May 20, 2013 Another fabulous day at NRA, Dinner – Topolobampo

We started at 10:00 am by going to a fabulous speech by Anthony Bourdain.  He was funny and insightful.  I asked a question “What do you think is the proper etiquette for a poorly cooked meal or poor service.   To make a long answer short, h said, “You give the kitchen the opportunity to fix the problem and if they can not you vote with your dollars and not go back and if it was really bad you tell others that it was a really bad restaurant.

After the lecture I went to an education session of menu development that turned out to be boring because it was from the perspective of large chain restaurant s like Popeye’s Fried Chicken, Fried Chicken, which has changed its name to Popeye’s Louisiana Kitchens n which they talked about the chain of actions required to develop new menu dishes.  It made me feel that the process was driven by produce access and marketing and made me realize that food ingredient sourcing and availability takes on a whole new meaning when you have 1000 restaurants in your chain and how that is so like working at Pier 1., where it took the concurrence of 30 to 50 people to make a decision and 100s to execute the decision, except for companies like Starbucks it takes over 11,000 managers to execute the strategy.

The other thing it taught me was that the process of developing a menu for a chain of restaurants is a whole different animal than a home or one small restaurant like the Greenhouse Bistro and Bakery or our house, where the menu is decided in a moment based upon availability of ingredients.

Talking about ingredients, after the lecture at 12:30 we went downstairs to the food booths with Anne and Elizabeth to forage.  I wanted to try the Japanese Pavilion’s products.  There was everything from grilled Satsuma beef on a dab of dry mancha and salt, to lots of types of green to freeze dried mushroom, daikon and burdock to an amazing fresh frozen wasabi, which is a mustard plant.  They even made dashi flavored spaghetti and had a cooking demonstration showing the proper method for making ramen noodles: start by heating a flavored oil to 80˚C., then combine the oil with soy and dashi and chicken stock to make the soup. And throw in the noodles.

Finally, after trying all the Japanese foods we went to the organic section and tried a few mussels at a Prince Edward Island mussel company and a few other teas and snacks.  At around 2:30 made our way to the basement to try more spirits and ciders and wines.  I must have tried at least five different ciders, Dobra chocolate liquor, a wonderful Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao that used the rind of the bitter orange to give an intense orange flavor to the cognac that had won the spirit of the year for 2013 in Berlin and several Italian wines, including a lovey Franciacorta.

At around 3:30 p.m. Suzette ran out of gas and we left for the hotel for a nap.

May 19, 2013 NRA convention Wine and Beverage Brunch and Mixology National Star of the Bar Finals

May 19, 2013 NRA convention Wine and beverage Brunch and Mixology National Star of the Bar Finals

Today was really fun.  We went to the McCormack Center and walked through the exhibits first and had a few tastes of food items for breakfast like tea and apple juice and chocolate twills and Louisiana Seafood Association’s shrimp.  Then I went to a session on franchising.   At 11:00 a.m. I went to the wine and beverage’s association’s brunch where they gave statistics on alcoholic beverage sales and trends for "adult beverages" for last two years for an hour and served an egg ramekin with vegetables with a tomato coulis, fresh fruit and cheeses with crackers, and a yogurt and granola parfait and a bloody mary and a glass of champagne.  Voila.

 After lunch I met Suzette in the technology area where we visited Lavu and tried a few more food items like Kronos Baklava.  Then I returned for another franchise session and finally at 3:00 I joined Suzette in the wine and spirits hall for drinks.  I tried lots of wine and spirits.  Particularly interesting was Cognac Pitaud's Rose Pineau and several French Fronton grape wines from near Carcassone.

Then we visited the Bulgarian wine booth and the Macadonian wine booth and Valdemar German wines such as Joseph Prüm and ended our visit to the area at the Quady booth were we tried all three of their Vya Vermouths and realized that we had only visited two of six aisles.   I promised myself I would return tomorrow.

