Chocolate flourless cakes are really easy to make. I always liked them because they are dense and rich and not crumbly and cakey. This was my first time making one. As always, I hunted on the internet for a decent sounding recipe. I found this one on epicurious, read the reviews (a must with this site) and saw that it got good reviews, which is not always the case. I did tweak it a bit in response to some of the reviews and wanted a taller cake so used a smaller pan. You can do it in an 8″ round cake pan or a 6″ spring form, which is what I did but just need to bake the 6″ one slightly longer as noted in the recipce here. Bascially, the flour is replaced with cocoa powder. When greasing the pan, I went ahead and dusted it with cocoa powder too, to ensure it would come out with ease.

For my friend, Wan’s (aka Panda’s) birthday a few weeks ago, I made him a chocolate flourless cake with a chocolate ganache topping and stenciled a panda in powder sugar on the top. I found the graphic online. Its the World Wildlife Fund’s logo (WWF). I printed it out in a couple sizes and got out the exact-o knife. 

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As summer ends and the cooler weather rolls in, I continue to make salads grasping on to the last tastes of summer. This was a salad I made a few times this summer in several variations and even served it to friends. It was simple and a satisfying one plate meal and aside from marinating the chicken, a pretty quick item to throw together.

It’s probably completely taboo to the Japanese soba noodle (buckwheat noodles) tradition since I use a soy sauce vinaigrette on this, but it sure does taste good. 

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S is for Scandinavian F is for Function…Ok, so where’s the least likely place to see a beautifully curated and thorough exhibit of Scandinavian Modern furniture, ceramics, and glassware? If your answer was the Greyhound station, close but I was recently pleasantly surprised by a large 2 case exhibit at the SFO airport in the international terminal, Scandinavian Modernism:  In Pursuit of Function and Beauty.  OooOoooOoooo!  The title alone, says worlds about the design era, which spanned almost 50 years, starting in the late 20’s through the late 60’s. What does the ‘O’ in SFO stand for anyways?

X chair 1960 // Peter Hvidt 

I was merely flying back to LA on a quick 24-hour trip, but had flown Virgin Atlantic which is based out of this terminal. What luck! The design gods were looking down on me. 

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Last week I ventured over to the Sunset Junction, Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning for the first time. The actual produce farmers’ stalls number about 10-12 total and there’s an equal amount of food stalls and crafters. Not super impressive for the home chef, but easy to get to and get through without the hassle of the Hollywood Farmer’s.

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I feel like I have been holding out on everyone. The few times I made the salmon crudo misto, it seemed like such a huge waste to toss out the salmon skin.  There was still a lot of meat on it too. The last time I made it, I put it aside, seasoned it with salt and pepper, heated up some oil in a skillet and rendered it down into crispy perfection. Before seasoning it, pat it dry with paper towels and make sure it is scale free. In Japanese food, the salmon skin roll is a popular sushi handroll.  I have never really ordered it because I stick to raw fishes when I got for sushi, but have tried it and it is quite tasty. 

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As if she didn’t have enough things going for her, Gwyneth Paltrow is co-hosting a PBS food-aholic’s dream show that goes around Spain with two food world celebrities in their own rite, Mark BIttman of the NY times and the ‘How to Cook Everything‘ book series and the famous ‘Molto’ Mario Batali. It makes me sad that the channel to have such food legacies under their belt, like America’s Test KItchen, and Julia Child, would succumb to the fanfare of the uber Hollywood endorsement.  I always thought PBS was for the less mainstream more refined, not the typical Hollywood rigamarole.  It’s called “Spain…on the Road” and I already want to gag. 

So how is it that the celebrities always screw things up for me? First, it was ruining Ebay for me and their personal stylists buying up all my coveted fashion items and collectibles for 10x the should-be value. Now they have decided to eat more than just a leaf of lettuce, they also have to host TV shows about food adventures in Europe?

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Anthropomorphic Cannibalism. There’s a mouthful.

This collection of graphics on flickr of ‘food so good it’s eating itself’ is hilarious and so kitschy and ridiculous.  I want to see more. This is the kind of stuff that always baffled me when I was a kid. When I first learned that pig’s eat swill, which I was told was basically made up of leftover table scraps and other human foods, I always pondered the fact that they were munching on pieces of bacon and left over pork chops from last night’s dinner…ewwww…. essentially pig cannibalism. Those pigs knew. They had to. Pigs are some of the most intelligent animals.  It’s a shame they are so versatile in the kitchen.

Here’s an octopus eating a Japanese octopus ball

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That’s all this photo is; a drive by shooting.  Sorry to get your hopes up.

I did not get to eat here this trip. That would involve a lot more economizing on my part, like foregoing a limo and a fancy hotel. But like I always say in my travels, it’s ok to save something for a return visit. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take a photo of it though since we had just finished a pleasant lunch at Bouchon and were making our way up and down “Keller Row” in Yountville. OK it’s called Washington Street, but whatever.

