Harrietts Tomato

Sausages on the Streets of Bangkok

Ms. Tomato left the South Pole a month ago and has been wandering around the world on her own, getting lost in the crowd.  Above, a sample of Bangkok street food.  Next actual post will include bits and bobs  from New Delhi, India, and its environs.  Meanwhile, a young vendor of Bangkok street food, below.

Would A Couple Tons of Hummus Take Care of Your Craving...

This from the Associated Press dated October 24, 2009, reported by Zeina Karam:

Some 300 chefs were involved in preparing Saturday's massive ceramic plate of hummus in a huge tent set up in downtown Beirut. The white-uniformed chefs used 2,976 pounds (1,350 kilograms) of mashed chickpeas, 106 gallons (400 liters) of lemon juice and 57 pounds (26 kilograms) of salt to make the dish, weighing 4,532 pounds (2,056 kilograms).

It was not clear what the former Israeli record was, and organizers gave conflicting reports on when it was made.

But chefs and visitors broke into cheers and applause when a representative from the Guinness Book of World Records presented Abboud (head of Lebanon's Association of Lebanese Industrialists), with a certificate verifying Lebanon had broken the previous record. The plate was then decorated with the red, green and white Lebanese flag.

A similar attempt to set a new world record will be held Sunday for the largest serving of tabbouleh, a salad made of chopped parsley and tomatoes, that Lebanon also claims as its own.

Denver's WESTWORD Piece About Antarctic Bloggers

Denver's weekly paper "Westword", owned by Village Voice Media, published an article about Antarctic bloggers and how our employer likes to edit, block, and otherwise shut up the chatter.  Journalist Jonathan Shikes has compiled a pretty thorough investigation, quoting several anonymous sources.  He describes Ms. Tomato's blog as "an unusual look at the life of a cook at the South Pole" and uses our photo of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.  Read the piece HERE.

Sunrise Dinner at the South Pole

Sunrise at the South Pole on the Equinox is an auspicious event after six months of darkness flanked with a few weeks of somber twilight.  It's gorgeous, glorious, and something to be wildly celebrated.  

Naturally we throw a big dinner.  The community of 43 souls on station voted for their preferred menu and Indian Food won, with Beef Wellington coming in second.  So, we served both.

At left is the appetizer table offering pakoras, samosas, and baguette toasts with dips: romesco, tapenade, stilton and arugula pesto. 
Note cheesy paper pineapples, yet, for us after months on end of no fresh flowers, plants, or chirpy birds, it was utterly delightful.

The little yellow balls in a bowl on the right are fresh cherry tomatoes from our greenhouse.  It was mostly a beer and wine night, but we also made pitchers of gin sours and mango lassi.

The main buffet held 12 warm food items, among them lamb biryiani, saag paneer, chicken tandoori, dahl, vegetable coconut curry, and beef wellington with red wine raisin sauce.

For dessert, we all shuffled back to the play room, also called B-1, to Open Mike night for the musicians on station...or any one who wanted to be one.  For dessert, sweet ginger rice pudding, just like at a restaurant!  Except we haven't seen one of those for eight months.  Another five or six weeks to go before we descend upon Christchurch, New Zealand, and raid the pantry.

William Thackeray on Food

There were three sailors of Bristol city
Who took a boat and went to sea.
But first with beef and captain’s biscuits
And pickled pork they loaded she.
There was gorging Jack and guzzling Jimmy,
And the youngest he was little Billee.
Now when they got as far as the Equator
They’d nothing left but one split pea.
--Little Billee by W. M. Thackeray (1811-1863), Anglo-Indian author

Yodelling Pickle

Not certain we can refer to this as Food Art, nonetheless it is certainly Food Something: the Virtual Yodelling Pickle.

Inevitable: Operatic Recipes

The musical act One Ring Zero is working on an album comprised of recipes set to music.  Aptly named The Recipe Project, the band's doings can be read about on the Village Voice blogsite, full article here.

"ORZ's new album, tentatively titled The Recipe Project, sets recipes to music. So far, they include Chris Cosentino's Brains and Eggs, Mario Batali's Spaghetti with Sweet 100 Tomatoes, and Michael Symon's Octopus Salad with Black-Eyed Peas. And if that's not enough to chew on, the band's also got a food blog, Go Eat Some Food. Hearst chatted with Fork in the Road over e-mail about rocking out to octopus salad, the curious e-mailing habits of chefs, and the link between Marty Robbins and sweet potato fries."

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu on Food

"And we meet, with champagne and a chicken, at last."

    --Lady Mary Wortley Montague, English Poet (1689-1762)
        from The Lover

South Pole Food Winter 1960-61

This is food at the South Pole two stations ago.  Currently this station sits under a good 20 feet of snow and ice crystals that are crushing the roof, making it unsafe to visit.  Just this winter the entrance was filled in so as not to tempt spelunkers. 

From what we gather, there were no females at the South Pole station until sometime in the 1970's.  That winter the station doctor was the sole woman.  This was the bar, clearly, of the early 60's, and Schlitz was the drink, apparently in generous quantities.

Red meat, a tradition at the Pole.

Book of Job on Food

"Can that which hath no savor be eaten without salt?
Or is there any taste in the 1 white of an egg?"

        --Book of Job, the Old Testament, Chapter 7, Verse 6

The Reality of Cooking at the South Pole: Not So Pretty

Yeah, Ms. Tomato bears a fierce resemblance to her grandmother here.  And she's dead.  Behind is the exit to our outdoor deck/food freezer.  Francis and MS. T  have been foraging for goods to serve the peeps.  The zombie effect comes from working long and arduous hours in the dark.  We are, actually, becoming newts.

The Last of the Merlot

This and more kinda creepy art straight out of the second chakra at Art of Mark Bryan.com.  Please don't take all the red wine.