Gnocchi with tomato, olives and garlic confit

During my last trip across the Channel to London, my friend and fellow blogger the Gastronomic Nomad introduced me to The Providores and Tapa Room, one of the amazing restaurants of New Zealand native and fusion cuisine guru Peter Gordon. While partaking of the wonderful brunch there, we were excited to discover that the restaurant also sells Gordon's beautiful cookbooks. Both of us ended up buying A World in My Kitchen, and although I haven't had a chance to cook from it much as of yet, it was the source of the recipe for tonight's spicy dinner.

Salon de l'Agriculture 2011

The Salon International de l'Agriculture, which is held every year in February at Paris's Porte de Versailles, is a big, BIG deal. At its core, France is an agricultural country, and the Salon de l'Agriculture celebrates that in all its glory in a week-long homage to the country, the land and the farmers and producers who cultivate it. Known as "the biggest farm in the world", the Salon attracts about 600,000 visitors every year. They come out in masses to admire all the farm animals, sample the vast array of agricultural products from all over France (wines, cheeses, mustards, breads, etc, etc) and maybe even rub shoulders with a politician or two, as this is a passage obligatoire for all of the country's political figures, for whom it is imperative to show solidarity with the farmers.

Saravana Bhavan...a taste of home in Paris!

June 29, 2010 was a momentous day in Parisian food history, or at least in my personal Parisian food history. It wasn't the day that a famous French restaurant got its third Michelin star or the day that a new fromage was created. No, much more exciting than that! June 29, 2010 was the day that Saravana Bhavan, the legendary chain of Indian vegetarian restaurants, opened its first branch in Paris. What's so exciting about that, you may be wondering? Well...not only did the opening of SB (as I like to call it) herald the long-awaited arrival of good Indian food in Paris, but it also marked a new outpost of the 30-year old Chennai and indeed Indian institution...just two Metro stops away from me!

Chana Masala (Indian-Style Chickpeas)

Chana masala, or chole, the classic Indian dish consisting of chickpeas (garbanzo beans) cooked in a spiced tomato sauce,  is very special to me. Back in the days when I was a university student who was lucky enough to live in a brand-new, fancy dorm equipped with a complete kitchen and just starting to cook, it was one of the first Indian dishes that I made. The sheer simplicity, low cost and quickness of chana masala made it the ideal student meal, accompanied with some rice or frozen chapatis (this was long before the days that I made my own). Years later, chana masala (along with a South Indian-style okra poriyal or dry curry) was the first thing that I ever cooked for my husband back in the days when we were first getting to know each other. My cooking repertoire was obviously much more expansive then, but I chose chana masala because I have never met anyone who doesn't like it . Even someone like my husband, who at the time claimed he didn't like chickpeas, raved!

Thai Pumpkin Soup

It seems that I have been making a lot of orange-colored food recently. And orange-colored soups in particular. It's not that I have anything special with orange, but let's face it...it's a gorgeous, warm color and certainly brightens up winter meals. After the success of the Mexican pumpkin chipotle soup that I made last month and seeing that there were still cans of pumpkin in our pantry, I knew that a another pumpkin soup was in order. Not just any run of the mill pumpkin soup though, but rather a Thai-influenced one (yes, I am still in Thailand mentally!), with the zesty flavors of ginger, Thai red chili, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves infused into it...

Rice. Beans. Love!

 

The arrival of a good, cheap Mexican joint in Paris will probably hardly elicit a stir from many of you. But for those like me who are fellow lovers of Mexican or Tex-Mex food and are expatriated outside of the U.S., then I'm sure that you can understand my excitement! Rice and Beans, a newly opened California-style Mex joint (it used to a California-style sushi joint called, aptly, Rice and Fish) has been getting a good buzz from lots of Paris-based food blogs and restaurant review sites, both in French and English. So Luis and I went to check it out the other night. I tried not to have too high of hopes, fearing disappointment, but the moment that I saw the extensive selection of hot sauces, the mention of homemade corn tortillas and a molcajete that is actually used for making chili paste rather than just for decoration, I knew that the face of Mexican/Tex-Mex cuisine in Paris had forever changed...

