Well, it’s fall again. Time for me and my cat, Stevie, to make tarte tatin! I make the dough, for obvious reasons, but he lightly caramelizes the butter, sugar, and apples. He likes a slice with Calvados, but I prefer just some very lightly sweetened whipped sour cream and a good cup of coffee.
Ayam Goreng, or fried chicken, is a common market stall in Ubud. Chickens are definitely free range and somewhat organic in Bali as they are running around everywhere. I’m not really sure what they eat, but they are constantly pecking around looking for food. Palm or coconut oil is used to fry in Bali, which gives a rich, full mouthfeel to the chicken and an ache to the stomach a couple of hours later. The chicken was cut in a way that made each piece unique. Every bite was a mix of fat, bone, skin, and crust unlike any other. I think…. I had the butt and some neck.
My first night in Bali, I was taken to a local night market, where vendors of all sorts were hawking their wares. I hit a roasted pig stand first. “Babi,” Indonesian for “pig,” is whole roasted in the morning and all the parts are turned into something porkishly good. There were blood sausages, chitterlings sausages, pig braised with chiles, crispy skin, and “nasi,” or rice. Mostly people spoke some broken English, or just pointing would help my favorites hit the plate. I wrapped my blood sausage in a piece of crispy skin for the ultimate pig bite.
After spending a night in San Francisco, my time in Italy was re-lived. Having the opportunity to spend a significant amount of time in Florence, my favorite memories are of my friends and me spending the majority of an evening eating and drinking at La Spada; a place where I cooked, and my friend knew the owners. Most nights were a 3 hour or so affair of antipasti, primi, secondi, and dolce– all accompanied by one too many carafes of the house wine, the ubiquitous doppio espresso, and maybe a few fingers of grappa or vin santo to round out the evening. We would all walk out with a little too much food in our bellies, and a little too much wine on the brain, and while none of us really smoked, a cigarette just seemed a fitting way to end the meal as we wandered on to the nearest pub for a nightcap.
The other weekend may not have been in Florence, but those nights seemed to have been re-lived as my girlfriend, Jess, and I hit up three of San Francisco’s best Italian joints. Our first stop was at A16, a bustling Southern Italian inspired place in the Marina district. We sat at the bar, sharing a great dish of tuna conserva, roasted peppers, and fava bean puree. The local peppers were a wonderful counterpoint to the rich tuna, and the half carafe of California Barbera was great as well. From there we continued on to Incanto in the Noe Valley where the chef, Chris Cosentino, is known for his salumi and his use of off-cuts. There we had an amazing chicken liver pate with a little salad of dates, tarragon, celery, and celery leaves (in my opinion an underused and often trashed ingredient), a great local sardine and potato salad, and an eye opening clams with tripe and chilies. The tripe was tender and had just enough funkiness to remind you of what it was. We would have liked to have stayed and tried some more, but our reservation at our next place was beckoning so we headed out for our “secondi.” Read the rest of this entry »
Shelley (blog editor) and I have talked gardening for years, but I sorta gave up til this summer. So much to remember, to learn.
I planted random things… things I like…some heirloom tomatoes, mixed carrots, mixed lettuce, some yellow crookneck squash, and bush beans… all in pots… oh, and always basil.
What I learned… that tomatoes have a mind of their own. That beans come in crops…lots at one time!!… I used everything and actually made some sauce from the tomato plants I cut and hung in the basement….I still had ‘fresh’ tomatoes in late November!… Well, a few.
Carrots can get woody.
I also learned that if you plant things, you need to know more than just how to cook…. blanch and freeze, can, pickle… I can only blanch/freeze, but, hey, I have frozen pesto and tomato sauce in ice cube trays, then into ziploc bags…. enough for an army. So I will learn to can, etc, for next year.
I will choose more carefully, what I plant….I need a plan.
The picture of the open face tomato sandwich with Best Foods mayo, salt, and pepper was worth the whole thing!!! Well, eating it was the best.
Just in case you didn’t get enough cute pix of our staff dressed as Thanksgiving characters in the previous post:
Photo top: Pamela H, TDR CEO, on the left; Robyn W, Marketing, on the right, pitching spice rub.
Photo bottom: Brian C spinning the wheel.
