Monthly Archives: February 2014

50th Entree: Who is Who

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Welcome back to the Philosophy Bistro!

If my count is correct, this is the 50th of the official Entrées….

Technically, this is the 156th. There were also 32 recipes,Pierce new - Copy
16 very thought-provoking articles by Brando,
12 audio-files (pardon the pun), 5 or 6 by Wode, one by Anno,
8 reruns, and then all the jokes & cartoons……

Thank you, Peirce.
As I was saying, this is the 50th of the official Entrées produced at Robert’s Philosophy Bistro. Before heading into the next 50, I thought I would take some time for basic introductions.

Robert’s Philosophy Bistro is a clean, comfortably lighted place to enjoy fine food, fine drink, good company and good conversation. In addition to our food specials, there are weekly special entrées which are ideas: ideas we hope amuse or prompt your ideas, or which can be taken home, pondered over, adapted and served new–like the weekly recipes. Most of these are philosophical in nature, but our notion of philosophy is rather broad.

Our bistro is mostly imaginary, but is currently located at 241 East Main Street in Johnson City, Tennessee; if you have suggestions for relocating, we are always up for a road-trip. Like most restaurants, it is a non-profit generating community group that would love to actually generate income. If you have any ideas (or any money) feel free to offer suggestions (or donations).

If you cannot afford a donation, please leave a question. I mean that. I try to answer any of the interesting questions I can get, and tend to run low on new ideas from time to time.

If you cannot afford a question, help yourself to one of ours. We have plenty.

Please also let us know who you are by leaving a not in our Guest Book.
Hello Questions

The cast of characters is a fluctuating group of ragamuffins, ne’er-do-wells, pirates and characters, all with colorful personalities and back-stories–the same as most restaurant kitchens. Our food is phenomenal–although we will serve noumenal take-away–and a good deal of the staff is phenomenological.

As of this writing they include the following:

I am your host, Dr Bear.
Nominally, I am in charge, as well as serving as maître d’hôtel, Master of Ceremonies, menu planner, and, of course, referee. By nature I am a gentleman, a philosopher and a raconteur, but occasionally I am also practical. Over the course of the last year, I have discovered I am also a bit of an idealist, and much more optimistic than I anticipated. I may be fictional, but bear a strong resemblance to at least one non-fictional person.

This is not accidental.

gravity 2

 

Dr Bear tends to say things like this:

color why not

The Universe

 

 

Small Arms 005
In case you were wondering: yes, I really am a doctor. Years ago I earned a PhD, and my areas of research were originally German Enlightenment Philosophy and its critics, and then Social Practices & Cross-cultural understanding. May I bring you some more bread?
Wode Toad is the chef.WT-black-white-blue2.jpg
It is also quite possible that he really is in charge. He is as complex, as mysterious, and as dangerous as a Sriracha Haggis. If forced to suffer fools, he will be sure to return the suffering with interest. His cooking is even faster than his wit, which is saying something. He is a classics scholar with a knack for high stakes investments, so he cooks here and advises us on whiskeys.
He serves as the pessimistic, direct, and occasionally nihilistic counter-weight to Dr Bear’s optimism and courtesy.

WT-killng-time

 

He says things like:

WT_hemi

coffeemarriage equality
Wode & Courbet 
Lately, Wode has also disappeared, and I haven’t seen him for a week or so.
Mousy-Icon.jpg
He said something about travelling; he also talked about warmer places.

 

Probably back to Mexico or South Africa, then. If he was going back to Argentina, he would have told Peirce, and, of course, he cannot go back to Eastern Asia, or even Oceana, because of “the incident.”

Brando cautiously optimisticNext is Brando, the sous-chef.
Like Dr Bear, he is an underemployed philosopher and social theorist. He is down to earth but full of whimsy, continental but a Kentucky gentleman, very smart but very kind. The name of the Bistro was his idea. He writes wonderful entrées under his own byline. Although Dr Bear and he try to insert formal philosophy when they can, life seems to intervene.
He seems to be involved in a long-term experiment that consists in raising two lovely young girls, but then again, they might be involved in an experiment that consists in raising him. We hope it is the former, since the chances of the girls turning out OK is substantially more promising.
He is currently on a sabbatical from the Bistro, devoting more time to the girls, and writing a novel.French Food

 

 

Brando says things like:

 

 

 

TheologyC-Rap

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since I am currently two staff members short, the shinobi has stepped up to the plate to fill the gap. I haven’t really seen much of her (Mousy occasionally likes to sneak up on her, offer her pastry & chat with her), but she is fast and hard-working, and she never complains.

