Indian Market 2011, Part 1

Santa Fe, Friday

I arrived today in one of my favorite places…..the City Different, Santa Fe, New Mexico. As expected in mid-august, the sky is blue and dotted with fluffy, white clouds. And the air is hot but dry, a blessed relief from the sweltering, humid weather where I live in New England.

I quickly dropped my bags in my hotel room and headed out onto the streets and into the galleries. There is a noticeable buzz and excitement in the air, especially among those of us gathering here in anticipation of Indian Market.

During the week leading up to market ( Saturday and Sunday August 20 & 21st ) many special events are held in galleries, hotel and city spaces that bring artists and collectors together. All of these are fun and educational and add to the excitement of the arrival of the grand finale – two glorious days of Indian Market.

On Thursday and Friday evening many of the galleries that represent Indian artists feature special showings, hold gallery talks, artist-in-resident afternoons, and early evening cocktail gatherings. These are see-and-be-seen social opportunities that give the art collecting public intimate, one-on-one ‘face-time’ with the artists. Many of the hotels around the Plaza, too, invite Native artists to showcase their works with special ‘ trunk-shows’ of new works.

Those attending Indian Market must be ready for a visual overload of art in many genre. There is more than usual to see right now in Santa Fe, and many more delicious ways to spend money ( this is in addition to dining in the tasty Santa Fe restaurants!) these few short days.

In essence, for those who love Native American art in all of its glorious manifestations – jewelry, pottery, painting, Katsina dolls, rugs and other weaving, Indian Market is the zenith of the best native talent.

For many artists, the gathering of collectors ( private collectors as well as buyers for museum collections and galleries around the country and abroad ) and the simply eager and curious that arrive for Indian market ( it is estimated that we are in the vicinity of 90,000 strong ) provides them with a significant portion of their annual income.

The Native American art world has many superstar artists in all genre of art – Robert Tenorio, Tammy Garcia, Dan Namingha, Anderson Peynetsa, David John, Cippy Crazy Horse, Anthony Lovato, Upton Ethelbah, Jr., Ray Tracey, Virgil Ortiz, and many others. Each year Indian Market reveals talented new artists to an eager public. In fact, SWAIA ( Southwest Association of Indian Art), the organization behind Indian Market, lists 60 new artists under the age of 17 as exhibiting this year.

The handful of artists who win one of the coveted Best of Classifications will suddenly find their career in high gear and in the top group whose work is most desirable to collectors. But many of these artists do not have superstar status. They live on their Pueblos and reservations and are accustomed to working quietly away from the public eye. So these few days is a time for them to step forward and meet with collectors one-on-one. The ability for artist and collector to interact in this way is one of the true benefits of attending Indian Market. It is an opportunity for collectors to not only purchase art directly from the artists, but to learn how the piece was made and often, to learn about the tradition behind the piece and the passion that went into crafting it.

SWAIA charges the artists a booth fee to exhibit at Indian Market, but they do not charge a commission on the money generated from sales of their artwork. Each artist sets their prices as they see fit, and in general I find the prices to be fair and lower than what one might expect to pay in the galleries for a similar piece from that artist.

But really, one does not come to Indian Market to compare prices with what is being charged by the galleries but to purchase something treasured and wonderful from the person who made it. I feel that everything that I have purchased at Indian Market is part of an experience that I would not otherwise have had, and one that is more personal than when purchasing from the galleries.  Jewelry that I purchased from certain artists years ago is always slightly different from the work that they doing now…..neither is better but each piece represents a marker in that artist’s growth and evolution. I enjoy hearing about what they are doing/not doing directly from them.

Indian Market provides the spotlight for these artists and their art provides the shine. During the next few days these talented artists will become the sole focus of attention in downtown Santa Fe. No one knows for sure because all sales are private, but it is estimated that several million dollars are spent during these few days of fevered buying.

