Kombu - The new noodle

Absolutely positively the coolest new thing we found at the San Francisco Fancy Food Show (NASFT) was Chef Claude's Kombu Seaweed Noodles. Talk about your instant dinner. We defrosted the package in a bowl of water, tossed the noodles with a simple sesame oil vinaigrette, and ate them all (what was left after we chased the kids away).

What do they taste like? Well, like seaweed of course, or what we imagine seaweed should taste like. They have a bit of a crunch and a slightly gelatinous mouthfeel. If you are from, say, Iowa, and have never made it to either coast to munch on the local seaweed, think tapioca in noodle form with a slightly salty taste.

San Francisco beaches are often littered with long strands of kelp, 10-20 feet long that wash up on the shore. The deep kelp beds off the coast of Northern California are also home to the once plentiful abalone, which we have been fortunate enough to have exactly twice in our life. The Kombu Seaweed Noodles are made from kelp found in the China Sea, although these are the giant version, with strands reaching over 1500 feet long. The kelp is harvested, cleaned and cooked, until it is a big gelatinous mass, and then extruded into a noodle form. They are then packed in 6 oz. packages and shipped frozen. With a shelf life of 18 months frozen and 5 months refrigerated, there's no excuse not to have a couple packs handy in your larder. Currently, they are available on the east coast (retail and restaurants) and through the Kombu-Noodle site.

More new foodie items from the NASFT in the SF Chronicle.

Letter from the editor...

"My grandmother once told me that the key to a mans heart is to feed him caviar for breakfast. And caviar for breakfast it is (and lunch and dinner!), when you are the world's largest supplier of caviar like Simon de Gutfish. Simon spends his days sampling the luxurious eggs of the Minnesota Leopard Muskellunge and the New York Tiger Muskie. A tough job for sure, but somebody has to do it!

In this issue, we explore some of the finest luxury foods in the world - and good lord - we gained ten pounds doing it! Besides caviar for breakfast on a stone cold morning in Minnesota, our nutritional expert Ravina Sherbert offers three recipes for warm and unctuous soups to sip while cozying next to your sweetie by the fire. I could bathe every day in her Sweet Pea Puree with Caviar "Bubbles".

When Robert Redwood visits a foie gras farm in France, he not only got to force-feed the frogs their yummy diet of earthworm/fly smoothies, but he developed three delightfully elegant recipes for frog foie gras that you can cook at home. We swooned over his appetizer of Fern Frond Toasts topped with Salt-cured Frog Foie Gras.

I always resort to champagne when my pet chocolate labrador drinks the last of the orange juice in the morning. Our wine expert, Lageele Gahlo, explores the back roads of the up and coming champagne vineyards in Plankton, South Dakota. And if that's not enough to wet your whistle, we asked celebrated chef, Marcus Sallclad, for a few of his favorite champagne cocktails recipes that are guaranteed to kick start your morning.

This holiday season we plan to indulge, imbibe, and implode. From all of us at Cuisine Extravagance Magazine, we wish you extravagant epicurean enlightenment!

Hmmm. Sound familiar? It's the ready-made letter "from the editor" in your favorite food magazine. A quick summary of this months contents in sound-bite form. Just a wee bit b-o-r-i-n-g, thank you very much.

Now we realize that you (dear editor...) have grumpy copy editors, pissy stylists, pretentious photographers, and writers with way-too-big egos to deal with, but what about you? Surely you have something a bit more inspirational to impart to your loyal readers than a page-by-page preview of your current issue?

Personally, we are fond of Christopher Kimball's editorial in Cook's Illustrated. His candid glimpses from his personal life are honest and sincere, bordering on the nostalgic - at least to us. Maybe it's the "grass is greener" syndrome? He lives in rural America and we live in the big (little) city. Whatever it is, we appreciate his gesture to communicate to his readers, and only wish that other editors were as inspired.

New Years Food Resolutions...(excuse our indulgence).

