After a month with almost no starch, the pasta tasting at flour + water seemed appropriate. A friend and I were there for a long, leisurely dinner past 1AM, as the staff were eating post-shift meals and generously not kicking us out. And it was one of the best pasta tastings I’ve had there. Their classic agnolotti dal plin was as good as I remembered, the fava radiatore with quail was soft, delicious, and different with every bite (with a bit of nice acidity from something?), and the combination of lamb, cocoa, and beets really worked. They even humored our hungry eyes with bread to mop up leftover sauce. ...

Cod filet marinated in lime juice, minced serrano, salt, pepper, smoked paprika, and chipotle powder for 15 minutes. Cast iron skillet preheated (dry) to medium-high, and some tomatillos in-husk toasted on it for maybe 6 minutes, covered, shaking them around like popcorn so they didn’t burn, then removed and diced. Coconut oil melted in the skillet, the fish filets fried about 4 minutes on each side until flaking apart and just done. ...

Spontaneous snack plate for dinner: radishes + cold butter (an amazing combination– trust me), mozzarella and olives on basil leaves, smoked mackerel on crackers with piles of black pepper and fresh horseradish.

A quick, satisfying dinner during minimal-starch month (and after a weekend of salt-depleting exercise). I’d shopped with Niçoise salad on the brain, but ended up making: salmon rubbed with salt, white pepper, and sesame seeds, broiled for 8 minutes skin-side-up, on a bed of butter-sauteed lettuce, celery, and black olives, topped with chopped up crispy salmon skin and a poached egg.

It was a rough day overall, but a pork shoulder braised in milk and taken in the direction of carnitas turned out very well: It started with five pounds of bone-in pork shoulder from Olivier’s butchery (at their recommendation, a cut with plenty of fat and even the skin left on one side), coated in salt and pepper, then browned in a little oil at medium-high heat on each side in a dutch oven on the stovetop. ...

A light breakfast. With a lemon-mustard-olive oil dressing.

One of the things I love about the city is being able to pop down to the Japantown market, pick up some slabs of sashimi-grade salmon, tuna, and salmon roe, then eat them over rice. With seaweed salad, sesame seeds, radish sprouts, pickled ginger… and the rarely-seen fresh wasabi root for grating ($100/lb but you only need an ounce). All for less than I’d spend going out for cheap sushi most places. ...

The first time I’d poached an egg? Or at least the first time in a decade. Tried the vinegar and whirlpool tricks: 3" of water, a few tsp white vinegar, brought to a light simmer, stirred into a whirlpool, egg eased from a cup (pre-cracked) into the center of the vortex (seemed to help keep the white in the middle with it), then left alone for 3-4 minutes. With great rye bread, chives/thyme/parsley from the window box, blood oranges, bacon. ...

I’d eaten Tartiflette (potatoes and cheese, baked– it sounds simple but it’s so much more) twice– many years ago in Southeastern France, and a year ago in Tavern de la Fermette in Southern Belgium (photo above). Both times it was a tastebud shock-and-awe (in a rich “I’m taking a month off my life” way). Today I was having a few friends over to taste some Belgian beers, and was inspired to try to make it. I think it turned out really well. ...

A quick salad-as-mostly-healthy-meal for visiting family: kale (salted raw, let sit, then rinsed), celeriac, smoked salmon, broccoli, lemon-garlic-olive oil dressing (using a smokier heirloom garlic with less bite raw), and grilled haloumi cheese. It worked. (Campari-soda with meyer lemon as apertif, and the still-amazing Dandelion Madagascar chocolate for dessert)

If I were in town for New Year’s, I would probably do this again:

Quick dinner a week ago: A salad of arugula, watermelon radishes, endive, kumquats, a little olive oil. Tart / colorful. Spaghetti with homemade sauce (shallots and garlic sauteed in olive oil, oyster mushrooms cut coarse and cooked down, sliced zucchini, summer-canned Juliet tomatoes, fresh oregano, a little crushed red pepper and salt).

A vaguely Eastern European-inspired brunch. At the shopping level: Brunch is served (everyone sits in the living room): Mashed potato pancakes (just regular mashed potatoes made the night before with plenty of butter and milk, warmed in the oven morning-of, with fresh minced green onions mixed in before frying the patties) Smoked fish (trout, mackerel) on dark rye and black sesame crackers Pickled beets Bloody Mary bar a.k.a. “Adult Salad” (tomato, vodka, fresh grated horseradish root (key!), cholula, pickled beans, olives, worcestershire, and oven-baked crispy bacon sticks for dunking) And from friends, many things, including: ...

Feisty, pinchy Dungeness Crab from the ocean to the kitchen in a few hours. Now that’s some delicious, sweet crustacean. Take live, actively-thrashing-around crabs (one source: Fair Share CSF) and drop one or two over boiling water in a large steamer. 12 minutes for a pair of 1 1/3lb crabs seemed ideal . Briefly plunge them into cold water, then clean out the guts: break off the apron, remove the carapace and most green-black guts, scrape out the rest of the guts by hand, and remove the spongy crescent-shaped gills and the mandibles. Finally, break it in half and rinse off any remaining bits of guts. Hat tip to canida for a good set of crab cleaning photos at Instructables, and the tip to use the crab toe as a pick. Why have I never thought of that? ...

Cut a delicata squash into slices (rings), brush with olive oil, oven-roast at 400F for 20 minutes on each side. Five minutes before it’s done (on the second side), crack an egg into the hole and bake until the yolk’s just the way you like it. If you’re feeling fancy, serve with leftover Dungeness crab you’d cooked and picked the night before, marinated for half an hour in lemon juice and a bit of salt. ...