Just, god damn! How did it get me? Everyone else in here, it was all, you're eager to please! ME, though? WARY OF STRANGERS. It's all, you haven't resolved your trust issues, have you!

So, todd_lemon, your LiveJournal reveals...



You are... 0% unique and 16% herdlike (partly because you, like everyone else, enjoy music). When it comes to friends you are normal. In terms of the way you relate to people, you are wary of trusting strangers. Your writing style (based on a recent public entry) is intellectual.

Your overall weirdness is: 24

(The average level of weirdness is: 27.
You are weirder than 54% of other LJers.)

Find out what your weirdness level is!

Courtesy of the East Bay Express:

Vino
3531 Plaza Way (at Mt. Diablo Blvd.), Lafayette.
925-284-1330
Hours: 5:30 p.m. until Ascarrunz closes, Tue.-Sat.
Cash, Check, Visa, MC
http://eastbayexpress.com/Issues/2006-01-11/dining/food.html

Halfway through my meal Ascarrunz stopped our conversation and called out to another table, a couple of regulars. "Tell them this is the best food in the world," he commanded.

The man nodded. "We eat here more often than we eat in our own kitchen," he said, while Ascarrunz looked on benevolently.

Vino devotes two-thirds of its menu to small plates, one third to entrées. Dishes like sardines with olives, Basque meatballs, and shrimp in spicy mushroom sauce sample from Ascarrunz' Basque, Italian, and South American heritage. All are simple, familiar, and casual, such as a salad of mixed greens with apples and crumbled blue cheese in a zippy vinaigrette; and roasted piquillos -- sweet crimson peppers -- stuffed with a creamy blend of mashed potatoes and salt cod and set atop swirling tomato and pesto sauces. Entrées such as large scallops sautéed with snap peas in a white wine sauce, and tender roasted salmon garnished with a sprinkle of paprika and a spoonful of olive oil, both come with watery mashed potatoes and crisp steamed vegetables. Vino's food reminds me of the Europe that doesn't make it into guide books and tourist itineraries -- meals I've eaten at small-town cafes, Tuesday-night family dinners.


Britt-Marie’s
1369 Solano Ave. (at Ramona Ave.), Albany.
510-527-1314
Lunch: 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Tue.-Sat.
Dinner: 5:30-11:30 p.m. Tue.-Sat.;
5:00-10:30 p.m. Sun.
Cash and check only
http://eastbayexpress.com/Issues/2006-01-11/dining/food.html


The eclectic menu lists longtime standards that would be impossible to get rid of -- these tend toward the Mitteleuropan -- and specials that you could label Greek, Southern, Asian fusion, and half a dozen other cuisines. My friend calls Britt-Marie "the other kitchen," the place its regulars go to when they get home from work and don't want to bother turning the stove on. Which pretty much describes its homey food: spanakopita, sliced cucumbers tossed with sour cream and dill, roasted beets and overdressed greens, portobello mushroom slathered in a thick soy-based glaze and pine nuts, roasted peppers stuffed with feta, an oddly gooey chocolate-pecan "turtle" tart. The roast chicken and duck are longtime favorites. So is the schnitzel, a lean slab of pork coated in crisp breadcrumbs, and the Hungarian goulash, a paprika-dense beef stew.


Anna's Jazz Island
Details:
Live music every night at 8 p.m., with regular jazz and blues jams. 510-845-5515 or AnnasJazzIsland.com
Music Genre:
Jazz/Lounge/Cabaret
Where:
2120 Allston St., Berkeley
http://eastbayexpress.com/Issues/2006-01-11/music/music2_2.html

Her tale has unfolded like a jazzy ballad -- unpredictable sidetrips, intermingling sadness and joy, and an overarching air of spontaneity. And indeed, Anna de León's nine-year stint as the owner, namesake, and dueña of a jazz club -- its latest incarnation, Anna's Jazz Island, opened last summer in downtown Berkeley -- is only the latest persona in a life richly lived. As an underage singer in the adult choir, Berkeley School Board member, attorney/activist, single mom, and unabashed "chick singer" in a jazz combo, de León has always drawn the limelight, but she learned how to handle the attention, and the controversy, early on....

But her life is mostly pleasure now. This is all Anna ever wanted, to emulate Billie Holiday's dream of "A little place where I could serve good food and sing whenever I felt like it," as Billie put it. She gets to share her culinary skills, like the Puerto Rican confection besito de coco. And when there's a lull in the onstage action, Anna is happy to regale the crowd with a rousing rendition of "Bessie Mae Mucho."

Date:	2006-01-05 17:10
Subject:	So. Fucking. Fabulous.
Security:	Public
Mood:	amused

In my wanderings through the Web, I found a page with text ads running down one side.

One of them purported to be a restaurant review. The excerpt read, "In a delightfully wry synecdoche of Mos-cow's transmigration from bibulous doss-house to fastidious..."

Well, I kept on going back to it, and finally I clicked through.

It used the word "recuse." I've never seen a restaurant review use the word "recuse" before. And fantastic phrases like, "This scrubbed, wholesome offspring of a publican's brood".

My third favorite part is their review of the drinks menu: "You who fear that Tapas de Comida has strayed too far from its Real McCoy antecedents may be assured that drinks are very much on offer. We tried and loved the already-famous 'Kheres' Fino Don Pedro Romero (r120/75 ml), a velvety potion like cognac without the affectations, with a memorable, almost lyrical aftertaste of chestnut."

My second favorite is the fact that it's a review of a Spanish tapas place, and that little series of letters and numbers? That's rubles 120 rubles for 75 milliliters of cognac. The equivalent of about forty dollars, Google informs me. For a bottle of cognac. I don't know how that is, but I do know one thing: it's a review of a tapas joint in Moscow. Apparently, one of many such places. This is why I love the internet: now I know how the tapas are in Moscow.

And my favorite favorite thing about this article is that it is one of FORTY-SIX restaurant reviews by this guy. This one is called "Drunken Goats and Gypsy Eggs." But the titles range from the outlandish ("Why So Pale and Wan, Fair Bunker?") to the cutting ("Horsemeat a la Trailer"). And every one is a strange symphony of hundred-dollar vocab words and thoughtful culinary criticism.

http://www.exile.ru/2005-December-15/drunken_goats_and_gypsy_eggs.html. Go enjoy yourself.

