Tag: oniondipforbreakfast

To Market, to Market: Cape Town

To Market, to Market: Cape Town

You know my thoughts on markets. I’ve been lucky to visit some excellent ones here and there. The Old Biscuit Mill is far and away one of the best. See for yourself. Delicious food, check. Live music, check. A DJ, check. Heavenly aromas, check. A 

Where is home?

Where is home?

While I was at the loveliest birthday dinner with our brand-new friends we had met just four days earlier, I was asked what it felt like to call America home. Behind the question was the horrible legacy of slavery and the possibility of rootlessness. “Do 

Love Letters from Cape Town

Love Letters from Cape Town


I recently had the incredibly good fortune to visit South Africa for a project and I was showered with love letters. At every turn, there was beauty, and I took it all in.


I learned, stretched, explored, and rested. And I joyfully tasted.



When your Airbnb has a watermelon cake stand…


South African-style chicken livers


Afternoon tea at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden


Afternoon tea at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden


Nik Naks


Where we met lovely new friends…


Zulu goat cheese with beets

The Gardener

The Gardener

“To plant a seed, watch it grow, to tend it and then harvest it, offered a simple but enduring satisfaction. The sense of being the custodian of this small patch of earth offered a taste of freedom. NELSON MANDELA This Black Garden Epistle comes to 

Feasting in Atlanta

Feasting in Atlanta

Express yourself, Whatever you do, uh, Do it good, uh! We definitely did it good! I’ll start at the end and then make our way back. My mom pulled out one of my favorite plates, plump strawberries framing the center, ready to full of the 

Home.

Home.


Is it me or did the end of 2022 come and go with a quickness? One moment I was back in my hometown with family I hadn’t seen in years and in a flash, I was feasting with my small family in Chicago. So in that circle of home, I left the cold weather to be in the warm embrace of Atlanta.


It, of course, started with hugs and kisses and rapidly proceeded to food.



There was art at the High.


We started with Deana Lawson. While every work was captivating, her collage that featured Atlanta’s own, OutKast, in its center was particularly wonderful. I hadn’t been home to Atlanta in three long years and mannnnnnn, did I miss it!











Then it was on to the fascinating show, Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern, that again places Atlanta front and center as it reminds the viewer of the intertwining history of the artist and the city.





Paths

Paths

A dozen years ago, I went to an art show that changed my life. A new friend, who had patiently washed sushi rice 5-10 times to my precise specifications (a story for another day), invited me to join her and two of her friends to 

Epistle from the Black Garden

Epistle from the Black Garden

Intentional. To kick off the new year, my friends at PostScript asked me to be their guest writer for their lovely blog, In the Loop. This month’s theme is coffee but I was encouraged to write about anything so I did both. If you’re interested 

Fairy Tales

Fairy Tales

Like most people, the fairy tales read to me were the mostly sweet versions. Sure, women were hexed by nefarious enemies, harassed by wicked step-relatives, or resigned to a permanent dormant state with the bite of a crimson apple. Overall, though, they ended with our heroes, heroines, and villains getting their just desserts. It wasn’t until I read some of the Brothers Grimm stories did I see the other side.



When the sweet apple turns bitter.





If you read “PERSEPHONE, THE RELUCTANT QUEEN”, you know that we’re fascinated by that potent anise-flavored elixir, absinthe. Maybe it’s the mystique or dangerous reputation. Maybe it’s the color. Or it’s the taste. We’re captivated. There’s something exhilarating about it— it’s a green potion.




New Year’s Eve we enjoyed the creamy delight, panna cotta. Imagine a smooth and sweet dessert infused with absinthe and topped with broiled grapefruit and thyme-citrus coulis. Deliriously delicious. Mmmmmm.


Fairies abound.


Paella, Part Two?

Paella, Part Two?

Many moons ago, I spent a few glorious weeks in Spain and I tasted everything I could imagine. I mean everything. I could write a book on the dishes and drinks I enjoyed, each day brought one revelation after another. When I think of that