Tomales Bay Getaway

We got to The Marshall Store and discovered $1 oysters.  Two dozen (and two lagers) later we were driving home to the entirety of OK Computer, windows down, counting the herons hunting for dinner.  I’m pretty sure life doesn’t get better.

 

My Drunken Kitchen

I just discovered these, and now I have a mild obsession.  Have you seen them?  Start here and explore/emulate as you wish.

 

 

Harvestmark Food Traceability App

This is pretty neat.  You can scan produce barcodes to learn where, exactly, your fruits and vegetables originated.  Read more here.

One more reason to get an iPad2.

 

Perrin takes on Mashable

In my daily Mashable perusing I ran across this infographic discussing “The Eating Habits of Conservatives Versus Liberals“.   I sent it to Perrin (of the Perrin tag) and she was vocally unimpressed.  Here are her thoughts:

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Not only is the author of this article perpetrating offensive stereotypes about the nature of American politics, but she’s also illustrating a reductionist (and clearly biased) argument about food culture and palate. The politics of eating has absolutely nothing to do personal politics—it’s all about access. She writes that conservatives have more of a penchant for fast food and soda, while their more refined liberal counterparts prefer a glass of pinot with their seafood.

The first thing that’s wrong with this argument, and is also the tragic downfall of so many journalists who make such assumptions, is that the author doesn’t really disclose numbers.  How many people participated in this “test graph”? What is their demographic, and where exactly were the participants found?  I’m fairly certain that the people who conducted this survey didn’t exactly conduct it in an un-biased and scientific manner.

Secondly, what exactly IS the correlation between food and politics? I don’t know the answer to that, but I do know that food preferences are largely dictated by geography. As someone who has lived in the northeast all her life, I’d really have to do more research to give you an answer that isn’t chock-full of my own assumptions, but since the author of this article was not shy about documenting her own preconceived notions about food, I’ll just give you mine…

Despite the ironic fact that the bulk of American agriculture is based in the Midwest, access to a diversified group of foods just isn’t readily available in these landlocked states. For instance, how many people eat fish in Oklahoma, as opposed to Massachusetts? With a largely Caucasian population, “ethnic” cuisines just aren’t as available in the Midwest, as compared to coastal cities like New York or San Francisco. Coastal states have more access to a wider variety of food, but they just so happen to have a stronger liberal inclination. To reiterate: food preferences, or food choices, have nothing to do with politics, but rather where in the country certain people are located.

Coastal states have a much larger population density than the Midwest. More people = more food, and more food choices. Also, while food deserts certainly do exist in coastal states, public transportation is arguably more prolific there; as opposed to the Midwest, where nearly everyone drives a car, and grocery stores might be few and far between. The increasing price of gas is also an issue—why would a Midwesterner drive two hours just to get a piece of fresh fish?

Economics also plays a huge role in food choices. Do people in the coastal states tend to fair better financially? If so, that would also be a factor in determining what people eat. Not only is fast food cheap and readily available in the Midwest, but their dominating car culture invites pre-prepared meals.

As a die-hard northeasterner, my assumption is that people in the northeast have more of an opportunity to “eat well” due to an economically and ethnically diverse population. Admittedly, I’m a liberal, but I don’t think that matters. I’ve been very fortunate in two important ways: a) I’ve been exposed to a huge variety of foods in my life, b) I’m educated enough to know that subsiding on a diet of soda and fast food will kill me—and that has nothing to do with my politics.

 

Innovation

People.  CHICKEN CURRY PIZZA.  And I’m not talking from Zante’s.  This is a gluten-free, dairy-free, makes-everyone-feel-good pizza.  And I can’t even take credit for it — this is the brainchild of one Candace K. Combs, the new chef on the block.

We played with Trader Joe’s jarred Masala Simmer Sauce two nights ago, which left a surprisingly good impression.  I literally had this on the shelf since before I met Candace (shhh), but finally felt inspired enough to break it out.  Sweet red onions, garlic, chickpeas, and spinach got a 20 minute bath in the sauce, before being joined by mustard-marinated grilled chicken (is it still called “grilled” if we charred it in the cast iron skillet?)

Candace the Capricorn tends to opt for repeat performances when she finds a good thing, so she found an even better curry sauce at Bi-Rite last night, and cooked up the exact same concoction (imitation is the most sincere form of flattery…right?).  We had plenty of leftover curry, and plans to make pizza, so we hopped on board the fusion train and created this:

The key is using a blend of tapioca and rice cheese, on a rice-based (frozen, in this case) crust.  This paired well with a California Zinfandel, a green salad, and some Parisian jazz.  You know, fusion-style.

 

Introductions

Part I.  My aunt gave us approximately one million lemons from her prolific tree.  This is near the top of my list of reasons to love California.

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Part II. Candace and I have finally discovered our farmer’s market.

There are a lot of Farmer’s Markets in San Francisco, and for some reason some of them get capitalized and others don’t.  More importantly, none were ever convenient enough to frequent (I know, I know — but I’m a grad student working two jobs, and Bi-Rite is literally across the street from our apartment).  I joined Bakar gym for the summer, and UCSF happens to have a lovely concise farmer’s market that opens right as we finish our Wednesday workout.  Did I mention that Wednesdays are my weekend?  Lovely, indeed.

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Part III.  I started reading this Salon.com article (“How Cooking Gave Me Purpose”) without noticing the byline.  I loved it even more when I realized who, exactly, had such humble but honest culinary beginnings.  Worth a read, and I completely emphathize with his “four stages of learning how to teach yourself to cook.”  I feel like I’m watching Candace gracefully stumble through stage two or so right about now.

