PREFACE
OPENeducation: Napa Valley Bee Company

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My A-HA! moment during OPENeducation in Berkeley was when Bob Cannard asked me “Who was the last person that made noodles in your family?” When I became red-faced and unable to answer the question, he followed up with another: “Isn’t it time that you started taking up noodle-making in your family’s lineage?”

Bob Cannard co-founded Green String Farm in 2003, has been farming sustainably for over 30 years and provides lots of produce that ends up on the tabletops in Chez Panisse. Startled at first by his persona–Dubya on the outside/Pierre-Joseph Proudhon on the inside–I sat on the lawn of the Berkeley Art Museum to listen to his Q&A session to sort this out for good.

Cannard’s passion for good soil and diversity on the farm cut through the pot-smoke-filled air of the museum, close to the UC campus. He devoted a good 10 minutes to the idea of an economy of scarcity vs. the economy of generosity which made me wish he was one of my professors back in my college days. The “economy of scarcity” is the one in which we live today: “Not enough jobs”, “Not enough food’, “Not enough money”, “I need more…”, “I don’t have enough.”

In contrast, nature abides by the economy of generosity one in which gives and gives and gives, for example: “Planting one seed which give us apples, so many in fact, that we must share”, “Rain that falls from the sky”, “Soil that replenishes itself if you let it”. Cannard lives in this economy of generosity, letting nature flourish and acts as willing participant.

I approached him after the Q&A session and he expanded on the future, insisting that our generation must envision the future to make things happen. Well, this is nothing new coming from a wise elder, but Bob’s dynamic, youthful energy and optimism was not only novel, but inspiring. I get the feeling Bob is the kind of guy who holds people accountable, and I hope that the next time I see him we can discuss some noodle-making techniques. (Stay tuned for some soba-making on Japanify.)

$4 Sandwich with tomatoes and a strawberry agua fresca

I have to admit that before going to the event, I didn’t really know what to expect. The explanations of OPENeducation were nebulous, that I feared would border pretension. But actually being schooled by small children and eating a $4 sandwich was a pretty clear and approachable concept.

More kids cooking

Alice Waters taking questions on live radio

But with all the talk of diversity in farms and the soil, both from Bob and Michael Lauher of the Napa Valley Bee Company, I looked around and realized there was a lack in human diversity, despite the fact that it was a free event. Isn’t that just as important?

All in all, I was impressed by the OPENeducation event and its ambitious, progressive-thinking participants. I look forward to attending more OPENrestaurant events in the future (and joining them in Tokyo), and hope they can reach out even further for hands-on participation from the entire community.

OPENeducation was a daytime event at the Berkeley Art Museum, and part of the Chez Panisse 40th Anniversary weekend. The event gathered 15 or so organizations creating an outdoor classroom, with kids and adults doing the educating, learning and eating.

There was a lot to experience at the event. I surveyed the whole area with my camera, but will focus on two subjects for my posts: the Napa Valley Bee Observatory and Bob Cannard of Green Strings Farm (which will post on Thursday).

The program

Edible Schoolyard student making chapati

Chapati

Pickle-making workshop

Pickles

The Napa Valley Bee Company

“When I ask kids what a bee does, they always say ‘they make honey.’ And sure they do, but they have something more important that they do. They pollinate.” That’s how Michael Lauher of Connolly Ranch and the Napa Valley Bee Company started to answer my vague question, “So can you tell me a little bit of what’s going on here?”

Michael Lauher

The Napa Valley Bee Company set-up looked fun and colorful. So I snapped some pictures of the hive and the cute VW van with a human child ornament. But I couldn’t tell what this was all about because there was no honey in sight!

That’s when I started talking to Michael. The Napa Valley Bee Company is an organization that teaches local communities on the importance of the local honey bee including how they help create diversity in farms and how they make our foods healthier and tastier. They do not sell honey. Instead they drive the Mobile Bee Observatory all around the Bay Area to share their enthusiasm about bees including visiting schools and teaching classes about urban beekeeping.

