A Tomales Bay Birthday Oystravaganza

When your loving lover has a birthday you want to make it as nice and fun and different and special as possible. When the camping trip we'd been trying to get together didn't work out, we went to Plan B, going to the farm at the Hog Island Oyster Company. We'd been thinking about also getting a bouncy castle or bouncy Twister game (inflated and everything) for the occasion, but ended up deciding that "bouncy" and "oysters" shouldn't go in the same sentence, much less in the same day.

A group of dear friends made the trek up to the Tomales Bay Oyster Company in Marshall. Although we weren't able to get a table there it was a blessing in disguise. Instead, we purchased 112 oysters and 20 clams, put them in bags full of ice, and took our party down the road to a secluded picnic table and grill overlooking a beach, which turned out to be much nicer.

Those friends initially timid of oysters came to embrace the pleasure of shucking and eating the fresh seafood, both raw and on the grill, much as I did on my first experience eating oysters straight from the sea farm.

The picnickers: Thrill, Rosie, Reid, me, Ross, Lindsay, Shannon and Johnny D.

Rosie brought an awesome Polaroid camera which captured the event in sweet style. You can see one of the photos here, at the Cabinet Shop blog.

Reid momentarily disappears in order to get the fire going.

Rosie eats a sausage.

Shannon and Johnny D.

This is your grill...

This is your grill a couple hours later, drunkity drunk drunk.

We ate all the oysters and most of the food we brought, and what we didn't get to the ravens took care of while we were away drunkenly frolicking on the beach.

The birthday boy. This photo is a visual metaphor for the events that next transpired, but ironically the beer was the only thing that the ravens didn't get to.

Johnny D.

Ross teasing Lindsay.

Lindsay's a happy girl in the sunshine.

Rosie and Shannon hanging out on the beach.

Brothers, Reid and Ross, wondering what happens next.

This was my second oyster picnic, (the first was our anniversary last year) and I think I'm starting to get a hang of what to bring to go with the oysters and make it a successful picnic.

List of what to bring:

• Crisp white wine
• Beer
• Lemons and Limes
• Hot Sauces (Tabasco and Tapatillo are my favorites)
• Worcestershire Sauce
• Red Wine Vinegar
• Chopped Shallots
• Salt and Pepper
• Brown bread
• Daddy Mack's Butter (see below)
• Pie
• Potato and Onion grill packets (if it's cold, it gives you something warm to eat. Chestnuts to roast were also good for that last time).
• Charcoal
• A Kitchen Towel and Shucking Knife

Both times I've made Daddy Mack's Oysters, a recipe from Allrecipes.com, which involves making a roll of seasoned butter in advance and putting a little slice of it on the oysters as they grill. It's been a big hit both times, for the oysters and for spreading on slices of bread. The birds seemed to really like it, too. It was all gone when we came back to the picnic table from the beach.

Mignonettes good for raw oysters:

• Minced shallots and red wine vinegar
• Lemon juice and Tabasco
• Lime juice and Tapatillo sauce
• Lime juice and black pepper

Toppings good for grilling oysters (don't shuck them first, grill til they open, then shuck and add seasonings):

• Daddy Mack's Butter
• Lemon juice, Worcestershire, Tabasco, salt
• Lime juice and black pepper.
  

But there are endless possibilities!

The day was a lot of fun and when it started to get later and drunker, we took our satiated and happy selves home.

A Healthy Bite

Like many meat-eaters, I have a baseless aversion to tofu, but this dish is surprisingly tasty and I've made it again and again.

Slice up firm tofu, sprinkle with chopped chives, and drizzle soy sauce on top.

Mini Pies!

Lately I've been obsessed with mini-pastries. I'm not sure why. I don't have a desire to eat them, just look at them.

They're so damn cute!

Check out Not Martha's Guide to Making Mini Pies, especially the tiny lattice she made, and the mini pie montage at the top of this link for the Mini Pie Revolution Round-Up.

Funnily, Whole Foods also carries mini pastries at $18 per lb.
The fruit slices in these pictures give reference for their size.



I haven't tried making them myself yet because I think I just like looking at them!

A Dinner Party with Vietnamese Salmon

Last night my step-mom and dad came to see my place in North Beach and have dinner. They're bigger foodies than me and I wanted to make sure I made something tasty that I also couldn't mess up too badly. Plus, my dad showed up in a suit (he came from work, but still. If your dad shows up to dinner at your house wearing a suit, you better have something nice to serve him that you can make under pressure!)

One of my old fallbacks is a recipe from the SF Chronicle from a couple years ago, before salmon became as scarce as they are this season. This is such a great dish though, that I had to make it.

