My husband and I were sad when Mahesh moved south to Santa Clara. No more midnight Scrabble runs, no more weekend hikes that end with naps in the sun. But you can't blame a guy for falling in love, buying a beautiful home, and starting an adorable family. Luckily for me, the happy couple still invite me to their dinner parties. One of the most memorable (and delicious!) was a chaat party where they filled and dipped and served an endless stream of pani puri.

Each puri -- a pastry shell that fries up hollow -- is gently thumb-popped to create a bite-sized receptacle for layers and layers of zesty fillings. That night's version included lentils and chile sauce. Other recipes might incorporate potato, chickpeas, tamarind syrup, or yogurt.

The pani "water" picks up green color from fresh cilantro and mint. After filling the shells, our host dips each one in the pani and hands it to the next person in line.

For those who want a bit of kick, a splash of Mahesh's secret ingredient adds some depth to the tamarind water.

The fun part is eating the pani puri in one, big bite! Through trial and error -- and many ruined shirts -- I've learned the trick is to lean forward slightly while enjoying each one.

The crispy shell, the blast of herbs, the chile zing, and the tamarind's sweet-tartness make eating pani puri my own modest vision of heaven.

My favorite places to eat pani puri in between Mahesh and Amolika's chaat parties:

Chatpatta Corner
The best, hands down, because Sunite Sharma fries her own puri on site! Not to be missed if you're driving through Fremont: take the Decoto exit, head west one block, and then look for a nondescript strip mall in the shadow of a Jack in the Box. Go with lots of friends, and be prepared to have your pani puri served to you one at a time, just like in India.
34751 Ardenwood Blvd.
Fremont
(510) 505-0400

Vik's Chaat Corner
This favorite in Berkeley has expanded beyond it's original dining room, a good thing for hungry diners eyeing lucky folks with tables. Their market next door is the place to stock up on spices, pickles, basmati and green mango. Or, for your own party, buy all the ingredients you need to serve up pani puri at home.
724 Allston Way
Berkeley
(510) 644-4412

Chaat Cafe
A popular lunch spot that is closer to campus and includes other vegetarian dishes on its menu.
1902 University Ave.
Berkeley
(510) 845-1431

Dhasaprakash
With a touch more formality, this restaurant presents chaat in "small plate" fashion but retains its heart.
2636 Homestead Rd.
Santa Clara
(408) 246-8292

Real Ice Cream
Remember to save room for the amazing ice creams.
3077 El Camino Real
Santa Clara
(408) 984-6601

Part I of II

The support and endless encouragement of accomplished women in the culinary industry is in a word or two, profoundly inspiring. Whenever I am lost, down on myself, confused, pity party for 1 please, I know I can zip an email off to Jerry DiVecchio (Sunset Magazine), Linda Carucci (Cooking School Secret for Real World Cooks), Emily Luchetti (Farallon) or Dorie Greenspan (Bon Appetit, Baking with Julia and now Baking from My Home to Yours), confident they will respond with kindness and encouragement or a kick in derriere to get out and get going. It's more meaningful, more touching, more inspiring than I can describe.

What does the Dalai Lama say - it's not the destination that's important, it's the journey - or something like that? If not for these generous, funny, thoughtful trailblazers, the journey of discouraged, searching cooks like me would resemble a pinball bouncing back and forth across this culinary world, eyes skyward pleading for direction. They are beyond generous with their time, their knowledge, their experiences and profoundly excited to see other women coming up the ranks succeeding, happy to share the stage and pass the torch.

Some of my most treasured memories in Paris are of time spent over a chocolate chaud or a vin chaud or an impromptu walk around the 6th with Dorie Greenspan. She knows everyone. Really. Everyone. It's amazing. And very fun. I try to stay in her wake, hoping some of her magical fairy dust will float back onto me. She tells me stories after stories after stories of the richest, most delightful experiences, experiences with some of the industry luminaries. Over a delicious lunch at Le Comptoir this week, Dorie shared more of her fascinating life with me. I can't begin to convey them with the humor and joy that she did but I hope they at least bring a smile to your face and a warmth to your heart as they did to mine...

I first talked with Dorie about her new, just-launched, uber-cool blog aptly named "In the Kitchen and on the Road with Dorie". Dorie was so inspired after her most recent book tour for Baking From My Home To Yours that she decided to create a blog to stay in touch and continue the dialogue with all these people that she'd met along the many stops criss-crossing the country last year as well as to connect with new people who shared her passion for baking and continue the culinary conversation.

