Gastronomy 101

Behold! My lovely breakfast. Day 14 of my detox was the second of two days where I consumed only liquids. Above is my breakfast of cider mixed with water. Also consumed were lots and lots of water and tea, and carrot juice for snacks. For lunch was a green "superfood" drink made of every green thing you can think of-spinach, broccoli, wheat grass, spirulina, etc.-squooshed into a bottle. Dinner was a big bowl of vegetable broth and miso, pictured below. I actually managed to get through the day without ever feeling hungry and I think I maintained a decent enough calorie count and range of different types of foods and nutrients. But in a weird conjunction of events, I also watched an HBO documentary called "Thin," which was about anorexic/bulimic women and I have to admit it made me feel a little weird about this whole thing. I could write a novel about all of the thoughts and issues it brought up during the day for me, but I will start by saying that there's a f...

If you're in the middle of a crazy diet and you've reached a series of days where you are eating all vegetables, all the time, a good way to cheer yourself up is to go to the Farmer's Market, where everywhere you look, there are things you can eat! And there are very few things you can't eat to tempt you. Only your favorite bread man--and you have to kind of turn your head away and walk by real fast so he doesn't see you and feel sad and wonder why you suddenly didn't stop by for your package of ciabatta rolls. Of course, this was the post-Thanksgiving farmer's market, which is a sad affair. There were fewer stalls and the ones that were there had only slim pickings. Can you believe I found only one meager bunch of carrots in the whole market? There weren't many greens to choose from either. Which meant I had to go the farmer's market and then come back home and go to the real market. But at least favorite-Asian-fruit&veg-man came through with se...

My diet has made it hard for me to get out and eat, but yesterday I was able to fully enjoy Tender Greens in Culver City for lunch. Read my review of Tender Greens on la.foodblogging.

How green was my dinner plate ... I just got through my first weekend on detox and let me tell you, it was no picnic. Now I remember one of the reasons I picked final exam time to do my detoxes during law school--because I never went out or did anything, hence no temptations to suffer through. But I managed to somehow make it through a Saturday night at El Coyote without drinking any alcohol or eating anything I'm not supposed to. Can you believe I sat there and just drank water while people in my vicinity were having margaritas? Margaritas! I love margaritas. Before that, I sat and drank tea while everyone had lovely looking sandwiches. Sandwiches are my favorite. But the sandwiches will still be there when I am done with detox. Right now my schedule is: wake up with hot water/lemon juice/cayenne and then a glass of tea, fruit for breakfast, chicken/fish/tofu + salad/vegetables for lunch, optional glass of soy or almond milk for a snack, and vegetables plus salad for dinner. These...

My Google search keywords are demanding that I solve the mystery of Fuwarinka Candy. Very well then, I will oblige. I am sorry to say that the results are not promising. I received two packs of Fuwarinka candy. One was flavored of rose and the other was flavored of citrus. As the packaging was all in Japanese, I have no idea if the candy came with any instructions as to dosage or any particular rules as to use. So I decided to start with eating one piece of candy and then increase it the next time I tried. I also decided to not eat or drink anything else for the one hour following my eating of the candy so as not to potentially mess with the chemistry involved. I ate one of the rose candies first. It was disgusting. I am often enchanted by a hint of rosewater in a dish and I love middle eastern desserts that contain it. But in this case, the candy, which was a chewy gummy center that tasted of fruit surrounded by a harder candy shell that seemed to be doused in an oily rose perfume. I ...

Day 2 of my detox is another easy day. I didn't have directions as to breakfast and lunch, except that I had to start my day with lemon juice in hot water with a pinch of cayenne. That may sound like it would be terrible, but I actually like it. It's like a spicy drink. If you like spicy heat, it's good. I swear. I was also supposed to drink something she calls "Inner Beauty " tea, but I have tons of teas and I'm not about to go concocting special ones just for this diet. Instead I drank some rooibos red tea that I already had at work (thank you, husband!) . I don't think I had breakfast. I am really trying to remember what I had, but I can't. So I don't think I had any. That's what happens to me in the morning. Lunch was my last "free" meal, so I had a BLT because that contained some things I won't be having for a while, but wasn't an all out fat-fest. In the afternoon I had my "hydrating drink," which is just h...

