Holly Rice – Page 3 – The Inquisitive Eater

Poetry February 14, 2017

TIE Poet of the Month: ‘Lune De Miel’, By David Lehman

for Stacey

The best thing about Paris
is being here with you
(a Sauterne with one course,
a Cote de Beaune with the next)
and the best thing about
being here with you
is Paris (three letters short
of paradise but I
wouldn’t have it any
other way) on this November
day of clean blue skies
(a Chablis with one course,
a Pomerol with the next)
after yesterday’s umbrellas three
stories below our window
where three streets meet
in the cold gray rain
of a new day in the past
which we’re keeping alive

David Lehman has taught in the New School’s MFA Writing Program since its inception in 1996. His new book of poetry is “Poems in the Manner Of,” coming from Scribner in March 2017.

featured image via L.C. Nøttaasen on Flickr.

Poetry February 8, 2017

TIE Poet Of The Month: ‘The Way To Daddy’s Heart’, by David Lehman

I wrote this poem in November 2016 for Jessica Alberg, Lily Bowen, Rebecca Endres, Leslie King, Armand Levy, Thomas Moody, Brendan Smith, Keri Smith, Sean Speers, and Virginia Valenzuela — the participants in my poetry writing workshop. We had two standing jokes that are reflected in the poem. One was the observation that almost any poem can end with the sentence “This poem is against war.” A second joke was based on an essay in a prestigious literary quarterly alleging that the ideal end-word for a poem is “paradise.” The essayist may have argued that all poems ends with “paradise,” although the only example given was Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan.”

The way to Daddy’s heart
is through his love
of asparagus
white asparagus
pickled chilled
with a stack of corned beef
and pastrami
and brown mustard
and pickles.

The way to Daddy’s heart
is through his love
of melons
sugar melons
water melon
honeydew
scents of summer
and poems that end
with the word “paradise.”

The way to Daddy’s heart
is through his love
of gin and vermouth
or a sly grin a deep truth
with a twist of lemon
olives or onions
at the end of the day
like a poem that ends
with the universal last line
of all poems:
“This poem is against war.”

David Lehman has taught in the New School’s MFA Writing Program since its inception in 1996. His new book of poetry is “Poems in the Manner Of,” coming from Scribner in March 2017.

featured image via Beau Colburn on Flickr.

Poetry February 1, 2017

TIE Poet Of The Month: ‘The Four Seasons’, By David Lehman

for Rozanne Gold

Lunching with Stacey
at the soon-to-close Four
Seasons, sipping my
champagne cocktail I
overheard the State
Department is in a state
of perpetual war
attack counterattack never
give an inch just like
the English department
well, some were born to bicker
and they get the prize
of being the last one
left to say “I’m right”
but you and I want
to make things that will
last or vanish like
love or the most expensive
dish on the menu

David Lehman has taught in the New School’s MFA Writing Program since its inception in 1996. His new book of poetry is “Poems in the Manner Of,” coming from Scribner in March 2017.

featured image via Reclaiming Provincial.

Non-Fiction January 27, 2017

Hope And All Necessary Action, by Justin Marks

It’s inauguration day. Instead of watching the ceremony, I go to our local seafood market where they have a special on fresh salmon. I go to the grocery store for heads of cauliflower and broccoli. The bakery for baklava and sfogliatelle. A meal for the whole family.

I baste the salmon in a mix of olive oil, lemon zest and chopped garlic. Lightly steam the cauliflower and broccoli, drain and on a baking pan brush with olive oil, salt and pepper to taste.

Bake together at 400 for 30-40 minutes.

Protein and omega-3 fatty acids. High in fiber, rich in vitamins and minerals. Heart health and disease resistance.

Care and nurturing. Strength. A bit of sweetness. The nutrients we’ll need. An act of resistance.

*

We have to
protect each other
from each other

We have to
show kindness
in times when
kindness is unwarranted

We have to
decipher the real
from distraction

Take all
necessary action

*

I wrote that while reading AR Ammons, a poet whose politics, you could say, was nature. A poet who saw in “meaninglessness / our only meaning.” The word “meaning” within “meaninglessness.”

*

In hopelessness I see our only hope. The word “hope” within “hopelessness.” A duality at the heart of each word I put to paper. The pit and messy pulp of it. An affirmation of faith, a (re)commitment to language—the spiritual experience of it. The power of words to undermine absolute power.

Justin Marks’ books are, You’re Going to Miss Me When You’re Bored, (Barrelhouse Books, 2014) and A Million in Prizes (New Issues, 2009). He is a co-founder of Birds, LLC, an independent poetry press, and lives in Queens, NY with his wife and their son and daughter. For more, go to http://justinmarks.net/.

featured image via Alfred Lui on Flickr.