What was your funniest cooking moment?

"Oh! The cake that got me fired!" Dorie describes it in more detail in her book (page 278) but she was fired from her very first job as a pastry chef. Dorie was cooking at a tres chic restaurant in New York City and daily she made a version of Simone Beck's (Julia Child's co-author of Mastering the Art of French Cooking) cake with whiskey-soaked raisins, almonds and chocolate. Bored of cooking the same thing every day, Dorie decided to get creative. She swapped almonds for pecans, prunes for raisins and whisky to armagnac. Sounds reasonable. Unbeknownst to Dorie, this was the restaurant's signature cake and changing it caused a small revolution upstairs in the dining room. She was fired that afternoon for "creative insubordination".

What was your biggest cooking disaster?

"When I burned my parents kitchen down...their just-renovated kitchen!" I remembered reading about the fire in the introduction of Dorie's new book (page xii) but I thought she couldn't possibly mean the entire kitchen. Maybe just a little grease fire? No. According to Dorie, her parents came home from an evening fundraiser, so very dressed up, to find Dorie and her friends sitting on the front step, heads in their hands, with firemen coming in and out of the house behind her. Dorie didn't cook again until she was married. Thankfully for us she was soon married!

What is your favorite recipe? Or is it even possible to choose a favorite recipe?

Dorie laughed and said she thinks the reason she had only one child was so that she'd never have to choose a favorite. But when it comes to the thousands of cookies she's baked over the years, World Peace Cookies get her vote as hands-down favorite. Why? Many reasons. The brilliance in the simplicity of the recipe. The deep chocolate flavor. And Grandmothers for Peace. It seems that World Peace Cookies have taken on a life of their own. Grandmothers for Peace have adopted them as their official cookie and are giving them away and asking people to bake their own and share them with other. Also, people are really responding to the name, especially now. She loved them first as Pierre Herme's chocolate sables, claiming they were as revolutionary as the Toll House cookies. Dorie included them in Paris Sweets named then Korova cookies. However it was Dorie's neighbor that labeled them World Peace Cookies, declaring if everyone ate these daily, we would indeed achieve world peace.

World Peace Cookies
-Reprinted from Baking from My Home to Yours (page 138) with permission from the author

1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick + 3 tablespoons (11 tablespoons) unsalted butter at room temperature
2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into bits, or a generous 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips

Sift the flour, cocoa, and baking soda together.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachmenet, ot with a handy mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter in medium speed until soft and creamy. Add both sugards, the salt and vanilla extract and beat for 2 more minutes.

Turn off the mixer. Pour in the dry ingredients, drape a towel over the stand mixer to protect yourself and your kitchen from the flying flour and pulse the mixer at a low speed about 5 times, a second or two each time. Take a peek-if there is still a lot of flour on the surface of the dough, pulse a couple of times more.; if not, remove the towel. Continuing at a low speed, mix for about 30 seconds more, just until the flour disappears into the dough-for the best texture, work the dough as little as possible once the flour is added, and don't be concerned if the dough looks a little crumbly. Toss in the chocolate pieces and mix only to incorporate.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface, gather it together and divide it in half. Working with one half at a time, shape the dough into logs that are 1-1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days and frozen for up to 2 months. If you've frozen the dough, you needn't defrost it before baking-just slice the logs into cookies and bake for 1 minute longer.

Getting ready to bake: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Using a sharp thin knife, slice the logs into rounds that are 1/2 inch thick. (The rounds are likely to crack as you are cutting them-don't be concerned, just squeeze the bits back onto each cookie.) Arrange the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch between them.

Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12 minutes-they won't look done, nor will they be firm, but that's just the way they should be. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies rest until they are only just warm, at which point you can serve them or let them reach room temperature.

--------------------------------

Please check back next week for Part II where Dorie shares the most heart-warming stories of life in Paris and working with Pierre Herme, Daniel Boulud and Julia Child.

Happy St. Juliana's Day. Her life, or at least, her martyrdom, sounds much more interesting than St. Valentine's. She got to wrestle with the devil. She got molten metals poured over her naked flesh while tied between two pillars. She even got to act in a high drama courtroom scene in which the devil himself played witness for the prosecution. And she died a virgin. Perhaps that last bit that doesn't market itself well. She is not the patron saint of anything as far as I can tell, but at least she got her own name day. Today. When depicted in art, she is shown leading the devil, or a dragon, around by a chain. Our local bondage mavens, at least the Catholic ones, should stand up and take notice. If they can get up off their Catherine Wheels to do so.

