Though the exact history of the pie is not clear, it represents not only a preference for sweet foods but two other great American addictions: litigation and corn. Originally called derby pie, Tippins changed the name to dixie pie to avoid litigation with Kern’s Kitchen, who has defended a registered trademark for “derby pie” since the 1950s. In The American Century Cookbook, Jean Anderson notes surprise that there are no records of recipes of this traditional dessert (as pecan pie) before the early 20th century and that it may have actually been created by Karo corn syrup’s economists. If they didn’t originate it, they certainly popularized it, as nearly all recipes call for Karo by name. The ingredients also include bourbon whiskey, which is made from corn.

Here in New Zealand, you’ll find variteties of golden syrup on the grocery shelves rather than corn syrup. I first assumed that “golden syrup” was a euphemism for golden corn syrup, but it’s a thick form of inverted sugar-syrup made from sugar cane, also known as pale treacle. In this pie however, you’ll find organic grade B maple syrup, because that’s what was in my cupboard, and it tastes delicious with both chocolate and walnuts.

Decadent Deep-South Dark Chocolate Walnut Pie

Deep-south here refers to New Zealand as much as the US as my ingredients were not traditional. But the crunchy and custardy textures and flavors hit all the right notes of my dixie pie memories.

Crust
Confession: This year I bought fresh pastry dough made by the wondrous Marie of the organic La Patisserie de Marie & Nico in Miramar, Wellington because it’s the best I’ve ever tasted. (And because last year the pie dough making took the better part of a day.) If I hadn’t, I would have used Martin Bosley’s shortcut pastry (adapted from Rachel Taulelei’s 12 September Newsletter for Wellington’s City Market, where she describes her own pie entry, the delicious ‘Four and Twenty Titi” pie that was my first taste of the distinctive muttonbird) below, not only because it sounds simple and good, but also because he was one of the judges.

50g flour
a pinch of salt
70g unsalted butter, chilled
ice-cold water

Put the flour and salt into a bowl and add the butter in small chunks. Cut into the flour with a small knife and rub with your fingertips until the mix resembles fine breadcrumbs. It only takes a couple of minutes to do this, but you could use the food processor if you prefer. Sprinkle a little cold water over the crumbs and bring to a rollable dough (it should look slightly crumbly but firm enough to roll), adding more water if needed. Cover in plastic wrap and set aside in the fridge for 30 minutes. Cut the pastry in half and roll it out on a lightly floured kitchen bench, then line a 22cm/9″ pie pan, leaving a good amount of pastry overhanging the edges to be trimmed off.

Filling
1 1/2 cups (150 g) walnut pieces or halves
1/2 cups walnut halves
2 ounces (57 g) organic dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 large eggs
1 cup gur or jaggery (unrefined sugar made from raw sugarcane juice)
1 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons (25g) salted butter
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon Grand Marnier (Typically bourbon is used, but this turned out great.)

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and place the oven rack in the bottom third of the oven

Melt the chocolate in a stainless steel bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water, then set aside.

Whisk the eggs in a large bowl, then whisk in the jaggery (sugar), maple syrup, melted butter, vanilla extract, and stir in the melted chocolate.

Place the walnut pieces across the bottom the crust and pour the filling over the walnuts. Arrange the walnut halves in on top of the pie in a decorative pattern.

Place the pie on a baking sheet and bake for 50 to 60 minutes until the filling is puffed up but still wobbly when gently shaken. If the pastry edges are getting brown, cover with foil to prevent burning. (I could have done this a little earlier.)

Remove from oven and allow to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

This pie features additional dark chocolate drizzled on top, but the walnut design is pretty on its own too. I presented a big bowl of delicious Kohu Road Vanilla ice cream along with the pie, which was not the most brilliant choice for an all-evening event, as the ice cream melted into a bowl of soup early in the evening (see below).

And now to start thinking about next year… if you have any recommendations, let me know! In the meantime, I’ll study KCRW’s Good Food Pie-A-Day series and piecasts.

Thanks Stephanie Jaworski for the pie history lesson and inspiring chocolate pecan pie recipe.

I’m not sure whether it was “S as in Summertime” or “X as in Xylophone” that pushed my father over the edge, but by the time I finished talking with tech support, his face was bright red. “S as in Sierra! Everybody all over the world knows that,” he said.

I had no idea.

