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Gourmet Living – by Gary Smolker
There Are Many Forms of Gourmet Living
Freedom To Let People Know What You Really Think
and
The Kind of Person You Really Are
Below are photographs of women exercising their right to express their true real unashamed selves; they are exercising their freedom to express who they really are.
I took the photograph below of the woman who is announcing to the world that she is allergic to mornings, after obtaining her permission to do so, while she was standing in line behind me at the check out counter at the local Ralph’s store located a few blocks away from where I live in Van Nuys, California.
I took the picture below of the woman who loves weekends, coffee and dogs, after obtaining her permission to do so, in a coffee shop in the City of Simi while I was waiting in a coffee shop for my GTR to be serviced.
Freedom To Own Property and to Exercise Private Property Rights
I strongly believe in the right to own property and in private property rights.
One of the things I loved about visiting Ouray, Colorado was the number of “No Trespassing” signs I saw there.
I saw the same kind of signs in Colfax, Washington.
Freedom To Treat Different People Differently
Freedom To Eat Chocolate
I think one of the most important freedoms a person can exercise is the freedom to eat whatever they want.
Personally, I think chocolate is a health food.
Freedom to Travel to See Land Being Farmed
The photographs below were taken by my friend Saeed Yadegar, M.D. on a trip we recently took to Palouse, Washington to see rolling fields of crops growing.
Freedom to Choose to Eat A Variety of Sweet Things
I’ve been told that eating products containing refined sugar, i.e. “sweets”, is harmful to your health; that more people die from eating sugar than from drugs.
But what a way to die.
I get my chocolates from Belgium fix at Lady Chocolat in Los Angeles, California.
I took the photographs below at Lady Chocolat located at 12008 Wilshire Blvd. in West Los Angeles, California.
I took the photographs below pies which were on a desert table while I was having a Sunday brunch at the Swag in Waynesville, North Carolina, which is near the Eastern Border of Tennessee and the Western Border of North Carolina and a few feet away from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
I enjoyed a piece of each of the pies pictured below with two of my three daughters and my friends Ray and Sue Woodcock while my daughters and I were staying at the Swag.
I tasted each of the pies shown in the pictures below.
For pure luxury amid the full grandeur of one of the largest varieties of natural beauty in the world, the Swag is one of the places you ought to visit before you die.
The Swag is located a hop skip and away from a forest that contains 125 types of trees, more than 1,300 types of wildflowers and flowering plants, and more than 240 species of birds.
The forest that borders on the Swag is arguably the most diverse temperate forest in the whole world excluding the rain forests.
My Favorite Market in the World Is The Spice Market in Istanbul, Turkey
Below are two pictures of the Spice Market in Istanbul, Turkey, taken by my youngest daughter Leah while Leah and I were shopping in the Spice Market in Istanbul.
My favorite product sold in the Spice Market is raw honeycomb.
I bought a lot of raw honeycomb in the Spice Market in Istanbul, Turkey and brought it back with me to Los Angeles, California when Leah and I came back to the United States.
I had no problem bringing back the raw honeycomb I bought in Istanbul, Turkey to the United States when I entered the United States.
Leah and I flew back to the United States on a Russian plane, a commercial Aeroflot jet which we caught in Moscow at the Moscow Airport on our way back to the United States from Turkey.
Freedom to Enjoy A Variety of Desserts
Freedom to Travel For the Sole Purpose of Enjoying Nature
Freedom to Own and to Restore Classic Automobiles
Freedom To Meet New People
Freedom to Cook with Gourmet Cooking Wood
What Is A Swag and What Is the Swag?
In the Appalachian Mountains a “swag” is a dip between two mountain peaks not deep enough to be called a gap.
“The Swag” is a famous country inn in the Smoky Mountains.
Locale
The Swag is located in Western North Carolina, on the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park contains 500,530 acres, and is 40 times the size of Manhattan.
