February 6, 2012

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Image ... Light tower at Fenway Park.

February 5, 2012

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Image ... Psychic's chair.

February 4, 2012

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Image ... Roofdeck outside Roofscape's old office ovwerlooking the Fiedler footbridge.

February 3, 2012

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Le Chameau

On many days my regular route from SOWA profond to Back Bay, my home base, leads up Shawmut Avenue and past The Syrian Grocery. The display window features a crazy jumble suggesting a junk shop in some seedy souk. Hookahs, omelet pans, chased brass serving trays, kitchen utensils, a Little French Chef toy cooking set, packages of dried dates and figs, pots and pans, tagines, lanterns, pot holders, candlesticks, plus a myriad of other miscellania requisite for civilized living ... and a camel saddle.

The store has been there for years, ever since the street became the center of the Boston's Syrian and Lebanese communities (Kahlil Gibran, the author of The Prophet, lived here). In the years I've been browsing, the same camel saddle has been a fixture in the window.

It became a private little joke. I'd stare in the window and think, "I guess that there's just not that much demand nowadays for camel saddles in the South End." And the thought would always make me smile (I'm easily amused).

Then the other day, surveying the Syrian window I saw ... the camel saddle was gone. I looked high and low. How could this be? After all these years ... gone. And I said under my breath, "I wonder who just bought a camel?"

Champignons Fourme d'Ambert

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Fourme d’Ambert is one of the oldest French cheeses, dating back at least to the Roman occupation around the turn of the millennium and probably even earlier to the Gauls and Druids. Fourme, from the Old French word for cheese, is a mild, semi-hard cow’s milk blue cheese. Ambert is the center of Fourme’s production, a town in the rugged and rural Auvergne region of south-central France.

It’s one of the mildest and subtlest of blue cheeses, quite understated compared to the more robust and equally ancient Roquefort, made with sheep’s milk. Fourme is rich, creamy, buttery, with at least a 50% fat content, and a light blue veining. It has an earthy sort of odor, absorbed no doubt from the damp caves it’s aged in. It’s profile is often described as deep and dark, punchy and spicy. Flavor overtones frequently mentioned include: roasted nuts, mushrooms and wine with delicate hints of fruit. It often appeals to people who think that they don’t like stinky and/or blue cheeses.

INGREDIENTS

large stuffing mushrooms, stems removed, caps and stems washed, stems minced
extra-virgin olive oil
shallots, minced
garlic, minced and mashed
celery, minced
bacon, cooked and minced
thyme or Herbes de Provence
parsley, curly
chestnuts, cooked and minced
bread crumbs, from a crusty country-style white loaf
lemon zest
white wine, dry
soy sauce
pepper, freshly ground
Fourme d’Ambert cheese

February 2, 2012

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Image ... Basketball court, North End.

February 1, 2012

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Image ... Painter.