Nothing is a better complement to good food and drink than stimulating conversation. Three months ago, my sweet and talented friend mav of port2port, told me over the phone about a debate she and her dinner companions had during their New Year’s Eve feast. It occurred at a restaurant and even surrounding tables got involved in the discussion. I have been thinking about it ever since…

If you had to give up one of your 5 senses, which would it be?

After three months, I have come up with my own surprising answer: taste. Funny answer from a food blogger. Here is my rationale:

Sight - Immediately, I know I could not give it up. My world is one filled with color that lights my life.

Sound - Birds chirping, music, the voices of my loved ones… a life’s lullaby that could not be sacrificed.

Touch - I am so tactile and live for massage, soft fabric and texture. Not to mention, giving up touch would just be downright dangerous.

This leaves me with smell and taste. Food and drink are the often the delight of my days and at the center of my thoughts. But, we all know what happens when we have a cold… we can’t taste anything! We taste sweet, salt, sour and bitter things. The rest of our food experiences are all through the nose which can detect over 15,000 aromas.

So, if forced to give up a sense, I would sacrifice taste in the hopes that the smell of fresh popcorn, the soft texture of pastry cream along with the vanilla aroma and the cold creamy slide of ice cream would be enough to keep me going.

I turn the question to you.. which would it be???

Dear Reader,

I am a regular coffee drinker and like all food and drink, I have my share of opinions about it. But, I would not say I am a coffee snob and I do not have a carved-in-stone coffee ritual. I prefer home-brewed coffee as I do not like to waste to-go cups and I really do not like drinking out of plastic or metal travel mugs. Occasionally, I will stop for a latte from a local coffee shop but for the most part, I brew coffee at home or at my office in a regular percolator. I buy various brands of coffee (Intelligentsia, Metropolis, Douwe Egberts), sometimes take cream and sugar and sometimes not. My coffee habits are fickle and I never seem to permanently settle into a routine.

This weekend, I found myself wanting to impress my coffee-drinking houseguest. So, I broke out the Blue Bottle Coffee recently given to me by my friend Molly and decided to grind the beans and use the french press given to me by Stephanie. Well… my first attempt was a bust. I had not used the french press in awhile and I tried to wing it on the amount of grounds and time and in the end, the coffee was too weak. Disappointed and wanting to provide a great cup of joe for my guest, I went back to the percolator and brewed again but this time, the grounds were too coarse and therefore again, it was too weak.

Since I am both obsessive compulsive about entertaining guests and neurotic about getting things right, the double failure rattled me. We drank the coffee as it was really not that bad. But, I started wishing I had both a more romantic ritual and the perfect morning cup.

This brings me to my question. Do you have a coffee ritual, bean brand or brewing secret to set me back on track?

Anxiously awaiting help,

Weak Brew

With a recipe name like that, how can you go wrong? That is what I thought when I came across it in the most recent Cooking Light. Feeling the slight tightness around the waist of my jeans, I picked up the magazine in the airport on my way back from San Francisco vowing to shed a few pounds by eating a lot of salads and holding off on baking projects.

I usually start cooking from a recipe and then end up veering in a different direction or altering it here or there. With this recipe, I didn’t do that one time. I made it exactly as printed and I was thrilled with the result. Don’t let the long recipe dissuade you - it really isn’t that time consuming.  And, if you are going to buy tequila for the dressing anyway, you might as well enjoy a little margarita while you are cooking!

Grilled Chicken, Mango and Jicama Salad with Tequila-Lime Vinaigrette
Chicken:
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 teaspoons minced garlic
3/4 teaspoon chili powder
6 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

Vinaigrette:
1/4 cup chopped, fresh cilantro
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons tequila
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons honey
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
dash of salt

Tortilla Strips:
4 (6 inch) yellow corn tortillas, cut in 1/2 inch strips
cooking spray
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon paprika
dash of ground red pepper

Remaining ingredients:
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup strips peeled jicama
1 cup thinly sliced peeled mango
5 ounces (1 bag) mixed baby greens

1. Combine all chicken marinade ingredients and marinate in refrigerator for 2-24 hours.

2. Combine all vinaigrette ingredients and whisk together in a small bowl. Chill until you use it.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place tortilla strips in a bowl. Spray with cooking spray (or olive oil) and toss with all the spices. Bake them spread out on a baking sheet for 8 minutes or until almost crisp. They will get crisp while cooling.

4. Prepare grill. Remove chicken from marinade. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and grill until done.

