I have come to grips with the fact that I have a tendency toward the absurd when it comes to my ideas for food. I am talking about what I eat when I eat out, I am talking about things I’d like to prepare. It really started about a year ago. I am eating chicken wings at a place. they have like 20 something flavors and I start realizing…while there are twenty flavors it’s still only three or four flavor profiles. Your hot, sweet, tangy, and normal flavors. SO I just started thinking of these other sauces. One is real simple, I am not really sure why no one has done this. Sawmill style gravy or a nice gravy of some sort. We eat it on chicken anyway why not work up a version that would work with chicken wings. Then it was a prickly pear and habanero sauce. It’s interesting in that it would have an interesting fruitiness to it along with heat. Not a sweet heat, a fruity heat. which You see in Caribbean and Yucatan style food, but not a chicken wing place.

Another one I thought up but I actually have thought of a better place for is….Maple/Peanut Butter glaze for turkey. I think a thanksgiving turkey could really be made wonderful with a maple/peanut butter glaze. I mean it’s different. Plus those flavors would play really well with the cranberry as well as the sweet potatoes. It’s about a flow. I think sometimes turkey’s taste good but with the right glaze you can create a stream of flavor throughout the whole meal.

Some links for today
PB Loco
A site with gourmet peanut butter, which they refer to as adult peanut butter. Some really interesting flavors in their list as well.

Metromint
Okay don’t scoff at this immediately. Just hear me out on this. If you like drinking something with some flavor but you don’t want tea or a carbonated beverage, this stuff is wonderful. I have tried them all and really love the lemonmint and spearmint. They have added new flavors since I last checked the site. They are also offering a Sampler Pack of all six flavors. If you have any inkling of trying it, get the sampler.

Lastly Dale and Thomas popcorn, popcorn like in those tins but at a gourmet level with some wildly different flavors.

and here is an interesting podcast for foodies who are just looking for some goofy fun. It’s called Munchcast. I love it, just some interesting facts. Links to fun food sites, links to some online ordering places, and just some silliness. They also have a website with a post for each podcast munchcast.com.

Well that’s it for tonight, later all

Eat well, dine well, digest well, and you will live happy

I was going to talk about dinner. Okay I will, I had pizza.. It was from the mellow mushroom. A chicken Cordon Blue: chicken ham, mozerella, onions, roasted red peppers, mozzerella, with a olive oil garlic sauce. I had a rogue dead guy ale to drink. Thats a nice beer. I can tell my beer taste have changed since I last had it. When I tried it was one of the strongest tasting beers I had ever had. Now though it’s smooth and mellow. A couple of strong IPA, Barleywines, and others can really get those taste buds in line.

New Orleans Rum

That though is what I want to talk about. I love when I discover awesome things going on in my own state. I’m definitely going to try them out. I have had pepper vodka and hate the flavor. The cayenne flavor in that though makes me want to try it.

Some links for you guys

www.slowfood.com/

a wonderful movement that I think the world could really get behind

http://www.goatmilkicecream.com

a fantastic ice cream. Where as some goat milk products have a real tang to them, which I do love, La Loo does a fantastic job of working it out so you just get deliciousness in every bite.

http://www.chilimysoul.com/

I know you probably think it’s crazy to order chili online, but I have ordered stuff like this before now.

Well I had planned to add a twitter to this page, so that when I eat, I can put a little message up of what I am eating. And then later blog about it, but I can’t figure out how to put twitter on the page….i am not that smart.

Tonight was wonderful. I stopped at the local whole foods and picked up some eats. I got a cup of buffalo chili, baby arugala, thai sesame lime dressing, and braised Moroccan beef. Oh was all that tasty. I am really into salads recently. I was going to get more for this super salad but was strapped for money. I also wanted to try some butternut squash crab bisque…Oh did that smell good, but I am avoiding the milk and it was their.

As I right this I am enjoyed a nice beverage. It’s called Madrugada Obscura, a dark stout that is barrel aged in oak bottles. Its quite different. The bottle aging gives the beer a sour flavor such as you may find in a wine. This comes from the aging. I quite enjoy it. Oh that’s all for tonight.

The moroccan beef was delicious. Really fragrant and delicious. It was tender which is really good, cause I hate tough beef. The arugala was nutty and fresh tasting, with the dressing oh I could eat it for hours, if my stomach would hold all of it. Also buffalo chili, what can I say it’s chili and it’s buffalo, how could it now be delicious.

that’s all signing off.

As a lactose intolerant this is by far my new favorite ice cream
Laloo’s Goat’s Milk Ice Cream

That black mission fig is delicious and creamy. If you have any fear of goat milk, don’t. This stuff is so good you would never know it wasn’t cows milk.

The fig’s are delicious and sweet. The ice cream is actually creamier than most any I’ve had. If you not a big ice cream eater you might not appreciate it, but if you do like ice cream and would like an alternative, this is great. I give might stamp of approval. Also if you don’t like the fig they have plenty other flavors. I am going to try the pumpkin spice next.

