Mono Lake (pronounced like Sonny Bono, not like U2’s Bono) in California’s Eastern Sierra Mountains was formed over three-quarters of a million years ago, making it one of the oldest lakes in North America. Even at its respectable 65 square mile coverage, in its heyday it may have been close to 1,000 feet deep. Its desert surroundings once prompted author Mark Twain to call Mono Lake the loneliest place on earth, but its stark beauty brings visitors worldwide. A big part of the lake’s attraction can be found at Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Reserve at the south end, where calcium carbonate tufas rise from the shoreline and former lake bottom like Silly Sand towers. These natural formations look like dead coral, but were created from a bubbling up of minerals from a mixture of the cold waters running into the lake and sinking to the bottom reacting with the naturally alkaline water. The sad fact is that all the exposed tufas had been formed completely under water. In 1913, water diverted from nearby Owens Lake via the Owens River into the Los Angeles Aqueduct to help Angelenos 350 miles to the south transform their desert into a lush paradise. The devastating result is that today Owens Lake is a dead, dry lake bed. In order to supply Los Angeles’ hydrogen dioxide habit, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power started shaking down the rivers and streams that fed Mono Lake starting in 1941. The junkies depleted so much of the water from the lake that the volume has been halved and the lake level has been reduced by over 45 feet, exposing the tufa towers. As beautiful as the now-exposed towers are, the loss of water has critically impacted the lake’s fragile ecosystem. The lake features two islands, the larger Paoha and smaller Negit Island, located near the lake’s north shore. For hundreds of years since volcanic Negit Island last erupted it has served as the second largest nesting grounds for California gulls in North America, but with the recession of the water level a land bridge was formed that allowed predators such as coyotes to devastate the nesting population.
Otherworldly tufa formations
In 1994, the California State Water Resources Control Board performed an intervention and reduced the amount of water Los Angeles could divert, demanding that the water level be increased in the lake close to the 1941 level. The lake level is already back up high enough to submerge the land bridge to Negit Island, but the tufas are still exposed; in the next few decades, for the benefit of the lake, they may once again dwell beneath the waters. In addition to the tufa towers, there are other fascinating aspects of Mono Lake to take in. Besides the California gull nesting population, the lake also attracts American avocets, killdeer, sandpipers, eared grebes, snowy plovers and Wilson’s and red-necked phalaropes who either nest there or just stop by passing through. Occasionally ospreys can be seen perched on the tufas, but the alkaline and hypersaline water does not support the fish that they eat (efforts to stock the lake have resulted in dismal failure). About the only two things that do live in the water are algae, and the voracious, algae-eating Mono Lake brine shrimp. This tiny species of shrimp is found only in Mono Lake by the billions, itself being a food source for the migrating birds. Another of the lake’s inhabitants that will liven up your visit are the Alkali or Brine Fly (Ephydra hians). These flies hug the shore in a black carpet millions thick; they also eat the algae in the lake and form bubbles which they use to submerge and maneuver in the shallows. Not only do these flies not bite, but they have an eerie habit of avoiding contact with people – they part like Lost’s smoke monster with millions of tiny wings creating an audible hum. It takes some getting used to walking through them, but once you become accustomed to the fact that they want nothing to do with you, the parting of the black sea becomes pretty cool. The pupae of this fly were collected by the local Paiute (Kutzadika’a) tribe for food, which gave the lake and the area its name (“mono” is “fly-eaters” in their indigenous language).
Wish you were here
A trail from the park entrance winds down past the temporarily land-locked tufas and around the towers along the shore. Bring along a copy of Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here”; in 1974, Storm Thorgerson took a photograph here entitled, “The Diver” which was featured on the inside album art. In the photo, a man appears to be diving into the lake with the tufas in the background, yet there are no ripples in the water. To create the illusion of a dive with no splash or ripples, the diver did a still handstand underwater in an effort to demonstrate absence (a theme found throughout the album). Being a natural environment there is a strong possibility that the tufas in the background have changed size and shape since 1974, but it’s fun to try to find the spot where the photo was taken. This area also provided the backdrop for metal band Cinderella’s video for the song “Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone).” Mono Lake is relatively close to Bodie Ghost Town, Yosemite National Park, Devil’s Postpile and other attractions in the High Sierras making it a welcome diversion if you’re in the area. Since the effort to raise the lake level is well underway, don’t delay in visiting the site or your journey to see the tufas could leave you high and dry.
