Saturday, March 20, 2010

Lightweight, Wood-Fired, Gourmet Range.









You want food to match the collage, the confluence of color and smell the river represents. You want to taste it, its banks and eddies, in fresh ingredients the Native Penobscot ate.

The right tools, be it glowing birch coal, French sea salt or pair of tongs, coax the meal from the pot or grill, enliven the spirits of the ingredient, not the cook.

I think two burners, a knife roll of cutlery, spice and array of utensils, along with a little bit of balls, throw in two good stoves...?....you're talkin' "Napa high". (the feeling of intoxication achieved through the consumption of food - GOOD food - imagine 9 courses for lunch at French Laundry, [you cant get in a car and drive after that])

As a two burner cook, not a one pot slop shop, the extra cooking tools always added extra weight to my pack or boat. But, without the weight and space canister gas adds, one can carry more fresh food or more importantly -booze, with use of this stove.

Settling into the cool dirt of riverside woods getting down on your knees actually working for your fire is meditative. Arched over your stove it begins to shine its old world charms, it's hobo beginnings.

It is the eppitiome of simple, yet advanced, lightweight stove. Nothing compliments a rushing river more than a lighter tread.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Dreaming of Fresh Riverside Camp Cooked Food,



...the chanting audience of birds whisked into the freedom of the North Maine sky, or deep golden chanterelles and shallots, fat Brook Trout, wild oregano and lemon against the crackle of a hot pan, the crackle of a beer can, ah, the two indistinguishable sounds of pouring beer and the faint cocktail chatter of river trickling through a downed birch strainer.