Month: March 2009

Let The Games Begin

marchmad09

In honor of the kickoff of March Madness today, I donned my appropriate swag. The Rector dudes are participating in the bracket wars on the NYTimes site in the “HilltopGang” Group — email me if you want to join (this year you have to be “invited” from the program to join). Of course, I picked Duke to go all the way, although I’m aware that they’re “not big enough down low” and depend too much on three-point shots to win it all, but Coach K just won the Olympic gold medal with a smallish team, so I figure he knows what he’s doing. And the Big East teams have been beating each other up, North Carolina’s point guard is injured, Memphis has gotten fat on marchmallows in their conference, so it’s not like the four headed monster of top seeds that stormed the Final Four last year. Enjoy the show and play-along if you can.

Bulldog Bites

a_day_at_el_bulliFor Christmas Mom and Dad gave me “A Day at el Bulli” which is a large and beautiful book illustrating (in gorgeous full page color photographs) just what the title says, from dawn over the Mediteranean to early the next morning when the trash is put in the dumpster. Included are details of the entire menu from their 2008 season including recipes with ingredients.

Stepping back a bit for those who aren’t familiar with el Bulli, it’s a small restaurant on the Catalan coast about two hours north of Barcelona, Spain co-owned and directed by chef Ferran Adrià (who also happens to be just about my age…). Almost single-handedly chef Adrià and his restaurant are responsible for the lastest haute cuisine trend of serving food in foams and gels and in many other unfamiliar forms.

These dishes don’t lend themselves to everyday cooking, but the ideas behind them do inspire many dishes, and putting them together is something that could be done for a special occasion. One weekend in January Alison and I invited a few people over to our (then) construction site of a home for dinner, and the opportunity to try out the book as a cookbook presented itself.

It began with a sketch on paper, as Señor Adrià seems to do according to the book:
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