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Peeps
A sleeping beast awakes…
Posted on September 17th, 2007 by ren.
Categories: Uncategorized.
Hmm, what do we have here? A post? Well perhaps this is just a temporary insanity… but I suppose I should actually make use of this here blog. A bit of a warning though-I plan on using this as overflow space for my thoughts. So look for random lists of things, terse restaurant thoughts, and who knows what else. Never mind me, I’m just looking for an excuse to be a little sloppy.
Tesla Motors
Posted on October 12th, 2006 by ren.
Categories: see, touch.
If the Tesla Roadster isn’t a car that you haven’t heard of before, you will soon enough. To cut to the chase, the Tesla Roadster is a fully electric car…but instead of focusing strictly on the goal energy efficiency, Tesla of San Carlos has decided to create a hot little sports car that can hang with it’s gas-powered super car brethren. Tesla often talks about previous electric powered or energy efficient cars as being “punishment” cars- cars built by folks who think that we really shouldn’t be driving at all. As such we get electric cars with limited range and horrible styling. However, Tesla feels that the key to actually popularizing an electric car lies in making it a “hot” car…not just hot for an electric car. After partnering with Group Lotus plc in the UK (makers of the Lotus Elise and Esprit), they produced this little beauty.
Bill Buford and the Food Network Marathon
Posted on October 3rd, 2006 by ren.
Categories: litter, see.
I’ve been fighting the urge to pillage the interweb for entries as much as possible, so I’ll try to keep it to a minimum. However, since I’ll easily slip into “Renn’s breakdown of food network personalities” quite easily in person, might as well get the ball rolling here.
In a New Yorker piece, Bill Buford (author of Heat, good read, by the way) decides to partake in a mini-marathon of food network viewing. The net of it is that he provides a bit of insight as to where the food network has ended up today, and how it interacts with our perceptions and ideas about food. More and more I find myself seeking out food i context, and I certainly wonder how things may change in the near future. Sure, it’s easy enough to rail against the Food network, but I think there’s something far more interesting in how we, as eaters, decide to view food. I give Food TV props in getting more people interested in food than ever before, but I wonder what kind of food nation we’ll become as a result?
I’m no stranger to Food Porn…and I’d say that my use of it is pretty much spot on with Buford’s definition. It is fun to look at pretty pictures of yumminess from a far, but it’s quite a different experience to experience it in person with me. Yep, I guess that’s pretty much an open invite to dine with me! If I’m going to go broke eating, might as well drag a friend or two down with me. So don’t hesitate to see what I’m up to, if you don’t watch out, I just might be hungry.
Ad Hoc: September 30th…Pork and Beans!
Posted on October 3rd, 2006 by ren.
Categories: taste, smell.
Okay, so it seems like I might be turning into a Keller whore….but at least it’s with good reason. There’s definitely something different about this place. Maybe it’s just the right time, maybe it’s just the right place, but I think for the first time, I’m seeing a restaurant as a living growing thing in it’s own right. Okay, okay, before y’all start thinking that I’ve been baking special brownies lately, in a more real sense, Keller has assembled quite a team. It’s pretty tough for me to describe what I’m talking about, but come to the place with me, and I’m sure it will make much more sense. In a future entry, I’ll try and expand on this thought. For now…on with the food porn!
Michelin rates SF
Posted on October 2nd, 2006 by ren.
Categories: see, taste.
Ignoring the politics of ratings guides for a moment, Michelin just announced their ratings for the SF bay…this is the first time that the France-centered guide has reviewed SF (with NYC being rated for the first time about a year ago). Personally, I give much greater weight to the reviews of trusted friends rather than guides, but Michelin is considered the elite of the rating establishments.
Also, some things you should know…as the norms are different compared to typical “star” based guides.
1. One star is _very_ prestigious, and often most desired by chefs as it indicates that the food’s great, however it doesn’t have the service or decor pressure of more stars (three being the highest rating)
2. The guide is very French in it’s perspective on food and so stars often follow their tastes
3. Of course, since Michelin is starting to rate in the US…in France and the rest of Europe, there has been a growing trend of star chefs to give up their multi-star establishments in favor of more intimate and smaller places. Think of it like giving up the big-blockbuster Ocar contender movie to do an indie flick.
That being said…here’s the list:
Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc: September 23rd…Fried Chicken!
Posted on September 25th, 2006 by ren.
Categories: taste, smell, madeleines.
Visited Thomas Keller’s new place, Ad Hoc on Saturday. If you haven’t been e-stalking Keller, Ad Hoc’s taken up station in the old Wine Garden. I never ate at the old place, but I’ve been told that they didn’t do any renovation…which only adds to the concept of a restaurant casually thrown together. However, as that big NYC Italian chef is fond of saying, there’s a fine line between rustic and lazy. Ad Hoc’s firmly the former.
