Angels and freaks
LA continues to be grand; it’s nice to go through my normal work routine - the same stuff I’d be doing if I wasn’t on-site with a client - while also getting to experiment with recipes and subject Cathy to the results. The big food success of yesterday was this Native American cornmeal pudding - I am a hesitant baker, but even I managed to get that one right. (Runners-up: The red snapper and braised rib of beef at the Avalon Hotel in Beverly Hills, where I had dinner with my favorite* international man of mystery.) Cathy showed great restraint in waiting until I had returned from the Avalon - via the Regent Beverly Wilshire - to eat it, laden with whipped cream. We give all of our thumbs up to that pudding.
When I was growing up, New York was the place that held the most allure for me. Los Angeles was not a place I ever imagined I would like to visit, as I did not foresee breast implants or blonde hair in my future. (Oh, how things change.) (Just kidding. Calm down, Antoine.) Now, it is LA that transfixes me, perhaps because it’s so different from London. Beverly Hills, with its fascinating vulgarity, is my favorite part of LA. I always imagined it was the kind of place where I could never feel comfortable, but it’s actually the easiest; money seems to afford these people much apathy about those around them, which suits me just fine.
*I think it’s time to revert back to Yankified spelling.
I made this same pudding for our little Academy Awards soiree! It was really good. I imagine it would also be good made with brown sugar (rather than white), to get it a little more treacly.
Yes, I almost used brown sugar, but didn’t want to mess things up. But I didn’t find that ours needed to be any more treacly, perhaps because I used a dish that was not square (couldn’t find any, so used what looked like an 8×10 gratin dish). The dish soaked overnight, I scraped it this morning, and it’s sitting for a second soak that will hopefully get the rest of the molasses-y debris free.
Thank you for mentioning Cathy! We at CW were getting awfully worried. I am relieved she was just experiencing some of the best things in life, after having been through some of the worst.