“People ask me: Why do you write about food, and eating and drinking? Why don’t you write about the struggle for power and security, and about love, the way others do? The easiest answer is to say that, like most other humans, I am hungry.” —M. F. K. Fisher, Gastronomical […]
Madara
(This piece was originally published in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner) According to a Hollywood legend, Marlon Brando intentionally flubbed his lines repeatedly while filming a restaurant scene for “Guys and Dolls,” forcing Frank Sinatra to eat bite after bite of cheesecake, a dessert Sinatra apparently hated. Sinatra stormed out in […]
Squash Skepticism About Savory Cheesecake With the Addition of Salmon
Michael Manly Miles was hard drinking and hard working, angry and funny, fearless and reckless, one hell of a farmer, and one loyal son of a bitch. If he hated you, you probably had it coming, and if he loved you, well, he loved you with a fierceness that most […]
Bread Pudding, Funerals, and the Power of Communion
My students eat dog. OK, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it’s not exactly a lie. Last week my World Lit class spotted the bags under my eyes and took advantage of the situation by asking off topic questions and making distracting statements. This kind of thing […]
Stuck in the Middle with Balut
What do you make for a man who was raised on a Midwestern farm, spent time in the Navy, and now writes poetry and runs ultra-marathons in Alaska for his birthday? You dig the grill out from under the snow, fill up your propane tank, and make him a […]
The Best Burger a Midwestern Farmboy Ever Ate
Something about being a parent brought out a fine appreciation for The Rules in me. Even the most carefree eccentric artistic types will turn into whip-cracking fascist tyrants when they find another towel on the bedroom floor, only minutes after telling a child to hang up the towel when […]
Baking Bread and Breaking Rules
Well. I’d had it. I’d finally wept enough over the distance of Southern food, the geographic distance and the emotional distance, so on Saturday, in recognition of the completion of UAF English Dept’s Graduate Student 6 Hour Comprehensive Examinations I threw together (with the help of a few friends) a […]
Alaska Style Southern Food Fest
I’m homesick. I would give my right pinky for some boiled peanuts right now. The kind sold hot from the cooker in a styrofoam cup. I would peel them, eat their meaty insides, and throw the shells out the window on I275. Then I’d stop at some other roadside stand […]
Georgia Boiled Peanuts: Nostalgia in a Styrofoam Cup
“To satisfy the human tastes and prejudices there is probably a daily expenditure of two billion woman-hours in the kitchens and dining rooms of the world… men who wax flowery and effusive about the excellence of Mother’s cooking should remember that her reputation was made while they were hungry boys” […]
Banana Nirvana: Thai Style Banana Cake
Fairbanks has my brain in its icy claws; the temptation to eat donuts and birthday cake by the truckload is powerful. It’s been -30°F (and colder) here for weeks and weeks and weeks. We’ve had a few days here and there of temps above 0°, but from Thanksgiving until now […]
Moonsets and Moonpies at Thirty Below
Reading a good recipe inspires my taste buds in much the same way that naughty pictures can inspire, um… carnal desire. I’m going to stay away from the idea of food porn for now, since I think the visual representation, while not in a category by itself, is a category […]
Language and Appetite: How to Write a Sexy Recipe
“Blues is a natural fact, is something that a fellow lives. If you don’t live it you don’t have it. Young people have forgotten to cry the blues. Now they talk and get lawyers and things.” –Big Bill Broonzy I’ve been thinking about Ganesha quite a bit lately, the pleasant, […]
Ganesha’s Plate of Sweets: Upside Down Blues Cake
This year I’m making a couple of traditionally inspired dishes for New Years Eve. The first dish is called Hom Big-Jon, a play on Southern Style Hoppin’ John. It’s supposed to have a penny somewhere in it for the lucky person who finds it in his bowl, but I can […]
Hom Big-Jon: Thai Inspired Hoppin’ John
In Alaska, no matter how hard you try to maintain your sense of “civilization,” ultimately the natural world overwrites the man made world: snow and ice cover up the lines on the roads and drivers follow the grooves left behind by braver pioneer drivers; parkas, hats, gloves, and scarves cover […]
Fairbanks, AK: Hipsters and Foodies Need Not Apply
It’s easy enough to eat the leftovers from successful parts of Christmas dinner, but what about the spectacular failures I came up with? What was I to do with the giant vat of Southern Style Mac & Cheese, (henceforth the “Rubber Style Mac & Cheese”)? What is it they say […]
Dessertes de la Table: a Fancy French term for “Leftovers”
I now have access to a Super Secret Family Cookbook from a Danish Grandmother in the Midwest. The Danish Grandmother came to America in 1933 when she was 16 years old. And she came alone. Her recipe book is filled with things that a Southerner finds strange: kolaches, fastnachts kuchle, […]
Where My Shorties At? A Postmodern Spin on an Old ...
