Bomba, Dr. Roy, Quinoa & Strange Days Indeed

12 Apr 2013 15 Comments

by scolgin in Food, Humor, Observations Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

“Nobody told me there’d be days like these,
Strange days indeed — most peculiar, mama.”
-John Lennon

*   *   *

Some days just dawn stranger than others. Tuesday was a day like that.

My wife has been fighting a strange rash on her torso for the better part of two months. Nothing major — just red, itchy and annoying. She had changed soaps and detergents, switched clothes, and rubbed herself with various creams, ointments and salves. All to no avail.

Quinoa, Andean "superfood," on the plant

Quinoa, Andean “superfood,” on the plant

So it was that Tuesday I got two email links to a list of “good foods” and a list of “foods to avoid.” Exasperated, she was attempting to see if the rash was diet-related. More

Secret Weapon Ingredient #3: Dried Dashi Stock

09 Apr 2013 3 Comments

by scolgin in Cooking Tips, Food, Humor Tags: , , , , , , ,

The Japanese were the first to describe and isolate “umami,” the fifth taste (“savory”). When professor Kikunae Ikeda of Tokyo Imperial University identified umami in 1908, he did so working from the ingredients in Japanese “dashi” soup stock, made from bonito fish and kombu seaweed. The key components, it turned out, were ribonucleotides and glutamates.

From there, the Japanese got industrious and distilled those ingredients into their purest form — monosodium glutamate. MSG. Which, if you’re like most people, you avoid like the plague. But which winds up in nearly anything processed you eat in less conspicuous forms (most often as “natural ingredients”). More

Anise, Sea Spray & Marseille

05 Apr 2013 16 Comments

by scolgin in Food, Recipes Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Like I’ve said before — when it comes to dinner, we’re a theme family. And often a theme evolves around random happenings on my shopping route.

Reading all the various comments to my recent post on oyster bars got me in the mood, of course, for oysters. So at my Wednesday farmer’s market, I picked up a dozen oysters from the (somewhat) local aquaculture guys as well as, among other things, a head of frisee lettuce, two duck eggs and a fennel bulb. I remembered that I had a nice chunk of stinky cheese in the fridge, and thought perhaps I had the makings of a French night, some night soon.

Frisee

Frisee

I eyed some beautiful fresh sardines at the Japanese market later in the day. But there was rain in the forecast, and sardines are a food best eaten fresh off the grill. So I passed. More

Skinny Girls Roadshow LIVE from Lake Tahoe — Trout Smoking in America

29 Mar 2013 4 Comments

by scolgin in Food, Recipes Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

I was wondering what kinds of things I might cook while in Tahoe. My friend Curtis, as I said, is a cowboy, so certainly there would be lots of beef. But when I’m traveling, I also enjoy cooking local-style food, or use local ingredients I might not find at home. In Hawaii I like to cook with macadamias, pineapple and fresh fish, for example; in the Northwest, I use salmon and hazelnuts. Would there be any equivalent for Lake Tahoe?

photo-3

Browsing the Raley’s market just over the Nevada border one early afternoon after skiing, things looked pretty much the usual. I could’ve been at a grocery store in Santa Monica or Malibu. But then at the fish counter, something caught my eye — a red-fleshed Sierra lake trout. More

Skinny Girls Roadshow LIVE from Lake Tahoe — Partying, Donner-Style

26 Mar 2013 4 Comments

by scolgin in Food, Humor, On the Road Tags: , , , , , ,

Our friend, Heather, thinks our pig, Henri, is evil. It’s my own fault — she once remarked that he had an evil look in his eyes, and I said it was because I fed him bacon. I didn’t really, but the image stuck with Heather.

I like to write posts while I’m on vacation, as I am right now. I hadn’t realized, as we drove up into the Sierra Nevada to join my childhood pal Curtis and his family at their spacious chalet in Lake Tahoe, that our route would take us through Donner Pass, and past Donner Lake and the Truckee River.

Truckee Lake viewed from Donner Pass, 1868

Truckee Lake viewed from Donner Pass, 1868

It takes only a slightly malevolent leap of imagination to connect a food blog to the name “Donner”. For those likely very few of you who may not be familiar with this particular piece of western lore, I’ll give you the Cliff Notes version. More

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