HUNGRY GERALD

Cloudy day on Prince Edward Island giving HG a needed respite from blazing sun. HG looks like a piece of mahogany furniture topped with a white doily. BSK says HG looks like a negative. HG settled down in an Adirondack chair facing the sea with an entertaining novel: “Spies of the Balkans” by Alan Furst. Set in the Grecian port of Salonika, the time is the early 1940’s. The usual Furst ingredients: A sympathetic hero, some steamy sex interludes, the convoluted world of shifting loyalties. What gives Furst’s spy thrillers their unique qualities are his capacity for meticulous research, great narrative skills and an accumulation of both tiny and telling details which bring the 1930s/1940s settings to life. In the “Balkans” novel, the Greek hero drinks an abundant amount of retsina and ouzo and nibbles on grilled octopus and dolmas. The thought of these foods brought HG back to the early 1960’s when HG/BSK and baby Lesley summered in an old Dutch Hugenot stone house in Highland, New York. These were summers of swimming in HG/BSK’s cold water swimming pool. Meals and music with friends enhanced by much high grade marijuana. HG would commute nightly to Highland via an hour and a half bus ride from the city. When HG had to work late, HG would dine in a Greek restaurant adjacent to the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Orzo with briny feta cheese, olives and anchovies. Then, a delicious Moussaka or Pasticcio (a sort of Greek lasagna) washed down with plentiful retsina. This was varied by lamb kebabs with grilled onions or a fried porgy. In those days HG sported a 60’s era head of very long white hair. On one such evening as HG sipped an ouzo, Mel Brooks was at an adjoining table with a group of friends. Brooks decided that HG was really Boris Thomashefsky, the flamboyant star of the Yiddish stage. Brooks, in Yiddish, questioned HG about his identity. HG replied, in Yiddish, that he was, indeed, the great actor. In the character of Thomashefsky, HG said he often ate at the Greek restaurant when he wasn’t dining at Cafe Royal or Moskowitz & Lupowitz. Much hilarity and many vulgar Yiddish words ensued.

The psychological state known as depression is frightening. It is a plunge into a black hole of despair. It has nothing to do with a person’s real life accomplishments or happy human relationships. Winston Churchill suffered from depression. He called these periods “the black dogs.” Depression caused the distinguished author William Styron to become suicidal and thus hospitalized. During HG’s younger years, there were intermittent periods of depression. Happily, no depression for many, many decades (due to BSK’s loving help and companionship plus some very modest pharmaceutical aids). However, the current state of American politics (Does Trump foretell the end of our Democracy?); the bloody maelstrom of the middle east; American racism and Islamic craziness, all make HG gloomy. No, not depression. Just bouts of the blues. For HG, the cure is Youtube. An interlude of watching some favorites chases away the blues and restores HG to HG’s usual happy state. Permit HG to recommend some to you: Young Robert Morse in excerpts from How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and old Robert Morse doing a charming song and dance version of “The Moon Belongs To Everyone, The Best Things In Life Are Free,” from the Mad Men series. Donald O’Connor doing his madcap version of “Be a Clown” from Singing In The Rain. Liza Minelli and Mikhail Baryshnikov “On Broadway.” The dazzling Nicholas Brothers dance routines from various movies. Nina Simone singing and playing My Baby Only Cares For Me. Eddie Cantor singing same song in a movie excerpt plus his version of “Making Whoopee.” Al Jolson and Ruby Keeler in a surreal film version of “A Quarter to Nine.” Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner, masters of improv. Madeline Kahn doing a Marlene Dietrich satire, “I’m Tired”, in “Blazing Saddles.” Ending the list is Myron Cohen, the all-time best teller of jokes and the supreme Jewish dialectician. The little bald guy with the big ears always makes HG laugh.

