Behind Savoyage
It's 9 P.M. and We're Cooking Again
On late-night cravings, market days and a dog named Roulade Rigatoni
Some households wind down at nine o'clock.
Ours occasionally starts cooking.
One of us will mention a craving. The other will have an idea. Ten minutes later there is flour on the counter, something preheating, or a completely unnecessary culinary experiment underway.
This is normal.
Our idea of a good day out often involves an Asian market, an Indian or Middle Eastern grocery, WinCo or Costco. We walk the aisles, see what looks interesting or what is unexpectedly on sale, and start brainstorming.
What could we do with that?
Do we have the other ingredients?
What if we smoked it?
Should we make bread?
The shopping trip becomes the beginning of dinner before we have reached the checkout.
When the weather cools, the projects multiply. Something may be brining in the refrigerator for cold smoking. There might be cheese waiting its turn, Speck in progress, a ham experiment or dough doing whatever dough has decided to do that day.
Not everything works perfectly.
That is part of cooking too.
You learn by making things, tasting them, changing them and occasionally admitting that the first idea was better in theory.
This is one reason Savoyage's food is difficult to reduce to a cuisine label. We cook German food because it is part of Alex's heritage and training. Asian food is woven deeply into Selkie's life and Penang roots. Egypt left its mark. Britain left its mark. Travel leaves marks. Curiosity does the rest.
Even the dog was not spared.
Our French bulldog's full name is Roulade Rigatoni — Rou to his friends — which tells you something about the household he landed in. He is every bit as food-obsessed as his name suggests.
When we are not cooking, we are often in Idaho's mountains hiking with Rou, visiting family, or spending time in Penang, our second home and one of the places we most love to eat.
We travel to get away from the kitchen.
Somehow, we always come home with something we want to cook.
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