The San Francisco Chronicles – Day 3

•January 9, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Back from the Berkshires! Had a great time visiting the family and especially seeing my brother. We went to this awesome new butcher store called The Meat Market in Great Barrington. We got some great chickens that we roasted and as we speak, I’m making stock with the left over meat and bones. From what I can see from the website, they offer really cool classes. Hopefully I’ll be up the next time they offer one.

Onto probably the shortest post in my San Fran vacation! Dr. Awesome’s mother and I started out our day at the Contemporary Jewish Museum that was literally right behind our hotel. There was a special Houdini exhibit that they were having and we wanted to check it out. It was different than I thought it would be. There was a lot of art by people who were inspired by him and also some of the props he used and photographs.

Of course, we were really hungry after that, so we went to this great place called The Swan Oyster Depot. This place is only open from 8am till 5pm since it is also a fish market. It’s really tiny, so we were hoping to get there after the lunch rush. We lucked out and were able to snag two seats pretty quickly. The only seating they have is at a bar. Probably can only fit about 10-12 people at once.

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What’s really cool is that this place is family owned and run. Everyone behind the bar was related to each other in some way or another. And as you can see, everything is ridiculously fresh.

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We ordered a dozen oysters, I believe different varieties of west coast and a dungeness crab cocktail. Holy jeebus, the amount of meat we got from the crab was unbelievable. I’m not a big cocktail sauce person, but their sauce was amazing. We really liked the briny oysters more than the sweet.

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No joke right there.

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Definitely worth a stop if you’re in San Fran. It’s a little off the beaten path (which is always great), but it’s really easy to get to. You might have to wait a bit to get in, but it’s totally worth it. It’s also cash only, FYI. Bring a bunch with you!

That night, a group of us set out to Anchor & Hope for dinner. Our table wasn’t quite ready yet, so we went to this interesting bar next door for some drinks.

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They had some crazy old motorcycles hanging overhead. What was funny, was that the host at Anchor & Hope thought that this place was a dive. It really wasn’t.

It was hard to get a good photo inside Anchor & Hope, but I was able to take this:

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A little blurry, but it was a really cool wall painting. We had a bunch of appetizers to share and for my main meal, I had the charred calamari steak with white beans, broccoli romanesco, and sea urchin butter. SO GOOD. I would highly recommend this place too. Prices are pretty close to NYC, but definitely not ridiculous.

And that’s it! I know! This day, though very packed with activities, was very short. But don’t worry, you’ll be bombarded with more photos and videos for the rest of the week I was there 🙂

Posted in Family, Travel
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The San Francisco Chronicles – Days 1 & 2

•January 4, 2012 • Leave a Comment

As I mentioned last month, I went to San Francisco for a week. I hadn’t been there since I was three years old. Dr. Awesome has a yearly science conference there called AGU (American Geophysical Union). This year (and I mean 2011) was special because his father was being honored as an AGU Fellow, which is a rare honor to receive. While Dr. Awesome was busy doing science most of the week, I had a fun time running around with his mother and brother seeing the various sights. But not before Dr. Awesome and I had some quality weekend time for him to show me around. Please be warned that this post is photo AND video heavy.

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I had made reservations beforehand at a couple of places that I heard were great. One of them, Absinthe Brasserie & Bar, we had heard of because of a random cocktail book I got Dr. Awesome for Christmas one year (the book is called Art of the Bar, if you’re interested). I got in, in the late afternoon. We had reservations at 7:30pm and let me tell you, their cocktails were amazing and I definitely recommend eating there. The prices were about NYC level, maybe a bit more expensive for certain things. You can make reservations on OpenTable easily enough and I recommend that because the place was packed!

We then walked back to our hotel to get some sleep and gear up for a nice long walk/romp around town. We stayed downtown in a great area which was walking distance to a lot of things. Anyways, Dr. Awesome and I got up early (jet lag, though he was in California a week before me) to set off to Fisherman’s Wharf.

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Cables for the buses and trolleys.

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Some cool art and my shadow.

The next few photos are walking along the pathway to the wharf.

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Seals! Apparently they weren’t around last year. Did I mention that I had 60 degree sunny weather all week?

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Alcatraz! There will definitely be a post for that.

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The Golden Gate Bridge.

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And for your viewing pleasure, seals talking! (Please ignore the crying baby…he/she goes away at some point.)

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A little knowledge lesson on the seals.

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This was pretty cool. I forget exactly what it was…I think an abandoned railroad track? Wish I remembered.

