Check, Please! Bay Area is KQED's new local series featuring regular people reviewing Bay Area restaurants. This week's episode is a Pledge Special featuring KQED on-air personalitites Belva Davis (Host of "This Week in Northern California"), Spencer Michels (Correspondent for "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer") and Nguyen Qui Duc (Host of "Pacific Time").

Visit the Check, Please! Bay Area blog to watch the show online and experience the restaurants from KQED's Pledge Special episode:

1) Alamo Square Seafood Grill: | restaurant information

2) Kokkari Estiatorio: | restaurant information

3) Nob Hill Cafe: | restaurant information

Please feel free to join the discussion by posting comments about the show and your reviews of the featured restaurants!

You can now watch all episodes online! Check out the new photo gallery to view behind-the-scenes shots.

And if you enjoy quality local programming from KQED and want to support local productions such as Check, Please! Bay Area you can pledge online now!.

This past Monday, Zap2it, wrote a tempting piece about the next, NEXT competitive food reality show, NBC's Celebrity Cooking Showdown.

From the Zap2it article:

"NBC has fired up a five-course culinary competition called 'Celebrity Cooking Showdown' that will air over one week next month. The show, executive produced by Sean "Diddy" Combs, will pair famous people with well-known chefs in a cook-off -- for bragging rights, apparently; the network doesn't mention a prize...On each of the first three shows, a trio of celebrities will compete against one another, aided by famous chefs Wolfgang Puck, Govind Armstrong and Cat Cora ("Iron Chef America"). The winners from each night will take part in a final battle on Thursday, with the winner crowned Friday."

Sean Puff Diddily Daddy Combs' discordantly incongruous involvement aside, what are we talking about here? A bunch of celebrities who may or may not eat, getting in the way of celebrity chefs (or "cheflebrities" as I like to call them) as they compete to crank out artfully arranged plates of tasty victuals. I smell a delightful mess!

Of interest to me is not "Which B-list celebrities who haven't already been on The Surreal Life are desperate enough to be on this show?" but more "What cheflebrities have the patience of Job to deal with preening, prancing, precocious celebrities?" According to the article, two Food Network regulars, Wolfgang Puck and Cat Cora, will be joined on the show by LA cheflebrity, Govind Armstrong of LA's Table 8. My first reaction? Meh. I mean, I love Wolfgang with all my heart. Of course, my love stems more from the fact that I'm convinced my cat would sound just like him if he could talk than from anything else, but I love him just the same. Adorable accent aside, however, he just doesn't light up my TiVo. Additionally, Cat Cora's performances on Iron Chef America and Kitchen Accomplished are also fairly yawnable. I don't dislike her, per se, I just find her a bit bland. Pair those two with Armstrong -- whose on-screen presence I can't even evaluate at this juncture -- and we've got a show of chefs none of whom are compelling enough to make this show as entertaining as it could be.

Who would I pick if I was a Mighty Casting Director in the Sky? Well, as much as I dislike the man, I'd dearly love to see Bobby Flay flail around on Celebrity Cooking Showdown. How awesome would it be to see him either be a dick to the Hollywood celebrities or try so very hard not to be a dick to the Hollywood celebrities? For almost the exact same reason, Gordon Ramsay would be another good pick for this show. Except that you know full well that he's not even going to try not hide his disdain from the Hollywood celebrities. Also, Bobby Flay would almost certainly cut himself, get electrocuted, or set his hair on fire, all which make for good TV. His trio of celebrities would look on nervously as he jigged triumphantly on his cutting board and wonder if this is a new Dancing with Celebrities they weren't aware of. Hell, while we're at it, let's throw Anthony Bourdain at the Hollywood crowd and make them think they ended up on Fear Factor.

Moving on to the softer side of things, Paula Deen is such a delightful television personality that I could see her whole-heartedly throwing herself into and fully enjoying the competition. For her, it would be all fun and games -- she wouldn't even watch the clock as she regaled the Hollywood types with her stories of Georgia and sons and sandwiches. Then when they lose (and they would always lose), she'd just pat her teammates on their perfectly tanned shoulders and whip them up some of her special oyster fritters and chocolate bread puddin' to take the sting out.

