Food

Every year near the holidays, Tom Turkey counts down the days in hiding. He knows he’s being watched and is on the lookout.

The name PP comes from the legend of Lady Godiva's naked ride through the streets of Coventry, in order to persuade her husband to alleviate the harsh taxes on the town's poor. The story goes that the townsfolk agreed not to observe Godiva as she passed by, but that Peeping Tom broke that trust and spied on her. A "Peeping Tom, is a nickname for a curious prying fellow."

My beautiful Sophia called and while we were chatting she told me she likes to have a grilled cheese sandwich now and then.

I suggested she ask her mom Natasha who makes the best in the nation's west, north, south, and east sides. There was a time I was crowned king of the grilled cheese-crowded kingdom. Mind you, Charlies, my son-in-law, and her dad is a wonderful chef and I enjoy all his meals.

The cheese you should pick for the gooiest cheese pull, the bread and kitchen tool to take things to the next level, and the controversial secret ingredient some chefs swear by.

They say the hamburger came from Hamburg, Germany but was invented in New York City during the 1820s. The Big Apple loves them.

The burger was named after a North Sea port and sold as street food to German sailors along the docks around Chambers Street.

I have been food-binging for months and it surely has been a non-stop meal feast but now it is time to return to a normal diet.

The gastrointestinal celebration started on Thanksgiving, then Christmas, followed by New Year and The Epiphany, then most recently my sweetheart’s birthday, and finally the Lunar New Year.

So, after celebrating with feasts from Thankssfovong to the Lunar New Year, may all of us be filled with health, and prosperity, as well as infused with determination, drive, compassion, and last but not least, let us take it easy on our digestive systems.

As I enjoy breakfast with my bride on her birthday, we both consume the same thing. Oatmeal, some fruit, and a hard-boiled egg.

There is a wide variety of oatmeal, which is a preparation of oats that have been de-husked, steamed, and flattened, or a coarse flour of hulled oat grains that have either been milled or steel-cut. Ground oats are also called white oats. Steel-cut oats are known as coarse oatmeal, Irish oatmeal, or pinhead oats.

My late and great ‘Mi Mama, Margarita” made it her favorite snack. I would like to share it with all of you and say try it, you’ll like it.

During The roaring 1920s, a Cuban socialite named Elena Ruz Valdés-Fauli asked a chef to prepare a sandwich for her with turkey, strawberry preserves, and cream cheese tucked inside in a sweet Media Noche roll at a Habana restaurant named El Carmelo. This was my late mom’s favorite and It’s best enjoyed with plantain chips and a Cuban Materva, an Ironbeer, or a Margarita.

On this first and coldest day of the season, I decided to enjoy the classic American breakfast combination of Apple Pie and Coffee.

There is a back story to this. When our family migrated from Cuba and I did not speak English, and neither did my parents. They taught me two phrases. ‘ I know nothing about politics’  and ‘ Apple Pie and Coffee’. Those were the first words I memorized learned how to say.