Gastronomy 101

I HEART my blog friends! Picture by R Neil Marshman So apparently, today is Blog Day 2006, which means that you tell some other bloggers how awesome you think they are. I LOVE that. I love it when people tell me I am awesome! In gratitude for being told I am awesome, I will in turn pay it forward and tell some other people that they are awesome. First, thank you to Garrett , who gave me some props. Garrett's blog is one of my regular stops, and he lives in the Sacramento area, which is a place I hope to avoid as much as possible, so you know his blog is totally good if I still enjoy reading about restaurants I will most likely never set foot in. I'm not counting that as one of my blog day things, because this is about paying it forward, not about tagbacks and tea parties. So I will now list as Garrett so eloquently put it: "five blogs that I love to read on a daily basis and/or have recently discovered and have become my own electronic, literary cocaine." Now, I read ...

It's the end of summer and tomatoes are everywhere. Lovely round red tomatoes and multi-colored lumpy misshapen heirloom tomatoes and cute little cherry and grape tomatoes and oblong, flavorful roma tomatoes. And along with the tomatoes, tomato recipes abound. Capreses and salads and sauces and sandwiches--it seems impossible sometimes to find a dish that DOESN'T have tomatoes in some form. So what's a girl to do when tomatoes are everywhere and ... she hates tomatoes? Why, dry the tomatoes of course! Dried tomatoes are so very different than fresh tomatoes. So different as to be a different fruit altogether. And I like dried tomatoes. Dried tomatoes are sweeter and that green flavor I don't like so much seems to get baked right out, replaced by a rich warmth that is much tastier to my palate. Also the chewy, meaty texture is more pleasing to me than the weird firm-yet-squishy texture of even a tomato grown with all the tender loving care of its farmer. Generally I purc...

Trying to figure out what to buy from the market right now? Grapes, particularly Thompson seedless grapes, are hitting their stride right now. Grapes grow almost everywhere and are native to three continents: Europe, Asia, and North America. There are thousands of grape varieties in existence right now. Most of the winemaking varieties come from Europe, while most of the ones for eating for raisin-production come from western Asia. What's the difference? Wine grapes grow in small clusters and are acidic, which helps control fermentation. Table grapes come in large clusters and are sweeter. Raisin grapes have thin skin, high sugar content and come in loose clusters, which facilitates drying. The green fellows that you see above are most common table and raisin grape in the U.S.--the Thompson seedless, or sultana. These grapes are a variation of an ancient Middle Eastern variety of grape, the Kishmish, which probably originated in Persia. Their Middle East origins gave rise to the na...

Okay, today's been kind of a busy day, so I'm going to get lazy on the posting and instead forward an awesome produce-related event that is coming up. Slow Food LA is sponsoring a tour of an edible estate. The edible estate movement aims to move away from the standard ornamental front lawn that fronts most houses (if you are so lucky as to have any yard at all, or if you are not lame enough to build your McMansion right up to the property line) and to move toward utilizing front yard space for growing edible plants. I'm jealous ... the only thing my place currently lacks to be perfect right now is its own yard, which I am allowed to grow things in. Right now all we have is a bump of grass, which is not only obsessively regulated by the landlord, but consistently destroyed by neighborhood dogs, so it's not really available for growing purposes. Anyway, if you want to hear about the project and see what a working edible estate looks like, and even get your hands dirty wit...

It's not too hard to figure out what the industry of choice is in my neighborhood. Walking my dog last night, we wandered through zones of cheering and shouts of "What the f***?" In any other neighborhood this would have been Super Bowl Sunday, but in my neighborhood it's Emmy night. It was kind of creepy actually, to walk through it. It was like a science fiction neighborhood. The streets were deserted ... no cars and no people out walking. And every living room television is tuned to the same channel. Well, except mine. We were watching the last two episodes of "Feasting on Asphalt." I heart you, Alton! Once I would have thought that was neat. But now? Now I'm pretty much over Los Angeles. But there's a few things I still love about where I live. Nope. Not the weather. But. I love that I can walk to both the pilates place and the organic/macrobiotic market. And I love the fact that somewhere in L.A. each and every day of the week, there's a far...