5. Cut chicken in strips. Combine jicama, mango and greens in a large bowl. Toss with vinaigrette. Spread the jicama mixture on plates. Top with chicken slices and tortilla strips.

From Cooking Light, March 2007

I have declared it Dinner Salad Week at my house. In an effort to lose a few pounds and eat more produce, I have banned carbs from our dinner table for a little while. Since I am not usually a big salad-eater, this has also forced me to dig through my piles of clippings and search online to try a few new things.

For quite some time, I have had a bag of frozen calamari in my freezer. We eat calamari almost daily when we visit my husband’s family in Greece but I have never cooked it myself. I guess that makes calamari my New Ingredient of the Month. Originally, I bought the calamari for a coconut, curry dish I was considering but that never materialized. The calamari must have known they were meant for healthier, fresher things. I started with this recipe from Epicurious but then changed a little along the way based on the facts that I wanted more garlic, I do not like raw tomatoes, celery sounded bad to me in this dish and I prefer the flavor of Greek oregano to parsley. It all worked and turned out to be one of the best salads I have ever made!

Greek Calamari Salad
1 1/2 lb cleaned squid (or a bag of rings, frozen)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon red-wine vinegar
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon dried Greek oregano (or Italian will do)
1/2 red onion, halved lengthwise, then thinly sliced crosswise (1/2 cup)
1/2 cup pitted Kalamata olives, halved lengthwise
Mixed greens

In a separate bowl, whisk together lemon juice, vinegar, olive oil, 1 clove crushed garlic, salt, pepper and oregano. Pour about half of the dressing over the calamari. Toss the onion and olives in with the calamari mixture and let stand for flavors to mix together. At this point, you can also refrigerate the salad and dressing for a day. When serving, toss mixed greens with the remaining dressing. Serve the calamari mixture over the greens.

Some experiences cannot be described in words. I just returned from a short trip to San Francisco where I enjoyed one of the best mornings of my life exploring the Ferry Building Farmer’s Market. For all food aficionados, appreciators of artisan products and nature lovers, this should be a pilgrimage top on your list.

It is so nice to get out of routine sometimes and mix up your ordinary habits. Faced with all of the yummy breakfast choices while on vacation in Mexico, I was drawn repeatedly to the oatmeal “bar” which included toppings I never would have imagined for a bowl of oatmeal. My favorite new combination of toppings is brown sugar, coconut flakes, cinnamon and pumpkin seeds.

Spring is in the air and it is making me want to bust out, change things up, find fresh ideas. It can be so refreshing to break the routine now and then. You can start by opening up your cupboards and putting a little something new on your oatmeal.

Last week, in Mexico, I ate guacamole religiously at least twice a day. I heaped it on chips, lathered up tacos, bathed each bite of my fajitas and even spooned it over eggs at breakfast. It is safe to say that last week alone I doubled my lifetime consumption of avocado.

Surprisingly enough, I never got sick of the green goop and after being back in Chicago for just two days, I already find myself going through withdraw. Luckily, the ingredients are readily available in most places and making guacamole is a cinch.

The recipe used at Cozumel Palace Resort where I stayed is slightly different than the recipes I have made in the past. And, it was always accompanied by what they referred to as “Mexican Salsa” because the color of the ingredients match those of the Mexican flag.

Each day, the resort’s bubbly Activity Team offered a variety of events including ping pong tournaments, Mexican handcrafts, basic Spanish lessons and water aerobics. For the most part, I did not participate. Not because I am a curmudgeon but because I have a habit of participating in everything, which was one of the reasons I so needed a vacation. One afternoon, they came around announcing a poolside cooking class. That, I could not resist. When I arrived at the table I was disappointed when I found they were making only guacamole as I was dreaming of a complicated mole sauce or tamales from scratch. I sulked back to my lounge chair for a few minutes. After hearing all the excited murmurs from the crowd of ladies gathered around the table, I made my way back to watch and must admit that I learned a few things.

“Muy Bueno” Guacamole & Mexican Salsa

New tips that I learned:
- a wire whisk is a great tool for mashing avocados
- putting one of the avocado pits in the guacamole will supposedly keep it from turning brown

Saturday, March 10, 2007
Afternoon (exact time unknown, I was not keeping track)
East coast of Cozumel, Mexico

Pictured above is the best tasting beer I have ever sipped in my life. The Sol beer was light and delicious and the added lime all the more refreshing. But, it was not the quality of the beer that put this one over the top. During the past week while on vacation, I was reminded just how much pleasure from food and drink is derived from your surroundings while consuming it; the smells of your environment, the sounds around you, the people you are with, the energy of the place and the events of your day before and after indulging.

