Fall Cooking

Well it has been a good long while since I posted anything here. I have been busy working on this project, as well as a few other things. So I thought I'd post images of two tasty 100% Farmer's Market creations that I've made in the last couple of weeks.

At the Dupont Farmer's Market, there is a couple that always seems to have some soft shell blue crabs (frozen this time of year of course), and we're getting towards the end of the herbs and tomatoes and eggplant, so I thought I'd use all of them for a tasty Italian style dinner. The crabs were pan seared then baked off for a few minutes in olive oil and topped with a salsa of tomatoes, basil, shallots, Balsamic, and olive oil. The spinach was quickly wilted with some garlic. The eggplant was pan-seared til soft, then marinated in a sauce made of olive oil, garlic, capers, chili, and parsley. Served with a nice clean Prosecco, it was a tasty evening.


A couple of nights later, I was in the mood for some serious comfort food. So I pulled out some ground goat that I purchased from Eco-Friendly Foods, some bell peppers, and some acorn squash and went to town. The goat was sauteed with paprika, fennel seed, oregano, thyme, hot red pepper, garlic, onion, and coriander seed to make some sausage. I then mixed that with some sauteed kale and celery and some sheep feta cheese and stuffed it in the fresh bell peppers, and topped it with some Pecorino cheese and roasted them for 30 minutes in the oven. The acorn squash is my favorite fall recipe, roasting it at high temperature til carmelized on one side, then dressing it with a sauce of lime juice, cilantro, hot chili, garlic, and olive oil. Served with a delicious 1998 Icardi Barbera, the mellow tannins paired perfectly with the tanginess of the squash and heartiness of the stuffed peppers.

Monday Poll Question!

Ok, inspired by a silly list of pictures from the Wanfujing Night Market in Beijing, I started remembering some of the weird (and sometimes gross) things I have eaten in the past: silk worms, Japanese grated yam (the most disgusting texture I have ever experienced), whole bird on a stick, Chinese Thousand Year Eggs, sauteed lettuce, etc.

So I really would like to know:

What is the weirdest (or most disgusting) food you have ever eaten?

As always, I’m looking for good stories, and although I won’t be offering a prize this week, shouldn’t sharing with (and hopefully shocking) your fellow food lovers be reward enough?

Road Trip - Food on the Run

Sometimes you just need a road trip right? Ok, it’s not that much fun when you don’t have a choice, but one benefit of my recent road trip is that I had the ability to try some fun road food, and a great brunch restaurant in Chicago.

I sincerely had no idea there were so many resources for people looking for food on the road. But there is an entire website/message board dedicated to just that proposal, called Roadfood.com. Since I knew we would be stuck on the turnpikes all the way from Pennsylvania to Chicago, and usually the only food you see is at those awful rest stops.

Instead of being trapped on the turnpike in Ohio, we decided to leave the soul-crushing monotony, and traipse up to Seven Hills south of Cleveland and stop at an old fashioned drive in ala 1950s car service. The prices at Swenson's were cheaper than McDonalds, and the quality was significantly better. They are known for their Galley Boy sandwich, a double-cheeseburger with two sauces: a barbeque-base (sweet and savory) and a mayonnaise-base (reminiscent of tartar sauce, but creamier). Coupled with extra-crispy and delicious onion rings, fried zucchini, and a couple of old-school phosphates, it was heart-attack-inducing, juicy, and delicious.

Once in Chicago, there was a disappointing dinner at Volo Restaurant and Wine Bar. While they had a really reasonable wine list that was paired nicely with the food, and the bone marrow was huge and delicious, the crab appetizer was a complete miss, and the service was at glacial pace. But, it was a great location for relaxing outside and sharing some wine.

