Cardamom for Bowman

I love this simple photo of a spice collection in a restaurant kitchen. In looking at it more closely, I noticed that one of the jars is labled "cardamom". Well, I can't hear the word "cardamom" without thinking about my friend Bowman. So on this day, his birthday, I'm posting this in his honor!

Happy Birthday Bowman!

Salt!

I recently read this post about salt and whether or not people had special containers for salt. It caught my attention because I am one of those people. Not only do I have a container for salt, I have many. But I never really thought about it.

When I took the time to think about it, I realized. I had five. There’s the kosher salt in the small round ceramic dish—which was once a cheese dish. It's kind of my go-to salt dish when I'm at the stove cooking.

There’s the “Salt Lady”, which I inherited from a college roommate. I’m not really sure the history or story behind the “Salt Lady”, but I love her. She (filled with regular table salt, not kosher) gives my little stove top area some character.

Then there’s the Brooklyn salt and pepper shaker that I picked up Fish’s Eddy—the New York dish store that an old crush first told me about (you can see behind them, there are a few other item in my kitchen from Fish's Eddy!) There’s the little woven ‘basket’ that I use for my sea salt crystals. Believe this was originally a take home from some event or another that I went to. Long after the event, and long after I can even remember where I got this from, it still sits on my counter and is something I look at every day.

My newest edition? These beautiful small containers for salt and pepper. They’re now sitting on my table ready for dinner guest. Don’t you just love these little spoons?

When I do stop and think about salt, something else comes to mind. I think of my friend’s Serene and Mark’s wedding and to something the priest said during their ceremony.

“It’s hard to keep a house without salt. It adds flavor and taste to just about every dish.

But if you run out of toothpaste, you can brush with a mixture of soda and salt because of salt’s cleansing quali­ties.

If you develop a sore throat, you can gargle with salt because of its healing properties.

If you’re hungry, you can cure a ham or other meat with salt because of its preserving qualities.

You can use salt to melt the ice that builds up in the winter cold; salt can also be used to put out fires that flare up.

So if you’ll bring to the marriage the qualities found in salt — the cleansing quality, the healing quality, the preserving quality —

If you use it to enhance the flavor of your life together; to melt the ice that will build up and put out the fires that will occasionally flare up between you; and, of course, if you take everything with a grain of it, you will have a long and happy life together.”

The night of the wedding, my date (also someone in the food world) and I talked about that verse. I think it stuck with us because of our love for all things food related. Almost a year later, I still think about that verse. My friend Serene still tells me that aside from she and Mark, we’re probably the only people that were at the wedding that remembers that verse. I guess some things just strike a chord and stay with you.

Strawberries!

I recently became the proud owner of a small strawberry plant. Strawberries are one of my favorite fruits, so I'm especially excited to see if I could keep it alive and eventually, taste my own home grown strawberry!

Below you'll see two pictures. The one on the left? My humble little plant. Sitting on my window sill, with a teeny tiny berry popping out!

The photo on the right? Umm. Yea. That's how the professionals do it. Taken recently from a trip to Blue House Farm, check out how great their strawberry looks!

So yea. Let's see how my little plant does. I would be so happy if in a few more weeks I had a ripe red sweet berry growing in my home!

Na What?

NDUJA! A soft spreadable salami that has been quite the hot thing lately. Made popular in San Francisco recently by Chef Chris Cosentino who's making it at his salumaria, Boccalone. I love the stuff. Over crackers. With some scrambled eggs. About a billion other ways. Good in so many things. Two of my favorite dishes in San Francisco right now?

Sardines and nduja at Incanto:

And a farm egg over some nduja at Perbacco:

Really. Both dishes are SO good. Go check these dishes out people. They're amazing.

When Life Gives You Lemons

Preserve them!!

On my preserving kick, and in an effort to make home-made Christmas presents, I decided to take a big bag of lemons I recently got off my dad's tree, and put them to good use!

I had the concept in my head, and then over dinner with some friends, my friend Evan talked me through the process. A quick search on the internet and I found a super simple 'recipe' from Epicurious.com courtesy of Paula Wolfert.

