Lobster Bisque & Viognier @ J Winery: Two of a Perfect Pair

January 2011

By biteclub

Forgive the hackneyed analog, but I’ve just eaten a Lennon-McCartney harmony of food and wine over at J Winery; OK, maybe that’s too much, but a solid Bee Gees, at least! Seriously, if we wore socks on our teeth, then Chef Mark Caldwell’s Lobster Bisque, together with winemaker George Bursick’s Hoot Owl Vineyard Viognier, would knock them clean off. And I don’t even like Viognier, as a rule.

Beet-Mushroom Crepe, Sesame Brittle-Yuzu Royale

Eight-Flavor Local Duck, Tamarind-Orange Glazed Pork Belly, and Yuzu Royale; a vertical of single-vineyard Pinot Noirs, a late-disgorged vintage sparkler. For breakfast, no less. Not that one necessarily needs a special occasion to have wine for breakfast when one lives in wine country, but it helps, especially if you’ve got school pick-up, or anything else marginally productive to do. Fortunately, I had neither, so I got to enjoy all of this at a “Chinese New Year”-inspired pairing of food and wine in J’s Bubble Room; the menu, and the wines, will be featured through February 6th, a great call if you’ve been looking for a something-special to do in Healdsburg.

As good as it all is – and it’s all very good – it’s that Lobster Bisque and Viognier that makes you forget about the door levy. To be sure, $65/head for a 7-course menu hardly qualifies for a budget-oriented visit to the tasting room, but to be fair, it’s a meal more than a tasting (7 substantial plates of very tasty vittles), and ends up as much a miniature course in wine education as it does a tasting (including 8 different glasses of J’s top-shelf offerings); really, my only gripe is that I had to write this review, instead of taking a nap. But back to that bisque: Chef Mark serves it as a “cappuccino”, the “foam” delicately laced with coconut, an intriguing note of lime adding just the right balance to the sweet-spicy decadence of the soup and coaxing a range of citrus flavors from the wine.

Vegetable Firecracker, That Impossibly Good Bisque

Now, I don’t know about you and Viognier – with the notable exception of a few of the better examples from the Condrieu region of France, I generally won’t touch the stuff – but I’ve just been converted. The honeyed texture, the white flowers and stone fruit, and, above all, that mysterious note of lime zest in the wine do a little tango with the soup, each getting more from its partner than either had alone, the ultimate goal of all wine-food pairings. I’m going to try to convince Mark to give me his recipe for that bisque, but in the meantime, I’m headed back to J for another bottle, and then to pick up some Thai food to-go, something with coconut and lemongrass, maybe…

Taco Bell: More bull than beef?

January 2011

By biteclub

A lawsuit has been filed against Taco Bell stating that the fast food chain is using false advertising when it uses the term “ground beef” or “seasoned ground beef” to refer to its food.

In contention: The “taco meat filling” used by the restaurants only contain about 35% beef with binders, extenders, preservatives, additives and “other agents” making up the other 65%.

Frankly, we think any late night nibbler who has scarfed down a 20-pack could probably tell you that “beef” wasn’t the main reason for their border run. It’s the cheap thrill of using pocket change to pay for a meal.

What’s your take? Bull or beef…and are you really all that shocked and appalled?

My Favorite $5 Kitchen Gadget

January 2011

By biteclub

Useless Kitchen Gadgets — My mezza luna, dough stippler, fish tongs…

I buy too many kitchen toys, and I suspect I’m not alone. Admit it: Anyone who watches Food TV, buys cookbooks, or owns an up-to-date Zagat’s, to say nothing of the hardcore amongst us who actually read blogs about food and cooking in our spare time, owns an extravagant number of culinary gadgets. That many of them go unused is a virtual certainty, relegated to that far-left drawer or too-low cupboard, buckets of strange, medieval-looking devices that seemed so indispensable in the Williams-Sonoma catalog, but which turned out to be hard to clean, rarely employed, or – worst of all – to require more work than the task they were originally meant to simplify (thekitchn.com provides a cute, if highly abridged, list of their top 10 offenders here).

Still and all, kitchen toys are wonderful things, and I happily employ them by the dozen: Chinoises, rolling pins, poultry shears, tongs, cast iron grill pans, my favorite spatula, even a salad spinner and all those nesting prep bowls… I can rationalize each and every one, given a enough meals to prep. On the basis of cost and functionality, however, few can compete with the humble dough scraper, for three simple reasons:

It is cheap – really cheap. You could get a sexy, stainless steel version at Williams-Sonoma for $8, my Oxo version for $8.99, or – and this is what I would do – go to your nearest restaurant supply store (e.g., Meyers in Santa Rosa), and pick up a commercial version for less than half those prices.
It takes up virtually no storage space. Small and essentially flat, standing upright or flat in a drawer, the thing will fit anywhere.
It makes cleaning up faster, easier, and neater. While a dough scraper is essential for removing the crusty bids of dough that seem to bond chemically to your work surface, its true unheralded genius is its capacity to move piles of chopped stuff to pot or pan (simply scoop up the item to be moved with the blade), clear my workspace of debris as it accumulates (I always keep a large steel “scrap bowl” around, into which goes plastic wrap, onion skin, excess flour, whatever, all lifted cleanly from my board with the scraper), and then clean off my cutting boards and counters when I’m done, all without seeding our kitchen floor like some Johnny Appleseed of Trash and annoying my wife. And, surely, that’s enough?

