Beer Brewing Kits

Thank goodness I work out; lugging home thirty pounds of beer brewing supplies on the bus in the rain is not a feat for the average beer guzzling couch potato.

I'm going to go veg out on the couch now, but hopefully this will all be worth it in about a month. I'll definitely keep you posted.

Braised Pork Belly

This week I've been doing a lot of simple home style Chinese dishes. They really hit the spot with some white rice. Tonight we had braised pork belly with dried mustard greens.


Our vitamins for the night came from a big plate of pea shoots stir fried in garlic. Yum! We didn't have any leftovers.

Black Pepper Beef Over Onions

Tonight I tried my hand at a dish that's a staple at many home style Chinese restaurants: black pepper beef on a bed of onions.


It came out really well! This dish is a great way to stretch a steak. And more so than a simple seared steak, it invites healthy side dishes like a bowl of rice and plenty of vegetables. We finished up our fish soup from yesterday, with the addition of a lot of napa and mushrooms.

J liked this enough that I thought I'd to my first photo tutorial in awhile. For two people, cut one ribeye steak into large cubes--slightly bigger than half an inch per side works well if you like medium rare. Cut the cubes smaller if you like well done meat. Slice up half a medium onion and soak in iced water before you begin. This will take a little of the bite out of the onion and make it very crispy. Drain well and put onto a plate after you start cooking the beef.

Meanwhile, get a pan searing hot. A cast iron is perfect, or use a Calphalon like I did. When the pan's as hot as it'll get, throw in the cubed steak. As usual, this will work best if you've let the meat warm up to close to room temperature.

Sear the meat on all sides, turning as soon as it's browned. Work quickly or you'll get overcooked meat. Meanwhile, combine a heaping tablespoon of black pepper sauce, a pinch of sugar, and about a tablespoon of water. When you're searing the last sides of the cubes, create a well in the center of the pan and pour in the sauce. Mix it around a little until it starts bubbling, then turn off the stove and use the residual heat from the pan to coat the meat with the sauce. It's important the heat the sauce before you coat the meat with it, because both the pepper and soy sauce in the sauce are flavors that come out when they're heated. A warmed sauce will also be sticker and therefore coat better. Heap the hot beef onto the raw onions and serve.

This was our after dinner TV snack: wheat bread and some cheese called Queso Leonora. Hey, Heroes Night deserves nothing but the best!

I bought myself the gift of skincare today. I usually just buy Cerave, but I've seen this brand a few times and finally could not resist the carrots. This brand has a refreshingly old fashioned scent to it. It reminds me of the lanolin lotions from my childhood. Plus, I'm a sucker for dead sea minerals. One of the most memorable soaps I've ever used is a bar of dead sea soap a friend brought back from Israel. Yes to Carrots is from Israel; maybe I should start sniffing their bar soaps.

And finally, some shameless bragging. Look! My muscle definition is slowly returning! Now, for the cardio. As I type this, I'm trying to convince myself to go for a morning jog. I need to get back to pre-September fitness standards before Thanksgiving rolls around and I decide to be about as active as a stuffed turkey.

Crafting

The latest yarn to be cleared from my stash:

I wasn't sure about this color, and J thinks it's too much yellow, but I think it looks better in a photo than in real life. Maybe it just looks better from a bit of a distance. I'm just going to keep knitting and see what happens. I have been knitting down my stash of yarn, in large part because I'm sick of looking at balls and balls of yarn in my closet. I've already made two large scarves to give people, and have a pair of gloves/handwarmers in the works. Hopefully, you will see this yarn again in a few weeks as a part of something larger, and wearable.

Fish Stew

I thought I was done posting for the weekend, but then J made dinner! Here's the photo of his night cooking at Chez Pei.

Homemade fish stock, rich and creamy from hours of simmering with ginger and napa cabbage. He added vermicelli, tofu, and napa to make the stew, and I contributed shrimp balls made with chopped shrimp and fish paste. A great meal for the first cool San Francisco night in weeks.

Ferry Building Harvest Festival

All October, the Ferry Building has been advertising its harvest festival. So today, I used it as an excuse to get myself to the gym on a Sunday morning. I really need to get my arms back into shape. I have to say, my time at the gym was probably more exciting than the Harvest Festival. Maybe I got there too late, but it seemed like nothing more than a few extra free sample tables and some (admittedly rather good) live music.


