How dinner made itself AKA the advent of summer!

Since we finally made it to our local Farmers' Market today, I knew that summer was finally here! I tasted some sweet ripe California strawberries, the tiniest little clementines, and inhaled the delicately heady aroma of green garlic. Given the relative short season for green garlic, buying them was a no-brainer, but then my brain ached as I worried about how to showcase them without overwhelming them. But inspiration soon hit and it all fell in to place: I found some fresh oyster mushrooms and asparagus, and on the way home, I stopped by Trader Joe's (how did I ever cook before TJs?) to pick up some dried pasta, goat cheese and mache.

Our good friend Michele was over, and we went to work. We roasted the oyster mushrooms with some thinly sliced green garlic, tossed in extra virgin Olive oil, Salt, Pepper and some thyme from the backyard at 350 degrees for about 17-18 minutes - watch to make sure that it does not burn, and use your tongs to move the mushrooms around the cookie sheet a few times. Then we cooked about 1/2 a cup of diced pancetta, poured out the excess, added 8 oz of mascarpone to the pan, and heated it through, adding the cooked mushrooms to the pan at the very end. In the meantime, the dried pasta (pappardelle in this case, but fettucine or orichette would also work) was cooked al dente and added to the mushroom sauce and served with some grated pecorino romano at the table. Accompanied by a 2001 Scherrer Pinot Noir, it made a sublime dinner!

We also had a warm goat cheese salad and roasted asparagus, but the pasta was so incredible (and so simple!) that it warranted a blog post, at least IMHO.

And thank you Michele, for sharing in the inspiration, the cooking and the eating, and most importantly, for being my friend!

Slumdog Millionaire

My friends Dola & Laura asked me what I thought of this much acclaimed film... Frankly, I did not think much of it, and I fail to understand why it has become such a critics' darling. On second thoughts, maybe I have an idea why: it's timing - Slumdog set in Mumbai happened to be released just before the Mumbai massacre in November 2008. And with the world's attention focused on this city and its misfortunes, it is easy to fall in love with this vibrant hopeful movie set in Mumbai, even if it is seriously flawed as a film. Yup, the sympathy factor.

First and foremost it suffers from an identity crisis - it cannot decide whether to be a fable, a fantasy love story or a gritty art house film. It tries to be all of these, plus throws in a healthy dose of Bollywood Music for good measure and mass appeal. Granted, many movies combine genres with great panache, but in order for a such a combination to be successful it has to do so seamlessly. And have a heart. And for me, this is where Slumdog fails. The present day story is inter-cut with events from the Protagonist's past: These flashbacks are intended to explain his current predicament and advance the narrative - however, they end up feeling forced and the back and forth slows down the story significantly, and create a disconnect from the main characters.

If you have heard that is extremely violent, you've heard right. And the violence is excessively graphic - so bad, that ultimately I felt numbed by it. In spite of it though, or perhaps because of it, this film succeeds in one very big way: it brings to light the awful and very real living conditions of the slum dwellers in India. And if this helps even a small handful of these children escape those conditions it would be worth it. They don't need to become millionaires, they just need a real lifeline out of there...

That moment in time

My afternoon was pleasantly unremarkable by the standards of most people, but for me it was a very special time. Perhaps the stars had aligned: I happened to be working from home today, on an unseasonably warm January day (~ 69 degrees in the sun) and I happened to be reading a heartwarming book about love and wine Love by the Glass: Tasting Notes from a Marriage while taking a very late lunchbreak in our backyard. And my feet were being warmed by our lab Sammie while our sun worshipping dachshund Masala snoozed on her little bed right next to me.



It felt like spring had sprung early: the birds were chirping loudly enough to drown out the traffic outside, the sky was a brilliant cloudless periwinkle, and the callas that had just come into bloom were being ravished by a couple of butterflies. And the best part of all was that my two favorite girls were curled up side by side at my feet. Sammie and Masala are not known for their affinity for each other and it is a rare sight to see them sleeping close enough to touch! I desperately wanted to take a photo to preserve this tableau for posterity, but I knew that getting up to get the camera would ruin the moment. My only choice was to record it in my mind's eye.