Yes, today is the day for our annual Thanksgiving celebration right outside the Dahlia Bakery! The pilgrim and turkey costumes have been dusted off and donned. There’s a cauldron of hot cider. Tom is serving free bites of a gorgeously golden turkey. Eric is working the grill to make the $5 chorizo sandwiches. Katie is spinning the wheel, and we have great prizes this year ranging from a coffee nudge at Dahlia brunch, to hot fritters at Lola during Happy Hour, a jar of Rub with Love Turkey Spice Rub, a bag of hot doughnuts, and more. There are lines for a spin of the wheel and lines to pick up Dahlia bakery goodies, but the weather is great- like Spring!- mild, and, so far at least, not a drop of rain- so everyone is cheerful! Come join us!!
The photos of our attractive crew:
Katie O, Tom’s radio producer and assistant, dressed as the world’s cutest pilgrim lady, photo top left.
Brian C, corporate expediter, a good-looking bird slicing up a good-looking bird, photo top right.
ET, executive chef, the handsomest pilgrim man, photo middle left.
You can see the roast turkey, the wheel of prizes, Tommy D and Pamela H in the photo bottom left.
If you are an oyster lover, when you come to San Francisco you must go to Hog Island Oyster. It is in the beautifully restored Ferry Terminal Building which has an amazing trove of local purveyors! But that is another story unto itself.
The servers are swift and friendly, but the oysters shine. We started with a dozen beautifully sweet and salty Hog Island Sweetwaters with a marvelous rice wine vinaigrette (photo top left).
Then we had a trio of 3 different broiled oysters (see photo bottom left): starting at top, going clockwise in the photo: citrus beurre, rosemary with shallots, and pesto.
They have a great little wine list, and it seemed like practically everyone was having wine or champagne at lunch. I had a fruity French rosé. The incredibly chewy rolls are from Acme Bakery. This place is a wonderful habit!
Read this fun interview with Brian by Angela Garbes from Seattle Weekly’s blog, Voracious. Brian says he likes “simple delicious food” made with “solid technique.” Hmmm, sounds a lot like the Palace Kitchen menu!
Editor’s note: Brian’s top favorite burger: the Palace burger, photo left, and his next favorite, Zippy’s, photo right.
(By the way, for a nice review of a Palace Kitchen meal and some excellent photos, read Gracie’s blog.)
In July of this year, I decided to celebrate my 40th birthday by eating my way across northern Spain. Not knowing much about the cuisine, I started my research only to find that my palate had been missing out on something special. Yes, Ferran Adria has been here turning rocks into ice cream and taking branches from his backyard and creating foams that taste like ham! But after reading that his famed restaurant, El Bulli, had taken a few million reservations last year but was only able to accommodate 30,000 or so, I knew that I would have to look elsewhere for my own bacon stick!
I started in Galicia with pulpos galaga and followed that up with pimento padron, both dishes being so simple yet so beautiful. The first being huge slices of octopus slowly cooked in olive oil and finished with sea salt and paprika– done! Pimento padron peppers are these wonderful green peppers about the size of a jalapeno native to the village of Padron, south of here, quickly pan seared in olive oil until brown, then finished wiht a bit of sea salt– done! Grab a toothpick and a chilled glass of the regional Txokoli and you are there, my friend! (Back home, I found that these tiny peppers are being cultivated in southern Oregon at Blue Fox Farm in the Applegate Valley.)
After a few days in the pintxo wonderland of San Sebastian, and a quick stop in Bilbao to see the Guggenheim in all its glory, I was off to Barcelona.
On a sticky Thursday night we made our way to Cal Pep, a restaurant (photo right) that had famed chef, Pep Manubens, running the show… with a really bad cold! The counter, since that’s all there is, wasn’t much longer than the length of the bar at the Palace Kitchen, and the waiting process is a simple one. Stand against the wall, order a cold glass of cava rose and slowly shuffle your way the length of the restaurant until you get to the end. Once there, look for your spot at the counter and sit! I don’t remember seeing a menu. You’d just point at a dish to the left or right of you. That night we started with a housemade sausage served on top of a bed of white beans and finished with a molasses syrup. By far one of our favorite dishes during our stay. We followed that up with razor clams cooked in butter, bacon, and herbs. A little tuna tartare and a few more horrific coughs from Pep and we were in heaven! Read the rest of this entry »
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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