Happy Halloween

Good morning all and Happy Halloween! A rainy one here in the Bay Area today.

Happened to note mention of Relish Culinary based in Healdsburg in Sunset magazine. If we were to do a vacation up in Sonoma County sometime in the future it might be fun to do some sort of event there.

Mom noted last night that the Mezzo Mezzo website had been modified and now has a video that includes some of the pictures from our Siciliy trip that I sent to Giovanni (and gave him permission to use), happily including the spleen sandwich (pane c'a meusa). No indication yet as to when they may reopen but we are keeping our fingers crossed.

BTW, the very nice song on the website is one I had not heard before but learned it is "Solo ieri" ("Only Yesterday") by Eros Ramazzotti available on iTunes (US!) and on YouTube. A lament for a lost love (i.e. "It was only yesterday that she was in my life....")
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Janet Fletcher

Alex, Cass and I went to another class at the Cheese School of SF last night -- "Cheese and Wine Pairing - Italy". It was taught by a woman named Janet Fletcher who we had not taken classes from before। As you will see from the Chron website, she has written prolifically about cheeses -- I like her style in the articles and we all enjoyed the class last night. 

A good thing because she is teaching two more of the ones we are taking this "term" - France and Spain are coming up! More than in past classes we spent a lot of time tasting all four of the wines (see below) with each of the cheeses and articulating which we felt went together the best.

As always people were all over the map on that, but it was an interesting exercise. 

I think it is fair to say that we liked almost all of the cheeses a lot (esp nos. 2 (Caprino Cremoso al Tartufo!!!), 3 (Rochchetta - the producer, Caseificio dell'Alta Langa also produces La Tur and Robiola Bosina) and 8 (the Parmigiano - a particularly tasty one). The two I think we did not score highly were nos. 1 (Fiorito Foglie di Ciliegie (wrapped in cherry leaves) and 6 (Brescianella Stagionata - a ripe "stinky" cheese a bit stronger than a Tallegio).

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Slow Food Can't Get Away

The Slow Food Nation festival is underway in San Francisco. Alex, Cass and I went to the Fort Mason Center this morning to attend a tasting of a variety of Slow Food-approved products.

They were grouped into a series of "taste pavilions." My favorites were the cheese and charcuterie, but the bread, chocolate, ice cream, beer, etc. were not far behind. Of course, we had to warm up with a "drop-in" event last night at The Cheese School!

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Tribu Grill

A report on our dinner last night at the Tribu Grill in San Bruno. A very nice spot - not at all fancy but a nice relaxed feel to the place and a lot of families with kids present. They have very limited parking - just three spots - but we were all able to park fairly nearby on El Camino.

I am afraid Miharu, Masumi (our client who had lived for a while in Manila) and I went a bit overboard on both overall quantity as well as the fried food ratio, but I thought everything was pretty good. Plus we all had some goodies to take home! We enjoyed:

~ Lumpia Shanghai (Fried Spring Rolls)
~ Chicharon Bulaklak (Pork Chitlins - slow roasted then quick fried; see photo above)
~ Kare-Kare (Ox Tail and Beef Brisket Stew in Peanut Sauce)
~ Crisp Pata (Leg of Pork - braised, slow roasted then deep-fried)
~ Ginataang Kalabasa and Sitaw (Squash, Longbeans and Shrimp in Coconut Sauce)
~ Binagoongan Fried Rice (Fried Rice with Pork Cooked in Fish Paste, Tomatoes, Scrambled Eggs and Chopped Mango)

With my fondness for the less-often used cuts, I particularly enjoyed the Chicharon Bulaklak. The Binagoongan Fried Rice was a wonderful combination of flavors pork, bagoong, tomatoes, scrambled eggs - even mangos - and a vivid presentation. Frankly that dish by itself may have been enough for the three of us!

Bottom line, I would certainly recommend the place and would like to return sometime. Continue Reading »

Bourdain in Sicily

I found an Anthony Bourdain episode on Youtube. I haven't watched the entire thing yet, but it looks interesting:

The very first place he goes in Part #1 is the Antica Focacceria San Francesco in Palermo, which has been highly recommended, in part for the two dishes he tries there - chickpea fritter sandwiches (pane e panelle) and spleen sandwiches (pani ca' meusa), something Alex Cass and I tried for "breakfast" the other day at one of our Ristorante Mezzo Mezzo cooking classes.

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V for Viscera

Yesterday Alex, Cass and I went to another of our cooking classes at Ristorante Mezzo Mezzo in San Rafael, this one focusing on the city of Catania. We made three dishes this time:

~ Nzalata di Puppu (Octopus Salad)

~ Pasta alla Norma

~ Pasta o Furnu Catanisa (Baked Pasta Catanese)

The Pasta alla Norma was named after the opera "Norma" written by Vincenzo Bellini who was born in Catania.

 We also had an additional surprise dish to start off the day. Following the Palermo class last week I emailed Giovanni asking about various types of Palermo street food, and when we arrived he was frying up a batch of chopped viscera (sadly, he had been unable to procure any spleen on short notice) which we enjoyed on a bun with some lemon and grated caciocavallo cheese on top. 

Quite tasty (even Alex and Cass liked it), although I am not sure it is really intended as a breakfast dish.

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Tasty Salted Pig Parts on the Way

Passing through the Ferry Building this morning I noted that the covering has come off the Boccalone store (this is the salume people set up by the folks at Incanto). It is apparently not yet open, although it looks like it will not be long.

They have a very good location -- right in the middle of the Ferry Building next to the Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant. The space they used to be in was formerly a vegetable store which brings to mind the saying "Salume, the new vegetable."

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