blue_dolphin

I think they are quite different but I haven’t been to a Northgate, so I could be wrong. I've always thought Northgate was a supermarket, similar to Vallarta, which has more locations in my area. Alta Baja Market is more of a specialty shop than a supermarket. They carry some food items like heirloom beans, grains and flours, ground chiles, sauces and condiments, along with a selection of wines and spirits but no fresh produce, meat, frozen or refrigerated goods. They have a reach-in cooler stocked with beer and nonalcoholic beverages but it’s not a place you could do your weekly shopping. It’s possible they offer more than I saw as they had tables squeezed into every corner for this event. That said, I think it's worth a visit. Nice selection of La Chamba and other pottery, cookbooks and other books and gift items. I thought their prices for the wines and spirits were on the high side but they are specialty items and not as widely available. I’d like to try their cafe offerings. They host various events like cooking classes that sound appealing. If you go, you might pay a visit to Mr. Diablito, a fruit vendor across the street at 4th & Bush. He made the delicious agua fresca served at our meal.

That area of downtown Santa Ana is really charming. Next year, I’ll try to get tickets to more of the Encuentro events - it’s 3-day weekend of Peace, Love & Beans - and stay overnight. There was an art walk, movie screenings, panel discussions related to food and drag bingo, among other things.

Over here in the Lunch topic, I detailed the menu from the “Supper with Friends) meal at the Rancho Gordo Heirloom Bean Encuentro held this weekend at Alta Baja Market in Santa Ana, CA. I had a little time to shop at the market and picked up a few items: I got a La Chamba soup pot and comal, two bottles of cocktail bitters from Miracle Mile Bitters - toasted pecan and yuzu - and a jar of Taco Maria Chile morita and peanut salsa. Looking forward to trying out all of them.

Today’s lunch hasn’t started yet but I thought I’d tease you with the menu I’ll be back with the deets later. OK, I survived the LA traffic and made it home after a delightful meal at the 2025 Heirloom Bean Encuentro at Alta Baja Market in Santa Ana so I can report on our meal. The location is a specialty grocery market specializing in foods of Mexico and the southwest US. They also have a cafe and have been hosting this annual bean gathering for several years now. Their cafe is tiny so putting on this event is quite an undertaking. I did not partake of the wine pairing since I was driving but I bought a bottle of each of the wines to take home. They’re all from wineries in Baja California. At the moment, I’m sipping a glass of the rosé, a Grenache-Syrah blend that was served with the lentil salad. Very nice. We started off with a refreshing agua fresca dubbed Agua de SanTana. The glasses (paper cups 🙃) were rimmed with Rancho Gordo Stardust chile/lime powder and garnished with pomegranate arils. The first food course was a Puy lentil salad from chef Evan Kleiman, former restaurateur and current host of the Good Food podcast. In this photo, the lentils are in front with a crunchy breadstick and the paper cup of agua fresca is behind the plate. The next dish consisted of two scoops of warm rice porridge with pickled kohlrabi and smoked black garbanzo beans flanking a cool disk of alubia blanca mash with miso topped with apples and pickled Christmas lima beans, nasturtium flowers and herbs. My photo doesn’t do this justice, nor does the paper plate, but it was a delight to eat and the story behind it was even better. Chef Minh Phan works with culinary arts programs at local public high schools and this dish was her idea but was entirely prepared and plated by a group of her students. They all came out to join her on the stage so we could give them a big round of applause. Next up were buckeye beans and forest mushrooms from Chef Tony Ensault. The mushroom broth was deeply flavorful but also clear and not murky at all. The tiny (see my fork for scale) white beech mushrooms on top were pickled to add a bright note. Next up was a dish of Ayocote Negro beans cooked with habenero chiles and xoconostle for a fun mix of heat and tartness. The beans were topped with dumplings made from masa, potato and garlic. This was the only dish that some people found too spicy but I thought it was perfect. It was from chef Ray Garcia. The last dish, from Chef Eric Linares, was a macha custard with sweet Domingo Rojo beans. I wasn’t expecting a bean dessert! The bean component reminded me of Asian desserts with adzuki beans, except more flavorful. There was sweetness from the condensed milk but the beans themselves also had a savory note and the macha custard was rich and delicious. Again, the small paper bowls don’t show this one off, but it was delicious. In addition to the wine, I picked up a few other things in the market but I’ll post them elsewhere.