I wasn't exactly sure how many lemons it would take to fill a jar...and as usual with me, I was kind of winging it. I may have squished them down a little too much. Oh well. My kitchen is my laboratory, but methods are certainly not very scientific. I planned to take notes and continue to tweak for future batches. In the meantime, thanks to @mando66, I had some perfect size mason jars. (See? Another Twitter miracle!)

With the number of lemons I had, I yielded 4 jars in my first batch. And they were beautiful! The bright yellow made these the perfect holiday gift.

Now comes the hard part. Waiting a few weeks until I can open a jar and taste. Oh. And deciding who's going to get the remaining 3 jars.

Even More Quats??

Yes. Even I'm getting a little tired of talking about kumquats. And I haven't even gotten any yet! But I can't help it! It seems that everywhere I turn, there they are! The Chronicle featured a story on kumquats (yes, it's like the tenth story I've read within the last few weeks!)

Yes. I've had the chance to eat them this season (thank you Incanto...), but I haven't bought any of my own yet. All I've been doing is TALKING about kumquats, not doing a damn thing about actually going and getting some, and cooking them on my own. But already, I might be getting tired of them. Sigh.

This happens a lot. Every year, I find myself saying things like "If I have to eat one my Meyer lemon..." or "Gosh, I'm sick of heirloom tomatoes!" or "There are blood oranges everywhere, when will this end?"

I am one of those lucky Californians (or to my east coast friends, I'm one of those annoying Californians), with access to lots of fresh ingredients, and where 'food seasons' often go on for weeks and weeks. And yes, I take it for granted. When something is in season, it seems every where I look, everywhere I go, that ingredient is featured. As it should be. But as a consumer, near the end of the season, there are definitely days when I'm ready to move on.

Just like now. Already, I'm thinking about my summer fruits and veggies, and can't wait until I'm tired of stone fruits.

More Kumquats!

So, apparently I’m not the only thinking about kumquats right now! The ideas in a recent Slashfood article sound delicious. I really do need to get my hands on some kumquats of my own and I’ve got to get cooking!

But until then, I’ll just have to get my kumquat fix elsewhere.

I recently had a lemon thyme panna cotta with candied kumquat dessert at Incanto restaurant in Noe Valley. I’ve gotta tell you, it was AMAZING!

I dug right into it, and about half way through the dessert, I realized. I hadn’t taken a photo. (Bad blogger!) I ended up snapping one, but we were already about half way through the dessert.

It didn’t do it justice. I’m not even going to post it. BUT. If anyone out there reading has a photo of that awesome Incanto panna cotta dessert (with a HUGE focus of it being the kumquats of course), please let me know. I'll gladly post it!

Sweet Kumquats. Sweet Memories.

I love kumquats. And you know, they’re in season right now. I was having a yummy dessert at Scala’s Bistro the other day, a honey cake served with a kumquat compote. It brought a smile to my face. I have a special place in my heart for kumquats.

Growing up, we had a kumquat tree in our backyard. We planted it when we moved in, and it for as long as I can remember, it was there. When we were small, we’d ride our tricycles round and round in circles around it. Throughout the 24 years we lived in that house, the tree was always there and just grew bigger and bigger.

As we got older, we’d sometime pick the fruit, and play with the kumquats. Smooshing them until they were soft and the essence was coming out of the skin. Then we’d spend the day smelling our fingers—that sweet and a little bit sour smell.

Well, I saw this post on Slashfood just days after my kumquat compote run-in at Scala’s. And I got it in my head that I had to write a post dedicated to kumquats. I wanted to include a photo of our kumquat tree (I mean seriously, I couldn’t write about kumquats without including a photo!) I searched and searched, and couldn’t find one.

We moved out of the house I grew up in last year, and so it’s too late to go and snap a photo. (Although, I will admit, I spent a few minutes wondering if I could easily sneak into my old backyard to take a quick photo of that tree without the new occupants catching me! Assuming it was even still there…)

It’s times like these, when I’m so thankful for my sister. She has a memory ten times better than mine (for all those memories that are just a little fuzzy to me, she remembers every detail), and just as I was tearing up thinking about the possibility of not having this photo, BAM! My sister pulled through.

Our precious kumquat tree in our old backyard

Does anyone have some kumquats they can share with me? Just holding a few in my hands would make me so happy. Maybe the Farmer's Market next Saturday?

