Professional drinkers

April 30

I stopped by the French Culinary Institute last night (it has been sort of renamed the International Culinary Center, but I don't think it’s going to stick, any more than Avenue of the Americas has stuck as a name for Sixth Avenue). A chocolate company was launching a new truffle line. Deciding to go seemed like a no-brainer. I showed up and was handed a chef coat, which I put on and then dipped some plain chocolate truffles in couverture, and then decorated them. It was fun, particularly the dipping, because it requires taking chocolate spheres and throwing them with some force into melted chocolate, so they sink. Then fishing them out with a wire utensil that is circular on the end, allowing you to balance the newly covered truffle on it and tap it on the edge of the chocolate container, so the excess chocolate drips off before you set it down on wax paper for decorating. Fun.
Then I walked the scant mile to the Astor Center, where a rum cocktail competition was going on. Again, a no-brainer.
It turned out to be an extraordinary event, actually, or maybe it seemed extraordinary because I arrived relatively sober midway into a booze party.
Come to think of it, I wasn’t all that sober. I had sampled two chocolate cocktails and had a glass of Champagne at the chocolate event. But compared to most of the people at the Astor Center I was a teatotaller. Something like 24 or 28 cocktails were being served, and everyone seemed to want to try them all. I had a citrusy one called a Joan Collins (good name, right?), and another citrusy one with a sort of menthol bass note (from the yellow Chartreuse perhaps) that I think was called a Gowanus Sunset. I don’t know. My cocktail-drinking colleague Sonya Moore, who also was there, wrote a a much more detailed entry about the event than I have any interest in doing (although she apparently didn’t sample the Gowanus Sunset).
For me the highlight was simply witnessing the ability of beverage professionals to drink as much as they did, to be as gloriously inebriated as they were, and yet to be socially gracious and civilized. Perhaps a bit louder than they would be otherwise, sure. And more gregarious. But apart from just slightly slurred speech, a bit more abrupt changes of conversation topic than they might make otherwise, and bright red faces and noses, they were fine. There was no fighting, no falling down, no crying, certainly no vomiting.
The truly widespread drunkenness that was in evidence was what made the party seem so extraordinary to me.
I chatted with one guy (I don’t remember who — I’d had four or five cocktails and a glass of Champagne, remember, and it was only 8:30) about the widespread drunkenness around us that was so different from such situations out in the real world, among the amateurs, on nights like St. Patrick's Day or New Year's Eve. If I remember correctly, we agreed that people who can’t hold their liquor should know that and not embarrass themselves.
Of course, in New York we have the added benefit of a reliable subway and many taxis, so we can drink without having to drive.

COCONUT CHUTNEY

Ingredients:
Coconut ..................1 cup (grated)

Roasted gram dal .. 1/4 th cup

Green chillies ......... 1-2

Ginger .................. a small piece

Salt to taste

For tempering:

Mustard seeds ......... 1 tsp

Split urad dal ...........1/2 tsp

Dry red chillies ....... 1-2 broken

Curry leaves ............ 6-8

Asafoetida ................. a pinch

Oil

Method:

1. Grind the coconut, chana dal, ginger, green chillies adding a little salt and water to grind it.

2.Heat 1 tbsp. oil in a pan, fry all the ingredients and add the tempering to the chutney.

This chutney is served with idli, dosa, wada, pongal, upma.(all the South Indian snacks)

Today is my BIRTHDAY!

Hello 30!

Today, I'm celebrating another birthday! Yeah! I love fresh starts and all the promise that comes with the first day of a new birthday year. Starting to have wrinkles? I can buy cream to smooth them out or go to Belo perhaps, but I wouldn't change my age or give back one minute of my life. Good days and bad, its been a tasty time so far! I like having birthdays because they humble me. They remind me to be grateful for my life, my family, my friends, my work, my artist chef thing and for my ever dearest boyfriend. Birthdays challenge me, too. Every year I get a little bit smarter about at least a few things, but the list of what I want to do and learn grows longer. Two years ago I wrote the same blog I'm writing now in a different journal. What I said then was "hello 28!" and wrote there that I wanted to enroll in a cooking class, go to Australia and have my intimate dinner business. All of them came true already. And today I have new wishes to write down but I'd rather keep them to my self and pray they will soon come true. Who knows next year or two years from now I'll write a blog again and tell you guys that my wishes came true. This is also my chance to thank all the people who visited my blog and to those who visit this site regularly. I am really overwhelmed by the statistic data showing all my visitors. Surprisingly, they come from all parts of the globe.

Thank You and Ciao!

---Joan

Love Del Rosario

Love is in the air during Valentine’s month. The couple that graced the lovers' seats in The Artist Chef intimate dinner were newly weds Love Del Rosario and her husband. Nicole Ardeña, boyfriend of Love's sister, arranged everything for the couple as her post-wedding gift.

The Gerbera flowers that Reggie gave me became the couple's centerpiece.

Boy Alnajes

A lot couples still try to find unique ways to celebrate Valentine's Day. Sweet guy Boy Alnajes and the lovely Jakki Blanco are among those people. Another addition to the roster of couples who have experienced the special Valentine's dinner at The Artist Chef's table.

I'm wearing my Sicily apron for the first time. From my dear friend Pedi who is now based in Europe. Shuffling from one country to another.