Dish on Dining: Wood Tavern

A Year Later, It’s Still a Hot Spot in Oakland
6317 College Ave., Oakland
Outer Rockridge neighborhood
PH: 510.654.6607
Lunch, Mon.–Sat.; dinner nightly from 5:30 p.m.
Reservations, major credit cards accepted
www.woodtavern.net

This is a review that was a year in the making. I’ve tried twice to visit Wood Tavern soon after it opened in my Rockridge neighborhood, but was rebuffed both times. (First it was a Saturday night and they said it was a three-hour wait even though we arrived at 6 p.m.; the second time after arriving at 5:30 p.m. I tried to get a seat at the bar but the host couldn’t tell if a group was going to leave or not nor did she seem to want to find out.)

This is the kind of food frenzy (The Chronicle’s Michael Bauer named Wood Tavern one of the top 10 new restaurants of 2007) that makes me want to not like this place.

But I can’t. I. Love. Wood. Tavern.

A sure sign of its success is that Wood Tavern has completely erased the collective memory of the restaurant that was there before them (it was the popular Asian-fusion Grasshopper).

A couple of weeks ago, Wood Tavern celebrated its one-year anniversary. Opened by Rich and Rebekah Wood (formerly of Frascati in San Francisco), the handsome American Bistro-type spot is consistently busy for lunch and dinner, serving up bold California cuisine from the kitchen of Executive Chef Maximilian DiMare.

Getting dinner reservations for this East Bay hot spot can take up to a month’s lead time. So for my first visit, I decided to squeeze in for lunch on a Saturday.

I was the first to get a spot at the bar when I arrived at 11:45 a.m., but the restaurant quickly filled up while I was there and a few other solo diners joined me at the bar later.

The lunch menu is a condensed version of what I saw of the dinner menu on the restaurant’s Web site, plus they added a section of sandwiches. I decided to start with the Tavern Onion Soup ($9) and chose the Day Boat Scallop Salad ($17) as my main.

The soup was a rich broth that was covered with a cheesy layer of Swiss and Parmesan. It was substantial, probably because it contained braised pork pieces. Although the pork gave the soup a rich dimension, I thought it was an odd take on the classic French onion soup because the pork flavor really overpowered the sweetness of the onions. Still, it was tasty and I ate it all.

When my scallop salad arrived, it was this huge and beautifully designed plate of seared scallops, spinach, frisee, bacon bits and bread crumbs. It was held together by a creamy dressing with swirls of balsamic vinegar. When I took my first bite, the first word that came to my mind was “balance.” All the ingredients contrasted with each other, but in a way that in the end was a perfect harmony of flavors. (The only minor point for me was that my scallops were a bit on the raw side in the center, which is how most restaurants serve them but I like mines a bit more done.)

Buoyed by lunch, I decided to return for dinner on a Tuesday night. Still concerned that it would be hard to get a seat at the bar, even on a weeknight, I arrived soon after the kitchen opened at 5:30 p.m. (I actually walked in at 5:45 p.m. because I didn’t want to be the first one for dinner, but it didn’t matter because there were already two couples at the bar and a couple of tables already perusing the menu.)

I have to say the service at the front has become sharper and more efficient since those first few months after Wood Tavern opened. In those early days, the front staff seemed almost a bit smug about the difficulty getting a table, and they didn’t seem to be bothered that people had to wait nearly three hours. Today, I watched as the host warmly welcomed people and gave good guesses of how long a wait would be or made suggestions about when is the best time to return.

Both the lunch and dinner menu offers a “butcher block” with a variety of house-made meats and paté. But I thought it might be too much to order for myself. So I started with the seasonal Dungeness Crab Lyonnais ($15). A twist on the traditional French lyonnais salad, Chef DiMare served up fresh Dungeness crab meat with frisee, smoked bacon in a Champagne vinaigrette topped with a poached egg. It was a refreshing and light start, with the sweetness of the crab contrasting with the bold flavors of bacon. (Side note: there were some odd white cubes in the salad that I didn’t notice described in the menu. They looked and tasted like tiny potato cubes, but I couldn’t say for sure. I can’t say that they really added to the salad.)

For my entrée, I ordered the Grilled Double Cut Pork Chop ($25), which seems to be a mainstay on the seasonal menu. (Other regulars include the Pan Roasted Half Chicken, Niman Ranch Burger and Maple Leaf Duck Breast.) The menu definitely weighs more on the meat side, with maybe just one fish selection and one pasta dish to round it off.

They weren’t kidding when they said double cut. My pork chop was this beautifully grilled huge chunk of meat, surrounded with fingerling potatoes and pieces of kale. The coloring was perfectly golden, adding to its aroma. (Also adding to the dish was a Manhattan I decided to order. My bartender gave me two options for the whiskey and I left it up to him. He came back with this amber-colored drink that had a beautiful fragrance that totally complemented the aroma of the pork.)

I was amazed at how the pork chop was evenly cooked, despite it being at least two inches thick. I used each piece I cut to soak up the natural juice and Marsala wine sauce that was on my plate.

I wanted the meal to keep on coming so I decided to try the house profiteroles for dessert. The ice cream flavor used to stuff the profiteroles changes often. Tonight it was mint chocolate chip.

The profiteroles, while yummy with high-quality ice cream fillings, were just fine. I wasn’t necessarily wowed by the pastry portions.

Prices at Wood Tavern are on the high end for a so-called neighborhood restaurant (in fact, I saw that the prices went up an average $2 compared to last year’s menu). But it would be money well spent. Wood Tavern continues to generate buzz and has kick-started a dining trend in Oakland that’s making this East Bay city a destination spot for restaurateurs escaping the high costs of doing business in San Francisco.

Hmm, maybe I don’t need to catch BART into the city that often anymore?

Single guy rating: 4.25 stars (Expense it if you can find a business reason in Oakland)

Explanation of the single guy's rating system:
1 star = perfect for college students
2 stars = perfect for new diners
3 stars = perfect for foodies
4 stars = perfect for expense accounts
5 stars = perfect for any guy's dream dinner

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Food Gallery

Today's feature focuses on these incredible carrots. Yes, that's right. Who knew carrots could be so colorful? These are organic carrots I purchased at Whole Foods. But they're not just regular root vegetables, but heirloom carrots. See that purple carrot? That's supposed to be how carrots are supposed to be before people pumped it up with beta carotene and made it all orange. I kind of like this dark, purple-ish carrot. Not only tasty, but oh so photogenic.

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Lazy-Day Chicken

I haven’t been feeling well lately, so that means I’ve also been uninspired in my cooking. I’ve been falling on a lot of the old standbys.

But recently with the cold weather and my added overall laziness, I decided to slow-cook a chicken. Slow-cooking, or braising, is perfect for my current lazy mood because you just prepare the ingredients, put them in a pot and then just forget about it, letting it cook for a nice long time. The braising liquid you create determines the flavor of your meat.

For a recent braise, I decided to try out one of the many spices I got from my sister for Christmas. I smelled this one particular one called Tabil from Tunisia and I loved the smell of coriander. I thought it would be nice for the chicken without overpowering it.

Most people would braise red meat because of all the tenderness that comes from the slow-cooking process. So some of you might not like braising a chicken because chicken really doesn’t take two and a half hours to cook. After awhile, it’s really just stuck in there to absorb the essence of the liquid and because I’m too lazy to fish it out. Some might find the braised chicken a bit stringy, especially the white meat, but I kind of liked the shredded feel of the white meat and the overall softness of the dark meat. Plus you get all that great liquid as a natural sauce.

The only challenge is trying not to bring the chicken out earlier than you should. I loved the smell of the spices cooking with the chicken. It filled my apartment with this wonderful aroma that I ended up getting hungry and wondered if I could really wait. But wait I did and I was rewarded with this tender chicken dish. Enjoy!

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Braised Chicken

Copyright 2008 by Cooking With The Single Guy

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken, cut in half (about 1.5 to 2 lbs.)
3 to 4 carrots, chopped
half a sweet onion, diced
1 fennel bulb, chopped (remove stems and fronds)
2 T Tabil spice blend (see below)
1 bay leaf
2 T flour
½ bottle of white wine
Water as needed
Salt and pepper
Extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cut your chicken in half down the spine and generously season with salt (I use about half a cup), making sure you rub the salt under the skin and inside the cavity. Leave in refrigerator overnight or at least two hours before cooking.

When ready to cook, remove chicken from refrigerator. Warm a Dutch oven over medium high heat with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Then pan-fry the skin side of the chicken to get a nice golden color, about 2 to 3 minutes. You may need to do one half of the chicken at a time. Remove chicken from pot and set aside.

Reheat more oil and then add onions, carrots and fennel. Cook for about 2 minutes and then add flour and spices, just cooking enough to cook off the flour taste (less than a minute). Then deglaze the pan by adding the white wine. Put the chicken parts back in the pan on top of the vegetables, with the skin side up. Add more water if needed to fill the pot so that the liquid level covers the meat of the chicken but not drown it. Add bay leaf and season with about a teaspoon of salt and pepper. Cover and place in oven to cook for 2.5 hours.

When done, the chicken should be falling off the bone when touched with a fork. Place chicken onto plates with some of the cooked vegetables and liquid. Serve with mashed potatoes and your favorite greens.

Makes 6 servings.

Pair with a glass of Riesling.

TIP: The liquid of your braised chicken can be oily because of the chicken skin. So you might want to let your chicken cool a bit and then skim off some oil before drizzling on the chicken. If you’re concerned about getting too much oil, remove the chicken skin before cooking.

TABIL BLEND: Tabil is a blend of spices from Tunisia used in African cooking. If you don’t have a Tabil blend available, you can create it by grinding together garlic cloves, coriander seeds, caraway seeds and cayenne pepper.

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Jamie At Home: Episode 7, Rhubarb

Today Jamie Oliver is working with rhubarb, which is something I haven’t really cooked a lot with. I see it in a lot of English cooking and I always think of pies, but I’ve seen lately people doing more with this interesting vegetable. Jamie says it’s a perennial and brilliant for dessert and savory dishes. They’re also really leafy. He’s like a bobbing head crouching in that field of rhubarb plants in the garden.

First, he makes something he calls “Speedy Rhubarb Fool.” (You can get the complete recipe on the Food Network site.) I’m not really sure what that means. Is he saying it’s so quick and easy any fool can make it? Or is he saying: “This is Speedy Rhubarb, Fool.” LOL. Anywho, Jamie’s basically making a master recipe that can be made into a compote, jam or dessert.

The trick, he says, is balancing the sweet and sourness. So how much sugar you put in it will make your Speedy Rhubarb fantastic or dead wrong. Jamie chops up some rhubarb and puts them in a pot, along with unrefined sugar (I notice he uses that a lot) and the juice of one orange. He says you can use water if you don’t have an orange around.

Then he gets some puff pastry sheets (I love using these, so easy) and slices off two inch-thick slices. Then he rolls them into a thin layer, dusting his board with cinnamon and icing sugar instead of flour. He says he’s doing this for an added sweetness. I’m not really sure what he has planned for them. He cuts them into an odd shaped triangular pieces and then place them in a sauté pan with some oil and starts cooking them.

As the puff pastry cooks away in the pan, he gets some Greek yogurt and mixes in some honey and orange zest. He checks his puff pastry sheets and says they should start puffing up as it browns in the pan, but they really just look like pancakes to me. He turns them over.

He brings out some glass dessert cups, and scoops some yogurt on the bottom. Then he checks his stewing rhubarb and says they’re ready when the rhubarb falls part when you pinch one. Jamie says you should check the syrup at this time, and if needed, you should add more sugar. This is the whole balancing thing he was talking about earlier.

I don’t think the rhubarb cooked that long, but I guess it’s ready because Jamie scoops some out and places them into the glass dish with the yogurt. He creates a layered thing with yogurt and rhubarb and then some yogurt, finally topped off with the rhubarb. The pink of the rhubarb looks pretty against the white of the yogurt, but you know what? It looks kind of like a watery mess? He gets his puff pastry sheets from the pan and serves it with the rhubarb yogurt dessert as a side. I think some biscotti would work just as well.

Rhubarb and Crispy Pork

Jamie’s back in his main garden kitchen, showing how rhubarb is nice for a savory dish. And when you think of sweet and savory, what do you think? That’s right, Asian baby. Jamie says he thought up this dish the other day and thought of the acid of rhubarb being similar to apples. So he’s going to make rhubarb with some pork (sans the apple sauce).

He gets four cloves of garlic and some fresh ginger, and two big red chilies and places them all in the processor. He adds a teaspoon of five spice and four tablespoons of soy sauce and the same amount of honey. Then he adds some rhubarb and pulses all this to create a rhubarb sauce.