To be honest, I thought I had coined the term, but as it turns out the bizarreBQ is becoming as synonymous with summer outdoor dining as a picnic in Central Park (if the main course happens to be a member of the of the order of mammals known as rodentia). Author, foodie, friend and sometimes TV celebrity Eddie Lin and I had been discussing having a bizarreBQ for some time, and the opportunity to do so recently became reality (and quite possibly reality TV). The term denotes using a smoking, roasting or grilling process to cook food of an unusual nature al fresco. A Google search gets hits from people who simply grill pickles or spaghetti and call it bizarre, but a truly off-the-wall grilling adventure requires stocking up at your local neighborhood ethnic market. Eddie provided his backyard for the festivities; he was elected grillmaster, while yours truly was sous chef for a day. We worked out the menu details in advance, selecting BBQ turkey necks and oxtails, grilled frog legs and octopus skewers and the pièce de résistance to be named later in the article. The event was being filmed for footage to be used in a television pilot, and I was more than happy to play the hired help and prepare some of the food ahead of time. I had made a marinade for baby octopus based on a recipe Eddie had sent and had the armed mollusks bathing in the soy, sake and ginger-based elixir overnight. I also decided to bring a fresh fruit salad made from jackfruit, lychee, dragon fruit and golden kiwi to give a fresh yet sweet touch to the event.
Tongue, mushroom, tomato and chive hors doeuvres
I donned an apron upon arrival and settled into my first day on the job in the sous kitchen. Eddie had planned out an hors d’œuvre of beef tongue that seemed easy to make at first, but once the assembly line got going I was like Lucille Ball in the candy factory. The tongue medallions were flash fried to just over rare, then wrapped lovingly around a sautéed crimini mushroom, stabbed with a toothpick-skewered heirloom tomato and bound with a whole chive. Ah, yes, there was the light sprinkle of sea salt and black pepper, which just now (as then) I forgot about (to the mock ire of the master chef playing a subtle Gordon Ramsay). The guests bit their tongues and noshed on some grilled fruit and vegetables (including some outstanding beets roasted right on the coals, roasted whole cherries and blackened peaches) that guest and host of other bizarre dinners, Scott Ahlberg made; meanwhile, back in the kitchen, I skewered the octopus with some baby potatoes, zucchini, cherry tomatoes and whole jalapenos. There was enough of the marinade left over to flavor the frog legs, which I had never had grilled before but turned out tender and delicious.
Eddie shows off the sake and soy marinated frog legs
Eddie manned the Weber, grilling Korean ribs and chicken; in the meantime, I painted parboiled turkey neck segments with barbeque sauce to be finished in the oven. Preparing the turkey necks for multiple guests was therapeutic, as I sent a Jason Vorhees kitchen knife crunching through the neck bones with a lovely series of satisfying, audible cracks. Working in the kitchen it was hard to tell how the guests were reacting to the food – I brought along the remainder of the hormigas culonas my sister-in-law returned with from Colombia, and we placed them in a bowl along with some chapulines from Guelaguetza to tide over the guests between courses. The oxtails were done in the oven before the turkey necks, but prepared in the same style; the sweet and tender meat fell off the bones and gave me the strength to soldier on working the stove. Eddie popped in occasionally to make sure I got a taste of the food before it disappeared. When the kitchen work was done, he relinquished the grill so that I could have the octopus grilling honors. The limp mollusks looked as if they were going to slide through the grill to the fiery coals below, but they have a neat little trick of letting you know when they’re done – the arms curl back towards the body making the octopus look floral. The marinade had a high sugar content, caramelizing on the octopus and imparting a nice, dark brown color and the perfect amount of sweetness.
