Placebo

I sadly missed the Bourdain dinner due to being fart too broke but got my book signed yesterday. I only just made it to Salumi for the first time last week. Holy moly is Armo's stuff good. the fennel and pepper salami is just phenomenal. I only wish his hours were a bit more reasonable for those of us who have day jobs and such.

I wasn;t eating at home tonight but I will pull out mynabe pot later this week and do up my first nabe of the season. I have some lovely matsutakes that will do nicely in it. Mm... nabe...

Oooh - I will so buy your book. I've been wanting to build a little (like 1-2 litre) still at home for a while and now finally have a bit of work space even.

I just heard about this the other day, actually. I hope his pizza is more robust than his coffee.

I would go were I not far far far too broke-ass. I'll chock this one up as being a sacrifice for my art. Or something.

Tasty.

I've been to Pan Africa once and found it underwhelming, I will likely go again, though since I work all of a block away.

I was unimpressed with annapurna the first tikeI went but it's seemd to have gotten better and the menu appears to have expaneded each time I've gone. Also, their chai reminds me the most of the chai I had in India.

The Cottage Inn in Cle Elum has excellent pies. From my friend's blog, mentioning an evening we stopped there after going out to see a meteor shower:

Yes, the subtitles are half the fun. It's not like the Legend of Zu where there are big blocks of key plot narration that they don't bother to translate, presumably because they figure that us round-eyes will not grok the Daoist reincarnation philosophy that it appears to be getting into. But I digress. I hear there'sa another God of Cookery -like movie as well though the name now escapes me. My introduction to God of Cookery came immediately after I was introduced to Iron Chef via a tied battle and half-hour tie-breaker overtime match. What a night.

I've never really been much of a seasonal cook until this last year. Now that I work at a farmer's market and do probably 95% of my shopping there my cooking tends to be more seasonal just because the stuff that's in season is what's most readily available and with hald a dozen different stands carrying much overlapping product I've stared to be much more aware of the details of freshness in the products. Granted a lot of the stuff comes up from caslifornia so it's not all what's locally in season but the selection is still much more seasonal than what I'd find at the stupidmarket.

Clearly you need to see the movie God of Cookery. It's a sort of Iron Chef meets Kung Fu movie. Gorgeous and very funny.

The matsutakes are out in force now. Yesterday Kurt the sunday mushroom guy at pike place had his first round of Oregon black truffles. He's hoping to have them up nearly through the end of the year. He also still had chanterelles, gorgeous matsutakes and some of the nicest black trumpets I've ever seen. No infestations in the ones I got from him - really firm lovely mushrooms. Mine became ravioli filling along with leeks, shallots and year-old gorgonzola. Some of the other stalls buy their mushrooms from Kurt as well and he's a really swell guy and knows his fungi.

I work at a farmer's market so most of my shopping is done day by day as I need things. There are some things I get on specific days when I know specific vendors will be there. On summer Organic Wednesdays I'd get my Japanese produce from a Japanese farmer and a lot of my leafy greens for the week. Sundays I get most of my mushrooms (today this consisted of a nice little knob of oregon black truffle - last week it was a pound and a half of chanterelles) and super-fresh shallots. Everything else is pretty much as I need it.

Last night was chanterelles sauteed inoilive oil with walnuts and balsamic and fig vinegars and then tossed with fresh spinach and year-old gorgonzola. On the side was half a small squash baked with butter and then drizzled with maple syrup.

I pulled out one of our regular turkey and cheese sammiches and slathered some nice stone-ground dijon mustard on the bread. Took a few slices of pancetta, seared them in the pannini grill for maybe 20 seconds, packed them into the sammich and then cooked it up in the grill. Along with the lovely addition of the pancetta's flavor was that the fat from it still on the grill made the bread all the more crispy on the outside.

Wow- I lived in Teaneck a bar mitzvah ago - haven't heard these names in a while. Kosher mozz should be pretty easy. Chymosin, which is the active enzyme in calf rennet, can be gotten, as stated, from bacterial sources and I know that some has a hechsher because the brand we use at work is certified (as are our starter cultures). I think the stuff is more and more common these days as it makes it easier to make cheese qualify as vegetarian. Mozz should be worked very very minimally to get the right texture. Even the word "worked" probably overstates the amount of stretching that should happen. I've made batches of mozz at work that would have been kosher if we'd had the right sort of certified person standing there watching us make it.

I made the vadas from mix (I forget which brand - not MTR - it came in a white pouch) . I have a recipe to make them from scratch but I was feeling lazy.

Rasam vada - my first stab at making it even. The rasam is a pepper rasam because it has a lot of coursely-crushed black pepper in it. The vadai are from a mix alas but I was feeling lazy today. I tosse dsome extra chilis into the rasam as I like mine fiery-hot.

A good friend of mine made kangaroo a few monthys back and said it was great.

I've seen them at Central Market as well, packed up in the meat section. You can also call ahead to their butcher counter to see if they have any or to reserve some. makes me miss having a car.

A friend of mine will be opening up a little cheese shop on Lake Washington in Leschi in just over a month. i'll post details when she's nearly ready to open.

I've been to the Roxy's by Pike Place and it's pretty poor. Granted, I have the bias of being a NY Jewboy at heart, but Roxy's was just plain weak.

Ravioli made on the spot and stuffed with fresh porcinis, handmade year-old gorgonzola (made by my boss), shallots and leeks, served in sage-leek butter, Mmm...

I can't stand Cedar's. I think they suffer from the same problem as Chutney's and very nearly every other Indian place I've eaten here. Plain flavors and too sweet - dumbed down. I also find it frustrating thedegree to which the staff tends to be in my face - I don't feel like I can have a decent conversation when they are all over us to the point where I'd expect them to actually catch my fork before it hit the ground, should I knock it from the table. I need to try their Lebanese food still, though. I love the Chai at Annapurna - the little Nepali place on Broadway. Reminds me the most of the chai I had in India. I would like to find a place that makes (or has someone who could teach me to make) tungba. The owner of Himalayan SHerpa was threatening to make some a few years agoi but the last I'd heard was that American millet didn't seem to work right. Additionally I can only imagine what sorts of ugly there would be what with the crazy state liqour laws.