We returned to the hotel and lay down for a while and then at 9:00 p.m. went the Elizabeth and Anne Sesler  to the Rock the NRA party at the Castle.  There was food and music and all the alcoholic beverages you could drink thanks to the beverage sponsors.  l ordered a whiskey sour made with Templeton Rye whiskey and later changed to Negra Modelo.  

Then I came to a realization.  All the stuff we eat, all the food and beverages and stuff to prepare them with and the stuff to serve them with and on is a huge worldwide business and most of the folks who produce that stuff were in the same room as I was.  

That realization came at the party just a few minutes before Anthony Bourdain helped judge the Star of the Bar best mixed drink contest to determine the best bartender in the U.S. as if I needed any further evidence.

Bon Appétit

May 15, 2013 Dinner – Pork and vegetable and apple Stir Fry

May 15, 2013 Dinner – Pork and vegetable and apple Stir Fry

Our food choices have fallen into a routine.  We think about what we can do with produce from the garden and PPIs (we refer to leftovers as Previously Prepared Ingredients or PPIs, because we use them to make new dishes) before thinking about creating a new dish.  Or perhaps because we are always adapting PPIs and fresh ingredients from the garden to create new dishes, we are always creating new dishes.  You must be the judge of which category applies.

Today I knew we had only two days to finish using all of the PPIs and ingredients in our fridge before we left on a ten day trip, so I thawed out a bag with 1 lb. of pork steak.  Then when Suzette came home we went to the garden and picked a lot of kale, mustard greens, mibuna and turnip greens and a few baby turnips.   We had a bag of cut up turnips from the prior day’s harvest and bags of leeks and some old Brussels sprouts.  Last year the garden was filled with volunteer garlic and this year it appears that the garden is full of leeks.  

So we cut up leeks and kale and the pork and Brussels sprouts.  As I was chopping I saw a Granny Smith apple in the fruit basket that needed to be used, so I cut out the bad spot and cubed it also.   Suzette took a bag of PPI spaghetti from the fridge and I cut about 1 Tbsp. of ginger root into thin strips and cubed about ¼ cup of red and yellow onion.  Suzette put about 2 Tbsp. of peanut oil into a wok and fired it up.

After the onion and ginger and some of the leeks cooked for couple of minutes Suzette added the pork and cooked it until it turned grey.

Suzette wanted cold sake, so I went to the garage and fetched the bottle of Nigori sake and shook it to disburse the white sediment into clouds.

Then she added and stirred the greens into the hot meat mixture.  Suzette then put the bag of PPI spaghetti into the microwave and hated it.  When everything was mixed and heated, we poured glasses of cold sake and ladled the pork and vegetable and apple mixture over the hot pasta in pasta bowls and went outside for dinner on the patio.  As the sun set we enjoyed discussing the garden and our plans for the yard.

It is hard to put into words, how delicious the combination of Brussels Sprouts, apples, fresh baby turnips and greens with leek and onion was.

Bon Appétit

May 12, 2013 Release Party at Cynthia and Ricardo’s

May 12, 2013 Release Party at Cynthia and Ricardo’s

 Upon our return from Santa Fe on Saturday, I found a message from Cynthia when I opened my e mail, inviting us to their house for a party on Sunday afternoon “starting at 2:00 p.m.”  When we arrived a bit after 2:00 p.m. the band Ricardo plays drums in “The Lost Tribes of Mardi Gras” was in full swing on the newly remodeled back patio. 

THE LOST TRIBES OF MARDI GRAS is a 6 member ensemble playing traditional instruments and music of Carnivale, ritual and celebratory music. Their repertoire includes Afro-Caribbean rhythms and chants, as well as Brazilian Samba and songs from New Orleans, Brazil, Africa, and the Caribbean. Come join in songs of freedom and celebrate community and the ancestors. Enjoy Guaguancó, Samba, Second-Line, Bomba, Cha-cha-cha, Bembé, Samba-Reggae, Comparsa, Abakua, and more.

