Gastronomie

Nowruz-e-taan Piruz!

Yes, indeed. Tomorrow is the first day of Spring, which means that tonight at 10:48 Pacific Standard Time, we celebrate Persian New Year.

Last minute obligations are precluding us from making it to Los Angeles as we'd hoped, so I'm cobbling together a Haft Sinn from last year's provisions. It will do, though it can't possibly hold a candle to my mom's. Dinner tonight is the traditional Sabzi Polo Mahi -- my kid brother is braving the Persian market to pick up a smoked fish and green garlic.

We miss our family muchly, but in the past six weeks of living together, my brother and I have learned that we have each other through thick and thin, as different as we may be, and despite the decade separating us.

As we jumped over the fires last night, I couldn't help but think how different last year was -- all I wanted to do was leave the prior year behind, to move on, to purge the sadness and anger of the Persian year 1385. This year, I am thankful that 1386's hardships and sadness were all steps toward growth and strength. All the people I love are in a much better place, and the upcoming year can only build upon the foundation that is solidly in place.

To all of you who follow along every day, week, month -- you don't know how much your comments and emails mean. To each of you who has been a confidante and friend, thank you! And of my family in Los Angeles, I beg your forgiveness, for I know that our last minute cancellation has caused major disappointment. I love you dearly.

Nowruz-e-taan Piruz, Interwebs!

Tags: Persian, New Year, Nowruz, Nowrouz, Eid, Haft Sinn, San Francisco, Food & Drink

Beer + Monks + Oakland = The Trappist

I have started this post at least four times. Seriously, I'm not exaggerating - something about The Trappist, or Belgian beer, or Oakland, or some combination thereof makes my adorable little MacBook go "pffflt" and shut down Firefox.

But I'm a trooper, and I just have to give Brother Chuck and Brother Aaron some love. (No, silly, they are NOT really monks, though if monkhood were bestowed on the basis of how much joy one can bring to the unwashed masses, they'd definitely be in the running).

The Trappist opened in Old Oakland, and to little fanfare, in December by two guys who love Belgians and were over their day jobs. They offer 15 beers on tap, which rotate more often than I can keep up with, and another 100 or so selections by the bottle. The majority of beers are served in proper stemware (see here), and at the proper temperature. The bar and taps were imported from Belgium, and bring an incredible sense of character to this tiny space on 8th Street.

It's at The Trappist where I first tasted a Flemish Red Ale, which I now know to be a perfect friend to my palate -- I'm quite partial to Rodenbach, as it happens, though Monk's Cafe is lovely, too. These sour beers, somewhere between a Lambic and an Ale in character, are less up Colin's alley, though he too has found a flavor profile he really loves: Barrel-aged Cru beers, Allagash and Carollus in particular, are favorites of his.

There's no food service at The Trappist, but they do have two cheeses available for noshing -- an Aged Gouda and a Chimay -washed soft cheese -- with nuts and the best crackery-breadsticky things I've ever had. Either (or one of each) is more than enough to keep you upright on your barstool while you sample the next beer on your list.

Trappist is far more than you favorite local pub, though it has quickly struck that note with a handful of our neighbors. It's your favorite wine bar, redefined in an unexpected and refreshing way.  It's a place where novices and beer connoisseurs alike can compare notes without pretension or affectation. Maybe most importantly, it's a place where a couple of guys are seeing their dream realized, and are clearly thankful for it, every day.

The Trappist
460 8th Street
Oakland
510.238.8900

Orson is My New Bitch

C's birthday is today (yea, go over here and wish him a good one...) and as true and proper gluttons, we gone done it up right. (sorry. i'm Dooce-ing).

Anyway.

After a mighty fine meal at Levende (proceeds benefiting NextAid), we hopped in the car and headed home. Except, well, I might have gotten "lost". On a route that might have led directly to Orson. Where I might move, if the crew behind the bar would only give me access to the celery stuff they put in the Drink Architected For Me (aka, the Celery Gimlet*).

Anyway, again.

Remember that scene in the Fellowship of the Rings, where the Hobbits are talking about "Second Breakfast"? Well, we had "Second Dinner". Pop-Rock-Cocoa-Nib-Parmesan-Pudding... Lightly-Smoked-Fish... Chocolate-Enrobed-Foie-Gras...

Dammit, it makes me want to go back to selling my soul for The Man, just so I can eat here once a week. Go here. Eat. Spend. Appreciate not blowing your "Points". Let your taste buds dictate the quality for once, instead of your pocketbook.

Love ya, mean it.

*Seriously, people, do you think I'd be blogging at one in the morning when I could be looking at porn if the the drink was anything less than my personal manna?

Interesting Food -- Are You Ready For It?

