Eats For One … or more

One at IHOP and one at home
And then, two more breakfasts

ONE
International Crepe, Omelette at IHOP

Son Brian’s job has moved him from Montpellier, in southern France to Reno, in western Nevada. Quite a change, but Reno is a pretty nice place. He closed on his house a short time ago. Carol and I went to help him unpack and move furniture around. His refrigerator was delivered about the time we arrived on Friday; a beautiful refrigerator, but empty.

Brian had to go get his driver’s license early Saturday morning, so Carol and I went searching for a proper sit-down breakfast. Outside of downtown Reno and the casinos, restaurants are situated in outdoor shopping centers. The first we passed had no restaurant. At the second, larger shopping center we spied an IHOP. Their parking lot was full, a good sign that they’re open and popular.

I don’t think I’ve been to an IHOP since they were the International House of Pancakes on Storrow Drive in Boston, back when our kids were kids. I’m not a fan of pancakes, so I ordered the International Crepe Passport: Two eggs, two crispy bacon strips, two pork sausage links and your choice of a Danish fruit crepe or two Nutella or Swedish crepes. I chose sausage only, eggs over easy and the Danish fruit crepe.

Carol chose the “Create Your Own Omelette” with sausage.

The portions were enormous, way more than I wanted or needed for breakfast.

That’s the “Danish” apple cinnamon crepe on the left. The white blob on top is whipped cream and the crepe is also stuffed with whipped cream. When the waitress asked if I wanted sausage and bacon or one or the other, I thought she was talking about a total of two. Silly me. I declined extra toast. The trouble is, people expect these huge portions, and then feel obliged to clean up their plate. I ate the sausages and eggs and about a third of the crepe. The kindly waitress offered a box, but enough is enough. (more…)

Where FOOD experiences become food EXPERIENCES.

Prologue
Son Brian is being reassigned by the USDA from the Montpellier, France Lab to their lab in Reno NV. Carol and I traveled to Reno as advance scouts, as it were.

Lunch Saturday, May 23
The trip on California I-80 was one we had taken a few times – enroute to Lake Tahoe – including the stop for lunch at Ikeda in Auburn, the burger joint where everybody stops on their way to Tahoe. Traveling on to Reno was a new experience.

biggest little city...

We arrived in Reno about 2:30 and got lost trying to find Peppermill, but broke off our search to meet with Brian’s realtor. Turns out we could see Peppermill from his office.

ONE DAY TWO NIGHTS
When we stepped into the Peppermill Resort and Casino, we were overwhelmed by the sprawling casino, not to mention the line at check-in, but there were six clerks on duty, so the line moved pretty fast. The only reason we were at the Peppermill was that C had mentioned it, and it was the same price as the Holiday Inn Express. Where to stay? That was a no-brainer.

Our room was in the Montego Bay Wing, a squat three-story motel type building off in back of the two hotel towers. It had only 14 rooms per floor.

To get there, we walked a series of long, but not oppressive corridors, past the Spa, outdoors and across a small parking lot. I liked that. While the walk was pretty long, we didn’t have to pack into an elevator and our wing was very quiet. I only saw one or two other people there.

Saturday Dinner
We had been told by Reno habitués that of the 11 restaurants Peppermill offers, the fish restaurant was a good choice, so we pulled out our trusty map of the hotel/casino and managed to find Oceana. How could we miss it?… Remember the Big Bopper song, “house o’ blue lights?”

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A Movable Feast
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Luce at the InterContinental San Francisco

The Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (CUESA) presented the first installment of the First Annual Movable Feast: Twelve Chefs Celebrate Six Farmers in a Series of Seasonal Suppers. Occurring once a month, the Series is intended to honor the relationships within the chef community and between chefs and farmers all while bringing attention to CUESA’s mission.
Chefs: Dominique Crenn of Luce and Chris Kronner formerly of Slow Club and Serpentine.
Featured Farmer: Louis Iacopi of Iacopi Farm, Half Moon Bay.

About 50 folks gathered for a true feast in the elegant and spacious Luce, where the curved glass windows looked out on the active corner of Howard and Fifth Streets. My wife and I were seated at a banquette on the inside wall. There were no speeches or ceremony, just good food and wine. Those present knew why they had come. Between courses, CUESA Executive Director Dave Stockdale circulated among the guests and introduced farmer Louis Iacopi. The chefs, Dominique and Chris, circulated throughout the evening to answer questions and check on our reaction to the dishes. Wines were paired with each course and served with an explanation of the selection.