At the end of the day, it is Cynar time
The high point of the meal (if only for the entertainment value) was the final course – bacon-wrapped bull penis. You heard me right folks; not only does the bull lose, he often loses big time. Eddie had parboiled the moo tool earlier, taking care not to overcook it (contrary to popular belief, in the kitchen a hard penis is a detriment, at least from a culinary standpoint). He wrapped the Bobbitized segments each with a strip of bacon and then pan-fried them in the fat from the bacon. The look of horror on the face of the guests was classic as the bull penis was served, and although there was some morbid curiosity, no one wanted to be the first to sample it. I don’t remember ever turning down an edible, and so I dove in and grabbed the bull by the horn; it was more about texture than taste. There was a very slight chewy component (subdued by the perfect preparation), and a somewhat spongy center – there was only a slight beef taste, but to be honest most of the flavor came from the bacon. I think it served better as a conversation piece than a meal, but since there seemed to be a surplus I had a few more pieces. With all the cooking complete, I felt that as a sous chef I should sit on the stoop and have a smoke and a drink, but not being a smoker I opted for the latter. I had chilled a bottle of Cynar (an Italian bitter made from artichokes) and it seemed like the perfect time to have one on the rocks. Some of the guests likened it to the best NyQuil they’ve ever had (which was complementary); it had a slight taste of narcotic cough syrup with a bitter finish from the cynarin in the artichoke. Having another event to attend, I didn’t stay for the fruit salad, but bid adieu having learned a little about what would work better later in the summer when staging a bizarreBQ on a grander scale.
Cooking over coals outside on a summer day is an American tradition, but try to add a little fun by grilling on the wild side. I would advise dropping the pets off at a neighbor’s house, however, lest your guests mistake them for a menu item.
The Hollywood Stage inside B Tank at Paramount backlot
If you’ve been reading Los Angeles food blogs, you’ve already heard what the recent inaugural LA Times Celebration of Food and Wine was not. What it was not was a free lunch, as your $55 General Admission ticket got you onto the historic Paramount Pictures Studios backlot, some free sample tidbits, a seat at the cooking demonstrations and panels with chefs, food truck owners and foodies and concert performances by Angela McKluskey and She and Him. The complaint was that you were still required to purchase food from some of the vendors providing more substantial food (as well as the offerings of the fleet of food trucks parked along the fake streets). Well, as the old saying goes, you gotta make your own fun, and if you put in a little effort you could walk away from the event satisfied. The wine flowed like wine for those with drink tickets and there were a plethora of vendors of a wide variety of other spirits including custom rum, sake, vodka and tequila but under the blistering Southern California sun I was sticking to the free bottles of water being handed out by Fiji. Stages were set up in various locations on the backlot; the Downtown Stage was used for cooking demonstrations, Westside Stage provided a forum for panel discussions, the LA Times Stage was used for question-and-answer sessions, a Wine Chat was held in the shell of one of the fake New York buildings and the Hollywood Stage was reserved for cooking demonstrations by Food Network and Cooking Channel rock stars and the concert performances. The staged events overlapped, meaning that if you aggressively planned to take in all demonstrations, panel discussions and concerts, you were going to miss something but it also meant that there was always something exciting going on. From a nostalgic standpoint, my favorite hangout was B Tank, a graduated pool holding close to a million gallons of water and used for aquatic scenes (such as the boat escape sequence in The Truman Show). Naturally, the pool was drained to make room for the Hollywood Stage, a dining area, and the food trucks participating in the Food Network’s Great Food Truck Race. Los Angeles was represented by the Ragin Cajun truck (complete with rented creole fiddling courtesy of Lisa Haley), Crepes Bonaparte, the Vietnamese-themed Nom Nom truck and Nana Queen’s Puddin’ and Wings.
