I haven't one iota of inspiration lately, culinary or otherwise. The world is too sad a place these days. I feel extremely lucky for my kitchen, my home, my life, and everything and everyone in it, no question about that. But that is about all the enthusiasm I can seem to gather lately.
Although I'm not finding much inspiration in my own kitchen, I am enjoying learning learning about "new" and unusual foods through the podcast What's This Food. I love the concept of this show - a new food explored every single day of the year. From the host, Daniel Delaney's web site:
WTF, or "What's This Food?", is a daily web show that profiles commonly unknown or unusual food ingredients, techniques or dishes. As part of his New Year's resolution, Dan, the host, sets out to discover and learn about a new food each day in 2011.
That is seriously badass. I've been totally digging watching and listening to Dan's daily podcasts, and learning about foods like lotus root, persimmons, starfruit, ghee, bonito, and so much more! Check it out, and if you're so inclined, you can subscribe to the show via I-Tunes.
Here in the Bay area it's been raining for what feels like a couple of months. I'm not sure what my garden thinks about that. It's been dumping rain ever since we planted the latest batch of plants, and I'm pretty sure the peas have drowned. But, the beets do seem to be growing, as well as the arugula, kale and broccolini, little bit by little bit. And the compost heap is growing too. Now all we need is some of that magical sunshine to warm us all.
