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Buckwheat Pancakes, Blueberry Compote
Buckwheat can go both ways: from adding a sublime depth of flavor to being overly heavy hippie food that's more focused on whole grains than good taste. I've had buckwheat pancakes that fall into both...
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Plums and cardamom, anyone?
This morning I came across a blog that had the most inspiring photo of an upside down plum cardamom cake that I had to try it. I broke open green cardamom pods for the seeds and it was one of the...
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Tarragon Chicken
I've been carrying this recipe around in my bag for a couple of months. Originally photocopied from an old issue of Saveur magazine, I finally decided that the sudden cold snap outside warranted...
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Cauliflower with mustard-lemon butter
Many years ago, when I was just starting out cooking in Chicago, my friend & co-worker Jerome and I found ourselves alone one Thanksgiving. We had to work part of the day doing prep in the kitchen,...
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Local 123
I'm in Berekely for the week, visiting a friend. This morning I strategically took my run in the direction of a coffee shop called Local 123, at 2049 San Pablo. The love/hate reviews on Yelp! were so...
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Bai Hao Oolong Tea
Bai Hao Oolong is produced in Hsinchu (aka Xinghu) Taiwan. Sometimes referred to Oriental Beauty, White Tip Oolong, or Champagne Oolong, in Taiwan it is often called Pingfang tea. As with everything,...
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The poached and the soft boiled:
I've been awash by the pursuit of making soft boiled eggs. I like delicately piercing them with a small wire to release the air in them before boiling, and was pleased that my carefully timed 6 minutes...
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Buckwheat Crepes
The sun is finally beginning to shine again, as the winter months are more behind us than ahead. Late this morning I walked over to a friends place and we made crepes. As usual, we couldn't decide on...
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My {malted} milk shake brought all the boys to the yard
I've had cravings for malt-flavored sweets ever since we had a malted vanilla milkshake on the menu back at NoMI in 2004. We were using amber malt, procured from a beer brewing supply company, and...
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Gougeres
Gougeres are essentially cheese puffs, originating in the Burgundy region of France. We've got delicious comte cheese at Zingerman's right now, so I made some for my Dad's birthday, and served them...
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Trends in the Specialty Food market
The National Association for the Specialty Food Trade (NASFT) just released it's annual report. The trends they've found are interesting- some surprising, some not at all. Most encouraging is...
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Gourmet Rhapsody, and questions that arrose from the novel.
Gourmet Rhapsody by French writer Muriel Barbery is the fictional retelling of the life of a highly esteemed French food critic named Pierre Arthen. We begin the story as he is dying, and throughout...
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Onion spring
My garden is just getting started, and the first of many things to pop up have been the onions. I've also planted several types of tomatoes, hot peppers, sunflowers, greens, carrots....and I have no...
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Lu Zhen Green Needles Tea
I'm tasting some Lu Zhen Green Needles for the first time this morning. It's a little-known tea from Hubei, China. This current batch from Rishi Tea is the result of a revival of an ancient tradition...
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Muy Sabroso, estoy lleno.
It took me a while to wrap my tongue around the name of this little town that has been swallowed by Guadalajara, Mexico. Tlaquepaque. (Tlah-kep-pah-keh). The taxi driver asked why I wanted to stay...
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Bang Bang y Bling Bling
The Festival of San Pedro here in Tlaquepaque begins on June 12th and is celebrated nightly until the 29th. I had read about it, but didn't put two-and-two together when I was woken by random loud...
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Talpapa
A 4 hour bus ride through every little town between here and Guadalajara and I've arrived. Karen & Oswaldo, and Olga and Gleb from Russia- we had a fantastic time helping get ready for the wedding,...
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Happily caught in the rain.
We spend the day yesterday in Ferria de Tula, a small village nearby. Oswaldo’s family friends that live there have been caring for the sheep that are going to be the main course at tomorrows wedding...
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Le Salto de Nogada
In the sky there was a deep causeway of black, brightening the white.The rain was coming. It blew and blustered and wets itself into rivers in the streets. We traveled into the country in a car...
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All tied up in a pretty package
Between a wedding and a death, traveling internationally and a trade show for work, there was Tchaikovsky by the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center. The soloist Mikail Simonyan was mesmerizing.The...
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