Still have half a dozen or so book pages more/less ready to run, and they make easy filler while I'm otherwise preoccupied. Attended Kalman Tillem's funeral today. The service itself is usually the most tedious and least interesting of events, but this one struck a nice balance. Rabbi David Nelson was clearly most interested in Kalman's early studies with reconstruction Judaism founder Mordecai Kaplan, but he was also respectful that Kalman took the teaching in a more secular and more leftist direction, maintaining a strong Jewish cultural identity without its religious trappings.

We had some people over to the house afterwards. I put a quick lunch together. Last night I mixed up a couple of salads. One was mast va khiar, the Iranian variation on cucumber-yogurt: the extra are scallions, fresh mint, and golden raisins. (Usually I also include black walnuts, which I failed to find.) For yogurt, I picked up a pre-drained Greek brand, Fage. Very thick and rich, a little sour, which was easily fixed with extra raisins. The other was a Russian potato salad with smoked salmon, red onion, kalamata olives, capers, dill, and a vinaigrette mixed with a little dijon mustard. Then this morning I ran out and picked up some bagels, cream cheese, lox, and chips. I drew a blank on desert, but that's what other people brought, so it all worked out.

Given this, makes sense to start with a food book.

Just a couple of quotes. Had I worked at it I could have found more. (That I marked the Fussell quote is probably because I much enjoyed her book.) The early parts cover the introduction of French haute cuisine to New York, although even there James Beard was as much known for his advocacy of down home American fare. The book then expands variously -- Chez Panisse, Dean & Deluca, Wolfgang Puck. Rachel Ray got her mug into the cover illustration but has no real role in the book. I keep reading from recent tracts on or about the Republican Right that anyone with a taste for high class or exotic food is an elitist snob. What I find is that while many people are baffled by such things, their sense of taste welcomes them when given the chance and a comfortable environment. Some folks think I'm some sort of gourmet cook, but I don't, and I try my best to dispell such nonsense. What I cook is mostly down home fare, but I can do that in a dozen cuisines that I've bothered to learn something about -- including the one I learned from my mother. I rarely do anything fancy, but I do exotic things that often catch my guests by pleasant surprise.

I've never cooked anything from Julia Child -- indeed, the only French dishes I've every attempted were from the south, like garum and salade niçoise. And I can't imagine attempting an Alice Waters salad -- I pretty much take what the grocery store gives. But it seems silly to me to nurture an attitude against fine food, or any new life experience, or expertise thereof. Read most of this while traveling, a nice way to spend the time.