Laundry: time for contemplation. Nothing goes better with contemplation than tea, though perhaps it's the other way around -- does tea promote contemplation?

Tea, apparently, promotes many things, packed as it is with antioxidants. Sipping my cup of smoky Lapsang Souchong from Farley's as the clothes tumbled in their dryers, I could feel the health surging through me.

Or could I? The report last week from the San Francisco Chronicle touted tea as one of nature's "superfoods" -- a buzzword sure to sweeten many lips this year.

But while I was ready to leap to action in a superfood sort of way -- some of my favorite foods are super, including dark chocolate, avocados, and spinach -- science does not subscribe so readily to food trends.

As usual, it's more complicated than just eating specific foods. In a piece today in the New York Times food section, Marian Burros investigates the proliferation of "alternative" cereals, along the way finding that tea -- she's talking here about green tea as an ingredient in cereal -- doesn't get a free pass into the Superfoods Hall of Justice ("Wonder Twin powers, activate! Form of: Darjeeling!"). As Burros reports:

But "the science isn't there yet on antioxidants," said Bonnie Liebman, director of nutrition for the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "It's a good buzzword."

Moreover, the Food and Drug Administration has said that the cancer-fighting claim for green tea is "highly unlikely."

Hmph. But it still tastes good -- the pot of Houji-Cha I had yesterday at Medicine New-Shojin Eatstation, for example, was nutty and wholesome, as things tend to be at Medicine.

So, as you're contemplating your next cup of tea, check out the Los Angeles Times' roundup of tea kettles; then revisit Pim's excellent paean to tea. Finally, NiceCupofTeaandaSitdown.com has already done all the work for you, if cake or biscuits are your cup of tea's, er, cup of tea.

We are just coming up on the end of fresh cranberry season. But if you're like me, you probably have a bag or two stashed away in your freezer. On the other hand, if you're the type who thinks cranberries are just for Thanksgiving, think again.

Very Cranberry is a slim volume dedicated to broadening your cranberry horizons. Sure there are the traditional cranberry recipe like Classic Cranberry Muffins and Cranberry Nut Bread but how about Crabcakes with Cranberry Lemon Aioli? Or Goat Cheese Tart with Cranberry-Onion Confit?

This book has a little bit of everything, salads and starters, side dishes, entrees, holiday relishes and gifts, breads and other baked goods and of course, desserts. The recipes are well-written, fairly easy and use widely available ingredients.

Author Jennifer Trainer Thompson has written the perfect book for cranberry lovers. The introduction shares the history of cranberries in the US and how cranberries were used by Native Americans. Criticisms? The book will whet your appetite with only 40 recipes and there could have been a bit more about the health properties. But for $5.95, it's a bargain and would make a terrific gift with perhaps a batch of Chocolate Cranberry Biscotti?

Braised Lamb Shanks with Sweet Garlic and Cranberry Jus
These lamb shanks are complemented by roasted Yukon Gold potatoes

1/2 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons sugar
2 (1 pound) lamb shanks
3 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
3/4 cup port
2 cups beef stock
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a small saucepan, combine he cranberries, water, and sugar. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes, or until the cranberries have popped and the mixture has thickened.
Remove from the heat and set aside.

Pat the lamb shanks dry with paper towels. Season with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over high heat. Add the lamb and sear on all sides browning well, about 8 minutes. Remove the shanks and reduce the heat to medium. Add the onion and cook for 3 minutes, stirring. Stir in the port, stock, garlic, rosemary and cranberry mixture. Cook for 5 minutes. Add the lamb shanks, cover and braise in the oven for 1 hour. Turn the shanks over and continue cooking for 1 hour longer. Remove the lamb shanks from the oven. Transfer to a platter and cover with aluminum foil to keep warm. Transfer the Dutch oven to the stove top. Bring the braising liquid to a simmer over medium heat. Whisk in the butter. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes, or until the liquid is slightly reduced. Serve the lamb shanks topped with jus. Serves 2.

I would have assumed, 10 days into the New Year, that most food bloggers would be in a bit of a slump - hungover from the gluttony of the holidays, and tired of talking about food. Wow, was I wrong.

