Obama's favorite Mexican Restaurant

A Meal Fit For A Candidate: Barack Obama

by Daniel Zwerdling

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Weekend Edition Sunday, October 5, 2008 · Can we learn anything about the presidential candidates from what they like to eat? As a public service, NPR asked some of their favorite chefs to teach you how to cook the kind of food that graces the candidates' plates when they eat out.

When Sen. Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, want a special night out in Chicago, they often head for the award-winning Mexican restaurant Topolobampo. But don't equate the word "Mexican" with burritos and refried beans.

Chef Rick Bayless founded "Topolo," as locals call it, almost 20 years ago to prove to Americans that genuine Mexican cooking can be as sophisticated as French and Italian.

In fact, the dishes you might find on the menu on a typical night — perhaps lobster napped with a sauce of arbol and chipotle chilies, or seared, line-caught marlin in a toasted ancho chili crust — might be too elaborate to make easily at home. Instead, Bayless urges you to try his simple recipe for an authentic Mexican street food: skirt steak tacos with smoky guacamole.

Grilled Skirt Steak Tacos With Caramelized Onions

Ingredients

* 1 large white onion, sliced into 1/2-inch rounds (keep the rounds intact for easy grilling
* 3 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
* 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
* 1/4 teaspoon cumin, preferably freshly ground
* Salt
* 1 pound skirt steak, trimmed of surface fat as well as the thin white membrane called "silver skin"
* Vegetable or olive oil for brushing or spritzing the onions and meat
* A small bowlful of lime wedges for serving
* 12 warm corn tortillas

1. Marinate the meat. In a food processor or blender, combine 1/4 of the onion, the garlic, lime juice, cumin and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Process to a smooth puree. Place the skirt steak in a non-aluminum baking dish. Using a spoon, smear the marinade over both sides of the skirt steak. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour or up to 8 hours.

2. Caramelize the onions. Heat a gas grill to medium-high or light a charcoal fire and let it burn just until the coals are covered with gray ash. Either turn the burner(s) in the center of the grill to medium-low or bank the coals to one side of the grill for indirect cooking.

Brush or spray the remaining onion slices with oil and sprinkle with salt. Lay the whole rounds of onions on the grill, not over direct heat. When they start to soften and brown, about 10 minutes, use a spatula to flip them and brown the other side. Remove from the grill and break onions into rings.

3. Grill the meat. While the onions are browning, remove the steak from the marinade and gently shake off the excess. Oil the steak well on both sides, and lay it over the hottest part of the grill or directly over the coals. Grill, turning once, until richly browned and done to your liking, about 2-3 minutes per side for medium. Remove to a cooling rack set over a large plate — this keeps the juices in the meat rather than running out. Let the steaks rest until the onions have finished grilling.

4. Serve the tacos. Cut the long piece of skirt steak into 3- to 4-inch sections, then cut each section into thin strips across the grain (that is, in line with the full length of the skirt steak). Mix with the onions, season with a little salt and set on the table, along with the lime wedges, roasted tomatillo guacamole (see recipe below) and hot tortillas, for your guests to make into soft tacos.

The Pinnacle

The Pinnacle

Both of us understood
what a privilege it was
to be out for a walk
with each other
we could tell from our different
heights that this
kind of thing happened
so rarely that it might
not come round again
for me to be allowed
even before I
had started school
to go out for a walk
with Miss Giles
who had just retired
from being a teacher all her life

she was beautiful
in her camel hair coat
that seemed like the autumn leaves
our walk was her idea
we liked listening to each other
her voice was soft and sure
and we went our favorite way
the first time just in case
it was the only time
even though it might be too far
we went all the way
up the Palisades to the place
we called the pinnacle














with its park at the cliff's edge
overlooking the river
it was already a secret
the pinnacle
as we were walking back
when the time was later
than we had realized
and in fact no one
seemed to know where we had been
even when she told them
no one had heard of the pinnacle

and then where did she go

"The Pinnacle" by W.S. Merwin from The Shadow of Sirius. © Copper Canyon Press, 2008. From The Writer's Almanac

A Day in Portland

If this is earth

Click on image to see more photos.

Jimmy Carter's Birthday: Born 10/1/1924

From The Writer's Almanac

Jimmy Carter said, "A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It is a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity."

New Delhi's Lady Detective

New Delhi's Lady Detective

From guardian.co.uk

Bhavna Paliwal, 32, is a female private investigator and co-founder of the Tejas Detective Agency in New Delhi. Armed with a camera phone and a variety of disguises, she has rescued a kidnapped girl from a gang of flesh traders, exposed two-timing boyfriends and investigated the secret lives of countless husbands and wives. She describes life on the prowl.