But galleries, jewelry shops and textile shops are busy too, during Indian Market. Collectors work with favorite galleries and gallery owners throughout the course of the year, as these folks have their ear to the ground and have developed close established ties with their artists. While galleries may take a back seat to the outdoors selling during Indian Market, their efforts in promoting Native American artists and exposing the talents of Southwest artists to visitors from all over the world should not be underestimated. The sales people in these galleries and shops and the owners are highly knowledgeable and very enthusiastic about the artists that they represent. For me, my education in Native American art comes not only from the artists themselves but also from the shops and galleries and from the museums.

By 5 AM the most determined buyers will be waiting in line at the booths of the artists whose work they covet most. Some artists sell out of their pieces in the first hour.

I too will be there, searching for my favorite Zuni potter.

Good luck to all !

Cookbooks: Nigel Slater

Tender: A cook and his vegetable patch ( Ten Speed Press 2011 )  is the latest book by Nigel Slater, author of The Kitchen Diaries: A Year in the Kitchen with Nigel Slater, and Toast; The Story of a Boy’s Hunger . He is one of my favorite English food writers. In fact, I am always drawn to English food writers (Elizabeth David, Patience Grey, Jane Grigson, Tamasin Day Lewis) because of their reassuring tone and engaging,  conversational voice.

These writers view food through a different lens than other food writers. To them, food and cooking is not static, or a black and white formulaic topic, but a subject so beguiling that it merits thoughtful consideration. The best of the lot don’t just teach us how to cook but share with us their vision about food and cooking: they muse, debate, decide, select, and present us with situations that gives us the confidence to realize that, yes, I can cook like this, too. This approach shows us that after one has learned the basics of good cooking, that the need to follow recipes exactly-to-the-letter is less valuable than learning to develop one’s instincts in the kitchen.

Nigel Slater’s writing is very welcoming. For him, the process of selecting the foods and ingredients at market, and ready-ing himself to cook, and the steps involved in constructing and then cooking the dish are an important part of his engagement with the food. I think that under his influence, all cooks can find some area in the kitchen that they could pay more attention to.

His voice is personal, and spoken in an intimate and joyful way from writer to reader, cook to cook. His musings consider numerous variables: he wants the reader to find these details as  important as he does. For example, from the  March 7th notation in The Kitchen Diaries he writes: “I have no idea what I had in mind when I bought the two lamb chops that are now sitting on the kitchen worktop. Actually they are leg steaks and there’s enough for two. Whatever it was, the flash of inspiration  must have got lost on the way home. In the fridge are mixed salad leaves – arugula, baby spinach, and some baby chard – and a bunch of mint. I might be able to rescue a few leaves from the bunch of basil that has got to close to the back of the fridge and burned on the ice. There is also the unusual stuff in the fridge and cupboards. I put the chops into a bowl with a couple of tablespoons of light soy sauce and a crushed garlic clove and let then sit for twenty minutes. I get the broiler hot and chick the chops on it, a couple of minutes on each side. Whilst the meat is cooking, I toss the salad leaves into a bowl. Then I knock up a dressing consisting of a couple of small, hot red chili peppers, finely chopped, the juice of half a ripe lime, a tablespoon of dark soy, a handful of shredded mint leaves and a wee bit of sugar. I slice the lamb into pencil-thin strips, and while it is still hot, toss it with the salad and dressing, then divide it between two plates. The mixture of sizzling meat, mellow, salty soy and sharp lime juice is startling, especially with the green leaves that have softened slightly where they have touched the lamb. The few juices left on our plates are stunning, and we mop them up with crispy white rolls.”

This is not a traditional recipe but it shows us that thinking about food and how to combine simple ingredients at hand easily creates a tasty dish that shows off the main element of the dish – the lamb.  It is the personal voice, spoken in an intimate and joyful way from writer to reader, cook to cook, which makes the reader pay attention to details they failed to notice before. He never mentions that the food is good – we know it is because of the words he chooses to describe the lusciousness of the moment. The casual mention of the greens that have softened slightly where they have touched the lamb is but a tiny detail, yet it is a significant one, noticed and appreciate by a passionate and observant eater.

