I am a few hours from flying away to the UK. I am so excited, even though the weather report says rain rain rain and some temps in the 50s. I will use that opportunity to purchase some authentic wellies and perhaps some warm tartan. Yup.
Anywho, not much time as I must review my check list. I just wanted to say adios and let you know that I will twit and use the facebook machine to keep you apprised. I may even lay eyes on our cows distant relatives.
No, beloved animal-hugging vegetarian friends. For serious. There are explicit pictures of animal carcasses below. Delicious, delicious carcasses. Maybe you should check back in on us on, like, Wednesday? When this post has moved down-thread a bit?
MEAT. OPIA. Meatopia. Meatmeatmeatmeatmeatmeatmeatmeatmmmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaattttttttttt. And us! As dessert!
We were asked to bring our CapoAwesome to this exceedingly cool event on Saturday in Brooklyn: Meatopia. When you get dozens of the Eastern Seaboard's best chefs together to have an enormous barbecue on a pier in Brooklyn, some wise soul is inevitably going to ask, "Hey. HEY. What about dessert?" That's where we came in. Thus, Sarah, Matty, Amanda, Caitlin, Lorenzo, and I stood up and said, "Yes. We will accept this challenge. We are Capogiro, and we shall bring many delicious sorbetti to momentarily cleanse your palate of all those delicious, delicious meat noms. AND PEANUT BUTTER GELATO BECAUSE IT CONQUERS." So we gathered early Saturday morning and hit the road...
Amanda, I think we're being followed. Listen, have you ever tried to caravan (dammit, I'll verb a word if I want) a car and a scrappy but under-powered and maybe over-extended reefer truck all the way up the Jersey Turnpike, over two NYC bridges, and through totally unfamiliar one-way Brooklyn streets? No, I'm guessing you haven't. It was...challenging. There may have been some cranky texts traded. But all would be well! Friends through a crucible and all that!
The view. It was y'know. Whatevs. So we were on Pier 5 in Brooklyn along Furman Street. It was my first visit back to New York City since I skipped off the East Coast in 2002. Nice welcome back. What this picture doesn't effectively capture was the hotness. You do remember it was somewhat warm last week? Yes. Warm. IT WAS A LITTLE WARM. Sarah and I tried to cool off in the back of our truck for a few minutes at one point, but we started getting a little goofy 'n wheezy and decided we'd rather sweat profusely than pass out. Smart call, I think. Dry ice: sneaky.
These two would have had the best view of everyone, but I don't think they were in a position to appreciate it. The cooks caring for these two lambs were the first there, as best as I could tell. And I could tell because they'd already sweat through their t-shirts by the time we got there. Hard workers, cooks.
There's just something about a whole pig cooking that always looks cheerful. I mean dude is positively grinning, don't you think? But he ain't got nothin on...
A WHOLE COW. GRILLIN.
WHOLE COW. ON A GRILL. It looked like someone had already begun working on the cheeks. I'm assuming it was a chef, not a cook. Chef's are greedy and have an ugly sense of entitlement. (kidding)
Winner. Obviously there was an amazing amount of genuinely, seriously good food. There was lamb sausage and foie gras croutons (!) and a smoked duck Thai taco thing on hand-made flatbread and, and, and...but this. This spoke to me. What you're looking at is grilled blood sausage with a poached quail egg yolk. Hands down, best thing I ate all day. Best thing I've had since Sarah and I went to Southwark, frankly.
Delaware, doin' it to ya in Brooklyn. Sarah and Matty, old, old friends. And Matt. Dude rocked it all day and all of the night. First we make him drive the truck up the Jersey turnpike. Then we drop a gelato cart on his head. Make him loiter in the heat for a few hours. Then he runs gelato back-ups all evening long, from the truck to the near cart, from the truck to the far cart, check in on Sarah in the VIP tent DOES EVERYONE HAVE WHAT THEY NEED? CAN I WASH A GELATO SCOOP FOR YOU?! Then we make him drive the truck back down the Jersey turnpike. AND DUDE IS A VEGETARIAN. There was molten, smoky animal fat wafting all over the pier for hours and hours and hours, and Matt just made it do what it was gonna do, y'know? Trooper. I owe you a beer or three.
