Food Nostalgia Challenge: Bagels

When you ask an American student what they most miss about home, after their family, the most common response is often…the bagel.  My plan L (for lottery winning) in life is to open up a bakery here in Seville called Desa y Unos that specializes in American pastries – pie of the day, quality cookies, and of course – bagels.  Caroline and I still wax nostalgic over our bagel dates in college – a fresh bagel, toasted crispy and shmeared with flavored cream cheese accompanied by an almond latte.  So, so, so good.  Here in Spain, they are not to be found.  Like anything denied, it starts to grow in importance, taking on a rosy glow in your memory.  I had had it.  I had made gluten free bagels before, why not make glutentastic ones?

I called up my friend Erin and told her my plan and she started chipping in with her own sighs. The desire of her heart? A sandwich: the Tribeca Turkey from Manhattan Bagels.  The plan coalesced: we were going to make this sandwich and failure was not an option.

 

Seattle Edible Book Festival – Not so pretty, but pretty tasty!

Thanks to a tiny thumbnail sized ad in The Stranger, the free weekly newspaper in Seattle, my friend Michelle and I stumbled onto a festival seemingly made for us: the Seattle Edible Book Festival.  For the subset of us who are both bookfiends and foodies, there is a festival where you bring a scene of a book to live or something nice and punny – as long as it’s all edible.

We were in.  After flipping through our bookshelves, we settled on Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel for the sheer sensuality of its food-related writing and The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri because it’s one of Michelle’s favorite books.  In the first case, we wanted to bring to light the subject of the second chapter, where the protagonist weeps into the cake for the wedding of her lover…to her sister.  We went for puns in the second case, making Jhumpa Lumpias with a Namé Sake Cocktail (revised to a mocktail for the family friendliness of the festival).  You can find us on their Flickr stream here.

Edible Book Artists!

Feeling pretty cocky, we began to plot and to cook.

Chai MEANS tea

One of my most powerful sense memories from India is the persistent, piercing cry of the train chai-wallah: Chaaaaaaaaaaaai, masala chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaai, garam chaaaaaaaaaai, masala chaaaaaaaaai.  Lit: tea, spiced tea, hot tea, spiced tea.  Every time I make chai, which is often, this man’s voice rattles around in my head and adds that extra fillip of authenticity to my tea stew.