Brooklyn Edible Social Club

They say they first step in any recovery is admitting the situation at hand. So, let’s all take a deep breath in, exhale, and say it together: the last few years have been pretty tough. Enough has been said about the global economic crisis to leave that thought there. The next step in recovery is usually acceptance, and part of acceptance is learning to focus on the positives, and the future. Give yourself a nice warm mental hug because you have much more confidence in your strength and resourcefulness than you did 5 years ago. That’s the best thing about hard times, that the focus shifts to resourcefulness, and yes, that means creativity. Whether restauranteurs in need of lower overhead, or lovers of food with a shrinking budget for the luxury of eating out, in the world of food this creativity funneled itself into the boom of the supper club.

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Communitas, Among Others at Camera Austria

Unless you’re using it as in the very inclusionary context of “my brother from another mother”, most of the time signaling someone out as coming from somewhere else than where you come from becomes, to some degree or another, a confrontational act. Let’s face it, people like to belong, and so much so that even if it’s an idea that isn’t working out all of the time, most also like to believe in the growing global community. The current cultural currency of that ideal of global community is never more evident than in recent telecommunications ads, and if you take their message at face value, buying that new phone or switching provider isn’t just going to put you in touch with people in every corner of the globe, that virtual net is the very fabric of a new and better world. Certainly owning these products won’t do anything to further the cause unless you actually use them to communicate with people in every corner of the globe, and not many will, but there’s still one question left hanging unanswered: is there any sincerity to it, or is all the “brother from another mother”-style inclusionary rhetoric just covering up the truly exclusionary nature of our times?

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Tronchón: Quixotic Cheese

Quick, what’s the most Spanish thing you can think of? You’ve probably been somewhat influenced by the photo above to think about food, so I’m guessing tapas might have been the first thought you had. Or maybe soap? Without any visual prodding, I’m sure Don Quixote would still be a notable mention, at the very least. Frequently listed among the best literary works of all time, it even spawned an adjective whose pronunciation has been a head-scratcher at times to the best of us. Normally meant to mean “unrealistically optimistic,” I like to think of quixotic slightly closer to the story of the man himself, of a mind of normal reason overturned and conquered by the romanticism of a singular concept. I also like to think that it’s no coincidence that Tronchón cheese was mentioned twice in Don Quixote, because it could certainly overturn a rational mind to crazed devotion to the Teruel countryside. A cheese to get quixotic over.

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Savelletri di Fasano’s Simplest Pleasure

What constitutes a simple pleasure is sometimes a very personal affair. For some it can be the taste of the year’s first strawberries melting onto their tongue. Others, of course, might be allergic, or just have other sensations topping their list: the smell of clean laundry, a morning cuddle, or maybe watching the colors of a sunset cycle and dissolve accompanied by the perfect glass of wine, to name a few. Whichever way your personal tastes point, one thing remains the same — a simple pleasure is by its very nature simple, something that could happen every day, even unnoticed if the time isn’t taken to savor the joy it brings us. Read the rest of this entry »

Beating That December “Circus” Feeling at Salzburg’s Winterfest

Kind of like how at the root of homeopathic medicine is the idea that you can treat an ailment by making the body think it’s even sicker with the same symptoms — simplified as “treat like with like” — if all the stress and chaos of the holiday season kicking off this first weekend of December already has you reaching for the blanket and hot water bottle, may we suggest a different style of treatment? After all, when traditional medicine fails, there’s no better time to open your mind to alternative remedies.

Why not try combating the circus that descends around this time every year with a homeopathic-style approach and head straight to Salzburg for Winterfest, the festival of Nouveau Cirque?

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