Caitlin, scooping til she dropped. Caitlin: not a vegetarian. Definitely as excited about the food as I was. And Lorenzo just kept bringing it, and bringing it, and bringing it. Caitlin tried to keep up. Barbecue slider! A couple bites! Lamb sausages! Okay real quick-like! Oh man those foie gras croutons! Caitlin: I owe you a Gatorade or three. (Maybe a Cinnabon, but don't tell anyone.)
And Amanda was definitely also there and also worked her butt off! And Lorenzo was all over the place! And, ahem, I was hardly just walking around eating, as Sarah has suggested (though it seemed like Sarah spent a fair bit of time under the VIP tent, chillin' and schmoozin', ifyouseewhatI'msayingandIthinkyoudo). But I had to stop taking pictures because: busy. People figured out that A>it was quite hot, B> we are Capogiro and C>our peanut butter gelato conquers like Halladay and our lime cilantro sorbetto closes like Lidge. (One head-to-toe Yankees fan saw my Phillies hat and, unprompted, admitted that our team scared his team. Damn right, I said. I wasn't joking. He knew it.) People got in line three and four times. Mexican chocolate and pineapple mint and pear bourbon and blackberry and, and, and...it turned into a bit of a blur. Scoop and smile, smile and scoop. People were definitely glad to see us, and not just because it was hot. And we're at our best when we're busy.
Suddenly it was like this. I'd really, really wanted to get a picture of the sun setting next to Manhattan, but people need gelato. Then we were out of gelato. It was all over except to pack up. It wasn't quite that simple, but sometimes you keep things within the crew. Definitely a blast, all in all. Lots of smiles, lots of smoky charred fat, lots of gelato...I'm already lobbying for us to do it again next year. We'll see you then!
Beer! (If you know me, this is no suprise). This weekend was a beertastic one for me, as it was the birthday of a friend of mine who is a total beer snob. I got to sample all kinds of yummy micro brews and funky German stouts. He also shared some strange organic cider that tasted exactly like hay, but worth the experience.
Lychee! These crazy little Chinese fruits look like alien pods. So yummy! A flavor unlike any other, lychee have a texture much like if a starfruit and a grape had a love child. We've made them into sorbetto, and the kids have come a runnin'! Frogs legs! I also went to a BBQ this weekend, and although it was pouring down rain, a French friend of mine brought tons of marinated frogs legs with him. It's true, they taste exactly like chicken. What made these little guys even more awesome is that many of the people there were snooty vegetarians and totally grossed out. Ha!
Good covers! I found this cover through a source that shall not be named, but it's this 16-year old British indie folkster named Birdy doing a cover to Bon Iver's 'Skinny Love'. Awesome. Can't stop listening to this song.
If you've stepped outside in Philadelphia recently, you've proooobably noticed how incredibly hot it has been. We thought last week was bad, and it was... but this week will still have us bee-lining for air conditioning. Without leaving the city to cool off at the beach there aren't many options to keep cool apart from jumping in a fountain (which is probably filthy and actually mostly urine). If you haven't already jumped to the logical conclusion, let us lend a friendly hand. Now is the PERFECT weather to stop by and try a frappe with your favorite flavor or two blended together into a delicious, life-changing, refreshing cold drink. I know I would rather sit in an air conditioned Capogiro and sip on a tasty drink than wonder what just brushed against my leg in a city fountain. And might we suggest trying an incredibly refreshing Cactus Pear frappe? Our very own Jackie, had prepared a stellar blog post about Cactus Pear, only to learn this morning that the kids over at CapoPenn beat her to the punch and posted their OWN. Speedy speedy blog addicts! Anyways. Her illustration is AWESOME, so you all get to check it out regardless of whether or not her Cactus post goes up.
We are officially, for a SUPER LIMITED time, knee deep in Stone fruit season!!!
It is stone fruit season. That magical time of year when juice runs down your chin and dancing erupts spontaneously. Can you imagine the response of the very first person who had the guts to bite into an orangey-pinkish fuzzy ball hanging from a tree? I am sure that they dropped to their knees and probably cried. Yes, cried.