Due to the lack of serious food the night before, there was a certain amount of starvation the next morning. Fortunately, we found a wonderful breakfast spot in Logan Square, Lula Café. Using fresh, local ingredients, and a fusion of Latin, Asian, and American food, the food was excellent, service was friendly and efficient, and it is clearly a great local destination. Starting with the Bloody Mary made with Sambal Chili, rather than the usual Tabasco, there were surprises everywhere. The eggs benedict were perfectly poached, and served on top of tiny baby summer squash, squash blossoms, and arugula, then topped with crispy Serrano ham, hollandaise, and basil pesto. A perfect balance of creamy, tangy, salty, and crunchy. The roasted pork shoulder over black beans was hearty and delicious as well. All in all, a great destination for brunch.

Finally, as a last meal in Chicago, we stopped at the institution of Lou Mitchell’s downtown on our way out of town.

Touristy, yes, but also full of locals and old-school waiters and waitresses. The homemade orange marmalade was delicious and sharp on their homemade thick wheat bread with a hint of sweetness. But the star was the massive portions of delicious eggs and potatoes, not to mention the melt-in-your-mouth pancakes with real maple syrup. A two egg breakfast was, in fact, a four egg breakfast, enough for a lumberjack, but everything was cooked well and the fastest breakfast service I have ever seen.

Definitely worth the trip.

Slow-Cooked Goat Tacos

One of my favorite cooking magazines is Gourmet Magazine. I have often used their recipes, either in pure form, or as a basis for my own adventures in cooking. When looking through the July 2008 issue, I came across a great looking goat taco recipe using anchos and guajillos – two of my favorite chilis. I didn’t think much of it at the time, largely because goat is not that common. However, as luck would have it, the next day I was at the Dupont Circle Farmers Market and visiting my friends at Eco-Friendly Foods as I do every week. Lo and behold, they had goat! And not just any goat, but fresh (!) goat shanks and goat shoulders. So I picked up a goat shoulder in preparation for some delicious goat tacos. In a kismet moment, there were also tomatillos at another vendor, and I have been growing jalapenos in the garden, perfect for making some fresh salsa verde! It had been a long time since I had made some really traditional Mexican food, my favorite Mexican cookbook being Rick Bayless’ Mexican Kitchen. I used his recipe to make some delicious salsa verde for topping the goat tacos.

The recipe from Gourmet was an excellent blend of spices, utilizing the depth of the anchos and guajillos, as well as the slight gaminess of the goat. The estimated cooking time of 5 hours was not far off, but first braising the goat in the sauce on the bone, then shredding the meat and braising again allowed the flavors in the sauce to penetrate the meat fully, creating a deep, slow, burning spice in the meat. The taste was authentic and rich, a flavor I had not experienced in years, indeed, not since I was in Mexico.

Served with the accompaniments of shredded lettuce, salsa verde, avocados, sliced onions, lime juice, crumbled cheese, and a few chilis, it was a delicious balance of hot, sweet, tangy, rich, and tart that was a pleasure to eat. Surprisingly, a Falanghina was quite the lovely match for the combination – not too dry and not too sweet, but a nice balance to the spice and depth of the tacos.

Winner of Special Prize

Well, I had three stories to choose from last week on the special poll.

1) A stylistically well written response detailing the fear we often feel about things going wrong. However, as there was no actual disaster, I decided that one of the two actual disasters should win.

2) Ah yes...not cooking something...always a fun story, and made particularly fun by the fact that it was for in-laws.

3) The funniest, and most disastrous story of the bunch, but posted on behalf of someone else. If the actual individual who this had happened to would have posted, they would have won the prize.

So, without further ado, story (2), cold enchilladas, wins the prize. I feel no guilt giving it to the enchillada because the same person posted stories (2) and (3), and lives in the same house as the person in story (1). As a prize, you win....(drum roll please...): An 8oz bag of Chinese TienTsin Chili Peppers from Penzey's Spices, to be shipped directly to your address!

If you feel you had a better story than this one and think you should've won the prize...remember to chime in next time!

Monday Poll Question

So I decided to do a free-form poll today. The question of the week is:

What is your worst cooking disaster?