Date:	2005-12-25 14:54
Subject:	Restaurants I Dream About
Security:	Public
Mood:	hungry

The Bay Area is pumped ridiculously full of tasty and fabulous restaurants at a wide array of prices. There is a thick wedge of them that I think of as "way too expensive for me," even though a relative living on the East Coast once dismissed Chez Panisse as cheap. (Cheap -- I almost spent $80 on lunch there once!)

I didn't, but... almost. It's the accessories that will do it - the dessert options, the beverages, the appetizers. Worse, though, is the way I can never think of the places that I like (or fantasize about) when the opportunity arises. It's very important to have those fancy places come to mind when someone offers to take you out to dinner, just in case it's in their price range!

So here is my off-the-cuff list of places that I like to go, or would like to go:

Citron: Oakland, in the Rockridge neighborhood - the kind of top-notch seasonal food that concentrates each ingredient's flavors and makes me want to eat just the appetizer for hours.

Garibaldi's: I have only been there for brunch, which was fairly expensive, but I would go back for the experience of eating fancy, tasty food in a fancy setting. I think their menu is delicious, and it's nice to have more than one or two things on a brunch menu that I want to eat.

Furenzu: Right by my house, small plates of mainly Japanese-American fusion cuisine. Everything is really interesting and tasty and has cute names. (Shrimp in a nest! Not yet large plates!) Some of it comes off a little too sweet, but it's all good. And the decor is fabulous - all bronze and candles.

Bendean: I haven't been there yet, but it sounds warm and tasty. "Overall, Bendean has the type of menu that makes you feel as if you're snuggling around a fireplace on a cool autumn night." And that's the place that has $13 prix fixe dinners between 5 and 6!

Phoenix Pastificio: I always used to walk by this place, and I never did stop in to eat, but they always had the most incredible-sounding and -looking food. Amazing elaborate desserts, fresh handmade pasta that they cook for you or sell to take home, incredible fresh seasonal ingredients.... Sigh!

Cha Ya: Intense vegan Japanese food. Tons of sushi, two kinds of miso soup, and an awesome array of really interesting dishes. There's a savory tofu custard covered with a garden of beautifully cut veggies. I could eat there every night, if I were rich, and never eat the same thing twice - except that I can't stop eating several items. I always end up ordering way too much food there because I can't imagine not gobbling up the moon garden (the aforementioned custard) or several of the rolls and I want to try three of the specials and of course I need a pot of miso soup... and then I gorge myself, and take a pile of leftovers home. It's an intense experience.

Le Theatre: I like their fall menu a lot. Every year I walk by there on my way to some ASL class or other, and every year I drool over the truffle this and artichoke that. Oh my god, truffles and artichokes, I love you so much. Almost as much as avocadoes. Almost as much as avocadoes.

La Rose Bistro: Mais oui! I long to try their tuna carpaccio. I don't even know if it is still on the menu. One review says, "Almost every plate looks like food porn. Baby carrots morph into skinny-petaled flowers, and herb sprigs and fried-noodle whips shoot off the plate." I seem to remember the tuna carpaccio had some garlic involved. I love garlic even more than I love avocadoes. But that almost goes without saying.

Date:	2005-04-20 14:40
Subject:	Celebrating A New Blog Find
Security:	Public
Mood:	happy

Isn't this a wonderful paragraph?

Grissini or Italian breadsticks are a fantastic kid’s snack but are also a perfect source of small quantities of breadcrumbs. For 500g of mixed crabmeat allow 4 Grissini. Place them in a clear plastic bag and slowly but firmly roll their entire length with a heavy rolling pin. This feels naughty and is absurdly amusing - I do them one at a time. The clear bag allows the maximum enjoyment.

Fireandknives.com, everyone. A total delight.

Also, I really think they should leave the prepositions and participles out of these. But mine amuses me because it is appropriately studded with food words. Apparently I write an awful lot about sashimi, brunch and farmer's markets... what do I mean, "apparently"?

Date:	2005-04-14 12:10
Subject:	My Zagat Votes
Security:	Public
Mood:	amused

Pasta Pomodoro:
Food, Service, Decor: 1 each (out of 3)
Has been described as "McPasta," but has some reliable standards like the savory grilled asparagus appetizer. The butternut squash ravioli are another favorite for their robust flavor, but Pasta Pomodoro sadly skimps on their ravioli servings. The various fettuccini and spaghetti dishes are a better value - if only they did not trade off flavor for size.

Purple Plum:
Food, Service, Decor: 3 each
Deliciously satisfying and inventive soul food never fails to please. The restaurant's expansion to brunch illustrates their flexibility as well as their ability to please: their menu offers retooled dinner favorites as well as sweeter fare. Most dishes transport the diner. (Creamy garlic mashed potatoes, brightly seasoned vanilla yams, fried chicken cooked to perfection.) The kitchen occasionally turns out a few duds, like a recent bitter brie omelette: sadly, these are usually in the vegetarian dishes, leaving some diners with few options. Fortunately, their dazzling side dishes could easily make several meals.

[Edited to add: I recently found out that the Purple Plum is closing by the end of April 2005... so may not be a good choice for the Zagat Guide anymore! The location has been purchased and will become a Thai restaurant in the near future, apparently.]


Zao Noodle Bar
Food: 0
Decor: 0
Service: 1
The menu gets points for including a good number of vegetarian options and even listing the vegan offerings. But my bowl of vegetarian noodles, while being piled high with a mind-boggling array of ingredients, was bland and unsatisfying. Roughly what I'd expect from a major chain. On the plus side, leftovers came packaged in a handy reusable plastic bucket!

Date:	2005-04-04 15:34
Subject:	A Good Thing to Know
Security:	Public
Mood:	hungry

If you like sashimi, at any rate.

I discovered a handy guide to mercury content in fish through fuckcorporategroceries.net. Which seems to be down now. Boo!

But the fish list is still there, because it's from the National Resources Defense Council site.

