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A Good Appetite

  • A Good Appetite

    Excerpted from JUST ENOUGH LIEBLING by A. J. LIEBLING

    The primary requisite for writing well about food is a good appetite. Without this, it is impossible to accumulate, within the allotted span, enough experience of eating to have anything worth setting down. Each day brings only two opportunities for field work, and they are not to be wasted minimizing the intake of cholesterol. They are indispensable, like a prizefighter's hours on the road. (I have read that the late French professional gourmand Maurice Curnonsky ate but one meal a day-dinner. But that was late in his life, and I have always suspected his attainments anyway; so many mediocre witticisms are attributed to him that he could not have had much time for eating.) A good appetite gives an eater room to turn around in. For example, a nonprofessional eater I know went to the Restaurant Pierre, in the Place Gaillon, a couple of years ago, his mind set on a sensibly light meal: a dozen, or possibly eighteen, oysters, and a thick chunk of steak topped with beef marrow, which M. Pierre calls a Délice de la Villette-the equivalent of a "Stockyards" Delight." But as he arrived, he heard M. Pierre say to his headwaiter, "Here comes Monsieur L. Those two portions of cassoulet that are left-put them aside for him." A cassoulet is a substantial dish, of a complexity precluding its discussion here. (Mr. Root devotes three pages to the great controversy over what it should contain.) M. Pierre is the most amiable of restaurateurs, who prides himself on knowing in advance what his friends will like. A client of limited appetite would be obliged either to forgo his steak or to hurt M. Pierre's feelings. Monsieur L., however, was in no difficulty. He ate the two cassoulets, as was his normal practice; if he had consumed only one, his host would have feared that it wasn't up to standard. He then enjoyed his steak. The oysters offered no problem, since they present no bulk.

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« Gifts of Christmas Past | Main | Eqq Nogg »

January 20, 2008

Stollen Secrets

Christmas Stollen

Stollen Of the many reasons we look forward to Christmas, one of the most reliable and satisfying is the opportunity to buy Christmas Stollen.

Stollen, also known as Christollen, Dresden or Dresdner Christollen after the city of Dresden, Germany where the bread originated. You can be forgiven for confusing stollen with fruit cake, as they both appear regularly during the Chistmas season and both include nuts and candied fruits.  But that is where the resemblance ends.

Chirstmas Stollen is delicious and all by itself is a reason to look forward to the season and be merry!

Stollen Sources:

Bower's Bakery

3545 SE Hawthorne Blvd (503 231-0017) makes probably the best, sweetest, crustiest but delicate stollen in Portland. We could not find a picture of it in time for publication so we borrowed one that suggests the idea.

 

Great Harvest Bakery

But for the healthiest, really really good stollen that you can eat like regular food go to Great Harvest Bakery - 540 SW Broadway (503 445-9908). Their stollen is made from whole wheat, has lots of nuts and comes with a plastic tub of brown sugar, butter and rum.

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