Cook at least one recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which has been on our bookshelf for years, but we've never ever cracked it open.

Make more fresh pasta. Mario Batali's fazzoletti with sausage ragu elicited responses of "this is the best pasta I've ever had!", which is high praise from a six-year-old.

Shop at the farmers market, but buy completely different food than usual. Yes, we are in a rut. We always buy some Niman beef, usually a nicely marbled rib-eye or a tasty hanger steak. If there are any left, a couple poussins at the Hoffman Game Bird stand. We hit our favorite veggie vendors and pick up some broccoli raab, carrots, some cavalo nero or chard. Stand in line for a loaf of Acme bread, and on our way out, snag a bag of valencias for juice. Needless to say, we cook alot of the same recipes week after week. What if we bought lamb instead of beef, duck instead of chicken, maybe parsnips, turnips, and kohlrabi? How revolutionary is that! Imagine the possibilities...

Develop the perfect technique for preserving fresh strawberries. You bring them home from the market, and within hours they start to soften and mold. Is there a magic force-field around market stands that protects them while they are on display? Once they leave the safety of that market umbrella, the spell wears off and they start to rot. Eat them all directly, or end up throwing half of them out the next morning...drives us crazy.

Drink the bottle of 1985 Warre's Vintage Port that has been in our cellar for years. It's probably about ready to drink?

Make a perfect gratin dauphinois, ala Jeffrey Steingarten. With our last batch, the potatoes curled up on the edges, which while still delicious, wasn't exactly picture perfect. Must have had the temperature too high...or maybe we didn't use enough butter.

Master the art of cooking grass-fed beef. Right now there's a cow at the Chileno Valley Ranch with our name on it, eating grass, we presume. And yes, we are even going to cook the tongue. Yum!

Make our own wine. Why not? There's a grape glut going on, grapes will be cheap(er), theoretically. Just don't tell our wife, she won't share our enthusiasm for turning the garage into a wine making facility. A nice ripe Zinfandel sounds like a good place to start.

Write a James Beard Award winning article for this website (wink).

Convice our 4 1/2 year-old daughter that a three course meal does not consist of dessert, dessert, and dessert.

Grow tomatoes. Now that we have a backyard with a southern exposure, growing tomatoes in San Francisco may be a distinct possibility.

Dine on Laurent Gras's poached pork bellies at the Fifth Floor.

Watch more of the Food Network...this year we have watched exactly one episode of Mario Batali's show, we caught Anthony Bourdain in Vietnam, a couple Rachel Ray clips, a few glorious Iron Chef faceoffs and endless snippets of Emeril (when is that show not on?). That's it. Or maybe we could go a whole year without watching any food shows...?

Our least favorite food stuff of 2002...

People who design stoves don't actually cook, do they? Never in our life have we cooked on a stovetop that was level. There is nothing worse than trying to sear a steak when all the fat is sliding to one side of the pan. Sure, you can screw around with the little adjustment pegs on the legs of the stove, but when it comes right down to it, what really messes you up is the burner grates. They never fit, exactly, snugly, perfectly, like they should. This is our kitchen with a Frigidaire stove. Take our word for it, it's miserable trying to cook anything on this stove top. Just kidding - kinda...

We stopped keeping count of all the corked wine we opened this year. Just tonite, we cracked open a '98 Tempranillo, and knew when the corkscrew went in, that the wine was corked. The cork itself was soft, and split down the middle when we pulled it out - and it stunk. Guess that's where the term "skunked" wine comes from? Ok, so it was the last bottle of wine in the house, and we gagged down a few swigs in desperation, hoping that our stuffed-up nose would mask enough of the taint to make it at least palatable. No such luck. Now we have to drag the bottle back to the retailer we bought it from and get our money back. That is such a hassle. Shouldn't all wine drinkers be entitled to an instant automatic "corked wine credit"? You are at the grocery store, and the clerk is about to ring up the bottle of Zinfandel you've selected, when you stop them with a quick "Sorry, but I haven't used my corked wine credit yet this year", and the clerk gives you a knowing nod, and slips the bottle into your bag. Makes that zin taste twice as nice at dinner that night. Unless of course, it was corked...