There's not much to write about yet as far as my detoxing goes, because the first day you don't have to do anything except read over the menus and kind of prepare for what you're about to do. You're also supposed to clean out your kitchen of all bad things and go shopping for an immense amount of food and products, but since my husband would probably murder me if he came home and found all the sugar and dairy and alcohol gone from our kitchen, I decided not to do that. Also, since I am blessed with an organic market about 30 seconds from my door, I prefer to do my shopping bit by bit rather than all at once. So my first post is basically a description of what exactly it is that I am doing. My diet is based on Helene Silver's book, "Rejuvenate." It is pretty loosely based, because the book provides a plan so comprehensive, expensive and time-consuming, that only a wealthy housewife with lots of free time could really hope to follow this plan to a tee. But I...

I just looked at my calendar and it appears to be the middle of November already. It's approaching the holiday season and with that comes the necessity of eating a lot of food. In addition, I have certain other things going on, healthwise that make me think it would be a good thing right now to detox, take my vitamins, eat healthy, get exercise and sort of regulate myself so I can get a better handle on things So it's time for me to go on a detoxing diet. This is pretty much the hardest thing I do all year. It sucks. No caffeine, no alchohol, no bread, no cheese. It really really really sucks. At the same time, I almost always come out of the other end feeling better. I will try not to be too boring and healthy with my posts, at the same time as I will try not to be too cranky and pissy. Just be glad you are not the person who has to live with me. (Sorry J.) But maybe it will turn out that posts about soups and juices and vegan restaurants will be just as interesting as posts ...

Eroica is a collaboration between the winemakers of Chateau Ste. Michelle, and Ernst Loosen, a winemaker from the Mosel River region in Germany. This collaboration, which began with the 1999 vintage, released in 2000, was so successful that Columbia Valley rieslings are now popping up all over. Since I've been hearing about Washington State rieslings all over the place lately, and since Eroica is probably the quintessential example of this type of wine, I decided to purchase one and try it out. (No, it's not "Erotica!" Don't get all excited). But what to drink it with? Well, I am no wine expert, but I have developed one rule of wine drinking, and that's my rule for Riesling, which is really easy to remember. You can drink a Riesling with anything that you would drink beer with. I have come to this decision after reading numerous informational articles on the fact that Riesling goes with Thai food, Indian food, and pizza. And those things all have something in ...

USDA Photo One of the things that is so dismaying about not liking tomatoes is this whole lycopene thing. Everywhere I look, I see "Yay, lycopene! Tomatoes have lycopene!" Well ... so? So ... lycopene is an anti-oxidant that scavenges for those nasty free radicals that like to hang out in your body and cause cancer and also helps prevent heart disease. Some studies also suggest that lycopene may help resist sunburn, which is helpful for us ghostly types. It may also prevent early blindness in children, if you've got some of those running around. For you dudes out there, lycopene is especially good at preventing and even slowing the spread of prostate cancer. And while everyone seems to know that tomatoes are a good source of lycopene, not too many people seem to know that watermelon is an even better source of lycopene. The red part of a watermelon can have about 40 % more lycopene than an equivalent weight of raw tomatoes. Which is excellent news for me, since I can eat ...

