kellycolorado

I think he was referring to the U.S. debut of her shows on the Style network.

I noticed that more liquid was needed because of the dry climate as well. Also, if I didn't reduce my yeast enough, the bread would overrise and collapse very easily. I look forward to trying both of your suggestions when we move back next year. I haven't tried experimenting with temperatures yet either.

It's very timely that your Q&A is this week. I just "re-found" my copy of Bread Upon the Waters yesterday to start getting serious about breadmaking. I really love your analogy of bread development and spiritual journey and have reread it several times, learning something new each time. But now it's time for more hands on work... I took a wonderful course you offered at Sur La Table back in 2000, then soon after moved to Colorado and the SF Bay area, now living in both places. In CO (alt. 6,000 ft) I had really bad luck at making any bread other than pizza dough, especially multigrain breads, and basically gave up. I started by reducing the yeast and salt in my doughs by about 1/4 to 1/3, resulting in a dense loaf. Using the normal amount of yeast caused the bread to overrise and fall and become concave. Do you (or anyone else) have any suggestions or tricks for high altitude baking? regards, Kelly

I just took the Joy of Pickling out of the library earlier this week to try my hand at sauerkraut when it cools down a bit outside. I've been reading a lot about the health benefits of eating fermented foods. Plus I just love kraut. The site for the book Wild Fermentation has more info as well as sauerkraut making instructions.

When my husband moved to California from ABQ several years ago to join me, I got him 5 lbs of hatch hot green chile overnighted from an internet merchant. It was shipped in styrofoam and rock hard. About $50.00 i think. I'll see if I bookmarked it anywhere (it was probably on my old Sun workstation bookmarks at work...) Good luck finding a place to ship internationally. We are almost out of the 1/2 bushel he drove up from Albuquerque last year.

Zao Noodles- Palo Alto Dynasty Seafood- San Jose (dim sum) Jalisco Mexican- Campbell (not counting our mid afternoon snack at the Ikea cafe in East Palo Alto)

Wow, I just found out and had to come to eGullet where I knew there would be others thinking of her and celebrating her life. I wasn't around during her French Chef series in the 60's but would just *love* to see it released on DVD.

I was going to post that we will definitely be there since we are back in California and my husband is a garlic fanatic.... but I just realized we are out of town that weekend visiting family. If you go I recommend going early because it's so hot and Friday would be better for the crowds (although that part didn't bother me -- it was the heat and dust). The garlic ice cream came off as vanilla for a second, then whoa, there's garlic. Interesting to try *once*.

Chardgirl, you have inspired me to browse more of the stalls outside next time I'm at Ferry Plaza. Those herbs do sound very reasonable.

Walt, I use Hidden Villa in Los Altos Hills. I drive to the farm but they also have a Palo Alto pickup spot. As of 2 weeks ago they still had a few shares left (we're only 3 weeks into the ~ 6 month season).

How about Flea Street Cafe ? The menu is always changing, but the focus is on organic, in season food. We enjoy Left Bank... I've read recently that L'Amie Donia is no more. Evvia is one of my favorite restaurants. I love greek food so much though and the ambience of all the wood and glass in the interior. It's a bit overpriced though, but that's not unusual for Palo Alto.

I agree with sacre_bleu that the number one reason smaller metro areas don't have a good food scene is the lack of affluent people (or people who want to spend their disposable income on dining). Not far behind I think is a lack of availability of quality produce and meats and the lack of adventurousness (is that a word? Some of us engineers don't write too good ) of the people. I also think the last reason is why the chains can be so prevalent in the smaller towns and "middle america" for people who want to stay in their comfort level. Don't get me started on the chain dining in my neighborhood and how packed they always were. Or how any dough but pizza dough never turned out right for me at 6000 feet. I had a lot of time to ponder this in my 3 years in Colorado about an hour south of Denver. It was suburban sprawl chain restaurant hell for the most part. Luckily I am back in Silicon Valley now where we have abundant mediocre Indian restaurants and once in a while we get lucky and our Indian friends invite us over to eat.