Local blogger Butter Pig celebrated his 40th birthday by inviting 40 people to dinner and cooking them 20 dishes. You can see the menu and start reading with his terrine of foie gras. My favorite part was seeing his 4-page long prep list to organize the meal. Amazing!

Catherine from Food Musings has a review of the new restaurant Yuzu, in the Marina which has caused me to put this restaurant on my short-list of restaurants to try. Yuzu is in the old Chaz space at 3347 Fillmore Street.

San Francisco restaurant and bathroom reviewer bunrab takes us on a thorough and detailed tour of the SF Ferry Building. I am going to be sending this link out to any visitors when they ask me for recommendations. A fun read.

If you're feeling like staying home and being productive, try Sam's recipe for homemade ricotta. It looks easy enough, but I'm hoping I can convince her to make me some herself!

Another dish I am going to be trying to make soon is garlicky mung beans, as outlined by local vegan, Rae. I have always been curious about these beans, and am looking for some more variety with our low fat diet.

If you're like me and listen to a lot of podcasts, be sure to subscribe to the Nosheteria podcast put together by a local food blogger. It's succinct and entertaining and always gets my creative food thoughts going.

Finally, World on a Plate has a round-up of Food Trends for 2006. Big hotel breakfasts and superfoods are in.

Happy reading, everyone!

About a month ago I came home to this intriguing note:

"OK Eggbeater, your food blog kept me interested for hours. But the recipe that the world REALLY needs is for your gingerbread...so when can I look forward to that? sd"

I laughed out loud. SD is Stephen Durfee, pastry chef from my time at The French Laundry. A wild and wacky fellow with energetic ideas and a personality riding just this side of mayhem. Suffice to say we were at times near opposite ends of the wall containing our illustrious department. I learned to take chances working for Stephen. He taught me to verbally "grade" my work so that we could both track my improvement. And he pushed the envelope of "shoulds," supporting and nurturing in me my own "what ifs" and "why nots." We created desserts with bacon, dressed fruit and nuts with virgin oils and worked dark to dark sometimes months in a row without a day off.

The day Stephen learned he had been nominated for the James Beard award for best pastry chef he called to thank me. I was puzzled. "For what?" I inquired. "For supporting me. I didn't win this nomination on my own," he explained generously.

Stephen was the last pastry chef I worked for. It was his nest I was pushed out of, propelled just down the road to Bouchon. Stephen was who I leaned against when I couldn't figure out how to make something work. He gently and almost inperceptibly transitioned out of being my boss and singular mentor to becoming a fan of my desserts, asking me for my recipes. Here in lies one of the differences between a chef who can share and a chef who needs to maintain her/his egotistical, maniacal power over their cooks. For are we not comprised of where we came from, the gifts others give us and that which we pass on? We keep what we have by giving it away.

My professional cooking started out as foreplay; sensual descriptive romantic words tempted, lured and seduced me into hot searing kitchens. Laurie Colwin held me rapt at attention, first with her novels, later with real life stories of cooking and entertaining in her first Greenwich Village apartment, a space so tiny it had neither dining room nor kitchen! Down to earth and hysterically funny, Colwin spoiled me with extremely well-written prose about an ecclectic and eccentric mix of edible subjects. In the foreward of her first book she reminds us we are never alone whilst cooking. In citing which authors kept her company at her own stoves, I was cordially introduced to Jane Grigson's Fruit Book, which remains, to this day, my favorite book, my go-to location for inspiring, elegant fruit ideas and beautiful anecdotes.

Edward Behr let me in on his secret: be not afraid of obsessively and passionately uncovering every detail about one ingredient. Research apples, cream or eggs to their very point of origin and then live in the library to learn more. Ronni Lundy wrapped me in her warm Southern arms, shared stories from old-timey hollers, presented family recipes and photographs, beguiling my modern mind with comforting foods. Biscuits so simple I learned early on that a recipe is nothing without learned hands. Hands timid and reverant enough to honor simple is not simplistic.

Yes, baking is about paying close attention. But it's also about taking chances. Making the pie dough you fear. Sharing tiny tasty whimsical cookies. Becoming crazy with happiness and delight at the sight of a souffle rising.