And that's when it hit me - this was one of life's most perfect moments - the kind you wish you could bottle and preserve forever. And although I am lucky enough to have experienced a few of those moments with my amazing Sweetie, I cannot say I have ever wanted to freeze time while I was alone (minus other humans that is). And here I was today, experiencing a perfect moment of profoundly peaceful solitude, literally in my own backyard. True self-contentment. It was an enlightening and quietly empowering moment, and I have my dogs to thank for it.

Anderson Valley: My Happy Place

When life gets too hectic, my favorite escape is to the Anderson Valley, specifically to The Other Place . I wish I could say that it is really my other home, but sadly that is not the case :). It is a dog friendly rental home perched high above the town of Boonville and Hwy 128, and we like to go there once or twice a year for our vacation with the pups.

The dogs get a couple of fenced acres of their own to run around unfettered, and dig for moles and voles to their hearts' content. Sammie likes to swim in the pond, which also doubles as Kevin's Kayaking training area. And then there's a few hundred acres of private land to hike around on. Our favorite cottage is The Oaks, named after a couple of ancient oaks that shade it, and it offers 270 degree views of the mountains that surround Boonville.

I love the bucolic nature of Anderson Valley -- It is green and lush and still a whole lot unspoiled, at least compared to Napa & Sonoma. No fancy tasting rooms, low/ no tasting fees, no attitude, and no drunken frat boys veering wildly on the road. It is mercifully free of fancy hotels and resorts, and celebrity chef restaurants. What is has instead is several very good wineries -- most specializing in dry Alsace Whites and dustier, earthier Pinot Noir.

Navarro is a long time favorite of ours and we served some of their dry whites at our wedding - they are also very dog friendly, and have a nice picnic area -- make sure to taste their late harvest dessert wines -- sweet, but with enough acidity to make it interesting. We also like to stop by Roederer (preferable to go during the week when it's less crowded) Greenwood Ridge (the prettiest picnic area, and a very cool tasting room designed by one of Wright's disciples), Handley Cellars (with a female wine maker making some kick-ass wines) and Husch (their lighter white and dessert wines are a great value) and a comparatively new presence in the area: Zine Hyde Cunningham. I would be remiss not to mention, Golden Eye - they are the pinot arm of the venerable Duckhorn empire, but that venerability comes at a slightly higher price, at least by Anderson Valley standards. It is certainly worth visiting, especially if you can do a tasting in their beautiful outdoor tasting area overlooking the vineyards.

Our latest winery discoveries in this area are two of our favorites next to Navarro, and definitely fall in the not-to-be-missed category. And it is not just because they are really nice dog people, but also because they make great wines and are warm and welcoming when you visit. The first is Londer - chances are you will be tasting with Shirlee Londer in her kitchen, with her dogs at your feet. My favorite is their dry Gewurtaziminer but I also like their syrahs and pinots, especially the Anderson Valley Pinot.

The 2nd is Toulouse, which we found entirely by accident since they were one of the last ones open at the end of an afternoon of wine tasting. We really liked their wines and enjoyed talking to the owner, Vern, and his friends and bought a couple of bottles. The next day we went back and retasted the wines to make sure that our judgement had not been impaired the previous evening. We liked the wines almost as much, and bought quite a bit more. We have pretty much drunk our way through our Toulouse stash, and recently when I called to see if we could restock, learned that they had sold out of all our favorites. And that is also when I looked through their website and discovered that some their wines had been reviewed very favorably by both the Wine Spectator and SF Chronicle. Go Vern, we said, but we were just a little bit sad that it was no longer "our" secret winery. But we are happy at their most deserved success and wish them all the best!

