ScottyBoy

I was really excited to share my world with you guys when I was asked to blog.

Wood Tavern is my favorite East Bay spot hands down. I had never been to a place that was great 4 times in a row and this one has been great all 8 times now that I've been. A solid menu of seasonal dishes, big portions and a staff that remembers you and takes care of you in any manner you require. "Butcher block" - Pork rillet, chicken liver and whiskey mouse, house salami, pork pate, house mustard and citrus marmalade. Heirloom tomato and wild arugula salad with couscous (forgot to take picture) Brown butter, truffle, mushroom and corn potato gnocchi Diver scallop on risotto with fennel (kindly split into 3 portions without even asking since they saw that we were sharing) "Pig and fig" - Roasted then fried pork belly, black mission figs, balsamic and point reyes blue cheese. In-house ice creams with sugar cookies - Strawberry, local coffee, cheesecake and salted carmel And on the house to make sure we were full beyond belief...an apricot and blackberry trifle... God I love this joint...

Chicken and waffles. The waffle is cornmeal but they ferment the batter so it has a lighter sourdough taste. Buttermilk chicken, apple cider maple syrup and brown sugar butter. The lady had granola and yogurt but helped herself to plenty of my C&W

Yup, that's a chunk of bluefin toro, they keep it in a different case, $39/lb. And they sell that Japanese chicken down at the end, Jidori. I was hoping to pick up some of the eggs but they were all out. I'll get some tomorrow when I go back. Christine - It was later in the day and they had brought in all the outside bins of melons and such but when I go back tomorrow I'll document the outside and the schroom section Good morning! Time to go get some fried chicken a waffles!

Then Monterey Market.

First spot on the loop is Tokyo Fish Market.

Yeah I've ridden a track bike for 9 years, just got the road bike 2 years ago. I use the track bike if the grocery ride is within 10 miles. Aside from heavy grocery trips it's my "daily driver".

Some quick bites I had on my trip today. An awesome pork skin taco, and some snow cones from a new little local truck. (It was 95 degrees today on my ride, snow cones = yes!) Chocolate-strawberry and lemon-hibiscus.

I'll just do one little post about the bike riding part of my life. My two bikes, a single speed for quick short trips and the road bike for long rides and heavy groceries. The backpacks I use, the little cooler fits into the large one for when I go on the long rides and a picture of the Bay Trail, a 500 mile paved bike road around the coastline of the Bay Area. So the normal loop I go on for groceries is about 40 miles, most of which is spent on the coast with views of SF and the Bay. I'll post about the two markets I visited in a bit.

Pretty good marbling for a top sirloin cut.

A quick trip over to SF. Pictures of the Ferry Building which is filled with food shops and restaurants. The famous Bocalone "meat cone". The farmer's market in full swing out front. But I ventured over mainly to hit up Golden Gate Meat Company to pick up some Snake River Farms Kobe coullotte steak to mess around with. It's good to have a wholesale warehouse of meat in my life

Love to cook with it though!

Both the ladies loved the Madeira. I'm just not a sweet person.

Haven't found their cola OR their beer. Need to track it down. I am a root beer fiend. After trying just about every one I could find Sprecher is the best.

Yummy

David No flouring of scallops but when they are as big as that I score them with my knife before searing/basting Linda I have a very large backpack for my bike It's big enough the even fit a small cooler and ice while I ride with meats/seafood Jenni Every menu is different. I ask the client to gather dietary restrictions for the group and I then design around those and what product I can get at the time. If there's only one person in the group that has an allergy or let's say a vegetarian, I change the dishes just for that person. Making them look and taste as similar as I can to the plates I put down for the rest of the group. A visit to The Barrel Room in San Francisco to do a small tasting, the white Rioja was my favorite. My friend has just opened this wine bar, I'm talking to her about doing tasting dinners maybe every 6 weeks.

Tomorrow is mostly just documenting. Later in the week I'll be buying a lot of product and cooking for my work. Off to my friend's new wine bar!

Here's a little photo teaser for tomorrow. Pictures I took at Monterey market a little while ago. I'll be doing my shopping bicycle loop to all my markets tomorrow and will document. try not to get too jealous my friend.

Double cheese burger, fries and soda, $14. Well worth it.

Yes that is key as well. I'm just getting to the end and only now has it broken a little. Even on a juicy double burger it handles it. As you can see it was just a little wet since I had gotten it to go. Solid fries...very crispy then fluffy in the middle.

If you're in the area it's either True Burger in Oakland or the Five Ten Burger truck which moves around. It's really a toss up for me, both are great, just spoiled with choices I guess.

A visit to "580 farm". My friend bought this house about a year ago and it's his dream to develop all the land to grow veggies and raise animals. He supplies me with tomatoes and eggs but the sky is the limit as you can see. this is only half of his back yard. I like to say my food is somewhat "hyper local" considering if I don't grow it I get it from friends and community gardens. Of course meat and seafood is as local as I can find but people need to know that these folks are out there and they have extra!

Lunch time! I have been going to True Burger since it opened. They do it right. The bun is always very key for me and it's a custom egg bun lightly toasted on the griddle. Garlic aoli, heirloom tomato (durring the season) and angus beef ground in house. Let me just mention that I am a big fan of american cheese on my sandwichs and burgers... AND my favorite root beer is served there. Perfection in a burger for me.

Seafood battle! Haven't even visited my fish shop yet....

Oh yes! I always my skin crackers from fish as well, love salmon. I think it's really important especially when cooking anything with skin sous vide that you crisp it seperate. Quick little picture of Fenton's Creamery. If you saw the Pixar movie "Up", this is the ice cream shop they were talking about. Then some marin sun short ribs bagged with my beef demi and a scoop of beef fat. Into the water at 132 and I will eat you little guys on Wednesday!