Rachel Ray would talk, cook, and drink so fast, her attending celebrities wouldn't know how to help or where to stand. They'd be even more mystified as to what the hell "E-V-O-O" and "spoonulas" were. On the other hand, her team would always beat the clock due to Rachel carrying back-spraining armloads of ingredients from place to place.

Finally, if Marcia Cross' egg-cracking fiasco on Martha is any indication of the cooking calibre of Hollywood stars, this is going to get hysterical.

Look for this show to preheat its NBC ovens on Monday, April 17th at 8pm and continue for five consecutive nights that same week.

Title: Owner Pyzano's Pizzeria, author of Pizza, five time world champion pizza acrobat
Hometown: Fremont

1. Why is tossing a pizza necessary?
Three reasons, one is to get the dough to the size that you want. Second it naturally builds the crust, when you spin the dough it gets thinner in the middle and thicker on the ends. Third, the more you throw it the more the top portion of the crust dries out so you end up with a pizza that is crunchy on the outside and light on the inside. The best dough has some air in it and are more sponge-like, the harder you are on dough you knock out the air, hand-tossing is very gentle.

2. What tips do you have for home cooks?
Dough isn't as hard as people think. But you have to use high protein high gluten flour, Giusto's is good. Also you can find Caputo or King Arthur has some that are good 13-14 /1/2 protein percentage. All-purpose flour does not work for pizza dough!

3. What trends to do you see locally and elsewhere?
The Neapolitan style is very popular in the Bay Area, A16, Pizzaiolo Niebaum-Coppola, Delfina (although they don't have wood-fired ovens) but it's a trend that hasn't hit anywhere else yet. Not New York, not the midwest. But it's kind of like back to the basics, which is great.

Even though they may all be Neapolitan style, the pizzas taste different everywhere. You can really taste the little things. For example the San Marzano tomatoes in the U.S. are not the same as the ones from Italy. The Italian ones are a hundred times better.

Organic is pretty big in California and whole wheat crusts. In the industry there is a lot of hype about the high percentage of lycopene in pizza sauce, it's got even more than fresh tomatoes. I think people will experiment with crusts and different cheeses too like vegan cheeses. Compared to fast food pizza is already pretty healthy.

4. If pizza tossing was going to be in the Olympics would it be a Summer sport or a Winter sport?
Winter because the dough is better when it's cold. If it's too humid the dough gets weak.

5. What else do you like to eat other than pizza in the Bay Area?
My wife and I like the Stinking Rose we love Slanted Door and hole in the wall places like Turtle Tower.

To read a review of Tony's book and for a chance to win a copy, head over to Cooking with Amy.

There's an expression about how you won't know what you've learned from a job until years later. The same goes for those we date. This recipe is the best thing to have come from a relationship I had about 15 years ago.

In this way the girlfriend served her purpose. She gave me delicious eating I could rely on and impress others with for years to come. The nomenclatures are many: Eggbabies, Dutch pancakes, Dutch Baby Pancakes. In the end they're about the same: flour, milk, eggs, butter, salt, sugar and one very hot oven.

The best thing about the Eggbaby is that you can make it drunk, hung-over, in the morning or as a midnight snack. For a proper occasion you may serve it with marmalade and milk tea, but the common topping is fresh squeezed lemon halves and powdered sugar.

Because seeing it on a restaurant menu is rare, the Eggbaby can be your ace in the hole. Invite them over, bid two spades and play your hand smoothly. The recipe, although finesse-able, is as easy being the "dummy."

EGG BABIES

2C All Purpose Flour**
1 1/4 teaspoons Kosher Salt**
3-6 Tablespoons Sugar**
2-4 Large Eggs, preferably room temperature
1 1/2 Cups Whole Milk
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted**
@ 1 Tablespoon of butter for coating pan
Lemons
Confectioners Sugar

**these mark substitutable ingredients, explained at the end.

Tools:
1 Large mixing bowl, whisk, spatula, liquid measuring cup, small saute pan for melting butter. I use an enamel cast iron frying pan or my well seasoned cast iron skillet for baking, but you may also bake little ones in the ramekins of your choosing.