This street is lined with Keller restaurants. French Laundry, Bouchon, Bouchon Bakery and most recently Ad Hoc. Ironically, they are lined up in order of the fancy to the down home. We were told the reason Bouchon was opened was because Keller wanted a place to have a steak after work.  It’s also where “the leftover” ingredients are sent when they aren’t used up by French Laundry.  I’ll take leftovers any day. 

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If the words from farm to table mean anything to you, this would be the place that feels like it epitomizes that phrase. Set amidst an actual farm, the charm of this restaurant and inn is inspiring.  Though Farmhouse Inn is about 20 minutes from Healdsburg, where we were staying, it was well worth the drive. My friend, Danny, who grew up in Santa Rosa, recommended a handful of places to me, this being one at the top of his list. The other one was John Ash & Co. at Vintner’s Inn. I was told it was a great place for a dusk dinner setting on what they call the sun porch. Hmm next time.

All the people we met while in Sonoma would ask us where we had eaten or where we were planning to eat during our visit. It was like a rite of passage to see whether we were worthy of food small talk. And every time we passed the test with flying colors and a bit of surprise, with locals and visitors alike. Talk about caché.  When we said we were headed to Cyrus and had been to Farmhouse Inn, we got small rounds of applause. One wine pourer at Rosenblum Cellars even told us we ‘weren’t messing around and went straight to the top’. 

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Kendall Jackson- en route to Healdsburg. This was our first official wine tasting stop on our drive up to Healdsburg from San Francisco and my best notes to date on what we liked and disliked. We also made some purchases and got a couple bottles to enjoy at the hotel. One that we all agreed on was the 2007 Vintners Reserve Sauvignon Blanc. We liked it so much, Bethany ordered a few cases for her wedding. Not that they had to sell us on it since they were already swiping the credit card, but they said in a blind taste test with 5 others of their Sauvignon Blancs, this particular one wins every time and just goes to show that the price of the bottle is not always a good way to gauge a wines value in taste. This one is $11 a bottle and with 20% off, a good deal indeed.

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All day long, over ichat, I get links sent to me of funny or cool stuff on the internet. Lately, more and more are food related and I’m not referring to the yelp and chowhound and eaterLA links about new restaurants. Between the designer in me and the foodie, internet junkie, you can imagine the types of links I get.

I’m referring to artwork, comics, quicktime movies, flickr photo collections and just stuff that makes me chuckle, snort or giggle. Some of which I do all at the same time.

Enjoy this small collection now, until someone asks me to take it down.

We all know someone who has more photos of food then actual people. 

Yes, this is absolutely true. The word bacon is as versatile as the substance itself.  Wrap it around any word and watch it be devoured.

Be sure to scroll through all these vignettes on this site, the Morning News. 

Let’s just say growing up being offered red bean sweets, mooncakes, and spongy jelly roll cakes wasn’t exactly nurturing to having a proper sweet tooth. Chinese sweets are weird and rather despicable. The only thing I can remember enjoying were the whip cream and strawberry layered sponge cakes, and even those were only mildly sweet. My sweet tooth is slowly developing though and chocolate is very high on my list.  Lemon and fruit are up there too in desserts.  And anything with vanilla bean or caramel.

My buddy, Wan, is my go-to pastry expert. I am admittedly, just getting into making sweets and baking more these days. When I first met him at work a few years ago, he had a photo album of food dishes that he had made, both savory and sweet. I was so impressed and intrigued. We are talking pre-food blog days. Even pre- blog. And actual printed photos, not digital online photos. 

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Upon returning from Sonoma and the long awaited bachelorette weekend for Bethany, a friend asked, “So which one of you slept with Sandra Oh?”  No, no, nothing of the sort happened and I will spare you all the gory details since I was forced into signing an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) at the airport, but in short, it was a sensational weekend, a couple extra scratches and bruises, joined a wine club, a few scuffles, a missed flight (this was not our fault!), an Excursion Limo (hehe), and a busted digital camera later, amazing meal after amazing meal, we have memories to last a lifetime.

On these trips with multiple people so many thing can go wrong. This is where the planning comes in handy. I made a point not to bring my laptop either, so I really had to plan ahead with the maps and the options and contact information readily available. I don’t rely on iphones since I wasn’t sure what network was available where we were headed. 

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I completely forgot to post this wonderful Sunday Supper I made a couple months ago. Now that summer flew by and is winding down, I better get on it. 

One Saturday night, I had decided to stay in, which seems to be happening more and more these days. I made a large amount of Moroccan spiced braised lamb shanks, knowing that I could freeze them and have ready-made dinners for the week.  Ok, I know this isn’t the most hot weather friendly meal, but sometimes you just crave things and personally, I would rather make my version than spend a ton at a restaurant and have it be sub-par.

Since I had made a huge pot of the lamb shank and also had just gone to the Hollywood Farmer’s market that morning, it was as good a time as any to have a couple friends over for a nice, early dinner and enjoy the daylight savings hours. I had recruited my friend, Wan, to come and help me make a tart that day so dessert was already in a good place.  I screwed some tarts up on my first try and he promised to share some of his secret chef ways with me.  

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