Making the Cut; Brief Brunch Bruschetta; The Late Post

Let me apologize for skipping last week’s post. It was a whirlwind of a week that included helping someone move, Oakland Art Murmur, and a trip to the hospital. It also included making bruschetta with someone I had been hanging out with for a couple of weeks. You might remember me mentioning a waffle pants-wearing guy named Ken. Well, since that Earl Grey Elaagen Daz night, he and I had been spending a lot of time together, attending a lecture on dark matter, experiencing a Flying Lotus concert, and just having fun getting to know each other.

Due to circumstances I’d rather not detail, we’ve stopped seeing each other, but I’m happy to have learned all that I did about him. For one, his parents own a sushi restaurant and he used to run the non-sushi part of the kitchen. Awesome! Right? For another, he’s watched the movie “Julie and Julia” maybe as many times as I have or more, so he knew what I was talking about when I described the part of the movie where Julie is making bruschetta and gushing to her husband about how much she loves cooking and how she should write a blog about it. The sounds and images of the bruschetta making and eating never fail to get my appetite going. The mouthwatering crunching of the pan-fried bread and the lip-smacking look of the bright red tomatoes tossed with the beautiful green basil always make me soooooo hooooongry! So when Ken suggested making bruschetta, I got super excited and was more than willing to jump on the bruschetta train.

 Saturday morning, we walked down to Arizmendi and grabbed a loaf of Rustic Sourdough, still warm to the touch from the oven. Back at my place, we got to washing and cutting. I guess Ken gets somewhat OCD about cutting food correctly, so I let him handle that. What amazed me the most was the way he sliced the onions- leaving little grooves so that some of the pieces came out as triangles. It was like knife wizardry! I was able to make a little cutting contribution with my knowledge of chiffonade, or cutting vegetable leaves, e.g. the basil, into thin ribbons. I pan-fried the slices of bread using Ratto’s delicious olive oil while Ken tossed the tomatoes, basil, red onions, garlic, and olive oil. We plated the bread and bruschetta and bon appétit! We indulged in the crispness of the crust juxtaposed against the softness of the bread’s middle and the fresh juiciness of the tomato-basil mixture. It was just what I wanted and needed at that moment and I’ll always remember it fondly.