A brief summary: Salmon rocks! Don't eat tuna! Don't eat shrimp! Eat roe!

Almost everything is okay except for tuna and yellowtail, really. There may have been a few others. Well, for some value of "okay." It's hard to tell what they really mean, since the government is a big fan of "tell them what they want to hear instead of the truth." I still remember taking some Family Life class in high school and learning that we were actually supposed to eat much less meat than they normally recommended, but that doctors told people it should take up a third of their plate because they figured nobody would listen if they said it was something much smaller. Really? You don't think constantly revising your numbers downward as you think people's tolerance changes is decreasing your credibility?

Hmmm... I wish I had some sashimi right now! Time for a sandwich.

Date:	2004-12-21 14:58
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	hungry

Meme taken from the lovely sunnydale47... "This is the BBC's 'Top 50 Foods You Should Try' list. ('In March 2004 we asked you to vote for the top 50 things everyone should try a bite of in their lifetime. This is how you voted.') Bold the ones you've eaten, even if it was just a bite; italicize those you haven't eaten but want to try; strikethrough anything you have no interest in ever trying."

I'm just leaving them unchanged if I haven't had them. And commenting afterward.

Some of these are really weird to me. Not because I wonder why anyone would ever eat reindeer, but for the opposite reason... how are most of these even unusual? I mean, do we really need to say "my god! Everyone should try Chinese food at least once!" or "Look, I know it's weird, but if you just eat a BITE of ice cream, I swear you'll love it"?

1. Fresh fish (Just-caught, or just-not-frozen? I've eaten sashimi... I've made sashimi... so I'm counting it.)
2. Lobster (I'm not sure, but I think I've eaten lobster at some point....)
3. Steak
4. Thai food (That's awfully general, isn't it? It's such a culturally isolated thing to put out there... to boil down an entire, massive, intricate, millennia-old food culture down to "Have you ever had Thai food?")
5. Chinese food (You heard me.)
6. Ice cream
7. Pizza
8. Crab
9. Curry (Curry the imaginary seasoning? Curried food? Coconut curry?)
10. Prawns/shrimp
11. Moreton Bay Bugs (This is such a weird one. We're going from all of Thai food to one extremely specific crustacean? Someone from Great Britain should tell me if this is a big thing there right now. Nat, I'm looking at you.)
12. Clam chowder (Plus, we got some at the store yesterday!)
13. Barbecue (*grinds teeth*)
14. Pancakes
15. Pasta (*puts foot down* PASTA? "Hey, have you ever had anything that was made with flour and water and maybe eggs, in some shape or another, doesn't really matter what, that was then boiled and included in a dish?")
16. Mussels (Heh. Dirty.)
17. Cheesecake
18. Lamb
19. Cream tea (Oho, that's a good one. Although it really illustrates what makes me mad about the "Thai food" idea. Like, there are probably culinary events and experiences as specific and exciting as "cream tea" in Thailand and China and Greece and wherever else. And where are they in this list?)
20. Alligator (Whoa. I haven't had alligator. I didn't know the Brits knew about alligator ;-p I would try alligator, but I wouldn't want to deplete the alligator numbers. Let's put it this way... if you're eating alligator, I'll have some.)
21. Oysters (Oh my god, smoked oysters? SO good.)
22. Kangaroo (See above comment about alligators. I feel a little weirder about kangaroo, because it's a mammal. We all have our little barriers to deal with.)
23. Chocolate (I guess I would say everyone should try chocolate. I don't really see how they could escape it though. I mean, sure, someone living in the heart of Bhutan may or may not have had chocolate. Lots of people in the world have presumably never had chocolate or access to chocolate. But in the BBC's readership....)
24. Sandwiches (See, no fair. You can't have both sandwiches and cream tea there. You can have... I don't know, "English food.")
25. Greek food (mm... dolmades... baklava... what's souvlaki? something with eggplant? You know what I haven't had, is eggplant caviar.)
26. Burgers (Everyone should try a burger? Isn't that just a very specific kind of sandwich?)
27. Mexican food
28. Squid (You know what's good? Squid sashimi. Sunnydale was commenting on how tough squid can be, and I don't like that either... but I think that's true of anything on this list. It's not good when it's made badly.)
29. American diner breakfast (HA! We're up there with cream tea, are we? Hey, American diner breakfast is just puddles of grease and egg and bacon and sausages and... wait a minute... this is just like the famous English breakfast. *sobs melodramatically* We learned it from watching you, dad! We learned it from watching you!)
30. Salmon (*drools* Smoked... sashimi... salmon eggs... loxed... barbecued....)
31. Venison (I do think I've had this, but I don't recall how it tasted. I mean, I think I've had a bite of my dad's or something.)
32. Guinea pig (WHAT? Who eats guinea pigs? *googles* Oh. Peru. Well, fine then. Although Google doesn't seem to think very many people eat them, since almost all the recipes were for *feeding* guinea pigs. (Fattening them up?) There was, however, this one which sounded very tasty.... If I were eating with people who ate guinea pigs, I would probably try some. More about that later.)
33. Shark (Ooh, tough call. I'm not sure whether I've eaten shark or not. Maybe on vacation somewhere a long time ago? I remember reading an issue of Dynamite Magazine where they tried shark's fin soup and pronounced it "chewy." So of course I would have to try it. In fact, if I were someplace that offered shark's fin soup, I would totally order it just to try it.)
34. Sushi
35. Paella (*musingly* paella and not risotto?)
36. Barramundi (See, these people can't decide whether to go super-general or incredibly specific. This is a fish, right? I haven't had it. ... Wow, sneff says it's "the most prized eating fish in Australia." I would have to try it. God, I wonder what it's like as sashimi.)
37. Reindeer (Of course, I'm torn between my own cultural reaction of "you can't eat BLITZEN!" and my awareness that there are plenty of cultures which naturally have reindeer around them and naturally have incorporated them into their meat dishes. I would try it. I bet it's like venison.)
38. Kebab (Assuming that we're just talking about a series of food items on a stick, here....)
39. Scallops (I was always really confused by "scallops" versus "scalloped potatoes," I have to say. Someone should footnote foods for children.)
40. Australian meat pie (Is this a slam? Are you saying that the Aussies make weird meat pies?)
41. Mango (Now THIS I agree with. Although I imagine there are places in the world where saying "you have to try mango at least once" would be like us saying "you just have to try an apple someday!" But you know what? I wish apples fucking were on this list. People should try individual apples and look at kinds of apples and try to see them as something unusual and special instead of some generic pasty boring food ingredient....)
42. Durian fruit (oh, god, I want to try durian so much. But I'm so intimidated by it. Maybe someday... I need to figure out what I would want to do with it first, or it's just going to reek up my house. (more than it normally would, because it would sit around and go bad.))
43. Octopus (Octopus *and* squid? How much of a flavor difference are we really talking about here? Especially when they're cooked? With fancy sauces and whatnot?)
44. Ribs (Ohhh, hell yes. But please - can we not list ribs AND barbecue? Ribs are barbecue, people. No. They are. Shut up. The Food Network told me.)
45. Roast beef
46. Tapas (Yyyyyes. But I've had them (1) french-style sort of and (2) Spanish-style but at a restaurant in S.F. which may not count :) I think all I really had was a couple of potato things. I didn't have "the full tapas experience," imho.)
47. Jerk chicken/pork (Oo, another good call. I don't think I HAVE had jerk anything.)
48. Haggis (I actually want to say I've had haggis, like, a tiny taste somewhere. But I may be thinking of snails. Clearly I need to have haggis again. Hahahahahaha....)