The giant raspberry-adorned Cooking Channel truck was anchored at the end of the pool and was doling out free cups of salted caramel or strawberry buttermilk ice cream. It seemed odd that the Cooking Channel would have a food truck, but the way it works is that contest winners in various cities where the truck appears have the privilege of using the truck to provide samples of their products. In this case, the fresh, old-fashioned ice cream was made by Carmela, an ice cream manufacturer that normally sells at local farmers’ markets. Co-founded by Jessica Mortarotti in 2006 and named after her grandmother, Carmela takes fresh local ingredients and concocts well-loved flavors as well as the unusual (such as their heirloom tomato gelato or cucumber sorbet). The garden fruit flavors are not every day items, but I asked Jessica to let me know when the tomato dessert is available. TV chefs such as Darrel Smith, Roger Mooking and Aida Mollenkamp did basic cooking demonstrations on the big Hollywood Stage, but it was more fun to watch the demonstrations at the smaller Downtown Stage and queue up after the performance in hopes of getting to the food samples before the supply ran out. LA Times food editor Russ Parson hosted a discussion and demonstration of farm-to-table cooking featuring Campanile/The Tar Pit’s Mark Peel and Suzanne Goin of AOC, Lucques and Tavern; LaVarenne’s Anne Willan showed the crowd how to cook with peppers; and Easy Thai Cooking’s Tommy Tang presented easy Thai cooking (to the surprise of no one). My personal favorite was Noelle Carter (manager of the LA Times Test Kitchen) who grilled shrimp to perfection in a quick and easy performance that culminated in getting to sample the sweet and savory crustaceans on a stick.
Tracey Broderick of Coolhaus hands me foie gras ice cream
While Carmela dished out free ice cream, Coolhaus’ ice cream truck was on hand with their signature ice cream sandwiches for sale. Natasha Case started what has turned into a mini-fleet with co-founder Freya Estreller in April of 2009. For her vehicle of choice she chose a small US Postal Service mail van and had it retrofitted for keeping the dairy confections cold by a place she referred to as “Junior’s” in nearby City of Industry. Coolhaus currently has 2 trucks, but by November they will have 4 (with one giving Amy’s Ice Cream a run for their money in Austin, Texas). The concept is simple – select an ice cream flavor and your choice of cookie to sandwich it. The concoction is then handed to you in a potato starch wrapper with Coolhaus’ logo that Willy Wonka would be proud of, as it is also edible (Catholics will appreciate that the taste and texture of the wrapper is similar to communion wafer). I debated between the Guinness chip, the balsamic fig and mascarpone, the pistachio black truffle and the brown butter and candied bacon, but ultimately the victor was the trippiest flavor I’d ever come across – foie gras. There was no way this was getting surrounded by a chocolate chip cookie; fortunately they offered a moist, rich brioche that complemented the goose liver well. As with garlic ice cream, the initial flavor is sweet cream, but once the aroma sneaks up the back of your nose and hits the olfactory sensors, the ultra-rich taste of the foie gras creeps in and is held at bay with the bready brioche. Instead of wiping my mouth with the wrapper, I found a perverse sense of satisfaction by stuffing it in.