We all have had them...those days when you have Thanksgiving guests coming over and you forgot to defrost the turkey, or turn off the sauce, or one of a thousand other major or minor disasters that happen as we cook in our homes (or restaurants for those of you in the profession). I, and my readers, want to hear about them in a pitiful effort to salve our own wounds. And frankly, a lot of these stories can be pretty hilarious in retrospect, and who doesn't need a little humor on a Monday?

So tell me all about it my friends, and next Monday I'll have a special prize for my favorite!

(warning: I will be attempting to sniff out fake stories with my Sherlock-like analytical skills, so don't try pulling a fast one on me!)

Sometimes It's Just Better Not to Post

Ok, so I was all ready to post about this great pasta dish I made with roasted tomato sauce with pesto and grilled beef. Yeah…that wasn’t going to happen. It was a total disaster. The best I can say about it was that the pasta was cooked properly al dente.

I guess in some ways it is helpful to have disasters, because otherwise how are we ever going to learn from our mistakes?

So this is what I have learned: never over-cook your pasta sauce…elsewise it turns into tomato paste, and no amount of attempts at saving it will succeed…that is unless you have a whole new pile of tomatoes, basil, garlic, and about an extra hour to cook.

I hate cooking disasters. It is especially frustrating when you spend more than an hour trying to make something delicious. Oh well, I made up for it with a very nice martini at least, and maybe next time it will turn out better…

Dining in Spain (a.k.a., Dining at Tia Pol)

Whenever I encounter restaurants where numerous reviews expound upon the “epic” waits, I always wonder if any place could be worth such a wait. However, at one particular restaurant in Chelsea, Manhattan, we decided to brave the wait, based on the rave reviews, and some personal recommendations from a Jodi and a Tom, both fellow barflies at our local favorite in Adams Morgan, Washington DC, Cashions Eat Place. Therefore, as planned, we arrived at Tia Pol, at 205 10th Avenue last night at approximately 8:15 PM.

As we walked up, we noticed it seemed to be about the size of a closet, and was packed to the gills with people sipping sangria. The hostess gave us a wait time of 1 hour and 15 minutes. Desperate to sit down after a day of hiking around Manhattan, we gave her my phone number, and peeked into the next door restaurant Isakaya Ten. There we found a wonderful and chatty bartender, and a unique quirk for regulars: you can order a whole bottle of Shochu from their extensive list, and if you don’t finish it, you can put your name on it and have it for the next time you visit. Our hour wait was therefore spent mercifully having a lovely glass of Shochu in air-conditioned comfort, before the main event…an amazingly authentic meal at Tia Pol.

There are very few seats in this little restaurant, and the menu is one laminated page long or small plates, with the daily specials written on a chalkboard behind the bar. The wine list has a broad range of prices on excellent Spanish wines, and the staff is very knowledgeable about each of the wines and dishes available. After our preferred Rioja was unavailable, our waiter recommended a 2003 Laurona Montsant, from the Priorat region of Catalonia. 50% Garnacha, 25% Merlot, 15% Syrah, and 10% Cabernet, and aged for a year in French Oak, it was well balanced, light, and hinted of stewed fruits. A perfect wine for the broad range of flavors we were about to embark on. Everything we saw looked excellent, but here is the list of tapas we ate, representing a broad range of flavors and textures:

