A Feast for the Senses

     This past week, I started teaching a cooking class at the Fairfax Adult Continuing Education. The cooking classes will feature menus inspired by food markets around the globe. Mercato Orientale in Genoa, Union Square in NYC, Victoria Market in Melbourne, and the 400 year old Marche des Enfants Rouges in Paris. Luckily, I have been to each one. Geographically, these markets are obviously spread across the planet, but there lies within a common thread. To me, the markets are some of the most intriguing, enlightening, energizing and generous places in the world.
     They are a window into the soul, history, livelihood, social order of the place they represent. When I'm new to a place, the first thing that I do is go to the market. (dragging my wife along with me!)It is my way of figuring out where am I and how things work. The markets give me insight into what I should be ordering on the menus in the area. Why order beef tenderloin with mole sauce that is Americanized for the tourist when I see the food stall serving it with oxtail or tongue!
     Whether it is the 65 year old fish market in Sydney, the Mercado Benito Juarez in Oaxaca, Le Marche des Lices in Rennes, or our very own Penn Quarter, Purcellville, and Palisades market, the markets whet our appetite! And we want to keep coming back for more!

Menu for the week:
Summer squash soup with curry and mango
Yellow taxi tomato soup with Korean pepper
Tzatziki
Cucumber-tomato-dill pasta salad
Moroccan carrot salad with harissa vinaigrette
Arugula-peach-duck proscuitto salad
Chickpea-fennel-tomato salad with roasted lemon vinaigrette
Zucchini-cranberry-ricotta salad with thinly sliced pork
Eggplant-tomato-onion stew on polenta cake
Pate de Campagne with pork and duck
Tomato-onion tart

Be Inspired by the Market: Taste Local Flavor

In the Good Old Summertime

Love is to the heart what the summer is to the farmer's year - it brings to harvest all the loveliest flowers of the soul.

Then followed that beautiful season... Summer....
Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape
Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Summer afternoon - summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.  ~Henry James

Menu for this Week:
Ratatouille
Tzatziki
Cucumber-Dill Salad
Summer squash with Champgane Vinaigrette, Cilantro, Pine Nuts
Tomato-Goat Cheese Tart
Moroccan Carrot Salad
Carrot-Ginger Soup
Shaved Fennel-Mushroom Salad with Roasted Lemon Vinaigrette
Chickpea with Tomato,Fennel, Chilies, Pickled Red Onion
Summer Yellow Squash Soup with Curry

Be Inspired By The Market: Tate Local Flavor