Naomi: Cooking for one and for friends



For years now, even before I wrote the recipes in what I think of as my "static blog," Fiftytworecipesfrommymother, at the request of my children, Sarah and Sam, Sarah had been urging me to keep a daily (more or less) record of my cookings--the meals I make for myself in my (surprisingly) solitary life as well as those I make for friends. For whatever reasons, I've never done it.


But, after months of wandering, I've finally begun. As I haven't quite mastered the art of cooking for one, and love throwing together grand meals at the last minute, I have been encouraging friends to call to check on what I might have on hand any evening for a quick meal. Instructions can be found in my entry for March 20th--What's in Naomi's Refrigerator.

This is primarily a record of the meals I prepare for myself and others, accompanied by "mug shots" of the food (when I remember to photograph before eating). Shot by my phone, with no styling, they may not capture their subjects at their best, but so be it.



Thursday, August 2, 2012

August 2. Beet greens with bacon and corn and fried eggs. Expo Line. MOCA. Mr. Ramen

Fried two eggs with the left over beet greens with bacon and corn for a very proper lunch.  Had barely finished eating and showering before Katya picked me up.  We headed to the new Culver City Metro Expo station, now, the final destination of the Expo Line that will eventually run from downtown Los Angeles to downtown Santa Monica.  Our destination was the beleaguered MOCA on Grand Avenue to see the Painting Factory, a show that was soon to close.  Except for Warhol, we didn't know any of the painters, but were very happy with the white carpeting that covered the floor and especially liked works by Julie Mehretu and Tauba Auerbach.
Inspired to continue our downtown tour, we walked north on Grand to the new Grand Avenue Park, still looking good after its first week, pink furniture in place, kids racing through the wading fountain, and then across to the Geffen Temporary Contemporary where we were too hungry to spend too much time, but gave ourselves a quick tour of the Earth Art show and watched a round of videos of explosions by Cai Guo-Qiang, an artist of pyrotechnics (who knew?)  at MOCA and other sites.

 Deep in Little Tokyo, and very hungry, it was certainly time for noodles.  Lisa had told me months ago that the best noodles in town were at Daikokuya Ramen on First Street.  She'd warned me that the lines were huge(this was confirmed first by the internet, then tonight by eye-witness observation).  Last month, or maybe the month before, I'd had the incredible Ramen at Tsujita and we were way too hungry to join the crowds, so we quite happily went to Mr. Ramen, a few doors down, where we by-passed the ramen altogether in favor of huge plates of cold noodles with beef and pork--a perfect meal for a hot down-town night.
We ended the night with a long walk back to the Metro, mostly along an incredibly spruced up Main Street.  Is downtown really gentrifying after all these years?  Have all the homeless been moved to Venice?  Or just a few blocks over?  For years, boosters and developers have been claiming a re-vitalized downtown--not sure how far it's come, but Main Street didn't feel like the war zone encampment of just a few years ago. 

 We found our way to our Metro platform (signage was a bit of a mystery).  The trains for Long Beach and Culver City used the same platform, and at 9pm, there was a good crowd of late-staying commuters, visiting families, and explorers of all sorts.   
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