Now is that time. Here at Capo, we eat this now. Why? Because, you should and that is just what we do. Eat fruit when it is in season. It tastes as it should, which is perfect. Eat them now, because tomorrow they will be gone.
"The good times of today are the sad thoughts of tomorrow."
Every child knows the story of the Cactus Pears, but how does it apply to real life? Legend says that every summer the children of the world are visited by a Fruit Wizard visiting earth from the infinite void who casts a level 5 spell of summoning on them. The next day the children are awoken by several pounds of unripe cactus pears being brought into existence with a loud crack. The frightened children then carve faces and other shapes into the pears to prevent their pets and friends from being cursed.
Real Scientists have discovered many uses for these rare and valuable fruits. The skin, when dried, acts as a super adhesive and is used when processing rubber and cement mix. The rich pulpy fruit can be made into a variety of dishes and may also be used to flavor tea. Here at Capogiro we've found our own use for them as the main ingredient in a delicious sorbet. The result is a crisp, pinkish delight with a flavor somewhere in the middle of watermelon, cucumber, and grape. This wondrous desert pears(lol double pun kinda) perfectly with most if not all of the other sorbets and is the perfect treat on these hot summer days. So teleport over to your local Capo and pick up a cup. Now. (Really, do it now, it's not going to be around for very long!)
It is a fact of life that one thing will always be preferred over another. When dealing with a product such as ours there has to be one flavor that is chosen time and time again over any other flavor. Out of the HUNDREDS of different kinds of gelato we offer there is bound to be one that is offered daily at all our locations throughout Philadelphia. While all of this makes sense from a statistical standpoint there is no easy way of explaining the intense emotional connection our customers have to our Cioccolato Scuro (also known as Dark Chocolate).In my years working for Capo I have thought about this for WAY to many hours. At first I just immediately accepted the fact that Scuro was the most popular flavor. There have been countless times people have joked with me about only ever ordering something if we still have the Dark Chocolate on that day. As time moved on I started realizing that these people were not kidding. I have witnessed peoples impending tears as they hear that someone 'got the last scoop' of Scuro. I have heard children's dismay as there parents inform them of a 'dark chocolateless' situation. By now I have seen this happen almost weekly for the past few years.
The more situations like this I witnessed the more important I realized this ONE flavor is to people. I began to understand that to many people the Scuro was not just 'another flavor of gelato' but was an immense source of happiness, and often a must have after a long night of gorging on Passyunk Avenue. It really blows my mind to think that we make something so darn good that it has such an intense effect over people, this goes for all our gelato but the person-to-Scuro relationship is on an entirely different level. If you think I'm exaggerating then I dare anyway to come with a group of friends to sample gelato, almost 100% of the people who try the Cioccolato Scuro will get it!
OHMAHGAWD, it's super hot outside. Like SUPER hot. It's all over the news, epic heat wave strikes Philadelphia. Stay indoors, keep hydrated, don't go running, lock up your children!! Well no one seems to be listening to most of this advice because there are swarms of people here at Capogiro today. So many that I'm gonna have to keep this blog post short and sweet so that I can go scoop gelato to the sweaty masses. Not that we're complaining! We feel that the best way to stay cool in this hellish weather is to chow down on some tasty frozen treats. So if you can, please walk, don't run, to your nearest Capo and get cool with us. New flavors today, Cactus Pear and Lemon Thyme sorbetto!!! Makes a great combination! Also, New Yorkers, be sure to check us out this weekend at Meatopia in Brooklyn!
From the time I could walk, allllll the way through 12th grade, I attended Quaker school. Like any kid growing up, I expressed my share of gripes about teachers, classes, peers, school rules, etc, but ultimately, when I reflect on attending the school that I did, I feel immense gratitude.
How nice. End of story? Nope. Why am I writing about it? It's a tough world out there these days, and I think we could all use a gentle dose of Quaker values. Some of the values that were routinely stressed in learning about Quakerism are those that I think many people overlook in day to day actions and interactions. They were stressed for a reason, dang it. Quakers were - and are still - smart! Below are a few values that at a young age, I was beginning to understand (though I probably couldn't articulate them very well) as being central to positive interactions and experiences.
