i’ve seen this bar a few times on the 5-fulton, so i asked lisa (one of my roomies) if it was rad. she said that it’s a good last stop if you’re on an awkward date and want to get home soon.
anyway, i’m sure its good for other reasons too.
still, i saw some rad dogs, adorable babies, and good looking men.
i’ve also discovered that have this great knack for getting to places through the sketchiest streets possible.
so far most of the coffee that i’ve had here has been pretty mediocre. philz is usually pretty good, until they start adding weird stuff to coffee. like cardamom. i mean, sure, cardamom is nice, but it really ruins coffee unless you throw in lashings of milk and sugar.
don’t even get me started on this ‘cafe au lait’ that i had at boudin. they make decent bread and croissants, but i can’t believe i bothered getting coffee there. “yeah, that’s just milk. you have to fill it up with coffee in the vats over there.” uh, hello, no. refund please. and btw, scalding hot coffee is NOT good coffee. oh, why do i even bother.
ritual, at least, can pull a good espresso. had a double shot machiatto and it was surprisingly non-acidic. it’s also incredibly nutty. still not quite the same as what i’m used to back in sydney, but it’s still good. and certainly redeemed the overall SF coffee search and destroy / devour mission.
an idea i had on the train, back in sydney:
a community-driven site / app featuring a year-long, weekly calendar detailing the produce available in your local area (e.g., central new south wales coast, marin county, even okinawa) for that particular time of the year and using almost-real-time information.
its funny how funereal and death row-esque last meals with family / friends / coworkers may seem, even though in reality they’re full of laughs and just good eatin’.
just a sample of some of the last things i’ve eaten, in my recent celebratory / mourning activity:
i’m finishing up my food-nostalgia trip before leaving my home for the last 6 years, but ironically i haven’t had much of an appetite for the last two weeks. being blubbery and not-wanting-to-say-goodbye can do that, i suppose.
on a typical sunny saturday sometime last year, j was coming over for lunch on 2 hours notice so i ran out to the butchers and pulled together a veal saltimbocca. it’s one of those recipes that make you look way more talented (in the kitchen) than you actually are. which is exactly what i’m all about when it comes to cooking — and the good flava-flavours, of course.
and it must have been that good ‘cause he still remembers it. that’s pretty rare, because i’m a much better baker than i am a cook.
veal saltimbocca
recipe from hamlyn cookery school — serves 2
place the veal between 2 layers of clingfilm and beat them with a rolling pin or meat mallet until they are very thin. season the flour and use it to dust the meat.
melt half of the butter in a large, heavy-based frying pan and quickly fry the veal, in batches, until lightly browned, draining the meat and transferring the slices to a plate.
lay a slice of prosciutto and 1 sage leaf on the centre of each escalope and return them to the pan for a further 2-3 minutes until cooked through, carefully turning each escalope once to sear the prosciutto and sage. drain and transfer to warm serving plates.
pour the wine into the pan and let it bubble until reduced by about half. cut the remaining butter into pieces and whisk into the wine. season to taste and pour over the escalopes to serve.
not my birthday yet, but it would be a worthy addition to my cookbook collection (cough).
me: i’m hungry. what should sick ppl eat?
j: you should haves chicken soup!
me: but that takes ages to make. i gotta buy chicken bones. and by the time its done i’ll be dead.
(he makes things sound so easy sometimes.)
creamed corn and chicken “good for what ails ya” soup
gchat recipe by jason
all you needs is like, 4 chicken legs and simmer them until the meat is falling off the bone and the water you used becomes your stock!
then you just add a tin of creamed corn, stir in a beaten egg, salt to taste and plenty of freshly ground black pepper, a handful of chopped parsley, and bam.
but they’re probably not on this site.
a $150 per person degustation, not including wine, is no joke. neither is the seared yellow fin tuna with ruby grapefruit, nestled with 2 slices pork belly + crackling and good-god-where-have-you-been-for-all-of-my-life honey pepper sauce.
