A Cheesy Sunday Afternoon

On Sunday afternoon Alex, Cass and I attended a program at the Museo ItaloAmericano in Ft. Mason Center – a talk by Janet Fletcher on Italian cheeses followed by a tasting. Even better, it was free, thanks to support from Wells Fargo Bank.

In the past the three of us had taken a number of classes taught by Janet at The Cheese School of San Francisco and had found them uniformly excellent. Janet – who among other things writes the “The Cheese Course” column for the San Francisco Chronicle – has a wonderful knack of explaining about a cheese in the context of its place of origin. She also co-authored with Rosetta Costantino one of my favorite cookbooks - “My Calabria” – which was published last year. Her skill in weaving a narrative about food, culture, history and geography are very much in evidence there too. Her most recent book is “Cheese & Wine: A Guide to Selecting, Pairing, and Enjoying” – Janet is all about food!

Janet led off Sunday’s program with a general overview of Italian cheeses, then focused on the five cheeses that we were to taste at the end of the program:

1. Brunet – pasteurized goat milk – Piemonte
2. Marzolino Rosso – raw sheep milk – Toscana
3. Brescianella Stagionata – raw cow milk – Lombardia
4. Canestrato di Moliterno – raw sheep and goat milk – Basilicata
5. Blu di Valcasotto – raw sheep milk – Piemonte

As shown on the following map, the cheeses came from all over Italy.

Janet explained that all five of the cheeses had been provided by Fresca Italia, Michele Lanza’s Italian cheese and specialty food import company in Brisbane. She pointed out that Michele, who is originally from Basilicata, has done a great deal to expand the variety of Italian cheeses which are available to us at markets and restaurants here in California. Thank you Michele and Fresca Italia!!

Janet also told us that she had not specified the cheeses she wanted for the program, but had rather left it to Fresca Italia to select a range of cheeses with regional and milk-type variation that they felt were at their peak. As Janet pointed out, that is a good strategy to follow whenever one buys cheese.

Following Janet’s formal remarks, we moved to an adjacent room where we enjoyed samples of the five cheeses, together with a red wine (2008 La Maialina Chianti Classico) and a white wine (2009 Mancini Vermentino di Gallura) wine that Janet had selected, and Janet did some book signing. I took the following picture of a set of the samples – unfortunately I was not able to get a shot of the cheeses before they were cut.


1. Brunet – pasteurized goat milk – Piemonte

This cheese was the subject of one of Janet’s articles in The Cheese Course which is worth reading. It is produced by the Caseificio dell'Alta Langa in the town of Bosia in Piemonte, a firm that produces a number of other excellent cheeses (La Tur is another of their cheeses we like a lot). Brunet, the name of a breed of goat, is not a traditional name of an Italian cheese, but rather a proprietary name given to the cheese by the producer, a recent trend in Italy that seems to be increasing as producers seek to stake out marketing territory. In her article Janet described the flavor as follows:

“Brunet's soft, thin, bloomy rind fuses with its creamy interior; don't even think about trying to cut the rind away. The supple ivory paste, or interior, smells of mushrooms and creme fraiche and feels like silk on the tongue. A tangy finish keeps the cheese from being cloying.”

The cheese also made her top 10 list for 2008.

2. Marzolino Rosso – raw sheep milk – Toscana

There is a traditional Tuscan sheep milk cheese called Marzolino del Chianti which, as the name indicates, comes from the Chianti area of Toscana between Firenze and Siena. As the name also suggests, in the past it was primarily produced in March (“marzo” is March in Italian) using the milk from sheep that had been eating the new grass on the Tuscan hillsides.

Marzolino Rosso is basically the traditional Marzolino which has been rubbed with a tomato paste to give it a reddish hue. This can be seen in the above photos – the traditional Marzolino del Chianti is on the left, and a slice of the Marzolino Rosso is on the right. As far as I could tell, the tomato paste did not affect the flavor, although my piece did not include any of the rind.

I was not able to determine exactly from where in Toscana the cheese we had comes. Janet said it is purchased from the producers by the Luigi Guffanti firm in Arona, in northern Piemonte (one of Italy’s leading cheese agers - they have been at it since 1876!), who then age it before selling it to distributors. I have always wanted to visit the Guffanti caves!

Janet also did an article in The Cheese Course about Marzolino Rosso, in which she described it as follows:

“…it has an ivory interior with the warm, milky fragrance of melted butter. The flavor starts sweet and nutty but finishes with a faint bitterness.”

This cheese also made her top 10 list for 2008.

