tanabutler

Jay Rayner, of the London Observer, on restaurant trends for 2005: Scroll down to #7 for the rest. Very nice and well-considered.

I got two words for you: Cuban and sandwich.

Funny, your spinach must have gone to my house, because (inspired by this thread) I made a lentil soup that included wilted spinach in the bottom of the big wooden bowls. Maggie, thanks for the inspiration. Soup blogs for all!

Inspired by Maggiethecat's soup thread, as well as the chilly (for us!) weather, I made a lentil soup with garlic, onions, bay leaves, cayenne pepper, tomatoes, new potatoes, and lemon (in really good chicken stock). Wilted into the soup (which I puréed partially) went fresh spinach leaves. Served with hot francese bread and butter in wooden bowls. It hit my winter spot perfectly. Lentils are so friendly.

Soup, soup, beautiful soup! Maggie, I've set a few of my favorite soup recipes into HTML and posted them (modifed and with suggestions) here: Oyster Chowder (from The NY Times cookbook) (probably the easiest soup recipe I have) Green Bean Soup with Basil Butter (from Tassajara cookbook) -- a family favorite. Roasted Corn Soup with Smoked Chile Cream (Bobby Flay's Bold American Food)--make that in the summertime with fresh corn--God, it's fantastic! Indian Tomato Soup with Coconut (from Molly Katzen's Still Life with Menu Cookbook)--another insanely flavorful and simple recipe. And a couple of others (asparagus, and carrot-cashew). Also, from the Greens cookbook, Tuscan White Bean Soup with Rosemary Croutons is wonderful in winter.

More delicious than photogenic was last night's dinner of fresh linguine with Dungeness crab, shiitake mushrooms, red bell peppers, saffron, clam juice and parsley. So no pictures: let your imaginations run wild!

We had a wonderful breakfast at Bouchon in October. The preserves are simply the best I've ever had. Hubby had waffles, I opted for the corned beef hash. Highly recommended.

Glad to hear it, Ravum. Very glad you enjoyed yourselves at Lotus of Siam.

Among other things, Gene Lester grows (or did grow, or has grown) twelve kinds of tangerines. I was not aware that there were twelve kinds of tangerines. He also grows (among other things: pomelo, orangelo, limequat, yuzu, kaffir lime, sudachi, mandarin, and ginger lime. (Greg is great: a very talented jewelry designer and a wonderful help consulting on the web site.)

Squeat Mungry posted.

I know those words are English, but they make no sense to me at all.

I bagged the recipe for Hog Wash from their web site, and altered it to produce what I think is the best oyster stuff I've ever had. I dropped the shallots, and use only rice vinegar (seasoned and plain, or just plain), fresh lime juice, jalapeños (and a little of the brine), and cilantro. Tang! Bang! Thank you, ma'am!

We don't have seafood restaurants here as much as we have restaurants that do seafood well. I had a terrific scallop last night at Manresa-but I also had steak and a pork terrine. I could have had a whole meal of seafood if I'd wanted it. ← That's a really good way to put it, Marie-Louise, "restaurants that do seafood well."David Kinch really does amazing things with seafood. If you're making the trek for fantastic food, put Manresa on your list, japanesegeek. The regular menu right now has five seafood courses on it, and I am sure Chef could produce more if you so desired. Manresa web site: the menus are PDFs.

Hog Island Oyster Company at the Ferry Plaza market is a lovely way to spend lunch. Get oysters and wine, and watch the boats come and go. Even if the weather's bad, the view is great. And the oysters are just fantastic.

That's what Mongo linked, way upthread, with a bit of commentary (in his inimitable way).

Found online: Sacramento Bee's article with recipes Here is an older article, but a darned good read from Robert Rich (Mountain View newspaper).

I am delighted to see The Waterboy on that list. A friend of mine, a woman chef who comes to lots of the farm dinners I've photographed, works there. I've never been, but maybe one day...

Had me going.................Until you said, Dried! ← Jinmyo, can I send you some fresh rosemary? I've got a plant as big as a lineman next to my deck. Ha ha ha. Well, this was during an April when we were using up the last of the herbs dried from the garden the previous autumn. In any case, I often used dried herbs at the beginning of cooking and fresh herbs a bit before serving to get both a deep and a fresh flavour. ← Jinmyo, can I send you some fresh rosemary from my plant? I've got a rosemary plant as big as an NFL lineman next to the house.

Thanks for the explanation, Jason. Much appreciated. (My imagination is way, way too strong.) Hundreds of Americans missing in Asia: by BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer.

Yes, that's exactly it. It was under the 805/I-8 interchange and it was a Lehr's Greenhouse. My oldest brother had a friend who worked in the Greenhouse kitchens during that time. It was, and still is, a very odd place to put a restaurant. Today it is Todai's, a japanese seafood buffet. edited to add that if you click on the link, there's a picture of Todai's entrance with the 805 freeway bridge (which spans the width of Mission Valley) looming very large in the background. ← It's all coming back to me now. NOW I REMEMBER! Well, it was the Eighties after all.

