food that builds community

What is the tie that binds people together?

BART trains overhead, underneath is peace!

The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), an underground/overground system of transport for San Francisco and surrounding towns, runs smack dab through a whole set of long-established out-skirted communities of Berkeley. Instead of a searing scar of uprooted houses, friends wrenched apart from friends, shops from shoppers and chunks of living divided from each other, the BART sails overground on huge concrete pillars.

And underneath? Oh, underneath is magic!  A most wonderful path meanders through many a village.  I love it.  Absolutely love it.  There’s a serenity, a security about it all.  Hedges and fences offer a peek into community eco-gardens, sharing the land and the precious water in this desertous country.  Gloriously painted garage doors depict cartoons or heroes.  Children have designed ceramic tiles that make up some of the seats along the path.  On makeshift notice boards written posters made of unfolded brown paper shopping bags invite people to coffee on the second and fourth Saturdays “to learn what’s possible”.

Children’s designs

message from a community builder

 There are parks, running paths, cycle routes. Sounds – aside from the sharp sudden roar of an overhead train — are gentle. The chuff-chuff of a runner on the sandy track.  The thump-thwack of an early morning tennis game on the community’s courts. The tinkle of a cycle bell reminding me to move over.  The soft satin rustle of a flock of wild turkeys settling down on the wayside benches.

Early morning walks bring scents of wild grasses lining the paths, mingling with the sudden whiff of after-shave from a commuter on his way to BART station, or the enticing aromas wafting tantalisingly from the Brazilian open air café on the corner, getting ready for the day’s business.

So what makes this different from my cherished English village?

history in Ceramics

I think it’s the visible, tangible pride they take in the area’s history, reminding every walker, every cyclist every wild turkey of the many peoples who make up this community.

this mural is HUGE

A massively long tile mural portrays the settling of the area, from10, 000 BC, and pre-human ice-age settlements, the respectful Ohlone Tribes living in peace, singing their songs, telling their stories. The Spanish settlers with ranches, horsemanship and fiestas — “The land is our gold” they said.   “Let the Californians go after the gold rush.” The miners from out east.  The Blacks, the Irish and their contributions.  Victorian agriculture.  The University of Berkeley. Dairy farming. Streetcars. World War II shipyards.

the long mural of history

All of this is visible to anyone walking the path. Everytime someone comes outside, the lesson is there to see.  They are a community of communities.  They are proud of their rich heritage. And show it off well.

Santa Fe Reailway sign

And in this quiet suburb of houses is this sign, marking the end of the Santa Fe Railroad, connected by the Western Pacific Railway. The last spike, linking together the whole width of the United States was driven into the track in 1909.  Nothing remains here of the railway. A railway completed and closed down within my Dad’s lifetime. West Coast recorded history is so young.

Santa Fe Meatloaf

Adapted from Slow Cooker Revolution from America’s test kitchen.  As a veteran meatloaf maker I would never EVER do a meatloaf in a slow cooker, preferring instead the hot circulating oven air for a dark crusty outside, and a juicily mouth-watering innards.  But just take a look at the whopping number of ingredients!  I just had to try it out (and add a few more, of course).  Meatloaf is great for long-stay visitors.  Serve it hot with baked potatoes the first night.  Slice it cold for sandwiches the next day.

In a food processor throw in: 1 quartered peeled onion, 1 quartered de-seeded red bell pepper, 4 peeled garlic cloves, 2 tablespoons oil, 1 tablespoon tomato puree (paste), 2 teaspoons fresh oregano or ½ teaspoon dried, 2 teaspoons chilli seasoning* (WARNING: see note below), 1 can drained black beans, 2 slices white bread, 2 lbs lean minced (ground) beef, 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, ¾ cup corn kernels (yes really),  2 large eggs, 2 tablespoons coriander leaf (cilantro) or parsley, 1 heaped tablespoon pickled jalepeno peppers and 3 slices of meaty bacon.  Grind until smooth.  If the mixture is dry, whirr in ½ cup of milk.  Shape into a loaf, or several smaller ones.  Stud with pimiento olives and a bay leaf or two.    Bake in slow oven for about 1 ½ hours.  The outside should be dark and crispy looking.

