Comfort Food

You know, I promised myself that I would try and stay disciplined enough with this blog to keep something up every week and I’m a little disappointed that I haven’t written something in a while. I’ve been a little overwhelmed to be honest with you. Christmastime apparently does this to people.

I consider myself a fairly sane and rational human being who takes on problems with flexibility and critical thinking. This doesn’t mean that I’m immune to the occasional breakdown and/or shutdown. Since Thanksgiving, this has happened a bit too often due to overheated radiators, rear-ended pickup trucks, hacked itunes accounts, botched apple butters, bare gift lists, drained savings accounts, and the possibility of a career change. This all needing to be fixed and taken care of so I can be full of life with gorgeous hair and nails before I leave for a trip home to New Jersey in less than two weeks. (Gulp.)

This is a food blog though and not my personal therapist so here are the things that have made me smile and reminded me that life is okay when your belly is full.

A post-work huge bacon cheeseburger paired with a shot of Fernet Branca at Sputnik:

Dim Sum at Shanghai with your co-workers, eating chicken feet for the first time, and black sesame green tea buns:

Cheering on a good friend and helping to pour his Baby’s First Punch at Austin’s Drink Local competition: 

Even though the product caused a meltdown, the late night spent cutting apples with your best friend makes up for it:

The beauty of everything produced and learned at the bar and restaurant you’ll be leaving on January 7^th:

Sometimes we just need reminders and a little comfort food.

Days of Rest

Sunday is the Sabbath day. I grew up being taught this and practiced it to the fullest at one Christian point in my past. Since my spiritual exploration in eastern religions, a theology minor, and a job in the restaurant industry, I’m not such a stickler about Sundays being a day of rest. Years of brunches later, I may have gotten enough seniority to have some Sundays off but somehow I still say yes to work. Even though I’ve had the past three Sundays to catch some rest, I will admit that they weren’t spent dogmatically. Of course, this doesn’t mean I haven’t enjoyed myself and maybe so with sinfully good food and libations. 

Day of Rest #1- Our kitchen at Fino was one man down serving up some paella at Green Corn Project’s annual Fall Festival at Boggy Creek Farm so I happily obliged. Green Corn Project is a Central Texas non-profit that promotes education and growing of organic produce and gardens. Every year restaurants and small businesses in the Austin area set up a small shop to satiate the donors. Fino put up some vegetable paella, meaty paella, and this tortilla espanola- a traditional Spanish omelette made with chicken eggs straight from our chef de cuisine’s farm.

Boggy Creek was gorgeous on an autumn day to walk around and taste savory pumpkin cheesecake from Barley Swine, wood-fired pizza from Bola, and Balcones whiskey- all for free and all in one afternoon.

Day of Rest #2- The Austin Sustainable Food Center here in Austin held a seven-course dinner at La Condesa where seven different restaurants from Austin, San Antonio, and Houston each took one course. The chefs at Fino, Jason Donaho and Andrew Macarthur, contributed a quail dish to the dinner which was paired with a locally-sourced cocktail from our bar manager, Josh Loving. I had the fruitful opportunity to play his punchy pour partner and scored a behind-the-scenes pictures of Balcones Baby Blue whiskey, Real Ale Pale Moon Rye, Earl Grey tea steeped in Richard’s Rainwater, lemon, Round Rock honey, and nutmeg.

Even though we didn’t get to enjoy the food on the plates, we did reap benefits of lots of leftover punch and exciting moments in the kitchen watching Andrew Weissman and Tyson Cole hurriedly plating their courses.

Day of Rest #3- Digestible Feats is a part of the annual Fusebox Festival that brings together, food, drink, and the arts. Peche held a Rum Challenge to raise money for the cause with bartenders from Contigo, Peche, Fino, and Bar Congress. I always have fun watching any of these guys make drinks especially when it’s under a 15-minute time constraint, a mandatory use of the Virtuoso rum portfolio, and a citrus restriction. Oh the drama. I was on the side of Fino and Bar Congress- literally as that’s where my seats were and managed to sip on both of their quick concoctions.

Adam and Brian of Bar Congress created an egg white drink with Rhum J.M, Lemon Hart 151, strawberry vinegar, and grapefruit rinds soaked in angostura. Fino’s Josh and Andy and their wittily named “Occupy Peche” contained Smith & Cross navy-strength rum, La Favorite rhum agricole, La Favorite aged rhum agricole, Sloe Gin, oleo-saccharum (a blend of lemon oil and sugar), homemade five-spice bitters, and nutmeg. Good times with good drinks although I wish there could have been a way to taste them all or maybe there have been a winner with judges. I like a little competition so maybe I’ll put my name in for next year.

Lord knows I have been busy on my Sundays off. Spending this day of the week with buckets of punch, massive amounts of food, and sugarcane spirits may seem sacrilegious but they help to fill my quota on my sacrifices to Dionysus. That’s one divine relationship I don’t want to mess with.

Aroma-therapy

The most frustrating times I had starting at Fino were had at our server meetings. It’s hard to believe I know if you have read my past few posts citing certain love affairs with these wine tastings. It was a boys’ club of know-it-alls talking about pencil shavings and lead, visions of forest floors, and baking cookies with Grandma at Christmas time. I made fun of these people while I would cook dinner with Jackie later that evening talking about how awful it was listening to this pretentious banter. I would smell and sniff and yes, I would finally get something. Grapes. Oh, well, right. Wine is made from grapes. How poetic.

I spent most of the year finally realizing that what I was smelling were actual things and not just grapes. I was getting that fruit but which one? Peach? Yes, that’s it! Biscuits you say?! Yes! That’s what I wanted to say! I knew it was something- I just didn’t know what. 

Then I realized that the only way to ever understand was to practice. I had to immerse myself in the culture in order to learn the language. When I decided to not be so judgmental of my cohorts, to stick to the wine and beverage career path, not I only did I have to smell these things but I had to talk about them and in turn, have some opinions.

After google searches for aroma classes and websites on how to prime your palate, I came to the realization that the only way to practice was to engage in this pretentious banter on a regular basis. Here’s how I did that:

cuppings @ Houndstooth

tequila, sotol, and mezcal tasting @ Fino

Something eventually clicked over time. I now feel more comfortable with the process and the conversation especially when I can smell my mother making me a  peanut butter and jam sandwich in my New Jersey kitchen or a walk with my great uncle to tend his garden in our joint backyard growing up. I also feel comfortable talking about the smell of ash and smoke that brings me to Oaxaca, Mexico if I can’t physically be there. Now these things I can identify. These things are what I can appreciate in a cup of coffee or a (sipped) shot of tequila.

 

It’s also nice when a cocktail with no trace of espresso can bring you to visions of a cup of coffee had on your balcony wrapped in a blanket with a book:

Jerry Thomas' Coffee Cocktail @ Fino - brandy, port, egg, and sugar

Nowadays you’ll find me engaging in the banter and being one of those in the clique-y club but you’ll also find me in my own romantic dreams of future travels and past memories. You don’t have to be part of a boy’s club or feel pretentious to be capable of that.