Kneading bread is a satisfying feeling that helps me relieve anxiety. I love the feel of life between my fingers because you feel the yeast moving beneath.
After the first rise, it’s fun to give your dough a Taekwondo punch.
Dan Can Cook: Honey Wheat Bread Monday, Jul 20 2009
bread and dan can cook and friends 2:55 am
Here are my rolls baking in the oven. I should have made them about half the size because they bake up quite large.
Here is my fluffy honey wheat roll served with a side of Shady Maple Farms’ Maple butter. The secret to making fluffy bread is to let it rise in a warm place.
Here is my friend Carol enjoying the roll. She is studying Sunmudo (Martial Arts Zen Meditation) in Gyeongju and this was the first bread she had eaten in quite a while.Photoblog: Chez Panisse Wednesday, Jul 8 2009
American Eats and cheri and friends and matt kim and photoblog and san francisco 1:37 pm
What can I say about Chez Panisse? Nothing. Sometimes pictures are better than words. Most of these pictures were taken by Matt Kim. I am joined by Cheri of Seoulberry and her sister. Oh, and while Matt and I were waiting at the upstair’s bar, we did happen to see Alice Waters sitting at one of the cafe tables (I was too chicken to go up and talk to her…I mean polite to interrupt her.)
We started with a nice 2007 Broadley Pinot Noir: a light fluffy wine with a bit of cherry and licorice.
First Course: Warm Goat Cheese Salad Chez Renee. The cheese had just the right amount of skill and heat added to it so it remained in a semi-solid, semi-liquid suspension. The best part was that Matt doesn’t like cheese, so I gladly took it off his plate. The vegetables were perfect little jewels that were used to paint the plate and then were to be eaten. I adored the radishes.
Pan-seared king salmon with summer squash and squash blossoms. A classic example of an Alice Water dish. I say classic, because everyone has copied this concept, so I’ve had a production line facsimile of this dish at other places. The original helped me see why so many restaurants have copied her style of cooking.
Grilled Sonoma Liberty Duck Breast with Green Beans, roasted figs, and balsamic vinegar. I loved the fig on this dish and the duck tasted like sunshine, long walks, and a full life.
Ile flottante with plum caramel and summer berries. The icecream was exquisite and so were the berries.
Sugared Currants and Chocolates as an after dinner treat.
Interior shot of Chez Panisse.
A group shot with everyone. To the far left is Cheri, then me, Cheri’s sister, and Matt.
Siphon Coffee from Blue Bottle Coffee Company in San Francisco Monday, Jun 29 2009
American Eats and cheri and coffee and friends and san francisco 8:21 pm
Blue Bottle Coffee Company
The Siphon Coffee System is heating up
Our Barista adds the coffee grinds in a filter above the water.
The siphon defies gravity (because hot water wants to rise) and the water flows up into the glass tube with the coffee.
As the heat is turned off, the water flows back down to the bottom
The finished coffee
Am I a coffee snob?
Cheri is a coffee snob in training.
After a year of e-mailing and reading each other’s blogs, we finally meet in person.
While I was in San Francisco, I was able to meet up with Seoulberry. If you don’t know who she is, you can check out her blog.
Cheri was in town and I was lucky enough to spend a couple of days with her. We geeked it out on one of the days and went to electronics markets, photo stores, a radio shack, and the Apple Store (I know we just fell right into that stereotype.)
And one of the food related places that we went to was the Blue Bottle Coffee Company, which is considered by many San Franciscans as having the best coffee in the city. They have two locations. One is in the Ferry Market on the pier and the other is on 66 Mint St. (corner of Jessie).
Cheri and I went there and we discovered they had a $30,000 dollar siphon coffee system. We just had to get that. We ordered a pot ($12.00) of their Ethiopian Yiracheffee bean and the barista went to work. You can see the process written next to the pictures above.
So…does this system make a better cup of coffee?
Yes. It makes a very delicate cup of coffee that is… in stasis. It’s a coffee that is in limbo. It’s the Lucifer Morningstar of coffees. This coffee is in the perfect state of perfection and ordinary and every second’s exposure to the air and the elements changes it back into the basic elements of the earth.
At first sip the coffee clearly has notes of blueberry and by blueberry I mean blueberry. It has that slightly tart mangosteen smear with echoing note of sun. Then bitter notes from coffee ring out and then calm into bass notes as you swallow.
The coffee when it is first out of the siphon feels reanimated.
but…
The longer it sits, it gets earthier- this is not bad by any means- but it loses that initial spark.
Also, Cheri called me a coffee snob because she thought that I would judge her for wanting to put cream and sugar into her coffee. I didn’t even say anything, but she just assumed that I would. (OK, I would have judged her, but I wouldn’t have said anything to her face.) So, she labeled me a “coffee snob” and she wrote a note that said she is a coffee snob “in training.”
Blue Bottle Coffee has great coffee and Cheri is a wonderful San Francisco guide.
Cheri, thank you so much.
Dan
Matt Kim’s Photos from the Rice Cake Fair Thursday, Jun 25 2009
friends and photographs and rice cake making competition and tteok and tteok Fair 7:26 am
I’m currently in Emeryville, California with my friend Matt Kim. He is an amazing photographer and about a month ago he was in Korea and he took pictures of the rice cake fair along with Robyn Lee of Serious Eats. Matt is a foodie, so he has taken me out to get some great California eats. He was also kind enough to give me a place to stay for a couple of days in California.
Today we went to 900 Grayson for Chicken and Waffles. During the course of the meal, he gave me some pointers on how to take better photos. I’ll post these photos very soon.
I’ve been looking through the photos that he took for the rice cake fair and I must tell you that they are breathtaking. I wanted to share some of them with you.
