When you think of Wrigley Field in Chicago, you don’t think of cell phones and appetizers. You think of baseball and the Cubs. That’s why it’s weird that this Italian concoction sticks with me.
This event happened at the advent of the cell phone revolution. It must have been around the spring of 2001, give or take a year or two. My brothers and I were sitting outside the stadium after taking in a Cubs game, at a small Italian bistro, watching the street life. We ordered an appetizer we saw at another table. Waiting for it to arrive, we began taking note of people walking, standing or driving cars while talking on their phones, a fairly new thing at the time.
Cracking jokes about people blah blahing into their phones, standing on top of the building next door, bumping into walkers while chatting obliviously, we dug into our bread. The waiter came out, mixed some olive oil and fresh baked garlic, into some grated parmesan cheese. He mashed it all up. The bread was steaming. We dipped it into the mixture. Heaven!
We pounded the first round of food and beverage, and asked the waiter for more. We ate and drank, and mocked people who appeared molded to their cell phones, as the evening slipped away.
The dish itself is the essence of simplicity, recreated here for you on “Meals We Steal.”
Buy a fresh loaf of Italian bread, fresh garlic, olive oil and grated parmesan cheese, if you don’t already have those ingredients at home. Warm the bread. You can bake the garlic or microwave it (put some water over it to moisten it). Cook it just enough to soften it.
Peel the garlic after it is heated. Put it in a bowl, pour in some olive oil, mix in the cheese, mash it together, dip in the bread and enjoy. It will be hard to stop eating, so yomight want to buy enough to feed an army. You can astound your friends with this appetizer next time the Cubs go to the World Series. Make sure to bring your cell phone.
This event happened at the advent of the cell phone revolution. It must have been around the spring of 2001, give or take a year or two. My brothers and I were sitting outside the stadium after taking in a Cubs game, at a small Italian bistro, watching the street life. We ordered an appetizer we saw at another table. Waiting for it to arrive, we began taking note of people walking, standing or driving cars while talking on their phones, a fairly new thing at the time.
Cracking jokes about people blah blahing into their phones, standing on top of the building next door, bumping into walkers while chatting obliviously, we dug into our bread. The waiter came out, mixed some olive oil and fresh baked garlic, into some grated parmesan cheese. He mashed it all up. The bread was steaming. We dipped it into the mixture. Heaven!
We pounded the first round of food and beverage, and asked the waiter for more. We ate and drank, and mocked people who appeared molded to their cell phones, as the evening slipped away.
The dish itself is the essence of simplicity, recreated here for you on “Meals We Steal.”
Buy a fresh loaf of Italian bread, fresh garlic, olive oil and grated parmesan cheese, if you don’t already have those ingredients at home. Warm the bread. You can bake the garlic or microwave it (put some water over it to moisten it). Cook it just enough to soften it.
Peel the garlic after it is heated. Put it in a bowl, pour in some olive oil, mix in the cheese, mash it together, dip in the bread and enjoy. It will be hard to stop eating, so yomight want to buy enough to feed an army. You can astound your friends with this appetizer next time the Cubs go to the World Series. Make sure to bring your cell phone.
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