Classification Charts - Mushrooms

 Source: sandmarg.tumblr.com via Treacle on Pinterest

I have been fascinated with all manner of classification charts since I was a small girl and spent what felt like hours, but was probably twenty minutes, in a doctors waiting room. There was a poster on the wall of edible and poisonous mushrooms and I got lost in a small world of colourful mushrooms; some edible, some dangerous.  Neither of these are the psychadaelic 70s one I saw many years ago but they have the same effect...making me want to eat the correct one in order to shrink and play amongst them with fairies. 

Source: sandmarg.tumblr.com via Ale on Pinterest

                                         Source: whereapy.com via Chris on Pinterest

Big Hair Competition 18th century-style

 

 1776. Matthew Darly. The Extravaganza or the Mountain Head Dress of 1776. London.

(via It's About Time)

If it were the 1760s I would be the height of fashion as big, extravagant hair was all the rage, the latest trend to hit London from France.  By the 1770s the trend was satirized by the caricaturists. I particularly love the two following styles which feature whole fruit and veg stalls within the hair of each lady.

 

1777. Matthew Darly. The Fruit Stall (Market Fruits Ready to be Eaten). London.

 (via It's About Time)

1777. Matthew Darly. The Green Stall (a Hairdo fit for Market Day). London.

(via It's About Time) 

1777. Matthew Darly. The Flower Garden. London.

 (via It's About Time) 

This one has either a figurine or pocket-sized man perusing the orchards in her hair.

Becca Rothwell's NYE Duck Breast with Plum Gumbo

via Becca Rothwell's Instagram aka
@howtomakeamess aka 

How To Make a Mess

Thank you so much to Becca for sharing her photo of the New Year's Eve meal she made.  Using one of my all-time favourite combinations of duck and Smy Chutney Plum Gumbo she explains:

"I pan-fried the duck with a squashed garlic clove and some sprigs of thyme, deglazed the pan with red wine and stirred in a good teaspoon of your plum gumbo, let it bubble for a few mins to reduce down a bit then poured over sliced duck for a NYE meal."

It looks amazing!  All I want now is duck, chips and kale!

Check out How To Make a Mess for all sorts of fun regarding eating, cooking, crafting and baking...basically the creative quadrality of fun!!!

Mika Tsutai Plates

(source Asahi Shimbun)

These managa-inspired plates from Mika Tsutai of Kyoto are amazing and would be so much fun to plan a meal with! More can be found and purchased at  Comicalu.

Brains

When someone says they’ll tell you what’s on your plate after you’ve eaten it, most people will instinctively feel either excited or apprehensive about what has been set before them.  The statement in itself lets you know that something unusual is there.  I had already deeply inhaled the Testa in Cassette di Ligure presented before me and noticed a strong oily aroma and managed to simultaneously state and exhale, “Well it’s offal isn’t it?”  “It’s brain....and heart, tongue and other offal,” came the response.  I’ve tried tongue and find it rather tasty, however the bite that I took was admittedly smaller than the one I would have taken after the word ‘brain’ caused an involuntary image of 1950s black and white zombies to flash before my eyes.  The Testa had a matte sheen, a strong aroma and the flavour was a bit briny (this is a 100% unintentional pun, I swear). The slices had a firm texture despite being wafer thin and were lacking the rich salt and meat flavours that I look forward to from salumi.  

While in San Remo, Italy a pink, white and red salumi caught my eye at a deli and reminded me of a marble that I photographed at the Pantheon in September:

"That one looks nice," I said and we took several slices of Testa in Cassette di Ligure, a salami typically found in Liguria made of pig’s head, tongue, muscle and heart.  Known as headcheese in English it translates as ‘head in box’ and the components are encased in strips of beef and cooked until cured.  I enjoyed the Testa’s cellular beauty that comes from the traditional culinary techniques that endeavors to use all of the animal more than the flavour itself and luckily there are countless cured meats to be discovered.

Mont D’Or

Q: Do you want to eat something really fattening?
A: Yes, why yes I do.

Mont D'Or is an unpastuerised French cheese available from September to April only.  Every last bit of this rich, creamy,  ever-so-slightly nutty delight was warmed and eaten with bread and washed down with wine.

Carciofi

The Ligurian variety of artichokes (carciofi) are one of the many exquisite local land offerings.  The diversity of foods from the Ligurian region in Northern Italy are owed to it's borders of Piedmont, France, the Alps and the Mediterranean.  What's found here provides a plethora of foodstuffs such as olive oil, basil, pesto, focaccia, seafood, chestnuts, game, mushrooms and artichokes.  I first grew to love artichokes in New Orleans where I often ate them stuffed, fried or in oyster and artichoke soup.  In Liguria I enjoyed them by simply peeling and dipping them in delicious Ligurian olive oil and the best balsamic vinegar I have ever tasted.  The waxy, spiny thorn at the end of each petal is plucked and held while the pulpy end of the petal is dipped and eaten, using the teeth to scrape the tender flesh.  The further you go into the body or choke of the artichoke the more tender the leaf becomes.  I love the taste of artichoke paired with crispy and creamy but eating them in their pure form was a revelation - clean, with a texture of newborn vegetables, a bit like a fresh chestnut that has been spread upon a leaf, bit of celery.  It was like eating them for the first time but without all the pomp and circumstance.