A San Francisco Breakfast Adventure

A tamale is a traditional Mexican dish made of masa – a soft, tasty dough made from cornmeal.  It’s filled with something yummy – usually some combination of meats, cheese, and chilies and then steamed in a cornhusk.  There are sweet versions too but for the purpose of this educational post we will focus on the savory version.  Tamales are generally considered comfort food and they are quite labor intensive to make – so I hear.

Now, let me tell you about tamales from a purely gringo point of view.  If you are a really lucky white-girl gringoette who hasn’t had twenty years of tamale training you might know someone who knows someone and you can buy a dozen or so yummy tamales from the back of a truck and keep them frozen.   When convenient you can pop them in the microwave and enjoy some warm, steamy masa loving.   Unfortunately, like any pusher these people cannot always be relied upon to provide a fix whenever you feel like it.

What is reliable is the absolutely, mind-blowing delicious tamales that Primavera sells at the farmers’ market at the San Francisco Ferry Terminal on Saturday mornings.  Nestled in the middle of an epicurean playground of gourmet coffee, organic produce, salumi vendors and more is the yummiest tamale you will find unless you have a Mexican grandma connection somewhere.   (Not familiar with the term salumi?  Check out these guys.)

This first picture is the breakfast L and I enjoyed on Saturday. 

This is the gorgeous view of San Francisco bay we enjoyed while devouring them. 

Tamales are eaten at both breakfast and dinner.  We chose the single tamale option because – well look at it!  Two of these yummy chicken stuffed treats smothered in that damn fine mole sauce might have induced a food coma and we needed to be alert for the farmers’ market exploration. 

And once I had entered my partial food coma, this gorgeous Blue Bottle latte helped keep me alert.  

All in this delightful breakfast experience set me back $7.95. FYI, these are all iPhone photos - hastily snapped.   And that dear readers, was my Saturday morning.  

Hi MoGo – So Nice to Meet You.

Today at last, I had MoGo. This cultural phenom has been cruising the bay area for some time now. Do you like Mexican food? Love Korean food? Then the MoGo BBQ truck will be for you! Every time the truck has been in my work neighborhood I have been busy but today the palm trees aligned in my favor. Finally, I was able to experience the love that is Korean barbecued short ribs with kimchi slaw rolled up in a soft, warm tortilla.

My colleague had mixed tacos – two short rib with one tofu – pictured here.  They advise people about their location for that day via Twitter and Facebook.  I knew when we met it would be love at first bite!

Yum, Yum, Yum

I know what you are thinking – those look really good – right? They are not suspiciously orange french fries – they are sweet potato oven fries! I slice up my sweet potato in fry like shapes, toss them in salt, pepper, garlic salt and a little olive oil and then bake on a sheet pan for 15 to 20 minutes. Yummy and good for you. I love sweet potato fries because it takes me back to the first time I tried them in Montreal.

Snippets of my Weekend.

I had a bizzy weekend and today, Monday, should be exciting too.  This morning I am going to a talk at Google about health services being offered through cloud computing.  I know sounds geeky, but what can I say - I am a geek.

I already told you about the events of Friday night.  Here are a few snippets from the rest of my weekend.

I indulged in Pinkberry frozen yogurt - coconut and pomengranate flavors.

Here you can see my adult side - getting my antioxidants from strawberries.

Here my child like side - that is Captain Crunch!

I heard "Take On Me" in the car and was transported back to high school - briefly.  Remember those Norwegian hotties?  They are still making music!

I took note of a trend - Eyebrow Bars - these are popping up everywhere!  Eyebrow shaping has been around forever - but now it seems to be going commercial.  I saw this one at the mall.  Believe it or not, I have been having my brows groomed since I was 17.  Guess I was ahead of the trend.

I Need Some Bunny

I cannot tell a lie. Okay, I can obviously tell a lie but in this case I choose to be honest. I saw this bunny first on Cup of Jo. He is from Vosges and is made of deep milk chocolate, sweet butter toffee and pink Himalayan salt. All things I love, plus he is the most adorable chocolate bunny I have ever seen.


Vosges made their name by creating exotic truffles that feature quirky ingredients like violets, curry, ginger and paprika to name just a few. May sound funky to combine some of these with chocolate but I have tried some of these in the past – they are absolutely deelish.

