Sixth Course

Posted on March 5, 2012 by NotoriousMLE

Foto via Sixth Course

Arnold and I are huge Top Chef fans. I used to think I could never, EVER get into a show where I didn’t get to eat the food at the end but we love the creativity of the chefs on the show. We’ve been hooked for a few years now and we have rituals. Not only do we have to watch it together, we also have to eat a good meal immediately preceding the viewing. Nothing is more tortuous than watching Top Chef after a dinner of leftover lentils.

As a weirdo I always like the weird foods on the show, the molecular gastronomy, the bizarre flavor combinations. To be clear I am well aware that just being strange for novelty’s sake can often result in flops but when edgy meets delicious it blows your palate.

This is what happened when I ran into Sixth Course chocolates at the SF Chocolate salon. They had rosemary caramels and fennel pollen cream and… a habañero caramel truffle that was a game changer. Executed poorly all of these combos would be a hot mess, but the ladies over at Sixth Course know their stuff. The habañero was just hot enough to be disconcerting, but right at the moment that the spice was becoming alarming the creamy caramel kicked in to smooth the rough edges. They habañero had me hooked but what reeled me in was a truffle called champagne bubbly: a little nugget of joy that was filled with a teeny tiny amount of pop rocks. All together the mixture gave the extremely enjoyable sensation of having a mouthful of creamy, smooth chocolate champagne. It was a game changer.

Being a master of subtly I instantly fangirled out. Before I could stop myself I spit out all sorts of superlatives “Amazing. Top Chef quality. Innovative. I love you. Please give me MORE!”

They were very polite about the whole thing. Manners and master chocolatiers? Go support them here or check out their shop which will be opening in the San Francisco Mission District shortly.

Noodlemania Week #5-Domino Soba

Posted on February 29, 2012 by NotoriousMLE

Many of you who visit the design blogs fondly remember the dearly-departed Domino magazine. I was quite infatuated with the first issue I got in the mail and an amazing looking soba recipe that was featured. It was touted as a cleansing respite from the indulgences of the holiday season. After the delicious yet insane festivities from our SuperBowl fry-fest I was looking for some delicious penance.

Bless me father for I have eaten too many fried pickles.

We all make mistakes my child. Please eat a bowl of soba and medidate on your mistakes.

I wanted so badly for this to be a triumph but my bowl of soba came out… mediocre. I am not sure if the ramen restaurant near my house has elevated my taste for japanese soup or if it was the fact that I forgot a key ingredient for creating the broth (I didn’t have mushroom stems because I accidentally bought caps only) but I found it to be only so-so. That is not to say that I didn’t squirt it silly sriracha and eat it all over the course of the day happy as a clam. Please. I may be a sinner but I don’t waste food and quite frankly there are very few things that hot sauce can’t save.

Can I get an amen?

Super Sad True Love Story: Scarier than Reality TV

Posted on February 27, 2012 by NotoriousMLE

The minute I finished this book I mentally sketched out this blog post. In the process I found myself suddenly obsessed with the word dystopic. Unfortunately at the time I wasn’t sure what the word dystopic meant so I looked it up.

Dystopia-a hypothetical place, state, or situation in which conditions and quality of life are dreadful

Good to know because it’s an incredibly useful word to describe Super Sad True Love Story. Gary Shteyngart’s novel takes place in Manhattan in the “not so distant future” where our social problems/patterns have been taking to satirical extremes. All people are hyper-connected in a social network that is constantly ranking you in terms of popularity, beauty, financial wealth etc to everyone you walk by. Younger people are no longer able to read books having been taught only to scan texts for information and people’s wealth is ranked not by net worth but by their credit scores. In this world people are highly connected and highly isolated at the same time. It’s clear that Shytengart is probably not a fan of Facebook, or maybe he is? I did just start following him on Twitter.

Super Sad True Love Story is intended to be a dark comedy but I think that I am too softhearted to read it as the comedy it was meant to be. Instead of laughing, I felt myself cringing as the hapless protagonist Lenny Abramov navigates a terrifying world that feels too close to the present day to be funny. I recommend this book for the interesting ideas and unique voice it presents but I can’t say it was a fun read, I felt hopeless when I finished its last page. If any of you have read it I’d be very interested to get your take.