The menu was served in courses on large white plates. The portions for each course were small, but by the end of the evening, our bellies were full and our senses heightened.

The menu is presented below, with my comments in italic. I took no food-porn pictures because I thought it inappropriate for the occasion – also, I forgot my camera.

It was a most agreeable and enjoyable evening, and we look forward to others in the series.

Menu

Early Spring Vegetable Garden
A mélange of flavors and textures including a very thin crisp slice of raw carrot, a cooked white carrot, half of a baby turnip, slice of beet with mustard seeds and grainy mustard, and dehydrated basil nestled with a dollop of pureed potato.
Graziano Fontana, Muller Thurgau, Sudtirol, Alto Adige, Italy 2005

Baby Octopus / Cauliflower / Potatoes Fondant
The octopus, served warm, was extremely tender and tasty – I’m guessing it was marinated in a vinegary, briny solution and briefly cooked. The cauliflower was shaved longitudinally through the floweret, served cold and very crisp. Julienne strips of fennel were presented cooked and lightly dressed. The potatoes were balls the size of a large marble. I’m guessing that “fondant” means they were pureed, gelatin or agar agar added, cast into balls and re-cooked. They were very white and served on dry basil and a dollop of mayo. The potatoes themselves were rather bland, but with the basil/mayo were quite tasty.
Iron Horse, Chardonnay, Green Valley, Sonoma, California 2006

Mint English peas / Spring onion /

Slow Roasted Spring Sonoma Lamb
About 12 peas presented in an open pod with a sauce of pureed peas and mint. An eight-inch stalk of grilled spring onion with a crunchy interior complimented two-rib portion of roasted medium rare Frenched lamb chops, suitable for gnawing. Yum
La Spinetta Ca da Pian, Barbera d’Asti, Piedmont, Italy 2004

Gigante Beans Cassoulet
Amazing flavor! Giant butter beans, an Iacopi favorite of mine, served with a rich sauce and topped with a thick scrumptious slice of tender pork belly. Chef Crenn told me that the sauce was a reduction of some of the beans, pureed, with wine and the bean juices.
Marquis-Phillips S2, Cabernet Sauvignon, McClaren Vale, Australia 2004

Evolution of Strawberries
Raw, cooked, candied, sorbet, dried, gelato, and foam strawberries were arranged around the plate, each displaying its own color, texture and temperature.
Vinoptima, Late Harvest Gewurztraminer, Gisborne, New Zealand 2002

Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen, Morrow, 1984
A Review

My hardcover copy of Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen is dog-eared, food-stained and some of the pages are coming out of the binding. It is inscribed, “From Robert and Katy, 1984,” and it is still a “top shelf” cookbook in my kitchen library.

I prize it because the recipes have a zing to them and it contains the best meatloaf recipe of all time. Chef Paul calls it Cajun Meat Loaf. I call it K-Paul Meatloaf.

That’s just by way of introduction. His “saucy” foods – Creoles, Gumbos, Jambalayas – are spicy devils, but in no way fiery; even my wife-of-tender-palate likes them. His Basic Cooked Rice and Dirty Rice make a good bed for sopping up the juices.

His recipes seem intimidating at first – long lists of ingredients and long descriptions of methods. I made little go-by cards to put up over the stove. Once I dutifully did my mies en place I learned they had a drib of this and a drab of that, and the preparation had a rhythm to it. Not so hard after all.

I had the good fortune to eat at K Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen in New Orleans when I was there on business on a balmy night in the late 80’s. I was about 20th in a long line – they don’t do reservations – and noticed that some people in line had drinks – hey, it’s New Orleans. Just as I was about to go to a nearby bar for my own drink, a woman came down the line asking, “any singles.” I quickly volunteered and was seated with a dentist, his wife and son from San Diego. I don’t remember what I had after the Dirty Martini and before the Sweet Potato Pecan Pie, but the experience is etched in my brain.

When BUTTER was BAD, Chef Paul wrote a book called Fork in the Road. His name on the cover caused me to buy the book straightaway. Can Chef Paul really do “healthy low fat?” I guess he did it, but all the taste went away. After one meal, I banished that book from my library.

I went on using Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen two or three times a year – OK, more times just for the meatloaf – moderation is the key.

Dang all, I’m hungry!

James Beard’s Theory and Practice of Good Cooking, Knopf, 1977
A Review

This is my go-to book about cooking. As the title implies, its more a book about cooking than it is a cookbook.