Last week, Sam and I went to Orson on their first publicly-open night. She wrote an outstanding post about it here, including some excellent tips for getting the most out of a meal at Orson.

I thought I'd toss my two-cents into the ring, as so many of you today are heading over from her post, and decided to take the opportunity to ask an interesting question, as well.

To begin though, I have to laud Jacqueline Patterson's cocktail list. I fell so promptly in love with the Celery Gimlet that I actually ordered two of them instead of trying a second cocktail. Interestingly, I tried Alembic's celery & gin concoction on Friday night, and have to say that Orson's version is a far more balanced drink. Sam's Catch-22, while not my personal cup of tea, is a masterful libation loaded with flavor.

Also, as Sam mentioned, the Lightly Smoked Fish ($15) is a wonder of sous vide cookery -- the outside is texturally similar to hot-smoked salmon while the interior retains the texture of cold-smoking. Charred Octopus ($11) is a light dish, punctuated by paper-thin shavings of beef tendon and sprouted peanuts; an odd combination to be sure, but one which works beautifully.

When Chef Falkner came out to say hello, Sam and I both couldn't help gushing over everything, from the drinks and savory courses I espoused above, to the lovely space and service. We chatted for a bit about the never-ending "California Cuisine" debate, which leads me to ask you this question:

Is San Francisco ready to embrace technique-based cooking?

Ours has long been a culture of ingredient-driven food, and with good reason -- just stop in at any Farmer's Market and you can see why. But in that process, we've effectively denied our restaurant kitchens the opportunity to develop and cultivate the use of creative techniques, styles, and flavors.

I think back to the wonderful and memorable Smoked Yogurt that accompanied our chocolate cake at Coi, and how it disappeared not long after our meal there because it was "too different". And yes, while I know that Winterland's location was cursed, it's still unfortunate that they closed SO quickly (though, by all accounts, service never really got where it needed to be). How about the dishes that Daniel Humm was turning out at Campton Place? How could we have let a creative mind of his caliber run off to New York?

The question has been asked many times, many ways. But I can't help but ask it again. Are we willing to pay top-dollar for food because of the effort it takes? Is San Francisco ready to support a local favorite daughter in her attempt to push the boundaries of what we eat in this town?

Weigh in, please. I'm truly curious to know your thoughts.

Tags: Citizen Cake, Orson, Elizabeth Falkner, Molecular+Gastronomy, Cooking, Restaurants, San Francisco, Food & Drink

Chocolate for lunch, anyone?

One of the things I love most about my office is its proximity to Fog City News, home of San Francisco's best chocolate bar selection. This would be a conundrum if I worked with chocolate-haters, or worse, eaters of mediocre chocolate. Fortunately, the office is staffed by folks who let only the finest chocolate pass their lips, and while our weekly outings can add up in cost, the resulting endorphin rushes are well worth it.

In any typical week, there are an assortment of bars on offer in the kitchen which would sate any mood. Feeling feisty? Here, try the Chipotle bar. Catching a cold? Good thing we have orange infused chocolate! In a lull? There's bound to be an Earl Grey bar in here somewhere.

Until today, however, there was no chocolate bar suitable specifically for a missed lunch. Today, we remedied this with the exquisitely unique Basil & Lime bar from Rococo Chocolates. If ever there was a savory chocolate, this is it.

Based in 65% cocoa, infused with the scent of a Persian garden, and with a mouthfeel we all found pleasant -- not too fatty, not too chalky -- this bar enjoyed a 100% acceptance rate in the office. No small feat, that.

Rococo has an incredible assortment of flavors, some of which are becoming more standard these days (Cocoa Nib or Earl Grey, for example), while others are still quite unique (Cardamom, Orange-Geranium, and Peppered Mint are intriguing). They also have the Mystery Sense Bar:

"Anyone purchasing the bar will be biting into the unknown and have to use their senses to guess the flavour. For each chocolate bar sold, 50p will be donated to Sense."

Very clever, and very cool, indeed.

Rococo bars aren't cheap - I think they ring in at around $9/bar at Fog City - but the flavors are intense enough that you won't find yourself finishing a whole one too fast.

Oh, and for anyone wondering: Yes, we have tried Vosges' Mo's Bacon Bar. We weren't so impressed - the bacon flavor is rather muted, and the not-quite-crisp-not-quite-chewy mouthfeel of the bacon bits is distracting to say the least. We'll happily stick with the Barcelona Bar which, despite its lower cocoa content, hits the mark on the combination of sweet, salty, bitter and texture.

Tags: Chocolate, Fog City, Vosges, Rococo, Candy, Sweet, San Francisco, Food & Drink

My personal prayer

Lord, as I turn off my laptop.
And board the plane,
Stowing all my portable electronic devices under the seat in front of me
Or
In the overhead bin,
Please protect me
And my harddrive.