When asked how Connolly Ranch has changed since the introduction of honey bees, Michael said that the farm diversified. Originally, the farm was mostly growing edible foods, but when the bees landed, it became apparent that flowers had to be grown on the farm for optimal honey bee health. Diversity contributed to more pollination and more bounty.

Due to a lack of space, Rob Keller and Michael were unable to haul the actual bee mobile to the event. This will give me an excuse to haul my ass out to Napa sometime and see the retrofitted 1963 Airstream aka the worlds largest mobile honeybee observation hive.

*Stay tuned for another OPENeducation report coming up on Thursday!

Maiden Lane in San Francisco on Wednesday at 12:30 was swarming with people chowing down on really affordable organic lunch boxes. The event was sponsored by the Edible Schoolyard and Levi’s and went something like this: get in line, grab a lunch for a suggested donation of $5, eat at long farm tables, maybe buy a book or t-shirt and scoot off back to work.

Lines, farm tables…

Only $5! And it goes to education.

The box consisted of a sandwich crafted on an Acme bun, with Soul Food Farms chicken, Dirty Girl Farms shallots and tomato, La Tercera piccolo fino, cucumber and radishes, Happy Quail Peppers, Knoll Farm figs, Little City Gardens herbs and mustard greens, and Lagier Bronx Grapes.

The sandwich had a very agreeable taste with the baby frilly greens adding a nice textural touch to the lightly aioli’d chicken.

Unwrapped!

Sandwich monster attack

These were perfect

I enjoyed the event for its simplicity and focus on feeling good about the food you are eating. Sure, there was a short speech by the president of Levi’s and Alice Waters, but it was a brief parting of the clouds made of conversation and jazz-rock throughout the event.

Alice Waters and Robert Hanson President, Global Levi’s® Brand

Jazz-rock

The limited edition Levi’s brand t-shirts were designed by Sofia Coppola, David Byrne, Dave Eggers, and Maira Kalman. All proceeds from the event and t-shirt sales go to the Edible Schoolyard Foundation which educates students on farming and cooking.

T-shirts

Eating

More eating

Tomo with her “event-face”

*Events celebrating Chez Panisse’s 40th anniversary begins today. This entire weekend will be filled with events, with proceeds going towards the Edible Schoolyard Project.

SF Chefs spanned three days, August 5-7, and looked like it landed from somewhere in outer space, onto Union Square (notice how the tent is “punctured” by the Dewey Monument pole in the photo below). I went on Sunday around 1pm and the sides of the ginormous tent were lined with 25 chefs’ booths. We somehow found ourselves there for several hours, although half the time was spent trying to navigate through the cramped quarters.

This sign set the tone:

And the centerpiece of the event was super classy.

There was a lot going on and I felt like I was in Vegas. Corporate sponsors, local TV networks and strappy sandals finally had a reason to come out of their shells on a Sunday.

Besides being overwhelmed with the choices and hordes of people, I was overcome with a sense of stress watching all the people working the event who had to cater to all of the strappy sandals, and myself.

I had a great view of the backs of many of the chefs who seemed to be racing to an unforeseeable finish line.

Campton Place Restaurant, Chef Srijith Gopinathan

Frances, Chef Melissa Perillo and her team.

But Chef Ravi Kapur of Prospect struck a pose for me:

Who’s this dude with a hachimaki?

Neyah White, Yamazaki Whisky Ambassador

Finding time to concentrate in the hubub seemed impossible, so it was impressive to see some chefs having a chance to focus.

Absinthe Brasserie and Bar

Munch

The Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay

Vin Antico

I was very stressed out watching all the food, drink and disposable wares that were being thrown away improperly, abandoned and carelessly handled:

I hope this guy handling the “compost, landfill and recycling” (which proved to be a very difficult concept for people) got a lot of free beer after the madness.

As we say in Japanese to people after a hard days’ work, “Ostukaresamadeshita!” Thanks for opening your doors to all the strappy sandals, and a lil ol’ Umamimart scrub like me.

Chef Gabriel Kreuther of The Modern prepared this dish for the recent 4th Annual Taste of the Greenmarket benefit in NYC.