Columns January 25, 2017

January Market Report, by Stacey Harwood-Lehman

A cookbook is a historical and political document. Think about it. Pick up any cookbook and you will learn as much about the economic forces of its time as you would from any history book. What do the recipes tell you about the demographics of its preferred audience? What is their class? Their social standing? How accessible are the ingredients and challenging the preparation? I’ve often wondered why definitive histories of a period tend to leave out the goings on in the kitchen. If we don’t know what people were eating and how their food was prepared during this war or that upheaval, we’re missing a big piece of the pie, so to speak. Browse the cookbook shelves of a bookstore and you learn about current economic and social trends; visit the shelves of your local library and you’ll be amazed by once popular diet trends that are now obsolete.

A sub-genre of cookbooks that can teach us about the time in which they were written is the “charity” cookbook compiled by women and sold in order to raise money for a cause. The first such cookbook was A Poetical Cookbook, written over 150 years ago for the 1864 Sanitary Fair, to support those wounded, widowed or orphaned by the Civil War. The practice of selling cookbooks to raise money has thrived ever since.

Jan Longone, curator of American culinary history at the University of Michigan Hatcher Library points out that no matter what the specific cause for which charity cookbook raised funds, the underlying purposes began as “women helping themselves, helping other women to help themselves, helping still other women help themselves and finally blossomed into women taking on the role of helping to solve all societies ills. All the time learning how to organize, to write, to publish, sell ads to sell cookbooks to run a business and to network.” In other words, the making of a lowly cookbook helped women develop life-saving skills.

Fast forward to today’s digital and social-media world. What does a cookbook for a cause look like in this environment? One recent example, and one to which I contributed, is the New Economy Chapbook Cookbook Volume I: Inexpensive Healthful Hopeful Eats for 2017.

Here’s how it got started: Last November, poet Gabrielle Calvocoressi posted on Facebook: “Pals! I’m making an adventure of these slightly tight economic times. What are some meals you love to make that stretch across a few days? If you place a recipe and a little bit about the meal here I thought I’d copy them (with your name of course!), put them together, and maybe make a little cookbook chapbook we can “sell” for $2 (or more if folks wants) donation receipts to an organization that fights food scarcity. I bet we could raise a bunch for folks in need. I’m thinking we could call it The New Economy: A Poets’ Cookbook.”

The response was overwhelming and enthusiastic as one “share” led to another. Instead of women gathering in kitchens and living rooms to type and collate, today we have laptops connected virtually; instead of mimeograph machines and staplers, there’s print-on-demand. The New Economy Cookbook Chapbook is a digital cookbook filled with recipes by home cooks who know how to write and how to stretch a dollar to feed friends and families. Plus, unlike “charity” cookbooks of the past, which tend to be local, this one boasts recipes representing culinary traditions from around the world. It is large! It contains multitudes!

Plans are in the works to print and sell hard copies of The New Economy Chapbook Cookbook. Meanwhile, you can download a copy for your personal use. Even better, explore ways that you can print copies and sell them to raise money for a favorite organization, preferably one with a mission to end food scarcity and insecurity.

What’s for dinner? I’m starting with Kaveh Akbar’s Vegan Fesenjan, an Iranian stew made with walnuts and tofu and served over rice. Salâmati!

feature image via Stacey Harwood-Lehman

People January 25, 2017

TIE Profile of the Month: Nicole Coulter of More Salt Please

In September when I began dabbling in veganism and in YouTube, I came across Nicole Coulter, a vegan chef with colorful, tasty, and inventive recipes. I knew instantly that I’d want to cover her in The Inquisitive Eater’s Profile of the Month series. She has a vast amount of knowledge, creativity, and a knack for making all food look delicious. Here’s Nicole in her own words about her channel, her journey as a vegan chef, and the joys of a plant-based lifestyle.

HR: What was it about veganism that initially drew you in? Why did you choose to become vegan?

NC: I was initially drawn towards veganism for the health aspect of it. I went down a deep hole of research and was inspired to start looking into the vegan lifestyle to discredit it, but all the research I did actually did the opposite. A few days later I went vegan overnight. I had seen and read too much for me to continue to eat meat, dairy and eggs. I also found out about the environmental impact animal agriculture has on our planet and how much it depletes our water, land, and pollutes the air we all breathe. Then I started to wonder why we were raised to view some animals as edible and some as lovable. It felt hypocritical to stop and pet every dog I passed on the street, and then go home and cook chicken for dinner, and buy clothes and shoes made from cow’s skin. It just didn’t make sense. I actively choose not to support one of the most corrupt industries in the world. I have never felt better, and I’m never going back.

