There has been a frenzy of cooking in our little Brooklyn Heights kitchen.
There were the cardamom cookies. There was the mammoth spicy-sausage lasagna that we barely made a dent in. There has been the making of stacks of sandwiches for lunches present and future.
And then even after the Hubbs said, “Enough,” there was the sneaking out to the store to purchase a beautifully pink pork tenderloin and a head of garlic to make one of the simplest yet tastiest of meals: Filipino Pork Adobo.
I've had cardamom on the brain recently. And I blame Padma Lakshmi.
We weren't even talking about food–we were discussing jewelry for a Wall Street Journal fashion piece, for heaven's sake.
But then the "Top Chef" host started describing a long gold chain that she liked that's flecked with little gold nubs. "Like cardamom pods," Padma explained.
I immediately began thinking about cardamom cookies and haven't stopped since.
I was at a New York dinner party a few years ago when someone noted that he thought Singaporeans were "weird" because of their breakfast choices. "They eat noodles for breakfast," he said. "That's WEIRD."
I refrained from saying anything about how, when I first came to the U.S., I had thought that big hunks of steak breaded, deep-fried and served with a massive glop of fatty gravy and eggs were a rather odd choice to start one's day myself.
But hey, I'm a polite person who keeps an open mind. (And besides, having tried it, I'll now happily order chicken fried steak and eggs whenever I see it on a brunch menu.)
And so it was that I was thrilled to see Saveur's "A World of Breakfast" October issue on how different countries and cultures kick off the day. With features devoted to breakfasts filled with "the spicy tang of fresh chile sauce in Indonesia, the briny bite of
plump olives in Turkey, the sweetness of just-picked peaches on a
California farm," the issue aimed to show that "the diversity of breakfast foods prepared around the
world is proof of one thing: that the first bite of the day is also the
best."
Having long been partial to curries and noodles for breakfast myself, I suddenly felt vindicated. And I was elated to hear today that Saveur won a National Magazine Award for "Single-topic issue" for its Breakfast edition.
I've so far managed to stop myself from mailing my copy of the issue to the noodles-for-breakfast-hating friend with the note, "How do you like them apples?"
Now that the temperature is down to the 50s again in New York, all I can think about is breakfast in Singapore.
I can practically smell the curries. And the tameepok prawn and pork noodles topped with sliced, super-hot chilis. And the starchy "carrot cake" (actually made of radishes) with heaps of crimson chili paste mixed in. And the…
File this under the "you always want what you can't have" category: growing up in Singapore, I coveted big American breakfasts. Those pictures of Grand Slams at Denny's restaurants showing plates of towering pancakes, bacon and sunny-looking eggs would inspire great yearning in my stomach.
And yet the moment I set foot in the land of massive, sausage-and-pancake breakfasts, all I could think of was the roti pratas and tameepoks I'd left behind.
My new favorite video, featuring Gourmet editor-in-chief Ruth Reichl channeling Amy Winehouse, Mickey Rourke and more…