Actually, I had seen a copy of the military alphabet code or NATO phonetic alphabet taped to a friend’s refrigerator recently and laughed at him. Who talks like that? (Please forgive me!) I thought up words every time I spoke on the phone as a form of creative expression and mood indicator.

At least I am kind and resist the urge to say “A as in Aisle, B as in Bdellium, C as in Czar, D as in Djinn, E as in Eureka, G as in Gnome, H as in Honest, J as in Jicama, K as in Knock, M like Mnemonic, O for Ouija, P as in Pneumonia, Q for Qat, T as in Tsunami, W as in Who, X as in Xylophone…” OK, so I’ve used “X as in Xylophone.”

Here is the official military alphabet code/NATO phonetic alphabet: Alpha Bravo Charlie Delta Echo Foxtrot Golf Hotel India Juliet Kilo Lima Mike November Oscar Papa Quebec Romeo Sierra Tango Uniform Victor Whiskey X-Ray Yankee Zulu

Well it turns out everyone doesn’t talk like that. Or at least they haven’t always. I found the Phonogram chart image above in the Southland Museum and Art Gallery in Invercargill, New Zealand.

Here are some other examples:
Western Union Phonetic Alphabet
Adams Boston Chicago Denver Easy Frank George Henry Ida John King Lincoln Mary New_York Ocean Peter Queen Roger Sugar Thomas Union Victor William X-ray Young Zero

‘British A’: Amsterdam Baltimore Casablanca Denmark Edison Florida Gallipoli Havana Italia Jerusalem Kilogramme Liverpool Madagascar New_York Oslo Paris Quebec Roma Santiago Tripoli Uppsala Valencia Washington Xantippe Yokohama Zurich

Bombay telephone directory 1962 (also a later source): Army Brother Cinema Doctor English Father Gold Hotel India Jam King Lady Mother Navy Orange Paper Queen Raja Sister Table Uncle Victory Water X-ray Yellow Zero

Kenyan and Tanzanian telephone directories 1966: Africa Bombay Charlie Durban England Freddie George Harry India Japan Kenya London Mombasa Nairobi Orange Peter Queen Robert Sugar Tanga Uganda Victory William X-Ray Yellow Zanzibar

RAF 1942-43: Apple Beer Charlie Dog Edward Freddy George Harry In Jug/Johnny King Love Mother Nuts Orange Peter Queen Roger/Robert Suga Tommy Uncle Vic William X-ray Yoke/Yorker Zebra

• Here are phonetic alphabets for other languages.
• Phoneticise.com is an online utility to phoneticise any text that you enter.

What does your phonetic alphabet look like?

Echo November Juliet Oscar Yankee!

Antipodes map by Daryl Cockburn.

Today you can see this photo I took of Robert Thurman standing in front of Mt. Kailash in the San Francisco Chronicle, accompanying a great interview with Robert by David Ian Miller, “Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman on Why the Dalai Lama Matters,” about his new book, Why the Dalai Lama Matters.

In the picture, Robert stands near the Tarboche flagpole at the outset of our kora (circumambulation) around Mt Kailash. Buddhist, Hindu, Jain and Bön traditions all revere Mt Kailash as the axis mundi – the center of the world. From it flows 4 major rivers that feed Asia: the Indus, Brahmaputra, Sutlej and Karnali. Thousands of pilgrims arrive each May and June, but this year China has delayed the pilgrimage season and limited the number of participants, restricting all foreign visitors during the Olympic torch relay in that region.

After four days trekking around the mountain and reaching an altitude of 18,600 ft, we arrived back here in time for the Saga Dawa festival, celebrating the birth and enlightenment of Sakyamuni Buddha.

On this occasion, the flag pole, wrapped in prayer flags, is raised by poles, ropes and trucks.

A perfectly upright flagpole signifies a good year for Tibet.

Musicians play throughout the festival. Thermoses of yak butter tea keep throats in singing and horn-blowing condition at dry high-altitudes on the Tibetan plateau.

Then, at the moment the flagpole is raised, thousands of windhorses (colorful squares of paper printed with prayers for happiness) fill the air and fly towards the peak.

Saga Dawa occurs each year on the 15th day of the fourth lunar month. This year, Tibetans will celebrate Saga Dawa on June 18, 2008 — may the pole stand upright and usher in a good year for Tibet!

An excerpt from the SF Chronicle interview:

The news from Tibet has been pretty grim lately, but you remain optimistic that the situation will improve … that the Tibetans will one day be able to live there freely and practice their religion. What gives you hope that will happen?