If you want to see all the photos, you can find them here.
Seattle Foodie Outing Part 2: Quinn’s Friday, Jun 19 2009
foodies and friends and seattle 5:14 am
Quinn’s restaurant
Wild boar and Sage Sloppy Joe
Venison Sausage with huckleberry mustard
Beef Tongue Philly with Gruyere and piquillo peppers.
Orr bountiful table
Interior
Our second spot on our food tour of Seattle took us to Quinn’s. Quinn’s is the local watering hole for those with a discerning palate. The Wild Boar Sloppy Joe with Crispy Sage leaves is the sandwich of dreams and I would fly all the way back for another go at her. (Yes, I have named the sandwich and her name is Charlene.)
“Oh, Charlene, how I love you and I promise I’ll always be faithful to you. No other wild boar sloppy joe can compare to your sloppy goodness and Sage: herbacious/licoricishiness. I love the buns you sit upon and the roasted spice of your jalapeno. Oh, Charlene, I will write odes to you. Charlene. Sweet Charlene, I’ll visit you soon.”
Ummm…that was embarrassing. I didn’t mean to think that out loud.
Well, I was joined at Quinn’s by the Dark Knight Food Critic and his Bar Critic Peer. Let’s just call her Wonder Woman. A Foodie/Coffee Queen also joined us. Let’s call her…Bumblebee and Noah was there. Ironically, Noah is wearing the Batman shirt. If you don’t know what the heck I’m talking about read this post.
The rest of the meal was good..ish. The Venison Sausage was more like a steak and not the links I was expecting. The meat tasted as if a deer and ostrich got it on and birthed a venison steak. The Huckleberry Mustard didn’t add much.
The beef tongue philly was a fancy sandwich made with strange meat and overly expensive cheese. I’m sorry, but I’m from the Philadelphia area. Cheesesteaks need to be made with cheap greasy cuts of meat and with “Cheese Whiz.” You heard me and if you don’t believe me, then go to Pat’s in Philly at 2 in the morning and you’ll see what I mean.
I like Quinn’s and I’m sure they’ve got other very exciting items on their menu. I’ll be back to visit Charlene- maybe she has some friends. Who wants to join me?
Dan
Samgyeopsal in the Seattle Weekly Friday, Jun 19 2009
Korean Barbeque and friends and samgyeopsal and seattle and shameless self promotion 4:13 am
Samgyeopsal (삼겹살):grilled pork belly.
So while I was in Seattle, I was asked by Jonathon Kauffman about samgyeopsal. Now I didn’t know that I would be quoted. Thanks Jon! Here’s the article and hit the link for the rest.
Dan
Beyond Bulgogi: Korean Pig Is What’s Worth Eating Leave the beef to barbecue neophytes. By Jonathan Kauffman
Koreans believe that if you dream of a pig, you’ll get rich in the morning,” Dan Gray of the blog Seoul Eats recently told me. Unfortunately, this isn’t specific enough to help me interpret my dream journal. Must it be a live pig, or is roast pork sufficiently auspicious? Will grilled pork belly do, or can it be braised pig knuckle? If so, my lottery winnings must be in the mail.
Most of the best-known Korean dishes in America contain beef: bulgogi, kalbi (short ribs), japchae, bibimbap, even many kinds of kimbap (Korean sushi) and soondubu (soft-tofu stews). But anyone who thinks kalbi is the ne plus ultra of Korean cuisine should sit down for a meal of samgyeopsal, or uncured pork belly.
Samgyeopsal actually means “three-layer meat,” referring to the striations of pink and white in its quarter-inch-thick slices. It’s a Playskool painted-wood version of bacon, dauntingly solid in its raw state. Gray, who has lived and dined in Seoul for the past five years, says heavily marbled pork is so prized there that lean pork loin, for which we in the U.S. pay premium prices, is much cheaper than fattier cuts like the belly. And in Korea, pigs are still bred to pack on the pounds—just as they were in Western countries when lard was the primary cooking fat.
Gourmet Diary of a Foodie: Korea Friday, Jun 19 2009
friends and gourmet and gourmet diary of a foodie and kimchi and korean food and shameless self promotion 4:04 am
Wow! Gourmet’s Diary of a Foodie has posted parts of the episodes I helped put together on itunes. If you watch the p’yogo mushroom episode, you might see me.
I’m really impressed with Gourmet’s production values and I think they did an excellent job. They just did an excellent job. You’ll see Michael Benzinger in the Kimchi episode and Terry Rah in the Royal Court Cuisine one.
Go to this link to download the episode.
Dan
Cafe Presse in Seattle Washington Wednesday, Jun 17 2009
American Eats and french bistro and friends and seattle 1:28 am
Oh Seattle, how I love thee.
Beth and I decided to check out a place that is a favorite among Seattlelites (or should I call them Satellites?). Cafe Presse serves French Bistro cuisine at reasonable prices- here you can be haute on a budget. The menu is all in French, so I had Beth order so I wouldn’t butcher the menu. We ordered Cafe Vita coffee to start. We asked our waitress the popular dishes in the area and then we ordered a Croque Monsieur, Salade aux asperges, and Demi-poulet froid Mayonnaise.
Let me translate in American.
We ordered a ham and cheese sandwich, Asparagus with goat cheese and pinenuts, and a half chicken served with a salad of arugula and sweet pea salad.
The food was superb- especially the Salade aux asperges. The crunchy stalks were juicy and tasted like crystalized sunshine. The crusted cheese on the sandwich was smoky and crisp; and the cold half chicken was the perfect dish for late brunch on a Sunday afternoon. This is a dish that I imagine what the picnickers were eating in this George Seurat painting.
I definitely recommend you check it out if you are in Seattle.
Dan
