spoiled rotten

Last night I was treated to the most magnificent birthday dinner, ever. Here is what I had- at least, what I remember of it. A ten-course food extravaganza!!!

Ko menu, 4/20/10:

Octopus salad, xo sauce (amuse)

Seared diver scallop, meyer lemon curd, fennel (amuse)

pepper biscuit and chicharrones

Carpaccio, __cheese,

Brioche w/ marrow, lemon confit, sorrel in gruyere and comte broth

Soft boiled egg, caviar, potato chips, onion confit

Hand torn pasta, chicken and snail sausage

Almond crusted skate wing

Lychee, riesling gelee, peanut brittle, SHAVED FOIE

Duck breast, mustard greens, honey braised turnips, pumpernickel

Spiced wine sorbet, asian pear

Pretzel flan, mustard gummies, root beer sorbet, caraway

I'm on my way out the door to have dinner at Blue Hill. Il Buco on Saturday, Ko on Tuesday, and Blue Hill on Wednesday? My stomach is never going to be the same again.

Baja style

I am craving a good fish taco. A perfectly battered, wonderfully dressed Baja style fish taco. Only perfect with some sort of tangy tartar-ish sauce, shredded cabbage and lime. I haven't had a good one in YEARS! Maybe this recipe from Saveur is worth a try? Anyone know where I can get a good one in NY?

{update! 4/14/10: I heard last night that the taco truck at Union pool serves up the best tacos in the city! Can't wait to try them!}

The Baker's Dozen

I'm back, and for my not-quite-inaugural post, I'm offering a link to the James Beard Foundation's top thirteen baking cookbooks. I've recently come into acquisition of a few new books, and though have none of these, would like all of these.

1. “Baking: From My Home to Yours,” by Dorie Greenspan (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2006).
2. “Beard on Bread,” by James Beard (originally published 1973; reprinted by Knopf, 1995).
3. “The Book of Great Desserts,” by Maida Heatter (Andrews McMeel, 1999).
4. “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice,” by Peter Reinhart (Ten Speed, 2001).
5. “The Cake Bible,” by Rose Levy Beranbaum (William Morrow, 1988).
6. “Classic Home Desserts,” by Richard Sax (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000).
7. “Cocolat,” by Alice Medrich (Warner Books, 1990).
8. “The Fannie Farmer Baking Book,” by Marion Cunningham (Gramercy, 1996).
9. “Great Pies and Tarts,” by Carole Walter (Clarkson Potter, 1998).
10. “The Italian Baker,” by Carol Field (William Morrow, 1985).
11. “Martha Stewart’s Cookies,” by Martha Stewart (Clarkson Potter, 2008).
12. “My Bread,” by Jim Lahey (W.W. Norton, 2009).

13. “The Simple Art of Perfect Baking,” by Flo Braker (Chronicle, 2003).

via NY Mag.

Heritage Radio

Broadcast five days a week out of the little shack in Roberta's backyard, Brooklyn's pirate radio station, Heritage Radio, focuses on all sorts aspects of the food industry- my kind of radio station.

One broadcast that really stuck with me was a panel discussion on the Future of Food Writing, hosted by Edible editor Rachel Wharton. It's a breezy half-hour easy listen on food publications, blogging, new strategies in food writing, and what's happening in the industry as a whole (and how it's made public).

Go here for a listen.

Edible: The Book

I'm so excited. I love the Edible Communities; it's without a doubt one of my favorite publications (In fact, I've been daydreaming about writing for them....living the life of a food-obsessed community-oriented rogue....but that's another story). After reading about the release of their new book today- chock full I'm sure with recipes, heartwarming stories, local heroes, and juicy pictures, I absolutely cannot wait until May arrives.

FoodPrint

I am going to food geek out this weekend and go to these lectures about the Culture of food in the city, and where it stands looking into the future. Join me?

Weck

I read about these Chicago-based canning jars in a subscription of Martha Stewart Living. Yes, I get Martha Stewart Living. So what.

They're not only gorgeous, but definitely live up to the hype that has become the home canning revolution. Can't wait to get my hands on a case of these.

Mast on the Selby

The title of this post will probably make absolutely no sense to most of you.

The Mast Brothers are an ultra-hip sensation based in Brooklyn (natch, Williamsburg. Woot.) who have been cultivating a strong following within the rising artisanal movement of bringing back trade work in the food production industry. I mean things like small farm milk and butter, local pickling productions, the return of the art of butchering, and in this case, bean to bar chocolate production.