Slater has (and shares) a deeply-rooted connection to things ‘real’ that drives his relationship with food. His books ( as well those of other English, Irish and Scottish writers ) contain a lot of  detail, and they have a special way of discussing the ‘this and that’ kitchen topic – be it butchery, cheese choices, seasonal fruits, etc, that includes the reader in the discourse and process. It is as if we are guests in their kitchen and are privy to some of their private thoughts and kitchen notes. It’s a bit more right- side of the brain, subjective thinking and writing rather than left-side of the brain, objectivity.

We are given lots of explanations, too, in casual discourse, because details are important to these writers. Information might be about where the meat came from, how the animal was slaughtered, what farm raised it, the pros and cons of which vegetables to consider using in a seasonal vegetable casserole, the merits of different varieties of heirloom beans, the glories of farmhouse cider, old-time farming techniques, etc.   All of this matters and is fodder for discussion and consideration.

Tender: A Cook and his vegetable patch has a different focus but is equally compelling. It is the kind of book that makes me want to mess about in my garden and then cook whatever there is that is ready to be picked on that day. Digging about like that in the vegetable garden yields seasonal food at it’s freshest and most flavorful; those with the confidence to put it all together in a tasty dish for dinner that evening have really learned to savor the moments when vegetables are at their seasonal best.

Listen to what he says in the introduction to Tender: ” Vegetables beckon and intrigue me in a way no fish or piece of meat ever could. The beauty of a single lettuce, its inner leaves tight and crisp, the outer ones opened up like those of a cottage garden rose; the glowing saffron flesh of a cracked pumpkin; the curling tendrils of a pea plant; a bunch of long, white-tipped radishes; a bag of assorted tomatoes in shades of scarlet, green, and orange is something I like to take time over.”

I think the key to his genius is in the last sentence:  ‘……is something I like to take time over’.  His gift to us is his vision and his sensibilities, and the ability that he has to convey his thoughts in lovely prose. He makes us stop, slow-down and want to look, feel, taste and appreciate our food and foodstuffs for their unique qualities. His words are every bit as savory as his recipes, and I think he belongs in the same category of food writer as  MFK Fisher and Elizabeth David.

This is a stolen snippet that appears on Nigel Slaters website: ” Author, columnist and broadcaster, he remains very much an amateur cook. Nigel is not a chef and has no restaurant or commercial connections. His food is understated, handcrafted home cooking that is easy to accomplish and without a trace of what he affectionately calls ‘celebrity cheffery’. He is not fond of fussy food and prefers simple suppers made with care and thought. He believes that making something good to eat for your self or for others can lift the spirits in the way little else can. “

I for one will always have a place on my bookshelf for more of his books.

Books for Serious Cooks

Call me old-fashioned. I love to cook, eat, read about food, think about food and dine at the table with companionable friends and colleagues. I have worked with food and food-products my entire adult life and food & travel has become an un-separable part of who I am. What I learn about foods, cultures and cuisines I share with my customers.

It’s no surprise to find out that I also love cookbooks and rely on them for inspiration and cultural footing in the kitchen. To me, the best food writers use their knowledge to bring their readers to a place of understanding about the how’s and why’s of certain foods and authentic cuisines. These authors breathe life into the pages of their books by educating readers to the subtleties and regional diversity that exists within x, y or z cuisine.Some of the books that I treasure never made the top ten list, but they are jewels of wisdom and insight to me.

I also look for well-crafted ideas and good writing. And a distinctive voice of authority. Cookbook authors must be a kindly friend, a travel guide, a personal chef and the family member who loves to cook and wants to feed us well, all rolled into one. It’s a big job !

Cookbooks are like good fiction or a captivating movie: they hold my attention, paint a vivid picture for me of the author’s world and seduce me to want to eat that food, travel to that place, and sit at their table. Perhaps I feel this way because I am always a bit envious of food writers who come from family of spirited good cooks, and who are in possession of a treasure trove of beloved family recipes. Although my grandmother left Italy as a young woman to make a life in American with my grandfather, recipes did not come attached to my birth certificate.