Amen.

(Otherwise known as "the prayer of the traveling salesman")

Who Wants to Give me Camera Advice?

Years and years ago, I abducted my dad's then-highly-coveted Nikon and taught myself to take pictures. As with so many other things during my teen angst years, I quickly grew bored of ALL THOSE LENSES, and trying to "work with" the available light, and to be honest, I didn't think I had such a great eye anyway.

So, I returned the camera to its pristine case, and satisfied myself with time spent in the darkroom, developing other people's photos for the newspaper and yearbook.

On my recent trip to Italy, though, I found myself enamored of being behind a lens again. When I came back, I decided I wanted to upgrade from my five-year-old Canon point-and-shoot. Then I put it off. And put it off some more.

Well, C finally put his foot down after I kept borrowing his camera in NY, and we are finally getting me a new camera. But I'm torn about what I want to shoot with.

The options are the new Powershot G9, or the EOS Digital Rebel XTi, and I'm definitely going to keep the older camera for things like Burning Man.

On the one hand, I love the idea of upgrading to an SLR -- I know I'll have lots more control over my images, and C has tons of lenses that I can use with the Rebel. But I do worry about toting around an SLR; will the size put me off of taking it with me wherever I go?

On the other hand, the G9 is nice and compact, and is getting GREAT reviews. But it's still a point-and-shoot, and I wonder if I won't grow bored with it fairly quickly.  I'm definitely more into taking landscape and still shots, but the G9 is also probably better suited to capturing spontaneous images, right?

Help me, interwebs! Please leave your thoughts, suggestions and opinions in the comments so others can benefit, too. And if you've shot with either of these two cameras, please let me know what you think.

Tags: Cameras, Canon, EOS Rebel, G9, Advice, Photography, San Francisco, Food & Drink

A Brooklyn Afternoon, Gastronomie-style

I have this friend. We'll call her "Angela".

I met Ang 10 years ago, when we were both too mature for the group of friends we were hanging out with, but we'd sadly lost touch for most of the last seven years.  Enter MySpace (yes, I succumbed), and a few exchanged emails, and a ridiculously fun weekend before New Years, when she was visiting her brother who lives here in San Francisco.

Angela lives in NYC, you see -- Williamsburg to be exact -- and on New Years Day, when we said goodbye, it was knowing that we'd rekindled a friendship that fizzled all too early many years ago.

Suffice it to say that when we hit up New York this last time, it was a given that we'd go to Ang's 'hood to get a taste of what's going on in Brooklyn. And a tasty sojourn it was, my friends. As we left her apartment, she told us that she was taking us for a brunch the likes of which she'd only otherwise had in San Francisco.

Roebling Tea Room is a wonderful space, light-filled and high-ceilinged, with an imposing tea bar in the center of the room. While service was a bit spacey, the food was all stellar, including The Eggs. I don't like eggy things, and yet, I was so enamored of Roebling's Baked Cheddar Eggs with Fennel-Raisin Toast & Grits ($9) that I've tried to recreate them at home no fewer than three times since I've been back. That dish might actually inspire me to start, you know, BAKING. Because the thing is, I can't find FENNEL-RAISIN BREAD anywhere. Acme? Arizmendi? Della Fattoria? Are you listening???

From Roebling's, we headed towards the waterfront as Angela shared the neighborhood's history, from the Greenpoint oil spill to the indie music and art scene flourishing there today. We stumbled upon a corner bar, what might be considered the epitome of a neighborhood dive, and popped in for pints of Stella Artois and Guinness. Ang decided we needed some coffee next, so we headed back towards her house, stopping at a tiny little coffee shop with a MacBook at every seat, where she and C were delivered a pair of bittersweet mochas by a stunning Nuyorican diva.

As we came to the corner where we were to turn right towards Ang's apartment, my nose picked up the smell of barbeque smoke. I turned to C and said, "Do you smell that"? The look on his face told me he did. Fearing for her life, Angela revealed that Brooklyn's best barbeque was ON THIS VERY BLOCK. And so, we found ourselves at...

...Fette Sau*, or Memphis Minnie's Long Distance Lover. Look, I don't got to 'que joints for vegetables, and neither should you. So do I care that the too frou-frou sides are too expensive? No. And does it bug me that their sauces are merely OK? Well, alright, this one bugs me a little bit, but keep reading and you'll see why it's forgiven.

We ordered a sampling of three different cuts (~$15 for 1lb of meat) to share, since we had a dinner planned at Aquavit in two short hours. But I can tell you honestly that the meat here? It is so incredibly well-smoked, so moist and juicy and tinged with beautiful pinky goodness that I didn't WANT anything to interfere with my enjoyment of the bovine and porcine bits.  Except maybe one of those, oh, FIFTY OPTIONS for Bourbon. Because these people? They clearly know that nothing goes with barbeque like Bourbon.