Update from The Modern (Tues. 7/26, 12:45pm EDT): The dish is Needle Panna Cotta with Nasturtium flowers and Riesling broth, Fingerling potato crisp and extra virgin olive oil.

Photo by Erin Gleeson.

Paystyle and Vanessa are in New Orleans this week for the annual cocktail fête of the year, Tales of the Cocktail–hands down the most important event in the world for cocktail heads, bar chefs, liquor companies, alcoholics, et al. I’m sure P + V have been trashed since they landed at Louis Armstrong airport yesterday morning. Although it must be HOT AS HELL down there right now so I ain’t jealz. Nope nope.

Like last year, Paystyle will be reporting back on all the hottest events he attended. He’ll be attending a seminar given by master bar chef Hidetsugu Ueno, of Tokyo’s High Five bar, so stay tuned for that. He’s the ice diamond dude!

Most importantly though, Vanessa, professional photographer and Pay’s wife, is having a SOLO SHOW of her Happy Hour photos at the Southern Food and Beverage Museum. This is huge! Please stop by the reception this Friday 7/22, between 5pm-7pm. See above card or click here for details. Congrats, Vanessa!

Please do hit up Paystyle on Twitter if you are down in NOLA this week though, and meet him for a Pimm’s Cup!

“Are we really doing this?” I asked, uncertainly nibbling on a grilled shiitake mushroom.

Eriko paused before answering. “I know I was talking some pretty ambitious stuff the other night, but I think we should try it,” she replied. “We could end up pulling off something really cool.”

I vividly recall the tipsy conversation that had brought the Gochiso project into the world. At that time, the words “frisson,” “anti-establishment,” and “Lady Gaga” were being bandied about with Champagne-fueled gusto.

Like a lot of great inventions, Gochiso was the fruit of secondary fermentation (in more ways than one). We were at a barbeque in early May at my homeslice Robert’s place in Shibuya, sipping wine and talking food–the subject of most of my conversations with Eriko and Chihiro. The three of us had met through mutual friends but food was the link that bound us. Eriko is a filmmaker with a soft spot for Perrier-Jouet and caviar; Chihiro is a graphic designer who’s worked with Michelin stars; and I’m a journalist who writes about food, sake, and wine. Earlier in the year we’d formed an unofficial “gourmet club” to eat, drink, and gossip.

I was excited about a pop-up dinner I’d attended in London and couldn’t stop chewing their ears off about it. We all agreed that the upscale food scene here in Tokyo was in danger of becoming stale, and we wanted to shake things up. Part of the problem is the hierarchical nature of the business, but things are doubly hard for young chefs who stray from the norm in Japan.

“It’s such a shame, isn’t it?” Chihiro carefully wrapped her rib in a paper napkin and took a small bite. “We must have a lot of talent in Japan that have lost their motivation.”

“Everyone’s kind of doing the same thing,” I continued. “It seems that young chefs who want to do something experimental tend to go abroad.”

“You know what? We can do this,” Eriko said. Within moments, she had put on her Pop-Up Producer’s hat. “We need to do this.”

Two weeks later, we were moving seriously toward making this crazy idea a reality. Eriko found the perfect chef to work with for our first event, and we set the launch for June 25th. Maria Suzuki is a tough lady with the right culinary pedigree, and it just so happened that she’d recently left her restaurant job to become a private chef. Once Chef Suzuki came on board, everything else seemed to fall into place. Robert had offered to host the dinner at his house, so we came up with the title Make Yourself At Home to give the event a conceptual structure.

I reached out to friends in the drinks biz to provide us with great wine and sake. Chihiro introduced us to a vegetable vendor who also supplies some of Tokyo’s Michelin-starred restaurants with top-quality produce. And we had a list of people who wanted to come.

Then, things started to get complicated. The white asparagus Chef Suzuki had requested proved to be elusive and pricey. Our guest list swelled from the 10 to 14, which meant that we had to figure out a creative way to seat everyone. Needless to say, Robert didn’t have table settings for that many people, and Chef Suzuki’s multi-course menu would require several dishes of different sizes for each person.

