Whether you loved Elizabeth Gilbert’s "Eat, Pray, Love" memoir or rolled your eyes over its self-absorbed tone, most of us can agree on one thing: the author knows how to eat.
In the throes of her post-divorce depression, the memoirist immersed herself in Italy’s culture, as well as its flame-torched pizza and icy gelato. She traveled to the land of exotic curries and spicy chutneys to find spirituality, and discovered love in the tropical forests of Indonesia, where the flavors of lemon grass and galangal mingle on the palate.
With the cinematic version of the bestseller in theaters, we decided to jump on the "eat" portion of the equation, asking three chefs to awaken our appetite with an "Eat, Pray, Love" menu of their own.
We turned to the new Mediterranean-inspired Locanda de Eva in Berkeley, Calif., the eclectic Indian Junnoon in Palo Alto, Calif., and the Indonesian-focused Straits restaurants group.
Huw Thornton, executive chef at Berkeley’s Locanda de Eva, is quick to point out that. "Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia" is not on his reading list. After all it’s, well, chick lit.
"Does that really seem like my demographic?" he asks, laughing.
Still, he skimmed the sections about Italy to come up with his recommendations.
"The Rome section is," he says, "well, not sex-obsessed, but that plays a part. So I thought of voluptuous, luscious, sexy food."
This includes a salad with fried sunchokes and ripe juicy peaches.
"Spaghetti Carbonara is a gooey, lustful pasta," he says. "And goat stew — or lamb stew, for the home cook — is gutsy and hearty, earthy and rustic."
To end the meal, Thornton would serve a creamy panna cotta, flavored with honey, orange and fresh mint, the perfect dessert for a home cook. If these flavors and textures don’t reawaken your love of life, he says, a year of globe-trotting won’t do it either.
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Passionate India: Kirti Pant, executive chef at Junnoon, Palo Alto’s modern Indian restaurant, came up with a menu that would speak to the author, who discovered in her ashram meditations that contentment lies not just in passion, but in balance.
Indian food awakens the senses with its diversity of spices and flavors, says Pant. "But the underlying common thread is always a good balance between all the different senses, the sweet and the sour, the salt and the sugar."
He suggests a cocktail party-ready menu of marinated chicken tikka skewers, mint- and cilantro-infused lamb kebabs, and a salad of bean sprouts, oranges, peanuts and ginger that fairly sizzles with flavor.
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Beautiful Bali: Gilbert’s year of globe-trotting came to a close in Bali, where she fell in love on the tropical Indonesian island. Located halfway between Australia and India, this nation of islands reflects its position at the crossroads of Indian and Asian cultures. And the food, says Straits executive chef Chris Yeo, incorporates elements of Thai, Indonesian, Indian and Vietnamese cuisines.
Yeo’s Indonesian eatery began as a hole-in-the-wall on San Francisco’s Geary Boulevard in 1987, and now includes restaurants in Atlanta, Houston, San Francisco and San Jose’s Santana Row and the Peninsula.
"Indonesian food appeals to people because of the ingredients — the lemon grass, the garlic, the Kaffir lime and chiles — melting together," the Singapore native says.
So Yeo suggests dishes that meld savory and spicy flavors, including prawns in sambal, a spicy homemade chile paste, and tender short ribs bathed in coconut milk and steeped in lemon grass, chile paste and ginger.
The menus are enough to make anyone eat, pray, love — and eat some more.
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ITALY: FRIED SUNCHOKES WITH PEACHES, ALMONDS, RADICCHIO, ENDIVE AND PARSLEY
Serves 4
A handful of sunchokes
Grapeseed or canola oil
1-2 white or yellow peaches
Half a head radicchio
Belgian endive
A few leaves Italian parsley
Small handful toasted, crushed almonds
Red wine vinegar
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt to taste
1. Cut the sunchokes into small chunks, the size of rolling dice. Heat oil to 350 degrees and fry the sunchokes until they color a bit on the outside, and get a little tender on the inside. Drain on paper towels.
2. Cut the peaches into desirable chunks, whatever you think looks good for a salad.
3. Chop the radicchio and endive so they’re a little chunky, but nothing fancy.
4. Assemble your salad with all the components, adding vinegar, oil and salt to taste. Refry your sunchokes a second time, getting them nice and crispy on the outside, but still tender. Add the hot sunchokes to the salad, toss and serve.
—Huw Thornton, executive chef, Locanda de Eva
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SPAGHETTI CARBONARA
Serves 4
1 box semolina spaghetti
1/2 pound hunk of guanciale or pancetta
Black peppercorns, lightly fried in olive oil, then crushed
2 eggs plus 2 egg yolks
Pecorino Romano
1. Cook the spaghetti in well-salted water.
2. Meanwhile, thinly slice your guanciale into strips, and fry them until they soften and begin to crisp a bit. Set aside, reserving the fat.