Still, an afternoon spent at the Ferry Building is better than an afternoon spent in most other places. I hunkered down at the Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant with a glass of verdelho and three oysters that I'd picked up for $1.50 at a neighboring shop.

Afterwards, J and I went shopping for groceries in the Richmond and came across a box of dragonfruit. I almost bought one, since he's never had one before. But at $7/lb, they were quite a gamble. We decided to wait until a little further into the season, both to see if they're selling and if we see them at farmers' markets.

Chez Panisse Cafe

We finally made it to this Berkeley landmark today, after enjoying a morning at a friend's house. Seriously, the weather has been beyond amazing. I'm so glad we didn't have a dreary October; I don't think I could have handled how depressing that would have been.

J and I shared a halibut tartare. It was everything I'd expect from CP: light, fresh, and delightful. It could have used a pinch of salt, but I think undersalting is exactly the point. It allows the flavor of the ingredients to shine, and customers who want a bit of salt can just add a little to the top and enjoy the texture of the crystals before they melt into the dish. Also especially delicious: the avocadoes! They were incredibly creamy.

I had the coho salmon with corn and zucchini. The fish was superbly cooked, which is difficult to do with this exceptionally rare fish. Our server said it was baked, but it tasted poached. But I hardly think a CP server would not know what she was talking about, so I assume they slow-baked the salmon with its skin on to preserve moisture, then removed the skin after baking so that the fish doesn't appear baked. The vegetable sides to this dish were a bit boring. R's butternut squash puree (not pictured) was a lot more interesting.

J had two poached farm fresh eggs in a Californian take on ratatouille. For a vegetarian dish, this was pure comfort food. In fact, it was a bit too much of a cold weather food for me to eat a lot. Still, it was delicious. The runny eggs, giant white beans, and seasonal nettles really made the dish like autumn.

Strawberry Daiquiris

One perk of being married is alawys having a drinking buddy. Well, at least until someone gets pregnant or is forced to join AA. I'll just keep y'all guessing as to which of those two is more possible at this point.


For two lowball glasses of frozen strawberry daiquiri, throw the following in a blender:

• 3/4 cup frozen strawberries
• 3/4 cup ice cubes
• 2 shots rum (I used pisco)
• juice of 1 very large lime
• 1-2 tablespoons sugar (use one, then add if you need to)

Skirt Steak and Vegetables

Today's dinner's level of difficulty was on the opposite end of the scale as Monday's, but no less delicious. I seared some skirt steak in the broiler (just three to four minutes per side, then a five minute resting period before slicing) and stir fried some vegetables.

And many thanks to my dear friend R, who sent me flowers. The dark pink carnations are especially beautiful, and I love the green mums and the fun vase.

Jumping on a Soapbox

Let's take a pause from food to think about the upcoming election. Yes, everyone's talking about it, I have plenty of my own opinions to spout, but few things get stuck in my craw like people talking about banning abortion. This article sums up my thoughts quite eloquently.

Bottom line is this: life will throw more medical curveballs at people than the government can ever dream up. Therefore, a grown woman should be trusted to have enough brains to decide with her doctors what is best for her and her baby, and the government should stay out of her craw.

Nobody is "pro-abortion." Calling anyone that is deely insulting, as is insinuating that there are vast numbers of women out there asking for abortions on a whim. I have never heard of a woman who got an abortion simply because she felt like it--have you?

Seared Skate Wing

Tonight I went French bistro for the first time in a long time.

The evening's masterpiece: seared skate wing on a bed of onion celery confit, topped with roasted red bell peppers and spinach chiffonade, on a plate dotted with sauteed red potatoes.

It's always smart to pair something complicated with something simple, so I did a white bean roast garlic soup poured over spinach chiffonade. White bean soup is a breeze: boil beans until they're tender, and in the meantime wrap a head of garlic in aluminum foil and bake for forty five minutes or an hour. Squeeze out the garlic pulp and puree in a blender with the beans and enough chicken stock to achieve the desired consistency, then and add salt and pepper.

And for dessert, we continued working on the banana cream pie. Note the layer of chocolate that's been melted over the crust. It serves to protect the crust from the moisture of the custard, this ensuring that the pie is tasty for more than one day.

Works in Progress

I spent today playing with food--that is to say, experimenting with recipes. I still haven't perfected these, but once I do you can expect recipes!

