Best cookbooks: Don't miss these lists!

What you're looking at on the left is a plate of Very Chocolate Cookies, with cacao chips inside that lend a wonderful slightly bitter chocotaste to a buttery bite-sized nibble. You want to eat these cookies. There's even a variant that includes piment d'Espelette, a Basque hot pepper that is A.O.C., meaning in part that it is hard to find and expensive.

You will find this recipe -- the one you want so very much -- in Chocolate and Zucchini, a cookbook by a French blogger, Clotilde Dusoulier, who didn't wake up to her culinary heritage until she lived in San Francisco for two years. It's a great cookbook and a great blog, (and all you Francophiles and Francophones can read the version francaise) and was #1 on my list of Best Cookbooks of 2007.

Read the whole article and find the links here, on LAist.

A few weeks later, I posted a list of five rediscoveries, cookbooks from the past that I really adore. This list includes homey, fun books like the late Laurie Colwin's Home Cooking, as well as Sophie-daughter-of-Jane Grigson's Sophie's Table. (If you don't have it, you ought to get Jane Grigson's Good Things, right now.) Sophie's cookbook has all manner of recipes, including -- since we're talking about cookies -- an oatmeal chocolate chip that includes no flour and is buttery and delicious.

Let's eat and drink way too much: Sgt Recruiter

Not all that long ago, L and I visited Sgt. Recruiter, a new wine bar next to Cobras and Matadors, and also run by Steven Arroyo, in Los Feliz (although some would peg that block as East Hollywood). We drank. We ate. We drank some more, and then some more. At some point onion rings became dessert (I know, highfalutin' tastes).

In any case, my review of Sgt. Recruiter ran in LAist here and was also linked to EatingLA here. FYI, I made the evening sound a lot less bibulous than it was, and left out the mention of staggering home up the hill on Vermont while the ground somehow reeled beneath my feet. But go and try the Gruet Blanc de Blancs, fab bubbly from New Mexico and sold out on the winery's website!

Photo from Gypsy D's photostream on Flickr.

Let's eat: Sanamluang Cafe

It's not that I haven't been blogging at all....it's just that I've been blogging...elsewhere. Recently I reviewed Sanamluang Cafe for LAist, as part of our "Thai One On" project in which we endeavored to review EVERY restaurant in Thai Town. A noble goal, in which we pretty much succeeded -- and I discovered a new favorite place. Read my review here.

Your favorite chefs are from New Jersey; or, more shameless Garden State flackage

Massive thanks to fellow Blogspotters Amuse-Biatch for linking to this article in the September New Jersey Monthly -- not a journal I normally peruse unless I'm visiting the 'rents and have read every Gourmet in the place.

So, who hails from the same state as me?

1. Anthony Bourdain, Leonia: You know his badass attitude can only come from a state whose official song almost was "Born to Run."


2. David Burke, Hazlet: Snooty restaurants from a nonsnooty background.


3. Tom Colicchio, Elizabeth: quote: "there's nothing on earth like fresh Jersey tomatoes and corn." Amen!


4. David Drake, Madison: I am sure he is a fine chef, but his restaurant is in New Jersey. He needs to hit the road. See the song referenced in #1.


5. Alice Waters, Chatham: So often I forget that Alice Waters, the patroness of the American food revolution, grew up in my home state. And here she says she grew up getting ice cream at Gruning's! Excuse me while I have a nostalgic moment.

New Jersey, represent! Yet more evidence that much that is good and strong grows up in New Jersey, then gets the hell out to share with the rest of the universe.

Photo of Alice Waters taken June 2007, from David Sifry's photostream via Flickr.

Napa Farmers Market: Good morning!

Earlier this month I spent yet another fun-packed week up in Napa visiting L and J, eating, drinking, and listening to music. When I rolled out of bed on Tuesday morning and heard that we were heading to the farmers market in downtown Napa, so we could return with our vegetables and get to Quixote winery for a 10 a.m. tour, I thought, well, OK, whatever, so long as there are snacks. But my casual attitude was totally blown away by the reality. The Napa market, located in a parking lot across from Copia, totally rocks, and not just because I was well fed in a single walk-through.

To start with, the vegetables are, as one might imagine, gorgeous and varied. One man was selling baby corn -- the size of the canned Chinese variety, but fresh and toothsome -- and paused from his reading of the new Harry Potter to give us samples. Later, L stir-fried these after I shucked them (lots of work for an astonishingly small pile of ears) and they were tasty but not mindblowing, although a good base for herbs or spices.

But it was the prepared items at this market that really woke both of us up, especially when handsome young men (L assures me they are different and even more handsome every week) offered us nonstop samples. Bolani, a Concord-based producer of "East & West Gourmet Afghan Food" has a stand that features bolani, which are flatbreads about the size of an extra-large flour tortilla folded in half over vegetable fillings. Along with these bolani, they sell a yogurt-based garlic/mint cheese and a variety of sauces, including cilantro pesto and many varieties of hummus. The young men spread the cheese and cilantro pesto on the spinach bolani; the combination of an assertive green flavor and the snap of garlic exploded in my mouth. Of course, I bought some of each and am using the cilantro pesto as a spread, a sauce, and a marinade. All items are available on their website.

Two more great sources at the market were Ridgecut Gristmills from Arbuckle, where I scored some stone ground cornmeal (they have a website, too, although I don't see the cracked corn there), as well as Humble Beginnings Napa Valley (no website yet), a family operation from Fairfield, where the dad and daughters made a very good case for their hot pepper jelly, which we ended up using to glaze the grilled duck breasts that evening.

