(Prologue: Two cross-country flights with three young children and unavoidable transfers in both directions, separated by less than 72 hours in-country, on my non-native Right Coast, for a theocratic church wedding packed with in-laws and people I don’t know well enough to drink with (or, at least to drink enough)… A compelling argument for reading material but, naturally enough, I make it through security at SFO without so much as a day-old copy of the Times, and why I purchase – at prices inflated by profit margins that only airport monopolies and cable companies can dream of – two books, one of which is Jason Sheehan’s Dirty Cooking, and which turns out to be an excellent little book about one man’s particularly hot, dangerous, sweaty and chemically-enhanced life on the hot line. )
I exaggerate, slightly: Not with the horrors of the 15 or so hours my family would spend in the care and company of commercial air carriers, not with the other factual particulars, but with the implication that I forgot to pack something to read. I spent many years traveling for work in a previous life, mostly long-haul, and, while I have forgotten virtually every essential item that one can forget at one point or another (to wit: a passport in London, socks in Moscow, and foreign currency everywhere from Cape Town to Mumbai), I have learned – the hard way – never, not ever, to travel without a book. No, in fact I left our house without a book on Thursday morning precisely because I knew we’d be at the airport with loads of time and access to a passable bookstore, and I really, really like picking out new stuff to read with my hands: The tactile sensation of the pages, their weight in one’s hand, even the font chosen for printing – all these things matter. While I, like most of you, buy most of my books online for convenience and price, I will mourn the inevitable death of the physical bookstore, and I regret that my children will, in all likelihood, never even know what I’m talking about.
In the event, I took my seat in the company of a copy of All The Pretty Horses, by Cormac McCarthy (arguably America’s greatest writer of fiction and whose work I carefully ration in order to extend for as long as possible the literary cherry-popping that only a McCarthy first page can deliver), and the subject of this missive (Sheehan, who writes for the Seattle Weekly and contributes to NPR amongst others, is a food writer I had not previously heard of – I bought the book largely on a whim). Sheehan’s book is a revelation if only because, like food itself, so much of what is produced is irredeemable swill, the literary equivalent of an Applebee’s salad bar, that one often forgets how much fun the real thing, done properly, can be.
Sheehan writes well. Not just “well-enough”, mind you, but rather the sort of writing that makes you wonder how he ever got that good, that seems somehow unfair. He also happens to have a vast wealth of personal stories about working in kitchens that, for the most part, strike just the right balance between making the reader cringe and laugh out loud. And, he knows an awful lot about professional cookery at all levels, in and of itself a worthy diversion, because it’s not every day that you get to hear a cook talk intelligently about the short-order counter at Waffle House and Escoffier’s preparation for oxtail consomme with equal measures of respect, enthusiasm, and first-hand knowledge of both. And the book is dirty: Filthy, in-the-gutter, foul-mouthed, grossly-inappropriate, richly-laden-with-highly-questionable-lifestyle-choices dirty. And still you can’t help but like him, in spite of all his Himalayan faults. Did I mention that he’s funny? I’ll say it again: You’ll cringe, but you’ll be laughing. Out loud. He’s the perfect antidote to a foodie culture that considers the candy-ass veneer and slapstick cookery of Guy Fieri or Rachel Ray in any way relevant to the actual preparation of real food.
The other thing, maybe the thing, that makes the book so successful is that, despite taking place almost entirely in kitchens, it is really about everything but cooking. It is kitchen-as-parable: His career in the kitchen, while fundamental to the story line, includes a descent toward near-dearth and and eventual righting of his life, and serves as a means of explaining what I took to be much larger truths about the choices we all make in our lives, loves, and work. The point is made most succinctly and directly when, near the very end, he tells us that the most important thing for any would-be restaurant critic to understand is that the food is always the least interesting part of the review. The only downside is that it gets a bit tired toward the end, amidst a few too many pages, too heavily laden with personal-growth moments, but that section is mercifully short, and even then, the happy ending is largely worth the price of admission.
Highly recommended.
(Postscript: For the record, any insinuation that either my in-laws, or the family they’re marrying into, were anything other than lovely would be grossly unfair: They turned out to be, to a name, lovely people who had the foresight to cater cute little mac-n-cheese ramekins and fried chicken in zinc buckets for the kids, alongside plenty of booze for the grownups. I can’t speak to the wedding cake, except to say that it looked very classy, without so much as a single square meter of overworked fondant in sight, and it got raves from the munchkins. Even the church service was manageable, and I say that as a non-practicing and Jew: I don’t think we had to spend more than a few hours on our knees or otherwise flagellating ourselves. I’m kidding.)
