Is there anything better than playing in piles of autumn leaves?
The Great Book of Chocolate: Book
Chocolate the exhibition developed by The Field Museum in Chicago has arrived in San Francisco. To the California Academy of Sciences to be exact. This is a great show for kids, with bites of science, history, archeology, sociology and lore. But to be honest I found it a little light on the basics. For example I was amazed to find they didn't cover the three types of cocoa beans. How could they have neglected to even mention criollo, forastero and trinitario beans? Worst of all, unless you visit on a Friday or a Saturday, you don't get any chocolate. Consider yourself warned and plan your trip to the museum accordingly.
While I enjoyed learning a bit more about the history of chocolate, especially about the European chocolate salons of the 1600's (it's time for a revival don't you think?) I truly enjoyed my time in the gift shop most of all. Not because I picked up some chocolates there, but because there I discovered David Lebovitz's The Great Book of Chocolate: The Chocolate Lover's Guide with Recipes.
I adore this book because David Lebovitz is just like me in his passion for chocolate. Not a snob or a know-it-all but someone who delights in chocolate in its many forms and seems willing to go to any length to learn more about the subject. The book is a real romp. Not just delectable recipes no matter what your tastes in chocolate, but also a diary of a week spent in a Belgian chocolate shop, and lists of his favorite chocolatiers, chocolate shops, and restaurants. It also has better history and scientific explanations than I found at the Academy...
Despite what a misguided magazine editor told me about being "so over chocolate", there can be no question, chocolate is back in popularity like never before. Restaurants are serving hot chocolate as dessert, manufacturers are producing more and more single origin varietals and tasting kits and the medical evidence that chocolate is good for you just keeps growing and growing. In addition to the book I recommend bookmarking David Lebovitz's blog, while he doesn't always talk about chocolate, his posts about eating and cooking in Paris will make your mouth water all the same.
Kapiolani Farmer's Market
Today I went to the Kapiolani farmer's market. It's in the parking lot of the local community college also home to a spectacular cactus garden. There are a lot of fresh prepared foods, fruit, vegetables, herbs and even meat and seafood. In lieu of breakfast, I nibbled on panko fried green tomatoes with wasabi lime sauce and a slice of divine pesto mozzarella pizza with tomatoes from North Shore Farms.
I'm really not doing much cooking in Hawaii, except for breakfast, but I did pick up a few items. For $3 I got 2 big bunches of apple bananas, which never taste as good at home as they do in Hawaii. They are tangy and very creamy. I also got some spicy kimchee sausage and a bunch of radishes for 50 cents, to have with bread and butter.
Some of the more exotic items I saw were tropical flowers like ginger, plumeria and heliconia, fern-like Asian greens, samphire, fresh hearts of palm and the item in photo above. It fits in the palm of my hand and parts of it are edible. Do you know what it is?
The Saturday Farmers' Market at Kapiolani Community College
Kapiolani Community College
4303 Diamond Head Road
Saturdays, 7:30 to 11:00 a.m.
La Fête du Fromage - le Cados
The jury's still out on this one.
I take a bite and it is pretty tasty. Then I start chewing and absorb the full, heady, boozy flavor, and it practically knocks me on my ass.
Le Cados.
Another cheese by Carole Brihier of La Société Fromages Service in Campigneulles-les-Grandes, in the Pas-de-Calais département. She's the genius behind le Cameau, a cheese we tasted a few weeks ago.
Calvados soaked breadcrumbs surrounding rich Camembert
My husband and I both tasted it. Both of us were undecided. Was it good? Did we like it? It was highly unusual for both of us to be this ambivalent. We aren't shy about expressing our opinions around here!
So we recruited six friends to be guinea pigs and give us their opinion as well.
"Too strong."
"Would taste delicious with apple or pear slices to cut the strong flavor."
"Strong and unusual. It's...interesting."
"Wow. Really rich and has a strong alcohol flavor."
Do I sense a pattern here?
Le Cados' strength is exactly why neither my husband nor I were sure about it. Not that I don't like strong cheese. Au contraire. I love it.
But this Calvados soaked, raw milk Camembert is exceptionally potent and intense.
So, as half of it sits in my fridge, uneaten and mocking me every time I open the door and look in there, I have to state my honest opinion and say that it is highly doubtful that we'll finish it.
I wanted to like le Cados, I really did.
However, I won't be pursuing this one again any time soon.
I take a bite and it is pretty tasty. Then I start chewing and absorb the full, heady, boozy flavor, and it practically knocks me on my ass.
Le Cados.
Another cheese by Carole Brihier of La Société Fromages Service in Campigneulles-les-Grandes, in the Pas-de-Calais département. She's the genius behind le Cameau, a cheese we tasted a few weeks ago.
Calvados soaked breadcrumbs surrounding rich CamembertMy husband and I both tasted it. Both of us were undecided. Was it good? Did we like it? It was highly unusual for both of us to be this ambivalent. We aren't shy about expressing our opinions around here!
So we recruited six friends to be guinea pigs and give us their opinion as well.
"Too strong."
"Would taste delicious with apple or pear slices to cut the strong flavor."
"Strong and unusual. It's...interesting."
"Wow. Really rich and has a strong alcohol flavor."
Do I sense a pattern here?
Le Cados' strength is exactly why neither my husband nor I were sure about it. Not that I don't like strong cheese. Au contraire. I love it.
But this Calvados soaked, raw milk Camembert is exceptionally potent and intense.
So, as half of it sits in my fridge, uneaten and mocking me every time I open the door and look in there, I have to state my honest opinion and say that it is highly doubtful that we'll finish it.
I wanted to like le Cados, I really did.
However, I won't be pursuing this one again any time soon.
KQED Food Site
Back in October I wrote something about Jacques Pepin's new series on PBS called Fast Food My Way. As a result, so many people clicked on the link to the website for the show that the folks over at KQED public broadcasting who had produced the series took notice. They put a link to this very site on their cooking section homepage, and more importantly invited me to be one of the writers for their new Bay Area Bites blog. As a longtime fan of Jacques Pepin, how could I resist?
I am thrilled to be associated with KQED and to be writing for their site which I think will provide a variety of Bay Area perspectives on our rich local culinary scene. While the site is in its infancy, feel free to check it out and read my first post to the site. And as they say in broadcasting--stay tuned!
Fun Fish
Lemon juice, olive oil, basil, saffron, white wine, fresh tomatoes -- I love splashing and sprinkling ingredients over fish with nary a recipe in sight.After twenty or so minutes in the oven, my fish improvisations generally come out divinely.
On fame, funk, and fish sauce
It seems as though every food—almonds to zabaglione, frumpy to fancy—has its fifteen minutes of fame. Yesterday’s coffee is today’s tea; sushi cedes the spotlight to crudo; and pricey imported olive oil gives way to pricey domestic butter. Of this year’s “it” edibles, bacon has perhaps been the busiest on the scene, nabbing the title “best food in the world” in the March issue of Saveur,
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)