All the Lobster You Can Eat
2007-12-04 01:13:00
The price: $2,995.For that price, you get your very own lobster trap for the season and all of the crustaceans that you catch (guaranteed minimum: 40), courtesy of Ready Seafoods. The price includes shipping, as well as other accoutrements, including mussels, clams, Maine-made gourmet desserts, bibs, cooking instructions, and gift cards, as you catch a piece of Maine.
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2900 Calories, 182g of Fat, and 240g of Carbs...
2007-12-04 01:02:00
... is what you would consume if you ate the worst of the 20 worst foods in America.
Read more: Calories
Good to the Last Drop
2007-11-30 02:42:00
I've been hanging out in Stockholm this week for work but will be making my way back home early tomorrow morning. With the nine hour time shift and the resulting jet lag, I've been feeling pretty tired all week, so I've been keeping myself well-caffeinated. Luckily for me, the coffee over in Sweden is quite good - I haven't had a bad cup o' joe yet. No wonder that Sweden is among the world's leading countries in the per-capita consumption of coffee.
Catching Up.... On Thanksgiving
2007-12-03 21:56:00
After being out of town for most of the past two weeks, I'm back at home for a bit, so I can catch up on my blogging.First, some pics from our Thanksgiving
dinner. Since there was only two of us, we made a small-ish (12 lbs.) turkey. Instead of doing something overly complicated, we simply put some compound butter under the skin, stuffed some aromatics in the cavity, and roasted the bird, basting it periodically with butter using my mom's tried and true technique. We ended up with this:The sides (clockwise from the upper left): baked squash hotdish, bread stuffing, braised leeks, and cranberry compote.To go along with dinner, we had a bottle of 2006 Peju Sauvignon Blanc. We managed to enjoy our Thankgiving dinner without stuffing ourselves silly, unlike a couple of nights later...
Bacony Goodness
2007-12-11 21:50:00
Do you love bacon? Well, one of the folks over at the Good Eats Message Board found someone who might like bacon even a bit more than you do...Starting with breakfast, this connoisseur of the cured porcine product has found heart-stopping ways to enjoy bacon in sandwiches and in burgers. I can't wait for his next bacony creation.
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Menu for Hope 4
2007-12-10 23:56:00
Today marks the kickoff of Chez Pim's Fourth Annual Menu for Hope fundraising event, benefiting the UN World Food Programme. In the words of Pim,"It's that time of year again, when food bloggers from all over the world join together, taking leave from our usual frivolity. Throughout the year, we celebrate food as a source of joy, but for two weeks every December, we ask you, our readers, to help us support those who are not so lucky, to whom food is not a mere indulgence but a matter of survival. This Menu for Hope is our small way to help. Please join us."For the next eleven days, food bloggers around the world will be working together to host an online raffle for a vast assortment of culinary prizes. For every $10, the donor will receive a virtual raffle ticket. This year's fabulous list of prizes include a tour of El Bulli with Ferran Adrià , dinner for two with wine pairing and a private tour of Manresa's biodynamic garden, and a private lunch with Harold McGee.Last year,
A Night to Remember: Dinner at the French Laundry
2007-12-07 01:22:00
Sometimes, things just work out.One of those times happened to Karen and me recently. Taking advantage of the Thanksgiving weekend, we decided to head up with Napa Valley for a few days. Since we don't usually stay up in Wine Country more than a single night, we thought that it would be fun to see if we could land a coveted reservation at the French
Laundry
(6640 Washington Street, Yountville; 707-944-2380). Owned by world-renown chef Thomas Keller, this 62 seat restaurant is recognized as one of the premier dining establishments in the world. Landing a table during the dinner hours in this tony Yountville restaurant is extremely difficult. In fact, there are web pages dedicated to doling out advice on how to get such a reservation.So, a couple of days before Thanksgiving, I picked up the phone and called the reservation line at the French Laundry. When the receptionist answered, I told her that we going to come up with Napa for a long weekend and was wondering if we could get o
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, Night
, Remember
Dine About Town '08
2007-12-20 01:36:00
Nearly 100 restaurants in San Francisco are now taking lunch and dinner reservations for the 7th Annual Dine About Town event. Participating restaurants will be offering three course prie fixe lunch and dinner menus that will allow you enjoy a wide variety of gourmet cuisine throughout San Francisco.The event will run January 15-31, 2008 and will feature three course lunches for $21.95 and dinners for $31.95 (excluding beverage, tax, and gratuity). You can book your reservations online at OpenTable.com.