The Costco Report
The Costco Report: Episodic observations on where to port safely, and what to avoid like a pestilence, when navigating the oceans of consumer non-durables down in The Belly of The Beast… (with a pissing-down-rain, Halloween-Friday hat-tip to Glenn Danzig…)
I sometimes (often, in fact) feel the need to justify shopping at Costco. I’m not sure why, exactly, but one could speculate: Controversial labor practices, the impact of category killers on local businesses and, like any sane Northern Californian, an ingrained fear of the tyrannical politically correct; the inherent tension between shopping at mega-marts and writing a local-food blog; a misplaced snobbishness and the “I’m not the sort of person that…” complex. Ultimately, I suspect, it’s the sheer aesthetic offense of the experience itself that gives me pause, but the good news/bad news, being an economist rather than a therapist, is that I get to worry more about whether the practice makes sense, and less about how it makes me feel. As I assiduously pontificate in my “Defense of Costco” post, sailing forth unto the treacherous waters of the Big C can still make economic sense, for some things, some of the time, even for the proximal cook – buying local wines and cheeses, for example – and so I decided to write an occasional column devoted to ferreting out the more promising offerings, as well as to warding off the worst of the hazards.
To wit, this week’s Costco Report, for 10/28/10:
- The Good. My best and most unexpected find was Organic Blue Agave nectar, 100% pure, two 23.5-oz bottles at $7-something for the pair. I’m not really up on the dietary implications of a low glycemic index , but I gather that Agave is a really good alternatvei to more common sugar-, corn- and honey-based derivatives, if low-glycemic-index is your thing. What I do know, and which I put to good use within minutes of unpacking said nectar, is that nothing makes a better Margarita.
- The Bad. The entire “artisan cheese” section had been dismantled and the vast majority of their best cheeses was out of stock. Normally, I think the cheese case is one of the better arguments for suffering Costco, partly because of very good prices on high-quality versions of Parmigiano Reggiano (which was in stock) and Comte, but mainly because of the stuff from producers like Point Reyes (creamy bleu), Fiscalini (aged cheddar and smoked mozzarella), and Redwood Hill (goat cheddar) – not one of which was in stock. I was so bummed out about the lack of cheese that I spoke to customer service and, to be fair, they were knowledgeable and quick to reply, and assured me that “we wouldn’t stop carrying good cheeses in wine country”. We’ll see, and I’ll report back next time.
- The Ugly. Three words: Flauta, Chimichanga, Taquito. Deep-fried, frozen, and amassed in the sort of sacks that would make Jack’s giant proud, re-heated to a thoroughly disgusting, barely-thawed-in-the-middle, and encased in a cool, greasy sheen – free to sample, as many as you dare. Three more words: Just Say No. Seriously. In a moment of slack judgment and hunger-inspired weakness, I tried one – I have no idea which, and I’m certain it doesn’t matter – and literally spat it at the nearby trash can. I like junk food, but take my word for it, you don’t want to eat these, much less feed them to your children.
Loka-Toka-Vores: Pot Eats & Prop 19
It’s no secret that more than a few chefs have been known to embrace the 420 lifestyle. The combination of late nights, a walk-in full of leftovers, creative personalities and the need for a wind-down after nine hours of aorta-bursting adrenaline makes after-work tokage pretty standard fare. Not for everyone, of course. But suffice to say it’s not just the salmon that’s smoked.
So it should come as no surprise that a lot of food folk are pretty interested in the fate of Prop 19, and specifically, what a greener California would mean for eaters. There’s little doubt that post-spliff munchies could be a serious boon not only for the snack-chip and fast-food industry, but for toques as well.
With the passing of medical marijuana laws, cannabis bakeries are cropping up with increasing regularity. Some with serious cooks creating everything from buzzed-up vanilla truffles, red velvet cake and strawberry cream cheese brownies to Crunch berry marshmallow treats. A new line of THC-juiced sodas recently made their debut and fat-laden food is a natural delivery system for many of the new high inducing sprays and powders.
Long story short: There’s clearly an interest in the business and culinary opportunities that come with relaxing laws against marijuana usage, whether you agree with Prop 19 or not.
Which lead to some interesting questions that I’ve been asked lately about how Prop 19’s passing could affect restaurants…
1. If passed, would cafes and restaurants allow patrons to light up?
2. Could restaurants use marijuana as a cooking ingredient?
Answer: Finding a plate of pot brownies for dessert at your favorite restaurant or lighting up on the patio isn’t very likely in the near future.
