Blog Archives
Red, White and Green Dinner Plate – by Gary Smolker
Red White and Green are the colors of the Italian flag.
Below are photographs of the Red White and Green Dinner Plate.
In the foreground of one photo you are looking at a dab of red Marsala Sauce and a dab of Green Pesto placed on a slice of White Mozzarella Cheese, in the background you are looking at Farro covered with green pesto and miscellaneous slices of mozzarella cheese and various sliced/cut tiny slices of tomato.
Also, I photographed the bag the Farro came in.
Farro is an ancient grain of the Mediterranean.
Farro was a mainstay in ancient Rome.
Two responsive descriptions I received after sharing the above photographs:
- This dish is light digestible and super delicious.
- So delicious love the ingredients. I did not know about Farro before. I’m going to going to forward this onto my daughters Laure and Morgan who love good food like this and enjoy cooking and preparing the this type of nutritious yummy food like you’ve thoughtfully shared. Thanks. Sounds so yummy.
Copyright © Gary Smolker, All Rights Reserved
Gary Smolker, Publisher Gary S. Smolker Idea Exchange Blog www.garysmolker.wordpress.com Gary Smolker, Fashion Blogger Dude's Guide to Women's Shoes www.dudesguidetowomensshoes.com Follow me on Instagram @garyspassion
Refinement – by Gary Smolker
THE CONTEMPLATION OF BEAUTY ENHANCES THE SOUL
There is nothing wrong with admiration.
Every meal you eat should be delicious.
Each bite should be so delicious it makes you to stop to savor the taste of what you are chewing.
Eat slowly, very slowly, chew each bite many times before swallowing.
Savor what you are about to read and see what is presented to you solely for your enjoyment, below.
Overview
Knowing brings you knowledge.
Knowledge makes you savor life, makes you savor every moment.
Knowledge is like a diamond.
When it is raw it is beautiful.
When it is cut it is magnificent.
When a diamond is cut it brings in the light.
Refinement is the end result of a quest for knowledge.
Refinement Is About Completion
Below is a description of a complete meal.
A Refined Meal
Thursday night (October 19, 2017) I ate a complete meal.
My complete meal consisted of:
- First dish: Soup – velvet zucchini soup.
- Second dish: Entree – lamb, stuffed zucchini, salad
- Third dish: Desert – crepes stuffed with honey and walnuts Serbian style and topped with ice cream.
Below are photographs I took while that meal was being prepared.
Velvet Zucchini Soup
Velvet zucchini soup is a soup with no lumps; the zucchini has been pureed.
Below is a photograph of the pureed zucchini (with other ingredients in the pot it was cooked in) which I ate as the first course of my dinner last night.
Below is a photograph of the velvet zucchini soup in a soup bowl after parmesan cheese and pepper added to the zucchini puree shown in the first photograph, the photograph above.
The first course of my dinner last night (the soup pictured above) was absolutely delicious.
Lamb
Below is a sequence of photographs I took as the lamb (I ate for dinner last night) was being prepared.
The lamb was marinated for 12 hours prior to being put in a skillet.
The lamb was sautéd in its own juice, with no oil added.
Stuffed Zucchini
Below is a photo of the stuffed zucchini (which was baked in tin foil in the oven in my kitchen) just before it was completely taken out of the tin foil in which it had been baked.
The stuffed zucchini was crunchy tasty and yummy.
Salad
Below is a photograph of the salad, I ate last night, on the plate it was put on before the zucchini and lamb chop was placed on the same plate.
This mixed Italian salad has tomatoes, radicchio, crescenza, spinach and arugula.
The Second Course
Below is a photograph of the second course, the entree.
Each component (the lamb, the stuffed zucchini and the salad) of this entree was made from scratch with love.
Dessert
My dessert consisted of a crepe stuffed with honey and walnuts Serbian style.
I put several scoops of McConnell’s Peppermint Stick Ice cream on top of my crepe.
My chef put several scoops of Alden’s Organic Vanilla Bean ice cream on top of her crepe.
Advice
Eat food from all over the world prepared from scratch with love.
Be romantic.
Love life.
Love yourself.
Be refined.
Refinement is elegance.
Be elegant.
Live elegantly.
Copyright © 2017 by Gary Smolker, All Rights Reserved
Gary Smolker, Publisher Gary S. Smolker Idea Exchange Blog www.garysmolker.wordpress.com Gary Smolker, Fashion Blogger Dude's Guide to Women's Shows www.dudesguidetowomensshoes.com Follow me on Instagram @garyspassion
Lunch at Fina Estampa – by Gary Smolker
Dessert
During lunch today (April 26,2107), at the Fina Estampa Restaurant in Chatsworth, California, the owner of the restaurant (Kathy Schultz) came to my table and asked me how my daughter Leah and I were enjoying our lunch.