OK, finally found what I wanted to quote... I spit on my keyboard at the phrase in bold. I'm really enjoying your blog, and I can't wait to try the nadan fish curry and okra. I would *love* to find more fish dishes served in Indian restaurants (and less cream).

oh yes, I agree about the prices. I also got the impression that it would be very time consuming to get all my produce with so many stands and finding what is where amongst the stalls. So for me Ferry Plaza will be more for the Market Hall- treats like the gelato and chocolates and the occasional more exotic produce outside. We subscribe to a CSA and get a weekly basket of produce nowadays so that fulfills about 80% of our vegetable needs in the summer anyways. It's a pleasure to look forward to what's going to be next week's basket.

I have to go back to Ferry Plaza very soon. My "non foodie" husband is a bit hard to coax there although he really enjoyed the dungeness crab we had a few months ago at the place next to Hog Island Oyster. It was a very, very beautiful setting, although incredibly crowded lunchtime on a Saturday. We really must get up earlier if we're driving up there. Tana, my favorite clam chowder was the Manhattan chowder by Santa Cruz Slow Foods at the chowder cookoff on the boardwalk this past spring. So subtle and delicately seasoned. It was AMAZING. And no lines because everyone wanted their New England chowders. More for me.

jschyun, Odwalla made an awesome tangerine juice- I haven't looked for it in a few years. We have an orange tree in the backyard and it makes awesome OJ. I cannot drink the stuff from concentrate anymore (never really cared for it until the fresh squeezed came into my life).

Yes, it would be very nice if the teacher started out mentioning healthy eating and diet (even just laying off the processed foods and caffeine a bit and trying to get more protein, veggies and fruit). If she said it, it wouldn't come across as condescending or superior, just as instruction.

JPW, I don't think you're a snob for noticing the instructor's snacks and the contributions of everyone else. I think that pregnancy is the time to eat healthful foods more than ever. Of course it doesn't have to be a 100% perfect diet, but what you listed was so way far from perfect. I have heard at the Bradley childbirth classes the parents are much more into natural living so you'd probably see a lot healthier snacks there. It sounds like your class was pretty mainstream and that is what mainstream Americans often eat. I didn't really crave junk food during my pregnancy so it's hard for me to relate to the others.... for me it was spicy Indian and Thai. oops, I missed the last 10 posts. off to read.

Thanks for the reply Andrea. Sometimes we're fighting a cold and there's no energy to cook but I'm craving a nice bowl of pho. This has motivated me to finally buy that big stockpot and make some pho and chicken broth, which I've been planniing ever since reading the stock course in the eGCI months ago. Now I just need to find a butcher for the bones, because I'd like to use natural, grass fed beef sources like you suggest. (maybe I will PM you for bay area sources)

I was just going to post that there is a wonderful article about pho in yesterday's San Jose Mercury news- I cannot wait to make some pho from scratch. Andrea, I see it is your work- wonderful reading and photos. I am HUNGRY now. Do you know if pho places here in the Bay Area usually make their broth from scratch from bones or not? thanks!

In California this rarely happens to me, except I get my cilantro rung up as parsely a lot. When I was living in Colorado in the vast suburban sprawl a couple years ago, I drove up to the Denver Whole Foods for my thanksgiving groceries- the array of vegetables was beautiful. You were supposed to weigh and tag your own produce on the electronic scales to make checkout easier, kind of a pain IMHO. Well, I saw this well off looking 40 something guy with a bag of chanterelles, holding UP the scale while he weighed his $18.00/lb or so mushrooms! I must have shot daggers at him because his stopped and walked away. I told the checkout woman that they should look at the tags on expensive items because people were cheating bigtime. It's not like the guy was starving for food. grrr. The last time I went they did produce weighing at the counter because the scales kept breaking down. I think it was also because of misweighing or mislabelling. There are a lot of independent grocery stores here in the Bay Area and the cashiers really know their veggies (and codes) for the most part. I love it.

oh my! Thanks- I am going to email the link to my sister in law. She is a sanitation fanatic.

I'm so jealous too! Beautiful venue- I saw the Violent Femmes there about 4 years ago.

I like... 1. Pelligrino Limonata (I'm still looking for the blood orange version I've seen Jason Perlow mention before!) 2. Afri cola (it's got a good punch to it) 3. Jarritos tamarindo Oh, I'm definitely hunting down the "kosher for passover" Coke- thanks for the tip!

Just had to interject, having worked at McD's in high school and subsequently giving up beef and pork for almost 10 years (ahh, the grease from those patties, esp. the sausage), that their shakes are one of their more innocuous menu items. I used to setup the shake machine daily before opening and refill the mixes. From McDonalds.com: