When Ayun Halliday asked me to host a stop on her
virtual book tour, I had to accept. I loved the
idea of a virtual book tour. Could I do a virtual cookbook tour? Shit, I'm sure someone has already beat me to it. I was also intrigued to read Halliday's new book, Dirty Sugar Cookies. She mentioned something about hating pasta in an email to me, so I knew this book would be interesting considering I have dreams about the fresh, soft sausage filled tortellini we had while staying in Modena a few years ago. Pasta is one of my favorite things. Ever. I needed to find out how such a tragedy could occur!
But it was far from a tragedy. In fact, I enjoyed some of the family and food related stories Ayun tells in Dirty Sugar Cookies. I can't forget about the story of her mother making crazy gourmet food on a nightly basis for her and not always appreciating it. I always get a lot of crap from my coworkers who sit and openly laugh about when I will become a Dad and give my kids fancy fussy meals all the time (a joke about foie gras in a launch bag sent them into laughter. Losers). But the crazy Aussie woman I work with thinks it will be even funnier to envision me opening a can of Chef Boy R-Sandra Lee for a screaming kid. (Now that's not gonna happen).
Ayun's book stirred many food thoughts from my past and made me think about them for the first
time in a long time. But her editor had her leave out a now mysterious chapter based on why she hates pasta. This is indeed very intriguing to me. I would love to know why - send me this chapter, Ayun!
So in tribute to the launch of Ayun Halliday's Dirty Sugar Cookies, I'll re-post an old dish from the archives that is not a pasta, yet possibly an interesting substitute. This dish is curry seared scallops with mint tapioca and green onion sauce.
You can pick up Dirty Sugar Cookies here.




Haute cuisine celebrity chef w/proven track record and $$$ seeks foodie as partner/investor for Manhattan upper eastside restaurant venture near completion. jburger3@nyc.rr.com
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