Tonight We Make Granola

How yummy does this look?  Even when snapped with an iPhone!

 

I like to make my own granola bars. I like knowing what I am eating and there are no weird ingredients when you make your own. These ones have:

Oats

Coconut

Sliced Almonds

Dried blueberries

Dried pineapple

Honey

A little brown sugar

 

The honey holds it all together.  You'll note that unlike commercial granola there is no added oil or butter in this recipe.  These are great because it gives me grab and go breakfasts to take with me to work.  They were easy to make and kind of fun too.  The dried blueberries are yum yum yum yummy!

No Sugar Today!

Here is what I like to do when I am trying to somehow change my life. I make really tiny changes. I choose something so small that I hope it will be something I can stick with forever.

For example, I spent over a year weaning myself off sugar in my coffee. Everyday I would put two packets of raw sugar in my morning brew. So I reduced that to 1.75 packets, then 1.5, then one and so on. It took me a full year to get down to no sugar but now I never want sugar in my coffee. Mission successful!

At my office we have two pastry chefs on staff in our café. That is right TWO! Everyday they make yummy little mousse cakes, tarts, bread puddings and more. You name a desert and they make it. They even make my beloved French macaroon. I realized that I was having one of these desserts every day and that gave me the incentive to make another small, manageable change.

Remember this happy guy? Well I am trying to banish him or at least limit him and his friends from making an appearance in my life. So, I challenged myself to see if I can go 21 days without eating dessert at work. Please note, I am not saying no to dessert forever. I still let myself have dessert outside of work time if it is something I would have normally done.

Here is my progress which I record daily on my cubicle whiteboard. Six work days – six days without dessert (DWD).  I will keep you posted on my progress.

Hey Macaron

I am eschewing the cupcake phenomenon. Okay, I like a good cupcake as much as the next gal but, if I am going to go crazy for a sweet it will always be a French macaroon. Like the ones at Miette in the San Francisco ferry terminal or at Pamplemouse in Redwood City.


Why am I crazy for the French macaroon? Lots of reasons:

• It’s much lighter than a cupcake.
• French – like me – need I say more?
• Usually cheaper.
• It’s the original macaroon!
• Not sugary sweet.

In North America we think of the coconut macaroon as the original but like many things to gastronomical goodness it was the French. This is a picture from pastry shop in Paris. My absolute favourite flavour is pistachio. So good!

Cheers to Verjus

Last weekend I took my visiting family members on a wine tasting tour of Sonoma. I hired this fantastic driver Max – you can read about him here. He was extremely knowledgeable about wine, very pleasant and he writes articles for Italian wine magazines – in Italian, no translator required! As I expected Max took us to some great wineries and they were very tiny – definitely off the beaten path. Some were so tiny they did not even have signage on the road. We got to meet the winemakers and the tastings were beautifully arranged, courtesy of Max.

I could go on about the wine but I want to tell you a little about a great product that our first vintners introduced to us. The first wine makers we visited, Karen and Justin, run a tiny two person operation called Garden Creek Ranch. They have a second company, Terra Sonoma, which produces two food products, verjus and saba. Verjus is produced when the vines are thinned to allow the grapes destined for wine to ripen properly. Rather than discard the semi-ripe wine grapes, Karen and Justin press them to create verjus – an acidulant which can be used for cooking, in place of lemon juice or vinegars. They offered us a little sip and it was quite yummy – acidic, but not biting like a vinegar or sour like lemon juice.

You can use verjus in salads, in marinades, drizzled over fruit the way you might use aged balsamic and for deglazing pans for sauces. So far I used it in a marinade for pork tenderloin and in a simple vinaigrette – olive oil, Dijon mustard and the verjus. Delicious over a simple green salad! They didn’t have any saba on hand for sale but we have some on order. I will create a post on the saba as soon I get my hands on some.

Happy weekend everyone!

