Zeal for costuming is a common thread that runs deep in the fabric of New Orleanian culture. It is [one reason] why I love this city. By October, it has been nearly half a year since our last masquerade and we yearn to hot glue, glitter and feather together something to parade. In Mid City, the best neighborhood of the Crescent City, we Porch Crawl. Last year, my dearest neighbor friends and I won Best Group Costume with our Beauty and the Beast concept (complete with dance routine). This year, we stole the show and prize for a Westworld concept with a Davinci Man float, and doubloons we passed out with the maze stamped on one side and “Have you ever considered the nature of your reality?” on the other.
I have such gratitude for friends who live houses away and who share our love of celebration and creativity. KP, as Rebus, designed a wound that would make it appear he had been shot in the stomach while drinking milk and dribbled a glue solution that looked pretty real.
I was a saloon player piano. The quotation is an homage to Kurt Vonnegut’s book The Player Piano, from which the show Westworld rumoredly drew upon for thematic content. “Those who live by technology die by technology. Sic semper tyrannis.” Latin for “Thus always to tyrants.” Curiously, the state motto of Virginia. We got to taste a lick of Virginia recently…
About a week ago we visited something of a New Orleans saloon, the Hermes Bar, where we got a tasting of Ragged Branch Whiskey, visiting from where else but Charlottesville, Virginia. We tasted both the Wheated and the Rye, I preferred the Rye, as I do. It had the essence of wort and smoke. It was the sort of thing Rebus would have in his back pocket.
It’s time for warm and filling dinners. I feel like I ate vegetables all spring and summer. Now it’s time for meat to blanket my bones for the cold season (a Southerners cold—maybe 50 degrees, eek!), and this chicken curry does the trick.
Creamy Chicken Curry
Adapted from Chatelaine (a magazine I found somewhere in Canadian travels)
4 chicken supremes, about 1.5 kg
3/4 tsp salt, divided
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cinnamon stick
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp minced ginger
4 large tomatoes, chopped
2 tsp granulated sugar
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 cup sour cream
Preheat oven to 375F. Line a baking sheet with foil.
Heat a large non-stick frying pan over medium-high. Sprinkle chicken with 1/2 tsp salt. Season with fresh pepper. Add oil to pan, then chicken, skin-side down, in 2 batches. Cook until golden, 3 min per side. Transfer to prepared baking sheet. Bake until chicken is springy when pressed, about 25 min.
Return same pan to heat on medium. Add onion and cinnamon stick. Cook until onion starts to soften, 3 min. Add garlic and ginger. Cook 1 min. Stir in tomatoes, sugar, garam masala, turmeric, cumin and remaining 1/4 tsp salt. Simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, 8 to 10 min. Discard cinnamon stick. Scrape hot mixture into a food processor. Purée until smooth. Pour back into pan and stir in sour cream. Cook until heated, about 2 min. Ladle sauce into bowls and set chicken on top.
Get close to the fire, y’all. Winter is coming.