The recipe for seared salmon with spicy mango sauce was provided by Ana Mandara, a Vietnamese fusion restaurant in the city. I follow the recipe exactly (except for the amount of time it cooks. My pan must have never gotten that hot so I've always had to cook it a bit longer than 2 minutes per side).

One note--fish sauce smells not so nice out of the bottle but added to the sauce it makes a comforting, savory smell and taste. Don't omit it! The mango sauce on its own is delicious, and it's a perfect complement to the salmon.

Adding the sauce to the fillets

I added jasmine rice and a seaweed/kale deli salad from Whole Foods, plus fresh berries drizzled with a little meyer lemon syrup for dessert (Reid says he's never heard me talk more about any food than meyer lemons. I say for good reason, they're amazing!).

We all had a good time, and talk turned to our next meal together for the first night of Passover, this weekend.



I have to say, I've never cooked for my parents before but it's a very satisfying feeling to cook for your family and provide them with nourishing and tasty food.

Happy eater

Sunshine in a Bottle

The summery weather this past weekend has gotten me thinking about foods for warmer weather.

One fun and easy thing I like to make is Meyer lemon syrup.

I love Meyer lemons. A cross between a tangerine and a lemon, they're not too tart or too sweet. They have an amazing, perfume-like scent. For me, even if they aren't the fruit that symbolizes summer, they're summer in a fruit.

Here's the recipe, adapted from this one on Epicurious.

2 cups fresh meyer lemon juice
2 cups sugar
1 cup water

Combine and bring to a boil.
When boiling point has been reached, remove from heat and let cool, then bottle how you please.

I like all the little bottles they have at Cost Plus to give the syrup as gifts.
The labels in the picture are stickers from Chronicle Books, hole-punched and tied with raffia for extra Martha credit.

A little Meyer lemon syrup and plain soda is guaranteed to make you think of summer and put a smile on your face.

And if that doesn't work, add a little vodka!

Other uses are as a marinade on meats or fish, or you can drizzle over yogurt or hard cheeses, or fruit or cakes.

The syrup lasts, refrigerated, for about a week.

France-Inspired Food for Springtime

I'm feeling another round of cooking coming on.

There are a few meals I ate in France at restaurants and people's houses that have been impossible to find here in the US so lately I've been trying to make them here, or at least food inspired by them.

#1 French Meal--Sausages with Lentils
This is the most simple, and a standard restaurant dish, but somehow I haven't quite gotten it yet. I don't remember all the elements of this dish except that the lentils were saucy and had lardons in them (thick chopped bacon).
This is a really quick-to-make meal. Trader Joe's is carrying pre-cooked and seasoned lentils that are amazing, firm and tasty. So, all you have to do is grill the sausages and serve with the lentils, which can be Frenchly yummified if you chop up a slice or two of bacon, cook that in the pan, and add the lentils to heat without draining off the bacon fat.
It's basically fancy French franks-n-beans.

#2 French version of Moroccan Dish--Lamb and Vegetable Stew with Couscous
This one's complicated. You know how Chinese food and Indian food in America are really Americanized versions of those cuisines (more cream, more fried)? I have a theory that Moroccan food in France (which was ubiquitous) is really a Frenchified version, because I haven't seen this dish anywhere (actually, there aren't that many Moroccan restaurants to begin with). I watched a Moroccan-born French woman prepare part of this and all I really took away was that she used a huge pot to cook the stew that had a steamer in the top for the couscous. And there was a lot of butter in the couscous. I remember that.

Personally, I hate couscous salad. I think it's gross. It's cold, greasy, and way too herby. But warm buttery couscous as a side dish for an earthy meat like lamb is amazing, especially if the meat is juicy and it can soak up some of that.

I have no idea how to make the stew, so I made lamb patties instead with a recipe taken from Food and Wine.
Chopped jalapeno, mint, and green onion mix up the burger. I didn't make the yogurt sauce (I'm simple, I served plain yogurt on the side) but if I was doing it again, I would. Don't overcook the lamb, it should really be pink.

#3 French side dish--Mache salad
The simplest of simple. Mache is an heirloom lettuce that I am SO glad to find in California. I'd never seen it before when I went to France and it was everywhere. I couldn't figure out what it was. They are tiny little leaves with the roots usually still partly on (more like tiny plants). It has a very delicate nutty flavor and all you have to do is drizzle some olive oil and sprinkle a little sea salt on top, then serve. If you want to California-fy it, add a couple slices of avocado.
Yum.

Foodie

I am obsessed with food. It probably occupies my mind 80% of the time.
I'm even more obsessed now that I've actually started going to the gym again and "live to eat" has also become "eat to live" or maybe it's just given more legitimacy to my "live to eat" philosophy... hmmm.

