Vegan Dinner Party?

This post is long overdue. Vegan dinner party = A's worst nightmare. The night turned out to be a series of failures minus the sauteed kale. We made the pumpkin ziti from Veganomicon (needed more salt, oil, flavor? idunno) and sauteed kale (in lots of earth balance) and an apple crisp (not pictured, not crisp).

Anchor & No Hope

Image courtesy of SF Mag

All seriouslyfood-ers were present as we celebrated our 9-5's by spending our hard earned cash on a bottle of bubbles and some fries with eyes. Our anticipations were high on the recently opened, nautical-themed restaurant Anchor & Hope (same owners as Salt House and Town Hall). The decor was cafeteria-chic (or open and lofty), and our service was equally cafeteria-like with 8 different servers waiting on us.

I met Erica and Allison there, who were already clearly sauced up for the night. The minute we received the menu, Allison exclaimed her items of choice, "Pork belly! Bacon wrapped oysters! Fries with eyes! Broccoli rabe! Garlic soup with anchovy tapenade!" After I calmed her down with some gentle taps on the head, we settled on the Angels on Horseback (bacon wrapped oysters), Fries with Eyes (deep fried smelts with remoulade), and a side of broccoli rabe to get those greens in. The seaweed and sea salt garnishings decorating the Angels on Horseback might have been more memorable than the dish itself, which was good but not GREAT. The remoulade accompanying the less than crisp "fries" tasted like a fancy (or not so fancy) version of thousand island. And the side of broccoli rabe, while nice and garlic-buttery, were maybe overcooked? I thought so at least; my problematic-untouching teeth had a difficult time chewing.

All would have been forgiven on the average appetizers (after all, they are appetizers) except that our entrees were just as unremarkable. In retrospect, the appetizers may have been the highlight of the meal. Erica's boullaibaisse was boullai-bad. Allison's lobster pot pie with brandy cream sauce, tasted like buttered brandy (not creamy!) with undercooked celery root and a shred of lobster. I ordered the petrole sole with preserved lemons and almonds after securing that 1) the dish was the server's favorite entree and 2) the preserved lemons did not have a strong presence (after Allison expressed her dislike of the pinesol-tasting slivers). Props for having fish with bones and props for filleting it for me (I knew there had to be a catch when I saw fish with bones on the menu, and we were the only group of Asians). The sliced almonds were a bit distracting as I couldn't differentiate an almond from another fish bone when all mushed up in my mouth (poor fillet job, bud). The fish could have used more flavor, or some salt. I kept eating only in anticipation that the dish would get better (which it didn't). At last our meal ended with earl grey tea on Erica's side and some over-baked gingerbread served with a, as always, less-than-enough scoop of gelato. We went dutch on the bill and signed away a half day's worth of work.

Two blocks away, Erica hurled her boullaibaisse out, and Allison and I left feeling stuffed without an ounce of happiness.

Seriously?

I know we aim to be serious here at seriouslyfood, but woah

Fergus Henderson's Roasted Bone Marrow and Parsley Salad

Fergus Henderson is known for making eating offal stylish again in the Western world. Anthony Bourdain cites Henderson's London restaurant, St. John, as his favorite, ever. Bourdain even says his death row meal would be Henderson's bone marrow and parsley salad, which has popped up on the menus of several top-notch American restaurants. Naturally, upon my acquisition of Henderson's The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating, this simple starter was among the first recipes I tried while cooking dinner with my sister last weekend.

Henderson uses veal bones; my sister located some mature beef bones at a Berkeley butcher, which worked well. We scooped the marrow out with a small spoon (okay, fine, chopsticks. it's easier.), spread on toast, topped with sea salt, and parsley salad (parsley, shallot, capers, lemon vinaigrette). Buttery, savory, manly, and delicious.

My own previous experiences with bone marrow have been isolated to Chinese food, kind of an afterthought, but equally as enjoyable. Have your parents ever told you to pick up that beef bone from your soup and suck on the end of it? Have you ever been to a hot pot restaurant, where at the conclusion of the meal, they bring out plastic straws for you to puncture the leftover beef bones and enjoy your dessert with? These Chinese were all telling you to not let that tasty marrow go to waste. Luckily, the Westerners are now doing the same in their own way, and man, is it awesome.

Spain...On the Road Again and Asleep the Whole Time

KQED and KCSM started airing the first episode of "Spain... On the Road Again" in the Bay Area last week. The idea of two respected foodie personalities, Mark Bittman of the NY Times and Mario-need-I-say-more-Batali traveling the hottest food paradise in Europe right now, is, in theory, irresistable. I imagined the two men making countless visits to colorful outdoor markets and tapas bars, learning how to create vivid and mouthwatering dishes from Spanish cooks in their kitchens, and plenty of informative, witty banter about food. Alas, the first episode failed to bring its audience deep into the world of Spanish food, bringing us, instead, deep into comatose.