Date Night Dinner with Melissa Perello

Kevin and I like to do monthly date nights. You know, keeping the romance alive, getting away from the daily grind and all that good stuff. Oh yeah, and creating an opportunity to indulge in culinary decadence of some sort on a monthly basis ...

December's date night happened to fall on a Monday -- one of those Mondays when Melissa Perello (former chef of Fifth Floor Restaurant) happened to be serving one of her $45 four-course dinners at Sebo. Turns out that she misses feeding a restaurant crowd (her new restaurant Frances is in the planning stages) enough to start serving a pre-fixe dinner to a reservations-only crowd on Monday nights when the restaurant is normally closed.And we also happened to snag a reservation for what apparently is rather a hot ticket in this foodcrazed town. And frankly, it wasn't even that hard - I read about it on tablehopper (or was it the Chron?), immediately joined Melissa's email list, and then responded with our reservation request as soon as she announced the dates for December! Easy Peasy... and I told myself that finally I had discovered an upside to working a lot - one can respond to important emails like these as soon as they are received!

We had reservations for the 2nd seating at 8:15pm (the first one is at 6pm would be way too early for us -- and I can see my friend Laura shaking her head in dismay at this!) and showed up at the restaurant, miraculously on time. We made our way through the small throng smoking just outside the door -- majority of the guests that night appeared to be from the bay area restaurant industry, and they were busy socializing with each other and with the servers sneaking in a quick smoke break before start of service.

We were greeted warmly and seated promptly at table 1A, close enough to watch some of the plating action in the open kitchen. This was my first visit to Sebo -- I could not find a website for it, but rumor has it that it serves very pristine and very pricey sushi on other nights in its true incarnation as a sushi joint, and is quite popular in foodie circles. Rumor also has it that Danny, one of the co-owners of Sebo, who is not at all coincidentally Melissa Perello's current arm-candy, also happens to be rather hunky eye-candy.

The restaurant is located in a smallish space with mellow lighting and soothingly uncluttered modern decor in a vaguely Japanese vein. The music playing on the night of our visit is probably best described as danceclub-ish, but thankfully just the thump thump thump of the bass beat was the only thing audible, and it was easy to have a conversation at the table.
The pleasantly unobtrusive but very capable service continued after we were seated and throughout the meal. Given that most of the staff working that night had also worked with Melissa at The Fifth Floor, it was not at all surprising that the service was at least a notch or two above what one could reasonably expect at this price point. Once we got the mildly annoying "bottled or tap/ fizzy or flat water" question out of the way, we were presented with the night's menu: 4 courses for $45 with no choices, based upon whatever was fresh at the previous days' Farmers Markets.

We started with lightly fried almonds - simple but yummy, salty crunchy and warm -- what's not to like? And not too filling - a much better alternative for starting the meal than bread or chips. Already excited at the prospect of a nice meal with a very reasonable $10 corkage, we were even more excited to see roast suckling pig as the main course. We requested the waiter open the bottle of 2001 Scherrer RRV Pinot that we had brought with us. It was smooth with muted but discernible fruit, and just enough mild tannins and acidity to be a good food wine -- once again I was reminded why I like drinking wines, and why I love drinking Fred Scherrer's wines.

The first course of roasted caramelized squash with pickled (and crunchy) currants with a sherry vinaigrette was the highlight of the meal for me - the contrast of the sweet squash with the sourness of the vinaigrette and and the interplay of soft and crunchy textures was just perfect.

The next course was a dungeness crab soup with chunks of very fresh tasting crab - a great way to showcase our local crab which has just come into season. The accompanying mini creme fraiche biscuits stole the show however - the warm, flaky, buttery golden orbs were just irresistible, and it did not matter that they were a bit too heavy for the rather thin soup.

The main course of roasted suckling pig was perfectly cooked, but a bit bland and overly fatty for my taste. I needed the accompanying scalloped potatoes and braised kale in every bite to "brighten" up my meat, but given its perfect symbiosis with our mellow aged pinot noir, I had no complaints. However, in the absence of the wine I might have been slightly less thrilled.

