20 Jun 2014 12 Comments
in Markets & Stores, Recipes Tags: Canoga Park, Filipino cuisine, food, green papaya salad, humor, Island Pacific supermarket, longaniza, pancit, Philippines, seafood
I’m always on the lookout for interesting ethnic markets. And so, while driving several days a week to a deep western corner of the San Fernando Valley to visit my father recovering from cranial surgery, was delighted to discover the Island Pacific Supermarket.
Green papaya salad
My repertoire of markets boasts a healthy array of ethnicities — Japanese, Chinese, Indonesian, German, Italian, Persian, Mexican… But here was something new — a Filipino market! More
06 Jun 2014 6 Comments
in Humor, Starlets, Yoga Students & Quinoa (stories) Tags: Armand Kay, Canoga Park, El Savador, Elvis, food, piano, pupusas, Roland, Salvadoran cooking, Steinway
Life sometimes has a strange way of surprising you when you expect little, and touching you when you least expect it.
Such was my past Sunday.
A Sunday surprise in Canoga Park
My daughter, Willa, has been taking piano lessons. Except we don’t have a piano. So we needed to get something for her. My wife was out and about, and somehow wound up at a piano store. She called me and said she’d found an electric piano. I asked how much, and she said $900. More
16 May 2014 15 Comments
in Cooking Tips, Observations Tags: chorizo, cooking tips, Fiornetino, fleur de sel, food, grass fed beef, Maldon salt, Mario Batali, parmesan reggiano, Ronzoni
I was thinking the other morning, as I was writing out a recipe for this blog, about how I often use qualifiers when listing ingredients. For example, rather than saying, “1 tbsp. butter,” I will say, “1 tbsp. fresh sweet cream butter.” Or instead of “salt,” I will recommend “flaky sea salt, such as Maldon.”
Gorgeous pyramid crystals of Maldon salt
It’s because little differences in ingredients can mean a lot. Especially in simple dishes that utilize only a few ingredients. More
25 Apr 2014 15 Comments
in Eating Out, Food, Pork Tags: buffet, food, humor, silent auction, The 1909, Topanga, Topanga Elementary Charter School, Topanga Hustle, wood burning pizza oven
They first approached me about cooking for the elementary school’s silent auction a couple years back. This year, they meant it. And being that it was for the good of the kids, I agreed!
Glass candle baubles dangle from the oaks at 1909
I don’t often do large events — when I cook for others, it’s usually private dinners — and the logistics would be a challenge. The event, 200 or so people gathered to eat, drink, bid on things they really didn’t need, would have a 1970s “Topanga Hustle” theme. More
18 Apr 2014 16 Comments
in Humor, Observations Tags: food, Haruki Murakami, humor, Ivan Ramen, Mariana Trench, Mark Kurlansky, salt, What I Talk to Myself About Running When I Run
It was with a great deal of amusement and some wonder at the irony of things that I noticed, for the first time really, that the two books on my bed stand were called “Salt” and “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.”
Both were given to me by friends. “Salt” (full title: “Salt: A World History”) came from my friend Brian, he of 90/60 blood pressure about whom I previously wrote, who also brought me a small container of Japanese salt from the depths of the Mariana Trench — the deepest spot in the Pacific Ocean. (Brian’s doctor actually told him he needs to eat more salt and more fat. More
skinny girls & mayonnaise 