Fish at the informal yet favorite sushi place* was in top form! The hamachi, albacore, and fresh scallop in particular. Sashimi plate (and the embarrassment of using one of those “retro camera filter” programs): Hamachi kama: Not shown: asparagus-shiitake stirfry, tsunomono (paper-thin cucumber slices, sliced octopus, vinegar, spicy sprouts), and one concession to rolls: crunchy fried salmon skin. \* I’ve vowed not to publish its name, because it doesn’t need any more customers (you have to get there 45+ minutes before it opens to get a seat, or tonight: 80 minutes)… but if you know me, I’m happy to take you there in person some time… ...

I’ve had a few decent meals out and at home recently, but the Hungarian-inspired brunch at Bar Tartine was really excellent. The Smørrebrød (smorgasbords?) on hearty rye bread were a great start, especially one with roe, avocado, and citrus. Also quite good was a blood sausage with sauerkraut, mushrooms (hen-of-the-woods?), apple, and a really great spicy broth (w/ bread to sop it up). We also got the escabeche pickles (spicy pickled hot peppers, carrots, and probably other vegetables), and the buckwheat spätzle with soft egg – both good. ...

My first time back to The Trappist (which just got an SFgate writeup) in a year. Two highlights I hadn’t had before: Petrus Oud Bruin – tart, slightly sour, but mellow after the first few seconds (oak-aged) Mikkeller Sur Monk -- a blend of a belgian quad and a sour beer… and it works. A big difference between the smell (strongly tart) and taste (rich, strong, slightly sweet, slightly tart). And labeled as 9.99% ABV – how cute.

Hat tip to SD, who shared this link. So just for the heck of it, I cooked a strip of bacon (mostly, not until crispy), used some of the bacon fat to grease a ramekin, cracked a raw egg into the “bacon cylinder”, added a little dried thyme, black pepper, and parmesan, and baked it in a “400F” (probably cooler) oven for 16 minutes, before sliding it out of the ramekin. ...

I have mixed luck with soup, but this weekend I made the best lentil soup I’ve had. And no, that’s not intended to be damning-with-faint-lentil-praise – it was delicious. I used The New Best Recipe for initial inspiration (their key insight being sweating the lentils first), but also made some changes: I cut two strips of bacon into pieces and cooked them until done but not crispy. I sauteed two minced shallots in the bacon fat (with the bacon still in) a few minutes until translucent, added 3 cloves of crushed garlic, 2 bay leaves, a crushed dried nora pepper from Tierra Farms, and about 1tsp of whole cardamom seed, turmeric, and cayenne powder, a little black pepper, and sauteed/toasted that for a few minutes. ...

This quick meal was unremarkable, and involved three pots to clean. The Brussles sprouts were pretty good: a strip of bacon fried, then drained, a minced shallot + thyme + a sliced apple sauteed in the bacon fat, brussels sprouts separately braised (in a covered pot w/ half a cup of water for 8 minutes), then added to the frying pan along with the drained bacon for a minute (perhaps it should have been longer – they were successfully not-overcooked-or-bitter, but also not as bacony as I’d hoped). ...

For New Year’s Eve, I wanted to eat a series of delicious little dishes and drink some excellent beer with friends, without going out to a crowded restaurant. So four of us hung out at an apartment in the Mission and shared the Osechi (New Year’s Bento) made by Peko Peko Catering*, a mix of traditional Japanese foods and California interpretations with local ingredients. We also each brought some special beer, and spent plenty of time geeking out over what beer went well with each course (it wasn’t always what we expected, so at times we’d have three half-glasses of different beer, trying them with each new dish). It was a great evening. ...

I took a bike trip up to the Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa for the first time. While you can get most of their beers at City Beer Store, they had a few there I’d never heard of: We started with the 18-beer sampler: My favorites were mostly ones I knew I liked: Damnation 23 (golden color, strong, a bit sweet (like a belgian tripel?), aged with oak chips). I’ve bought it a few times, but didn’t realize until this trip that it’s 10.5% ABV. Whew. Consecration (sour dark beer aged in red wine barrels) Supplication (sour brown ale aged in pinot noir barrels with sour cherries) Perdition (malty blonde?) A few others I liked: ...

