Met Derek Denckla : www.thegreenest.net at Chavalla's, satisfying a craving for their black bean soup (which I usually pair with ceviche de camarones... but didn't this time as Deena's admonishments against the shrimping industry are lodged in my brain... hey, what about the poor shrimpers livelihood?) Derek's asked us to blog about our process developing the apres farm tour pickling party we're doing as part of Farm City; part of the Crossing the Line festival (http://www.fiaf.org/events/fall2010/2010-crossing-the-line.shtml) We'll be feeding around 120 folks using produce and eggs from brooklyn farms, and we'll guide them to make refrigerator pickles to take home as a souvenir. I think, rather than buying canning jars I'm gonna start collecting and recycling nice jars with lids, so save me any good ones!

Over lunch we wrestled with how pure Communal Table should to be about using locally sourced ingredients... when we catered the FI:FA press launch- we used ALL local, but spent so much time foraging all over bklyn and paying top dollar for ingredients: we barely broke-even. This is a constant dilemma: how to not go broke while embracing urban agricultural and locally based artisanal product? For Farm City we're thinking of a ratio: 60/40-ish, positioning bklyn products and produce where they'll really make a difference- but not necessarily absorbing them into everything... this is not to say we won't continue to use mindfully produced goods for the better bulk of everything we do... it's just you have to strike a balance. It's a ridiculously complex equation: money + time + labor and equally as important: meaning. There're stories behind the goods and stories created with their consumption that affect experience and action- and this is the part Communal Table gets to play with!

A bulk of our discussion was about the shape of the party... menu of course is based on the farmer's dependence on sunshine and good fortune... but the feel of the party comes down to table arrangements and the materiality of the dishes. It's one show with waiters and trays to the strains of violin, another with an all-u-can-eat brass-band buffet and yet another if we set a long table down the terrace of the Old Stone House. So many hats to wear... forager, chef, designer, actor... it keeps this work engaging even when we don't break-even.

Later that same afternoon...

Preparing for the pickling part of Farm City I attended a canning workshop sponsored by http://www.foodsystemsnyc.org/

Guest speaker Sherrie Brooks Vinton http://sherribrooksvinton.com/ gave a wonderful demystifying demonstration that has me rearing to boil up a bunch of jars! I'm gonna try beets and plums and turmeric onions, and steep the last local strawberries in Vodka- all suggestions from Sherrie's book Put 'em Up!

I'm just back from eating my way through the Hawker stands of international Singapore where each nationality has it's own market and food court... Malaysian, Indian, Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese, Arabic... (also European, Australian and American.) The things I fell

most in love with were fresh fish congee loaded with ginger (an amazingly satisfying and inexpensive breakfast) and freshly squeezed limeade made with tiny Calamansi limes.

One of my favorite things in the markets were booths that specialized in flavored tofu and veggies including okra, eggplant and bitter gourd stuffed with tofu (one buys these by the pound to put into broth with noodles.) We made black chicken broth one evening which is supposed to be particularly nutritious. On the whole- sweating mightily in the heat left me feeling cleansed... and daily lap swims kept me feeling fit. Also an abundance of pineapple, mango, mangosteen, dragon fruit, etc.

On daily walks through different neighborhoods and parks I saw

monkeys, giant lizards (3 -4 feet long!) incredible flowers and a

host of amazing food stuffs I'd never before encountered! Also

spent 2 days snorkeling off Tioman Island off the east coast of

Malaysia- amazing coral and fish just right there below the surface. This has been my first trip to Asia and getting a glimpse of all this wildlife, so much culture, so much deliciousness, I feel my world has opened and expanded 100 fold! Can't wait for more!!

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.