When your 3-hour play started late, but you still need a supper, and then you want to continue the discussion that began when you entered the theater:

• thin slices of dense ‘Homadama’ (wheat, corn, water, maple syrup, salt, slaked lime) from Lost Bread Co., not toasted, because they were both very fresh and very firm, supporting 2 different spreads, a plain water buffalo milk labneh from Riverine Ranch, leaving a shallow depression to receive a bit of a very good Greek olive oil (Renieris Estate ‘Divina’ (Koroneiki varietal), then sprinkled with a few pinches of dried fenugreek from Bombay Emerald Chutney Company (purchased at the Saturday Chelsea Farmers Market); and an Umbrian-style ciauscolo, or spreadable salami made by Rico and Jill of Walnut Hill Farm in Pawlet, Vermont
• leaves from a small purple and green head of leaf lettuce from Fledging Crow Vegetables and a small head of Radicchio Variegato di Castelfranco from Campo Rosso Farm, dressed with the same Greek olive oil, local P.E. & D.D. Seafood sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and a squeeze of organic California lemon from Chelsea Whole Foods Market
• the wine was an Italian (Veneto/Bardolini) rosé, Bardolino Chiaretto, Corte Sermana 2018, from Astor Wines

• because the performance we had come from was a that of Tony Kushner’s 1985 play, ‘A Bright Room Called Day’, set in Berlin in 1932-1933, the music we chose was pretty much in tune: it was ‘Leipzig Symphony‘, by one of the German composers most closely associated with resistance to the Nazis, Hanns Eisler; banned in 1933, the composer and his collaborator Bertolt Brecht went into exile; Eisler was eventually able to emigrate to the United States with a permanent visa in 1938, joining Brecht in Los Angeles in 1942, but, because he remained so deeply committed to everything most hated by the National Socialist regime, in 1948 Eisler and his wife were literally thrown out of the U.S. as well; they were reunited with Brecht in East Berlin, where he composed the magnificent national anthem of the German Democratic Republic, among many other works, many for theater and film, and both he and Brecht were celebrated as heroes, until the day they died, and beyond [Eisler’s ‘Leipzig Symphony’, unfinished when the composer died in 1962, was completed by composer Thilo Medek; the performance we heard was by Jürgen Bruns conducting the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra (the radio orchestra of Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk), the oldest German radio orchestra, based in Leipzig, where it was founded in 1923]

[the second image is of a large detail of the set, before the play begins, for ‘A Bright Room Called Day’ at The Public Theater, where it continues through December 22]

Especially compared to my usual Sunday practice, the herbs and spices were pretty minimal yesterday at lunch, but the epazote was a star on the eggs.

And the new bread was scrumptious.

The meal introduced something else new to our table: A local, ‘European style'(cultured) 86% butterfat butter (that is to say, 12 of the 14 grams in each tablespoon is fat, while almost other American butters have only 11 grams per tablespoon) made by Vermont Creamery, in Websterville, Vermont, from milk provided by the St. Albans Cooperative  Creamery in St Albans (and yeah, the packaging is recycled paper).

• four slices of thick bacon from Millport Dairy Farm’s pastured pigs, fried slowly over low heat inside a large enameled cast iron skillet, turning occasionally, removed while they were still juicy and before they had become crisp, set aside on paper toweling to drain, then after adding a little butter to the pan, frying until their whites had barely set 6 very fresh eggs from Millport Dairy Farm pastured chickens, seasoning them with local sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, sprinkling chopped fresh epazote from the Greenmarket’s TransGenerational Farm on top, arranged on the plates with sautéed slices of a medium green heirloom tomato from Quarton Farm, also seasoned with salt and pepper, but in its case garnished with chopped lovage from Keith’s Farm, bacon, eggs, and tomato accompanied by slices, not toasted, of an extraordinary loaf of dark corn and wheat loaf, ‘Homadama’ (wheat, corn, water, maple syrup, salt, slaked lime), with a taste delightfully redolent of a sturdy fresh corn on the cob, from Philadelphia’s Lost Bread Co., which fortunately for New Yorkers, sets up a table in the Union Square Greenmarket on Wednesdays and Fridays
• the music was Leopold Anton Kozeluch’s 1787 oratorial, ‘Moisè In Egitto’, Hermann Max conducting the Rheinische Kantorei and Das Kleine Konzert

There was no fresh fish, and I hadn’t thought far enough ahead to arrange for a meat. I had assumed I would put together a meal using a dried pasta and something from the pretty broad ready choice of possible ingredients, but when it came close to dinner, I hadn’t come up with anything.

One of the prepared filled pastas I had recently brought home from Buon Italia was looking it would be delegated, and it was, becoming a very simple entrée.

So it was an accidental meal of sorts, but a very good one, especially with the delicious  artisanal sausage and beautiful local lettuce that became an antipasto.