Leena Deneroff, owner of the Dosa Truck
Another food truck that fascinated me, yet I admittedly had not encountered before was the Dosa Truck. Think vegetarian crepe, moo shu or burrito and you get an idea of the Indian street food offered on self-titled dosa waller Leena Deneroff’s truck is like. Everything is made from scratch, including the urad dal (the labor-intensive batter used for “throwing” the dosa). The dosa is the thin, pancake-like wrap used to contain all that vegetarian goodness; the batter can take up to several days to make as it involves soaking, grinding and fermenting black-shelled urad beans. The timing has to be perfect, and in order to ensure enough batter each day batches are staggered days in advanced. I asked Leena what would prompt someone to specialize in a food that requires so much time and effort to produce, and she simply stated, “I love it!”; Deneroff has been enjoying dosa for over 20 years and wanted to share her love of the food with others. The truck has been on the streets since July of 2009 and business is steadily improving. The most popular item is the Slumdog (a dosa coated with a pesto-like paste and stuffed with paneer, fresh spinach and curried potatoes), but I wanted to try the most traditional item, the Mumbai Madness. This is the closest thing the dosa you would get directly off of a street cart in Mumbai, filled with nothing but warm, tender curried potato. The dosa has a slightly pungent taste, but inoffensive; while still somewhat doughy it gets crispy along the end which adds wonderful texture to the dish, and the potatoes were not too mushy or too firm. Deneroff participated in a panel discussion with Natasha Case and Jennifer Green from the Nom Nom Truck, which to me was one of the highlights of the festival. Other panels included bloggers Ree Drummond (The Pioneer Woman) and Aarti Sequeira (Aarti Paarti) who encouraged would-be food bloggers; Life After Top Chef featuring former contestants Betty Fraser, Chris Jacobsen and Alex Reznik; Re-inventing Latin Cuisine with Jimmy Shaw (Loteria Grill), Ricardo Zarate (Mo-Chica) and John Sedlar (Rivera); and, a panel titled “L.A.’s New Star Chefs” featuring Michael Voltaggio and John Shook and Vinny Dotolo of Animal. The last panel was like attending a rock concert; the chef groupies would erupt into maddening applause for their local heroes, but the chefs themselves seemed relatively down-to-earth. One thing that particularly impressed me about Chef Voltaggio was when he related a story of a schoolteacher that told him she and her husband saved up for 6 months to enjoy his cooking. This touched him in a way that made him vow to make fine cuisine accessible to everyone in a laid-back environment, and I hope he follows through on his goal and inspires others to do likewise.
Chef Brendan Collins of Waterloo and City
My press credentials were a slightly more restrictive version of the general admission ticket, although I was granted access to the VIP area by escort. The VIP area was in a cordoned-off section of the main plaza across from Tank B and featured vendors providing free samples that weren’t represented at the rest of the festival; in addition there was a separate large tent where exclusive demonstrations and tastings were held. I was afraid my press pass was going to prove to be a detriment moving through the VIP area, but I discovered that as soon as the vendors saw the badge hanging from the lanyard I was dragged into booths to faster than a prospective john at Boy’s Town in Nuevo Laredo. My first “voulez vous mangez avec moi?” experience was at Water Grill’s booth. Executive Chef David LeFevre led a gang of oyster knife-wielding bad mothershuckers who were popping open Rappahannock River and Kumamoto oysters like nobody’s business. LeFevre explained that there are 5 main species of oysters (all of which he naturally could recite the scientific name for), with dozens, if not hundreds of sub-species. Water Grill features 8 of these sub-species at a time, meaning you could find two or three varieties from the same family that taste radically different. There are a number of factors that contribute to the distinctive flavor of an oyster, including water temperature, whether the oysters are exposed to air via tides, etc.; Chef LeFevre could describe to you what flavors would be present just by naming the oyster. I had never met anyone so well-versed in oysterology; he could tell a good oyster from a bad oyster by the look, sound and smell; mentioned the best places to source oysters and the worst (shockingly the Gulf Coast falls in the latter category due to susceptibility to red tide and other contaminants); demonstrated the way to perfectly and quickly shuck an oyster; and, explained how to keep oysters fresh and properly prepare and serve them. I tried one of the Rappahannocks that was freshly shucked; there were a variety of disguises available for the oysters (including lemon, horseradish, etc.) but I simply poured the mollusk into my mouth. The oyster was firm and briny without being overly salty – it tasted like the ocean and I could have easily eaten a dozen or more. One attendee tried an oyster for the first time in his life and grinned ear-to-ear when he found out how good they taste. Chef LeFevre mentioned that Water Grill features all kinds of seafood, prompting me to ask about New England seafood. Although they don’t do steamers (they don’t have an appreciative clientele), they do a lobster roll that doesn’t miss a step, right down to the squared-off hotdog bun.