So, about meat.

I try not to eat meat, per se. But it's not like I'm a vegetarian or anything, because I want to try everything out there at least once! And I think it's just as reasonable to eat a guinea pig or a reindeer as a cow or a fish, intellectually - I mean, my gut biases are like "not a guinea pig!" but just because we keep certain animals for food and certain animals for pets doesn't necessarily mean that it makes sense.

But in general I try not to eat meat because it's bad for the environment. And often inhumane as hell.

Date:	2004-12-06 16:53
Subject:	Rachael Ray!!
Security:	Public
Mood:	excited and amazed

OH MY GOD
RACHAEL RAY IS GOING TO BE AT CODY'S BOOKS ON THURSDAY
eeeeeee!

I don't know what to do with that. It's in the middle of the day! Should I be a total fanboy and rush over there just to see what she's like in person for like half an hour and then rush back?

I could always ask to take a longer lunch and work late. But I have class that night! But it's Rachael Ray!

She is SO hot.

Date:	2004-12-05 23:39
Subject:	Mmm.... Crunchy.
Security:	Public
Mood:	full

At my stepbrother's holiday party last year, they had this stuff called peppermint bark, which I'd never had before. I ate a ton. It was really good. It was from Williams-Sonoma.

This year I'm seeing it all over: at Trader Joe's (where it's sold out now), at Cost Plus, even at Bed, Bath and Beyond. (where I bought a featherbed blanket thing! is that immoral? it's warm!! my landlady doesn't want to fix the rotting window in my bedroom.)

So I was shopping around: $9.95 for 12 oz. at Cost Plus and I think 14 oz. at BB&B. And I checked the Williams-Sonoma website.
Right there on the front page (emphasis mine):
"Now a year-end tradition for many Williams-Sonoma customers, peppermint bark is our twist on chocolate bark, a confection originally made from chocolate and nuts. It is so-named because it can be broken off like tree bark into luscious shards. Our peppermint version, made from the finest-quality ingredients, is crafted in the spirit of that tradition. The chocolate is tempered by hand to give it a delicate snap, a characteristic of fine handcrafted confections. At just the right moment, the master candymaker pours the melted dark chocolate on a long table, followed by a layer of white chocolate. Then the bark is topped with a snowfall of peppermint candy bits. (This refreshing candy is prepared from a special recipe developed just for our bark.) Finally, the bars are hand scored, cut and packed in gift tins. The snap of rich chocolate and the crunch of peppermint candy create an inspired combination. 1 lb. A Williams-Sonoma exclusive. $22.00."

And you know what?

The picture of their special little gift tin of peppermint bark looks a LOT like the box I bought today.

Okay, it says Williams-Sonoma on it and it's not the exact same design. Maybe they're telling the truth and their candy REALLY IS worth fifty cents an ounce more than the stuff I bought. I mean, clearly every single box of it is made by a master candymaker, which isn't, like, a title you can just give pretty much anyone even if you're paying them minimum wage on an assembly line supervising a machine which is pumping this stuff out by the yard. Also, nobody else anywhere has developed their own recipes for their products, because they want to use recipes which are widely known and easily copied by their competitors.

I'm just saying.

Maybe they mean that the ridiculously high price is a Williams-Sonoma exclusive.

And yes, I am still tempted to buy it.


*edited to add*
I'm playing with Froogle now... see, if you're going to charge twenty bucks for a pound of this stuff, do at least put King Leo peppermint candy on top. Yum. Their stuff is good. And look, Saks Fifth Avenue is selling the same brand for $25</a>.... but best of all, the Candy Warehouse Factory OUTLET Store has it for $30.

Who says you can't find a deal online?

Date:	2004-08-13 13:36
Subject:	Farmer's Markets (not a totally complete list)
Security:	Public
Mood:	pissed off

From a January post on Craigslist:

Pacific Coast Farmers Markets' Located In Your Community
The following Farmers' Markets are open year round. You can still find fresh fruits and vegetables of the season, along with Fresh cut flowers, artisian breads and much much more.

Alameda Farmers' Market Tuesdays Year Round 9:30 am-1:00 pm
Taylor and Webster Street

Concord Farmers' Market Tuesdays Year Round 10:00 am -2:00pm
Todos Santos Park, Willow Pass and Grant Street

Milpitas Farmers' Market Wednesdays Year Round 10:00 am -2:00pm
Milpitas Town Center Dr. & Calaveras Blvd.

San Mateo Farmers' Market Wednesdays Year Round 9:00 am - 1:00 pm
College of San Mateo Parking Lot.

