simple reduction

In two days two quarts of yogurt will have become one—future lebneh for legs of lamb. That might be a kitchen haiku, or a telegram, not unlike "Knife's edge is sharp that's no carrot goddammit that's my fingertip send first aid kit."

order in

quick lunch at elysian, using up what's around: frisee, fregola sarda with kubocha, carrots, green garlic, shallot, chile, harisa chickpeas, plus some little guanciale lardons super crisped, that's it

oozy sunday

sunday late breakfast, it's what was for dinner, last night, a few nights ago, odds and ends from the reaches of the reach-in: sweat some shallot, chile de arbol, add roasted kubocha and roasted carrots, get them hot, season, add dandelion greens and slivers of pink lady apple at the end as the omelet also finishes up, gets rolled out of the pan, lubed with butter, sprinkled with fleur de sel, and draped with the hot salad, a little tight-foamed capuccino appeared along the way and the omelet is oozy, "baveuse," because that's the way
we like it

post-valentine breakfast

if we were open in the early morning, you might be sitting here, on a sofa,
on a pillow, or at a table

with a bowl of something like this (harisa chick peas, slow-cooked onions, roasted kubocha squash, soft eggs, parsley, mint), and hot pitas if I knew how to make them (substitute toasted baguette, with lebneh, olive oil, zatar),

and a little plate of olives, and a pot of arabic coffee

thinking about what is going on in the old city of Damascus, or better or worse yet the old city of Homs though that is fast becoming unthinkable and I don't mean to put thoughts in your head anyway when all you want is a little breakfast

citrus with everything

when all sorts of combinations of fish and citrus are in vogue and season and on menus I am enough of a follower to jump on the bandwagon with big shrimps poached in fish stock that had a dollop of harisa added to it and once the shrimps were poached it got reduced to be part of a vinaigrette with minced shallots, meyer lemon juice, toasted ground cumin, sherry vinegar, and olive oil that coated a little watercress, some blood orange supremes, little slivers of meyer lemon, and watermelon radishes, and douche did you put salt in that yes the fleur kind and plenty of it