The Selby is an online photo journalist (is it all right to call him that?) who, in my opinion, takes photos with an eye reminiscent of a love child of The Cobra Snake and Annie Leibovitz. Mostly pulled from the homes and spaces of rocks stars, artists, stylists (basically party all night, rock all day type of people) and cool young businesses, Tom Selby has capitalized on the art of photojournalism by indulging in our developed social stalking tendencies. Awesome. I love his website, get a kick out of the written interviews at the end of each entries, and pretty much fall in love with all the Australians on the website.

Check out the Mast Brothers on The Selby here.

Dining Trends Article

Dining Trend Forecasts for the next year make me realize that I'm a food snob.

It could be worse.

mystery field trip

I have a secret.

It's one of my favorite little hole-in-the-wall businesses that I'm going to share with you. Can you guess what goes on here?:

Hmm. Mysterious slop. What could it be?

It's Tofu! See the little blocks, all lined up and ready to be put into bags for us? And, do you see their brothers and sisters, waiting in the metal vat, floating in all their splendid tofu juice?

If you ever find yourself in San Jose, definitely make your way down to the San Jose Tofu Company, in downtown SJ's Japantown. It will change your tofu-eating life, forever.

San Jose Tofu Company
175 Jackson Street
San Jose, CA 95112
Telephone: (408) 292-7026

menu

Assorted Charcuterie & Cheeses

House Pickled Radishes, Carrots, and Cauliflower

Green Bean Pesto

___

Roasted Fig and Carmelized Onion on Arugula with Fresh Goat Cheese

Lemon Braised Kale

___

Dr. Pepper Slow Roasted Spare Ribs

Bacon-Sauteed Black Eyed Peas with Wilted Greens

Assortment of Roasted Market Squash

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

___

Salted Chocolate Caramel Tart

Pizza and beer pairing

No, not papa john's and bud light. Pshaw, you think I would even dare post such a thing?

This Saturday, Jim Lahey (of Sullivan Street and no-knead bread fame) is hosting a pizza and beer pairing at his beloved restaurant, Co. Prounounced, "Company". I love pairings, food and drink especially, plus it usually indulges my preference of tasting a little bit of everything. And really there's something so magical about two people, each so knowledgeable about their own specific craft, coming together and creating beautiful yummiful harmony. Cue Hallelujah music.

Do I sound like a food freak yet?

The beer part of the pairing is brought to you by the lovely people over at Six Point Ales. Six Point, for all you Westcoasters, is a local Brooklyn brewery (woot woot Red Hook) that was born not to long ago, in 2004. They make some pretty kick ass local brews that can be found throughout the city, and you all know how I'm a fan of all things local. Not to mention, their website is stellar.

I have a prior engagement (DC's birthday! hooray!) but you can bet that if it weren't her, I would be in Chelsea on Saturday.

It's $35, pretty phenomenal for an afternoon of pizza and beer. Location, time, and RSVP info here.

Arepas

There's a few places that I rotate in my arsenal of 'places to grub when friends come into town'. Caracas Arepas Bar is, in my opinion, tops. It's vying for the number one spot with Cafe Habana.

Arepas, you ask, what are they?! An arepa is a disc of a corn patty fried, then sliced open and stuffed with meaty, cheesy, salsa-y heaven. The Venezuelan brother of the pupusa, if you know what that is.

Anyway, Caracas Arepas Bar is the bomb. The arepas there come stuffed with a combination of things like friend plantains, pulled pork, guayanes cheese, chimi curri sauce, black beans, chorizo....and they have this sauce that's, I swear, laced with crack.

If you haven't try it, then you're missing out. There's one around the corner from my house...and it takes all my willpower not to have one everyday.

labor day weekend

Time well spent with good people and good food. Another DC trip in the books.

Amazing photoshop job courtesy of Fergustuff

Burgers and Beer and Babes in Brooklyn

Pound pound pound pound

That's my head right now. Last night was the perfect night, spent a beautiful Brooklyn evening clucking with three lovely ladies and a delicious burger and many many beverages.

yum.

back home

I got home to NY this afternoon. good ole muggy smoggy cloudy crowded NY. After being away for a week in Nashville, I found myself so relieved to be back. As much as I appreciate the friendliness and spaciousness (and cheapness) of the rest of America, I'm so happy to be coastal again.

Anyway I am pooped. Was feeling super groggy but then came home to a bounty of veggies from our CSA this week. Hooray tomatoes!