Finally, I found nirvana, which foodwise often translates for me into The Products of the Pig: The Fatted Calf Charcuterie. Their Petit Jambon, a tiny ham about the size of a large fist, is flavorful but not oversalty, and has hundreds of uses, as I am working to prove. Their Mortadella is liverwurst-sized and tasty, although not so peppery as I would like. (I was thwarted in my mission to try the artisan mortadella at Dean and DeLuca in St. Helena by the snotty clerks who clearly thought that L and I were not worthy of their fine products -- ha!) The charming and much-tattooed Fatted Calf lad also had small dried sausages, like healthier Slim Jims, that were $1 and irresistible.

As you might imagine, I was practically overcome by the goodies at this market. But wait, there's more -- freshly roasted coffee beans, fresh eggs, and a tamale lady who gave us samples. Is there anything better than a tamale for breakfast at a farmers market in California? I don't think so.

Napa will be getting a higher toned, year-round location for the charcuterie and some other producers when the Oxbow Public Market opens this fall. But there's even more! Fatted Calf will sell Steve Sando's Rancho Gordo beans. If you haven't tried Steve's "New World" beans yet, by all means go to his website and wander around (his recipes are great). L and I visited Steve while I was in Napa and I picked up a variety of beans, including a new one called Pebbles that comes in multiple colors from the same plant. Steve, whose cookbook is in process, threw in some Mexican vanilla and his new "Gay Caballero" hot sauce, which I think he ought to be selling in West Hollywood.

Photo from Metin.Sozen via Flickr.

Let's eat: I seafood, I eat it

Recent dining plans have taken me to casual seafood joints on either coast, giving me the opportunity to (drum roll) compare and contrast!

In Hollywood, The Hungry Cat is a venture of David Lentz (that's Mr. Suzanne "AOC" Goin to you) that faces towards the east coast but now seems a little more west-facing despite the persistence of the lobster roll (and that's not a complaint). It's a mini-empire, with a Santa Barbara outpost opening sometime soon.

Recently, C and I had a fishy feast there, beginning with a shared half dozen oysters: Stingray (named because that's what critter likes to eat them) and Old Salt from Maryland, as well as Malpeques from New England (forgive my not remembering their exact address). The oysters were distinctly flavorful, each memorable in its own way; the bartender's description (without reservations, you eat at the bar) was helpful. We then shared the dungeness crab w/ black rice and spicy blood orange sauce. This was my first experience with the western crustacean of choice, and it was a tasty one. We also tried the chorizo stuffed squid, which I'd rate at a B; tasty, but dressing squid up too much is, to me, not worth the effort. Like my grandfather told my brother when he bought his starter house: Don't overbuild.

The dessert of assorted cheeses with walnuts and honey was a great finish. Generally, Hungry Cat has gourmet ambitions that it generally fulfills, with the lobster roll and Pug Burger as delicious exceptions. As it expands into the former Schwab's space, including an oyster bar, we'll see how those ambitions play out.

On the other coast, in Cambridge, Jasper White's ambitions have always been clear -- he is the Cooking from New England guy, an early friend-to-Julia-Child who has long been a presence (both physical and theoretical) on the Boston food scene. Half a decade ago, White opened the first of four Summer Shack locations at Fresh Pond circle, across from the historic former location of Joyce Chen (I know my Boston food history) and in what was for years the Polynesian party joint Aku Aku. With one of Aku Aku's Easter Islandy heads recast as an old salt, White created a casual seafood place that's a cross between Legal Seafood and any lobster pound in Maine.

Summer Shack had a long specials list of raw oysters, with more variety than Hungry Cat, plus littleneck and cherrystone clams. All were fresh and perfect. The steamers, an east coast staple, were sweet and not at all sandy. The fried oysters were very good, as was the lobster roll, and our youngest guest enjoyed his fried calamari (not overbuilt, this squid) after he polished off umpteen raw clams. If the fries were undistinguished, well, the fries at Woodman's, up in Essex, aren't anything to rave about, either; the seafood is the point. The one gourmet excursion, a sauteed sea bass on top of garlic mashed potatoes with lobster bearnaise, was good, but monochrome in appearance (browned fish, white mashed, deep brown sauce) and possibly out of place on the menu. And the dessert selection, which includes soft-serve ice cream, is just what's needed. Summer Shack also offers a full clambake; east coast lobsters of various sizes, from modest to gargantuan, are offered steamed or cooked in less simple ways.

So where's the compare-and-contrast? It's not rocket science: east coast seafood is better on the east coast. West coast seafood places, like the Hungry Cat, like the phenomenally good Water Grill, are their own creatures. All together, class: Comparisons are odious. When I seafood, I eat it, wherever I happen to be.

photo by sooz via Flickr.

Read me at LAist

Apologies for light posting lately; I'm on it. Part of the reason Biffles has been rather subdued lately is that I've begun posting on LAist, mostly about food but occasionally on other subjects. I may begin cross-posting, as well, bringing my LAist stories back to this blog after the statutory 48 hours (LAist's exclusive window) expires. Being on LAist is great for me; the "Ten Best Bistros in LA" list, which I will post here as well, got linked by EaterLA and summarized (in a very funny snarky way) by Gridskipper.

Correction o' the day: Bialysearch update

From today's New York Times:

An article last Wednesday about Jim Leff, a founder of the Internet discussion group www.chowhound.com, misstated the number of continents on which the food writer Mimi Sheraton has searched for bialys. It is five, not two.

Yes, and the pancake-sized thangs they try to pass off as bialys in Los Angeles are unspeakable. Why search the continents? Either bialys are from NYC, or they aren't. I don't know that I'd even trust a bialy from Bialystok.