I'm sure my location in San Francisco has an influence on it. It definitely isn't from my parents, neither of whom have been much of foodies except maybe until recently; my dad very picky and drawn to the best new restaurants in the city, my mom practically dancing with Asian food happiness when she visits the bay area.

San Francisco is all about food. Restaurants are destinations and entertainment. New restaurants are a circus and a goal.

I have a dire need to find new restaurants, try new places, amuse my taste buds with new flavors and sensations.

I obsess about certain foods or ingredients at different times. I have a need to always try new things, new flavors, new foods. Reid asked me why I can't just buy regular orange juice, when he opened my refrigerator to find passionfruit nectar instead. I responded that if I died today, would I rather have had orange juice or something more interesting? The answer is always something interesting and new. After drinking the juice he said it reminded him of Hawaii. Everybody wins.

He also teases me for pointing out every boulange and restaurant owned by Pascal Rigo around the city. Charmingly designed, colorful, and with impeccable simple french pastries and sandwiches, I could visit over and over again and am always impressed by the quality of their bread, croissants, and abundance of cornichons and other condiments readily available.

There's a Chronicle food writer that I adore that echoes my foodie feelings in each column: Marlena Spieler, foodie, cook, writer, and world traveler. Her recipes are generally simple with rich ingredients and satisfying tastes. I hate radishes, but after a class with her I learned that you can cut a radish in half, put a dab of butter, a little salt, and some chives on top and it's a crunchy and delightful amuse bouche. She also puts truffle oil into everything, which I love.

Epicurious is one of those sites that I visit constantly to find recipes for certain ingredients or just browse. This pasta carbonara recipe is amazing. On AllRecipes.com I found this the recipe for "Daddy Mack's Oysters" which I used last year while bbqing at the Hog Island Oyster company.

Another foodie site is Chowhound, mostly just an online bulletin board for people to share their restaurant experiences. I'm trying to use it for my upcoming trip to Sweden. No results yet, but I have enjoyed the fruits of these boards before, for some amazing and unexpected restaurant experiences when I lived in Paris. It can get a bit inundated and convoluted, but here you can find unusual places off the beaten path and the holes in the wall with the best food.

My most recent obsessions:
Since moving to North Beach, the search for the best Italian pastries (so far a little store on Columbus off Green with all the goodies on display in the window) and the best pizza (so far North Beach pizza wins although I'd really prefer them not to as they are not very nice and don't sell pizza by the slice).

I've also been searching for a particular kind of ham that I had in a tea-style sandwich in Venice (I told you I am obsessed). It was served thinly sliced on crustless white bread with marinated artichokes and mayonnaise. Accompanied by a spritz (campari and prosecco cocktail) it made a perfect lunch or afternoon treat. If I could find that ham I'm sure those little sandwiches would be my favorite comfort food.  

But
I
haven't
found
that
ham
yet.

All I remember is that it was called "ham" in Italian. The Italian deli owner told me there are about 600 types of ham in Italy. Not very helpful. I think I've narrowed it down to Parma ham.

I haven't been too adventurous in the adjacent Chinatown neighborhood yet since I have my old standbys which are the sticks against which all other Chinese restaurants will be measured (Hunan Homes and Yank Sing for dim sum). I do pass one hole-in-the-wall restaurant every day though that looks basic with linoleum tables and floors, but is always filled to the brim with people and has succulent food displayed in the window at all times (including a row of roasted ducks hanging by their necks). It's called Yee's Restaurantand has some pretty good reviews on Yelp (check out the photo of the ducks).

My most recent obsession is something I tried for the first time last week and is seriously stuck in my head. They're these coconut cocktail buns from a Hawaiian cafe on Stockton near Clay (not sure of the name). Very sweet and doughy, a little salty, a lot tasty. I'm looking forward to the next one.

I'm always looking forward to the next meal or the next interesting food experience.  I'm very excited about trying the new restaurant Orson which was just opened by the people from Citizen Cake (they might have an obsession, too, or maybe two obessions) and has quite an experimental menu.

A big pot of chili

It's raining again. Time for some hearty foods to warm the belly.

I made Texas-style chili (no beans, no tomatoes) on Monday and ate it last night with friends accompanied by rice, cornbread, and banana pudding. The chili ended up being pretty mild so we doctored it with hot sauce and jalapenos. We stuffed ourselves silly.

Here's the recipe: Texas Style Chili
I made it with beer instead of water, regular chili powder, and added cayenne but it still ended up not being hot enough. It was pretty tasty though and warmed us up after walking in the rain.

Did I mention that I have smelled like chili for the last two days? My apartment will probably retain the scent for a week.

Creepy Bread-Making Place

The area around my house always smells like baking bread at night because of the bread company down the street.

They work by night in a creepy building, adding a noir edge to the comforting scent of baking loaves.