Getting to the meat of a magic act – Corey Mintz pulls cooked rabbit out of a hat to impress his guest, visiting magician David Ben, an “honest” trickster.
It’s hard to choose a playlist for dinner with a magician. Just “Final Countdown” on a four-hour loop? I settle on the early ’70s smooth jazz sounds of Bob James. I don’t know a lot about magic but I feel that this could be the soundtrack to a Doug Henning television special.
Planning a menu for David Ben was easier. I only had to figure out how to execute the most obvious food allusion, to pull a rabbit out of a hat. My butcher sold me a whole animal, kidneys removed. I didn’t have enough duck fat on hand, so I make a confit in the smoked pork fat left over from last week’s pigtail barbecue. Rabbit, with so many small bones, is among the most time-consuming meat to pull. But once I had a pile of soft, shredded meat, I blended it with lemon zest, basil and chilies, packing the rillettes into a jar.
When Ben and the other guests arrive, there’s a cowboy hat on the table, with a note reading “Magic hat. Do not touch.” Between the wine glasses and candles I’ve add some 20-sided Dungeons and Dragons dice, for misdirection… ( TheStar.com )
