If you’ve cooked, you’ve had it happen. The foolproof recipe from the trusted source. Sweet promises: “oh, if it’s hard to make, it’s only that you’ve been doing it wrong! Try it my way…” It’s mouthwateringly within your reach: that perfect dish or confection, just like you had that on one magical occasion that you’ll never reach again (that tiny picturesque coffeehouse/bakery in europe, that prohibitively expensive restaurant in the city, that sunny afternoon in your grandmother’s kitchen…)

You amass the ingredients and paraphernalia one piece at a time, with a spark of excitement every time you take another step towards your culinary mecca. You read each step of the process over and over, memorizing the time-critical passages, researching and drawing every shade of meaning from obscure foreign verbs or familiar words with new and specific meanings. Finally, with a free afternoon and a shiver of nervous anticipation, you ritually assemble your mise en place and you begin.

And maybe, in the cases that are simultaneously the best and the worst, you get close to something beautiful. Just for a brief, precious moment — the delicate balance of flavors, sweet against salty, yin and yang — the tantalizing nascent aroma — the shining omen of perfect color and texture — eureka, eureka! — —

– And then, flush with exhilaration, caught up in the moment, then, you’ve waited just barely too long, and suddenly you find yourself left watching it all go up in smoke. (Often quite literally.)

Oh, chocolate-topped almond toffee. We could have been great together — my only regret is not taking you off the stove fifteen seconds earlier.

Friends, Cassis has inspired me. Yes, though his name may sound foreign, his ideals were true. They were American, and to not highlight the delicacies of the food itself would do injustice to the effect it inspires in its consumer.  Since the beginning of time, our need for sustenance has governed and dictated the course of human civilization.  Tribes would track migrating herds, cities were built to allow agriculture, even wars have been fought to emphasize what Thomas Malthus described as the one inexorable truth of governing philosophy: people must eat. In such a spirit do I begin a new chapter in chicken and rice, my life, and the history of mankind.

When George Mallory was asked why he strove to climb Mount Everest, he uttered, “Because it is there.” Four simple words, which symbolize the determination, the strength of resolve of humanity to reach beyond the accepted boundaries of understanding and possibility just to see if it can.  As such, I pose a similar challenge to myself. I will visit every state in the United States of America.  I will do so, and sample what each state considers to be its most delicious meal–the product of millenia of human struggle, of a delicious fusion of cultures of melting pot America.   I will savor the soul of its greatness, its reason for existence, and I will document my travels as they occur.  Why go to such lengths? Why indeed.

No. In fact, the politically corrupt are very undelicious. Ask Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. He’s not having a very fun time right now. Neither are the people he’s blackmailed, asked for under the table money, or those whose careers he’s ruined. In fact, no one is having a good time. Except you. You get to reap the harvest of the evil seeds he sowed in the form of satire and comedy.

But if you ever find yourself in office and Patrick Fitzgerald is knocking on your door telling you you’re under arrest, come back to chicken and rice and watch this short video, so that you can see exactly what you’ve become.

Merry Christmas.