The Pavlova is a truly historic dessert. I first posted about it way back in the Early Bloggian period, here; and it made another appearance at an Eastover celebration a couple of years ago, here. It's truly one of my very favorite desserts, so texturally complex, light yet satisfying. And I also adore its provenance: created in honor of the Russian ballet dancer, Anna Pavlova, during one of her tours to Australia and New Zealand in the 1920s. The nationality of its creator has been the cause of controversy between the two countries for many years, though formal research seems to indicate that New Zealand is the original source.

Read More...

A very quick post to urge you to treat yourself to a viewing of the grossly underrated 2008 movie, The Love Guru, starring the incomparable Mike Meyers as "the second best guru" (after Deepak, of course). I have watched this at least 6 times now and never fail to laugh at Meyers' hilarious Peter-Sellers-worthy performance: his accent, the gleam in his eye, the sheer delight he takes in his performance, the fabulous musical numbers, not to mention all the infantile scatalogical jokes. And Ben Kingsley as the cross-eyed Guru Tugginmapudha is absolutely priceless.

The first time I had a Pavlova was long ago at JoJo, Jean Georges Vongerichten’s jewel box of a restaurant in an Upper East Side townhouse. That might even have been the original source for his now-classic (and copied into ubiquity) molten chocolate cake. But it was the Pavolva in all its crunchy creaminess that captured my heart. This ethereal meringue dessert was allegedly created as a tribute to the ballerina Anna Pavlova on her 1926 tour to New Zealand and in fact it’s wonderfully light—and relatively low in calories. Balthazar does a nice one with mixed berries. A Pavlova is fancy enough to impress guests and quite easy to whip up. The version below, from Gourmet magazine, is served with lemon curd.
Read More...