Three Drunken Goats

Alekka’s lovely nona Aleka treated our daughter to a girl’s night out – the movie “Up” and dinner at Twohey’s restaurant in Alhambra – leaving Andreas and me free to enjoy the kind of dinner kids don’t like. Tapas sounded good, and after a little Internet research and discussion of our shared mutual aversion to dressing up (thus eliminating Vertical Wine Bistro in Pasadena) we settled on Three Drunken Goats in Montrose. Really, with a name like that, how could we pass it up?

Montrose is a cute little LA neighborhood that reminds me of Elmwood in Berkeley – not as hip as Elmwood, certainly, but home to a few browse-worthy shops and restaurants. On a Monday night the street was quiet except for the crowd of young locals socializing at Blue Fish’s outdoor tables. Three Drunken Goats itself has a pleasant ambiance with high ceilings, dark wood, and wine-red painted walls. The large dining room is not divided up at all: more suited to a noisy weekend crowd than an intimate dinner, really, but we were enjoying our date night regardless.
I’m not a fan of television in the bar (or anywhere else) and the nuevo-punk background music was a distraction, but the low light was nice and the seating comfortable.

Despite the dearth of custom, our waiter seemed a bit distracted; I suspect he might have been new on the job because our questions seemed to make him nervous and he kept wandering off. Andreas appreciated that he didn’t hover but I think the guy at least ought to have mentioned the evening wine flight offerings without us having to ask (flights are different every night and not listed on the menu).

We started with a sampling of three reds: 2007 Onix Priorat grenache; 2007 Carro Tinto Monastrell-syrah; and a 2006 Martin Berdugo tempranillo. As I’ve said before, I’m no wine expert, but I know what I like, and it’s only fair to mention that I don’t usually like Spanish wines very well. These were no exception. Too fruity, too simple. Of the three I preferred the Onix: less fruity, more complex (I’m pretty predictable that way).

We had decided on a tapas bar in part because neither of us thought we were very hungry, but once we saw the menu our appetites suddenly returned. We really went to town on the small plates, starting off with bacon-wrapped dates stuffed with chorizo and napped with a cream sauce; pulled pork and piquilla with thick country toast; and garlic prawns with pocha beans. The sweet-salty combination of the dates was great; the creamy French-style sauce, while tasty, seemed a little at odds with the oily pork flavors of the dish. That didn’t stop us from soaking up every last bit with some crusty bread (we had to ask for the bread). The pulled pork, alas, was plentiful but watery and bland – I wouldn’t recommend it. Andreas, a true seafood lover, was pleased with the prawns. The pocha beans were clearly from a jar, but I would have been very surprised to find fresh ones as they are a rarity in this country.

Round two… more wine… Andreas ordered a glass of the Martin Berdugo he had enjoyed. I switched to a white that I liked better, a Basque Tatai that was dry and slightly effervescent. We flagged our elusive waiter down and ordered two more items: the lamb chops with mint and the artichoke and goat cheese croquettes. These dishes were delivered to us by an enthusiastic kitchen worker who certainly knew more about the food than the waiter did. This guy would have been a much better salesperson for the menu, but it was pretty evident he likes working with the food. They ran out of the chickpea puree that was supposed to be served with the lamb chops but no matter – the socca cakes with a hint of honey that we had instead were delicious, and the tiny grilled rib chops themselves with the chopped mint sauce were the best thing we had all evening. The croquettes were okay, but the breading and goat cheese overwhelmed the delicate artichoke flavor, and the baby lettuce with bell pepper sauce and berry glaze they were served with were so American that the dish seemed out of place on the otherwise mostly Spanish menu.

For dessert we shared a Queen of Nuts cake (Reine de Saba, for anyone who’s worked their way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking) – very nice, not too sweet, with marmalade to make it more Spanish and a scoop of vanilla ice cream as well.

Prices were a little high for tapas: about 7 or 8 dollars a dish, and 14 or 15 for more substantial items like the lamb. The portions were a bit larger than you often find in a tapas bar but I don’t consider this necessarily a good thing; I would prefer smaller, cheaper plates, so I could order more different items.

If you want to check out Three Drunken Goats, I’d recommend visiting on a busy weekend night. For the best value you could stop in during Happy Hour: from 5 to 7 Monday through Friday, the dates, pulled pork, prawns, croquettes, and also a cheese plate and fried calamari are all on the $5 menu.

Three Drunken Goats 2256 Honolulu, Montrose

The ABCs (and NBCs) of dim sum

No visit to a big west coast city is complete for us without at least one dim sum brunch. We’ve tried many of the recommended places in the San Gabriel Valley (Ocean Star, Sea Harbour, Elite) but NBC in Monterey Park is the one we keep going back to. It seems to have the right combination of carts, size, variety, and, for us, the added advantage of location. Our base in southern California is Alhambra, and NBC is just down the road. On this trip we had thought to revisit an old favorite from when we lived in west LA, ABC Seafood in downtown’s Chinatown (yes, there is a CBS too). But when a couple of Alhambran family members talked about joining us - one of the cardinal rules of dim sum enjoyment being to bring as large a party as you can gather, so you can try more stuff - we opted once again for the nearby NBC. As it turns out, I’m glad we passed over ABC as I have since learned it no longer has carts. We love carts.