1. Montadito de crema de habitas con beyos: a fava bean puree, with just a hint of garlic on toasts, drizzled with excellent extra virgin olive oil (we had them hold the beyos cheese, as it is a cow’s milk cheese, and I am allergic)
2. Gildas: ondarroan anchovies, pickled peppers, and green olives on little martini skewers. It was the perfect little snack, and I’m dreaming of making a martini using these…
3. One of the daily specials, four perfectly small slices of grilled rare white tuna served chilled with a cilantro, almond, and olive oil pesto, and a white bean salad of beans, onions, and olive oil. Eaten alone, the tuna was rather bland, but eaten together, the three elements complimented each other perfectly.
4. Paquetitos de jamón con alcachofa: crushed artichoke hearts mixed with anchego cheese and wrapped into three perfect little triangles of Serrano ham. It was a lovely combination of creamy-ness and salt
5. Piquillos rellenos de ensaladilla rusa: what I would consider one of the highlights of the meal, four small roasted red sweet peppers, stuffed with a puree of potato, garlic, and pimento, topped with shredded pickled white tuna, and served with a salad of watercress. It was at once creamy, tangy, and bitter, and served at the midpoint of the meal was the perfect pallet cleanser after the heaviness of the grilled tuna and the ham
6. Granicha: charred baby green long peppers, simply tossed in salt, were at once bitter and salty, and I can see these served at a bar with some almonds as a nice accompaniment with a cold beer on a hot day.
7. Navajas y almejas: razor clams and cockles, which were perfectly cooked and tender in white wine, garlic, parsley, and butter. We must have gone through a whole loaf of bread sopping up the broth
8. And finally for dessert, we chose a cheese plate including Valdeon (a cow/sheep’s milk blue cheese), Manchego (a creamy lightly aged sheep’s milk), and Garrotxa (a wonderfully stinky goat cheese). Also included on the platter were roasted marcona almonds, lightly candied and spiced walnuts, and the best preserved red cherries I have ever had.

It was a truly decadent evening, with the only downside being the wait. Needless to say, next time I am in New York City, I will be returning for another authentic Spanish treat!

Barbequing in Connecticut

Is there anything more Americana than barbequing on Fourth of July weekend? How about ribs in the Connecticut suburbs on a deck surrounded by trees and hearing fireworks in the distance? Well, it appears that this Fourth of July was the most Americana of times I’ve had in a long time.

It is intriguing to consider how much effort most of us will go through to experience the perfect barbecue. A significant quantity of books have been written on the subject, and it is a multi-million dollar industry. Products on the market range from the food, to the utensils, to the paraphernalia (i.e., aprons, hats, corn-on-the-cob holders, etc.), and $1,000+ grills.

This Fourth of July weekend, we relaxed with friends and grilled on their brand new gas Weber grille. But first, we made an early run to a highly unique store, which has apparently been featured on Ripley’s Believe It…Or Not! Called Stew Leonard's, it was kitchy in the extreme, involving animated animals, barnyard songs, and an entire dairy-bottling operation, backed up by live video pictures of their dairy herd. There we picked up two racks of pork ribs, several ears of bi-color corn, and some cherries.

For once I was not the one cooking up a storm. Our friends marinated the ribs in Penzey’s BBQ 3000 rub, then slow-baked them at 250-degrees Fahrenheit for 6 hours. They cooked up a homemade honey barbeque sauce with a little bourbon (Bulleit Bourbon to be specific), then threw the ribs on the grille for another 30 minutes, glazing with the sauce and turning them four or five times. At the same time, the corn was cooking in its husks for a while, before being peeled and thrown directly on the grille. The result was a beautiful spread for the four of us. Yes…we did eat ½ a rack of ribs a person…but how could you not when they look like this:

The ribs were so tender that they fell off the bone, and some of the bones were even disintegrating, while the outside of the ribs were sticky and happily crusty. A little BBQ Sauce on the side, and a 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon, and it was a perfect evening with friends.

Missing Posts

Sorry folks. Stomach flu is not so conducive to posting about food. I am beginning to eat again, and next week will be in New York City, so hopefully I will have a lot of good food to discuss in the near future.

New Stuff This Week

New this week, I will be adding a poll each Monday on a food-related topic. It will be on the top of the page, and I hope all of you will share your thoughts with me. Also, if you have any suggestions for polls you would like to see, feel free to submit a comment!

Spain at Home

I have always loved gazpacho. It is the perfect example of “summer in a bowl,” and perfectly lovely on a warm night. I found some great cucumbers, and had a bunch of tomatoes that were too soft to slice, so I thought I would finally try and make this wonderful little cold soup. I can’t take credit for the recipe, as I found it on Food and Wine’s website, based on Chef Jose Andres’ wife’s recipe. Going into it, I had no idea how easy it was, else I would have been making it for years. Ingredients are simply tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet bell peppers, garlic, vinegar, olive oil, and a little salt. Pureed in a blender, chilled for a couple of hours, and it’s ready. I served it up with garnishes of the basic ingredients and a couple pieces of toast.


