i was flipping through my copy of john thorne's pot on the fire today, looking for his griddlecakes recipe (i'm on a serious blueberry pancakes kick), when I came upon his chapter on fagioli al fiasco, or beans in a flask. "fiasco = flask"? that seems rather curious. thorne acknowledges this with: "i had garnered enough experience as a cook at least to suspect that cooking beans in a wine flask was less a culinary method than an invitation to disaster -- as the very name of the dish suggests. fagioli al fiasco -- that last word is not a misprint." he doesn't make much more of the word, but it got stuck in my head, as all intriguing etymologies seem to. i just made nelson look up "fiasco" for me in the OED, as i no longer have the bonus subscription service that mit tuition covered:

{trli}1. A bottle, flask.
1887 Athenæum 12 Nov. 635/3 A fiasco of good Chianti could be had for a paul.
2. A failure or break-down in a dramatic or musical performance. Also in a general sense: An ignominious failure, a ‘mull’.

that's somewhat less interesting than dictionary.com's entry:

fi·as·co    Pronunciation Key (f-sk, -äsk)
n. pl. fi·as·coes or fi·as·cos

A complete failure.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[French, from Italian fare fiasco, to make a bottle, fail, from fiasco, bottle (perhaps translation of French bouteille, bottle, error, used by the French for linguistic errors committed by Italian actors on the 18th-century French stage), from Late Latin flasc. See flask.]

oh wait, nelson weighs in with an emendation:

[a. (in sense 2 through F.) It. fiasco (see FLASK) lit. ‘a flask, bottle’. The fig. use of the phrase far fiasco (lit. ‘to make a bottle’) in the sense ‘to break down or fail in a performance’ is of obscure origin; Italian etymologists have proposed various guesses, and alleged incidents in Italian theatrical history are related to account for it.]

i was hoping for something more compelling. in other news, i made a little pesto today -- a little recipe-testing for my next "eat this" column (due out in the 02.25.03 tech).
posted by winnie at 3:59 PM

leave it to steingarten to revive my obsession with food: i finally finished his latest, it must have been something i ate, last week, after a period of boredome with food lit. i think my trip to jean georges also helped. (how kickass would it be to work there?) speaking of jg, wd-50's finally made a press appearance, after some delay in opening. (the correlation: wd was chef de cuisine at jg at some point & vongerichten himself is one of dufresne's backers.) it must be terrifying to be wylie at this moment, when everything hinges on his sophomore effort. but also, how exhilarating to be given such freedom (or to be able to take such liberties). what i really dig is that he's got glenn goodwin in the kitchen, as well -- possibly my favoritest sommelier ever. he's got a truly impressive palate, that one. the concept behind wd-50 sounds really appealing and really adria (as the nytimes article points out). i'm not sure if it's unfortunate or not that chefs feel this need to innovate by flinging all sorts of crazy shit at their ingredients and cooking processes. the nerd in me wholly embraces it (and plus, i worship adria.). i think the place'll swim.

am currently neck-deep in jacques pepin's new memoir, the apprentice, and i don't know if i should be so surprised that it's a great read. he's not a bad prose stylist. but i guess he's been in this country for some forty-odd years. in any case, it's a fascinating look at post-war french cuisine, as well as the burgeoning gastronomic movement in america (if one might call it that).

:: larder ::
short ribs. thinking i'll do a braise, mom-style, with soy sauce, garlic, ginger, and lots of anise. i think mark bittman's got a version in HTCE as well. eggplant. baba ghanouj? ratatouille? roasted with a ton of garlic? maybe just sauteed with basil. yum.
posted by winnie at 8:52 PM

::verbile::
weltanschaaung: a comprehensive conception or apprehension of the world especially from a specific standpoint. [from the german welt, "world," and Anschaaung, "view."]

gormless: dumb, dull.
the wangs introduced me to this anglicism. i think joyce was talking about a gormless look on someone's face. hopefully not mine.
posted by winnie at 11:45 AM