In a repetoire of hundreds of recipes I've made, tweaked, learned, and taught, I am very very proud of a small handful. Ones I brought from belly crawl to walk. Recipes which crept into dreams quietly whispering, or came wafting through dusty old library stacks, never settling, souls in limbo, teasingly, like the one you can never catch during hide & seek. Taste memories.

My gingerbread is one of these such recipes. In both Home Cooking and More Home Cooking, Laurie Colwin's two books of compiled Gourmet Magazine essays, Ms. Colwin dedicates a chapter each to gingerbread. A sweet considered old world, the gingerbread, she sadly notes, has gone out of fashion.

"...gingerbread made from scratch takes very little time and gives back tenfold what you put into it. Baking gingerbread perfumes a house as nothing else. It is good eaten warm or cool, iced or plain. It improves with age, should you be lucky or restrained enough to keep any around." Laurie Colwin, Home Cooking.

Every word of her two odes to gingerbread is true. Make the following recipe if you don't believe me. Shuna's Famous Gingerbread can be made in any baking vessel, metal or ceramic. It sits proudly on the fence between sweet and savoury. In one mood I eat it toasted with runny cheese, another with chocolate ice cream. It can be haughty beside creme fraiche, will bed a poached pear or get in the ring confidently with a perfectly ripe August Stilton. A strong restaurant plated dessert component, this gingerbread keeps and strengthens in character over the course of a week. And you don't need a Kitchen-Aid!

I will reiterate that recipes are guides. Over many years of making gingerbread from various sources I took all my favorite traits and their corresponding results, combining them into one recipe. Please don't let the amount of ingredients scare you. Although it's a tall order, many substitutions can be made, and in the end it can just be an excuse to make too much. Friends and co-workers of mine rarely complain that, yet again, I have made more than what my own small household can decently consume.

SHUNA'S FAMOUS GINGERBREAD

18 ounces All Purpose Flour
6 ounces Sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons Kosher Salt
1 Tablespoon Baking Soda
3 Tablespoons + Ground Ginger
1/2 teaspoon Ground Cloves
1 1/2 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
1 Tablespoon Ground Cardamon
1 teaspoon + Freshly Ground Black Pepper
1 teaspoon *optional: Ground Coriander*

8 ounces Unsalted Butter
3 1/2 ounces Blackstrap Molasses
6 ounces Simple Syrup **recipe in instructions** you may substitute Lyle's golden syrup or light corn syrup

3 each Large Egg Yolks
2 each Large Eggs
8 ounces buttermilk you may substitute sour cream or use a mixture of them both to create the eight ounces

Suggestions: Use the freshest, organic if possible, ground spices. Rainbow Grocery is a fantastic source for buying small amounts in bulk. Keep spices away from light and heat in your kitchen and try to use them up within 6 months of purchase date.

**To make simple syrup place equal parts sugar and cold water in saucepan and bring to a boil until mixture is clear. For a thicker syrup boil for at least 10 minutes or increase the amount of sugar. For this recipe 1/2 cup sugar to 1/2 cup water will be sufficient.**

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Butter desired baking vessels. {Sometimes I coat with raw or white sugar inside as you would flour for a cake.}
3. Sift all dry ingredients except salt and pepper into a large bowl
4. Whisk in salt and pepper until mixture is uniform and create a "well" in center
5. In a medium non-reactive saucepan bring butter, molasses and simple syrup to a boil slowly {this mixture is feisty and will boil over if the heat is on too high or your saucepan is crowding it}
6. In another bowl whisk together egg yolks, eggs and dairy
7. When mixture on stove comes to a boil, shut off heat and let rest for a moment
8. Pour this hot mixture all at once into the center of your bowl of dry ingredients
9. Using a whisk, mix dry ingredients into liquid, from center out, carefully
10. When batter begins to seize, pour in second bowl of wet ingredients
11. Whisk batter until smooth and uniform. Batter is loose
12. Pour batter a little over halfway into buttered baking tins
13. I set my first timer for about 15 minutes, {unless you are making muffin-size or smaller}, so that I can turn the pan around for a more even bake
14. Gingerbread is done when sides pull away from the pan, middle bounces back to the touch and/or a cake-tester inserted in the center comes out clean
{From this recipe I made one cake pan, one loaf, and it took about 35 minutes}
15. Cool at least until warm before slicing.