Salts Cure serves up smoked yellow tail snapper
Salt’s Cure also had a booth in the VIP area – they’ve only been opened 2 weeks, but are onboard the “nose-to-tail” train that seems to ensure popularity in the Los Angeles area. They shun the gastropub label, but pride themselves on making absolutely everything (right down to their in-house mayonnaise and ketchup). Everything is fresh and locally sourced; at the festival they were slicing pieces of smoked yellowtail snapper on toast with cucumbers and their own mayonnaise and each was a tiny explosion of flavor. Brendan Collins of Waterloo and City manned their booth which featured a chicken liver foie gras parfait with Madeira jelly in little plastic shot glasses. The foie gras was creamy with a whipped consistency with a thin layer of gelatin on top. W&C provided little round toast slices to scoop up the livery goo and a single taste was all that it took to slap me into shut-uppiness. The foie gras had a sharp and muted, earthy taste, but then the Madeira reduction kicked in and added a bold sweetness that offset yet complemented the flavor. I actually found myself breaking the cup apart and wresting the remaining dollops out with my tongue, an act I’m not particularly proud of yet offer no apology. They also presented a duck and walnut pate with orange marmalade, and it would appear that there isn’t an aspect of charcuterie Chef Collins hasn’t mastered. The man is like an offal pusher; he gets you hooked with your first little bites until you’re up at 4 AM wondering how long you’ll have to wait in Waterloo and City’s parking lot until they open.
Yvette Garfield, Handstand Kids Cookbook Company
One vendor in the general area that particularly impressed me was The Handstand Kids Cookbook Company. Yvette Garfield started the company in 2007 with the idea that children should be given options for expanding their food experience at an early age so that we don’t end up with a generation who consider Nissin Cup Noodles, Spaghetti-Os and Taco Bell smart ethnic food choices. Garfield has a target age of 6 to 10 years, although the cookbooks are accessible to kindergarten age kids up through young teens. There are three main cookbooks currently: Mexican (in a plastic “tortilla bag”), Italian (in a pizza box) and Chinese (in a big, red take-out box). The books introduce children to food terms in the language of the cuisine’s country of origin and then use the terms in the native tongue throughout. In addition to recipes with clear instruction, the books feature snippets of cultural stories and experiences as told from a kid’s point of view. In addition to the cookbooks, The Handstand Kids Cookbook Company also conducts Picky Eater Classes in single-day, hour-long segments and summer programs that range from 1 day per week to week-long workshops. Another booth listed as the Korean Cultural Center was handing out little samples of Noak Doo (a mung bean pancake) with a soy-based sauce for topping the tiny bites. The pancakes had a strong taste of fresh cabbage and onion, and although there was a grain-like quality to them they were made primarily from mung bean flour. To the left in the same booth sat a fleet of bottles of bokbunjajoo (black raspberry wine) and makegeolli rice beer for sale, but I couldn’t imagine when I’d have the opportunity to pair either of them with my meal.
David LeFevre (then with Water Grill) shucks imaginary oysters
Angela McCkuskey’s set sounded canned with live vocals, but it was slightly soulful and all pop; She & Him (featuring Zooey Deschanel & M. Ward) offered a folksy-pop set that was surprisingly good given the history of actors-turned-musicians we’ve been forced to endure. Unfortunately the terms of my media pass prohibited me from photographing She and Him’s performance, although it didn’t stop the audience from grabbing shots on their phones. From a standpoint of being a celebration of food and wine where you could experience, learn and participate in the culinary activities it was successful; hopefully they’ll work out a few of the logistics bugs before launching the second annual event. It would be nice to see a regular event that isn’t a celebration of food and whine.