Our least favorite dinner was (whisper) at the French Laundry. Now, you are thinking we are really jaded, but wait. It's not like we eat there once a month, or once a year, or even once every five years. We've only eaten there one time, but it just didn't live up to its advanced billing. The food was good, really good, most of it anyways (see below in our
'favorites" list for more details). We remember actually being disappointed that there was too much caviar and not enough cauliflower in the "Cauliflower Panna Cotta with Beluga Caviar". Who's gonna make cauliflower panna cotta at home (uh huh)? We don't exactly keep a tin of Beluga in the fridge either, but it's a little easier had than a quivering spoon-shaped taste of perfectly cooked cauliflower. Thomas Keller's French Laundry Cookbook is one of our all time favorite cookbooks. The French Laundry restaurant however, has been mythologized to the point to where it is one of the pinnacles of American dining. When you lay down a good chunk of change for what should have been perfection, but wasn't, you tend to be disappointed, and maybe a little insulted...

The San Francisco Chronicle Food Section. We just want to point out one thing, maybe two. Judy Rodgers, chef at Zuni restaurant, did a wonderful series of columns and instructional videos for the New York Times. Thomas Keller did a great riff on his book in a series of columns for the LA Times. Can you name the local SF Bay Area chefs that have done columns for the SF Chronicle food section in the last year or so? Didn't think so. Isn't it kind of embarassing when newspapers in other parts of the country trump you by showcasing the local talent you have obviously ignored?

That's it. We are gonna quit while we are ahead, so-to-speak...

The best food stuff of 2002 - in our humble opinion...

Best book on food (not a cookbook) - WHAT EINSTEIN TOLD HIS COOK, by Robert Wolke, columnist for the Washington Post.
How many food books do you read and actually end up being smarter in the kitchen for having read them? Robert Wolke's book is so full of useful information that you'll find yourself referring to it again and again, particularly if you are as interested in the science of cooking as we are. You probably do it automatically - put salt in your boiling pasta water - but do you know why you do it, and what effect it has on the outcome? Speaking of salt, what exactly, is the difference between all those different types of sea salt out there and why do they cost so much? Only a true hard-core foodie would pay good money to see Mr. Wolke and his salt nemesis, Mr. Steingarten face off in a Sea Salt Symposium (no, this isn't actually in the book, but we can dream...). And we have to say thank you to Mr. Wolke (seriously) for telling us that there is absolutely no difference between the shiny side and the dull side of aluminum foil (admit it, you've always wondered). Now we can wrap our leftovers with impunity.
Not only does he have the penetrating mind of a chemistry professor (he discovered the longest half-life radioisotope known, cadmium 113), but Robert Wolke also has a tremendous sense of humor. Besides being packed with all kinds of interesting food science tidbits, this book is just plain funny. ItÔø‡s also graced with recipes from his wife, Marlene Parrish, a nationally known journalist who specializes in reporting on culinary trends. But our favorite recipe tip from the book is toasting breadcrumbs in the microwave. Who would have known?

Best Bottle of Wine that we drank in 2002 - Hippolyte Reverdy Sancerre Chaudoux Verdigny 2000
Ok, so 2002 was the year of the rose'. We drank cases of it. We also had our fair share of syrah and pinot. Come to think of it, maybe only a couple bottles of merlot and a cab or two. Guess we were in a rut. But the most memorable bottle was a white wine, a sancerre, otherwise known in the U.S. as sauvignon blanc. They don't make 'em like this one in the states though. You want a lesson in what French terroir really means, do yourself a favor and track down this bottle. Flinty, full of minerals, a hint of melon, and very very crisp. This isn't the best bottle of wine that you will ever drink, but it is so distinctively different from most of the other sauvignon blancs out there, that you will definitely remember it. Imported by Kermit Lynch, about $15.99.

