I go back home to LA once a year to visit my friends, family, and kids. Yes, my kids- my kids trek down to hang with my parents every summer. So, every summer we bring all theTanakas and extended family together for a little bbq. All the veggies were from the Pasadena Farmers Market and the the prep was done by my son, Giacomo, who is turning out to be a very good cook. I love a good party.
We walked over to 2nd and Pike to check out the Minimus Maximus Pig Truck, run by Kurt Dammeier of Beecher’s Cheese. Take a look at their website to find out where the Pig Truck is parked each day. Super-cute truck and a fun idea.
There’s an article in the Home Section of today’s New York Times called “In Obama Garden, Less Lead.” Apparently, when the soil of the South Lawn was tested before planting the White House kitchen vegetable garden, the lead results were 93 parts per million. That is “well below the 400 ppm considered hazardous by the Environmental Protection Agency, though not below the more stringent goals recommended by some countries like the Netherlands, at 40 ppm.”
Steps that were taken to improve the fertility of the soil reduced the lead level, and test results “just released by the White House indicate that levels are now so low (14 parts per million) that they are similar to those found in places where there are no automobiles.”
White House Food Initiative Coordinator and Assistant Chef, Sam Kass, (hey, have I mention that HE’S MY COUSIN?) has improved the soil by adding lime, green sand, and crab meal as well as compost. Also the pH of the soil was adjusted to be in the range of 6.5 to 7 which means lead in the soil will not be available to plants.
Experts say that composted leaves, non-acid peat, and well rotted manure can also be added to vegetable gardens to reduce the levels of lead and other contaminants.
By the way, be sure to click on the link to the article to see a photo of my handsome cousin checking out the crops in the White House garden.
Our pastry chef, Garrett Melkonian, uses both Tahitian and Madagascar vanilla beans for different purposes. Read about it here on Amazon’s Al Dente blog.
Both Nancy Leson’s and Rebekah Denn’s blogs turned me on to this article in yesterday’s Seattle Times that I otherwise might have missed. “Slaughterhouse on wheels aids locavore movement” by Maureen O’Hagan discusses the Mobile Meat Processing Unit, “basically a slaughterhouse on wheels.” The important thing is that it’s a USDA inspected slaughterhouse on wheels. This project, supported by a coalition of Puget Sound area farmers, may fill the gap for bringing locally raised meat butchered under USDA regulations directly to the Puget Sound consumer. Other than the Mobile Meat Processing Unit, small local farmers have the only a few options, neither desirable nor profitable, for getting USDA certification, including shipping their animails to slaughterhouses hundreds of miles away. Kudos to O’Hagan and the Seattle Times for publishing this article. Discussions of how animals are slaughtered is not glamorous or entertaining, but it’s a key part of building the local food economy we need in Washington State.
Blue Bottle (photo top) is one hip stop on Mint street for the latest coffee craze: siphoned coffee! The thick, buttered toast with poached eggs and prosciutto were the perfect fuel our team needed to start a gorgeous day of walking all over that fabulous City by the Bay!
Miette pastry case!!! (photo bottom) Miette is a darling little dessert shop in the Ferry Building and a must visit for anyone with a sweet tooth! From chocolate eclairs to lemon meringue tarts to homemade marshmallows! The coconut cake and chocolate pots de creme are to die for!!
Ok, I’ve been out of town and also sick for the last couple weeks, so I’m 6 days late on the news that Sam Sifton will replace Frank Bruni as the New York Times restaurant critic. Since some foodies have complained that too many restaurant people in New York will recognize Sifton to make him a suitable reviewer, I found Nancy Leson’s musings about whether or not restaurant critic anonymity can be maintained in the age of the internet very interesting.
Terzo Piano is the restaurant in the brand new Modern Wing of the venerable Art Institute of Chicago. Designed by award-winning architect Renzo Piano (by the way, I believe Terzo Piano references both the architect’s name and restaurant’s location on the “third floor”), the Modern Wing is a clean, classic, modern triumph of a building that enhances the already astonishingly beautiful set-up of Millennium Park, Michigan Avenue, and Lake Michigan. (How many major cities have, like Chicago, dramatically and gorgeously improved their public spaces over the last 2 decades?) The restaurant, run by Tony Mantuano, chef of the prestigious Spiaggia, is located, as mentioned, on the third, or top floor, and has an inviting patio overlooking Millennium Park (photo top shows the view from the patio). Since Chicago was enjoying perfect high 70′s summer weather (while Seattle was a 103° inferno!), we chose to eat outside. The all-white indoor dining room is cooly minimalistic and modern.