He gets a casserole dish and adds pork belly that’s been cut into 1-inch chunks. He adds a pint of water and pours some of the rhubarb paste. Then he bakes the pork belly for an hour and a half in a 350 degree oven. Of course, this being the magic of television we cut to when he brings the cooked pork belly a second later. He tastes the sauce to see how it is, and adds more soy sauce.

Now that the pork belly is somewhat cooked, he’s going to give them color by sautéing them in a pan with ground nut oil. It’s Jamie’s attempt at wok frying, but without the wok. You know, Jamie cooks so often with Italian influences that it’s nice to see this Asian-influenced dish. Although it’s not very authentic, but I’ll look pass that.

At this point, he’s talking about how you want the pork and the sauce to caramelized into a nice golden brown and that way the sauce will just be “pukka.” Hey, he said pukka! He catches himself like he just swore or something. “Oh my. I said pukka. I haven’t said that word in 10 years.” He says it in this melancholy kind of way. Well, just for you Jamie: pukka, pukka pukka, pukka, PUKKA. ;-)

Jamie gathers some sprouts, cress, shiso and pick coriander. They all look pretty and small, a nice variety of micro greens. He chops up a spring onion and then gets ready to plate his dish.

He goes to a pot where he’s been boiling some noodles earlier. He gets some noodles and then places some pork on top, garnishing with the spring onions and then a mix of the sprouts and micro greens. And to mix up the Asian influence, originally starting out Chinese, he now adds lime and chili for that Thai or Vietnamese influence. It’s a weird mix of hot and cold ingredients. I don’t really get the fresh vegetables added to this pork noodle dish. But hey, I’m sure it’s pukka.

Rhubarb and Custard Souffle

Jamie’s in the tiny toolshed kitchen, which I notice he often ends his show cooking from this tiny spot. He’s making another dessert, this time a soufflé. (Recipe here.)

He preps the ramekins by rubbing them with butter, but instead of dusting with flour he’s going to use ginger snap crumbs. So he gets some ginger snaps and place them in a kitchen towel, which he then proceeds to whack against the side of the table. Jamie looks at the cameraman like he’s really loving working out his aggression. Just for the heck of it, he grabs a small rolling pin and uses that to whack the snaps. Of course, they’re totally pulverized and he uses them to dust the ramekins.

Using the same rhubarb from the compote he made earlier in the show, he puts a tablespoon in each ramekin. He puts some leftover rhubarb in a bowl, along with one egg yolk, store-bought custard and a teaspoon of flour. Then in separate a bowl, he gets four egg whites and a pinch of salt and beats them up. He stirs the other ingredients in the other bowl. Jamie is really multitasking. Then in the whites, he adds unrefined sugar, trying to get a nice shiny, silky blend. Then he gets a small scoop of the whites and folds them into the rhubarb mix. This is his way of slowly adding in the whites without loosing the air. In fact, Jamie makes a big point to say the air escapes as you mix, so you have to act quickly. He adds in the rest of the whites, folding it in gently but quickly.

He pours the rhubarb mix into the ramekins and places them on a preheated tray. He gently puts them into the oven, carefully closing the door. Souffles are so sensitive. He cooks them for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. “Just leave them, trust them,” Jamie warns, saying not to be tempted to open the door.

Jamie’s lucky because his oven has a glass window (unlike mines) so he can tell when they’re all nice and puffy. So of course when Jamie brings out his cooked soufflé, they look perfectly golden brown and puffed up. I’m surprised he actually punctures the puffiness by getting a teaspoon and poking in the middle so that he can pour some more custard down the middle. Hmm, more custard. I guess it’s worth puncturing the soufflé for more custard. He finishes it off with some powdered sugar.

Creamy Rhubarb and Vodka Cocktail

I thought Jamie was done cooking, but he’s not. He’s out in his garden. It’s so sunny and I’m totally jealous because it’s been raining all weekend in the Bay Area. He gets the juice from the rhubarb, which looks kind of pretty. In a cocktail shaker, he puts two shots of the juice, a handful of ice, a shot of cream, a swig of milk, and two shots of vodka. He also puts a shot of liqueure I haven’t heard of. I think it sounded like “galleona.”

Anyway, he shakes it up in a way that only Jamie does so well, and then pours them into martini glasses. They’re just like strawberry cream. Hmmm, looks good. Cheers.

Must be a British Thing:
Just some clarification on some of the terms Jamie uses.

Cress=baby water cress

Icing sugar=confectioner’s sugar

Jamieisms heard in this episode:

Brilliant

Pukker

Mucking about

Jamie At Home airs on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. on the Food Network. Visit Jamie’s Web site at http://www.jamieoliver.com/. More on the accompanying book for the series here.

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What's In My Frig?

This is what it looked like in my refrigerator a few days ago. I had a whole bunch of these individual-size yogurt, not because I like variety (but I actually do), but because I've been feeling bored with my standby yogurt I usually buy. So I decided to test a few different ones to see if I can find a new favorite.

I notice at Whole Foods, they have so many low-fat and organic yogurt. So I just picked a few interesting ones. Let the taste test begin:

Cascade Fresh Fat-Free Yogurt (Orange Cream flavor), 79 cents. I thought this would be like eating a Creamsicle, which I used to love as a kid. But it was tart and had this odd chalky texture in my mouth. The texture was a bit more firm like custard, but not really pleasing. It says it's gluten-free and it didn't have any fat. Just sodium (4%), potassium (10%), carbs (7%) and protein (14%). For the orange flavor, they used mandarin orange marmalade at the bottom that wasn't that great. I didn't like this one.

Stonyfield Farm Organic Fat-Free French Vanilla Yogurt, $1.19. This had a clean texture that was like those Chinese tofu desserts I like, so it definitely was easier to swallow. It has no artificial sweeteners and also no fat. This was a possible substitute for my regular yogurt, but I didn't fall in love with it.

Clover Organic Farms Natural Low-Fat Yogurt (Vanilla Bean), $1.19. This was one of the worse of the batch, mostly because it was the most sour. I didn't like it even though it had a texture similar to creme brulee and it had the least calories (90) than all the others. The downside: it did have 3% fat and 8% saturated fat.

Brown Cow All-Natural Vanilla Bean, 99 cents. This had a nice, subtle flavor with a harder texture similar to soft cottage cheese that's been blended. I kind of liked this the best, although, again, I don't think it was way better than my current favorite (the Danon Light & Fit Vanilla Yogurt). This had 150 calories and fat (3% total fat and 5% saturated fat).

Rachel's Relax Vanilla Chai Yogurt, $1.19. This had the nicest packaging, and I liked the whole relax idea. But it was tart and tangy, which some might like in yogurt but I don't unless it's frozen. There were hints of cinnamon, which I guess is the chai part. Even though this had a low-fat yogurt appearance, it had the most calories (160) compared to the others and it also had 4% total fat and 8% saturated fat. Also 3% cholesterol, which appeared in only a couple of others.

So despite all the varieties, I still couldn't find a new yogurt that I would love to eat every night. I guess I have to keep looking. If you have a favorite you want to recommend, let me know!

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Dish on Dining: Cav Wine Bar & Kitchen

A Delightful Overture to Any Night Out
1666 Market St. (near Gough), San Francisco
Between the Hayes Valley and Mission neighborhoods
PH: 415.437.1770
Hours: Mon.–Thu., 5:30–11 p.m.; Fri.–Sat., 5:30 p.m.–midnight
Reservations, major credit cards accepted
www.cavwinebar.com

A wine bar—traced back to the quick hearty bites and flowing wine of Italy—is the perfect place for a light meal, especially if you have no reservations and have other plans for the night. That’s the predicament I found myself in last night when I had plans to go to my first ballet performance for the season. Showtime was a little earlier than usual, set for 7:30 p.m.

Most restaurants in the nearby Hayes Valley neighborhood are packed with pre-show diners, and many won’t let you in unless you’ve made a reservation or have arrived more than 2 hours before the curtain rises. But when going out by myself, it seems silly to make a reservation for one (and despite my age I’m not really an early-bird special kind of guy).

So instead, I ventured not too far to Market Street to the Cav Wine Bar and Kitchen, which opened in 2005 next door to the venerable Zuni Café. Cav’s owner, Pamela Busch, is all too familiar with the Civic Center performance crowd since she used to own the wine bar Hayes and Vine on Hayes Street.

But Cav is far from the days of Hayes and Vine. Sure, you can still find an extensive book of wine choices along with prepared wine flights to taste. But that’s all augmented with creative dishes coming out of the kitchen. (According to its Web site, Busch heard the debate over whether Cav is a wine bar or a restaurant so often that she added the word “kitchen” to the name a year later.)

Since I was eating somewhat early, I didn’t have any problems scoring a seat at one of Cav’s zinc-top tables that surround the front bar. The zinc-top tables blend with the overall industrial feel of the décor, which included a massive graffiti mural and graffiti painting near the entrance. Initially, I thought the graffiti was an odd contrast to the sophisticated cozy feel of the bar. But after awhile I realized it was a brilliant commentary on Cav’s location. It sits at the part of Market Street that for years have been struggling between the dual identities of up-and-coming neighborhood with fine restaurants and antique stores and the reality of the homeless wanderers outside.

The kitchen is run by Executive Chef Michael Lamina, who started out as a sous chef at Cav but was promoted to top chef after Christine Mullen left last October. From what I can tell, Lamina has kept the Mediterranean approach to cooking that began with Mullen.

The menu is broken up to primarily two sections: one for small plates and another for large plates/entrees. I was hoping to see more among the small plate selection (I still had the idea of a wine bar in my mind despite the word “kitchen”) but that’s fine because I was able to zero in on two possible favorites: the Truffled Leek Terrine with Crispy Pig Ear ($12) and the Pimenton-Braised Baby Octopus ($12).

My friendly server scared me on my third choice of trying the house-made charcuterie platter ($22). I thought it might be a few slices but he said it was a pretty large plate of sliced meat. I decided to save that for another time when I could drag a friend with me. So I settled for the Seared Duck Breast ($21) because you know my rule about duck on the menu (always order it because it’s too much trouble to make at home).

Side note: Wednesday night is also when Cav offers a special weekly tasting menu for $50 (which doesn’t include accompanying wine flight). It was an enticing menu of three main tastes—lobster was included as an ingredient for one dish—and a dessert, but because I was worried I might be pushing it with my ballet performance, I also decided to save this for another time.

I feel like I should say something about the wine, given that Cav started out as a wine bar. The impressive list includes wine from all around the world. In fact, the list of California wines was a bit shorter than what I’ve seen at other California restaurants as Cav gave equal weight to California and the wines from Europe, Australia, South America, South Africa, etc.

Cav offers a special wine flight for the night (last night focused on Chardonnays) and wine by the glass, with prices for a full glass and a “tasting” (which is usually half a glass).

For dinner, I ordered a tasting of the Viognier from Kestrel of Yakima Valley to go with my two starters and a tasting of the “Cace è Mmittee de Lucera,” an Italian red wine from Alberto Longo Winery of Puglia, to go with my duck.

My leek terrine and baby octopus came together to start. Both of these dishes were served cold.

The terrine was interesting layers of soft, buttery leeks with a butter-like brown substance. But it was bland. However, it was saved by the contrasting flavors of the salad on the side, which was simply arugula dressed with an aggressive vinaigrette (quite welcomed given the bland terrine) mixed with crispy pig ears. The crunchy pig ears (I know, difficult to read, harder to write) was delightful. I’m not sure if it was because anything fried is good or that it was so vastly different than the leek terrine, but I could have just eaten a big plate of the pig ear salad and left happy.

My octopus had a very Spanish feel (and not just because it took on the color of the smoked paprika) with its tender texture and cold temperature. When traveling in Barcelona, I found that a lot of seafood dishes are served this way to highlight the freshness of the ingredient. It did just that, with its taste accented by the crunchy fennel underneath.

Finally came my seared duck, which was served with spaetzle and creamed mustard greens. While I love any seared duck, I was disappointed at this particular dish of the evening. The duck was a little overcooked, so it wasn’t as juicy as I’d hoped nor did it have the classic caramelized sear I’ve seen at other places. And it was sitting in a jus that was overly salted. The spaetzle (the traditional German pasta-like substance) tasted like bits of Cup of Noodles. The only redeeming factor of this dish was the incredibly tasty creamed greens on top.

Despite the unbalanced nature of the duck dish, I found Cav’s other dishes to be a nice blending of contrasting flavors, artfully presented and nicely enhancing the wine selection. The service is friendly and informed, adding to the hip neighborhood vibe and the casual approach to a night out.

Another side note: Cav has a nice dessert menu and cheese selection, but I decided to skip dessert and instead went across the street to the nearby Delessio Market and Bakery. That’s where I got a mini cupcake—the chocolate brownie with vanilla malt. It was such a perfect, sweet ending to my dinner that I was literally skipping to the ballet.

