29 Dec 2012
by scolgin
in Food, Observations
Tags: caviar, fois gras, food, Kobe beef, New Year's Eve, salmon, Seville bitter oranges, Snake River, white truffles
It begins with a few sketches. Not physical drawings, but culinary ideas thrown down on paper — or in this case, a Microsoft Word document on the computer.
I’m speaking of my annual New Year’s Eve dinner, in which my wife and I host up to a dozen friends — many of them the same for more than a decade — and present a dinner of anywhere from eight to 12 courses.
Matsutake mushroom duxelles for course #5
The planning begins with a consideration of the time of year, and what sorts of things I have on hand or might be likely to find at the market. For example, I’ve usually just returned from my mother’s house in Sonoma, and often come back with pounds of prime wild mushrooms — as I did this year. More
28 Dec 2012
by scolgin
in Food, On the Road, Video
Tags: Boccalone, Embarcadero, Ferry Building, foodie, Hog Island Oyster Co., San Francisco, The Slanted Door
When I was a kid, I remember the Ferry Building in San Francisco being a beautiful relic, sad and unused, its iconic clock tower hidden behind the elevated 480 freeway.
Flynn & the Ferry Building, San Francisco
The Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 destroyed the freeway, which resulted in one of the most extraordinary and successful urban redevelopment projects in history. Today, vintage street cars from around the world run along the Embarcardero that fronts the Ferry Building. Craftspeople sell their wares across the street, while a daily farmer’s market brings the city’s residents the freshest produce from the farms of nearby Sonoma and Marin. More
24 Dec 2012
by scolgin
in Food, Humor, On the Road, Video
Tags: blewit, California, candy cap, Christmas, Japanese cooking, matsutake, mushroom hunting, porcini, Sonoma, wild mushrooms
I like the thrill of the hunt. But not one for killing animals or dealing with blood, I mostly limit my hunting to wild mushrooms in the woods and groovy cowboy shirts at thrift stores. It was the former that had my wife and I up to our ears in Sonoma pine duff, hunting the elusive matsutake.
Orange jelly fungus
“Matsutake” translates as “pine mushroom,” since they often grow in symbiotic relationship with pines. “Take” is Japanese for mushroom, while “matsu” means pine — I have a friend named Kazue Matsunaga. I’m not sure what the “naga” part is, but she’s got something to do with pine trees. She’s a “Pine naga-er,” I guess. More
18 Dec 2012
by scolgin
in Food, Humor, Recipes
Tags: Barack Obama, bread pudding, dessert, Hawaii, King's Hawaiian Bread, macadamia nuts, recipes, Shepard Fairey, Topanga, West Hollywood
Sometimes readers of my blog have great ideas that lead to new things and new posts! A few weeks ago — Election Eve, in fact — I wrote a post called “Barack, Brits & Bananas” about a spontaneous dessert I’d come up with for a last-minute party (or more appropriately, a long-planned party I’d forgotten about until the last minute): banana rum walnut bread pudding with Nutella dulce de leche. The post prompted a comment from my friend Greg:
“And in honor of President Obama you could make it banana macadamia nut rum bread pudding. Sounds delicious either way.”
I replied that I thought that was a fine idea, and left it at that. Until, that is, I had a couple slices of stale King’s Hawaiian Bread and was cooking Hawaiian-style pork ribs for dinner one night. And Uncle Greggie’s comment came flooding back into my head. More
13 Dec 2012
by scolgin
in Food, Humor, Observations
Tags: chamomile, Christmas, fasting, fasts, flu, food, kale, New Year's Eve
I remember awhile back, my friend Dan was in the midst of a fast. For one week, he was having nothing but water with cayenne and maple syrup. Midway through, he began not looking so well. “How’s it going?” I asked. “It’s going well!” he said, unconvincingly, and I wasn’t certain if the forced smile on his face was more for himself than me.
People do all kinds of fasts — juice fasts, cabbage soup fasts, lemonade fasts, protein fasts, kale fasts. They are done for weight loss, to rid the body of toxins or for spiritual reasons. More
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