In the end, we each ferried bits and pieces of our own homes to the venue. Chihiro brought Champagne flutes, cutlery, and sweet-smelling hydrangea leaves from her garden that would serve as fork rests. Eriko brought bowls and plates. I, too, brought plates, plus the ochoko (sake cups) that Chef Suzuki used to serve her amuse bouche of uni mousse. I also shipped over my kitchen table, which we set up in the loft space of Robert’s living room to give four of our diners a bird’s eye view of the kitchen.

And, thanks to some vegetable sleuthing by Agrigraph, we got our hands on white asparagus just in the nick of time–a box of plump, fresh spears tinged with the faintest blush of pink.

The day of the dinner was not without its glitches, though. The menus, which were designed to look like Japanese books, needed to be sewn, but the machine broke halfway through the batch. Of course.

Chef Suzuki needed to make some last-minute adjustments to the recipes, but, apart from that, things were going pretty smoothly despite our nerves.

Once our guests arrived and we’d served (and imbibed) our first cocktails, the three of us eased into the natural rhythm of a dinner party. After all, that’s basically what it was, and if there’s one thing I do well, it’s hosting a dinner party. What made this event truly special though, was the stunning food that Chef Suzuki brought to the table, paired with wines chosen by Michael Khoo of WineInStyle.

The dishes were creative and beautifully presented, reflecting Chef Suzuki’s background in classical French and modern Spanish cuisine but in keeping with the “homey” theme of our event. Dinner began with one crispy bite of breaded and deep-fried hamo eel, topped with mikan (tangerine) espuma, and served alongside a silky, pudding-like uni mousse.

This was paired with Aoshima Shuzo’s organic Kikuyoi Matsushita-mai Junmai Daiginjo sake from Fujieda City in Shizuoka, an aromatic brew with a fine, light texture and slightly astringent herbal notes in the finish.

Hamo, a specialty of Kansai, is infamous for its myriad of pesky, bristling bones. Chefs bold enough to cook with hamo must first master the technique of cutting it, which is unsurprisingly complicated and tricky.

One of the most visually striking courses was an appetizer of green and white asparagus (from Tochigi and Shizuoka) simmered in a citrus bath.

Chef Suzuki arranged the spears beneath wispy sheets of dried scallop and ribbons of raw scallop, and then sprinkled the dish with dainty white carrot flowers. It was so pretty you almost didn’t want to eat it, and great with the full-bodied Argyle Willamette Brut sparkling wine.

Perhaps my favorite dish of the evening was the roasted sea bass in truffle-Champagne sauce, nestled in a bed of slippery oats and sweet onion petals.

I’m a sucker for truffle sauce, and the fish was perfectly moist and flaky. The wine pairing rocked: Littorai Charles Heintz Chardonnay ’08. Together, it was like a little glimpse of heaven.

It all went remarkably well. Our diners left happy, wowed by the food and wine and in love with the concept. For a full look at the menu and wine tasting notes, check out my blog, Tokyo through the Drinking Glass. (Please also ‘Like’ Gochiso on our Facebook page!)

After we’d cleared all of the plates and glasses, Chef Maria and her assistant Tsutomu Otsuka could finally let their hair down. At 3am, Robert pulled out a block of foie gras pate from his secret stash.

“My feet,” Maria announced, massaging her instep, “are throbbing.”

Eriko looked up from punching numbers into her laptop and smiled. “Cheers,” she said.  “We did it.”

From left: Tsutomu Otsuka, Chef Maria Suzuki, Chihiro, me, Eriko.

Each guest had paid ¥11,000 (about $130) for dinner and drinks, but every thin yen went into producing the event. The point of Gochiso isn’t to turn a profit; it’s to start a dialogue and spread the word about emerging culinary talent.

When people say that money is the root of all evil, they usually mean that having lots of money makes people do bad things. But having no money brings its own share of problems. We were putting this together on a shoestring–and I’m not talking about the fat kind that old-school rappers used to lace through their Adidas shell-tops. Our budget was tight, and we found ourselves troubleshooting constantly to keep finances within bounds.

