Mmmm.... Steak....
2007-05-08 05:17:00
My dinner in pictures:
Read more: Steak
Wake 'n Bacon
2007-02-21 08:39:00
Last week, my sweetie pointed out a new alarm clock design to me. I'd be up for buying one of these, though I'm not sure whether it would remind my girlfriend of waking up on a Sunday morning to the smell of Mom cooking breakfast...
Read more: Bacon
The Perfect BLT
2006-09-01 07:49:00
This week, MSNBC is running an article about the secrets to a perfect BLT. Personally, while I love the 'B' and 'T' part of a BLT, I can pretty much do without the 'L', especially if the B_T comes with lots of mayo. I am intrigued, however, by one of the recipes in the article, where the 'L' doesn't stand for lettuce, but rather for liver. Liver, as in foie gras.Hey, now before you make that Mr. Yuk face, you should give it a try, especially if you happen to be on the Chicago City Council. Who knows, you might even like it. I'm not kidding. A short while back, my girlfriend and I tried the PB&J foie gras sandwich appetizer at Hawthorne Lane (22 Hawthorne Lane; 415-777-9779). Both of us thought that it was absolutely fantastic. I hope that they keep that item on the menu as they go through some upcoming changes.
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Easy Baking 101
2007-05-12 09:35:00
While I enjoying cooking very much, I'll be the first person to tell you that I'm not much of a baker. All of the precision and rigor that went along with being a mathematician (in my former life) never made it into in the kitchen for me; hence my general lack of interest around baking. The freedom to improvise while I create is one of the things that I really enjoy about cooking. Unfortunately, improvising is something that does not work well while baking.However, there are a few things that I don't mind baking. These baked goods have recipes that are characterized by their simplicity (both in the number of ingredients required and the complexity of the steps) as well as their tolerance for being tweaked due to my general indifference for precise measurements. One such recipe was passed along by my friend Christy, who also gave me the famed wild rice hotdish recipe. Friday night, I decided to pop out a batch of these popovers. Here were the results:Doc Lampi's Never Fail Po
Read more: Baking
Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive
2007-05-12 06:59:00
I know that this announcement is coming at the last minute, but tomorrow, postal workers across the country will be collecting non-perishable food items for their Stamp
Out Hunger
Food Drive. If you would like to help, simply place bags filled with non-perishable food items next to your mailbox. Your letter carrier will come by to pick up the food and deliver it to local food banks. A big thanks goes out to my friend Tesha for telling me about this effort.
Bud Light Presents... Real Men of Genius
2007-05-16 07:44:00
As I wrote about the James Beard Award winners, Karen made sure that I also gave props to some of the 2007 Clio Award winners. The Clio Awards are handed out annually by the Nielsen Company to recognize excellence and creativity in the advertising industry.I'd like to mention some of the winners in the Radio category, specifically two winners from the Bud Light
Real Men
of Genius series: Mr. Hot Dog Eating Contest Contestant and Mr. Boneless Buffalo Wing Inventor, which won Gold and Silver awards, respectively.Gentlemen, this Bud's for you.
Read more: Presents
We Have A Winner Some Winners!
2007-05-16 04:44:00
As I mentioned earlier, several Bay Area chefs were nominated for James Beard Foundation Awards this year. Last week, the winners were announced at a gala held at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City. The Bay Area was well-represented in the winner's circle. Thomas Keller of The French Laundry, Bouchon, and Ad Hoc in Yountville was named the Outstanding Restaurateur. Keller also operates the restaurant Per Se in New York City. Also winning a major award was Traci Des Jardins of Jardinere, who was named the Best Chef in the Pacific region. Des Jardins won for the first time after being nominated for this award six previous times. In 1995, she won the James Beard Award for the Rising Star Chef.Other Bay Area winners included the San Francisco Chronicle, which won for Best Newspaper Section and Best Newspaper Feature Writing with Recipes, and Michael Pollan of UC Berkeley who won the Writing on Food award for his book The Omnivore's Dilemma. Congratulations go out to all of the wi
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Festival at Mama's Place
2007-05-15 07:54:00
I just got back from a long weekend in Wine Country, about which I shall post later. After getting home tonight, Karen found out that during the course of planning for this weekend, we completely overlooked the Testicle Festival
, an annual event held at Mama's Place
Bar and Grill. Perhaps we could have caught the red eye to Wisconsin had we not had alternate plans in Napa Valley this past weekend. (Hey, we are both fans of offal ya know.)Oh well, maybe we'll catch the 10th annual event next year.
You Can't Have Too Many Grills, Can You?