I base my hope — as the Dalai Lama bases his — on what is realistic. And I believe reality dictates that the Tibetans are the ones who can live sustainably in Tibet. They’re the ones who can restore and maintain the Tibetan plateau, their ancestral home, as they have for thousands of years. And it has to be healthy in order to be of benefit to its neighboring regions. It’s the water tower of Asia — it’s where everybody’s water comes from, India, China, Southeast Asia. It’s also the source of the wind — the jet stream that rises up out of the plateau, affecting the weather all around the planet. So if Tibet is messed up then the world gets messed up. This is why Tibet should matter to everybody.

To learn more:

• Robert Thurman’s latest book Why the Dalai Lama Matters (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powells)
• Journey around Mt Kailash (without leaving the comfort of your favorite reading chair) Circling the Sacred Mountain by Tad Wise and Robert Thurman
• Journey around Mt Kailash when China lifts restrictions on travel in Tibet with Geographic Expeditions.
• Upcoming events with Robert Thurman. If you’re new New York, there’s a talk and booksigning Tuesday June 17 at Tibet House and a talk on inner peace at the Tibet Center in Brooklyn on Wednesday June 18.

Last weekend, an uncle asked me “How many hours a day do you go online?” I looked up from my iPhone and repeated the question out loud several times, stressing the different words to understand what he meant, like Jude Law as Brad Stand in “I Heart Huckabees” pondering “How Am I Not Myself?” Go online? 10 or 12?

“All of them,” my wise brother answered. “She doesn’t go online, she just is.” Uncle seemed confused and more than a little worried.

This week’s Economist has a great section on the new nomadism might help him understand the shift that occurs with ubiquitous connectivity. In it, Paul Saffo describes the evolution of the digital nomad from the early astronauts (who must bring what they need because they cannot rely on their environment to provide it) to intermediate hermit crabs (who survive by dragging a cast-off shell i.e. carry-on bag of cables, discs, dongles, batteries, plugs and paper).

In contrast, the new urban nomads, appearing only in the past few years, are defined “not by what they carry but by what they leave behind, knowing that the environment will provide it.” As the technology becomes more advanced, it becomes invisible — the connection is what’s important.

Highlights:

• New oases – Expect “a huge rise in demand for semi-public spaces that can be informally appropriated to ad-hoc workspaces”. The new architecture, says Mr Mitchell, will “make spaces intentionally multifunctional”. This means that 21st-century aesthetics will probably be the exact opposite of the sci-fi chic that 20th-century futurists once imagined. Architects are instead thinking about light, air, trees and gardens, all in the service of human connections.
• Family ties — nomadic technology deepens them, because it enables connected presence. People expect less content but instead a feeling of permanent connection, as though they were in fact together during the entire time between their physical meetings.
• A world of witnesses – ubiquity of mobile video changes the game for exposing human rights abuses, health care and environmental monitoring.

Labour movement, one of the articles in the series, features Pip Coburn, who also co-hosts a weekly participatory podcast with Jerry Michalski. On April 21, 2008, they’ll discuss the issue of mobility with with the author, Andreas Kluth, discussing social effects, business effects, direction of forces, privacy and sense of time and place.

Recognize yourself, global nomad? Check out Janera.com, founded by Janera Soerel, a new online publication and social network for and by the vibrant community of global nomads.

Imagine! Kenya sings for India. Australia sings for Lebanon. Japan sings for Turkey. France sings for USA. (I still prefer Sufjan Stevens’ version of “The Star Spangled Banner”, but the Kenyans singing “Jana Gana Mana,” by Rabindranath Tagore, brought tears to my eyes.) These beautiful short films are part of Pangaea Day, the global peace party on May 10, 2008 that grew from Jehane Noujaim’s TED Wish.

My photo of Yuno’s Farm’s salad mix with broccoli raab flowers above is featured in this week’s New York Magazine in an article called “Salad Days” on page 104. The article reveals that Nevia No, “co-owner of South Jersey’s Yuno’s Farm, exotic seed seeker andartful arranger of what might be the most beautiful produce stand in town,” returns to Union Square with “a bevy of tender greenhouse greens, plus overwintered broccoli rabe and spinach.” Yay! Spring’s arrived.

Related posts:

• Abingdon Square Greenmarket Notes
• Happy Eggs
• Golden Purslane
• Sweet Potato Lentil Kale Soup Recipe