Why I hate Paté

I know there is a is a cult of Paté lovers out there: Paté of Foi Gras, Paté of Canard, Paté de Campagne... Cook books are devoted to the stuff - how to make it, what to drink with it, what to eat with it... The finest restaurants have Charcuterie plates featuring Patés... HA! To me, it's all just glorified meatloaf!

I have watched Paté being made in a multitude of kitchens. Line the terrine with belly fat, grind the ofals and meat, season the mixture, layer it with what ever the region calls for: a tender duck liver, a black truffle, a hard boiled egg - bake it in the oven and Voila! A slice of heaven. No, nope, not for me... where's the ketchup?

Pate is something I will never understand. It's right up there with Corned Beef Hash... something people make to deal with what no normal person would ever eat in their true form (or in their right mind) I don't care how perfectly poached the eggs are, or how tiny the cornichons. I like cornichons and I like poached eggs; I also really like Foi Gras just not served all ground up, mixed with other stuff and loaf shaped.

Sometimes our culinary likes and dislikes are built upon childhood experiences. My mother had a tendency to overcook vegetables, as a result, I like them al dente. We all know someone who eats only beige food, no vegetables at all, or nothing spicy. I feel sorry for those people.

Back in the day when I went to a French boarding school with priests and nuns who wore the traditional black and white habit, dinner would frequently be paté served with a little green salad and water mixed with local red wine, cornichons and spicy mustard. To me it tasted the way canned dog food smells. Yuck. Mind you, this is the same school where we were served, coincidentally of course, creamed spinach when ever the lawn was mowed. No,I don't like creamed spinach either. I think those saintly nuns made the paté out of all the left over meats from the week, and then compensated by serving a delicate little apple tarte for desert. I love apple tarte.

Go ahead. Eat all the paté you want. I'll never object. Perhaps you may convince me to taste (in the hopes of getting me 'on board' with people I respect and admire) but never, ever, for a moment imagine that I will fall under the spell of some Paté en Croute. I am doomed to be Paté Philistine. So be it.

Children of the Corn

Stopped by Earth Bound Farms in Carmel Valley on Sunday afternoon. Sarah Lacasse is the chef there; she let me know that it was the first day to walk this season's Corn Maze and i could grab a bite of lunch too. How could i resist? Apparently a lot of others couldn't resist the Corn Craze call either, the Farm Stand was packed!

While waiting for lunch i ran into a few folks that I know: Todd West from Inertia Bev. and Jonathan O'Bergin from Gryphon Wines were hanging out discussing the benefits of cooking corn in the husk, on the grill vs boiling it. It was a lively discussion between bites of grilled organic burger (with yellow Heirlom tomato slices) and calico corn slathered with butter and chili powder.



Fortified by lunch i decided to brave the maze; 8' high, inpen-etrable and missing the escape hatches one would find at season's end. There were a lot of small children in the corn, running around, loving being lost. To my dismay, short cuts through the corn were not only discouraged but severely punished: banishment. To be banished by Farmer Mark (Marino) would be a tragedy of epicurian proportions.

Plunging into the thicket of cob laden corn, i promptly got lost. After wandering for some time down what turned out to be a dead end, I came across Marie Johnston who had been abandoned by her daughter, Davis, in the midst of the maze and had been wandering for some time. We joined forces. Using my Eagle Scout skills to lead the way, we eventually found our way out. It was a fun afternoon. FYI: The Corn Maze is open through Halloween.



One doesn't need the excuse of an event to enjoy the pleasures of the Farm Stand. Sarah serves lunch daily, the herb garden is beautiful. Why, the whole setting is gorgeous - surrounded by fields of flowers, fruits and vegetables. Plus, you can take it home - prepared meals, flowers, corn, heirloom tomatoes. The folks who live in Carmel Valley are very fortunate to have Earth Bound Farms in their back yard. For those of us who don't live there, we need to make the effort to visit more often so we can remember how life felt when things were simpler and every community had it's own 'farm stand'.

Food, Travel and Song

Bonjour. My name is Niglo Flunch. When the lovely folks at Smashed Flat Wines asked me to author their Blog I was, naturally, flattered yet hesitant - at first. Then, after spending some time exploring other Blogs it became very clear to me that this method of communication is the ultimate social networking machine... and I love to network socially.... which is why I travel the world looking for new food, wine and music adventures.

I met Marie and her fun family at a cafe in Tours a few years back. They were on their way to Switzerland with no map. No map! What a way to travel! They seemed to be having a lot of fun. Used to be that all travelers ventured out without maps - there were no maps and waters were uncharted. Yet people left the comfort of their homes for parts unknown to explore, see what was out there and in doing so, discovered wines and foods they had never tasted, much less seen, before. Lucky us! They brought these treasures home. Thanks to people like Marco Polo the Italians have pasta now enjoyed the world over. Spaniards found tomatoes in the New world and brought them back to grow in the Mediteranian regions as early as 1560. Potatoes were brought to Europe in the 1400s from the Andes. Yes, that was a long time ago... but what about Sushi? This is a fairly recent western discovery long enjoyed by the Japanese - the infamous California Roll came to being in the early 1970s - food historians credit Ichiro Mashita, sushi chef at the Tokyo Kaikan in Los Angeles with inventing the roll... And what about wine? The earliest evidence of wine production is about 6000 BC in Iran! Iran? Wow! you've come a long way Baby!

We don't much get the 'travel with no maps' opportunity these days, but it seems to me, in this brave new world of Blogging, that time has come again. We can share so much with so many, and we don't have to suffer the indignity of not bathing for months to bring a wonderful discovery into the homes of friends. Very cool.