Make-Up Bread

January 2011

By biteclub

My eldest daughter is one of my very favorite people in the world. Really, that’s not just a parent talking: The child has an innate happiness, a fullness of heart, and a spontaneous grace that simply disarms everyone she meets. Like her good looks, I take very little credit for any of that, but I cannot abdicate her Mr Hyde self: Too little sleep, too much Girl Drama, or – the root of our latest falling out – what she deems to be my unreasonable academic expectations, and my little Botticelli turns cantankerous, obstinate, and generally behaves like an Olympian pain in the tuckus.

Of course, this inevitably leads to conflict, because I, too, have a skull wall of cinder block and the pliability of rock candy. Conflict, per my decree that her math grades had fallen below the bar, and so she and I took turns instigating all manner of slammed doors, canceled play dates, and a palpable cloud of pissed off-ness that settled over our little fur-family tree like fog invading the Golden Gates… Unfortunately, that Miss M and I will never squabble remains more delusion than hope, and so I set out to make up with her instead, and this is what I learned: There is no better splint for fractured family love than the baking together of fresh bread. The weighing of flour, the kneading of dough, the floury mess, even the inevitable fart-jokes about yeast… all that is good and right, but mostly – more so, even, than the warmth of the bread itself – it’s the hours spent together, on a task having nothing to do with anything else in the world, the simple, profound work of turning flour and water into food.

The happy side effect, because Miss M and I are not bakers, was that we did a bit of reading, and came across what Michael Ruhlman calls the Dutch Oven Method: A lean bread dough, shaped into a boule, which is then proofed and baked in a Dutch oven. There seems to be some debate around the history of this innovation: Left Coasters will swear it all began with Tartine, but the first reference I found comes from Jim Lahey and his Sullivan Street Bakery, courtesy of this article in the NY Times. It’s so simple and obvious (once you think about it), almost medieval in its technology, that I can’t believe it hasn’t been around for, literally, hundreds of years… Regardless, the important point is this: For the typical home cook, we’re talking about nothing less than Bread Revolution, because this disarmingly simple trick produced the finest crust of bread that I have ever baked, the sort of crust – crispy, crunchy, chewy, and, well, crusty all at once – that makes grown Frenchman cry. And, above all, it made my daughter smile, which is enough, right?

So the next time you need to make up with someone you love, or even if you don’t, please make this bread.

Dutch Oven Boule (Adapted from M Ruhlman’s “Ratio”)

Mix 4C bread flour with 2t yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer (I’ve even done the full cheater version, with rapid -rise yeast and AP flour, and it was still an exceptional loaf).
Pour 1.5C warm water over the dry ingredients and sprinkle a packet (2 1/4t) active dry yeast, or the cake-yeast equivalent over the top.
Knead with a dough hook for about 10 minutes (it could be 8; my KitchenAid, for whatever reasons, requires more like 12), until smooth and elastic: You should be able to stretch a small piece of dough to the point of translucency.
Remove the bowl from the stand, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled in size (probably 2 hours or so).
Punch the dough down, kneading by hand on a lightly floured surface, taking care to work all the gas bubbles out. Form a boule, or flattened ball, by pulling and pushing on the dough in a circular motion.
Place the boule inside a Dutch oven coated with olive oil, cover with a damp kitchen towel, and leave to proof until doubled in size again (ideally, this would be overnight in the fridge, but need not be; if you do it in the fridge, be sure to take it out at least 2 hours before baking, and check that it doesn’t over-rise). Preheat your oven to 450F.
Brush the loaf with olive oil, sprinkle liberally with course salt, and put the top on the Dutch oven. Bake for about 30 minutes with the top on.
Remove the top, and bake for another 15-20 minutes, until the top is a deep golden brown and looks like the bread of your dreams. Remove from the oven, carefully turn the loaf out of the Dutch oven (or it will keep cooking the underside), let it set (if you can), and enjoy.

Best Hot & Sour Soup | Sonoma County

January 2011

By biteclub

Fancy Food Show 2011

January 2011

By biteclub

The future of a $63 billion dollar industry is decided each winter in San Francisco.