2007-05-19 09:00:00
Every so often, Karen's employer holds a silent auction at work, with the proceeds benefiting local charities. This past Thursday marked another such occasion. Knowing that the money would be going to a good cause, Karen took a quick break from work and went downstairs to check out what was available. Among the items up for bid was a MasterBuilt 7 in 1 Smoker and Grill. Seeing that no one had yet bid on this, Karen put down an offer. She figured that if she won this, she would just give it to me. (Aww, that's very nice of you, sweetie!)Well, guess what? She won the smoker, along with every other item on which she bid. (And she bid on a lot of stuff!) We're going to be over in the neighborhood for a birthday party this weekend, so we'll probably drop by the office to pick up that 50 pound box.With the acquisition of the smoker, we now have four grilling/smoking/BBQ apparatuses between the two of us. In addition to the smoker, we have:A Black Weber 22 1/2-Inch One-Touch Sil
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Redd is the New Black?
2007-05-19 07:53:00
Last weekend, Karen and I headed to Napa Valley for a quick getaway to celebrate her birthday. In addition to taking her on some wine tastings and indulging her fondness for massages, I wanted to take her out to a nice setting for a birthday dinner. I had heard good things about Redd (6480 Washington Street; 707-944-2222), a relative newcomer to the high-end dining scene in the town of Yountville. Redd, named after executive chef Richard Reddington, is located on the south end of Washington Street, just down the road from The French Laundry and Bouchon and next to Thomas Keller's latest venture, Ad Hoc, which we visited earlier this year.Unfortunately, Karen's birthday fell on Mother's Day weekend this year, so all of the prime-time reservations had been booked well in advance. When I called a couple of weeks before her birthday, the only available slots were before very early (i.e. before 5:30) or quite late. Since we wanted to have a relaxing time and didn't want to be in a
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In Case You Forgot Your Sack Lunch...
2007-05-21 22:53:00
For those of you who missed out on the feeding frenzy at Mama's Place Bar and Grill, you're in luck. The Black Gold Cattle Company will be holding its 7th Annual Testicle Festival next month in Woodruff, Utah. Brenn Hill will be among the entertainers at this event, which is held over three days spanning two weekends. Proceeds from last year's event, totaling $4,500, were donated to charity to help children with medical problems.On a related note, Chris Cosentino recently updated his blog with additional information on duck fries. Note that duck fries are not French fried potatoes cooked in duck fat, as the name might lead you to believe.
Read more: Lunch
Kicking Off the Summer with Beer Can Chicken
2007-05-30 02:54:00
For many people, Memorial Day weekend marks the beginning of summer. Of course, the start of summer also means the start of grilling season (not that I waited until this past weekend though). Yesterday, I decided to kick off the summer grilling season with one of my all-time favorites: beer can chicken. Popularized by Steven Raichlen (who even wrote an entire book on this dish), beer can chicken comes in many forms, but the basic idea is the same across all recipes: take a whole chicken, season it with some rub, put an open, half-filled can of beer in the cavity (i.e. shove it up the chicken's butt), and hot-smoke it over indirect heat until it's done.On the way home from work, I stopped by BevMo to pick up the key ingredient: a 12-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon, my official beer of choice for beer can chicken. I have bottled beer at my place, but you can't substitute bottles for cans in this instance. (Alright, I like to use PBR because it's cheap, okay?)As usual, I decided to mak
Read more: Kicking
, Summer
, Chicken
100!
2007-05-30 00:41:00
This post marks the 100th post of my blog. I've really enjoyed writing about my food adventures in and around the Bay Area and I hope that you've enjoyed reading about my exploits as well. Thanks to everyone for their comments and encouragement, especially my sweetie Karen, who has been phenomenally supportive of me and my writing. Please pass along any comments and suggestions that you have. What started out as an exercise to help me improve my writing has turned into a very fun and fulfilling experience for me. Thanks again!
