You. Me. Brassica.
What is brassica, you might ask? Come find out on Saturday at our CHOW CUESA demo.
Free for all, 11:45 under the eaves in the front of the Ferry Building.
Bon Appétit!
You. Me. Brassica.
What is brassica, you might ask? Come find out on Saturday at our CHOW CUESA demo.
Free for all, 11:45 under the eaves in the front of the Ferry Building.
Bon Appétit!
Sorry for being absent, I guess that's what happens when you go back to a full-time job! Feels good, although sometimes I miss typing away in my pajamas at the kitchen table.
It's interesting working in a test kitchen again, the smaller kitchen crew feels nice and I feel really connected to all that we're doing. Plus, I'm learning a lot about photography, food styling, and editorial in general.
In other exciting news, I'll be doing a demo for CHOW.com at the Saturday Ferry Building Farmer's Market on December 5th at 11:45AM. (I'm stoked, especially since I got married there just about 6 months ago!) Still narrowing down what recipe we'll be doing, but I hope you join us for some tasty food and a fun recipe. Mark your calendars!
Bon Appétit!
A Thursday in San Francisco means the new Thursday Farmers' Market at the Ferry Building, 10-2. If you can, you should go earlier before the lunch crowd takes over. A few produce stands like Lucero & Dirty Girl, with lots of tomatoes and peaches right now. Please pardon the amateurish-iPhone pics.
Namu's Korean BBQ Beef Tacos: toasted seaweed, rice, Korean beef, kimchi, and some kind of addictive special sauce. $2.25/1, $4/2. They are amazing, could have been a little warmer though.
Pizza Politana's Margherita Pizza, $8: Very thin, crispy crust with loads of flavor. Made to order in a portable wood-burning oven!
The beef sandwiches from Roli Roti, $6 looked good. Will have to try next week. Roasted potatoes are also available there, but no chicken, porchetta, or lamb. Mexican place called Tacolicious, and some intense sorbets from Scream Sorbet.
And of course, the "only in San Francisco" picture of the day belongs to the guy who parks his pets in Union Square. Yes, it's a cat with a white rat sitting on top of a dog. They all seem to get along!
Bon Appétit!
kitchenette's indian-inspired fried chicken sandwich
with garam masala honey, chile mayonnaise
The interesting phenomenon of the San Francisco food scene right now is the emergence of takeout, sometimes mobile, lunch spots. It all started with The Sentinel downtown, a tobacco shop that turned into a breakfast and lunch takeout counter.
Then came kitchenette, an offshoot of a catering company that uses its loading dock as a semi-charming way to do 2 - 3 lunch options a day. About the same time emerged curry and crême brulée carts and even mobile arms of restaurants that serve chowder or French food from vans and trucks. You can get chicken and waffles at Little Skillet (although I don't recommend the waffle dog). There's a bicycle that goes around downtown selling Boccalone sandwiches. Even Town Hall now serves takeout lunches that include some of their specialties. Twitter seems to be the main form of advertisement of these places, which is quite effective in communicating rotating menus and varying locations.
Some of these places have permits to sell food, but some don't, making it a bit risky for those who like to have some assurances of food safety. Prices are usually reasonable but are still not at the level of say, traditional taco trucks in Oakland. These new places in San Francisco reflect the culture of the city, with many using organic ingredients and serving on recyclable or compostable packaging. Even the Ferry Building is getting into it, with the start of the new Thursday market in a few weeks, bringing some produce vendors but mainly prepared foods (I would personally rather they bring back the Thursday evening produce market for those who can't go to farmer's markets mid-day).
It's quite intriguing to see these places that have lower start-up and maintenance costs as well as lower service staff expenses in these financial times. Chefs have started to narrow down their menus, usually settling on comfort foods that fit in with the casual nature of the business. It seems to have replaced the previous trend of fine-dining chefs who opened bistros or casual restaurants, stating desires to cook simpler food that reminded them of home.
San Francisco has fairly temperate weather which allows for such businesses to operate year-round. Can you imagine standing in line outside a loading dock in a foot of snow? The ambiance for each of these new places ranges from being near picturesque parks and food courts with ample seating to squatting down on a sidewalk in order to be able to use both hands to eat with.
In general, I've been enjoying hearing about and sampling these places. Small, focused menus mean the execution is usually quite good, especially since San Francisco isn't known for having quick, accessible lunch places. This trend reminds me of many countries in Asia where hawkers or food vendors specialize in one or two things and take pride in what they produce.
I applaud one side effect of these places: getting people to eat outside again. Having lived through two Boston winters, I've lost sympathy for native Californians who shiver when it's 60 degrees and reach for their wool coats. Eating outside in fresh air is a privilege I don't take for granted anymore. Being able to have delicious and interesting foods while doing so makes it even better.