3. Whisk together the eggs and yolks. Set aside.
4. Before the pasta is fully cooked, get your guanciale and a generous spoonful of its fat going in a saute pan. Add a healthy handful of fried black pepper. When the guanciale is crispy, remove the pan from the heat and hit it with a little water to stop the cooking.
5. Reserve a little pasta water. Drain the pasta and add it to the guanciale, along with a little pasta water. Set the pan over moderate heat, tossing the pasta as you go. When almost dry, remove from heat, add eggs, and toss thoroughly until a thick, creamy sauce forms. Serve in bowls with grated pecorino on top.
—Huw Thornton, executive chef, Locanda de Eva
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BRAISED GOAT SHOULDER WITH SUMMER PEPPERS
Serves 10 or more
1 goat or lamb shoulder, with or without the bone
5 pounds mixed summer peppers (yellow and red bell peppers, gypsy peppers, wax peppers)
8 red onions
1 pint white wine
4 quarts chicken stock
1 bay leaf
Freshly torn basil leaves
Extra virgin olive oil
1. Salt the goat thoroughly. Refrigerate overnight.
2. Remove your goat from the fridge. Let sit for about an hour. Set your oven to broil.
3. Meanwhile, clean and slice peppers into 3/8-inch strips, removing seeds. Set on sheet trays, toss with a little olive oil and salt, and broil, tossing as you go, until soft and a little charred around the outside. Do the same with the onions, sliced the same thickness.
4. When you’ve finished with the pepper and onions, remove the trays from the ovens. Pour the white wine over the vegetables, scraping the pans with a wooden spoon.
5. Place the goat on a sheet tray, and set under broiler, rotating the goat until you’ve gotten it nice and brown all over. Keep an eye on it!
6. Place the goat, pepper, onions, bay leaf and stock in a large Dutch oven and cover. Set the oven to 400 degrees. Braise until tender, about 3-3 1/2 hours. Remove from braising liquid when finished. If bone-in, wait for the meat to cool and pick it off the bone, then return the meat to the liquid. If bone-out, just shred it up with some tongs. This keeps well in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
7. To serve, heat your desired portion in a small pot. Just as it boils, add some torn basil. Serve in a soup bowl, with a drizzle of olive oil on top. Note: For a heartier meal, cook some fingerling potatoes in the braising liquid after you’ve removed the goat shoulder.
—Huw Thornton, executive chef, Locanda de Eva
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HONEY-MINT PANNA COTTA
Serves 4
1 1/2 sheets silver gelatin or 1/2 teaspoon powdered gelatin
1 cup cream
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons honey
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon orange zest
2 tablespoons chopped mint
2 fresh plums
Sugar
Spiced almonds
1 tablespoon egg whites, room temperature
Pinch of salt
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/4 teaspoon toasted ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon anise seeds
1. Soak the gelatin sheet in water (or soften gelatin powder in a spoonful of warm water, and add it in the next step).
2. Combine cream, milk, sugar, honey and salt in a stainless steel pot and warm until dissolved. Remove from heat.
3. Squeeze excess water from gelatin sheet and stir into cream until dissolved. Add mint and zest. Cool, strain out mint and pour into molds. Chill, covered, for at least 24 hours.
4. Preheat oven to 350. Beat the egg white and salt until foamy. Add sugar and beat 1-2 minutes. Stir in nuts and spices, then spread on a baking sheet and roast 20 minutes until golden, stirring with an offset metal spatula every 7 minutes to coat nuts. Let cool.
5. To remove the panna cotta, set the molds in a shallow pan of hot water for a few minutes; run a warm knife around the edge and upturn over a chilled plate or bowl. Garnish each serving with plum slices, tossed with a little sugar, and a few spiced almonds.
—Huw Thornton, executive chef, Locanda de Eva
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INDIA: ACHARI CHICKEN TIKKA
Serves 6-8
Note: Panch phoran is a Bengali spice mixture. Find it at Indian specialty shops and Whole Foods Markets.
4 tablespoons ginger and garlic paste
2 teaspoons garam masala
2 teaspoons white pepper powder
1 cup mixed pickle, such as Pachranga, finely minced
2 cups plain yogurt (full fat, Greek-style)
1/2 cup mustard, canola, corn or vegetable oil
8 teaspoons panch phoran
4 teaspoons Thai thin green chile, julienned
4 teaspoons fresh ginger, julienned
2 teaspoons turmeric
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut bite-sized
Salt to taste
1. Blend the ginger-garlic paste, garam masala, white pepper, pickles and yogurt.
2. Heat the oil, then add the panch phoran. When it crackles, add the chile, ginger and turmeric. Combine with yogurt mixture. Add chicken and salt, and marinate 2-3 hours.