The Smokies boast more than 1,300 flowering plants, more than 240 species of birds, 125 types of trees and various types of wild animals ranging from black bear to bobcat and wild boar to red wolf, all of which can be seen when one hikes around the Swag or goes next door into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
The Smoky Mountains have one of the most diverse eco-systems in the world, and is arguably the most diverse temperate forest in the whole world excluding the rain forests.
Two thirds of the American population can drive to the Great Smokey Mountains National Park in less than a day and a half.
More people visit the Great Smoky Mountains National Park than any other national park.
Each year 8 million visitors visit the Smoky Mountains National Park.
Buildings
The oldest part of the Swag dates to 1795.
Food Service
Full breakfast is served at the Swag from 8 to 10 a.m., Monday through Saturday.
On Sunday only a continental breakfast is served from 8 to 9:30 a.m.
Sunday brunch begins at 11 a.m.
Luncheon is primarily a packed backpack lunch or a picnic lunch or snack lunch.
“High Tea” is served daily from 3 to 5 p.m.
Dinner: Hors d’oeuvres at at 6 p.m. and dinner is served at one seating at 7 p.m.
The food served at the Swag is fabulous.
The Sunday brunch at the Swag is unbelievable.
The dinner menu at the Swag is imaginative, creative and strictly gourmet.
Amenities
The private rooms at the Swag and the locale are soothing, relaxing and gorgeous.
The common areas at the Swag ( dining area, libraries, and grounds) are remarkable.
My Experience at the Swag
I enjoyed every moment of every experience I had while I was at the Swag.
Copyright © 2016 by Gary S. Smolker, All Rights Reserved
Best Cake in the World – by Gary S. Smolker
The Best Is Worth It
Today (Tuesday, June 7, 2016) I had a slice of Straberry Shortcake and an Espresso at LADY M CONFECTIONS at 8718 West Third Street, Los Angeles, CA 90048.
I took a picture of the slice of cake I was eating and a picture of the slice of cake with the Espresso.
I sent a copy of those photos to my personal assistant and to several other friends.
See photos below.
The comments I received in reply varied from
- “That looks delicious.” to
- “Amazing !!!”
While I was at Lady M’s I bought a slice of “Green Tea Mille Crepes” for my personal assistant (Leslie Gonzales) and a slice of “Checkers Cake” for Leslie’s parents.
At my request Leslie took the photographs shown below.
See Leslie’s photographs below of the slice of “Green Tea Mille Crepes.”
Lady M’s “Green Tea Mille Crepes” consist of twenty layers of handmade crepes infused with fine green tea powder enveloping light pastry cream.
See Leslie’s photographs below of the slice of “Checked Cake.”
Our office manager, Tami Jones, took a bite of the “Checkers Cake” before Leslie took the above pictures.
I sent copies of those photographs to several friends.
Replies varied from
- Tami asking me “Why didn’t you bring me a slice of cake?” to
- “Incredible. Where is this place? OMG we have to go.”
The “Checkerboard Cake” consists of a checkerboard of vanilla and chocolate sponge cake precisely woven together with the lightest whipped cream tucked between the squares of vanilla and chocolate cake covered in a chocolate ganache, that is to say all out fitted in a silky dark chocolate.
In Defense of Excellence
“We have only eyes and ears for what we know. The musician by profession hears, in an orchestral performance, every instrument and every single tone; whilst one unacquainted with the are is wrapped up in he massive effect of the whole. A man merely bent upon enjoyment sees in a green or flowing meadow only a pleasant plain, whilst the eye of a botanist discovers an endless detail of the most varied plants and grasses.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Taste
Taste is only educated by contemplation, not of the tolerably good, but of the truly excellent.
Find only the best works, and when you are grounded in those, you will have a standard for the rest, which you will know how to value, without overrating them.
Erudition
It is difficult to choose among many good things.
Telling the difference between the best and very best is the sign of erudition.
Conclusion In Re Cakes Made by Lady M Confections
A sense of reality is one of the most precious attainments of the mind.
My sense of quality and reality about cakes:
- I have eaten cakes in many places in the world.
- Lady M Confections makes the highest quality cakes.