Paliwal on the trail of a suspicious individual. Photograph: Neeta Lal

When you think of career avenues for women in India, being a detective is not the first thing that springs to mind. But it’s definitely one of most exciting. Having been in the field for more than a decade, I can vouch for this.

I was working as a journalist on a small newspaper when I came across a job ad for a female investigator. I jumped at it, and landed at the agency the same day. To test my sleuthing skills the interviewer told me to check out the character of a married woman. I did a good job of it and was hired on the spot.

Life as a detective is a roller-coaster ride. Some days are exciting and fulfilling while others can be frustrating. One thing a sleuth has to possess is patience. Even if some cases look simple, they can take ages to solve and require tons of perseverance.

I once rescued a 13-year-old girl who had been abducted by a gang of notorious flesh traders in Orissa. I managed to crack the missing girl's case and then, accompanied by the Delhi police, raided their hideout to save her. In true Hollywood style I got to kick open the door of the house where the crooks were hiding the girl and, after a round of gunfire, the cops nabbed the culprits.

The best part of my job is that I get to change my looks with each new assignment. And I get to act. I have to worm information out of people – maids, drivers, cooks, peons, doctors. It’s the part of my job I love the most: getting into the skin of another character and pretending I’m somebody I’m not.

Lately, a lot of my time has been taken up by premarital and marital verifications. With all kinds of matrimonial frauds happening these days I’ve transformed myself into a wedding sleuth. Not that I mind, especially if it means saving women from tying the knot with scamsters.

More and more women are turning to private eyes. In India's larger metros especially, all-women agencies have mushroomed. This augurs well because I firmly believe that to be forewarned is to be forearmed.

I remember once there was a pretty girl deeply in love with her fiancee. But when her parents asked me to investigate the boy’s background, after he had made some tall claims, he turned out to be a failed entrepreneur, already married with two kids. His game plan? To scoot after taking a fat dowry, as his business was floundering.

Then there was the case of a fashion designer who, when his girlfriend asked me to check on him, turned out to be gay. And another case in which a young computer engineer turned out to be a womaniser and an alcoholic.

As a woman detective I think I have an advantage over my male colleagues. People trust me and open up more easily, which isn’t the case with men. Also, as a woman it’s far easier to procure information from drivers and maids, people who are the repositories of crucial evidence for our cases.

An investigation could take from days to weeks. But at the end of it all, the most difficult part is breaking the news. It’s not easy to tell people in love that their partners are cheating on them or leading double lives. It’s heart-wrenching to see their worlds collapse around them.

Given that arranged marriages are the bedrock of Indian society, much of my work involves checking out the character of the prospective groom or bride. Parents want to be sure that the man they have chosen for their daughter is of sound character and not abusive.

I find that as dowries get fatter, more young men are lying about their qualifications or employment to hoodwink a bride. But while a girl’s parents are keen to ensure that her boyfriend is sound, the boys’ side, too, want to be sure that the bride-to-be has no skeletons in her cupboard.

But sadly, many of my clients are more anxious to be assured that the man or woman they are marrying has plenty of property, land and assets. In fact, some people are more concerned with bank balances than character or qualifications. It’s a sad reflection of our society today.

• Bhavna Paliwal was speaking to Neeta Lal in New Delhi.

The Layers

The Layers

I have walked through many lives,
some of them my own,
and I am not who I was,
though some principle of being
abides, from which I struggle
not to stray.
When I look behind,
as I am compelled to look
before I can gather strength
to proceed on my journey,
I see the milestones dwindling
toward the horizon
and the slow fires trailing
from the abandoned camp-sites,
over which scavenger angels
wheel on heavy wings.
Oh, I have made myself a tribe
out of my true affections,
and my tribe is scattered!
How shall the heart be reconciled
to its feast of losses?
In a rising wind
the manic dust of my friends,
those who fell along the way,
bitterly stings my face.
Yet I turn, I turn,
exulting somewhat,
with my will intact to go
wherever I need to go,
and every stone on the road
precious to me.
In my darkest night,
when the moon was covered
and I roamed through wreckage,
a nimbus-clouded voice
directed me:
"Live in the layers,
not on the litter."






















Though I lack the art
to decipher it,
no doubt the next chapter
in my book of transformations
is already written.
I am not done with my changes.

"The Layers" by Stanley Kunitz from The Collected Poems. © W.W. Norton, 2000.