eggbeater

Poulet Offerings, shaking it up

I'm in Poulet with a new vision. Looking to a future where late summer meets fall I'm mixing up the offerings to keep you on your toes and hungry for it all to boot. Think figs, coconut milk, plums, blueberries, puff pastry, fuzzy yellow peaches, warm pear, walnut and apple crisps, new cupcakes, shortcrust tarts, whole almond frangipane, milk chocolate-malt cream puffs...

Today I created my own version of light marshmallow topping for cute leetle cocoa-sour cream cupcakes. Not satisfied with what I could find on line or in my baking books, I put together a melding of Swiss meringue and took a good guess at gelatin to sugar to whites ratio. Not too bouncy, just the right amount of homemade marshmallow taste, and a satisfyingly moist cupcake bottom to support the fluffiness is yours for the mere amount of

$2.

Can you say goddamn?

Not so interested in how marshmallows are made outside of the factory? We're also offering smoother than smooth sour cream-chocolate frosting. Both work, for $2 what have you got to lose?!

How about a completely vegan coconut rice pudding seasoned with raw sugar and fresh fruit? Mango dice tossed in caramel shown here.

Of course we serve food at Poulet too. Hot chickens out twice a day, rotating menus for both lunch and dinner, a vast repertoire of fresh salads... What are you doing today? Fresh, house-made Chile Rillenos with chunky tomato sauce are waiting for you! If you got lucky today you snagged one of our BBQ'd pork sandwiches on an Acme roll and in snug with Poulet's famous coleslaw. That's right, yo, house-made mayo!

As you read this I'm in Vacaville at another farm, taking pictures

and asking questions, but maybe I'll meet you in Berkeley at Shattuck and Virginia for lunch.

Poulet 

1685 Shattuck, at the corner of Virginia

(a 10 minute walk from downtown Berkeley BART)

Monday-Friday 10:30 am - 8 pm 

Saturday 10:30 am - 6 pm

510. 845. 5932

http://www.pouletdeli.com/

http://chickenlittle.typepad.com/

Food Bloggers Picnic, Our 2nd Annual!

After months and months of planning with various wonderful people I know, love and appreciate, we set a date and produced The Second Annual Food Bloggers Picnic!

Many many a person new and veteran came with husbands, wives, ex wives, partners, children, mothers and friends! A satiating time was had by all. It's always a trip to put a face, a personality, an outfit and a dish to someone you have been reading for ages.

Cold and dreary in SF and the East Bay, some of us were smart
enough to check the weather and don shorts, skirts and #30 sunscreen as Lafayette was hot by 11am, leaving the wall of fog behind on the West side of the Caldecott Tunnel.

It was delicious to meet and see the other two out queer bloggers, finally meet Marc, the quiet man behind Mental Masala, eat and take home the leftovers of Pim's crunchy rice squares, find the hidden sauteed gnocchi amidst purple, green and spotted beans made by the smiley Heidi of 101 Cookbooks, prep watermelon next to Spanish canape making Brett,

 swim in the pool with none other than Elise of Simply Recipes and Movable Type Tutorial fame, be the first in the hidden hammock with my future ex-girlfriend Amanda Berne, finally set eyes upon the prolific (and very cute!!) Sean over at Hedonia, meet the lanky Garrett and impress his husband with my dessert-experiment, both who came down all the way from Sacramento to represent yo, 

talk to the smart, charming and humorous children of our tall and meat-making, flat bread grilling host, Owen, ride in a big truck with my very own personal Meat Angel Guy "Dr. Biggles" Prince, eat as many pieces of the rare-and-newly-revived-from-extinction Bakewell Tart as I liked, brilliantly crafted by none other than England's own baking heroine/god-dess, Sam "Sixy Beast" Breach, dive whole body first into the bowl of lightly ginger syruped gems that were fresh summer berries

and julienned mint made by my favorite ho, and get-around-gal, Joy "the motherfuckin' bomb" and her devilishly handsome and superbly dressed husband Jon,

dish with the all-knowing veteran food blogger Amy about Bay Area food news, a recent Seattle visit and her husband Lee's enviable footwear, flatter the hot rock-and-roll black clad wearing Chubby of not-to-be-messed-with Bunrabs, answer hazelnut skinning questions inquired by Anita of Dessert First,