- Lady M makes the best cakes I have ever tasted, perhaps the best cakes in the world.
If you known of a better made cake please let me know.
I am on a mission to find the best slice of cake in the world.
If you prefer pies, I highly recommend that you take it upon yourself to enjoy a Sunday Brunch at “The Swag” in Waynesville, Tennessee.
The Swag serves a wonderful selection of pies at Sunday brunch.
In All Work God Is In the Details
The people at “the Swag” take everything seriously.
The people who work at the Swag sincerely hope that your time spent with them is an experience, not merely eating.
Below is a photograph taken by me of a sign I saw on display in the dinning room at “the Swag.” I saw that sign while I was enjoying a Sunday Brunch at “the Swag” with my good friends Ray and Sue Woodcock on May 15, 2016.
Below are photographs I took of signs posted next to deserts and of the deserts being served while I was at that brunch.
Cake was also served.
Live A Little
Some of my friends have “pointed” out to me that I am a man of contradictions:
- On one hand I am a proponent of “eating healthy” foods, but to their confusion and dismay I “tasted” the slice of strawberry shortcake “showcased” in this piece.
- On one hand I am concerned whether the standard of care for advice given by the medical profession regarding prevention of heart attacks causes more harm then benefit. To the confusion and dismay of my friends I am on a search for the finest chocolate and chocolate dishes in the world.
- On the one hand I am somewhat of an expert on the danger of eating sweets, the danger of consuming products with refined sugars, and the danger of eating foods that turn into sugar once eaten. But to the confusion of my friends, I recently ate an excellent pasta dish for lunch on Saturday, June 4, 2016 at Terroni Restaurant on Beverly Blvd. in Los Angeles, California and for dessert had a Meyer Lemon Tart served with with White Chocolate Gelato (Crostata al Limone) for desert. See photographs below of that meal.
Below is a close-up photograph of the Cappuccino I had with my desert.
Below is a photograph of my desert, Crostata al Limone, Meyer lemon tart served with white chocolate gelato.
Life Is Beautiful
In my opinion my life is beautiful and how I live my life is either good medicine or poisonous.
I am happy, healthy, and full of wonderment.
I live my life guided by my layman’s opinion there is virtue in being happy and it is a virtue to be full of curiosity and wonderment.
The things I have eaten described in this post, in my layman’s opinion, are good medicine for me.
I intended to enjoy eating my slice of strawberry shortcake (whose photograph is presented above), and did.
I intended to enjoy the pasta dish shown above, and did.
I intended to enjoy the Meyer lemon tart, served with white chocolate gelato, shown above, and did.
If you know where I can find even more spectacularly good things to eat please let me know.
My Motto
My motto is: Life is for living.
I try to follow that motto.
I am a “free spirit.”
Nostalgia
In mid-May, 2016, my eldest daughter Terra joined me and my two younger daughters for a long weekend in the Smoky Mountains.
When Terra got back home, she sent me the following text:
“Long day indeed. Can’t believe you will get to LAX at 11:23 ;pm, which will be 2:23 am TN time. I hope you can sleep on the plane. XO T
“By the way, I’ve come full circle. Just pulled sheets off the bed to get Marissa up. I remember you doing that to me when I was a teenager.
“Back to reality. I’m off to work.
“With lipstick.”
I Celebrate Important Events
June 7, 2016 was Terra and her husband Scott’s 18th wedding anniversary.
They live with their two children on the East Coast.
While they were celebrating their Anniversary on the East Coast, I was celebrating their anniversary on the West Coast by eating a slice of Strawberry Shortcake with an Espresso (shown above) at Lady M’s in West Hollywood, California.
I ate the wonderful pasta dish on June 4, 2016 (shown above) while at lunch with my youngest daughter Leah. At the time, Leah and I were celebrating Leah finishing her second year of law school.
I’ve found, by personal experiences in my life, that celebrating important events is good medicine for me.
Conclusion
Don’t underestimate the importance of enjoying life, “living a little.”
Gary S. Smolker
Copyright © 2016 by Gary S. Smolker, All Rights Reserved