It has recipes, of course, but the recipes are there to illustrate the principles and methods of cooking. The chapters tell the tale. From the front: Boiling, Roasting, Broiling and Grilling, Braising, Sautéing, Frying, Baking. For example, when I buy a piece of Corned Beef for a St. Patrick’s Day feast of New England Boiled Dinner, James Beard starts with corned beef and concentrates on getting that and the vegetables cooked properly… indeed, cooked separately and for different lengths of time and brought together only at the end.

We bought a fish poacher in Boston to poach a four-pound salmon for a party. In James Beard’s Theory and Practice of Good Cooking there is more than one recipe for poached fish and in my cooking-for-parties phase I poached a few salmon, as well as other fish and shellfish. I especially like the Poached Fish with White Wine Sauce and Shellfish a la Nage, “a la nage” is the French term for a style of preparation in which shellfish are both cooked and served “swimming” in a white wine court bouillon and eaten hot, tepid or cold. Shrimp, crayfish or small lobsters are excellent prepared in this manner. Lovely.
I could cite similar examples from the other chapters, but these will give you the drift.

I grew to love James Beard. Beard encouraged me to use my fingers to mix pate, to press my fingers on the meat to feel for proper doneness; to substitute ingredients and to feel the cooking, rather than read it. He told me about meats and fish and vegetables and herbs and spices, where they come from, what they’re about, in an interesting, chatty way. It would have been nice to know James Beard. He led me to make up recipes based on what caught my eye in the market, or more likely, what was on hand. It is illustrated with informative line drawings. Sadly, it’s out of print, but it can be found used.

A Birthday Treat

Carol was being very mysterious about my birthday. She kept saying she would take me out, but she said she wouldn’t say where. Then, “The place I wanted to take you closed, but I have another place in mind, but I won’t say where.”

Okay by me… as long as I know I won’t have to cook.

When she got home from work, she said, “I couldn’t get a reservation, but maybe we should just go anyway.”

“It’s your party,” I said. Clearly, she couldn’t wait to surprise me.

“Well… let’s go,” she said, “I’ll drive. It’s someplace we’ve never been before.”

“So we’re driving,” I said, “That rules out about 20 places.”

As she crossed Van Ness, I said, “I smell Fillmore Street.” She grunted. She turned left on Fillmore. Where haven’t we been on Fillmore, I wondered. She drove on. “Hmmm, maybe Yoshi’s?” I said. She said no, but when we got to Yoshi’s, she said to look for parking. A space opened up on the other side of the street. She made a quick left into it, a three-point turn and parked… a very city-like maneuver. In the near corner of the glass Yoshi’s building, we could see a restaurant looking place. No sign, but a big wooden door welcomed us. We went in. (more…)

Eats goes to New England

We came from San Francisco to Brunswick, Maine. Folks assembled came from Monroe, Maine; Providence, Rhode Island; Seattle, Washington; Beacon, New York; Bar Harbor, Maine; Columbus, Ohio; Portland, Maine, Brookline, Massachusetts, London, England; and Grundisburgh Woodbridge Suffolk England. All are connected to our hosts, Katy and Bill, and have been part of this gathering over the years. Katy was our neighbor on Harrison Street in Newton for many years.

Eric and Katy

“Marc, Carol, Brian, Eric and Alison,” Katy said, “meet Ethan and Sally, Chloe, Kareim, and Suha, Michael and Felicity, Conner, Elisa, and William, Dan and Jill, Susan and Andy, Peggy and Marie, Donna and finally, Phoebe.” Eric and Alison live nearby in Monroe, Maine and attend this Thanksgiving celebration annually, so they know folks, the rest of us haven’t been for years so we’ll get to know them over the afternoon and evening.

It all began on Madison Avenue in Newton Massachusetts somewhere in the early 1990’s and continued when Katy moved to Maine in the mid ‘90s.

As with all good gatherings, the kitchen is the hub. Everybody is involved at one time or another, cooking, assembling, serving, carving and of course, eating. A spread of appetizers occupies the breakfast area: cheeses, liver pate, dilly beans, bread and butter pickles, breads and crackers. Grazing was happening.

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…on the way to Thanksgiving in Maine

Since son Brian moved to Southern France six years ago, we’ve met in Europe for our family get-togethers – except for son Eric’s 40th birthday in 2004, celebrated in New Hampshire and Maine. This year, it was great to get reacquainted with Boston friends and spend Thanksgiving with friends and family in Maine.