Inspired by @gulfporter's recent post and my weekly fish share delivery of fresh halibut, I made this blackened halibut sandwich with Creole mayo and a cabbage& snap pea slaw

Well, @rotuts mentioned it earlier so I was mostly playing along but I’m pretty sure he was referring to the mayo markdowns that show up in early summer around Memorial Day and 4th of July. Lots of stores seem to promote it, maybe as a loss leader, in their adverts at that time but it’s less common, in my experience, to see big mayo markdowns at this time of year.

Carbonara from Six Seasons of Pasta by Joshua McFadden I read that today is National Pasta Day here in the US so I thought I’d celebrate with this decadent treat. I really like this method for carbonara, specifically tempering the eggs gently in the pan after the guanciale is cooked and before adding the pasta. I usually temper the eggs in a bowl placed over the pasta pot but using the pan seems more efficient. I also like the tongue-tingling amount of black pepper. I read somewhere that spaghettoni was the best pasta for carbonara so that’s what I used and it is pretty good. Apparently, World Pasta Day is right around the corner on Oct 25 so expect to see more from this book then!

Maybe the recently purchased Duke’s was on sale because it’s been hanging out on the shelf for a while, mayo season is over and they need the shelf space for pumpkin pie filling. In any case, you’re potentially comparing products within their manufacturer's recommended “use by” dates. Unless you wait another 10 years 🙃

At the request of @rotuts, @gfweb and I both tasted Hellmans/Best Foods vs Duke's in this topic. It’s been 10 years so I’m delighted to hear that @rotuts may be sharing his own comparison sometime soon. In the years since, an Aldi opened in my area and I’ve been happy with their Hellmans/Best Foods look-alike.

Grilled cheese made with Gorgonzola, pear and a schmear of fig jam. As to possums, @Neely, your possums are much cuter than ours. I inadvertently startled one while watering a potted camellia bush on my second floor balcony and it looked more this: Since I was leaning down to check the soil, and he was curled up under the bush, we were pretty much nose to nose. I needed a very large glass of wine to calm down!

There is a delicious chicken liver recipe in the Dishoom cookbook that I think would be great with other livers, too. The livers are marinated in a spice paste made with ginger, garlic, salt, cumin, turmeric, deggi mirch chili powder, garam masala, yogurt and a little vegetable oil. In the book, they’re sautéed and served on toast for breakfast with a squeeze of lime juice and sprinkle of cilantro. Also very good served over rice. The recipe is available online here. If you make it, do NOT skip the lime, it’s a must!

I don’t have a Bluestar range but I don’t think the default configuration is bad. Separating the 2 big burners lets you use 2 really big pots that might not fit on adjacent burners. It still gives you 2 options for putting a griddle over 2 of the 15K burners. I tend to use a griddle for things like pancakes, grilled cheese, etc so I don’t usually need it over 2 ripping burners. Two 15Ks would be good for me. Of course your needs may be entirely different. My Wolf cooktop also has the simmer burner at the left rear, behind a high heat burner at left front (mine's only 18K) and I'm also right handed. I see your point but it hasn’t been an issue for me. I honestly use the front center burner for most sauce making, using the simmer burner mostly for warming purposes. Very nice that you can configure the burners to your liking. Do let us know what you decide.

Pear + Gorgonzola + nuts is a great combo in salads or just for snacking!

Toast with Gorgonzola and pears with a sprinkle of toasted walnuts, thyme leaves and a drizzle of hot honey I was debating between toasts, like this, or a grilled cheese version. Maybe that will happen another day soon.

Very interesting - I never would have thought of turning a rotisserie chicken into coq au vin!