And now for the fantastic final detail/hint. You may turn this recipe into a "mix"! Assemble one recipe of just the dry ingredients. Weigh mixture and jot it down. You can keep mix in the cupboard for a rainy day and bake any fraction of it which suits you. This gingerbread is spicy and warming. A perfect, not-too-sweet confection for the coldest month of the year. Happy 2006!

Don't bring a Tunisian to a Moroccan restaurant: there's bound to be a fracas over the couscous.

That's not meant to be any sort of statement about Tunisian-Moroccan relations. It's merely a statement that our particular Tunisian (who, truth be told, is a little more New York than Tunis) has particular ideas about couscous.

Zagora, the recently opened restaurant on Guerrero and 22nd, conveniently around the corner from the Lone Palm and snuggled between Cafe Que Tal and Kiji, offers enough couscous options to sate any appetite, Tunisian or not. And while a visit to Zagora isn't exactly a visit to, well, Zagora, it's a comfortable, friendly neighborhood restaurant -- one that doesn't quite deliver on all it promises.

The staff was willing to accommodate our ragtag group, which started out as three people, then grew to five, and finally settled at six. While waiting for the stragglers, Kim and Wendy ordered some Moroccan tea -- a somewhat steep $3 for simple mint tea, though it was refilled through the meal. The authenticity granted by pouring the unsweetened tea from a silver teapot was quickly nullified by the container of sugar and Sweet-N-Low packets placed on the table.

We also ordered the duet of eggplant appetizer ($7), which arrived quickly; the duet turned out to be an eggplant puree accompanied by strips of grilled eggplant, topped with greens. The puree -- rather overpowered by tomato paste -- went well with the excellent homemade pita bread, warm from the oven.

As our group drifted in we ordered more appetizers: the princess salad ($7.75), jumbo scallops ($10), and Merguez sausage ($8.50). The salad was crowned king by Kim, who reveled in the salty-sweet combination of smooth pistachio-crusted goat cheese, mellow sauteed Maui onions, dates, and frisee. For the price, the three scallops could have been a little more jumbo; competently grilled but uninspiring, they sat on a bed of roasted red peppers.

The Merguez sausage, juicy and smoky, was plated with a hummus strangely redolent of tuna salad, according to Wendy. The association, we soon learned, came from the celery root it was pureed with.

Entrees on the menu appear not to stray too far from the meat-and-couscous axis. We tested the restaurant's facility with lamb, ordering the lamb tajine and the Zagora couscous (both $19), which featured lamb too. The results were lackluster, both dishes not amounting to much more than meat and couscous. The lamb tajine arrived in its namesake vessel, dramatically uncovered at the table to reveal a lamb shank, its juices mingling with dried apricots and prunes and soaking in to the couscous below. The Zagora couscous -- braised lamb with Merguez sausage on top of couscous -- failed to produce much of an impression at all.

The Saweera prawns tajine ($16) was uncovered to little fanfare, also: the prawns were overcooked and while the menu teased us with the prawns' accompaniment of ginger, orange blossom, and organic Roma tomato jam, the dish didn't live up to its fragrant promise.

There, exactly, is the problem: we experienced little of the magical mix of North African flavors that the menu taunted us with. Service was friendly and helpful; wine was tasty and plentiful (a French rosé followed by a Chilean tempranillo); food was unmemorable. And the couscous? Definitively pronounced not up to snuff by our couscous expert.

Zagora
1007 Guerrero St. (near 22nd Street)
San Francisco
(415) 282-6444
Dinner Tuesday-Saturday; brunch Sunday.

I love mango lassis. Thick and cool with the sweet tropical perfume of pureed mango and the tang of creamy yogurt. Just writing about it makes me want to drop everything and go find one. Or perhaps zip down to Farmer Joe's (my local neighborhood market) and purchase the necessary elements to make one. Hmmmmmmmmm.

