but it will be so good for me. and think of how delicious dinner will taste afterwards! marlena

when my daughter was growing up i was a single mother and working very very hard to support us. for much of this i had a catering business, and she would come along to help. i'd set her up in a corner of the kitchen, and she'd play with her dolls. later she helped me doing service, food prep, etc. when she was 10 she asked me if she could wear a white blouse and black skirt and join the waitstaff. when she was 11 she said: i want to be a caterer when i grow up. when she was 12, she said: you know, you work very hard for little money. your clients drive you nuts and dont treat you with respect. and they get these nice parties and they have nice houses too. and they get weekends off! what do they do for a living? when she was 12 and a half she said: i want to be a doctor and got serious with her studies. roll on down to the present day. she is a doctor in manhattan, has a gift for it, loves her job, loves her patients, and loves all the restaurants she can afford to go to! the only moral is that life working in the kitchen was harder than she expected, and she got it over with early on in her life. it wasn't for her, so she forced herself to work harder in school to do something that WAS for her. on the other hand, the kitchen is where some people are meant to be! your daughter could be one of them. she's very young and should be exposed to many different types of foodie experiences so she can figure the right direction to take. having french as her almost maman tongue will be a huge help, i would expect. France still has the passion for good food that only france has........ marlena

i hope you're feeling better soon, helen. this generous glimpse into your family life has taught me--us all--so much. like the others, i'm going to need to visit the japan section of egullet more often! marlena

I feel very moved watching Son 1 do his caligraphy! we don't have the same connections to our culture in the us/uk any longer, or did we ever have such a connection to an artform such as caligraphy? marlena

Coffee time! Greek coffee, middle eastern style with a couple of cardomom seeds added. oh, the fragrance, the fragrance!

ps: my husband wants you to know that in his humble opinion one of the secrets is to add brandy butter melting in, but then melting brandy butter onto anything is his basic culinary idea of heaven. marlena

I bet you're right: its the war! my parisian friend also eschews beetroot, saying that they served it as school dinners in the post-war 50s and 60s and it was so disgusting that she has a hard time biting into it now! I love turnip tops! We don't usually see the little bunches of baby artichokes here in britain, but then perhaps somewhere they are available. in california they are sold in boxes, not the oh so charming little bouquets! artichoke heart with slivers of steak and fettucine likes soooo good! Waitrose awaits your visit eagerly! you've got to buy cheeses here in britain; go to neals yard near borough market. neals yard has a brilliant array of english cheeses. but in a pinch waitrose is pretty darned good, and probably one near where you'll be! i love british cheeses too! wales is doing some fabulous goats cheeses. and i'm enamoured of oxford blue. and montgomery cheddar. a bientot! marlena

i'm coming, i'm coming, what has taken me so long! I can smell the bread now, and the croissants.......maybe i should bring some butter from here? man, bay bread breads haunt me they really do. i'm coming!!!!!! too bad i don't live in the neighbourhood any more; now i stay with my step daughter who lives in glen park. really wonderful croissants, oh they are great without butter but with butter i could faint. a dab of jam towards the end when i've returned to some composure. reminds me of a funny story. a friend lives on paris' ile st louis and i was visiting him, staying for a few days. the first night he says: what would you like for breakfast? i told him i like to eat raw garlic on rustic toast for breakfast, and/or raw onions. he looked at me like maybe i was joking, didn't i have a great sense of humor! then he said: okay i'll get croissants! (and he did, and oh his local croissants are some of the best on this planet). x x marlena