That’s when literally thousands of food purveyors from around the world converge on San Francisco’s Fancy Food Show for three days of schmoozing, eating and crystal ball gazing. At stake: The gourmet “specialty” foods you’ll be craving and buying at your local supermarkets in the next twelve months.

It’s a whirlwind event for onlookers to witness trends, newcomers and great ideas bubbling up to the food forefront. Each year, we watch as enterprising entrepreneurs make their way from home kitchens and tiny storefronts into national stores like Whole Foods and Safeway and reach for Holy Grail recognition on Oprah’s Favorite Things List or the Food Network. Some will win. Many will lose. But the game is darn fun to watch.

It’s not surprising to know that the Bay Area is well represented, with hometown foodies percolating up through the ranks.

Here are some local favorites, national contenders and trends to watch in 2011…

Alterna-Wine: Wine is great. Except when it isn’t. For a growing contingency of serious foodies (along with designated drivers and business diners) alcohol isn’t always a perfect pairing for food — especially when facing down bottles with bloated alcohol content and palate-killing astringency. Straddling the line between soda pop and cocktails are a category of grown-up non-alcoholic sparklers with delicate herbal, fruit and floral bouquets. Low in sugar and with adult-friendly flavors like ginger, fennel, pomegranate and black currant they’re respectable and delicious.

Packaged in wine bottles, chef-created bubblies, Twelve To Midnight beverage comes in “original” and “rouge”, meant to mimic white and red wine pairings. Bright, clean flavors, muted spices, floral notes and soft bubbles make intoxicating…without actually being intoxicating. twelvebeverage.com. Related sodas include: GuS sodas in flavors like extra dry ginger ale or ruby grapefruit; Vignette Wine Country soda in pinot noir, chardonnay and rose. Need to clear you palate? A specialized “palate cleansing” water, SanTasti is a bit more than sparkling water, but far less than soda.

Yuba @Hodo Soy Beanery: The only American company to produce fresh yuba — the “skins” of tofu — Hodo Soy is an Oakland-based soybeanery with some serious star-power behind it. Cranking out freshly made organic, artisan tofu since 2004, the company recently named John Scharffenberger (of chocolate and sparkling wine fame) as CEO. Available at Whole Foods.

BR Cohn Ginger Balsamic Vinegar: Matured in oak barrels from the winery, BR Cohn vinegars are processed over months, rather than days. New to the lineup is Ginger White Balsamic, a piquant vinegar warmed by the fiery root. A natch for Chinese cooking, Asian-inspired salads or mixed with sugar, cranberry juice and sparkling soda for an old fashioned shrub — a kind of vinegar cordial. Related: Terra Sonoma Verjus: Made with the juice of unripe wine grapes, this gentler cousin to vinegar is great as a pan deglazer or salad topper.

Spicy pepper jam and Romesco sauce from the Jimtown Store: Continuing their dip domination, Carrie Brown and the Jimtown crew are taking their spicy pepper jam and Romesco sauce national. What’s Romesco? It’s a tasty topping of garlic, peppers, onions and almonds suited for pasta, veggies or bread.

Glop: A breath-singeing mix of Parmesan garlic, olive oil, herbs and spices, this Napa-inspired spread is addictive despite its less-than-delicious-sounding moniker. Spread on crackers, burgers or pasta, its a pesto-ish relative minus the basil and double the cheese and garlic. The minds behind it: Cookbook author and kitchen whiz Susie Heller and chef/food biz expert Michael Laukert who clearly know their way around a kitchen.

Yuzu Marmalade: Chefs love Japanese citrus fruit is often described as the lovechild of a grapefruit and Mandarin orange. Imported from Japan, yuzu marmalade, as well as yuzu-infused sauces are making their way to retail shelves.

Sir Kensington’s Gourmet Scooping Ketchup: One of my favorite items from last year’s show was Dulcet’s mild indian curry ketchup, and this newcomer is similarly intriguing. Clever pseudo-Edwardian packaging aside, the taste is sweet, spicy sultry and luxuriously tomato-ey: Exactly what you expect ketchup to be on it’s very best day. www.sirkensingtons.com

Guy Fieri’s BBQ Sauce: The Great Spiky One lends his considerable star power to a line of barbecue sauces and salsas from Italian food manufacturer Gia Russa. The sauces come in Kansas City, Bourbon Brown Sugar, Pacific Rim and Carolina #6. Usually celeb-shilled foods are a reason to run screaming in another direction, but these saucy little kickers are pretty smoking. We’re fairly sure the line of flushed middle-aged women lined up to get the Kulinary King’s autograph at the Fancy Food Show will agree. Money, baby!

Happy Goat Scotch caramel sauce: Another hot pick from last year’s FFS was under-the-radar Bay Area caramels made with goat milk. The lineup has expanded to caramels with winter spices and lime/coconut, but the talker was the caramel sauce made with 15-year-old Scotch.

