Dancing Spoon

The Bistro

Memories Taste

by J. Michael Wheeler

I’m sure it was Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast that made me fall in love with French food. Not Taillevent French food, but the café, the bistro, la bar. Before I ever ventured to my culinary nirvana I was steeped in Hemingway’s France: his baguettes, his well-lit tables, his wines. Then I read his almost-contemporary in Paris: A. J. Liebling’s wonderful adventures in eating: Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris. Next came, of course, Julia Child and actually trying to cook coq au vin.  And surprisingly, it was very good. But not as good as that first coq au vin on that first trip to France.

And then we were hooked. My former wife and I made frequent trips to Paris and Nice and Burgundy. I was able to arrange my schedule (I ran my own marketing and design studio) to allow several 2 or 3-week trips to France a year. And since that meant only 28 or 42 chances to have a meal (we didn’t really count breakfasts in the tally) we poured over Patricia Wells’ A Food Lover’s Guide to Paris, and A Food Lover’s Guide to France. Then there was the Michelin Guide and Le Guide du Routard. Each trip yielded notes and restaurant business cards: recommendations for places to try on the next trip.

Recipe: Roast Fennel

Anise You Say

by David Shepherd

Defennelestrated
Starting out as a waiter many years ago (too many now), I was admittedly unfamiliar with certain foods, provincial, naive lad that I was back then. Despite this lack of experience, relying only on my unlimited charm and a wicked grin, I was able to catch on w/a top-flight establishment in Boston noted for its eclectic, adventurous menu. One evening’s special featured oven-roasted anise, more commonly referred to as fennel, which at that time (the dawning of the ‘foodie’ movement here in the States) was still a fairly exotic ingredient. While reciting the dish to a party of six swells who were in obvious anticipation of a night of epicurean delights, you might say I flubbed my line, announcing that the lamb shank “would be served with a side of roast anus.” To which one of my customers instantly replied, “Having trouble selling a lot of that one, are you?”

Needless to say, the embarrassment factor was acute (mine; theirs was a smirking sort of mirth) for the remainder of the meal. The recovery period was long, and only now can I again comfortably consider anise, I mean, fennel, when preparing a meal.

Recipe: Mint Cookie Pie

Tooth Sweet

by Edie Freedman

My mom used to make this at "Girl Scout Cookie Time" every spring. On the list of all-time 1960s suburban recipes, this lands somewhere just above Ritz Crackers' Mock Apple Pie. It's very good, but incredibly dense and sweet.

Girl Scout Mint Cookie Pie
(serves 6-8)

Ingredients
1 box (approx. 30) Mint Girl Scout Cookies (or other commercially available chocolate mint cookies)
3/4 t. vanilla
1 c sugar*
3 egg whites
1/2 pint heavy cream
3 T confectioner's sugar

*You can use just 1/2 cup of sugar, total, if you prefer a less sweet pie. With all of the sugar in the cookies themselves, the additional sugar makes it very, very sweet.

Combine about 30 mint cookies, crushed fine, with 1/2 cup sugar and 3/4 tsp. vanilla. Beat 3 egg whites with 1/2 cup sugar, adding sugar gradually until very stiff. Fold into the cookie mixture.

Spread mixture in well-buttered 9" pie pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 20-25 minutes--pie should be firm. At least 3 hours before  serving, whip 1/2 pint heavy cream with 3 tablespoons confectioner's sugar and spread on pie. Refrigerate. (The whipped cream will sink into the pie.)

Serve with a dollop of slightly sweetened whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

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