For the uninitiated, dim sum are like Chinese tapas: small plates of little things like dumplings, turnovers, tarts, or dishes of meats or vegetables that can be shared and enjoyed in small amounts. Servers have an assortment of items on a tea cart; in some restaurants they call out the names of their wares as they roll by. You just need to flag them down and point to the things you want (unless you are a native Mandarin speaker or were raised by expert-level white people, in which case you can just ask). The server will put the plates or steamer baskets on your table and stamp the card that was put on your table by the host that seated you with a mark indicating the price of the items. When you’re all done with your meal you will need to get the attention of one of the supervisors who will tot up your bill for you. Generally speaking the stuff that is premade on little dishes is the cheapest, at $2.00 to $4.00 per plate. Items that have to be prepared by the cart operator – like Chinese broccoli, which is cooked at tableside – cost more, as do “specials” that are hand-carried by servers and offered to your table. The pricing structure remains something of a mystery to me, because in my experience there is far more work involved in making har gau than boiled broccoli, but that’s the way it is. Our bill for five people (and we had a LOT to eat), including 9.75% tax and the tip, was $62.

The best places, like NBC, are usually great cavernous rooms. Dim sum is normally served for breakfast and lunch – 9 to 3 are typical dim sum hours. Often a restaurant has a dinner menu as well, but it won’t be dim sum. It’s a good sign if there are customers waiting, and if the place is big then the turnover is usually quick. It’s best to go when it’s busy – Sunday late morning is very popular – because that’s when the kitchen will be bringing out the most variety, and the food will be freshest. We waited about 25 minutes to get a table for five. In general, don’t go to a dim sum restaurant unless it is full of people.

It’s hard to say exactly what to recommend – there is an almost endless variety of dim sum dishes, and the choices are a little different every time we go. My advice is to pick what looks good and try it. Many items contain shellfish and/or pork so if you can’t eat these things, you might run into trouble as many of the servers have very limited English. Otherwise don’t worry too much about what exactly is in a dish. If you’re too timid, you might miss something really delicious. Go with a crowd of adventurous eaters and chances are you’ll find plenty to like.



NBC does great shrimp noodles (cheung fun), siu mai, and fried scallop dumplings. The most popular dim sum are probably the har gau (steamed shrimp dumplings), siu mai (steamed pork and shrimp dumplings), and steamed char siu bao (those fluffy white buns with barbecued pork inside) – I’ve never been to a dim sum restaurant that didn’t serve those three items. Other dishes you are likely to see are chicken feet, taro cakes, fried turnip cakes, sweet sesame balls filled with red bean or lotus paste, pork spare ribs, egg rolls, miniature custard tarts, and tripe.

My husband always likes to start his dim sum meal with a bowl of rice porridge (congee - sometimes you have to ask for it), to which you can add a variety of savory toppings. “Kane kalo” he says – “it’s good for you.” Personally I’m not a fan of this bland dish - I like to save my appetite for steamed scallop-and-spinach dumplings and the shrimp rice noodle.

Just think… a whole WORLD of NOODLES

While Andreas whooped it up at a stag birthday party in Hollywood last night, daughter Alekka and I amused ourselves with a movie and dinner out at one of her favorite spots in SoCal. If Noodle World had been here when we were living in LA with four kids we would have been regulars, no doubt about it. The menu is six pages of egg noodles, rice noodles, bean noodles; Thai noodles, Chinese noodles, Japanese noodles, Vietnamese noodles; noodle soups, soupless noodles, pan-fried noodles. Won ton! Soba! Udon! Pho! And as if that weren’t enough, the whole back page is Boba World, where you can select smoothies, teas, coffees, milkshakes, or coolers in flavors like kiwi, taro, lychee, and mango. For an extra 35 cents you can (and should) add boba: big chewy tapioca pearls that sink to the bottom, where they wait for you to suck them up through an extra-wide straw. You can also ask the server to put a big spoonful of taro pudding or lychee jelly in your drink if that’s what you want, or spray whipped cream on top. Boba (aka Bubble Tea) is big in LA and the Bay Area; I wonder if it will ever make its way to Medford.

After much deliberation, Alekka and I both selected Thai-inspired dishes from the “pan-fried” section. She had number 80, Pad See-Ew - wide rice noodles with Chinese broccoli, chicken, egg, and sauce. I chose number 83, Spicy Pan Fried - the same wide rice noodles but this time stir-fried with beef, carrots, red pepper, mushrooms, basil, bean sprouts, tomatoes, big slices of jalapeno, and a different sauce. Everything on the menu is in the 6 to 8 dollar range, and the family-style plates are huge. We also ordered egg rolls, a meaty Thai version with a thin crunchy skin, and ended up with plenty of food for at least four people – hurray for leftovers! My dish was very tasty, with chewy noodles, crisp vegetables, and a tangy-spicy sauce. I found Alekka’s a little bland (though it suited her just fine). If you want to spice things up, there is an intriguing array of condiments on each table including sriracha, sour pickled vegetable relish, hoisin sauce, and sliced jalapeno peppers.