Pierce faing rightPeirce is the dishwasher, although he has also had to step up and step into the kitchen. He is a proud citizen of the United Kingdom, being from one of its territories. There are bits of the war with Argentina he would prefer to forget, but he seems happy enough with his work and his library.  He is a voracious and omnivorous reader reading almost everything he can get his hands on, and will write book reviews for us if I can get him to stop reading.
I once ask a friend who is a Café manager if I would get into trouble having a penguin living in my walk-in cooler, but as I was saying it, I realized how ridiculous it sounded, and how illegal our kitchen is anyway.
Peirce says things like:Bookster

bookster geekThe newest member of our staff is our pastry cook and baker, Anno Mouse.
Mousy Full  He goes by Mousy. He is probably the quietest of the Bistro staff, but this doesn’t necessarily mean he doesn’t have anything to say. Mousy is the introvert at the Wonderland Tea Party that is our kitchen. Mousy is more of a dreamer, and inclined to listen to others when they need to be listened to, and to believe the best of all creatures. He is a hopeless romantic, and cripplingly sentimental. He tends to read fantasy, and is more interested in psychology than in philosophy.

He does have a temper for bullies, and for people who would take away rights, animal or other.Silence

 

Mousy tends to say things like: 

 

 

 

Sarcasm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alex

 

On occasion, we have a our fantasy IT person Alex drop by, but even in fantasy’s it is hard to schedule somebody to work on your computer.

 

All of us here at the Bistro believe in food and good, wide-ranging conversations, and we hope our readers & guests do to. I would like to say we believe in each other as well, but there is a rumor that at least one of us is fictional.

Of course, there is also a rumor that the bistro itself does not exist.
If it didn’t, would you be here?

Would that make the rest of us dis-fictional?

Drop by again, anytime.

1010signature rules

 

 

.PS:  Visit us on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/PhilosophyBistro, or e-mail us at DrBear@philosophybistro.com. being right

 

….and remember the Dr Bear motto:

 

Toasted Chickpeas, Peppers & Grits.

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Chickpeas & GritsI know; it doesn’t sound like much of a thrill, but I was trying to come up with an alternative to Savannah style shrimp & grits–realizing that it’s the peppers & onions & cheesy grits that really make that dish. I could call it Broiled Vegatables & Garbanzos on Cheese Grits & Arugula with a Basalmic Tap Broiled Vegetables & Roasted Chick Peas on Cheese Grits & Arugula with a Basalmic & Olive Tapenade Drizzle, but that seems a bit long..
The roasted chickpeas (garbanzos) can also be used for other dishes, or in salads, Chickpeas on a salad etc. Other similar things could be substituted (I considered my Sriracha & Garlic toasted soybeans, but that seemed too crunchy).
Warning: this is a very vague recipe. Experiment with it, or improvise. If you prefer hotter peppers, by all means use hotter peppers. If you are vegan, skip the cheese & butter or find a substitute. No recipe at the Bistro is ever carved in stone.

Ingredients:

  • 1 can Chickpeas/Garbanzo Beans
  • Butter & Spices to taste
  • ! cup Grits.
  • 2 cups Water
  • ! cup heavy Cream
  • 4-6 oz. Cheese (I used Boar’s Head Swiss)
  • Olive Oil or Butter
  • Several different colored Sweet Peppers to taste
  • Red Onion to taste
  • Several carrots, shaved into longish strips
  • some sliced Purple Cabbage (optional)
  • 1 clove Garlic
  • Arugula
  • Balsamic Vinegar, Tapenade, Pesto or Sriracha for drizzle.

