tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-115419302008-07-22T17:22:26.198-07:00food.helava.comei-nyunghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15993511877574923880noreply@blogger.comBlogger125125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11541930.post-33190030584020920922008-06-30T00:06:00.000-07:002008-06-30T00:09:19.371-07:00CassouletSpent the better part of the day making a cassoulet from America's Test Kitchen. While it turned out well, it was pretty radically underseasoned. If I make this again (which I might), I'd definitely have to check the seasoning once the beans are done. We had the cassoulet with some broiled asparagus, grilled eggplant, and portobello mushrooms.<br /><br />Earlier in the weekend, Seth made us some pineapple/pork skewers, which we had with some homemade guacamole and sour cream taco-style. Delicious! Saturday night, we had grilled kielbasa and some artichokes. I really love artichokes. Mmm.Seppohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03293851799643818221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11541930.post-85280720386200068002008-06-28T19:51:00.001-07:002008-06-28T19:53:26.590-07:00Another picture of the cupcakesJust because...<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eingy/2614676311/" title="IMG_5816.JPG by eingy, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3156/2614676311_5d5a1da4db.jpg" width="400" height="267" alt="IMG_5816.JPG" /></a>ei-nyunghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15993511877574923880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11541930.post-47905165656311140992008-06-08T23:22:00.000-07:002008-06-28T19:54:06.367-07:00Cupcakes!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3150/2560478149_1cbc3d846a.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3150/2560478149_1cbc3d846a.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>So. Friday, we made cupcakes. More accurately, Friday, Ei-Nyung, Lindsi and I made 144 cupcakes for a pair of friends' wedding. That's a picture of the finished result at the wedding. I can't say much about the cakes themselves - Ei-Nyung's been making cupcakes semi-regularly over and over again over the last year. This batch was the best she's ever made, fittingly enough.<br /><br />For me, I ended up doing the frosting. There were two kinds - a vanilla cream cheese frosting and a chocolate ganache. The vanilla was really simple - 2 sticks of butter, a package o' cream cheese (both whipped 'till fluffy), a quarter vanilla bean, 2 tsp vanilla extract, and 4 cups sifted confectioners sugar. No cooking required, goes together quick, easy as pie. I could probably have used a touch more sugar, and the frosting could have stood to be a little stiffer (made piping out something that looked nice difficult), but the flavor was awesome and complemented the cupcakes perfectly.<br /><br />I'd 'stolen' the recipe from <a href="http://cupcakeblog.com/">http://cupcakeblog.com/</a>, which has so many delicious recipes for cupcakes it boggles the mind, but even more recently, from Jess, who brought over some vanilla cupcakes with the very same frosting.<br /><br />The second frosting was chocolate - the original request was for chocolate/chocolate, so I looked around for a bit and independently of the first recipe, ended up at the same blog again (before having tried Jess' cupcakes, this was the recipe I'd found that I'd wanted to try for the choco frosting). Still, since H wasn't into the dairy thing, I wanted to try something dairy-free/minimal if possible. One recipe I'd seen was from David Lebovitz, who wrote a *spectacular* ice cream book called The Perfect Scoop. This one, strangely, had you melt the chocolate *in* water, then add a little butter and some sugar. It turned... interesting. You could make a really nice smeared-on-with-a-knife frosting with the stuff, but piping it was, far as I could tell, impossible. Impossible for me, anyway.<br /><br />One weird side-effect of that frosting was that if you put it into a canvas piping bag and squeezed, you would separate the fat from the water, and the fat would ooze out the pores in the bag. Gross, and the resulting frosting was... not great. REALLY chocolatey when you smeared it on a cake, but unusable for what we were doing.<br /><br />So, the end result was that I went with the Cupcake Bakeshop recipe - 4oz bittersweet, 5oz semisweet, 2 tbsp butter, 2 tsp vanilla extract, 1 cup cream, 2 cups sifted sugar. Heat the cream 'till bubbles form around the side, pour over the chopped chocolate. Wait a minute, stir to combine. Add vanilla, butter, mix till (at least mostly) combined. Wait 10 minutes (this is actually really, really, really, really, really important). Slap into stand mixer with whisk head, whisk in sugar, mix at high speed until thick enough to ribbon. By the time you get it into the pastry bag, it'll have set up enough to pipe.<br /><br />I originally tried a triple recipe (at the beginning of the evening), but because when you triple a recipe any time-to-temperature sorts of conversions fall apart, it didn't turn out right. Those 10 minutes are there so that the icing cools down. If you mix it up to hot, it never sets up. I spent a couple hours trying to see if I could salvage that batch, then eventually gave up and made three single batches in series. Mix up frosting, pipe 20 cupcakes, wash (literally), rinse (literally), repeat.<br /><br />All in all, it took way longer than it should have, though about an hour less than I'd mentally budgeted for the task. My piping technique got better as the night went on, but some of the early cupcakes were *ugly*.<br /><br />We ended up topping the cupcakes with some little vanilla meringues we got from Trader Joes on a whim the evening before. Ended up being a real lifesaver. We'd tried making little fondant decorations - some little flower cutouts, but they looked a bit too cutesy. We then tried something more "realistic," which was a white calla lily thingamabob with a pair of pink and blue spheres contained within, but being novices with fondant, they were a bit more elegant in concept than execution. We ended up topping four of the cupcakes (the tops of the "trees") with the best of those. Part of the problem is that vanilla meringues are delicious, fondant really isn't. So, not really a problem - it all turned out for the best.<br /><br />All in all, despite the lack of visual flair, the cupcakes ended up delicious, H&M were happy, the other guests seemed to enjoy them, and the wedding was a blast. Awesome.Seppohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03293851799643818221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11541930.post-12272870276288815272008-06-03T23:37:00.000-07:002008-06-03T23:44:14.368-07:00Whew.So, for the last couple weeks, the cupcake thing has been stressing me out in the back of my head - I'd agreed to do the frosting half of the equation, but I'd never been able to get it quite right. This weekend, I'd tried a recipe by David Leibovitz, which was a really bizarre ganache made by melting chocolate in water. It tasted great - *intensely* chocolatey, but the texture wasn't appropriate at all.