Food Favorite

Last night I got to attend an Asia Society Off the Menu dinner, and what fun it was. This series explores favorite dishes that chefs have not been able to keep on their restaurant menus. A ticket to one of these events means you get to taste some very special dishes, no matter what the theme. My fellow Bay Area Bites blogger Thy Tran moderated a fascinating conversation between the chefs.

Each participating chef talked about curries from their home countries--India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand and dispelled some common misconceptions.

From India, Ruta Kahate made a beef curry, and shared that beef is eaten by some Indians and that not all curries have lots of ingredients, this one used only three spices.

From Indonesia chef Daniel Sudar made a spicy goat curry called Gulai Kambing that is usually only served once a year but that he plans on putting on the menu at his soon-to-be-opened Red Lantern restaurant.

Alex Ong from Betelnut restaurant made a Nonya style Korma curry with chicken that is normally made with lamb. It was served dry, but was full of flavor. Because the word curry is derived from the Tamil word for sauce, it is commonly believed that all curries are served with sauce, but that is not necessarily true.

One special chef was in fact not a restaurant chef but my friend, food blogger extraordinaire, Pim. She made a curry and didn't use a curry paste. Kanom Jeen Nam-prik is a rice noodle dish with a curry sauce served with shrimp. Pim's Thai restaurant pet peeve is the way curries are served mix-and-match where customers choose the color--red, green or yellow and the meat, usually chicken, beef or pork. In Thailand much care goes into the pairing of the curry and the meat.

Each dish was strikingly different in texture and flavor showing just a sampling of the wide range of curries in a few parts of Asia. I will try to give you a head's up when the next dinner is announced as they frequently sell out.

FOOD

My name is Amy and I am a bargain hunter. I recognize it is a disease and I have no power over it. If I see a bargain, I don't just buy one, I buy two, three, four or more. And now I sometimes get on the phone to call others, do they want some? So I guess this makes me something of a bargain pimp.

We have a little joke in our household. I say "I'm going to the bank" and Lee says "Going to the Bargain Bank?" Well, he's right. The Bargain Bank is right across the street from the actual bank, so how can I not go? Every single day there is new stuff that I want to check out. I don't actually buy stuff everyday. As all bargain hunters know, vigilance is key because you never know when or where you will find your next treasure.

The Bargain Bank often has a good selection of gourmet products. Sometimes products are frighteningly near an expiration date, but not always. Some of my most impressive finds have been white truffle honey, Scharffenberger Nibby Chocolate bars, and as of yesterday, Yellingbo Gold Extra Virgin olive oil. I tried this complex and creamy Australian olive oil at the Fancy Food Show a couple of years ago and really liked it. It got rave reviews at Saveur magazine not long after. A 500 ml bottle sells around $20, but at the Bargain Bank? $3.99! Of course, it will probably be gone today. My other prize finds yesterday were some tins of Harney & Sons iced tea bags. They are lovely and would make a nice gift but now that I have spilled the beans it will be hard to give them away. Consider this shopping tip my gift instead.

Bargain Bank
1541 Polk Street @ California
San Francisco, CA 94109
(415) 345-1623

599 Clement Street @ 7th Ave
San Francisco, CA
(415) 221-4852

Mon-Fri 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM
Sat-Sun 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM

READ MORE When is a bargain not really a bargain? Over at Bay Area Bites is my take on Restaurants Struggling with Sustainablity Check it out and weigh in on the debate.

FOOD

The latest Eat Local Challenge has been announced, and this time around the organizers are taking cost into account. It's being called the Penny Wise Eat Local Challenge. I Iook forward to seeing how everyone does in regard to their respective budgets (or guidelines) as outlined by the Department of Labor. For anyone participating here in the Bay Area, I have a suggestion. When you want to eat out, head over to Weird Fish.

Weird Fish is a fun and funky little restaurant on what I suppose you could call an up-and-coming stretch of Mission Street at 18th. I've eaten there twice and each time a line formed out the door. The restaurant serves fish but not much. On some days the fish selection is limited to maybe just tilapia and catfish. Why? They only serve sustainable, farmed fish so as to not deplete the oceans. While firmly committed to serving local produce, they also care about cost and balance sustainability with expenses. The prices are low to moderate for a seafood restaurant. Unlike many other seafood restaurants, this is a perfect place for vegetarians. All the salads and most of the vegetable dishes are tremendously satisfying and packed with flavor.