The dessert course was a light and buttery brioche bread pudding with distinct savory notes and it would have been nice with the black tea we asked for, but sadly none could be located. The bread pudding was served with a babyfood textured applesauce that did little to enhance it -- I would have much preferred a scoop of ice cream or caramelized apple slices instead. But my real quibble is that this applesauce was referred to as "apple confit" on the menu. Confit - pray why I ask? Confit = preserve in fat, or in the cases of fruit, perhaps candied. This apple sauce was neither -- even my lazy microwave apple sauce tastes far better.

Thankfully, my disappointment did not last long - the peanut brittle served at the end with our check more than made up for the lacklustre bread pudding. Made from the chef's grandmother's recipe, it was crunchy and yummy, with just the right balance of sweet and salty, and since my date dislikes brittle, I was more than happy to eat both our shares.

Overall, it was a very pleasant experience at a reasonable price -- particularly, the white tablecloth service at no-tablecloth prices. I am not the sort to be star-struck but I enjoyed the opportunity to comment about the meal to a celebrity chef right after she had prepared and served it to us (she stopped by all the tables at the end). I hope she was not offended by my comment that she should consider selling the cool burlap aprons that she had made for her wait- staff. And, if you are interested in repeating the experience, hurry up and email monday_night@me.com - you never know when she will stop doing these fun intimate one-of-a-kind dinners!

The mother of all thanksgiving meals!

Needless to say, I had a blast playing a food critic! I've linked the sfgate article with all the recipes, details and photos, and here's my personal play by play from the SF Chron Turkey Tasting.

We started with a soup from each of the chefs: a chestnut-pumpkin soup with pumpernickel croutons from Mina and a meyer lemon-miso broth served with a cranberry-goji berry relish from Keane. Mina was the winner in this round, hands down. I normally don't like chestnuts but this soup was somehow differerent. For starters, it had a lovely velvety texture, and it wasn't super creamy. I also enjoyed the fresh sage and thyme accents - strong enough to be noticable, but subtle enough to not overpower the delicate main flavors. And lastly there was the satisfying crunch of the pumpernickel croutons - a lovely counterpoint in both texture and taste, and adding just the right amount of umami. My only quibble -- the portion served was both too large and too heavy for the start of a multi-course holiday meal! A tiny portion of this soup would make a decent starter, but it would probably be best served as the centerpiece of a simple winter supper, with some crusty bread and a simple salad. And I learned an interesting trick: using water pitchers to serve the soup was so efficient and easy, that I was ready to run home and throw out all my ladles!

Keane's soup was thin and salty (and unlike any miso soup I have tasted inside or outside Japan) and strangely one dimensional. Too much umami perhaps? The best and most interesting aspect of this dish was the contrast of the warm salty broth with the cool sour-sweet relish, but even that was not enough to save it. In my book, this was a flop!

Next came the turkey -- separately confit-ed breast and leg from Mina, and a Hoisin Sauce glazed breast with a confit turkey leg from Keane. I was excited to try the confit-ed parts from both chefs but less excited about the Hoisin Sauced version. But once I had tasted Chef Keane's turkey, I was a convert to both turkey and hoisin sauce. As many of you know, I had never tasted a turkey that floated my boat, though the deep fried version made by some friends from North California came close! This turkey breast was flavorful, tender and lacked the signature overcooked turkey smell -- it was unlike any other turkey (or any meat for that matter) that I have ever eaten! And his hoisin glaze was light and balanced and added just the right amount of flavor to the meat, and it wasn't too bitter, too sweet or too salty like the commerially prepared hoisin sauces I had previously encountered in restaurants and on the shelves of my local Asian grocery stores. The confit-ed leg was also yummy, and very tasty and forktender, just like all good confit should be. Needless to say, I cleaned my plate --something I have never done at any previous thanksgiving dinner. But then, I had also never eaten a thanksgiving meal cooked by a 4 star chef until now!