The table was set with a several delightful snacks that Cynthia often makes like an olive medley and interesting cheese plate and a wonderful hummus garnished with fresh chopped broadleaf parsley and olive oil and a large bowl of pita chips.  I first discovered that this was a band rehearsal and later discovered that the Band was releasing an EP and this was also their first release party.   Cynthia is on the right.

There were a number of interesting folks to talk to.  I found myself sitting beside a lady named Martha, who taught high school Spanish in the APS system and owned a house in Cataluya?, Spain a hill top town in Catalan, south of Barcelona, quite near Peniscola, where El Cid was filmed.  Billy and I spent two or three days there in 1971, when we had to stop for a brake repair of my VW bus during a vacation.  I remember it as a lovely walled town on the beach surrounded by miles of flat open beach.  Martha told me that that lovely open expanse of beach has been filled with condos and hotels; another victim of Spain’s building boom.  And like many other victims, one that cannot be returned to its pre-developed idyllic state.

I enjoyed speaking to Martha about her experiences in Spain and the latest gossip about Spain’ s current economic and political troubles.   Martha’s take was that illegal bribes to local officials by developers allowed for massive overbuilding that led to a collapse.  We both had read the New Yorker article that had said essentially the same thing.  

Ricardo and Cynthia have built a raised patio beside their back door and a beautiful wooden portal over a portion of their extended patio and a fire pit and cooking area that extends into their back yard.  Further back in the yard they built a bar area that was filled with wine and where there were iced coolers filled with beer, wine and sodas.  That is when I became aware that this was a real party, party.

After about two hours of pleasant talk in the warm sunlight of a Sunday afternoon with lots of lovely wine and music, Cynthia started bring out pizza and salad over the course of about thirty minutes.  Cynthia said that the first pizza was not hers, but store bought.  Then an elegantly thin crusted pizza appeared that she made with thinly sliced tomatoes and herbs and finally a feta and kalamata olive and herb olive pizza was served that I loved the best because it had a lovely oily texture.

Cynthia presented Suzette with an envelope containing a CD by Honey House, a local band that Suzette had mentioned she liked when Cynthia and Ricardo played it for us at an earlier party at their house.

Suzette handed out cards advertising this summer’s Field to Table meal on June 22 that is named 24 Carrots, because it will feature carrots.   Martha left for a while, but returned later and gave Suzette a note card with a picture of a massive pile of carrots.  The picture on the cover of the note card was signed by her and I suspect the photo was taken in Spain. 

Then at around 5:30 p.m. Cynthia brought out two pies.  One was a mixed berry pie with an amazing flakey crust baked by Paul, the trombonist in the band (that everyone loved; note the empty baking dish) and a carton of delicious vanilla bean ice cream and a store baked blueberry pie that I did not try because I was so full.   The appearance of the pies must have been the signal for the band to stop playing so they could eat.  We mingled a bit more and around 6:00 we went home after a relaxing and pleasant afternoon of music, wine and food.

Bon Appétit

   

May 11, 2013 Lunch – Second Street Brewery at the Railyard, Dinner- Street Food Asia

May 11, 2013 Lunch – Second Street Brewery at the Railyard, Dinner- Street Food Asia

We had been to Stephen's the week before and saw that there were several items we were interested in. Saturday was Stephen’s big Mother’s Day weekend Sale when everything is at least 30% off, so we decided to go to the sale.  We arrived at around 9:30 am and it was already crowded.  I immediately went to the piece I wanted, an Agnes Sims watercolor named “Prayer Sticks” and picked it up. 

Then I followed Suzette to the back yard where we found an unusual table with a steel top that was formed into the shape of a tablecloth draped over a table.  Suzette bought a jardineire that she wanted to use to hold her lingam stone from India and finally she picked the small hand blown Holmgaard crystal vase we had previously admired.  We were ecstatic that we had gotten all the things we had wanted and found a new wonderful table for another seating area in our back yard.