For dinner last night I served the gazpacho, then simply broiled with lemon a whole red snapper marinated in fennel fronds and olive oil, filleted the fish, and served it with a few marinated beans I bought at Whole Foods.


A light Spanish-inspired meal for a summer evening. Next step: buy a good Spanish cookbook so I can make more of the delicious, simple food that is Spanish cuisine.

Soon to Be More Posts

I haven't been very good about updating this blog, and I am seriously regretting not maintaining the habit. It is not as if I haven't had some great food at restaurants, made some fun food at home, and generally kept up my food passion. However, life has gotten in the way a bit.

However, beginning next week, it is my plan to blog on at least one meal at home a week and a new restaurant meal every other week. I may end up blogging more, but I'm going to make every effort to be consistent and build an archive of fun food and and exciting experiences.

Not For the Weak of Stomach

There are many cultures that have some form of cook-your-own food at the table. In Japan you have shabu-shabu, in Korea you have barbeque, in France you have fondue, and in China you have hot pot. Two different regions of China are particularly famous for their hot pots, Hunan and Sichuan. In the United States, we often see something called “hot pot” in Chinese restaurants, but it bears little resemblance to the boiling cauldrons of delicious goodness that is hot pot (火锅).

In China, hot pot restaurants are often on the second floor of buildings, in big halls, with tons and tons of tables. When you sit down you are presented with an unintelligible menu (unless you are fluent in reading Chinese that is) of often hundreds of items. But it all starts with the selection of soup. My personal favorite choice is the dual bowl, which looks like a Yin Yang. On one side there is a white soup, usually made with ginger, mushrooms, tons of garlic, and a chicken broth; and on the other side there is the red soup, made with the same chicken broth as the white soup, but with the noted addition of tons and tons and tons of red chilis, oil, more garlic, Sichuan peppercorns, various spices, and lots more red chilis and oil:

From my experience, each individual hotpot restaurant has slightly different flavors. Some are hotter, some have more Sichuan peppercorns (which have an intensive nutty flavor and a numbing quality), and some have more cumin or other spices. Today I had an excellent specimen which was wonderfully sweat-inducing spicy, but also had tons of spice, and more garlic than I’ve seen in a long time. There was a balance to the hotpot at this place that made you want to keep eating forever, even when your stomach is so full you want to keel over.

After you choose your broth, you choose a selection of meats, vegetables, and noodles that are brought to your table in massive quantities as the delicious hell-broth boils at your table. Today I had a combination of lamb, spinach, Napa cabbage, black mushroom, tofu, sliced white yams, and finished it all with handmade fresh noodles.

Someday I hope I can find a hotpot restaurant in the United States, but until then I will have to indulge my obsession only when in China…

Feasting at 小王府 (Xiao Wang Fu’s), Beijing, China

I arrived in Beijing, China yesterday, for what is probably my 20^th trip here over the years. Whenever I come to Beijing, I regularly make it a point to take a trip to 小王府 (Xiao Wang Fu), particularly the lovely version in日坛公园 (Ritan Park). This park is a great little place in the center of the old Embassy district, and though the Xiao Wang Fu’s restaurant is much more expensive than a basic Chinese restaurant, it is worth it for the consistent quality and the relaxing atmosphere.

As with all really good Chinese meals, there should always be a huge variety of dishes, with a significant number of flavor profiles. It is traditional that one person orders for the entire party, and in this instance I cannot take credit for the lovely meal that resulted. I arrived late to the party, a dinner with ex-colleagues and good friends, due to the jetlag, and ordering was well underway. In all, between six of us, we had nine dishes, a typical ratio in China. Unlike American culture, it is inappropriate to “clean your plate” as it were, as that would indicate the host has not adequately provided for your hunger. The spicy, sweet, tangy, rich, and smoky dishes we all shared were wonderful as usual, and what I have come to expect of Xiao Wang Fu’s.

