Nasturtium shots

June 14, 2007

A toast, “To a nasturtium leaf holding a pearl of vodka”

What a pretty shot. The nasturtium leaf tastes like horseradish and is a perfect pallet cleanser after the wodka di buffalo. And because it’s just a drop, you can keep on drinkin’.

debra at 8:58 | Comments (5) | post to del.icio.us

Butternut Update
week 23

June 11, 2007

The first butternut squash flower in full bloom

This week the butternut squash settled into their new mid-living room location and I started to wonder about their lack of contact with actual sunshine. I always thought of my house as light-filled, especially during the 8 month-long Dutch winter, when the trees are bare and my apartment on the 3rd floor is blindingly well-lit during the 6 hours of sun we have up here in the Polar Circle. The sun hits the water and my house is all a-dazzle with reflected light, animations on the ceiling and walls.

But in week 23, the effects of moving the plants just 1 metre away from the windows and into the living room are enormous. The squash, pumpkin and calabash are effectively always in the shade and the leaves of the butternut almost never get actual sunlight. Consequently, they’re not growing very vigorously, compared to outdoor growth. I had to move the pumpkin and calabash back into the kitchen to get some big time sun-dosing. It’s a pain in the ass, those big tubs taking up space. Whatevs. Beauty is suffering.

Calabash and pumpkin in the kitchen doing much better thanks to contact with actual sunlight. I know, I need to wash my windows.

Flower buds have started forming and although I can’t tell which ones are male and which ones female, (the female being the only fruit-bearing ones) I’m counting about 8 buds per plant. Yesterday KvR convinced me it was OK to cut a few off, to encourage the others to thrive even more. I’m afraid to do so because it doesn’t feel that abundant and because I’ve never done this in an outdoor garden situation.

The beginnings of a living room divider that will soon arch over the couch and form a guest room.

Growing indoors is in no way as satisfying as growing outdoors. In the Occitanian Kitchen Garden it seems like you can watch the squash grow. But I’m still enjoying endlessly fussing with the plants and my guests are completely mesmerised by the large plant life in the living room. We’re all fantasizing that there will be squash archways (squarshways?) forming a little guest room around the couch.

debra at 12:19 | Comments (0) | post to del.icio.us

Wonderfood in Arnhem

June 8, 2007

Rosemary and violet candy by Katja Gruijters, photo by Annemarieke vd Broek used entirely with permission

Last Saturday I was invited to experience the opening dinner of Dudok in Wonderfood. Café Dudok is a very forward thinking brasserie that during the Arnhem Fashion Biennial participates in the city-wide embrace of design and fashion. Dudok doesn’t just pull out all the stops for ‘fashion month’ either, they do this several times a year. It’s rare and commendable that a classical café/bar is so devoted to regularly breathing fresh life into their venue, that they make it a habit of dispensing with the classical grand café atmosphere and cuisine. They change their menu, train the kitchen staff to adapt, and alter the interior and service. It’s as if Dudok actually believes that rot about collaborating with designers!

Coreander candies by Katja Gruijters, photo by Annemarieke vd Broek used entirely with permission

This year the theme of the fashion biennial is ‘happy’ (no comment, I’m a bitch) and designer Katja Gruijters was called upon to design the ‘food concept’ that became Wonderfood.

Okay, I’ll drink you. I’ll drink you up.

Without giving away any secrets, and there are secrets worth keeping, I can tell you a bit about a menu which will put your mind to wondering, in the most positive sense of the word. It’s an embellished 3-course menu fixe with options for peskies and vegetarians. I had the vegetarian menu because this year I’m making something of a career of lording my ethical superiority over all of the omnivores I know. From a culinary standpoint, vegetarians are well aware that the veg-option is rarely the most delicious, but because I’ve been a porkatarian for so long I feel qualified to say that the Wonderfood lacto-ovo mains is wing-flapping delicious, non, je ne regrette rien!

I can go on about one flavour or another, and say that this was great or that was great, but what I actually really liked is that Wonderfood worked so harmoniously within the context of a café that also wants to put on its best Beligan designer outfit for fashion month. This is the success, that the dinner, the menu, even the place settings, appropriately position Dudok as a platform within the Biennial. Bravo.

Raspy…

Maybe the wonder in wonderfood stands not so much for wonderment as wondering. And though it would be unfair to compare this menu to a Michellin-starred dinner, it is fabulous to be confronted with uplifting combinations and narrative-rich ingredients and formats. Elixers and tears, sweet and salty crystals hailing from all manner of mines, Gruijters’ Wonderfood is truly a happy-making dinner, and not just because of the mysterious rockin’ silverware or the cock-ring - which ends up being totally useful, by the way!