Can’t put my finger on who it makes me think of, but the lower part of that image reminds me of the work of a certain contemporary visual artist, or maybe just flotsam and seaweed on a white beach.

My idea when I’m painting a plate is primarily to use flavor and texture. I admit that appearances are always a consideration, but things are almost never deliberately conceived, and I only have seconds to arrange them, and just as little time to snap a picture.

• breakfast on this Sunday included thick bacon and fresh eggs from the free-range hens of a Pennsylvania Amish family’s Millport Dairy Farm, purchased at their Union Square Greenmarket stall; heirloom tomatoes and small aji dulce spicy-fragrant but very sweet peppers, both from Eckerton Hill Farm; scallions from Lani’s Farm; Morton & Bassett dried Aleppo pepper from Westside Market; Malden salt and freshly-ground black pepper; dill flowers from Willow Wisp Farm; chopped thyme from Lani’s Farm and summer savory from Stokes Farm; toasted slices from both an organic multigrain baguette from Bread Alone and a She Wolf Bakery miche  (the 12th century was exciting!)
• the music was the reissued Hilliard Ensemble album, ‘Perotin’  (because the 12th century was exciting!)