Bubbie’s peppermint mochi: You either love mochi or you hate it. The chewy rice paste warpper filled with ice cream happens to fulfill my dual dessert requirements of being both minty and chewy.

TCHO Chocolate: Wired magazine founders Louis Rossetto and Jane Metcalfe put their tech and trend-savviness into sustainable dark chocolate-making. The SF-based luxe sweets and baking chocolates are focused around a flavor wheel with terms like “nutty”, “fruity” or “earthy”. New milk chocolates are in “beta” testing.

Caviar for Kids: Who says caviar is just for the silver spoon set? Importer California Caviar has a line of domestically farmed caviars and roes (fish eggs not from sturgeons) with everyday price tags under $10 and ounce. Want to introduce your little nibbler to the luxe life? The company has introduced Caviar Kid, a line of snackable caviar kits with whale-shaped chips or fish-shaped puff pastry, their own caviar spoon, an ounce of caviar and creme fraiche. At $48 to $62 a set, these aren’t a substitute for Lunchables, but can get your tiny gastronaut off to a solid start.

A Red Lentil Soup w/ Meyer Lemons

January 2011

By biteclub

So, back to school: As I mentioned last week, with the wanton optimism of the truly ignorant, I enrolled myself in a continuing ed course. Now, having survived Week 1 (technically, my first grade pending, survival remains a speculative condition), it is Week 2’s turn with the lash: Not only was homework due last week but, within 48 hours of its submission, I had more homework due this week! The good news is, there is no corner easier to traverse than a cut one, and my homework has converged with my dinner: My recent binge on Orangette turned up this wonderful recipe for red lentil soup with lemons, and my lemon trees are hemorrhaging little egg-yolk colored balls like some vainglorious tree at Christmas.

I wouldn’t recycle an entire recipe from a hugely popular site, except for this: It is early January, and my Eureka (or standard) lemons won’t be in-season for several months. But my Meyers, they are exuberant! (A comparison of the two varietals may be found here, and a more in-depth discussion of the multi-talented Meyer here.) The two are sharply distinct: Standard lemons have more acidity and an aggressive bite, as well as a bitterness that can overwhelm; Meyers can be guilty of too little tang, but generally have the superior and more complex flavor, along with a soaring aroma and gentle sweetness redolent of their long-ago, mandarin-orange bloodline. The Meyer is also very thin-skinned – to the point of being edible – which, amongst other things, makes for terrific lemon confit (I’ve got that pile of slices in the photo curing into confit just now). Oh, and the Meyer is vastly more frost-tolerant, which, having lost last season’s crop of Eurekas and my entire Bearss lime tree last spring, means something to me…

In any case, we grow and use both at our house – my wife has definitively demonstrated that the finest lemon meringue pie, made exclusively for my birthday, when their respective seasons intersect at the cusp of winter and spring, requires both – but, as I read through the original recipe, the more I thought that Meyers were just what this soup wanted: The predominant spice is cumin, and the base is flavor is of carrots, both of which should play nicely off the orange note in the Meyers; and, as I’ve already said, I have Meyers coming out my ears, so the idea of shelling out for out-of-season Eurekas just seems anathema (I’ve written about why lemons cost so much here).

I do think you’ve got to adjust the recipe around the elevated sweetness and lower acidity of the Meyers, so I’ve doubled the amount of juice, and added a dash of Tabasco, for a bit of piss and vinegar in an otherwise mild-mannered soup; I leave out the chopped cilantro, but that’s more in deference to my wife (cilantro seems always and everywhere to be a love/hate herb, don’t you think?). I’ve made a few other minor changes – like white pepper instead of black, mainly for aesthetics, and additional salt to prop up my “stock” of water – but the one that really matters is the garnish of Da Vero Meyer Lemon Olive Oil: DaVero makes one of the finest olive oils in the world, and their Meyer Lemon oil might be the only flavored olive oil that I don’t dislike (they grow the olives – that’s their tree, over on the right – and the lemons together on the property and press the fruit together, instead of infusing it, which is, I suspect, what saves it).

Red Lentil Soup with Meyer Lemons and Mild Spices (adapted from Orangette and M Clark)

4T EVOO, plus high quality olive oil Da Vero Meyer Lemon Olive Oil oil for drizzling
2 large yellow onions, chopped diced
4 garlic cloves, finely minced or pressed
2T tomato paste
2t ground cumin
1/2 1t kosher salt, or more to taste (less, if you’re using store-bought stock or broth with added salt)
A few grinds of freshly ground black white pepper
Pinch cayenne or Aleppo pepper Dash of Tabasco, or more to taste
2 quarts vegetable or chicken stock and 2C water homemade stock, or water
2C dry red lentils, picked through for stones and debris
2 large carrots, peeled and diced (for more on cutting carrots, see this)
Juice of 1 lemon 2 Meyer lemons, or to taste
Some chopped whole leaves of fresh cilantro