Today I discovered a new food blog-- Tableau Vivante . So far, T.V. has posted some incredibly delicious sounding recipes, and some farmer's market-related posts (one of my favorite subjects). By way of introduction to the blog, T.V. says: " tableauvivante is an informal journal of one person's exploration of the intersections of food, culture, domesticity, and art. Expectations of genius and insight will probably not serve you well here. But a decent sense of humor and an appreciation for experimentation, and all its traps and missteps, is appreciated. Julia Child broadcasted hers on public television. We hope to honor her example. Repeatedly." Check it. It looks good to me so far. Hello, posts about farmer's markets? And my new favorite grapes? And delicious recipes. I am there. You should be too ... Tags: LINKS

It's the end of August, which means that summer is on its way out and autumn is around the corner. It's time to start thinking about what's going to happen when all the lovely summer fruits that are so abundant in the farmers' markets are gone until next year. It's time to start preserving. Once upon a time, households everywhere were boiling, canning, and preserving away at this time of year, filling the larders with fruits and vegetables to last through the winter. Now, well, we just go to the grocery store and buy stuff that someone else has canned and boiled and preserved for us. But for Sugar High Friday #22 , Delicious Days encourages everyone to preserve their own fruit. So that's exactly what I did. I pulled out my old falling apart copy of the American Woman's Cookbook circa 1953 and I read up on various preserving methods. I decided on jam. Then I went to the farmer's market and perused the fruits, finally purchasing several juicy plums. And th...

Laura Chick, City Controller of Los Angeles, is sponsoring an event on Thursday, September 14, 2006, called Women's Dialogue: "Women in the Kitchen." Ms. Chick will be host to six incredible and prominent women from the culinary world for a panel discussion focusing on their experiences in a male-dominated field. The panelists are: Leslie Brenner, Food Editor, Los Angeles Times Marilyn Caldwell, Owner, Catered Occasions Melinda Lee, Host KNX Food News Barbara Spencer, Owner, Windrose Farms Tara Thomas, Owner and Chef, Traxx Restaurant Patty Zarate, Manager, Homegirl Cafe The Dialogue will take place on September 14th, 6:00pm to 7:30pm, in the Hearing Room of the Board of Public Works, City Hall, 3rd Floor, 200 North Spring Street, Los Angeles. Refreshments will be provided and there will be time for networking with the speakers and other attendees. If you would like to participate in the "Women in the Kitchen" Dialogue, R.S.V.P. to Miriam Jaffe at miriam.jaffe@...

I am going to just tell you right now that I am not going to give you the focaccia recipe that I used to make this bread (actually, bread/cracker--more on that later). I am instead going to give you the recipe I found when I was frantically scratching my head halfway through the process going ... what the hell? Because the recipe I used was from my interesting Italian book, which was not too detailed, and well ... when you come to a question mark instead of an actual number indicating how long you need to do something, you know it's time to abandon the recipe book and figure out something new. Which is what happened. It started when I mixed the yeast with the water. It didn't say how much water, nor how long I needed to let the yeast be in the water before mixing it with the flour. Compare with: " Dissolve the yeast and sugar in 1 cup lukewarm water in a bowl and let sit until foamy." And as mentioned before, when I got to the part anbout letting the dough rise, it t...