The Cuisine of the Friendly Skies
2007-12-17 00:53:00
A couple of weeks ago, I took my last business trip of the year, a short (five day) jaunt to Sweden. The corporate travel agency booked me on an outbound flight on Lufthansa and had me returning on United, so I had an opportunity to compare their cuisine a few days apart, which is about as close to head-to-head as I would probably ever get to experience. I had flown in United Business just a few months earlier, but hadn't flown on Lufthansa since late last year, so I took the occasion to reacquaint myself with the fare on German flagship airline.I took the Monday afternoon flight from SFO to Frankfurt. After my customary nap through take-off, I spent about a half an hour fiddling around with the settings on the new Business Class seat before a flight attendant came around with napkins in hand to kick off the dinner service.To start my meal, I could have selected a pistachio crusted shrimp with mango salsa and cilantro aioli, but I instead went with the smoked duck breast with sweet
Read more: Cuisine
, Friendly
, Skies
Heading to Warmer Climes
2007-12-23 14:34:00
I'll be offline for a bit as Karen and I leave the Bay Area to enjoy some warmer weather down south. We'll be back soon, so stay tuned for the report from our beach vacation.Happy Holidays!
Read more: Heading
, Warmer
"Hey, did you go to Carleton?"
2008-02-17 10:13:00
For whatever reason, I seem to hear this question quite often when I am wearing the attire of my alma mater. Karen is amazed at the number of random places where people, seeing me wearing a Carleton shirt, ask me if I actually attended the college in Northfied, Minnesota. The encounters have occurred in many different situations including, while eating lunch in Maui just before exploring a volcano, during a hike in Rocky Mountain National Park on a trip to Boulder, and while seeing the terra cotta soldiers in Xi'an. Of course, there have also been a lot of Carleton call outs during my eight years in the Bay Area, including shout-outs on the streets of San Francisco and a few brief exchanges in various locations in Wine Country. You might think that my entire wardrobe consists of colleg
A Foodie in Stockholm
2008-02-16 22:15:00
Around these parts, when work gets busy, blogging gets slow. Unfortunately, it's been quite busy at work lately. However, now that a long weekend is here (a three day weekend of my own creation as Presidents' Day isn't a work holiday for me), I thought that I would take the opportunity to catch up on my backlog of posts.As you may recall, I paid a visit to Sweden late last year. For the most part, the trip was packed with work, but I was able to break free one day to do some sightseeing around Stockholm
. Despite the less than perfect weather, my colleague Dan and I roamed around the city center, taking in a number of historic sites in the Gamla Stan (Old Town), including the Royal Palace, the 700-year-old Riddarholmen Church (which, unfortunately, was closed), and the famous statue of
Read more: Foodie
Top Chef 4: Chicago
2008-01-30 00:54:00
Attention Reality Food TV fans: Top Chef
is back.Set in Chicago
, the Emmy-nominated series will begin airing new episodes from Season 4 on Wednesday, March 12. While I've been critical of Top Chef in the past, the last season reeled me back. I'm looking forward to the new season, especially with four local chefs in the running: Erik Hopfinger, executive chef at Circa; Jennifer Biesty, the executive chef from COCO500; sous chef Ryan Scott of Myth; and chef/consultant Zoi Antonitsas, formerly of the Presidio Social Club.As Michael Bauer noted in his blog post today, San Francisco has been underrepresented over the past couple of seasons. Hopefully, one of the chefs will be able to take home the title of "Top Chef", bringing the prize back to where the series was first set.
