The memory of taste

It's night 3 of my fast and it's been a curious experience thus far from a chefs perspective.  Last fast of 18 days I was just trying to survive it.

This time is a different experience.  We know that there are five taste sensations, but as I've been fasting I've craved them in different stages.  

First came salt which wasn't a surprise since Im a salted nut anyway but then I lost that craving to sour.  Skittles and warheads were all I could think about.  

Next came umami - I dreamt of soy wasabi sesame oil mash potatoes... And finally today I couldn't shake my desire for this chocolate potato chip bar I recently had.  

Not quite sure what to make of this but I recall reading an article on 'the memory of senses' and if u think about it bet you can guess which lasts the longest.  

You'll never forget the smell of a skunk or a gardenia or rose bush.  But as I'm lying here in my tent salivating I can almost taste everything.. A watermelon, a pinto bean, cream cheese, rosemary roasted chicken...

Research has shown that most people lose 50% of their taste buds by the time their 20 - yet another thing wasted on youth.

What I'm wondering is if this whole fasting business can somehow reawaken taste sensation?  Food for thought.

Now can somebody make me a sammich?  Oy vey four more days....  

My Thanksgiving Fast

While everyone's feasting with family, I'll be out in Shelby Forest forbearing food for a week. As a man of large appetites, it won't be easy but I've done it before. Back in 2011 after I lost my dog, Murphy, to cancer I fasted in Memphis for 18 days during a scorching heatwave with temperatures stuck in triple digits for most of the entirety.

This time the experience will be inverted.  As of this morning, it's 22 in Tennessee and with the wind chill factor feels like 16 degrees.  This represents a unique risk as the primary purpose of sustenance in cold weather is providing heat to your body.  Exercising, too, can't used for warmth since muscle mass is broken down during the fasting process.  

My Pyrenees won't be with me since after a few days I won't have the strength to tend to their needs.  Nope it'll just be me and El Guapo out in the woods, alone in a tent, and, wait a tic, this is starting to sound a little like Brokeback Mountain...  

My communication will be limited as well since I'll only have my phone for emergency use.  No computer, no iPod, Kindle, or any other electronic device which, to be honest, I'm looking forward to.  Sometimes the noise in life can just be deafening and you've gotta unplug.  

But mostly I made the decision to fast this week for physical reasons.  Now that my other dog, Hudson, was recently diagnosed with cancer, I know that the road ahead will be hard and my body and spirit under constant assault from the uncertainty of outcome.  2014 will be a definitive year and I must strengthen myself in preparation and fasting is the first step.  .  

I shall miss breaking bread with family and friends but I fast so that I may feast again with them one day soon.  

Chef Big Dog

Recipe: The Homeless

The breakfast taco... This is what put me on the map!   Literally.

The classic that I made for many o'family on our walk and I made it this morning and I almost forgot how damn tasty it is.  And simple to make.

Fry up four slices of bacon.  Slather one side of tortilla with cream cheese.  Add a layer of refried beans on top seasoned with my own Mexican blend, CBD 17. 

Then diced green chiles and cheese.  I prefer pepper Jack for a little heat or a blend. Stuff it with the bacon, fold over like a taco and fry it in the grease.  Once it's nice and golden on both sides, top it with sour cream, more cheese, and salsa.  

Hell yeah, that's The Homeless.  

Yah?

Yah, you betcha.!

I'm in the land of 10,000 lakes and although the purpose of my presence here is primarily philanthropic for our foundation, I try to take a few tics on our travels to savor the local culture, fare and flavor. 

The first thing that I couldn't help but notice about Minneapolis is the almost absolute absence of fast food franchises.  We've been here since, what, Wednesday, and only seen two, and while I'd normally be a big fan of that - the nearest Dunkin Donuts is five and a half hours away in Wisconsin and that makes me a little cranky and suspicious.  

Indeed it's a strange yet curious place.  (I mean, other than the fact that they had a rassler for governor and stuart smalley as a senator).  

But there's some seriously good food here.  

Bacio, a giant of a restaurant in Minnetonka, has an excellent stater menu.  It's pretty much policy now when I'm at a new and unfamiliar restaurant to just sample the little bites because if they can't do that right, no need to move on to the entree.  

And there's was spot on.  The parmesan crusted shrimp and tuna crisps both delightful but the two other dishes I sampled deserve their own spotlight.  First is their heirloom grain salad, which is just about one of the best damn salads I've ever had - brilliantly constructed, fresh and surprising.   

And finally the crab cakes, pictured nearby, an experience I've never had before and I've eaten them just about everywhere.  The odd motley of ingredients are what drew me to it: avocado drizzled with EVOO, vanilla bean puree, and sweet and sour chili sauce. Individually, they all have singular distinctness but good god, man, mash them together and it becomes a melody.  

Nevermind that the cake isn't even fried.  IT'S BAKED.    I didn't ask if the crab was dungeness or blue but baby, it was lumpy and luscious. 

On Lovers and Sliders

I maintain a profound respect for chefs that make me re-think dishes but this city makes me re-think reality.  The twin cities are replete with five star restaurants but the hottest, most exclusive place to take your lover on a valentine date is..... White Castle.  Wait what?  

Yer Dern Tootin'.  Apparently, the one day out of the year that the fast food joint reverse transmogrifies into a high class restaurant where the waitstaff wears tuxes. And get this, there's a two year wait list.  

God Bless El Guapo

He's a puppet, he's been on a promotional tour for six months.  Who can blame him?

Long Wharf New Haven

Yesterday we spent the early afternoon sampling the predominately Spanish influenced cuisine at the Long Wharf food trucks. 

I've oft griped of the paucity of authentic Tex-Mex-ish food in the Northeast but apparently, I was looking in the wrong place.  

But you can't blame me.  Who would've thought that the home to Yale University could also be home to anything real and unpretentious?  But since I walked through New Haven, it now makes sense.  

Beyond and beneath the ivy walls, it's a predominately blue collar, salt-of-the-earth port town, not unlike so many on the old Boston Post Road in Connecticut. Full of color, flavor, and people who, if they only have $10 to spend on food, demand that it's down and outright authentic.  

I found that in a row of food trucks along Long Wharf CT.  When I posted this photo on my FB page, someone remarked that they passed by it for 16 years and never stopped for reasons which elude me.  

Look, I'm a foodie and an anti-foodie all rolled up in a Big Dog bun but for Christsakes - support your local culinary community.  And if a sense of social responsibility doesn't convince you, take a gander at that gigantic torta mexican styled cuban sammich.    

And the carnitas, and the alambre with cactus taco, too.  

Noah's

"When I ain't cookin.  I'm a eatin." 

As a cook and eater of extraordinary extent, it seems incumbent on me to celebrate the culinary creations of other chefs. And I'll chronicle those exploits here.  

In route to NYC to fund a cancer study, the fuzzybutts and I pitched tent at a North Fork campsite in Greenport Long Island.  Late in the day, long in our travels, and after wine sampling at a few of the vineyards, I just wanted a tasting menu and for the first time, Yelp took us to that place.  

Chef Noah gets that little bites are the trend, perhaps the future of the dining experience.  The tired old equation of appetizer + entree + dessert just doesn't add up anymore.  

Noah's is a destination place and not only for foodies.  Deviled eggs are a new inspiration for me.  Thanks, Chef.