I give these a B+: excellent ganache and a concept that of course I’d fall for (a six-pack of chocolates flavored with different beers, including several I already know I like such as Old Rasputin Imperial Stout and Oskar Blues G’Knight)… but I found the beer flavorings very subtle next to the strong chocolate, and I wanted something forceful and more different chocolate-to-chocolate. I’d still like to visit nunu in Brooklyn some day and have a beer next to the chocolate, though. ...

Life brought me to Carson, CA recently, so on a suggestion from a friend who saw my gmail chat status (who knew that would be useful?) I checked out the Shin-Sen-Gumi in Gardena for their Hakata-style ramen. And am I ever glad I did– it was a delicious bowl of ramen. I’d accidentally arrived half an hour before they opened, but within a few minutes there were already another few people waiting– so it’s good I didn’t show up right at 6. I got the base Hakata ramen of pork, ginger, and green onions (choosing the default levels of noodle firmness and broth strength), and added spinach, menma, and a delicious medium-cooked seasoned egg. ...

I love the fresh-from-the-Bay-a-few-hundred-feet-away oysters at Tomales Bay Oyster farm in Marshall, about 6 miles North of Point Reyes (both the sweet Golden Nugget and the more briny regular Tomales Bay oysters). However, I realized I’ve never been a huge fan of Tabasco or soy sauce on oysters (too tart, too thin – I think I want something more buttery and spicy to balance out the brine). So as an experiment I made my own inspired-by-harissa sauce: dried ancho chiles from Tierra Farms (reconstituted in hot water for 10 minutes), pureed with olive oil, a few cloves of garlic, and a little toasted coriander seed. This turned out a thick, slightly spicy, mouth-coating paste that you could dab on the oysters. I declare it a success! ...

Wow– forced out of my chilaquiles routine at the Primavera stand at the Ferry Building farmers’ market when they were sold out, I discovered their pork in green pumpkin seed sauce with thick handmade tortillas. Excellent.

And some days you just want a Mission burrito: (from El Toro) My favorite mission taquerias are: La Taqueria for deluxe tacos (a pair of chicken tacos with cheese and avocado added on– even at almost $5/taco it’s worth it) Taqueria Vallarta for basic street tacos – meat, onions, cilantro, with pickled jalapenos on the side La Corneta for shrimp or shrimp-and-steak burritos Taqueria Cancun (either one) for the best combination of coarse yellow corn chips and fiery-delicious green salsa El Toro for a basic veggie or meat mission burrito

One of my friends at the 28-course from-the-cookbook-of-El-Bulli/molecular-gastronomy dinner at Next put this excellent summary image together (you can click through and then click again to zoom in to the full-size image). This is all but one of our courses (it’s missing the liquid-nitrogen-frozen caipirinha): It was a fascinating dining experience and tour through the history of experimental food– with each dish, they told us what year it had been served in El Bulli (for example, the red mullet gaudi was in one of the earlier years– conceptual in terms of its mosaic-like appearance, but without the “magic powders” of later foams and smokes). ...

Well, that was a great birthday dinner, and one of the most enjoyable meals of my life (due to food, atmosphere, and company). Almost five casual hours in The Dough Room at flour+ water with a dozen friends, eating, drinking wine, and chatting. Amazing food, a classy-yet-casual and not too stuffy setting (white tablecloth… on the butcher block table they prepare pasta on, with a meat slicer, a pig-shaped boom box, and a walk-in refrigerator along the edges of the room), and the buzz of conversation without the noise of a big restaurant in the background. Life is good. ...

Between travel and work it hasn’t been a great few months for cooking. Trying to get back (on/off) the wagon, I went by Bi-Rite and picked up some sole and some newly-in-season vegetables and fruit. What can I make, while hungry, without a plan? Sole filet– should I bread it? Fry it? It’s so thin… hmm. I peeked in The New Best Recipe and took their suggestion on cooking style, which worked well– salt and pepper on both sides, let the filets sit 5 minutes, heat 1 Tbsp oil and butter together to high heat (butter alone would burn), bring it down to medium-high once the butter melts and saute the fish (3 minutes on the non-skin side, then about 2 minutes on the skin side, until it flakes apart under a toothpick). Then I browned half a Tbsp of butter in the pan as a sauce, along with some minced up salt-cured olives. This was excellent. ...

One memorable evening in Chicago involved a group of 4-5 of us eating at Avec, The Publican, and Au Cheval in succession. Any of their websites have far better food photos than my quick cell phone snaps below, but so it goes. At avec (a long, cozy, space with a lot of wood and light), the huge “chorizo-stuffed medjool dates with smoked bacon and piquillo pepper-tomato sauce” was one of the best things I ate all trip: ...

While visiting Chicago, I was usually getting dinner with other people who are into craft beer, making it easy to try a wide variety. It was a busy few evenings so I don’t remember all the details, but I jotted down a few notes of my favorites that I’m going to keep an eye out for in the future: Vichtenaar, a slightly sour Flemish Red Avery Maharajah, a very distinctively-flavored IPA (and one of a small number of IPAs I’m excited about these days– I’d had it before) Half Acre Over Ale (a brown ale, a bit nutty, a bit like toast, quite good – sadly I don’t think they distribute outside of Chicago) Half Acre Sanguis brewed with oranges and beets, and really excellent with strong food (smoked eel) Brooklyn Sorachi Ace (Sorachi Ace is a particular unusual hop that I think smells a bit like dill– I only knew it from the Mikkeller Single Hop series tasting I did with some friends last year) Revolution Coup d’Etat (from a local brewery, in the slightly funky belgian farmhouse/blonde/yeasty style) As a side note– I liked the design of the Half Acre Sanguis label quite a bit– my photo of it is a bit blurry but I found a blog post from the designer with the image: ...

Taking it down a notch the next day (no pun intended), an excellent beef sandwich (with hot peppers, dipped in beef broth) from Al’s Beef:

This is what we ate (and drank). Click through for a higher-res version.

Quick takeout from Mission Chinese while packing for a trip, and it was intensely, all-consumingly delicious (and all consumed). Stir-fried pork jowl with radishes, mint, fermented black beans, and vinegar-anise-garlic peanuts. 

A delightful crawfish boil in the park (I’ve only had crawfish once before, and that was in a restaurant environment), courtesy of the inimitable Allen. Checking each one to ensure it’s alive: The boil, with potatoes, corn, and hot sausage (start the potatoes a bit earlier, everything else goes in at once, the sausage starts raw): Pulling them out to rest in the insulated container they came in, with spices and lemon (did I mention the forty pounds of crawfish were shipped overnight in ice from Louisiana, to arrive, live, the morning of the boil?) ...