In Other Somewhat Related News

That you can file under "recession", "cuts" and "arts funding". As you may know, the city of Los Angeles is considering cutting funding for the Department of Cultural Affairs, in effect eliminating it altogether in a not-so-distant future. Knowing that the City is very near bankruptcy, that the unemplpyment rate is dangerously close to 15% in the City, that Nothrop Grumman is leaving the region, etc... I don't think whatever activism we, as the collective art world/art community can really do would achieve anything *that* significantly effective, but nonethess it seems vital to reiterate the economic importance of the arts in the local community to begin with, and the international impact of Los Angeles in the visual arts.


There will be a debate/discussion/town hall meeting at the Mandrake tomorrow evening. I'm linking to their Facebook event page, but I'm sure you can just show up after 8 PM and join the conversation. You can also log on this page and participate to the movement to try and keep the DCA afloat. Your presence is actively required at this Wednesday's Council Meeting.

Jerome Kerviel Is F...ing In Heavens- Jerome Kerviel Baise Au Ciel

With all the stuff happening today, I nearly forgot to mention the new French celebrity, Jerome Kerviel.
If you haven't followed, he is le rogue trader who supposedly made 5B Euros (that's $7B for you math-impaired art people) evaporate through fictitious trades at Societe Generale (incidentally, my bank). The comments over at the WSJ blog are absolutely hilarious, since the petit joueur Nick Leeson as well as ECB Jean-Claude Trichet (a.k.a "I Will Never Lower Any Interest Rate As Long As The German Remember The Hyperinflation Of The Weimar Years") are contributing thoughtful, delicate comments, and so is FBC! personal fav' Alan Greenspan.

Speculation is rampant as to the whereabouts of Mr. Kerviel. As a French-educated trader, I'm sure Mr. Kerviel was trying to apply some of Georges Bataille's Economics theories (see La Part Maudite, can't bother to check the English title, sorry). Now it has to be determined if he has also crammed Lonely Planet's guides to rough travel, in, hmmm. The Bahamas? I think he must be in Le Club Med, perhaps in Egypt with Osama Bin Laden or maybe he moved to Brasil with Lord Lucan. Or with Fatboy Slim, he's f....ing in Heavens. Better yet, since Sarko has to leave his unmarried girlfriend for his trip to India, Jerome and Carla are having a good time together in Switzerland.

Now the question is...will the French government raise taxes so French citizens have to underwrite the losses of one bank, as it was when the Credit Lyonnais screwed up big time in the 1990s?

The 500,000 calories French Mac and Cheese!

It's cold, rainy and Winter-y, and I don't know about you but it feels like comfort food time. Especially with the recession coming up.
For some reason, in French we don't have an expression for "comfort food" at all. I'm surmising it's because in French culture food is automatically thought of as: a) good and therefore b) comforting.
There's a vague saveurs de l'enfance you see printed here and there in French food magazines when they write about such old staples as mashed potatoes or chocolate mousse, but that's it. Of course comfort food varies depending on the individual, and if you really, but really want to know, mine is very simple and somewhat healthy. I love easy vegetable soups where all the vegetables are boiled together (no stock) with a couple potatoes, then pureed with a plunger-type of mixer. As for desserts, I love stovetop rice pudding. One of these days, I promise I'll post recipes for those.

Meanwhile, there is a kind of comfort food that can be described as a French national staple, and it is, ta da! Mac and cheese! With a twist, of course! Because we're Frenchy! and chic! And we're doing a liberal use of exclamation marks!

First of all, French mac and cheese do use elbow pasta, but a different kind of elbow pasta. It's for one very small elbow pasta, and secondly it is pasta made with eggs. We call that type of pasta coquillettes, and I cannot find them here, so I regularly bring a small 250g carton when I come back from France. Also we add diced ham to the dish, and that's where I usually cry when I try to make it here. I've never, never found good ham in Los Angeles. It's always too salty, and ewwwww packed with water, and bland. If you're fortunate to go visit France one of these days, I'd recommend you stop by a good charcuterie and you ask for a few hand -sliced tranches de jambon à l’os.
Anyway, no mac & cheese is complete without the cheese, and unlike US bricked processed cheese that taste like soap, we like it with either Comté or Beaufort cheeses. And, we cook it on the stove, not in the oven. Anyway, recipe below:

Coquillettes au jambon et au fromage, Basic Recipe for 1.

90g coquillette pasta (about 3 oz.)
1 or 2 slices of ham, diced.
90g grated Comté or Beaufort cheese
1 pinch nutmeg
cracked pepper.
bit of butter.

