Mary Poppins descends on LA ... CyberFrequencies recommends a daily dose of video games ... MOCA's permanent collection ... Musical Books? ... Pigtails&Sauerkraut and other Thanksgiving traditions.
Off-Ramp Web Special: Foodies on Thanksgiving
UPDATE 11-20-2010: Thanksgiving comes every year, so we're serving the most delicious MEMORY leftovers, from Off-Ramp 2009.
The great chefs of Los Angeles tell us what's on their Thanksgiving menu this year, plus Pigtails & Sauerkraut, a Wiley Family tradition.
Get people talking about Thanksgiving and even folks who spend every day with food get a little mist in their eye. For Thanksgiving this year, Off-Ramp host John Rabe (above, with his family) is talking with a bunch of foodies. Here are the first few with more to come...
1. Michael Cimarusti (above, in the pink shirt, with friends) runs the two-Michelin star Providence restaurant in Los Angeles. The food there is very fancy, but at Thanksgiving, he looks forward to his sister-in-law’s broccoli casserole.
2. Russ Parsons, Food editor at the LA Times and frequent Off-Ramp guest (Off-Ramp is thankful that he never bills us!) says Thanksgiving is special because it’s America’s only ritual meal … and by the way, learn to carve a turkey before going to your in-laws at Thanksgiving.
3. Mark Peel, owner/chef of Campanile, remembers a Thanksgiving water-balloon fight from his childhood that proves that Thanksgiving is not really about the food – although the food can be very tasty. Like the sinfully creamy mashed potatoes that are featured in his new cookbook, New Classic Family Dinners, which you can buy, with part of the proceeds benefitting KPCC.
4. With due respect to Linda, Julian, Sian, Jay, and many other damn fine cooks, Marcie Page (who hails from Paris, Tennessee) is probably the best civilian cook I know. Not many people make cassoulet in LA, for just one example, let alone make their own duck confit for the cassoulet. Marcie is a typical Southern Californian -- she's a Tennessee transplant, in a mixed household, and she borrows from all their traditions and adds her own.
5. Rico Gagliano and Brendan Newnam (above, approximately 10% life-size) have gained a national rep for spotting new food trends on their show Dinner Party Download. For their Thanksgiving memories and recipes, click on the last audio item up at the top.
-- PIGTAILS&SAUERKRAUT - A WILEY FAMILY HOLIDAY TRADITION --
This summer, I met Malcolm Wiley, who works back East with my cousin Megan. (Above, after a delicious Tuesday night dinner at Little Dom's.) Over dinner, we started talking about holiday meals and he mentioned a dish that MUST be at every Thanksgiving, Pigtails and Sauerkraut.
He writes, "My family is from Baltimore, Maryland, though I grew up in Washington, D.C. It was always thought that this recipe combined the influences of the African-American and German influences there. I’ve been eating this as part of the Thanksgiving meal since I was a child. As a matter of fact, it’s not the holidays without it. I’m one of the few in the family who still makes it every year, so I’ve got a REALLY BIG POT."
I hadn't heard of this dish before, but he assured me it's very real and very tasty, and to prove it, he sent the recipe.
Ingredients:
-- Pigtails. Preferably corned or smoked - if you can't find them, fresh will have to do. Hint - the farmer's market where black folk shop during the holidays will always have them. The number of tails you buy will depend on how many people you want to feed. Three or four is a good starting point.
-- Salt
-- Black Pepper
-- Season All
-- A big sweet onion, like a Vidalia
-- Sauerkraut in a bag - Hebrew National is one brand.
Recipe:
Wash off the pigtails. You don't have to scrub them like chitterlings or anything, just wash 'em off.
Cut the onion into big chunks.
Throw everything in a big pot.
Cover with water to an inch or two above the pigtails.
Season with salt, black pepper, and Season All. Don't go really crazy with the salt. The Season All has salt in it too and will help with the flavor.
Mix everything with a big 'ole spoon.
Cover the pot.
Bring it to a rolling boil and allow it to boil for 5-10 minutes.
Stir.
Turn the heat down low and let the pot simmer (covered). It takes a long time for the tails to break down to the consistency you want. It could be four to six hours or longer. Every half hour, stir the pot. Toward the end of the process, break apart any tails that are hanging on for dear life.
When the tails have completely broken down and all you see in the pot is bone, pulled pork, and bits of skin, you've simmered long enough.
Cut the corner off a bag of kraut. Let the liquid drain out. You don't have to squeeze every drop of liquid out, just let most of it go.
Dump the kraut in the pot.
Cook the whole thing another 30 minutes or so on medium-low heat. You just don't want the kraut to be crunchy when you eat it.
Once everything is all mixed up and smellin' good, it's time to eat.
(Courtesy of the Wiley Family of Baltimore, Md.)