With our new love of La Mar comes a desire to make pisco sours at home. I have to say, visually I'm spot on. Click here to compare! Someone buy me a few pounds of tuna and halibut and I'll throw a cebiche party.

For dinner, we had my mom's Taiwanese stir fried stick noodles. Along with ro gen, it's one of Taiwan's most tasty homey foods.

This recipe came out close to perfect. I've been mustering up the energy to make Tartine's banana cream pie, which is a two day project for those who want to retain sanity. I ended up eliminating the caramel layer.

The result was a slightly less sweet pie with all the desired banana flavor. J declared it better than the one we had yesterday afternoon from Tartine. Vaunted praise indeed, since they make his favorite b.c. pie ever! I think in the future I'll work on presentation. But for now, I'll just enjoy how great it tastes.

La Mar and Tartine

Today was another beautiful day, and for the first time in a long time J and I enjoyed a bona fide day in the city.


We started with lunch and drinks at La Mar with a few friends who'd never been. J had the classic pisco sour, which is still our favorite drink. I tried the Chicha la ma, a combination of pisco, passion fruit syrup, and homemade chica morada (some kind of fermented red corn). In the background are the chips and sauces La Mar serves instead of bread. They're all quite tasty, though the sauces could have a little more spiciness to them.

We shared several ceviches (or cebiches, as the Peruvians spell it). This one's a crudo that included uni, scallops, and halibut. Though this dish was a smaller portion than the others (probably because it had more expensive ingredients), it had the best broth. J and I spent a lot of the time spooning up the liquid, which the Peruvians call leche de tigre (tiger's milk!). Rwar, I guess it's supposed to be food for the bold.

I think the overall favorite was the Nikkei, which is Japanese influenced. This dish was tuna with flavors of sesame, cilantro, and nori.

The cebiche criolla came in a classic aji amarillo, or creamy yellow sauce. The criollo style of cooking is what is considered native Peruvian, with some Spanish or African influence.

The cebiche mixto was more of a classic version that you might find at most Peruvian restaurants. What I love about La Mar is that you can get over half a dozen of distinctly different cebiches, which makes the dishes more of a meal and less of an appetizer like they are at other restaurants.

Bu this time, J and I were ready for a second cocktail. We shared a pisco punch, which was like a pisco sour all dolled up with some pineapple juice added. The pisco sour is still my favorite.

Another favorite dish, which J's ordered all three times he's been to La Mar: antichuchos, or grilled octopus. There's no explaining how La Mar gets octopus to be so tender. As odd an image as it may be, every time I eat it I want to say they're like seafood marshmallows.

Paella chifa. Chifa cuisine is Peruvian cuisine with a Chinese influence. This pretty much tasted like fried rice, but really really good fried rice with plenty of "wok flavor." It was chock full of grilled octopus and calamari rings, and topped with a very tender scrambled egg.

Pasta picante. I thought this looked incredible when I saw someone else with it last time, but it was disappointing. Part of the problem was that it was lukewarm, but I just don't think the sauce had enough kick. The pasta criolla was disappointing last time, so I think I'll be skipping pasta at La Mar from now on.

After La Mar, we wandered around a bit and ended up at Tartine Bakery. Of course, J had to have the mini banana cream tart. This was definitely everyone's favorite.

Another favorite of mine is the passion fruit and coconut bavarian, because sometimes I just like cake more than pudding. I love what Tartine does with all things lemon, and even though this is passion fruit it has a delicious tang of lemon.

On the other hand, I wouldn't say Tartine is great with chocolate. The cake, which I've liked in the past, just isn't great. For this style of dense chocolate cake with ganache, I'd head to Delessio instead.

La Mar: $50 each for lunch and two cocktails per person

Tartine: $30 for three desserts and two lattes

A sunny, carefree day in San Francisco? Priceless.

Friday Night Anticlimax

Well, it's time to end the mystery. We were going to go to Bushi-Tei tonight, but there was some kind of problem with Open Table and they said the only way they'd seat us would be at the communal table. That, plus the fact that available reservations were already at awkward times, was enough to get us to stay home.

But tomorrow, we'll be meeting friends at La Mar, my new favorite Embarcadero restaurant. Stay tuned for some of my own photos. Thank you, Yelp, for this one.

Friday Night Mystery

If all goes according to plan, I will be dining extremely well tonight. I'm so excited!