In a large pot, warm the oil over medium-high heat until hot and shimmering. Add the onions and garlic carrots and cook until soft and sweet, about 4 minutes, adding the garlic toward the end. Stir in the tomato paste, cumin, salt, pepper, and cayenne, and cook for 2 minutes longer. Add the broth, 2 cups water, the lentils, and Tabasco the carrots. Bring to a simmer, then partially cover the pot and reduce the heat to maintain a gentle simmer. Continue to cook until the lentils are soft, about 30-45 minutes, depending on taste. Taste, and add more salt if necessary. Using an immersion or regular blender (regular blenders work too, but remember Boyle’s Law!), puree about half of the soup. It should still be until somewhat chunky, not completely smooth. Reheat if necessary, then stir in the lemon juice and cilantro and, optionally, some chopped cilantro. Serve the soup drizzled with good the DaVero Meyer lemon olive oil and dusted very lightly with cayenne sweet paprika, if desired, and garnish with a whole cilantro leaf, or several.

Ceres, girl & the fig take top honors at Good Food Awards

January 2011

By biteclub

After months of wind-up, judging and publicity, the Good Food Awards — a newly-minted food awards hoopla celebrating American craft producers — has announced its selection of 71 best of show winners from nearly 800 entries in the beer, coffee, chocolate, charcuterie, cheese, pickle and preserves.

Taking top honors: Sebastopol’s Ceres Community Project’s Arame & Ginger Sauerkraut Salad. More than just a tasty side dish, fermented cabbage is said to have restorative and health benefits for the digestive system — something especially important for Ceres’ clientele. Using ingredients from organic local producers like Tierra Vegetables and First Light Farms, Ceres brings together teen cooks and local volunteers to prepare healthy, organic meals for individuals and families struggling with cancer.

“Ceres has been making traditionally cultured sauerkraut for our clients since 2008 because it is so helpful in supporting and replenishing healthy bacteria that is crucial for our digestive system. Marketing these products locally and now regionally gives us another way to reach people with our message about the vital link between what we eat and our long term health, and to get delicious, healthy and locally prepared foods into people’s hands,” said Outreach Director Kristie Amezcua. The sauerkraut is available at G & G Markets, Oliver’s, Community Markets and will be coming to Whole Foods Markets in the coming months.

Also getting a nod at the awards ceremony on January 14 in San Francisco were John Toulze & Sondra Bernstein’s (The Girl and the Fig/Estate) for their coppa, an Italian pork charcuterie. Toulze has been quietly building an impressive cured meat program at the restaurants for several years and the restaurant will be serving the winning coppa from January 31 to February 6. Other North Bay winners included North Coast Brewing Company’s Pranqster (Ft. Bragg); Marin Brewing Company’s ESChi (Larkspur); Cowgirl Creamery’s Red Hawk cheese (Petaluma); Nicasio Valley Cheese Company’s Nicasio Square cheese (Nicasio) and Middleton Farms’ raspberry preserves.

Judges included dozens of food journalists, authors, restaurateurs and experts in the food industry including local sausage guru Bruce Aidells, restaurant consultant Clark Wolf, cheese author Laura Werlin more than 70 others from the Bay Area and beyond.

For food insiders, the run down of nominees and winners reads like a “who’s who” of the uber-hip, slower-than-thou food culture along the Pacific corridor, with the Bay Area and Portland dominating entries and awards in every category. With all the back-patting falderal in the food world, it’s not hard to be cynical about ever-more precious foods (at ever more precious prices) being lauded in the food mainstream. But at the same time, many of these small American artisans belong to a tiny club of dedicated purists pursuing old school food traditions — pickling, preserving, cheese and salami-making — that seemed on the verge of being forgotten less than ten years ago.

And there’s something more than just Good about celebrating that.

The awards ceremony kicks off “Good Food Month“, during which participants and food organizers will feature classes, events and specials related to craft food producers. Get more details online at GoodFoodAwards.org.

Full list of Winners:

Beer

Bison Brewing – Organic Gingerbread Ale (Berkeley, CA)
Drake’s Brewing – Denoggenizer (San Leandro, CA)
Grand Teton Brewing Co. – Sweetgrass American APA (Victor, ID)
Marin Brewing Company – ESChi (Larkspur, CA)
North Coast Brewing Company – Pranqster (Ft. Bragg, CA)
Pike Brewing Company – Dry Wit (Seattle, WA)
Smuttynose Brewing Company – Robust Porter (Portsmouth, NH)
The Bruery – Trade Winds Tripel (Placentia, CA)
Victory Brewing – Hop Devil IPA (Downingtown, PA)