Cherry Picking
2007-05-30 00:29:00
Karen and I took advantage of the day off yesterday to head over to Brentwood and pick some fruit at some of the many u-pick farms located in that area. The holiday weekend was the opener for many of the farms and fruit stands, which attracted people to the area yesterday in droves. We first stopped at Pomeroy Farm, where we picked up some cherries. The farm had both Bing and Rainier trees, but we mostly stuck to the Rainiers, whose fruit seemed riper and sweeter. Normally, you need to purchase a minimum of five pounds of fruit, but the friendly guy who was tallying the bill let us slip under that limit.After our round of cherry picking, we headed out looking for some other types of fruit. We had hoped to find some u-pick strawberries, but apparently no such fruit was to be had. Cherries seemed to be the dominant fruit available for picking yesterday. After a short drive around the area, we stopped at the Farmer's Daughter Produce and Drive-Thru Coffee Bar. Though the coffee b
Read more: Cherry
, Picking
Lunch 2.0
2007-05-29 22:15:00
Who says there's no free lunch? Many high-tech firms around Silicon Valley offer their staff a free or subsidized lunch in the company cafeteria as one of their many employee benefits. Of course, one could argue that these sorts of perks are meant to keep people in the office working longer hours, but at the same time, you still have to eat, don't you? Perhaps the most well-known benefactors of the free lunch are the employees at Google, who down complimentary gourmet meals in their fabled cafeteria at their Googleplex headquarters.Ever wanted to see on what you are missing out? If so, perhaps you should join up with the Lunch
2.0 guys. Lunch 2.0 is comprised of a group of Silicon Valley folks who are united in their goal of getting a free lunch. So far, the group has eaten free grub at such places as Yahoo, LinkedIn, and yes, Google. Many Valley firms are embracing these noon-time cafe crashers and looking at a Lunch 2.0 meal as an opportunity to network and recruit.My own e
Will the Mustard Belt Be Back in American Hands Soon?
2007-06-02 23:04:00
In today's Southwest regional qualifiers for the 2007 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, the Bay Area's very own Joey Chestnut shattered the world record by eating 59 1/2 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes. The previous world record of 53 3/4 dogs was held by Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi, who set the mark during the 2006 event, held annually on the 4th of July on New York's Coney Island.With his amazing performance, Chestnut is probably the odds-on favorite to take the title this year. He may be the best chance that the United States has had in years to bring the Mustard Belt back to American
turf. The title has been claimed by Japanese contestants the past seven years, with Kobayashi winning the past six contests. Not since Steve Keiner won the event in 1999 with a measly 20 1/2 hot dogs has an American held the title for the crowning event of the International Federation of Competitive Eating.Go Joey, go! Eat Joey, eat!
Read more: Hands
Guest Blogging: Karen's Analysis of the FFT Readers
2007-05-31 23:11:00
Tonight, I'm going to put aside the keyboard to allow Karen
to share some of her thoughts. Take it away, sweetie!How'd You Get Here?Did You Know: Food for Thought gets more hits from Google searches related to Fred Steak, Real Men of Genius, the Testicle Festival, and the nutritional value of food (generally sushi and Johnsonville Brats) than anything else?For almost a year now, Food for Thought has been a personal labor of love consistently read by a relatively small group of friends and family. But in recent weeks, traffic to the site has been inching its way upward and Loren has been getting pretty excited. Being a Web 2.0 guy, he’s happy to see his work shared with a broader community. People have been coming from all over the world and getting here in the most interesting ways. I know because Loren (on more than one occasion) has shared his sitemeter statistics with me. While the numbers are nothing compared to the big blogs out there, I think the findings are worthy of
Read more: Guest
, Blogging
, Analysis
Taste of the Nation: San Francisco
2007-06-06 02:02:00
Join Traci Des Jardin, chef/owner of Jardinière, as she hosts a fundraising dinner for Share Our Strength's Taste of the Nation event in San Francisco
. The dinner will take place on Thursday, June 21, 2007 at her Acme Chophouse restaurant located at AT&T Park and will feature cuisine conceived by Des Jardin, Tyler Florence (newly settled in the Bay Area), and April Bloomfield of The Spotted Pig restaurant in New York City (and a Food & Wine Magazine Best New Chef in 2007). Also attending will be Chris Cosentino of Incanto, Citizen Cake's Elizabeth Falkner, Loretta Keller of Coco 500, and Acme Chophouse chef Thom Fox. The event will honor Chuck Williams, founder of Williams-Sonoma.Proceeds from the dinner will be donated to benefit the Foodrunners and Sports 4 Kids charities in the Bay Area. Tickets for the dinner can be purchased online from the Taste of the Nation web site.
Read more: San Francisco
Swinging Steaks U.S.A.