I admit that food experience isn’t always about external factors. Some of the best tasting bites of banana cream pie may come with the upper half of your body in the refrigerator at midnight. And reactive eating, like two donuts on a bad day, can cure many ills. But, I had a bit of an epiphany last week when I realized that my all time best food experiences are when the food and drink are added punctuation on an already wonderful moment in my life.

After touring the coast of Cozumel in a rented Jeep, my husband and I stopped for a refreshment break, which is when this beer was set on the table in front of me. My lips still tasted salty from the snorkeling at the previous beach, my hair was wind-blown and stuck to the sides of my face and my skin felt slightly tight from the sun and salt. We were near the end of a much-needed vacation during which I took a complete break from technology and all work. The breeze wafted over us rustling the palm frond roof and the sound of the waves and some Mexican flute music floated through the air. Relaxed and content, I sipped that cold beer, marveling with each swallow at how good it tasted, all the while feeling lucky to be alive.

This beer was one of many momentous food and drink moments for me last week. My suitcase is filled with recipes scratched on scraps of paper here and there. As I unpack, stay tuned for a Mexican inspired feast…

I am somewhat new to blogging so it took a little figuring for me to understand the “tagging” of 5 Things You Don’t Know About Me. I still don’t know where the word meme comes from but when Aiofe of Yumbrosia let me know it was my turn… I felt an obligation to answer her call before leaving on my trip to Cozumel in 8 hours.

1. I love miniature things, especially food and drinks. So, when this chocolate cake with a mini vanilla malt was put in front of me at MK, my heart skipped a beat with excitement and it went down in history as one of my favorite restaurant experiences ever.

2. My right thumb is about 3/4 of an inch shorter than my left thumb. I had a complex about it as a kid. My dad named my right thumb Edgar.

3. I am in love with learning curves. I often take on grandiose projects, conquer them and then never use the knowledge again. For instance, I made a good friend’s wedding cake. It was four tiers. Each tier was a three layer chocolate cake soaked with espresso and filled with espresso buttercream then covered in sage green fondant and piped with ornate decoration. It was an amazing experience and well received but I will never make a wedding cake again.

4. My husband is half Greek and half Dutch. We visit Greece and the Netherlands regularly and spend weeks before each trip talking about what we will eat while we are there.

5. I drink a lot more beer than wine.

I know that I am supposed to tag the next 5 but it seems that most have already shared their 5 things. I will perhaps seek out others when I return in a week, hopefully with inspired recipes from my first visit to Mexico. Until then, happy eating.

I am a pretty tough person. I can handle conflict, I am a good negotiator and with the proper mental preparation, I can endure most things. However, if there is one thing that totally breaks me, it is reliance on inefficient bureaucracy. And, although it is only March 1, I have experienced a few of my worst-ever nightmares this year.

In January, my first episode was due to efforts to replace a lost car title needed to trade in our old car for a new one. Without getting in to all the ugly details, I will just say that the ordeal involved four trips to the Secretary of State, repeated misinformation and hundreds of dollars. Finally, it ended in a complete, sniveling breakdown at the counter in front of my comrade Joan. She is a gray-haired, gum chomping veteran of the Secretary of State office who offered me her box of tissues, ripped up my previous forms and hoarsely whispered, “We are going to do this the Joan way,” which proved successful in a matter of minutes.

Today, I found myself at the Department of State trying to secure a new, emergency passport since my application seems to be lost in the U.S. mail and I am leaving for Mexico in two days. The past day has been filled with hours on the phone listening to bad hold music, begging, pleading, crying, panic and finally a four hour trek in the pouring, cold rain to the Chicago Department of State where I paid hundreds more dollars and did finally receive a replacement passport.

After leaving the office, as I descended down into the dank, stinky train station, I spotted the familiar glow of an express Dunkin Donuts station. Without hesitation, I approached and bought myself two donuts. Donuts are not a food that is usually described as “restorative.” But, for me, gobbling them down without an ounce of guilt and with complete entitlement puts me right back in the saddle of life.

As I write this, I feel a pang of guilt as I consider the millions of people in the world suffering hunger, war and poverty. And here I am writing on the internet that my biggest frustrations stem from the bureaucracy of one of the more developed nations. But, I suppose problems in our lives are relative. And, telling the story of my relatively insignificant problems is cathartic…along with the consumption of those two donuts.