i'm not a creature of habits, except i do like the habit of a couple of meals (at least) during the day/night. what i snack on depends on the weather and on how physical i am and on whether i'm really hungry or just bored/tantalized/piggish. i'm not a big snacker, though there is the tasting that goes on when i'm testing recipes, which happens a lot, so could be considered a snack. that could be anything at all! when the weather is hot, i love to snack on persian cucumbers: so small and crisp and flavourful! cherry tomatoes! all year long we like to pick up yellow and red peppers and eat them as if they are fruit, they are so sweet and juicy. sometimes i pack them for long plane rides as they are so refreshing and rehydrating and everything on these long flights is so yucky to eat. unless you get bumped up to business and even then its just not too appetizing except that cheese and fruit selection. sometimes i like--avert your eyes all who have good taste and sensitive stomachs: a cold leftover boiled potato topped with raw onion, ketchup, mustard, and a chunk of sharp cheddar cheese. its very trashy and i have to be in the right mood, but it can hit any time of day or night. don't tell anyone. we might munch on nuts, esp roasted peanuts. i might make a fruit/vegetable/herb smoothie in the summer, hot chocolate in the winter. but i'm more a little plate of food person than a snacker. we had a wonderful snack/tidbits with drinks in zakynthose before we left: a fresh cheese that has no name, but would be something between a minouri and queso fresco/fresh pecorino. cut into bite sized pieces. with a pile of hiromeri, which is the island version of prosciutto, but heavily herbed and very salty, cut into paper thin wafers. you eat a little piece of that with the bland salt-free cheese and sooooo good. the cocktails was a mixture of tsipouro (an unsweet ouzo, and it was home-distilled) mixed with a mandarin orange liqueur and a squirt of lemon. ice cubes. now that was a SNACK! if either of us is in the mood for snacking, no leftover is safe in the kitchen. but the truth is that we mostly like to snack on fruit. but last nights midnight snack (after our abstemious and refreshing fruit salad dinner) was a grilled cheese sandwich! whole wheat bread, mature cheddar, plain for husband, and bransten pickle for me (the new, spicy kind, i even like it better than the original!). for awhile last year husband and i both got a bad middle of the night snacking thing going on and we'd eat the leftovers we put aside so virtuously at dinnertime. but we've both gotten over it. it seemed so.....slatternly to me. and also, not very social (we never got up together). it was a solitary in the kitchen middle of the night thing, the food cold not reheated. and we were piling on quite a few calories this way too! now the only thing i really like cold and eaten in those circumstances is lasagne. but we won't go there, not right yet, anyhow. oh, i could go on, but i've got to go rustle up some breakfast. i'm thinking that i just might fry one of those organic free range eggs--they're a week or so old now, we brought them back from maria's chickens in greece, but i'm sure they are wonderful. once our friends brought us about 3 dozen eggs from maria, and they lasted and lasted and lasted. we could only eat so many eggs at a time! anyhow, i think it will be eggs, fried in sotiris' olive oil, with tassia's last chunk of wholegrain levain bread. the olive oil seeps in to the bread, i cut up all the egg on my plate, and eat it in bites of oil-dipped bread, runny yolk egg. yep. thats breakfast. and i wonder if there is any leftover fruit salad from last night.......oh, i forgot to mention: i like a couple of whole raw green onions to munch on alongside my olive oil-egg. perfection.

I LOVE em! I was scandalized a year or so ago when i was doing a cooking appearance at a famous place (starts with a C and is in napa) and my designated assistant (whose credentials were that she had assisted a big shot cooking teacher in france, initials a w) anyhow we're going over the organization and prep on the phone. one of the dishes was a braised artichoke dish, you pare the artichokes of their thorny leaves, cook the chokes in olive oil, lemon, white white, garlic, parsley. anyhow i was scandalized because when i said to put the trimmed stems into the pile of artichokes to use, she refused! and haughtily informed me that she had never eaten an artichoke stem, had no intention of doing so and we would not be doing so at C. she said that in her training at a w they didn't use the stems, she had never heard of anything like it! (what a great assistant, eh!). so i had to sadly not use the stems, i would have packed them all off in a doggie bag for myself if they had kept them when they were doing prep but they chucked em in the bin before i arrived in the morning! funnily, i was speaking to a friend who does cooking tours/classes in paris and she said: of course we do not eat the stems! so maybe its not such a scandalous thing, more a geographical thing. but i mean, you're assisting someone and they want the artichoke stems! please. give her the damned stems! i'm thinking that she felt it would reflect badly on her. but they're as good as the heart, the dear little things. Tell me, do you ever make artichoke soup? cook it with stock, thicken it with potato, and melt a pat of butter on it when you serve. and be sure you add garlic to the pot!

Yeah, and you're so right! thanks! Marlena

Helen, do you get artichokes in Japan? How much do they cost and what kinds? do you use them in any japanese-y way? tempura is the obvious choice. what about with udon? or.......? In California artichokes are a dime a dozen (well, close to it). In the UK at my local Waitrose they can cost up to L3.50 gb pounds each (about 6 usa dollars). in greece they cost virtually nothing, and in france very reasonable. In new york city they can cost 2-3 dollars. when i visit my daughter in new york via california you can bet i travel with a suitcase full of artichokes. Trader Joes sells the hearts for 1.99 a big box! sometimes i overwhelm her with chokes and then poor thing, she has to cook, cook, cook to get rid of the glut of artichokes! even so, i know she loves them so! Marlena

artichoke hearts stuffed with goats cheese and crumbed on the outside then deep fried (in olive oil, of course). you'll whimper, its so good.

i DIDN'T know that Bette Davis line!!!!! you have enriched my life enormously with it! (and try chicken after artichokes, or at the same time. totally awesome! my standard indoors picnic with small children is this: spread a blanket or newspaper on the floor, plop down a storebought delicious room temperature roasted chicken, and a bowl of hot boiled artichokes. Add an empty bowl for the chewed on leaves and bones, and a jar of mayonaise. oh if you want to get fancy, i add capers, lemon juice and a little olive oil to mine. eat artichokes, chicken, artichokes, chicken, you gotta do it all with your hands, and chew on those bones and the meat is so sweet after the artichokes!). i guess you could do this as an outdoor picnic but 1. you have to take the stuff outside, and 2. if other people can see you, you can't act as wacky and wild. and kids get distracted by other things like nature. you want them in an artichoke frenzy, though i don't know exactly why. more fun i guess. i like being in an artichoke frenzy). x marlena ps seriously, it has a chemical that enhances the flavour of other foods, but tends to destroy the flavour of wine. ......tends to, but not always.