Okay. Enough of St. Juliana. I was just trying to avoid talking about St. Valentine.

I am tired, tired, tired of his Feast Day. I'm not against romance. Not in the least. I am just against the idea of a special day reserved for lovers. I'm not thrilled about the existence of a day where unrealistic expectations of love perfection are foisted upon couples, especially newly formed ones for whom boundaries have not yet been drawn, for whom the depth of feeling towards each other has not been thoroughly examined. Then, of course, there are all those single people out there.

Oh, you single people might tell yourself, "It's just a silly Hallmark holiday. It means nothing to me."and That may be well and true, but I won't believe you.

I used to say the same thing, even on those Valentine's days that coincided with my being in a relationship. That is, until one signal year when I found my boyfriend giggling in the kitchen with a young ballet dancer. At 7:30 in the morning. In the house we had bought together seven days earlier. On Valentine's Day.

Bitter, party of one? Oh, that's me.

Well, not so much any more. Today, it's just a funny/sad story. But it certainly didn't help to cure me of my VD depression.

In an effort to alleviate the above-mentioned funk. I did a bit of research on antidepressant foods. How to self-medicate without, um, medication? Here's what I came up with. A Valentine's Day cure, if you will.

The ingredients are basic and all shown to be very helpful in combating depression. Thank you, Forbes Magazine, for your article on antidepressant foods...

Salmon is very high in omega-3 fatty acids which not only help the body fight against heart disease and some forms of cancer, but are now showing great promise in fighting depression and stress.

Beets contain uridine, which can increase one's levels of cytidine in the brain. Cytidine, in turn, affects the level of dopamine. Dopamine, as you runners might already know, affects mood. In a good way.

Walnuts are a good source of alpha linolenic acid (one of the omegas). You don't need to eat a whole bowlful, either-- an ounce will do nicely. These dear little nuggest also help fight heart disease and, on Valentine's Day, one's heart needs all the protection it can get.

Molasses also containes uridine. Remember my posting last month about molasses? No? Well, I wrote one. I just didn't know why I enjoyed writing it so much. Now I know.

Here's the recipe-- a combination of all four ingredients. It's very easy to make. We'll call it:

Michael's Valentine's Day Plate of Armor

Ingredients:

1 1/3 to 1/2 pound salmon filet. You are eating this alone, aren't you? Chose a really fatty salmon like King. You need all the fatty acids you can get.
4 beets- red, golden, chioggia-- take your pick. Save the green tops, too
1 ounce walnuts-- toasted. I like mine tossed with sugar and salt fresh from the oven.
1 ounce feta cheese, crumbled
1 tablespoon molasses
1 teaspoon mustard (I used a sweet and hot style)
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (champagne or white wine vinegar will work, too.)
1 teaspoon shallot, finely minced
4 tablespoons olive oil for vinaigrette, plus one tablespoon for pan roasting the salmon, one tablespoon for roasting beets.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Preparation:

Roasted Beets:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Line a baking sheet or Pyrex baking dish with aluminum foil.
3. Wash beets thoroughly and trim both ends
4. Pat beets dry with paper towels, then lightly coat with olive oil and a little salt.
5. Place beets on baking sheet and roast in oven for 45 minutes or until done. Obviously, smaller beets will take less time than larger ones, so please exercise judgement.
6. Remove beets from oven when done (to test, poke one with a paring knife. If the knife slips in easily, the beets are done).
7. Let cool.
8. To remove skin, gently rub beets (one at a time, of course) between paper towels. If you've roasted them properly, this should be easy. If you haven't, I just don't know what to tell you.
9. Dice beets into your favotie, easy-to-carve shapes and set aside.

For Molasses Vinaigrette:

1. in a small bowl, add molasses, vinegar, mustard, shallots and salt (as much as you like, to help balance the sweetness of the molasses). Whisk bravely.
2. Slowly drizzle in olive oil, whisking as you do so.
3. Adjust flavors to suit your own tastes.
4. Set aside

Salmon:

1. Rub salmon with salt on both sides-- skin and flesh.
2. In a size-appropriate saute pan, heat one tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat until very hot, just not quite smoking.
3. Add salmon filet to the pan, skin side down. Cook for about two minutes over the heat. Do not try to move the salmon. Let it stick. It will give in. It will release its grip on the pan.
4. Throw (or place gently, whatever your mood) salmon into the still-425 degree oven for approximately five minutes or as long as you want, depending upon how well done you like your salmon. I like mine a medium rare. Actually, I like my salmon raw, but this recipe calls for a more thorough cooking.