1. Preheat oven to 400F
2. Place preferred baking vessel in oven.
3. In a large bowl mix all drys until combined. Create a "well" in center.
4. Melt butter.
5. Crack eggs into measured milk.
6. Pour milk/eggs into center of drys and whisk, from center out, until almost uniformly combined.
7. While just barely whisking the mixture, pour in melted butter and whisk until just combined.
8. Carefully pull hot pan from oven and swirl about a tablespoon of butter in bottom to melt and coat.
9. Pour batter into hot pan, using spatula to get out every last bit.
10. Place in oven, do the dishes, set the table, slice one lemon per person, and sift the confectioner's sugar if you're picky.
11. Depending on how your oven behaves, take a peek at about the 20 minute mark.
The Eggbaby souffle is done when sides are browned and puffed like a trumpet player's cheeks.

Take it from the oven nonchalantly and wait coolly for the oohs and ahhs. Slice in wedges and serve with lemons or your favorite seasonal conserve.

**This recipe is, by far, one of the most malleable recipes I know. I have added to the Eggbaby batter: leftover cooked rice, raw or cooked oats and farro, cornmeal, buckwheat flour, brown sugar, raw sugar, and sea salt from many an ocean. My favorite new addition is browned butter both in the oven pan and in the recipe. On the days I want it jiggly like custard I add more eggs and milk. Sometimes I do something crazy like add a small splash of rose water to the batter.

No matter if your Eggbabies are savoury, barely sweet, baked individually or doubled in size, they are sure to astound and delight, becoming a mainstay in your breakfast repertoire.

It's cold outside. And that means that it's cold inside, since this Potrero Hill apartment with the lovely view is magically able to concentrate the weather outside and -- I don't know how, but I swear it's true -- actually intensify the temperature inside. When it's warm outside, it's blazing inside; when it's cold, this apartment is frigid. I suspect our landlord, annoyed that he's not making more on our place (ten years, thank you rent control!), has deployed some voodoo. But he'll have to kick us out, or pay us off (Are you reading this? We'll take cash.) -- because we can't afford anywhere else in this city.

The main point is that it's cold outside (secondary point: SF housing market sucks), and it's cold in my heart and in my hands, and so I turn to food bloggers for a little inspiration. The truth: I got nothing. No inspiration. No fabulous food finds this week. Nothing to share.

Luckily, inspiration roosts anywhere it can. Like chickens (see below). And others have it in abundance. Well, some others. Not all. It's been a slow week out there in general.

Chickens rooting through trash in Rio. Only marginally related to anything in this post.

Kevin from Bacon Press has so much inspiration, he started a new blog. (Thanks to A Full Belly for the tip!) Called Dive, it delves deep into "all about the places our mothers warned us about." Dive deals in dives, and so you'll find no eat-local, eat-organic, hear-the-angels singing. This week, Kevin goes to Allstar Donuts and New Lun Ting Cafe. References to drunken munchies, canned corn, and Jello ensue. If Kevin keeps this up, he'll be crowned the next Nick Denton or perhaps L.E. Leone.

The Independent Food Festival Awards have been taking up a lot of food blogger bandwidth, with Becks & Posh, Gastronome, I Heart Bacon, and our very own eggbeater and Cooking with Amy, among many others, all weighing in. There's a lot of eating to be done in the year ahead. Does anything stay secret anymore? Do we have any private pleasures that we don't blog about? Food pleasures, that is.

So, elsewhere in the blogosphere, it's been a slow week. Why has In Praise of Sardines not been updated since last Saturday? Pim appears to have moved to Santa Cruz, and perhaps that has slowed her down. The Restaurant Whore blames her slow posting on Disneyland -- but the truth is she's been busy with her show.

Someone who does seem to be keeping to a schedule is Tablehopper, a new weekly email newsletter by Marcia Gagliardi. She posts the newsletter on her blog, and offers free restaurant recommendations -- you fill out a form and she'll email you, apparently. The past two weeks' worth of newsletters have offered a combination of Bay Area food news and reviews -- Couleur Cafe, the new-ish venture from Potrero Hill's restaurant mafia helmed by Jocelyn Bulow (Chez Maman, Chez Papa, Baraka), gets props, as does Bar Crudo. Marcia is upfront about the fact that her reviews aren't anonymous, a rather controversial stance in the food reviewing world. In response, she says "if you have a problem with my non-anonymous perspective, then don't read my newsletter. 'Nuff said." OK then. You decide.