You can dice the ham and grate the cheese while you boil the salted water for the pasta.
Steps are simple: dump the pasta in boiling water. When the pasta is cooked (taste it, about 5/7 minutes), drain it in a colander, dump it back in the pot with the small dab of butter, add the nutmeg, the ham, half of the cheese and stir well with a wooden spoon. Return the pot to the stove, on low heat, stir the remaining half of grated cheese and mix it well, until some luscious filament of melted cheese start to form. Voilà! You can now dump everything in a bowl or a plate, and savor your coquillettes with some cracked pepper. Since you're a grown-up, you can have a glass of wine with it, but honestly water is much better with it.


So there are some trendy, updated versions where people add baby spinach or peas or arugula or truffles to feel more grown-up/less guilty they put something green in it, but it's not coquillettes anymore.

Recession or not recession?

If you had asked me yesterday I would have said we were going headfirst toward a recession, especially after learning of Citibank 60% loss in profits (though losing profits isn't going bankrupt) and of UBS soon to post heavy losses too. Today, I read enthusiastic rally cries and optimistic "this was last quarter problem" stuff in the mainstream media.
Well, to make sure I had a look at next Spring fashion trends, 'cause there's always the "the longest the hems the most real recession is" rule. Fall 2007 fashion was definitively recession-oriented (plus, clothes were structured and well-cut, hooray!) though admittedly I only used Vogue as my research tool.
FBC! is as usual, slighly uncopy-edited, wholly un-researched!
Well, Spring 2008 is uncertain. There are LOTS of long hems (so, recession here we come) but also some short-y skirts, though not many minis. So, mixed signals.


Well, in a spirit of unmitigated and generous sisterhood and brotherhood I thought, if the recession comes I should help my fellow creative friends to survive. Even if there's no recession our writer friends here in LA may have to go on strike and need to save money. How could I help, dear reader? By posting the recipe of the lentil stew that sustained me when I was writing my dissertation and soooooo broke.

But in a spirit of optimism, instead of only posting the cheapo version, I'm adding at the bottom the deluxe one. This way, you can either have a pauper but comforting meal, or have a delicious rich stew for festive winter occasions. Merci qui? Merci FBC!

FRENCHY'S LENTIL STEW, PAUPER VERSION:

- 1 cup 1/2 red lentils, rinsed
-2 pounds unpeeled potatoes, rinsed, quartered
3 or 4 carrots, peeled, rinced and sliced
2 yellow onions, peeled and sliced
4 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 bunch flat parsley, rinsed and chopped.
2 tablespoon turmeric
2 tablespoon ground coriander
2 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground ginger
2 or 3 bay leaves
3 or 4 sprigs thyme
4 or 5 cloves
about 2 to 3 quart water
2 tablespoons olive oil


In a large stockpot, heat the olive oil. Saute the onions for 4/5 minutes, medium heat, stir from time to time, add the potatoes, the carrots, for 2 or 3 more minutes, stirring again, add the garlic for about 1 minute, then cover with the water. Stir in the spices and herbs, and the lentils, stir well. DO NOT ADD SALT (or the lentil would turn to cement). Let everything boil for about 40 minutes on medium heat, uncovered. Add the salt, let the stew cook for 2 or 3 more minutes. It's ready!



I made this stew over and over when I was writing my dissertation, and 5 years later I still love it. I never got sick of it. It's rather healthy, hearty and fulfilling and vegetarian-friendly. The quantities are 7 days of stew for 1 person, or if you insist to eat everything on one occasion you can easily feed 6 persons with it.
You may want to add water when reheating it over and over, especially toward the end, it's a rather soupy kind of stew.

But I understand it could get boring, so here's the deluxe edition.


FRENCHY'S LENTIL STEW, DELUXE EDITION

Proceed exactly as above, but add:

1. Meat:
- Either some type of sausage (Kielbasa is perfect for this, and Italian gives good result too), sliced.
- Ham or Porsciutto hocks, sliced
OR
Lamb, pork work well with this, just make sure you buy the kind you need for stew and it is cubed.

2. Greens:
Spinach, watercress or arugula are all good. Washed and chopped.

How to proceed:
- For cubed stew meat, just brown it in the olive oil at the same time as the onion, carrots, etc. and continue with the regular steps of teh pauper version.
-For the ham or prosciutto hocks, just add them with the boiling water but only after you are certain the lentils are cooked (say, after 30 minutes)
-For the sausage, heat a bit of olive oil in a skillet and saute the sausage until it is nicely browned, then dump into the stew, same stage as the ham hock.

For the greens, you can add them directly to the stew at the same moment you are sauteing the garlic in the olive oil, just before you add the water.


Serve with nice crusty bread, and if you're flush drink some red wine. If you're not flush but still want wine, one tip: don't get the 2 bucks Chuck at TJ's but look at their Italian wines selection. They usually have some good ones for $2,99 to $5,99.

Lastly, if you decide to go for either version, one word of caution: do not use stock or broth to make it unless you are certain it is unsalted. Also, add salt only at the end, when you are certain the lentils are thoroughly cooked.
Enjoy!