Photo by: Torsten Mangner Right now it is the end of summer, when you start to look at all of the abundant fruits at the farmer's market and go "Hmm ... all of this will be gone soon. If only there were some way to preserve some so that I can enjoy it's wonderful deliciousness in the winter." But there is! There are several methods of preserving summer fruits and vegetables for the winter. One of them is to make jam. In addition, Sugar High Friday #22 is all about jam, so I think it's time to try my hand at making jam. I have only made jam once before. One summer when I was home for college, my friend Karen invited me over to pick berries with her and then make jam. It was completely fun. We picked the berries, and then she told me what to do and I followed her directions and at the end we had these jars of jam. It was like magic to me, who previously had only experienced jam as something that appeared on my sandwiches and didn't think it was something that ...

There is one thing I love: farmer's market. There is one thing I hate: tomatoes. So you can see there was kind of a dilemma happening in my mind when the Hollywood Farmer's Market had a Tomato Festival this past Sunday. Hundreds of hundreds of tomatoes featured! No thanks. However, people are constantly bugging me to just try this tomato or that tomato, because ... really, this kind is different! You will see! It doesn't even taste like a tomato, it tastes better! And I realize that part of loving food is not being afraid of food. I have to try things even if I think I won't like them because I may discover a new favorite. So I went to the Tomato Festival. And I even ate tomato. And here is the thing: a tomato is a tomato. I appreciate people trying to discover a tomato lover deep within me, but it's not going to happen. No matter how special, how flavorful, how crisply textured and lovingly raised, there is, deep at the heart of each and every tomato, a certain fla...

From the tidy little logo, to the handwritten label, to the wax paper wrapping to the flavor: sea salt caramel--it was love at first sight between me and Little Flower Candy Company . I was standing in line at Joan's waiting with my friend for her to pay for her lunch. But I wasn't going to buy anything, oh no, I was just along for the ride. But it's really HARD to stand in front of that little area before the cash register at Joan's and not buy anything. Just try it. It's hard. Candymaker Christine Moore was once a pastry chef at Les Deux Cafes, who decided back in 1999 to stay home and raise her daughter instead. Once at home, she started experimenting with candymaking as a hobby. The caramels themselves come not only in sea salt, but in lemon and vanilla flavors and when the season is right, pecan. They are rich and buttery. Not so hard that they make your jaw sore and not so soft that you get more stuck on your teeth than you actually swallow. At $14.00 for a 1/...

The BLD people, who are also the Grace people, are very clever. They named their restaurant BLD, which stands for breakfast/brunch, lunch, and dinner. Because the options are featured in the name like that, I suddenly feel compelled to try all three. It seemed best to start at the beginning, with B, so that's where we started. The interior of BLD is bright and spacious. The design is minimalist without being industrial. The walls are white and the floors are polished concrete, but the decor comes from nature: rocks, flowers and tree limbs. There is a large bar area that has a full bar for D and some crepe-making action for B. Upon sitting down, I felt right at home because the placemats are very similar to our own: The very first thing, the thing that is most important in B, is coffee. So we immediately had French press coffee for two delivered. It came in a cute silver pitcher-like press: I also like that it didn't come out to our table until it is ready, so I didn't have...

I still miss Italy, but at least I was able to bring a little bit of it home with me. I brought back "The Perfumes and Flavours of Liguria" by Laura Rangoni. It's not the most fancy or professional cookbook out there, but it has authentic recipes of the region. I also figured it would be a fun experience because these recipes are not quite as scientific as the test-kitchened to death recipes in a professional magazine/cookbook/cooking show. The directions are not always translated well, amounts are in grams or sometimes not given. Sometimes there are question marks in lieu of cooking times. I started with pesto, because not only is it easy to make, but pesto is everywhere in this region. It was invented here and every restaurant has at least one pesto dish. It's even in the soup. This makes me happy, because I have always been a fan of pesto. It is delicious and is an alternative to tomato sauce that is not creamy and bad for you. My favorite sauce of all time, pract...