3. Brescianella Stagionata – raw cow milk – Lombardia

The Brescianella Stagionata is another traditional cheese, this one from around the town of Brescia northeast of Milano, from which the cheese derives its name (“stationata” simply means “aged”). It struck me as very similar to a Taleggio. Here is Culture’s take on the cheese:

“Brescianella Stagionata is a washed rind cheese with a classic orange-brown, slightly sticky rind, marked with linear indentations where the cheeses have matured on straw. Aromas are pungent and sweet. The interior paste of the cheese is smooth and yielding and ivory-white in color. Flavors are rich and milky, with notes of vanilla and hazelnuts, and sweet with a lingering grassy aftertaste.”

It is another cheese which spends some time in Guffanti’s caves before making its way to market. Note to self – future trip to Arona a must.

4. Canestrato di Moliterno – raw sheep and goat milk – Basilicata

For the fourth cheese – the Canestrato di Moliterno - we headed far south to Michele Lanza’s home region of Basilicata (if you would like to learn more about that region here is a great video narrated by Francis Ford Coppola whose relatives came from the region). Molierno is a hill town in the mountains in the province of Potenza and over the years a combination of numerous sheep and goat herds in the area, as well as a climate favorable for aging cheese, resulted in the town becoming a center of cheese production. “Canestrato” refers to the woven baskets seen above used to hold the cheese when it is first made, and which give the rind a distinctive pattern. Typically 70-90% of the milk used for its production is sheep milk, and the balance goat milk. The cheese was very good with a nutty flavor and nice level of saltiness – similar to a number of other Italian sheep milk cheeses I have had in the past such as Pecorino Romano or Fiore Sardo.

5. Blu di Valcasotto – raw sheep milk – Piemonte

For the final cheese – a blue– we headed back north to the small town of Valcasotto in the Ligurian Alps just a few miles from the French border. Beppino Occelli is another major cheese producer in Piemonte with a broad portfolio of cheese types, similar to Caseificio dell'Alta Langa, and a sophisticated marketing approach. The Blu di Valcasotto seems to be a relatively new cheese for the company, although it may be that, for marketing reasons, they are simply distributing the same or a very similar cheese under different names. I enjoyed the cheese, although my preference in blue cheeses tends towards younger and milder varieties.

OVERALL PREFERENCES

While all the cheeses were good and I would look forward to trying them all again, our overall #1 preferences for the day were:

Cass: Brunet
Alex: Marzolino Rosso
Mike: Brescianella Stagionata

It just goes to show you that after so many cheese tastings together, our preferences head in different directions. Thanks again to Janet, Fresca Italia, the Museo and Wells Fargo for a most enjoyable event.

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Pizza at Cotogna

Another excellent pizza for lunch today at Cotogna - a topping of broccoli di ciccio, lamb sausage and aged provolone. Apart from the superbly balanced ingredients, they really know how to do a thin crust there. Rounding it out was a glass of Gavi di Gavi from the beautiful Villa Sparina estate just outside of Monterotondo in Piemonte - one of the most memorable stops of our trip to Italy last fall (see #18 on this post).

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Dinner for Japan Disaster Relief

On Sunday evening Alex, Cass and I attended a dinner at Prospect Restaurant in San Francisco to raise funds to help with the recovery from the recent disaster in Japan. The dinner – entitled “Chefs Unite for Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami Aid Dinner” – had been organized by the following group of Bay Area chefs:

~ Paul Canales (formerly of Oliveto) ~ Bruce Hill (Bix, Picco & Zero Zero) ~ Sho Kamio (Yoshi's) ~ Ravi Kapur (Prospect) ~ Hiro Sone and Lissa Doumani (Ame & Terra) ~ Staffan Terje (Perbacco & Barbacco)

A couple of years ago, that group (without Hiro Sone and Lissa Doumani, but including a writer, Ella Lawrence) had visited the area in and around Miyagi Prefecture in order to learn more about traditional Japanese ingredients which could be incorporated into different cuisines here in the US. Upon their return they gave a presentation about their trip sponsored by the Japanese External Trade Organization (JETRO), which had organized the trip, and also shared some recipes for dishes incorporating Japanese miso. Ella also did this series of posts on her blog about their trip.

Sunday’s event started with a cocktail hour during which the chefs visited with the crowd. It was the first time Alex, Cass or I had ever been to Prospect (a spinoff from Boulevard, which has long been one of our favorite restaurants in San Francisco) and it is certainly an elegant space. We set up shop at the bar and enjoyed some of the cocktails (something green which I think involved cucumber, sake and Pisco) and appetizers that were circulating.

Then it was time to head into the dining area for the 6-course dinner. Here is a copy of the menu for the evening.

Each chef had come up with a dish and a sentiment. I hope that Prospect will not object to my use of the shots from their Facebook site.