Bon Appétit!
Last Saturday, we made our weekly tour of the Ferry Building Farmer's Market, poking around and nibbling as usual. When we first arrived, there was a line of people waiting to get free samples from the Gourmet booth set up. Turns out it was their Follow The Farmers Market Tour. As much as the sample of olive oil intrigued me, the line was just too long for my patience.
After we finished our shopping, we happened to find ourselves near the booth again, this time with a much shorter line. I jumped into line, eager to quickly get my hands on some of the body products and olive oil. Come on, who can turn down free stuff?
But the line didn't budge, even though I was within reaching distance of the first basket. An ornery (and I mean ornery!) old lady was blocking the entire table with her body and her wheeled shopping cart, snarling at the couple behind her if they got too close. She was grabbing all she could while firing questions at the poor Gourmet staff person behind the table: "What is this? What's in there?"
She then proceeded to move 2 inches down the table before turning around and grabbing her cart, muttering, "Excuse me! I need my walking cart, don't try to cut me" when clearly she hadn't needed it for the last few minutes. The poor couple was quite intimidated by her, and I was getting annoyed because she showed no concern for the patient people behind her.
Anyway, she finally moved away and I swiped my samples, disappointed that they had run out of olive oil. I entered my name in their drawing basket without having a clue as to what the prizes were. And to my surprise, I get an email from Gourmet saying I had won a Green & Black Organic Chocolates package!
It arrived speedily in the mail in a box packed snugly: 13 different bars of chocolate (including baking chocolate), and a canister of hot chocolate and a canister of cocoa powder. I can't wait to start exploring and tasting, though the first task will be to figure out which bar to give to my nice concierge downstairs who loves chocolate and whose face lit up when I mentioned what the package was.
So I guess the lessons I learned this weekend were to be patient and always enter drawings because you never know what might happen. What a delicious surprise.
Bon Appétit!
Everyone always gets jealous when they find out I work from home. True, there is a lot of freedom, I can wear pajamas all day or watch TV while I work, and I test recipes when I get bored of sitting in front of the computer. But there is little social interaction and sometimes it's hard to get motivated. I do miss teaching and having the kids in my class always surprising me with something funny or unexpected.
Luckily, I can pretend that I'm part of the bustling downtown San Francisco workforce since it's a short walk away. I go to the Thursday Crocker Galleria farmer's market and act like I too am using my lunch hour to pick up what's in season. The one thing I refuse to do, though, is to wear white sneakers with my "office" outfit when walking around the city!
Besides the market, I am still trying to figure out the downtown takeout lunch scene, which is surprisingly bleak. There are tons of delis and random takeout places, but it's very hard to figure out where to go and what is good. I'd read about The Sentinel, and as it's quite close to Crocker Galleria, I decided to try it out.
It's a little difficult to find since it's a tiny storefront on a corner with no real signage. But the smell of fresh-baked bread was the clear indicator that I was in the right place. Well, that and the line snaking around the corner. Lots of people making sandwiches in a miniscule kitchen with barely room to breathe.
Opened by Chef Dennis Leary of Canteen, this is his breakfast / lunch spot. Fresh pastries in the morning, a short list of sandwiches and a soup, as well as some specials. It has quite an old-fashioned feel to it, and I loved the fact that the sandwiches choices are deliberately done for you, you don't pick your meat, cheese, and toppings from a long list - you let the chef create a combo he thinks is interesting.
I opted for the corned beef sandwich, which was on crunchy flatbread (more like focaccia) topped with Gruyère cheese, homemade Russian dressing, and caramelized onions. There also seemed to be some kind of sauerkraut- like cabbage on top which added some acidity. In the takeout box was a big pickle spear (not too sour, would've liked it more tart), and an Andes mint.
Don't expect thin New York-style corned beef, these were thicker slices with some chew to it. Overall, I liked the sandwich but ended up adding some whole-grained mustard for a little more contrast to the all the richness, as the Gruyère was quite strong. It was a big portion, and while it was $8.50, not too bad for a downtown lunch that could've been enough for two meals. The only hard part is finding a place to sit around there if you don't work nearby. You could head over to Crocker Galleria and use their tables and chairs, but otherwise, pray for a nice day so that you can sit outside!
The Sentinel
37 New Montgomery Street
San Francisco
Mon-Fri 7:30-2:30
Bon Appétit!
How do you make the concept of CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) even better?
Make it a Meat CSA!
