Welcome to another installment of asking authors about their favorite meals. This feature was inspired by my protagonist, the Amazing Conroy, who in addition to being a stage hypnotist is also very much a foodie.
This week, we hear from Daniel Abraham. I met Daniel through a quirk of convention programming on a cold February morning in Boston. We’d been paired for an autographing session and let’s just say traffic was “light.” We got to talking, and I ended up buying a copy of his first novel A Shadow in Summer. Bam! I was won over by the first page (and why this book didn’t win every major award I still don’t understand). Daniel’s also been piling up secret identities, publishing the Black Sun’s Daughter series as M. L. N. Hanover, and Leviathan Wakes as one of half James S. A. Correy.
LMS: So tell me, Daniel, what’s your best, most memorable meal?
DA: There’s this little hole in the wall by Old Town in Albuquerque called Chef du Jour. It’s in a old, run down strip mall with a health-food-and-vitamin shop next door. It’s got maybe a dozen tables on the east side of a large room and the kitchen on the west side so that all the cooking and food prep are happening in front of you while you wait. It’s just about the only place I ever drink, and even then it’s just a half-glass of red wine.
The menu there changes every week and sometimes by the day, depending on what the cook thinks looks good at the market. The ingredients are always amazing, and it shows. Usually, they’ll have a beef dish and whatever it is, it’s gorgeous. The best meal I’ve had was there, and it was the beef. I don’t remember all the details of the meat prep apart from the fact that it was wonderful. The thing that stuck in my mind was the potatoes on the side.
Usually I’m not a big fan of mashed potatoes. Nothing against them, just not much for them either. But this particular dish had crushed hazelnuts in with the potatoes, and it was so unexpected and it worked so well with the rest of the meal that I haven’t forgotten it years after the fact.
Thanks, Daniel. Hazelnuts, you say? Hmm… I’m going to add this to my list of curious things I’ve learned about New Mexico.
Next Monday: I’ll be in Reno speaking Klingon (no, seriously!), but through the magic of the internet there’ll nonetheless be another author and another meal here waiting for you!
#SFWApro
Tags: Eating Authors