Charcuterie Winners

Alexian Pate – Duck Mousse With Cognac (Neptune, NJ)
Café Rouge – Smoked Beef Tongue (Berkeley, CA)
Col. Bill Newsoms Aged Hams – Free Range Aged Ham (Princeton, KY)
Creminelli Fine Meats – Barolo Handcrafted Italian Salami (Salt Lake City, UT)
Cypress – Cypressata (Charleston, SC)
La Quercia – Green Label Organic Prosciutto (Norwalk, IA)
Olympic Provisions – Loukanika (Portland, OR)
Olympic Provisions – Saucisson d’Arles (Portland, OR)
Olympic Provisions Restaurant – Pork Liver Mousse (Portland, OR)
Pine Street Market – Dry Cured Coppa (Atlanta, GA)
S Wallace Edwards & Sons – Surryano Ham (Surry, VA)
The Chameleon Café – Free Range Chicken Liver Pate (Baltimore, MD)
The Girl and the Fig – Coppa (Sonoma, CA)
Vande Rose Farms – Applewood Smoked Artisan Cured Ham (Oskaloosa, IA)
Weeping Radish Farm Brewery – Sweet Potato Liverwurst (Grandy, NC)

Cheese Winners

Ancient Heritage Dairy – Hannah Bridge (Scio, OR)
Cellars at Jasper Hill – Cabot Clothbound Cheddar (Greensboro, VT)
Cowgirl Creamery – Red Hawk (Petaluma, CA)
Nicasio Valley Cheese Company – Nicasio Square (Nicasio, CA)
Rivers Edge Chevre – Siltcoos (Logsden, OR)
Rivers Edge Chevre – Mayor of Nye Beach (Logsden, OR)
Uplands Cheese – Extra Aged Pleasant Ridge Reserve (Dodgeville, WI)
Uplands Cheese – Pleasant Ridge Reserve (Dodgeville, WI)

Chocolate Winners

Charles Chocolates – Salty Sweet Cashew Bar (San Francisco, CA)
Chuao Chocolatier – Ltd. Ed. Origins 77% Cacao de Chuao (Carlsbad, CA)
Madécasse – Milk Chocolate (Brooklyn, NY)
Patric Chocolate – In-NIB-itable Bar (Columbia, MO)
Rogue Chocolatier – Sambirano (Minneapolis, MN)
Theo Chocolate – Theo & Jane Goodall 70% Dark Chocolate Bar (Seattle, WA)
Xocolatl de David – Salted Caramel (Portland, OR)

Coffee Winners

Barrington Coffee Roasting Company – Ethiopia Nekisse (Lee, MA)
Blue Bottle Coffee – Kemgin (Oakland, CA)
Carrboro Coffee Company – El Aguacate (Carrboro, NC)
Counter Culture Coffee – Finca Kilimanjaro (Durham, NC)
George Howell Coffee Company – Konga Ethiopia (Acton, MA)
Gimme! Coffee – Finca San Luis (Ithaca, NY)
Madcap Coffee – Los Lobos Costa Rica (Grand Rapids, MI)
Montana Coffee Traders – Etiopian Peaberry (Whitefish, MT)
Noble Coffee Roasting – Kenyan Kiaora (Ashland, OR)
Public Domain – Kona Cloud Forest (Portland, OR)

Pickles Winners

Ann’s Raspberry Farm – Savory Brussels Sprout Relish (Fredericktown, OH)
Artisanal Soy – Edamame Kimchee(Washington DC)
Ceres Community Project – Arame & Ginger Sauerkraut Salad (Sebastopol, CA)
Cultured – Spicy Oregano Purple Carrots (Berkeley, CA)
Farmer’s Daughter – Spicy Green Tomato (Carrboro, NC)
Firefly Kitchens – Yin Yang Carrots (Seattle, WA)
McClure’s Pickles – McClure’s Brine (Detroit, MI)
Olympic Provisions – Pickled Corno di Toro Peppers (Portland, OR)
Real Pickles – Organic Garlic Dill Pickles (Greenfield, MA)
Sour Puss Pickles – Peppered Okra (Brooklyn, NY)
Spirit Creek Farm – Purple Sauerkraut (Bayfield, WI)
Tender Greens – Spiced Baby Carrots (San Diego, CA)

Preserves Winners

Ann’s Raspberry Farm – Jalapeno Raspberry Jam (Fredericktown, OH)
Confituras – Texas Fig Preserves (Austin, TX)
Deluxe Foods – Gingered Rhubarb Jam (Seattle, WA)
Ellelle Kitchen – Central Coast Raspberry (Pasadena, CA)
Farmer’s Daughter Brand – Bourbon’d Figs (Carrboro, NC)
Happy Girl Kitchen – Apricot Chili Jam (Monterey, CA)
Middleton Farm – Raspberry (Healdsburg, CA)
Plumline – Dansom Plum (Santa Cruz, CA)
Queener Fruit Farm – Blackcurrant Jam (Scio, OR)
Sweet Deliverance NYC – Ground Cherry Jam (New York, NY)