Now that I have successfully participated in one blogging event , I'm ready to go crazy and do more. It's nice because it gives me a focus for what to make and what to post. This week I am participating in Blog Party #13 . Blog Party is a virtual party, wherein the participants each create one appetizer and one cocktail based on a theme of the hostess's choosing. This week, the theme is No Cooking, in honor of the recent hot weather. Before I decided what to make, I decided what to make it with. Peaches are in season right now and I was ready to use them. Peach is one of my favorite flavors. Peaches are juicy and sweet and tart, with a little spice, all at once. On our trip to the Farmer's Market, J. and I picked up a bunch of peaches, myself for the dish and drink below, and he for ice cream. There are tons of recipes out there for what to do with peaches right now, but not very many of them do not involve cooking. My favorite way to eat peaches is just by themselves, ...

*Sigh* And now it is our last day in Italy. No more sleepy little village by the sea, no more warm ocean, no more local wine bar and no more fresh fish. We spent the morning soaking up all of the sun, sand and surf that we could. For lunch, we had--for the very first time of our trip--pizza. Pizza is not known as a local specialty in Cinque Terre, but it damn well should be. We ate at Pizzeria Ely, which makes its pizzas on a foccaccia-like crust instead of using the standard pizza dough. It was SO GOOD. The crust was thick but light and crispy. It kind of reminded me of Pizza Hut pan pizza, but saying that does it no justice. This was approximately 58 million times better than a Pizza Hut Pizza. I ate my half of the pizza and then immediately wanted to order five more pizzas. I came thisclose to snatching the leftover pizza from the skinny American girl sitting behind me before the server could clear it away. The evening we once again began at our wine bar, playing cards and perusing ...

We started off our second-to-last day in the Cinque Terre by taking the train to Vernazza for breakfast: There was supposed to be a market that day, but since the weather was threatening, there were only a few meager stalls, mostly selling non-food items. We had our breakfast and walked around the village a bit. Vernazza used to have a river flowing all the way through it, but now the river has been shunted underground at a certain point. If you walk to the top of town you can see it, along with some ducks and geese that hang out there to get fed by whoever comes along. J. and I then went to sit and have an espresso and wait for the train to Corniglia, the only town we hadn't yet visited. Corniglia is home to the local nude beach (which we skipped) and is the highest of the towns, elevation-wise. We had to walk up a buttload of steps to get there. Look at me go: That's actually me going down (a lot faster than I came up), but I did come up them as well. There is a bus that ta...

Photo by Dominik Hundhammer Y'all know (at least those of you who actually know me) that I am no fan of tomatoes. That being the case, I have nothing personal against them and realize that they provide quite a few people with enjoyment was well as sustenance and so, although I have no interest in celebrating all things tomato, I know there are a few people out there who might. The Hollywood Farmer's Market will host the Peak of Summer Tomato Festival next Sunday, August 20, during its regular hours of 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The event celebrates the variety of tomatoes that are in season now, and is free to the public. This year, customers of the Farmer's Market can expect to see varieties including Cherokee, Jubilee, Evergreen, Early Girls, Better Boy, Gold Medal, Persimmon, Black Krim, Great White, White Beauty, Marianna’s Peace, Earl of Edgecombe, Pineapple, and Green Zebra. Special events include: Free samples of each of the tomato varieties will be available for sampli...

The third day in Cinque Terre was once again a scorcher. We explored our own village that day, walking up into the hills to see the monastery, church, cemetary and sanctuary. We were able to view our village and the ocean view from on high. This is a little viewpoint terrace with a statue of St. Francis with a wolf that overlooks the harbor: According to my travel guide, there were two groups of monks in Monterosso. The black brothers and the white brothers--the "neri" and "bianchi" fraternities. The black brothers were in charge of dealing with all things morbid--shipwrecks, widows, funerals, etc. Down in the village you can see each fraternity's separate oratory. The black one is decorated with art that depicts the theme of death. I love that--it sounds like something out of some epic fantasy novel. The convent of the monks is a nice peaceful place on the hill and supposedly has a painting of the Crucifix by Van Dyck, but I did not go inside because I was n...