Back to Boston

So I found out today that I have been awarded a Fulbright scholarship to do research in Paraguay for 2008-2009. This is really great news for my research, because I was starting to get really worried that I was very short on time and now I will be able to extend my project and look at how different peasant organizations are reacting to the cannibalistic spread of the soybean industry. This probably means I'll be going back to the U.S. a little sooner than I expected, and I'll be back in Paraguay a lot sooner. All this back and forth is getting to be a bit much, but I certainly am not about to complain. But I figure I should catch up on my blogging about the meals I cooked in Boston before its time to go back again.

In the last few weeks before my sublet ran out, I took advantage of having the kitchen and made some pretty good meals.

1. This was not one of them: Curried Pumpkin soup. It was an extreme convenience meal. Preparation consisted of me dumping a can of pumpkin left behind by the former subletter of my room in beacon hill into a pot with a can of coconut milk, half a jar of red curry paste, and half a box of chicken broth. I threw in some left over canned tomatoes too, and topped it off with chopped cilantro. My roommate said it "tasted like curry sauce." I can't say that it was the most delicious thing I made while in Boston, but it fed me in less than 10 minutes, used up some leftover ingredients, and let me get back to work really quick as I was preparing my colloquium. And I wouldn't say it was 'bad.'2. This was followed, however, by one of the best meals I've cooked in a long time. Rum braised beef short rib with roasted butternut squash.
I have been meaning to do a big long, ranty post about how much I hate butternut squash. With all the tremendous, delicious diversity of squash that exists in the world and in its native American habitat, the butternut squash has somehow gained a regrettable culinary hegemony. Do a search for squash soup, winter vegetable stew, squash gnocchi, squash risotto--what you will--and you'll observe how the butternut, the bully of the squash world, has marginalized its more delicious and beautiful brothers into shameful obscurity. It's watery, flavorless flesh, smooth, pale skin, and industrial uniformity recalls alarmist cold war depictions of communist consumer autocracy. Yet, it is the capitalist forces of Safeway or Super Stop and Shop and some industrial-scale farm in California or Texas, rather than Big Brother, that has perfected blandness and obliterated choice. How could anyone pass up the turban squashs's explosive colors, the oddness of the hubbard and kabocha squashes, the elegance of the fairytale pumpkin and golden nugget squash, the buttercup squash's rustic charm, and the rich, creamy, even caramely, flesh they harbor for such a miserly vegetable as the butter nut squash? I'll never know. But . . . having just read the omnivores dilemma and being as I am, deeply concerned with agricultural sustainability, I decided that I would try to eat more locally while I was in Boston, and at whole foods (the only supermarket in the vicinity of the room I was renting) the butternut squash and the beets were about the only local produce available. The butternut squash's shortcomings aside, its shape did make for a nice presentation here, and this meal was delicious. I was very sad to have eaten such a delicious meal by myself. But as it was the middle of a very busy week, I couldn't find a dinner guest.
3. I had many guests at another memorable meal: "mussels two ways." In keeping with my desire to eat more locally, I steamed up two heaping bowls of new england mussels, one with tomato broth, olives, and Spanish chorizo, and another with leaks, cream and lemon zest. Mussels are my go to dinner party dish, because they are quick, cheap (at least in Boston) and delicious as long as they are fresh. They make a great impression without much work or expense. These took a little more work than I bargained for, as they were particularly dirty and bearded [cheap, quick, dirty and bearded . . . doesn't sound like the makings for a dinner party], but I put my friend Roberto to work cleaning as I get everything else ready. Luckily the crowd was a relaxed one with no hurry [despite appearances], and when it was ready we worked our leisurely way to the bottom of both bowls as well as many bottles of wine. I hope there will be lots more meals like this with these friends when I eventually get back to Boston.
4. This meal was meant for David while he was in town, but I didn't get to cooking it until the very last day that I was in my sublet kitchen. It's the second installment of squid ink pasta I promised long ago: black linguine with smoked salmon, capers, leeks and cream. The salmon and capers together were a bit salty, but still a good use of squid ink pasta, I think.
The last meal I made before returning to Paraguay was with my friend melanie. I believe this was tilapia, with cream and roasted poblano chile rajas. On the side was balsamic glazed brussel sprouts with caramelized shallots. This is one of my favorite fish recipes. The roasted peppers have a smoky, sweet, and entirely unique flavor that marries perfectly with the cream and fish.