My ultimate mango lassi, the one I hold in the highest esteem, the one I crave, the one I compare all others to, is from Vik's Chaat Corner. Lined up on refrigerator shelves in too-small paper cups, I always want to order more than one, but by the time I've plowed through my kathi or puri or samosas or dumplings, I sadly have to walk (or is it roll?) away. But I digress, this is not about Vik's.

This is about another mango lassi I discovered at the newly opened Dosa, located on Valencia in the Mission (yes, for those of you wondering, it is in the former Val 21 space). The ever-so-lovely Davina (our newest BABer!) and I decided to sample Dosa's Southern Indian cuisine one recent evening.

The cozy little orange-walled space was hoppin' (a great sign since it was mid-week and the place has only been open for less than a month). We got lucky and snagged a couple of seats at the bar, but no sooner had we started perusing the drinks menu than we were whisked away to our table.

The drink list was interesting and included not only a selection of Indian beers, and the requisite lassis of course, but a variety of wines and cocktails made with soju, a Korean spirit distilled from rice and barley. In fact, they even have a house-infused lychee soju, which I promise to sample on another visit, if I can make it past the lassi. (Oh, and they also offer a soju-laced mango lassi. Interesting.)

But again, I digress. I know you are dying to hear about my lassi. In a word: divine. Either a very close second to Vik's version or perhaps even a tie, but definitely in the same league. (I might have to do a taste test in the very near future, if I can figure out how to make it all the way over the Bay Bridge without slurping it down.)

Lassis in hand, and with a plate of freshly-fried peppery pappadums (which were delicious but made me wish for some chutney), we were finally able to peruse the menu.

Starters range from some interesting salads, like fried paneer and romaine or a lemony chickpea salad, to small plates (chaat) of sambar-doused dumplings and steamed cakes to fried onion pakoras. We opted for the Dahi Vada, two plump lentil dumplings served chilled with spiced yogurt and tamarind sauce (and a green cilantro? chutney). The overall flavor was pretty good, but we found the dumplings to be a little dry and we wished for more tangy-sweet tamarind sauce to offset the savory flavors.

Entrees, as you might have guessed, weigh heavily on the dosa--crisp rice and lentil flour crepes that are slightly tangy from fermentation which are stuffed with a medley of options--with a couple of forays into uttapam (thick, open-faced dosas) and other Southern Indian specialties, such as lamb curry.

We chose the Spring Dosa, which was described as a masala dosa (masala dosas typically have a filling of spicy Indian potatoes, onions, and cashews) with the addition of fresh vegetables. The dosa we ordered was presented quite differently than any other dosa I've had, in three small cylinders that were stuffed full, rather than the bigger-than-your-dog dosas that have more crepe and less filling (granted, I noticed that they did serve the traditional masala dosa in the traditional way). The crepe itself was crisp and sour, just what you'd expect from a proper dosa. The filling, however, threw me off. I suppose when they listed "fresh vegetables" I might have made the leap to mean raw vegetables. The yummy masala component of the dosa was completely lost in a tangle of shredded raw cabbage, carrots, onions, and blanched peas. Not my favorite, but it was saved by the addictively delicious sambar (a lentil dipping soup with mixed--cooked--vegetables and spices) and superb coconut and spicy tomato chutneys which are served with each dosa entree.

We also ordered the "South Indian Moons" uttapam, five small uttapam "pancakes" of the chef's choosing (um, whatever was available in the kitchen?), also served with the yummy sambar and chutneys along with spicy channa (garbanzos), one of my all-time favorite Indian dishes. I've never actually eaten uttapam, so I really didn't have anything to compare them to, but I wasn't in love. The seemed more like thick pancakes with unimpressive fillings, again, saved by the fantastic embellishments.

Stuffed full, we couldn't make it to dessert (really what I wanted was another mango lassi, but I couldn't find room for it!). But I will definitely return to sample the masala dosa, in all it's traditional and simplistic flair, and of course, for more creamy mango lassis.