My impression is that some menu items are more true to type than others. The owners of the place are Thai, so it might be assumed that those dishes have the strongest claim to authenticy. Our oldest son Dimitri, who is an informed consumer of Vietnamese pho, was impressed by Noodle World’s version on a trip here last year. But this is a pan-Asian place, and its strong point may not be that it’s just like you would get in Beijing or Bangkok. Rather, I’m recommending it because it is cheap, tasty, and fun. It’s also open until 1 am and is invariably busy.

The original Noodle World - now there are several in the area, and a couple of Noodle Planets as well - is located in the former Big Boy diner where Andreas worked when he was in high school. Used to be, back in the day, Alhambra was about as white a little town as you would find anywhere outside of Mayberry (except for all those Greeks, of course). Downtown was peppered with diners, burger joints, and lunch counters. Of those places, Rick’s hamburgers on Main, where Andreas’s oldest brother Steve (“Zorba”) and his cronies held court at a corner booth for decades, is one of the last survivors. Now the ethnic face of Alhambra has changed and Asian restaurants of all kinds abound, in many cases housed in new buildings that have replaced all the California Spanish-style ones that were so badly damaged in the 1971 and 1987 earthquakes. In the case of Noodle World, instead of gutting the old building, the original diner booths are incorporated into a bright colorful remodel, and the old Big Boy mascot remains as a figurehead sticking out of the wall at one end of the room. It’s a sort of ancient iconic idol, its former meaning only partly understood, like a statue on Easter Island.

Ikaria III: Potato Salad

In recent years Ikaria’s cuisine has drawn this obscure island a little closer to the limelight. Diane Kochilas, America’s Greek cooking maven, is Ikarian-American. Her people are from the village of Christos in the Raches area of Ikaria, and Kochilas writes frequently about food remembered from her childhood summers on the island. Now she has opened a cooking school that operates in Christos during the summer months. The interest generated by all this has a downside for the traditionalists who appreciate Ikaria’s off-the-beaten-track idiosyncracies. For generations, the people of isolated, mountainous Raches have (for reasons only partly understood) been in the habit of sleeping most of the afternoon and staying up most of the night. I’m not just talking about discos and bars… I mean the baker, the hardware store, and the bicycle repair shop - along with every other business in town - opened shop at 9 pm and closed at 3 am. This was still true when we visited in 2002 but a look at a recent guidebook mentions how the people of Christos “used to keep late hours”. Ah well, the price of fame. Next time we go there will probably be a Wal-Mart superstore in the plaka.

By the way, our visit to Raches that summer coincided with that of a team of photographers. They were there to shoot the pictures for an article on Ikarian cooking in the premiere issue of Eating Well magazine, authored by (of course) Diane Kochilas. The proprietress of the taverna where we enjoyed our midnight meal proudly informed us that the moussaka on my plate was the very same one that had been photographed a little earlier in the evening for “the American cooking magazine.”

So here I am this week in sunny southern California, having just returned from the annual picnic of the Oinoe Chapter of the Pan-Icanian Brotherhood in Pasadena. We were there to celebrate friends, family, Agias Marinas day, and the anniversary of Ikarian independence. As it does every year, the picnic featured barbecued hamburgers and Polish dogs (with guys named Demosthenes and Nikolas manning the grill), accompanied by a big potluck spread of homemade Ikarian specialties: soufiko (a vegetable stew similar to ratatouille), spanakopita, stuffed tomatoes and squash, Greek salad, and Ikarian potato salad, with – like always on the island in the summertime – karpouzi (watermelon) for dessert.

My husband's Aunt Koula is the San Gabriel Valley’s recognized authority on Ikarian potato salad, and unless she happens to be visiting the island on the picnic weekend she is invariably called upon to provide this dish for the celebration. I plan to do a lot of cooking with Aunt Koula this week (it’s a big part of the reason I made the trip) because the only way to get one of Aunt Koula’s coveted recipes is to cook it alongside Aunt Koula. She doesn’t measure, and she doesn’t have it written down, so you just have to let her show you how big a handful, how big a pinch or shake or whatever. Sadly, I didn’t arrive in town soon enough to see how she puts this particular salad together, but I have made Diane Kochilas’s version (linked here) and I will vouch for it as very similar, and almost as delicious.