Millennium Bostonian Hotel

We touched down in Boston about six o’clock Friday and checked into the Millennium Bostonian Hotel, tired and hungry. If you’ve lived in Boston, you don’t return to Boston without dinner at Legal Seafood. We didn’t even take the time to unpack before walking through Faneuil Hall Marketplace to State Street and across the “Big Dig” park. It was plenty cold for us Californians – about 25 degrees – but we were comfortable in our saved Boston overcoats… until we turned the corner onto State Street and the wicked wind cut through our woolens like a serving spoon through soufflé. The lights of Legal warmed our soul and a few steps later; the blast of warmth from the vestibule took care of our bodies – quickly followed by a Macallan and Manhattan, which provide their own kind of heat.

Legal Seafood

some fine steamed clams

Sooner than expected, we were escorted from the bar, through the busy and cheerful dining room to our table. We ordered the quintessential Legal Seafood antipasto: cup o’ chowdahbucket o’ steamers and , to be dipped in broth and/or melted butter before dropping the morsel in to one’s mouth, open like a baby bird’s, to receive it. Yum. That’s livin’.

Crab Cake for Carol

As entrees I had the Scrod and Carol a big ol’ Crab Cake. What a lovely welcome to New England.
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“Slow Food Nation will bring together thousands of people: most will eat, drink and talk, a few will sing and dance, some will argue, and many will reflect, laugh out loud and learn. The legacy of these few days in San Francisco is that the conversations begun here will bloom into projects, changes, new passions and careers. Let’s work together to expand this moment of celebration, to build on the foundation of the broader food movement, and to create a food system for all Americans that is healthy, socially just, affordable and delicious.” From the Welcome, Slow Food Nation Program

FLASHBACK

In the summer of 2001, not yet aware of Slow Food, my wife and I made a road trip from son Brian’s house in Tifton, Georgia, just north of the Florida border, to son Eric’s house in Monroe, on the mid-coast of Maine. Our goal was to avoid interstates and to avoid fast food. We failed. Here’s what I said in my journal:

“When you get to the outskirts of Greenville, SC however, it’s Strip City; six lanes of it out US29 stretching for miles toward Spartanburg. We passed legions of McDonalds/Burger King/IHOP/Waffle House looking for a diner or some such place with real food, but finally relented and had “breakfast” at Burger King… sausage biscuits, hash nuggets (whatever they’re called) & coffee. The strip narrowed to four lanes and became almost unstriplike, but then, over the next hill, it got strippy again, getting ready for Spartanburg.”

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Québec, Ontario, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois on the way to the grand Festival of Cheese in Chicago. Much of the trip was in quest of eating miles and the food was what was there when the driving stopped, although we hoped for the best. The best (aside from the festival itself); we were able to choose — St. Elmo’s in Indianapolis, Aja Steak House in Chicago, and my sister’s home cookin’. The worst; we just had to eat something: Wendy’s in Logan, Ohio. We just stumbled onto the Palace Grill in Chicago’s North Loop — by far the best value. The yawning middle of quality included novel destinations — Hooters, Harry Caray’s — and restaurants on an agenda in Lancaster (see also Ohio Eats).In mid-June, Eric, cheesemaker at Monroe Cheese Studio, and number one son, emailed to say he was driving the Maine Cheese Guild’s entries to the American Cheese Festival in Chicago at the end of July. He wondered if I wanted to come and help drive. I’m a sucker for a road trip and had nothing pressing on my plate, so I said, “Why not?” The fact that my wife Carol hates road trips and I hadn’t been on one since ought-four made the decision easy.

It turned out that the best way to make a connection was for me to fly from San Francisco to Montreal where Eric would pick me up and we’d be off across southern Canada to points west. Come with me for a plethora of food experiences, warts and all.

Wednesday Breakfast Air CanadaAir Canada is nice. I was able to pre-purchase my meal with my ticket. Of three choices offered, I chose an ‘egg macmuffin’ sort of thing that came with a generous bag — not packet — of cashews. Am I giving ratings in this treatise? I think not.

Wednesday Dinner Bud’s PlaceBrockville, OntarioWe checked into a Day’s Inn (free wi-fi was the clincher) and went to dinner down the road toward the St. Lawrence River at Bud’s Place. We walked into a big, dark barn of a place with a big center bar, occupied by only a few people. It did not look promising, but the bartender suggested the roof terrace where we enjoyed the service of Katy, our smiling, enthusiastic waitress, and a decent view of rooftops falling away toward the river. The menu was straight from Fred’s Frozen Foods (I know, my brother used to work for Fred’s), but nicely prepared and cheerfully served by the wonderful Katy. I had the Cajun Catfish and Eric, the Steak Sandwich.
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