Video reference: My Vegan Story

HR: How does vegan cooking exercise your creativity as a chef?

NC: It has made me SO much more creative in the kitchen! It’s allows me to think about food and flavors on a completely different level. You realize that spices and aromatics like garlic, onion and herbs are what actually give meat all it’s flavor. Which means you can apply that to anything: tofu, lentils, legumes, mushrooms etc. The techniques for cooking meat and dairy have already been discovered and perfected in every way possible in the culinary world. Vegan cooking is a whole other ball game. New methods are constantly being discovered. Especially within the mock meat and cheese companies like Gardien, Field Roast and Beyond Meat. It’s amazing what is being done without harming or involving animals at all.

Video reference: Vegan Scallops with Mushroom Risotto

HR: How has veganism changed your cooking practice?

NC: Being vegan has really simplified my cooking. That might shock some people, because if you aren’t familiar with the lifestyle, it’s very common to think of vegan cooking as being full of exotic and hard to find ingredients, and that couldn’t be further from the truth. If you want to feel your best on a vegan diet, sticking to whole plant foods is vital. Focusing on simplifying your palate and honing in on nutrient-dense foods that satiate you is the key to long term health. I eat a lot of potatoes, rice, legumes, leafy greens, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds and tofu every once in awhile. I’ve learned to appreciate the flavor of foods in their natural form. At home I eat pretty simply, and when I’m cooking for the YouTube channel I tend to make things more exciting.

Video reference: What I Eat in a Day

HR: What are the positives of the vegan YouTube community? What are the draw backs, if any?

NC: The positives are having a sense of belonging. Being vegan in your daily life can be challenging because we only make up about 1% of the entire population, so it’s very easy to feel alone. YouTube gives vegans an outlet to share their vegan journey and lifestyle with the world and it can be a great place to share struggles as well. It’s an amazing platform to introduce veganism to the world. I think most people going vegan today are people who watch YouTube or watch documentaries suggested by vegan YouTubers. It’s also a great place to make friends with other vegans in the community. You are able to connect and chat with people you normally wouldn’t meet in real life. With that being said, it can also be a very toxic environment as well. Militant vegans usually have the loudest voices and the biggest platforms, so people watch their videos and think they speak for vegans everywhere. These are the people who fulfill the classic “angry vegan” stereotype that leaves non-vegans with a bad taste in their mouth. Vegans tend to have varying degrees of crazy, and unfortunately the craziest ones get most of the attention and publicity. More often than not, the militant ones are shooting themselves in the foot, so to speak, because they don’t make their lifestyle seem very appealing. It anything they are the ones who make people afraid of the word “vegan”..

Video reference: What I Miss the Most After Going Vegan

HR: What made you decide to share your vegan journey and talents as a chef online? What has been the best part of creating your channel?

NC: I started my channel before I went vegan back in 2015 because I was living in a city I hated, and I was bored out of my mind and needed a creative outlet. It gave me a sense of purpose and excitement that I hadn’t felt in quite some time. I wanted to show people how rewarding and delicious cooking can be. After going vegan, that purpose shifted slightly. I want to normalize veganism and make it more accessible. My goal is to make the word “vegan” less scary. And even if people don’t want to, or aren’t ready to make the jump, I want them to have a judgement-free place to go and find encouragement. The best part of creating my channel has definitely been connecting with my subscribers! Even though it’s corny and cliche to say…they are what keep me going. It’s nice to find people who just get you. I am so comfortable showing them my weirdness. Maybe a little too comfortable…

HR: Have you discovered a favourite recipe? What recipes do you make most often?

NC: My favorite recipe changes every few weeks. It all depends on what I’m craving at the moment. Usually it’s some sort of potato, Mexican or Asian dish. I make a lot of sushi with steamed broccoli or braised bok choy, nachos with fat-free cheese sauce and some sort of bean concoction, and fries. Always fries.

Video reference: My Top 5 go-to Vegan Meals

HR: Where are your favourite places to grocery shop?

NC: When the weather is nice I love shopping at local farmer’s markets. When the winter rolls around my go-to stores are ALDIs and Wegmans. ALDI has a great selection of organic, high quality produce and everything is insanely inexpensive. Wegmans is like a religion to people living in the North East. They’re are obsessed. It’s kind of like our version of Whole Foods.

Video reference: ALDIs Grocery Haul

HR: If you had any advice for new vegans, or those contemplating going vegan, what would it be?