If you read through the actual proposition( http://yeson19.com/node/6), it states that marijuana use be prohibited from use in public or smoking while minors are present. In addition to that, there are rock-solid state laws that prohibit smoking in restaurants, bars and taverns. Local ordinances that prohibit smoking in public areas outdoors, so its unlikely that Santa Rosa or Sebastopol will suddenly approve of toking up on the sidewalks. Santa Rosa City Attorney Caroline Fowler backed that up saying, “Smoking “ is defined in Section 9-20.30 of our ordinance to include “lighted pipe, cigar or cigarette of any kind”—so yes it would be covered.” So that pretty much answer that question.
As for cooking with pot? Although the Proposition is written in a manner that at some level equates its regulation to that of alcohol, there are a number of checks and balances in control that would require additional legislation to make it consumable in public. Not to mention liability issues restaurants would face. So don’t hold your breath on that one either.
What’s a local smoker to do? Bake at home (disclaimer: assuming of course that you have a medical card for usage and would ONLY use these for yourself and NO ONE ELSE, even accidentally).
A new booked called “Baked: 35 Marijuana Munchies to Make and Bake” (Chris Stone and Gordon Lewis, Tenspeed Press, $12.99) gives detailed instruction on cooking with wacky tobaccy.
Just in case you were curious (and didn’t come of age in the 60s and 70s), the authors discuss at length how ingesting marijuana affects the body, how to make “boosted butter” for cooking, along with olive oil and powders. According to the authors, fat is an ideal conductor for the feel-good chemicals in marijuana and hash. And so as not to make yourself feel waaaay too good, they offer up a handy dosage guide and pot-leaf stars to guide your highs (mild to woweeee!)
Recipes include Boom Boom Biscuits, Alice B. Toklas’s Cookies, Cocoa Puff Cupcakes, Sticky Ickies, Baked! Potatoes and Mighty Marijuana Meatloaf. As to whether or not these sugary, buttery, munchie-time foods actually taste good? Well, that’s not really the point, is it.
What’s your take on weed-laced eats? Sound off..
*Oh, and by the way…I totally stole the Loca-toka-vore thing from “Tortoise Versus Hare” over on Watch Sonoma County. You knew I would. Thanks dude, you’re famous!
In N Out | Santa Rosa
For two hours, Scott Wallach, 20, of Santa Rosa and his friend Will Brown, 21, of Santa Rosa, patiently waited to be In-N0Out store 249’s first customers.
They would have waited longer, they said, having arrived the night before with blankets and chairs — willing to spend the night outside the doors. Unfortunately, restaurant management, who were hosting friends and family at the store last night wouldn’t let them stay on the property overnight.
Undaunted, the two friends came back at 7am to wait in stadium chairs. The effort paid off at 9am when the students were ceremoniously ushered in as the store’s first official customers. “I love this place more than the world,” said Nick.
Their order? What else. A Double Double. This classic combination of two hamburger patties, cheese, toasted buns and freshly made fries is what’s helped but In-N-Out on the map.
Like mu
ch of Santa Rosa — at least the burger-eaters among us — Wallach and Brown have been eagerly anticipating the Santa Rosa opening for months. The nearly 250-restaurant chain has locations in Rohnert Park and Petaluma, and a cult following throughout California. Best known for its dead-simple offerings (along with its lesser-known secret menu) and fresh-made fries, the restaurant was ranked among the nation’s best hamburgers by Consumer Reports.
Located just off Steele Lane near Hwy 101, there have been concerns about the notoriously busy restaurant causing traffic disruptions at the busy intersection. Opposition also lamented the potential for greenhouse gas emissions from idling drive-up cars and obesity concerns for children.
That didn’t seem to phase Nick Schulz of Santa Rosa, who was first in the drive-through line this morning. Nick said he was a regular at the Rohnert Park location and came early to get the prime first spot (he got a t-shirt for his efforts).
“I’ve been going for years, and I can tell you this is the best hamburger under $5 in the world.”
Staffers say more than 3,000 people applied for jobs at the Santa Rosa burgery, 1500 were interviewed and just 42 made the final cut.
The restaurant will be open Sunday – Thursday 10:30 a.m. – 1:00 a.m’ Friday 10:30 a.m. – 1:30 a.m. and Saturday 10:30 a.m. – 1:30 a.m.
In N Out, 2131 County Center Drive, Santa Rosa
BTW: Six lucky BiteClubbers got a VIP pass to the restaurant at 9am this morning after guessing the opening date correctly. Congrats to Rob, Cheryl, Noemi, Joni, and BC pals Shana Ray and Christopher Hanson. Woop!