There is one essential ingredient in the recipe that is likely to sound unfamiliar, though if you have a garden you have probably seen plenty of it. Greek glistrida – purslane in English – is a prolific and persistent weed with red stems and roundish, soft, almost succulent-like leaves. It grows close to the ground in abundance in our vegetable garden. I have never seen it for sale but if you ask around you can probably find a backyard gardener who would be thrilled to have you remove it. Diane Kochilas says you can substitute watercress if you can’t find purslane, but I say don’t – it wouldn’t be Ikarian potato salad without it. Instead, come over to my house and I’ll show you where you can get some.

The Leeky Cauldron

Half a gallon of homemade chicken stock was languishing in the fridge. I had made the stock on Thursday with the intention of using it in Greek egg & lemon soup on Friday. But with Friday’s temperature up over 100 again, soup didn’t appeal. By yesterday it was definitely time to use the stuff up. Fortunately I took a look at Sarah Lemon’s Mail Tribune food blog at just the right time. She was extolling the virtues of fresh homegrown potatoes, and mentioned her recent craving for vichyssoise. How ever could I have forgotten about vichyssoise!

I was an avid cook as a child and teen, a hobby heartily endorsed by my father. My first year in college he gave me a boxed set of Mastering the Art of French Cooking and right away I set about systematically learning the classic methods described therein (I’ll be posting more on this subject in a couple of weeks). First I learned to make stock, and one of the first things I used it for was vichyssoise.

In MAFC, Julia Child tells us that vichyssoise is an American invention based on French potage Parmentier, which is essentially the same soup except that it is served hot. Here’s a bit more on the history, including a recipe from the Chef Louis Diat at the Ritz in New York where the dish originated. I have always used Julia Child’s recipe but next time I will try sautéeing the leeks in butter first as described by Mr. Diat.

Here’s how Julia says to make it:

Vichyssoise

3 C peeled sliced potatoes
3 C sliced white of leek
1-1/2 quarts white stock (chicken or veal)
salt to taste
½ to 1 C whipping cream
salt and white pepper
2 to 3 T chives

Simmer the vegetables in stock with a little salt for 40 to 50 minutes, until vegetables are tender. Puree the soup in a blender, or put through a food mill and a fine sieve.

Stir in the cream. Season to taste, oversalting slightly as salt loses savor in a cold dish [I love how Julia tells you this stuff] Chill.

Serve in chilled cups and decorate with minced chives.

Ikaria II: Come the revolution, we'll all have eggplant

Ikaria’s obscurity and isolation have made it an interesting place indeed. For years Athens didn’t want to spend money on improvements in that remote location. Electricity and plumbing didn't come to most of the island until the 1970s, with the first medical clinic and local airport only opening a few years ago (both funded primarily by the Pan-Icarian Brotherhood in the US).

The Greek government used the island as a dumping ground for Communist political prisoners through the 1970s. The combined effect of official neglect and the influx of Communists exiles resulted in much of the island becoming (and remaining) radically left-wing and a gathering place for subversive writers and intellectuals, not to mention a terrorist cell or two.

Andreas insists his radical countrymen are the reason our phone makes funny noises and he always has to take his shoes off at the airport. If Homeland Security shows up at our door I am going to wow them with this dip; it’s good with flatbread crackers or pita, or put a spoonful on your plate to enjoy with souvlaki or lamb chops.




Melitzanosalata

1 large eggplant
8 cloves garlic
1/2 C. olive oil, divided
½ C. crumbled feta cheese
(note: exact amounts of garlic, oil, and feta depend on the size of the eggplant)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut eggplant in half lengthwise and place both pieces cut side up in a baking dish or roasting pan. Brush 2 T. of the olive oil on the cut sides (it will soak in right away). Place dish in oven and roast eggplant until cut side is dark brown, about 45 minutes to an hour (see photo).

While the eggplant is roasting, peel the garlic cloves and have the oil and cheese ready. When eggplant is cooked, remove it from the oven and immediately place hot eggplant in the bowl of a Cuisinart fitted with a steel blade. Add the peeled garlic. Turn the processor on and add the remaining oil through the feed tube while it is going. Process until almost smooth. You want the garlic to be well chopped with just some dark flecks of eggplant skin visible. Add the cheese and process briefly so that there are still some small chunks of feta. Serve chilled or at room temperature as a side dish salad, or as an appetizer with crackers or pita.

If you do not have a food processor, you should be able to make this with an electric mixer or a potato masher. Without a food processor I would recommend cubing the eggplant before roasting it to avoid large pieces of skin in the salad, which can be chewy. Roasting time will probably be shorter.

Pirated Picnic

It was a beautiful evening to enjoy a picnic dinner in Ashland while watching boy Nik dance with Ballet in the Park (the last dance - Axis - is the coolest but in Salome he plays a king and gets to wear a spiffy green suit. I can't figure out how to make this itty-bitty picture any bigger, so go see the show. It's free).

When Nik’s brother Kosta played trumpet in the Ashland City Band a few years ago, I used to love picking out five or six half-pints of those fancy deli salads at Market of Choice for us to take to the outdoor concerts on Thursday nights. Now with our savings down the drain and paychecks channeled directly into the coffers of an out-of-state university, deli salads at $8 a pound just aren’t happening any more.

