Cake and Commerce

Cookbook Monday: My Sicilian Cooking by Nino Graziano

If you've seen my cookbook posts, you know that I don't necessarily review cookbooks and the cookbooks that I don't necessarily review aren't always new. Last week I talked about two Japanese cookbooks published 25 years apart. This week I'm going to talk about a newish cookbook that I've never actually cooked from but love to read: Nino Graziano's My Sicilian Cooking. Graziano is the Chef-Proprietor of Il Mulinazzo, a Michelin two-star outside of Palermo, Sicily. One of several new restaurants in Sicily to revel in its traditions, its local ingredients, and its local talent, Il Mulinazzo served "New" Sicilian cuisine that was barely related (even through marriage) to the stuff served in U.S. restaurants passed off as food of the old country. Marian Burros wrote a good piece in the New York Times in 2005 on new Sicilian cuisine and writes about her New Year Eve 2005 dinner at the restaurant.

In 2005, the year the cookbook was published, Graziano apparently closed up shop to open up a new restaurant, Semifreddo Mulinazzo in Moscow. Semifreddo, get it? A three-hour flight from Italy, this new restaurant features just-flown-in ingredients served at the peak of freshness in the new traditional Sicilian style. A meal there will set you back a pretty penny unless you happen to be there for lunch - 36 Euros will buy you a three course meal.

But what of the cookbook? Probably the best part of the cookbook, like most contemporary cookbooks, is the photography, food porn images that will leave you breathless and sweaty. The introduction, written by Fabrizio Carrera, has the adoring tone reminiscent of record liner notes of the 1960s and reads like a disingenuous press release touting the brilliance of the chef as he traces the Mr. Graziano's steps from novice to proprietor. The words are juxtaposed with photos of the Chef waiting in the barber's chair for a haircut, sitting on the street pensively, a la Rodin's The Thinker, with an elderly couple and then inspecting produce at the local market.Turn the page and he's supervising a young cook in the kitchen. Look in the back and there's a portrait of his kitchen staff, including two young Japanese cooks (the Japanese seem to be spreading out all over the world in its greatest kitchens, no doubt returning with golden resumes and the clout to open up their own simulacra in some posh district of Tokyo or Osaka. The mention of 'tempura' and 'sashimi' in some recipes seem to indicate that the Japanese have likewise influenced the chef).

Recipes are simple and elegant and focus on fish. Many recipes have multiple components and need to be plated to be appreciated. No doubt you can replicate these recipes in your kitchen, but is it worth it? Because the food is so much a reflection of availability and product quality of Sicilian ingredients, even the best efforts outside of Sicily will yield something that is just a weak approximation. Better to look at the pictures and fantasize about a reservation at his restaurant next time you are in Moscow.

The totally gluten free cake

My friend Betty Turbo gave me this very thoughtful gift...which she made herself. If you ask nicely, maybe she will make one for you too. Sometimes she has them on her Etsy site.

Yeah, that's a pretty pepper

More pepper portraits - the fish pepper. It is an old African-American heirloom variety from the Baltimore/Philadelphia area, dating back to sometime before the civil war (exact provenance not known). And now is included in Slow Food's Ark of Taste.

Making Sudachi Liqueur

They were selling sudachi, or Japanese limes, at Mitsuwa today. So I decided to make some sudachi liqueur from Soju and sudachi, and organic sugar.

They are tiny, these sudachi. You can't really tell from the picture, but they are about 1/2 as large as limes, have a much softer flesh, and are full of juice.

So I zested them, juiced them, and then stuck them in a jar with about 1 cup of sugar and soju. I'll probably have to add more sugar in about a month.

Here's the jar, just before I tucked it into a cabinet for its slumber.

Tomatoes at the Farmers Market Simulacrum*, San Francisco

*Ferry Plaza. Ick. Its the Disneyworld for the sustainable set.

Buying macaroons at Miette, San Francisco

Who knew that blue jimmies were vegan?

Seen at Voodoo Doughnut in Portland, OR:

Dinner at Sitka & Spruce, Seattle

I waiting in line at a strip mall for 15 minutes before they opened the doors to Sitka & Spruce, an improbably tiny restaurant in an inconsequential strip mall in Eastlake, near Capitol Hill. When the doors finally opened (they were running late) I was relieved that the restaurant did indeed have adequate seating for the assembled - dispelling the online rumor that there were only 12 seats in the entire place. More like 22 or 24 - still tiny, but I would be able to eat during the first turn.

Since I was in town for business, I was dining alone - I usually don't get in touch with anyone during my trips because my schedule is usually pretty hectic. They seated me at the communal table - with settings for 8:

The dining area appear to be much smaller than the "back of the house" (in quotes because it is largely open to the dining room). Here's a view from the bar to the pass to the back - it has the appearance of the most amazing home kitchen ever:

Every day there is a new market menu - written out on the chalkboard. Most dishes can be ordered as appetizers or entrees;

Suffering from terrible penmanship myself, I was able to decipher the menu with ease. The couple sitting next to me had more trouble ready the chalkboard. At least that's what I heard them telling the server.

I became rather obsessed with the super-fancy corn nuts they served us. At first I was extremely polite, eating one corn nut at a time. And then I dug in, with gusto, to the combo salted corn nut/lima bean nut/chick pea nut cocktail mix.

I ordered four small dishes - smelt, halibut crudo, a shellfish salad, and porcini and polenta. The smelt was amazing - so fresh, with wonderful flourishes of lemon and mild red pepper:

I didn't love the crudo, instead offering it to the couple on my right - thus opening up conversation which moved the dinner along in a much more engaging manner. Turns out she was an aspiring food tv star, and had just tried out - with many other Seattleans or whatever it is they call themselves - for the Food Network's Next Food Network Star. Here's the crudo:

The shellfish salad was lovely, though drenched in a tad too much olive oil:

I liked the large grains of the polenta, but the whole dish was too buttery, too rich for just one to eat. But I love them porcinis....

What I enjoyed most about the communal table was meeting the couple next to me who turned out not to be a couple but old friends. Nahide (the Food Network potential) shared some squab with me. She even posed for a picture for my joke blog.

Here she is tackling the squab:

As we finished up, the next group of diners waited for us to pay our check.

Pix Patisserie, Portland

Ahhh, macaroons. I love them. And Pix has some wacky ones!

At the main location, there's a restauant...and you can have Chimay with your clafoutis. Or Paris Brest. Or Marjolaine.

There's a lot to look at, arranged in a rather interesting way

I'm particularly fascinated and repulsed by the cheese n chocolate combo:

I don't know if I'd want to live there, but I like the approach