Single guy rating: 3.5 stars (Eat, drink, be merry)

Explanation of the single guy's rating system:
1 star = perfect for college students
2 stars = perfect for new diners
3 stars = perfect for foodies
4 stars = perfect for expense accounts
5 stars = perfect for any guy's dream dinner



BTW, if you haven’t been to the San Francisco Ballet, you should definitely check it out since this year marks the 75th anniversary of this world-class ballet in our very own backyard. The performances are always exuberant and refined.

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Get Ready for Fish Fridays

This year I’m trying to be better about my observance of Lent (Day 14 people!), so that means abstaining from meat on Fridays until Easter. Now, it’s not a strict vegetarian diet because we’re still allowed to eat fish, which I often do. (Sushi is a top choice if I can afford it.) Still, it takes some planning on my part because I eat chicken and pork so often that meat often creeps into my recipes somehow or another.

It’s also a challenge because Friday is still a work day, so again, as the Single Guy, I’m too tired after going to the gym after work to really do a lot of cooking. That’s why I keep it very simple and easy on the weeknights.

One of the simplest things to do, especially during citrus season, is to serve a nice piece of fish by itself seasoned with only salt and pepper and then served with a refreshing citrus-type salad. The trick to really make your fish look fancy is creating that nice sear on the top. Like I keep hearing Tyler Florence say on his show, “color equals flavor.” I hear you Tyler.

For this recipe below, I bought a nice piece of farm-raised halibut from Whole Foods. It’s a nice, meaty fish that flakes perfectly when cooked just right. And the citrus of choice? A ruby grapefruit. I love grapefruits because they’re so healthy for you. I just served it with some mixed greens and used the juice as the basis for the dressing that I poured on both the salad and the halibut to create a glaze.

To top it off, I roasted some fingerling potatoes as a side. I chose fingerlings because they’re small, so you know what that means, right? Shorter cooking time. They took only 30 minutes to roast in a 350-degree oven. I started with my potatoes and timed the cooking of the fish to finish just as the potatoes got done. So I made everything in 30 minutes. Please don’t call me Rachel. Enjoy!

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Seared Halibut with Grapefruit Salad

Copyright 2008 by Cooking With The Single Guy

Ingredients:
1 halibut filet (about 6 oz.)
1 Ruby grapefruit
2 cups mixed greens
2 T extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

For dressing:
1 T grapefruit juice
1 T Dijon mustard
3 T extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

To start, cut your grapefruit into sections, removing the skin and pith then set aside. Squeeze remaining grapefruit flesh to get the juice and make the dressing by combining all the ingredients.

Season your halibut filet with salt and pepper. Warm olive oil in an oven-safe sauté pan over high heat and place the halibut skin side up to sear the top. Cook untouched for about 2-3 minutes, then flip it over. Drizzle a bit of your grapefruit dressing over the fish and place the fish in the oven. Cook until done, about 5 to 7 minutes depending on the thickness of your filet.

In a small bowl, toss the mixed greens with the grapefruit sections in your grapefruit dressing. When fish is done, add your salad to your plate with the fish. Serve with roasted fingerling potatoes.

Makes one serving. Pair with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc.

TIP: When searing your fish, it’s important to have a high heat so that the fish doesn’t stick to the pan. That initial shock of heat will create a nice sear to easily separate from the pan with a spatula. While you shouldn’t touch the fish so that you get a nice brown color, you also shouldn’t forget about the fish and let it cook any longer than needed or else it’ll be blackened. After a few tries you’ll know how long your stovetop takes to sear a fish on high heat perfectly brown.

EMULSIFY IT: When making the dressing, always add the olive oil last. The best way to make sure the ingredients mix nicely and “emulsify” (that’s a fancy word huh?), slowly add the olive oil in a steady stream from the bottle to the bowl while constantly whisking the ingredients to mix as you add.

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Hook Me Up: Gaylord's Caffe Espresso

Happy Presidents' Day to everyone. I'm chilling it near the hood on my day off, so I decided to check out the cafes near my home in North Oakland. The first place I went to was nice but small so all the tables were taken. So I walked a few yards down to Gaylord's Caffe Espresso, which always seem packed so that's why I thought I'd avoid it.

And when I got here, I was right. It was packed and didn't look like a table would be free by the time I ordered my tea. Luckily, one did so I sat myself down.

If you believe the window, Gaylord's has been serving up coffee since 1976, so it has that institutional feel. What I really like about it is all the funky artwork on the wall. It's this huge space with a bunch of round tables filling every spot. Like I said, it was packed when I got here around 2:30 p.m., but now it seems to have loosened up a bit and a few people have left. But there's a constant stream of people coming in and out so you have to grab a seat fast when you get here.

I'm really disappointed at the food choices here. They just have sandwiches and baked goods. The baked goods really look home-baked, but not necessarily in a good way. I also found that the people here are really not very organized about the line. Everyone's all laid back so some people are standing, waiting for their order but they also look like they're standing in line, and for some reason they look really disgusted when you ask if they're in line, like it's such an assumption on my part. Um, lady, move to the side if you're not in the line and then I wouldn't have to ask. Weird vibe so far among the customer base.

I just got a pot of Madagascar Vanilla tea and a lemon bar that was wrapped up in cellophane. The lemon bar looked weird and the tea steeped too long so it tastes really dark and virtually no hint of vanilla. Luckily I ate before I got here.

Gaylord's has a great wi-fi connection, very strong despite so many people hooked up to it. But you pay for it, $1 per hour, so I only have 30 minutes left and will have to sign off and just work on organizing my photos on my laptop. I like the neighborhood feel of Gaylord's with its mixed group of regulars, but I bet most people come for the atmosphere because it's definitely not the coffee or the food.

I'm really amazed at how Piedmont Avenue near my home has all these coffee places, but at the same time they all seem so packed. Where do everyone come from? Don't they know it's a holiday? Oh well, I'm down to 20 minutes so got to get going and POST. :) (UPDATE: OK, so maybe it's not $1 per hour of wi-fi. I waited past the hour to see what would happen and doesn't look like Gaylord's wi-fi system can figure out if you've gone beyond your 1 hour allotment, even though that's what it says on the receipt. So I'm just pushing it as far as I can go. You may still see me here later tonight. Ha!)

Gaylord's Caffee Espresso
Location: 4150 Piedmont Ave., Oakland
PH: 510.658.2877
Food: Baked goods, sandwiches
Coffee: Equal Exchange free-trade coffee
Tea: Unknown
Wi-Fi: Yes, $1/per hour (password on your receipt), but really, you can keep on wi-fiing it until you leave.
Outlets: Yes, alongside the walls.
Restrooms: Yes
Seating: About 20 small, round tables and two Pac Man game tables.
Cleanliness: Average

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Jamie At Home: Episode 6, Leeks

Jamie Oliver is finally back in his garden, and this time he’s surrounded by some pretty big leeks. I love leeks. The flavor is milder than onions but not as sharp as spring onions. He says leeks are underrated. I’m surprised to hear that because like I said, I love them and use them often as a base for soups or stews. Does anyone else think it's weird that he names all his food “mister”? (i.e., “Welcome to Mr. Leek.”)

Pappardelle and Slow-Braised Leeks

Jamie has cut some huge leeks and is talking about washing down to get all the grit out. (I personally soak my cut leeks to make sure all the sand is wash away.) He has four leeks and slices them the same thickness as the pappardelle he plans on using. He puts some olive oil in a sauté pan along with a nub of butter. He says butter and leeks are brilliant because they both have the same texture that’s, well, buttery. He adds three cloves of thinly sliced garlic and some fresh thyme. He throws in the leeks and coats them with the oil and butter, beginning the braising process by adding half a glass of white wine and a pint of vegetable stock.

Jamie brings out these beautiful parma ham prosciutto, which he uses to create a thin layer cover over the cooking leeks. He does this instead of using parchment paper (although I bet parchment paper would be cheaper) to trap the steaming effect and keep the leeks moist while it cooks for 30 minutes.

Jamie’s using a lot of French terms in this episode, and I can’t catch them all. But he says something about making a pan of bread crumbs. He cuts up some stale bread and the in his food processor pulses some dried mushrooms (he says if you can use porcini, they’d be good) and throws in the bread pieces. In a pan, he warms olive oil and infuses it with two cloves of garlic and a rosemary stick. Then he adds the pulsed bread crumbs (not all of it, just a handful) and toasts them in the pan.

Here’s his cheat about making pasta: Instead of using freshly made pappardelle, he buys the pre-made sheets of lasagna. Now, you’re thinking, why not just buy fresh pappardelle pasta? Jamie’s already ready for this question and starts talking about cooking as heart and soul and love. He says he cooks because he likes to be happy. And I guess he’s saying he’s happy when other thinks he’s made hand-made pasta by giving it that rustic home-made look by cutting up lasagna sheets. Jamie thinks cutting up fresh lasagna sheets may take you one step closer to making your own pasta. Hmm, I don’t think so, but nice try Jamie.

He adds the “hand-cut” pasta to a pot of boiling water.

Jamie starts to put together the pasta dish. He takes the prosciutto off his leeks and cuts them up and throws them back with the leeks, adds freshly grated parmesan and some butter, then gets his pasta and throws it into the leeks and stirs everything together, mixing all the cheese, butter, and pasta water. He finishes the dish off with his pan-toasted bread crumbs along with more grated parmesan. He says you’ll clean up in the dinner making awards with this dish. (Complete recipe on the Food Network site.)

Concertina Squid with Grilled Leeks

He’s back in the garden with someone that he doesn’t really introduce. I’m assuming he’s the gardener. James gathers some greens from his garden, including some Italian radicchio that looks huge like turnip leaves. He also gathers some fennel, all for a grilled vegetable salad for the winter.

Jamie’s cooking at his wood garden and says he’ll be making a “trendy” dish. (The complete recipe posted here.) He steamed his baby leeks for about five minutes and coats them with olive oil and salt and pepper, then places them onto a grill.

Also on the grill his thinly cut fennel bulb and radicchio leaves (he places these without any oil, just dry).

He starts making a warm dressing for his salad by cutting up a chorizo sausage and fries the pieces in a pan to render some of the fat, which he’ll use for the dressing. (BTW, he places the pan right onto the coals. That’s some hot heat.)

He removes the grilled vegetables and he says (jokingly) that they look miserable. He says you might think he’s gone mad. Never, Jamie.

In the pan of frying chorizo, he adds some chopped rosemary, garlic and then some really thick balsamic vinegar and a squeeze of lemon juice. He stirs everything up.

For the salad, he’s serving it with squid, so Jamie gets the squid out and shows a trick using two knives. He sticks one knife into the body of the squid piece, and then uses the other knife to score the squid. He calls this the concertina cut, I think? Again, he’s using a lot of fancy terms that I don’t catch. Either way, this is a very Spanish dish but he says he couldn’t get anything like this in Spain so he made it himself. He drizzles the squid pieces with olive oil and fennel greens, season with salt and pepper, and throws them onto a preheated pan and puts it in the wood oven to roast.

Jamie looks like he’s going to combine everything for his final dish, but he puts all his wilted vegetables into a bowl, while on a cutting board he puts the squid with a bunch of vegetables on the side. I’m a bit confused about this presentation, but that doesn’t matter to Jamie, who calls it “flipping brilliant.”

Huh, only two dishes in this episode? Jamie’s slacking off. Hopefully he’ll make an extra dish next week.

Jamie At Home airs on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. on the Food Network. Visit Jamie’s Web site at http://www.jamieoliver.com/. More on the accompanying book for the series here.

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Never Take a Challenge Before Its Time

I love quizzes, especially the multiple choice ones. And what do I like more than quizzes? Challenges. I’m the guy on Facebook who gets a challenge from a friend and ultimately wants to beat said friend’s score. So this was a fun quiz I found recently on the Fine Living Web site testing your knowledge of wine. It’s just 10 questions and I mostly guessed the answers. I got 9 out of 10 correct! And Fine Living says I’m a “fine wine expert.” Ha!

So I challenge you to beat my score. Hmm, I guess that means you’ll have to be perfect? Start taking the quiz now.

Disclaimer: Sorry, no prizes for taking this challenge. Just the pleasure of beating one Single Guy Chef. If you can.

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For The Love of Free Food

Last night I went to a free screening of a documentary called “The Pursuit of Equality.” It really is a film about the pursuit of love, and focuses on San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s decision four years ago on the eve of Valentine’s Day to allow same-sex marriages to take place in City Hall—igniting a frenzy and a national debate that continues to this day.

Now, I realize the idea of same-sex marriages is a very politically charged topic. And since this is a food blog, I’m not going to get in it. Nor am I going to critique the documentary. (If you’re interested, you can check out the documentary’s Web site here.)