3. Skewer and barbecue the chicken, or bake in a preheated 475-degree oven for 10-15 minutes or until done.
—Kirti Pant, executive chef, Junnoon
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LAMB KEBAB ROLL
Serves 25
4 1/2 pounds ground lamb
1/2 bunch mint
1/2 bunch cilantro
1/4 cup ground coriander
1/4 cup ginger garlic paste
1/4 cup chopped jalapeno
1 yellow onion, minced and sauteed till golden
1/4 cup salt
1/2 cup clarified butter
1 teaspoon garam masala
Mint chutney, sliced red onion, paratha bread for serving
Mix the ingredients thoroughly. Form into meatballs, thread onto skewers and grill over medium heat for 8-10 minutes, or roast in a tandoor oven at 600 degrees for 5-8 minutes. Serve with mint chutney, sliced red onion and paratha bread.
—Kirti Pant, executive chef, Junnoon
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ANGLO-INDIAN SPROUT SALAD WITH PEANUTS AND ORANGE
3 cups bean sprouts
1/2 cup English cucumber, julienned
1/2 cup frisee, white parts trimmed
1/2 cup radicchio, shredded
1/2 cup red onion, sliced thin
1/2 cup orange segments
1/2 cup crushed fried peanuts
2 teaspoons minced ginger
2 teaspoons minced jalapeno
2 tablespoons cilantro, cut in a chiffonade
2 teaspoons chaat masala
1 teaspoon crushed black pepper
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon salt
Toss all the ingredients together and serve.
—Kirti Pant, executive chef, Junnoon
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INDONESIA: PRAWN SAMBAL
Serves 3-4
Galangal is a ginger-like root commonly used in Indonesian cooking. Find galangal, candlenuts and blachan at Asian markets, some Whole Foods and specialty food stores.
Paste
1 quarter-size slice fresh Galangal, minced
2 candlenuts, soaked in water for 10 minutes
1 stalk fresh lemon grass, peeled and sliced
4 shallots or 1 medium onion, peeled and sliced
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1/2 inch square blachan (dried shrimp paste)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons red chile paste
Shrimp
3/4 pound large shrimp, shelled and deveined
1 small onion, sliced
1 tomato, cut into wedges
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1. Use a blender to grind the first six ingredients into a smooth paste, adding a tablespoon of water, if needed.
2. Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add chile paste and fry for 2 minutes, stirring until the oil turns reddish. Add the paste and fry, stirring, until fragrant and dark mahogany red, about 5 minutes. It is ready when reddish oil seeps out.
3. Add the shrimp, onion and tomato, and stir fry over high heat until the shrimp turn bright orange, 2 minutes. Season with sugar, salt and lime juice. Serve with coconut rice.
—Chef Chris Yeo, Straits Restaurant, Santana Row
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BEEF RENDANG
Serves 4
1 1/4 pounds beef chuck or short rib meat, cut into 1 1/4-inch pieces
1-inch chunk fresh ginger, peeled and finely minced
Paste
1-inch chunk fresh galangal, sliced
5 candlenuts, soaked for 10 minutes
3 stalks fresh lemon grass, trimmed and sliced
6 shallots or 1 1/2 onions peeled and halved
5 cloves garlic, halved
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons red chile paste
Sauce
6 Kaffir lime leaves
1/2 can unsweetened coconut milk, shaken well
Juice of 1/2 lemon
4 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water
1. Toss the beef with the ginger. Set aside.
2. Grind the paste ingredients in a blender. In a pan over medium heat, stir fry the paste for about 2 minutes, or until a reddish oil seeps through.
3. Mix sauce ingredients and add to paste mixture, cooking over medium heat until fully blended. Add beef and simmer for 3 hours or until tender.
—Chef Chris Yeo, Straits Restaurant, Santana Row
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KUEH NAGA SARI
Serves 20
1 cup rice flour
1 tablespoon corn flour
Salt to taste
4 1/2 cups coconut milk
3/4 cup light brown sugar
A few drops vanilla
Bananas, sliced
Banana leaves or foil cut into 6-inch squares
1. In a saucepot, blend the rice and corn flours, coconut milk and salt. Add sugar and bring the mixture to a simmer, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens.
2. Put a tablespoon of the mixture in the center of a banana leaf, top with a slice of banana, wrap and place in a steamer over simmering water. Steam for 10 minutes.
—Chef Chris Yeo, Straits Restaurant, Santana Row
