Culinary Daring Aboard Acela

"Are you sure you don't want to take a cookie with you?" asked a new acquaintance as I was leaving a meeting "Microwaved hot dogs await you on the Acela."

This guy is an urban planner who knows all too well the deterrent b ad hot dogs --and high fares--can be to a potential rider of passenger rail.

Fortunately, it ain't always true. Recently, due to an accrual of Amtrak rewards points, if one has them, I was able to upgrade a business class Acela ticket for free.

I don't know that the difference is substantial enough to pay for, but as a thank-you fordealing with the status quo, it was a pretty sweet deal.

The snacks and appetizers are more interesting and better tasting than the entrees, and everything is made better by the zippiness of the train itself and the procision of *exactly* the amount of alcohol--no less, no more--one would expect to be served by the federal government.

My hummus-centered small plate ("for those who would prefer a smaller meal on the train") was comprised of fresh veg (a few crudites--celery,carrot, espc. Cucumber--were not the frshest and a bit off), hummus topped by toasted (i.e. fried) chickpeas accompanied by table water crackers and was surprisingly bright woth the flavors of garlic and lemon. The cheese lasagna entree I had on my second trip was about equivalent to transcontinental airline food; the osso bucco of the passenger next to me looked oily and dreary without the requisite accompaniment of risotto milanese and gremolata. The cocktail snack (pre-meal) of roasted sweet and salty nuts was by far the most satisying component of the meal -- the perfect complement to the mix it yourself tanqueray-and-tonic (two teeny bottles per passenger, no more), distributed as the plebs are boarding; perhaps for that reason alone, highly satisfying. Does Diageo get a kickback, or provide the booze to Amtrack gratis just for the visibility? I don't know, and I don't care. All I can say is, it took the edge off a long-ass day.
Dessert is no more than a mint-filled Ghirardelli square, and depending on the hour and the crew, there may or may not be coffee, hot towels (warm wet-naps, really), and/or a mini bottle of spring water just before the journey ends.

Play your cards right, though--boarding the train tired and hungry at the end of a day where nothing else is required of you--and you will fall into your seat, have your ticket collected by the cabin's waiter so that the pleb conductor will not disturb you, drink your cocktail, get sufficiently lit to fall into a mild doze near Wilmington, and not really give a fuck.

9

Fromage Find

While I couldn't qualify as anyone's affineur, I'm definitely more than a cheese novice who has tasted more than my share of the runny, the moldy, and the smelly. So I was pleasantly surprised to encounter a cheese I hadn't tried before at Whole Foods yesterday. Ossau Iraty is a mild, nutty ewe's milk cheese, semi hard and sliceable. It manages to combine a bit of St. Andre's butteriness with the nuttiness of gruyere. It's damn tasty, is what I'm saying. It hails from the western Pyrenees and I'm eager to try it during its June-September peak, when the ewes graze higher up in the mountains, resulting in a more robust, nutty flavor. Would be a most welcome addition to a French cheese plate where the stinky & runny, bleu, and chevre bases are already covered.

So now you have the cheese; how do you cut it? Everything you need to know about decoupage here.

Favorite Farro Recipes

I've been trying, all the month of February, to do a long and elegant post, in keeping with Valentine's Day and heart health awareness themes, of the foods we cook for the people we love -- all about the comfort food we make for the sick, the sexy food we make for our dates, the full-on holiday feasts we spend a week or more preparing to celebrate in the dark days of winter with our nearest and dearest.

But February is a short month, and I never got around to it. February sucks! The days are short, the weather is cold, it snows, and the only holidays are an excessively corporatized celebration of beer-drinking and guacamole eating, and an excessively corporatized celebration of, I dunno, chocolate truffles and long-stemmed roses. And President's day.

Instead, I proffer a couple of my favorite recipes for farro, a lovely, nutty whole grain that's easy to prepare. This lovely combination of farro and pureed borlotti beans in a soup is evocative of something the Roman legionnaires themselves might have eaten; this super combination of roasted squash and onions, thyme, walnut oil and a dash of balsamic gets a filling oomph from teh grain. Either make a filling vegetarian entree or a lovely first course or side dish to grilled fish or lamb chops.

If you don't want to go headlong down the new recipe path, you could also substite farro in any recipe for which you'd use barley or spelt; soak it in chicken broth and substitute it for wild rice pilaf; toss your typical Caprese salad ingredients in with it and convert a first-course standby into a meatless main.

Speaking of balsamic, I'd be remiss if I didn't alert you to Zingerman's balsamic blowout through March 16th. The free shipping is a boon to those of us no longer privileged to live in Ann Arbor. If you are still a culinary novice making do with that balsamico di modena stuff from the grocery store, I highly recommend you pony up and get a life buy a bottle (the 10-year balsamic's a good place to start).