What I am going to do, however, is to talk about the spread that was put out prior to the screening at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco. The catering was done by the Jack Falstaff restaurant in San Francisco, part of the PlumpJack Group that’s owned by Mayor Newsom. All the food and the free screening were underwritten by AT&T and PG&E.

The first thing I noticed when I arrived were these mini-buns. I was hoping they’d be mini-burgers, but they actually were thinly sliced ham with mixed greens. The use of mixed greens to accent these bun-wiches was an interesting touch, but the overall taste was like any other ham sandwich.

What I really liked were these tomato-cheese crostinis. I don’t remember what kind of cheese were used, but it was really yummy. As you can see, I had to snap my photos really quickly before the hungry crowd grabbed everything.

These chicken skewers needed a better presentation. But they were very tasty. I thought they would have a basic teriyaki sauce but they actually had a nice, light glaze. I enjoyed it.

They were also passing out these appetizers with eggplant, but I didn’t try them because I’m not a big fan of eggplant. See how they always look mushy?

Along with the typical fruit platter and coffee station, there were also large platters of strawberries (are they really in season?) and cheese. There were these cut pieces of brie that was perfectly served at room temperature. I really liked the softness but it still held up its shape so you could just pop them in your mouth as opposed to feeling the need to spread it. But what’s more exciting was what was towering above the strawberries and cheese…

…it was this multi-level dessert station with little chocolate cakes and a mix of cookies. It was an interesting presentation, but unfortunately I never got around to trying one because I was too busy …

… at the open bar. The bar’s sponsors included Absolute Vodka so that made me ask for a vodka martini. But they didn’t have vermouth so basically the bartender just gave me a glass of shaken vodka with ice. Oh well, I wasn’t complaining. ;-)

It was the best spread of free food I’ve had in awhile. And luckily I got there early because by the time I ran into other friends, they were only left with fruit and cheese to snack on before the screening.

Here’s a tasty dish: I was sitting near the VIP section and just two rows away from model-turned-actor Jason Lewis (“Sex and The City”). I wasn’t exactly sure why he was there or how he was connected to the film since he wasn’t featured in it nor did he do the narration. Still, afterwards I went up to meet him and he was so sweet and gracious.

Anywho, it was a fun night out. Hope you’re having a nice Valentines Day. And my wish to you all is that you’ll find love, and when you do, your government will sanction it.

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Dish on Dining: B Restaurant & Bar

Lunching It in Old Downtown Oakland
499 Ninth St. (at Washington), Oakland
Historic Old Town District
PH: 510.251.8770
Open for lunch and dinner, Tues.–Sat.
Reservations, major credit cards accepted
www.boakland.com

Oakland’s Old Town is finally emerging as a foodie hotspot, with trendy places such as Levende East and Trappist (the Belgian beer joint) opening in the hood. But one of the early pioneers (dating back to 2005) to combine a sophisticated décor with solid food is B Restaurant and Bar.

B (the initial is probably from its connection with San Francisco’s Boxed Foods Company) is a modern bar with good bones. Its décor reflects a trendy feel like any other concrete-emboldened place in SOMA in the city, but its exterior blends in nicely with the refurbished Victorian touches of the late 1800s.

B has been so successful in Oakland that it started its own reverse trend last year when it opened a second B Restaurant & Bar in San Francisco on Howard Street. I haven't checked that location out, but I'm sure the styling fits in nicely with the SOMA crowd.

I recently visited B (in Oakland) for the first time with my friend Jeanne. We arrived early to beat the weekday lunch crowd and were promptly seated at one of the restaurant’s clear resin tables, which add to the industrial look of the space. I could barely catch up with Jeanne, who recently moved to the Bay Area, because I kept getting distracted by the resin table. It was so clear. It was so large. Its bolts were clearly visible. It was definitely a conversation piece—at least the conversation in my head.

As we ate, the place eventually filled up and became very loud. I can just imagine what it must be like on a Friday night.

For the lunch menu, B offers a variety of salads, wood-fired pizzas and sandwiches. Of course, you could also order some of B’s signature drinks like the B Completo (a shot of tequila with a side of house sangria mix) or the Love On (Skyy vodka, raspberry puree and pineapple juice).

Jeanne and I skipped the drinks (but we did order the pomegranate lemonade, which morphed into a raspberry lemonade, which was very tart).

We started with the B Caesar ($9) salad. It was a towering green of bibb lettuce topped with pickled onions and parmesan crisps and croutons. It was dressed with a special silken tofu dressing that was rich and creamy. I liked the addition of the pickled onions, which helped to cut the richness of the dressing. But I have to say I’m a Caesar traditionalist and found the use of bibb lettuce distracting (maybe not as distracting as the resin table but still).

It was my first time eating bibb lettuce, which looked and had the same texture as butter lettuce, except bigger. While the yellow part was slightly crisp, which was somewhat like romaine, the green part was velvety and soft.

For our lunch, Jeanne ordered the P-L-T ($8), a play on the traditional B-L-T sandwich but substituting the bacon with pancetta. Jeanne enjoyed her sandwich, especially the nice toasty texture of the roll.

I went for the Pork and Slaw sandwich ($9)—slow-cooked pork served with a Napa cabbage slaw on a bun. The pork was nicely cooked but the vinegar from the slaw overpowered it, along with the bun. The bottom layer of the bun was already soggy by the time my sandwich arrived at the table, so I resorted to eating it with a fork and knife. While filling, I felt the sandwich wasn’t balanced between the smoky flavor of the pork and the vinegar of the slaw.

Side note: Our server was friendly but she didn’t seem to know the menu really well. She had to go and ask the kitchen for some answers to some of our questions, including the soup of the day. (The menu clearly states, “see server for selection,” so you’d think she would have been ready for at least that.) Many of the servers looked like they were primarily bartenders helping out at the tables.

While I liked the restrained creativity in B’s menu and its emphasis on local, seasonal ingredients, I found the execution to be a bit average. Which in that case it probably should be known as the C Restaurant and Bar.


THIS JUST IN: After posting this review, I read in today's San Francisco Chronicle Food section that B Restaurant has changed its chef. Saman Javid is out and veteran David Seawell (who has worked with Jeremiah Tower) is stepping in with a lighter touch to B's American classics. Now, the question is when I tried B last week did I have a taste of a transition kitchen crew or the new flavor of Seawell's command? I'm hoping it was the former. I may need to revisit B in a few months to see if Seawell has improved the grade.

Single guy rating: 3 stars (more fun as bar than restaurant)

Explanation of the single guy's rating system:
1 star = perfect for college students
2 stars = perfect for new diners
3 stars = perfect for foodies
4 stars = perfect for expense accounts
5 stars = perfect for any guy's dream dinner

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The Art of Chocolate: A Conversation with Christopher Elbow

This Thursday is Valentine’s Day so chocolate is probably on the minds of a lot of you out there. So I thought it’ll be fun to feature one of the newest premium artisanal chocolate makers in town, Christopher Elbow Chocolates, which opened just last week at the corner of Gough and Hayes in San Francisco’s emerging food destination/neighborhood.

Mixed in with the fine restaurants, Italian shoe stores and organic coffee in the adjacent alley, Christopher Elbow offers ultra-premium chocolates that are hand-made and decorated with designs that look like something hanging in a modern art gallery.

Christopher, a boyish-looking 34-year-old trained chef who worked at restaurants in Las Vegas before breaking out into his own chocolate business, is from Kansas City, Missouri, which he still calls home. He opened his flagship store in his hometown last year and then decided to branch out to San Francisco—already recognized nationally as a Mecca for fine chocolate makers with names like Scharffen Berger, Michael Recchiuti and Chuck Siegel of Charles Chocolates.

Christopher was in town last week to open up the store, and after the dust settled a bit, I sat down with him at his new store to chat about the chocolate scene, the vibe of his elegantly designed space and the art of chocolate making.

The following are edited excerpts of our conversation:

Chef Ben: You graduated from culinary school and worked at various restaurants before going into the chocolate business. Were you primarily a pastry chef or were you also working on the savory side?

Christopher Elbow: Yes, I started doing savory food and then got interested in the desserts and started gravitating towards the pastry side. For about five or six years I was doing just pastry. And during that time working with chocolate the interest just kept growing on the chocolate side. I just kept getting more excited about chocolate and that was like, all right, that’s what I want to do. So then I focused on it.

CB: What was it about chocolate that got you excited when you were a pastry chef? I mean, a lot of people expect to see chocolate on a restaurant’s menu but it’s mostly the obligatory chocolate cake. That doesn’t seem very creative.

CE: I did a lot of the chocolate desserts but at that time there was a lot of great chocolates that were becoming available to the public, from small producers from different parts of the world. So it was kind of an epiphany like wow, there was so much about chocolate that I needed to learn.

When I learned how to make the actual bonbons and the truffles and doing the paintings, I immediately realized this is what I wanted to do. I wanted to pursue this more full time.

CB: When you started making the bonbons, what were you trying to do to make it stand out and different from the others?

CE: The number one thing is the painting. We actually use color cocoa butter. We hand-decorate and paint all the chocolates that we have in here. After I kind of learned that, I felt that I needed to go back and learn the really traditional way a French bonbon would be made, or a Belgian-style bonbon. So I then kind of dropped that and went back and got as many books as I could, talked to as many people as I could, and just practiced a lot to try to make sure we were making—technically—a really good, well-made chocolate with the best ingredients we could find.

The chocolates, they look beautiful but I wanted them to taste better than they look. So when you take away the color, you’re still left with an exceptional piece of chocolate.

CB: Your designs really do look exceptional. Is that a reflection of an art background or a painter inside wanting to come out?

CE: Not really.

CB: So you never took any art classes or dreamed of being a painter?

CE: No, I’ve never really taken any art classes. I think I took maybe one in high school. That’s been the fun part, just developing some of the designs and the painting techniques, and the different ways to decorate them. That’s been really fun.

CB: Let’s talk about how this store came about. I know you opened your first store in Kansas City.

CE: Yes, that’s where I’m from. So that’s where we’re making everything. We opened kind of a store like this with the hot chocolate lounge. It’s been really well received by the city.

Note: We actually did the interview in the side area of the store that looks and feels like a lounge, with glowing, translucent white end tables lining a chocolate leather banquet with contrasting white armrests. The piped in music and magazine rack on the side made the area feel like the lobby of a boutique hotel.

CE: It’s been about two years since we started doing Web sales. It seemed like so many of our customers ordering up on the Web site were from the Bay Area and from California. And we would get emails about “Are you opening up a store here? When are you opening up a store here?”

So I actually took my first trip here two years ago. I’d never been here.

CB: So you’ve never actually experienced San Francisco before?

CE: Noooo, and I was like this is the greatest city I’ve ever been. The weather’s great for chocolate. You know, it’s not really hot, pretty temperate. And it’s a great food city and I said if—and I didn’t have any plans at that time to expand—but if we did, this is where we would be coming.

CB: So when you decided to come here, how did you end up in Hayes Valley?

CE: I kind of felt like this neighborhood was very similar to where we’re at in Kansas City. We’re in an area called the Crossroads Arts District—lots of art galleries and eclectic shops and independent stores. There’s not a whole lot of chains and corporate restaurants. And that’s really what I kind of really liked about this area. It kind of had a true neighborhood feel. We never sought a touristy area or touristy part of any city. We like to become part of the neighborhood and kind of blend in.

CB: What did you think about coming to San Francisco, which already has some pretty well known premium chocolatiers like Michael Recchiuti and Charles Chocolates? What do feel about going up against them?

CE: We do such a different product, I feel. … I think as far as the competition, it seems to me to be a fairly big city where there’s lots of room for several different styles of chocolate. The great thing to me about chocolate is I can make the same piece, you know, a raspberry chocolate and it’s going to taste totally different at the next chocolate shop. … I’ve got great respect for all of them. Actually, Michael Recchiuti, he kind of started this whole chocolate revolution a long time ago so he’s always been a huge idol to me.

CB: Given the environment for premium chocolates in San Francisco and the customer-base here, do you feel there are higher expectations for you being the new kid coming in?

CE: Yeah, but I feel really, really good about the product that we have. We’ve gotten several accolades on a national level so I knew we had a product that we could come into a high-level city and establish ourselves and be accepted. We’ve had lots of success in New York and Chicago and some of the other hot chocolate places in the world. We thought we had a premium brand that matches well with what Charles (Siegel) and Michael Recchiuti are doing.

CB: Tell me more about your chocolates. Most people in the Bay Area are sensitive to sourcing and the sustainability of a product. I’m curious how you’re emphasizing hand-made chocolates but you’re still based in Kansas City?