Mac-n-Cheese, Cheese, & More Cheese (v2.5)
I think all cooks, from the diligent amateur to the dedicated professional, have at least a little bit of OCD in their bones. The commercial cook exemplifies this: Why else would someone repeatedly construct the same thing, in precisely the same manner, under extreme and unrelenting pressure, with the specific aim, not only of doing it well, but of doing it the same way, every time that knife meets board or a pan clangs down on a flat-top? Not that that’s a bad thing. To the contrary, that trendy new place you’ve been gagging to try, the innumerable souls saved by much-needed hangover brunches, and every great sushi bar all depend on it. Can you imagine playing Russian roulette with the crust at your favorite pizza joint, the done-ness of your steak, or the hardness of your egg? Take away the obsessive cooks, and we’d all be eating Swanson’s Hungry Man or instant ramen with a spork.
All of which is by way of an introduction to our latest installments of Why I’m Trying To Make Perfect Mac-n-Cheese (earlier attempts: here and here). My wife will testify to the mountains of grated cheese, the errors like some pagan fortune engraved in burnt milk at the bottom of sauce pots, the sweet, nutty smell of flour frying in butter that fill the house, and – finally – to today’s lesson, in which I learn that, unlike Crisco or tickling, if some is good, then more is better.
I can’t claim that my perfect mac-n-cheese will also be yours – we may, and likely do, have different ideas about the Platonic ideal of this American classic, as heterogeneous as it is both ubiquitous and variously successful – or even that I’ll leave well enough alone; as it happens, I’m still not entirely convinced of the winner of the Great Bechamel Debate, and I’ll be back here next week, working on some flour-free derivatives, specifically for that reason. I can, however, state definitively that this bad boy – all gooey, creamy, sharp, melted, cheesy goodness, with layers of richly textured pasta, glowing with a naturally-infused orange that Kraft’s chemical engineers would envy, and infused with a distinctly adult intensity and depth of flavor – is fairly serious stuff. If your ideal steak is warm in the center, or you’re certain that chocolate pudding should only be made with milk chocolate, then I probably can’t help you, but that shouldn’t stop you from trying to perfect it anyway; there may be objective standards of taste, but you still have little choice but to cook to your own palate – you just need to accept that, like my image of the ideal my mac-n-cheese, the elusive version casting shadows on the cave wall remains intensely personal.
This particular one is a bit of a pain in the ass, particularly for so pedestrian a dish, and one for which a more modest effort will still produce acceptable results (you could skip the onion brulee, the milk-poaching, and the AR noodle arrangement, for instance). But this isn’t about acceptable, it’s about perfecting something, and that means there are more corners not to cut, some longer blocks to traverse.
Mac-n-Cheese, Cheese, and More Cheese (v2.5)
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Typical Onion Brulee
Bring a gallon of salted whole milk to a gentle simmer (don’t scorch it – if you do, throw it out and start over, it will be irredeemable and will ruin the entire dish) in a pasta pot and prep a half a sweet (Vidalia, Maui, Walla Walla) onion and make an onion brulee: Stud the onion with a few cloves, put a single bay leaf in a knife-slit in the top, and grill it in a plan until the onion begins to soften and the underside turns a deep caramel color. Preheat a 350F oven. (The milk-poaching comes courtesy of a recipe from Alain Ducasse, but I can’t find the link.) - Grate 1+1/3 pound of aged Mimolette or Cheddar, plus 1/3 pound each of cave-aged Gruyere, Appenzeller, and yellow American cheeses (other “fondue” style cheeses would work just as well; and you can grate the American off a block, or just tear up slices). Once the onion is done, add it to 6 cups of whole milk and warm it up (it doesn’t need to boil but it does need to be hot, or the sauce will get lumpy). While the milk and onion are warming, cook 1/2 cup of flour into 3/4 cup of butter for a light blonde roux in a sauce pot.
- Add two pounds (it might be 1kg, depending on the brand) of high quality boxed penne (preferably not regate), three whole, peeled cloves of garlic, and some white pepper corns to the pasta pot and poach the pasta until just shy of al dente, stirring to prevent sticking. If it’s a good Italian brand, you’ll want to take it off about 1 minute before the lower end of their suggested cooking range (it should be just barely too undercooked to eat, as this will allow it to finish cooking in the sauce). Stir the pasta from time to time to prevent the noodles from sticking to each other (the milk makes this a little trickier than normal).
- While the pasta is cooking, make the cheese sauce; Whisk the hot, onion-infused milk into the roux, in order to make a thick bechamel. If it lumps a little, don’t stress, we’ll strain it out later. Bring up to a gentle boil, back off the heat, and season with salt, white pepper, and nutmeg (something like a and 1/8 teaspoon each nutmeg and pepper, bu you’ll need to adjust to taste – it should be neither salty nor peppery nor bland, with just the slightest background note of baking spice from the nutmeg). Whisk in 1 teaspoon each of mustard powder and sweet (not hot) paprika (the paprika should have a rich, dark red color; if it looks dark brown and dirty, it’s either too old or of poor quality). Grind a small pinch of saffron threads between your fingers and stir in. In addition to flavor, the mustard-paprika-saffron seasoning is the secret to a great color. Finally, once the base for the sauce has been finished, stir in 1lb of the Mimollette or Cheddar and all of the Gruyere, Appenzeller, and American cheeses, working in large handfuls. When the sauce is uniformly blended and smooth, check the seasoning, and turn off the heat. If it has any lumps, or hard ends of cheese, or anything else that is not uniformly smooth, run it through a chinois or fine-mesh strainer.