Via Erin's Kitchen and Daily Candy This weekend, starting Friday at 3:00 p.m., The Second Annual Tamale Festival will take place at MacArthur Park by Mama's Hot Tamales Cafe . The festival will feature a bunch of live entertainment, a tamale eating contest, tamale making classes, and a biggest tamale contest. If you've never had a tamale, you are missing out on one of the tastiest and most convenient foods around. Tamales are little packages of warm soft masa, mixed with water and steamed in a corn husk. It can be filled with meats, vegetables, cheeses and any combination thereof. It can even be filled with fruit, and can be made in as many beautiful colors as there are colors of corn. And it's portable! And if you've never been to Mama's Hot Tamale Cafe, you are also missing out. You may have seen Mama's work if you've ever driven by MacArthur Park on 7th St. and noticed a whole row of stands dedicated to tamales of different Latin American countries....

A couple of weeks ago, I predicted the next food trend, after cupcakes, and natural frozen yogurts would be donuts . Now this morning, I read about Fritelli's Donuts and Coffee in Beverly Hills, which has over 40 flavors of donut to choose from, including "lemon poppy, green apple fritter, pumpkin, and Vermont maple," and not only that, but "they use real fruit and fine chocolate in their fillings and glazes." Okay, now let's quote from my previous post, regarding the kind of donut shop I envisioned: "You make these in exotic flavors with fresh ingredients infusing your icings and glazes." So, it's not a trend yet. But I was one step ahead of at least one shop. And if it catches on, and suddenly there are gourmet donut and coffee shops everywhere, then I will offer my services out as food trend consultant. I already have some other ideas. On the other hand, if it fizzles away quietly, then I will retire, never to bother anyone with food trend ...

Please allow me to deflate a little. I have just had three nonstop days of activity from UCLA food writing workshops (Russ Parsons!) to birthday parties (fun!) to Borat movies (funny!) to dinners at Gingergrass (delicious! ps-they have venison on special now!) to friend's bands at the Echo (loud!) to special screenings of Inland Empire (booooring! shut up, Laura Dern!)(ps sorry if you're a David Lynch fan. I usually am too). So there was no time for blogging. But now I have done all that, I have worked and I have voted and I am ready to sit down for a minute. Who better to share this moment with than my bloggy friends? And since you are my bloggy friends, you all know that baking is my nemesis. It's very hard for me and often disastrous. I need all the help I can get. Thankfully for me, Cook's Illustrated, a major source of kitchen aid for my baking dilemmas, published in its September/October 2006 issue a guide to knowing when food is done. Here are some of their baki...

Gah! I have been sooo busy the last couple days. Damn that work. It always gets in the way of blogging. Anyway, I thought I would take an opportunity to pimp out some links I have gathered recently. First is Chubbypanda - The Epicurious Wanderer . Chubby is an OC foodblogger who recently wandered onto my radar and I have been enjoying his posts about OC restaurants, Chinese cooking and Chowhound board nazis. Next up is Cakegrrl , a Sacramento foodblogger I discovered through Garrett . Ms. Cakegrrl posts about her life, recipes and Sacramento stuff. And then there is my food boyfriend, Harold McGee, author of " On Food and Cooking ," a comprehensive book on food and food science that explains pretty much everything about everything we eat. And he has a blog! On his blog he basically takes science-y journal articles and explain them in language that stupid-asses like me can understand. I love you, Harold McGee! Finally, Yahoo! Food has launched. It's a little overwhelmin...

Ha ha! I was looking up some stuff on pork chops and found this "recipe" by James Beard from 1956: "PORK CHOPS Buy thick chops from the loin — about 1 1/2 inches thick — and allow two chops per person. INGREDIENTS: pork chops salt and pepper METHOD: Cook them slowly, turning often and season to taste with salt and pepper as they cook. If they tend to curl, gash the fat around the edges. Serve with broiled apple slices and old-fashioned johnny cake with plenty of butter." Um ... okay. That's helpful. The way to cook pork chops is to ... cook them. Thanks. It's actually a really interesting comparison on recipes of yore with recipes now. A lot of my recipes in my American Woman cookbook are the same way. Reading them, it's easy to see why we have to always be reminded these days that recipes are suggestions and guidelines, not directives to be adhered to blindly. But these days we're so used to being tol...