My mother was the youngest of 13 kids, so perhaps by the time she was a young adult, my grandmother was worn out in the kitchen. Whatever the reason, my grandmother did not teach her how to cook. During her teens, her sisters and brothers married and one by one moved out to start their families. To be honest, none of my relatives was known for serving interesting Italian food when I was growing up, and no one really talked much about food, either. Family get-togethers did not focus on food; in fact, the food was pretty standard Italian-American fare.

My grandparents both came from southern Italy, so when I look at vivid, enticing cookbooks such as Nate Appleman and Shelly Lindgren’s A-16: Food & Wine or Maria Pignatelli Ferrante’s Puglia: A Culinary Memoir,  Nancy Harmon Jenkins The Flavors of Puglia, or Rosetta Costantino’s  My Calabria: Rustic Family Cooking from Italy’s Undiscovered South, I marvel at what I missed.

I did not begin to learn about the diversity and regional differences in Italian food until I was in college, and met my friend Alvira. She was like me, Italian, and grew up in a small town very close to our school. Her parents would often come to visit, and her mother always brought homemade foods and treats that we  feasted on after she left. When we had a car at our disposal, we would go to her home for the weekend. I knew that her mother did not speak much English -  there were many Italian women in her community and she kept house for her family, so she felt no need to learn – but she had recipes from home that she prepared as she would have back in Italy. She was a wonderful cook, and being around her introduced me to Italian foods and food customs that my own family did not have to share. She was exotic and fascinating to me, and I admired her for how she chose to live her life in a foreign country and for the attention she lavished on food and importance that she place on it.

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to hear magazine editor Dorothy Kalins speak about the direction of cookbook publishing in the USA. Her main point was that HOME COOKING IS COMING BACK. The reasons for this are many, but include thoughts like ROCK STAR CHEFS AND THEIR BOOKS INTIMIDATE PEOPLE WHO WANT TO LEARN TO COOK.

I was thrilled to hear Dorothy’s statements about the return of home-style cooking for many reasons. First, some of our friends or relatives of friends are among the best cooks that I know, and they don’t consider themselves chefs. They love food and cooking, and take the time to construct interesting menus, purchase good, sound meats, veggies and other ingredients for the dishes they will cook, and then spend whatever time is required in the kitchen preparing the meal. Most of our friends have entered our lives through the doors of our specialty food store or are food-writer colleagues. I am spoiled by the quality of food that we enjoy at the tables of others and that we cook in our own kitchen, so we are fortunate.

We live in a time of juxtaposing realities. Larger-than-life chefs and expensive restaurants are still on a roll, and it seems that the more cutting-edge or experimental the restaurant, the more clamor there is to dine there. And pay exorbitant prices for the experience. Pop-up restaurants are a good example, too, as many want to connect with the next ‘in’ thing. But at the same time, roaming food trucks, with simple but delicious, stand-up-to-eat-it ethnic foods or BBQ are equally popular. I understand the appeal of both experiences, and care less if I sit or stand as long as the food is worth the wait.

When I eat out, I always look for small little restaurants – the places that you find that you only want to tell your best friends about. Mom & Pop places with a soul or an edge that work hard to treat their customers to a delicious, well-prepared meal. There are more of these types of restaurant in the US now that ever before as more graduates of cooking schools eschew the corporate food world for the opportunity to follow their own vision.

I’m a traditionalist when it comes to food, food philosophy, and food culture. I think that eating with the seasons has always made sense. I like the natural appearance of foods, and am happiest when I can recognize what is sitting on my plate. I don’t need tall food or want plated food served to me in a bowl. Eating out doesn’t always make me happy, and I know enough to see through the hoopla.

So, to my delight I recently discovered an article written by Chef Sara Jenkins that ran in The Atlantic.com titled: Why Home-Style Cooking Will Always Beat Restaurant-Style. And I applauded her statements when I read it. Her point is this: ‘“I’m perturbed that people have gotten so turned around that they think restaurant food is the best food, and that the highest level of cooking is to cook restaurant-style in the home. Even in the finest restaurants, restaurant food, while delicious and deserving of its place and entertainment and theatrics, is really not the best food of all.” And she goes on to explain why she believes that this is so, which I urge you to read for yourself.