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A Boudin sourdough alligator.

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And finally! The wharf.

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I ate so much crab this trip.

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A trolley car.

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And we finally made it to the Hyde street cable car terminal to make our way back to our hotel.

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It’s cool how they turn them around. Here’s a video of them doing that:

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Apparently my parents and I went to the Buena Vista Cafe back in the day and they had their Irish Coffee that they’re known for.

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Our cable car had Christmas decorations.

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Here’s a cool video of the ride. We went up and down some pretty steep hills.

And you can’t not stop by Crooked Lombard Street. This was just the top of it. I have photos from walking down it another day.

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I love how all these places are built on a slant.

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Hello cable car operator.

We got off at Union Square to see what was around there since it was pretty close to our hotel. The Macy’s had adoptable dogs and cats in their windows. I was very tempted.

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Our cable car.

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That night, Dr. Awesome and I went to the Slanted Door for dinner in the Ferry Building. It’s upscale Vietnamese food. I think we either hit it on an off night or something cause while the food was good, the quality control wasn’t there. The inside of our pork belly appetizer was cold and the plates everything was served on was cold and it cooled down our dishes quickly. It’s pretty pricey too.

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The Ferry Building at night.

I’m heading up to the Berkshires this weekend to see my brother who just got back from a tour in Afghanistan. Glad that he’s home safe and sound and can’t wait to see him 🙂 Plus there will be some good eats there too. Please forgive me if there’s radio silence.

Posted in Berkshires, Family, Friends, Travel
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Happy New Year and our Heritage Turkey

•January 3, 2012 • 4 Comments

Happy New Year fellow I YUM New Yorkers! 2011 was pretty quiet in the food world for me, but my resolution for this year is to update more regularly and stick to it! Dr. Awesome got me an amazing camera that also films 1080 HD, so I really have no excuse not to use this awesome technology. The camera even has a food setting. Can’t wait to use it! Dr. Awesome’s brother also got us a brew kit for Christmas, which we’ve been wanting.

My other resolution is to use my free time more creatively. This means writing more, actually brewing beer, making pickles and other sorts of homemade things that I have time for. Case in point: I just made some pizza dough! Really simple, takes no time to do and I’m going to freeze the extra I have for later use. Done!

It’s also about time I posted about our Thanksgiving extravaganza. Yes, I know this is about a month and a half late, but, better late than never. First, I pre-ordered our turkey from Fleisher’s in Park Slope, Brooklyn. We opted to go all-out this year and make sure we got a turkey that was raised well and knew where it came from. This big 16 pound guy came from a farm Fleisher’s became friends with in California. It was also a Heritage turkey. What’s a Heritage turkey? They’re a breed that’s closer to what turkeys back in the day used to be. What I loved about this turkey (though really expensive) was that it didn’t have a huge breast, like how turkeys today are bred. This guy had HUGE legs. He was the tastiest turkey I have ever had, and everyone else agreed. Here’s some more info about the breed: Heritage Turkey Foundation.

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With the help of Dr. Awesome’s mom, we brined the turkey in the sink for a bit to make the meat a bit more tender.

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We then trussed it and put it in the roast pan. You can see how much smaller the breast is on this guy than on the what we see in your usual supermarket.

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Here’s some of my stuffing mixture. There are parsnips, onions, celery and chantrelle mushrooms in that bowl.

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This was our brussel sprout recipe (thanks to the Voltaggio brothers; we used a lot of their recipes). We didn’t add any butter or bacon cause we had a vegan guest with us. There’s onion and granny smith apples in the pan.

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Our antipasti platter, thanks to Di Palo’s. Can never go wrong with cured meats and cheese as an appetizer!

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And hello awesome turkey! It was the best turkey we’ve cooked to-date too.

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As you can see, there was a TON of food. Dr. Awesome’s brother and girlfriend made a vegan stuffed squash that had cumin-flavored risotto which was really good, a cranberry compote (Voltaggio), chive and biscuit stuffing (Voltaggio) and for dessert, apple and praline peach pies from the Berkshires.

So what did we do with the leftovers? Made some turkey soup! We had some vegetable stock leftover along with the turkey. I bought some carrots and dill, and used the rest of the leftover onions. Sweated them down, added some chopped up turkey, then the stock with some dill and bay leaf. Added about 1/2 cup of rice and let it go till it all meshed together.

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I could go for a cup of that now since the temperatures finally dropped.