<br /><br />This morning at like, 4am, I woke up and a good portion of the reason was that I was freaking out that this was still an "unknown." Obviously, people *have* iced cupcakes well - there must be information out there. So, I spent a couple hours reading about frosting techniques, and 1.) figured out what I was doing wrong and 2.) found a recipe I thought would work.<br /><br />This evening, I tried out the recipe (a relatively standard but not-overly-sweet chocolate buttercream) from the Cupcake Bake Shop blog. I'd picked up a "real" pastry bag at East Bay Restaurant Supply this morning. Tried a handful of different piping tips, but settled on the now-popular "no tip" method, which Jess had pulled off on some DELICIOUS vanilla cupcakes she brought over last time she was here.<br /><br />The frosting was easy to manage, tasty, and looked alright (chocolate frosting on chocolate cupcakes... it's hard to make it not look turd-like...).<br /><br />So, no worries. It'll work out. One batch of frosting looks like it's good for about 10-15 cupcakes, so I'm gonna need to make a LOT of the stuff, but fortunately, it goes together pretty quick.<br /><br />woo.Seppohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03293851799643818221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11541930.post-10220020459736100562008-05-10T15:09:00.000-07:002008-05-10T15:26:15.728-07:00Game Plan for Wedding CupcakesThis is my cupcake baking schedule. Seppo is spearheading the frosting, so he'll have his own schedule. He is still figuring out if he should frost the night before or the morning of, or on location. We'll test with our cake boxes to see what rattling them around in the car will do.<br /><br />Sometime before wedding:<br />- Get ice cream scoop w/ that swiveling thingy to portion out perfectly uniform amount of batter<br />- Borrow U&C's Kitchenaid? May not be necessary from what I've seen, but could be helpful.<br /><br />Weekend before wedding:<br />- Buy all staples (flour, sugar, etc.). Get Dutched cocoa from Peet's.<br />- Weigh out 6 double recipe amounts of flour and portion into separate baggies. Do same with sugar.<br />- Chop/shave 6 double recipe amounts of chocolate and portion into separate baggies with dutched cocoa.<br /><br />Wednesday night before wedding:<br />- Make sure kitchen is super-sparkling clean and ready to go.<br />- Triple check all ingredients and hardware to make sure we have everything.<br />- Make sure we have leftovers or take-out/delivery plans for Friday.<br /><br />Thursday night before wedding:<br />- Make 1 double batch of cupcakes. Should take less than 2 hours for prep to out-of-oven according to my trials.<br />- Put together cupcake-tranport boxes and lay them out on the dining room table.<br /><br />Friday (take day off):<br />- Make 4 double batches. This should take 7-9 hours & I should assume some major mishap will happen, so start as early in the morning as possible.<br />- Make another double batch if there are a number of duds.<br /><br />Friday night:<br />- Box up all the cupcakes<br />- Pack up car with cupcake stands (easier to transport in their boxes)<br /><br />Saturday morning:<br />- Get to venue at the earliest allowable time<br />- Set up cupcake stands (and make sure the cupcake holding part will reliably hold cupcakes)<br /><br />Frosting will happen in parallel sometime Friday or Saturday morning.ei-nyunghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15993511877574923880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11541930.post-82033196980052108452008-04-28T00:23:00.001-07:002008-04-28T00:34:10.936-07:00So...Since this last post, our entire kitchen has been completely gutted and renovated. It's much, much better in every respect, without reservations. But the question is, does having a nicer kitchen help you make better food?<br /><br />Yes and no.<br /><br />Does it make our food better? Not really. Yeah, the oven gets hotter faster, and yeah, there's a ton more prep space which makes things easier to organize, but no, the food itself isn't all that different. But because the kitchen is much, much better organized, it's easier to find stuff, so we end up finding random things and getting inspired to cook them. Because the prep space is so much larger, it's easier to manage multiple items. Tonight, for instance, we made a <a href="http://inciteariot.helava.com/2008/04/buddying-up.html">whole lot of Korean dishes</a> without any space problems at all.<br /><br />In the end, I think we cook more because the kitchen is a more pleasant place to be, it's easier, because of the space and organization, it's better lit, and just a lot more casual. Good stuff.<br /><br />In the linked post, it discusses our new "buddy" system, where I help Ei-Nyung learn how to cook Korean food, and she helps me with some indie game development stuff. This means we'll be doing a lot more Korean cooking - I'm pretty psyched, cause there's some stuff that I'd really like to learn to do well.<br /><br />Sahn Maru makes a great ginger/cinnamon drink which I tried replicating from a cookbook recipe tonight. It got most of the right flavors, but holy moly the balance of it all was bonkers. Sahn Maru clearly uses less ginger (or steeps it for a shorter time), more cinnamon, and MUCH MUCH MUCH less sugar. I used only half what the recipe called for and it was still much too much. Between the intensely powerful ginger and excess sugar, the drink was pretty... hardcore. Watered down, it's mostly right, but then loses the cinnamon hum that it should have.<br /><br />Well, it's not like I can't try again.<br /><br />Also made some Philadelphia-style vanilla ice cream from The Perfect Scoop, a book the Team gave me for my birthday. I'd made the French-style vanilla when I borrowed the book from them a while back, and it was awesome. The Philly-style may be even better, simply because the French-style custard is exceedingly rich. Well, I like the French version, too - I guess they each have their uses. Just different. But the Philly-style was definitely right for tonight, 'cause it's getting warmer, and the ice cream feels lighter (it's not *actually* lighter, I think - it's just a textural issue).<br /><br />Yeah. Sorry this post is getting a bit scatterbrained. Lessee - anything else we've made recently that was good? Hmmm. Nothing comes to mind - but more Korean food in our future! woot.Seppohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03293851799643818221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11541930.post-5636375832306463452008-01-17T00:33:00.000-08:002008-06-28T19:54:58.793-07:00Fish Tacos & Guacamole<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://food.helava.com/uploaded_images/IMG_5044-784262.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://food.helava.com/uploaded_images/IMG_5044-783714.JPG" alt="" border="0" / width="400"></a>So, about a month or so ago, Ei-Nyung and I went to Tulum, Mexico with some friends, where we had an insanely good time marked by some extraordinary food. One of the best things we ate was also one of the simplest. Los Arrecifes, the place we stayed, had a small restaurant (what looked like one or two guys, tops) that had fish tacos.