Business Lunch

I am over having to travel for work. If you don’t travel for work you think it would be exciting but it gets old pretty quick. In any case I had to travel to San Diego for a meeting. There and back in one day – yawn…

The one good thing about business travel is that occasionally you get to eat some tasty food. Today our meeting was at the Four Seasons in Carlsbad a resort community outside of San Diego. We had lunch at California Bistro. It was a buffet and if you have ever been to a Four Seasons you know the food was deelish! I had to take a snap of my selection of desserts – a  piece of chocolate mousse cake, a French macaroon and a tiny but yummy pistachio crème brule. It looked so tempting that I had to snap a pic. Trust me the taste did not disappoint. If you have not tried a French macaroon I highly recommend it - it's my favourite cookie!

2010 – New Year – New Restaurant – Howie’s Artisan Pizza

My parental unit is visiting and I am not in the mood to cook with this cold. So, tonight we tried out a new neighborhood pizzeria – Howie’s Artisan Pizza. As you can see from this picture it has the minimalist, simple type of décor that I prefer.

The menu was pretty simple but I was very pleased with the selection. To start out our simple dinner we had these yummy “eggplant pillows”. I love anything made with eggplant. This dish was made of slices of roasted eggplant, stuffed with ricotta cheese and topped with a tapenade made of walnuts, green olives and olive oil. Yummmmmy.

Then, the pizza was great! Very thin crust and the one that we ordered was pretty simple – light amount of tomato sauce, melty mozzarella, spicy sausage and chopped up broccoli rabe – one of my favorite vegetables. It was nice to see a traditional veggie used in a different way.

I give Howie’s two thumbs up – check it out if you find yourself in Palo Alto.

Christmas Traditions

Every year in early December I start making lists for two things – holiday baking and decorating.


I like to give my work teammates some goodies that I actually put a lot of work and effort into baking. It makes me feel good and it’s really a small but meaningful gesture. I usually pick three or four different recipes and give them each roughly a dozen cookies made up of the different varieties. This year I have planned a homemade graham sandwich cookie, pecan pralines and a thin chocolate mint cookie. These should be yummy. I channel my inner Martha and put together some lovely packaging. I will take some pictures during the baking – I promise! Love how she packages her sweet bites:

Decorating is something I will have to forgo this year since I will be in Canada for the holidays. I may have to break down and get a pointsettia. My favorite are the pink varietals – they are so lovely!

Ciao babes.  More later!

The Phoenix has Landed!

I am in the land of rattlesnakes, cacti and plastic surgery!  That is right folks I am in Scottsdale, Arizona - adjacent to Phoenix.

I got here on Thursday and girlfriend S swooped in to pick me up and we headed back to her place for some holiday goodness.  We had some great appies and she prepared a yummy thanksgiving feast.  We were so focused on the food I only managed to snap a pic of the the snacks before the main event.

And here is the nice view of the desert brush from her balcony.  The sun goes does behind those mountains and the sky turns a beautiful red.

(All iPhone photos this week!)

Thai Yum Yum

I went to Osha Thai on 2nd Street in San Francisco last night for a quick bite with some colleagues before heading to a cocktail party.  The food was so pretty I wanted to grab a few snaps with my iPhone before we devoured our feast.  We had lots of other items but we were all so hungry I didn't want to keep my friends waiting.  Here were a few of the prettiest dishes:

These little beauties were actually called "Sexy Salmon" and I think salmon has now officially replaced tuna as my favorite raw fish.

These were some Thai style springrolls.  I love these fresh springrolls with the crunchy veggie centers and shrimp.  The spicy peanut sauce is super yummy too!

 

Lunch On the Run

I had brunch with my CG’s today then I was on the run today with lots of errands — mall, cobbler, goodwill drop off and then the grocery store. By the time I made it to Whole Foods I was hungry!! So, I went to the Japanese section and asked them for some California rolls. I love that I can get sushi there. 

It was so fun to watch the sushi chef make the roles right before my eyes. Fresh avocado, fresh cucumber, fresh real crab — fresh YUMMM.

It's so easy to grab some snaps with my iPhone that I figured I would share how yummy these little guys looked.

iPhone Fun

I just recently got an iPhone and I love it. I am a girl geek at heart and I have been having a great time learning to use one the most highly hyped gadgets of all time. Its camera is great and I decided to share a few snappies of things that brought a smile to my face today.