Dosa
995 Valencia @ 21st Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415.642.3672

Open for dinner only
Closed Monday

Bay Area Bites has been nominated for a 2005 Food Blog Award in the Best City Blog category. If you are a fan of BAB and you love KQED...support our appetizing efforts and VOTE NOW!

So, what do you do with leftover cheese after throwing several fondue parties of biblical proportions? Make grilled cheese, of course.

I've long been a lover of grilled cheese. It was my favorite lunch growing up. In fact, there was a time that it was the only lunch I would eat. My mother would butter up some white bread, slap in some Kraft American Cheese Slices, and fry it all up in her black cast iron pan. When I turned eight and had subsequently developed a more discerning taste, I would request that my mother pop in onions or sliced dill pickles or tomatoes. If I was feeling really experimental? I'd got for all three at once.

These days I like my grilled cheese pretty pure and simple, but I also go for a higher caliber cheese than Kraft. Don't get me wrong, there's a time and a place for Kraft cheese. I mean, both Kraft American Cheese Slices and pre-shredded bagged cheddar satisfies my late-night, deadline-driven cravings for trashy cheese, but when it comes to my grilled cheese sandwiches, I go gourmet.

First thing to remember is that you want a good melting cheese for your sandwich. Even if it weren't the case that we had recently made floods of fondue and had gobs of Gruyère lying around, Gruyère is still my grilled cheese cheese of choice. My COC, as it were. Emmi Cave-Aged Gruyère has a nutty, intense flavor with a touch of sweetness that actually balances very well well with sourdough bread. Other semi-soft cheeses I might use are Comte, Pleasant Ridge Reserve, Raclette, or even a summer milk Morbier. A few of my cheesemongering friends like to take their grilled cheese a step farther and mix their grated semi-soft cheese with a fresh cheese like chèvre or fromage blanc to get a really creamy consistency, but I haven't tried that yet.

A few of you out there might question my use of sourdough bread, but I specifically like using bread with lots of holes in it. That way, some of the cheese oozes down to the pan and makes crunchy orange patches all over the surface of the bread. Also keep in mind that to ensure even meltage (that's my own word, "meltage." Spread it around.) you want the cheese to be grated, not sliced.

Gourmet Grilled Cheese
Yield: 1 sandwich

Butter, softened at room temperature
Two 1/2-inch slices sourdough bread
1/3 cup grated Gruyère
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1. Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium-high head. Spread one side of each piece of bread with the softened butter and place one slice -- butter side down -- in the heated skillet.

2. In a large bowl, toss the pepper with the grated cheese and gently pile the cheese on the bread slice in the skillet. Put the other slice of bread on top of the grated cheese -- butter side up -- and cook until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes. Flip the sandwich and cook on the other side until golden brown.

Note: If the bread is a nice golden brown, but the cheese hasn't fully melted, lower the heat to medium and cook until the cheese melts. Make sure to flip the sandwich a few times to encourage even melting.

Title: General Manager, Scott Howard
Hometown: Phoenix, AZ

1. How did you get started in the restaurant business?
It's all I know, what I've been doing all my life. I started washing dishes when I was 13. The beginning parts of my career were focusing on the kitchen and the back of the house in some kind of line cook capacity. I just always had a passion for food and wine. I like the instant gratification of making people happy. I have an understanding and respect for every position in a restaurant.

And yet it's different every night. There's always a new challenge. There are so many layers of complexity when you're dealing with people. This business relies on people to get things done. You have to know how to manage egos and personalities to channel their passion.

2. What's been your greatest accomplishment in the business?
All of the things at the Ritz, getting 4 stars from Michael Bauer, and being top rated for service from Zagat. I was the maitre'd at the Ritz at 29 years old. After that, this opportunity is one of my bigger accomplishments. It's a totally different gig for me.

3. What attracted you to Scott Howard, the restaurant and the chef?
Scott Howard is a very open-minded chef with an amazing palate. He allows the people around him to be creative. I took this job because he allowed me to be as creative as a I want to be versus the Ritz-Carlton where you are hired to execute standards and the Ritz-Carlton vision. I get to really impact everything from the way the stations are organized to how we get orders into the kitchen. I take the credit for everything good and bad. We're very different, Scott and I, but we complement each other well. Half of working a restaurant is chemistry. There has to be soul and dynamic. It's what makes good restaurants great.