- Either during or after making the sauce, drain the pasta when finished, making sure to remove the garlic cloves and peppercorns. Shake the noodles gently so that they don’t clump together.
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Layering the pasta and sauce
In order to assemble the casserole, lightly butter a 9×13 baking dish, and alternate single layers of pasta and sauce, and beginning and ending with a layer of sauce. When laying down the pasta, line up the little pencils end to end in neat, parallel rows, alternating direction by 90 degrees – check out the picture. (Yes, it’s a pain, but it looks really cool and, more importantly, allows the final product to set up and to be cut in neat shapes for service.) After the last row of pasta, add an extra thick layer of sauce, and then top it with the final 1/3lb of the grated Mimolette. (Note, based on your exact baking dish, pasta quantity, evaporation while cooking, and personal touch, you may or may not use all of the pasta, sauce or both – it’s not a big deal, just make sure that each layer of pasta is covered and that you begin and end with sauce, the rest will take care of itself.) - Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes, until bubbling up the sides. Remove, let rest for 10 minutes, return to the oven and broil the top until golden brown and bubbly – this will ensure that you can serve neat, “set” pieces, that they food is piping hot, and a cheesy crust on top, all important features, as long as we’re going for “perfect”.
Worst Halloween Candy
Okay, so we all know that Reeses and Milky Ways and Snickers rock. There’s no question that the Hershey’s Miniatures have a place in our hearts. But what about the stuff that you HATE. The nasty, questionable, inedible, turn-up-your-nose-even-if-it’s-free candy?
Every Halloween some lug nut has to give out pennies. Some well-meaning granny gives you linty gummy bears, the neighborhood do-gooder gives out tooth brushes and the dude who spends most of his time smoking on the front porch digs up last year’s Easter goodies and hands ’em out between puffs. Ick.
What are you LEAST favorite Halloween treats? Vote now and let ’em know we’re not gonna take those Airheads anymore!
[polldaddy poll=”3995179″]
A Plate of Strange Bedfellows
Pickles, cheese, and chocolate: Three ingredients, three possible pair-wise combinations, two really good and interesting tastes, and one impossibly disgusting mouthful of gag reflex. If I like cheese with pickles, and (somewhat surprisingly) I like chocolate with cheese, then why don’t I like chocolate with pickles? I mean, other than the painfully obvious – in point of fact, it tastes even worse than it sounds – why the apparent lack of transitivity?
As an amateur cook and a professional economist, I find the logical inconsistency of the human palate fascinating. If you ever signed up for an econ course – or, like my family, found yourself living with an economist – then one of the very first things you learned was how economists think about consumer choice, what it means to assume that people behave rationally, and the behavioral implications of that basic assumption. If you study economics for long enough, you’ll find that a few, simple, first-semester models form the bedrock for pretty much everything that follows, from the ubiquitous demand curve to sophisticated models of the macroeconomy. Grouped under the catch-all heading of “choice theory“, these models are simple, elegant, and powerful. However, just like the Brooklyn Bridge, Newtonian physics, and portfolios of residential mortgage backed securities, they tend to fracture if you tinker too much with the underlying assumptions.
Newton needed his Three Laws of Motion: Bodies at rest tend to stay at rest; for every application of force, there is an equal and opposite reaction; and of course, the simple little formula that put man on the moon, Force Equals Mass Times Acceleration. That bridges generally remain standing and astronauts usually return to earth constitutes a powerful argument in favor of Sir Isaac; less so, the big banks: To nearly everyone’s (although, importantly, not absolutely everyone’s) surprise, home prices actually could go down as well as up, the Upper West Side and Upper East Side of Manhattan, despite the fact that New Yorkers think you need a visa to travel between them, were not, in fact, two uncorrelated real estate markets separated by a big lawn, and – this being one of the Big Lessons of the past two years – if you violate these two basic assumptions, then a multi-trillion-dollar edifice will collapse on your collective heads like the crescendo of a James Cameron movie.