Thai food is not only Fairbanks’ favorite cuisine, it’s also turning out to be a theme in this blog. Thai flavors are as ubiquitous as snow, so it’s no mere coincidence that when folks leave this place, they are sentimental about many things and Thai food usually ranks in the […]
You Can’t Go Home Again: Part III in a Series ...
Solstice is the cul du sac of winter, a place where the disappearing sun goes to turn around and return home. Winter solstice is a psychological balm for those of us living in Alaska. It marks the end of loss. Tomorrow we will begin to gain daylight, slowly at first, […]
How to Fatten Hansel in Order to Eat Him for ...
Thai Curry, Round 2: Last night I visited my friend, a well known (but paradoxically private) poet who will henceforth be known as the Kitchen Vixen. The Vixen lives, like many people in Fairbanks, in a cabin with no running water and an outhouse. I love cooking with her in […]
Cabin Curry: How to Avoid the Outhouse at -25F.
First of all, it’s still -37°F here, and we are down to 3 hours and 44 minutes of light. The sun will rise a paltry 2.1° above the horizon today. Second of all, I got quite the culinary shock yesterday. After all the bitching I did in my last post […]
Where Can I Get Durian Fruit In Fairbanks, Alaska?
“I want to shake off the dust of this one-horse town. I want to explore the world. I want to watch TV in a different time zone. I want to visit strange, exotic malls…I want to live, Marge! Won’t you let me live?” -Homer Simpson I teach college English in […]
Eskimo Ice Cream and the Appeal of the “Exotic”
I try not to be bitter over my exile in this Winter Wasteland. I try to love this place the way some of my friends and colleagues do. But I. Just. Can’t. It’s dark here. Nothing is easy in the cold. My footing is still, after 15 years in Alaska, […]
Drunken Winter Crazy Cookies
Imaginary Jamon Seranno Tapas: 1 small loaf of artisan bread 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, warmed in a pan 1 package *jamon serrano, or prosciutto ham 20-30 salt cured Moroccan olives Thinly sliced Manchego cheese 1 tsp each of rosemary, crushed red pepper, and sea salt *I can’t get […]
Christmas In Exile and Dreams of Jamon Serrano
This guy I know, henceforth known as The Hot Boyfriend, is an absolute animal, tearing into a plate of my Gruyere scalloped potatoes the same way he tears off my clothes…with lusty enthusiasm. He’s a poet and an ultra runner (no small feat in Fairbanks, Alaska) who comes to my […]
A Lusty Salad of White Shrimp, Campari Tomatoes, and Ginger
On cold winter weekends I occasionally marinate myself in tequila (you would too if the sun only made a cursory 3 hour appearance each day), but during the week I soberly teach English at the local state University. As adjunct faculty I come into contact with a new round of […]
Mexican Train Style Pork
Butterscotch Syrup for French Toast 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 tbsp real vanilla 1/4 cup water 1/4 stick of butter 1/4 cup cream or half & half I usually throw these all into a cold pan together, slowly bringing up the heat and whisking until it comes to a boil. […]