Hummus Place was the one the best places we ate at in East Village, NY.

Torino

A butcher in Turin dedicated exclusively to horse-meat:

Hormone central:

Much respect to the chocolatier who came up with the idea to make a savoy cabbage out of chocolate, and then actually went and did it.

Becky Bellwether with post-Artissima feast from Eataly:

When we first arrived in Turin, someone had said 'you have to go to this place called Eataly, it's amazing', and we were like 'Eataly? That is the worst name in the world, it must be bad', but when you walk in there you find yourself in a supermarket with the most mindblowing range of Italian foodstuffs imaginable, including a full aisle dedicated to olive oil classified by region, a truffle counter which stinks from about ten metres away, super-fresh rabbits and seafood, locally made nougat, piles of fresh oranges, and so on and on... we loved Eataly.

Literary indulgence

While some we know are skiing the Japanese slopes, attended by butlers bearing champagne, skiing alongside.

From aptly named authors Medlar Lucan & Durian Gray, comes The Decadent Cookbook: Recipes of Obsession and Excess. Not entirely a cookbook, rather an assemblage of decadent writing on food interspersed with recipes, the book enables the reader to re-create such meals as Caligula's dinner of Roast Dormice or the Marquis de Sade's preferred dessert (complete with recommended codes of conduct). One entry of note introduces the keeper of the greatest table in 18th century Paris Alexandre Balthazar Laurent Grimod de la Reyniere. As the city's unequivocal host, his parties were the hot ticket, indeed his 'banquet burial', a dinner inspired by death, was attended not only by dining companions but also 300 invited spectators. Aware the reputation of a dinner party relies on scandal, Grimod de la Reyniere shockingly claimed a family member supplied the diner's pork. Though untrue, the false revelation of low social connections so humiliated his parents they had him exiled from Paris.

winter-ness

i was shown this place to eat by Kirsty Ogg from the Showroom. It's only a walk away from where I'm working, in a pavilion by the lake in the famous Victoria Park. Traditionally a park for the health and recreation of the working class of the east-end, the area is now well and truly gentrified - serving up hordes of new-ling parents delicacies such as lamb and lentil stew or organic mushroom soup. Oh and they do flat whites with bonsoy. How very Melbourne!

northern inversions

some east london institutions:

Season

Plums from my dad, rosemary from Stix's mum, lemons from Andrew and Geoff's.

Catching up...

Bacalao is a Portuguese/Spanish way to prepare Norwegian salted cod. I learnt to make it in Trondheim from a woman named Helga, who had an incredible instinct for cooking.
I only have images of the preparation prior to cooking:



BACALAO

Best made in a great big pot and shared with many.

Ingredients:
1 dried, salted cod (saltfisk) - you can buy them at the Mediterranean Wholesalers, those whole dried fish that look as though they are roaring
2kg fresh tomatoes, thickly sliced
1kg white onions, roughly chopped
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 can tomato puree
1 whole bulb garlic, roughly chopped
Loads of olive oil
Water
2kg potatoes, peeled and sliced
2 habanero chillies, finely chopped

Cut the saltfisk into chunks and soak for 24 hours, changing the water 3 times during the soaking period. Keep refrigerated whilst soaking. Drain.

Put the sliced potato in water about 2 hours prior to cooking and leave to soak, then drain. This helps the potato to cook evenly with the fish.

Heat a large, deep pot, put a splash of olive oil, a handful of onion, a can of tomatoes and a handful of fresh tomato (chopped) into the pan and cook until the onion begins to become transparent. This is to sort of start it off.
Then turn the heat off, and layer the pan up in this order, the way you would a moussaka:
Potatoes, fish, onion and garlic, tomatoes, chili, daubs of puree or splashes of canned tomatoes.
The order is important, the fish needs to rest on top of the potatoes.
Layer right up to the top of the pan, then pour on about 1 cup olive oil and 1 cup water or so, such that when you tilt the pan you can see the liquid appear.
Cover and bring to the boil, then lower heat and cook for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. It is cooked when the potatoes are ready.
Serve with fresh, warm bread (ideally pariserloff), herb butter, and a bowl of olives.