“Brotherhood” – Bruce Hill - American Miyagi oysters poached with pork belly and pickled Spring garlic

“Hospitality” – Ravi Kapur - Zuckerman Farm asparagus, Dungeness crab, Brokaw Nursery avocado, local uni and Oro Blanco grapefruit

“Collective Consciousness” – Paul Canales - Smoked Hoffman Farm hen with tomato sauce, tosaka salad and crunchy shallots

“Home” – Staffan Terje - Riso Carnaroli di Acquerello with butter poached mushrooms and Sendai red miso

“Persistence” – Sho Kamio - Land Three Ways: ~ Rib eye with tamari honey caramelized cipollini and bourguignon sauce ~ Lamb loin with wild ginger confit, lemon grass and veal jus ~ Beef tongue with Spring garlic mousse and cognac sauce

“Family” – Hiro Sone & Lissa Doumani - Matcha panna cotta with Albion strawberries

At the end of the evening the chefs gathered at the end of the room and each said a few works about their experiences with Japan (both Sho Kamio and Hiro Sone come from area most directly affected by the disaster) and the dish they had prepared for us.

Earlier today I happened across the blog Presentation Zen and this post entitled “Fall down seven times, get up eight: The power of Japanese resilience.” It is worth reading and reflecting on the admirable qualities and behavior of the Japanese people both in this time of tragedy and under more normal circumstances which hopefully will return soon.

It was an emotional but fun evening, and the event ended up raising about $42,000. For any who may be interested, a variation on this theme will be held at Yoshi’s this weekend, and, of course, there are many organizations where contributions may be made to assist with recovery in the affected areas in Japan (among them, the Northern Japan Earthquake Relief Fund, and Give 2 Asia).

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Finally -- An Alternative to Shuffleboard at Smitty's!

After a long wait, Bar Bocce finally opened here in Sausalito about a week ago, in the space at 1250 Bridgeway just across from CIBO. Below is a picture I took of the site a few weeks back when they were still under construction – it shows the location just south of Paradise Bay (itself reportedly about to become Salito’s, a “crab house and prime rib restaurant”) and Wellington’s Wine Bar. Bar Bocce is affiliated with Bungalow 44 and the Buckeye Roadhouse in Mill Valley, and Pizzeria Picco in Larkspur. The 1250 Bridgeway space has been vacant for over two years following the closing of Northpoint Coffee at the end of 2008 and the rejection by the Sausalito City Council of Peet’s efforts to move in there.

Last night on my way home I stopped by Bar Bocce to check it out and found they had an open spot at their bar. I was alone so just had one of their pizzas – a pork sausage, fennel pollen, scallions and red onion combo. Here is the full menu and my pizza:

Although I was really hoping it would be fantastic, sadly, especially since Bar Bocce boasts a wood burning pizza oven, I thought my pizza was just OK. While the topping was very good, I found the crust, while nicely charred, to be a bit on the doughy side – certainly a step below that of the excellent pizza I had recently at Cotogna in San Francisco. Still, it is a lively and very nicely designed spot and well worth checking out. I certainly plan to go back and explore the menu further. Below are a few shots of the restaurant – both the interior as well as the area behind the building where they have tables, a very nice fire pit surrounded by benches and, or course, the bay-side bocce court!! Look out Smitty’s!

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A Tasty Road Trip – Orlando to New Orleans

At the beginning of this month I attended our firm’s Spring partnership meeting in Orlando, Florida. Nancy’s side of our family had decided to hold its annual gathering in New Orleans at the end of the following week. Rather than return from Orlando to San Francisco, only to turn around a couple of days later and fly back to NOLA, I decided to rent a car in Orlando and drive to NOLA. That would also give me the chance to stop in Auburn, Alabama, where I could visit Pat who is attending vet school at Auburn. It was my first solo road trip in many years, as well as a chance to explore part of the country where, expect for NOLA itself, I had never been before.


I report below on some of the better dishes I enjoyed during the trip which, together with the time in NOLA, covered nine days.

The first leg of the trip from Orlando to Auburn was the longest – about 8 hours – and took me through northern Florida (no need to return there), across Georgia (quite a pretty part of the country) and into central Alabama. I noted some fast food establishments that have not made their way to California, although I did not stop to try them.

There is not much more to Auburn than the university – which has a beautiful campus primarily of red brick buildings with white trim – and a modest downtown.

I did make the requisite stop at Toomer’s Drugs on the town's main intersection for a glass of their famous freshly-squeezed lemonade and a piece of apple pie, both of which were very good.

Since I had an extra day in Auburn, I decided to visit some of the places in Alabama that had played a role in the civil rights movement. I started by heading due west from Auburn, through Montgomery and on to Selma.

I walked around Selma and across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the site of “Bloody Sunday” almost exactly 40 years earlier. I then returned to Montgomery where I visited the capitol building, the Rosa Parks Museum and the Civil Rights Memorial Center, all very moving. I was particularly impressed by the Civil Rights Memorial monument created by Maya Lin who also created the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington out of the same black stone.

