Raven Jake Dawes

Culinary Historians of SoCal on Saturday

Folks, y'all know I've been promoting the Culinary Historians of Southern California. We aren't actually members (yet) but the talks are just so darned interestin.' So here's my hit pick for Saturday - Charles Perry talking about the food of the 1001 Nights.

A Thousand and One Fritters

Saturday, January 14, 2012, at 10:30 AM
at the Los Angeles Public Library

Mark Taper Auditorium, Downtown Central Library, 630 W. 5th St.

Free and open to the public

Charles Perry speaking on…

“A Thousand and One Fritters: Food in the Arabian Nights”

Who knew that that famous collection of marvelous tales from our childhood opens a window on the cuisine of the Middle Ages? In fact, The Thousand and One Nights mentions quite a few dishes of red meat, poultry and fish, not to mention lots of pastries, even wine.

The book’s translators, alas, have little idea of what these dishes were. But now that several medieval Arab cookbooks are available to us, we can at last know what “The Lad Who Ate Zirbaja” actually ate, why the cook shop owner in “The Tale of the Two Wazirs” was threatened with crucifixion for leaving out the pepper in the dish of pomegranate seeds, and what on earth all those fritters were that the translators keep mentioning.

Charles Perry is the president and co-founder of the Culinary Historians of Southern California. He was a major contributor to the Oxford Companion to Food, has served as a trustee of the annual Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery and was a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times Food Section from 1990 to 2008. He has translated four medieval Arabic recipe collections and is currently establishing the text of a fourth, based on eight manuscripts.

http://chscsite.org/a-thousand-and-one-fritters/

One City, One Book: the Sherlockian

One day perhaps I'll pull an Oprah and start (or maybe even join) a book club. That day ain't today. Mostly, I don't read novels. But on Thursay, Jane and I were off at the Crowell Public Library in San Marino doin' our thing with the Friends of the Michael White Adobe board and well, one thing led to another.

Before I could even say "mysteries are lame," Jane had checked out San Marino's "One City, One Book" for 2012, which is "The Sherlockian" by Graham Moore, and we'll be reading it over the next couple o' weeks.

The concept of "One City, One Book" was started in Seattle in 1998, and since then about 400 different cities across the country have joined in. The idea is that everyone in a community is encouraged to read the same book, attend discussions or maybe meet the author. Sometimes the book chosen is written by a local, or the story is set in that town. Sometimes they just go for a classic like "Grapes of Wrath" or "To Kill a Mockingbird." Anyway, it's supposed to encourage the community to read more, support the local library (or community center or city hall or whoever's promoting the event) and get people talkin' about books. The Library of Congress keeps a list of who's participating and what they're reading, but it's pretty badly out-of-date.

So we don't really read a lot of novels, or who-done-its, but that's not really the point of being in a book club, is it? You can read what you want to read any old time, this is about getting out of your rut and reading something different. Apparently young Graham Moore, over there on the left, is an LA guy, so maybe we'll be running into him one of these days.  So here's one of my New Year's Resolutions for 2012: Join the City of San Marino in reading "The Sherlockian." Can't hurt, might help. I'll let y'all know how it goes.

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Sherlockian update: I like the idea of a community book better than I like the execution, however, at least in this instance, I was surprised. I'd planned to give it the benefit of a 50-page pity read and just see if I wanted to keep going. The whole concept of a socially awkward Sherlock Holmes nut just wasn't doin' it for me, quite frankly. Then after about the fourth chapter we were totally hooked. Spent all of Sunday reading the entire book cover-to-cover out loud in bed. Got done a little after midnight. It's a page-turner, I assure you. The Crowell Library in San Marino has a bunch of Arthur Conan Doyle / Sherlock / mystery events planned culminating in the arrival of author Graham Moore in mid April. Hate to say it, but I can't wait for his next book!

Michael White Adobe on the cover of Spanish Traces

Michael White Adobe on the cover of Spanish Traces, the Old Spanish Trail Association newsletter,  Fall 2011!

Find out more at http://www.oldspanishtrail.org/

Culinary Historians of So Cal Events

Folks, I wanted to take a second to promote a couple of things the Culinary Historians of Southern California have coming up - one is their big fundraiser used cookbook sale

Sun, August 21, 8am – 4pm at the Hollywood farmers’ market

map They're starting at 8 and going til they run out of books, so show up early.

Charles Perry on L.A.’s 230th birthday

Sat, September 10, 10:30am – 12:00pm

Barbara Ghazarian on "Simply Quince" (Armenian food)

Sat, October 8, 10:30am – 12:00pm

Kirstin Olsen on 18-19th century England

Sat, November 12, 2011, 10:30am – 12:00pm

To Be Announced

Sat, December 10, 2011, 10:30am – 12:00pm

Programs, except where noted, are 10:30 a.m. at the Mark Taper Auditorium, Central Library, 630 West Fifth Street, Los Angeles 90071-2002. For more information, please call (213) 228-7241. Parking at the Central Library on Saturday and Sunday is $1.00 during library hours at 524 S. Flower St., with a library card and validation from the Information Desk in the library. Library cards are free.

Programs are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.

You do need to bring an id to get your library card, but an LA City Library card, besides the fact that you can use it at a bunch of locations, also gives you access to a bunch of internet resources. Well worth having.

The Lummis Home

Dining Room

Last Sunday was the Museums of the Arroyo Seco Day, and I went to check out some of the museums I haven't seen before. My favorite, hands down, was the Lummis Home, aka El Aisal. It was built by the first daily editor of the LA Times, Charles Lummis.

Window

Now I think y'all know me well enough to know that I love desert rats, and that was Charles Lummis. He was a hard drinkin,' womanizing, smoking son-of-a-gun and he did more to save southwestern art than just about anyone in Southern California. And I don't just mean pots and baskets - he was in to the cultural aspects like dance and storytelling, architecture and history and was also instrumental in saving the

John Roberta and Jake

missions. His collection started the Southwest Museum and their seminal journal, the Masterkey.

Celebrate Latino Heritage

We got a tour from Ariel Van Zandweghe, the curator, who was nice enough to let me play his guitar in the administrative offices. And while we were in the office, Jane spotted a painting that she's sure is an Orpha Mae Klinker. Orpha painted a number of buildings from the Spanish colonial days including the Michael White Adobe. Her work was kind of wacky and colorful - like stone buildings were often represented with purple paint. We also ran into Roberta and John from Latino Heritage, which was a pleasant surprise.

Front Doors

Raven Jake and Charles Lummis

The Historical Society of Southern California is trying to raise money to restore the front doors, so if you've got money or skills to donate, please get in touch with them. Lummis ended up getting cremated and is now interred in the wall along with his son's ashes, which seems pretty fitting - he never left the house where he invested so much of his time, creativity and energy.

Playing the Guitar

 

Water lily