PS-This last week my stomach, my household and my plans for a kick-ass Oscar party were ravished by the stomach flu. The word dystopic came in handy once again for there is nothing as wonderful/pretentious/ridiculous as moaning about the flu creating a dystopic state of being.

My Oscar Pick

Posted on February 24, 2012 by NotoriousMLE

Jean Dujardin’s Villain Auditions from Jean Dujardin

Noodlemania Week #4-Learn from my Mistakes

Posted on February 23, 2012 by NotoriousMLE

Much as I would like to pretend that everything I turn out in the kitchen is perfect/edible this is not the case. Week #4 doesn’t look so bad on the plate, but it was not that enjoyable on the palate. It was dry and not too tasty and did I say dry?

I’m learning over time that one of the most important techniques to master in noodles dishes is balancing the sauce to noodle ratio. Too much and everything is soup and the noodles get soggy, too little and you get Week #4 noodles, dry and tasteless.

You might be wondering why I am bothering to post about noodles that tasted terrible. I want everyone to remember that learning to cook is always a process and the mistakes you make are as important as the successes. I have made the sauce/noodle mistake several times in several different ways already (see Pad thai round two) but each time I learn something new not to do and develop a deeper understanding of what to do.

So on week four here’s to celebrating mistakes made and lessons learned! What’s the most recent/most interesting/most instructive mistake you’ve made in the kitchen?

PS-Also, here’s a list of common mistakes. I’ve made most of them multiple times. I am an impatient and slow kitchen learner.

Big Eat Day 11-Birthday Big Eat Part 5 of 5

Posted on February 20, 2012 by NotoriousMLE

I’m eating 100 Items off of 7 X 7s SF Big Eat List. You can see the rest of entries to this series here. On my birthday my friends took me to the city to make some hard-core headway on this list, it was fun. I wish you had been there with us. :)

Our original plan for my birthday was to eat a little, walk around a little, eat a little etc. We totally followed the plan, except for all the parts that didn’t involve eating. We literally ate all day. I’m sure you can see from the pictures that we didn’t have any fun at all.

At this point we were feeling full which is natural. If you don’t leave the Ferry Building full of delicious food, you did something wrong. We decided it was time to take a break from regular eating. It was time for tea and snacks.

#35 Soup Dumplings at Shanghai King

I had never tried soup dumplings before but my two friends with Chinese affiliations were very excited about them. Betty was actually very excited about the whole menu at Shanghai King and in charge of the ordering. This resulted in us somehow accidentally ordering a whole “pre-dinner” meal at Shanghai King. That Betty, she’s so bad she’s good!

Soup Dumplings are exactly what they sound like, steamed dumplings filled with soup. You eat them very strategically with chopsticks to hold the dumpling and a spoon to catch the soup.

They are not only fun to eat but they are delicious with a capital D. I usually do not care for brothy soups, but this liquid was just like heaven. I swear I heard the Cure playing as I bit into the first one.

Verdict: Eat them please. You will be smiling like these two if you do.

#36 Pistachio Meatballs at Flytrap at Zaré

After “tea” we had to haul-ass to meet our dinner reservation at the only “fancy” dining establishment on our agenda. We reasoned that after a hard day of non-stop eating it was time to have a relaxing sit-down dinner. Zare is a sort of Persian/Mediterranean style restaurant that is decorated in a very classic San Francisco style. It’s all about moldings, candles and burgundy walls. A perfect end to the night.

The task of eating pistachio meatballs somehow devolved into the bone-marrow, pulled lamb, pisco sour, pomegranate martini, deconstructed lemon meringue pie scenario as pictured below. To be quite honest I cannot recall much about the meatballs specifically but Zaré as a whole was a lovely experience. The service was perfect and the ambiance was classy yet relaxing. It was a perfect end to a perfect day.

Verdict: I think the insane aftermath of our meal will tell you all you need to know about Zare. Go there. Eat anything and enjoy!

Thanks so much for following along on this culinary adventure. I hope that it gives you some great ideas for the next trip you take to San Francisco!