Best article on food in a magazine - Jeffrey Steingarten, Vogue Magazine, pick any issue. Excuse us while we gush. Jeffrey Steingarten is the god of food writing. End of story, enough said. Except maybe thank you for the inspiration...

Most memorable meal that we ate out in 2002 - Acme Chop House San Francisco, Grass Feed Beef Dinner.
This summer we scored a meal at the FL, or French Laundry to those of you not acquainted with speed dial short hand. Of course, this was destined to be the best meal of the year. To be perfectly honest, it was disappointing. A luke warm bottle of white wine (obviously quickly dunked in ice prior to popping the cork at our table), less than smooth service (where is that waiter anyways?), dishes that just didn't shine (chewy butter poached lobster), and a single slice for the cheese course (where the heck is the cheese cart?). It was a rather expensive bummer. Maybe weÔø‡re just not cut out for 4 star dining?
Our most memorable meal was at the Acme Chop House, where grass fed beef from three different ranches was served. How's this for a menu:

Chilled Tongue with Roasted Beets and MÔø‡che Salad, Sauce Gribiche
Bandol Rose', Chateau La Rouviere, Provence 2001
Three-Ranch Braised Short Ribs with Turnips and Carrots in a Red Wine Jus
Grenache 'The Fergus' Tim Adams, Clare Valley, Australia, 1998
Almond-wood Grilled Short Loin Steaks
Marin Sun Strip Loin
Chileno Valley Ribeye
Western Grasslands Tri Tip
Celery Root-Potato Puree and Brussel Sprouts with Grain Mustard
Cabernet Sauvignon, Clos Du Val, Napa Valley, 1999
A Selection of Marin County Cheeses
Fairfax Meyer Lemon Meringue Tart
Moscato D' Asti Nivole' Michele Chiarlo, Piedmont 2001

To top it off, we got to set next to Sally and Mike Gale from Chileno Valley Ranch, and hear their story. Truly amazing, as was the food and wine.

Our favorite cookbook published in 2002 - Jeremiah Tower Cooks, Stewart Tabori & Chang, October 2002.
There are a lot of recipes in this book that we will never cook. Besides, we don't really cook from recipes anymore anyways. We read cookbooks for the inspiration mostly, you know, what else goes with cauliflower (besides caviar), what do with some leftover mushrooms (a delightful mushroom salad recipe on pg. 89), and geez, we need yet another variation on polenta... We appreciate this book because Mr. Tower has an opinion, and he lets you know it. Unlike many cookbooks that have recipes written in rote, the recipes in J.T. Cooks are conversational, laced with advice and exclamations. You know, real authentic food writing, it's rare in a cookbook anymore. Not to mention Mr. Tower gets to flaunt his culinary history chops, and at the same time "further cement his already formidable legend" (Charlie Trotter). No glorified and stylized photo shoots here either. Just the sublime spackle and tar paintings of Donald Sultan. It is a beautifully designed book. Even the index has a comprehensive list of resources and web-site urls! We find ourselves continually returning to this book for ideas, which is more than we can say for the stacks of cookbooks in our garage.

Most memorable food purchase for 2002 - fresh black truffles at the market in Divonne, France.
I think we scrambled some in eggs and then shaved the rest over risotto. The best part was sticking the just purchased truffles in my inside coat pocket and then walking around the market for another hour or so, all the time sticking my nose inside my coat and inhaling big long whiffs of pungent truffled air. Pure heaven.

Coolest kitchen thing we bought all year - Kasumi Boning/utility knife. We like the triangular shaped blade, the razor sharp edge, and the dangerously sharp pointed tip. Once you pick it up, you can't put it down. It is perfectly balanced and the round bolster makes it even more comfortable to use. Not that you need a "cool" knife in your assortment, but this one certainly adds a little panache to your knife rack.

Continue reading "The best food stuff of 2002 - in our humble opinion..."