Economists, for their part, require “reflexivity” (if items A and good B are identical, I will be indifferent between them), “monotonicity” (if I like A, then I prefer more A to less), “completeness” (faced with a choice of what to consume, I am capable of making a decision), and – the centerpiece of today’s conundrum – “transitivity” (if I like A more than B, and B more than C, then I also like A more than C). Transitivity, at least, seems not to apply to the sensation of taste. But why? I recently read a review of The Flavor Thesaurus by Niki Segnit, who breaks down as many foods as possible into 99 distinct components (grassy; fruity; earthy; zesty…), and then considers, on a molecular level, why some of the 4,851 possible combinations thereof taste good, while some – like chocolate and pickles – make you wish, and I now know this from bitter, personal experience, that you were sucking on a day-old sock, or worse. I believe her idea is to provide a molecular basis for food pairings and, in the process, explain the classics and encourage new and interesting things to try together, with a more scientific roadmap than my usual home-cook’s idea closet, filled as it is with ideas spun from too much wine and half-remembered meals prepared by chefs of “cutting edge” status, or some such.
I can’t say whether the intransitivity of taste will ultimately figure prominently in the theoretical foundations of classical microeconomic theory, or whether we could have avoided the mortgage meltdown simply by acknowledging that pickles and chocolate really suck when you put them in your mouth at the same time. Sociologists and psychologists (and – increasingly – behavioral economists as well) will debate the appropriateness of the “rationality” assumption, and – increasingly – it seems to me that they have the data on their side. Certainly, I’ve come across legions of irrational fools in my life, and that is only speaking from direct, personal experience; I’ve not entered so much as a footnote for broader historical record of human folly. I can say, however, that I would like to know a bit more about how our sense of taste works, and why I nearly vomited cheese, chocolate and pickles all over the butcher’s block. I’m hoping that the book is really cool and I get to do a bit more of this.
Just Three Ingredients, and the Intransitivity of Taste: Pickles, Cheese, and Chocolate
- Secure a few chunks of bitter chocolate (I used 85% cacao), something very dark, with no milk – dairy is a different cup of tea entirely.
- Choose a stinky, wash-rind cheese (I used French Raclette).
- Slice up a good dill pickle (I used Alexander Valley Gourmet’s Spicy Bread and Butter pickles – the sweet, hot, vinegar-y tastes made the results literally pop on your tongue).
- First try the two combinations with cheese (doesn’t matter which, but cleanse your palate in between). The stinky cheese and pickle is just awesome – the acidic, sugary crunch of the pickle really contrasts nicely with the musty, creamy cheese. Now try the pickle-and-chocolate. Sounds weird, but really it isn’t (even somewhat “conventional” – here is a blog that describes a whole “tasting” of cheese, chocolate, and wine at a well respected restaurant); the bitter, earthy chocolate fits nicely with barnyard impression from the cheese. Finally, steel yourself, and take a bite of the pickle and chocolate together.
Tov Tofu | Santa Rosa
Way back in December of 2009, I wasn’t alone in predicting the rise of Korean food in the national consciousness. Always the bridesmaid, but never the culinary bride, we were ready for a culinary love affair fueled by a passion for all things pickled and fermented (kimchi) and our collective ennui with Thai food (which has become all too ubiquitous). It was time for a spicy change.
So we waited. And waited. And just when we all figured that crave-worthy bibimbap was out of our reach, Tov Tofu opened its doors with the sizzle and pop we’d been hoping to hear.
The food is unapologetically and authentically Korean, focused on soft tofu soups and crackling stone bowls of rice, bbq and vegetables (bibimbap). Entrees include grilled short ribs and stir fried squid and octopus, along with Korean noodle soups and ox bone soups pepper the otherwise spare menu.
Banchan are a preview to the sweet, salty, briny, hot, tart flavors of the meal to come — two-bite bowls of kimchi, fish cakes, soy beans, cabbage, daikon and soy glazed potatoes meant for sharing. Like a personal bowl of rice, they’re part of the meal, so embrace their arrival.
Best Bets: Mung bean pancakes ($8.50); soft tofu ($9.95), a roiling, boiling pot of silken tofu with a combination of veggies and meats (try the combination with beef, shrimps and clams) all topped with raw egg (it cooks in the soup); bbq beef and vegetable bibimbap ($12.95) a surface-of-the-sun hot bowl filled with rice and a heap of goodies that pops, squeaks and steams a bit disconcertingly for several minutes (the prize is crunchy cooked rice at the bottom); Kal Bi (grilled beef short ribs).
If you’re new to Korean cuisine, don’t be a hero. Aim for mild or medium spice, because things can quickly go atomic. Bring a sense of adventure, as well. Korean dining can present some textures (gelatinous) and flavors (spicy, fermented, hot) that are challenging to newcomers, but quickly become part of your culinary repertoire. Oh, and enjoy the sanitary-wrapped spoons.
