Artichokes at Cochineal

i often ponder if it’s the dish or the people that make food experiences so memorable. June of 2018 in Marfa, TX, at Restaurant Cochineal I had the most incredibly simple and delicious artichoke with a tarragon aioli. i think about it all the time, all the time. it was shared with 4 incredible women; we had just arrived to the desert and it was our first meal after quite some ordeals. (a 14 hour drive, a flat tire, and a near heat stroke on some sand dunes) Anthony Bourdain had just been to the place a few weeks prior and was raving about it. i had to go. we plucked the petals and sucked the pulp and cheers’d our prickly pear margaritas with many ‘oh my god’ and ‘mmm, so good’s.

we bonded with the table next to us. said our goodbyes and then walked home under the moonlight. that was such a good meal, & such a good trip. whenever someone tells me about a dish they had i always ask who they were with, and 4/4 times it’s happened they were able to tell me exactly the special person/people and the experience they had together. it’s both, of course. ‘food connects people’. the food really is that good and the people are too. & maybe i just have a love affair with artichokes because I could go on and on about them. their beauty, the catharsis in the kitchen I feel while preparing one. getting to the heart!

wow, anyway, i made artichokes tonight with a tarragon aioli and it just wasn’t the same. (obviously) & i hope we can all get back to eating and drinking at the places we love with the people we love real soon. a huge thank you to all of the very special restaurants and bars that have created experiences and memories like this for us. we will rise and cheers again. xx