A happy Cinco de Mayo to everyone today. We suggest celebrating this holiday in any of these three ways:

1. Listening to the excellent mariachi covers of Mexico’s Mariachi Rock-O, like their take on Morrissey’s “Everyday is Like Sunday” or Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry”, both below;

2. Traveling back in time a few days and making this habenero-infused tequila from our 2009 recipe—it makes for some of the best, most adventurous margarita-drinking ever; and

3. Actually learning what we’re celebrating with Cinco de Mayo. Not to talk down to anyone—we’d barely known ourselves until recent years—but we are not, in fact, celebrating Mexican Independence Day; that’s in September.

What’s actually being commemorated is the May 5th Battle of Puebla, during the French “Intervention” in Mexico, when Mexican forces very unexpectedly defeated a much larger, better-equipped French Army. The French eventually went on to overpower the Mexican people in subsequent battles, but that little glimmer of hope—the underdog in the fight—that’s what we’re celebrating. That and, more importantly and broadly, Mexican heritage and how it plays into our lives here in LA and elsewhere.

Who can’t get behind that?

I guess the French, maybe. Everyone else—happy Cinco de Mayo to you!

Art by Danny Martin.

A nice, light, danceably upbeat number from the band Damn Right to play us into the weekend.

Originally from Baltimore, the electro pop band’s now based in Philly and seems to be hunkering down, focusing on their live set and the coming release of their new album, Frozen Sun, out May 19. Their sound seems to be growing from a nostalgic house-based electronic to a more pop, vocal-/hook-forward one from what we’re heard so far. Give their new single, “Halo”, a listen to see what we mean. It was evidently featured on the show Broad City? Which we hear is good but still have yet to check out.

You can listen to more and even download a few tracks on the band’s SoundCloud page. They’ll be playing the Chattanooga’s Riverbend Festival in June + the Silopanna Music Festival in Annapolis, MD in August, with other dates filling in as the year progresses, doubtless. 

Please note: The California coast is fucking amazing.

Just back from a trip up to Sonoma—which is lovely, by the way—and then back, over the Golden Gate Bridge, through one of our favorite cities in the world—San Francisco, past a town called Los Gatos (we procured an armful of cats), all around the undeniably magical Big Sur, and past, what, one thousand elephant seals? So playing a bit of catch-up—we’ll be back with you in-full shortly.

Click the panorama below in the meantime to see the White Wolf basking in the Cali sun at a larger scale.

As we’ll be traveling up the coast for some work the next couple days, we thought it worth mentioning—we have an Instagram account.

Well, technically, we have two—an ‘official’ one for the studio + a personal one for Katie. The former’s mainly run by Troy (me), not due to any strange anti-Katie hierarchical reasoning, more because I’m an early adopter when it comes to promotional social media and hopped on that raven + crow user name very promptly.

Anyway, as we head up the coast, check out either or both Instagram feeds. They usually feature most prominently our handsome-yet-goofy dog, Owen; our wise and somewhat wizened cat, Allister; a lot of soon-to-be-eaten vegan food; hiking; and many other things we deem pretty and/or funny, like this note someone left on the sidewalk the other day.

In the next couple days, we anticipate fewer dog + cat photos, but many more of the California coastline and venerable Sonoma vineyards.

Above, a piece we call “Cat in Profile, Galloping Up Brick Hill”. We anticipate it rivaling notable Warhols in both price + prestige given time.

No, that’s not an HP-Lovecraft-esque beast; it’s a Buddha’s hand—Citrus medica, a fragrant citrus fruit native to northeastern India + China. The fruit’s used traditionally to perfume rooms in its native land and is also given as gifts in Buddhist religious ceremonies—”According to tradition, Buddha prefers the “fingers” of the fruit to be in a position where they resemble a closed rather than open hand, as closed hands symbolize to Buddha the act of prayer.”

But, with a thick peel + pith that are sweet rather than bitter as with most citrus, it also makes for a great infuser. Just cut the segments, or fingers, from the fruit and then divide down their middles to increase the exposed surface area. Place the resulting peel + pith (not fruit) into a sealable bottle and fill with vodka or another fairly neutral liquor. Allow to sit at room temperature for a few days to a week, shaking every now and then then to circulate the fruit in the liquid. Then use in any citrusy drink recipes, like the one pictured below—a great match for the heat we’re feeling in Los Angeles right now.

One amendment to said recipe straight from our ex-bartender friend, Hayden—it’s actually best to place the mint leaves in the palm of one hand and then slap them with your other a couple times rather than muddling them as the latter causes them to take on a bitter flavor.

And, for anyone who’s never made a syrup at home, you essentially add some water to some sugar stovetop and cook it down until the sugar’s dissolved and the liquid thickens a bit, becoming a little thinner than your run-of-the-mill maple syrup. To flavor a syrup, simple place your flavoring ingredient in while cooking down the syrup. We wrote up syrup-making in more detail in 2010. Note for this particular syrup—the jalapeño syrup—that you really do need to be careful around it. Cook it on low in a well-ventilated space and expect the fumes to burn the eyes, nose, and throat nonetheless while you’re making it.