<br /><br />Now, fish tacos aren't exactly complex, and they're certainly not new. Even in Oakland, there are more places than you can count that serve fish tacos. But I'd never had them before. If I had, it'd have been "Baja-style" fish tacos, where the fish is breaded and fried. These were different - simple.<br /><br />The fish was pan-fried with some lime. The tacos consisted of two corn (and one time, flour) tortillas, a small pile of iceberg lettuce, a generous smattering of fish, some thin slices of tomato, and a thin slice of avocado. Pretty much exactly as it looks in the picture.<br /><br />Whether these were the best tacos I've ever had on their own, or whether it was a combination of the absolutely gorgeous place, the perfect vacation, and the tacos I'll probably never know. But that said, after getting back from Tulum, we went out in search of fish tacos in Oakland.<br /><br />Cactus, Baja Taqueria and Los Cantaros all have fish tacos, but they're Baja-style. Sonoma Taco Shop in San Rafael has non-breaded fish tacos, but they have beans, which throws the whole balance of flavors off. One night, Ei-Nyung made fish tacos using some cod she bought at whole foods, and they were delicious. A couple nights ago, I gave it a shot, also using cod, but that wasn't because it was the perfect fish (though it's close), it's because it was cheap at Safeway, and the only white fish they had.<br /><br />Bascially, the process involved pan-frying the fish in some oil, squeezing some lime juice (in this case, half a lime) over the fish as it cooked, and seasoning it with some salt and pepper. I steamed some corn tortillas for about 30 seconds in the microwave, hacked up some iceberg lettuce, sliced up some heirloom tomatoes (the only even marginally ripe tomatoes the Safeway had), and chopping up some onions and a little cilantro.<br /><br />In lieu of the thin slice of avocado, I went with a recipe for guacamole I've been making. I started with America's Test Kitchen's recipe for guacamole, then incorporated some of Rick Bayless' recipe. It's basically two medium-sized avocados, spooned out of the husk and mashed with a fork then mixed with the juice of half a lime, along with about two diced tablespoons of onion, a diced jalapeno (seeds and internal ribs removed), some chopped cilantro, a dash of ground cumin, pepper, salt, and a roughly diced tomato with the seeds and juice removed.<br /><br />The cod is a pretty good fish for fish tacos. I have no idea whether it's specifically what they used in Tulum, but it has a nice, flakey, meaty consistency that's pleasant, and a flavor that's distinctly fish, without being overbearing. The guacamole's great with chips, but perhaps a little much for the delicate fish flavor in the tacos - still, I can't say I minded all that much. A dash of hot sauce, and you're off to the races.<br /><br />For me, it's a meal that will forever be flavored with a great deal of affection and nostalgia. The week we spent in Tulum was one of the best times I've ever had, and this is one of those meals that will really be associated with a very happy time.Seppohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03293851799643818221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11541930.post-58444436367359613992007-11-08T00:14:00.000-08:002007-11-08T00:19:55.067-08:00Tostones: Quick & DeliciousA place we go to for lunch near work makes these, and I wanted to try making 'em at home. Ridiculously easy:<br /><br />Buy some plantains. Green or very slightly yellow. Cut a slit down the side of the whole thing to make them easy to peel. Chop into 1" chunks, and peel each. Heat up about 1/2" of oil (we used peanut) to ~350 degrees. Put chopped plantain chunks into oil, so the oil comes halfway-ish up the side of the pieces. Flip 'em over when lightly browned to do the other side. When all browned, take the pieces out of the oil and drain.<br /><br />Smash each piece (gently, I suppose) with the bottom of a pan 'till ~1/4" thick. Some recipes say to toss into cold salted water, but I didn't do that. Start simmering some olive oil with a couple cloves of smashed and minced garlic over low heat, and let this go until you're done frying the plantains.<br /><br />Get the oil back up to "hot" (350-375), and fry each of the discs (I did 2 at a time) until crisp at the edges. Couple minutes each. Drain on paper towels, salt while hot. Drizzle the garlic oil and garlic over the thing, and eat while hot, crispy, sweet, chewy, and garlicky.<br /><br />Relatively quick, probably nothing even remotely like healthy, but totally delicious.Seppohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03293851799643818221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11541930.post-10005407052366480352007-11-07T13:16:00.000-08:002007-11-07T13:31:29.682-08:00What I've been cooking/eatingLunches have mostly been salads with smoked salmon, smoked duck breast, or prosciutto.<br /><br />Wed 10/31: Geta & Fentons with Lindsi<br />Thu 11/01: fondue at home.<br />Fri 11/02: dinner at Alex & Christina's, a delicious vegan dinner of an African stew, quinoa, spaghetti squash, and an apple crumble & coconut sorbet.<br />Sat 11/03: Lunch: New Korean restaurant, Sura, with Seppo. It was ok. I had mool-naeng-myun. Good broth! Dinner: homemade falafel and all the fixings on whole wheat pita.<br />Sun 11/04: Lunch: Merritt Bakery with Seppo & Klay. I had a chef salad and chicken & rice soup. Dinner: salad with smoked duck breast.<br />Mon 11/05: Sloppy joes, made with ground turkey and white beans, and oven fried sweet potato wedges. I need to make more sweet potato wedges. So damn good.<br />Tue 11/06: Shabu shabu with A&B and J.<br /><br />Tonight will be a beef & vegetable stew, quinoa, roasted butternut squash, and whatever Seppo is going to do with the plantains. :)ei-nyunghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15993511877574923880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11541930.post-36499915268654684352007-10-17T22:36:00.000-07:002007-10-17T22:38:00.234-07:00Sukiyaki<a href="http://flickr.com/photos/kyokoa/290007259/"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/108/290007259_3ba9cc1354.jpg" /></a><br /><br />Note: This is not a picture of <i>our</i> sukiyaki, but is very similar in ingredients. I am linking back to the photo owner.<br /><br />For our sukiyaki venture, I ended up getting almost the exact same ingredients as I did for <a href="http://food.helava.com/2007/10/shabu-shabu.html">shabu shabu</a>. The biggest differences are the use of konnyaku noodles (instead of udon noodles) and the sukiyaki sauce (made with soy sauce, mirin, and sugar, instead of the ponzu and sesame sauces).<br /><br />With everything cleaned and chopped up, we were able to sit in front of the tv and cook on the electric skillet. The general instructions say to put clusters of the ingredients into the skillet and pour some sukiyaki sauce over it and pull things out to eat as they finish cooking. A lot of pictures seem to indicate that you'd put the entire list of things in at once and simmer in the sauce + liquid from the cooking veggies. We opted to put in a very thin layer of food at a time and cook the meat one piece at a time. It was a nice, leisurely, relatively healthy meal, full of mostly vegetables and a relatively low amount of beef (around 3 oz each?), compared to how we usually eat.