Charming red apron-ed staff are all too willing, however, to walk you through the menu and give helpful guidance as they rush across the dining room bringing plate after plate of hissing, steaming bowls to your fellow happy eaters.
Tov Tofu, 1169 Yulupa Ave (near Whole Foods), Santa Rosa, 566-9469. Open Tuesday through Sunday 11am to 2pm, 5-9pm. Closed Monday.
SF Michelin Stars for 2011
Michelin has awarded its stars for 2011 and there are some major announcements for North Bay restaurants…
THREE STARS (exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey)
The French Laundry
The Restaurant at Meadowood (N)
Golden boy Christopher Kostow gets his much-sought after third star, bumping him up into the same category as the French Laundry. I soooo called that two years ago.
TWO STARS (excellent cuisine, worth a detour)
Coi
Cyrus
Manresa
Healdsburg’s Cyrus remains a serious contender in the haute cuisine category, but misses hitting that three-star mark.
ONE STAR (a very good restaurant in its category)
Acquerello
Alexander’s Steakhouse (N)
Ame
Applewood (N)
Auberge de Soleil
Aziza
Baumé (N)
Bouchon
Boulevard
Campton Place (N)
Chez TJ
Commis
The Dining Room at the Ritz Carlton
Dio Deka (N)
étoile
Farmhouse Inn & Restaurant
Fleur de Lys
Frances (N)
Gary Danko
La Folie
La Toque
Luce
Madera (N)
Madrona Manor
Masa’s
Mirepoix (N)
Murray Circle
One Market
Plumed Horse
Quince
Redd
Saison (N)
Santé
Solbar
Spruce (N)
Terra
Ubuntu
The Village Pub
Wakuriya (N)
Of the newcomers, Applewood Inn and Mirepoix are long overdue. It’s nice to see these restaurants getting their due. Mirepoix changed up its menu to reflect a more upscale dining experience after opening the it’s cafe-eats sibling, Bistro M last year. Michelin stars have long been in Matthew Bousquet’s eyes, so it’s nice to see him get credit. Applewood’s Bruce Frieseke has long been under the radar, but also is well-deserving of the applause.
And losing its only star? Chez Panisse. Ouch.
North Bay Food Trucks 2.0
Street Eatz & La Texanita (Santa Rosa)
More than a taco truck, less than a restaurant, the Street Eatz mobile kitchen is leading Sonoma County’s food truck brigade with globally-inspired dishes (agedashi, tacos, pulled pork, curry, chile rellenos and the unbeatable Carne Asada fries). Biz partners Jillian Dorman and Alma Mendez (of La Texanita) collaborated on the popular truck, which has been a mainstay at local events throughout the spring and summer. Street Eatz is also a frequent participant in some of San Francisco’s bustling street-food events, including Off the Grid. The truck makes lunchtime stops throughout the week (Tesconi Circle, Aviation Blvd., Revolution Moto) and has recently been granted permits for Friday and Saturday nights (6pm to late) at Santa Rosa’s Courthouse Square. You can find their complete schedule at street-eatz.com or follow them on Twitter or Facebook at StreetEatz.
The Street Eatz sister truck from La Texanita has begun rolling out as well, including most of the items you’ll find at Alma’s much-loved restaurant (Guy Fieri is a huge fan): Tacos, burritos and flautas with homemade tortillas and tasty meats like tongue and cabeza. The truck’s been parking at the corner of 116 and Lynch Road in Sebastopol for lunch and dinner and sharing the Friday and Saturday night spot with Street-Eatz.
Fork Catering (Santa Rosa, Sebastopol, Occidental)
Fork, run by caterer Sarah Piccolo out of Sebastopol, embraces the local farm-to-table vibe, serving up Stornetta beef burgers on whole wheat buns; a quinoa garbanzo bean burger, green chili mac and cheese, and salads bursting with veggies plucked from local patches.The converted Mother’s cookie truck has been outfitted with a impressive kitchen and espresso set-up. You can find Sarah and her truck at a variety of public and private events (she’s often at bicycle-related events), including stints at the Occidental Farmer’s market and Dutton-Goldfield winery, though she prefers to stay within 90 miles of her home turf in Sebastopol. Find the most recent locations on her Facebook page: Fork Catering.
Chicago Style Hot Dogs
Wieners are the original street food, so its no wonder that a growing contingency of mobile doggeries are on the roll. Jeff Tyler is the guy you’ve seen tucked away on Je Ju Way (near Russian River brewery) on weekdays and most recently doing a brisk late-nite biz in Courthouse Square. He also hangs out on Wednesdays at Paradise Ridge winery, where from time to time he makes his special Pinot Dog — with wine-soaked mushroom onions and garlic. Using only Chicago-style Vienna dogs on poppy seed buns, Tyler says his dogs are tops. Facebook: Chicago Style Hot Dogs; Twitter: Dogsfromchicago.