(Photo from Stillman's website)
A CSA is a great way to support local farmers. The general concept is that you are providing an up-front cash flow to farmers in exchange for their goods, usually produce. A typical CSA works this way: you give the farm of your choice a pre-determined amount of money in late spring or early summer, and then you receive boxes of produce throughout the summer. Each CSA operates differently, some let you pick the produce yourself, some just fill up a box of what is best at the time.
I've always wanted to join one but was unsure if I could actually use and eat everything in a share. Besides, I love going to the farmer's market and selecting my own produce. Summer is always full of travel too, so pickups would be difficult (I think there are year-round CSAs in places like California because of the growing seasons.) I hope that one of these days the circumstances will be right and I'll find one that I will join.
So back to the Meat CSA. We joined the one from our favorite farmstand, Stillman's Farms here in Boston. They always have the best tomatoes, raspberries, and corn, and the owners Aidan and Kate are great people. Besides produce, they started to sell meats from a Turkey Farm they purchased. We've tried sausages and pork chops from them and were impressed by the quality of the meats. They have heirloom varietals, and I love that they're local.
An excerpt from their website: they have a "goal of raising conscientiously-raised, grass-fed and pasture, hormone-free meats and poultry."
How it works: 6 months of meat for $75 a month. Each box comes with 10 pounds of meats, about half high-end cuts like chops and steaks, and the other half cuts like stew meat and ground beef. That comes to $7.50/pound, and everything arrives frozen and vacuum-sealed. We decided to split a share with one of my co-workers so we would alternate months.
We finally picked up our first box. I was giddy with excitement! The meat looked fabulous, I'm hoping to keep you updated with what we do with it all. Here's what we got:
Bacon (400g, 0.88 lbs)
4 Center Cut Thin Bone-In Pork Chops (775g, 1.71 lbs)
4 Lamb Loin Chops (650g, 1.43 lbs)
7 Hot Dogs (425g, 0.94 lbs)
4 Hot Lamb Sausages (575g, 1.27 lbs)
Pork Spareribs (1075g, 2.37 lbs)
Ground Beef (500g, 1.10 lbs)
2 Beef Tenderloin Steaks (317g, .70 lbs)
Total weight: 10.38 pounds
Total Cost for This Share: $75, no tax charged as far as we know
I decided to do a comparison of prices with other stores in the area. Keep in mind that I don't know how much Stillman's charges for each of these things on their own, I only know that they charged $75 for the entire package.
My method was to note the prices per pound at other stores and then calculate everything based on the weights of the meat we received. Sometimes the stores didn't have the exact same product, so I tried my best to find suitable equivalents. This isn't by any means an exact or perfect comparison, but hopefully a good stab at it.
I picked three local stores:
My general conclusion from this little analysis was that Stillman's was a great bargain for the quality of meat. It was less than Whole Foods and Savenors, but not that much more than Shaw's, where I would never buy meat if I could help it. My biggest satisfaction comes from the fact that I am putting money directly into a farmer's hands. Plus, I get to interact with him and support my local community.
Of course, since the box varies from month to month, the price comparisons are by no means accurate for future packages. Who knows what the coming months will bring, but I love mysteries and surprises. I can't wait to start using the meat and look forward to the next share!
Bon Appétit!
It was just about 2 years ago that I first tried physalis fruit in Paris. The markets sold them at quite expensive prices, and the only other time I had them were on a pastry from Erik Kayser's bakery.
For some reason, I thought that the only place I would see physalis would be in France. Turns out that I've been lucky to find them here in Boston at the farmer's markets recently, albeit under different names. There seem to be many names for physalis, including ground cherries, Cape gooseberry, and strawberry tomatoes. I find the taste to be a cross between a cherry and a tomato, sweet, slightly tart, and even a touch of bitterness at the end.
They are thoroughly addicting, and I haven't been able to get past snacking on them to cooking with them. The best part seems to be unwrapping the gorgeous papery wrappers physalis comes in- nature's candy! But I'm thinking that using them in a chutney or compote to go with roasted meats would be delicious. Yummy.
Bon Appétit!
While in Washington, DC over Easter, I had a chance to visit one of their year-round farmer's markets, Dupont Circle FRESHFARM Market. While selection was still a little sparse, I can see it being quite a tantalizing place for fruits, vegetables, cheeses, and breads when the spring and summer crops are in full swing. Try some of the wonderful goat cheeses and lettuces that they have to offer!
Dupont Circle FRESHFARM Market
The 1500 block of 20th St., between Massachusetts Ave. and Q St.
(In the adjacent parking lot of PNC Bank)
Year Round, Sundays 9-1 (Jan-March 10-1)
Metro: Dupont Circle on the Red Line
Bon appétit!
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