Part the First: Roasting the Chickpeas

Step 1, Prepare ye the way: Pre-heat the oven to 375. Drain & rinse a can of Garbanzo beans, then dry them somewhat. You can lay them out on a towel or paper towel, or come up with something more creative.

Step 2, toast! Spread the beans evenly on a dry iron skillet and place in the oven. Let toast for 20 minutes, or until the beans start to become crunchy.

Step 3, and toast some more: Take the beans out, add some butter & spices, roll them about, and return them to the oven for another 10 to 15 minutes.

Part the Second: Cheese Grits

Step 4, Bubble, bubble, toil & trouble: In a medium to large pan, bring 2 1/2 cups of Water to a boil. Add the heavy cream & heat. Stir in the grits gradually, either stirring or whisking until it begins to bubble. Reduce heat, cover and simmer, stirring frequently, for 30 minutes or so.

Part the Third: Roasting the rest

Step 5, more preparing: Clean & slice the vegetables into long strips or slices.

Step 6, Yum! Cheese! Add the Cheese and some more butter (possibly salt, depending on the cheese) to the grits, and stir)

Step 7, broiling: About 10 or 15 minutes before you are ready to serve, add the peppers, onions, etc to the chickpeas, drizzle with olive oil, toss, and place under a broiler. Remove every few minutes and toss again, repeating until it starts to brown but is still firm. On the last toss, add the clove of garlic, minced.

Step 8, Share & Enjoy! It is plated  by putting down a bed of Arugula, spooning a generous helping of grits on that, then arranging the roasted mixture on that, or by putting in a serving bowl in a similar manner. You may drizzle if you want.
Chickpeas & grits left over

It is also good left over.

 

A tea addenda, if you please.

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solo tea (5)I would like to point out that although sharing a pot of tea with fine company is always lovely, tea is also a wonderful solitary drink. Sometimes, I find that I simply need a cup to tea to myself. I enjoy sitting quietly with a warm cup in my paws, or pressed warm against my chin.

It can be a time to watch the rain or to look at the sunlight. It can be a relaxing time to listen to baroque string music or quiet folk music. It is a wonderful time to read or to doodle. It is a sweet quiet time to cast out your thoughts into daydreams, or to gather then back in and try to make sense of them.
solo tea (1)
Coffee is for what you have to go out and do for other people; tea is something you do for yourself.

The best kind of friend is the one you can sit and drink tea with and not have to say a word.

Making Tea

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In its simplest form, tea is an infusion in hot water of dried leaves from  a bush originating in Asia whose formal name is Camellia Sinensis,GF Almond Scones 2 tea to closer friends. Technically. tea is only a beverage made from this plant, but other herbal infusions are referred to as tea by analogy.

The simplest way is to oil a kettle of cold water, add to a mug, and add a tea bag. You allow this to brew or steep for 3-5 minutes, take the bag out and enjoy.

A more thorough preparation isn’t difficult, but is more time-consuming. Each step is simple and easy, but there are steps, and that makes it more of a ritual than a recipe.

Don’t make tea in advance. Have all the ingredients ready, but make it when you are to serve it. It should be fresh.

firePut fresh, cold water in the kettle, the wait for the boil. It can come to a boil, but is better if it is only just there.
Take the teapot you intend to use, and pour hot water into it to warm it up. Swish it around a bit and pour it into the sink; this can either be as a cleansing votive offering, or just a way of stinging the trolls who live in your U-joint.
Measure the loose-leaf tea you have chosen into the now warm teapot. The standard is a teaspoon for each guest and an extra one. I prefer strong tea, so I add a heaping teaspoon of tea leaves for each guest, and an extra one in case Mousey or Wode Toad come to visit.
Add in the hot water (it should have boiled, but should not be boiling), cover, and allow the tea to steep at least 3 minutes, since I like strong tea I would say longer, but you should experiment: too soon is too weak, too late becomes bitter, or acquires a tinny, unpleasant edge.Classroom Tea strainer
Pour for your guests first, and then for yourself, laying a tea strainer over each cup as you pour.