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Part IV.  This is Sonya:

Sonya is the nice lady I go to when I need massage, and she happens to like sorrel (she also enjoys theater, yoga, Hot Cookie, opera, and my cats, but those facets are not quite as relevant).

Tonight Sonya went to Bi-Rite and brought back spring bounty that included spinach, oranges, and sorrel. Have you ever had sorrel?  I hadn’t.  It starts out innocuously enough but then explodes into a symphony of citrus and pepper and silk.  I felt inspired, so here’s what we made:

1 bunch of asparagus, tough ends snapped off even though it feels *so* wasteful

2 cloves garlic, very thinly sliced

Handful raisins

Bigger handful walnuts

1/6 of a colossal sweet red onion, thinly sliced

2 oranges, peeled and sectioned

1 tsp ground coriander (although some fresh cilantro would be lovely also)

Nice pinch crushed red pepper flakes

1 bunch sorrel, julienned (you can mix in some julienned spinach also)

Juice of one lemon

Splash of apple cider vinegar, generous drizzle of the best olive oil you can find, sea salt, cracked pepper

      Saute the asparagus, I did it in coconut oil because it’s all the Paleo rage (I’m not Paleo, but I’m quickly being sold on its virtues).  Throw the garlic in about halfway through, then add the raisins and half the lemon juice three-quarters of the way through.  When al dente, toss in a bowl with all the other ingredients.  Season to taste, serve room temperature.

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Part V.

Is there anything better than dinner with friends?

 

Is Sitting a Lethal Activity?

So it’s not directly about food, and that’s fine with me . Maybe this is turning into a health blog.

““Go into cubeland in a tightly controlled corporate environment and you immediately sense that there is a malaise about being tied behind a computer screen seated all day,” he said. “The soulof the nation is sapped, and now it’s time for the soul of the nation to rise.”

(Go ahead, click on it).

 

A Tale of Two Belgians

A friend brought over a couple fancy bottles from another friend’s wonderful bar: Beer Revolution, in Oakland.  We were both pretty excited by the Tripel, since The Bruery has a good track record and the combination of rice, Thai basil, and a malty Belgian tripel sounded pretty stupendous.  In truth it fell pretty far short of stupendous, presenting with a subtle nose, flat body, and monotone flavor profile.  It was fine, but certainly nothing out of the ordinary American-beer-attempts-Belgian-goodness style.

The saison, on the other hand, was out of this world.  Made by Odonata in Sacramento, CA, this little number packed a whole lot of flavor in every sip, balanced with a bright effervescence.  This beer has fruit, it has spice, it has a lovely yeasty breadiness, and it has just the right amount of malt.  You can drink it with any kind of food, sip slowly to cool down on a hot summer day, or drink a glass to warm up a chilly San Francisco spring evening.  Cheers!

 

Perspective

The original title for this post was, “If you think you’re having a bad day, compare your life to this watermelon.”

Then an 8.9 magnitude earthquake moved an entire country eight feet, shifted Earth’s axis, and caused a 600 mph tsunami, all of which resulted in nearly 10,000 human deaths.  Natural disasters have a way of putting everything into perspective, at least until we all go back to our busy, self-important lives.  Unless you’re like these assholes and just use it as an excuse to sell booze.

Anyways, here’s Harry the hippo and his diminutive-looking watermelon snack, followed by a very small child and his/her colossal-looking watermelon…chair?  Perspective.

 

Fennel Season meets Cold Season

I’ll keep this brief, because I really ought to be reading “Applied Channel Theory in Chinese Medicine” and “Formulas and Strategies,”  while finishing (erm, starting) a couple Sports Medicine case studies on the side.   But Thursday nights are Date Nights, so I set aside the stack of homework to make room for carrots, turnips, fennel, chicken.

Candace has a cold.  I’ve pumped her so full of herbs (Gan Mao Ling, Bi Yan Pian) that it’s a cold still waiting in the foyer, but still it lingers, trying to invade.  I stocked up on Gui Zhi Tang (cinnamon twigs, peony root, fresh ginger, dried dates, and honey-fried licorice root, boiled to a tea and taken with rice congee), but I’m ready for the (other) big gun: homemade chicken soup.

I’ve never made chicken soup, but it’s a pretty basic concept.  Cook a whole organic chicken (trust me, you want to click that link), preferably in boiling water with other delicious things (onions, marjoram, bay leaves, cilantro, kitchen scraps).  Take out the chicken and take off the meat while you boil root vegetables (carrots, turnips, fennel, onions, garlic) in the broth.  I picked turnips over potatoes because they keep their shape and texture; fennel over celery because…that’s what Bi-Rite stocks, and it’s more interesting anyhow; and green garlic because it’s ALMOST SPRING!  In general, allow me to recommend fennel over celery for just about any purpose from garnishing Bloody Marys to making Thanksgiving stuffing.  Look:

When the vegetables are almost tender add some (gluten-free) rotini, the chicken meat, and some sauteed mushrooms tossed with lemon juice.  Simmer while seasoning — paprika, sea salt, cracked pepper, a dash of cumin, a hint of nutmeg, two squirts of Bragg’s liquid aminos, and a nice pinch of herbs de Provence.

Finish with croutons (gluten-free bread ends, olive oil, herbs de Provence).  Eat slowly — it gets better as it cools.  Cold season (round two, or maybe we’re on round three) doesn’t have a chance.

I may have neglected to mention the importance of sharing scraps with hungry passers-by…Would you believe this darling little animal swallowed an entire chicken bone?!  And relished every second of it.