EatAspen.com returns to Aspen Post just in time for Thanksgiving to give us guidance to some of the best food in town. So where are you supposed to go if you're having Turkey Day in town? Find out.
Everyone's favorite Conservative takes his wife to Chef Dava Parr's Fresh & Wyld Bed and Breakfast and lives to write about it. "At six, servers brought out several appetizers, including roasted pumpkin seeds, sautéed eggplant with garlic and parsely, and my favorite, samosas made with curried pumkin, chèvre chaud, and whole wheat phyllo dough. When I was a University of London student back in the early 80s, I would save my food money during the week and head into the Pakistani neighborhoods North of Euston Station for a meal of samosas. Ordinarily, samosas are made of potatoes, peas, onions, and paneer, but these were made of pumpkin and goat cheese. I wouldn’t have thought you could make a pumpkin work in samosas, but Dava did it..." Read the rest. It's a hoot.
Thanksgiving has always been one of the more interesting holidays in my book. It all started with a "stray dog" thanksgiving one year at college. A few of us stayed at school for the holiday break and were invited to a faculty member's home for the holiday. There we found 20 unrelated people enjoying each others company with a feast of food and cocktails.
That is what sets this holiday apart. Its key ingredients are good food, good drink, and good people. Family is nice, but not necessary. A large part of Aspen is made of transplants that left friends and family "Back East" or elsewhere, and because of this, Aspen has a great tradition of welcoming randoms together to form that "family". So I hope you find yourself at someone's table or find someone at your table. If not there are a few Aspen Restaurants and others that invite you to dine.
Ever since I got here the big debate has been about affordable housing. While that is an important topic, maybe we could also turn our attention to the high prices of food in Aspen. Restaurants are extremely expensive in Aspen and I come from New York. In New York you could pick your spots and find bargains. So far I have found none in Aspen. If you know of any please let me know, I love good food. It's great to enjoy a good meal without putting a whole in your wallet.
Last July 30, Chef Dava announced on Aspen Post the opening of her 1908 Paonia farm house as a Bed & Breakfast, so last month I decided to surprise my wife with a visit to Dava’s Bead & Breakfast for our 14th wedding anniversary. Frankly, I could not be more pleased with this decision, and neither could my wife.
After a morning of soccer games and kid shuttles, we dropped the children off at the grandparent’s house and began a weekend of uninterrupted, adult conversation. By the time we turned south on scenic Highway 133 at Carbondale, the burden of routine and responsibility began to lift. The cottonwoods along the Crystal River were just beginning to turn bright yellow, and we could see some orange hues in the oak brush. Even though most of the Aspens were still clinging to summer green, fall colors were everywhere. We stopped in Redstone, where we bought our first house fifteen years ago, and had lunch at the Crystal Club Café. After a drive through our old neighborhood, we turned south toward McClure Pass. Even at this leisurely pace, we were in Paonia in just two hours...
Eat local! Has a nice ring, doesn’t it? Indeed, for millions of environmentally concerned eaters the allure of this mantra has been irresistible. Due largely to the impassioned literary efforts of an exclusive cadre of savvy food writers, buying locally grown food—and all that it entails—has quickly evolved into nothing less than an expression of earnest environmental virtue.
Mother Nature and the Farmers told me we should have Potatoes, Garlic, Onions, Kale or Chard, Salad Mix, Tomatoes, Summer Squash, Sweet Corn, Beets, Cantaloupe and early Peaches. We will see!
You can order the first Raspberries from the Austins if you click on the Extras button on the Products page. There is not enough to go around to the boxes.
Oh my goodness, It is official! I got my new dishwasher installed and my health Inspection and now I am officially open to serve you the rest of the summer with a 4-course Saturday Supper and a Sunday
Brunch every Weekend, so come on over soon! Thanks, Dava
We have a good box for you this week and some new recipes, let's
hope! We have Cherries, Potatoes, Onions, Salad Mix, Tomato,
Cilantro, Garlic, Kale, Romaine Lettuce, Sugar Snaps and Snow Peas.
Wahoo! It's looking like summer! I think it will be one more week on
one size box and then next week we will have enough food to split
into half and full size. I may change my mind on that during pack
out, we will see.
The thing I love most about the Food and Wine festival here in Aspen is the famous people I’ve never heard of and would not know from Adam. It’s like going to the Super Bowl with no clue about frozen tundra—you should have stood in bed instead of taking up space in the stands.
A couple years back I was saving a chair at the Hotel Jerome for my fiancée when a woman took the chair for her husband without asking. She said something that indicated her husband was some kind of a big deal in the world of food, but I could not have cared less if he were Wolfgang Puck. It was our chair. I had saved the seat under the universal law found in the Constitution that decrees all men are created equal no matter how nifty you might be with pulled pork and coleslaw.
The Food & Wine Classic has begun in Aspen and this year the libations are flowing with gusto while the food has left me hungry. Last night I attended the Wines from Spain soiree held at a private home where I chatted with chef Jose Andres. He was funny and truly engaging. The main dish at the soiree was “Paella” a Spanish version of jambalaya. His crew struggled with the altitude to find a boiling point to make the Paella and it showed in the dish … that being said the chef on the grill kept the party hopping with his chorizo sausage sandwich best described as a “Braut with a tasty bite”. I can’t wait to make those at home!
I have a problem with tomatoes. It’s nothing personal. A tomato has never intentionally harmed me and I am well aware of the tomato’s nutritional value. However, in certain circumstances, I react poorly to the presence of a tomato. It is one of those bizarre personal issues that would require a session or two of psychoanalysis to get to the bottom of, but I will do my best to explain the problem by citing a recent tomato encounter.