I'm thinking ratatouille, via this great recipe from Bon Appetit last month. Is that weird? Ratatouille in the middle of a sweltering hot summer?

twits

So as most of you know or have figured out I have a twitter account. For those of you who had no idea, there it is, now you know. For those of you who won't be my friend now that I've revealed this, I don't want to be your friend either.

I've only twittered (tweeted, whatever) maybe once or twice, and probably log in three times a week at most. I'm not that much a fan of the site, and though it can be slightly intriguing it is pretty darned pointless. Plus, I hate the fact that all links are scrambled and you can never get an idea of what you'll be linking to. Dangerous, I tell you! But I'm certainly not going to hate on people who tweet like there's no tomorrow. Not only is that unfair, but I know that Twitter has become a relevant Thing (like, it's a Thing with a capital T, something culturally significant, maybe more of a fad than anything lasting in our world but not just a plain ol' thing.) and plus it allows me to stalk, ahem, find out about people and kill some free time. I know, me, free time, crazy right?

Today, however, I found that Twitter can indeed be a really useful, stimulating and even educational tool.

Okay, yes, I think this way because it will tell me things like the location of the Kogi truck and what flavors ice cream the General Greene is serving on any given day. Nay, any given MINUTE. But that's not why I'm blogging about twittering (like whoa, so 2009 of me). See, I've been racking my brain to find ways that I can stay in tune with the art world. When I was in college, (Ready, time warp machine?) my very right brained self was relatively sharp in making art world criticisms, comparisons, and assessments of works and of artists. By the time I graduated I had trained myself to talk art lingo, to see things in art that did not exist, and to familiarize myself with not only older art history figures, but current and emerging artists as well.

Then a funny thing happened - I forgot everything. It was like my brain was wiped clean by alien mutants! (weird comparison, sorry.)

I went from knowing how to talk about art, to knowing how to talk about a signle roster of 25 artists. I suppose this happens in many fields, and frankly I'd love for my neurosurgeon to be focused on exclusively my brain and the synapses that are firing...not my brain a little, and my toes a little, and oh, a little bit of my gall bladder as well. But art is not a science (duh) and is informed so SO much by its history and by it's relevance, you gotta be in it to win it.

Now, of course I can do my own reading and research. But I'm not disciplined enough to do this, aside from the fact that I'm so far removed it's hard to figure out where to jump in, or even how to retain any information that I do manage to collect.

This is where twitter comes in. I knew that everyone was on twitter. But I had no idea that EVERYONE IS I ON Twitter. Artnet, The MoMA, Art Fag City, the list goes on, all these amazing institutions and publications and super knowledgeable art sources, they are all there talking art and art world gossip. What I like about art news in twitter feed is the more approachable and digestible format for which art news is presented. I love ArtForum just as much as anyone else, but sometimes the articles and reviews are so scholarly and so word-centric that I get lost in the writing and can't even begin to analyze what the art is about. All I need is a 140 word round-up about what's going on, who thinks what, which artist is featured in which museum this month. Twitter, I've discovered, allows me to pick up names and bits of information much like I would gain in any normal discussion.

140 words or less. That's how I'm going to get back into the art world.

Pea Shoot Pesto

Last Wednesday marked our first CSA pickup, from the Garden of Eve farms. My roommate and I are doing a bi-weekly vegetable pick up, which seems to work out perfectly for our little budgets and big stomachs.

There are so many wonderful things about being part of a CSA, the least of which is getting the opportunity to try new produce that one would never pick out at the supermarket. For example, garlic scapes. I've seen them all over the place and always observed them at the farmers market, but never once had the guts to get a bunch. Another example, pea shoots. These are just a couple examples of veggies that veer slightly off of a common grocery list.

Pea shoots tend to wilt fairly quickly, mine seemed to keep five days in a ziploc bag in our produce compartment fairly well. The basil, on the other hand, didn't fare so well. RIP sweet basil.

I decided that these fresh delicate pea shoots should be eaten raw, as sautee'ing them (as traditionally done in Chinese cuisine) seemed to be such a waste of something so fresh. After doing a quick google search for ways to use pesto, maybe in salads, I came across a bounty of pesto recipes for pea shoots. Brilliant! Though pesto is traditionally a combination of basil, pinenuts, parmesean, olive oil and garlic, chefs and home cooks have modified the recipe to include walnuts, mint, cilantro...the list goes on.