Mary Poppins Opens at the Ahmanson
"Mary Poppins," the smash stage musical of the beloved musical film, opened at the Ahmanson this weekend, and Off-Ramp was there to talk with co-director and choreographer Matthew Bourne; song and dance man Gavin Lee, who plays "Bert;" and Carter Thomas, a Glendalian who is one of the "Michael Banks;" and we hear the original and new songwriters -- performing live and spontaneously at the after-party -- tell how they wrote "Jolly Holiday" and "Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious."
The audio is a special web-only edition, only lightly edited for your enjoyment. Come inside to see Dick Van Dyke -- the original Bert -- take a bow and enjoy his ovation.
On Sunday, November 15th, 2009, Dick Van Dyke, who played Bert to Julie Andrews' Mary in 1964, finally saw the musical stage version of Mary Poppins. And when Gavin Lee brought him onto the Ahmanson stage at the end of the show, it brought the house down.
Video courtesy Center Theatre Group.
How to fix high school drop out rates? Play video games!
Texting in school? Posting to Facebook for extra credit?
Executives can’t imagine meetings without a blackberry. Companies are embracing Facebook to market their goods. And still, computers are scarce in most schools and cell phones aren’t allowed.
This week CyberFrequencies talks to educator Robert Torres, who says that schools must be on the cutting edge of technology to engage students. Torres is chief research officer at Quest to Learn, a gaming middle-school opened in Manhattan this fall.
Go to CyberFrequencies.com to find out what's on Robert's browser!
Ilsa Setziol and Her Neighbors Disagree About Christmas Decorations
We got a call this week from enviro-journalist Ilsa Setziol ... her neighbors in San Gabriel are at it again.
Leonard Maltin Tells All ... about the new edition of his Movie Guide
Off-Ramp host John Rabe talks with Leonard Maltin about his favorite book -- Maltin's annual Movie Guide. The 2010 edition of Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide is out now and if you'll come inside we'll show you how you can buy it and help KPCC.
In the first piece of audio, above, Leonard tells all. In the second, he tells some. The first is for aficianados of the movie guide; the second is the broadcast version, for neophytes.
Maltin's annual guide has grown, split like an amoeba, and has been a perennial bestseller. You can buy it from Amazon, and we get some of the profits. And you can do the same with his Classic Movie Guide, which holds all the stuff they've had to cut from the annual guide.
Comments are closed for this item, since it was originally posted a while ago, but I'm confused about Thomas Apple's comment below. The dog anecdote is :30 long, inside a 4:00 interview. Maybe his download is faulty. And if you want a LOT more Leonard, listen to the first audio item above. No teasing.
Viggo Mortensen and John Hillcoat's American Cinematheque Q+A on "The Road"
"The Road," the post-apocalyptic movie based on the Cormac McCarthy book, is in wide release now. The movie premiered at The American Cinematheque's Egyptian Theatre, and featured a Q+A with director John Hillcoat and Viggo Mortensen. They had high praise for the boy who plays "the boy," Kodi Smit-McPhee. Here's a short excerpt.
Thanks to the American Cinematheque for providing the audio, and to former AC film programmer Chris D, who moderated the interview, and started by asking what brought the two men to the project.
MOCA Turns Thirty, Pulls Out All The Great Art
Off-Ramp host John Rabe with Sam Hall Kaplan and MOCA chief curator Paul Schimmel on MOCA's new exhibits at MOCA Grand and MOCA's Gefffen Contemporary, which pull some of the best art from the museum's permanent collection. Come inside for John's artsy-fartsy movie of the works at the Geffen Contemporary, and John's guerilla art installation there.
Above, John Rabe's installation at MOCA's Geffen Contemporary, "Sprinkler No. 1." The antithesis of Marcel Duchamp's urinal, which symbolized our precious bodily fluids, or essence, being drained from us, coming as it did when the world was in intellectual turmoil and civilization was threatened with non-existence; "Sprinkler No. 1" is about our essence being refreshed with water coming in. It speaks of LA's gut-level connection with water, a connection which seeps even into every aspect of our lives, including our art institutes. Furthermore, it's actually connected to the plumbing. Top that, Marcel.
The Books: Aquariums, Lost Bets, and Terrible Fathers
Don't let The Books' folksy name fool you: the two-piece band's use of layers on layers of unconventional "found sound" is way ahead of its time. Spoken word records, crowds cheering, people walking through brush...it's a mesmerizing mix. Off-Ramp contributor Kevin Ferguson spoke with the band as it geared up for its Monday gig at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery (cellist Paul De Jong jokes that it will be the group's largest audience yet). Also, check out a video of one of guitarist Nick Zammuto's visually stunning sound art pieces...
The Baader Meinhof Complex Returns
The Baader Meinhof Complex, nominated for an Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, returns to the Egyptian Theater for a special limited engagement Nov. 27-29. John Rabe spoke with Stefan Aust, who wrote the screenplay and the definitive history of this West German guerilla group.