It starts with C

It's Like Conquistador, but different....
Etsy Conquistador deliciousness

Vatel

Here's a DVD worth getting out, though you'll probably all tell me that you saw it in 2000 when it came out in the theaters and what do I mean I'd never heard of it...

Vatel


Its got Gérard Depardieu. Its got Tim Roth (being evil, though that really goes without saying.) Its got Uma Thurman (who is a space alien, but she is a rather pretty space alien.) And its got Louie XIV, so its chock full of French cooking and frock coats and spectacle. Any of you who have ever run an SCA feast should recognise moments of the behind-the-scenes chaos.

Its all about a moment in the life of François Vatel whos really quite an interesting character. Beautifully produced. And I thought the costumes looked pretty good too, though I know little to nothing about the period.

Memorable Meals

So before they were Facebook quizzes they were blog memes, but I got done even older school than that - I got tagged by an author in a book. But I like it, so I'm passing it on. From Jonathan Carroll, via "White Apples"*:

"Describe the three most memorable meals you ever had. [One] Breakfast, [one] lunch, and [one] dinner."

This is kinda fun, and in the spirit of the book, you don't have to necessarily get it right the first time; you can change your answers if you come up with better ones.

Breakfast: I would have been about 14, camping with the Boy Scouts up on the ridge at Big Basin. The night before it was rainy and windy and we built a massive lean-to for a shelter, but by morning it had settled into a fog below us, over the ocean. One of the older guys - Tom Neer, if I remember correctly, which would be a miracle from this remove - wanted to become a chef, and did Eggs Benedict for breakfast, with real fresh Hollandaise.

Lunch: January 2008, Chateau de Puilaurens. Sitting in a ruined castle, on a knife-edge of a ridge between France and Spain, with Aussie friends that we hadn't seen often enough recently enough, and with French bread and cheese and pate and wine. Awesome place, awesome food, awesome company.

Dinner: Is really really hard. There are so many! First thought was Level 41 in Sydney, for the amazing food (though to be honest I don't remember what I had... except for the potatoes au gratin made with truffle oil, which I shall carry in my heart til I die, in more ways than one) but also for the company and the view and the thrill of splashing out on something that we couldn't really afford.

But then there's Cold War, the year that we raided the kitchen for midnight cracklin off of the suckling pig that we were cooking. Which crackling is just about the finest foodstuff I have ever consumed while giggling at a Girl Guides Camp. And I think that might have been the year that Tops introduced us to the Hey-Down-Down Hoedown, so the entertainment was pretty high class too (though I may be blending Cold Wars there.) But then, I'm not sure that any part of that was really even a dinner...

And I have a special place in my heart for every Turkey Day we had in Sydney, too. Can't call it at the moment; I'll think on it some more and see if I can come up with a single Most Memorable Dinner.

Anyone else want to play?

*(Which book I'm enjoying, but am not entirely certain I would recommend. Make of that what you will.)