A lull in CommunalTable salon action filled by so much:

We donned shopkeeper aprons at Etsy's New*New NY spring sale in Williamsburg... baked our hearts out and had the pleasure of one-on-one interaction, but it seems impossible to get beyond break-even with this quality of goods- handmade peanut butter cups, all butter lattice top pies, pumpkin whoopie pies, Basque tartlets, layer cake with buttercream like from your dreams...

The exciting things that came from this were a connection with the Green Harvest CSA from the Farm at Miller's Crossing in Hudson, NY (we hope to do an event with them this fall) and a chance to firm up our friendship with the Fine and Raw Chocolate folks.  

We served their amazing truffles at FI:FA this past week at a press party to launch September's Crossing the Line Festival that Communal Table will take part in.

We'll be a part of Farm City, an event highlighting urban (particularly Brooklyn) agriculture, so for the launch event we went all out with a Bklyn urban agriculture/artisanal menu. 

Homemade wild yeast crackers, windowsill herbs, honey from local bees, Deena's pickles, L. I. Sound Brooklyn-style chowder, eggs from BK Farmyard's Crown Heights chickens, produce from Eagle St. Rooftop Farms in Greenpoint and Added Value Farm in Red Hook. Also Manhattan Special Espresso soda and Joyva candies: both 100 year old businesses that started with pushcarts on the Lower East Side. You get the drift! 

In September as part of the festival Communal Table will offer a pickle making workshop and feed folks with produce from several Bklyn farms!

The next event up... before we get back to our salon suppers (and we have some really fun suppers planned!!!) will be selling snacks at the Old American Can Factory in Gowanus, Bklyn on July 3rd, http://www.rooftopfilms.com

when Umami: food and art festival  will be showing food/art films on the roof top.

Deena was hooked into the politics of fish but the lure for me is still the story. Rob could talk endlessly about fishing and Rodney forever finds Aesop-like Buddhist-style fables for each Communal Table. Bless Ukulele Sarah, who came with laryngitis but croaked nonetheless a rousing "cockles and mussels alive, alive-o." Vince, our fishmonger host answered countless questions (folks are hungry for fishy information; we navigate murky waters.) There was a beautiful moment when Paul Neuman http://www.caterernyc.com told a story about his late fishmonger father, and Vince who'd not met Paul before tonight but knew and respected Paul's father from the fish world, told Paul what an inspiration his father had been. Made both men feel good- and everyone else too.

Listening to Vince's reading of a decidedly masculine passage from a Dave Eggers tale about pulling and pulling a fish from the sea, I suddenly 'got' fishing as man's attempt to mimic women's pushing and pushing babies from the water of our wombs. Push, pull, what's the difference; wiggly slimy things emerge.

And then there was beautiful Kacie with her photo album of harvesting wild sea vegetables. To me she seems a water sprite of sorts in her row boat on the sea, but for her it's all a days work.

When I checked-in with friends in the days following the dinner, many said... "o, I had a tale I could have told... but, but..." The work of marking and telling the stories food inspires takes a mindfulness we resist, perhaps because storytelling is so revealing. Communal Table gatherings are meant to nurture political/activist insight along with our very human impulse to tell a tale... that is, to share with others the stories we hold dear. In my mind this engagement marks a life well lived, and if we can do it while eating heartily, amen.

Fish Tails and Tall Tales

photo Paul Lamarre

I had an exquisite lunch the other day at Savoy. Good company, charming host, beautiful service and of course their consistently satisfying and luscious food. Savoy is well known for it’s thoughtful, seasonal, local menu. The quietly elegant space was the perfect spot for an hour spent relaxing and savoring a few moments together over tasty bites. It made me remember why I loved it so much way back when it opened in 1990. A quietly self assured place in the midst of the noisy and ostentatious restaurants in NYC, not afraid to take an ethical stand and gently remind diners where their food came from. Many more places have since followed Savoy’s Peter Hoffman, into the territory of intelligent dining, but for me it remains the favorite. 

Why then, did I leave there feeling uneasy? Was it the Butter Basted Monkfish on the dinner menu? After reading Taras Grescoe’s Bottomfeeder, I was sufficiently convinced that Monkfish was dangerously overfished and that the bottom-destroying trawling used to catch them was reason enough to keep them off all restaurant menus. But, after thinking about it, what really bothered me was that I didn’t ask about it. 

At Fish Tails and Tall Tales, our most recent Communal Table dinner, I entreated everyone to talk to their fishmongers, grocers, waiters and chefs about what fish they’re buying and selling and letting them know that we’re interested in supporting sustainable fishing practices and don’t want overfished and harmfully fished or farmed species. Emphatic entreaty! In my reverence for Savoy, I shied away from asking a simple question, “How is it, when I have heard so much about Monkfish being overfished and it’s capture so environmentally destructive, that you are serving it tonight for dinner?” I really should have asked. Had I asked, I would have been moderately relieved to find out that there are two somewhat less harmful gill-net fisheries in New Jersey and in Canada  supplying Monkfish to the market. I’m still not happy to see it on their menu, and I wouldn’t order it. But dialog is important. Get the facts and let vendors know what you care about. I promise to be more assertive in the future.
photo Paul Lamarre

Today’s post from Mark Bittman addresses the issue of consumer confusion at the fish counter.  

photo Paul Lamarre

Communal Table is really all about storytelling and we thank everyone who brought a story or poem along to share. Thanks to Mark Federman from Russ and Daughters for sharing his expertise and love for herring and it's lore, Rob Hauck for his enthusiasm, joy and stories of fishing and Kacie Loparto for demystifying the world of sea vegetables. 