CE: Our mantra is small-batch production. That’s when you can control quality the best. We use very little machinery, basically just machines to melt the chocolate. We mold everything by hand, paint everything by hand. We source out of Kansas City as many local ingredients there as possible. We use local dairy providers for our cream and butter. We don’t use any artificial flavorings, any artificial extracts or artificial preservatives. So it’s (for example) fresh mint leaves. And if we can’t get fresh mint leaves, then we just don’t do that flavor. We don’t buy them from somewhere else. So it almost follows a seasonality to some of our flavor lines.

The only difference is now we have to make them every week and ship them out here (via FedEx).

CB: So you don’t have any production at your San Francisco store?

CE: No. I started to look and think that’s the route I was going to go, to do production out here. But after several months of doing research and due diligence, it really needs to be where I am at—where the chocolate’s being made. I’d feel better if I’m in the production facility all the time, making sure the quality stays where it needs to be.

CB: So you’re still really involved in the actual chocolate making?

CE: Yeah, I still make it every day.

CB: How much time can you spend in the kitchen making chocolate?

CE: We work, especially during the holidays, we work seven days a week; 12-to-15 hour days are common. Also during the slower times of the year and not the holidays we’re still doing productions six days a week.

Our goal is to send chocolates out twice a week here. Nothing will be in here that will be 3- or 4-days-old. Since we don’t use preservatives, the shelf life is pretty short. So we’re going to watch that really well.

CB: In terms of the cocoa that you use, your Web site mentions Venezuelan cocoa a lot. What are your primary sources?

CE: Venezuela is the primary region. They grow most of the world’s best variety of the cocoa bean. So they’ve got a good tradition of having really great, high-quality chocolate. But we also use other small producers. There’s smaller companies that are coming out now—artisan chocolate makers, and they’re called bean-to-bar—that are working directly with the farmers in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador. And they’re working directly with the farmers on better ways to grow, to ferment, to dry the beans, and they’re taking those and working on the optimal way to roast the chocolate and pulling that really unbelievable flavor.

A kind of a side benefit of that as well, since they’re working directly with the farmers, the farmers are benefiting a lot from this because they’re getting premium quality prices for the beans and they’re growing better products. Their own practices are getting better. So I think it’s becoming a better industry all around because of that.

CB: What would you say is your signature chocolate?

CE: We have about 30 flavors of chocolate out on the counter, and the things that I think are great for us, we have four or five right now that are single-origin dark chocolates. They come from various parts of the world, and they all have completely different taste profiles. They’re all dark chocolates but one taste so different from the other. So far in just the last couple of days that seems to have piqued the most interests for people here. They’ve been really interested in trying the different ones and learning about the different flavor profiles.

CB: Do you still spend a lot of time designing the artwork that goes on the chocolates or is it like a template?

CE: No, we create new flavors every two to three months. … Most of the time the flavor comes first, the design comes second. So we’ll create the flavor or the concept of the flavor and then decide what form it will be best in, whether it be a square or rolled piece or molded piece. And then we’ll decide how we want to decorate it. So the decoration, it doesn’t always indicate really what the flavoring is, but a lot of times it does. Like the spicy one has a lava design around it; the raspberry one is painted red. Sometimes the design is dictated by the flavor, sometimes it’s totally abstract. Really, it’s just kind of our freedom. We can decorate and come up with any design we can.

CB: Do you hand paint each one?

CE: Some of them we hand paint, a lot of them we use an air brush and we spray them. The other flat pieces we actually create a silk screen with cocoa butter that’s sort of a transfer sheet. So when the chocolate’s wet we put the transfer sheet down. After that sets, we pull it up and it leaves the design behind.

This is my favorite part of the interview. Chris goes to get some samples of his chocolates to better explain the design process. He brings out a tray with a mix of bonbons and truffles, all beautifully decorated. The square patterned pieces were made with the silk-screen appliqué he talked about, and one molded chocolate piece had splashes of white, very much in the unstructured form of Jackson Pollack.

Chris explains that he follows a traditional French style in making a ganache that’s enclosed in a really thin layer of chocolate. The molded chocolates have a thicker casing, which allows him to fill it with softer ganaches or caramels. The chocolates are light and creamy, and the tastes range from very subtle blends to rich, intense dark chocolate ganache. One particular chocolate was complex with a Persian-inspired mix of spices such as cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, and a bit of saffron and orange-blossom water. Another style of chocolates had layered flavors, like a thin layer of raspberry pate de fruit topped by a raspberry-infused ganache. The layering technique made the fruit flavor even more intense.

CB: Do you find that you’re still learning about chocolate making?

CE: I learn something every day. That’s one aspect of this business I love. I don’t think I’ll stop learning up until I’m retired from the business. It’s really fun.

CB: I notice your chocolate is light in body. Is that what you intended, to have a light, almost mousse-like texture to your chocolates?

CE: Not really. We kind of make them … not real dense. We like the real soft ganache. Part of that too is that they’re fresh. They’ll get more firm and dense over time. The fresher they are you should see a nice creaminess to them. I’m not a big fan of the dense, dry ganaches, so we use a lot of fresh cream, a lot of fresh butter to help make them really soft. That shortens the shelf life so we get a trade-off that way.

CB: I’m curious about the store. I remember this used to be a huge home accessories store, but it looks like you’ve taken up some of the space for the back.

CE: We took a lot of room in the back because we have a big climate-controlled storage room. As soon as we get the chocolates in, we keep them stored at 60 degrees. But then all of the packaging and all of that stuff takes up so much room. I looked at some smaller places but then I would have had to get a storage facility to store all of that in. This is probably a little bigger than what we were looking for, but it’s actually been really nice to have everything we need to work here and making the process as easiest as possible.

CB: What was it like getting the store ready to open?

CE: It was tough.

CB: Yeah, I remember seeing the signs awhile back.

CE: The ones that said “opening in fall”? (laughs)

CB: So you initially were trying to open before the holidays?

CE: We were trying to open initially maybe the 1st of December, that was the first date we had in mind. We had a couple of design issues during construction that needed to be resolved so that took some time.

… Architecture and design is like a really close second hobby of mind so having a nice esthetic to enjoy the product in is really important.

CB: So what’s the vibe you want for your store?

CE: You know, loungey, modern feel. Very clean lines, not very cluttered. We think it fits our product, kind of a modern chocolate. A place where people can relax and sit, enjoy the music, read the paper and enjoy drinking chocolate.

Christopher Elbow offers 14 different drinking chocolates. He doesn’t call them hot chocolates or hot cocoa because he feels his drinks are more chocolate drinks, made not from powder but from chocolate ground into a mix. They’re sent from his Kansas City headquarters and fresh, local ingredients are added to them. Flavors include raspberry, five-spice, coconut curry, ginger and espresso.

CB: Do you have plans for more stores?

CE: This is probably it. (laughs)

CB: This took a lot out of you, huh?

CE: Yeah. I love the design and I wish I could open up more stores. But we’re not looking to be a huge chocolate company. Due to the nature of what we do, the time it takes to hand-decorate and paint, our production definitely has a ceiling. Since the shelf life is so short, we can’t stock up. We have to make them as soon as we get them out the door. So we’ll never really be a big company, and I’m totally cool with that. We never had plans to do that. I guess we’ll settle into what our production level is and as soon as we reach the point to where we would have to alter recipes or incorporate large equipment, we’ll stop and not go there.

Maybe we’ll do one more store like in New York and we can handle that. And if that’s as far as we can go, then I’m totally happy with that.

CB: Your store definitely has a very finished look to it, even though I know you said you were scrambling at the last-minute to get everything done for the opening. But is that a part of your personality, looking at every detail?

CE: This is all about the details. Even the little things to me are all about the details. You know, like the correct angle of the lighting. I notice things like that when I go into other places. I guess I’m a little anal retentive or obsessive-compulsive over details like that. Those are the nice things that have been said about me. (laughs)

CB: That’s probably good for the type of product you’re working with.

CE: A lot of what we do is about aesthetics. And I think having a great store and having pride in what it looks like is really important.

Chris returned to Kansas City on Saturday and planned to be in his production facility every day pumping out more hand-made chocolates for Valentine’s day. He plans to travel to San Francisco about twice a month in the beginning to make sure everything remains on track, checking every detail and every piece of chocolate featured at his store. Down the road he hopes to hosts tastings at his store.

Along with the truffles and bonbons, Christopher Elbow also offers a line of candy bars, chocolate-covered nuts and drinking chocolate in the can. The price tag may shock some people, but I found it on par with other premium chocolates.

Many thanks to Chris for taking the time from his hectic week in the midst of opening a store to sit down and chat with me. This Midwesterner with his quiet charm and casual appearance has brought a new level of sophistication to the Bay Area’s chocolate scene.

Christopher Elbow Artisanal Chocolates, 401 Hayes St. (at Gough), San Francisco. PH: 415.355.1105. Open Mon.–Thu., 11 a.m.–8 p.m., Fri.–Sat., 11 a.m.–10 p.m.; and Sun., noon–6 p.m. Web site.

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Jamie At Home: Episode 5, Eggs

Do eggs come from a garden? OK, while I love Jamie Oliver, I’m a little confused about his “At Home” premise. It was promoted as cooking with fresh ingredients from Jamie’s garden. But a couple of weeks ago we had puff pastry (not from the garden) and this week we have eggs, which is really more from a farm. So maybe this series should have been called Jamie’s Country Kitchen. I’m just saying.

Anywho, we start with Jamie busy whisking two eggs, and he’s planning on making breakfast. BTW, he’s in that sun room where he’s sitting and cooking again. He seasons his beaten eggs with salt, pepper and some chili. Then he gets two pieces of organic crumpets to soak up the egg. He coats the crumpet on both sides with his egg mixture.

He fries up a few pieces of smoked bacon and then places his egg-coated crumpets in the pan to fry that up too, making it nice and crispy. So that’s pretty much his breakfast: smoked bacon with eggy crumpets. Oh, and to finish it off he squirts what he calls “brown sauce,” which kind of looks like steak sauce. Jamie says this is his “best breakfast ever.”

Homemade egg tagliatelle

Egg is the main ingredient in pasta, so Jamie’s showing us how easy it is to make home-made pasta for his dish that he calls “pasta fonduta.” (Complete recipe can be found on the Food Network site.)

He starts off by making a white cheese sauce by creating a double burner with a pot of boiling water and a bowl placed on top. This lets him melt all his ingredients slowly with the gentle heat. He adds crème fraiche, salt and pepper, and a bit handful of parmesan cheese. Then he adds some freshly grated fontina cheese (an Italian cow’s milk cheese).

As his sauce melts away, he starts working on his pasta. He puts two eggs in the food processor and 100 grams of flour. He mixes it and tests and adds flour until it gets to the right consistency, which Jamie explains as “not sticky or squiggy.” It kind of looks like cornmeal. He pours out his egg-flour mixture and rolls it together and then puts it through the pasta machine. Jamie says it’s so easy to make pasta that he makes this odd eek-eek sound when demonstration the steps he just went through. That was kind of odd. When working with your pasta dough, make sure to sprinkle flour to keep it from sticking together. His pasta does have a nice thin look after a few squeeze through the pasta machine. He folds it into a roll and then cut them into hand-cut pieces for his tagliatelle. It looks like those rustic handcut pasta I’ve had as Italian restaurants.

Jamie gets a young broccoli sprout (finally! something from his garden) and he cuts it up and throws it into the pasta pot to cook with his pasta. He says the pasta, because it’s fresh, should only take about 45 seconds to a minute to cook.

He goes back to finishing up his cheese sauce. This episode is the egg episode so he gets a couple of egg yolks, which is brilliant orange-red color, and adds some fresh herbs like thyme and marjoram. He beats all the ingredients together and adds it to the cheese sauce, which he says will give it a rich and silky texture. (The warmth of the cheese sauce partially cooks the fresh eggs.) And then he’s done. He plates up his pasta and broccoli and tosses it with his cheese sauce. A few more grates of parmesan and drizzle of olive oil and it looks like one of those cheesy, comforting pasta dish. Pretty simple and easy.

Meringue with Hot Pears and Chocolate Sauce

Jamie’s making dessert in his tool shed/kitchen. He’s going to make a meringue, and he says the thing about meringue is to get a good mixing machine (he has this industrial-looking mixer with a whisk attachment) and make sure the pot is clean with no water or grease left in it. He gets four egg whites and a pinch of salt and whisk the eggs whites with the mixer to get it white and fluffy. Then he adds unrefined sugar, slowly adding to the meringue. He feels the meringue and if it feels gritty, he says the sugar hasn’t dissolved so he beats it some more. Jamie also offers up the tip that old egg whites are better in making meringue than fresh ones. He doesn’t know why. Just take his word for it. He whisks the whites until stiff peaks form.

