Primary Flavors

Sorry for my blogging silence of late – I’ve been broadsided by my day job.

Besides writing about food, what I do is teach political science and write about American politics. With primaries and caucuses every other day (or what feels like every other day), this is our silly season. And I may as well admit it, I am a junkie. I have swapped food blog reading for politics blogs and I LOVE IT.

In fact, I am pretty amused to see that the last post I made was January 4, the day after the Iowa Caucuses. There have been some memorable food moments in my life since then, however, If I could stopped being distracted enough to write them down.

• Most of the last month was in Florida, including a week with my mom. High points included      some best-ever fried shrimp at the Owl Café – a restaurant I love but often forget since the arrival of Avenue Sea. That is a mistake.
• Also with Mom I spent one evening making a fearsomely good tuna noodle casserole. There is nothing more to be said about that. If you don’t know how good a from-scratch tuna noodle casserole with olive oil packed tuna and tons of mushrooms can be, then that’s just sad.
• FARMbloomington is open and I have a piece about it in the current issue of Bloom Magazine. The food in general is good, but when Daniel himself makes the vegetable plate it can be an      awesome thing.
• Made a quick trip to Oregon for family reasons and stuffed myself with Vietnamese food – sure wished I could do that here at home!
• Found out that Bloomington’s original Ethiopian restaurant has returned. The owner has owned an Italian restaurant for years but yield to entreaties to reopen Ashenda. So now you walk into Puccini’s and turn right for Ethiopian food and left for Italian. Only in Bloomington…. The food is great though -- the Ethiopian food, anyway!)
• Spent yesterday and the day before working with a farmer friend to perfect a tomato sauce      she intends to sell at our market. She froze a ton of tomatoes from      last summer and they are stunningly good. I always think canned tomatoes are a good substitute for fresh during the winter, for sauces and stuff, and in general they are, but Teresa’s frozen tomatoes are spectacular.      Cant’ wait til she starts to market this sauce.
• Related – had Teresa’s fresh (day old) eggs for breakfast yesterday. Rich and wonderful and from happy chickens to boot. All eggs are not created equal.
• Heading to Paris this evening for our annual Valentine’s Day trek. This time we renting an      apartment instead of staying in a hotel – it’s much cheaper and with the dollar the way it is, we’d rather spend our money on food, not housing. Plus, we get a kitchen to cook in!! What a treat. Hopefully once we are there the prospect of good eating will push politics out of my mind and      I’ll get a blog post or two in.

À bientôt!

 

Comments

[Lydia (The Perfect Pantry)]

Bon voyage! Have a wonderful trip.

[Lisa (Homesick Texan)]

I hear you--I've pretty much replaced food reading with political reading as well--the presidential election is my favorite sport! And I always rent apartments when I travel, too--they're not only equipped with a kitchen but are (usually) away from the touristy parts of town so you get a sense of how the locals live. Bon voyage!

[Susan from Food Blogga]

Hi Christine! It's great to have you back! My husband and I have been so into this presidential race, I can just imagine how caught up in it you are. What an exciting and historic time to be writing about politics. Wishing you safe and happy travels! -Susan

[Kelley]

i didn't love puccini's (just ask my husband about my cold tomato tirade), but i can't wait to try the new ethiopian! thanks for the tip, and enjoy the vacation.

[CLC]

Christine,

What's going on at Trulli Flatbread? It seems odd that they would close their doors to expand their menu when flocks of parents will be descending upon the cityfor graduation.