Both times I ate there I had the Fish and Chips ($11 for 3 pieces). The fish is tender and is fried in a beer batter. The chips are a combination of potato and sweet potato, not my preferred British style chips and not completely crisp like the fish, but delicious all the same. I would also order the two-bite Pete's Famous Tacos ($4) again. A special of fish cooked in banana leaves with lime slices was delicate and came with great vegetable side dishes of mashed spuds and green beans. Some other favorite dishes of mine are the Edamame Noodle Salad ($4), and the decidedly weird, but strangely addictive fried dill pickles called yoyo's. I think they used to be slices but are now long juicy and crisp, crunchy spears.


On the veggie side, I liked the hearty Little B Stack ($6), with layers of grilled sweet potato, spinach, goat cheese and marinated tofu but the red beans and plantain were a little bland for my taste. Also the desserts were hit and miss but there are plenty of other good options for dessert nearby. While there is a "suspicious fish " dish on the menu every night, there really isn't anything that weird about Weird Fish (aside from the pickles!). Because it's a very small and popular restaurant, get there early, and don't go with more than a few close friends.

Weird Fish
2193 Mission St @ 18th St
San Francisco, CA
415.863.4744

Sun-Thu: 9am-10pm
Fri-Sat: 9am-12am

FOOD

Have you ever daydreamed about going to culinary school? I have. While I seriously doubt I'll ever attend, I do enjoy getting a glimpse of the professional kitchen. Here are some great ways to sneak a peek for less than even a day's tuition.

Whether you want to see videos of students, techniques or great chefs, the Culinary Institute of America at Epicurious.com has it all. The webcasts or "epi-sodes" are really addictive. I watched one, then another, then another. The chef videos are particularly good. Some highlights are a tour of the Per Se kitchen with Thomas Keller, an interview with Jacques Torres and a clay pot cooking lesson with Charles Phan. Tip: Start at the student episodes and then you can get to Channel Navigation where the technique and chef videos are.

Another great source of cooking school lessons comes from the Culinary Institute of America's ProChef program. There are a free "e-learning" classes you can take online, sponsored by different companies. They even include quizzes at the end of each unit. The Worlds of Flavor section is also terrific, my favorite? Savoring Asia.

Yesterday I got a copy of Baking Boot Camp: Five Days of Basic Training at The Culinary Institute of America and I practically devoured it in one sitting. It's written by Darra Goldstein primarily in a diary format. At the end of the book there are recipes and techniques, and tips are sprinkled throughout, but the day-by-day account of classes are surprisingly exciting in a voyeuristic kind of way. I hope there are more in this series--it's a real winner.

FOOD

Somewhere along the line I seem to have forgotten about quesadillas. But recently a couple of factors lead to me rediscovering them and their potential. One is the Organic Whole Wheat & Corn Flour Tortillas available at Trader Joe's. Each tortilla has only one gram of fat, five grams of fiber and is high in iron. They fit into my "try to eat more whole grain foods" resolution. A little experimenting lead me to discover that the nutty flavor of whole wheat tortillas is really good with non-traditional, not-necessarily Mexican fillings.

The other bit of inspiration came from a recipe I read in Sara Foster's Casual Cooking for Grilled Shrimp and Goat Cheese Toastadas. That jumping off point lead me to create a shrimp, avocado, radicchio and goat cheese quesadilla with a drizzle of chimichurri sauce. It was truly outstanding. I know quesadillas were all the rage about five years ago, but if you haven't played around with them in a while, they are definitely worth revisiting.

Below is a list of some of my favorite filling ingredients and my tips to get you started.

VEGETABLES spinach olives avocado onions potatoes asparagus lentils beans bitter greens mushrooms red peppers

MEAT/FISH shrimp chicken turkey bacon roast pork sausage caviar ham duck

CHEESES fontina feta cheddar blue goat brie cream-cheese camembert

FRUIT tomatoes fig apple mango pear raisins apricots plums strawberries

FLAVORINGS salsa chutney bbq sauce chimichurri pesto truffle oil garam masala balsamic black pepper

1. Pair up classic combinations, some suggestions:
cheddar and chutney
chicken, mango and bbq sauce
shrimp, feta and green onions
brie and pear

2. Restraint is key. Don't overstuff! For one regular sized flour tortilla, try not to add more than 1/2 cup of fillings.

3. Not every combination has to have cheese, I find leftover Indian food tastes great in a whole wheat tortilla without any cheese at all. Pesto, with or without parmesan cheese is wonderful with potatoes.

4. Use a lightly oiled non-stick pan for cooking your quesadillas and when cooking them open face, use a lid to help melt the cheese and heat up the fillings quickly. When the cheese melts, fold the quesadilla over and remove it from the pan.

5. You can also make them open-faced or tostada style. So technically they are not always "quesadillas" but, who cares?

If you'd care to share, let me know your favorite combo, the more nontraditional the better. The one in the photo? Roast pork, asparagus and Stilton.