Eat Pig, Drink Pinot, Save Our Schools

January 2011

By biteclub

I have mixed feelings about school fund-raisers: On the one hand, like most parents, I have kids in public schools that fall chronically short of financial resources; on the other, I believe that I already pay more than enough in taxes to expect a properly funded system of public education, that the root of the problem is not the quantity of money available, but rather the means by which it is allocated. In any case, that I am expected to contribute mas coin by way of cheesy gift wrap, inedible chocolate, and the inevitable annual auction remains a truism of my association with public and private education alike, and why, on the morning after our Pigs ‘n Pinot fund-raising dinner, I am hungover, fat, and happy all the same.

I didn’t need to study economics to figure out that I’m far more likely to enjoy what I purchase willingly at auction – presumably, something I actually wanted – than something, like those interminable chocolate bars, that I receive in exchange for what is really just a donation. So, when the dedicated parents of Westside USD put on their annual auction in support of our school’s arts programs (the 2011 event will be at the new Coppola wine center and open to the public – dude, check it out!), I like to step up to the plate, drop some money on the cause, and walk off with some sweet swag. Typically, that means wine (when your kids go to school in the heart of the Russian River Valley AVA, it’s hard not to), but – for us – it also means buy-in dinners, dinners attended by parents we know and love, hosted by the outstanding chefs and winemakers whose kids also attend our school, and at which we not only get to eat and drink like Romans, but get to feel good about doing so.

Porter Creek Winery — The Davis family (photo: Porter Creek)

These buy-ins are always great events but this year, in a Kung Fu Panda-like display of epic awesomeness, Robert Conard of C. Donatiello Winery and Alex Davis of Porter Creek Winery hosted a Titanic feast of wild boar and more fine Pinot Noirs than I’m physically able to recall. (I mean that literally: I have notes on “only” 8 Pinots and 4 Chards, but I’m as certain as anyone who’s tried the better part of two cases’ worth of different bottles can be that I tasted at least another half-dozen wines.) If you’re any sort of food and wine buff, then you don’t need me to point out the effortless affinity that Pinot Noir shows for tasty bits of pig. But for me to say that Pinot “pairs” with wild boar would be like Reese’s saying that chocolate “pairs” with peanut butter, or that you “pair” with the person you will marry: True, but wholly inadequate. No, Pinot Noir doesn’t match wild board so much as it enrobes it, as much a textural sensation – like the great wines of Pommard, an iron fist in a velvet glove – as one of flavor, the sauvage of the grape echoing the unmistakably wild, guttural impression of the animal itself. So whether you join us for next year’s dinner or not, please do this: Get some wild boar sausage, crack one of Alex’s Pinots, and tell me what you think.

The wines deserve their own discussion, and once the Advil and coffee clear my head, I’ll try to offer some reflections in a future post; but I can’t leave this thread without a special nod to Alex, who, as if by some perfectly proximal flash of foodie Karma, wove the wine, the pig, and our daughters’ school into the single fabric of our meal. That probably sounds a bit kitschy, but bear with me: You see, our children all go to school together on Westside Road; Westside Road abuts the vineyard, farmed by Alex, that grew the grapes that he fermented into his elegant and richly textured Fiona Hill bottling; and it was on his property, on Westside Road, that Alex killed the wild pig that died for my dinner, and for our school. It is not inconceivable that the very boar I ate for dinner first fertilized the soil that grew our wine and even, in some small way, leached its way into the groundwater that supplies the fountain from which my daughter drinks after tether ball at recess.

Back to School for Grown-ups

January 2011

By biteclub

So. I’ve done it. I’ve voluntarily chosen to subject myself to the pressure of getting a good grade in school – again. It’s not that I’ve never thought about going back to school; to the contrary, I know lots of people – many of whom I envy for it – who have gone back to school, some several times, for advanced degrees in fields wildly disparate from their previous careers (although who’s to say which, if any, careers remain unconnected anymore): I ride bikes with a guy who got his PhD in history and practices criminal law, chilled out after Levi’s Gran Fondo with a cyclist who practices medicine and has several PhDs (clearly, cyclists have too much time on their hands…), and married an expert in Former Soviet & Russian studies, with an MBA from Yale, who now practices full-time motherhood and runs her own dance school here in town…

But I never took that plunge, not since I extracted myself, sheepishly AbD, from the doctoral program in which I enrolled straight out of college (if taking 5 years to graduate can properly be considered “straight”). At least, not until last week, when I cleared the wait-list for this continuing-ed course in Web writing. The downside, quite obviously, is that I have to do the work (in a fit of masochism – or, perhaps, in recognition of my vacuous self-discipline – I’m taking it for credit, with a letter grade to boot); the upside, on the other hand, is that you may end up reading a better piece of writing and, in the meantime, that I get lots of freebie material, because I get to write to you about learning how to write to you.

