Monthly Archives: August 2009

A Fuzzy Predicament

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Pam's peaches.

When it comes to just-picked peaches, my friend Pam shares a predicament with a few of my other gal pals.

Pam is the creator of ProjectFoodie, an online site that allows you to create a personal recipe box from a wealth of offerings from magazines, newspapers, and cookbooks (Full disclosure: I’m one of her advisors.)

She likes peaches. She just isn’t keen on their fuzzy exterior. Something about their subtle furry covering gives her the heebie jeebies. Even washing the peaches, which usually flattens and masks most of their down, just won’t do it for her.

Which is a real shame when you realize she has a most prolific peach tree in her yard, one that gifts her with about 45 pounds of plump, juicy, yellow peaches each summer.

So Pam usually ends up baking cakes with them, turning them into chutney, and giving quite a few to friends such as yours truly.

I’m no fiend about fuzz, so I happily eat her peaches out of hand, savoring their incredible flavor that’s much more intense than so many others I’ve bought at the farmers’ markets this year. Peaches are my favorite summer fruit, and I can never get enough of them.

I would have gladly noshed on all her peaches like that. But when she heard that I found an interesting recipe for a peach cake in “Rustic Fruit Desserts” (Ten Speed Press), she perked up.

What’s that? Another fuzz-free treat? She was all ears.

Peach ''tea cake.''

The recipe, by Portland, Ore. culinary professionals, Cory Schreiber and Julie Richardson, is actually called, “Stone Fruit Tea Cake,” because you can use any type of stone fruit you like.

Although I usually picture tea cakes as loaf-shaped, this one is baked in a tart pan or cake pan. It ends up looking very much like a tart, though its texture is all tender cake-like.

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Coffee That Aims to Brew World Change

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Coffee that could help better the lives of women in Zimbabwe.

Who knew a cup of Joe could hold the promise of bettering the lives of women in one of the most impoverished countries in the world?

But that’s what San Rafael-based Equator Coffees’ new “Chido’s Blend” aims to do.

The coffee, a blend of three African beans, is named for Chido Govero, a 23-year-old woman from Zimbabwe, who was relegated to an orphanage after her mother died of AIDS. At age 12, this bright, young girl was discovered by a scientist with the ZERI Foundation, an organization dedicated to using science to come up with sustainable solutions to world problems. The scientist helped mentor Govero, teaching her how to analyze tissue cultures of local, wild mushrooms.

Govero and her colleagues at the university discovered that these incredibly nutritious mushrooms might hold the key to helping stricken communities better feed themselves. Zimbabwe, a landlocked African nation the size of Montana, has been plundered by a controversial land redistribution campaign that has crippled domestic food production. A quarter of the population suffers from AIDS. The country also has more orphans per capita than any nation in the world. Girls, especially, face significant dangers in this climate of scarcity.

Who knew a bag of coffee could hold such promise?

Now, Govero is teaching girls to find native mushrooms in their local areas, and to cultivate them for food and income. In this way, she hopes to give them jobs and a brighter future.

The mushrooms are cultivated using mulch composed of discarded organic materials, including husks from coffee beans. The mushrooms also provide more than food for humans. Their spores transform mulch into fiber-rich feed, which can be fed to goats and other livestock. In turn, the animal manure is composted for raising additional crops. Additionally, the mulch prevents emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, by utilizing the agriculture waste from coffee production. The end result is a remarkable ecosystem.

You may be familiar with Equator Coffees because they are served at the French Laundry, Bouchon Bistro, and Bouchon Bakery. What you might not know is that it’s also a woman-owned company known for its commitment to social responsibility.

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Fabulous Fish, Tribute to Pork, Julia Child Celebration, and More

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Wild Nunavat artic char. (Photo courtesy of Nunavut Development Corporation/Shannon George Photography)

The season is nearing its end for this year’s catch of wild Nunavut artic char. But you can experience this rich, complex tasting fish at a special dinner at Waterbar in San Francisco on Aug. 31.

The fish comes from Nunavut, Canada, near the Artic Circle. As you can imagine, the waters there are as pristine as can be, resulting in fish of incomparable quality.

For generations, the Inuit community there has caught the fish using traditional methods. To support the fishing community there, high-end restaurants across the country have started serving the fish. They include Daniel, Per Se, and Le Berndardin, all in New York.

Waterbar’s three-course dinner is $125 per person. It will feature the fish in spicy spring rolls, hot smoked over cedar, and baked with Pinot Noir gastrique.

To commemorate the late-Julia Child’s birthday on Aug. 20, Kepler’s book store in Menlo Park will host an open house, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m..

Champagne and cake will be served. All cookbooks also will be on sale for 20 percent off, and prizes will be raffled off.

To honor Julia’s birthday and the opening of the flick, “Julie & Julia,” the Grand Cafe in San Francisco will serve one of her iconic dishes, Beouf Bourguignon for half off during the month of August.

The special price of $13.50 is available at lunch or dinner. Just show your theater ticket stub to get the discounted price.

