04 Mar 2014
by scolgin
in Pork, Recipes, Video
Tags: food, Mexican cooking, Mexican pizzas, Mexico, Oaxaca, recipes, Rick Bayless, street food, Tlayuda
It was a Saturday afternoon, I had a bit of a cold. So I settled into my bed to watch cooking shows on PBS. One of my favorites is “Mexico One Plate at a Time,” with Rick Bayless spotlighting a different region of Mexican cooking each season. This season, he’s in Oaxaca, which is a part of Mexico I’ve never had the privilege to visit.
I often get inspired to cook by things I see Rick talking about on his show — last season he was in Baja, and I found myself trying out air-dried machaca beef, shrimp tacos folded in fried cheese and even an avante garde foamy sea urchin ceviche. And now, lying in bed, I watched as Rick, visiting a sustainable farm in the Oaxacan mountains, dug into something called a tlayuda. More
28 Feb 2014
by scolgin
in Food, Humor, Observations
Tags: 99 Ranch Market, food, humor, Kasugai, msg, peas, snacks, Sprouts, Trader Joe's, wasabi
My wife recently asked me to pick up some wasabi peas for her. Or more precisely, she said, “Put wasabi peas on your list.”
What’s wrong with this picture?
My list, of course, is the running grocery list I have going at all times. It’s a square post-it note that sits on my desk and which everyone knows not to touch lest the provisions and dining schedule be thrown into chaos. My list will usually have several categories: “Japanese market,” “TJs” (Trader Joe’s), “Grocery” (general), “Sprouts,” and sometimes the odd addition such as “Persian market” or “99 Ranch”. Lacking specificity, I put my wife’s request under “TJs”. More
21 Feb 2014
by scolgin
in Beverages, Humor
Tags: Ballast Point, beer, food, humor, IPA, Pliny the Elder, Russian River Brewing Company, Sculpin, Yard House
I like to do beer reviews from time to time, especially when I discover a new beer that sets my heart a flutter.
Such was the case recently when I was out to lunch at a beer chain place called Yard House with my father and brothers. I was looking over the comprehensive list of beers on tap, including plenty of favorites and plenty I’d never heard of, when I spotted a chalk board with some special selections. I picked one whose name I liked, and which was local — Ballast Point Sculpin IPA from San Diego. And imagine my surprise when here, in my glass, was one of the best beers I’d ever tasted! More
14 Feb 2014
by scolgin
in Cookbooks, Recipes
Tags: Book of Miso, food, Google books, humor, japan, Japanese cooking, miso, Nobu, sake
I got to my in-box one morning to discover an email from my pal Paul in Florida with a link to a Google book called “The Book of Miso.” The book had been written in the 1970s, published originally as one of those old timey paper editions, one would have to assume. It was filled with the line drawings popular with cookbooks of that era.
“You probably already have it but it is new to me,” Paul said. People often mistakenly assume that I have every piece of information on cooking ever published. I do not. More
07 Feb 2014
by scolgin
in Recipes, Starlets, Yoga Students & Quinoa (stories)
Tags: arugula salad, cauliflower, cauliflower candy, cooking, food, humor, Laura Miles, Portland, recipe, yoga
I used to be roommates with my sister Laura, who was a skinny yoga teacher pescetarian type (and partially responsible for the name of this blog). Laura used to roast all manners of vegetables — squash, eggplant, cucumbers — always sliced into little coins, always cooked until they became caramely and delicious. It was a nifty trick I was never quite able to repeat — perhaps because Laura was such a prodigious user of olive oil. Where others would drizzle, she would pour.
Before
One day, I was roasting some cauliflower and forgot about it. It cooked about 45 minutes longer than I had intended. And when I finally returned to the oven, the plump snow florets had shrunk by two thirds into little brown caramel bombs. More
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