Dishes included Gong Bao Ji Ding (typically known in America as Kung Pao Chicken…though the Chinese version bears little resemblance to what you find in the U.S.), Yu Xiang Rou Si (a spicy, sweet, and tangy pork and shredded vegetable), Pork Ribs in Black Bean Sauce, Spicy Peanut Turnips (a cold appetizer), Twice-Fried Green Beans with Pork, Stir Fried Spinach with Garlic, Fresh Shrimp with Chestnuts and Celery, and two “main dishes” (a.k.a., noodles): Old Beijing Noodles and Stir-Fried Noodles. And of course it was accompanied by the ever-present Yanjing Beer!

Mmmmm.....Italian.....

Very often the best food is the simplest. You can spend hours cooking complicated crazy food, and in the end it is just that....complicated. Sometimes I find that the best way to have a really great meal is to take simple ingredients and throw them together with whatever I happen to have in the fridge. The best part is, in these days of pesticides, hidden ingredients, and weird preservatives, the more you can do from scratch the better it is for your health.

Recently, my husband has started teaching himself to bake bread from scratch. Now I may be able to cook, but baking bread is not something I enjoy...mainly because I love to play with my food. A fringe benefit to this new motivation to bake (other than the wonderful smell that pervades the house), is that I have fresh bread to use in dinners. Last week it went into the stuffing for the poussin, and this week it was used in a little bruschetta.


The chicken and zucchini were simply broiled with olive oil, salt, and pepper. The sauce for the chicken was olive oil, lemon, parsley, garlic, mustard, and honey. Add a little balsamic vinegar to the zucchini, and serve with Doug's pain complet topped with tomatoes, shallots, parsley, and olive oil. All in all a easy, tasty, dinner in which I attempted to pay homage to the simplicity of Italian cuisine.

(mea culpa: this Italian meal was paired with a white Portuguese table wine...but its citrus and honey notes paired perfectly with the garlic and lemon flavors of the meal.)

Stuffed Poussin

Every Sunday morning, we make a point of heading down to the Dupont Circle farmer's market. This is not one of those farmer's markets where you also have importers or non-locals. It is exclusively local farmers (and one fisherman and his wife). Over the four years we've lived in this area, we've been fortunate to get to know some of the vendors, and have our regular stops at specific times of year.

This weekend the greens are coming out in a big way, from frissee to mustard greens and kale, as well as beautiful spring garlic and French breakfast radishes. We had an entire Whole Foods cloth bag filled with only green things. However, this weekend I made a bee-line for our friends at Eco-Friendly Foods. I knew from experience that right about now they should start having some fresh poultry, and boy was I right! They had lovely fresh poussins, as well as our favorite fresh-made rabbit sausage.

I decided to cook the poussins last night, and was rewarded when I stuffed them with milk-soaked bread, fresh sage, mushrooms (shitake and baby bella), and ricotta salata, baking them surrounded by more mushrooms and pancetta.


Accompanied by the 2004 Revelation Red, and a salad of fresh spring greens, it was a taste of spring but warm and toasty to go with our unseasonably cold day (it was a high of just under 50-degrees, and normally it should be about 60-degrees!).

Cured Meat Heaven

As a child, I was not exposed to anything like traditional Italian, whether it be antipasti or real homemade pasta. It was however, my first food love (see my first post), and the first food that I attempted to cook. Granted, my culinary skills have developed extensively since my first attempt at Fettuccine Carbonara in the early-90s, and I can make a mean Marinara or even some lovely stuff from the Silver Spoon cookbook. However, my skills are nothing compared to the skill required to make the king of all antipasti, the beautiful, delicious, salty, fatty, fantastic cured meats that are among the best things that a great Italian meal can offer.

