26 Jul 2013
by scolgin
in Cooking Tips, Recipes, Video
Tags: Alaska, Copper River, food, humor, Juneau, lox, salmon, Sitka, smoking, vodka
As we prepare for our upcoming family trip to Alaska, I find myself thinking a lot about salmon. The beautiful filets of sockeye and king from the Copper and other pristine rivers I’m finding at the fishmarkets these days have my mind already north. I once saw a river in Sitka so choked with spawning salmon swimming upstream that it seemed as if you could’ve walked across their backs and never touched water. Another river near Juneau was littered with the skinless carcasses of salmon — in bumper years, the bears peel off and eat the skin, and discard the rest.
Spawning sockeye in Juneau.
I’ve oft commented on this blog about how people tend to overcook salmon. And while it is still a delicious fish when cooked all the way through, it is so much better when left medium-rare to rare. Or, as I personally prefer, raw. More
23 Jul 2013
by scolgin
in Eating Out
Tags: Carbon Beach, Foodie.com, humor, Larry Ellison, Malibu, Nikita, restaurants, Shannen Doherty, Vic Ate Here, Vic Zaud
When our friends Vic and Jessie invited us out to dinner, who were we to say “no”? We love them, and besides being a person of fine taste and author of the restaurant blog, Vic Ate Here (he got his review up before me — how is that possible considering 12 hours ago we had just sat down for our reservation!?), Vic is also the man behind the wonderful new food website, Foodie.com, and wanted to treat us to an evening checking out one of our fine city’s newer restaurants.
Waiting for Nikita
They chose to take us to Nikita, a new restaurant in Malibu funded by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison — one of the richest men in the United States, who likes fine things and has been busily buying up a swatch of Malibu’s Carbon Beach. More
19 Jul 2013
by scolgin
in Recipes
Tags: Alex Tehrani, chipotle, food, humor, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Mark Bittman, New York Times, sashimi, scallops
Awhile back, my pal Alex sent me a link to a video from the New York Times of Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Mark Bittman preparing a scallop sashimi dish.
“This looks great,” Alex said in his email. “I sure would like to try something like this.”
Now usually when one of my pals tells me they sure would like to try something, what that actually means is they would like me to make whatever it is for them. To Alex’s credit, he fessed up immediately when I responded: “Does that mean you want me to make this for you?” More
12 Jul 2013
by scolgin
in Food, Humor, Video
Tags: cooking, food, humor, James Grasso, naples, pizza, San Marzano, Topanga, wood burning oven
Spicy squid pizza, ready for the oven
James is one of my favorite dudes. He drinks fine wine and rides motorcycles and drives 4WD tractors and builds things and does all those kinds of things I think of real men as doing. But that’s not why I’m envious of James. I’m envious because he’s got a wood-burning pizza oven on the patio outside his kitchen. More
08 Jul 2013
by scolgin
in Recipes
Tags: Chinese plum sauce, crab puffs, food, humor, langoustine, Lee Kum Kee, pizza, plums, Topanga, Watermans
Or rather, when your neighbor Glennis — who is godlike in her own ways — gives you plums…
About this time every year, we get the call from next door. “The plums are ready!” The kids and I head over and wind our way down into the Watermans’ terraced backyard, where sure enough the plum tree is overloaded with beautiful purple plums. And we gather and gather and gather.
Plums as far as the eye can see.
Unlike, say, a tomato plant which may continue giving you tomatoes throughout the season, a plum tree comes full and ready all at once. If you get a week, you’re lucky — especially with the incursion of various lean and hungry summer critters. More
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