2007-06-08 02:26:00
What I thought was a passing fad appears to be a national trend. As you might recall, I recently posted about two festivals, one in Wisconsin and another in Utah, celebrating what is probably one of the more famous 'cuts' of offal, namely Rocky Mountain Oysters. Well, it seems that there are many other such events taking place all over the country. I was able to find the following:Past events in 2007The 16th Annual Calffry, in Stillwater, Oklahoma; You can buy tickets for next year's festival starting March 1, 2008. There also appears to be a College Fest scheduled at some time later this year.Tiro Testicle Festival, in Tiro, Ohio, last Saturday in April;Testicle Festival East, Washington D.C., April 28Olean Testicle Festival, in Olean, Missouri, June 2;Upcoming events in 2007Ryegate Testicle Festival, in Ryegate , Montana, second Saturday in JuneRound the Bend Steakhouse's 14th Annual Testicle Festival, in Ashland, Nebraska, June 15-16;The 25th Annual Testicle Festival, in Mis
Read more: Swinging
, Steaks
Reality Food TV
2007-06-08 01:24:00
I told myself that I wouldn't do it, but I'm getting sucked back into watching reality food TV. Last night, I watched the special Top Chef All-Star Challenge pitting selected chefs from Season 1 against competitors from Season 2. I know that I said that I wasn't sure if I would watch that series again after the stuff that went down at the end of last season, but I did. Was it just me or did that show appear to be rigged? What a marvelous coincidence that the antagonists from each season (Stephen from Season 1, Marcel from Season 2) were selected to lead each team and then were set up against one another in a head-to-head battle! Or how about each season's winner (Harold from Season 1, Ilan from Season 2) duking it out over "Battle Duck"? In my opinion, the best thing that came out of that show was that a deserving charity got a $20,000 donation.Tonight, I caught a rerun of the premiere episode of this season's The Next Food Network Star. I found it oddly entertaining, thoug
Spam Wars: BK v. McD
2007-06-12 01:25:00
Did you know: Over 6 billion cans of Spam are sold every year?It looks like Burger King is going head-to-head against McDonald's in a battle over breakfast in Hawaii. Both of the fast food giants are now offering breakfast platters featuring slices of Spam served with eggs and white rice in their Hawaiian locations.Now while I am, in fact, a fan of Spam - yes, I believe that you can call yourself a foodie and enjoy canned spiced ham - I wonder how well these breakfast platters will sell against the various types of loco moco-style plates sold by local eating establishments.
Goodies in the Mail
2007-06-11 22:17:00
Today, I received a package in the mail. Inside the padded manila envelope were two copies of the Zagat 2007/08 San Francisco Nightlife Guide. Apparently, my blog caught the attention of one of the Marcom guys at Zagat, who sent me a nice email last week and offered to forward a couple of complementary copies. I actually have a paid subscription to Zagat.com (not that he knew about that) so I already had online access to all of the content in the book, but it's still nice to have a physical copy that I can leave in the car.I'd like to send out a big thanks to Michael in Corporate Communications, not only for sending me the guide (which is very cool!), but also for keeping in touch with the blogosphere and reaching out to their constituents. You can count on me to renew my subscription next year.
Read more: Goodies
The Menu
2007-06-11 01:46:00
When Karen and I first started dating a few years back, one of the first things that I wanted to do was to prepare a home cooked meal for her. Knowing that she is also a foodie, I thought that it might be more fun to have her select what she wanted for dinner. So, I created a dinner menu, from which she could select the dishes of her choosing. Here were her choices:AppetizersMaryland Crab CakesWith a side of homemade aioliBacon Wrapped Water ChestnutsMarinated in soy sauce and rolled in sugarFlorentine Artichoke DipServed hot with crusty French breadCheese Filled TrianglesSpinach and cream cheese filled phyllo trianglesEntreesGrilled Rib EyeRubbed with Montreal seasoning and seared on the grillBaby Back Pork RibsCured with a spice rub and glazed with homemade barbecue sauceThai Coconut Curry ChickenIn a spicy green chili sauce over steamed jasmine riceOven Roasted ChickenSmothered with a lemon zest garlic pepper pasteJamaican Jerk Pork TenderloinMarinated in a spicy habenero paste a
Is It Over Before It Even Begins?
2007-06-14 00:07:00
Reports from Japan suggest that hot dog eating champion Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi may skip the annual Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest this upcoming 4th of July. Apparently, Kobayashi has not trained in months, having taken a sabbatical from competitive eating after his mother passed away earlier this year. If this is the case, the contest organizers might as well just give the Mustard Belt to Joey Chestnut, who recently shattered the world record, set by Kobayashi in last year's contest.