Jamie places the meringue on a baking tray lined with grease-proof paper. Then he places it in oven for about an hour.

He gets some hazelnuts and puts it in the bottom of the oven to toast them. When he brings out his baked meringue, it looks like this square of baked clouds. It’s one of those really ugly but beautiful looking thing.

He makes his chocolate syrup by placing pieces of chocolate with orange zest on a low heat. (He also uses the juices from his jarred pears.) Jamie says chocolate goes well with “Mr. Ginger” so he busts out some candied ginger, chops them up and adds it to the chocolate.

But it’s not just chocolate, Jamie’s getting some heavy cream and blends in the seeds of a freh vanilla pod along with a tablespoon of icing sugar. He whisk them up for just a bit.

Jamie gets his pears from the jar again and cuts them into halves or quarters. He crushes the hazelnuts to get them ready as a sprinkle. So he finally assembles his meringue by drizzling it with cream and the chocolate sauce, and then places a few pieces of the cut pears and tops it off with the crushed hazelnut. Wait! He’s not done. He grates a bit of orange zest. I’ve never seen a dessert like that. It’s almost like a Jackson Pollack painting. (The complete recipe here.)

Omelette salad with bresaola

I thought Jamie was over with the dessert, but he’s going back to breakfast, making what he calls an omelette salad. He says this is a great winter salad.

He starts by getting some eggs “from my chicks” and whisk about four eggs to make a thin pancake or crepe. He seasons the egg mixture with salt and pepper and adds some water to thin it out. Then he puts some olive oil in a non-stick pan and then heats up the pan. He adds some of the egg mixture and swirls it around the pan to create this really thin layer of egg, which does look a lot like crepe.

He makes about four of these thin egg pancakes or crepes.

Jamie works on his salad, getting a handful of rocket, radicchio, treviso and dandelion. He says you can make any kind of mixed salad with what’s in season. He also adds thinly sliced fennel, which he placed into a bowl of ice water briefly.

He gets his bresaola, which is these very thin, lean preserved Italian meat. He just plates these up and then he gets his thin omelette pieces, rolls them up and cuts them just like he cut his pasta awhile back. With the thin strips, he loosens them up and tosses them with the greens, which he then dresses with olive oil, lemon juice and a few drops of truffle oil.

He places everything on top of the bresaola and garnishes with grated parmesan cheese. It looks like a nice restaurant salad.

The show ends with his free-range hens clucking around the hen house. They look happy.

Must be a British Thing:
Just some clarification on some of the terms Jamie uses.

Crumpets=English muffins

Brown sauce=steak sauce?

Grease proof paper=parchment paper

Icing sugar=confectioner’s sugar

Jamieisms heard in this episode:

Rock and roll

Squiggy

Camp

Brilliant

Jamie At Home airs on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. on the Food Network. Visit Jamie’s Web site at http://www.jamieoliver.com/. More on the accompanying book for the series here.

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Friday Heart Nights

I just got back from tonight's special event at the San Francisco Ferry Building. It was the annual "From the Heart" tasting night, which plays into, of course, the upcoming made-up Valentines holiday. Tonight's event was actually the first part of a two-day event. It continues Saturday with the weekly farmers' market and cooking demonstrations showcasing romantic dinners and heart-healthy meals.

But I think tonight's event is really the highlight of "From the Heart." All the merchants and restaurants at the Ferry Building setup tables with little tastes for sale. Proceeds partly go to support the Slow Food San Francisco organization. It went from 5 to 8 p.m. and the line to buy tickets went out the Ferry Building. (You needed the tickets to exchange for the mini tastes like some kind of carnival.)

OK, you can't have Valentines-related food without oysters, right? Thank gaawd. I had a taste of these huge Oysterville oysters on the half shell from the San Francisco Fish Company. The oyster was plump and refreshing. (They're from Washington state.) What a great way to start the tasting. (And BTW, these oysters were much larger than those offered over at Hog Island Oyster Co.)

This table outside the Village Market and Specialty Food store was offering these beautiful sparkling water with flowers. The glass above had a hibiscus while another glass had a rose. I didn't try them but I thought they were sooo beautiful.

Frog Hollow Farms had a few turnovers. They had one with meat, and since Lent began this past Wednesday, I was abstaining from meat today. So I got one of these Mushrooms and Leek Turnovers. It was cold and I didn't really taste any mushroom or leeks. The puff pastry was nice, though.

This table outside the Prather Ranch Meat Co. included this piece of chuck with mole on a mini tortilla. Then the thing in the back was some kind of sushi thing. Both included meat, so I had to skip this table. Sorry Prather people.

Here was one of my favorite tastes of the night. This was the Cowgirl Creamery's offering of Sir Francis Drake triple-cream cheese on a slice of Acme walnut levain bread drizzled with lavender honey from Lulu. The cheese was amazing and I loved the lavender honey, of course. How can you go wrong with cheese and honey?

OK, more meat products I couldn't eat. This was pretty popular and they were Golden Gate Meat sausages on a stick. They offered up Italian spicy or mild. Sausage on a stick, who knew?

This is something I got from Ferry Plaza Seafood. It's a risotto cake with a small piece of fresh crab on top with red bellpepper and a parsley sauce. This was cold too. What's up with people not investing in burners? The risotto cake was OK and the crab was sweet, but I wish it was served warm.

This was one of two bands playing inside the building. I don't remember what they were playing. Some kind of jazzy thing.

Here's a Ferry Building volunteer helping out pouring wine at the many wine tables. I tried the 2005 Zinfandel from Cameron Hughes Winery from the Dry Creek Valley area. It was fantastic. It was smooth, full-bodied and oh so delish. The guy explained to me that the winery isn't really a winery but some third-party who gets the grapes and cuts out the middle person and then gets the wine into the stores. Huh? I didn't really understand what he was saying; I think the wine was already having an effect on me. ;-) All I know is it was good and he said I could find it at Costco, of all places. This is a nice value Zinfandel.

Just like how you can't have Valentines without oysters, you can't have Valentines without chocolate. So of course Michael Recchiuti was out in full force. He was there in person talking to customers and serving up his tastings.

Here's what you got for just one ticket from Recchiuti chocolates. (One ticket=$2.) It was a treat to get all this to end the night of tasting for me. Unfortunately, my brain was messed up from that glass of Zinfandel so I couldn't register anything they were telling me when they explained what was on this plate. I think the heart-shaped chocolate was 70 percent of something. Oh well, I just know they all tasted good.

An event at the Ferry Building is always a treat because no one can deny that it's a beautiful building in a gorgeous setting--especially on a Friday night that was slightly warm (which is fantastic after a week of rain). I heart the Ferry Building.

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Happy Lunar New Year!

I think I heard somewhere that today's Chinese New Year? ;-) Happy Year of the Rat to everyone! Pictured above are my lucky tangerines. It's Chinese tradition to fill your home with blooming flowers and lots of citrus, particularly oranges and tangerines. (Especially tangerines because the Chinese word for it, "gum," sounds like the word for gold. Again, we're all about the money for the new year.) It's especially good luck to display them with their stems and leaves still on. I guess it looks more like money with the green. Anywho, I wish you all the best this lunar new year!

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Single Guy’s New Year’s Jai, Part II

Copyright 2008 by Cooking With The Single Guy

Ingredients:
(Much of the description and prepping of these ingredients were described in the first part of this post that you can find here.)

1 2.5-oz bag black fungus
2 cups fresh shiitake mushrooms (stem removed, cut into halves)
2 cups fried tofu
2 cups (about three bunches) long rice or mung bean threads
1 cup golden lily buds
1 cup fresh water chestnuts, peeled (you can replace with one small can of sliced water chestnuts)
½ sheet of black moss (fat choy)
½ cup unroasted, dried peanuts
¼ lb. dried oysters (ho see)
4-5 sticks of foo jook (bean curd sticks)
2 cups Napa cabbage (won bok), chopped
2 T fermented bean curd (about three cubes)
2 T fermented red bean curd (about three cubes)
2 cups chicken broth
1 chicken bouillon cube (optional)
oyster sauce to taste
2 T Canola oil

For most of the dried ingredients, you’ll need to soak them for at least 15 minutes. Follow prep recommendations noted here.

In a large pot, warm oil over medium high heat then add the cubes of regular and red bean curds. (These are the ones you bought in the jars; don’t confuse with the bean curd sticks.) Use a wooden spoon to smash up the bean curd cubes into a paste, then start adding in the tougher ingredients that needs the most time to cook, including black fungus, peanuts, water chestnuts and dried lily buds. Add a cup of broth and let simmer covered for about 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, add shiitake mushrooms, black moss, dried oysters (that you’ve rehydrated) and fried tofu. Let everything simmer for another 10 minutes. Add chicken bouillon cube at this time if you want. If your jai looks like it’s running low on broth, add remaining chicken broth or more water. Never let your jai dry out or it’ll burn.

Blanch your Napa cabbage by placing in small pot of salted boiling water for a minute and then removing and placing in a bowl of ice water. Let drain.

When your jai is 10 minutes away from cooking (depending on your ingredients, the total cooking time should be around 30 minutes), then add Napa cabbage, long rice and bean curd sticks (make sure the sticks are rehydrated and soft). Add oyster sauce to taste (you may need to add a lot since you have a big pot). If you want to, you can also add a few more cubes of the fermented bean curds to add more of that flavor. Let everything simmer to blend all the flavors and then serve with steamed rice.

Makes 6 servings.

TIP: If you make a lot of jai and don’t want to eat it all for the next few days, you can freeze some easily. But if you do, make your jai without the Napa cabbage and then freeze those portions. When you bring it out of the freezer, then add the Napa cabbage to make sure you always have a fresh vegetable.

WATCH THE POT: You let your jai stew away on the stove top, but it can dry out fast as all the ingredients absorb the broth. So stir occasionally to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom of the pot and add more broth or water as needed to maintain a simmer.

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Prepping New Year’s Jai, Part I

This Thursday marks the lunar new year, which is a big celebration among the Chinese, Vietnamese and a few other Asian communities. (Happy new year, you rats!) It was a big celebration growing up in our family, with relatives coming over for a big feast on New Year’s eve and a whole bunch of traditions too numerous to remember.

Since I’ve been living on my own and away from my family in Hawaii, I’ve had very low-key Chinese New Years. But occasionally, I’ll put in the effort to make jai, which is the traditional Buddhist monks’ dish served on new year’s day. It’s a vegetarian dish, which is why the monks are so good at making it since they don’t eat meat. The belief is that it’s served on new year’s day because:

1) You’re not allowed to have sharp instruments around on new year’s day because you don’t want to accidentally cut yourself and spill blood on a joyous occasion. So that’s why you don’t eat meat on this day because you can’t kill any animals.

2) After nights of feasting leading up to new year’s day, you want to start the new year by cleansing your body of what you’ve ate in the last few days. It’s the ancient master cleanse.

Jai is made up of a variety of ingredients that are mostly dried herbs and vegetables, which is why it has a distinct herbal almost medicinal taste. It’s an acquired taste. My mom always used quality ingredients and dressed it up with other masking agents, so I always loved her jai. When you order jai at a Chinese restaurant for new year’s, they’ll often just stir-fry some vegetables together and call it jai. But the best jai has some important ingredients that symbolize certain things.

Jai is actually easy to make because you’re just stewing the various ingredients in a big pot. But it can also be quite labor intensive because you have to prep and soak a lot of the ingredients before the actual cooking. I’m going to share my recipe for making jai for all of you away from home who always had your mom make it for you. But I thought I’d start by going over the ingredients.

Jai can be a personal thing, so these ingredients are primarily the ones I like or tolerate for its symbolism. When possible, I’ve also included a photo of the packaging so you’ll know how to identify it at your Chinese grocery store. (A lot of the dried ingredients can be purchased a couple of weeks before the new year.) Again, you can use what you recall from your family.

Water chestnuts (mah tai), represents unity. This is a seasonal ingredient that reflects the moving from winter to the first signs of spring. Since it’s available fresh at the markets around this time, I try to buy it fresh and then peel off the dark skin to reveal the white flesh of the water chestnuts. Then I just add them to the pot. If you can’t find the fresh versions, you can just buy the already peeled ones in the can. Since I buy them fresh, I usually shop for this on the day I make my jai.

Black moss (fat choy), represents wealth and prosperity. This is the most unappetizing thing in jai, and many people have an aversion to it because they think it looks like hair. It’s dried moss and the Chinese word for them sounds like “prosperity,” which is why I add it to my jai because I want to make sure I get rich in the new year. Soak for five minutes in warm water, rinse and drain. (When you buy it at the store, it’s in a black square almost like a Brillo pad.)