Victory for Paraguayan Democracy!

Today we woke up in a new country. The opposition’s land-slide victory in Paraguay’s general elections will end the Colorado Party's 61-year hold on power. It was almost surreal last night, to hear the candidates one by one concede victory to Fernando Lugo only three hours after the poles closed. Blanca Ovelar, the Colorado Candidate, appeared on T.V. in the deserted party headquarters to declare that opposition candidate Fernando Lugo's 10-point lead "irreversible" and that she would do nothing to steal his victory. After what seemed like an ungracious, foot-dragging delay, Nicanor Duarte Frutos, the current president, appeared before the press gathered in the conference room at the presidential mansion, and declared the transition would be a peaceful one.

This comes after months of despicable smear campaigns the likes of which the U.S. has not known, reports of vote buying, discovery of voter registries that had thousands of dead people on them, and rumors of other assorted fraud attempts and conspiracy theories about how the election would be rigged and assassination plots would be hatched—months of news that generally cast doubt on the possibilities for a change in government. Some of these reports seemed far fetched, however, that the government was preparing massive fraud, would otherwise intervene in the results to prevent a transition, or would perhaps just refuse to give up power, were not at all outside the realm of possibility and imagination. In a poll by La Nación, a Paraguayan daily, 88% of respondents thought that the ruling party could potentially interfere with a change of power.

I can only conclude that the opposition's victory was so large that it exceeded the Colorado's capacity for fraud at the polls, and that the upwelling of support and celebration so substantial that the ruling party could not stomach the discontent, violence, and chaos that ignoring or overturning the popular will would have provoked. The scene that unfolded last night before the monument that holds the remains of Paraguay’s national heroes in downtown Asunción was one for the history books. The crowd of thousands that gathered to celebrate the opening of a new chapter in Paraguayan history looked much like the other crowds that have marked this countries flawed political history: the throngs that materialized after the 1989 overthrow of dictator Alfredo Stroessner, the March Massacre protests that followed Vice President Luis Argaña’s Assassination and held off ex-general (and 2008 retrograde Presidential Candidate) Lino Oviedo’s coup attempt, and the massive peasant protests that—for better or for worse—prevented the privatization and pilfering of state property and enterprise. Only, the ambivalence and ambiguity that loomed above the heads of these earlier crowds was absent last night. A process that began by replacing dictatorship with “Stroessnerism without Stroessner” and a flawed regime that has gone by a variety of labels (from the relatively succinct “Competitive Authoritarianism” to the rather cumbersome “Sustained Civil-Military Control without Democracy”) ended in the fall of a once monolithic power and the conclusive expression of the popular will.

It will be very difficult and probably impossible for this government to live up to the enormous expectations generated by the historic defeat of the ruling party. But I really do believe the defeat matters on its own. Yesterday, Paraguayans lived in a country where it was impossible for the Colorado Party to lose an election; where, in order to secure employment, you needed to join the ruling party; where the state served the private interests of its managers and employees at the expense of the public good, where corruption was so rampant that holding any ambition was pointless. Today, while much of this may continue to be true for quite a long time, people no longer believe it is inevitable. As people begin to imagine Paraguay as a more democratic country and to see themselves as democratic citizens, their conception of the actions and behaviors that best serve their interests can change. I really believe that what we imagine ourselves to be part of and how we imagine the workings of society has a hold of its own on the political and economic realities we perceive and how we choose to respond to them. The possibility of electoral defeat introduces new kinds of strategic uncertainty into politics for political parties, politicians, and interest groups, and this uncertainty potentially opens up stretches of political space and opportunity for groups long excluded from the exercise of power. Nothing about this is inevitable. While I do feel the election results are an unambiguous good, much depends on how the mess of political and social actors respond to the uncertainty created by this shake-up, how the game to use this uncertainty to serve the different private, group, and public interests of these actors plays out, and how far the outcomes of this game goes toward creating more inclusive institutions and relationships.

