Well folks, it’s cherry season again here in California, and I had my first taste a couple days ago; a nicely tart but typically sweet Rainier cherry my friend Heather brought home from the farmer’s market. This week is my turn to abandon my weekend duties and instead visit the markets-I expect to find a good selection from which to taste and choose. For me, part of the fun each year is really tasting and finding the best. This is the kind of picky that really helps you understand and appreciate the wide world of flavors and also, if you strike up a conversation with the farmer, what it takes to grow a flavorful cherry.
The season in the Northwest starts in June, and what a wonderful season it is! People on the roadsides selling big boxes of cherries just bursting with crisp flavor! Dream up a wonderful confection based on cherries and tell me all about it, but do not, under any circumstances, do anything until you have had your fill of the fresh, unadulterated fruit..
Yum.
Friday, May 29, 2009
For the Love of a Fine Cherry
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Different or Just Lucky?
I took this photo in the streets of old San Salvador. One way to make your product stand out, eh? Today though it dawned on me that this is how a lot of us feel-like the different one. Funny, this chick feels so left out of the new color trend, but really he was just lucky not to get dipped!
Anyway, just a funny picture to share...enjoy!
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
To Eat A Coconut
Ahh. Travel memories. Every time I return from a trip my mind swirls with the recollection of it all, anchored, so to speak, by the tastes and smells of food. Tasting something similar here takes me back instantly too, which is fun, especially since a great little coffee shop that serves one of these foods (young coconut) is so close. Trouble Coffee, in the Outer Sunset Neighborhood of San Francisco, is a very convenient N-Judah train ride from downtown, and is well worth it for the signature combination of coffee, a young coconut, and a thick slice of perfect cinnamon toast. For me, sipping on the coconut takes me right back to the beaches and sweaty lowland towns of Central America, but even if your coconut frame of reference starts right there at Trouble Coffee, your coffee experience will take on a new dimension; you see, the coconut seems to make the coffee experience better-I leave feeling a bit healthier than I arrived, no jitters, no bitter coffee taste in my mouth..It’s definitely a synergistic combination!
If you don’t feel like heading to San Francisco’s one and only coffee shop with coconuts, get your own coconuts! Lots of international grocery stores have them, all white and wrapped in plastic wrap. I see prices ranging from $1.00 to $2.00 each, and all you’ll need to get inside is a machete. What? You don’t keep a machete ready in the kitchen? Try a heavy kitchen knife combined with a serrated one to finish the job. The coconut in the picture is whole, but you’re more likely to find the ones that have had the outer shell cut off. They’ll be white, with a bit of a cone on one end and a flat spot on the other. Take strong, confident whacks with the knife about ½ way down the cone-you’ll know you’re doing it right when you feel the blade hit an extra hard part. The toughness is highly variable from one coconut to another, but with several strong whacks you should be able to get inside. The liquid is usually completely filling the inside, so have a cup ready to pour the contents in to. You can use the serrated knife to saw the top completely off, making sure to leave a hole large enough to get a long handled spoon in to scrape out the tasty and very nutritious meat inside (the one in the photo was bought in Costa Rica-sip the liquid through the small hole, then the vendor will chop the whole thing in half, which works well too!). In the picture you can see that the coconut photographed had very little meat inside-it was more like pudding. This was an extra young one-the older it gets the tougher it gets, but most young coconuts you’ll find in the markets will have a nice, medium flesh perfect for eating fresh. Enjoy!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
What do you notice?
The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice, there is little we can do to change; until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds. R.D. Laing
Not to get overly significant about a picture of a bird in some bushes, or quote stating the obvious, but after reading Blink (a short review to come!), which effectively illustrates how much of our perceptions are registered subconsciously and effect our actions without our knowledge, I thought this a nice combination. There is so much sensory and emotional richness there for the looking!
It seems to me we miss things and end up feeling clueless or fail to empathize, or maybe simply gulp down our morning coffee without noticing how good it tastes. It takes a bit of concentration and humility to slow down, quiet the distractions and pay attention. If I had been rowing the boat I was in when I spotted the bird, I might have missed him due to another preoccupation. Funny too-I would have felt much more important if I was rowing. Would that have been worth missing the point of the trip? Hmm-in this small and silly example, my life is just a tiny bit bigger for “letting someone else row the boat.” Too bad all of life isn’t like life in a boat in Guatemala with a tour guide, right? Anyway, here’s to slowing down and learning to smell the DIFFERENCES between all the roses out there!