<br /><br />We had this last night and tonight. And there is enough food left over for tomorrow night... if we dare. Heh.<br /><br />I think this would make for a nice, easy Sunday dinner with a couple of friends.ei-nyunghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15993511877574923880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11541930.post-4111454440298147402007-10-01T13:24:00.000-07:002007-10-01T13:35:20.722-07:00Shabu ShabuOne of my favorite cool weather dinners is shabu shabu. It's so simple, tasty, inexpensive, and easy to make healthy. Well, it's also very easy to overeat, so be careful there. :D Basically, we just get an assortment of things and add them slowly to the hot pot at the table. For instance, last night, we had the following:<br /><ul><li>bunch of different types of mushrooms (e.g. oyster, enoki, shiitake)</li><li>napa cabbage</li><li>spinach</li><li>scallions</li><li>crown daisy (or any other bitter greens, just as contrast)</li><li>tofu</li><li>udon (you can use tofu noodles instead to avoid the empty carbs)</li><li>some thinly sliced rib eye</li><li>a couple of pieces of konbu<br /></li><li>two types of sauce (sesame seed based and soy sauce based ones)<br /></li></ul>It would be really good to get lotus root and turnip too, but it's the kind of thing I always forget. You put the konbu in the water and bring it up to a boil. Then you transfer the pot to a portable stove at the table and sit around adding things to the pot and fishing things out of the pot as they cook. The meat should be picked up one piece at a time and swished through the boiling/simmering water to quickly cook, instead of getting dumped in all at once.<br /><br />We fed 5 people last night for about $3 per person, and we have a bunch leftover for tonight. Yay!ei-nyunghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15993511877574923880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11541930.post-6476716601160668952007-09-14T16:16:00.001-07:002007-09-14T16:26:50.797-07:00Places on our to-do listSeppo's parents have been visiting this week and have given us a handful of ideas for places to go, based on their meals with friends while they have been out here.<br /><ul><li>Coach Sushi - <a href="http://www.coachsushi.com/">website</a>, <a href="http://www.yelp.com/biz/KRbwtYxKe2wMPDT7JxxTaw">reviews</a>, <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=coach+sushi&sll=37.811216,-122.238257&sspn=0.012019,0.014613&ie=UTF8&ll=37.807309,-122.248564&spn=0.02404,0.029225&z=15&om=1">map</a></li><li>The Wood Tavern (also recommended to us by U of TUPbC) - <a href="http://www.yelp.com/biz/bhnKl105GwMVVlsiUnwr2w">reviews</a>, <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=the+wood+tavern&sll=37.892128,-122.244701&sspn=0.096048,0.116901&ie=UTF8&ll=37.852153,-122.250195&spn=0.04805,0.058451&z=14&iwloc=A&om=1">map</a></li><li>Soizic Bistro - <a href="http://www.soizicbistro.com/">website</a>, <a href="http://www.yelp.com/biz/NrQRAXnQLk7skZS-rZtJgg">reviews</a>, <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&q=soizic&near=Oakland,+CA&fb=1&cid=0,0,9051533126648994687&z=17&iwloc=A&om=1">map</a><br /></li></ul>ei-nyunghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15993511877574923880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11541930.post-57668367867398145862007-08-26T22:35:00.000-07:002007-08-26T22:38:30.247-07:00Yuki Ichigo ("snow strawberry")Seppo has been telling me about <a href="http://reallyturningjapanese.blogspot.com/2006/02/yuki-ichigo.html">this confection</a> for years.<br /><br />So we are going to try to make it this weekend. :D<br /><br />Strawberry + whipped cream + short cake* + mochi = crazy delicious.<br /><br />*I'm thinking we might use pound cake instead. Either way, yumbo.ei-nyunghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15993511877574923880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11541930.post-28577845858668107222007-08-21T01:46:00.000-07:002007-08-21T01:54:16.157-07:00Plan for next cupcake attempt<a href="http://www.thefoodmaven.com/diary/archives/00000025.html">Recipe</a> provided by Holly + <a href="http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/2005/11/rounded_vs_flat_cake_layers.html">secret to doming</a> = awesome? I can only hope so.ei-nyunghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15993511877574923880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11541930.post-8065944242989383952007-08-15T00:14:00.000-07:002007-08-15T00:18:50.858-07:00Crazy Dinner, for a Tuesday.So, tonight we had:<br /><br /><ul><li>The pork belly I started cooking last night - turned out alright. The first pieces we had hadn't crisped up as much as I would have thought they ought to have. So, for the second go-round, I threw 'em under the broiler until the skin had crackled and popped, and it was much better. The wine/roasted garlic/chicken stock/thyme sauce was awesome, and all in all, pretty darned good. Next time I'll know to really make sure the skin's super crisp, but it was tasty regardless.</li><li>Grilled squash - I grilled up two kinds of squash on our grill pan with some olive oil, salt and pepper, and they turned out really nice.</li><li>Some homemade bread that Ei-Nyung whipped up a couple days ago</li><li>A baguette</li><li>Cowgirl Creamery's "Mt. Tam" cheese</li><li>An aged gouda, I don't recall the specific brand</li><li>Rillettes du Perigord - a duck pate/confit of some sort, from the French dude at the farmer's market</li><li>For dessert, a dark chocolate Dove Bar</li></ul>Yeah, a totally ridiculous meal, but pork belly's sort of an "event" dish, so I figured we might as well really blow it out. Good stuff. I'll post pics later.Seppohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03293851799643818221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11541930.post-56056562653007545772007-08-13T23:25:00.000-07:002007-08-13T23:28:27.659-07:00Pork pork pork!Spent the better part of the evening making this:<br /><br /><a name="Pressed belly of pork"><b>Pressed belly of pork</b></a><p> <b>Ingredients</b><br />6-8 servings</p><p> </p><div class="content"><li>about 1.3kg belly of pork</li> <li>2 heads of garlic, halved horizontally</li> <li>sea salt and freshly ground black pepper</li> <li>handful of thyme sprigs</li> <li>olive oil, to drizzle</li> <li>generous splash of white wine</li> <li>450ml brown chicken stock</li><p> <b>Method</b></p><p> Preheat the oven to 170˚C/Gas 3. </p><p> Untie the belly of pork if it is rolled and lay it flat on a chopping board. Score the skin evenly in a criss-cross pattern with a sharp knife. Turn the belly skin side down and cut a slit through the thick end of the pork to open it out like a butterfly so that the meat is evenly thick throughout. Rub all over with salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil. </p><p> Place the garlic, halved side up, on a lightly oiled roasting tray and scatter over the thyme sprigs. Lay the pork belly on top, fat side up. Trickle with a little more olive oil and sprinkle with a little more sea salt. Add a splash of white wine around the pork, cover the meat with a piece of foil and bake for 1½ hours. Remove the foil, baste the pork with the juices and return to the oven, uncovered, for another ½-1 hour until the meat is tender. Continue to baste the pork occasionally with the pan juices. </p><p> Transfer the pork to a clean chopping board and leave to cool slightly. While still warm, place another tray on top of the pork and weigh down with a few heavy tins to flatten it. Cool completely, then chill for four hours or overnight in the refrigerator to set its shape. </p><p> Pour off any excess oil from the roasting tray and place over high heat. Deglaze the tray with a generous splash of white wine, scraping the bottom and crushing the heads of garlic with a wooden spoon to release the sediment. Boil the liquid until reduced by half, then add the chicken stock and bring back to the boil until reduced and thickened. Strain the stock through a fine sieve, pressing down on the garlic pulp with the back of a ladle. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. </p><p> Heat the oven to the highest setting, about 250˚C/Gas 9. </p><p> Cut the pressed pork into individual portions or squares and pat the skin dry with kitchen paper. Place the pork squares, fat side up, in a roasting tin and drizzle with olive oil and a generous pinch of sea salt. Roast for 15-20 minutes until the skin is golden brown and crisp. Rest the pork for 5 minutes, then serve with the light gravy and accompaniments. </p><p> TIP - A clean and sharp Stanley knife (or craft knife) is the most effective tool for scoring the tough pork skin.<br /></p>-----<br /><br />It's a recipe from Gordon Ramsay's show The F Word - I think it's the season closer, when he cooks the pigs he raised in his backyard. It looked awesome on the show, and reasonably straightforward. Tonight, I did the 2.5 hr roasting process and gravy-making, and now, it's all in the fridge - the pork belly's being squished under a couple cans o' beans, and the gravy's chilling on top of it.<br /><br />Tomorrow, I cut it into squares, roast it at a higher temp so that the skin crisps up, and eat a bunch of it. Mmmmm.<br /><br />For the record, it smelled AWESOME.<br /></div>Seppohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03293851799643818221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11541930.post-61123674942165544702007-07-05T15:48:00.001-07:002007-07-05T15:54:51.368-07:00Belgian WafflesI made Belgian Liege waffles from a recipe I found <a href="http://www.aopy00.dsl.pipex.com/recipes/liege_waffles.shtml">online.</a><br /><br />I'm gonna copy it here, not because I want to rip it off, but because these things historically have a way of disappearing after a few years, and I don't want to lose the recipe. The ingredients are:<br /><ul><li>1 lb. (500g) plain flour</li><li>7g instant dried yeast (one sachet)</li><li>2 medium eggs</li><li>1 cup Whole Milk</li><li>½ lb. (250g) Butter</li><li>2 oz. (60g) honey</li><li>Vanilla</li><li>10 oz (300g) pearl sugar (or loaf sugar, broken into small, 1/8'' 3mm chunks) </li></ul>If you can't find pearl sugar, I did what they recommended, and moistened 300g of granulated sugar with just enough water to make it clump up, then put it in a 325 degree oven until it dried out. Once it's dry, break it up into half-sugar-cube-sized chunks.<br /><br />I started the batter the night before, putting the flour & yeast into the Kitchenaid, and setting it to low as I cracked in the two eggs. Then added the milk & honey, and the melted butter. This turned into a really loose, sticky batter. I scraped down the sides of the bowl, covered it in plastic wrap, and left it to sit overnight.<br /><br />I made the sugar blobs the next morning, and the batter had about doubled in size. I used the dough hook to mix in the sugar chunks, then left it for another half hour on top of the stove, which was warm from when I'd dried out the sugar.<br /><br />With a ladle, I dropped in a giant blob of the batter into the hot waffle iron, and let it go 'till it was a dark brown. The sugar chunks melt inside the dough, forming these sweet channels of carmelized sugar that run through the waffle, and a nice, crunchy crust.<br /><br />I served 'em with a really sparse drizzle of maple syrup, and a sliced strawberry. They freeze well, and just require a toasting to become nice and edible again.<br /><br />Total prep time wasn't bad - maybe 20 minutes of actual work, with a night + a half hour worth of waiting. I'd definitely make this recipe again.Seppohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03293851799643818221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11541930.post-14686413543341662952007-06-26T14:18:00.001-07:002007-06-26T14:32:19.953-07:00Almond "Brittle"The "brittle" is in quote marks because it's not actually hard and brittle, but more crispety-crunchety. *cough* [Side note: Instead of typing "cough", I repeatedly typed "gough" then "gouge". I don't know why.]<br /><br />The crispier, less hard/brittle quality is achieved by throwing in a pinch of bakig soda into a pretty straight-forward brittler recipe... Which is just hardened, caramelized sugar. <br /><br />WHOA, hold on there, cowboy.<br /><br />I just looked up some peanut brittle recipes to check that my assertion was correct, only to find that many already contain baking soda! I am totally shocked. Well, why the hell are they so brittle and hard then? Sheesh.<br /><br />I guess there is no secret recipe to give away here then. My version was a modification of <a href="http://food.helava.com/2005/10/worst-food-ever.html">something I had previously posted about</a>, where you basically add toasted slivered almonds.<br /><br />One of the interesting things we had at Gordon Ramsay was something off the dessert tray called "honeycomb". It was this rich deep golden colored crunchy, sugarly confection with all sorts of holes in it, much like a honeycomb. I believe that is exactly like the recipe I posted, except with the addition of honey for flavoring. I loved the novelty of finding something so low-brow (IMO) at a high-brow place, but I supposed I shouldn't have been so surprised as GR often extolls the virtues of getting food that people <i>already</i> like (like home-y stuff) and making it well. Another delightful item was cotton candy. It was just cotton candy. Fun! :D<br /><br />In actuality, I think I prefer the plain sugar version of the brittle. And it's better when it's pressed out into uber-thin leaves.ei-nyunghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15993511877574923880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11541930.post-9912414557388168042007-06-26T13:48:00.000-07:002007-06-26T14:17:37.909-07:00Lakeshore/Grand RestaurantsWow, things are really happening out here. In addition to the much-touted and much-awaited Trader Joe's hitting our main street sometime this year, we are seeing a whole new crop of kick-ass restaurants in the area.