Inside the Center I found the electronic Wall of Tolerance where, upon making a pledge to take a stand against hate, injustice and intolerance, one can add ones name to the display.

While in Montgomery I also took the opportunity to visit Riverwalk Stadium, the home field of the Montgomery Biscuits, one of Tampa’s minor league teams. The field was abuzz with activity as the grounds crew worked to get the stadium in shape for the start of the Biscuits' season. I had a nice chat with one of the fellows and asked where he would recommend I go to find some good bar-b-que. He said the best place was Dreamland which was just across the street from the stadium. I followed that advice and had some excellent bar-b-que ribs and chicken, with sides of beans and cole slaw, all washed down with a glass of Sweetwater 402 ale from Atlanta. The waitress told me I shouldn’t miss their banana cream dessert and, since it was Fat Tuesday, it seemed appropriate to follow that advice. It was superb.

The next day it was on to NOLA. A real southern storm rolled in just as I was pulling out of Auburn, and I managed to stay right in the middle of it for the first few hours of my drive.

It was only after I neared Mobile that I noted a text from Pat that I should keep an eye out for tornadoes reported in the area. Happily I did not encounter any.

As I entered Mississippi and neared the Gulf I decided to leave the freeway and explore a bit. I first drove south to Biloxi on the Gulf, then turned west and drove right along a beautiful beach for about 15 miles to Gulfport. I had read online about a seafood restaurant in Gulfport named Lil’ Rays which was supposed to have the best fried shrimp po’boy sandwiches on the Gulf coast and after a bit of searching finally found the restaurant in a small shopping center. It was well worth the detour since it was probably the best meal I had on my entire trip.

It was also my first encounter with the French bread rolls produced by the 105-year old Leidenheimar Baking Company in New Orleans.

When I commented to the folks at Lil’ Rays on how perfectly suited the po’boy roll was for the sandwich, they said that they went all the way to Leidenheimer in NOLA for their bread since Leidenheimer’s bread made such a huge different. They also told me that Leidenheimer supplies about 90% of the bread used for po’boys throughout the south.

I arrived safely in NOLA late in the afternoon and met up with Nancy who had just arrived from San Francisco. We were both tired and did not want to go too far for dinner. Luckily we found that John Besh’s restaurant, August, was just across the street from our hotel. We managed to get in for an earlier dinner and it was great. I particularly enjoyed my main course - sugar and spice duckling with seared foie gras and stone-ground grits with Creole cream cheese.


That was the first of three elegant meals we had in New Orleans. The next day Nancy and I had lunch with Alex and Cass at their favorite NOLA restaurant, Susan Spicer’s Bayona (where my favorite was my main course – a mixed grill of stuffed quail, marinated lamb and chaurice sausage from Poiche's), and on Saturday evening our entire clan had dinner at Dominique’s on Magazine, recently opened by Dominique Macquet (where again my fav was the main course - Morgan Ranch Wagyu beef with a Creole cream cheese stuffing).


Of course, my real interest was in some of the more traditional NOLA culinary offerings and fortunately I had enough time between our family activities to pursue that. Of course, no trip to NOLA would be complete without a visit to Café du Monde for some coffee and a beignet. I accomplished that early one morning when I walked down just as they opened, then took my treasure up to the levee to enjoy the sunrise over the Mississippi.

Oysters where in abundance and I am not sure how many dozen of the raw variety I polished off during our stay. The best were some we had at a bar named Cooter Brown’s not far from the Tulane campus – an old haunt of Alex and Cass. Huge, flavorful oysters with the simplest possible presentation – just shucked and tossed on a plastic tray.

The oysters we had at the far more upscale Bourbon House in the French Quarter were a very close second, enhanced by some wonderful company (I am a lucky person to have oyster-loving daughters-in-law!).


I also enjoyed some oysters fried in a po’boy at Mulate’s – again with a Leidenheimer roll (I did have another po’boy while we were in NOLA with a noticeably inferior roll which proved to have come from a different bakery – case closed).

The other must-have NOLA dish was red beans with rice which I also had at Mulate’s. An excellent preparation with a lot of andouille sausage.

In the course of our stay we also had a few gumbos and etouffées, but none were particularly notable. In fact the gumbo that Alex, Cass and I had made before our trip was superior. However, on my next visit I play to pay closer attention to the Southern Foodways Allliance “gumbo trail” and to try to get to some of the places they list there.

Finally, I have to note that with virtually every lunch and dinner we enjoyed Abita Amber – as far as I am concerned the only beer to drink while in NOLA.

It was a fun trip and, or course, a chance to spend time with our family (perhaps the only time this year we will all be together), especially Cece.


The Southern Foodways Alliance annual symposium is coming up in October in Oxford, Mississippi, so that may be another opportunity to explore the south. I am looking forward to the next trip.

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