15 Oct 2015 4 Comments
in On the Road, Recipes Tags: Baja, Casa Tres Coronitas, Don Schneider, fish tacos, Mazatlán, Mexican cuisine, Mexico, Puerto Vallarta, tacos
“There’s something wrong with your blog,” a friend said to me one day.
“Oh yeah,” I replied with a raised eyebrow. “What’s that?”
“There are no fish tacos on there.”
Could it possibly be true? That of all the posts on my blog, and more specifically all the times I’d written about tacos, that I had overlooked the Baja fish taco??
Baja fish tacos
“It’s true!” said friend who alerted me to the fact. “I looked through the entire site, no fish tacos.”
No fish tacos! More
15 Aug 2015 6 Comments
in Food, Humor, Recipes Tags: carpaccio, Don Schneider, japan, Japanese cuisine, Nijiya Market, Nobu Matsuhisa, omakase, panna cotta, sushi, Wagyu
In Japan, “omakase” means “I’ll leave it to you,” or more precisely, “I trust you.” It’s a common phrase in fine sushi bars, when you put your meal in the hands of the chef and let him make you whatever he feels inspired to moment by moment.
“Kanpai!”
In Topanga, “omakase” means my pal Don Schneider shows up at my house at 10 a.m. to drop off seven or eight different seafoods for a sushi dinner that evening, before he and family leave for a month to Israel to visit an ailing mother. He trusts me. More
21 May 2015 10 Comments
in Humor, Starlets Tags: 1980s, Don Schneider, food, Froggy's, Hell's Angels, humor, Texas-style brisket, The 1909, Topanga, Topanga Elementary Charter School
Last year around this time, I was asked to cook at the silent auction fundraiser for my kids’ elementary school. The event, a 1970s-themed soiree at a local venue, the 1909, was a huge success and the food — including pizzas and huge paleolithic ribeye steaks emerging from a wood-fired oven — was the star.
So when it came around time for the 2015 fundraiser — with an 80s theme — I was again asked. Again, I accepted.
Don Schneider as Hef, plating cod and cous cous
The party would take place this year at Froggy’s, a local restaurant that had been shuttered and put up for sale — which I briefly considered buying before regaining my common sense — and then, upon failing to find a buyer, reopened. More
26 Apr 2015 15 Comments
in Humor, Starlets Tags: Don Schneider, Fenway Park, food, humor, Kula sushi, musabi, onigiri, piñatas, sushi, Topanga
“Dad,” a tiny voice said as I prepared to leave the house one morning, “Where are you going?”
“I’m going to a meeting in town.”
“You’re NOT going to the round-and-round sushi restaurant, are you!??”
“No,” I said, “I’m not.”
Phew!! my 4-year-old sushi-obsessed daughter sighed. “You are NOT allowed to go there without me!”
Imogen with princess dress and salmon at the Kula sushi bar, April 2014
I’ve written about Imogen and her sushi fixation on several occasions before (perhaps most memorably when, in her desperation, she insisted on eating frozen salmon sushi). But recently things had reached a whole new level. At one of our Tuesday sushi dinners with the Schneiders, she lingered around the kitchen after the kids had finished their dinners. More
20 Feb 2015 8 Comments
in Recipes Tags: bloody mary, caviar, Don Schneider, Mexican cuisine, Rick Bayless, tamalada, tamales, Vallarta Market
We were sitting around on New Year’s Day drinking bloody marys, when my pal Don showed up with caviar, creme fraiche and blinis.
New Years Day in the Colgin kitchen
His timing was impeccable — it was late morning, we’d eaten nothing yet, the drinks were beginning to take away the edge of nausea, and we had nothing planned. The only thing on my agenda for the day was culinary — I was going to make tamales. More
skinny girls & mayonnaise 