Mad Knife Skillz
2008-01-24 00:54:00
For the most part, I think of myself as having relatively decent knife skills. I can finely dice a onion without much effort, debone a chicken, julienne a potato, cut a carrot into a brunoise, etc. - not half bad for an amateur chef like me.Well, despite what I think of my knife-wielding skills, I got taken to school this past weekend. My mom, who's in town visiting, wanted to make some low bock gow or turnip cakes for Karen and me. Most recipes for low bock gow call for grating the daikon radish that goes into the cake. However, my mom prefers to cut the radish instead so that it does not get too wet and soggy while it's being cooked.Watching my mom slice the daikon into a fine julienne was most impressive. Each cut was very clean and precise, and all of the strips were nearly unifor
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, Skillz
La Fleur de Bretagne
2008-01-17 23:13:00
Did you know: Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, brussels sprouts, kale, collard greens, and kohlrabi are different cultivar groups of a single species, Brassica oleracea or Wild Cabbage?While it would be a stretch to call either Karen or me a huge fanatic of cauliflower, this so-called flower of Brittany, has been making it on to our dinner plates with increasing frequency. Though cauliflower is typically steamed or boiled, we've recently prepared it in a couple of different ways that we've both enjoyed.After returning from our trip to Mexico, Karen made a cauliflower and bacon soup using a recipe from one of our favorite San Francisco restaurants, Range. The soup was really easy to make and very delicious - the smokiness of the bacon paired very well with the cauliflower. It was a perfec
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A 'Buzz in the Air
2008-01-14 02:15:00
If you are a regular reader of Food for Thought, you may have noticed that I recently became a Featured Publisher for Foodbuzz, a virtual community dedicated to the love of food. Last week, the virtual intertwined with the real as the Foodbuzz team hosted a Featured Publishers' dinner at the Slanted Door in the Ferry Building in San Francisco.Over a delectable assortment of appetizers and entrées, I took the opportunity to meet the fabulous editorial staff at Foodbuzz, as well to chat with some of my fellow Bay Area food bloggers, including the authors of The Petite Pig, The Whole Wheat, Cheese N' Things, Taking the World Over One Bite at a Time, and Lunch in a Box.(Photo originally posted by eatingplum.)I'd like to thank the gracious staff at Foodbuzz for putting together and hosting a
The Food-Loving Comedian
2008-01-14 00:57:00
I was recently introduced to the humor of Jim Gaffigan, a hilarious stand-up comedian who has made several appearances on the Late Show with David Letterman. Much of Gaffigan's humor involves food, including routines about eating out, cake, and bacon. His signature piece revolves around his fascination with the microwaveable sandwiches in a sleeve, Hot Pockets.
Read more: Comedian
, Loving
Looking Forward to 2008!
2008-01-07 22:37:00
Like many of you (at least I hope!), I'm looking forward to a great 2008. This is going to be quite a big year for me. As many of you already know, Karen and I got engaged a few months back and are in the midst of planning our wedding. We haven't set a date yet, but we are looking to getting married in the Bay Area sometime toward the end of the summer or the beginning of the fall. Over the next few months, I'm sure that you'll see some posts chronicling the trials and tribulations of our wedding planning. Of course, not all of it will be bad - I'm sure that we'll have a fun time tasting wedding cakes and sampling delicious food as we go through the process of selecting a caterer, so stay tuned!I'm also looking forward to an exciting year at work. Last year, I picked up a lot of new
Read more: Forward
A Mexican Getaway
2008-01-05 01:17:00
Happy Belated New Year! My apologies for the lack of recent posts. Between the post-holiday vacation recovery (funny, I always seem to need a vacation after a vacation) and the head cold that I've been fighting, I hadn't felt up for posting until today.As I mentioned in my last post, Karen and I took off for a little winter getaway last week. Our destination: the Riviera Maya, just north of the Mexican
town of Playa del Carmen on the Caribbean Sea. We started our vacation very early on Christmas Eve, dragging ourselves to the airport in the middle of the night for our 6am flight. Our journey would take us most of the day, with a short layover in Phoenix. We arrived at the Cancún airport in the late afternoon, found our luggage (after an annoyingly long wait), and met up with the car
Let the Flames Begin!
2008-03-12 21:26:00
As I mentioned in an earlier post, Top Chef will be kicking off Season 4 tonight. Karen is a bit surprised at how much I've been looking forward to this new season of Top Chef, and I guess that I'm a bit surprised myself, especially since I don't watch all that much TV.Anyway, I'll be looking forward to watching the flames begin!
Read more: Flames
A Blast for Breakfast
2008-03-12 21:21:00
Has it really been nearly a month since I last posted? I guess that time really flies when you are busy with work and wedding planning. Even the extra day in February didn't seem to buy me any free time to write. Anyway...A few weeks ago, I read an article about a new entry into the breakfast food market, Batter Blast
er. Yes, what you've always wanted, pancake batter conveniently sold in an aerosol can. After hearing some more buzz about this product on the radio later that week, I decided that I wanted to give it a try.An opportunity came up a few days later when Jeremiah invited Karen and me over for Sunday morning brunch. I eagerly offered to bring the ready-made pancake batter as my contribution to the meal. Jeremiah seemed a bit skeptical about the batter, but told me to go ahe
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Top Chef Chicago: The Block Party
2008-03-27 01:01:00
Three weeks into the new season of Top Chef
and the first San Francisco-based chef is gone. It was too bad to see Erik go - having eaten at his restaurant, I was hoping that he would stick around for a while. So much for those rumors.It was interesting to see the SF contestents group themselves onto the same team, though given the political leanings of this area, it probably would have been more appropriate if they had been on the Blue Team.