Of course, you know the Gastro-crew, and you know that we didn't put on ten pounds between us by the end of  long weekend by stopping there.

One of Angela's neighbors owns a precious bakery called Cheeks, and she'd been raving about their Espresso & Fleur de Sel Cookie ($2) since we shared a fleur de sel caramel in San Francisco. It was incredible. Layers and layers of flavor, chewy, satisfying. Delicious. Of course, C's chocolate chip cookie was gone fast enough that I got only a tiny nibble. I'm totally enamored of this cutie-patootie little place, and C shouldn't be surprised if his birthday cake this year is a Red Velvet from Cheeks.

*Pay no attention to the tools who give this place fewer than four starts on Yelp. Seriously, one of these morons actually says that the "pork belly was a tad bit fatty". No shit, Sherlock. Please go back to your flavorless, fatless meat product dinner and leave the rest of us your portion of deliciously fatty bacon.

Tags: New York, Brooklyn, Williamsburg, Fette Sau, Roebling Tea Room, Brunch, Barbeque, San Francisco, Food & Drink

Inspired by Inspiration

I draw so much inspiration from my friends, be they bloggers, industry colleagues or simply wonderful people -- I feel lucky at this point in my life to be surrounded by interesting, loving, life-affirming friends. So when I read this piece on Jen's blog, and saw that it had been inspired by another blog I enjoy reading, I knew I was going to steal it. (I think...yes, this is the 2nd time I've done this to Jen!)

25 Things I Never Get Tired Of:

1. Because it's front of mind, being genuinely excited about politics!
2. Looking at my US Passport - I can go almost anywhere in the world with that thing!
3. Watching Bo and The Crazy Puppy play tirelessly
4. The view of San Francisco from midway across the Bay Bridge
5. Sushi
6. The thrill of filling one Moleskin, and unwrapping a new one
7. Crossing something off my "100 Things to Do in the Next 10 Years" list
8. Adding something new to the aforementioned list
9. The smell of jet fuel at the airport
10. Walking down the jetway to go somewhere new and unexplored
11. The look C and I exchange when we eat something delicious or see something magical
12. People smiling at Bo everywhere we go - he just makes people happy
13. A house full of people
14. Those rare moments when I cease to be my brother's "Big Sister", and am just his friend
15. Watching dog shows on TV for glimpses of my favorite breeds: Frenchies, Bulldogs, Mastiffs & Boxers
16. Placing a dog in his or her forever home
17. Catching sight of my tattoo in the mirror - it holds so much significance for me
18. Closing a deal I worked really hard to win
19. Shoes
20. Laughing fearlessly at my own malapropisms: "The wages of sin is war" or "[I know he's a FAM because] he's packing wood."
21. The thrill of really communicating with someone in a new language
22. Finding and using a word in Farsi I didn't know I knew
23. Sharing my heritage with people I care about
24. Sitting in a sun-drenched patch on a cold day
25. Spectacular sunsets

How about you?

St. George Spirits Absinthe -- No Longer Green...

...with envy, that is.

You see, when the first batch of the the Absinthe Verte was released back in December, I missed the chance to get a first-release bottle. So I've been waiting with bated breath (since August, if you want to know the truth) to get my paws on my very own bottle.

Today, C and I made our way to the distillery right around noon, fortuitously bumping into a couple of friend who had gotten in line just before us. Fortuitous because the wait was a stultifying two-and-a-half hours. In icy cold weather. And biting wind. On an empty stomach. And no caffeine.

Like I say, fortuitous, because if the company hadn't been good, C and I would likely have killed each other!

In any case, the wait was more than worth it. I'm not a huge fan of licorice or anise, but the final product out of the labs at St. George is so unique, and so incredibly complex, that the the fennel-type flavors are but a single facet of the overall experience.

The first sip is almost cloyingly sweet, with a saccharine finish that keeps on giving. But each subsequent sip reveals a new flavor -- tarragon, lemon balm, star anise. The fragrance, too, develops depth before your eyes, as the melting ice awakens the volatile oils in the liquor.

Is it any wonder that this magical green elixir inspired such art and poetry?

At last check-in, the distillery still had some bottles of Absinthe Verte left (there were around 1,000 bottles available today). Failing that, you might try one of the handful of retailers who have the remaining allotment of the stuff: Hi-Time Wines, Jug Shop, K&L Wines, Wally Wines & Spirits or D&M Liquor.

St. George Spirits
2601 Monarch St
Alameda, CA
510.864.0635

Tags: Hangar One, St. George Spirits, Absinthe, Liquor, Lance Winters, San Francisco, Alameda, Oakland, Food & Drink