Breaking the White Rule

About author / Amy Powell

World traveler; gourmet 30 minute meals; lover of exotic ingredients; winner on FoodTV's Chefs vs City; graduate French Culinary Institute. Her recipes will tantalize your taste buds.

According to the rules of etiquette, I am told, wearing a white skirt before Memorial Day is considered somewhat of a fashion crime. It is these same Memorial Day rules that keep men from mixing striped shirts and printed ties before that one joyous weekend gives them permission to let loose for three months of frivolous dressing. These rules seem a bit silly because, first of all, I like in LA. We get most people’s Memorial Day weekend weather sometime in February. Second of all, how sad if my beautiful white linen skirt could only come out to play for three months of the year! I guess I’m a rebel, because that skirt of mine has been enjoying the California sunshine for over a month now.

Lucky for us, there are no such rules regarding white in the kitchen. I mean, what kind of world would it be if it were somehow uncool to serve ceviche in January or beef bourguignon in July? Now there are some rules on food to the extent that seasonality dictates a fruit or vegetable’s quality, but even those lines blur thanks to modern transportation. Take strawberries, for instance. Right now strawberries are very much in season in California and will continue to be for a good month or two past Memorial Day. In Florida, however, strawberries come into bloom around the end of January and continue to produce almost until California’s crop kicks in around April. That means that no matter where you live in the country, strawberries will be perfectly good, and totally proper to serve, for at least half of the year.

The old cliche about rules is that they are made to be broken. And if you aren’t going to follow the rules, you might as well mock them with our own Memorial Day party celebrating everything that is the opposite of what you are being told to eat, drink, and wear according to some manners coach out there who has deemed it so.

Such an attitude (not P. Diddy, contrary to popular belief) is what inspired that now infamous White Party on Labor Day weekend of 2004. On this date, one New York City apartment was turned into something straight out of a Ralph Lauren ad as 30-40 fresh faced, preppy looking yuppies wearing all white crammed into my loft space to feast on white asparagus wrapped with proscuitto, white bean and sage dip, white chocolate cupcakes, and white cheddar fondue (a dish we have learned is better suited for a party space with great ventilation).

So this Memorial Day weekend, perhaps we should say adieu to nine months of dark attire with a Black Party! For instance, if you are throwing a picnic, cold black sesame noodles will pack wonderfully. Serve it alongside blackened chicken sandwiches and black forest cake and one has a complete and elegant meal to-go. For something a little more formal, squid ink pasta (now available in specialty markets like Whole Foods) with assorted seafood is always a stunner of a dish. Served with a black truffle potato soup to start and finished off with a flourless chocolate cake so dense that it too is black, you have meal so sinfully rich you will be prepared to abandon the dark side for the next few months.

Since I am already celebrating the season with my summer whites, I am going to play by the rules so far as the seasonality of my food. But I'll laugh in the face of all the Miss Manners of the world as I savor a blackened snapper over fava bean and corn succotash while wearing my best and blackest summer dress.

Serves/Makes: 8

• 8 (4 ounce size) red snapper fillets, skin and pin bones removed
• 2 tablespoons dried thyme
• 2 tablespoons oregano
• 2 tablespoons paprika
• 2 teaspoons chili pepper
• 2 teaspoons black pepper, ground
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 4 sprigs thyme
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 cups shelled fava beans
• 3 ears corn, kernels removed
• salt
• black pepper
• olive oil