Where the show really mucks up is the addition of Gwyneth Paltrow and lesser known, but also pretty, Spanish actress Claudia Bassols. Although Gwynie may be somewhat of a foodie, her prissy comments about only eating birds that grew up in the wild and that were slaughtered naturally, and how she's going to gain 10 kilos on the trip were totally irrelevant. I'm not sure why the producers thought it would be a good idea to split Mark and Mario up for most of the episode, forcing each to participate in vapid chit-chat with one of the actresses while driving around the Spanish countryside in Mercedes convertibles. Neither actress had any opinions of value to contribute and watching either of them try to eat is quite painful. The two minutes Mario and Mark did get to spend alone together at a seafood market was unjustly cut short; I found myself grasping for more M&M time. All of this, topped by the constant musical interlude of Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again" (an absolutely inappropriate soundtrack for a Spanish vacation), in places where it seems they just couldn't find enough interesting dialogue to keep audio busy, made watching this show an utter chore.

Korean Chinese Cuisine

These days I have been nostalgic for Korean Chinese cuisine. Whassat', you ask? The origins of Korean Chinese food trace back to the port city of Incheon, South Korea, where the country's ethnic Chinese lived. They used local Korean ingredients in the tried-and-true recipes of their motherland. This stuff is so good. Growing up near L.A., I used to eat it all the time and get belly-burstingly full. My sister and I would touch the tops of our torsos and exclaim, "I'm full up to here!" There are a few elements of Korean Chinese cuisine that bring it all together in a special and delicious way, and I find restaurants like this missing in Sucker Free City.


1. Side dishes

• (A.) Raw onions served in bite-size pieces. It's an acquired taste. Cover with vinegar and dip in:
  
• (B.) Black bean sauce
  
• (C.) Dakwong aka danmuji aka pickled daikon radish


• (D.) Kimchi. I'm not sure if it's a different type of kimchi, but it's different -- not as fermented as the variety usually served in Korean restaurants, milder and saltier

2. Tangsuyuk (a "Koreanized" version of sweet and sour pork, or beef, or chicken). This ain't like the sweet and sour pork you order at House of Hunan, buddy. The crispy, battered meat strips are really crispy, and the meat is excessively chewy. It's served with vegetables in a thick, sweet, vinegary sauce.

When I was little, servers would often bring out steamed buns at this point. We'd grab those steaming hot, sweet rolls and tear it apart to dip pieces of it into the tangsuyuk sauce, and any other sauce. Maybe it's a kid thing. Or maybe it's an adult thing, suppressing the urge to lick up every single drop of the sweet, sour, spicy tangsuyuk sauce.

3. Ggampoong seh-oo (sweet and sour shrimp, but sweeter and spicier). I can't even find a picture of this but it's good. Also served in an irresistable sauce.

4. Jjampong - ohmygod! Wheat flour noodles in a spicy, chili oil soup, swimming in a bowl with seafood. This stuff is so good. It will make you sweat and cry. It will clear out your sinus problems, swimmers ear, allergies, and cancer.




5. Jjajangmyun (aka zjja-jjiang-mIEN! in Mandarin) - noodles in a sweet black bean paste, sliced cucumber on top mandatory. I don't know why we'd order this toward the end of the meal.



6. Obligatory dessert served gratis. 'Cause free stuff (aka suh-bis-uh aka "service" aka the exchange of favors, gifts, and commodities in a fluid, communal understanding) is the Korean way. Usually it would be glazed sweet potato or glazed banana slices. And fortune cookies.





There's something very down-to-earth and even working class about this food. Can't you just imagine the Chinese and Korean workers sitting cross-legged with one leg folded upwards, hovering around steaming bowls of jjampong while the ship bells rang in the Incheon harbor?

Damn, I'm hungry.

Macaron Discipline

"What color did you make them?" We let them go naked. It's classier that way. Plus, food coloring is kind of expensive.

Jenn and I attempted making macarons a few weeks ago. Pain in the arse, but satisfying to produce such precious, adorable things. God, did I really just use those words?

The experience led me to conclude that: 1) You shouldn't try stiff-peaking egg whites by hand, even if you have man strength like i do. Get a mixer and spare yourself the embarrassment. 2) Macaron making is all about following rules, and wondering how the suckers would have turned out if you hadn't followed the rules, but being too chicken to not follow the rules. That said, I'm not going to post a recipe, there's plenty of contradicting recipes, step-by-step guides, folk-lore, fairy tales for macarons on the web already. Go confuse yourself. I'd rather just share with you some of the more irritating, rash-inducing, butt-sweat-producing rules that we felt we had to follow to make these mofos:

• Age the egg whites at room temperature overnight. If anyone else has experienced the dizzying, stifling stench of aged egg whites, especially after a hot summer night, holler.


• Sift the ground almond and confectioners sugar. I hate sifting anything.


• After piping the cookies into perfect circles, let them sit for an hour so they can develop "skins." After making macarons, you realize how disgusting they kind of are. Rotten egg whites, skins...


• Of course, measure everything, very exactly. If you're Chinese, there's something fun and novel about practicing your anality and crazy math skills when making cute French pastries, but it soon gets old and you realize the Chinese pretty much based their cuisine around eyeballing stuff, and it's worked for them for centuries; that having to measure things so exactly is masochistic and a little meaningless.

Making macarons is time consuming. Plan for it well; don't drink beer and try to have guests over at the same time. I left Jenn to tend to the macarons at midnight because I couldn't stand it anymore. I had to sleep. Poor girl was up until 1 or 2 in the morning making sure the babies went into the oven and came out at the right time. They were pretty tasty in the end. But were they worth the trouble? I dunno.