If you’re in an especially porky mood, you’ll want to head to Nob Hill Grille in San Francisco, Aug. 25 and Aug. 26, for a “Tribute to Pork.”

The four-course dinner is $40 per person. Wine pairings are an additional $15.

Dishes will include crispy braised pork belly with oyster mushroom risotto; and suckling pig roasted with rosemary, fresh lavender, and pork reduction.

The inaugural San Francisco Street Food Festival is coming up Aug. 22. Folsom Street, between 25th and 26th streets, will be transformed into a cornucopia of street food vendors offering specialties, none of which will be priced higher than $10.

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A Once-A-Week Restaurant Named Saison

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Saison's slow-cooked egg with caviar.

The definition of “restaurant” is changing in these challenging times.

You’ll find more and more chefs branching out to cook one or two nights a week at tucked-away, re-purposed, rented venues — a more economical, and less risky move these days than contemplating the debut of a full-scale establishment all on their own.

That’s just what Executive Chef Joshua Skenes is doing at his Saison restaurant in San Francisco. The tiny, 25-seat space is open only on Sundays for two dinner seatings, but is expected to add Saturday dinner service in another month or so.

Chef Joshua Skenes.

It opened in July in a historic stable next to the Stable Cafe. The cafe is not open on Sundays, but rents out its rear dining room for special events. Skenes had already been renting the cafe’s kitchen to prep his gourmet sandwich cart, Carte415, which he operates 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. weekdays inside the lobby of 101 Second St. in San Francisco. The cart features a different sandwich, salad, soup, Greek yogurt parfait, and housemade beverage daily. It’s Skenes’ answer to a fresh, healthful, good-tasting lunch on the go.

Since he was borrowing the cafe’s kitchen regularly, it wasn’t long before he got the idea of operating a restaurant there on weekends. He opened Saison with friend, Mark Bright, a notable wine consultant who at age 21 joined the sommelier team at Bellagio in Las Vegas and began working the floor at Aqua restaurant there.

I first met Skenes seven years ago. The then 23-year-old was chef of Chez TJ in downtown Mountain View, where he was turning out spectacularly elegant, big-city dishes in a charming, yet far from cosmopolitan, setting just doors away from a brew pub. I still remember being astounded by a prix-fixe course of sashimi, cut like tiny jewels, and served with aged Japanese soy sauce. To say I was blown away by that meal is an understatement.

So I was not the least surprised to hear shortly thereafter that celebrated Chef Michael Mina had made the trip all the way from San Francisco to dine at Chez TJ. He was so floored by his meal that he whisked Skenes away to open Mina’s Stonehill Tavern at the St. Regis Resort in Monarch Bay in 2005.

Hearing that Skenes was back in the Bay Area, my husband and I decided to splurge on dinner at Saison a few weeks ago. Reservations are taken one month in advance to the day. You pay in advance through PayPal. The four-course dinner is $70 per person, and $40 more for wine pairings. An automatic 18 percent gratuity is added. Bright is very generous with the wine, too, coming back to refill glasses that are emptied.

Glasses of bubbly await your arrival at Saison.

You enter the restaurant through two massive stable doors that take you down a long driveway.

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Remembering Julia Child

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Juicy, sweet, and jammy.

With long-awaited arrival of “Julie & Julia” in theaters this month, foodies can’t help but remember the one and only Julia Child, who inspired legions to cook with confidence and daring-do in their own kitchens.

I haven’t had the pleasure yet of seeing the movie, though I was fortunate to get a quick peek at a preview clip at this year’s James Beard Awards Gala in New York. Of course, it only left me hungry for more. As a long-time food writer, I had the pleasure of interviewing Julia a number of times. She was always gracious and charming. It was a true pleasure to interact with her in any shape or form. That familiar lilting, bird-like voice never ceased to make me smile every time I heard it.

I still have a couple of menus, souvenirs from lunches and dinners hosted in her honor. There’s the one from her 90th birthday party at the Fifth Floor in San Francisco, when illustrious chefs Laurent Gras and Ron Siegel cooked dishes such as “Corn Vichyssoise with Caviar” and “Duck A La Julia Child” to commemorate the grand occasion.

Remembering a lunch from years ago that honored Julia.

There’s another menu from a lunch in 2000 to debut her cookbook with Jacques Pepin, “Julia and Jacques Cooking At Home” (Alfred A. Knopf). The three-course lunch was made up of dishes from the book, including “Avocado and Grapefruit Salad with Belgian Endive, Frisee, Toasted Hazelnuts, and Champagne Vinaigrette.”

I started leafing through that book, only to realize I had forgotten that both Julia and Jacques had signed the inside page. Her signature was clear and straightforward, much like the woman, herself.

The book, signed by Jacques and Julia.

I turned on my oven, and set about making her “Provencal Tomatoes,” the traditional French accompaniment of roasted tomatoes stuffed with herbs and bread crumbs — a true classic just like Julia was.

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