I like that Dorothy Kalins said that home cooking is coming back, and that Sara is a defender of home-style cooking. I take these statements to mean that ‘real food’ is coming back, and that there is a discernible shift away from molecular gastronomy and recipes that call for un-findable ingredients and elaborated cooking procedures.

Perhaps home cooking or a return to traditional foods is trending back again. The list of cookbooks published this year ( and the end of last year, too ) features an abundance of titles from talented cookbook writers with defined platforms and well-honed areas of expertise. Fewer of them are chefs, and there are fewer high-minded restaurant books, too, than published in 2009/2010.

Selecting cookbooks to sell is not easy. It’s difficult to please everyone, and the quantity of published works is staggering. But as a specialty foods retailer my job is to narrow down, focus, select the best, and defend my choices. So I use the same criteria for selecting books for my store that I do when purchasing books for my own collection.

As a rule of thumb, I like serious books. I avoid cookbooks by food celebrities and always pass on cookbooks written by celebrities who have elbowed their way into the food world on their name and glamour. I don’t sell fad diet books or books about the latest momentary health craze; books by writers who look as if they need a good meal or who are prissy, or snarky; books that are cutey or written by someone with trumped-up credentials; and tedious books featuring dull-sounding food.

There is still so much to learn and appreciate about the foods of the world – I like to make every meal count!

Click here for the current list of book for sale at Cooks Shop Here: http://www.cooksshophere.com/products/Product_Info/cookbooks.htm

Korean Pottery by Park Jong IL

When we visited Korea last year we were impressed by the beauty of the traditional hand-crafted teawares that we saw. We had the good fortune to meet several of Korea’s notable potters and we learned a great deal about the aesthetics of Korean teawares from each of them.

Korea has a very ancient tradition of pottery production, and today the tradition of teawares is continued by many fine potters who specialize in functional and uniquely Korean tea bowls, teapots and tea cups.

The Korean teawares style is simple and humble, quietly elegant and natural in feeling. The ideal is to express beauty through pleasing shapes, soft, warm glazes and an overall natural feeling. In addition to aesthetic concerns, Korean potters understand that teawares must showcase the tea, and be a pleasurable vessel for the person making or drinking the tea. Teawares should not be a vehicle for showing off ostentatious glazes or creative hand-crafting techniques.

Korean potters are also concerned that their tea bowls and tea cups feel good in the hand and are comfortable to hold, and that each piece has a stable foot ring that allows the bowl or cup to sit securely on a table. A well-formed lip is important, too, for pleasurable tea drinking. Most Korean pottery is wood fired, which adds a rustic elegance to the works and respects the fact that nature always has a hand in the outcome of the pottery fired in the kiln.

It is difficult to find handmade Korean pottery in the USA, so we are thrilled to have a selection of teapots and teacups from Korean artist Park Jong Il.

Park Jong Il lives a humble and spiritual life in the mountains. His studio and kiln are located next to his house, and he fires his pottery with wood that he cuts in the forest surrounding his house in a traditional orumgama – a chambered climbing kiln.

Park Jong Il is a remarkable artist who believes that there is a spiritual connection with the earth, the clay and the tea that will be steeped and drunk from his bowls, cups and teapots. His pottery reflects the simple humble nature of Korea pottery and also the talent and craft of a master artisan.

To read more about Korean potters and their pottery, please visit our post on this blog from June 21st, 2010.

To purchase pottery by Park Jong Il, please visit our website: http://www.cooksshophere.com/products/tea/tea-necessities/Teapots.htm

Photographs of Park Jong Il courtesy of Arthur Park – http://dawan-chawan-chassabal.blogspot.com/

My ‘New’ Green Tea Book

A lovely woman who produces a food radio program telephoned me recently to set up an interview about my ‘new’ book on cooking with green tea. She caught me off guard because I don’t have a new book on cooking with green tea. Then I realized she was referring to a book that I wrote in 2006 titled: Green Tea: 50 Hot Drinks, Cool Quenchers and Sweet and Savory Treats ( Harvard Common Press, 2006).