It’s certainly more laid back than Keller’s other places (most of them down the street), set up as a prix fixe, no choices, no substitutions and no reservations place with everything served family style. The menu changes every day, but you can call them up and find out what happens to be for dinner that day. The service is just as casual, with our server, Nasir, in jeans and Ad Hoc Dickies. Also, when I asked about their hours, he said that they were still figuring things out…if they still have food, and people keep coming in, they’ll stay open…they won’t be serving the same thing the next day anyway.
In any case, let the food pornography begin!
I’ve been watching the menu for the past couple of days and the one theme at the moment seems to be tomatoes…just like at the farmers market. Today it was Greek Heirloom Tomato Salad with Kalamata olives, feta cheese, lemon cucumbers, a drizzle of olive oil, and mint and parsley freshly picked from the French Laundry garden. There must have been at least three or four different kinds of tomatoes, each with differing levels of acidity and each with their own character. The tomatoes were definitely the center of attention with everything else as a seasoning.
Next came the buttermilk fried chicken. Pretty much tasted something like mom would make…except that my mom never made fried chicken like this. Whoever’s mom came up with this, thanks! There was also just a hint of rosemary which was an unexpected flavor for me, but it worked well. I’d guess that it came from frying rosemary with the chicken, and rather than having it permeate, it was just a light touch. Yummerz.
The fried chicken came with some friends: Brentwood corn-on-the-cob, whipped potatoes and pole beans. The stand out here being the beans. Again, there were three or four different kinds of beans, all at the peak of the season and just plain yummy. Nothing fancy schmancy, just blanched beans sauteed in butter.
The cheese course featured a Dante from the Wisconsin Dairy Cooperative, a sheep’s milk cheese similar to Manchego, but a bit lighter in flavor. It was supported by candied toasted pecans and Jacobsen Farm apples. The late harvest zinfandel that was suggested was only okay with the cheese course, but it certainly worked much better with dessert.
A banana upside-down cake with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce. This thing was intense without being overly sweet. Perhaps there was a bit of banana liqueur in the mix? Ah well, a fitting end to a wonderful meal.
Ferry Plaza Farmers Market Update: Giada De Laurentiis
Posted on September 25th, 2006 by ren.
Categories: litter, see, taste.
Spent most of Sat morning playing tour guide so I wasn’t able to devote much attention to hunting down the goods…however, did pick up some ploblanos, some other, hotter peppers, shelling peas, and some more stone fruits…just can’t seem to let go of summer.
So in lieu of meaningful notes on what was jumping at the market….let’s just talk about Giada De Laurentiis!
The Unit
Posted on September 19th, 2006 by ren.
Categories: see.
Just got finished watching the Season Premiere of “The Unit” on CBS. Man, the show continues to entertain me…I thought that I would tire of the warrior/warrior’s life duality, but thanks to some fine writing, they continue to keep it interesting. Also, while I’m no military expert, the show does seem to go to some lenght to dipict the situations realistically.
If our fighting forces are anything like the guys on TV, I’d have to say that they’re some real deal bad-asses out there. Eric Haney’s influence on the show certaily ups the standard for war pictorals. Hollywood for some time has been dominated by the anti-war perspective for quite some time, and it’s interesting to see a production that manages to talk about the hell that comes with war, but also heroically depicts its warriors in a realistic light. And while I’m aware that military life is far from rosy it’s nice to have something to cheer about too.
A digression
Posted on September 18th, 2006 by ren.
Categories: litter.
Forgive me a moment if I digress from what seems to be the emerging theme of this site. The decision that I face now is…what’s more important: that I commit to making regular entries on this page regardless of how trite, or that I “save up my essence” and only post up when I really have something to say? Assume for a moment that I’d ever have something to say in the first place, and then it really becomes a question of audience. So who is the audience? Right now, it’s just me…no one else out there has discovered this site…so it’s a bit of a quandary.
I’ve always shied away from turning this into “just another personal blog” where I talk about the chicken cutlet dinner I just cooked or talk about “what grinds my gears” cause then I really would be the only one willing to read the damn thing. I’m still committed to making this place a repository for “cool stuff” that I experience or find, but if I only have something to blog about once every week…well things could fall off real quick like. In any case, maybe this is just a sign that I need to get out more, after all, if all i do is work, sleep, eat, repeat….then I’ll feel like I’m just blogging like a Seinfeld episode, except without the jokes. Ah well…better shit or get off the pot.
Ferry Plaza Farmers Market Update
Posted on September 16th, 2006 by ren.
Categories: taste.
Just got back from my usual Saturday morning trip to the Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market…It’s probably my favorite time of the whole week. Hit up breakfast at the usual, Primavera. It’s really one of the few places where I’ve been happy to eat the whole menu no matter what they happen to be serving that day.