The pesto, because pea shoots are far softer in flavor than basil, turned out to be a sweet, nutty, and fresh sauce. It's not an oily liquidy pesto like the ones you may buy at the store, but rather a thick, chunky, smooth paste. I don't eat a lot of pasta at home, so I am inclined to use this "sauce" on sandwiches, chicken, tofu, with pretzels, on salmon, and as a salad dressing (with an extra squirt of lemon, of course). I can't wait!!!!

PEA SHOOT PESTO

prep time: approx. 15 - 20 min

2 handfuls pea shoots (about 1 lb??)

3/4 cup parmesan cheese

1 cup olive oil

1 cup pinenuts

5 cloves roasted garlic

1 lemon

salt and pepper, to taste

Wash and prep the pea shoots by snapping off all the thick stems. Spin in a salad spinner to dry completely

Pea shoots and roasted garlic, delightful!!!

Combine 1/2 of all ingredients in a food processor or blender, begin to blend on a lower speed. You may need to stop the blender every so often to mix around the ingredients. Once the pesto starts to farm, start adding in the remainder of the ingredients while the blender is still running. Add more (or less) olive oil to determine a consistency that you like. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

giving the pesto a final whirl in our blender.

Blend on high speed until thoroughly pureed. You can also leave your pesto chunkier, if you wish.

Store in an airtight jar or container. Should keep for about a week or slightly more.

**To roast garlic, cut off the top of a garlic bulb and place on a sheet of foil. drizzle a tiny amount of olive oil and wrap foil to cover the entire bulb. Roast in a 400degree oven for up to an hour, or until soft. This is also great on toast, in pastas, or just about anything, really.

Slow Down

Campbell, CA, c.1987 I wasn't allowed near a stove but that certainly didn't stop me from cooking up a storm.

As most people who read this blog (does anyone read this blog?) know, I am quite enthralled by the world of food. Making it, eating it, reading about it, I love it all. My mom would always tell me that as an infant, I would refuse canned and jarred baby food, only eating homemade meals that my dear mother so painstakingly cooked each day. Why she didn't just threaten I starve or shove a jar of Gerber's puree down my throat I have no idea. I guess somewhere between birth and learning how to eat I also honed a very sophisticated palate, and my mother decided to appease this.

In retrospect it's easy to see how my early love of food was further encouraged as I grew older by the accessibility to develop my tastes and awarenesses. I grew up not on Captain Crunch and Fruity Pebbles, but "healthy" cereals such as Kix, Basic 4, or Bran Flakes. The Chinese culture taught me to love trotters (pigs feet), whole fish, dried squid, chicken feet, seaweed, and pork belly- wayyy before New York over-popularized the poor cut of meat. I never knew avocados didn't really exist in some parts of the nation, have gone apple/cherry/blackberry picking as a weekend sport, and thanks to mom was frequenting Farmers Markets and eating locally and seasonally at a very early age.

When I started working in restaurants in high school I really saw how different people were in their tastes. You can really separate those who eat for just consumption purposes, and those who eat for enjoyment- just by watching them for ten minutes while they dine. In my opinion, the latter is always more fun as a customer. As I moved on to different restaurants, I became more aware of the dynamics between food and culture, how people were able to use food as a source of discussion and debate, how it could become art....pleasure. I even took a class in college that focused on Food in Modern Culture, watching Tampopo for the first time and realizing that Food and Surrealist movement probably weren't so different after all. At the ripe age of 21 (okay, maybe a little beforehand) I became aware that wine wasn't some nasty grape juice, and likewise with beer, port, whiskeys, grappas, ohh the list goes on. I know I am completely romanticizing food and wine right now and frankly probably sound quite ridiculous, but I'm dead serious.

Anyway this mini-rant leads me to my current food infatuation: Slow Food. Or, more generalized, the slow food movement. Starting in the hippie-infested slums of Berkeley, I'd like to describe very succinctly that it's the movement to bring local, sustainable, and Old World ideals back to our every day eating. It's about providing a food system that is clean, fair, and healthy for both producers and consumers alike. If it's anything that will save the world, it's the slow food movement. That, and abolishing my credit card debt. But save that for another time...