 

accepted praise on the upwards slope on the craftiness and singularly unique voice my writing is carrying more and more as time goes on: real compliments indeed coming from a long term veteran of newspaper writing Cookiecrumb, her dish was soaked in vodka so I could not eat it but Heidi did it justice with her uncanny photo skills; we both loved its "aesthetic palette" being the arty geeks that we are,

re-connecting with Sandy of Tasty Bytes after long last, ate an innovative mango and quinoa dish, rejoiced in cold peanut noodles with perfectly diced cucumbers, loved a flat bread made that day and grilled over hot coals,  gave shit to Tea for leaving early with her empty plate of big and juicy pan bagna offering, (she and I stayed up until 1:30 am the night before talking books, exes, the literary scene, cookbooks, what to do when we don't like our friend's partners, and eating pretty Pink Pearl apples),

setting-up the great outdoor space with secret Karaoke Shark Alder and his serious, pretty hat- wearing wife, giving Wendy the tour of food on the table, saying happy hellos to anyone who bumped into me as I chatted and chatted away giddily, so incredibly happy to amongst all of you cute and handsome critters!

Thank you fellow planning committee members present and absent, from near and far. We did indeed do it! Pat us on the back, we deserve it.

The Northern California Food Blogging Community is just that, a community.

And we Rock!!

Other places to find the overview and more extensive photos: Becks and Posh, Dessert First, Confessions of a Restaurant Whore, Bunrabs Daily Feed, I'm Mad and I Eat, Vanilla Garlic, Cooking With Amy, 101 Cookbooks, Pengrin's photos of (almost) all the food!, Hedonia's photos, Garrett's photos, KQED's Bay Area Bites, Jennifer Jeffrey, Life's A Picnic, and Pengrin Eats.

Hoffman Farms. A Hidden Gem of A U-Pick Farm in Napa

This is Mr. John Hoffman. He's 90 and still farming fruit in Napa Valley. And I don't mean grapes. No, this man is growing delectables we eat out of hand and has been since 1949!

I feel a trend coming...

There are farms I want to visit, photograph, highlight; farmers I want to speak with, interview, write about, quote. I'm on a roll. Lookout for farms you may have never heard of, and ones Internationally known featured here at Eggbeater.

Need a reason to visit Napa Valley besides/alongside wine tasting? Take  gander at my latest KQED article for that nudge--

Knife Skills Class Anyone? In Alameda...

Didn't a bunch of you ask when I would do a class in the East Bay? In Alameda? If you don't sign up for it, it will not happen...

Knives Knives Everywhere,
and all of them dreadfully dull!

Dull knives no more!
Down with big fancy butter knives!
Hurray for learning how to keep your fingertips intact!
Say yes to keeping knives sharp in between uses!

Come to the quaint isle of Alameda during the second week of September, (When the Bay Bridge is actually open), for some slicing, dicing, peeling, mincing, supreming, brunoising, watching, practicing, question asking, professional kitchen story listening, and knife test-rides.

September 10 2006
Sunday  1-3 pm
Alameda, Ca.
$53

{Exact location to be given with payment confirmation}

**You may pay by PayPal (link in right hand column) or send me a check. If you would rather the latter, email me and I will let you know where to send it.

Come one, come all. Come hungry to learn.

Wendell Berry in conversation with Michael Pollan

Do you get CUESA's newsletter?

This is from their recent announcements:

                           

Friday             Sep 8

5:00 pm

description: World-famous poet, philosopher,             and environmentalist Wendell Berry will share stories about his Kentucky             home and discuss his views on agriculture and the environment in a             conversation with bestselling author Michael Pollan. Join us for a             wonderful evening of poetry and environmental awareness at Toby's             Feed Barn in Point Reyes Station. The event is a fundraiser for Kentuckians             For The Commonwealth, the citizen’s action group Berry represents,             for their efforts to heighten public awareness of the damage dynamite             coal mining is causing to Kentucky’s natural environment. The             evening is hosted by Marin Organic and co-sponsored by CUESA, Marin             Agricultural Land Trust, Center for Ecoliteracy, Point Reyes Books,             and Toby’s Feed Barn.A bus will leave the Ferry Building at             5:30 pm for this event. Tickets are $50 and include bus transportation             to and from Point Reyes Station. Sorry, we are not selling tickets             separately. To purchase tickets, click here.           The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and             after all our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains             of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope. ~ Wendell Berry

I hate You Squirrel. For Breaking Into My House.

**Disclaimer-- if you are one of those PETA people who does not even kill the snails in your garden or the cockroaches crawling on your bed then do not read any further. No, go work on your stupid fucking foie gras ban.** Thank you, the animal killing and eating management.

I hate you squirrel. For Breaking into my house. I hate you for eating my chocolate from France that came in a beautiful, thoughtful care package from my husband Friday. I hate you for making a complete mess of my vestibule with your thousands of nibbles on the green walnuts I brought home from the farm. I hate you for being able to fly and climb up flat wooden houses and slip in through a window opened two fucking inches so that I can some fresh fucking air! I hate you for being able to  do all your antics upside-down.

