Bom apetite!

I found this photograph (from today's NYTimes.com article "In São Paulo, Brazilian Cuisine Is Back on the Table") too intriguing to pass over. The dish is "a gel with green tomatoes, coriander seeds, Peruvian corn and Amazonian aromatic herbs." Fascinating! My first thought on seeing the NYTimes.com cover thumbnail of this photo was that this was something from a Disney background. Here is the gist of the article:

...the idea that Brazilian cuisine can hold its own is slowly taking hold in São Paulo, thanks to a new generation of chefs looking outward for technique but inward for ingredients and tradition. Attuned to the necessities of presentation by their (mostly) European training and conscious that the heaviness of traditional Brazilian dishes will never pass muster with the gym-going elite, they have created a movement that has given their own nation a new sense of pride in its culinary heritage.

Which is a gist that I like. As you'll see in the body of the article there are a variety of restaurants serving more than just what will "pass muster with the gym-going elite", more traditional and local in form "at about eight times the price and a hundred times the quality".

I've been to enough California small town restaurants to know that there is a local cuisine in almost every place at least garnishing the plate. Recognizing that pattern was a contributor to my fantasy-plan to travel every California road with a town on it and eat where the locals eat. Of course there would be more than eating in the project, but there is more than food to eating where the locals eat, don'cha you know? Ummm, up the Delta for fried egg with homemade salsa on focaccia and mixed garden greens with orchard pear and walnut garlic dressing.