Ideas

Homemade Gnocchi

One of the many advantages of working at home is that you can always take a break and make homemade gnocchi! My father and I have our own way of shaping them and making them.

My father Sonny prefers to roll them out like silver dollars, whereas I like to roll them on a fork to create a rib like texture for holding the sauce. Sonny likes a traditional meat sauce or as we call it “gravy,” but I prefer either a homemade pesto or truffle sauce with shavings of Pecorino Romano.

We will experiment tomorrow night with some friends and I will let you know which gnocchi stuck to our ribs.

Brockton Bomber

I really want to post a Celt, Sox, Pat or B, but the only New England individual effort I can think of at the moment is Rocky Marciano (Rocco Francisco Marchegiano). Marciano was an Italian-American, born and raised in Brockton, Massachusetts USA to Pierino and Pasqualina Marchegiano. His father Pierino was a footwear maker and Rocky was destined to follow his father’s footsteps, until he put the gloves on.

The Rock was the heavyweight champion of the world from 1952 to 1956. The Rock, with forty-three knockouts (87.8% knockout rate), remains the only heavyweight champion in boxing history to retire having won every fight in his professional career. What a maniac! What a Champion! The Rock tirelessly trained only to demolish unfortunate souls to the canvas.

Check out the official web-page, while I write about my favorite pound for pound boxer, Sugar Ray Robinson.

“rockymarciano”: http://www.rockymarciano.net/

The Grotesque

Venus Admiring Mars’ Gun

I came across an article in Juxtapose Magazine profiling artist; Kris Kuksi and I also viewed his work at:

“kuksi”:http://www.kuksi.com

He must be a man of patience, because his 3-d work miraculously composes 1000’s of found objects into intricate, yet harmonious compositions. His figurative and natural work display a command of realism that would personally drive me insane to accomplish!

Kris will have a major solo exhibition in New York City opening November 22nd at the Joshua Liner Gallery located at 548 W. 28th Street Suite 334, New York NY.

"Yes We Can....."

“Yes We Can”

President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama

Photo credit (HYPERAKT)

Marliave est. 1875

After a taking in a movie and complaining about the recession, my friend JP Moore steered me in a direction towards 10 Bosworth St. for a late afternoon snack, before heading back to the North Shore grind. We walked down a quiet alley off of Tremont St. that seemed to bring us back to Bostonia circa 1920. The vintage French architecture invited us into a modern take on ole’ Boston charm.

By European standards Marliave is not old, but for Boston this old speakeasy keeps up the New England tradition offering Yankee pot roast, Quail, Oysters and ghosts of Boston past. JP and I had the raw bluepoint oysters with a few Glenfiddichs to wash them down.

There is nothing prefabricated about Marliave. The marble is marble, the tile is tile and the atmosphere is authentic. What a great way to spend an afternoon free of work, with a friend and no care in the world.

“marliave”:http://www.marliave.com

Clam Talk

I am not a clam expert, but being a New Englander (NE), I do have fond memories of eating clams in a number of ways over the years. Whether, fried, steamed in a bake, little necks at the raw bar with a twist of lemon, cherrystones with a dab of Tabasco, American-Italian baked stuffed quahogs or chunks swimming in chowder, I love the mystery, tradition and simplicity that are a quest for tourists around the world and what is home to me. Whether waiting in a long summer line at Woodman’s of Essex, Ma or peeling off layers of winter clothing to grab a seat at Ye’ Ole Oyster House in Boston, I cannot get enough of my clammy friends.

So! I was at the North Shore Massachusetts Legal Seafood’s (Legals) location with my woman and we ordered a bowl of clam chowder, a dozen of raw cherrystones and a clam plate with two Harpoon “Old Salt” Ales to wash it all down. “Old Salt” Ale is made exclusively for Legals from Harpoon Brewery. It is a Hefe Ale and has a tinge of fennel, which can be served with a salted rim and lemon. Not an every day drinking beer, but a perfect compliment to a seafood lunch or dinner. As I chomped on the fried clams, I noticed that they were fried steamer clams with bellies. If there are not any bellies, then you are being served clam strips, which should not carry the same price tag. Anyway, I started to think about the types of clams that surface NE waters and why certain types are eaten in certain ways.

