Dinner reviews from our Casa SaltShaker evenings
“Italy’s small towns and villages are famous for their local color, but every spring a handful are literally turned into gardens when local artists carpet the piazzas and streets with multi-colored mosaics made entirely of flowers. In the 18th century, a number of small towns in Italy began celebrating Corpus Christi by paving their streets… Read More Flowers for Umbria
“What’s for dinner?” is the only question many husbands ask their wives, and the only one to which they care about the answer. – Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic’s Notebook, 1966 After “How long have you lived in Argentina/Buenos Aires?” and “How long ago/Why did you start Casa SaltShaker?”, the next most common question I… Read More What’s for Dinner?
“I believe first in the quality of ingredients, local purchasing and in cooking seasonally. I also think it’s really important for food to make sense and have a sense of place. It’s clear when a dish went through an uninformed creative process, when it hasn’t really been inspired by original, nostalgic, congruent thought. I don’t… Read More Peru with a Touch of Med
“All children, except one, grow up.” – from Peter Pan, 1904, by James Matthew Barrie Apparently the thought of a Peter Pan “I don’t wanna grow up” sort of dinner scared away a few folk. There seemed to be much consternation as to just exactly what sort of things we might be serving here at… Read More Second Star to the Right…
“Five years ago, a man’s fantasy became a reality in a forum never seen before: Casa SaltShaker, a giant Kitchen Stadium. The motivation for spending his fortune to create Casa SaltShaker was to encounter new original cuisines which could be called true artistic creations. To realize his dream, he secretly started choosing the top chefs… Read More Our Iron Chef Weekend
“At noon, on the day of secession, at Mallory Square in Key West Florida, Mayor Wardlow read the proclamation of secession and proclaimed aloud that the Conch Republic was an independent nation separate from the U.S. and then symbolically began the Conch Republic’s Civil Rebellion by breaking a loaf of stale Cuban bread over the… Read More The Keys to Dinner
Our occasional vegetarian nights are becoming more popular, and they make a fun break for me in the kitchen to do something different – taking ideas that I might normally use in a meat-based meal and giving them some interesting twists. By the way, if you haven’t noticed, we’ve begun to focus on the cuisines… Read More Another Night of Vegging Out on the Mediterranean
“Syria has long scowled at the idea of Lebanese sovereignty. It never admitted to Lebanon’s independence, officially gained in 1943, nor did it concede to the French mandate’s separation of the two countries. And today, regardless of its diminished presence in the country, the recent rise of “diplomatic relations” between Beirut and Damascus, and their… Read More Independencia de Siria