Kaiser Certified Farmers Market-Oakland Medical Center 3801 Howe Street
Fridays Year Round Rain or Shine (Fabiola Building) 10:00 am 2:00 pm

Kaiser Certified Farmers Market San Francisco Medical Center 2241
Geary Street Friday Year Round. Rain or Shine ( Parking Lot on Geary ) 11:00
am 4:00 pm

Cupertino Farmers' Market at Vallco Fridays Year Round 9:00 am - 1:00
pm
Vallco Fashion Park . Mall Parking Lot Wolfe Road at hwy 280

Danville Farmers' Market Saturdays Year Round 9:00 am - 1:00 pm
Railroad and Prospect Street.

Pleasanton Farmers' Market Saturdays Year Round 9:00 am - 1:00 pm
Main and W. Angela Street.

San Mateo Farmers' Market Saturdays Year Round 9:00 am - 1:00 pm.
College of San Mateo Parking Lot.

Vallejo Farmers' Market Saturday Year Round 9:00 am - 1:00 pm
Georgia & Marin Street.

Jack London Square Farmers' Market Year Round 10:00 am - 2:00 pm
Broadway and Water Street.

Milpitas Farmers' Market Sundays Year Round 9:00 am - 1:00 pm
Milpitas Town Center Drive & Calaveras Blvd.

Santana Row Farmers' Market Sundays Year Round 10:00 am - 3:00 pm
Santana Row at Stevens Creek and Winchester Blvd.

For more information log onto www.pcfma.com or email mrcarrot@pcfma.com or call 1-800-949-Farm
All Markets are Open Rain or Shine !!!

This is sort of an irritating list, I don't know why. Oh - because it doesn't bother to say what CITY anything is in. Jesus.

There are new FarMars now... at least one on Mandela Parkway, maybe some more elsewhere. And of course, it doesn't list ones that aren't year-round. (Like the Berkeley one in the Elephant Pharmacy parking lot, which I think might be all-organic, or the Emeryville one in the Bay Street parking lot.) And it's just Pacific Coast farmars, and I don't know whether there are other local farmer's market organizations that have ones that aren't even mentioned here.

It's so annoying that it's so difficult to find a comprehensive and informative list of local farmars. Everything I find online is either just one association's list, or it's someone's Guaranteed Totally Accurate and Comprehensive List of EVERYTHING which somehow only lists four or five of them. Even the city websites only list a few. It's ridiculous.

It's a fun word to say tho.

Date:	2004-08-05 20:05
Subject:	Sweet Sashimi
Security:	Public
Mood:	accomplished

So, at precisegirl's passionate request, I learned how to make sashimi. A little tiny bit.

This is what I learned.

First of all, you need sushi-grade fish. I read several pages that talked about how you can use any kind of fish. Which is all very well. Yay, fish. Except that if I had listened to them, I would be at the store right now getting some mercury-laden worm-riddled salmon.

Not that sushi-grade fish really has anything to do with the amount of mercury in the waters, as far as I know. But I've already read a few horror stories online from people who thought the undercooked fish they ate in some restaurant was fine, until they woke up puking. "I guess it wasn't sushi-grade fish!" one of them said. Um, yeah... sushi-grade fish is way more expensive most of the time, and I don't think most restaurants are buying it to sear the flavor out.

So, sushi-grade fish. Not all of the grocery stores that carry it label it. Whole Foods, for example, had to point their two sushi-grade options out to me. Which was kind of annoying, but okay, whatever. Whole Foods had one or two most of the time; Berkeley Bowl had a ridiculous number, like ten different kinds including sushi-grade scallops; Andronico's just had sushi-grade tuna, when they had anything. Berkeley Bowl actually had sushi-grade toro, which is something like the second-best part of the tuna (behind o-toro) which I thought was really amazing. If it weren't twenty dollars a pound, I would have bought it!

Actually, most of them were twenty dollars a pound. Berkeley Bowl did have a lot of cheaper options around the ten-to-fifteen-dollar range, but Whole Foods only had one and the fish guy wasn't really sure it was sushi-grade. Although I do like my raw salmon.

Mmmm... very thinly sliced raw salmon... *drifts off into a reverie*

Even better than the big rosy chunks of raw tuna. Mmm. Anyway.

So, the fish should not be slimy. It should feel sort of damp, and when you touch it, your finger shouldn't really feel like there's anything on it but water. If that. It should just be smooth and springy. It should not smell like fish: if fish smells fishy, it's not fresh enough, just in general. At least that's what I hear.

What I've noticed, also, is that when the light hits it at a certain angle it can look iridescent. Which is very cool. I assume that's the fat in the fish - which has all those great omega-3's and stuff - but it's sooo shimmery and beautiful.

We feel bad about eating fish in the first place, so we always do a little reiki on it and thank it for feeding us (and all the other people one fish feeds), and apologize for not really being part of the food chain, and promise to do whatever we can to make the world a better place for fish. I think at some point some money to EarthJustice and other places that support wild salmon environments and whatnot will be changing hands.

So: dry, nice-smelling.... Wild-caught, not factory-farmed. They do horrible things when they factory farm fish. According to worldwatch.org:

The production of farmed salmon results in a net loss to the world's total fish production, as it takes four pounds (1.82 kg) of ocean fish, turned into feed, to yield one pound (.45 kg) of salmon. Excessive harvesting of small, bony fish in Peru and Chile has meant loss of prey for birds and marine life. This harvesting of fish for feed also has adverse effects on human health. In the coastal town of Chimbote, Chile, fish waste in the air and waterways from fishmeal factories has reduced the inhabitants' life expectancy 10 years below the national average.

In addition, salmon crowded into net pens become susceptible to outbreaks of parasites and viral and bacterial diseases, perpetuating the need for heavy applications of antibiotics and pesticides. To give these pellet-fed fish the pink flesh typical of wild salmon, farmers administer doses of food colouring....

Number of different algaecides, herbicides, pesticides, and other chemical additives normally fed to farm-raised salmon in 1989: 3

PCB concentrations found in wild salmon, in a recent study, in pg/g: 5,302

PCB concentrations found in farmed salmon : 51,216

Whole Foods is cool because they have a big board listing each kind of fish they have and where it came from. So when the guy tells me he's not sure the salmon is really sushi-grade even though they all told him it was, but it's $10.99/lb so I'm tempted to try it anyway, I can look at the board and see that it came from California coastal waters which are in really bad condition, and choose the tuna instead.