Read more: Chicago
, Party
Ya Know, I'm a Foodie and All....
2008-03-31 01:13:00
...and willing to splurge for amazing dining experiences at places like the French Laundry and Manresa, but it would be terribly hard to justify ever spending $5K a person to attend a food event (unless I were to hit the Mega Millions jackpot, I suppose) like the attendees at the Pebble Beach Food and Wine Festival paid this past weekend. I'm amazed that over 3000 people shelled out that kind of change for the four-day event. I guess that there are a lot of wealthy foodies out there.
Read more: Foodie
Can You Beet That?
2008-03-31 00:49:00
A beet hater learning to love those ruby red roots?I've heard that story before.
From the Glad Family of Products....
2008-03-30 23:41:00
Did any of you notice the conspicuous product placement in the Chicago Block Party episode of Top Chef? I suspect that most people may not be aware of the fact that Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing, KC Masterpiece Barbecue Sauce, and Kingsford Charcoal are all cousins to the Glad family of products, one of the major sponsors of the series.
Read more: Family
, Products
Another Strong Bay Area Showing
2008-03-30 23:25:00
This past week, James Beard Foundation announced their nominees for the 2008 James Beard Foundation Awards. Like last year, the Bay Area
food community is well-represented. Boulevard and The Slanted Door, two perennial San Francisco favorites, are up for the Outstanding Restaurant Award. While not a clean sweep like last year, four of the five nominees in the Best Chef in the Pacific Region (California and Hawaii) are from the Bay Area: Douglas Keane of Cyrus, Craig Stoll of Delfina, and Michael Tusk of Quince are repeat nominees from last year, with David Kinch of Manresa joining them on the list of nominees.Nate Appleman of A16 and SPQR is a repeat nominee in the Rising Star Chef of the year. Nicole Plue of Yountville's Redd and Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson of Tartine Bakery
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A Couple of Quick Comments
2008-04-22 01:03:00
Lots of work + loads of wedding planning = no time to post on my blog...I just have enough time for a few quick comments about my current favorite TV show, Top Chef:1. Is it just me or are the chefs this season weaker as a whole than in past seasons? Maybe it's just the San Francisco-based chefs who are sucking...2. Is it just me or are the cheftestants quite a bit more snippy and aggressive than in past seasons? See how often they are dropping the F-bomb on the show? Even Tom commented on the noticeable increase in profanity this season.3. If you are looking for some morning-after commentary on the week's show, check out David Dust's Top Chef episode summaries - they are simply hilarious.
Read more: Comments
, Quick
Got Milk?
2008-04-23 01:02:00
If any of you happen to be passing through Charleston, Illinois tomorrow evening and have a hankering for a big glass of milk, you might want to stop by the South Quad on the Eastern Illinois University campus. At 6:30pm, you can enjoy a glass of cold milk (a very big and tall glass) with competitors in the MilkGallon Challenge, a contest which involves drinking a gallon of milk in an hour and holding it down for the remainder of that hour.While this may not sound too difficult, it's actually much harder than you might think. Despite the urban legends that claim impossibility of this feat, it has been done. Our very own Bay Area "foodie" Joey Chestnut has done it before, downing an entire gallon in 41 seconds.As an incentive (really, as if you needed one), the contest organizers are off
0 Fer Four
2008-04-24 02:33:00
Another week, another Top Cheftestant going home. Indeed, another Bay Area chef has been eliminated, which leaves us with the following numbers:Number of Bay Area chefs remaining out of the four who started the competition: zeroNumber of seasons in which a Bay Area cook has been named Top Chef: zeroLooks like we are still below the Mendoza Line.
Cooking for Mom
2008-05-15 02:22:00
My mom was in town for the past few weeks to help out with the wedding planning, so I had a rare opportunity to cook for her on Mother's Day. Since we were doing engagement photos on Mother's Day, we actually decided to cook dinner for my mom on Saturday. My mom didn't really have any preference as to what she wanted for dinner, so it was up to us to decide what to prepare and serve. We spent a
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