Beet Greens:

1. Throw well-cleaned beet greens into saute pan that has one tablespoon of olive oil already heating in it. Throw in a pinch of salt, too.
2. Cover and steam, moving the greens about now and then, for about 5 to 7 minutes. Many people might argue that greens need to cook for longer, but I don't think that is necessary in this case. We're going for nutrients here, not slow-cooked-with-bacon goodness. They're still good this way. Just try it.

To assemble:

1. While salmon is roasting, warm the already-cooked beets and toss with vinaigrette (Better whisk the dressing again, because it will have separated by now).
2. Shake excess liquid from beet greens and place on a platter. Add vinaigrette-tossed beets, walnuts and feta (I like it with a bit of Feta, but you may leave this out if the whole fish-and-cheese combination makes you squeamish, which it shouldn't, by the way. Think tuna melt.) Grind a little pepper, sprinkle a little salt.
3. Slide salmon on top and drizzle the dish with the vinaigrette. Eat while hot. Actually, the dish is fine (minus the greens) to eat cold, too.
4. Think happy thoughts.

Just think how healthy you'll be after eating this dish. Whether you're now ready for a healthy relationship is another matter entirely. If that thought has suddenly depressed you (again), eat some chocolate. A lot of chocolate-- that's an antidepressant, too.

P.S. Apropos of nothing, there has been a meme flying about the food blogosphere called Five Things About Me. Call it fun. Call it annoying. Whatever you decide to label it, it's ended up a great way for me to find out about other food bloggers out there. Click or don't click, it's up to you.

I am a person who has tasted a lot of different foods during my life. Before my trip last month to Vietnam, I had only traveled to Europe and around the U.S. so my experiences are limited to those places, but we live in a global village and there are lots of foods available in California, right? Within two days of being in Vietnam, I had tasted five new fruits that I had never tasted before. Most of them I had never even seen or heard of either.

To say that going to Vietnam rocked my taste buds would be an understatement. This trip awakened me to so many new flavor profiles and tastes -- I know that my culinary life will not be the same after this trip.

Here are some of the fruits that were new to me in Vietnam.

RAMBUTAN

Rambutans get the award for being the most flashy fruit that I tasted with their hairy, uninviting exterior. Pop them open with a knife, and inside you find a white, gelatinous ball around a relatively large pit. Related to lychees, and very similar in flavor, rambutans are delicious. They have a delicate flavor, and when they are ripe they are quite sweet with a good amount of tartness.

CUSTARD APPLE or SUGAR APPLE

Throughout the trip, everyone we met referred to these as custard apples, however now that I have the benefit of the world wide web, it seems that they are more popularly referred to as sugar apples. They have a bumpy green skin that turns black as it ripens. The inside texture reminded me of a ripe banana - very custardy in consistency. It's a sweet fruit with shiny black pits that you spit out as you eat through it.

DRAGONFRUIT

Dragonfruit is a beautiful sight. On the outside, the bright pink you see above. On the inside, a white fruit with very small edible black seeds. I have been told that when these are at their peak of ripeness they are quite delicious. But the dragonfruits that I tried were rather unremarkable, mostly watery with a little sweetness and acidity. Maybe the gorgeous exterior set up unreasonable expectations?

SOURSOP

Most of the time that I saw a fruit I didn't know, I would buy one from the vendor and ask them to cut it up on site so that I could figure out what it was and if I liked it. I spied these soursops, and knowing that they were the favorite fruit of a friend, tried to have the vendor cut one up for me. She made a couple of universal signs which were basically telling me to get lost, and refused to sell me anything. I found out later that soursop needs quite a bit of preparation: one must go through the inside fruit and remove the fibrous parts and the seeds before it's ready to eat.

A couple days later, a fruit vendor prepared it properly for us and I was able to taste it. The flavor is quite acidic, with a strong sweet fruit overtone that makes the entire mouthful quite pleasant. Due to it's consistency, soursop lends itself to shakes, drinks, and ice creams quite nicely.