I think my early infatuation and experiences with food, with eating, with eating WELL has led me to the place that I'm currently at in my young adulthood. Which is in New York, broke, and trying to eat as well as I can. Eating sustainably doesn't mean you HAVE to grow your own garden and become a vegetarian and convert to buddhism and spend loads of yuppie cash at the Farmer's Market. It just means putting that extra little care to know where your food comes from, making sure that you're eating according to the season and that you're not stuffing your face with HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup) and a bunch of other chemicals I can't even begin to spell let along pronounce. And yes, I do care about the environment, but I'm mainly doing it because frankly, it tastes and feels so much damn better. Ok, example: gross Entenmann's coffee cake that is loaded with bad fats and processed sugars and has been sitting on a shelf for years and was probably made in a factory in Venezuela, or my fresh homemade seasonal Rhubarb Coffee Cake that I baked this morning, laden with pure butter, brown sugars, and fresh eggs? (slightly exaggerating about the Entenmann's cake for comparison purposes, please don't sue me) Which one do you think will taste better? Huh? That's what I thought.

I am so zealous about this ideal that I would likely call it the closest thing to my religion. Though I wish I had enough energy, time, and money to carry this through in all aspects of my lifestyle and habits, I'm unfortunately sometimes too lazy, sometimes too short-of-time, and sometimes too broke to eat live and breathe Green all day. But I do what I can, which I think is more than some can say, right?

Anyway, I will close out the post by plugging my version of a PSA and tell you to please check out Slow Food USA for tons of useful information and volunteer opportunities and fun events in your hood. I'm a member of Slow Food NYC, and though I can't describe what exactly I do as a member (nothing, really) it helps when you want to do fun foodie things with fun foodie people. I'm going to a wine tasting tonight at the Astor Center featuring the wines of the Finger Lakes (in central NY). Fun Foodie drinking, most excellent!

Homemade Granola & Yogurt

My apartment has been cleaner than it's ever been before. I've cleaned our fridge, Laundered all our linens, cleaned and installed our A/C, mopped the floors, dusted all the shelves....Unemployment is looking good for our humble little abode.

And when I'm not cleaning like a maniac I'm usually dreaming up some crazy recipe that will substitute for my cravings to go out to dinner. We're talking penny-pinching here, people. I've been a little more cautious at the grocery store, taking note of the per pound/per ounce prices more than ever before. But I decided to splurge a little on Wednesday and made a trip to the Union Square farmers market and Whole Foods - I had a few ideas brewing in mind.

One of which was something I've been meaning to do for a long time, which was make homemade granola. As far as the cost-effectiveness of homemade granola, the jury's still out. I made a pretty decent-sized batch of granola, but nuts and seeds and flax are still expensive.

The thing I love about making things at home is that you know EXACTLY what is being put into the foods you make. Duh. But really, I like the idea that granola is granola, not sugar and processed oats and refined wheats and what not. Without further ado, here is the recipe I used, passed on from my good friend Gillian:

4c - oats

4c - combined of some or all of the following: wheat germ, flax, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds and/or pecans, and/or walnuts, raisins and/or cranberries and/or cherries. (I have found the perfect combination of these to be: 2/3c wheat germ, 2/3c flax seed, 2/3c sesame seeds, 1/2c pecans, 1/2c walnuts, 1/2c pepitas, and 1/2c golden raisins)

some - cinnamon

some - salt

2c - oj

1c - honey (mostly maple syrup 2/3c and a little honey 1/3c)

1/2c - canola oil

preheat oven to 300.

Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl

on the stovetop heat the oj, honey (or maple) and oil in a small saucepan until combined and smooth. Whisk together like a dressing. Pour 'dressing' over rest of the dry ingredients and fold everything together. The mix should be rather wet, like an oatmeal cookie dough.

Line 2 baking sheets or pans with foil, and spread the granola mixture evenly between the two sheets. Bake in the oven for an hour, stirring/checking ever 20 minutes. The longer the granola is in the oven the crunchier it will be, so bake for as long as it suits you tastes. I have found that in my oven, the perfect cooking time for my preferences is 1 hr. 15 min.

Leave out to cool for at least 30min, the longer the better. Stir around the granola with your hands and break up the larger chunks if you prefer. Make sure granola is completely cooled and dry before you store in airtight containers or ziplocs.

The finished product, mixed into some homemade plain yogurt

The result? After one hour of baking and about an hour or so to cool and set, I had perfectly nutty, chewy, not too-hard, not too-sweet, perfect with plain yogurt granola. (And to top it off, I made my own yogurt, too- whaddya think bout that!?) Keep in mind this is not your store-bought packaged crunchy hard granola. I cannot emphasize enought that it is a softer, chewier, less-sweet version. In my opinion, yummier. This recipe is definitely going to get some good use.