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Friendly Words of Food

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A dining room at Gaulthier, London, England.

A dining room at Gaulthier, London, England.

Jill is American but lives in London with her British husband, Malcolm.  We met in 2003 at a dinner held by our Italian friend, Patrizia in an Umbrian hill town.  We became fast friends, and are still very close despite the distance that separates us.  Both Jill and Malcolm enjoy good food, and eating well.  That only solidified the friendship.  I’ve had the pleasure of being at table with Jill and Malcolm in Los Angeles, London and Italy.  Every once in awhile Jill sends me notes, emails, of somewhere she and Malcolm have just been, of the things they ate.  The way she writes about the dishes is like culinary poetry to me.  This is partially due to the way the British write about ingredients, and their use of differing words for the same ingredients we use in the U.S. but it’s primarily Jill’s way of describing a dish that is so captivating.

Jill is a novelist and book editor by trade so she is well-versed in English; she also has a writer’s ear for language.  She and Malcolm recently celebrated a birthday by going out to a couple of London restaurants.   Here in her own words where they went after a visit to an art gallery:

“We had a snackette at Clarke’s before going on to visit Ham House and Garden, south of the river — a nearly intact 17th century historic house.  From there, we walked along the river to Petersham Nurseries, where, oh my, the food was good!  I started with a rose prosecco, then had homemade linguine with meltingly soft cherry tomatoes and black olives, a soupçon of lemon.  The main course was new season’s garlic sliced in cross sections (so it looked like marble) and served with torpedo onions and soft, gooey caprina cheese — like mascarpone.  For pudding I had lemon possett with rhubarb and Malcolm had a blood orange and lemon tart.”

So my questions to the above are: What are torpedo onions?  What is lemon possett?  I haven’t looked up the answers.  I’m not sure I want or need to know.  They sound so exotic.  I also haven’t heard of caprina cheese but it also sounds amazing.  And I already know that pudding means dessert.

The next day Jill went to lunch at Gauthier in SoHo, and this is what she ate:

“I had watercress velouté to start, then duck egg, followed by a cheese selection. Very, very good, and all hosted in a Georgian townhouse in Soho.”

Several years back she and Malcolm were in Rome:

“I must tell you about a meal Malcolm and I had in Rome8 today.  First we went to a gelato place by the Pantheon where I had rose and dark, dark chocolate ice cream.  A marvel, I’m telling you.  At lunch I had pasta (two different types because I couldn’t decide — the nice waiter said he’d get them to make both for me, only one serving) with a citrus and nut sauce, and the more interesting one was with a grape sauce.  Lemon, wine, grape, no garlic or onion.  Malcolm had a pasta with — get this — fig, cinnamon and a clove sauce.  It was truly wonderful.  I had rice pudding with blackberries for dessert and Malcolm had baked yellow plums with a kind of marzipan custard.  The coffee came in tall espresso cups with tiny lids on them.  A religious experience, to be sure.”

*The restaurant in Rome is Ristorante Trattoria.

So tell me, dear readers, don’t her words of food make you want to taste every last morsel?  They do me.  I think I’ll keep on saving these, who knows one day there may even be a book.

100 Miles Shout Outs! Local events, mini-reviews, and mentions of things happening in the world of food:

#1 – Honest Cooking ~ I’m now a Contributing Writer to the new online food magazine Honest Cooking.  My most recent story is “L.A. – Return of the Neighborhood Butcher.” I’ll be writing several pieces a month about the L.A. food scene.

#2 – Saturday, April 23, 11 am – 6 pm ~ The 2nd 8th Annual Grilled Cheese Invitational, a grilled cheese cooking competition.  You cook.  Judges vote.  Everybody wins!

#3 – Sunday, May 15, 1 pm – 5 pm, ~ Taste of the Eastside 2011, an all-star regional tasting event with a diverse array of Eastside restaurants at Barnsdall Art Park.

My Status:  Enjoying the gradual arrival of spring in So Cal and the new spring produce: artichokes, asparagus, and the tail end of winter produce: amazing citrus, kale, collard greens.  Continuing to blog, cook, and eat.

Upcoming Posts: More on my great-grandmother’s garden, and my California childhood.  A visit and tour of Ojai Valley citrus grower Friend’s Ranch. More The Local Reports. Cookbook Reviews: Small-Batch Baking for Chocolate Lovers by Debby Maugans.


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