Piquant

Rome, March 29, 2010 – Context, organizer of critically acclaimed walking tours, expands its culinary program in Rome, with new walks designed and led by food writers, sommeliers and local chefs.

Savoring Rome takes visitors into some of Rome’s most traditional bakeries, cafes and gelaterie where they will taste freshly brewed espresso, and snack on pizza just out of the oven. Concentrating on the area surrounding the Pantheon, a gastronomic expert will weave through the maze of side streets to seek out the family run food shops that still exist side by side with Rome’s largest monuments. We’ll discuss all aspects of cuisine, from technical production to cultural significance to final product, complete with tasting.

Wines of Italy, A Comparative Tasting, expands upon Context’s existing wine program. In contrast to Context's basic Wines of Italy introductory course, this walk and tasting goes deeper into the territorial aspect so critical to understanding Italian wines.

“As a student of wine, I found comparative tastings to be the most helpful exercises,” says Heather Hanson, sommelier and Context docent. “Reading about stainless steel versus oak for aging wine was one thing, but tasting two samples side by side, I could smell and taste the oak for myself."

For each walk, Ms. Hanson will curate special parings of appetizers and wines, emphasizing unusual, new, small, or otherwise atypical Italian wines in an effort to broaden the palate of participants.

Both walks, launching in March 2010, draw upon the expertise of Context’s network in Rome, which includes Cordon Bleu trained chefs, certified sommeliers, and food writers.

“Rome has a millenary culinary tradition,” says Jessica Stewart, Context’s city manager for Rome. “We’re devoted to wedding the traveler closer to the city. Showing that one can still find high quality, well priced food even in the heart of the historic center. This goes hand in hand with adding a new wine tasting seminar in a very traditional area of the city often overlooked by travelers.”

As with all of Context’s Rome programs, groups are limited to six people.

Savoring Rome runs Wednesday afternoons at 3 pm (€65 or $88 per person), while Wines of Italy, A Comparative Tasting, runs Tuesday evenings at 5:30 pm (€55, excluding wine/food). Private groups can be scheduled upon request (€300 and €270, respectively).

Breakfast this morning was mmm-mmm good.

A non-dairy version of French toast with fresh fruits and maple syrup. Soy milk is my tummy's friend.

Easy and oh-so-tasty.

Groupon deal for the day: NYC's Le Caire Lounge

A good hookah lounge is like a good science experiment-full of flavorful smoke and best enjoyed with a hummus appetizer and the lab partner you have a crush on.

Today's Groupon treats the senses to a sensual sensory experience: for $15, you get $30 worth of fruitily smoldering hookahs, signature cocktails, and Mediterranean meals at Le Caire Lounge on East 3rd Street.

Dare I say, smoking?

Wish Patti at worththewhisk.com would make me a few of these to get me through the weekend. Yum is right.

Refresh Your Nest with help from eco experts

 The air in an average home has two to five times more pollutants than outdoor air, according to EPA reports.

Yikes! Open the windows, please. 

Better yet, take advantage of a free seminar, sponsored by SANYO and Green Nest, that will show you how to clean up your living space and improve your indoor air quality.  SANYO is giving away a free Air Washer Plus, their eco-friendly air purification system. 

Lisa and Ron Beres of Green Nest conduct the seminars in California, New York, Virginia and Illinois. The Beres are frequent guests on the Today Show, The Doctors and other national TV shows.

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Sponsored post.

Affordable Costa Rica at the Lost Iguana Resort

ARENAL, COSTA RICA – Getting away to the lush, green jungle of Costa Rica just got more affordable at Lost Iguana Resort,  a boutique hotel at the foot of Arenal Volcano.

From May 14-20 the resort will offer a six-night "Volcanic Yoga & Spa Retreat" that will include accommodations, transportation between the hotel and San Jose airport, daily breakfast and dinner (not including alcohol), $300 spa credit, daily yoga classes, water fitness classes and a guided nature hike.

Cost is $800 per person double occupancy in a standard room, saving almost 40% off regular rates. Single rates are $950, and room upgrades are available for $20 per night.

Set on 120 acres of primal rain forest at the base of Costa Rica’s most awe-inspiring Volcano, Lost Iguana Resort & Spa offers the perfect landscape for a revitalizing retreat. Beautiful tropical gardens teeming with flowering plants, ferns and palms set a tranquil tone, and the 42-well appointed rooms offer impressive and unobstructed views of the volcano. The fresh cold and hot water pools with swim-up bar, open-air Blue Hibiscus restaurant and Golden Gecko Spa await after enjoying activities such as zip-lining, rafting, kayaking and mountain biking.

The six-night "Volcanic Yoga & Spa Retreat" includes daily yoga sessions for all skill levels under the guidance of Florida-based instructor, Liz Fullman. Guests will enjoy endorphin-pumping water fitness classes, led by 20-year fitness guru Gini Eastwood, using water as resistance to strengthen muscles, improve posture and restore energy. On a guided nature hike, a professional wildlife expert will weave guests through three miles of private trails rich with colorful wildlife, rustic bridges, flowing streams and 300 year old-trees.

