27 Nov 2015
by scolgin
in Humor, Observations
Tags: Fanny Bay oysters, food, humor, Mexico, oysters, San Francisco, Thanksgiving
I was sitting in the dentist chair a few mornings ago, trying to find my Zen place as the hygienist plunged Medieval devices of torture into my mouth. I was feeling thankful that I only had to do this twice a year. Although these days, all things in the world considered, there are a lot of worse places I could be.
Saltimbocca-style turkey
“Maybe if you re-branded teeth cleaning as a kind of ‘spa day’ for your mouth,” I said to the dentist, “people would be less apprehensive about it. You could call it a ‘denticure’.”
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20 Nov 2015
by scolgin
in Recipes, Starlets, Yoga Students & Quinoa (stories)
Tags: beef, chili cook off, Del Maguey, Engine 69, humor, Sonora, Tecate, Topanga, Topanga Community Club, vaquero
I guess it wouldn’t be Topanga if our annual Chili Cook-off was a legitimate competition.
Goofy chilis often win. Last year, in the traditional chili category, the top prize went to a Moroccan lamb chili. This year, second place went to friend Kali’s chili — which featured habanero whipped cream and strawberries. (And was actually quite tasty, once I got enough past my initial shock to try some.)
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13 Nov 2015
by scolgin
in Beverages, Food, Video
Tags: cocktails, Del Maguey, Mexican cuisine, Mexico, mezcal, Modelo, mole, Negroni, Oaxaca, Ron Cooper
“We want to have you guys over when we get the place cleaned up a bit,” my pal Gordon had been telling me for five or six years, over the course of two different “places”.
The time had finally come. Gordon and spouse Lori, who had moved into their “new” house a year or so before, were far enough along in their renovations that they now felt comfortable hosting. But nothing ever being simple, we had been trying to schedule this particular dinner party for a matter of months.
The mezcals of Del Maguey
The theme would loosely be “Mezcal & Mole” — or, at least, that was the subject line of the group texts bouncing around during the protracted planning phase. More
06 Nov 2015
by scolgin
in Recipes
Tags: comfort food, Egészségédre, food, fried chicken, humor, Hungarian cooking, Hungary, Sunday dinners, world cuisine
One of the best parts of having a large dinner party circuit is being treated to ethnic meals prepared by friends who come from disparate corners of the globe.
Andras’ Hungarian fried chicken
Dinners that come to mind in recent history include Singapore street food, a Russian Easter feast, a Dominican roast pork pernil, and a dazzling Norwegian multekrem dessert of heavenly cloudberries. We once went to a Chinese friend’s home for Szechuan hot pot — the meal’s centerpiece was a large pile of duck tongues. More
30 Oct 2015
by scolgin
in Uncategorized
Tags: barbecue, Engine 69, Halloween, Kummerspeck, tequila, Texas, Topanga, Topanga Community Club, Topanga Elementary Charter School
It couldn’t really have started any worse.
The day of our school’s annual Halloween Carnival — the new, experimental 2015 edition in which I would be cooking for somewhere apparently between 450 and 600 people — had arrived.
Rennie at work
I got to the ballfield at the local community center around 1:30 for the 3:30 start time. I unloaded my coolers full of meat, boxes of bread and bags of slaw — far more food than was necessary, I was certain, and felt confident I would be bringing things home at the evening’s conclusion. But the event organizer, my friend Danielle, had asked me to err on the side of abundance. To cook on, there was a large and rusty Santa Maria grill that had rolled in on wheels and parked itself beneath the backstop. More
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