The inside of my boho bag smells like garlic.
The reason for this was a lunch at Giacomo’s Cibo e Vino where I ate a delicious plate of tortelli di bietola with a side of Hawk’s garlic bread. This is the garlickiest bread I’ve ever eaten. (Don’t judge, I was dining alone.) Anyway, you get two pieces of bread and I only ate one so I had the other wrapped, tossed it into my bag and promptly forgot it was there until the next morning.
Hence the fragrant smell of garlic in the bag.
I actually kind of like it.
But I digress already. What I want to talk about is some summer entertainment for foodies and the perfect food pairings for them.
It’s not rocket science, but it makes a good foodie read at the beach or curled up on the sofa in the evening.
The garlic reminded me of a scene in Delicious! where a woman claims not to eat anything with garlic. In an Italian food shop. Surrounded by foodies. It’s blasphemous.
But Delicious! is in fact delicious. A recently released novel by Ruth Reichl, former editor of the defunct Gourmet magazine, is about a young woman searching for love and a solution to a decades old mystery concerning letters to James Beard. The heroine works at a food magazine that gets . . . what else . . . closed.
It’s not rocket science, but it makes a good foodie read at the beach or curled up on the sofa in the evening.
Pairing
Because the Italian shop, Fontanari’s, plays such a prominent role in the book, grab a chilled bottle of Vermentino along with a plate of imported cheeses and olives. (Maybe even some garlic bread!)
And there’s Chef, written, directed and starring Jon Favreau. Now in theaters, this film is food film porn, despite some critics who complain about the story. It’s about a chef who losses his job at a restaurant and opens a food truck.
This film is food film porn, despite some critics who complain about the story.
And it’s about family and food. And Twitter, which every food truck operator knows is awesome.
Pairing
We do not recommend trying to smuggle your own food into the movie theater, instead after the film head over to your favorite food truck or to one of the city’s food truck parks for a delicious meal. I’m thinking Bernie’s Burger Bus for The Substitute — a burger with blue cheese and crisp bacon. Get an order of hand-cut fries and take your bag home to enjoy with a cold 1836 craft beer from Houston’s own Buffalo Bayou Brewing Company.
The movie The Hundred-Foot Journey starring Dame Helen Mirren and produced by Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg, won’t hit theaters until August but you can download the book it’s based on now from Amazon to your Kindle. Richard Morais’ delectable novel tells the tale of an Indian family that settles in a small village in the French Alps and opens a restaurant across the street (one hundred feet to be exact) from a Michelin-starred French restaurant.
It’s a tasty tale of cultural differences, families and food.
Pairing
I haven’t started to read this yet, but when I do I think I’ll take my Kindle and head over to Indika for a lunch of crab samosas and tandoori quail with a masala Mary made with ghost pepper vodka. Sounds perfect to me.
Read, watch and eat for a wonderful summer.
I'm taking my Kindle to read The Hundred-Foot Journey over a lunch of crab samosas at Indika.
Chef Shawn Gawle has earned a Blue Leaf at Camaraderie.Photo by Carla Gomez