Vince Bruns was an amazing host and his shad boning demonstration was absolutely spectacular and edifiying. Thanks to Vince also for procuring the finest, freshest seafood for us to serve on that balmy March evening. 
additional photos Mary-Anne O'Sullivan

For more information:

The End Of The Line   also available from Netflix

Bottomfeeder  by Taras Grescoe

Swimming in Circles  by Paul Molyneaux

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance

Surfrider Foundation

I’m back from Pamplona and London. Food, films, friends. Best of which was that it meant two weeks with my sister. That was the lovliest part.

In Spain, I was at the Punto de Vista International Documentary Festival where in addition to full days in dark movie theaters, I spent a lot of time eating. Eating with some of the most interesting possible companions. Filmmakers, journalists, writers and artists-   three meals a day, everyday. I came away satisfied and happy and ready to get back to work.

CommunalTable Fish Tails and Tall Tales is on Saturday March 20, 2010.

Seating is limited, make sure to RSVP early.

oh boy! When Communal Table hosted beekeeper Andrew C. at our Apples-n-Honey salon, a film crew came with him... and here's a clip from their footage!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r_Bujutr_o

by Nastya Shorstova, MFA Candidate in Television Production at Bklyn College

Wanted to post my two cents about pickles and roots- and share the gingerbread cookie recipe a couple of people asked for. Thanks to everyone for making Pickles and Roots so fun! I'm still all pickley with a new batch of kimchi fermenting on my counter, and assorted jars of quick pickles in the fridge: ginger marinated daikon, shredded turnips with toasted sesame and Campari soaked figs I use on homemade pizza.

I served sauerkraut the other night to the poetrysciencetalks gang. PST is a salon I've been cooking for for the last four years- a different talk every month and a meal before the talk that reflects the evenings theme. This month a biologist (Dr. Tyler Volk from NYU) was talking about death (and its essentialness.) I made shepherd's pie (biblical references to shepherd's aside, the medieval term for pie was "coffin," and in our culture we have a tradition of carrying a "covered dish" to funeral parties.) We also had an assortment of moldy bleu cheeses, and the sauerkraut; both examples of symbiosis, where one organism (penicillium or lactobacillus) thrives at an others' expense... plus, sauerkraut's a dish put by for winter (winter being a metaphoric, seasonal kind of death.) We finished the meal with Devil's Food cake!

I bring this up in part to share bits about what Deena and I do aside from Communal Table, (Deena's at a film festival in Spain right now, visiting markets in the Basque region between reels (lucky!!!) and I'm putting the finishing touches on some of the upcoming Umami: food and art festival programs www.umamifestival2010.com

But also.... like PST, Communal Table is ideas as well as supper. The thing I love about C.T. evenings is how busy and happy everyone seems... making, tasting, reflecting and sharing poems and stories. Pickles and Roots was an easy theme to play with: roots being our roots and traditions, and pickles rich with metaphor as in: in a pickle or being pickled.

Deena's blog post brought up shared Eastern European roots, a culture whose food traditions are rich with pickles... but we also share roots in the NY arts and food communities, and we've both raised families in the contemporary NYC art/food worlds, grazing globally. I wonder what our children, who've tasted so many different flavors, consider their culinary roots?

I think I love food because it's hands-on (mouth-on) story telling. I'm super excited about the next Communal Table salon- Fish Tales. Our guests include a fisherman, a fish monger and a 2nd (or is it 3rd?) generation purveyor of the ultimate Jewish delicacy: lox-n-bagels. Along with their expertise what each shares is a love of stories- about fish, food and family. We're wrestling with the politics of salmon, thinking about sea vegetables, and collecting stories about "the one that got away!" Save the date: March 20th- the vernal equinox... and for traditions sake we'll stand eggs on end- then boil 'em to serve with a sprinkle of fish roe...

Gingerbread Cookies:

1/2 c white and 1/3 c. brown sugar

1-1/2 c. white flour and 3/4 c. whole wheat flour

1-1/2 t. baking soda and 1/2 t. baking powder

1 T. cocoa

2 t. ground ginger

1/2 t. each: ground cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, pepper, salt... etc. I play with what's on hand

1 c. butter

1 egg

2 T. molasses

1 c. each: ginger nibs, dark chocolate chips (I buy "disks" of candied ginger and chop them)

sugar for rolling cookies in before baking

Combine dry ingredients. Add in wet ingredients. Stir in nibs and chips. Roll dough into balls and roll balls into sugar (sometimes I add spice to the sugar too... a bit of extra cardamom or allspice...) Space on a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake at 350.

Sometimes I slightly under-bake the cookies so they stay soft and chewy and use them to make ice cream sandwiches... Van Leeuwen makes a great ginger ice cream... but vanilla or chocolate is great too.