Friday, February 02, 2007

highbrow/lowbrow
























while we really have been all shakespeare-y around here lately -- monday night we all four braved the cold to see a two-actor production of macbeth at space, and bean's been reading (for fun, not for school) hamlet -- i have to fess up to a lowbrow addiction of mine.

above, top chef season two. i never thought i'd get hooked on this show. i'm loyal to project runway, officially the best reality show of all time, and besides, unlike the clothing designs on that show (which the audience can see), this show hinges on food (which the audience can't taste). i hadn't been watching all along, but i caught episodes here and there. my sewing machine is currently set up on bean's desk in the living room, so i do often watch tv while i'm working. somehow, over the last couple of months, i managed to watch every single episode of top chef, some more than once, and i was hooked enough to stay up til eleven wednesday night to see the finale. it's not even like i'd eat most of what they cook -- all kinds of vegetarian no-nos, like foie gras and offal. but it's pretty fascinating to see what decent chefs come up with when given an assignment like "create an amuse bouche using only what you can find in this vending machine."

bean and boo have a new favorite game, where they put on a cooking show using every ingredient in the kitchen. last night i ate pretty well as one of the judges for their show: cranberry spritzer, sticky rice with peanuts and lime, salad with coconut vinaigrette, and 2-dimensional vanilla cake with crushed cookie crumbs. personally, i imagine that i'm "plating food" when i heave a slice of homemade pizza onto a plate.

speaking of homemade pizza, bean and i have been working on pizza perfection lately. our fave: carmelized onions. below, onions gettin' ready to carmelize:

2 comments:

margot said...

who won top chef?

Liz Woodbury said...

ilan, who seems to be widely criticized for always cooking spanish food and using lots of saffron. but i thought he was as good a winner as any (actually, i really thought sam should've won).