We then went to David Richard Gallery to see its new exhibit of Richard Anuzkiewicz and works by some of the artists showing at the Dynamos in Paris Exhibition currently.   We loved the exhibit but was after 1:00 pm and we were getting thirsty so we went out the back door to the Second Street Brewery at the Railyard, which is just a few steps from the gallery.  I ordered an apple cider and Suzette ordered an ale, when we saw on the board that one of the daily special was steamed mussels, so we ordered that also.

Shortly after our drinks were served the waiter brought a large bowl with about 2 to three dozen large mussels garnished with diced fried bacon and a Dijon mustard sauce with a slice of French bread that had been grilled.  We loved the mussels, but found that the Dijon mustard and bacon did not complement the mussels.  It was like two different dishes served together in one bowl, so we enjoyed eating the mussels and then ate the bacon in mustard sauce on the grilled French bread.

After our big lunch, we went home and shortly after we arrived I received a telephone call from Robert Mueller asking if we wanted to go to Street Food Asia for dinner.  We said yes, because we have not been to Street Food Asia before and Robert had recommended it highly.

We decided to meet at 7:30 p.m. at the restaurant.  When we arrived the restaurant was packed.  Robert and Marilyn were seated at a table at the front with high seats, so we could see everything on the street, which felt just like a street café.   I looked at the menu for quite a while and then recalled that I had seen ads in the IQ for a Mother’s Day Special menu at Street Food Asia featuring lobster and that Robert had mentioned enjoying their lobster dishes, so I ordered di lobster with Chinese wide Fu noodles in a ginger and scallion sauce.  It became apparent to me that the menu was structured around about six types of meat, about nine types of sauces and about six types of noodles and they were mixed with a fairly standard array of Southeast Asian vegetables into a multitude of different dishes, like a Vietnamese restaurant.  Robert told me that the owner is Malaysian and Malaysian dishes were on the menu, along with Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean and Japanese.   But there was nothing like Ristafel; mostly Malay flavored satays using different ingredients. Noodle dishes seemed to dominate the menu, either in the form of cool salads or warm noodle dishes.

For example in the large salad category contains four different selections of salads and 14 different topping selections.  Suzette ordered the Saigon Street Vermicelli salad with lettuce, cucumbers, warm vermicelli noodles, a carrot and daikon relish, cilantro basil and mint an chopped peanuts on the side with a Vietnamese Vinaigrette (just like in a Vietnamese restaurant) with a topping of wonderful large triangles of deep fried tofu which also contained lots of fresh mango.  So it appears that fresh ingredients are added to give zest to the menu.

 

 

 

 

My lobster had been frozen and was probably boiled, chopped and then stir fried.  It was just okay.  Besides the deep fried tofu, which was my favorite, Marilyn and Robert ordered an order of three different dumplings including a round vegetable dumpling and several steamed dumplings that was very nice, a platter with three different meats (BBQ pork ribs, grilled thinly sliced beef and chicken wings coated with a ginger sauce).  My second favorite thing on the table were the BBQ’d pork ribs.  I could have made a dinner out of a plate of those.

We drank Chinese beers, like Buddha beer, and had a great time eating all the different foods.

After dinner, we decided to go next door to Flying Star for a pastry and a cup of tea.  Robert and I decided to order a embarrassingly large chocolate éclair.  I took more than one-half of mine home and Suzette and I ate it for breakfast Sunday morning.
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Finally at around 10:00 p.m. we went home and caught the first of Saturday Night Live.

Bon Appétit  

May 14, 2013 Dinner – Fish Stew with Beans and Tortillas

May 14, 2013 Dinner – Fish Stew with Beans and Tortillas

I have been working a lot lately and trying to read my book club book for this Month,The Poisonwood Bible, that is over 600 pages.  I am on page 274, so there is hope and time to catch up on meal descriptions.