ROSE APPLE

When I first saw this fruit, I posted a photo on my blog to find out what it was. When the identification came back, a couple of commenters gave me their opinions of the flavor. My favorite comment stated "It is a wonderful sweet fruit, which has the odd texture of styrofoam to me". Styrofoam is right. They are unusually lightweight as there's just not much to them. The flavor is close to an apple, though it wasn't my favorite.

GREEN MANGO

Though I eat mangoes like a fiend when I can find them, I had never tasted a green mango. Much like green papaya, it's quite astringent and sour. I most liked it when wrapped in a spring roll and providing a contrast to other flavors on a dish. Not to be completely childish about this, but I think I would like a green mango much more if it didn't have the word MANGO in it. The word mango conjures up a wonderful, sweet, sensual flavor that is one of my favorite things in the world. And a green mango is nothing like it's ripe cousin. So maybe one day I will get over this whole issue and learn to appreciate green mangoes for what they are.

There were other fruits I tried for which I don't have photographs. The jackfruit is an enormous fruit, and the only way to sensibly buy it is in small bags already taken apart. It's not as smelly as durian, but it is smelly enough that one hotel I was in had a large sign in the lobby declaring "No Durian or Jackfruit Allowed in Rooms". And there's a reason for that. If the smell doesn't bother you, the flavor is very banana-like mixed with a slight citrus flavor. I loved it.

Passionfruit was my official fruit of this trip. I would buy them whenever I saw them (which was not often) and gobbled them up before I had to share. I don't remember what exactly was in the passionfruit cocktails that I drank for three nights in a row, but they were heavenly, and I am going to have to find a way to recreate them.

Mangosteens were another fruit I had never tasted. The mangosteen has a hard, dark purple exterior and a bright green stem - kind of like an eggplant but smaller and harder. Inside, you find a segmented fruit which you can pry out and eat, discarding the seeds as you come upon them. The mangosteen just tastes like the tropics to me. The juice exploded in your mouth as you eat the pieces, and it's a sweet, full flavor with just enough acid to keep it interesting. I can't wait to have mangosteens again.

I haven't done much research here in the Bay Area, but am curious if I am going to be able to get any of these fruits here. From what I've read, fresh mangosteens are going to be impossible. But what about rambutan? jackfruit? or my beloved passionfruit?

It's too late to book a table at your favorite restaurant, fortunately dinner at home can be more relaxed and romantic anyway. If yesterday's post inspired you to create your own Valentine's Day feast, we have some suggestions for you based on past posts.

Whether you are dining with your loved one or throwing an impromptu dinner party for 4, fondue makes for a fun and intimate meal. This time of year a pot of bubbling cheese is not only delicious but hearty and comforting too. Stephanie's recipe for fondue is a winner.

There's something decidedly sexy about seafood. It's the briny taste of the ocean, the delicacy and sweetness. Don't let me get all porno, just make your beloved a plate of Seared Scallops & Celeriac Salad Salad in an Orange-Mustard Dressing, one of Laura's classic recipes.

For me, caviar is precious and perfect for a dinner for two. It's too pricey to buy a lot. At New World Market you can buy caviar and homemade blini. That's what I plan on doing!

For something French and fabulous, but with everyday ingredients you probably have on hand, crepes fit the bill. Shuna provides a sweet crepe recipe that will impress your date.

What's Valentine's Day without chocolate? I have no idea. But it's probably not worth celebrating. Just in time for the holiday Charles Chocolates has opened up a retail store, it's the only place to find the entire line of chocolates and is located at 6529 Hollis St. between 65th and 66th Streets, the store is open from 11:00AM until 7:00PM seven days a week. Read about a visit behind-the-scenes at Charles Chocolates or read an interview with chocolatier Chuck Siegel.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Love is nothing short of a national sport here in France and the French claim to celebrate it every day of the year, not just on February 14th. It is more beloved than soccer or philosophical debate, though love plays heavily into both. All store fronts are bedecked with Valentine's decorations but regardless of the time of year, people are always kissing.

Sometimes it's charming, like this couple below I spotted smooching after a long lunch at the Palais Royal; other times you want to hurl, like when the couple in line in front of you at the post office are slobbering on each other so much so you feel like you are in the front row of the dolphin show at Marine World. Anyways, back to Valentine's Day...

I got a bit carried away with the heart theme. I bought heart dessert plates, too many red flowers, big red chargers and little porcelain heart dishes for the amuse bouche. We cut hundreds of hearts from a block of foie gras, roasted beets and country bread. The dessert was heart shaped, the foie gras amuse was heart shaped, as were the sliced beets and croutons that topped the soup. Fortunately, my friend Jeff came over for a few hours in the early afternoon and saved the day. I immediately delegated all heart cutting duties to Jeff as I began dicing the tiny mango and beet brunois (1mm x 1mm dice).