Tree ear fungus (ha mok yi), also known as black fungus or wood ear fungus, represents longevity. This grows on the side of the tree and is dried. It can be a bit crunchy. Soak for 15 minutes, then pick through them to remove any tough parts or any parts you probably wouldn’t want to eat.

Golden lily buds (gum jun), represents wealth. This dried part of the lily plant has a really strong herbal taste, so I typically don’t add a lot of this into my jai. Its Chinese name has the word “gold” in it so that’s why it represents money. It’s long and stringy, and it’s sometimes sold with each one tied into a knot to represent that your money won’t slip away from you. Soak for 15 minutes before adding to the pot.

Long rice or mung bean thread (fun see), represents long life. A lot of kids like to eat this ingredient because it’s like noodles. Since it represents long life, you don’t want to cut it when you add it to your jai because you don’t want to shorten your life. Soak for 15 minutes and add at the very last minute to your jai because it can get soggy easily.

Dried oysters (ho see), represents good luck. OK, I know I said jai is a vegetarian dish so you’re probably wondering what these dried oysters are doing here? I’m not really sure, other than the Chinese words sound like luck and we Chinese try to get our luck any way we can. So it’s a popular item in jai (and expensive, I found them for $15.99 a pound in Chinatown). Soak in warm water for 15 minutes to rehydrate and to also let any sand wash away. (Note: even though this is dried, there is still some moisture to them so you want to make sure you store it properly like a refrigerator or a dry, cool pantry. If you leave it in a plastic bag, the moisture can create mold.) Since it can spoil, I usually buy this the day I make my jai.

Bean curd sticks (foo jook), represents blessings for the home. This is one of my favorite ingredients. It’s basically dried soy bean and has a comforting mild taste to it. I even put it in my jook (Chinese rice porridge). This takes the longest to soak, about 60 minutes until the hard dried texture is rehydrated to become light and cream colored. Add near the end of cooking your jai because they break easily. They’re sold in really long sticks in the package, but I feel these are OK to break into more bite-size pieces since they don’t represent longevity. (I break mines to about 5-inch sticks.)

Shiitake mushrooms (dong gu), represents spring. Most Chinese cooks will use dried shiitake mushrooms, which can be quite expensive. They’re also a lot of work because you have to rehydrate them before adding to your jai. Luckily, in the Bay Area I can get fresh shiitake mushrooms all year. So I just use the fresh versions because it’s just easier.

Fried tofu (chow dofu), represents blessings for the home. You buy these in the refrigerated section. They’re sometimes sold loose or in packages. Place in boiling water for 1 minute and then drain. (My mom says this is to get rid of any greasy taste since this was fried.) Let it cool and use your hand to squeeze out any excess water (be careful not to scald yourself from the hot water). I typically buy this a few days or the day when I make my jai and store it in the refrigerator.
Peanuts (fah sun), represents birth. Not too many people are used to peanuts in jai. They’re more used to the ginko nuts. But I don’t like the ginko nuts so I typically just use peanuts. Make sure you buy the white, non-roasted peanuts. When you cook this for a long time in your jai, it’ll soften and be really a nice treat with your jai.

Napa cabbage (won bok), represents spring. The slight green color of the Napa cabbage indicates the coming of spring. You buy this fresh and you can blanch it before adding to your jai if you want to make sure you retain the green color. This is also added near the end because you don’t want it to wilt too much.

So these are the basic ingredients I use in my jai. Like I said, there are other ingredients you can add. I’ve seen people add sugar snap peas or carrots for color and crunch. But I don’t go crazy with the vegetables because then it just becomes a vegetable stir-fry.

The base flavor of the jai, I believe, is the preserved bean curd that’s sold in jars. My mom likes to use the red bean curd and regular bean curd as the base flavor for her jai. So I do the same too. I keep these jars in my refrigerator after I’ve opened them.

Come back tomorrow for the actual recipe when I put all these ingredients together for the new year.

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Going Beyond Sushi: A Conversation with True Sake

Late last year, I read an item in the New York Times about an all-sake shop that opened in Manhattan. And that reminded me that San Francisco has been home to the first store dedicated solely to the pursuit of sake for more than four years.

In the Hayes Valley neighborhood, True Sake blends well with the boutique, high-end shops in the area with its sleek storefront and backlit display areas. Selling more than 200 premium sake (all imported), True Sake is the brainchild of Beau Timken, an Ohio native who discovered the notion of good quality sake when he first met a group of Japanese fishermen who brought their own bottles of sake to a sushi restaurant in Cape Town, South Africa.

That exchange started Timken on his amazing journey of discovery into this Japanese rice wine rich in history and tradition. Timken now holds two professional sake tasting licenses and a master sake sommelier license, and is a designated “sake samurai”—often preaching the wonders of sake at beverage conventions.

Last week, I caught up with Timken at one of his monthly sake tasting events. On this night, he offered tastings of six sake at the Sebu sushi restaurant across the street from the True Sake store. (Timken consulted on the sake list for the restaurant.) It actually turned out to be a tag-team interview because I chatted with Timken, but when he got busy I went across the street to check out his store and chat with store manager Miwa Wang, who is also a sake sommelier (known as a kikizake-shi in Japan).

The following are edited excerpts of our conversation:

Chef Ben: Do you look for anything in particular when choosing sake?

Beau Timken: I have two answers to your question—one as a consumer and one as a professional. As a professional, I do international competitions. In those competitions more often than not I look for the faults. Because after tasting more than 500 sakes, I might just crack. It’s unfair and I don’t like doing it that way. But as a drinker, I always look for the strengths. I can find the strengths in any sake. So sitting at home and enjoying it on my own, I will rip it apart and I will find absolutely any strength that exists in that brew.

CB: What is it that you’re looking for that tells you that’s good sake?

BT: I usually talk about house, structure. On my palate, what I’ll do is I’ll talk about balance. If the sake doesn’t have structure or balance, then the sake’s going to collapse like how a building will collapse, a house will collapse. So my No. 1 thing is balance. That includes flavor; it can include feelings. … I will foreshadow balance, and I’ll come back and break out feelings, flavor, dexterity, how it hit my mouth, how it expanded my mouth.

I’m also thinking of functionality. A brewer makes a sake taste like that for a reason. Why? Why does he make the sake do that or achieve that? Some brewer will make it really light and clean and crisp because he thinks people will like to drink that. Other brewers will make it more expansive, more wider, more viscous. So I always look for the reason. I look for the balance and I look for the reason. Why do they make it like this?

CB: You drink a lot of sake so you’re an expert in identifying the nuances of sake. But for a beginner, how can he or she tell when the sake isn’t good?

BT: We still have such a low basis of understanding (in America). And that’s the same with not just our knowledge of tasting but with our knowledge of sake. We’re starting at less than zero. Our base is crappy sake. The best way to hide the taste of crappy sake is to nuke it and make it hot. Again, that’s a masking agent. So the long and short of it is people know what they like. I can give you a $150 sake or I can give you an $8 sake, and it’ll speak to people in different ways. But what you have to start doing is increase your benchmark.

If you’ve never had a Cabernet before and we gave you one and you’re like, eh, it’s pretty good. But how far can you go? How good can you get and how bad can you get? So people are learning to build their pool of knowledge a little bit.

A customer comes up and asks Beau about what temperature to serve sake, which is a timely question since we were just talking about how Americans think sake should be served hot. For the tasting, Beau served six types of junmai sake, which is a class of sake made only with rice, mold and water. For junmai sake, the rice has been polished (or milled) at about 30 percent. (For sake, the varieties are determined not by the type of rice used but by how much it’s polished or milled and how much of the grain is left.)

Beau served his junmai sake at room temperature, but he said that each brewer would generally recommend how the sake should be served. You can tell by looking on the bottle for the temperature zone, which Beau calls the “sweet spot” to determine the best temperature to serve that particular sake.

As Beau continued to engage with the growing crowd of sake tasters at Sebu, I went across the street to the True Sake store to chat with his store manager, who’s in a more quiet environment.

CB: Are there any rules to look out for when drinking sake?

Miwa Wang: Tasting for homework’s sake is different than tasting socially. Definitely, you look in the glass for texture and sometimes color. Even when I pour it, I sometimes listen to how the sake pours into the glass. Sometimes you just have a wonderful discovery and some sake is very viscous or rich. And some brewers design their bottles so that it creates a beautiful sound when you pour it.

Once it’s poured, often we tell customers to try drinking sake in different glasses. Some sake taste slightly different. Like if you even drink out of a wine glass, then do a little sniffing to detect the glass notes just like in wine.

CB: But there are no rules or guides to tasting like they do for wine?

MW: If anything, maybe just the balance. Balance as in what you smell and if you taste it, sometimes there’s no match and that’s an interesting part of tasting, it’s a nice surprise. I don’t think that’s bad. I was talking to a number of brewers on this trip (she just returned from vacation), in particular about food pairings, and they say people don’t have to be that serious. When you’re tasting sake, you don’t need to find anything. If anything just capture the nuances or the personality of the sake.

CB: So it sounds like sake can match almost anything? It sounds very versatile for dining.

MW: Which is actually in a way very, very true. Sometimes sake tends to evolve and adjust to what you’re having, and also your mood and the weather. And sometimes sake can really enhance the flavor of the food. Boom. Suddenly you pick up that rich kind of tofu bean tone or miso, and sometimes it almost kind of blends altogether and becomes just the background. Sometimes it’ll create almost a new flavor in your mouth.

CB: People think you should chill sake and serve it cold. Is that true?

MW: No, depends on the sake. Generally speaking, the junmai style—the way it is brewed and the chemical compound of the sake itself—makes it so that you can enjoy the sake chilled, room temperature, or warm. Some sake definitely excel almost at the warm temperature than being chilled. Versus ginjo and dai ginjo sake, generally speaking, which are best served slightly chilled or chilled. But there are always exceptions. (Note: Ginjo and dai ginjo sake are other classes of sake that are more polished than junmai. Ginjo is milled to 40 percent and dai ginjo is 50 percent. Brewers also add some distilled alcohol to these sake.)

CB: So it’s OK to drink sake warm? I thought that’s a sign that you’re trying to mask a poor-tasting sake?

MW: Oh no, poor sake in the sense of America and it’s still kind of true in Japan that not-so-good sake got here first and in a way to make it able to drink we make it hot. Unfortunately it got so piping hot and that practice remains even today. But some sake can retain its softness even in warm temperature. When some sake reaches that hot zone then that’s a little too much and all you smell is alcohol.

Sometimes when you want to warm it up like a junmai, then the flavor comes out. It becomes softer and you can taste the sweetness of the rice.

CB: What’s the proper way to warm up sake?

MW: Everybody probably has a sake set if they’re really serious, you know, the one you probably got as a gift from a friend. You can boil a pot of water and pour the sake into the tokkori (that’s the small bottle to hold the sake) and put that into the pot of boiling water. It doesn’t have to keep cooking. It can be anywhere between 20 seconds to maybe a minute and a half. It does heat up pretty quickly.

CB: After you bring sake home, how should you store it if you’re not going to drink it right away?

MW: The best is dark and cold, which can be in the refrigerator or in the basement or wine cellar.

CB: But since it doesn’t have a cork, you don’t have to lay it down, right?

MW: No, and once it’s opened definitely keep it refrigerated. But I remember my grandfather and some people would still keep it at room temperature. But it’s better to keep it in the refrigerator once it’s been open.

CB: So how long will sake last after you’ve opened it?

MW: Depends on the sake itself. Some fragile or delicate or super aromatic sake I would say anywhere between that night to a couple of days. Certain styles of sake hold itself for a long time, two to three weeks sometimes. Sake compared to wine is a little more forgiving.

CB: With wine, you often drink it maybe two years after bottling to give it some time to age. How is it with sake? Does it mature right after it’s bottled?

MW: It’s not aging like wine. Sake rests for three to six months. There’s also aged sake that’s a different species. Those are aged nowadays 10 to 20 years and gain that amber color, and the flavor of those sake is different than the clear sake.

CB: How long can a bottle last on the shelf if you haven’t opened it?

MW: Again, if it’s cool and dark, like a refrigerator shelf, about six months.

CB: What does bad sake taste like?

MW: Some kind of musty, could be kind of bitter, flat. Again, it depends on the sake. In the world of sake, there’s a lot of depends. There’s no black and white. Sake world is nebulous and I think it should be that way.

CB: How do you pair sake with food. Are there any rules?

MW: I don’t want to say rules, but maybe framework. Best is to just play around. But generally, if you have quite spicy or acidic food, instead of going with a dry sake, go for the sweeter side. … If you’re having raw fish that’s rich and fatty, I personally wouldn’t want to drink something that’s really sweet or fruity but rather go for semi-dry junmai. … Some fruity sake is just great by itself.

CB: From Japan, there are a lot of traditions in serving sake. Are there certain traditions you’d like to see here? Or are there things you’d like to see us stop doing?