Guest Blogging: Party with Paella
2007-06-16 21:58:00
Tonight, Karen writes about our most recent cooking experiment: paella.Growing up, I never celebrated Christmas or waited for Santa Claus to come down the chimney bearing gifts (instead I partied with Hanukkah Harry over eight glorious nights). Late December wouldn’t mean much for me if not for the unique New Year’s Eve celebration cooked up by my parents.It all started innocently enough. When my brothers and I were young, my parents went out and celebrated New Year’s Eve in the traditional manner. They hated it. Paying exorbitant prices for the same entertainment they could get on any normal night of the year, worrying about drunk drivers, and leaving the kids back home was not their style. So they decided to defy tradition and do up New Year’s Eve their way.And thus was born the New Year’s Eve family feast. Meals generally started around 7ish and the final course never finished before midnight. Dick Clark was often on in the background and the menu was always gut busting. H
Read more: Guest
, Blogging
, Party
, Paella
Pizza and Beer
2007-06-20 02:02:00
Ah, pizza and beer - a pair made for each other, right? If you think so, you might want to check out the new brew coming from the land of Bill Swerski's Superfans, pizza beer.
Read more: Pizza
The Menu - Revealed
2007-06-19 22:57:00
Last week, I wrote about a menu that I created for Karen for our first home-cooked meal together. At the end of that post, I posed a few questions about the menu for you readers out there. Due to popular demand, here are the answers to those questions:Our first dinner: Oven Roasted Chicken and Cheesy Grilled PolentaI was a bit disappointed with my polenta as I didn't allow the grill to get hot enough before I threw on the slices of polenta. The result: very sad-looking grill marks. As Karen says, it's not grilled food without the marks. My bad. I have since done a better job with grilled food items.Dishes that I had never made before: Maryland Crab Cakes, Cheese Filled Triangles, and Baked Macaroni and CheeseNope, no entrees, just a couple of the appetizers and one of the sides. If I would have known how easy it is to make the crab cakes, I would have made them earlier.Dishes that I have yet to make for Karen: Grilled Garlic Cilantro Sea Bass and Smoked Standing Rib RoastI hav
Garlic Crab Noodles
2007-06-24 14:40:00
A while back, Karen and I went out with a few of our friends to celebrate the beginning of the dungeness crab season, which starts in mid-November and runs well into the new year in this area. We chose to have dinner at PPQ Dungeness Island (2332 Clement Street; 415-386-8266), which specializes in this crustacean delicacy. The restaurant features several different preparations of crab, including roasted, drunken, and curry versions. As tasty as the crab is, a necessary component of the meal has to be a big plate of garlic noodles. The version served at PPQ Dungeness Island is very savory and pairs wonderfully with the sweet and delicate crab meat. Karen just loved these noodles and ate so much at that dinner the she coined a new phrase, garlic noodles full, to describe her state of being afterwards.Last night, I decided to surprise her with a little treat by making her a crab dinner which included, of course, a large plate of garlic noodles. I thought that it would be an interest
Read more: Garlic
Tsunami Revisited
2007-06-24 00:47:00
Last night, Karen and I dropped in for dinner at the restaurant where we had our first "official" date, Tsunami Sushi (1306 Fulton Street; 415-567-7664), in the NoPa neighborhood of San Francisco. We had thought about ordering take-out last night, but the evening weather was pretty nice, so we made the short walk from Karen's place over to the restaurant. As an added plus, we brought along a $15 gift card from our CozmoDeck that we purchased earlier this year.The interior at Tsunami is cozy and the decor is very trendy; with the contemporary music playing in the background, you almost feel like you are in a nightclub rather than in a sushi bar. We didn't have reservations, but luckily there were a couple of open seats in the lounge area. We started out our dinner with an order of Tsunami fries, rectangular planks of yams lightly coated in tempura batter, deep fried, and served with a small dish of red salt. To accompany our meal, we decided to order a bottle of sake. Tsunami is
Read more: Revisited
A Strawberry Cooler for the Summer
2007-06-28 01:13:00
On our trip to Napa Valley last month, Karen enjoyed a wonderful pre-dinner cocktail at our visit to Redd. The drink, Strawberry
Blonde, was very refreshing and a wonderful thirst quencher, perfect for a warm summer day. Karen was talking about the drink for days afterwards so I decided to see if I could get the formula for this cocktail. Guy, the general manager at Redd, was kind enough to share the recipe with us.The recipe calls for 3 parts of strawberry-citrus infused vodka, 1/2 part lime juice, 1/2 part Velvet Falernum, and a splash of simple syrup. These ingredients are mixed together, topped with club soda, and served on the rocks in a highball glass. The drink is so smooth that you barely even notice the alcohol.Of course, in order to make this cocktail, you need to have some strawberry-citrus infused vodka on hand. Since you'd be hard-pressed to find such a flavored vodka at the liquor store, you'll have to make it yourself. A few weeks ago, I picked up a magnum of Ke
Read more: Summer
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