NC: There are just as many ways to eat vegan as they are to eat non vegan. Not all vegan diets are the same, and not all of them will work for you and your lifestyle. Do what works for you and what makes you feel the best. Don’t turn to self proclaimed “health gurus” of instagram or YouTube for health advice. Don’t turn to me for health advice. Do your own research and seek advice and counsel from credible vegan doctors and nutritionists like Dr Gregor, Esselstyn, McDougal, T. Colin Campbell and Dr Barnard. And watch documentaries like Forks Over Knives, Cowspiracy and Earthlings. Also don’t expect a vegan diet to magically fix everything in your life. It will probably make your life better in some way, but don’t turn to it to solve all of your problems. It’s just food. Real change and progress starts in your mind.

Video reference: Vegan “Health” Community Online

Find Nicole on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.

Nicole Coulter is a personal chef and aspiring food photographer based in Rochester, NY. She is the creator of More Salt Please, a vegan cooking and lifestyle YouTube channel, where she shares creative vegan recipes and tips on how to live a practical and delicious vegan life. Her main goal with More Salt, is to change people’s negative connotation of the word vegan and to encourage rather than shame others into the lifestyle. And change the misconception of vegan food being flavorless and boring.

featured image via Nicole Coulter.

Non-Fiction January 23, 2017

TIE Essay of the Month: ‘The Seventh Wish’, by Thais Vitorelli

New Year’s is my absolute favorite holiday. I love to dance around all the different superstitions between families and cultures. I guess most of it has to do with the energy that predominates the last day of the year. It is the only day in which everyone is wishing for the same things as you are, even if they have different names for it.

When I was a child I used to spend New Year’s at the beach, always in the same house, always with the same people. Everyone was dressed in white, the most popular New Year’s tradition in Brazil. A wish for peace. My mom would cook a northeastern dish called Shimp Bobo, a manioc cream with lots of coconut milk and dendê palm oil and, of course, shrimp. Mom’s best friend, Silvia, used to make cod fish sided by potatoes, bell pepper, and black olives. Some of my parent’s friends liked to eat lentils on New Year’s for good fortune. Others kept pomegranate seeds inside their wallet for money.

I was in charge of the lime mousse, the easiest dessert you can assign to a child — blending together lime juice, heavy cream, and condensed milk. The trickiest part, though, was when Silvia’s son and I did our best to write the year in the mousse using lime zest. Most of the time, it didn’t turn out beautiful, but the taste was always good.

Then, we would go to the beach and watch the fireworks and hug each other after the countdown. The dads would come along with the children to the sea and watch us while we hopped over seven waves, another massive Brazilian superstition for the Réveillon, making one wish for each wave, the high point of the night. One of my wishes every year was to still be friends with my best friends.

Today, you see fewer and fewer people wearing white. My mother’s best friend spends New Year’s at the countryside. Silvia’s son now has his own son. I haven’t cooked lime mousse in over ten years. I haven’t talked to my friends from that time in a long while, either. People around me are always wishing for the same things now: losing weight, quit smoking, a new boyfriend, a good promotion.

I still spend New Year’s at the beach with my family, only a different one. But I still dress in white, and so do they. We have now a beautiful new tradition. We set little wooden sailboats, along with all the families around us, with a candle and a white rose in it. An offer to Iemanjá, the queen of the sea. Instead of the mousse, my job now is to write the letter we send along with the offer, initially addressed to Iemanjá but meant for nobody in particular. My intentions are always the same, anyway. I wish for my family to remain close, and for my friends to be happy. I wish for more love to deal with things that I hate. I wish for strength and fulfillment, and I swear to God that sometimes, a few days during the year, I am heard.

I still skip over the seven waves. Six of my wishes are small resolutions I most likely won’t even remember in six months. But my seventh resolution never fails, as I always wish for me to remember the traditions I once had, keep the traditions that still matter the most and never to stop looking for new ones. Then, we watch the fireworks while the flames of the candles float in the ocean.

Thais is a second-year Writing for Children and Young Adults student at the Creative Writing MFA program at The New School. She is a Brazilian New Yorker currently working on a Young Adult novel and still on the hunt for the best pizza in the city.

featured image via Today

Fiction January 19, 2017

TIE Story of the Month: ‘The Island’, by Dina Lee

By the time the ferry docked and they climbed into the taxi, the sun was already at high noon. Mara knew this island intimately despite having never set foot on it until today. She knew how high the coconut trees grew, how green the sugarcanes were, how white the wispy haze on the horizon became before a cloudburst. She knew that women called on neighborhood boys to climb coconut trees in their backyards to harvest the fruit before the nuts dropped on children’s heads. Do what you like with them, these women told these boys. Gangs of teenagers stood on the side of roads pointing to green coconuts piled high on the beds of borrowed pickup trucks

Do you remember now, Mara asked her grandmother. The taxi stopped at the side of the road and Mara handed the driver a five-dollar bill. He left the car to talk to a teen with a machete tied to his belt. The driver came back with two open coconuts with straws sticking out. Mara handed one to her grandmother.