(anna and i, locked in a gunfight)
today is international women’s day * so i thought i’d wield my feminine guns (yeehaw!) and share the 1 million women campaign.
your typical supermarket mother-warrior, armed with rickety cart and not letting you push past, actually has more power than you think.
for starters, women make almost all of the consumer choices for any household — think about the number of ads on t.v. specifically targeted at women who “want the best” for their family. the smartest food retailers don’t target young people or men — they go straight for their girlfriends, wives and mothers.
the 1 million women campaign is basically a pledge system for women — and men — to commit to small, feasible activities to reduce their carbon footprint.
each activity is simply and thoroughly explained so that you can understand the impact that small gesture can have — such as
the idea is that you don’t have to understand the finer details of climate change and still be able to get on with it. and with the verbal power of women, it’s not hard to see how women can take something small and tell a million other women about it. i’ve been told that i can talk for my country. (i don’t think that was meant to be a flattering comment, though.)
* the only reason why i know this is because it’s called 三八婦女節 san ba fu nü jie in mainland china & taiwan. and its very memorable because it’s basically an insult to women.
if you can’t read chinese, literally it translates to “3 8 women festival” — and to call a chinese woman a 三八 (the numbers 3 — san — and 8 — ba) is to basically say that she’s clucky, uncouth and loves sticky-beaking into other people’s business. so i guess it’s just unfortunate (and amusing) that international women’s day in mainland china / hong kong / taiwan is named after a derogatory term aimed specifically at women.
quinoa was pretty sacred stuff to the incas, who called it the “mother of all grains” — and apparently was given to their warriors for better stamina in the sack the battlefield.
(digression: i know that apocalypto is a pretty disturbing movie made by a somewhat strange man, but there are some seriously good looking men in that movie. rawr.)
i’m a pretty regular girl. but quinoa makes me twice as regular (in the good way) and super duper happy for some reason.
i suppose that happiness is now explained, thanks to lysine and wikipedia. and boy, do i love some nerdy infographics!
if there’s one thing americans are good at, it’s cookies. the hummingbird cafe is based in london, but specialises in that diabetic american fare that we seemingly never get sick of until a fateful child’s birthday party / picnic where we totally overdo it and regurgitate it in the bushes.
so while i’m waiting for diabetes to kick in, make like cookie monster and roll your eyeballs in crumbly chewy happy!
peanut butter cookies
from the hummingbird cafe — makes 24 (4 trays x 6 cookies per tray)
when i land in SF, i’m not going to have the luxury of opening up my cookbook cupboard, sleepily scour the pages and figure out on what i’m making for a saturday lunch / baking for the weekend. which is partially the reason why i started collecting recipes in my nomblr.
there’s one book in particular that i want to collapse into a teeny tiny pocket-sized guide, that will expand into regular size at a touch of a button, and carry around with me whenever i’m at the green grocer. i love carbs, i love effortless seasonal sauces, and so i love the silver spoon: pasta.
i whipped up this super simple arrabbiata and went from stove to plate within 15 minutes. this was during a time when we had a surplus of these super fiery chillies from our short-lived but very enthusiastic chilli plant. not one to skimp when there’s a good harvest, i used 1 whole chilli, seeds and all…and oh boy.
penne all’ arrabbiata
recipe from the silver spoon
well, water cress, but it’s nice nonetheless.
grows fast, makes someone happy, and you get to eat it too.
i was recently involved in an argument around chicken paté and making it vs. buying it.
my argument was that by making your own chicken liver paté, you can understand the steps involved in its creation and then tweak the flavours to suit your personal taste. not to mention the ability to screen your ingredients, using the freshest organic chicken livers you can find, as well as a high quality butter, oil, brandy and so forth.
his counter-argument was that some people have been making chicken liver paté for thousands of years, and you may as well leave it to the experts who have had centuries to refine the flavour and texture of paté and have a million (or more) customers to vouch for it.
if you’re in my camp and curious to know how it’s made, then read on. if not, then that’s okay too — i guess that means that i’ll be the first to get heart disease.
chicken liver paté
recipe by belinda jeffery — makes about 3 cups
one parsley leaf at a time.
(anyone have a good falafel recipe?)
quinoa tabbouleh
recipe by jill dupleix, march 2010 edition of delicious. magazine — serves 4
still, there is very little standing between myself and a golden gaytime shirt: the fact that it’s not available. yet.
