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
07 Dec 2012 26 Comments
in Food, On the Road Tags: Chris Waterman, Doves Today, Glennis Waterman, Italy, Rialto fish market, seafood, Venice
When my neighbors, Chris and Glennis, told me they were renting a flat in Venice next to the Rialto bridge — and more importantly, the famous Rialto fish market — it was all I could do to contain my envy and jealousy joy for them. I’ve always wanted to have a kitchen in Venice so I could cook the wonderful and exotic things at the Rialto market. Glennis has one of my favorite blogs, Doves Today. So I made her promise to take lots of photos and do a guest post on my blog. Without further ado, here is her richly documented contribution. Enjoy!
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The Treasures of the Lagoon
“In Venice even ordinary sole and ugly great skate are striped with delicate lilac lights, the sardines shine like newly-minted silver coins, pink Venetian scampi are fat and fresh, infinitely enticing in the early dawn.” – Elizabeth David
In Venice, our flat faced the Grand Canal at the Calle di Boteri, just down from the Rialto Mercado. Here, the great mercantile center of Venice has operated since the 16th century, with the Erberia, the produce market, and the Pescheria, the Fish Market next to one another beside the canal. More
30 Aug 2012 Leave a comment
in On the Road, Recipes, Video Tags: fish, food, Mazatlán, Mexican cooking, Mexico, Pacifico, recipes, seafood
One afternoon my wife and our (at the time) young son were strolling down a wide, deserted beach along a malecón in Mazatlán, Mexico. It was around lunchtime, and the tall spires of the Pacifico Brewery in the distance were inspiring an almost religious-like thirst.
Su amigo, on the beach in Mazatlán
As fortune would have it, a gentleman came running from one of the dilapidated fish joins lining the malecón down the beach after us, promising delicious food and cold beer. A fisherman had just come in, he said, with a particular fish they rarely ever had — one of the best in all of Mexico! However skeptical we may have been about the story, we were ready for the pitch, so we followed him back up to the empty plastic tables and chairs and Tecaté umbrellas awaiting us away from the water. More
17 Feb 2012 4 Comments
in Recipes Tags: Australia, butter, Italian, lobster, Perrier Jouet, recipe, risotto, saffron, seafood, wichity grub
I do a lot of shopping. I go to farmers markets, Japanese markets, Persian markets, Vietnamese supermarkets, Indian spice stores, Mexican carnicerias, Chinese poultry shops… And on the way home, I usually stop at the regular old grocery store. It’s where I get staples — sugar, cheese for the kids, bananas, hamburger buns, etc. Our local one has reasonably good produce, an excellent wine department and a nice view of the Pacific Ocean across the street.
Butter-poached Australian lobster with saffron risotto and lobster sauce
On Valentine’s Day afternoon, I dropped by the local overpriced seafood market to see if anything caught my eye to serve with the bottle of Perrier Jouet I had chilling in the fridge. And everything was, well, overpriced. More
12 Jul 2011 7 Comments
in Recipes, Video Tags: baguette, Bastille Day, brasserie, charcuterie, France, french cooking, fries, frites, fruits de mer, moules, mussels, Paris, paté, recipes, seafood, video
We Americans like to appropriate other peoples’ holidays. I’m as guilty as anyone — on Cinco de Mayo we have friends over for fish tacos and margaritas; never does a St. Patty’s Day pass by without corned beef, cabbage and Guinness. And Chinese New Year always represents an opportunity for lacquered duck. But we the people haven’t seemed as taken, for some reason, with Bastille Day. 
I was in Paris once for Bastille Day. I remember tanks on the Champs Elysees, jets flying low overhead, drunk Parisians everywhere, reveling. I’ve always been enamored of France, and Paris in particular. More
skinny girls & mayonnaise 