Mirrored after the beauty of Costa Rica and accented with Balinese touches, the resort spa offers an expansive menu of treatments available in private open-air thatched bungalows with fireplaces. In addition to volcanic clay and hot stone facials as well as a selection of massages, guests can pamper themselves with exotic body polishes, which help detoxify the body and stimulate circulation, or opt for the unique "cocoon steam therapy" treatment, which purifies and softens the skin.

The spa offers a gym and saunas, which are complimentary for all guests.

Dine on savory continental favorites and authentic Costa Rican cuisine at the resort’s Blue Hibiscus restaurant, where guests enjoy elegantly relaxed dining as part of the package. Learn the secrets of the local fare with interactive and complimentary cooking lessons every Monday and Thursday.

For more information or to book, visit Lost Iguana Resort & Spa’s website at www.lostiguanaresort.com, or call the hotel directly at 011(506) 2267-6148, or email maritzalostiguana@mac.com.

The Lost Iguana Resort & Spa is a boutique hotel with 42 uniquely appointed rooms on 120 acres in a primal rainforest. All rooms have perfect views of the lava-facing side of Arenal Volcano. 

America’s Test Kitchen: Let’s Get Cooking for Nintendo DS

America’s Test Kitchen: Let’s Get Cooking for the Nintendo DS^™ game systems is delicious -  with, easy-to-follow recipes that encourage cooks of any age or experience level to enjoy preparing a meal with friends and family.

America’s Test Kitchen,  widely recognized as a trusted brand for recipes that everyday cooks can easily master and enjoy, the Nintendo DS software provides cooking experts to take care of the trial-and-error of cooking for you.

With America’s Test Kitchen: Let’s Get Cooking, expert and novice chefs alike can select from 300 rigorously tested recipes – covering appetizers, desserts and everything in-between – and prepare them using interactive step-by-step instructions.

Users can browse the recipes in several ways, including by ingredients, difficulty or cooking time. A wide range of age-appropriate kitchen tasks means everyone in the household can get in on the action.

Both America’s Test Kitchen: Let’s Get Cooking and Nintendo DSi XL go on sale on March 28. The software is available at a suggested retail price of just $19.99.

For more information about America’s Test Kitchen: Let’s Get Cooking, visit www.atkgame.com

Mayan recipes from The Painted Fish

CARRBORO - When Sonja Lillvik unpacked her bags in the Yucatan peninsula, she planned only for a brief healing interlude. A lifetime later, she still lives and works on the magical Mexican Riviera Maya.

Her food-oriented memoir, "Painted Fish and Other Mayan Feasts," paints the colorful story of her happily  ever after through anecdotes, Mayan recipes and pictures. The title refers to a festive grilled fish dish, ticnchik, known for its deep, brick-red color derived from achiote, a spice paste made of ground annatto seeds, herbs and pepper.

Lillvik will sign copies of her book Friday from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at Johnny's in Carrboro, and Saturday at 2 p.m. at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill. She and former Flying Burrito owner Phil Campbell will demystify the crispy, sweet, edible root, jicama, a Mexican vegetable mainstay.

The 192-page book with 100 recipes - some based on recipes hundreds of years old - was more than 20 years in the making. It is a feast for foodies, armchair travelers and romantics who don't happen to live in the Yucatan yet would like to experience authentic, fresh Mayan cuisine.

Corn tortillas are as essential to Mayan culture as bread is to French or Italian. "Mayan mythology says man was made from corn," Lillvik said. "The corn tortilla is a pusher, a spoon, a plate. They're homemade and much healthier than flour tortillas."

But modern Mayan cuisine is more than the tortilla, with a range of tastes and textures drawing on tradition as well as influences from cultures as diverse as Spanish and Lebanese. Noted for its use of the high-heat habanero, the cuisine relies also on basic spice pastes - blue, red, and white - which are the basis of many Mayan dishes.

"I arrived in Mexico with a broken heart," recalled Lillvik. She escaped California and a series of devastating tragedies for a working vacation, managing the day-to-day operations of the Caribbean beach resort, Kai Lu'um.

Her entire kitchen staff were Mayan and spoke no English. A single waiter spoke Spanish, but no English. Lillvik spoke only English. What could have been a recipe for disaster was overcome through the medium of cooking. While learning to communicate without words, she also learned the art of flaming foods, carefully training a blue flame down the spiral peeling an orange.

Months later, she found she'd seen only the inside of a kitchen or dining room and very little of the serenely beautiful landscape around her. And she still spoke broken Spanish.

Deciding to linger a little longer, seeking spiritual guidance as well as scenery, Lillvik turned up in Punta Allen. Punta Allen is a lobster fishing village in the world biosphere reserve of Sian Ka'an, which in Mayan means "the land where the sky was born."