Here is a simple breakdown of common NE clam varietals the basic cooking methods they are used for.

Soft Shell (Steamer and piss clam)
For frying and steaming. They are also called piss clams, because when you step on the sand, a stream of water squirts up at you making them very easy to locate. They are easy to open, but you have to remove a gritty condom-like cover from the neck, before coating them with your batter of choice. This is another blog discussion, because there are many schools of thought on the best frying techniques.

Little Neck
They are usually 2-3/4 inches. Keeping them in cold water for a few hours will remove most of the grit and sand. They are usually eaten raw, because they are smaller, hence tastier than the larger cherrystone and easier to chew. I sometimes add horseradish and a squirt of lemon, but for the most part eat them as is to taste the freshness of the sea. You can also steam them in garlic, oil, crushed pepper and place over linguine.

Cherrystone
They are usually 3 inches. The cherrystone is the most common clam for eating raw, because they have more meat than the littleneck and are not as tough as the larger Quahog. You can also roast them on a bbq or cook in a broth.

Quahog (round clam)
Quahogs can grow up to 5 inches. They are tough to chew, so they are usually chopped up for NE clam chowder or minced up and mixed with breadcrumbs to bake.

Razor Clam
These clams look like a straight-edged razor. To be honest, when I find the shells on the beach, I use them for as incense holders or to swipe the crumbs off the dinner table. The west coast version is bbq’d and is very flavorful, but the only time I have ever seen them cooked in NE was by my father. They are not too popular in for eating in NE.

Religulous

The anti-Bill Maher are quick to judge this film as a comedic attempt at entertaining the minority of Rationalists on God’s time. Well, if we stop to think how many times we are directly or indirectly faced with religious paraphernalia during our day-to-day routine, there is no comparison. We come face to face with cross-frosted houses of worship whether foreclosed in order to pay off child molestation charges or cathedrals turned museums for tourists. Our airports are sprinkled with Hare Krishna and Ladder-day Saints material and our money is inscribed with “In God We Trust.” We even have a President who is fighting a Holy war against evil and asks his God to bless only America.

Mr. Maher did his homework on this one and played fair game with the majority of organized religions. He asked very simple questions and never got a simple answer. In some cases, he got blank faces and no answer at all. Of course, there is a comedic backdrop to the film, but there is a also a sense that whether comedic or not, the results would have been the same. All Mr. Maher was looking for was somebody to say, “I don’t know!”

I do have one problem with the film. Mr. Maher blamed a dwindling budget for not cross-examining Buddhists, Hindu’s or Spiritualists. Fair enough! I hope a Religulous 2 will seek out to question these and all the “to easy to start” religions, cults, followings and marketable “feel good” philosophies around the world.

5 out of 5 stars, thumbs up and AMEN!

Marka27

Marka27 labors in a remote Mass town not worthy of recognition, but creates all over the world. Marka27’s art, graffiti, and product design are dope. He is soft spoken and a kind gentleman, yet his art is incredibly powerful and full of color. He is a man on a mission to make blank concrete speak and people shut up and think.

Having said this, I respect him mostly for slurping down my homemade Thai hot sauce without a wink, sound or a sip of liquid after the fact. I warned him once and I warned him twice, but he poured it on his bbq chicken like he did not need advice. What struck me even more is that his son drank it down like water.

The sauce is tasteful and probably not as hot as I thought. NO! It is terribly hot! Marka27 and his son do not have taste buds. They are not human! Anyway, I made a Thai sauce and Tabasco sauce and stored them in two Bulleit Bourbon bottles. They have been marinating for four months and as the peppers grow, I replenish the bottles with the peppers, fresh garlic, oregano, vinegar, sea salt, pepper and a drop of virgin olive oil.

Check out Marka27 at marka27