Letters To Bourdain

Dear Chef Bourdain;

This weekend it’ll be tart alsacienne and potatoes dauphinois. That last one is a serious bitch to pronounce if you’re not French. I think it means “Prince potatoes” but I’m going to call it The-Artist-Formerly-Known-As-Potatoes.  But a friend of my lovely fiancee’s will be coming to dinner on Monday night, so since I’m already making a tart and I got a pie pan and tart pan, I’m going to go ahead and pre-make a pie shell for use Monday.

Now, MLF’s (My Love Fiancee) friend is a fairly bohemian lass, who designs latex and fetish clothing for a living. I assumed she was a vegetarian, and despaired of finding anything veggie-friendly in your cookbook. I know how you feel about vegetarians, but dude, I live in Los Angeles. We can’t discriminate out here, it’s just a numbers thing. And even your salads have meat, Chef!

As it turns out she’s not a vegetarian and so all is well. I’m thinking I’ll Coq-au-vin and potatoes gratin and then…some kind of veggie. As discussed, your cookbook isn’t the greatest for that. Sunday I’ve got the day to myself so it’s a perfect day to tackle a more time-consuming project like the coq-au-vin.  Of course, that also means I’ll be drinking alone. Because you can’t make coq-au-vin without drinking, am I right? Even Assistant Chef Bourdain will be out of town. Not that he’s a great drinking companion – such a lightweight.

I’ll work something out, I’m sure. Heck, it involves chicken, wine and pie, so it can’t be too bad a day!

I’m ready to coq some vin;

Davy