Mina's turkey was a complete contrast: the confit-ed breast was not only slightly dry, but also tasted and smelled like many a turkey I had disliked in the past. The leg was slightly better, but it could hardly hold a candle to the superior bird cooked by Chef Keane. My first thought: wow, what a waste of 5 lbs of duck fat. My 2nd thought: even 4 star chefs have bad days. And my third and most evil thought: Mina could stand take lessons in turkey cookery from Keane!


The chefs were pretty equal in the stuffing catergory - Keane's fluffy sushi rice stuffing won points for originality with unusual ingredients like cilantro,chinese sausage and dried shrimp. I could have done without the dried shrimp which had burnt to bitter crispness in areas, but otherwise it was excellent. Mina's stuffing was more traditional but no less yummy! And unlike his turkey, his stuffing was not your mother's stuffing (unless your mother is an accomplished chef that is) - made with brioche, pecans, dried cranberries and several fresh herbs and baked and served in individual ramekins -- it was the best rendering of traditional stuffing I've ever tasted.

When it came to the required side vegetable, Keane's roasted brussell sprouts with candied kumquats won hands down in both the originality and taste categories. All the judges (including yours truly)
loved this dish and many of us felt this would be the dish we would be most likely to attempt at home. On the other hand, Mina's sweet potato-carrot puree was a toss up between glorified (aka highly buttered!) baby food and the salted version of my sweet potato pie filling.


And lastly, we had the desserts: The quince clafouti/cobbler with star anise (the recipe published on sfgate uses ginger instead) icecream from Mina had a slight edge due its contrast of sweet and sour flavors, however it would have been even better without the streusel topping which made it way too sweet for me. Keane's pumpkin custard pie with green cardamom icecream was a fantastic dessert too, but perhaps a tad too sweet a combination for me.

And what a sweet ending it was to the most memorable thanksgiving meal of my life!

So, do I want to be a food critic?

The San Francisco Chronicle article asked if I wanted to be a food critic. Duh, doesn't everyone? I am surely not in the least bit shy about expressing my opinions, especially about food, so I figured "why not?" and threw my proverbial hat into the ring. The prize: to be chosen as one of the six judges for the paper's annual Turkey Training Camp. This year's event was planned as an Iron Chef style battle of the chefs, the chefs being Michael Mina and Douglas Keene of Cyrus. I had enjoyed Michael Mina's eponymous restaurant http://www.michaelmina.net/michaelmina_sanfrancisco/ but saying that I loved the food at Cyrus restaurant in Healdsburg http://www.cyrusrestaurant.com/would be an understatement!
So, when Stacy from the Chronicle called to congratulate me, I was elated (another understatement)! I was ready to be wooed by the Turkey and trimmings made by these two famous chefs - hoping they could change my mind about turkey: dry, tasteless, and infused with a strange unpleasant smell!

And finally November 3rd dawned, rainy and dreary. By some strange coincidence, it was the day that one of my foster dogs was getting picked up by her new family. Just as I had sent her off, and shed the requisite tears as I waved my goodbye, my other foster dog Clark mysteriously started spraying blood! Thankfully, my sweetie was willing to rush him to the vet so that I could make it to the Chronicle offices in San Francisco on time. And I was so eager to be there, that my normally tardy self actually made it to their table with 20 minutes to spare! Wow, I said to myself, "I sure hope this bodes well!".

I met my fellow judges, got a tour of the Food Department, and then we got to meet the chefs. Sadly, they had already finished cooking, so we didn't get to experience that part of the Iron Chef competition. But their food was ready for us to dig into, so my sadness was very shortlived as we were presented with first the menus, and then the food! There wasn't going to be any wine pairings and all we had was water to cleanse our palates, but that was just fine with me. I was ready to start my critiquing career!

It was a memorable meal, or rather 2 memorable meals! The Chronicle made us judges promise not to scoop them and steal their thunder, so I will update you all on the meals in the next installment right after the Chronicle article is published on November 19th.