• thin slices of half of a delicious, 4-ounce Jacöterie ‘Italian Style Salami’ soppressata crafted with pasture raised pork from Walnut Hill Farm in Ancramdale, NY
• arranged with leaves of red leaf buttercrunch lettuce from Fledging Crow Vegetables, the greens dressed with a small amount of good Greek olive oil, Demi, from the Peloponnese, Laconia, Velles, a purchase from John, a member of the family that makes it, at the 23rd Street Greenmarket, some local P.E. & D.D. Seafood sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and a squeeze of organic California lemon from the Chelsea Whole Foods Market
• thin slices from a loaf of Homadama bread (wheat, corn, water, maple syrup, salt, slaked lime) from Lost Bread Co.

the wine was an Italian (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) white, Pinot Bianco, Pierpaolo Pecorari 2016, from Astor Wines

• nine ounces from a frozen package of a gorgonzola and walnut panzerotto, from Buon Italia, made by Tradizioni Padane Srl of Gottolengo Brescia, briefly boiled in a large amount of well-salted water, introduced into a large antique copper pot in which sliced cloves of Keith’s Farm rocambole garlic had been heated until fragrant in a little olive oil, tossed, along with a very small amount of reserved pasta cooking water, the remains, broken up, of a small head of Radicchio Variegato di Castelfranco from Campo Rosso Farm, seasoned with salt and pepper, served garnished with micro nasturtium from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• the wine was an Italian (Pedmont/Alba) red, Barbera d’Alba, Produttori di Govone 2016, from Astor Wines

• the music throughout the meal was Mendelssohn’s, his 1837 Piano Concerto No. 2  and the 1824 Symphony No. 1, Kristian Bezuidenhout on fortepiano, and the Freiburger Barockorchester, Pablo Heras-Cas directing

It was the first morning of December, so of course we enjoyed local tomatoes with our breakfast.

The 2 that I used in this meal, saving the rest for a dinner the next day, came from a small stash that I thought at the time would be the last of a long season, but at the Greenmarket 3 days later I picked up 2 medium heirloom tomatoes and a basket of heirloom cherry tomatoes from a Pennsylvania farmer located further to the south (roughly 60 miles further) than the New York farm where these had been grown.

• our breakfast, a little simpler than usual, included 4 slices of thick bacon from pastured pigs and 6 fresh eggs from pastured chickens, all from the Amish family-run Millport Dairy Farm stand in the Union Square Greenmarket, the eggs seasoned with a local Long Island sea salt (from P.E. & D.D. Seafood), freshly ground black pepper, and sprinkled with torn leaves off of a live basil plant from Stokes Farm, garnished on the side with a little purple micro radish from Windfall Farms; there was a small assembly of slices of small green tomatoes that had been warmed in a little olive oil inside a small copper skillet along with a few chopped seasoning peppers (aji dulce (red) and Granada, both from Eckerton Hill Farm, served on a few leaves from a small head of radicchio variegato di Castelfranco from Campo Rosso Farm; a rich local butter (Organic Valley ‘Cultured Pasture Butter’ from Chelsea Whole Foods, and slices, untoasted, of Homadama bread (wheat, corn, water, maple syrup, salt, slaked lime) from Lost Bread Co.
• the music was Francesco Bartolomeo Conti’s 1715 ‘Missa Sancti Pauli’, György Vashegyi conducting the Orfeo Orchestra and the Purcell Choir

After last week’s detour through a one-stop condiment arrangement involving some homemade Zhug, today I went back to assembling a lot of separate things in little bowls for our traditional Sunday bacon and eggs early afternoon meal.

It was a lunch of consequence.

It included, not necessarily in any order:

• 6 fresh eggs from pastured chickens, John Stoltzfoos’ Millport Dairy Farm in the Union Square Greenmarket
• 4 slices of bacon from pastured pigs, John Stoltzfoos’ Millport Dairy Farm in the Union Square Greenmarket
• chives from Space at Ryder Farm (sprinkled on the eggs)
• a bit of spicy parsley, from JoAnna Kang, of Windfall Farms (sprinkled on the eggs)
• local sea salt from P.E. & D.D. Seafood Company (finishing)
• La Baleine Sea Salt Coarse (cooking)
• freshly ground black pepper from Whole Foods, its store brand
• a small bottle of homemade olive oil-infused dried Brazilian wax peppers
• leaves from a head of dark purple lettuce (probably a romaine form) from Kelly Quarton’s Quarton Farm
• Renieris Estate ‘Divina’ (Koroneiki varietal) olive oil, Hania, Crete, Whole Foods Market (on the lettuce)
• 2 chopped tomatillos from Eckerton Hill Farm
• Whole Foods Market house Portuguese olive oil (in the skillet with the tomatillos)
• 1 small scallion from Alex’s Tomato Farm in the Saturday 23rd Street farmers market (with the tomatillo)
• 1 clove of ‘Chesnok Red’ garlic from Alewife Farm (with the tomatillo)
• a chopped section from one green) jalapeño pepper from Alex’s Tomato Farm (with the tomatillo)
• one finely chopped aji dulce pepper (no real heat) from Eckerton Hill Farm (on the tomatillo)
• chopped fresh thyme from Quarton Farm (on the tomatillo)
• ‘Delitia’ Burro di Bufala, Caserta, Campania (total fat 12g, 83% butter fat) from Eataly (on the side)
• Vermont Creamery Butter (total fat 12g, 83% butter fat) from Eataly (added to the bacon fat for the eggs)
• Seedy Grains bread (wheat, spelt, rye, barley flours, plus buckwheat, oats, flax, sesame, sunflower, pumpkin seeds) from Lost Bread Co. (older, so it was toasted) [pictured]
• Homadama bread (wheat, corn, water, maple syrup, salt, slaked lime) from Lost Bread Co. (wasn’t toasted)

• the music was the album, ‘Inde du Nord’, with Partho Sarothy, sarod, and Prabhu Edouard, tabla, with Raga Bhairav, a sampurna raga traditionally performed in the morning (we rise late)