<br /><br />Last night, we went to the newly-opened Flavors of India, where we had a kick-ass (pardon the repeat), albeit slow, meal. We were warned about the backed-up kitchen though, so we knew we were in for a wait, but we still wanted to give it a try. It seemed like they were working out their first week kinks, so that wasn't a problem for me. <br /><br />Having just finished the leftovers from last night, I'd have to say I'm extremely happy about its opening! We had veggie pakoras, lamb chole, and a chicken dish (I don't remember quite which one we got), garlic nann, onion kulcha, and a mango lassi. <br /><br />I don't really know Indian food that well, so there's that. But I do know when things taste in balance and when bread has a good chew and when meat is tender and flavorful. And last night's dinner was all of those things and more. The <a href="http://www.yelp.com/biz/uo-8TOhlBbyA4V39hW4ZqQ">reviews</a> of the other location in Rockridge seem to indicate that they serve Northern Indian cuisine. The menu indicated that every dish was cooked to order and the vegan and kid-friendly dishes were marked clearly. The service was nice but you can tell the waitstaff was nervous, probably because they are all new to the restaurant (I don't know if anyone came over from the Rockridge location), and I'm sure they will get their groove on soon.<br /><br />While searching around on Yelp for a review for this restaurant, I also found rave <a href="http://www.yelp.com/biz/P9sfUsFZeM1a-K2f7Nruwg">reviews</a> of Neecha Thai, which is located on Grand Ave, where Cafe Pirawan used to be. It is an upscale (I can't tell how upscale) Thai restaurant, a branch of a well-loved one in San Francisco. Between this restaurant, Flavors of India, and L'amyx Tea Bar, it seems like the best candidates for the area are all branches of proven establishments. I don't know how I feel about that. Well, at least these are all local joints.<br /><br />Another restaurant that recently opened in Grand Ave strip is <a href="http://www.yelp.com/biz/uHpj2-aED2RN5Fk47Q79Ng">Cafe DiBartolo</a>. By "recently opened", what I actually mean is, "has been around for two years but I never even noticed because I'm oblivious like that". ... Well, ok then. I'll have to try it, as the reviews are pretty good.<br /><br />Lakeshore has one additional new restaurant opening "soon" (I have no idea when): Vine, which bills itself as a wine bar and tapas lounge. I sure like tapas. I think it's because I'm Korean and always want a lot of little dishes around me when I eat. Just for my leftovers, I used one plate and two bowls! I don't know. I'm just like that.<br /><br />Yet another eagerly-awaited restaurant will be coming next year:<blockquote>Russell Moore—a chef and buyer for Chez Panisse—and partner Allison Hopelain will open a restaurant at 3917 Grand Avenue [map] in Janary 2008.<br /><br />A few Grand Lake neighbors met with Russell and Allison on February 26 to hear the couple’s plans.<br /><br />Although we’ll have to wait until early 2008 for the food, what we learned is that they intend for the restaurant to be warm, inviting, and affordable, serving good healthy meals to food lovers in both our and surrounding neighborhoods. They plan to procure their produce and meats as locally as possible.</blockquote> - From <a href="http://grandlakeguardian.org/index.php/navas/2007/03/18/chez_panisse_chef_grand_ave_restaurant">Grand Lake Guardian</a>.<br /><br />Nice.ei-nyunghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15993511877574923880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11541930.post-73501795306019746602007-06-19T23:24:00.000-07:002007-06-20T00:14:44.391-07:00New dishesToday, I made two things I had never made before:<br /><ul><li>Thai Basil Eggplant & Jasmin Rice<br /></li><li>Almond "Brittle"</li></ul>I had bought eggplant, some chili peppers, garlic, onion, and basil from the farmer's market on Saturday, so the eggplant dish was definitely going to make itself known this week. Since I work from home on Tuesdays, today was the day.<br /><br />I cut up the eggplant into 1.5" inch chunks, salted them, and let them sit on a rack for about half an hour. I rinsed off the salt, patted the chunks dry, then popped them under the broiler for about 5 minutes.<br /><br />I heated up the wok, threw on some soy bean oil, then sauteed some sliced onions until softened but not fully cooked. I took them out of the wok and put aside. I did the same thing with the eggplant. Exciting.<br /><br />Back in the empty wok, I heated up some more oil (on a lower flame than before) and threw in several cloves of minced garlic, two chopped up chili peppers, and about 5 of those fiery little dried red peppers that sometimes come in Chinese dishes. After about 30 seconds to a minute, I dumped in the eggplant and onions.<br /><br />I cooked them all together for a bit, then threw in the sauce, which consisted of about 2 tablespoons of fish sauce, 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce, 2 tablespoons (loosely packed) brown sugar, and 3/4 cup water, and let things simmer under the eggplant felt done.<br /><br />I poured on a mixture of cornstarch (2 tsp) and cold water (1/4 cup) and stirred over heat to thicken.<br /><br />I turned off the heat, threw in some basil leaves, some chiffonaded, some ripped, some whole, and tossed. Seppo and I dug in with some jasmin rice which I made in the rice cooker.<br /><br />Next time, I'd like to add bell peppers, chili peppers which are hotter (the ones I used were very mild and fruity, and not hot at all), and use real Thai basil. Maybe also add more soy sauce and some fried tofu. Yum.<br /><br />Almond brittle coming soon.ei-nyunghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15993511877574923880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11541930.post-61600791368212520402007-05-01T12:39:00.000-07:002007-05-01T12:45:18.763-07:00A shift in prioritiesSo, I get it. I understand the whole "fine dining" concept. Great food, great service, subtle balances of flavor. It's incredible stuff, and I'm totally over it.<br /><br />That is, we've had some exorbitant meals, both in terms of cost, and overall quality, but the value per unit of pleasure has fallen off relatively quickly. $150 is a lot for a meal. A few years ago, I'd have thought it was completely, utterly ridiculous. I still do, but it's been worth it because I really wanted to explore what the high end of food was all about.<br /><br />Now that I know, that experience holds less and less value for me.<br /><br />A dinner at Gordon Ramsay at the London is fun, and interesting, but so is a dinner at Cuvae - and the dinner at Cuvae is cheaper, more accessible, and more relaxed. The thing I loved most about the dinner at the London was hanging out with the people I was with. The food made a great conversation piece, but the biggest part was the social experience, and how the food enabled that.<br /><br />I think that's the draw of a lot of the post-Alice Waters-era cuisine. Create a novel sensation that spurs people to think, and to talk about the experience. Challenge what the eater expects, make them reconsider how they perceive food, and then get the people involved to discuss their experiences.