That's all. I'm going back to bed, where it's warm.

Qu'est-ce que c'est le "Bellybar"?! Got a hankering for dill pickles and peanut butter? Or does the mere scent of a saltine send you running for the door? Well hold on to your breast pump, help has arrived... in the form of a Bellybar.

This musing is as much about life after Silicon Valley as it is about food. Two former co-workers of mine at a Very Large Software Company heard the cry. From friends to family to focus groups, women were craving something nutritious and delicious so Leslie and Meredith, co-Belly bosses, set out to create the perfect nutrition bar for women before, during and after pregnancy -- a bar that was jampacked with the vitamins, minerals and omegas needed to nourish both mother and baby -- and aptly named it the Bellybar.

With flavors such as Berry Nutty Cravings, Mellow Oat, and Baby Needs Chocolate (now we're talking!), every craving is covered. They are chewy, similar to a Clif bar, one of my favorites, and surprisingly tasty. The two Belly babes consulted nutritionists, chefs, doctors, nurses, dietitians, medical institutes, and many many women and the result is a snack bar that hits all the right notes.

I love it because it is made by women, for women. The Belly board talked with literally hundreds of women asking them what they wanted rather than telling them what they needed, a practice rampant in Silicon Valley that always boggled my mind like when the development team built an event management application without talking to anyone on the, oh I don’t know, events team! But I digress...

Thanks to their business school training and corporate savvy along with an abundance of ingenuity, smarts and elbow grease, these bars are literally flying off the shelves. You can find these fabulous Bellybars all around the Bay Area, throughout the west coast in Whole Foods Markets, and on the internet.

So rather than spending nine months grabbing for the cheetos and ice cream, belly up to a Bellybar. Since I am just a few croissants short of looking pregnant, I might have to buy a case or two of these for myself.

Well, Bravo's Top Chef is the newest food reality show to hit the airwaves on a television near you. Shot in San Francisco and hosted by Tom Colicchio, owner of New York City's Gramercy Tavern, and Billy Joel's wife, Kathy Lee (who really needs to learn something from her husband about injecting some emotion into her lines), Top Chef is Bravo's attempt to keep their viewers tuned in and sated until the next season of Project Runway.

Let's review what has gone before: there was Rocco DiSpirito's horrific train wreck, The Restaurant, which was more about the waitstaff backbiting and Rocco schmoozing with women all over the front of the house than it was about the actual kitchen. The even more train-wrecky second season was supposedly more scandalous as it involved Rocco actually being shoved out of his restaurant ownership, but I never watched it. Still not enough food for me. Next up, there was PBS' Cooking Under Fire, the boring likes of which I couldn't stomach. Or maybe it was Todd English I couldn't stomach, I forget. The Food Network has its overly promoted The Next Food Network Star. You know, the first season wasn't bad, but what happened to the guys who won? Has their new show hit the airwaves, like, ever? I have to say, I'm not real inclined to watch the new season until that question gets answered. And finally, we have Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen, which is my very personal favorite. I don't know if it's his excessively craggy face or that I've planned a drinking game around him announcing, "That's a dog's dinner, that is! GET BACK ON YOUR STATION!" (you have to chug your entire glass if he then shoves the plate of food on the hapless contender's whites) that makes me lust for this show. Come on, how can you resist a foul-mouthed chef who suggests to a table of fame-whoring blondes that they "get back to [their] botox, darling"? Well, not me, for one and that's why I'll be watching the new season when it starts up again on FOX in June.

Top Chef is structured a pinch like Cooking Under Fire and a smidge like Survivor. In the first episode, the competitors first have to hold the line at Fleur de Lys for thirty minutes of dinner service. If they screw up -- dropping food, shaky hands, and sticking a finger in the sauce to taste all will get you gone -- Chef Keller asks them to leave the kitchen. At the end of everyone's trial, a winner is announced and given immunity for the next challenge. The next challenge has all the cheflings cooking their "signature dish" that all the other competitors and judges will taste, rate, and generally give a good chew-over, and this time, the loser goes home.

