I've just eaten for the first time in years, strawberries that are good just as themselves. No sugar or cream necessary. They have flavor! They're sweet! They're picked ripe!

No mortal strawberry can ever meet the deliciousness of the strawberries my sister and I picked one early summer day from our Uncle Delma's patch in NC. We ate a bunch of them as we picked, even though the aim was to fill a pie that Aunt Leota would make.

But these are the best since.

PS to jtglover in case you're reading this: I got them at Good Foods; they're picked from a local farm, name's something like Olympian. 

The sad thing about coffee is: it smells the best while you're grinding it. Second best while it's brewing. The drinking of it can never come up to that first fragrance of fresh-ground.

Yes, grasshopper, that is the sad thing about coffee.

But it's still wonderful stuff. Especially at 3:30 in the afternoon, when you need a shot of energy to get you by the post-lunch sleepies.

How could I forget? Chocolate. Following is from NYT. The thing I like about this one is that it's pretty much all butter, sugar and dark chocolate, with a little other stuff to hold these together: an excellent "delivery system." It's good volunteer food. I got a whole arts event (a Tibetan dance group performing to about 250 people; complete with a dinner for the troupe) set up by feeding these to a group of people. (Am I deeply corrupt, or what?) It's also easy to make.

FRENCH CHOCOLATE BROWNIES
Adapted from ''Baking: From My Home to Yours,'' by Dorie Greenspan (Houghton Mifflin, 2006)
Time: 11/4 hours

12 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces, plus 1 teaspoon melted butter for brushing pan
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, in pieces
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup lightly toasted walnuts or hazelnuts (optional).

1. Place a rack just below center of oven and preheat to 300 degrees. Line an 8-inch-square pan with foil and brush with melted butter.
2. In a bowl, whisk flour and salt together. In top of a double boiler set over barely simmering water, or on low power in a microwave, melt remaining butter and chocolate together. Stir often and remove from heat when a few lumps remain. Stir until smooth.
3. In a mixer, beat eggs and sugar together until thick and pale yellow. Add chocolate mixture and vanilla and mix at low speed until smooth. Add dry ingredients and mix 30 seconds, then finish mixing by hand, adding nuts if using. Pour into prepared pan and bake 50 to 60 minutes, until top is dry. Let cool in pan, then lift out and cut into bars or wrap in foil.
Yield: 12 to 16 brownies.

Coffee, of course. Fresh ground. A blend, half each, of Guatemalan peaberry and Italian espresso.

But also, Huy Fong Vietnamese hot sauce. I find myself looking for ways to consume it. My consumption is escalating, self-destructive: the craving to burn my guts out. Lately I've been using by dipping extra firm tofu in tamari and the hot sauce.

You can get it at Asian or Latino grocery stores. I never knew the name until I found it here. Just went by the colors and the rooster.

Alas, I scored but 61 percent. There goes my career as a castle cook.

medieval food quiz

I guess I'll have to settle for being a bartender.



Music: Music for a Medieval Banquet