<br /><br />That holds a lot of interest to me. It's the *best* part of a meal - that shared experience. And that's the sort of thing that could cost hundreds of dollars or next to nothing, and change very little.Seppohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03293851799643818221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11541930.post-62764958194537038842007-03-26T23:57:00.000-07:002007-03-27T00:03:51.340-07:00Chocolate NothingSo, I tried making something that I'd heard that has been done at El Bulli. I'm not in any way claiming that this is an original idea, but I didn't find any recipes around for how to do it, so I just sorta figured it must be sorta like this...<br /><br /> * 1 tablespoon dutched cocoa<br /> * 1.5 tablespoons sugar<br /> * .25 cup boiling water<br /> * .5 cup heavy cream<br /> * 1.5 tsp lecithin<br /><br />Boil the water, and dissolve the sugar and dutched cocoa. Whisk until smooth. Remove from heat. Add cream. Using an immersion blender, mix in the lecithin. Whiz air into the mixture until bubbles form on the surface. If the bubbles aren't stable, add a touch more lecithin until they are.<br /><br />Scoop off the resulting foam and put into ramekins. I put them into cupcake paper thingies that I'd set into the ramekins, but I'd recommend against this. Freeze.<br /><br />Now, if you've done well, and you've *only* got foam when you scooped off the bubbles, what you'll have is a ramekin full of what El Bulli would call "Chocolate Air." A spoonful of this will taste quite chocolate-y, but when you put it in your mouth, it completely disappears. There's almost no sensation of having eaten anything, except for the substantial chocolate flavor.<br /><br />I got that on about the top half of the ones I made, but the bottoms were a bit sloshy and dense. Probably could have used more lecithin, as the bubbles of the foam weren't totally stabilized. I'd also bet that a cream whipper would have made a much more uniform, silky foam. Ei-Nyung suggested using the Nespresso's steamer attachment, which would probably also really work well.<br /><br />I'll be trying this again, for sure. Pictures next time, though really, it just looks like a very airy chocolate mousse.Seppohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03293851799643818221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11541930.post-69916078475020203992007-03-25T23:51:00.000-07:002007-03-26T00:01:44.851-07:00WaffleSo, the place that makes the best waffles in the world is Merritt Bakery. They're crisp, light, tender, flavorful - a great carrier for butter, or syrup, or chicken and hot sauce. Absolutely fantastic.<br /><br />So it was with some hesitation that I decided to drop $4 on a single square of waffle from the Belgian Waffle Truck that showed up at the local Farmer's Market. But strolling around the market, and being sort of unimpressed with the sea of random greens that all looked sort of the same, I wanted a bite of something new.<br /><br />One waffle, with powdered sugar.<br /><br />I could have gotten it with a myriad of toppings, but I wanted to see what the *waffle* was like. Toppings schmoppings. They all sort of taste the same. If the waffle wasn't any good, none of the toppings would matter, anyway.<br /><br />The guy gave me one of the waffles that had been sitting in the warming area - not too long, but it definitely wasn't fresh off the iron, which sort of disappointed me. But one bite, and I was absolutely sold. This wasn't a Merritt Bakery waffle - it was something entirely different. This wasn't meant to have stuff on it. This *was* the stuff. It was crisp, but it wasn't light. It was doughy - not bready, in the uniform, spongy sense - doughy - like a Babka, or the inside of a cinnamon roll. Just a hint of vanilla, and a subtle, not cloying sweetnes that was amplified (obviously) by the powdered sugar that was dusted over it.<br /><br />You chewed this waffle - it didn't dissolve in your mouth like air - it had substance. Each bite was satisfyingly elastic - meaty, almost, if you can dissociate the flavor, and just understand I'm talking about how substantial, and satisfying it felt.<br /><br />It took about five minutes to eat that one square of waffle, and every mouthful was a pleasure. The sweetness never got tiresome, and the texture and flavor of the thing was complex, and interesting enough to keep me engaged for the entire duration of the eating process. This waffle was spectacular, and it had been one that had been held in standby for at least a few minutes before I was lucky enough to purchase it.<br /><br />If the guy had given me one hot off the iron, I'd probably still be in front of the truck eating waffles.Seppohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03293851799643818221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11541930.post-79101885540615342722007-03-25T22:00:00.000-07:002007-03-25T22:31:40.091-07:00Manresa 2So, pictures are forthcoming, but I want to get my impressions down now, so they'll be added later.<br /><br />Ei-Nyung (and her family, by proxy) took me out to Manresa tonight for the tasting menu. We'd been there once before, and had a spectacular meal, so I was really excited to go back. If you've never been there, it's sort of a modern Californian food - not quite Alice Waters' "let the natural flavors just do their thing," but also not the more insane stuff that a place like WD-50 might serve. It tends to be basically what you'd think of as "normal" fine dining with just enough of a modern twist to be regularly somewhat surprising.<br /><br />The run-down:<br /><br /><ul><li>Petit-fours "red pepper-black olive": We'd had this the last time we came - same as it was before. The black olive madeline may be my favorite thing at the restaurant. Just a little unexpected, but still absolutely perfect in execution. Everything is in perfect balance - texture contrasts crisp with soft & chewy, and the savory-sweet interplay is just *delightful*.</li><li>Garden croquettes: These are also something we'd had last time - basically a deep-fried cube of liquid something, that's supposedly garden greens. These are *magic*. They just burst in your mouth - the crisp, fried exterior basically giving way to an intensely flavored liquid center.</li><li>Oyster in urchin jelly: This isn't exactly the most appetizing-sounding thing, but like everything else we had, the execution was brilliant. It had essentially a seawater gelee, which the oyster, and a small piece of uni were suspended in. The saltiness of the gelee, and the er... oyster-y texture of the oyster were really well served by the creamy uni, and it's the first time I've had uni where I've been completely in love with it. I still haven't had the uni at Angelfish, which is supposedly quite good, but it just worked perfectly here - the creamy texture, a perfect complement to the rest of the ingredients.</li><li>Arpege farm egg: This is something we'd had before. The last time we had it, my egg was completely out of balance. There's some sherry vinegar, and maple syrup in this egg, which gives you an idea of the balances they're trying to achieve, and in part because I ended up eating it wrong, and in part because I think the ingredients were actually out-of-whack last time, I didn't really "get" this dish. This time, I understood it. The twang of the vinegar contrasts nicely with the creamy egg, and the sweet, lingering hint of maple really makes each bite a whole variety of experiences all in one. Great stuff.