There were of course a few disasters. It wouldn't be a normal day in my kitchen without at least one or two things going wrong. This time one was culinary, the other travel. I am beginning to think my kitchen is haunted and I know I am cursed travelwise. First I roasted the parsnips to make the soup. I didn't have much time so I cubed the parsnips to roast as quickly as possible. I put the oven on 300F but the parsnips on the lowest sheet pan still burned on the bottom. I spent the next hour carefully slicing off the burned bottoms as my blood pressure creeped north. I had not factored in an hour to slice off burned parsnip into my timeline. ARGH!

Then, about midway into my mango brunois-ing my stomach did a flip. I forgot to buy my ticket back to SFO in a week and it expired the previous night! AAACK! I dialed up United and was told my flight from Paris to Frankfurt was still there but the leg from Frankfurt to San Francisco was gone. I took a deep breath and tried not to cry, envisioning Seat 53B next to the bathroom as the last remaining seat. Miraculously my same seats were still available and I bought the ticket right there on the spot. Disaster no.2 avoided and another 20 minutes eaten into my timeline.

For each dinner, I try to cook a different recipe for the main course. I thought about roasting a filet mignon but cooking meat makes me nervous and always involves some sort of drama. This I was desparately trying to avoid. I was flipping through the Canyon Ranch cookbook looking for inspiration when a scallop recipe reminded me of one I made in cooking school.

a recipe from cooking school and my to do list and timeline...

Scallops I can do plus I knew there would be two other cooks at dinner in case things got crazy in the kitchen. I keep forgetting to buy a salad spinner so my dishrack once again saved the day. Necessity is the mother of invention, as they say...

I bought rings to stack risotto, then wilted spinach and arugula, topped with sauteed scallops, cut in half crosswise and fanned around in a circle. A drizzle of lemon oil (zest and juice of 3 lemons blended with a cup of olive oil) and some beet and mango brunois on top of the scallops, around the plate and call it a day.

La Fete des Amoureux!
Valentine's Day!
Samedi, 10 Fevrier 2007
chez Laura en Paris

Brut Cuvee Rose, Champagne Veuve Monnier

Pate aux Armignac - Pate with Armignac on Croutons with Cornichons

Endive avec Framboises et Roquefort - Endive with Blue Cheese and Raspberries

Amuse Bouche
Chateau de Rolland Sauterne, Barsac 2000
Petit Coeur de Foie Gras avec Noisettes et Balsamique - Small Heart of Foie Gras with Chopped Roasted Hazelnuts and Balsamic Reduction Drizzle

Pernand-Vergelesses, Bourgogne 2002
Sous le Bois de Noel et les Belles Filles (Under the Christmas Tree and Beautiful Girls)

Potage de Panais avec Couers de Betterave et l'Huile de Truffe - Parsnip Soup with Beet Hearts, Heart Croutons and Truffle Oil Drizzle

Coquille Saint-Jacques, Risotto et Epinard avec l'Huile de Citron - Scallops Stacked with Risotto and Spinach with Lemon Oil Drizzle and Mango and Beet Dice

Domaine de Banneret, Chateauneuf du Pape 2002

Assiette des Fromages - Cheese Plate

Decadence de Chocolat et Glace de la Fruit de Passion Fait Maison - Chocolate Decadence Heart with Homemade Passionfruit Ice Cream with Passionfruit Coulis

Bonne Fete des Amoureaux! Happy Valentine's Day!

Most of my usual posse along with a few new faces... one you might see on the next Top Chef....sssssssh!

---------------------

A RED, RED ROSE
by Robert Burns

O my luve's like a red, red rose.
That's newly sprung in June;
O my luve's like a melodie
That's sweetly played in tune.
As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will love thee still, my Dear,
Till a'the seas gang dry.

Till a'the seas gang dry, my Dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun;
I will luve thee still, my Dear,
While the sands o'life shall run.

And fare thee weel my only Luve!
And fare thee weel a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho' it were ten thousand mile!

LOVE ME TENDER
by Elvis Presley

Love me tender,
Love me sweet,
Never let me go.
You have made my life complete,
And I love you so.

Love me tender,
Love me true,
All my dreams fulfilled.
For my darlin I love you,
And I always will.