While the first episode got off to a bit of a slow start by retreading already-done territory, next week one of cheflings (it's only the first episode, I haven't committed their names to memory yet, god) tells the Las Vegas Snooty Sommelier chefling, "Obviously you're a tool and a douchebag." Since I happen to agree with her, I'm definitely coming back for seconds.

Top Chef airs on Bravo on Wednesdays at 10pm. If your TiVo chokes on a pretzel or you miss an episode check your listings, because they are repeating the hell out of it.

I'm crazy about Gordon Ramsay and I've never eaten at any of his restaurants. I cooked the Roasted Sea Bass with Chive Creme Fraiche, Baby Potatoes and Artichokes from his A Chef For All Seasons book and was instantly impressed. This time around in Gordon Ramsay Makes It Easy he's not trying as hard to impress us with sophisticated dishes but with how he simply and fast he cooks at home and how you can too.

The cookbook actually comes with a DVD with six recipes demonstrated as if to prove you really can do it. Ramsay has his own way of approaching even simple things like scrambled eggs, and it's worth paying attention. The book has got a little bit of everything with chapters divided into breakfast and brunch, great fast food, family and friends, summer barbies, just for kids, bellinis and blinis, posh, dinner for two and cooking for a crowd.

The recipes are ones anyone could make, and with ingredients commonly found in the supermarket, with very few exceptions (pheasant and red mullet for example). Most recipes use a minimum of ingredients at that. The pantry and basics section is much shorter in this book than in A Chef For All Seasons but it covers what you need to know just the same. The recipes run the gamut from Macaroni Cheese with Blue Cheese and Mushrooms to Halibut Bourguignon to Salmon Fish Cakes and Banana and Passion Fruit Smoothie. With 100 recipes and 200 photographs, nothing is left to chance. What more could you ask for?

This recipe is perfect example of few ingredients, no technique and yet the results are something special.

Scallops in Prosciutto with Monkfish and Rosemary
Makes 20

10 scallops
10 slices prosciutto
9 oz monkfish fillet, skinned
2-3 long rosemary sprigs
olive oil to drizzle

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Slice the scallops in half horizontally. Cut the prosciutto slices in half lengthwise. Cut the monkfish into small chunks. Break the rosemary stems into short twigs.

Wrap each scallop disk in a strip of prosciutto, top with a piece of monkfish, and secure with a rosemary twig or two.

Carefully transfer to a baking sheet and drizzle with a little olive oil. Roast in the oven for 3 -4 minutes until firm to the touch.

Let stand for a few minutes, then serve warm.

Reprinted by permission from Gordon Ramsay Makes it Easy, by Gordon Ramsay. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Copyright © 2005 by Gordon Ramsay. All rights reserved.

We just returned from a wet and very windy weekend in the Point Reyes area. On Sunday, the winds were strong enough that it was difficult to walk and we spent most of our day in the car only hopping out between rainstorms. Monday, however, the rain cleared a bit and we spent a bit more time out on the Pt. Reyes peninsula.

Walking into the Drakes' Beach visitor center, I glanced into the old Drake's Beach Cafe and noticed that it looked more lively than it had in a long time. Bud vases with flowers adorned the tables and there were quite a few customers enjoying lunch inside while watching the waves from the large picture windows. In past visits, we had used the Drake's Beach Cafe deck to eat our picnic lunch, but had rarely ever even seen the Cafe open for business.

I noticed menu items that would make any Eat Local participant take notice: Hamburgers made with beef from Lunny Farm being raised by the owner of Drake's Bay Oysters a mere mile or so from the Cafe, stinging nettles from Star Route Farms in nearby Bolinas, Straus organic milk products, and bread from local favorite Brickmaiden bakery.

The restaurant changed management in November, and is being run by local couple Jane Kennedy and Ben Angulo. Kennedy and Angulo have committed to selling local and organic foods, and often list the actual percentage of ingredients that are local right on a menu item. The menu features varied lunch choices including Tom Ka soup, salad with goat cheese and pine nuts, coconut-marinated prawns, local oysters served baked or raw, and whole Dungeness crab.