</li></ul>That was just the amuse-bouches (amuses-bouche?) and appetizers. The "main courses" were<br /><ul><li>Beef and oyster tartare, asparagus: This, to me, was the standout dish of the night. A perfectly cooked spear of asparagus was flanked by a bright red beef & oyster tartare, and a canelle of horseradish cream. If I'd seen this on a menu, I'd not likely have ordered it, but when I go back again, I'd *definitely* get this dish. The richness of the cream and the tartare was offset by the asparagus and spicy hotness of the horseradish. Most dishes have a "perfect bite," where you get just the right amount of everything, and it just works the way you're sure the chef intended. This, I felt I could eat in a whole variety of ways. Every bite had a different balance of flavors, but they all worked, and were all interesting and delicious</li><li>Amberjack, sashimi-style, olive oil and chives: This was good, but I've had things that are similar to it, but better - primarily, the best single dish I've ever had was the hotate hot-oil sashimi at Morimoto. Chez Panisse had a similar dish as well, and neither of them have held a candle to Morimoto. Still delicious, mind you, but it suffers only by comparison.</li><li>Watercress veloute with cauliflower, green garlic: The watercress veloute was *intensely* green, and somewhat bitter on its own. The cauliflower was a little sweet, rich, and mixed with what I think must have been little fried bits of green garlic. The mixture of everything was excellent, offsetting the bitterness of the watercress veloute. By the end of the plate, when excess veloute was all that was left, it was too bitter on its own. But still, quite good. The only disappointment was essentially how this interacted with the next dish.</li><li>Slow roasted monkfish, potatoes with anchovy, pine nut: This was a piece of monkfish, some tiny potatoes, and a pine nut puree with a foam of some sort. I thought it was quite good, but the strange thing about it to me was that a lot of the flavor components were very similar to the previous dish, and the way those things balanced together felt very similar. As a result, these two dishes immediately blended together for me, and between the two dishes, the only thing I really remember was the bitterness of the watercress, and the general overall balance of savory, slightly salty flavors. Don't get me wrong - each one was delicious, and on their own, would be excellent at any restaurant - but I think the fact that these two dishes were very similar in the way their flavors were constructed meant that instead of complementing each other, they ended up detracting from each other.</li><li>Pig's trotters, frisee salad, gribiche: This was a fried ball of pork. I think Ei-Nyung thought it was a little too salty, but I thought mine was fine. Very similar, strangely, to the fried ball o' rabbit we had at the French Laundry, though the rabbit was a really interesting flavor I wasn't used to, and though I don't think I've had "trotters" before specifically, still pork. Not necessarily as interesting, but still delicious.</li><li>Local spring lamb, carrots with dates, mache: The lamb was awesome - perfectly seasoned, tender, just the right amount of gamey. No complaints whatsoever, and one of the best pieces of lamb I've had. But the weirdly incredible thing to me about this dish was the small piece of carrot that garnished the lamb. Best bite of carrot I've ever had in my entire life. Nicely caramelized flavor, a perfect match for the more straightforward sweetness of the carrot. It was just like every distinct flavor of the carrot had been amplified by the slightest hint of caramel. Awesome.</li></ul>And that was that for the mains. On to dessert!<br /><br /><ul><li>Grapefruit and tarragon soda, campari: Holy mother of god, this was GREAT. There was a 'tarragon sugar' that lined the edge of the glass. The overall impact reminded me of a dessert we had during Dine About Town at Rubicon two years ago that had a lot of similar flavors. I think grapefruit, in a dessert like this is just a fantastic palate cleanser, and really ends a dinner on a bright, happy note. Lovely. I've gotta figure out how to make something like this.</li><li>Avocado mousse, gene's mandarins: This was basically a canelle of sweet cream, avocado mousse, and a citrus granita. While I "get" why there's avocado here, honestly, I thought the avocado flavor wasn't necessary, and actually unbalanced the dish a bit. The sweet cream and the citrus granita, to me, were perfect together. Maybe I've got a simpler palate, but there you go. The creamy ... uh... cream, and the bright, frozen crunch of the granita, and the sweetness and citrusy twang were great.</li><li>Chocolate beignet, hot fudge, and tonka bean ice cream: Whoa. This was great. There was some sort of foam I had trouble identifying on top of the beignet (my nose was partially still stuffed from an afternoon encounter with cats), but the hot fudge was HOLY SHIT CHOCOLATE!!!!! intense. The ice cream, hot fudge, beignet combo was inarguably awesome.</li><li>Petit fours "strawberry-chocolate": This is the punchline to the joke at the beginning of the meal, a more traditional version of the initial amuse-bouche. Delicious as before, but nothing particularly surprising.</li></ul>All in all, I really like Manresa. It's likely my favorite restaurant in the Bay Area, and possibly anywhere. It's 95% the quality of The French Laundry at 50% of the price, and with a more laid back, comfortable atmosphere.<br /><br />I'm not saying that Aperto, or Geta, or any of the various day-to-day restaurants have anything to fear - but if I'm looking for "fine dining," Manresa's got to be at the top of the list for me. Excellent food, excellent service, just relaxed enough to be comfortable, just upscale enough to be special, and an experience I would gladly repeat, again and again.Seppohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03293851799643818221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11541930.post-22550365535269889472007-03-12T00:31:00.000-07:002007-03-12T00:40:47.225-07:00BentoFlickr seems to have a quite an active community of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/search/groups/?q=bento">bento enthusiasts</a>. Inspired by them, I decided that I'd take a bento box to lunch tomorrow.<br /><br />My bento box has three compartments:<br /><ul><li>A large container that can probably hold about 1.5 cups of food.</li><li>A smaller container that can probably hold about 0.75 cups of food.</li><li>A smaller container of the same size as above, except with a little divider in the middle.</li></ul>I've packed into those respective containers the following:<br /><ul><li>A Pink Lady apple from Saturday's farmers' market</li><li>Some <a href="http://food.helava.com/2007/03/fried-rice.html">fried rice</a></li><li>Blueberries and half an avocado in the two halves</li></ul>I think some nuts would be a welcome addition to what I'm taking (maybe squeeze in with the blueberries), but I don't feel like digging around just now.<br /><br />I'm pretty psyched about trying to pack cute bentos.ei-nyunghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15993511877574923880noreply@blogger.com