Using the new pressure cooker to try to make beans quickly: A mix of classy-looking anasazi beans and white navy beans from Tierra Farms, soaked for about 12 hours, drained, then combined with 3 cups water per cup beans, half an onion, two bay leaves, two dried guajillo chiles, a few garlic cloves. Pressure cooked for 15 minutes (from the time the steam started escaping), which it turns out was longer than needed– they were very soft by the end of this. ...

A good Christmas Eve for food and beer. 4505 Meats duck confit plate with egg and pickles: San Tung “dry-fried” chicken wings for a crowd of 14. The shrimp-leek steamed dumplings were also worth it: Amsterdam Cafe, had an interesting beer selection. Highlights included Oskar Blues Ten Fidy and Stone Vertical Epic 11 on tap, a lot of unusual Mikkellers, and a long list of holiday beers. Their holiday beers (click through for a high-res image): ...

I dropped by Triple Rock in Berkeley for the first time tonight with a homebrewing friend. They and Beechwood (from Long Beach) were holding a beer event where they brewed the same Laurel IPA recipe and had both versions on top at each brewery .They also published the recipe and invited homebrewers to make their own takes on the beer and bring some to informally share. Of the two “official” brews and three homebrew versions I tried, I think Julian’s version from Beechwood was my favorite– the distinctive Simcoe hop smell (which a friend describes as “reminiscent of cat piss”, but I refuse to agree), and a complex citrus-pine taste with a little sweetness that stayed with me. I’m even no IPA fiend, but I’d happily drink that again. My friend’s homebrew was also quite good. And hanging out at the brewers’ table is always fun. How the discussion migrated to physics, ultrasonic measurement of solar panels, and space-hardened robotics I can’t quite remember. ...

Arkansas Black apples in the CSA were beautiful– so while I rarely make dessert, it seemed time to make a crisp. A quick search for a Cooks Illustrated take on it turned up this recipe, which I followed the rough spirit of without measuring because I was running around making dinner at the last minute. Basically, I sliced four apples and tossed them in lemon juice, brown sugar, and grated nutmeg, then melted butter and a cup of hard cider in a skillet, tossed in the apples, and cooked them over medium covered until mostly cooked through– 10-15 minutes. I mixed some oats, flour, brown sugar, and a pinch of salt and cinnamon, sprinkled that over the apples, sliced 4 Tbsp of butter into thin squares over that, and put the whole skillet in a 350F oven for about 20 minutes, while we ate the rest of dinner. Not bad, with vanilla ice cream, of course. ...

A few photos from another round of making bagels, over Thanksgiving: [slideshow] Differences between this time and the last few times I’ve made them: I used the “6 cups all-purpose flour + 12 tsp vital wheat gluten” method of making high-gluten flour, since I didn’t have any special flour. This worked well, producing a chewy bagel. 3 tsp yeast (instead of the usual 2 1/4tsp packet), and it was mixed with a little of the malt syrup and lukewarm water a few minutes before adding it into the dough, to give it a head start, since proofing suggested this particular jar of yeast was on the old and lazy side. This seemed to work– the bagels rose slightly overnight (as expected, see the different in the 1st vs. 2nd photos) and puffed up nicely in the oven. I minced three cloves of garlic and toasted them (medium heat, dry skillet) until browned, then used them as a topping on some of them. I cooked in a different oven than normal, on a pizza stone. Unclear if this made a difference.

I’ve been to a few underwhelming restaurants in the past few months that I won’t bother to write about, but I went to Sol Food\* in San Rafael for the first time a while back, and it was quite good– especially the three types of plantains I had: Tostones (shown below): green plantain fried, smashed into a patty, fried again until slightly crispy, and served with olive oil and garlic. Mmm. Maduros: sweet fried yellow plantains, very soft. Mofongo: shredded green plantain, fried with some olive oil and garlic, but a texture much more like rice than the Tostones. ...

Everything except the beans and spices came from today’s CSA: Improvising during a month of (mostly) working late: A minced onion and six(!) cloves of crushed garlic were sauteed with toasted cumin seeds and a little salt for about 10 minutes. Then black beans (one can), whole oyster mushrooms, the seeds of half a pomegranate, and a quarter of an Anchor Steam Christmas Ale were added, and cooked on medium-low for another 15 minutes or so. Hey, the result was surprisingly good– meaty, slightly spiced and sweet. ...