These values are still core to a functioning atmosphere, small or large-scale, but they are too often forgotten in the midst of anger, selfishness, politics, hurt, loss, etc... Each is simple, and simply achieved given the right mindset. How do we get there? Open our hearts and our eyes and be more aware. Really though, that's a good start.
Although my family only practiced Quakerism during the earlier years of my life, Meeting for Worship was built into the school-week, and was a time that I learned to cherish as I grew older. For those of you unfamiliar with Meeting for Worship, it is typically a 30-60 minute period where a body of people (usually Quakers, but not exclusively!) gather and sit in silence. If you are moved to speak, you rise from your seat and do so. You can say anything. Literally anything. You are expected to be respectful, obviously, but there are no topics that are considered off-limits. You may not directly address other members of the worship, nor may they directly address you, but if something someone speaks about, moves anther person to speak, they are more than welcome to respond so long as it is addressed generally.
In elementary school, kids would stand and say things like "I miss my goldfish Spaz, my cat ate him last week" or "I really liked recess today because we got to play dodgeball outside and my team was really really really cool and we won". As we got older, the nature of Meeting began to change. The depth of what was shared increased, along with relation to current events in the immediate school community and beyond. By the time I reached high school, it was fairly common for Meeting to turn into a discussion, maintaining a wonderfully respectful yet productive dynamic, regardless of whether the topic incited anger, pain, frustration, or confusion.
The importance of respect and open-mindedness are qualities that are often let go too easily. I see it, so I'm sure you've all seen it. It's sad and disheartening to witness instances of ignorance, disrespect, or mistreatment, and they happen literally all the time. I know that with enough like-minded people, we can begin help others realize the impact that a simple positive interaction can have. It starts with you! So what if that sounds cheesy?!
My apologies if it sounded like school up in here. I can't help it. Quaker values may have been drilled into me, but it was in an entirely peaceful fashion, and it was worth it. I haven't been to Meeting for Worship in a few years, so I won't suggest one Meeting House over another, but there are plenty in the Philadelphia area, and all are open to visitors. Check one, or three... out!
Finally, your homework: on your way from one place to another this week, smile at 3 different people. Don't be a creeper, just share your smile! It really, honestly can do wonders :)
Two things I guarantee will make you smile. And if not, well...I'm not quite sure what to do for you. Raspberries. Raspberries will help.
"Of the genius waitress, I now sing.
Of hidden knowledge, buried ambition, and secret sonnets scribbled on cocktail napkins; of aching arches, ranting cooks, condescending patrons, and eyes diverted from ancient Greece to ancient grease; of burns and pinches and savvy and spunk; of a uniquely American woman living a uniquely American compromise, I sing. I sing of the genius waitress.
Okay, okay, she's probably not really a genius. But she is well-educated. She has a degree in Sanskrit, ethnoastronomy, Icelandic musicology, or something equally valued in contemporary marketplace. Even if she could find work in her chosen field, it wouldn't pay beans--so she slings them instead. (The genius waitress is not to be confused with the aspiring-actress waitress, so prevalent in Manhattan and Los Angeles and so different from her sister in temperament and I.Q.)
As a type, the genius waitress is sweet and sassy, funny and smart; young, underestimated, fatalistic, weary, cheery (not happy, cheerful: there's a difference and she understands it), a tad bohemian, often borderline alcoholic, frequently pretty (though her hair reeks of kitchen and bar); as independent as a cave bear (though ever hopeful of "true love") and, above all, genuine.
Covertly sentimental, she fusses over toddlers and old folks, yet only fear of unemployment prevents her from handing an obnoxious customer his testicles with his bill.
Eventually, she leaves food service for graduate school or marriage; but unless she wins a grant or a fair divorce settlement, chances are she'll be back, a few years down the line, reciting the daily specials with her own special mixture of warmth and ennui.
Erudite emissary of eggs over easy, polymath purveyor of polenta and prawns, articulate angel of apple pie, the genius waitress is on duty right now in hundreds of U.S. restaurants, smile at the ready, sauce on the side. So brush up on your Schopenhauer, place your order--and tip, mister, tip. She deserves a break today.
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