MW: Definitely not to do the super hot sake. Discontinue that tradition, I guess. Sake bombs would be a problem (laughs), particularly if great sake is being used for sake bombs, which won’t be the case. I hope not.

One aspect of sake serving in Japan that I like is the pouring for each other. I like that aspect.

But the best thing about drinking sake in America is not having any complete notion of what sake should be or is—keep it very open. So that itself is something we don’t have in Japan. They associate sake with certain things.

CB: Right, because they have such a long tradition?

MW: Right, right. And having almost no traditions is actually serving well for sake in America, I feel.

I head back over to Sebu and Beau’s tasting. The crowd has gotten bigger and louder. It also may be because Beau pours as much sake into the plastic tasting cups as what most sushi restaurants would serve in those tiny cups.

CB: Where do you think the trend of sake drinking is headed in America?

BT: I say that sake is not really a trend, it’s a 1,000-year-old fad. We’re just learning to appreciate sake. So if we’re talking about upside and if more people are going to be drinking sake more than they have? Absolutely. Couple of reasons: One, sake and sushi are married at the hip. I try to break that marriage all the time. Invariably it’s true. If sake is riding the coattails of sushi, then OK. But I also want people to think outside the box. That it doesn’t always have to go with sushi. …

Second, education has finally caught up like it has with wine. People are starting to understand sake more because of people like John Gauntner, Philip Harper, myself, we’ve all written books on sake.

Thirdly, where there’s increase in demand, there’s better products. So more good brews are coming to the states. And good brews are coming through not just food importers who traditionally used to import sake but now dedicated sake importers. So they’re the ones who are coming and they’re getting out to restaurants, they’re getting out to bars so they’re educating people as well.

So the marriage with sushi, the education process and then better products coming in. But the no. 1 reason why sake is going to do better is what I call the tequila factor. Everybody used to think that Jose Cuervo silver was tequila and it’s not. Once people realize there are better products out there, they’ll naturally gravitate to it. We haven’t gotten any of the great products here yet—they’re coming. A lot are here now. But once people realize there are better tasting sake they’re not used to, then they’ll realize, “why not drink this?”

CB: So there are a few more all-sake stores popping up in the United States (there’s a tiny shop in Seattle along with the new one in Manhattan). Does this show that demand for sake is growing?

BT: No question, awareness is growing. People are looking for a better product.

CB: Where would you say America’s awareness on sake stands right now?

BT: Baby steps, still in the early stage. But you have to crawl before you walk in any case. I told you, though, we’re still trying to get to zero. We still have to shatter all the myths about sake—that it has to be served hot, that it is a hard alcohol. We have to bring people back to zero before we can show them going forward.

We are in the Paleozoic age of sake.

CB: You’re very enthusiastic when serving sake. Where does all this passion come from?

BT: It’s people coming up and telling me they don’t know anything about sake but they come up and tell me that they really like this one because they know what they like. That’s good. We’ve arrived. We’ve hit a sense of understanding, comprehension. And that’s where I get my feedback.

... I have two professional master sake sommelier licenses and I’m a sake samurai, but I’m more proud of the fact that I’m a dude from Ohio who sake spoke to me. I’m a guide. I’m just here to help people. If I can get it, they can get it. You don’t need to be opinionated. You don’t need to be frustrated by it. You just have to enjoy it.

Beau goes back to pouring samples of the junmai. I actually tried just one, the Tsukasabotan Senchu Hassaku, which is a dry junmai from Kochi prefecture in Japan. It was very light, almost like water. I hate to say it but I would really like some sushi to go with it about now. Sorry Beau!

After watching Beau serve sake for a bit more, this woman grabbed me and asked me why I wasn’t taking her photo. I never turn down people’s requests to be on my blog, so I snapped her photo and that of her friend who came along with her to the tasting. The woman, on the right, chatted with me for awhile about how she loved the sake and all the different ways she plans to cook with the sake. You could tell that she has been bit by the sake bug. (Or that she should be cut off from any more tasting for the night! LOL.)

Thanks to Beau and Miwa for taking the time to share their love of sake with me, especially having to juggle their attention between me and a room full of sake tasters. You can learn more about Beau’s tasting events on the True Sake Web site, where you can also sign up for his newsletters. And if you’re ever in Hayes Valley, check out the True Sake store—the very first all-sake store in the United States. It’s a beautiful store and you’ll learn a lot about the art of appreciating sake.

True Sake, 560 Hayes St., San Francisco. PH: 415.355.9555. http://www.truesake.com/

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Jamie At Home: Episode 4, Mushrooms

In this episode, Jamie Oliver’s not just in his garden, he’s in the forest. He’s going foraging for wild mushrooms and joining him is his Italian friend Gennaro. Fans of Jamie’s show will remember Gennaro making some appearances and teaching Jamie to cook Italian. Gennaro has such a strong Italian accent, I always think he’s probably some Irish person with a TV Italian accent.

Anywho, Jamie and Gennaro are out foraging for mushrooms and Jamie spots a porcini mushroom that looks absolutely beautiful. I’ve only seen them dried, so the fresh version has this interesting amber color on the cap. Gennaro also shows another version of the porcini nearby that when he cuts into it, the inside turns from yellow to blue. Now, this would be a good reminder that you need to be an expert when picking wild mushrooms because there are poisonous ones out there. But Gennaro assures Jamie that this blueish porcini is safe. I guess we’ll see in 30 minutes.

Jamie finally gets cooking, and it’s like the Boy Scouts episode because they make a mushroom bruschetta out in the forest. He starts by warming up some olive oil in a non-stick skillet and then throws in the mushrooms they picked. Jamie and Gennaro debates about when the garlic should have been added. (Gennaro thinks it should be added before the mushrooms but Jamie adds it with the mushrooms because he thinks the garlic might burn by the time you add the mushrooms. They bicker like a married couple.)

With the mushrooms he adds fresh herbs like thyme and seasons with salt and pepper. He adds a tablespoon of butter and the small end of a lemon for some “twang.” With the juices from the mushrooms, this all combines to make a sauce that will be nice on the toast, which Jamie adds to the skillet to warm up. In the end, he basically throws everything on top of the toast and that’s it. Really, that’s it. I actually think it would have been good to add some eggs. I know, it’ll be like an omelet, but I think the eggs would have acted as a binder for all the mushrooms. Now it’s just a bunch of pieces on the toast. I guess it is camp cooking so he has to keep it simple. Gennaro calls it “bloody good.”

Jamie is back home since this show is called Jamie At Home and he makes a Venison and Wild Mushroom Stroganoff (venison is such the “it” meat these days).

He starts off making rice to serve with his stroganoff. (I always thought stroganoff was with pasta noodles?) It’s just simple plain white rice.

Then he expertly finely dices an onion, which he tosses into a pan to sauté. He adds some finely sliced garlic. Now he gets this weird mushroom that I think he calls “chicken in the woods” and it looks like a big yellow cauliflower. He cuts it into slices. Then he does the same with a venison loin, cutting into finger-size pieces and then cubing them. He seasons the meat with salt, pepper and paprika.

He sets the sautéed onions and garlic aside (he actually just throws it on the side of his butcher board, what a mess) and then adds the mushroom pieces into the pan, then the meat, and he lets that cook for awhile as he chops up some other ingredients, including gurkens and parsley. He adds the parsley stems to the pot with the meat and some crème fraiche, giving the whole pan a really nice caramelized color. He also adds some lemon zest.

Now he just plates up everything, putting the rice in a bowl and then in another plate he plates up the venison stroganoff and mixes in the gurken pieces along with more crème fraiche and the rest of the parsley leaves. It looks like a very hearty dish, if a bit messy. Jamie is so proud that he’s speechless. I love his expressions. You can tell what he’s thinking without him saying anything.

Jamie and Gennaro are back in the forest. Actually Jamie’s standing on top of Gennaro’s shoulders as he tries to use a long stick with a knife at the end to cut off this huge mushroom off the side of the tree. It looks like that big yellow cauliflower-looking mushroom that he put into his stroganoff. It is huge.

Jamie’s in a new cooking area. It looks like a greenhouse (or I guess it’s called a day room if there’s a kitchen in it) and for some odd reason he’s cooking while sitting in a chair. Just seems so unlike Jamie to be sitting around. Anywho, he’s making a grilled mushroom risotto. (Which is a very classic dish. In fact, I make my own wild mushrooms risotto that’s kind of similar.)

Jamie starts off with diced onions and celery in a sauté pan. Then he adds Arborio rice, the basic risotto version. In the meantime he gets some dried porcini and rehydrates them by pouring some hot broth into a bowl with the porcini for about two minutes. Back to his risotto, he adds Vermouth instead of white wine and then starts the process of adding small ladles of broth to the rice, and also adds some of the mushroom broth that came out of the porcini. (He says to make sure not to add the last bits of the mushroom broth, which can be a bit sandy.)

He chops up the rehydrated porcini into pieces and adds it to the risotto. While that cooks away, he gets some fresh wild mushrooms. I don’t recognize the names of them, including some fancy French name, except the chanterelles, which I love. He throws the pieces naked onto a hot griddle pan. (I actually saw another chef do the same, but he brushed it with some olive oil before adding it to the fire.)

Jamie finishes up his risotto by adding a nub of butter and grates some parmesan cheese from this big honking piece of parmesan. All this is done with the risotto off the heat because it’ll cook some more. He covers it up to let it cook, and then finishes the mushrooms off the grill by tossing them with some herbs and a squeeze of lemon.

He plates up his risotto and tops them with the mushrooms and it all looks beautiful until he adds this big nub of butter on top, which then looks kind of weird. He yells out “Gennaro” like a mom calling someone to the dinner table. They end with the theme music and then one last look at the two enjoying the risotto. “I love the mushrooms,” Gennaro says, helping remind us what we were watching in case we forgot between the time the show ended a few seconds ago and the theme music.

Must be a British Thing:
Just some clarification on some of the terms Jamie uses.

Gurkens=sweet pickles

Tin foil=aluminum foil

Jamieisms heard in this episode:

steaky

Nubs (clumps, as in “nubs of butter”)

Jamie At Home airs on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. on the Food Network. Visit Jamie’s Web site at www.jamieoliver.com/. More on the accompanying book for the series here.

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Flex Those Mussels

During this time of year, it’s great having all the seafood to eat around the Bay Area. Mostly because I find seafood is the easiest thing to cook because they don’t take much time to be done. One of my favorite quick-and-easy meals is a nice bowl of fresh mussels. Mussels are great for today’s conscientious home chef because they’re sustainable for the environment. You can eat a lot of them and not worry about the ocean running out, especially since mussels are also farm-raised. Below is my simple recipe to prepare them. It’s kind of like the classic French preparation with white wine (I forget the fancy French term), but I don’t use any butter. You can get creative and modify the recipe by adding other things like bacon pieces. But the highlight of the recipe is really the mussel juice that blends with the wine. That’s why you really need to serve it with a big piece of bread to soak up all the goodness. (And don’t forget to use a good quality wine that you’d like to drink on its own.) Enjoy!

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Mussels in White Wine Sauce

Copyright 2008 by Cooking With The Single Guy

Ingredients:
1 lb. fresh mussels in shell (about 12-15 pieces)
1 sweet onion, diced
½ cup dry white wine
1 cup fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
2 T extra virgin olive oil

In a large saucepan or medium pot, warm olive oil over medium high heat and then add onions to sauté until translucent (about 3 to 5 minutes). Then add the mussels and stir for about 30 seconds and add the wine and cilantro and cook cover for about 5 to 10 minutes or until the mussels have opened up. Plate up with any remaining juices and serve with a big piece of garlic bread.

Makes 1 to 2 servings.

Pair with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc (the same wine you would use to cook the mussels).

TIP: You should clean your mussels before cooking it. The main thing to do is to pull the “beard,” which is a little whisker-like string sticking out of the shell. Some mussels will have a long one and some may not even have much. Just tug on it until it snaps off. I also like to scrub the shell with a vegetable scrubber just to make sure there’s nothing on it. Sometimes mussels can be a bit sandy, depending on how clean your fishmonger washed them. So I like to soak them in a bowl of cold water for about an hour before cooking to let any residual sand sink to the bottom of the bowl.

WAKE UP: Cooking shellfish like mussels and clams sometimes need a bit of help to open up. With their spring action of the shell, it usually helps to just tap on it with a wooden spoon. So when cooking the mussels, if you notice one that’s not open, tapping on it might help wake it up and get it going. Another trick is to just grab your covered saucepan or pot and shake it a bit. This lets all the ingredients toss inside and also helps wake up your mussels. But remember, if the mussel still doesn’t open after all your attempts to wake it up with the tapping or shaking, then toss it out because that’s probably a bad one.

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