Yes, pigeon – the omnipresent rat with wings, the oil slick bird; friend to the car wash, enemy of Kings of Leon. Where the hell did these avian kamikazes come from anyway? Well, would the urban bag of feathers we see eating popcorn in the park garner more of your respect if it was known that it was a member of the same family as the bird of peace? The pigeon is actually a dove (rock dove, to be specific) that originally hailed from the Mediterranean countries and the Middle East. Eventually it spread to most of the northern hemisphere, not by migration but by intentional introduction to other areas. Most of the pigeons you see clamoring for scraps of your lunch today are feral, having adapted well to city life over the years and using building ledges, eaves and windowsills to substitute for their original homes on the cliffs. As with any other plentiful invasive species, pigeon became a food source first in Europe, although it’s popularity in the U.S. is slow to catch on. Much like the pseudonym “escargot” that helps the gastronomically timid stomach the thought of scarfing down snails, the pigeon goes by the native American-sounding moniker of “squab” (which is technically the name for a young pigeon, selected at that age for its taste and tenderness). It isn’t clear what is the aversion people have for eating pigeon, as dove, chicken, quail, duck, goose, pheasant and turkey seem to be fair game. The only negative to eating the bird is that it is paltry poultry – there isn’t a great deal of meat on it. If you’re served pigeon in a restaurant, the telltale sign is that it looks like a scrawny, Skid Row chicken.
Pigeon at The Monro in Liverpool, UK
My first experience with eating pigeon was in Liverpool, where it is a relatively common menu item listed simply as “pigeon” (no pussy-footing around here). The Monro is a gastropub with a rotating menu that features cuisine from the UK, the Mediterranean and other parts of the world. Although relatively new in Liverpool terms (the city is over 800 years old), it has a warm and modern feel while maintaining a pub-like charm. On the day I visited (my first ever in Liverpool) I was brought to the Monro for dinner by a friend who thought I might enjoy the cuisine. I saw pigeon on the blackboard and was sold, having ordered the last one they had on hand (which was worth the two in the bush). The meal came with two pigeons – one served on a bed of cooked-down beets, the other nestled atop bubble and squeak (a side dish made from potatoes, cabbage, onions, leeks and or other vegetables that gets its name for the sound it makes while cooking). Lest you get the impression that there were two large birds roosting on my plate, a sprig of cilantro between the birds’ legs made it appear as though they were holding up a giant magnolia tree. What little meat there was on the birds was moist, with only a slight pungent taste, complemented well by the vegetables.
The finished product - roast squab
My second run in with the bird was when I decided to cook one myself. I found a hermetically sealed plastic-wrapped pigeon in the freezer section of San Gabriel, California’s Hawaii Supermarket. The fist-sized package simply read “Squab”, and I figured that for less than 5 dollars, it was worth the freshman attempt. Preparing the pigeon was an experience that I laugh at in hindsight, but I don’t recall it being a chucklefest at the time. After thawing the package, in noticed that it was filling up with the pigeon’s blood between the plastic and its skin. Additionally, features such as the complete head and feet became more visible. I noticed that under the large “Squab” letters (in tiny print) was a line that read “New York Dressed, Uneviscerated Pigeon.” It took some research but I discovered that New York Dressed did not denote it was wearing a powder-blue tux with ruffled shirt, but instead indicated that it had nothing removed, but had been bled. Uneviscerated meant exactly what it sounds like – it still had all the parts and internal workings the bird-god gave it. I cut open the plastic in the sink and the pigeon sprang out like one of those foam capsules you drop in a glass of water to make it grow. Still a small bird, I had to figure out how to open the body cavity to remove the organs neatly without having to gut it like a fish. It took almost half an hour to clean it out and I found myself pulling out bits of lung, intestine and other dicey items. The heart refused to come out; requiring me fisting the fowl creature to get a decent grip and then yanking it free. My preparation was simple: I put it in a covered glass dish with some olive oil, garlic, mustard, ginger, black pepper and rosemary with a little grape jelly for sweetness and then cooked it until it was done throughout (which didn’t take long since there was little meat). I ate the pigeon without any side dishes, and although it was flavorful it was hardly satisfying.
Eating pigeon conjures images of trapping the birds near a dumpster by homeless and destitute people, yet it’s finding a place in more and more restaurants and is definitely worth a try. If you’re up for the challenge you could try preparing it yourself, and when the family gathers at the table asking what’s for dinner, you can flip them the bird.