Sooo.

It's very difficult to become a sashimi chef. You have to be really excellent with a knife, and learn many different sashimi cuts, and I assume you have to learn all sorts of things about the different fish and so on too. I learned enough about one cut to make it at home, but there's no way I could do this in a restaurant. My pieces are still very uneven. But tasty!

This is what I learned about cutting it:

First, get fish that's had the skin removed. We had a really horrible experience with a piece that had the skin on... it meant paying for stuff we wouldn't eat (in retrospect, frying the skin would have been tasty. I always liked to eat the skin on fish when I was little) and hacking it off, and fish going everywhere, and the skin was unsliceable, and it was definitely Learning the Hard Way.

Second, slice it lengthwise so that the pieces will be the width you want. I recommend an inch or two.

Third, take one of the strips of fish and look at the grain. If you cut it perpendicular to the grain, the sashimi will be too tough; with the grain... I forget, but I think it just falls apart. I need to look that up again. But what you want to do is slice diagonal to the grain.

The tricky part, here, is that the grain is usually curved. In fact, depending on the cut of the fish, it may even curve in and out and back around, so that "diagonal" changes for each piece. This is where I started to get why it is so hard to become a real sashimi chef.

What I ended up doing was just finding the diagonal cut for the first slice, and making it, and then looking at where the grain was for the second slice... taking it one piece at a time. This is actually kind of neat because it means that I end up with pieces of all different sizes and a few different shapes, and that can be really fun to plate.

Then I sprinkle all the pieces with soy sauce - well actually with tamari, which among other things is wheat-free, and I think is also aged longer than soy sauce - and eat up!

mmmm... fishy goodness.

The taste is fascinating... depending on the fish, of course. We had mackerel sashimi at Party Sushi in downtown Berkeley which definitely tasted like fish... it had a heavier, oily fish taste without being fishy, if that makes sense. And it had the skin on, which somehow wasn't a problem and was equally tasty. But with tuna, it's very unfishlike. It has an intriguing clear sort of taste. Sometimes it's sweet, sometimes it tastes almost like water, so it's almost pure texture. It has such a great texture; nothing I've ever had is like it. We fantasized for years about the sashimi from Tokyo Restaurant in Davis: that's what a great texture it has.

All right... this is making me hungry!

Date:	2004-08-01 14:41
Subject:	Durian rules (apparently)
Security:	Public
Mood:	amused

*amused* There's something about durian on the food network and they just said in the perkiest voice, "Cheese, a favorite in the west, is actually rotted milk!"

Date:	2004-07-03 17:31
Subject:	More brunch spaces
Security:	Public
Mood:	accomplished

I think it's time to get a website redesign and start building a sort of database of brunch locations and brunch joint reviews. That would be exciting.

So let's see. I think this is it for Berkeley, for the moment:

Berkeley around San Pablo:

Cafe Cacao: Around 7th just past Ashby, connected to Scharffen-Berger. (But they're very stubborn about how they aren't the same busineess!) This place has very tasty food, for the most part, and mostly very normal fancy food with one or two chocolate options on any given menu. They also have a variety of chocolate desserts available a la carte at their counter. Really, really good chocolate desserts. The service, however, is another story. Both times I've been there - dinner and brunch - I've had friendly, cute, totally unavailable and kind of clueless service. At brunch they lost my "doggie bag;" at dinner I ordered nothing but a chocolate pot de creme (served in a tiny teacup) and then couldn't flag the waiter down to get the bill for about fifteen minutes after I wanted to leave.

Cafe Tululah: On San Pablo, near Good Vibes. Celeste says their food is boring and pretentious. Doesn't south worth going to.

West Side Cafe: Ninth and Parker. Celeste does not like the food and says that everything non-bakery tastes of cabbage and vinegar. And that the menu is confusing around the subject of oatmeal and whether or not it is "old-fashioned" style. But the soy chai is the best in the Bay Area if you like your soy chai to taste like snickerdoodles, and the people there are apparently very friendly and dykey.

Tomate Cafe: Celeste says their food and their owner are both very hit and miss, ranging from good to mediocre to bad. And that they had apparently consensual pre-teen child labor which apparently freaked out a lot of the patrons. Because the owner said that it was so great cause it's legal if the parents agree and you can pay them less! But apparently the kid liked it!

Au Coquelet, over on University near Shattuck: Extremely mixed reviews, meaning that I really like their blueberry tart but Celeste and Cola veto it as far as brunch visits go. Oh well, their tart is probably just as available during those late-night food runs.

Bette's Ocean View Diner: On Fourth Street, which area I have a problem with. But apparently it's the brunch location for tomorrow, and Celeste says it's really good. She also says they've been there a very long time, which is good because it makes them less a part of the "rich people madness" over there. She also says the line is "for fucking ever" and recommends going to Cody's and coming back. And that there used to be a city there called Ocean View that got annexed by Berkeley. Also has a giant papier-maché pie hanging from the ceiling and a "great jukebox."

Cafe Durant: On Durant near UCB. Might not exist anymore, but is supposed to have good brunch food. Used to have tiki torches that were burning all the time.

Jimmy Bean's: Gilman Street. Apparently brought to you by the owners of Lalime's, which is supposed to be a tasty place to eat. Supposedly laid-back, eclectic, and international cuisine, with weekly brunch, and winner of the 2002 East Bay Express Best Restaurant award. Which is interesting, actually, since their own website lists about seventy million egg dishes for brunch, some fancy pancake and French toast kind of options, and that's about it: the exact same food that we can get everywhere else, for about $6-$8 a plate. Not that we shouldn't go there, I'm just saying "http://www.jimmybeans.com/JB_6th_St_breakfast.html."

Meal Ticket: San Pablo at Gilman. "Modest food at modest prices," says the East Bay Express, and I'm just going to dump their food porn right here:

"On my first visit, some friends and I dropped in for weekend brunch, finding the room (which seats perhaps fifty) half full. The brunch menu listed a number of straightforward egg dishes, omelets, and pancakes along with sandwiches and other lunchtime fare.