Taste of a Gyro (Sonoma)
Chef Sondra Bernstein of the Girl and The Fig in Sonoma gives the heads up on Dominic Sammarco’s mobile gyro trolley near the Sonoma town square. He does traditional lamb as well as chicken gyros, but the secret’s in the sauce. In addition to tzatziki (a yogurt cucumber sauce), he douses his $6 hand’wiches with a selection sauces that go from mild to wild: ranch feta, jalapeno feta, habanero feta or the mouth-searing super fire hot red sauce (jalapenos, sirrano, habenero and body-numbing ghost peppers). “It’s all about creating your own taste,” he said. You’ll find business and construction folks rubbing elbows with a few adventurous high schoolers from 10am to 4pm Monday through Saturday at the Sonoma Skate Shop (1001 Sonoma Ave., Sonoma) or Tuesday evenings at Sonoma’s farmer’s market.
Napa has an especially vibrant food scene that’s spawned several trucks in just a few weeks. They’re already planning several “group” events, one of which happened on Friday near the Oxbow Market, so its worth signing up for mailing lists to keep abreast of pop-up dinners and collaborative get-togethers.
Dim Sum Charlie’s (Napa)
Working out of a converted Airstream trailer, this mobile dum sum-ery is all the buzz in Napa. The lengthy list of steamed and baked goodies includes pork sui mai dumplings, shrimp and pea sprout dumplings, mushroom and water chestnut dumplings, honey baked pork buns, lobster shrimp and sea bass dumplings and sticky ricked stuffed with pork sausage. The temporary-space near the Oxbow Market (pretty much a construction zone), has several picnic tables with canvas awnings, so it’s worth sticking around and having a tower of steamers delivered tableside. The crew includes Andrew Siegel (the founder) and Chef Clayton Lewis, who have plans for Bay Area domination with more Dim Sum Charlie’s trucks in the works. Do yourself a favor and start off with the “Ten Dolla Make You Holla” which includes a little taste of several dumplings and buns. When the dumpling cravings will drive you back for more (and trust me, you’ll get them), you can find the Napa truck open from 6pm to 1am Wednesday and Thursday, and until 2am on Friday. Saturday noon to 2am and Sunday noon to 10pm. So who’s eating dumplings at 2am in Napa? Industry folks (chefs, cooks and bartenders) are some of their most loyal customers. More details at dimsumcharlies.com.
Crossroad Chicken (Napa)
Follow your nose to the smell of a wood-fired oven on wheels. Kevin Simonson is another trained chef who’s finding a new kind of calling behind the wheel of a Snap-On truck turned mobile cucina. The unique vehicle, which he found on Craigslist, has a built in wood-fired oven that he’s using to toast up top-notch sandwiches using air-chilled chickens, local produce, fresh mozzarella and his own pulled pork. A special favorite: Rancho Gordo bean chili. Most days you can find Kevin from 11am to 2pm at 1050 Soscol Ferry Road (not far from the Napa Airport), but if you want to order ahead, find out other locations or just see what’s on the menu, email crossroadchix@aol.com.
Mark’s the Spot (Napa)
Mark Raymond is the real deal. With cooking credentials throughout the North Bay, he’s the king of mobile sliders “prepared slow, served fast.” His lunch menu is a revolving lineup of three-bite sandwiches served on brioche buns: Buttermilk fried chicken with pepper aoili and slaw; baby Nieman ranch burgers; bacon, basil and brie with red onion jam or Long Meadow Ranch beef hot dogs with chili. Other goodies on his overhauled Chinese food truck include Salmon Creek organic duck wings with spicy plum sauce or french toast cubes sprinkled with chili salt and drizzled with maple syrup. The slider sampler of three sliders for $10 is the best deal. Just three weeks old, Mark’s still looking to find a regular spot, but he’s easily findable (from 11am to 2pm) by calling or texting 226.Spot, MarksSpotTruck on Twitter or MarksThe SpotTruck on Facebook.
Phat Salads and Wraps (Napa)
“Have you been to Gia’s?” is the question everyone asks when the issue of Napa’s emerging food truck scene comes up. The owner of Phat Salads and Wraps, Gia Sempronio’s built up a loyal lunchtime following since arriving on the Napa scene several years ago. The breakfast and lunch menus are simple wraps filled with grilled chicken or steak, lettuce and a variety of add-ons including. Her most popular: The New Yorker with steak, avocado, crispy fried onions and gorgonzola vinaigrette. Gia is typically parked on California Blvd. near the Healthquest Fitness Center. For more details, call 363-9658 or visit phatsalads.com.