World Fare Bustaurant, Los Angeles County (CLOSED)
Chicken curry bunny chow
Bunny chow does not come in a bag labeled “Purina”, nor is what Glenn Close was cooking in “Fatal Attraction”; in fact, despite a variety of preparations, it doesn’t appear to contain any rabbit at all. Bunny chow originated as a quick, handy and sloppy street food in Durban, South Africa and popularized by Indian migrant workers. The closest thing Americans can relate to would be the sourdough chowder bowl, except the bread is a loaf of white bread and the filling of choice is curry (originally vegetable, but gradually adding in meats). Although bunny chow’s popularity has spread throughout South Africa, Durban is still the bunny chow capital and since 2004 has been the host of the annual Bunny Chow Barometer, a contest sponsored by Coca-Cola in search of the best in the city. Bunny Chow is generally ordered by the amount you want and the type of curry (for instance, you could get a quarter chicken or a half mutton). The chunk of bread removed from the loaf and placed on top of the bunny is called the “virgin” (unsoiled by the decadent curry), but it generally doesn’t stay virgin long. Bunny chow is the perfect street food, essentially a self-contained meal that’s hearty and filling.
The World Fare Bustaurant
Bunny chow as street food has come to America and is the main offering of the unique World Fare Bustaurant food truck in Los Angeles County. The term food truck really doesn’t apply here – like Tom Jackson’s Rescue Juice fire truck, World Fare utilizes an unusual vehicle for their rolling kitchen and dining room: a double-decker bus. Owner and South African expatriate Travis Schmidt and his partner Jason Freeman purchased an old tour bus in San Diego and converted it into a two-level dining experience. Don’t expect a candy-apple red bus like you’d see barreling down the streets of London; the brown behemoth is covered with a map of the world made from a collection of photographs, and if you look closely you will recognize people in the pictures. The entire first floor has been converted to a full kitchen where nothing is impossible; creating the South African specialty is the job of Southern Californian Chef Andi Van Willigan, whose resume includes a stint as corporate executive chef for the Michael Mina Group and serving a 2-season sentence as Gordon Ramsay’s sous chef on Hell’s Kitchen. After ordering and picking up your food at the window, you can eat on the street as the South Africans do, or on the converted upper deck; lately World Fare has been experimenting with having live music with the performers serenading diners from the second story.
Bunny chow!
The signature menu features four types of bunny chow: braised short rib, chicken curry, BBQ pork and a vegetarian chili. The bunnies are small, but not bite-sized, with the filling stuffed into a dinner roll-sized bread bowl; the virgin has been replaced by the crusty cap of the bread. You can get them individually, or opt for a combo with a side of fries or the truffle mac and cheese balls. If you’re going through the trouble of trying the bunny chow, do yourself a favor and get the mac and cheese balls. Not particularly South African in nature, these golden globes are breaded and fried and every bite feels like home. For the most part, the bunny fillings are somewhat on the artisan side, but if you want to get close to traditional, opt for the chicken curry. As you sink your teeth into it, the flavors from the coconut milk, garbanzos, cashews and cilantro do a dance in your mouth. It may not be historically accurate, but damn, it’s good. Daily offerings with influences around the world are listed on the blackboard – I’ve tried the wine-braised short ribs and the salmon with strawberry salad, which were both beautiful and delicious. These were served on dishes made from the woody part of the palm frond that connects to the tree and with biodegradable utensils. You can wash your meal down with a cold strawberry basil lemonade or an orange lavender tea, but I recently tried a new cold, naturally sweet and zesty blueberry mint tea that I hope stays on the menu for awhile.
There’s nothing like trying international street food in its native setting, but if you can’t swing the airfare to South Africa to try the bunny chow, you can let it come to you in style on the World Fare Bustaurant. As long as they’re evolving the bunny chow, maybe they’ll add one chock full of Bugs and Thumper…
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