Love me tender,
Love me long,
Take me to your heart.
For its there that I belong,
And well never part.

Love me tender,
Love me dear,
Tell me you are mine.
Ill be yours through all the years,
Till the end of time.

When at last my dreams come true
Darling this I know
Happiness will follow you
Everywhere you go.

I've just returned home from a week in Boca Raton, Florida, where I was visiting family. My mother's side, the New York Jews. Besides making the rounds with my aunt, meeting my cousin's 1 1/2 year old twins and visiting my 86 year old grandmother in her new little apartment at an assisted living facility, it was important to eat a few times at Way Beyond Bagels.

It was there that I had my first authentic bagel and lox outside of New York City.

Not to mention Black & White Cookies, super almond-extracty Rainbow Cake, a pure, uncut version of smoked whitefish salad, the full line of Dr. Brown sodas, including the intriguing celery pop, and a delightfully familiar, and maybe a little grating, noise of thick lower New York accents.

Like any comfort food, when we re-experience it again, it is cause for a celebration and of memories. And like all memories, their arrival is bittersweet. Memories arrive because something's been lost. Or we've moved to a place where our tribe does not band together and make what we grew up with.

Luckily I moved mere blocks from Saul's when I came to live in the East Bay a year ago. It's here I can find chopped liver almost as good as what I remember. When I want to conjure my late grandfather, Samuel Gordon, I buy a few chubs and eat them alone. Shiny and wrinkly gold, the chub arrives wrapped in white paper, with all its parts except for the guts. Smoked whole, they're slick with a distinctly fatty fishy smoky taste and scent. I've never taken part in cold herring from a jar but my legs go weak for smoked fish and I was once graced by homemade gefilte fish.

But bagels? It is my ultimate opinion that there are no real bagels in the Bay Area. I have tried and retried them all. I've been cajoled by hopeful and starry eyed non-Jews as well as other deperate New York Jews. Nope, they do not exist here. Just because bread is round does not mean it's a bagel. When a bagel is a bagel, every gram of your being knows it. It's taste and texture, the smell of your grandmother's kitchen. It's whipped butter, freshly sliced red onions, and too much cream cheese.

So, nu? I just don't eat them here. I reason to my born-again-Californian self that bagels need to be eaten in their own climate. They need to be in season, and although Northern California is home to many an agricultural delicacy, bagels just do not thrive in this soil. Bagels must be eaten where there is a predominance of kvetching weather, schvitzing heat, and other New York Yids.

And Way Beyond Bagels cures this homesick itch. Even though it's in Florida.

I have a whole carry on bag full of 2 dozen said bread product to prove it. Now it's just a matter of sharing them with those who understand the gravity of such luggage...

If you're looking to cure your Eastern European and/or New York Jewish deli food cravings, I give you this small list of places to start:

California Street Deli
Moishe's Pippic
Saul's Deli & Restaurant
Old Krakow

Or if you want to read more about what those who long for Jewish deli food do in the Bay Area, check out this article in The Berkeley Monthly written by John Harris, a man who has even gone so far as to make a movie about the lost Deli. I'm excited to say I'll be privy to a screening of the movie this Thursday!

With only one week left before the Lunar Year 4705 begins, there's still a lot to prepare. I need to finish everything by February 18, the beginning of a particularly auspicious Year of the Boar. Some of the more important items on my TO DO list...

- Scrub, dust, mop, and wash everything from floor to ceiling.

- Invite my first visitor of the year. Alex (my smart, successful, super-nice doctor friend) moved to L.A., so I'll have to find someone else to carry luck and prosperity into my home.

- Prepare banh chung from Andrea's hardcore, traditional recipe in her new cookbook, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. It's four pages long and includes instructions on how to make your own mold. We've already exchanged some notes on our favorite techniques and ingredients (remember the pork fat!) as well as some major no-no's (forget the green food coloring). If I'm feeling flush, I might even try making the more difficult shaped banh tet.

- Fill every room with flowers. Stop at the SF Wholesale Flower Mart for good prices on quince blossoms, forsythia boughs, bright red gladioli, narcissus bulbs, and bamboo.

- Call my mom to ask for her recipe for caramel daikon pickles.

- Buy new clothes for the new year.

- Pick up the polymer plates, mix up some pink and red inks, and finish printing our Tet cards.

- Track down one of those mommy pig sweet buns at a Chinatown bakery.

- Relax and enjoy the start of another wonderful year!