4. How would you describe Scott Howard, the restaurant?
Scott Howard is humble and approachable and his food is too. There are only three things max on a dish but prepared meticulously. We have a raw charcuterie bar the focuses on sashimi style fish and salumi and pâté. The charcuterie/raw station is open to the dining room. Our signature dish is the carrot soup which kind of tells you who we are.

5. Where do you like to eat in the Bay Area when you're not working?
If I go into a fine dining place I want to get something out of it and it's almost like working! I like very simple places, like Emmy's Spaghetti Shack. They have good food and they change their menus every couple weeks, It can be inconsistent, but I like the spot; the people are nice. I also like the Nepalese place, Little Nepal on Cortland in Bernal Heights.

Winter at the farmers' market is a luxury that I take for granted until I remember that so many portions of the country do not have year-round markets. California has a climate that allows many markets to remain plentiful year-round.

Farmers' markets in the summertime are full of life and wonderful places to meet up with friends, eat summer fruit, and take home bags of tomatoes. A typical summertime trip for me usually involves getting to the market bright and early to fight the crowds and a quick hello to busy farmers.

Wintertime markets are a different proposition. They are usually more quiet, not as crowded, and are lovely places to pick up winter vegetables and fruits. The farmers in the wintertime usually have more time to chat, as their attention isn't being pulled in a thousand different directions. I can sleep in, bundle up, and head out to the market at around 10 or 11 and still not have to fight too many crowds. There are fewer vendors at the winter markets, but every winter market I have been to in the area provides a sufficient amount of produce for my household.

This weekend, I attended the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market - it was a shortened market due to the holiday, and that combined with rain and wind meant that there was only a fraction of the regular farmers in attendance. Still, a greatly reduced Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market is larger than many markets I have attended in other parts of the country in the middle of summer. We didn't get a CSA box last week, and our refrigerator was empty and I was yearning for greens.

First stop was Heirloom Organics for salad greens, radishes, fennel, and spinach. Heirloom's wintertime booth is every bit as plentiful as we see in the summer, and it is always a fun stop for me. Eatwell Farms small booth this week provided a lovely butternut squash which we will be eating for dinner tonight. "The mud is free," the vendor told me as he handed over a dirty squash.

Hamada Farms' booth shines in the winter, as they have many varieties of citrus, including the beautiful Buddha's Hand which was getting quite a bit of attention from customers. The Mariquita Farm booth was full of fun veggies and farmer Andy Griffin was out chatting with customers. From Mariquita, I picked up wonderful fat carrots, broccoli romanesco, and some herbs.

Our bags were full as we stopped at one more vendor: Ports Seafood. We had a couple of seafood dinners planned over the weekend and I wanted to see what they had in stock. We bought a whole dorado, and talked with the vendor about the shortage of crabs: Because of the storms this week, the number of crabs in the city for New Years' was small.

So, this January how about making a resolution to attend one of our local wintertime markets? I am sure that you will find the experience to be fun and worthwhile.

My favorite wintertime farmers' markets:

Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market
Saturdays
When to go: When it's rainy and you don't mind braving the wet -- not many people will be there, and the vendors will love you for attending.
What not to miss: Hamada Farms citrus, Della Fattoria's addictive Peanut Butter Creme cookies, Happy Girl prepared foods - a part of Happy Boy Farms, Heirloom Organics black Spanish radishes.

Berkeley Farmers' Market
Saturdays
When to go: When it's sunny and you know that the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market will be busy. When you are in the mood for a friendly, good-sized market with easy access to parking.
What not to miss: Eduardo Morrel's delicious breads, Happy Boy Farms' beautiful greens, Fatted Calf's pancetta.

Marin Civic Center Farmers' Market
Thursdays, Sundays
When to go: Any Thursday you can. Any weekend when you have missed a Saturday market and still want to pick up veggies for the week.
What not to miss: Full Belly Farms on Thursdays, spice mixes from The Occasional Gourmet, pistachios from the pistachio man, citrus from De Santis farms.

photo credit: flourphoto