So I have become the Salad Sleuth: I channel my inner Sherlock as I spy on deli salads, analyzing ingredients for the purpose of home kitchen replication (“Watson, take a taste and tell me what you think is in this…”) A couple of our faves came to the park with us last night, along with a Caprese salad, the leftovers from a watermelon salad (watermelon, red onion, feta, lime, and mint), and some little sandwiches based on the Brie Bartlett one I had at Saint Honore Boulangerie in Portland a while back (someone in my house ate the pear I had intended for this sandwich but no matter, it was still quite tasty).

Here are two easy copycat salads. Of course, it's also fun to invent your own.


Curried Rice Salad

Great for using up leftover rice. Good as a cold salad, or put a drop of water in, cover and heat in the microwave for a warm side dish.

4 C. cooked rice
3 T. canola oil
2 t. curry powder
2 T. minced parsley
½ C. dried cranberries (unsweetened if you can find them)
½ C. slivered or sliced almonds, toasted
½ t. salt

Cook curry powder in the oil on the stove for about a minute, until it becomes aromatic. Add it to the rice and stir until it is well mixed in. Add parsley, cranberries, and almonds and stir together until evenly distributed. Mix in salt to taste.

Orzo Salad

This one is best served cold.

4 C. cooked orzo
1/3 C. minced parsley
1/3 C. pine nuts (toast in a pan on the stove in a T of olive oil first)
½ C. sliced green olives
½ C. golden raisins
½ C. vinaigrette, made by whisking 4 parts olive oil to 1 part red wine vinegar or lemon juice.
About 1/2 t. salt

Mix all ingredients together. Chill. Salt to taste.

Ikaria, Part the First

Flag of the Free State of Ikaria

Note to readers (if there actually are any of you out there): I got a little carried away and wrote a giant post for Ikarian Independence Day, but not to worry, I’ll spread it out over a few slow-news days. Here's the first installment.

July is a great month for revolutions. My husband Andreas is full-blooded Ikarian, and like all Ikarians he is insanely proud of the fact. This means that July 17th is a major holiday at our house, and any major holiday requires a special menu.

Ikaria is an obscure Greek island in the northeastern Aegean, so close to Turkey that my husband’s teenaged aunts were able to escape the island’s World War II Italian occupation by paddling off one dark night in a rowboat to Ismir. Ikaria was a popular and prosperous little island back around 500 BCE, when quality wine grapes and thermal hot springs contributed to its reputation as a veritable Club Med for the ancients. Sadly the place fell on hard times and got passed around like a bad white elephant gift from Athens to Rome, Byzantium, Genoa, and various other empires, finally winding up in the hands of the Turks. The Ikarians really didn’t like being under Turkish rule – didn’t take to it at all, in fact - and promptly killed the first tax collector that got sent out to the island. The natives thought that was that, but in 1830 a treaty awarded the island unequivocally to Turkey.

Ikarians are a feisty people. On July 17th 1912 they decided they’d had enough and held a one-day war in which there was a single Ikarian casualty (Hail George Spanos! The martyred hero of the revolution!). Either the Turks thought the pile of rocks wasn’t worth fighting over or they decided Ikarians were too scary to mess with, because Ikaria remained an independent free state for almost five months. They even printed a set of postage stamps (highly prized today by Ikarians the world over) before deciding to join up and become part of Greece. It was a short-lived but sweet independence, worthy of the cool commemorative poster that you can see on so many Ikarian-American walls. We’ve got one in black and white but someday I’m going to get my hands on one of these awesome colorized babies.

The revolution happened to occur on the same day as the saint’s day of the patron saint of my husband’s village of Arethousa (all Greek villages have to have a patron saint). The annual village festival for Agias Marina in Arethousa doubles as an all-island celebration of the anniversary of Ikarian Independence, and therefore serves as a fine excuse for a huge party. And just think… all over the world, expatriated Ikarians and their extended families are grilling souvlaki and dancing the Kariotiko in their backyards. The things you never knew about.







Agias Marinas Day Menu

Souvlaki
Tzatziki
Melitzanosalata
Sefkoulapita
Ikarian Potato Salad
Bread
Feta
Olives
Watermelon

And now for today’s recipe, Souvlaki with Tzatziki.

Sometimes people are surprised that I don’t use lamb for the souvlaki. Well, I have, and it’s good, but pork is more tender and it’s certainly a whole lot cheaper. I buy whole pork loin when it’s on sale and keep it in the freezer to use for souvlaki. On the island they might use either of those meats or goat, which is especially plentiful.

SOUVLAKI

1/3 C. lemon juice
2/3 C. olive oil
garlic, crushed – lots (10-12 cloves, or to taste)
1-2 T. dried oregano
pepper, to taste
pork: cut up a 4 lb. pork roast or boneless chops into 1-1/2” cubes, removing extra fat

Mix marinade ingredients together. Marinate pork pieces 1 hour. Skewer onto wooden skewers, then cook on grill until done. Serve with Tzatziki on the side.

