Feaverish

I’ve been reading a lot of food books lately–Michael Pollan, Ruth Reichl, Anthony Bourdain, Bill Buford–and occasionally I’ll set down their drool-soaked pages and head to the kitchen to make something. Indoor activities are hard in Southern California, since the temptation to be out playing in the ever-present sun is overwhelming, but last weekend it rained and C and I spent most of it cooking. Cassoulet, fritatta, wedding cookies. Unlike my youthful (oy, that hurts to write) attempts at customizing my ramen with every spice in my mother’s cabinet, the food we made actually turned out pretty wonderful. The blueberries above are from a blueberry kuchen we made last night. Here’s the recipe. It’s insanely easy, and, although I haven’t actually tasted it yet (it’s being saved for a dinner party tomorrow), it looks delicious. How can you go wrong with blueberries and sugar?

And here’s a song I like; it’s sort of about food. Sort of.

Ball of Flame Shoot Fire — Red Meat [mp3]

I leave work an hour early but as it happens I needn’t have; the roads are open and the trip from the beach to Thai Town takes less than half an hour. It’s possibly a record and to top it off we get a parking spot directly in front of the club where in an hour or so we’ll be seeing The Blow and The High Places and Mirah. A high five is exchanged.

In this part of town the sidewalks are decorated with concrete stars and the names of celebrity entertainers and we follow them around for a while to kill time and end up at the restaurant where, a week earlier, I’d been unable to get a reservation. We walk in and ask for a table and after some apologetic shuffling they seat us at the bar. Food is just as good when you’re sitting on a stool, and I eavesdrop on the women sitting next to me talking excitedly about Hillary and Obama and The Issues and I turn back to C and she’s got that food-induced smile on her face from the cheese or the almonds or the honey or maybe the grilled bread and for a second it seems like maybe everything everywhere is going to work out okay for everyone.

The Blow � Parentheses [mp3]

The High Places � Head Spins [mp3]

Mirah � The Light [mp3]