There she met a charming and attractive lobster fisherman, Armando Lopez, fell in love and started sharing his hammock as well as his simple lifestyle.

Once again, she found herself relying on food as a medium of expression, joining her new husband's friends and family in the kitchen to help during meal preparations. Here she learned the secrets of Mayan home cooking.

The couple ran Casa Cuzan, a guest house and fishing lodge embracing eco-tourism. "I didn't know anything about running a restaurant. We were lobster fishermen, so it was lobster for breakfast, lunch and dinner," she said of the early days running their rustic resort.

Rory Flood, her cousin and publicist, loves to tell the dream-like tale of Lillvik's sea change to those of us who yearn to sleep in hammocks, waking to an expanse of azure ocean and lovely days free from the constraints of clocks.

"It's splendid, truly a place that people want to go to," Flood said. "My cousin Sonja laughs more than anyone I know. She bubbles."

Lillvik always meant to write a cookbook. She'd originally started journal writing to relieve the solitude of her inability to speak the native language. Writing the cookbook was a way to reveal her passion for the Mayan kitchen.

But throughout the years of working with her husband to build their business, there never seemed to be time. She kept at it, dish by dish, a tidbit at a time, and when she was diagnosed with breast cancer about nine years ago, she determined to finish.

"I had to get the book done," she said.

Donna Neilson, a chef and cookbook editor who worked with Lillvik through the years to adapt the Mayan recipes, remembered the early kitchen conditions at Casa Cuzan.

"I didn't have a mixer, but I had a blender. There was a stove but no oven. I shaped what I did to fit the situation," Neilson said. "This may sound corny but the main thing with cooking is a good knife and a whisk."

Hipsters on food stamps

The New York Daily News reported yesterday that hipsters were using food stamps to purchase upscale food items like "fresh rabbit, wild-caught fish and organic vegetables."

Citing a report from Salon.com, the article comes as no surprise. Food stamps offer all eligible people, many who are working at low-paying jobs and struggling to pay high rents, the opportunity of choice.

Preparing your own meals from scratch is always a less expensive route, and should be applauded. But somehow, we find it easy to criticize poor people who don't look the way we expect them to appear.

If the choice is between paying your rent and eating, what kind of decision is that to have to make? And why does anyone care if a 20-something buys a "foodie" specialty item?

Isn't it preferable to buy good food that nourishes the body rather than a caseload of ramen and Poptarts? Teaching food stamp recipients, no matter their life circumstances,  how to wisely choose fresh foods and preparation techniques should be mandatory.

We are too busy concerning ourselves with what "able-bodied " people should be doing, i.e., why they are "free-loading" instead of working.

Able-bodied people can be poor. Poverty happens. Many people are born into it and to others, poverty is the result of circumstance - unemployment, underemployment, divorce, etc.. Poverty isn't just for the shiftless, incompetent or otherwise disabled.

Using food stamps is, for most people, not a lifestyle choice, but a means of surviving tough times until situations can be improved.

Make mine Mexican: easy enchiladas for dinner

For a quick and tasty meal, we love fresh and filling Mexican meals.  I love enchiladas, which are so easy to prepare and so satisfying.

As much as we love refried beans, we serve our enchiladas with a green salad and some yellow rice for a lighter meal.  I've been toying with the idea of a butternut squash filling (using a poblano sauce for a vegetarian version as well.

The chicken filling takes a little time to cook down to the right consistency so if you're pressed for time, you could put the chicken, onion, garlic and Rotel tomatoes in a slow cooker in the morning, then assemble the rest in the evening.  We also used Goya yellow rice mix, adding a few green peas at the end, to save time. 

No need to add salt to anything as these products are a bit salty.

Easy Enchiladas

1 Tablespoon olive oil

16 ounces of boneless chicken thighs

1- 10 ounce can Rotell diced tomatoes with chilies, mild

1/2 sweet onion diced

2 cloves garlic, diced

1 package of small flour tortillas

1 8-oounce package grated monterey jack cheese

1-10 ounce can La Victoria Enchilada sauce

In a deep sided frying pan, brown chicken thighs in 1 tablespoon of olive oil.  Add garlic and onion and continue cooking until the garlic and onion are soft but not brown.

Then add Rotel tomatoes and cook until the chicken breaks apart easily and the liquids are reduced.

Spoon the shredded chicken and tomato mixture onto the center of an enchilada and top with about a tablespoon of shredded cheese. Fold filled enchilada into a roll and place in a rectangular glass baking dish.  Repeat until all tortillas are filled and pan is full.

Pour the whole can of enchilada sauce over the prepared enchiladas, then cover with foil and bake for about 20 minutes in an oven preheated to 350 degrees Farenheit.  When the sauce is bubbly, remove foil and use the remaining shredded cheese, about a half a cup, to top the enchiladas. Return to the oven to melt, about five minutes.

Serves 6-8.