The next few posts are going to be of my adventures in San Francisco. I’m going to break them up into separate days since I did a lot the whole week there.

Again, I hope everyone had a great new year and holiday! Here’s to a great 2012!

P.S. Dr. Awesome and I and a few friends went to a bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn called Dram. We wanted a couple of snacks and all they had that night were some meat and cheese platters. And what cheese did they have? SMOKED Berkshire Blue! How awesome! My dad has some hipster cred now. I asked the guy where he got the cheese from and he said Saxelby Cheesemongers. So great that they got it from a local store! Just thought I would share that cool news 🙂

Posted in Around NYC, Family, home cooking
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Attempting to Make Some Fresh Chévre with Urban Cheesecraft

•December 20, 2011 • Leave a Comment

This post is going to start out with a photo of our most successful roasted chicken to date with Thomas Keller’s simple recipe. I guess third or fourth time’s a charm! All you need is salt and pepper and let it go. Who knew?

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BAM! And it was just as delicious as it looks. We made the leftovers into soup and I froze the bones so I can make some stock at a later date.

Anyways, Dr. Awesome and I were in Whole Foods and passed by the cheese section that had something that I hadn’t seen before: Cheese making kits by Urban Cheesecraft. They had a goat cheese (Chévre) one and I was smitten. The kit itself costed $40, which is a little much, but the idea is to keep making cheese with the molds, etc. that you get from it.

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Our pet dragon made a special cameo. He couldn’t help himself.

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So, all I needed to get was goat milk. Easy right? NO! I went back to Whole Foods and they only had Kefir, which is cultured and wasn’t going to do me any good. We ordered some from Fresh Direct (you can order Berkshire Blue from them too!) that was from NY. Also, make sure you sanitize everything before you use it, even the cheese cloth. The most important thing about cheese making is sanitation. (I learned that from my Pops.)

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I followed the directions for creamy goat cheese instead of the firm. Now, I’m going to admit, I had a bit of a problem following directions. Instead of seeing that I was supposed to dissolve one teaspoon of citric acid, I tried dissolving the whole packet, making me go into a frenzy and run around (luckily not much) to find more (which I found at an awesome Indian grocery up the avenue). Crisis averted!

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So first I added the two quarts of goat’s milk to my non-reactive pot and then added my dissolved citric acid solution plus cheese salt (which I think is just regular salt). I stirred it around and brought it up to 180-185 degrees F, making sure it didn’t boil.

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Once it go up to temperature, I let it sit off the heat for 10-15 minutes.

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Then I poured it into my cheese cloth that was on top of a colander to let the whey strain out.

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You can see the small curds in this photo I took with the flash.

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Whey is almost drained.

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Once the whey drained most of the way, I spooned the cheese into the molds and let them drain some more. About 30 minutes.

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Voila! The finished product in a little gladware container, ready to be given as a gift. It looks a littler watery, but it firmed up a bit in the fridge.

Ok, so there was my process. Thinking back on what I could’ve done differently:

1) Calibrate the thermometer. I think it might’ve been off. I think I’m going to invest in a digital one or a hardcore candy thermometer.
2) Let the whey drain out of the colander a bit more. I think the cheese was a little too watery, even after I left it to drain out in the molds.
3) Add more salt. One teaspoon was definitely not enough for me, though it might differ from milk to milk.
4) Try another brand of goat milk. This brand wasn’t particularly tangy. What I look for in goat cheese is that great tanginess. I didn’t know how this one tasted, but now that I do, I’m going to look for one that’s a bit stronger in flavor. The cheese came out really mild.

Those are my observations for now. I think there’s always trial and error in the beginning, but now that I know the basics, I can tweak how I see fit. If anyone wants the instructions I have, I’m more than happy to send you a copy. If anyone has any favorite places to get a great goat’s milk, let me know.

Posted in Cheese, home cooking
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Heading to San Francisco!

•December 2, 2011 • Leave a Comment

Hello all! I’m heading out to San Francisco tomorrow to join Dr. Awesome and his family (and other fellow science nerds) at their yearly conference. We have some great food places lined up, such as Absinthe Brasserie & Bar (which, funnily enough, I got Dr. Awesome their cocktail book about 2 years ago randomly for the holidays). And Slanted Door, which came highly recommended by our good friend Ginger.

I haven’t been to California since I was 3, so this is definitely going to be very memorable!

Email me at iyumnewyork@gmail.com if you have any great tips of places to see and things to eat!

Posted in Family, Friends, Travel
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