Was it all a pain in the ass? Yes. Was it worth it? Absolutely.

Now we have our hands full with preparations for the next event, Food Is Art, which we plan to hold at the gallery Art Statements in a few weeks. It’s a huge challenge, and the food will be very experimental, but we know Maria is up to the task. The days are whizzing by, and heaven help us we’re still looking for a kitchen.

Every day, something happens. But we can’t wait to see what these Chef will create this time.

*Melinda Joe is an American journalist in Tokyo specializing in food, drinks, and travel. A certified wine and sake professional, she chronicles her adventures in food, sake, and wine on her blog Tokyo through the Drinking Glass.

Mash-ups has been en vogue for over seven years now. Every time Britney or Gaga release a new smash hit it’s instantly mashed up with an old Kylie Minogue or Human League hit. Sometimes, it’s because mixing and mashing creates an entirely new song. Sometimes it’s for promotional purposes. And other times, it’s done in order to squeeze more hit factor into a limited time frame in order to please as many viewers as possible (like in the global (pretty positively gay) hit show GLEE).

Sometimes mash-ups work (like this Whitney Houston/Kraftwerk mash-up) and sometimes they don’t. Like this weekend when I attended a benefit for Japan arranged by the Japanese Embassy in Copenhagen. A few days ago I got this email from Club Nippon which is the activity department of the embassy:

“Tomorrow the Danish celebrity chefs Nikolaj Kirk, Mikkel Maarbjerg and Rasmus Kjær among others will be serving hot dogs in front of Frederiksberg City Hall 11.00 to 18.00. The hot dogs are inspired by Japanese cuisine. The price will be a mere 30 kr. for one of these delicious hot do–and best of all, the proceeds goes to charity for Japan through Red Cross in Japan.”

Benefit poster. I still can’t believe almost 24,000 are dead or missing.

Closeup of poster pics probably taken three months ago in Northern Japan–poor little radioactive fella…

Danish hot dogs and Japanese cuisine mash-up? Interesting. I thought, let’s go!–another good chance to support the cause. And 30 DKK a pop is normal price in Denmark (around $6).

The event was in collaboration with a big kids day in the heart of Copenhagen and luckily the weather was fab.

Three pølsevogne (sausage wagons, in free translation) were located on the square offering four different kinds of hot dog remixes. What you normally find in a Danish hot dog is a roasted sausage in light fluffy bread, sennep, ketchup, remoulade, roasted onions, raw onions and pickled cucumber (more about the Danish ‘dog here). These mash-ups were different yet familiar:

Hot dog with cucumber, umeboshi, wasabi mayo and fried daikon.

Big sausage with Japanese inspired potato salad, bonito flakes, mirin, sake and herbs. Hmm…

Hot dog with Japanese barbecue sauce, onion salad and Japanese cucumber salad.

Again, hmmm…this looks like a normal Danish hot dog. What is Japanese cucumber salad? Pickled in mirin or what?

Hot dog with shredded daikon, miso mayo, pickled ginger, radish sprouts and nori (seaweed).

As I’m on a Japanese food diet I can’t really eat Western food these days such as bread, milk and fatty meats. But in the service of Umamimart, I took one for the team and ordered this hot dog which looked the least weird.

It’s a looooong line–actually twice this long behind me. Japanese is the coolest shit to most gaijins (foreigners).

The sausages are lined up and placed in their bread vessels before getting topped off:

The sprouts, ginger and daikon are resting in boxes. The dude making the hot dogs accepted cash with the same (dirty) hands which he used for making the hot dogs and grabbing the toppings. I’m grossed out but try to not say anything, I always get in trouble when bitching about stuff like this publicly (which is why I write for this blog instead, ha!)

Ok, here we go!

Nice bread–not artificially white and fluffy but more sturdy and full of grains. Just how the modern Danes like it.

I think the ‘dog looks nice, it’s a colourful blend of greens, whites, traced with some pink:

I bite into the thing. It’s kinda hard to consume, things are falling off, the ginger is chewy and hard to bite over. It’s an unusual mix. Not overwhelming. The refinement of the Japanese flavours kind of drowns in the heavy meat taste.

