Horse Tartar and Turkish Toilets; Food Defining All

meglbarrett — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 12:13:00 GMT

Food is an emotion; courageous, spirited, and curious, it embodies its own rules, expectations and outcomes. Food is a window, allowing me to observe and understand social patterns and practices. Food is a bridge; surpassing economic strife, cultural deviations and social class. \

As an industrial designer I extract food from its preconceived element. I analyze a restaurant’s tableware, furniture, lighting and architecture. In a kitchen, I hear the whirl of whisks, smell the perfume of fresh ingredients, and taste the freshly kneaded dough. Space characterizes my experience with food.

Space is more than a tangible influence; it’s 19:00 on the Naviglio, with a Milanese friend. Winding through dark streets, sharing her favorite restuarant, Il Brutto Anatrocolo. It's discovering horse tartar; freshly chopped, cratering a yolk, crested with capers and mustard. It's flirting with waiters and rubbing elbows with strangers, using gestures and facial expressions to communicate. It's the peddler selling a toilet lighter and encountering a turkish toilet for the first time. It's noticing the rain outside and ordering one more carafe of sweet white wine. It's a life long friendship, knowing I am happy at that moment, in that space, and savoring every bite.

I am applying for The Anthropologist. A young heart and mind paired with adventurous taste buds, an addiction to food and a thirst to explore. Loving life, eating well, making memories.

Passport & Plate - Ovocné Knedlíky - Czech Dumplings

meglbarrett — Tue, 11 Mar 2014 12:13:04 GMT

Ingredients
400g Medium Fine Flour – roughly 1 ¼ cups
25g Fresh yeast – roughly a 1 ½ pack dry yeast
1 Tsp castor sugar
Approximately 200 ml milk
Pinch of Salt
Flour for Rolling out
Fruit: Strawberries (apricots or plums also common)
Powdered sugar
1-2 sticks butter

How to prepare this recipe
Step 1
1. Sieve flour into bowl
2. Add 1 tsp sugar to flour
3. Combine yeast with ¼ cup hot water, stir yeast into it, once that is mixed in feed in 1 tsp sugar, do this in a separate container
4. Pour yeast mixture into flour
5. Add a pinch of salt
6. Stir in 100ml milk
7. Mix into paste
8. Dust with flour and leave to rise
9. Once dough has risen mix until it reaches a rubbery consistency (add remaining milk if necessary)

Step 2
1. Boil a large pot of water
2. Roll dough onto cutting board, about 1/8” thick
3. Cut out an appropriate amount of dough to wrap a single strawberry in an even layer, mold dough into a sphere around the strawberry
4. Let dumplings sit for 5 min
5. Once water is boiling, gently drop “dough spheres” into water, boil for 8-10 minutes
6. In a small pot, melt a stick of butter and add sugar, whisk into a syrupy consistency

Step 3
1. Pour butter/sugar mix into shallow bowl/plate
2. Place dumplings onto bowl/plate (drip dry dumpling before placing on bowl/plate)
3. Top with strawberries (or fruit of choice) and a healthy coating of powdered sugar
4. Buon Appetito !

The story behind this recipe
Summer in Prague, winding through cobbled streets overlooked by soaring windows. An ornate wrought iron gate leads into a court yard, I descend through a heavy wooden door. Discovering a cavernous architecturally lit hideaway, echoing with boisterous intimacy. Klub Architektu housed my first epicurean experience with ovocné knedlíky, traditional Czech dumplings.

Plump spheres kissing each other in a bath of sweet butter. Steam tendrils lifting to my nostrils. The dense dough resisting then finally giving way to a strawberry, its red essence tinting the bath of gold. My first taste left me captivated. I seek out all varieties. Gnocchi with fruit on top, dough meshed with fruit preserves, fruit encased in dough, the latter being the most savory.

A design student at the Praha Institute, my challenge was to design an innovative product for the Czech consumer. An openness to experiment, in tandem to instinctively think with my hands, I chose culinary design.

Research; I interviewed chefs and locals. Discussing ovocné knedlíky, Czech cuisine, and the rarity for recipes to escape familial barriers. I shopped in neighborhood markets, traveled to various cities, and observed the life of a Czech. Prototyping: I tackled many recipes: potato, ricotta, and flour based dough. Altering shapes and sizes, adding and subtracting ingredients. Result: although the form is unappealing, the recipe is timeless and the taste unmatched. Solution: altering the one component I have great skill in; aesthetics.

I designed a serving platter informed by Czech history, design and architecture and a silicone-cooking mold inspired by cubism and Bohemian crystal to shape the dumplings. Putting a modern twist on a traditional recipe, I embraced a culture through design, my love of food and my desire to travel.

Cooking ovocné knedlíky years after my first encounter has brought back so many fantastic memories, for that I thank you.

Horse TarTar and Turkish Toilets

Horse Tartar and Turkish Toilets; Food Defining All

Passport & Plate - Ovocné Knedlíky - Czech Dumplings