In the last 15 minutes of baking, pour off any fat (if necessary) and spread on ½ cup barbecue sauce, or ½ cup ketchup mixed with 2 teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce and a tablespoon of brown sugar. (Chipotle ketchup will add eye-watering zing.)

*WARNING ABOUT Chilli. Please read the ingredients on your bottle of chilli “powder”.  In England there is something called “chilli powder” which is nothing but ground dried chillies.  In America the chilli powder is a mixture of chilli, paprika, garlic and onion powders, dried parsley and basil, etc etc. Thus, you can use 2 teaspoons, even 3.  The difference was one I learned the hard way in my first month of marriage….ooh it was breathtaking.

OK. It’s a wonky meatloaf, but it tastes all right.

I recently encountered the most beautiful glass sculpture I’ve ever seen – a huge work of art that spanned two storeys of intricately blown glass in various shades of blue. Its sculptor Dale Chihuly calls it Tre Stelle di Lapis Lazzuli.  Its 2,071 pieces of glass weigh 4,300 lbs in total.  It’s breathtaking.

And where is this exquisite sculpture housed? Not in the hushed halls of a security-monitored museum, where bejewelled patrons with skewed lipstick pad silently in smug satisfaction, but smack dab in the middle of the foyer of Stanford University’s medical College in Silicon Valley, in the Stem Cell Research Centre, where white-coated scientists scurry about clutching documents, pausing now and then to check a poster announcing the next lecture, like “Pioneering Myriad Cures with Stem Cell Gene Therapies”.  (“There are about 10 000 human diseases,” says Maria Grazia Roncarolo, MD. “that are caused by errors in a single gene.”) – or to get a sandwich from the café, whose tomato sauce scents the whole foyer that holds this astounding creation, while worn-out Christmas jingles scratch the air.  That is where it is.  And that, dear reader, is exactly where it should be.  Art.  Science.  Together.   Always.

Having grown up in a medical family, I know that there is usually no time to eat. So, here’s a no-time-to-cook recipe gloriously and abundantly adjusted from Cook Now, Dine Later by Althaus and ffrench-Hodges.  It took me 15 minutes to prepare.

Colonel’s Nostalgia

Heat a walnut-sized blob of butter with a tablespoon of oil in a large heavy frying pan.  Saute a large onion, (or 2 small) chopped.  Oh, and add a chopped garlic clove, too, just so that you can admire its luminescently pearly pink skin.  Fry, covered, on a low gentle heat about 10 minutes until soft.  Add one thinly sliced pork fillet.  Cook, swirling it around in the butter, until all is uniformly un-pink.  Don’t cook too long, because you don’t want the meat to toughen.  Then add 3 teaspoons curry powder (strength is your choice) and mix in well.  Fry another minute until the curry doesn’t smell raw.  Then remove from heat.  Add 2 tablespoons brandy, swirl in, and about 5 – 6 tablespoons cream.   Serve on rice, toasted crumpet, baked potato, quinoa, pasta, or if you are going paleo, a beautiful bed of stir fried greens.

Alternatives: Now here’s the beauty of this recipe. For “meat” you can use sliced chicken fillet, firm fleshed fish, or that cooked turkey lurking at the back of your freezer from Christmas – add cooked meat just before you turn off the heat, get it hot and proceed as above.  For “cream” you can use cream substitute.  For additions, sprinkle with sliced almonds  and/or chopped parsley.  Add chopped water chestnuts, mushrooms  and/or dried apricots to the sauce.    The photo is purposely bland so that you can dream your own dream.

Vegetarians: try firm tofu or Indian commercially made paneer, either one added at the end of cooking. Let us know if it’s ghastly.