I stole this photo off a San Francisco restaurant's website. Any guesses? C'mon, you have nothing better (or at least more fun) to do at work on a Friday than play Guess That Restaurant. Hint: the restaurant has at least one Michelin star!

Mango Lassi

It's hard to believe that it's still sunny and warm in San Francisco in the middle of October, but I'm intent on enjoying it while I can. And today, that means tropical drinks!


My easy version of a mango lassi: you just throw the ingredients below into a blender and enjoy!

• 1/2 cup mango chunks. I used frozen mango from Trader Joe's
• 1 cup lowfat yogurt. Choose more watery variety for this recipe, or thin out the yogurt with some milk. The yogurt should be the consistency of thick gravy rather than able to stick to a spoon.
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar, or more if your mango isn't very sweet

Short Ribs

Ah, meat, how I've missed you.

We're trying not to eat as much meat as we used to, but there are few reasons to resist well-priced, beautiful short ribs. I marinated these overnight in onions, garlic, soy sauce, and sugar. Then I seared them on all sides and baked in a 350 degree toaster oven until the internal temperature reached about 145 degrees.

The results? Perfect medium rare all the way through. I made some rice and sauteed a plate of celery, carrots, and onions. The debate was a bore, but dinner was delicious!

Winter Scarf

The weather is surprisingly warm this week, but that doesn't mean I'm going to let the cold weather catch me by surprise!

I started this scarf yesterday, and it's already three feet long because I decided to knit four balls of very thin mohair yarn into one chunky scarf. I wish the color showed up better on camera. It looks like slate blue, but it's actually a royal purple. I think sunlight does funny things to fuzzy yarn.

Chicken Curry Sandwich

Pretty, huh?

Once upon a time, the Specialties' chain of sandwich shops in SF sold a turkey curry sandwich that I found divine. Served on their delicious poppyseed bread, it was a cool creamy blend of curry, meat, and crisp greens. It looked nothing like my sandwich, which is good but not exceptional. I miss that sandwich. Specialties', bring it back!

In retail news, I helped the economy today. Aren't these adorable? Every lady needs a pair of Cole Haans. They're a gift, so don't start asking me how much I paid. Let's just say a bad economy isn't all bad. And if you're in the market for some CHs, go to one of their stores before 10/19 and ask how you can save 20%.

Advice Needed: Seattle

Today, I have a request for everyone. Have any of my readers been to Seattle? I went once when I was a very small child, but I don't remember much besides thinking it was very pretty. I'll be going for about 10 days in November, and other than remembering to pack warm clothes I'm pretty clueless. So here are some questions:

• What are some must-hit restauarants? All prices ranges needed!
• What types of cuisine are most worth trying in Seattle?
• Does Seattle have a decent public transportation system? I know there's no real subway, but should I be parking my car and bussing all day or driving to each location?
• What are some sites worth seeing? I want to go to the art museum if Dale Chihuly's sculptures are on display, and a stop by the library seems worthwhile just because it looks gorgeous. Yes, I'm a nerd, it doesn't take a lot to amuse me.
• What are some fun neighborhoods to wander for shopping?
• Where is the best (or what are the contenders for best) coffee?

As you can tell, I'm a total Seattle newbie. This will be the first trip of many over the next few years, so I don't need to pack everything in one trip. I just want to have an enjoyable and relaxing week, see a few interesting places, do some shopping, and eat some great food. Thanks!

Back on Track with Ro Gen

Yum. I'm getting my kitchen mojo back, slowly but surely.

I've posted about ro gen several times before. It's still one of my favorite Taiwanese dishes, homey and well-balanced in both flavor and nutrition.

And here's something new. I call them mountain yam "French fries." Mountain yam is an Asian root vegetable, sometimes called nagaimo or yamaimo. Like most root vegetables, it's nutrient dense and has a mild flavor, and therefor it's often used in Chinese herbal soups or traditional medicines. The thing that makes mountain yam weird is that it's very slimey. For this simple dish, I just cut them into sticks and topped with soy paste and dried fish flakes. The yam is cold and crispy, not unlike jicama.

Dick's Bakery (San Jose)

Ah, a picture is worth...

I finally found my camera. What s difference from the Blackberry photo, eh? Too bad I didn't have my camera at La Mar. Next time!

Thanks N! I got a special present of chocolate cookies yesterday. They are really different from regular cookies: they have a crackly top and are very dense and chewy. I like them a lot, and they are more chocolatey than sugary. The walnut ones are especially good!