We got it straightened out, had a laugh, and fortunately she still wanted to have the interview.

After this, I started to think about my book and the idea of cooking with tea. Back in 2006, cooking with tea or using tea as in ingredient in cooking and baking was an unfamiliar concept here in the US, and it did not resonate with most. Its not that it wasn’t a good idea – it was and still is a great idea – but only a few short years ago the conversation about tea was vastly different than it is today.

Back then, tea drinking had not yet reached the widespread popularity that it has now, and education about premium tea from traditional places of origin was still in its infancy. Spreading the word about the different classes of tea (green, white, yellow, oolong, black and Pu-erh) was challenging for those of us in the tea business as black tea was the most commonly drunk tea at that time, and the only tea that many people were familiar with.

Fortunately, my book sold well and is still in print -yea!- but I have come to realize that the subject of cooking with tea ( and my book ) was ahead of its time. For Green Tea I developed original recipes in these categories: hot and iced green teas, smoothies, green tea cocktails, savory dishes and sweet endings, and often when I would describe to someone back then what my book was about they would look at me as if I had holes in my head.

In fact, even in Taiwan, where I gave a presentation at an annual tea meeting to a room full of tea growers on the idea of cooking with tea, and where there are dishes that utilize oolong tea in the preparation, many there looked at me as if I had holes in my head, too.

But today, just five years later, the idea of cooking with tea, or using tea as a culinary ingredient, has caught on. Not like wildfire, but with enough traction to be included in various tea conversations and for others to pursue the topic.

Cynthia Gold, the Tea Sommelier at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel, has co-authored a book with Lise Stern titled: Culinary Tea: More Than 150 Recipes Steeped in Tradition from Around the World ( Running Press, 2010). This delightful book explores the concept in depth, and provides much guidance for those looking to experiment with all classes of tea in their cooking.

Some restaurants, too, feature tea as an ingredient in various savory dishes and cocktails. Green tea in particular is showing up pretty regularly in sweets and desserts. But I fear such desserts will suffer from over-exposure and incompetent hands, and become culinary outcasts in the same vein as tiramisu, molten chocolate cake, and anything kiwi.

I am reprinting (with permission of my publisher) one of my favorite cocktail recipes from Green Tea: 50 Hot Drinks, Cool Quenchers and Sweet and Savory Treats.

Tropical Sky
( serves 2 )

• 12 ice cubes
• 3 ounces chilled green tea
• 1 cup chilled pomegranate juice
• 3 ounces gin
• 1 tablespoon amaretto
• Maraschino cherries, lemon wedges and orange wedges for garnish

1. Put 4 ice cubes, the green tea, pomegranate juice, gin, and amaretto into a cocktail shaker and shake vigorously for 1 minute.

2. Divide the remaining 8 ice cubes between 2 old-fashioned glasses. Make a skewer for each glass by threading 1 cherry, 1 lemon wedge, and 1 orange wedge onto a decorative cocktail pick. Strain the cocktail into the glasses and drape a fruit skewer across the top of each glass. Serve immediately.

Mexican Food Products from Susana Trilling

I am very excited to have Seasons of My Heart food products from Susana Trilling. Susana is a chef, founder of Seasons of My Heart Cooking School in Oaxaca, Mexico, and author of the vibrant cookbook Seasons of My Heart: A Culinary Journey through Oaxaca, Mexico ( Ballantine Books, 1999). 

Susana’s book is a companion guide to her 13-show PBS series in which she shares her deep passion and anthropological knowledge of this fascinating region whose cuisine remains virtually untouched by influences from the outside world. Oaxaca invites a deep appreciation of Mexican culture, and Susana is a gracious ambassador for the region she loves so much.

 Those of you who have visited Mexico know that the local markets are wonderful places, and taking the time to stroll around and absorb all you see is a fragrant, colorful sensory event. Spices, foods, fruits, candies, crafts, clay cookware and simple, charming clay dishes and bowls, embroideries and weavings offer serious temptations.

