Come on, tell the truth now. If you knew someone who had direct access to Ferran Adria’s brain, wouldn’t you ask the occasional teensy weensy question that requires an essay in response? I did feel a little guilty bending the ear of former El Bulli insider Katie Button, especially since she and her partner Felix Meana just opened Curate in Asheville, NC to uproarious acclaim, and we all know how life upends itself during the cadence-establishing birthing period of a restaurant. The problem was, however, that I kept staring at these beet roses in the Phaidon-published tome A Day at elBulli, and my life became singularly-possessed by the notion of perfecting them.

When I finally decided to dash off an email to Katie asking if she’d be willing to share the technique, I fully expected her to either

a. not reply

b. reply with regrets that the technique must remain secret, or

c. tell me how they did it, then kill me by Fedexing me a package of anthrax disguised as a shipment of rare methylcellulose. Read more

*I’m on this week’s episode of Food(ography) on The Cooking Channel. It airs several times throughout the week (March 20-31) and I’d love for you to check it out. See schedule for showtimes.

*Pinch me! Ruth Reichl wrote about the blog post you’re about to read.

Oysters invite prosaic use of metaphor the way Robert Pattinson melts the knees of 13 year old girls across the globe. The locked mollusk is both hideous and beautiful at the same time, and captivates the pens of many great, era-transcendent authors. Tom Robbins says that “eating a raw oyster is like French-kissing a mermaid.” Perhaps the greatest oyster author, MFK Fisher, wrote that “an oyster leads a dreadful but exciting life,” in her introduction to the challenges an oyster faces in the early days of existence. I will resist the urge to add my metaphors to the great canon of oyster literature, but if one should slip out, it’s not my fault as I’m currently under the spell of sea that a dozen Olympias brought to me. Read more

*Exciting News! Salty Seattle will be featured on The Cooking Channel’s Food(ography) hosted by Mo Rocca this Sunday, March 20th at 6:00pm PST, 9:00pm EDT. If you miss the premiere episode, there are repeat showings throughout the week on March 22, 26, 27, and 31. Get thee to a TeeVee and check it out. Even better, if you are in Seattle, join the party and watch with me at Pnk Ultra Lounge, 600 Pine St from 5:30-8:00pm.

This dessert will invoke the feline in you. Don’t try to deny it; everyone has some cat inside, whether it’s a parlor pussy with orange silk fur and a barely audible purr when you scratch just right or a snarling leopardess who attacks anything in sight with bared teeth and bucking hindquarters.

What both of those catty creatures have in common is their sultry ability to lick with gnashing abandon. This is a licking dessert. You want to slather each texture throughout your mouth. When you’re finished you are left breathless, wishing you could lap up more with your over-stimulated tongue. Read more