TZATZIKI

1 cucumber, seeded and grated
1 C. whole milk yogurt (use Greek yogurt if available)
2 or 3 large cloves garlic, pressed
1 t. minced fresh mint leaves
about ½ t. salt

Mix all together, adding salt to taste. Best if made a day ahead.

Taking stock, making stock

I wasn't going to post today, after spending the morning trying to edit the Bastille Day post so the pictures and words all came out right. In the process of placing the pictures I took a notion to change the font, which messed up all paragraphs , and after I kind of fixed them I decided the new font was too small but I didn't want to change it again and have to do the formatting all over. And now the pictures are all wrong. Aargh... such frustration. I can see the writing on the wall, I'm finally going to have to learn HTML. So be it. I guess.

The reason I decided to write a short post after all is to pass along a couple of news items. One is that the Medford Food Co-op seems to he getting close to selecting a location. I've been a charter member since well before the over the old downtown Ace Hardware site debacle. I surely do hope it's a go this time because I think Medford is ready for it. Also I feel pretty bad about using so much gasoline driving to Ashland to shop for food.

At a meeting of co-op "owners" (while technically correct, I like the term member/shareholders better) last night, we heard a presentation about the pros and cons of three different locations. I favor the Spearco building at 4th anad Fir for several reasons - I like the downtown vibe, I think the building has a lot of character (whereas Foodland is always going to look like Foodland), and I think it has more potential of becoming a grocery shopping destination. Plus the monthly rent is less. So I will do my bit here to help make this happen: if you care, you should become a member too. Community support in the form of dollars is what's going to make this a reality. Information is on the Medford Market website.

Second news item of the day is that if you missed Food Inc. at this spring's Ashland Independent Film Festival, it's showing tomorrow night (Friday) at the Varsity in Ashland at 6 and 8:20. It's an eye-opening documentary about corporate control of America's food supply. Check it out if you get the chance.

Me, my big accomplishment on this very hot day was to clean out the refrigerator and plan menus for the next few days that will use up all those random items I found at the back of the shelves and the bottom of the veggie drawer. While I cleaned, I made a big pot of chicken stock that there is now room for in the fridge, and which I will use tomorrow for my feast in honor of... wait for it.... Ikarian Independence Day! Opa!

Liberté, égalité, fraternité!

Ah, holidays – gotta love ‘em. Bastille Day presents an unparalleled opportunity to express my inner food geek with an all-out theme dinner. Unfortunately I was a little bit tired of my kitchen after the previous night's Cuban-ish extravaganza. Plus it was nearly 100 degrees yesterday and an afternoon of making sauces and custards and terrines didn’t sound like all that much fun. After a little consideration I decided to ditch the complicated menu I had planned in favor of something just as Gallic but really easy. The appetizer came from the deli section of the grocery. For the main course I picked something that I could stick in the oven and ignore for a while. And dessert I could put together after the sun went down and the kitchen cooled off a little. We ate outside in our little garden pavilion, with Edith Piaf, Carla Bruni, and Jacques Brel on the CD player. Here’s the menu:

Mousse de foie de carnard et gras de porc et foie de porc au pruneau et vin prune
with toasted baguette slices
---
Gigot roti au gratin de monsieur Henny
Haricots verts
Green salad with vinaigrette
---
Tarte Tatin with a dollop of crème fraiche

My son had been asking me for a week if we were going to have paté for Bastille Day, and the appetizer thingie on the menu is a paté made by Marcel & Henri in San Francisco that I got at Market of Choice in Ashland. The not-so-catchy name on the package pretty much says it all as far as ingredients goes (duck and pork liver, fat, prunes, plum wine.) The paté fixation in my house started when we had a French exchange student living with us a few years ago. Antoine’s parents in Brittany were worried that their poor boy might starve over here in Hamburgerland, so they sent him (and us) a series of wonderful packages full of French goodies (some of which were "confiscated" en route by postal inspectors; I hope they enjoyed their lunch). By the end of the year my teenage children had developed a rather expensive foie gras habit. Yes, I know I was just expressing disdain for factory chicken farms yesterday. No, I do not think this is the same thing at all. At any rate I have been unable to find foie gras in any local shops and I neglected to order it ahead of time from D'Artagnan, so no one needs to get too sad about goose abuse (at least for now).

I served the paté with baguette rounds which I made the mistake of putting in the toaster: a whole batch of them slid down through the grate where they will toast themselves into burnt little bits of smelly charcoal over time unless I can extract them with an ice pick. I remember doing the the same thing at Christmas. Next time I will put them on a cookie sheet and toast them in the oven.