he did the same thing when we were kids,he always ate his leaves and then cut the heart into two, one half for my brother and one half for me. sometimes my mother got the heart instead, it all depended on what else we were eating. my mother and i were keenest for the heart. i had forgotten this until recently when after what is pretty much a lifetime, i was eating artichokes with my parents. my mother had been seriously ill and i thought that some artichoke would make her happy (it did). i couldn't believe it when my dad gave us the heart, cut into two halves. i wanted to cry, it was happy, it was sad, it was more artichoke! x marlena

No, don't stop! Don't stop! what about artichoke saganaki! enough to make me lick the whole inside of my own mouth and suck on my teeth , and don't even ask me how i did it when my tongue seemed to be busy with the eating part. marlena

Should we do an egullet fund raiser a la the british movie Calendar Girls? we could each have a month and pose naked with artichokes in strategic places! and swisskaese, when you roll around, you can wear protection from the spiky thorny little chokes, and revel in the glory of your nakedness with artichokes! omigod what do that put in those things! i'm on an artichoke high. and i'm just thinking about them, imagine what it would be like if i was actually eating one!

Yes, the pub is still there, The Sussex Arms, and your husband knows a good place when he finds it! its atmospheric, full of real ale, and also full of sausages! its really cozy, a traditional 18th century public house and famous for its over 50 varieties of sausages, most of which are delicious (i'm still eating my way through the menu.....). I went last new years day with my very best friends one of whom is 80 and the other 87, they more fun than anyone else i know in the area, possibly other areas as well. we ate sausages, we drank beer, man those ladies can eat and drink! they both lived in different parts of the world, last days of the raj and all, and are simply the sparkiest, up-for-it of any of my friends. forget wanting to be like them with i grow up, i want to be like them NOW! Marlena ps: the other person who i think is the sparkiest best energy and full of energy person i know, is also in this area: Marguerite Patten, who is a legendary food figure in the UK, and well, she is a gem of a person. being with her is a real tonic. she wrote to me at christmas that she 'thoroughly recommends being (age) ninety': is that a good attitude or what!

You are not alone! We're there with you...... personally, i got a big fat artichoke monkey on my back! Marlena

hathor and Mochihead: artichoke flakes for breakfast sound very sensible. i don't see a time of day that artichokes wouldn't be perfection--i spent a whole week in barcelona once eating fried artichokes for breakfast from a tapas bar in la boqueria (el quim de la boqueria). i had to 'wash it down' (oh how i hate that expression!) with a good strong shot of something good and strong. its gotta be paint-thinner-strong, otherwise all the fried stuff just gets you sluggish, and can clog your spirit for the entire day. once the drink gets you cleared out, you can proceed on to the next meal! artichokes are meant to be very good for the whole system. and as my disgruntled reader who complained because i didn't use enough butter, says, butter is a health food! so perhaps a little melted butter swimming in that artichoke's heart would be even healthier! i was just visiting my family and they were dipping artichoke hearts into melted margarine. i wanted to weep. i ate it with plain lemon juice instead, and a little coarse sea salt that i had to smuggle to the table in my pocket. my dad has the most lovable trait you can imagine: he adores eating the artichokes leaves, but doesn't like the heart. is he the best person to eat a whole artichoke with or what! x marlena ps: Hathor you are so right about not knowing where stuff is. just this morning i was in a snit over a book that i thought was on my shelf, and now i think its in san francisco. i tend to keep my work stuff together by emailing stuff in progress to myself, and then finishing up the work and sending it off, or working on it, as is needed.

have I mentioned here how I feel about artichokes?????? (I LOVE em!). once had a whole artichoke meal, and wish i could do that here where i live. but most of the people i know here are afraid of or have never eaten, artichokes. when i had a radio programme on LBC i did a whole programme once feeding artichokes (with a fabulous garlicky skorthalia to which i added a little yogurt) to the whole staff of producers etc. most of them--dare i say all of them?--had never eaten an artichoke before!!!!! did you know that marilyn monroe was miss artichoke (watsonville california) in 1947. it was noted that she loved to eat artichokes too, or that was what she said. and i read. ate some good artichokes last week in greece. wild artichokes are sooooooo the best. have you ever eaten them wild? actually each and every type of artichoke i've ever eaten has been my favourite. i want to come to your artichoke festival! x marlena

wonderful idea too! i hadn't thought of it, must email it in. i'm a total empanada hound. i have a cousin who lived in argentina and uraguay and bolivia, and made such good empanadas. i must remember to ask her to make some for us next visit. i love the aniseed in the dough, and the crisp/sweet quality too. Marlena