FOOD

Congratulations to my chicken-smart readers. The first three to answer correctly, Sarah, Debbie and Ed have won a copy of 150 Things to Make with Roast Chicken (And 50 Ways to Roast It) courtesy of Taunton Press.

1. A four pound chicken is typically raised in six weeks with
A. 20 pounds of feed
B. 15 pounds of feed
C. 10 pounds of feed
D. 8 pounds of feed

2. In 1950 what percentage of US chickens were "free range"?
A. 50%
B. 80%
C. 90%
D. 40%

3. You shouldn't eat a chicken liver if it is which color?
A. Green
B. Red
C. Brown
D. Grey

4. Which part of a chicken has the most calories?
A. Gizzard
B. Wing
C. Breast
D. Drumstick

5. In Ancient Rome someone who said "you were raised by a hen" was
A. Insulting you
B Complimenting you
C.Teasing you
D. Annoying you

6. Swiss law requires that all chickens raised in country
A. Have access to the outdoors
B. Have milk with their cereal
C. Are fed organic feed
D. Get chocolate if they lay eggs

READ MORE Over at Bay Area Bites is my post on the Steele Wine Dinner @ Luella

FOOD

Back when I was working more than full-time at a design firm, Sunday was my cooking day. I always spent at least a few hours preparing for the week ahead. What did I cook? Things I could quickly freeze and reheat for dinner such as chili, spaghetti sauce, meatloaf and lasagna or I made roast chicken with vegetables.

The thing about roast chicken is, not only is it wonderful when you make it, any leftovers become the base of literally hundreds of other meals. My mainstays were chicken enchiladas, chicken stuffed crepes, chicken salad and chicken pot pie.

Over the past few years I have experimented with endless methods of roasting. I've used a vertical rack, I've split the bird and flattened it, cooked it under a brick, you name it. Lately I've been rather partial to Nigella Lawson's formula for cooking it which is 15 minutes per pound at 400 degrees plus 10 minutes or until the internal temperature hits 180 degrees. I start with the breast facing down then flip it over when it's halfway cooked. I look for the largest organic roaster I can find so I have plenty of leftovers.

Tony Rosenfeld, contributing editor at Fine Cooking magazine has just written a book called 150 Things to Make with Roast Chicken (And 50 Ways to Roast It) Rosenfeld suggests cooking two chickens at once to double the leftovers. What a great idea! This book is perfect for people who have limited time for cooking and need more ideas of what to do with leftovers. It also has plenty of techniques for you to find your own favorite way to roast a bird. Once you do, you'll never run out of ways to turn one chicken into several different meals, no matter what size your household.

I have three copies of this book to giveaway, courtesy of Taunton Press. Only one entry per person, so choose carefully! Remember, you MUST include your email to win and your mailing address must be in the United States or Canada (unless you want to pay for shipping). Just choose your answers and post them in the comments section. The first four people to correctly answer all the questions will win a copy of the book. Good luck!

1. A four pound chicken is typically raised in six weeks with
A. 20 pounds of feed
B. 15 pounds of feed
C. 10 pounds of feed
D. 8 pounds of feed

2. In 1950 what percentage of US chickens were "free range"?
A. 50%
B. 80%
C. 90%
D. 40%

3. You shouldn't eat a chicken liver if it is which color?
A. Green
B. Red
C. Brown
D. Grey

4. Which part of a chicken has the most calories?
A. Gizzard
B. Wing
C. Breast
D. Drumstick

5. In Ancient Rome someone who said "you were raised by a hen" was
A. Insulting you
B Complimenting you
C.Teasing you
D. Annoying you

6. Swiss law requires that all chickens raised in country
A. Have access to the outdoors
B. Have milk with their cereal
C. Are fed organic feed
D. Get chocolate if they lay eggs

CONTEST NOW CLOSED--THANKS!
FOOD

Lee's favorite cake is a Swedish Princess cake. I get him one every year on his birthday. It's layers of fluffy genoise, smooth custard and raspberry jam all topped with whipped cream and then completely covered with a thin layer of marzipan. This cake really delights marzipan lovers, and it's the perfect Spring cake for birthdays, weddings or showers. It's colored pale green, it's creamy and light with just a little fruit flavor to it.

In San Francisco several bakeries make good Princess cake. Though it's a Swedish cake, you can get it from an Italian bakery, Victoria Pastry, a German bakery, Schubert's Bakery or a French bakery, Patisserie Delanghe. They are all delicious. I can't say I really have a favorite. Oh yeah. How could I forget? Lee's my favorite. Happy Birthday Lee!

FOOD