The gigot rôti (roast leg of lamb) is from Patricia Wells’s excellent and accessible Bistro Cooking. I thought the recipe might be on the net and was surprised to find it here. I can’t tell you why Tablecloths Etc. thinks they should call it “our recipe” since it is almost word for word the one in Patricia Wells’s book (hers, however, is sans typos). I think recipes ought to be shared freely but you need to give credit, for heaven’s sakes. Anyway it’s a great recipe. The lamb cooks on a rack right on top of a casserole of potatoes, onions, and tomatoes so that the meat juices drip into the casserole – very tasty indeed. My 12 year old daughter actually put the casserole together by herself after I sliced the vegetables with the (dangerous and scary but very useful) mandoline.





For green stuff I steamed some little tiny green beans (usually available at Market of Choice; I’ve not seen them at any other store around here) and my husband Andreas picked a green salad from the garden, which he decorated with nasturtiums and pansies.

After dinner, others finished off the bottle of Côtes du Rhône while I went inside and got started making the Tarte Tatin. This is one of those great recipes to have in your repertoire because it is easy, impressive, and delicious. I’d never made one until a couple of years ago when I heard a chef explaining on the radio how to do it. I have made several now and they’ve always turned out great. Here’s a link to the NPR show – it gives complete instructions. The only part that is at all tricky is deciding when the sugar has caramelized enough. The recipe says “a deep caramel color” and when you’ve done it once, you’ll remember. Also, please do heed the advice about using an all-butter puff pastry rather than the Pepperidge Farms brand. Trader Joe’s sells an excellent frozen product; I always keep a supply in my freezer. Of course if you’re feeling ambitious you can always make your own. I did this a couple of times just for the experience, but I’m happy now to leave that to Trader Joe - especially in the heat of summer.

Cuba

Here’s the recap of last night’s Cuban-inspired dinner. Overall it was a success (albeit a dinner-at-9:30 kind of success… that’s when they eat in Havana, right?) I underestimated the availability of family members to assist with chopping, and there was a lot of chopping.

On the menu was Cuban-style Gingered Chicken; Frijoles Negras (from the Best International Recipe book; more about that later); Mango and Avocado Salad (same cookbook); white rice; salsa & chips. I’m not going to vouch for Cuban authenticity here. The MT cites the National Chicken Council for the chicken recipe - I'd say they've got some credibility issues, but I will save the factory-farm discussion for a time when we're not talking about food. And a Puerto Rican friend taught me how to make the salsa. I just thought it sounded like it would all go well together and general consensus was that it did. Everybody (self, spouse, 20 year old son and two 12 year old girls) liked the chicken a lot, although the boy thought it was maybe a little too sweet. But the surprise sleeper hit of the evening was the beans.

You need to be aware of my deep and abiding love for Cook’s Illustrated. I’ve never subscribed to the magazine, but I was sold on their New Best Recipe cookbook with the first recipe I tried. After 25 years of fiddling around with dozens of chocolate chip cookie recipes, I found the holy grail in their Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies. They were big and soft and delicious, a lot like the kind they sell at cookie stores. And they retain those qualities even after three or four days (the only way I could keep some around long enough to find this out was to stash a few at the back of the canned goods cabinet, behind the sauerkraut).

The cookies are just one example. Everything I’ve tried since from the book has been well worth the effort PLUS – and this is really a huge plus for a kitchen geek such as myself – every recipe comes with a thorough explanation of why it works. They tell you about different possible ingredients and methods and what they do or don’t do for the final product. Some of this explanation goes on for two or three pages. You can skip it if you want, but I eat it up. They offer variations and alternatives, such as Thin, Crisp Chocolate Chip Cookies (honestly, there is no accounting for taste.)

So a couple of Christmases ago my son Nik, who had heard me sing the praises of this cookbook, presented me with what was then a new title from the same folks, The Best International Recipe book . I don’t know what took me so long to finally crack that book open and try it out but those are some fine Frijoles Negras they’ve got in there. And they even tell you about putting in a dash of baking soda so they don’t turn gray. So: buy that book, make that recipe.

Unfortunately my plans for the Avocado and Mango Salad were thwarted by the certain knowledge that dicing mangoes was going to take too much time (really, 9:30 is about my limit for dinnertime). However, the book does advise the cook to go out and buy an Oxo Mango Splitter to aid in the process and I think I may just do that before I mess around any more with mangoes.

Here’s my homemade fresh salsa recipe. It is very similar to the fresh salsa they sell at Quality Market in Medford, (and it will only cost about $2.00 a pint - and way less if you grow your own tomatoes, obviously - instead of $5.99, not that I don’t want to support our local grocer, but…).

5 or 6 tomatoes, seeded
½ red bell pepper
½ yellow bell pepper
½ red onion
1 Anaheim chili pepper
1 jalapeno pepper (more or less, as you like it – we like it a little spicy)
2 cloves garlic
juice of 1 or 2 limes
1/3 C chopped cilantro
salt to taste

Mince the jalapeno and the garlic. Chop up the tomatoes, the other peppers, and onion into small to fine dice (as you prefer) by hand with a sharp knife (seriously, you’ll just get soup if you use a food processor). Mix it all up with the lime juice and cilantro, unless you have someone in the house like I do who hates cilantro, in which case you can have it on the side. Season with salt. We like to eat this with Juanita’s chips – which you should get at Quality Market, since you won’t be buying their salsa anymore.