One of my favorite local joints here in Washington, DC for really good Italian antipasti is 2 Amy's. I have a weakness for their woodfired pizza, but on Saturday afternoon it was all about the antipasti. They have a truly remarkable collection, from cannellini beans with grated botarga, to three different kinds of salted anchovies in olive oil, or a wonderful selection of olives. However, my personal favorite is their "grande piatto di salume:"

This cured meat lover's dream includes: proscuitto san daniele, proscuitto americano la quercia, jamon di serrano, speck, bresaola, boar cacciatorini, lardo, capicola, and lomo. It is a ridiculous quantity of lovely cured meats, but well worth the fat content. Each meat has a unique texture and flavor, from the salty gaminess of the boar cacciatorini, to the silky soft and luscious lardo, no two bites are the same. Paired with ample quantities of good Italian red wine (in this case a 2005 De Angelis Lacrima Christi del Vesuvio from Campania), our meal was a three hour feast not to be soon forgotten.

My First True French Sauce

It was a pretty dreary cold day, and I had these incredible lamb chops. Acquired from the local organic butcher, they started as a rack, and were beautifully frenched by the staff into 6 chops. Sometimes you obtain these wonderful ingredients and you just know you need to make something fantastic to justify the quality.

So I dove in with my first attempt at a traditional French sauce, a jus lie (defined in the New Professional Chef as "a thickened sauce made from stock...[can be] used as a replacement for the classic grand sauce, demi-glace"). Yes, I could have made a demi-glace, but I thought I should start small. The sauce went well, for a first attempt.

I used my newly created jus lie to make a secondary garlic sauce for my simply broiled lamb chops. The secondary sauce, involving wine, tomato concasse, and garlic cloves poached multiple times, turned out really well, and was the right color and texture. I count my first traditional French sauce a resounding success.


Paired with some simple salted boiled potatoes and the amazing, luscious, 2001 Nicolis Amarone della Valpolicella, I never wanted to leave the table.

An Effort to Satisfy My Food Obsession

I never thought I'd be one of those people that would be so obsessed with food that I felt the need to write ad-nauseum about my food experiences, my food cooking, or my food eating. However, given how much I do love to cook, dine out, and most especially eat, I realized I needed an outlet to keep track of all the wonderful experiences I have had over the years.

A little about your humble writer before I really get going if I may.

I grew up in a beach town in the Southwest, San Diego specifically, and though I always knew I loved food, I never really had an outlet due to lack of audience and funds. I got my first cookbook in Jr. High School, "The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Italian," and experimented whenever I could. Unfortunately, my dad wasn't as crazy over Italian as I was, so, often I would cook two versions of meals - one that I wanted to eat and one that he wanted to eat. It helped me to learn 1) how to prep quickly so I wouldn't be cooking forever; and 2) how to modify spices and ingredients to keep the core ideas yet change the flavor profile. I was blessed with an amazing Grandmother, who taught me how to cook the really good (bad-for-you) stuff: bratwurst & sauerkraut, the best turkey stuffing on the face of the planet, and killer lemon meringue pie. And then there was my Aunt, the only real cook in the family, who indulged me in my food-love by taking me to good restaurants, cooking excellent food (and showing me how she did it), and generally encouraging my obsession.

I guess the real turn-around came when I went off to college in Minnesota and was faced with the unholy dining hall hot-dishes (Minnesotan for casserole), meatloafs, and green eggs (no kidding...I guess the powdered egg mix they used oxidized green). I got married, moved off campus, and have been lucky enough to have the most amazing husband in the world who would try anything I put in front of him, even if he had never seen anything like it before. We were poor, but I still managed to start cooking Chinese, Thai, Mexican, and the ever-present Italian.

So that is where I started, with a bunch of dining out, traveling overseas, and shamelessly stealing ideas wherever I could. Now I'm starting this blog so that I can keep track of some of the wonderful places I am privileged to dine at, some of the decent meals that I manage to cook, and, since I'm about to go to China and Japan for a bit (see my other blog), some of the weird stuff I encounter.

Feel free to share your experiences, share tips, and comments! Food is an art, a dialogue, and fun, so I look forward to talking with all of you.