In southern Mexico, in the markets of Oaxaca and the neighboring villages, you will also see quantities of chile-based seasoning pastes – mole* – for sale in rich earth tones of red, brown, and nearly black. The flavors of these moles are as extraordinary as the colors are vivid, and the tastes of each mole will be different one to another.

But each is unique and essential to the traditional cuisine of Oaxaca. Choosing just one mole is never an option when shopping in these vibrant markets!

Mole lovers know that these tasty and essential pastes traditionally take a day or longer to make and require a very long list of ingredients to obtain the proper flavors: fruits, nuts, spices, chocolate and chiles. The flavor of a specific mole is dependent on particular chiles which can be difficult or impossible to find in the USA.

If you rather not spend a day or more in your kitchen making mole from scratch, you can use Susana’s moles to create delicious, authentic tasting dishes for your family and friends.  Susana has created three of the most famous of these mole pastes – Oaxacan Mole Negro (Black Mole), Mole Coloradito, and Mole Rojo (Red Mole) that are made with the right chilies, all natural ingredients and no fillers.  All that is required is that the mole be reconstituted into a sauce and served with a generous portion of chicken, turkey, pork (or a combination of the three). And only you will know that you have Susana at your side!

Another not-to-be-missed item is Susana’s Chintestle (Smoked Chile Paste), something that I now cannot live without! I first tasted this product several years ago when I met Susana at a food conference but there was no way to purchase this product for resale at the time. Believe me, I have thought about this flavorful smoked chile paste more than a few times in the years since!

Lastly, we also have Susana’s chile jellies ( three types…red, green and yellow….which are excellent toppings for soft goat cheese for quick and tasty summer snacks on the patio…with a Margarita, perhaps ?  ) and coarse and crunchy Mexican sea salt to flavor your favorite dishes .

*Chile pepper expert, food historian, magazine editor and cookbook author Dave Dewitt has this to say about mole: “Perhaps the most famous Mexican chile dishes are the moles. The word ‘mole’, from the Náhuatl molli, means “mixture,” as in guacamole, a mixture of vegetables (guaca). Some sources say that the word is taken from the Spanish verb moler, meaning to grind. Whatever its precise origin, the word used by itself embraces a vast number of sauces utilizing every imaginable combination of meats, vegetables, spices, and flavorings–sometimes up to three dozen different ingredients. Not only are there many ingredients, there are dozens of variations on mole–red moles, green moles, brown moles, fiery moles, and even mild moles”.

Please visit our website to read more about these items and to purchase:
http://www.cooksshophere.com/products/pantry/mexican-ingred.htm

A Masterful Japanese Tamba Teapot

This is a photo of my favorite Japanese teapot – a gruesome beauty crafted by Tamba artist Ken Nagai. I discovered this teapot several years ago on the Japanese ceramics website www.2000cranes.com which is owned by our friend and ceramics expert Brian Nolan. It was love at first sight for me, and I contacted Brian immediately.

Fortunately, he still had the pot so it quickly became mine. When it arrived from Japan, I tore the box open and wrestled with the layers of wrapping around each piece. Once I unearthed the teapot it was even more exceptional than I had hoped. It was rustic, muscular and lean: nothing fluffy here.

I ran my hands over it, feeling the spots and bumps of it’s gritty, textured surface. I loved it for what it was: a rustic, flame-licked pot that proudly wore the subtle flashes of grey-blue and red-brown color that it had earned while being birthed during an intense night in a hotter-than-hot wood burning kiln.

To me, this pot was a rare beauty made by an artist with talent and vision who truly understands the dynamic forces of heat, smoke and fire at work inside his kiln. A lesser hand might have turned this teapot into something gloomy or a piece that could be discounted as a foolish dalliance. But instead, Nagai-san hit a brilliant chord in the execution of this pot. Because, underneath the brooding and somber nature of this teapot lies a sophisticated and intentional design that gives the pot radiance and soul.

