Well my friends, I’m back. I of course must start with an apology for neglecting you all for so very long. I assure you that things have been busy and that the dear Festivus G has been on my mind at all times, or at least mealtimes, since my last post one year ago.

I am compelled to begin again today, not just because of the mounting pile of pictures of food on my hard drive, but because I realize that the Festivus Gastronomicus has a higher purpose.

I was coming home from opera rehearsal this afternoon and venting to friends that a good critic serves both the community and the artists by raising standards. If all critics were more than just PR, the public would be enlightened and artists would be challenged to push their boundaries. After all, it is a great pleasure to sing for a knowledgeable audience.

Quite separate from this conversation, I went into one of my favorite restaurants in Boston and realized that things were amiss and that I could help. The Festivus Gastronomicus, a modest voice for enlightened palates, could deliver a helpful message and bring deliciousness to the people and succor to the proprietors of the tastiest place in Boston.

So here we are. I’ll probably go through a huge backlog before getting to any ‘new’ reviews. Hope you enjoy.

We’ve all come to grips with the myriad “hot or not” and “rate my . . .” sites on the Internet. Some lost our jobs or friends because of the sick addiction. What’s the harm with rating one more picture?

Now, I’ve unwittingly become part of the problem, but I’m proud of it.

Someone posted a picture of my homemade pizza on a “hot or not” site devoted to pizzas.

http://hotlists.hotornot.com/Style-g34266545-Pizza-Pie.html

(UPDATE: link removed because they swapped out my picture with a new one)

Please take minute out of your busy day and vote for my pie.

To all my lovely readers. I’m truly sorry for making you wait so long for the goodness, but now I’m back. I had to take a break from the Festivus G to get my master’s degree all finished up. Now that school is finished, I can return to my job as faithful servant of flavor, fervent hunter of tastiness, and fearless gastronomic explorer.

Lots of amazing food things have happened since the last post. However, circumstances beyond my control led to the loss of all the pictures of the exciting holiday foodness. Let’s not dwell on what could have been. Instead, let us embrace the new year with open cookbooks, preheated ovens, and a willingness to test our limits.

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So all of a sudden we decided to move last week and things have been crazy for the last few days. Despite the massive disruption of our schedules and exhausting time I had moving our things up 3 flights of narrow stairs, I’m absolutely elated to be living in a real home.

More importantly, I’m beside myself having a real kitchen. Our new kitchen has a full size gas stove, dishwasher, and walk-in pantry. Finally, I have room to store all the kitchen gadgets I’ve been dreaming of.

Also, our new neighborhood is awesome. My favorite Mexican food restaurant is across the street- I can see it from where I’m typing now. There is a butcher shop called Meatland a block away, also a bakery, a fruit market, and lots of exciting new Latin eateries. We are in heaven.

To add to our excitement, we saw Justin Mih last night. You may recognize the name from our field trip to the Hot Dog Safari. I recognized him last night at Tacos El Charro across the street and we chatted for a while about his experience as an I.F.O.C.E. ranked eater. He was a really cool guy and I hope to get an interview done with him and talk about his training and competitions.

I’ll try to take pictures of all the new sights and blog about the new tastes around our new apartment as soon as possible.

Don’t get me wrong, I love tang. Love it. But if I was going to live in a space station for months at a time, I think I’d get sick of eating nothing but powders and tubed food.

To solve the gastronomic dilemma of serving up tasty meals that meet the tricky requirements of space travel, the European Space Agency has turned to gourmet chef Alain Ducasse.

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I wish I could say I’m blogging about all the fun and delicious food I cook and eat in a week, but there’s hardly time enough for the few things I do get to. To make matters worse, I’m not always diligent enough remembering to take a camera with me when I’m out, or stopping to take pictures while I’m in the middle of cooking.

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After California appallingly gave in to the most petty kind of political cheapshotism by outlawing the farming and selling of foie gras, New Jersey is looking to attack artisanal farmers and pass similar anti-French legislation.

Thankfully, celebrity chefs are speaking out against the right-wing fascists: Anthony Bourdain and Michael Ruhlmann laid it out for Salon today.

www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2006/10/05/ruhlman_bourdain_foie/

“This reeks on so many levels. Along with other wrong-headed, easy-fix, knee-jerk reactions to perceived food scares,”

It’s just another anti-French, anti-choice piece of legislation that is grossly misdirected. The farms in the US they are shutting down with this legislation are some of the most humane ones in the country.

Ironically, those in favor of the resolution have resorted to acts of terrorism against humans.

This is how the chefs describe the situation:

“Cruelly raised foie gras — the poor animals you see in the videos in tiny pens with tubes being, as they always say, “shoved down their throats” — is bad foie gras. None of us would buy that stuff. That’s not what we want, and that’s not what D’Artagnan sells. In proper foie gras farming, the same feeder tends the duck every day, and more often than not, it’s the duck who approaches the feeder. They have room to run around, to live a good, natural life — even a pampered one — compared with the horrifying and vastly more widespread practice of raising battery chickens.”

I think even the looniest anthropomorphist would agree with that.

Please contact the NJ legislators by clicking on their names below and urge them to Free the Foie and vote against the bill.

Bill Sponsors:

Assemblywoman Joan Voss
Assemblyman Thomas Giblin
Assemblyman Michael Panter

Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee:

Assemblyman Douglas Fisher - Chair
Assemblyman Nelson Albano - Vice-Chair
Assemblyman Herb Conaway
Assemblyman Ronald Dancer
Assemblywoman Marcia Karrow

E-mail by clicking the link next to “Electronic Mail.” (Thanks to superchefblog for putting in the legwork on the legislator links)

I am very grateful to have received an amazing gift from my friend Olivia Stapp last month when I was working with her at Opera San Jose. It is a cookbook she bought years ago in Italy which she has treasured and which I will certainly treasure as well.

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Thanks to an awesome collaborative effort between my friend Jason and girlfriend Jen, the Festivus G is even more festive- and a helluva lot more G.

Thanks to Jen for putting together the awesome logo. Jason gets credit for uncovering the mysteries of WordPress for me.

Now it’s up to me to give y’all something to read.

-L