The Omnivorous Fish

Answer: at least 6. That’s right, kids, 6, in a New York apartment. In CA it won’t be so bad when the gang comes to visit… we won’t all have to sit in the living room looking at each other, but in New York we squeeze in.

We squeezed in for an unbelievably good and unbelievably easy lunch. Salad greens (right from Fairway, even) with cans of Genova brand tuna packed in olive oil crumbled over the top, with all the olive oil from the cans and some vinegar, salt and pepper. Add some provolone and a huge pile of olives (and three bottles of wine) what you end up with is six full, sleepy Italian-Americans, picking at a fruit bowl and taking turns napping on the limited couchspace.

My nephew spotted Shrek in the DVD collection and practically swallowed his tongue in excitement, so we put that on while the Pops and I went for a digestive walk.

Naturally, by the time we got home, everyone was hungry, so we stated cooking dinner. It was a guazzetto, a long-simmered cut of meat- in this case a chuck roast (beef shoulder)- cooked with herbs, spices and tomatoes, which I had started about an hour before anyone got there. My mother was dubious of the presence of a cinnamon stick in the pot, but even she had to taste the sauce… again and again. Of course, we used to get chased out of the kitchen for this when we were kids, but being the ranking Matriarch among both the Radanos and the Cangelosis, I would be loath to try and prevent her.

Besides, she’d kick my ass.

We ate it all in the informal style, meat, pasta and greens (swiss chard inundated with olive oil and garlic), all on the table at once with red, white and pink wines, some of which had- hold on- ice cubes in them. Highlights included the Isonzo del Friuli (tocai friulano) from Ronco del Gelso and the Sbragia zinfandel from 04.

Mama brought cannoli for dessert, but they didn’t exactly survive the trip. Figs and apples did, however, at least the trip from 74th St to 181st St.

We coffeed (and some of us sambucaed) up for night and my father, god bless him, drove 100 miles home. It was good to see them, since I don’t get to see them much, but something tells me I’ll see them more when I’m living three blocks from the beach.

Listening: “It’s Gonna Take a Miracle” Deniece Williams

It’s a wonderful thing to have friends and family around, especially when they’ve come from afar. Having a whole room full of people who love each other is about as good as it gets, right? Well not for me, at least, unless they’re eating. The community is unmade without sharing a meal, preferably a home-cooked meal, assuming there is someone available who can make a decent one.

The Agent’s great uncle passed away this week, a great man by all accounts, but someone I never met. I had the opportunity, once, to meet him, but I passed it by because I thought it better to know such a man by reputation than to see him at his final, weakest moments. This man, however, loved to eat and his favorite meal was always his most recent. The first morning of shivah, I joined the avelim and other family for the traditional Jewish meal of dim sum followed by cannoli and cappucinos. We parted for the afternoon when some of the avelim went home to prepare for shivah and the rest of the visiting family did a little minor sightseeing. I went home to help the Agent with a few things and take a nap. We all were at shivah by around 3 and stayed until 8 or so when the Agent’s sect of the family left en masse, and hungry. The idea of sushi was thrown around, but eventually we decided to cook, and cook I did for a roomful of hungry Jews.

When my family comes to visit¹, I like to cook Italian, especially in the Italian style of service, since when we entertain, we generally do things in the French way (which, of course, is really the Russian way). How do they differ? If you don’t know much about food, not much. If you do, they are enormously different. First of all, Italians are AOK with a little cheese before dinner. Yes, Francophiles, get your jaws off the floor, I said cheese before. Charcuterie (or salumi, really) are often served with cheeses, olives and vegetables, although sometimes there is a separate vegetable course. For tomorrow I have salumi and giardiniera, though I will probably pick up some cheese, also, most likely some obnoxiously strong provolone, Pop’s favorite. This is the antipasto, “before the pasta.”