I thought this was the worst natural disaster in my lifetime, but there was a typhoon in Bangladesh on my birthday in 1991 that killed nearly 140,000 people. Natural disasters According to this chart, there was a flood in China when I was two months old that killed two million people. In my lifetime (from the first link): • China, 1960: Famine (20 million dead) • North Peru, 1970: 7.8 earthquake (66,000 dead) • Bangladesh, 1970: Sea flood (200,000 dead) • Vietnam, 1971: Red River flood (100,000 dead) • Ethiopia, 1974: famine (200,000 dead) • Tangshan, China, 1976: 8.0 earthquake (255,000 dead) • Ethiopia, 1984: Famine (900,000 dead) • Armenia, 1988: earthquake (55,000 dead) • North Korea, 1995-98: Famine and floods (3.5 million dead) Famines, floods, and droughts are the biggest killers, into the millions and millions. I think part of the nature of the horror of this tsunami is twofold. First, it's so immediate, due to the pervasiveness of the media. Travelers everywhere are miniature broadcast centers, with cell phones and digital cameras, stationed all over the world. Many of these other locations are not tourist destinations, and are not swarming with such well-equipped, well-heeled people. Second, the thought of 500-mph walls of water that swat thousands of miles of coastlines covered in sunbathers and children, fishermen and villagers…these are very visceral images, and I am sure I am not alone in being sickened, in heart and mind, at their impact. My daughter gave me some money (a day's pay) to send to India...she asked how I knew the agency would be reputable. I endorsed you to her, Mongo: you are a good ambassador for India. I am also going to give some money to Sri Lanka, as I have a friend from there, and (food related) I have a number of boxes of tea from there, and it's the best tea I've ever had.

I wouldn't even call it a restaurant at Ferry Building--isn't it just a little counter with stools? But if you want an extremely tasty sandwich to go, theirs are good eating, for take-out. Walking for lunch; we'll go somewhere else for dinner, since I've got a car. Well, the chef is a friend of mine, and I'm a little prejudiced, though I'm sure Bizou is worth a visit. Marc Raisic made chicken at a dinner in a fig orchard that I photographed/attended, and it was without question the best chicken I've ever had in my life. I've been wanting to dine at his place since then (he was with La Table at the time, and moved to Fringale a while after that dinner). I think very highly of him as a chef and as a person. I would like to try Bizou, as well. I love their website--I even pointed it out to Rancho Gordo, an eG friend who's also a web designer and foodie like I am. I was very impressed by the things Loretta Keller has said about food (on the Bizou site, and elsewhere). I Googled her a few days after I saw the site for the first time. "Keller" sure seems to be a good name for a chef, eh? No, I'm killing two ortolans with one stone: I am coming to the Fancy Foods Show, and it's at Moscone. Hence the need for hoofable lunch. Mmmmm, squid. Mmmmm, braising. Four Seasons is a little stodgier than I want to do for lunch with friends. Too dressy. Campton Place is appealing, as there were recent discussions of its merits here. I am considering it as a dinner option soon. Nah, I don't need a Whole Foods. I live in Santa Cruz: we've got New Leaf, Staff of Life, DeLuxe Foods, and Shopper's Corner. And two farmers markets a week, this time of year. (Only four more months until my other two regular markets re-open, woo hoo!) Thanks for the tips.

I very VERY much enjoyed Habana Cuba. The LECHON A LA CUBANA is perfect. Just think. Let me give you a single warning. Do not order a cocktail. Do not order anything but wine or beer. They don't have a liquor license, and substitute a blend of particularly sour Korean jockstraps and redolent Japanese gym socks (some kind of Asian "liqueur") for rum or whatever, and the result was honestly one of the worst beverages I've ever tasted. And I mean that the word "beverage" makes me think of melted Jell-O as an offering at one of my sister's so-called "pot luck" Bible parties. (Anyone who thinks this is a religious statement can bite me.) The wine list is surprisingly wide, with many by-the-glass offerings. It's a good, good place. Order a mojito at your own peril.

I have several friends in Vizag (Vishakapatnam) in Andhra Pradesh, on the southeast coast of India. I had been confused about the geography of the region until this morning—seeing a map I realized, with my heart in my throat, that a tsunami had hit that area. One of my friends there is eight months pregnant. Vizag went fairly unscathed. My friends felt the quake at 5:30 AM, came outside for a half an hour, then went back to bed. The tsunami did not damage Vizag badly, and my American friend who lives there came back from his traveling to find his apartment undisturbed and the beach road unsubmerged. I also have a friend whose wife is Sri Lankan. I'm pretty sure her family lives on high ground, but I will not be surprised if she suffers losses, as the family is quite large. I will make a contribution to the fund, Mongo. I'm pretty well broke following Christmas, but I suppose everything will help. I am literally dizzy thinking about the devastation. It's akin to vertigo. I find myself holding onto the arms of my desk chair to stablize. All those children and babies.

There was a Lehr's (or possibly something else) Greenhouse. It was brunch central (Mission Valley, right?), and as cheesy and popular as you'd expect an upscale buffet to be. I worked at the TGIF in Mission Valley from 1980-1983. That's why I can't remember the exact name of the Greenhouse. Maybe it was just The Greenhouse.