Tea can be served a variety of ways.
There are choices of sweeteners, such as sugar, sugar cubes, rock sugar–either dissolved in the tea or in the mouth as you drink, honey, or even a little bit of jam.
There are choices of add-ins, including the standard milk of the British Isles and former colonies. This can be cold or warmed. It really does taste different if you put the milk in first. Americans tend to like a little lemon. Another interesting add in from Germany is a Tablespoon (or more) of rum.

Most of all, take your time, enjoy the tea, and enjoy your company.

Tea.

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I used to teach two philosophy courses, a course on Ancient philosophy titled “How to live well,” and a course on Modern philosophy I called “How to be human.” Because each of them only met once a week, they were 3 hours long. I can certainly talk for 3 hours, but classes are much better as a conversation, and their energy would begin to flag part way through.

At this point we would break for tea.

Classroom Tea (3)Sometimes, I had cookies, but generally I would just buy a variety of apples at the local farm stand–they go quite well with tea. After the tea, they would have more energy (though often less concentration), and the conversation would assume a more relaxed, mellow character of give and take and exploration.
Many of my students have made tea a regular part of their lives, which I find gratifying. A higher proportion of boys in their 20s own teapots thanks to me, which means they have learned something important about being human and living well.

Why tea?

There are many rituals that involve meeting around a table and sharing food. Some are more time consuming, but sharing a pot of tea can be done fairly simply, and instantly involves sitting together and interacting. It is something that is made, so it involves a little bit of an individual touch, and Tea and Scones for my classa personal touch. The host has a position of control, but also must assume a servant role as he or she serves the tea, asking about milk, sugar, cookies, etc. One already has some small talk asking and answering these questions. Tea is a caffeinated beverage, but generally doesn’t signal the need for intense stimulation that coffee does, leaving instead a more gentle, thoughtful visit (don’t’ get me wrong; I love coffee, too).

It is civilized, and civilizing.

Asian Teapot (6)There is also the ritual of preparing the tea, which, like most rituals, can be relaxing and meditative itself. Cold water in the kettle, the wait for the boil, pouring hot water in the tea pot to warm it up, and then offering it up as a cleansing votive offering. Measuring out a teaspoon of tea leaves for each guest, and an extra one in case Mousey or Wode Toad come to visit. Adding in the hot water (it should have boiled, but should not be boiling), and allowing the tea to steep–I would say at least 3 minutes, since I like strong tea, but you should experiment: too soon is too weak, too late becomes bitter, or acquires a tinny, unpleasant edge.

At this point, the variety begins: with milk? poured in before the tea? (try it, it tastes different) sugar? one lump or two? rock sugar? honey? a bit of jelly in the tea to sweeten it? lemon?
Would you like something with that?

Tea is part of what we want to be. Yes, we want to be classy, like the British upper-crust of the 19th century, but sharing tea makes us–or allows us–to do things that make us better. We automatically become more polite–in part because of the atmosphere it creates, but also because of all the interaction:
Tea with Mousy (5)“Would you like sugar?”
“Yes, please.”
“Milk?”
“No, thank you.”
“Here you go…”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
More than that, it is shared. It involves the gentle gift of hospitality, and the gracious gift of appreciation. It involves a sensual pleasure that is shared–although it is one which is appropriate and can be talked about in public. Most of all, it moves at a slower pace than doing shots of Jägermeister. It is tea time; it is taken at its own speed, sitting and relaxing.

Sensual joy, physical sustenance, engaging in little comforting rituals, giving, receiving, and sharing hospitality, slowing down in order to have a conversation, listening, being polite–perhaps even witty–most of all, taking the time to sit down and engage with another human being–these and more are the elements that go into tea.

Isn’t that really what being human and living well are about?
220signature

England can drink locally grown tea!

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Tregothnan_cornwall-camel-v_1488965c

Although we associate growing tea with warmer places, like Kenya or India, apparently there is a place in Cornwall, a little corner of the Scepter’d Isle, that has  mini-ecosystem that is an anomaly, a fluke, and which is the perfect climate for growing tea.
Tregothnan_Cornwall_morris_edited

The estate is the home of the Boscawens, the Viscounts Falmouth. It was sacked during the Civil War (goofy round-heads! what were you thinking!?!) but rebuilt shortly later in 1652. Camellia plants have been cultivating the plants on the Tregothnan estate for more than 200 years, but more recently they began to grow Camellia Sinensis, the tea bush, more seriously, and in the last ten years have built up the plantation as a commercial venture.

