Blood Sausage: a Navajo Holiday Treat

by Nino Marchetti on

Classify this under the “holiday travel cultural gourmet if you
have a strong stomach” category. If you were having Thanksgiving yesterday with people of Navajo descent, chances were
you might have been enjoying some blood sausage with your turkey and mashed potatoes,
according to the Arizona Republic (simple registration
required). It is apparently a strong tradition amongst the Navajos to have this uncommon side dish during the
holiday.

A dish common to many cultures (i.e. Irish black pudding, German blutwurst, Cajun boudin rouge), the Navajo version,
known also as dil, is “a blend of diced potatoes, celery, sheep fat, onion, cornmeal, salt and pepper mixed with fresh
sheep blood.” What makes the Navajo one unique is that it is made from cornmeal.

Oh, did I mention it is also “packed into a sheep belly bag and boiled outdoors”?  Yummy.
Here is a recipe if you are interested.
Be warned: blood sausage is definitely not for the faint of heart.

A California Man, His Bike and Lots of Figs

by Nino Marchetti on

Alastair Bland found himself with wanderlust this past summer and set out to
explore California on his bicycle. The kicker to the story he published in the
North Bay Bohemian was that he survived mainly off of what he
could find or forage. In his two months of travel which took him on a 2,500 mile trek through the Golden State, he
spent less than $150. His food of choice? Figs, figs and more figs. He strung them out to dry, flavored his homemade
wine with them and made a meal of it every night. He even managed to get a couple of free t-shirts from the California
Fig Growers Association.

Besides figs, Bland also ate whatever he could find which he considered in the public domain (i.e. lying on the side
of, or in, the road). Being mostly vegetarian, he stayed away from the road kill.

Please Pass the Turkey Soda

by Erik Olsen on

For all those headed out today to visit family and friends and to
consume insane quantities of dead bird, here’s a culinary concept that is, to say the least, unorthodox.

It’s hard to say whether this is genius or stupid, as as we know from David St. Hubbins, there’s a fine line between
the two. The Jones Soda Company is marketing a series of holiday
sodas in an array of flavors that well, just don’t seem soda-like.  Here, for example, are the five top
flavors for Thanksgiving:

    •      Turkey & Gravy Soda

    •     Cranberry Soda

    •     Mashed Potato & Butter

    •     Green Bean Casserole

    •     Fruitcake  Soda

Of course it’s silly to bash the idea if you haven’t actually tried the sodas…I mean, mashed potato soda? Could be
good. Who would have thought cream soda would be a hit. You do have to wonder what the pitch session was like for this
idea and what marketing genius came up with the idea in the first place.

Gift Idea: Cooking Lessons in France

by Erik Olsen on

Here’s an idea for a great gift this holiday season: cooking classes in France. This place, located about half an hour from Aix-en-Provence, provides five days of gustatory instruction in how to prepare Provencal cuisine. Lessons are held in the “newly renovated Provencal kitchen on a beautiful wine estate”, and are limited to no more than eight people….which is key if you’re like me and tried to take Italian cooking classes here in New York and there were like 30 people enrolled. Not good. Cost is about $1600….so not exactly cheap, but I guess you can factor in the cost of meals. Still not cheap though.

Here’s another in Provence that offers programs in May, June, September, and October. There are three double guest rooms each with private bath. Limited to 6 guests a week.

And if Bordeaux is your destination, take a look here where you get four nights, four lessons for about $1300 per person.

Phaic Tan – sidesplitting stuff

by Erik Olsen on

I posted about this company
jetlag travel a while ago when they had put out their faux guide to Molvania.
I actually got my hands on a copy of Molvania and laughed myself silly. I just thought that this was such a brilliant
idea, and I was looking forward to stories about people who bought the guide thinking it was real and perhaps even
tried to book a flight there. You know that’s gonna happen…probably in a red state somewhere.

Anyway, the good folks at jetlag travel have another book out, this one about a small nation called
Phaic Tan (get it?). The country is said to be “an overwhelming
explosion of sights, sounds, tastes, smells and strange colonic movements,” and where “traffic police wear face masks
but surgeons rarely do”. The beauty of this concept is not just the concept. The beauty is in the detail, and these
guides, even though completely fake, have gone into the kind of detail that would make some guidebooks seethe with
envy. For example, the authors make up dishes in the “cuisine section”, and mention one particular dish called
Nergak, which the book says “is a spicy fish sauce
widely added to food throughout Phaic Tan. It is made at a massive processing plant in Pattaponga, one of the biggest
factories in Asia, said to be the only man-made structure that can be smelt from the moon.”

This is gut-splitting stuff.