The opposition's celebration last night in front of the Panteón de los Héroes in downtown Asunción. Photo: ABC Color

Eternal Winter, the Sequal

So I spend two extremely productive, extremely cold months in Boston from the end of January to the end of March. I had a very successful first colloquium (thesis proposal) and made lots of progress. They just happened to be the coldest months of the year, and just as it was going to get warmer, it was time for me to go back to Paraguay. I wasn't complaining then (and I'm not really complaining now either) because I was looking forward to some beautiful late summer days and cool evenings. Unfortunately, fall came right on time in Paraguay, because after not so much as a couple nice weeks, a cold (and wet) front moved in. Only days after I gratefully stored the three sweaters I had been rotating for the last two months in Boston, I had to dig through my wardrobe to pull them out again.

All the cold weather is weighing me down, literally. I think I gained a lot of weight in Boston, mostly because I ate a lot of unnecessary meals when I was bored and tired of doing work, and especially because I ate all of these meals at the selection of fastish-food places in the vicinity of campus. But it didn't help that when I made time to cook, I found myself craving wintry comfort foods. But there is nothing like eating rich stews and roasts, and creamy, starchy root vegetables in a warm cosy room while the snow is falling outside. I was hoping to slim down by eating lots of fresh salads and summer fair, but the way it is working out, it looks like I am destined to live two years of my life in constant winter. I'm going to have to find a way to work off the extra calories.

Some of the meals I made in Boston were really spectacular. Unfortunately, the pictures of the two best meals I made the whole time I was there stayed behind withe the camera I forgot there, but I luckily saved most of them on my computer before I came back. So you'll have to take my word for it until manage to get a hold of them. In the meantime here are the rest

1. This was a masaman curry with beef, yukon gold potatoes, and eggplant.

2. Rosemary split pea soup with pancetta and cream. This soup would have been awesome, except we just took so much longer for the peas to totally soften than the package said that I finally gave up and we ate them with slighly more 'texture' than I prefer. It was still really good though.
3. Stir-fried tempeh with kim chee and sesame. This was awesome. I love kimchee in stir fry or with noodles. Because it's a fermented mixture of usually cabage, chilies, and dried shrimp it adds lots of complex flavors with just one ingredient, lending acidity, freshness, meatiness (or 'unami,' if you will), spicyness, and saltiness to any dish.
4. Roast chicken with mashed potatoes

5. Winter vegetable stew. I used this as a filling for a pot pie once, it was awesome. It was a very fast and satisfying with some rice, but is a much more special meal if you throw crust on it.
6. Tofu and green beans with spicy black-bean-ground-pork sauce. I think this will be making a reprise soon, as I got some really excellent tofu and some yard-long beans from the farmers market this week. I guess this is kind of a combination of ma po tofu and szechuan green beans, perhaps not traditional, but it was really good.
7. A closeup.
8. Pizza with spanish chorizo and mushrooms. I made this to make use of a block of mozzarella cheese an earlier tenant had left behind in the fridge in the apartment where I was subletting a room. Unfortunately, it was fat free mozzarella. I really want to know whose idea this was, and how they can possibly continue to sell it. It really was more of a stand-in for cheese, having perhaps some of its visual and physical properties, but absolutely none of its culinary properties. It melted more like plastic than like cheese and didn't taste far off either.

8. Caprese salad. My first meal upon returning to Paraguay and my only taste of summer. Of something like 20 heirloom tomato seedlings we managed to sprout, only one grew to a full plant. That plant only managed to produce two fruits before it succumbed to a particularly virulent case of virticulum wilt. It looks like it might pull through, but I don't know if any of the little green tomatoes will grow and ripen before it gets too cold.