They sell a variety of teas, and a larger variety of infusions at http://tregothnan.co.uk/tea-plantation/, for all you tea snobs out there, but I think the shipping is too expensive.
Anyone up for a field-trip?
Allons-y!

foolish heart

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This is a belated Valentine’s Day Entrée.
As sometimes happens, the audio is available here.

Some things simply cannot be known.

You cannot look at the sky and track the eagle,
You cannot look at the sea and track the ship,
you cannot  look at the rocks and track the snake,
and you cannot explain the human heart.

I am a man of reason.
Not only do I believe in the power of reason, I have lived relying on reason. It is part of my credo, and a big, big part of my life. It is deeply engrained in who I am. Although I generally argue against splitting the person into different parts, as if mind, body, heart, and soul were all different things to be examined and discussed separately, I have found that the heart keeps its own council, and does not always seem to be inclined to share its plans, or even its reasons. As Blaise Pascal wrote: “The heart has its reasons of which reason cannot know.”
I have spoken to men who have had heart surgery and am amazed at how many of them report being more emotional, more open to tears, more sentimental afterwards. A broken heart: is that not just a metaphor? Breaking the organ does not really affect one emotionally, does it? Yet this metaphor has a power beyond our casual use of it. The heart is its own creature, doing as it will, being broken or healed.

The heart is a mystifying aspect of being human.
The heart suddenly decides something else. One sees a pair of eyes, one hears a voice, one is stabbed by a smile and a laugh, and suddenly the world is flooded with colour.
There is suddenly an ache, a euphoria, an inescapable weight heavier than stone, and a sudden flight lighter than air. In the harshest winter, there is suddenly full spring, or in the softest summer, there is suddenly frost.
Where there were plans, suddenly one wastes time, and the plans keep changing to turn into new plans—sometimes grudgingly approved by reason, sometimes in spite of reason’s strong disapproval. The mind shakes its head, but the body—it cannot help but follow the heart. It must go where the heart sends it (enjoying every bit of the journey). One bays at the moon or hangs poems on trees. Why? Who can say? One can give a hundred reasons, but none of them are the reason.
The heart has changed, and with it… everything.
I love you; I cannot do otherwise.

Or suddenly there is a change of heart.
That sounds simple enough, but with the change of a heart, certainties vanish, worlds crumble and lives are torn apart. Where there was warmth, there is now coldness and bitterness. What could once be forgiven is now clung to in pettiness.
The heart keeps it own council. The heart has its own reasons, but the mind is left to deal with the wake of destruction—one even worse than falling into love. The heart has gone where it has gone, but suddenly the body aches with tension, with headaches, it cannot sleep, it cannot eat. Life continues, but if one’s heart is not in it, it is drudgery, routine, a cold March slough.Why has the heart changed? Why has the love slowly ebbed away to pearly grey and barrenness?  Again, one can give a hundred reasons, or list a hundred faults, but none of them are the reason, none of them are at fault.
The heart has changed, and with it… everything.
I don’t love you any more; I cannot pretend otherwise.

…and none of that even begins to express the confusion and messiness of the other poor human beings whose lives are changed by that mercurial creature, the human heart.
Humans may believe that the mind is minding their business, but they are ruled by their mischievous hearts.

I know a lot. I even wrote a dissertation on human behaviour and understanding, but the wiser I get, the less I understand this simple, common, human thing: the heart.

Not even my own. 214signature

Concerning James:

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Just a note for those of you who follow the Bistro:
My brother James, whom I mentioned in a previous post,
is having heart surgery early Tuesday morning.
Although he’s in fairly good health (for a sedentary 52-year-old), his heart has not been pumping well, and he will be having a valve in his aorta replaced.
Cards can be sent to my parents’ address.
I’ll try to keep you posted.