Recently I have become a beer drinker not in that “woohoo go booze it up” way but in the tasting and trying many different styles and there are many. Some I have liked and some I didn’t. Some I didn’t like because there was not all that much flavor not cause they were cheap or nasty.

Oh there will be more soon….surreal appetite is going to be taking a new direction.
Hold on and enjoy

To put in to context what mexican cuisine would be without the aztecs, you must realize how much of modern mexican cuisine is based on traditional aztec ingredients. Imagine being at your favorite mexican eatery. Now imagine no tortilla chips, salsa, chili flavored foods, guacamole, mole sauce. That would put in to context mexican cuisine without the addition of the many varied new world ingredients. Of course if the europeans never found america you would not be eating mexican anyway. Yet, these ingredients are the small parts to what could be the most integral to all mexican ingredients, corn.

Corn was the base of aztec cuisine. It was held in high esteem by the women of the aztecs who would breath softly upon the corn before it was boiled. They used many varieties. As seen in my last post about Quetzalcoatl it was he who brought the corn to the aztec people. First he gave it to the gods and they feasted. It was stories like these which demonstrate the reverence the people had for this crop. They felt they must honor the very thing which the gods had feasted upon.

They celebrated corn in ways we just don’t really celebrate anything. Prayers for each new crop planted. Special care was placed upon the white corn that was grown on special irragation plots near the lake edge in the valley of mexico. Such as in this passage:
that of the irrigated lands,
that of the fields,
that of the chinampas…it is clear;
it is like a seashell,
very white;
it is like a crystal.
It is an ear of metal,
a green stone,
a bracelet ­ precious,
our flesh, our bones.
Sahagun, book 11, p.279
This was not the only corn grown besides the yellow variety. Corn was grown in many colors. Blue though was a beautiful gift from the gods as well. Its look gave life to this writing:
Its husk is dark blue.
It is wonderful,
marvelous,
coveted,
desirable…I honor it.
I desire it,
estem it.
I consider it with respect.
I prize it.
Sagun, Book ii, p.280

Corn was their life. It was given many forms. Drinks, gruel, popcorn, and tamales. Ah the tamale, the truest dish of the Aztec people. What we can order anywhere is infact a dish most revered by these people only seen at special feast and meals for the commoners. The Royalty and nobles ate them at any occasion like we do. We infact eat like aztec kings but when was the last time you had tamales like these described,
White tamales with beans forming a sea shell on top;
white tamales with maize grains thrown in;
…tamales of meat cooked with maize and yellow chile;
…Tamales made of maize flowers with ground amaranth seeds and cherries added;
…tamales made with honey.
Sahagun, 1979 pp. 37­38

I hope with this I have given you some food for thought. Just imagine the aztecs as they ate many of the various things we have eaten. Enjoy your night and see you tomorrow when we discuss the drinks of these people.

Tonight had Mole Enchiladas. That is by far one of my favorite things to eat. This is where my big history buff side comes in. I am always wondering how these dishes I like so much came about. So this brings me to my current subject, The Cuisine of Mexico.

Well we could just talk about the current state of mexican cooking. Sure, but that would not give us a historical context into which we understand the foods we eat. How we came to have nachos and chimichangas. Well I can tell you that part. Somebody in texas made that stuff up. Its based on some real mexican dishes but its actually very modern. Nachos were started in a ballpark. So thats that. What I am talking about is real mexican cuisine. To really understand where that comes from we need to take a look back, WAY BACK!!!

We need to go back to the cultures of mexico before the arrival of the spaniards. Here though a culinary history isn’t always completely available. While we can discuss the toltecs, the olmecs, and such other tribes, we really do not have a record of their cuisines. The aztecs on the other hand are a different story. Since they were the culture in power in the time of european arrival we do have records of their feast and their foods. This is where we shall begin our journey to the modern day.

Due come back tomorrow and we will learn of the food of the Aztecs. The food given to them by their gods, shared with their gods, and eaten by their gods.

…Quetzalcoatl changed himself into a black ant.
It is said that the red ant
guided Quetzalcoatl
to the foot of the Mountain
where they placed the corn.
Then Quetzalcoatl carried it
on his back to Tamoanchan.
Whereupon from it, the gods ate and ate
and later they put it into our mouths.
In Leon­Portilla, 1980,p.14

Appetite of body and mind

“To understand what is about to come in this journal we must first know where this journal is coming from”
James C. Edwards

Surreal
1. Having qualities attributed to or associated with surrealism: “Even with most facilities shut down… a few mavericks managed to slip into the park to sample the almost surreal emptiness before the shutdown ended.” (Peter H. King).
2. Having an oddly dreamlike quality.

Appetite
1. An instinctive physical desire, especially one for food or drink.
2. A strong wish or urge: an appetite for learning.

So with these two words, we can formulate an idea of what this journal will encompass. It will involve not just recipes and food discussions, but the human spirit and minds urge and want for these foods. Knowledge of the foods: where they have come from, what parts they have played in history, and where they may go in the future.

So open up your heart and mind not just your mouth and enjoy the beauty of a surreal appetite.