I would say yay for trying to experiment and play around with the cultural flavours in the name of supporting Japan, but I’m not really a fan of the end result. Although it could be much worse, I guess it somehow might work better in one way or another, perhaps with a tofu sausage instead or yakitori chicken sausage.

I totally dig the trendy sustainable vessel the hot dog came in though:

A thinly sliced piece of wood has replaced the usual paper napkin beneath the bread. I don’t recall seeing these in Japan but it looks so like it. Again, a Japanese/Scandinavian parallel style. Didn’t they use to wrap food in thinly cut wood back in the old days in Japan? Wood shavings folded into a bento box?

I hope the benefit was a success. Looks like it with the long lines of hungry child-toting parents. It reminded me of the Umamimart benefits in SF and LA–wherever there’s food, people will come. You might say that it’s a good thing Japan is beloved for its cuisine.

Imagine a Russian/Japanese pig tail gravy stew mashup!

Update: The Danish Crown Prince HKH Frederik is currently visiting the earthquake aftermath areas of Japan. Here’s a photo series including super cute little Japanese kids playing soccer with Frederik.

Do you serve your best food on ugly plates? Are you still using the saucers from your mom’s back closet from when you moved away from home? Or do you instead spend all your birthday money on new additions to your Floral Heaven dinnerware set, dreaming of one day completing the whole thing to impress your grandma?

I guess most of the readers here care more about what goes on the plate than what goes on underneath the food.

Which is fair enough as this is a food blog. But to a lot of people, that’s just not good enough. When enjoying the meal, everything has to go hand in hand  with the taste, the elegance; it is the complete and dignified experience.

At least that’s what our high society grandfathers believed. The Japanese went all out with the wabi sabi style, perfecting every detail of the dining experience, even among humble villagers. And in the Western world, nothing could beat a fancy meal served on good china. That is, after 1711 when Europe for the first time finally were able to put porcelain into production and after decades of trying to reproduce the fine products from the distant lands of China.

Before we had porcelain to serve our fatty pork and stale bread on, the Western world used plates of tin, copper, wood and low-fired clayware which were all heavy and clumsy–quite the opposite of the Asian elegance and refinement.

To celebrate the 300-year anniversary of creating good china in Europe, the Copenhagen based Design Museum has arranged a small show and opened up their abundant collection of decadent porcelain affairs to the public. I dropped by this Sunday to find inspiration for my own dinner parties.

The Designmuseum Danmark is situated in the most fancy part of Copenhagen, right next to Amalienborg, residence of Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II and the rest of the royal family.

European porcelan from the 17th century inspired by the decorative Chinese style.

Fancy porcelain was invented in China for almost 2,500 years ago. The first pieces of Chinese porcelain came to Europe in the 13th century via the Silk Road (think heavy stuff on horsebacks).

A Europe-produced teapot in an oriental style with a scenic motif and gold details.

From the 14th century and onwards the import grew steadily–the fascination of the thin, white material was instantly there, but the manufacturing process was not easy and the Chinese kept their secrets to themselves (ha, surprise!).

Early European china, looking like a doll’s tea set.

Not before 1710 a factory in the German city Meissen succeeded in creating porcelain of the same quality as the Chinese. Soon porcelain, called “the white gold”, became a sought-after luxury and a much-appreciated collector’s item at the European royal courts who enjoyed sipping their tea from beautiful delicate cups and gossiping over biscuits served on white sparkly plates. I bet the gays were up in the air too posing with their pointed little fingers on the fancy cups in their well-powdered wigs.

From Meissen the technique spread quickly and during the 17th century porcelain factories popped up all around Europe. In 1775 we even had our own factory here in Denmark–known today as Royal Copenhagen, yay! Today mostly rich gay people, bewildered tourists and grandmothers appreciate traditional porcelain dinnerware. But for other uses porcelain is most popular among the young arts and crafts generation.