I seem to be running about a day behind with my postings. I hope I get the hang of this soon.

post-script: The leftover beans together with a little queso fresco made an excellent omelette filling a couple of days later when topped with some of the salsa and cilantro.

About town

I swear, I had the best of intentions when I said I’d post every day. Blame it on a late dinner and three family members who had to “just check something real quick” on the computer before I got my turn… I briefly considered doing my shrieking harridan routine but decided to retreat upstairs with a book (Olive Kitteridge*) instead. Harridan is not a good look for me.

The best thing to happen food-wise yesterday was that I found myself in downtown Ashland at 11 in the morning, having skipped breakfast and needing to fill in an hour before a noon appointment. What else could I do but go to Mix Sweet Shop? I usually try to avoid this place, just because I love it so much and know I am destined to eat things there I shouldn’t. But really… I had no choice. Mix was just reviewed a couple of weeks ago by Sarah Lemon in the Mail Tribune so it would be redundant for me to go into too much detail; instead I’ll just say “what she said” and you can read it here. I will however let you know that yesterday I had the caramel pecan bun and it was everything it should be: buttery, flaky, soft, sticky, sweet, and nutty. Good thing I took it and my coffee to Lithia Park or I might have had to buy a second one (honestly, I have no self-control). Also I will tell you that while volunteering last spring at the Ashland Independent Film Festival, I partook of a Mix tartine every single day. It was almost like being in Cannes. I love it when a food establishment does things the right way. “Croissants” from grocery store bakeries are a travesty. If you want the real thing, go to Mix.

In the evening we attended a fundraiser event for Ashland’s Ballet in the Park at Paschal winery in Talent. In my (admittedly limited) experience visiting the valley’s small wineries, the atmosphere at these places is always relaxed and the vineyards are truly lovely when the sun is getting low. Plus, I do like a glass of wine (or two) (maybe even three). Last night we shared a bottle of the Paschal Maya’s New White Wine (2006) while watching the dancers. I am no wine expert so all I’ll just say that it was pleasantly crisp and pinot gris-ish. There was the usual assortment of snacks provided by members of the board, the highlight being little bruschetta: tomatoes, basil, olive oil, toasted baguettes – a good reminder to make those summer treats at home as soon as our tomatoes are ripe.

This morning I went to the YMCA for the first time in a year and a half, having fallen off the exercise wagon at Thanksgiving 2007 and subsequently finding myself unable to climb back on due to massive consumption of creamed onions, pureed sweet potatoes, and pecan pie. After my little aerobic outing this morning I came home and treated myself to a garden frittata: zucchini blossoms, basil, and a little yellow pepper I found out there, two eggs, feta cheese, and salt and pepper. Tasted like summer.

Tonight I’m making a Cuban dinner – ginger chicken, black beans, rice, avocado and mango salad. It practically screams for a mojito; too bad I don’t like mixed drinks. New recipes all, but I’ll have to tell you tomorrow how it all turned out. And (not like today and yesterday) I will remember to take pictures.

*not about food, despite the Olive in the title

Welcome to Foodlandia

I am initiating this blog mostly as a favor to my Facebook friends... the ones who couldn't care less about my new clafouti recipe or the bumper crop of snow peas in the back yard, much less where New Sammy's Cowboy Bistro gets their olive oil. Anybody who does care about that stuff is invited to join me here. I do love company and there's nothing I'd rather talk about.

My plan is to use this forum to share my idiosyncratic (but not totally baseless) opinions on all things food-related: recipes, restaurants, and growing your own. I'm located in southern Oregon and frankly I don't get out much, so there will be a distinctly local flavor.

The title Foodlandia came to me in a dream last week; since this was the first time anything has ever come to me in a dream, I figured I ought to use it. I dreamed about Fordlandia - the community Henry Ford built in the jungles of South America so he could grow his own rubber trees for tires - except in the dream the rubber trees were giant plants growing heirloom tomatoes made of shiny precious metals. When I woke up I thought about how when we first moved to southern Oregon in 1991, I desperately missed the gourmet delights of Berkeley and Los Angeles. Once I had to call eight grocery stores and never did find one that sold prosciutto, and you couldn't get a cup of espresso anywhere in the Rogue Valley to save your life. So out of necessity we started growing our own herbs and I learned to make Chinese har gau and Ethiopian wats. Our own little Foodlandia.

The dining situation has improved dramatically in our community since then. Henry Ford's plantation actually turned out to be a disaster, but at my house the garden still gets bigger every summer. My geeky quest for new, better, and more authentic recipes is eternal. And I'm always on the lookout for a good new place to eat out when I need to take a break.