“Improv” is how actors refer to improvisation, the backbone of acting classes and, in the right hands, the source of both comic and dramatic masterpieces. Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner’s, The Thousand Year Old Man was total, un-scripted improvisation. Mike Nichols and Elaine May were nifty practitioners of the art. BSK has an extensive theater background (theater study at Ohio State; repertory at the Fred Miller Theater in Milwaukee; summer stock in Hyde Park, N.Y.; advanced study with Lee Strassberg and Lloyd Richards in New York.) While in college, BSK did comic improv in Columbus, Ohio, coffee houses. Her partner was puppeteer Bill Walters (later a New York actor and stage manager) and his monkey puppet “Thelonious Monkey”. More improv on Columbus live TV. These days (much to HG’s delight) BSK applies improv skills to cuisine. Witness BSK’s recent chicken masterpiece. HG/BSK (since coming back to New Mexico from Florida) have been eating out of the freezer. BSK defrosted a package of skinless, boneless chicken thighs. Dredged them in a bit of flour. Using a cast iron pan, BSK gently browned them in canola oil. Placed them in a Creuset casserole. BSK wiped out the cast iron pan. In olive oil, BSK heated garlic until golden and scattered it over the chicken. Simmered wine, chickens stock and an abundant amount of rosemary.`Turned off heat and swirled butter, capers and Dijon mustard into the mix. Poured it over the casseroled chicken and cooked it in the oven. While cooking, BSK made some additional chicken stock, butter and mustard sauce. Poured it over the cooked chicken on a warmed platter. A bit of chopped parsley for color. Ciabatta (to soak up the wonderful sauce) and chopped parsley (for color). Salad of sliced avocado and sweet onion. Finished the sumptuous meal with Trader Joe’s lush Brooklyn chocolate babka and the remainder of a bottle of Pinot Noir. HG looked at BSK and contemplated that old country song: “If My Woman Can’t Do It, It Can’t Be Done.” Sums up BSK’s endless talents.

Poached eggs. Scrambled eggs. Omelets. Those are the ways HG likes eggs prepared. Never liked fried eggs. Never a fan of the ubiquitous New York fried egg sandwich. HG likes to eat eggs at home because that’s where they are prepared perfectly. BSK is a talented poacher. BSK poached eggs always have soft (but gently firm) whites and lush, runny yolks. BSK enjoys them on French bistro salads of frisee and bacon or topping a bowl of buttery and cheesy grits. (Poached eggs are splendid served with corned beef hash but HG hasn’t encountered a good restaurant version of this hash since the wonderful Longchamps restaurants of New York closed years ago [SJ here…The Corned Beef Hash topped with a fried egg at Keen’s Chop House is pretty much killer!] ). HG likes ultra soft scrambled eggs with gentle, creamy curds. Impossible to find such eggs at diners and other casual breakfast eateries. They must be made at home with plenty of butter sizzling in the pan (Adding sweet cream is an option). Long deft stirring is the secret. Takes time. The Alice Toklas (Gertrude Stein’s companion) recipe for scrambled eggs suggests 30 minutes of stirring. That’s excessive. The HG family Christmas season late breakfast treat is soft scrambled eggs topped with red salmon caviar and creme fraiche (or sour cream). A warm buttered bialy goes nicely with this holiday treat. HG likes omelets with soft creamy interiors. HG has learned the secret of ordering omelets in Paris. HG orders them baveuse. The translation is “oozing.” BSK and SJ are masterful omelet cooks. HG likes his with a filling of feta cheese. (Pete’s Diner in Denver, home of the world’s greatest giant breakfast burrito, makes a quite acceptable version of this omelet). Yes, BSK and SJ make delicious omelets. But, the Queen of Omelets was a stern, unsmiling Frenchwoman, Mme. Romaine de Lyon. She ran an eponymous omelet restaurant (served only omelets) on New York’s Midtown East Side for some 65 years. How to describe her wondrous omelets? Exquisite. Lush. Divine. Yummy. Many famous folk dined at the restaurant. Anne Bancroft and Mel Brooks were regulars. Brooks wrote the screenplay for The Producers (the movie with Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder) at his regular table at Mme. De Lyon’s restaurant. If you want to learn the secrets of omelet cooking read Mme De Lyon’s book, The Art of Cooking Omelettes. She spells the dish with two t’s and the book contains 500 savory recipes.

In France eggs are not relegated to the breakfast table; instead they are treated with the culinary seriousness they deserve appearing on both bistro and three star restaurant menus. Oeufs Mayo (hard boiled eggs toped with lots of freshly made mayonnaise) is a nice entree. So are Oeufs Meurette (poached eggs in red wine sauce). One bistro even serves BSK’s childhood favorite: Eggs and Soldiers. The dish consists of a soft boiled egg with buttered spears of a baguette. Naturally, omelettes are prominent. HG loves a bistro mushroom omelette, brown and crisp on the outside, soft on the inside. (The French descriptive word for this is baveuse which literally means “oozing.”) A baveuse omelette accompanied by pomme frites, red wine and good bread (perhaps a bit of salad) makes an ideal light, but hearty lunch. (The comic genius, Mel Brooks, discusses a baveuse onion and tomato omelette in this month’s Bon Appetit Magazine). HG also likes fried eggs and bacon tucked into a Norman galette, a crisp edged buckwheat crepe. Back home in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, HG likes a summer egg salad (heavy on the mayo) sandwich on whole wheat toast with a glass of cold lemonade.