Life Is Meals_ A Food Lover's Book of Days - James Salter [58]
After Napoleon, de Cussy served Louis XVIII, the last king of France, who initially wanted nothing to do with him but changed his mind based on his appreciation of fraises à la Cussy, one of the countless dishes credited to the Marquis.
FRAISES À LA CUSSY
1 quart strawberries (in season)
½ bottle sec or demi-sec champagne (need not be of high quality)
½ cup sugar (approximately)
1 pint heavy cream (or better, double cream, if you can find it)
Hull the strawberries, slice in half lengthwise unless very small, and soak for an hour in a mixture of the sugar dissolved in half the champagne. Mix the cream with some of the remaining champagne, not making it too thin, and pour over the drained strawberries arranged in serving dishes. Serves four.
HOSPITALITY
During a holiday in France, Alice Waters, Anne Isaak, I, and our three children, on the way back to the house after a day at the beach, stopped for an early dinner. We waited in the garden of the restaurant—it was in the country—for twenty minutes, until the official opening time. Yes, they had room, but the owner made his distaste clear for this casually dressed group without a man.
There were flowers and white linen on the tables, but though the dining room was empty, the service was slow. Anne, who owns two New York restaurants, ordered wine but sent it back for an unspoiled bottle. We had appetizers, then the regional specialties, and finally dessert. Gradually, it became clear that we would be the only customers that night, and as a result, the service warmed and finally fawned.
When we got home, Alice sat at a desk for a couple of hours, composing a letter in French to the owner of the restaurant. She said that she, too, owned a restaurant, adding modestly that she didn’t expect he had heard of it. She said that being in the business herself, she had been somewhat disappointed in the evening despite the pleasant surroundings and good food. She had, she wrote, felt that his establishment had displayed little of what she considered the most important quality of any restaurant, great or small, which was the friendly and generous welcoming of those who came there. In a word: hospitality.
K.S.
PLACES NOT TO EAT
Avoid, if possible, any restaurant that:
• Has glass atop the table
• Has waiters who tell you their names (nearly unavoidable in certain locales)
• Offers coffee when the menu is presented, except at breakfast
• Serves baked potatoes and/or butter wrapped in foil
• Allows any dishes to be cleared before everyone at the table has finished eating
• Makes you wait more than twenty minutes when you’re on time for a reservation.
MEXICAN FOOD
It used to be that Chinese food was largely represented by chop suey and chow mein. Mexican food is engaged in the same uphill battle to establish itself as something more than fast food or a plateful of indistinguishable beans, rice, and something hidden under sauce. Second only to Chinese cuisine in variety, Mexican food relies on the combination of relatively few essential ingredients, including corn, beans, chili peppers, and tomatoes.
When the Spanish invaded Mexico and conquered the Aztecs in the early 1500s, they discovered an already ancient tradition of agriculture and cooking. One of the conquistadors, Bernal Díaz del Castillo, wrote in detail of lavish banquets in Montezuma’s palace. The Spanish brought with them the animals that added meat to the diet. Centuries later, another amalgamation took place between Texas and New Mexico cowboy cooking and that of northern Mexico. The resulting Tex-Mex cuisine improved both.
Corn plays the central role in Mexican cooking, as it has for millennia. It was once considered sacred in its cycle of planting,