We also wrote up a ton of other infusing ideas back in 2011 too for anyone interested.

Another sonic gift from NPR to follow up last week’s—First Listen is featuring the soon-to-be-released Nikki Nack from the always imaginative, always innovative Merrill Garbus, AKA  tUnE-yArDs. And, though the album retains her trademark glitchy, hyper-rhythmic, anthemic sound, the songs seem catchier and more accessible than ever.

Turns out, the pivot in musical direction is very much intentional. Of the shift in sound, Garbus told Pitchfork’s Jayson Greene last month:
“I really went all the way back to square one: I walked into an open public library and checked out Molly-Ann Leikin’s [1987] book How to Write a Hit Song. I learned that the chorus should hit in the first 30 seconds. That was a big one. And just a lot of really nuts-and-bolts stuff: ‘You need to respect your writing time, make a date with yourself and keep it.’ And she has great exercises for brainstorming: ‘Picture a red schoolhouse. Now write everything you can describing that red schoolhouse. Is there a boy playing basketball outside?’ I really needed to unlearn everything I had done so far.” She continues, explaining the desire for the shift—”I got kind of sick of myself. After hearing so much about yourself and your own music, you say, ‘I know it’s not all about me, so what is it all about?’ I had to go and figure that out. And I took voice lessons last spring—just learning about belting and how to do it healthily. My voice sounds different to me on this record.”

Even for those who’ve found tUnE-yArDs grating, maybe, or too harsh or even annoying in the past, we’d encourage you to give Nikki Nack a listen over at NPR, where they’re streaming the album in full. It sounds like a positive step in evolution for Garbus and one that’s resulted in a friendlier, popper sound that we’re loving.

The best example of that—the first single from the album, “Water Fountain”, which takes the traditionally quirky, previously less-accessable sound of tUnE-yArDs and turns it on it’s head while still staying true to its musical origins, ending up with a beautifully unique pop gem. It’s currently available as a free download (along with some other nice picks) from NPR’s Heavy Rotation.

Nikki Nack is due out May 6, available directly from tUnE-yArDs’ Web site + iTunes.

For most of the US—especially our friends in New York—actual spring weather is just around the corner, which means long days at the beach, grilling out, and not openly cursing as you trudge through the snowy streets. But, as anyone who’s lived in New York knows, the city is fickle and teasing with its seasons and, most years, an upper 70s care-free day can and often is followed immediate by a small blizzard the next day.

So why not squeeze in one last cozy soup recipe before we’re in the clear? And, when I say ‘we’, I don’t at all mean me, obviously. LA continues to boast unchanging, eerily nice weather.

Truth be told, this dish is an all-weather favorite of ours, based on a recipe from one of our favorite cookbooks, Mangoes and Curry Leaves, by (then) married couple, Jeffrey Alford + Naomi Duguid. The couple wrote a number of stellar books before their split that walked a fine line between travel + Eastern culinary arts in terms of subject matter, each  featuring beautiful photography of both the food of the regions they cover and the people and culture of those regions too. For us, they represent the perfect introduction to the cultures behind many of the foods we love. And, whereas the recipes included aren’t vegan or even fully vegetarian, as with many non-Western culinary traditions, most of the foods featured are very vegetable-forward and easily convertible.

Case in point, the Classic Bengali Fish in Broth (p223)—AKA Jhol, meaning “simmered” or “cooked in water”. As the couple writes: “Jhol is served at the main noon meal in many households in Bengal. There’s a lot of broth, and flavors are delicate, with some heat from fresh green chiles and a little cayenne as well as from the mustard oil.”

A simple swapping of cod to tempeh keeps a similar texture and soaking up of the spices used while vegan-izing the entire dish. We find ourselves craving this dish all time of the year and highly recommend giving it—and the cookbook as a whole—a try.

So, what you need:

8 oz Tempeh, cut into 1″ cubes
2 teaspoons Salt
1.5 teaspoons Turmeric
4 tablespoons Mustard Oil (see note below)
3 tablespoons Vegetable Oil
1 teaspoon Panch Phoron (“five flavor/five spice”, a traditional Bengali spice mixture) or scant 1/4 teaspoon each Black Mustard, Nigella (or Black Cumin), Fennel, Fenugreek, and Cumin Seeds
1 teaspoon Fresh Ginger, finely minced
1/2 cup Tomato, diced
1 cup Zucchini, cubed
1 cup Asian Eggplant, cubed
1 teaspoon Coriander Seed, ground
1 teaspoon Cumin Seed
1/2 teaspoon Cayenne
3 cups Water or Vegetable Broth (see note below)
4 Green Chiles, seeded, de-stemmed, and cut into chunks
1/2 cup Cilantro Leaves, de-stemmed and sliced

In a small bowl, mix 1 teaspoon each of salt and turmeric and throw in the cubed tempeh, tossing to coat; set aside.