I hate that you knocked everything over, even the bowl of oily, stinky artichoke hearts even though you did not even eat them. I hate that I have no idea which bowl of buckwheat groats you stuck your dirty paws and teeth in. I hate that you chewed on plastic and so I know you spent too much time near my toaster on the counter. I hate you for snacking and not even finishing anything. I mean, my god, don't you know how wasteful that is?!

I hate you for making my little house feel violated and unclean.

I hate that even though the neighborhood is filled with fruit and nut trees you chose to ransack my house. I hate that I don't own a gun. I hate that I won't know it's you when I go squirrel hunting and I might kill your enemies instead. I hate that somehow I might make you happy.

I hate that I know my hate is illogical.

I hate you for spending the day in my house. An amazing day I was having at the two farmer's markets I love the most with my friend who will soon be in NYC cheffing because that's where so many great SF chefs go. I hate that SF does not support its great chefs enough to keep them from leaving.

I hate you squirrel. I hate you for chewing on a candy that's meant for display because they are little chocolate eggs wrapped in intricate flowered Italian foil. I hate that you disturbed my neatly laid out still lifes. I hate that now I don't feel safe in my bedroom because I never shut the window when it's not raining. I hate you for creeping me out.

I hate you squirrel for breaking into my house. I hate that even if I could go on a squirrel killing spree I will never kill you. Because you have already trespassed on me and my little abode and all the killing in the world could not make it untrue.

I hate that even if I had bleach in my house and a spray bottle, sanitizing you out of my creeped-out-edness would be impossible. I hate you squirrel. I hate you for using the beautiful canopy of Japanese Maple outside my window as a launching pad for breaking & entering my house. I hate that I now view that tree suspiciously. Like a fucking tree could be an accomplice.

I hate how emotions are fucking ridiculous when you type them out as words.

I hate that the upside of this is that now my house is really clean. It could be all the great coffee Michael and I shared from Blue Bottle coffee. I hate that being way too caffeinated could be the reason for feeling totally insane about my squirrel break-in.

I hate that humans feel entitled to all the space they take up and feel self righteous about killing animals who were here first. I hate that I'm one of those humans: stupid and filled with hubris.

I hate you squirrel. For living in the world with me. For being so prevalent in the East Bay. For looking cute when your tail is so fluffy and you are crouching on your hind legs eating acorns with your little  hands. I hate you for bringing out the worst in me. And maybe the best. I hate you squirrel for making me feel like you are responsible for my feelings. I hate that we think things "make us" something or other.

Aside from running amok there is no reason for you to take responsibility for how I feel or blaming me for how I "made" you feel.

I hate you squirrel. For bringing up in me how it feels to be trespassed. And powerless. And scared to be home alone. With windows that open. In nature.

I hate that I know you, squirrel, were just curious and hungry. And that aside from knowing where to return for good eats and snacks, this break-in has already left your tiny speck of a squirrel brain.

Edible San Francisco: The Third Article Is In!

 

Do you have your subscription to ESF yet? Even if you are not living in California, you should subscribe.**When you subscribe, be sure to ask them to begin your subscription with the Spring 2006 issue.**

The articles are about food and food issues which affect us all.

AND YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO READ THEM ONLINE.

No, these pieces are read the old fashioned way, in a magazine!

In the Spring 2006 issue I wrote about Rhubarb. Summer 2006 issue, Peaches.

Autumn 2006 is a surprise.

I have been locked up in my house for days writing. Last night I emailed the editor/publisher my 1600 words and then realized I was starving. Ironic that writing about and preparing food does not leave much time for actually eating it. It was surreal walking around my sleepy Berkeley neighborhood in the dark. My legs wanted to know what we were up to and my stomach was hollow. Tanx g-d for Saul's, my neighborhood Jewish deli. I ordered chicken soup, a lattke and chocolate babka.

mmmmm comfort food.

sometimes life makes you smile first thing in the morning.

Culinary Positions: The Interview part 1

I've been thinking a lot about how my whole 3 1/2 week process of interviews/tasting went for the try out of this last job opportunity. Some of you have addressed or asked about some particulars and I want to speak to those inquiries.

Although I have worked a few other jobs here and there, I have mostly been a professional cook for the last 14 years. I entered the industry with no culinary school experience, not even a class. All my training was acquired on the job, trial by fire, quite literally.

I watched, listened, asked a million questions, read all that I could get my hands on, followed my mentors around, arrived early, stayed late and worked incredibly hard. I just did it. I didn't question the insane hours, the low pay, the abuse, the ferocious competitiveness, the flirtations, the food preparation shortcuts, the body's moans and screams, the lack of sick days or vacations or sunned skin, or the veritable absence of sober people.