We decided on clam chowder ($7), a rice bowl made with brown rice and topped with vegetables and chicken ($8), stinging nettles sauteed with soy sauce, garlic, and chili ($6), and "tea for two" -- loose leaf tea served with tea cake, candied ginger, and sliced apples ($8). The clam chowder was clear-broth and was sweet with fresh carrots. The standout item was the stinging nettles which were topped with mushrooms, and were spicy and full of flavor. Jason enjoyed the rice bowl which was filling and healthy.

Props to Cafe owner Joanne LeMieux for taking a chance with this young couple and their wonderful menu ideas -- this restaurant is a perfect fit for an area which features an abundance of amazing food producers. Also, the Park Service is to be commended for breaking the mold of corporate-run concession stands featuring generic hamburgers and fries. When visitors come to the Point Reyes National Seashore is a perfect time to introduce them to the joys of eating local foods, and this Cafe is a wonderful beginning.

The Drake's Beach Cafe is open Friday through Monday, from 10 am to 5 pm. They are planning to begin a dinner service on some evenings, so call to find out any updates on hours.

Drake's Beach Cafe
1 Drakes Beach Road
Point Reyes National Seashore
415-669-1297

Is it true that until last weekend you were a goat virgin?
Well, not entirely true. I was a virgin in the sense that I had never procured a goat before, nor had I ever put a goat in my oven. I did however, have my first goat experience at one of my all-time favorite restaurants in NYC, Prune, a few years ago. They did a fabulous pulled goat.

If you HAD to share your bed with a baby lamb or a baby goat, which would you prefer?
You are a twisted woman. If I were to OWN one, I would choose a goat because I love the way they smell, like goat cheese. And then I could make goat cheese, goat butter, goat yogurt. I probably wouldn't kill it and eat it though.

Hey, you didn't answer the question! Try again, babe, and don't be so avoidant! Bed: Goat or sheep, and why?
Okay okay! I think I'd go for a lamb because they are softer and fuzzier and I'm afraid the goat would eat my sheets. There, are you happy?

Share with everyone the whole goat back story--it's so dramatic!
Okay, so back in October, we (me, my brother, Wendy, and Meghan) went for a long lovely hike up in Redwood Park with my dogs. Meghan mentioned that she wanted to make goat. I, always looking for a culinary adventure, jumped right in and offered my services. Time and the holidays got the best of us, and finally, in January Meghan emailed me and laid down the law with the goat. We decided to make goat in February.

Turns out my brother, a recent carnivorous convert (he was a pescetarian/vegetarian for the last 15 years until I made him eat organic, grass-fed rack of veal at Christmas dinner, but that's a whole other story), was coming to visit in mid-Feb.

Also turns out that my friend Max's birthday was at that time and he was postponing his annual birthday pig roast because he and his lovely wife Davina were just returning from Brazil. Long, confusing story short, we decided to merge the 3 coinciding events and make a whole lot of goat and have a whole lot of people here to eat it.

I hear it's not easy to find goat. Where did you start looking, and what did you wind up with?
I started at Golden Gate Meat in the Ferry Building. I spoke with Dean, the butcher, about my goat needs, and he contacted his meat guy and then we spoke on the phone a few times. But in February, goat is not that easy to obtain unless you want an entire goat (you can purchase fresh local goat starting in about June). And even though Dean willingly offered to cut it up and cryovac the pieces, I didn't exactly know what I would do with 35 lbs of goat meat. Party favors anyone? I checked a few other places, but I really wanted to find a free-range, organic goat that had a happy life on a farm.

Anyway, I ended up going online and found this fantastic ranch in Colorado called Fox Fire Farms. Obviously I would have preferred to support local ranchers, but that was just not an option. And besides, they rocked. I called and spoke with the owners who told me they had two 3-lb goat legs they could send me. They arrived a week later packed in dry ice along with a pound of lamb stew meat and ground lamb. Definitely a small rancher that I would continue to support.

What did the legs look like uncooked?
Deeply red, meaty, sinewy.

More sinewy than lamb? Like goat:lamb as Guy Pearce:Vince Vaughn?
Nice analogy. But if Guy was the goat and Vince was the lamb, I think I'd have to change my answer to who I would share my bed with. I'd definitely go with the goat on that one.

