Forking Tasty

Mid-Week Morsel

It’s been hectic this week to say the least. Between ramping up for this Saturday’s REEL TASTY and next weeks special Vegas dinners there has not been much time to breath let alone eat. Before I jump back into the fray I wanted to share a little home cooked goodness I prepared 2 weeks ago just before the task waves started crashing against my backyard. I came across this tasty gem as I was flipping between MS Word and Photoshop this morning. It’s not my Mother-in-law’s recipe but quite delicious. It reminded me of a quieter time where home cooked delicious food has that ability to mellow you out and focus you on the moment, the bite and the company. If you’re to-do list isn’t 2 miles long maybe it’s a good night to whip something up instead of order in. If you can, I envy you. For now.

Prepping for Columbus Day

This week I was in San Francisco. Amidst the work and regularly planned tasty I was able to squeak in a visit to a place where dreams are made. Perhaps better said, a place where dreams are cased up, aged, hung dry, intensified and then sliced for your eating pleasure. It’s no secret I am obsessed with sausage both wet and dry so it should come as no surprise that a pitstop to one of San Francisco’s best Salame shops was my detour. My new friend Amy took me through Columbus’ entire salumi making process from the chop to the slice. My favorite part had to be the cacciatore and chorizo salumi drying room. The smell inside sent chills from nose to toe. Here we stand below their Finocchiona Gigante, a soft textured, fennel induced artisan speciality. Sliced thin it can substitute for any prosciutto wrapped around a piece of melon. Aside from the smells and tastes I learned an immense amount about salumi making peeking my own curiosity to try it myself. I am not sure hanging meat in the spare room will fly with the Canadian. For now, I’ll have to settle for Amy’s tried and true selections. This Columbus Day you better believe the Anello’s antipasti will be centered around a nice selection of salume so I can show off my new knowledge.

Cookie Control

It was our second visit in two days to an out of the way industrial park on the outskirts of Cambria, California. We meandered our rental car down side streets and through alleys following a well marked trail to the Red Moose Cookie Company where we poked our heads through a screened door to meet Caren. She was just finishing up a batch of pumpkin cookies and dropped what she was doing to give “The Canadian” a huge hug. “Look at you!” she said, enthralled by The Canadian’s beauty. “You’re like a movie star.”, she squealed, keeping “The Canadian” in a tight embrace. From the back came Roger to break the moment. We had never met Caren before but we had met Roger the day before on our first trip to the aluminum sided warehouse with the butter based surprise inside. He picked up right where we left him, bringing…

REEL TASTY Testing

In preparation for our August dinner I started playing around with some New York classics. Last night I took our city’s name sake steak and tried a new cooking method I recently read about. The cast iron gives a nice even heat without any flare ups which usually cause those burnt, charred ends of meat. Although the single portion was a success, I am not sure this will work for 20 guests. To accompany this I worked up a gorgonzola cream sauce. It rather nicely with the medium rare beef eaten slowly in a perfectly chilled air conditioned room. Although, it may be a little heavy for a mid-summer, outdoor dinner. I am thinking about cutting it with some horseradish. If that doesn’t satisfy I might need to start over with a bearnaise base. Rest assured this preparation has another secret twist that I have purposely left absent. You’ll just have to visit the deck to find out how the testing turns out.

Melted Simplicity

In the world of single cuisine food restaurants you have to expect there would be one dedicated to the grilled cheese. You wouldn’t expect it to be 2 blocks from my San Francisco office and you certainly wouldn’t expect it to be good. As a kid growing up the grilled cheese was called mozzarella en carozza. Many times it included tomatoes. Rarely it included sopressata. When it did I was extra psyched. As I moved on to college I continued this understated tradition with an illegal, in dorm, sandwich press and a hunk of Polly-O cheese.

The Piglet as it’s named speaks to the person ordering it as well as the ingredients. The artisan ham melted with the Tillamook sharp cheddar is a distinct and luxurious taste. Add in the thick cut perfectly toasted sourdough and you have heaven in a hand held triangle. As we dive deeper into this single minded restaurant trend, I applaud those who do it well. Those who do it fantastic I don’t have words, except those written on this page. Keep it up. Ohh yeah and the clementine accoutrements is refreshingly clever.

Food Store Tour #1

A few weekends ago I decided to take a gourmet food store tour as I meandered through my weekend errands. That’s a lie. I completely put off the errands so that I could jump from store to store on an eating extravaganza. I loved it and this won’t be the last. In fact, think of this as a first in a series of food store tours that will cover all five boroughs as well as my favorite non-New York cities. For now lets focus on NYC…

Parcel Pork

This came in the mail today. I didn’t order it.

Those of you who know my love of pork can imagine how curious and excited I must have been. Inside the package, which was open 15 seconds after I closed the door, was a seemingly endless array of swine goodness. As I pulled out pig I realized who this perfect package was from. A few days earlier my good friend Barb asked for my address and it had completely slipped my mind until now. Realizing Barb makes a living out of being unique, crafty and extremely dialed in to her clients and friends personalities it makes perfect sense she would send a gift so amazing. First out of the box was…

Football Meatballs

I know you all over ate. I know you are feeling bad about yourselves but remember, we are all in the same boat. Our Superbowl started with these killer meatball poppers. Downing them by the half dozen set the pace for the mild but still overindulgent feastival. We followed that with 5lbs of Superwings, two pizza’s, a sweet potato and onion/potato knish from Zabar, apple/feta/iceberg salad and , of course, power nachos. Let’s not forget a fresh growler of beer and enough “DC” to wash all that down.

Ready for lunch?

My Favorite Hostess

Memories of visiting the Hostess store as a little kid rushed back tonight when I popped into a 7-Eleven in downtown San Francisco. Think Twinkie + Yodel shell + Crocodile = Chocodile.

IN-N-OUT of a Defcon Situation

On a recent trip to California, me and that wonderful Canadian found ourselves in a defcon situation. (Defcon scale+amount of hunger=how processed your food is). After a day of wine and beer tasting in Paso Robles, we made a quick detour to wack down these beautiful In-N-Out burgers. The glory of fast food, big box chain’s and IN-N-OUT burger in particular, is the consistency of the experience right down to the building in which you have the experience. In fact, IN-N-OUT has exactly the same layout in every store I have ever been in. Once inside you wouldn’t know if you were in San Francisco or Modesto. Necessary evil or charmingly delightful, this cookie cutter aesthetic creates a window in which the attentive and observant will cherish.

Because the surroundings, employees and menu are all the same, the focus becomes on the guests waiting and ordering with you. As you sit on that little white bench waiting for your number to be called by the tall, football type, teenager in the too small paper hat and stretched red apron, take a look around. San Francisco and Modesto certainly have different citizens but I have found you are likely to see a myriad of burger fiend diversity no matter which city you are in. Our star customer this day was a young latin girl who decided dressing like Pat Benatar in a mostly rural farming area would be the best way to stand out. In her 4 inch black leather heel boots she barely scraped five feet tall. In the corner was a family of five. This 45 year old mother corralled her three kids while her young Mexican husband filled the drinks at the fountain machine. I’d love to know more about that story. To top off the mix a trio of farm hands came in for their early dinner sporting crisp dark jeans and worn, dusty cowboy boots. The whole ensemble was complete when I watch them all simultaneously tip their cowboy hatted heads up to read the menu. The motion reminded me of a farm machine starting up in the field.

Of course we still come for the food, but there is so much else going on during any out-of-the-house food experience. I implore you to take a good look around the next time you are waiting for your double double to be ready. I promise it will be an interesting game.