Similar to Seattle, Chicago’s hip restaurants are loaded with the names of local farms, organic vegetables, and artisan cheeses. My husband, Frank, ever nostalgic for Midwest fish, ordered both the crispy fried Lake Erie perch (as an appetizer, photo second from top) and the sesame crusted Lake Superior whitefish with eggplant, organic cucumber, and charmoula. (Photo third from top) Both were nicely cooked and tasty. I ordered the handmade spaghetti with La Quercia pancetta, egg, peas, and sheep’s milk cheese (photo fourth from top). “Uno, Due, Tre Burgers” (photo bottom), is a signature dish that features 3 mini burgers: Midwestern beef, Wisconsin lamb, and shrimp. (Normally the burgers would be served with fries, but, in the dish shown in the photo, our friend asked for steamed veggies instead). Read the rest of this entry »
I have become addicted to my own pasta. I’m frugal, curious, and I love spending all day in my kitchen, so it was inevitable.
I’ve always thought pasta was too heavy and filling, or soft and bland. I’ve steered clear of it, but a trip to Italy tipped off an interest in durum wheat and semolina flour, because it is purported to make the best pasta, and the pasta in Italy simply seduced me.
I read up, and, though my inner Benjamin Franklin blanched, started paying a lot more for the imported, all-durum linguini that come shaped like little birds’ nests and found in specialty stores.
It was good. Mmmm. I could never go back to the pasta I had grown up eating.
I was intrigued by the rough surface of these Italian pastas. They held sauce better and had texture without weight. Why was that? I had to make it myself to find out.
Plus, there’s something fascinating to me about making something that consists of only a couple ingredients. Technique comes to the fore and flavors cannot hide. You can’t do anything but make it , over and over again, until you start to feel like you know it inside out. Read the rest of this entry »
For any foodie, the word cafeteria often calls to mind an array of ghastly gray and rubbery meats paired with vegetables so overcooked they disintegrate upon contact with a plastic utensil. I will admit that forcing down this kind of food was one of the challenges I was dreading most when I headed to college last fall. I am a self proclaimed food snob, and although I can appreciate a McDonald’s cheeseburger, I did not have faith that my delicate palate could handle pizza every night. That said, last night, back home for the summer, I stood at an open fridge wondering what leftovers to pull out and reheat, and I sincerely missed Frank Dining Hall.
I love my cafeteria at school. There, I said it. I’m sure my father will threaten to disown me should anything like that ever slip out again, so we’ll have to keep it between us. I like walking in, knowing that I’ll have eight different choices for dinner, that I won’t have to wait for more than five minutes to eat, that on a cold New York day the hot chocolate dispenser won’t be empty, and that no matter what time I go in I’ll be able to find a friend to sit and eat with. This last point is, for me, what eating is all about. Food is something to be shared, enjoyed in groups gathered around a table. So for those who fear the cafeteria as I initially did, consider this: food is for communitites, no matter the size. What I have found is that the college cafeteria is just a giant version of my home eating community (with slightly more options); I am surrounded by friends, on different schedules and from different places, mouths full and laughing.
(Editor’s note: Tom and Jackie’s daughter, Loretta, is working at the restaurants during her summer home from college.)
RSS SubscribeWelcome to Family Meal, a blog that examines all things new and noteworthy in the world of food, wine, and dining.
At family meal, otherwise known as staff meal, there’s no hierarchy; you’re breaking bread with your friends. For those 30 minutes, everyone is equal- and hungry. Family meal is our version of the water cooler- but with better food.
I’ll be sharing my thoughts, tips, and observations, and, in the spirit of family meal, I’ve invited our creative, energetic staff- everyone from line cook to bartender to bookkeeper- to have a say. I hope you’ll add your own comments and join in the conversation.
-Tom Douglas
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