Ritmo y sabor: Valentine's Day 2011

Like many of you, I'm pretty ambivalent about Valentine's Day. I cringe at the commercialism of it while simultaneously loving the fact that there is an entire day devoted to...love! It doesn't hurt of course that my last couple of Valentine's Days have been incredibly special and romantic. Two years ago, my now-husband proposed to me at a gorgeous Indian restaurant in London. Last year, we were honeymooning in India and enjoying a lovely dinner on the beach in Goa. This year here in Paris, we decided to stay in for the occasion. I offered to do the cooking and concocted a spicy Pan-Latin menu consisting of small bites. Ceviche, mole, passion fruit mousse accompanied by some good bossa nova and Afro-Cuban jazz and a candlelit black, red and pink table made for a perfect evening filled with lots of ritmo and sabor!

Rum cake cupcakes

Even though the past few days here in Paris have been unseasonably warm and even sunny at times, it certainly isn't enough for me! I find myself daydreaming of laying on a warm beach, fanned by palm trees and with a tropical drink in hand. Ideally that tropical drink would have rum in it, because rum, dear readers, is the alcohol of choice of this spice mistress. Dark rum, white rum, spiced rum, rhum arrangé...you name it, I love it! Not surprisingly, one of my favorite cakes of all time is rum cake, which I fell in love with after tasting the famous version made by the Tortuga Rum Company, Ltd. in the Cayman Islands where a cruise that I took many years ago made a day stop. A friend recently returned from the Caymans with a box of the famous Tortuga rum cake for me. One bite of that luscious, rum-soaked goodness and I was determined to make some rum cake this weekend, but of course with a little twist...

Gastronomy and social media

"Le media, c'est la table, le social, c'est la bouffe." 

The media is the table, the social is the food. 

I went to a fascinating panel discussion on gastronomy and social media here in Paris tonight, which was part of Social Media Week, currently ongoing here as well as in New York, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, London, Hong Kong, Istanbul and several other exciting places. I initially decided to check it out because one of my favorite food bloggers, Clotilde Dusoulier of Chocolate & Zucchini was announced as part of the panel. Held at a cool collaborative workspace/cafe called La Cantine, what ensued was a very rich discussion on the social impact of food-related blogs and some interesting new initiatives in this realm, the thorny topic of restaurant reviews in the blogosphere and the potentially anti-social aspect of the relationship between gastronomy and social media.

Spicy vegetarian hachis parmentier

Hachis parmentier, for those who may not be familiar, is the ultimate comfort food. Super convenient and satisfying, this is the French equivalent of shepherd's pie. Hachis comes from the verb hacher, meaning to chop or mince. Parmentier is a nod to Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, a famous French scientist who was renowned for researching potatoes and promoting them as the ideal crop to feed the poor. Traditionally speaking, hachis parmentier is made with a base of seasoned beef or a beef stew (leftovers welcome!) topped with a layer of mashed potatoes. The mixture is baked in an oven until golden and a bit crusty. Warm, hearty, simple, perfect for even the most fussy of eaters!

Barcelona: Mercat de la Boqueria & other food adventures

To celebrate our first wedding anniversary, Luis and I went to Barcelona for a long weekend. I find it pretty scandalous that I've been living in Paris for almost five years and had never gone to the Catalan capital, which is just an hour and 40 minutes away by plane. It was the first time for Luis as well, and we enjoyed a lovely weekend filled with warm sunshine (high temperatures of about 18-20 Celsius, so much warmer than Paris!), all the Gaudi architecture and historical sights and of course the incredible food. The highlight was undoubtedly the Mercat de la Boqueria (Boqueria Market), Barcelona's world-famous food market right on Las Ramblas in the center of the city.

Tom kha phak (Thai coconut vegetable soup)...and an award!

Ever since returning from Thailand, I haven't been able to get the taste of the tom kha gai (coconut soup traditionally made with chicken, with vegetables in my case) that I had at this little jewel of a restaurant on Koh Phi Phi out of my mind. The creamy coconut broth delicately infused with lemongrass, galangal (Thai ginger) and kaffir lime leaves and then finished with lime juice, fish sauce, red chillies and cilantro is, for lack of a better description, like a sensory orgasm for the mouth. Yes, it's that good!