I replied:
“I am so happy that I hope you have a jail cell you can lock me up in until I settle down enough to go outside.”
To this Kathy replied:
“You must try our desserts.”
At the end of our meal, Kathy brought two desserts (pictured above) to our table: a Leche Asada and Hellado de Lucuma.
When I told Kathy we were too full to eat any dessert, Kathy packed up the desserts and told me to take them home immediately to put them in my refrigerator before the ice cream melted and the Leche Asada (which has egg in it) spoiled.
I did as I was instructed.
That is why I did not go back to my office to work this afternoon.
Picante de Mariscos
For lunch, Leah had Picante de Mariscos.
See photo above of Leah’s lunch.
Picante de Mariscos is a seafood stew simmered in red wine with onions, tomatoes served over boiled potatoes.
The Picante de Mariscos served at Fina Estampa is a world-class dish.
Peruvian Cuisine
Fina Estampa serves Peruvian cuisine.
Peruvian cuisine is rich in ingredients, influences and nuances.
Its influences are varied and historical –
There are 84 different ecological zones in Peru, each with its own species of plants and animals.
Ancient Peruvians
- cultivated potatoes and corn in the Andes;
- pumpkins and Lima beans on the coast;
- they discovered and used aromatic herbs and Chile peppers as well as fruits of the Amazon region;
- they also ate fish and mollusks and Llama meat and poultry.
The Spaniards who conquered Peru followed by the Viceroyalty brought with them
- rice, onions, citrus fruits, wheat, vineyards, olives, pigs, cows and hens;
- Arab-Moorish and African touches introduced by workers who arrived to toil on ranches and farms.
Chinese “”coolies” arrived in Peru as migrant workers in the nineteenth century bringing their customs and recipes with them. They also introduced techniques such as sautéing over a high flame, splashing soy sauce into beef stir-fries, and the tradition of eating white rice.
Japanese immigrants arriving at the end of the nineteenth century, introduced the Japanese love of seafood, subtley of flavoea, and care in haddling ingredients.
Another important influence on Peruvian cuisine is Italian immigrants.
Peruvian cuisine has many influences, including the fusion of influences from distant foreign lands, unique exquisite dishes in each region of Peru based on local customs traditions, ingredients and recipes passed from generation to generation.
By the way, Peru is the gastronomical capital of South America and Lima is the culinary capital of Latin America – a city that journalists, chefs, and visitors from all over the world travel to in search of new dishes and chic places to dine.
In Lima, food is religion.
Cooking professionally has become something to aspire to, and about 80,000 young people are currently studying to be chefs, in schools scattered across Lima.
Travel
During lunch Leah and I discussed why we like to travel.
Leah and travel together because we like to see beauty, we like to see history, and we like to eat some of the best food in the world.
For lunch today, I had Sopa Wantan.
Sopa Wantan is a Peruvian version of Chinese Won Ton soup.
See photo below of the Sopa Wantan that I ate for lunch today.
Next
Leah and I believe that the benefits to us of traveling are
- traveling allows us to see how beautiful the world is; and
- traveling enables us to feel more strongly connected to the beauty of the world.
Next, Leah and I will be going to Sicily together.
We will arrive in Sicily on May 21 and return back to California on June 4, 2017
Below is a photograph of an Itinerary for our upcoming trip to Sicily Leah which jotted down while we were eating lunch today.
Leah and I discussed that Itinerary in great detail while we were eating lunch.
By the way,
- Sicily has better preserved and more spectacular Greek ruins then Greece.
- The Norman Palace in Palermo (Palazzo Reale) with the Palatine Chapel is fantastic – a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- The island of Ortygia is an ancient district of Siracusa (Syracuse). In the the city’s Jewish quarter until 1493 (in the Giudecca) is the oldest Mikvah known to survive in Europe.
- Judaism was present in Sicily way before the arrival of Christianity on Sicilian shores.
- It is thought that while in Syracuse (AD (CE) 59, Paul of Tarsus preached to Jews as well as to Greeks.
- The Mikvah in Siracusa dates from the Byzantine period following the fall of the “western” Roman empire to invading forces (in Italy mostly Vandals and Visigoths) in the fifth century.
Leah and I will be flying out of LAX (departing from Los Angeles) on May 20, 2017.
It will be a long flight.
We will not land in Sicily until May 21, 2017.
Copyright © 2017 Gary Smolker, All Rights Reserved
Gary S. Smolker 