I don’t, her grandmother said. It was the first time today the woman spoke. She’d been mute during the ferry ride. Her eyes held a hint of panic.

Try, Mara replied.

The taxi soon deposited the women and their suitcases in front of a cafe.

Listen! Do you remember the people, Mara asked. The talk around them buzzed of the coming heat, recent births and deaths, weddings and divorces.

No, her grandmother replied.

Do you remember your daughter? I was named after her, Mara said.

No.

She’s to lunch with us before taking us to her home. What used to be your home.

I never lived here.

Mara guided her grandmother to a seat in the cafe.

You told me stories of rising before dawn to fish with your father. You’d catch flying fish.

I was never a fisherman, her grandmother muttered.

You’d help your mother grill them for dinner and use homemade hot sauce. You taught me your recipe – vinegar with bonnie peppers. You’d make rice with coconut milk.

I wasn’t a cook.

And sometimes, Mara continued, when aunts, uncles, and cousins came over, you’d make coconut ginger bread with your sister. You said it was the best thing in the world.

Never.

Oh, the stories you’d tell.

A curl of scent drifted towards the two. It was slight, barely distinguished from the salty sea air or the diesel smoke from the highway. But it was there: a sugary nutmeg, ginger, and coconut essence. Without ever having tasted it or seen it, Mara knew. Someone, somewhere, was baking coconut ginger bread.

Oh, her grandmother said, oh.

Mara watched her grandmother close her eyes. The scent would soon vanish and with it, the memory. It did not matter. Mara finally saw what she had been waiting for.

Dina Lee is a second year MFA Creative Writing student in Fiction. She came to The New School with a background in screenwriting and advertising, and is currently working on her first novel.

featured image via Never Done It That Way Before.

Poetry January 19, 2017

TIE Poet of the Month: ‘from If This Should Reach You In Time’, by Justin Marks

The sun is blood orange
Our planet burning toward a new
age of extinction An impossible
attempt at rhyme Evolution
shapes acceptable solutions, not
optimal ones, says a scientist
whose life’s work is an argument
against reality A train that’s not
a train, so much as
a description created by sensory
systems to inform us about
the fitness consequences
of our actions–a brain’s best
guess at what the world is like
A story A system
of corruption Illusion
of control A shared nightmare
we each experience on our own
The bridge from which we all
jump

Justin Marks’ books are, You’re Going to Miss Me When You’re Bored, (Barrelhouse Books, 2014) and A Million in Prizes (New Issues, 2009). He is a co-founder of Birds, LLC, an independent poetry press, and lives in Queens, NY with his wife and their son and daughter. For more, go to http://justinmarks.net/.

featured image via Spoon University.

Poetry January 13, 2017

TIE Poet of the Month: from ‘If This Should Reach You In Time’, by Justin Marks

It’s dark
What light there is
is blurry
You’re a child
holding an ice cream
Someone is explaining
the Cold War
Telling you about
nuclear bombs
You’re scared, terrified
to be precise
Awareness of death
That’s not new
Aware of death and scared
That’s new
An inauguration
of fear that ignites
in you an urgency
without object
Isolation
In time
at a religious service
(though you’re not religious)
you’ll come to a part
in a prayer that says
Around us is life and death
decay and renewal
The flowing rhythm that all things obey
A part in a prayer that says
Our life is a dance to a song
we cannot hear
A part in a prayer that says
It’s melody courses through us
for a little while then seems to cease
A part in a prayer that says
Lord what are we
A part in a prayer that says
A breath, a passing shadow
A part in a prayer that says
Yet you have made us
little less than divine
You will feel something
Call it a connection
Peace, calm
The world is hopeless
You know that
but will feel hope
You will feel hope
and find a voice
You will find a voice
and rise
You will rise
and take action
But that is many
broken worlds away

Justin Marks’ books are, You’re Going to Miss Me When You’re Bored, (Barrelhouse Books, 2014) and A Million in Prizes (New Issues, 2009). He is a co-founder of Birds, LLC, an independent poetry press, and lives in Queens, NY with his wife and their son and daughter. For more, go to http://justinmarks.net/.

featured image via Johnathan Nightingale on Flickr.