Tell us about the recipe you used.
I found a recipe online, after a lot of back and forth about how we were going to make it, we finally decided upon Mexican barbacoa style. Of course, when it came down to it, I couldn't follow the recipe because, even thought I've never prepared goat before, I of course thought I could do it better. Anyway, my thoroughly revised recipe is below.

How did you serve up the goat?
After we shredded it, we tossed it back in the juices from the marinade, then laid it out along with fresh corn tortillas, homemade pickled red onions, queso fresco, salsas, and thick crema. Best damn goat tacos I've ever had.

The goat cooked for four hours, right? Surely something funny must have happened during those four hours? Any good goat jokes?
We made the chile paste the night before and rubbed it all over the goat legs, then let it sit overnight. I woke up quite early the next morning (around 7am) and slid that goat in the oven, so the only thing that really happened was me making coffee. I think my dog curled up next to the oven in anticipation.

So did you give him any, or is he still a goat virgin?
Oh, he had his way with the goat.

Did anyone get drunk waiting for their goat?
I would say the drinking started around 2pm with the pulling of the goat. I believe I counted 5 bottles of cachaca which we were using to make caipirinhas, an ode to Max and Davina's recent trip to So-Am.

You're being avoidant again, but I'll let it go...wouldn't want it to get out that BAB bloggers were a bunch of lushes. So how many other goat virgins were in attendance?
There were actually quite a few. We took a show of hands just before serving and there were probably at least 15 out of about 30 people. It was quite a party.

So, did it taste like chicken?
No, actually it tasted like really rich pork. It wasn't hoofy at all like I expected. But we also served pulled chile-roasted chicken and our friend Tony made exquisite lamb carnitas with a mint salsa. Oh mama. The funny thing was that by the end of the night, the goat and lamb were nearly gone (we managed to save just enough goat to make goat huevos rancheros the following morning) but there was a ton of chicken left. Enough for me to made a big batch of yummy chicken enchiladas.

Is 'hoofy' a common gastronomic term or one you made up? It sounds like a term one would use when getting ready to break up with someone. Like "Gee, this guy is making me so hoofy, I can't wait to be done with it!"
Sounds more like a reason to break up with someone, like "Ew, he gave me something really hoofy." Um, wait, what are we talking about? Oh yes, goat meat. I'm not sure, I think that goat was described to me that way, but I'm not sure where I picked up the "hoofiness."

Tell us about your phobia of never having enough food. Where do you think that comes from? Have you discussed it with your therapist?
I just have an inner need to feed people and to me, the worst thing is to have a party and not have enough food, so I invariably overdo it. The morning of the goat party I decided I didn't have enough food so we bought two chickens, rubbed them with the remaining chile paste and roasted them, then pulled the meat. We also bought another 100-pack bag of tortillas (from La Finca, which make the BEST corn tortillas in the bay area in my opinion).

Any good comments from your guests about the goat?
I don't remember, I was too tipsy from all the goat and caiprinhas.

Goat Barbacoa
About 6 guijillo chiles
10-12 allspice berries
2 teaspoons ground cumin
4 tablespoons dried Mexican oregano
2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
1 yellow onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
Two 3-lb legs of goat
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Bring a teakettle of water to a boil. In a cast iron pan over medium heat, toast the chiles on each side until fragrant, about 5 minutes. Remove from the pan, place in a heatproof bowl, and cover with boiling water. Let sit for 20-30 minutes. Drain the chiles, de-stem and seed them, then add to a blender.

Meanwhile, grind the allspice, cumin, and oregano. Add to the blender along with the thyme, onion, garlic, vinegar, and 1/2 cup water. Season the goat all over with plenty of salt and pepper.

Put into a roasting pan, and rub the chile paste all over the goat. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil and refrigerate overnight.

(Note: we only ended up using about half of the paste, and reserved the other half to marinade something else, like a chicken. It would also probably be great on lamb.)

Preheat the oven to 300F. Cook the goat for about 4-1/2 to 5 hours, turning once about halfway through, until very tender and falling off the bone. Pour off the juices into a bowl or glass measuring cup and skim off the fat. Shred the meat. Pour the juices back over the meat and toss to combine.

Serve with corn tortillas, pickled onions, and crema.

posted by Kim Goodfriend and Meghan Laslocky