These are the fortunes from last night’s Chinese food. I never eat the cookies but I can’t bring myself to toss them until I have broken them open to check out the messages. All in all these were satisfactory fortunes – I will let you know what happens on Tuesday.

Sumatra oranges like these are sooo easy to peel. I have seen these called honey tangelos too. They are scrumptious and I love the fact they come to market with stems and leaves still attached! I always smile when I see these piled up at Whole Foods.

Finally, my favorite moment of the day! I was eating lunch in our cafeteria where we have these tiny, impossible to resist desserts. I was reaching for this tiny tart and the pastry chef asked me why I reached back past the front to grab this one from the back. I had no idea why but as I was about to eat it I saw this little happy face! Of course I ate it anyway!

Muffin Mania

W gave me a cupcake pan for my birthday. So, lately I have been baking and tonight I made some yummy apple walnut muffins. They have a light streusel topping – it’s kind of hard to tell from the picture but you can definitely taste it.

I have always been an apple lover and I was inspired to make something with apples because I have been recieving reports of apple picking from family and friends in Canada.  It's a Food Network recipe - you can check it out here.  Who needs to buy cookbooks when you have the Internet?

Healing and Fortune

It's the weekend. I have a cold brewing in my throat. I have not been by myself for more than a twelve hour stretch in more than a month - that includes sleeping. So I decided that it was a good weekend to go into hermit mode.

The cold meant no desire to cook, so I had matzo ball soup from Max's for lunch and Chef Chu's won ton soup for dinner. I believe soup has healing powers.

In any case I thought I would share my fortunes with you:

• Travelling to the south will bring you unexpected happiness.


• You shall attain great wisdom with each passing year.


• An important discussion involving you will take place today.


• Now is a good time for a new collection or hobby.


• Your road to glory will be rocky but fulfilling.

Oy Fidel!

Last night I had my California gays over for a little dinner party. It's been very hot here lately and a BBQ seemed appropriate. We grilled some meat and had green salad. I had avocaodoes on hand and used them for a super easy salad that was a delicious dish that I will surely reproduce in the future.

There were two ripe avocados chillin’ in the fridge which were cut into chunks. Then I sliced a white onion up in very thin slivers, using maybe a third of a smallish onion. I think white onion is key because yellow onion would be too strong. Red is probably good too. Then you throw the chunks and slices into a bowl, throw on some salt, grind some pepper and squeeze half a lemon over it all. Mix it very gently to keep the avocadoes from turning to mush.

This is a variation on a Cuban salad - where they use olive oil and red wine vinegar instead of lemon juice. But there is so much fat in the avocado I like it this way. Plus the lemon juice gives it a fresh taste.

I like this salad because avocado is so yummy but its tough to work it into a meal sometimes. Enjoy!

A Cuppy Meets a Cuppy

Two of my favorite things have now joined in gastronomic bliss. I talked about Blue Bottle Coffee before – San Francisco’s cult favorite source of caffeination. (Yes, I just made that word up.) Now you can get Blue Bottle Coffee at Kara’s Cupcakes. What sweet-toothed adult doesn’t love a dark chocolate cuppy with a cuppy of the best coffee you can find in the bay? (Yes, I also just coined cuppy.)

MMMMMMM. Taste bud happiness! I love both these businesses and not just because of their yummy product offerings. Both are San Francisco based small businesses and I am a big believer in supporting local business whenever possible.



Kara’s has five locations in the bay area and they are devoted to using locally sourced ingredients – which we all know helps minimize the carbon footprint. They will also donate or subsidize fundraising efforts for great causes. Recently, I helped my girlfriend M come up with a mini marketing campaign for her recent breast cancer fundraiser. Kara’s provided her with deeply discounted cupcakes which they topped with tiny pink frosting ribbons. Maria was able to raise several hundreds of dollars by giving the cupcakes to donors as incentives.



You know I have praised Blue Bottle Coffee before. They use organically grown, single origin beans from artisanal producers who sustainably grow and harvest their crops. Again, for me local, + organic = good. They sell beans within 48 hours of roasting and the cafés are hip without being pretentious.

Try them out together. I guarantee you will love them. I can’t wait to introduce these two favorites to W when he gets here in October!