Monday morning, my friend Bill sent me off an email asking if I'd seen the lead story-- Sharp Bites-- in this week's New York Times SundayStyles section. Well, no. I hadn't. I tend to skip that section in favor of their Sunday Magazine. Of course, I tend to skip most of the magazine and head straight for the crossword puzzle. I sat down with my cup of coffee and read...

"'Food blogs have reached a critical mass with readers in the last six months,' said Phillip Baltz, owner of the restaurant public relations firm Baltz & Company."

God, is that true. Everyone seems to have an opinion on food these days and anyone with a computer can set up a blog, or have one set up for them. Myself included. Critical mass indeed.

I have only recently started to read other bloggers. Especially restaurant bloggers. At first, I was dubious. Why should I trust anyone else's opinion? I'm a food professional, for God's sake.

Why? Because some bloggers are very entertaining, though finding the good ones often feels like panning for gold -- sifting through the bores and frustrated novelists and lonely people with enormous chips on their shoulders. I have been glad of heart lately to know that there are people out there in the blogosphere (a precious few, at least) who are pretty darned clever and who can convey enthusiasm without a heavy reliance upon exclaimation points preceded by the word "awesome".

The first food blog I remember visiting was Adam Robert's The Amateur Gourmet in 2004 His Superbowl post put an enormous grin on my face. Anyone who thinks up Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction cupcakes is my hero. I loved him for it then, and I still do. Please read if you haven't already...

My new favorite non-KQED-linked blog is A Few Reservations. I don't know who the hell she is, but I'd have dinner with her anytime. Her posts are well-voiced and, as the title implies (sadly), few. Read her take on NOPA, it's like a hypodermic needle to the kidney- sharp and precise. Read her love letter to Canteen, too.

That's all you'll hear from me this week. Go read somebody else. Or start your own food blog-- everyone else is doing it.

I'm new to TV watching. But I have taken to it like a parched and thirsty fish. In the last few years it has saved me from my head, often a bad neighborhood to inhabit alone. Armed with an inherited television set equipped with an internal VCR and DVD player, this brain drug of a machine has kept me company a lot in the last few years. To this end I have joined other Americans in following a number of series' and caught up on movies that have defined my modern cultural generation.

For years I have been repeating this sentence, "Oh no, I didn't see that, I haven't heard of that, I wasn't aware of that, because I have been working."

My mother said years ago I could have made the best jury member on the OJ Simpson case, because I knew absolutely nothing about it.

A few months ago I was given an innocuous little shiny disk labeled, Escape To River Cottage, and only remember the odd tidbit about what it could be about. Good thing I did not start watching it until just the other night. A person has to have a life which includes leaving the house, making supper, taking the legs out for a stretch, and interacting with other live human beings.

If you like to eat, are interested in where your food comes, have ever entertained the idea of forsaking city living and planting a garden from which you will plan meals around, enjoy the feeling your face gets when an unplanned smile emerges, like a dash of English humor, and think a show involving cooking and eating could be something other than staged, perfect, indoors, and inane to the point of "lowest common denominator" script writing, you must get ahold of any part of these series now and watch it with someone you like!

The liner notes from TV.com:

"Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstal has decided to quit the bustle of London and take on the life of a smallholder at River Cottage, a former gamekeeper's cottage in Dorset. The aim is self-sufficiency; to grow his own vegetables and raise his own animals for food."

It is addictive in the best sense of the word!

The word on the street is that I have only just begun. A quick perusement on the www comes up with a fantastic interview with Mr. Fearnley-Whittingstal himself. Then there's the River Cottage website, complete with appropriate page links and a whole page devoted to those behind the delicious scenes. Channel 4 talks up their baby as well, and then there's the dangerous list of all the titles.

It's still winter, even in the Bay Area, go ahead, get a few disks and hole up for the weekend. But be sure to have some farmers' market snacks around. You may not be hungry for bridge mix or chips and salsa after watching an episode end with recently culled and butchered pidgeon in B'steeya, cold pike en gelee, or Hugh's first hen egg whipped up into a quick courgette souffle.

If you're one of those new fans for whom doing things halfway is not an option, you may choose to cook up some of this fellow's food right away by heading over to our own local British Gourmand, Sam, of Becks and Posh, as she has cooked up one of Mr. Fearnley-Whittingstal's recipes, from his most recent River Cottage Meat Book.

Feel free to come back to Bay Area Bites and let me know if I have steered you right!