Herewith, my first bit of homework: Find a couple of significant blogs in my chosen space, and review them. I’m not suggesting that you’ll necessarily enjoy reading my homework per se, but you may well enjoy these talented food bloggers’ work…

Two Must-Read Food Blogs

Precisely because I’m trying to write this very food and wine blog, I take both a personal and professional interest in other food blogs, particularly the successful ones and most particularly the successful ones that I think don’t suck, not least because I’ve still got a PageRank of identically zero, and they don’t. Two sites that hurdle this bar without breaking a sweat are Orangette and mattbites: Yes, they’re really big, successful sites (solidly amongst the Global Top 50, Google PageRanks of 6 per), but they’re also, and not coincidentally, well-written, beautifully photographed (this, in particular, differentiates them), and thoroughly engaging blogs; ergo, they don’t suck, and they’re worth reading.

Orangette

Prior to engaging in this review, Orangette was not, truth be told, the sort of thing I normally read, although not for the obvious reasons: She’s as as serious as the business end of a knife about her food, her prose is exceptionally clean and well composed, and her photography – entirely self-taught, as far as I know – is good enough to make you begrudge her lucky draw in the talent lottery. While that all matters, it is, I believe, somewhat peripheral to her phenomenal success, because surely food porn alone is insufficient to inspire millions of people to bother reading what someone has to say about their own, largely normal, life. No, I can only imagine that people read her because they feel like they know her, and the more they know her, the more they like her, and how could they not? This is a person who writes in such a disarmingly personal way, with such candor and warmth, that you feel like she’s writing just for you. I even get this sense from her bio pic:

Seriously, who picks that particular picture – half-smiling, possibly but by no means definitively showered, looking you straight in the eye with a nearly perceptible twinkle – unless that really is who they are, and unless they truly want you to know it? Check out her About page: This is a person who managed to find marriage through her online musings (she explains this inconceivable breach of Web security in some detail, although I still can’t shake my initial impression of a vague creepiness…). My guess is, cooking and pictures aside, Molly could produce a reasonably successful site if all she did was write randomly about her life because, as a reader, she makes you feel a part of it, and all of us – online or not – want to share another person’s life. That she is a talented writer, photographer, and, by all accounts, cooks her butt off… Well, I guess that’s why Orangette is what it is.

mattbites

I’ve been reading Matt’s blog for a little while now. In addition to publishing a highly successful blog,
Matt is somewhat unique in that his name is “Matt” and that he is a “he” in what has thus far evolved into an industry primarily defined by women. (I’m still puzzling over why this should be: Celebrity chefdom, outside of the Web, remains disproportionately populated by men; so, too, the making of – and for that matter, blogging about – wine; but the heavy hitters in the corner of the blogosphere reserved specifically for food are, by and large, women. I’m tempted to speculate that we’ve always had this vast, untapped pool of female talent in food and wine – perhaps all the larger for its under-representation in professional kitchens – and that the Internet has unlocked the floodgates; or perhaps it’s just a natural selection bias, inherited from the empirical composition of the food-blog readership; or perhaps – like Molly of Orangette – women are just inherently better at opening their digital kimonos, more effective at making personal connections over fiber optic cables and WiFi, than men… But, I digress.)

Matt is a professional photographer and graphic designer, and his site struts past you in a visual panoply of foods you want to eat, beaches you want to visit, and frosty bottles of beer bottles that I, for one, want to drink on one of those beaches. While I have no doubt that lots of folks go to mattbites just for the photos – they really are that good – the photos in and of themselves seem inadequate to explain a site visited by millions. Surely, part of the common theme is the ability to connect with the audience, and clearly, Matt is a personable and charismatic digital persona, but not really in the same way that Molly is. If to follow Orangette is to sit at Molly’s family’s table, then to follow Matt is to laugh together over beers; where Molly’s language is evocative, Matt’s is conversational; if Molly is a writer who happens to write about food, then Matt is a food photographer who happens to write.

I don’t know if that’s fair, but that’s my take, and the more I think about it, the more I wonder, just where, precisely, this guy’s mojo is at. I suspect a big part of it is humor: He may take food, travel and photography very seriously, but I think an important part of the attraction has to be his fun, easygoing, and often very funny disposition. For some – this is what I alluded to when I said earlier that it’s not the sort of thing I normally read – Orangette may be too personal, too emotional; but for those who still want to connect with the blogger’s life but are slightly discomfited by Orangette’s speed-dial to Molly’s soul, I’m guessing that mattbites, all flashy photos and clever one liners by a guy you’d like to be friends with, makes the top of their shortcut list.

*All photo credits: Orangette and mattbites, respectively.