Tonight’s meal started with an effort to use up PPI ingredients.  I thawed out a Corvina filet and when Suzette came home, she brought a plastic container filled with a new, wonderful soup; Rosemary and I tasted it but could not guess its main ingredient.  Cream of Radish Soup Suzette shouted.  A new soup cooked by the new sous chef at the Bistro.  Bravo for Suzette.

While Rosemary and I were finishing our project, Suzette picked a handful of radishes and turnips from the garden.  When Rosemary left I chopped the green tops off the radishes and turnips and chopped about 2 Tbsp. of leeks and their green tops and a tomato. Suzette decided to make a fish stew with the radish soup, the greens, the tomato, the leeks, and the corvina.  We emptied the fridge of several old and unpromising PPI, since we are leaving this weekend for Chicago and then New York and Pennsylvania for a week and two weekends.  We found a container of the delicious beans we made for Willy’s going away party a month ago and decided to heat them into refried beans to eat with the fish stew.

If you have not seen Willy’s blog he is posting during his trip, called Wandering, you should.  My brother, Billy, who is a professional writer called the other day to say how impressed he was with Willy’s writing ability. Maybe we have another Simon writer.

I fetched three bottles of beer from the basement and Suzette wrapped a handful of small tortillas in a wet dish towel and put them into the microwave.  When she had sautéed all the ingredients and the beans were heated in a skillet, she said to start the tortillas.  After another three minutes everything was ready and Suzette ladled fish stew and beans on a plate and laid a couple of tortillas on the plate and we ate fish stew tacos with beans and beer, for a pretty wonderful dinner.

 

Bon Appétit

May 13, 2013 Dinner – Grilled Ribeye steak with sautéed mushrooms, spaghetti, leeks and greens

This was another quick, simple dinner.  I thawed out a rib eye steak in the morning.
We had a half bag of greens and lots of leeks that we had picked Sunday morning.

Suzette and I are determined to lose weight, so we decided to minimize the carbohydrates.  I sliced up ½ lb. of baby portabella mushrooms, and about 3 Tbsp. of the leeks, which we have started using instead of onions and shallots.  We had a bag with about ½ lb. of PPI broccoli that we chopped up.

Suzette started the steak broiling on the grill while I sautéed the mushrooms and leeks, then Suzette took over the skillet and added the spaghetti, broccoli and then the greens.  We ended up with sautéed vegetables and spaghetti. 

 

 

I went to the basement and got a bottle of Claudia Springs 2004 Zindandel grown in Redwood Valley at the John Ricetti Vineyard (www.claudiasprings.com) that we bought on our first trip to Anderson Valley in 2008.  Claudia Springs is a wonderful winery located at the westerly end of Anderson Valley in Mendocino County, California, not too far from the Pacific Ocean and Mendocino.  The owners, Claudia and Bob Klindt, make elegant zinfandels, Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris.  

 

When the steak was cooked to medium rare, we sliced it and filled one-half of the plate with the spaghetti and vegetable mixture and the other half with slices of steak.  I had warmed the PPI Bearnaise Sauce to soften it so I could dab some onto my steak for a lovely, relatively light steak dinner.

In Anderson Valley there are lots of growers who only grow grapes and sell them to the wineries and there are lots of wine makers who only make wine and buy their grapes from the farmers who raise them.  This wine appears to be one of those unions of grapes raised by John Ricetti with the exquisite wine making abilities of the Klindts.  The wine was smooth and yet earthy, not at all peppery, just like you would imagine a wine made from grapes raised in a redwood forest would taste.  I call these zinfandels, New California style zinfandels.  The first one I tasted that tasted like the grapes had been gown in the redwoods was Pacific Star Winery, which at the time had a tasting room and production facility in Myers Flat in the Redwoods National Park in Humboldt County and is now based in Fort Bragg, just up the road from Anderson Valley.   Redwood Valley is just north of Ukiah, in Mendocino County, California.

Bon Appétit