View of the marvelous room containing the “Study Collection of European Faience and Porcelain 1700-1880“:

The study room contains thousands of pieces of china.

It feels like stepping into a flowing universe of so many dinner parties through the 1770s, afternoon tea settings in a forest on May 12, 1835, beach venture on a sunny afternoon on a hot July day in 1801. All these objects and all these lives they have followed, and survived. All the people have gone, all the parties and meals are long forgotten. But the food vessels are still here.

Will your hot cup of coffee next to your computer be put on display in a glassbox in 2127 when your life is long gone? Perhaps your grand children will visit the museum and spare a second of their busy hi-tech life, looking at their grandfather’s worn out Umamimart mug?

I took a walk around the glass montres amazed. But I think we have seen enough tea cups already so I tried to spot some of the porcelain dinner/teaware elements that stood out.

These cork wine bottle plugs look almost exactly like the ones you find in stores in 2011:

Perhaps these portraits were famous composers of the time, or maybe the head of the family, a caring mother, a secret mistress…

These stands are fun! Psychedelic tree trunks holding up a porcelain flower for bread, biscuits or lush cake.

And I love this little fella working fulltime as a sauce can handle. Such exquisite detailing:

Alert doves on their nests–perhaps a bowl for eggs, sugar or cookies?

A diabolical beast crowning an oriental-style bowl lid.

Porcelain plate with no room for food. Porcelain can be both cast and hand modelled like traditional clay:

Figurine man stealing eggs from a nest for his fab gay Sunday brunch.

Farmer lesbian killing some ducks…

…because lesbian women are violent and only like cats and other woman.

The village beauty who is also a lesbian:

Back the day, lesbians were burned at the stake for their witchery, so the only way they could get their hands on some titties was by milking the cow.

A gigantic cupcake holder for 17th century outdoor garden parties:

This object would work fantastic as a macaron holder at your incredible gay Hampton summer wedding in 2012, Yamahomo!

This piece is so weird and mysterious too. A hand-thrown faience (white pottery clay with tin slip glaze) bowl with attached sea corals on the bottom:

Must have been quite the centre of attention when used to serve pudding at a royal court ballroom party.

Nice vase (for a secret stash of mint drops?) in the window…

… and its mermaids are parading their bums:

Yamahomo and friends, keep your dirty paws off this one!

After all this porcelain I almost overdosed and had to sneak down to the Japanese historical crafts department to surround myself with what I personally prefer on my own dinner table:

To me, this is true pottery–a reflection of the natural elements of fire, wood, earth, wind.

Ancient bowls used for traditional tea ceremonies, perhaps by a samurai and his fellow warriors:

It’s beautiful, natural, masculine and humble.

Dying for cold liquid (it’s 28˚C in Copenhagen this week–two months early for those kind of high temperatures) so I walk to the cafe.

A selection of different Danish beer, sodas and organic locally grown lemonades with elderberry, blueberry, etc.:

I sit out in the garden next to the museum walls surrounding the whole court yard:

Summer is here–let’s enjoy our food and drinks whatever way and wherever we choose to serve it. And try to enjoy the moment, because the fact is, our plate is going to be here longer than we are.

The Japanese Grill: A Whole New Level of Summer Favorites
Thursday, June 16 @ 6:30 pm
Japan Society, NYC

You may think grilling is a signature American summertime sport, but it has been used in Japanese cuisine for a very long time as well. Unlike babyback ribs, burgers, or dogs, Japanese grilling has much more variety, from yakitori (skewered chicken) to yakiniku (Japanese style Korean BBQ), and vegetables in between.

Join us next Thursday, June 16, as chef Tadashi Ono of Matsuri restaurant and food writer Harris Salat celebrate Japanese live-fire cooking. Ono and Salat, co-authors of a new cookbook, The Japanese Grill, will demonstrate and explain how traditional Japanese ingredients like miso, soy sauce and yuzu kosho, enhance any barbeque menu, and can all easily be made at home.

This event will be followed by a tasting reception and book signing. $20/$16 Japan Society members, seniors & students.

Buy your tickets now!

*Photo by Todd Coleman.