Have you ever felt that you set the bar so high with your pretensions that you don't know if you're right or off axis? It happened to me the other day. I went to a friend of mine, a lifelong cook, who was making food for a company and asked him if he could make a lunch for the staff and see if it would work for him as a possible client. The thing is that I always think that it is difficult to excel and that one reaches a point where one can no longer surprise or be surprised anymore, but I was wrong once again. By chance I fell in his house and while I was cooking we were chatting layers that asked me for some help with something, as an assistant and assistant. Whenever I go to his house he surprises me with something that happens to him or what he is doing, he has a gift to surprise me. After a while I realize that since I arrived he hadn't surprised me, so I ask him -What are you going to surprise me with today? to which he responds grab the phone and help me with this.
He was cleaning the vegetables and cutting them to cook later so he was putting them in containers and he asked me to take some nice pictures of them so he could upload them to his networks and I took a thousand pictures of different vegetables that were later in the lunchbox and were also our lunch that day. Nico has something that I admire a lot and that is that as a cook he takes anything and makes a delicious dish, with what he has what he finds at home. And although I thought that this was something that all cooks have, no. It is a virtue that few people even have. It is a virtue that few people have even if they are not cooks, it is like a kind of gift.
This is my favorite vegetable, although I like the black version which is a bit more bitter and spicy, I like this version too.
We spent about two hours chatting and having a drink at his house, at one point I told him to cut that I had prepared an appetizer, so we cut and sat on the patio of the house that has beautiful chairs there and we were ready to have a quiet drink. He had been there since early in the morning and if he didn't cut for a while he was going to be very tired. I am one of those people who think that it is good to cut a little every so often to renew energy and not get saturated. So we sat for a while in the back while Lupe, his dog, sniffed the plants in the background and every now and then she came and visited us or gave us a kiss and stayed next to us listening.
After recess we continued with what Nico was doing, so I kept taking pictures of the vegetables that he was separating and leaving clean for cooking. Luckily the menu is vegetarian so it was all veggies and super simple and without so much mess to clean up afterwards.
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**These green onions or scallions as they are called out there are one of my favorites along with leeks.
But as this guy can not stay calm when I was half finished cleaning everything and everything was already set and saved to deliver the next day, he grabbed me and told me - do me a favor, grab my backpack I have some papers with an envelope that I need a name that is over there so labeled, can you give it to me while I continue with this. So I went very naively and looked for what he asked me so silly that I didn't even realize that he wanted me to grab those papers so I could open the envelope and find inside two tickets to go to the theater to see a play that I wanted to see a long time ago.
He's a fucking genius, so he finished with everything, took a shower and we went to the theater to see this play by the genius Toto Castiñeira. On the way to the play we had a little drink and then we went to the theater to see this genius that was as good or even better than I imagined.
SPANISH VERSION (click here!)
¿Te pasó alguna vez que sentiste que tenías la vara tan alta con tus pretensiones que después no sabes si estas bien o estás fuera de eje? A mi me paso el otro dia. Fui a lo de un amigo mio cocinero de toda la vida que estaba haciendo viandas para una empresa que le pidió si podía hacer un almuerzo para el personal y ver si le funcionaba para tener como posible cliente. La cosa es que siempre pienso que es difícil superarse y que uno llega un punto en que no puede sorprender más o ser sorprendido nunca más, pero me equivoque una vez más. De casualidad caí en su casa y mientras cocinaba íbamos charlando capas que me pedía alguna ayuda con algo, a modo de asistente y asisti. Siempre que voy a su casa me sorprende con algo que le pasa o que está haciendo tiene un don para sorprenderme. Al rato me doy cuenta que desde que llegué no me había tirado ninguna sorpresa, entonces le pregunto -Con qué me vas a sorprender hoy? a lo que me responde agarra el teléfono y ayúdame con esto.
Estaba haciendo limpieza de vegetales y cortandolos para después ponerse a cocinar así que los iba poniendo en recipientes y me pidió que les saque unas lindas fotos para poder subir después en sus redes y le saque mil fotos de diferentes vegetales que luego fueron a vianda y también fueron nuestro almuerzo de ese dia. Nico tiene algo que admiro mucho y es que como cocinero agarra cualquier cosa y hace un plato rico, con lo que tiene lo que encuentra en su casa. Y eso aunque yo pensé que era algo de todos los cocineros, no. Es una virtud que pocas personas tienen incluso sin ser cocineros, es como una especie de don.
Esta es mi verdura favorita, aunque a mi me gusta mas la version negra que es un poco más amarga y picante, esta version tambien me gusta
Estuvimos como dos horas charlando y tomando algo en su casa, yo en un momento le dije que cortara que le había preparado un aperitivo, así que cortamos y nos sentamos en el patio de la casa que tiene ahi unas sillas hermosas y nos dispusimos a tomar algo tranquilos. Él estaba desde temprano y si no cortaba un rato iba a quedar muy cansado. Yo soy de las personas que piensa que es bueno cortar un poco cada cierto tiempo para renovar las energías y no saturarse. Asique nos sentamos un rato atrás mientras Lupe su perra se pone a olfatear las plantas en el fondo y cada tanto venía y nos visitaba o nos daba un beso y se quedaba al lado nuestro escuchando.
Después del recreo seguimos con lo que estaba haciendo Nico, entonces yo seguí sacando fotos de los vegetales que él iba separando y dejando limpios para cocinar. Por suerte el menú es vegetariano así que eran puros vegetales y super simples y sin tanto despliegue de cosas para limpiar luego.
Estas cebollas de verdeo o cebollines como le dicen afuera son de mis preferidos junto con el puerro
Pero como este muchacho no se puede quedar tranquilo cuando estaba medio terminando de limpiar todo ya todo seteado y guardado para entregar al dia siguiente agarro y me dice- haceme un favor, agarra de mi mochila que tengo unos papeles con un sobre que necesito un nombre que esta por ahi asi rótulo, me lo alcanzas mientras sigo con esto?. Asique fui muy ingenuamente y le busque lo que me pidio tan tonto que ni me di ccuenta que el queria que agarre esos papeles para que abra el sobre y encuentre dentro dos entradas para ir al teatro a ver una obra que yo queria ver hace mucho tiempo.
Es un maldito genio, entonces termino con todo se pego una ducha y nos fuimos al teatro a ver esta obra del genio Toto Castiñeira. De camino a la obra pasamos por un traguito y después fuimos al teatro a ver esa genialidad que estaba tan buena o más de lo que imaginaba.