Now heat 2 tablespoons of the mustard oil in a heavy skillet.  A quick note on mustard oil—first, it lends an amazing taste to anything you cook it with. Second, in the US, it’s allowed to be sold if marked for external use only. Reason being, some believe it to be a health risk if ingested. As the New York Times writes in a 2011 piece on mustard oil: “Since the mid-1990s, the Food and Drug Administration has banned the import or sale of pure mustard oil as a foodstuff. Some mustard oils are 20 to 40 percent erucic acid, which studies have indicated might cause heart problems in lab rats.” But the jury’s still out. Some actually believe it to be good for the heart and health in general and many cultures have used it in cooking for generations. You can read the full article to find out more, but, our call—it’s good and we don’t use it too too often, so I doubt it’s doing much harm or good, if any at all.

Anyway, heat the oil and add the coated tempeh, cooking over medium to high heat and turning the pieces until it’s uniformly browned. Remove from the pan, draining excess oil, and set aside. You can put the tempeh in a bowl lined with paper towels if you’d like to soak up more of the oil or not if you’d like to incorporate the oil into the final meal.

Add the vegetable oil to the same pan and place back over medium-high heat. When you can hold your hand just over the pan and feel heat coming from it, throw in your spice mixture—Panch Phoron (pictured to the right)—and stir-fry briefly, until it starts to give off a fragrant scent. Add the ginger + tomato and sauté for about a minute, stirring as you do and allowing the tomato to break down a bit. Add the zucchini + eggplant and cook for 2-5 minutes, until the vegetables begin to soften. Add the rest of your spices—remaining turmeric, ground coriander, cumin, and cayenne—then add the water or broth, siring to mix. Bring to a boil.

On water vs. broth, we tend to use vegetable broth to give back some of the flavor lost by using tempeh instead of cod. We use a homemade broth, made from vegetable scraps that we save + freeze until we’ve accumulated a bag-full, then boil down for a few hours. It creates some really unbeatable broth and we highly recommend doing the same, but low-sodium store-bought’ll work too.

Carefully add the tempeh and chiles to the boiling mixture, lower the heat, and simmer until the vegetables are all tender but still retain most of the color—usually just about 5 minutes or so. Add your remaining salt, stir, and then carefully taste to see if you need to add any more salt or other seasonings.

Remove from heat and serve hot in a bowl, garnished with cilantro leaves. A nice rice or naan is great to serve with this soup to offset and control the spice level of the meal as a whole.

A dual shout-out to the artwork of Jenny Fine—who did the poster above—and the laff-inducing mind of our friend, Eliza Skinner, who seems to be blowing up of late.

Angelenos—catch an hour set from Eliza for free tonight at 730PM at The Virgil, 4519 Santa Monica.

You can also read through our LA-centric interview with Eliza from last April. Turns out, her favorite bar in LA is The Virgil. Who knew.

One of our favorite musical duos—Wye Oak—is set to release their fourth full-length album at month’s end and, at first listen, some of the change experienced by the two band members seems to be seeping into their style in slightly unexpected but not-at-all unwelcome ways.

I write ‘slightly’ unexpected because, the last time we caught the band live, as part of Prospect Park’s Celebrate Brooklyn series, they introduced a song with pre-recorded drums, (usual) drummer, Andy Stack, on keys, and front woman, Jenn Wasner on live bass as them “trying something new”.

Originally both based in Baltimore, Maryland, Stack moved to Portland and then Texas after the success of their prior album, Civilian, in 2011. That emotional space is audible in the music + song-writing and seems to give them what comes across as a natural place to which to evolve the band.

Indeed, up until now, the band’s relied on Wasner’s heavy guitar, beautifully dusky vocals, and great song-writing. The heavy reliance on the wash of the guitar both stylistically and as a base for the musical structure is nearly absent. But the latter two all-important aspects of the band’s sound—Jenn’s voice and writing—remain strong and, in places, shine even brighter than before. Having largely ditched the guitars, beautifully complex, syncopated rhythms on piano, keyboard, and bass provide a newly streamlined, cleaner platform to showcase the band’s most essential strengths.

It reminds me of a successful version of the change in sound for another long-time favorite band, Ra Ra Riot, who made a similar shift to a stark—though admittedly more poppy—electronic base with their last album, Beta Love. But, whereas that change seemed to sap the life out of the band, it only seems to have invigorated Wye Oak, turning the focus of the spotlight where it should be for them: the sincerity and emotion of the song-writing.

All that serves to say: Give it a listen. NPR currently has a full stream of the album, entitled Shriek, and you can watch the video for one of the many stand-out tracks, “The Tower”, below. The album’s available for pre-order via Merge records + iTunes.

Some words of wisdom from American author + environmentalist, Wendell Berry to commemorate this Earth Day:

“The soil if the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector, by which disease passes into health, age into youth, death into life. Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life.”

– Wendell Berry,
The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture

The words were passed on to us through the Hollywood Orchard, who celebrate Earth Day with a community pot luck, live musical performance of original work inspired by the orchard, and commemorative CD + hand-stitched booklet, pictured here. Last we heard, they had a few copies left—email them with inquires.