Recession Staples

There's rice (my personal favorite!), pasta, potatoes...starches that are the staple of a recession home kitchen. But what about ramen?

This piece on Slashfood made me think--how do you dress up your 'recession staple'? Cheese? Canned or frozen veggies? What else? And which is your favorite?

Me personally? I prefer rice. With simple Chinese staples. Inexpensive staples. Chinese sausage. Pork floss. Salty duck egg. Yum.

But on ramen? I'm all about simple. A fried egg. Nothing else. My friends Tim and Wendy are my ramen experts. I'm still waiting to go check out 'the best' ramen place in the Bay Area. Hopefully we can go soon...while it's still 'ramen season'--wet, cold, and rainy outside!

What do you like to do to dress up your recession staples?

So Gingery

I'm a huge ginger fan. I love ginger essence and fragrance in a lot of foods. Not too spicy, but a tad of ginger really adds a lot to so many foods! Check out this interesting post on Laurent Gras' blog. If I could have some of this ginger oil, I'd use it in a steamed custard. Or perhaps a ginger snap cookie? Or best yet? Ice cream! YUM!

Photo borrowed from L2O

Mystery Fruit

I was at the grocery store a few weeks ago up in Healdsburg. As my friend Wendy and I were racing through the isles grabbing all of the items we needed for our fall harvest/apple dinner, a few things caught my eye. They were fruits that I didn't recognize. I had to stop and snap a few photos with my camera phone.

Do you know what they are??




The green fruit is a feijoa. Similar to a pineapple guava, I guess this fruit originated in Brazil. But did you know it can also be found in Australia?? I'll have to keep my eyes open for it when I'm out there! (Or at least buy one the next time I see it in my local grocery store.)

The second fruit? The tamarillo. Or tree tomato. How cool. Now why oh why did I not buy one of each?? Am I going to spend the next few weeks obsessing over these unusual fruits until I find them again and taste them for myself?

Has anyone tasted either? Am curious to hear what they taste like and your experiences with these unusual fruits!

Foodie Regret and Foodie Excitement

All week, I’ve been regretting not purchasing those beautiful squash blossoms I saw at the Farmer’s Market last Saturday. And every day, I sat wondering if they were gone from the markets and if I had missed my chance this season. I was nearly in tears when I thought about it. Why didn’t I just spend those few dollars on the squash blossoms?

This last Saturday, I went to the Farmer’s Market with some friends. I met up with my friend Vanessa and her daughter Chloe (Chloe’s first San Francisco Farmer’s Market trip!), as well as my friend Charissa (in town from Washington DC) and her family.

Beautiful Chloe--Yensa was able to capture the best photos of her!

We had a great time…but for the first 15 min or so, I was distracted. I hadn’t seen Charissa in months, but all I could think about were my squash blossoms (sorry dear!) I bee-lined for the farm stand that sold them the week prior (well, as soon as we all had our Blue Bottle Coffee in hand!) I pushed and shoved (well, not shoved too hard, but I was aggressive!), making my way to the back of the market. I could feel my heart starting to race as I realized in mere moments, I could come to realize that my chance had passed until next season. And then from a distance…there it was. The yellow blossom! Success! Thankfully they still had some. Not quite as gorgeous as the week prior, but still squash blossoms nonetheless. Phew.

After I bought the blossoms, I was able to calm down a little bit. And relax. And enjoy the sunny day. I could finally spend time talking to my friends, and pointing to all of the other wonderful things the market had to offer. Charissa’s sister bought some lovely rose sugar. I’ve got to get my hands on that! Next time. I can see the potential already. Perhaps a rose infused ice cream. Or perhaps sprinkled on top of some shortbread cookies (maybe that Michelle Obama shortbread cookie?) Or even more simple? Just over some fresh strawberries! Yum! Next time. For sure.

And oh! Yensa, the budding photographer, was snapping away the entire morning. She’s super talented, and captured some really beautiful shots from the day.

I’m lucky she snapped this one of me below (I don’t even know what her initial target was, but I’m so happy she caught this moment!) I was so excited to have my squash blossoms, I couldn’t even wait until I got home to use them in a salad. Pure foodie excitement. Pure foodie porn.