I came to recognize that the clay overskirt which covers the body of the teapot ( and obscures the bottom of the teapot in the photo ) mimics one of the historic designs of Japanese tetsubin, large cast iron water kettles. ( Today, smaller versions of these kettles are enamel-lined and sold as teapots ). In spirit, this teapot is a precious equilibria between two essential yet contrasting elements of Japanese tea preparation materials: pottery ( earth ) and cast iron ( metal ) wares.

But the story of this teapot does not end there. In advance of our trip to Japan last spring we talked with Brian about his pottery and the talented artists he represents. He offered to take us to Tamba and meet Ken Nagai. Of course we were thrilled.

We left Kyoto for Hyogo Prefecture and the area surrounding the village of Tachikui where the kilns of the Tamba potters are located. Tamba is referred to as one of the Old Six Kilns of Japan, meaning that it is a very historic and significant area of regional pottery production that dates back to medieval Japan. Like its other historic brethren – Seto, Tokonome, Shigaraki, Bizen and Echizen - the characeristic appearance of Tamba pottery is determined by the composition of the iron-rich local clay which produces red-brown to blue-grey flushes of color, the shape and style of kiln and firing techniques used, and the overall, traditional aesthetic of the pottery. Tamba pottery is dark in color with an iron-like hardness and simple, utilitarian aesthetic. These pieces are marvelously earthy in feeling and organic in appearance. Like most Tamba wares, Nagai-san’s pieces are not glazed and the finish and texture of the pots is given to each piece by the kiln.

Nagai-san’s pieces have textural surfaces that play with the light. Hold one this way or that way and subtle colorations on the surface will reveal. Nagai-san fires his pottery in a small noboringama or climbing kiln. This type of kiln is wood-fired and can create quite dramatic effects on the pottery depending on where the pots are placed in the kiln, the type of wood used, and other magical variables.

When we arrived, Nagai-san was just opening his kiln. The once red-hot temperature of the kiln had cooled down so that the pots could be removed safely. We were told that all of these new pieces had been made for an upcoming exhibition of Nagai-san’s pottery at an art gallery. Reading between the lines of this statement, I knew that Brian was telling us that no pieces would be available for us to purchase. Althought we were initially disappointed by this, we knew that the invitation to the kiln opening and the opportunity to meet this admired artist and learn more about his craft was the real treasure. So we concentrated and entered the moment.

It was exciting for the three of us to watch Nagai-san remove the bricks that had sealed up the kiln. He peaked inside with a light as it was clear that he too, was anxious to see how successful his firing had been. He seemed pleased with what he saw. Brian explained to us that potters who fire with wood commonly lose some pieces in the kiln from damage that is inflicted by sticks of wood that are pushed into the kiln ( via slits in the wall of the kiln ) during the firing. Bits of burning wood can also ’pop,’ causing damage to delicate pieces.

 

 

 

When the opening was complete, we peered into the kiln and this is what we saw. To us it  looked as though the forces of nature had wreaked havoc inside the kiln. In some ways that is exactly what happens during a wood-buring fire. But we were assured that all was fine, and that the ash and bits of wood debris covering the pottery was normal and expected.

Teapots came out, as did cups, bowls, plates and more teapots. Little fat teapots and larger teapots that had the shape of ripe summer melons. None of the teapots were like the one we had at home, but these pots also projected the stoic, austere Nagai-san style and his Tamba roots.

After weeks of throwing and building and a week of firing and cooling, Nagai-san still had work to do to get his pots ready to show. It would take him most of the evening and next morning to empty the kiln, after which he had a scant 36 hours to clean, burnish and primp every piece.  Once we returned home, we heard that the exhibition was a great success and that Nagai-san had sold most of his pieces.

To see more of Ken Nagai’s work and images from his 2010 Osaka Exhibition, or to purchase a teapot, please visit Brian’s website: www.2000cranes.com

Click here to see images of classic overskirted tetsubins from a traditional Japanese craft company: www.suzukimorihisa.com. Under the Works header, click on the Teakettles header. The 2nd teakettle pictured in the top and bottom rows have the overskirted design.

Click here to see our selection of tetsubin teapots: www.teatrekker.com/teawares/teapots.htm