"An omelet straddled the border between French and American styles. For American omelets, usually cooked on the griddle instead of in an omelet pan, thinner sheets of egg are wrapped around a filling and fried until firm and sometimes browned. French omelets are all about texture: fine-grained, fluffy ovals left runny in the middle. Our silky omelet, which tasted as if the eggs had been frothed before being poured into the pan, was filled with sautéed mushrooms, chunks of salty Black Forest ham, and Swiss cheese.

"Equally excellent were the cornmeal pancakes topped with chunks of ripe pears, red grapes, and bananas. I picked off the fruit salad, drowned the cakes in real maple syrup and sliced into the lightest, most ethereal pancakes I have ever tasted, with no trace of grit from the cornmeal.

"One of the day's specials, a small slab of salmon fillet, had been rubbed with dried herbs, perfectly seasoned, and grilled to a moist medium. A chunky, mild salsa cruda -- freshly cut tomatoes, red onion, lemon juice, and cilantro -- mounded on the side offered a nice contrast. The only off note: roasted Yukon gold potatoes, only lightly oiled, had shriveled up after too long in the oven."

Date:	2004-07-03 15:28
Subject:	The Big Brunch Review, Part One
Security:	Public
Mood:	accomplished

The Fat Lady: On Broadway near Jack London. Apparently has Sunday brunch. Very Disney Bordello.

Golden Lotus: On Franklin at Broadway. Vegan brunches! That MUST be good!


Rockridge:

Rockridge Cafe: That's where I get the fabulous cornmeal waffles with honey butter, and sometimes pumpkin waffles. Good stuff.

Citron: Oooooooooooooooooh. The East Bay Express says, "t's still nigh impossible to get a last-minute reservation on the weekends, but the upside of the soft economy means that at certain times you may actually be able to get a walk-in table at Citron. It's definitely not because the restaurant has fallen from the top of its form. Looking over the menu is like walking through a farmers' market, the surest marker of the seasons in our marginally seasonless climate -- everything is locally grown, sustainably harvested, and pick of the crop and, like the service, elegantly orchestrated.... Going early may also mean being allowed to sneak past the stately dining room onto the romantic back patio, where you can dine under vine-covered trellises."

That's referring to dinner; I don't know how the wait is for brunch. But you can make reservations online at oakland.com, which has a ton of delicious restaurants listed, including this surprise:

"Museum Kitchen Nigerian Restaurant
135 12th St. between Oak St. and Madison St., Downtown Oakland CA; Tel. 510.836.5155
Olalekan Williams' authentic African restaurant serves up vegetarian cuisine like plantains and black eyed pea dishes along with fish, beef, chicken and, by request, African snail."

I remember going there when it was on Broadway, and then it closed. I still have the magnet, in fact, on my fridge. It would be well worth checking it out to see if it's really reopened and still there!

And for that matter:

"Ital Calabash
1405 Franklin (at 15th St.), Oakland, CA 94612; Tel. 510.836.4825
There's no doubt that tiny Ital Calabash is a Rastafarian restaurant: Incense and reggae fill the air, and the walls are painted red, gold, and green. Ital food is Rastafarian vegetarian cuisine, made as fresh as possible with no artificial ingredients and little salt. Ital Calabash takes the concept one step further, serving vegan, sugar-free food -- smoothies with cute Jamaican names as well as tofu burgers and "no-meat treat." The friendly staff makes dining a pleasure. (review: East Bay Express)."

Seeing as how I accidentally closed this after writing it for an hour, I'm just going to post links to other pages I perused, and fill the rest of this out later.

chefmoz.org/United_States/CA/Oakland/
parents.berkeley.edu/recommend/places/brunch.html

Date:	2004-05-24 23:14
Subject:	*drooling*
Security:	Public
Mood:	hungry

Thanks to Shaunand her fantastic chocolate/food worship madness, I've just discovered seventypercent.com, an extensive site all about dark chocolate. Oh, my.

They have a ton of chocolate reviews. Here they are on one I haven't met called Amedei:
Soft, subtle chocolate with hints of tobacco, lemon, burnt toffee and raisins. An easy, fast melt with the pastiness of a Criollo. Tobacco aroma, with almost a twist of cheese. Mild coffee in the length, which is good with very slight metalling, but not unpleasant. Great looking chocolate, which will be good for those looking for taste without strength.


They are way out of my league.
Also, taste without strength? It's 63% chocolate, people!
I am in awe.

Date:	2004-05-23 23:34
Subject:	My blog is finally burning!
Security:	Public
Mood:	happy

And so was the oil in the kitchen, unfortunately.

The topic this time is rice. I skimmed through a few pages of recipes at Epicurious and decided on two... sort of:

Lacy Rice Noodle Crisps

Both of them are cheating in some way. I'm sure it didn't mean rice noodles, since the blog hosting it actually says "Around the world in a bowl of rice." And I feel like I'm cheating by using a recipe from someone else who's doing IMBB. It just looked so good, and I've never made rice pudding before, and the point is to try new things, right?

I also changed the recipe. I intended to change it more: I was going to add chai-type spices, combining it with a misnamed Epicurious recipe for "rice pudding with chai." But I forgot. Next time!

The deep-fried, sugared rice noodles remind me of churros. Maybe next time I'll also add a little cinnamon here. I think connor would really like rice pudding; it's bland and sweet and PURPLE.

Oh, right, didn't I mention? That was the main recipe change. I used "forbidden rice," which is black or deep purple when raw and a fabulous very deep and sometimes reddish purple when cooked. Yum. I was afraid it would make the dish unappetizing, but I think it looks exciting and tasty, almost as if it contains blackberries.

I don't have a pressure cooker, so I ended up just boiling it for about half an hour. It didn't turn out as creamy as I think it's supposed to, but the firmness of the rice grains is kind of nice. Next time I think I'll cook it at a slower heat for about an hour. That should work better.

