“To be avant garde, you have to think like a child, or you have to leave it to evolution. – Juan Mari Arzak, chef at Arzak, “Father” of modern Basque cuisine I’m sure you were all busy this weekend celebrating the Andre Maria Zuriaren jaiak Festival as were we at Casa SaltShaker. The annual five… Read More Basque Modern

“Guinan: I’ll see you in 500 years, Picard. Picard: And I’ll see you… in a few minutes.” – from Time’s Arrow, Part II, Star Trek: The Next Generation Sometimes I get a little carried away with the history based themes. Not often, I mean, I do pick oddities out of history, but generally I don’t… Read More But I Would Eat 500 Years

“You can’t fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal.” – William S. Burroughs, novelist History has an interesting way of repeating itself. A couple of years ago, some of my students in the Italian cooking series got to talking about missing Vietnamese food, and wondered if I could offer up a… Read More Faux Phở? We Don’t Think So.

“I sowed the seeds of love, It was all in the spring, In April, May, and June, likwise, When small birds they do sing.” – Fleetwood Habergham, The Seeds of Love, 1690 Picking up from where we left off on my series of recreating individual dishes from the menus of my, well, formative years in… Read More The Early Years IV

“Part of the joy of dancing is conversation. Trouble is, some men can’t talk and dance at the same time.” – Ginger Rogers, Dancer and Actress Another longtime favorite of the cinema would have reached her 100th birthday had she not soft-shoed off this planet 16 years ago – Ginger Rogers, dancer and actress. And,… Read More Backwards and in High Heels

The discussions are endless, but they come down to one thing. Hype versus Reality. Expats and tourists alike, and really, most locals – all qualified with “people who really like to eat interesting food – i.e., foodies, if we must” – know that Argentine food, particularly that in the Buenos Aires area, is just plain… Read More From Recoleta With Love

“Bite off more than you can chew and then chew like hell.” – Peter Brock, Lacrosse Coach Another little roundup of recent foodstuffs and events. This week’s big event, the 1st Annual Buenos Aires Chili Cookoff – organized by a group of local expats and amazingly thrown together in roughly 3-4 weeks, they put together… Read More The Week in Bites

“Men who have blazed new paths for civilization have always been precedent breakers. It is never the man who believes in his own ideas; who can think and act without a crowd to back him; who is not afraid to stand alone; who is bold, original, resourceful; who has the courage to go where others… Read More The Early Years 3