I walked into the industry and knew. I made the mistakes we all need to make first hand. That the Latino cooks I worked with weren't nice to me because they wanted to be my friend. That your partner on a station might do things to injure you severely, perhaps for life. That women in kitchens were rare for a reason. That minding your own business is a good thing. That chefs could be violent and get away with it.

That cooking was an aside when it came to navigating a restaurant kitchen.

I will never forget the people who taught me. The cooks who took me under their wing, kept in touch with me, made an impression. Inspired others even when exhaustion wasn't the least of their problems.

These days I field a lot of emails from people who ask me for culinary school advice. They are young and old, male and female, queer and straight, American and not. They ask me for ideas, suggestions, names & locations.

This is what I say, well mostly.

Approach a few restaurants whose food you like/love. Figure out how many days/hours you could give over to working for free. Tell each chef that you love their cooking and want more than anything to work in their kitchens, for free. Tell them you'll do anything.

People who have worked for me have heard me say this many times, "Flattery will get you everywhere."

Work in that kitchen for 6 months. Then decide if you want to write a check for $40,000. Or if you want to pull it out of your parent's bank account. Or your trust fund. Or if $40,000 might be better spent funding the next few years of working for free/close to minimum wage. Or better spent elsewhere, like in another country.

Professional cooking, in restaurants- on the line- is for the young. The nimble. The dumb/inexperienced. The star struck.

Or the insanely passionate. Remember: the pay is low, the hours are long and weird, the substance abuse rate is through the roof, the physical injuries are many: SO SOMETHING HAS TO DRIVE YOU!

Something that won't be found by putting your emotions under a microscope. No. Passion is not quantify-able. Have you looked up passion in the dictionary lately?

It means tortured.

Because of the "underground-edness" of this industry, our interviews are also a little off the beaten track. The actual sitting down-talking-answering questions-getting dressed up-looking good-sounding good-lying about your past-beating around the bush-puffing up your chest like a peacock is fairly insignificant. Sometimes this whole process takes five minutes.

The talking? It's mostly to see how you answer the questions. Do you know the lingo? Will you dish your last chef/restaurant/sous chefs? Will you figure out that the person interviewing you knows all the people you just worked for? And has slept with them.

Or just fucked them in the walk-in.

The trail, now that's where the "interview" takes place.

That's a chef interviewing a cook. When it comes to being interviewed for a chef position, things get more complicated.

Black Walnuts, what do you know?

What can you tell me about the Black Walnut?
Besides the pointy leaves and the black black trunk, what can you tell me?
They're incredibly hard to open, is it worth the effort?
Why?

Why chase the Black Walnut?

Hide in forests, wear the tall red hat of the gnome, cool in the wide shade of a tall dark tree. Breathe deep the scent of shells underfoot. Black wood, round and pointed, seemingly hollow.

Have you tasted Black Walnut ice cream?

When did you cross the Black Walnut's path? Were words exchanged, or just glances. Winsome? Coy? Alluring?
Seductive?

Might you have any Black Walnuts stowed away in your room?

Wanna make a trade?

green on green. fruits on trees. disguise.

I'm north doing research.
Talking to farmers.
Photographing: drawing with light.
Listening to trees.
Breathing deep the bitter perfume
of nuts on trees.

Writing down the words.
Organizing the ideas.
Asking questions.
Sleeping in spurts.
Snacking on the simple things.
Cheese, bread, soup from a friend.

I might be slow to answer communication--
I put my head down when I write these big pieces.
Make space to hear whispering,
notice the intricate workings,
taste the past, the lineage, the history.

Describe the indescribable.
Remember why I feel I have something more to give to these ancient edibles.

I'll be back soon enough,
dusty & stained.
Dry but not famished.

Knife Skills Class Coming Up in Alameda!

Knives Knives Everywhere,
and all of them too dull to do anything with!

Dull knives no more!
Down with big fancy butter knives!
Hurray for learning how to keep your fingertips intact!
Say yes to keeping knives sharp in between uses!

Come to the quaint isle of Alameda during the second week of September, (When the Bay Bridge is actually open), for some slicing, dicing, peeling, mincing, supreming, brunoising, watching, practicing, question asking, professional kitchen story listening, and knife test-rides.

Sunday September 10 2006
1-3 pm
Alameda, Ca.
$53

{Exact location to be given with payment confirmation}

**You may pay by PayPal (link in right hand column) or send me a check. If you would rather the latter, email me and I will let you know where to send it.