The rice noodle sculptures were interesting. They're supposed to look like this:

photo from epicurious.com/Gourmet, by George Whiteside

I used wide rice noodles, but besides that they do look pretty good and alot like the picture, I think. Not as pale, though. The recipe claims they won't turn brown; they clearly have never turned the burner all the way up and forgotten that the oil won't boil and sizzle until food has been added. I finally realized/remembered that after the house started smelling nice and oily and I looked up to see clouds of smoke beginning to waft in from the kitchen.

So that first lump of noodles turned brown, but it should still be good. I enjoyed how quickly each one crisped and firmed up and turned into Art. :-)

I also changed both recipes to use fructose instead of plain table sugar. Acting on a tip from the very fantabulous kola, I whizzed the fructose around in the food processor to turn it into powdered sugar. It didn't get as fine as I'd hoped, possibly because I didn't put very much in so some of it sat on the bottom. Well, I was impatient - it was already 11pm! - and I kind of like the churro-esque look of the larger sugar crystals.

I've always wanted to turn my food into fancy sculptures! They always show such elaborate sugar creations as toppings on Food Network shows... now I can do the same thing at home with rice noodles!

Unfortunately I don't have a digital camera with which to illustrate this... or actually I do, but not one that is on speaking terms with my computer... but later this week I'll try to make it again and get some friends to photograph it. Just for fun.

I'm just so excited that I finally got to do something for "Is My Blog Burning?" I always find out about it a few days too late! And I really need new challenges in my cooking. It's getting sloppy and boring around here.

The recipe I made tonight:

Purple Rice Pudding
serves 2-4

1/2 cup forbidden rice
1 can unsweetened coconut milk (actually slightly less, because I'd used a little in an earlier recipe... to my shame)
1 cup water
1/4 cup fructose

Good god, I even forgot the vanilla extract.
It's very tasty, I swear!
It's chaos in here lately. *sigh*

Combine all ingredients and boil (stirring occasionally) over medium heat for approximately half an hour, or until the pudding has thickened and the liquid has reduced by three-quarters. Remove and let cool. Top with:

Lacy Rice Noodle Crisps
(Makes two)

About an ounce of rice noodles, any size
A bowl of cold water (for soaking only)
1/2 cup powdered fructose
Enough olive oil to deep-fry

Soak a small handful of rice noodles in cold water for fifteen to twenty minutes. Drain on paper towel, separating noodles into two small heaps, or as many as will make a size and quantity of noodle crisp that you desire. At this point, you can also twist and twine the noodles into appealing designs, but be warned that the thicker noodles especially may not stay that way.

Place a pan of olive oil on high heat. When it just starts to form small bubbles, drop the noodle tangles in one at a time from a spoon. Fry for about twenty seconds, or until firm. Drain on a paper towel and dust with powdered fructose.

Now, to eat!

(A note, later: Oddly enough, the rice did end up having almost a boysenberry flavor to it. I'm sure it wasn't just me! And the crispy rice noodles shook their sugary coating all over the pudding whenever I broke a bit off, which was fun. I think. It was interesting and tasty. And I can see now why the original recipe served 4-6; it doesn't make much pudding, but it is very rich and sweet.)

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Date:	2004-04-23 01:01
Subject:	Additional Food Network Commentary
Security:	Public
Mood:	bitchy

Ha. I spelled it "addictional" by accident.

Lisa Loeb and Dweezil Zappa are showing us around San Francisco now, including Citizen Cake and the Ferry Building. Sigh! But it's not too hard to give that up in favor of bed....

Radio DJ: "How did you guys become a couple?"
Dweezil: "Uh, well, you know how nature works, don't you?"
And then Lisa Loeb does some voice-over just as her boyfriend or whatever is about to give us more background. Creepy. Instead, we get to watch her look for cute things at the Hello Kitty Store, with more nauseating voiceover. And with nauseated comments from Dweezil. "Yeah... this is just an average shopping adventure... for LISA." Yeah. That relationship's gonna last.

*shudder*
Their theme song introduction is a prize. It starts with Dweezil babbling, "I'm just a musician who likes to golf. But I'm addicted to tomato sauce." What? Talk sense, man!!

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Date:	2004-04-23 00:54
Subject:	Iron Chef Rules!
Security:	Public
Mood:	ecstatic

It really does.

The challenger might even win this time! It's the bamboo shoot battle, for Boys' Day. All the panelists complimented the challenger for how well his dishes presented the theme ingredient, how perfectly they were cooked, how they hung together. The food writer - who I love because she always says exactly what she thinks about how the meal works - said she enjoyed EVERYTHING.

Then the Iron Chef came on and served them chili-boiled bamboo with yogurt. For DESSERT.

They all had the funniest looks on their faces. Someone asked if they could try it without yogurt. The actress on the panel today - one I hadn't seen before - slowly turned red and tried not to laugh out of embarrassment and finally gasped out, "I... HATE it!"

I've NEVER heard someone on that show say they hated anything before. And she was the one who tried to convince everyone that the same chef's "American Kids' Plate" or whatever - a trompe l'oeil setup with a fake hot dog and bamboo french fries - was tasty.

YES!! CHALLENGER HAGIWARA WINS!!!!

*dances around*
Wow, 70 to 69!
The challenger almost NEVER wins!!
This was SO worth staying up till 1am :-D

Ha ha, and then they showed someone mouthing off about how in their opinion, the Iron Chef needs to work a little harder on presenting the ingredients before he brings them his "so-called Japanese global cuisine." And that he needs to think about making his food taste good, basically. Cold!

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Date:	2004-04-18 17:45
Subject:	Apparently every journal has to be updated
Security:	Public
Mood:	amused

for Adam's "take back the livejournal" action. And by "action," I mean "demand for linkage," even though he doesn't have his own journal. Funny stuff.

I mean, we went and looked at http://www.livejournal.com/users/kaleidescope/house, and it was almost all Dani anyway. So, you know. Why read anyone else's journal when there's nothing to read?

His whole point, which I don't think he said, was that people in here often will post to the kaleidescope journal instead of their own cause they know nobody's reading theirs. Or virtually no one, compared to that.

Sooo....
How 'bout them... sports team of some kind?

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