Continuing my transition to all-grain and smaller-batch brewing, I made a 2.5 gallon batch of stout for a work party. Pale malt, Maris Otter, and a little Crystal (80L), chocolate malt, roast barley, and flaked barley, with East Kent Goldings for the hops. It was good– a bit of roasted chocolate flavor, very slightly tart/acidic, a solid stout. This was also my first time kegging instead of bottling. I bought a petite 2.5 gallon Corny keg (half the size of the typical 5 gal Corny kegs), which even full of beer is about 20lbs, reasonable to carry one-handed. ...

In Iceland, in a cabin on a snowy horse farm half an hour outside a tiny 350-person town on the day after Christmas. The two restaurants in the area were closed. As was the only grocery store we could find. A gas station beckoned– we took it as a challenge. This collection of tins/boxes: Became spaghetti with peas, sardines, tuna, fried onions, and the salmon rub spice pack Alaska Airlines had inexplicably given me as I disembarked and which I’d been carrying ever since. Not bad, actually. With a candle lit with an emergency firestarter and flint (we didn’t have matches) surrounded by bits of lava from the beach. ...

Even beyond The Hot Dog (already mostly lamb), most of what we ate during an epic December trip across Iceland was lamb or arctic char (14 lamb dishes and 13 with char in 12 days)… The trip was more about the icebergs, the lava, and the hot pools than the food, but a few memorable bits: Salted cod and tomato. But, even better, salted cod pizza from the pizza place with no name: ...

Iceland’s most famous food: Mostly-lamb hot dog in a snappy casing, with the pentalogy of condiments: raw onion, deep-fried-and-dried onion, ketchup, pylsusinnep (sweet mustard), and remoulade (mayo, capers, herbs). Legit. I regret I only had two in my time there.

Bitter things. Traditionally, marmalade is made with Seville oranges-- which occasionally show up in season in the Bay Area for a week or two. No added pectin– the pith copious number of seeds in a bitter orange produces enough (boiled in a muslin bag for ease of removal, in a pot with the whole rest of the orange sliced thin). As the sugar heats, it bubbles up and changes form several times. In absence of a thermometer, dropping bits of marmalade on a chilled plate in a freezer until it forms a skin gives a hint it’s at the right stage. A splash of scotch whiskey in honor of The Bard’s birthday adds a little smoke. ...

Rochefort 10 + gelatin. Why not?

Quick meal from and inspired by the book / cookbook Bitter I received as a holiday present: Beer soup, made with beef stock, homebrew saison, dark rye flour, sourdough toast, cream, and nutmeg. Arugula and radish salad with a vinaigrette made from yuzu shrub. Mint tea (getting over a minor cold).

A week and a half ago, I was here. Walk into a flower shop: Head through the back door and down metal stairs: Have a drink: Just one page of the loosely themed menu: One of the best cocktail bars I’ve been to in my life, by far. Every single cocktail was remarkably good, and distinctive– glass jars of eucalyptus, cocktails infused with smoke from the grill, beer and amaro, a cocktail in pieces you combine as you drink… but none of it felt ‘conceptual-cute’ or forced. Really well executed cocktails that happened to have some structure to the presentation. I’m in awe. ...

A flight, complex car rental logistics, and a long drive on highways and pothole-ridden back roads to Jose Ignacio down the coast in Uruguay led to the legendary La Huella just before they closed. Delicious seafood fresh from the grill on a soft-sand beach. Remarkable thin-sliced octopus in oil, grilled squid, potatoes crushed into the grill, buttery-rich mussels, and more. Quite a day.

In Copenhagen earlier this summer as part of the birthday week European tour (see the past week of posts), I took the “Black Gold” licorice tour. It’s not well advertised, and I was the only person to show up, so I felt a bit bad for the tour guide who did a whole two-hour walking tour just for me. It included a lot of education about the history of licorice as a medicine, a “medicine” (tonic/elixir), a sweet, and a savory ingredient. I got to chew on a real licorice twig, eat a number of sweet and salty licorice candies (including many of the traditional licorices made with ammonium chloride salt– a noticeable ammonia/fishy taste which I liked), licorice ice cream, licorice syrups, meringues, intensely salty licorice menthol hard candies popular with sailors, and even a beer brewed with licorice. ...

When I ate at Kiin Kiin earlier in my visit to Copenhagen, the chef/owner(? – sorry, industry friends, for not knowing) stopped by to chat at one point, and asked where else I was eating on my trip. I mentioned Geranium as my other major meal and he was very enthusiastic and excited I was eating there, putting it up with Noma as an elevated nordic food experience. And there I was a few days later, eating things like this (only the center piece is edible– a chocolate egg filled with toffee and rolled in pine dust, nestled in a bed of fragrant evergreen tips): ...

The tail end of my food-oriented birthday trip through Europe involved a 4-day solo jaunt to Copenhagen (for the first time), after finding surprisingly inexpensive flights from Paris. True to my typical solo traveler form, I stayed in an inexpensive hostel, got around by bicycle, spent most of my days outdoors wandering the city and surrounding areas… and also ate several extraordinary (in taste and experience as well as price) meals. ...

Paris earlier this year w/ H for just two days was a surprisingly low-key trip, involving some good coffee, a few meals and cocktails, taking a Velib for a spin, and a lot of walking around the city and looking and taking photos while skipping most of the major cultural sights. The beef salad at casual cafe Le Rubis was good, the steak frites was just as expected, the bakeries and macaron shops were plentiful, the coffee at Telescope was some of the best I’ve ever had in Europe (unusually light roast, slightly lemony), the coffee at 10 Belles was decent and in a fun neighborhood to wander around on foot (Belleville), and dinner at Verjus was trying to be “modern” but deeply disappointing. ...

Earlier this year I joined H in london for a few days as part of a week and a half birthday trip to Europe. In addition to seeing a few friends who live there and visiting some interesting cycling, printing/stationary, and sherlock-holmes-themed stores, we enjoyed a lot of good food and drink. I posted a few photos of a St John birthday dinner and exploring local beer separately, but here are the other major highlights of the food: ...

I got taken out (lucky me) to a special birthday dinner earlier this year in London at St John (at the more cheerfully informal St John Bread and Wine space– a bustling open room without tablecloths and various daily pork, greens, and cheese plates coming out whenever they’re ready). I have a huge food crush on them now: A plate of simply-named " lamb, bread, green sauce" was one of my favorite dishes in London– the sauce was a mix of a powerful dose of tarragon, mint?, other soft green herbs, maybe capers? And the " courgettes, lentils, yogurt, zucchini" (center of the image above) was another dish we both remember months later (also with tarragon). Lower left above was fried pig skin strips with a tarragon(!) aioli, and there was another crumbled pork and fennel dish I wrote down but can’t remember. All washed down with the intense, earthy St John Claret. ...