Kindle-izing Cooking

For Christmas this year, my lovely wife delivered into my hands a new Kindle!  If you don’t recognize the name, a ‘Kindle’ is an electronic reader for books manufactured by Amazon.  Basically, you buy a book from Amazon in electronic format, and it downloads via cell phone technology to the electronic reader.

I didn’t think an e-book reader would be my thing.  My list of complaints, without even thinking hard, are:

1. Yet another electronic gadget to worry about

2. Cost of e-books is almost the same as a real book, so why don’t I want a real book?  (note that this is also true of music on iTunes, which I adore)

3. I’ll always be dicking around keeping it charged.

4. It won’t “feel” the same as a real book so I won’t get the same level of satisfaction.

5. The books I like to read won’t be available in electronic format.

Need I continue?

After one week of use, I believe, as is typical for my ability to determine what’s a useful gadget and what isn’t, that I am wrong on nearly every point!  You can read your own reviews of the Kindle and decide if it’s right for you or not (however, it’s about the same size as moleskine notebook, e-books DO cost about the same as real books, it holds its charge forever and can be recharged from any USB plug, and it’s very comfortable for reading), but what I cared about the most is CAN I GET THE BOOKS *I* LIKE?!

As a test, I chose the most obscure food related book I could think of: “On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen” by Harold McGee.  If you’re not a foodie, you probably don’t know about this book.  If you are a foodie, it’s your bible!  Guess what? McGee’s book is available on the Kindle!  OK, so I’ll give up one run.  But how about “The Food Lover’s Companion” by Sharon Herbst, the second most important Foodie reference title every published?!  Damn, down by two.  It’s available on the Kindle too!

Having just come off watching “Julie and Julia” – a most excellent movie, btw – I upped the anty to “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” by Julia Child.  Ha!  It’s not there!  I knew this Kindle thing was overstated.  However, the books “Julie and Julia” by Julie Powell and “My Life in France” by Julia Child are both there waiting to be sucked in to your Kindle.  So maybe this is more of a “foul” than a “strike”.  Plus, Alton Brown’s “I’m Just Here for the Food” can be downloaded, so that sorta makes up for it a little bit…although it IS pricey…

Bottom line: I dare you to ask me the difference me a Pasilla Chile and an Anaheim Chile, or a ricer and a food mill, or how baking powder works *if* I have my Kindle in hand!  But first you’ll have to get my attention – I’m probably reading…

– Chris

Click here to see other Tapas Crawls!

Tapas Crawl

After reading a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle about a Tapas Tour of the City, Laura and I got excited to try that one for ourselves!  As you’ll see by reading thru the blow-by-blow that follows, this turned out to be a fabulous adventure and ranks as probably the best overall culinary experience we’ve had in San Francisco!

The San Francisco Chronicle article that started it all, accessible at SF Chronicle Tapas walk, describes a tour  by Kevin Hogan that showcases San Francisco’s Spanish offerings.  You can read Kevin’s blog first hand at www.salondelvino.wordpress.com.

Essentially, Tapas are Spanish appetizers, which are typically simple preparations such as marinated olives, sausage, or fried sardines.  The idea, as it’s implemented in Spain, is to serve a simple snack that is combined with the social event of wandering from bar to bar.  There’s a great book by Polly Evans, “It’s Not About the Tapas”, that offers a wonderful sense of the Tapas experience in Spain.

Laura and I frequent San Francisco semi-regularly, but we’ve certainly never attempted to eat at more than one restaurant in a single evening, so the thought of eating at four or five was pretty daunting.  Regardless, using my project manager skills, I printed a map of Financial and North Beach districts of SF and set to work mapping out the restaurants described in Janet’s article.

First, we decided to pull this one off on a Saturday, so we holed up for the night at the Serrano Hotel on Taylor, between Geary & O’Farrell.  From there, the restaurant list looked like this:

• Gitane
• B44
• Bocadillos
• 15 Romolo
• Lalola

Our plan was to start at 6pm from the Serrano Hotel (405 Taylor), and walk to Gitane (0.6 miles to 6 Claude Lane), followed by a short hike to B44 (0.1 miles to 44 Belden Place), and another short jaunt to Bocadillos (0.4 miles to 710  Montgomery St.).  Then, we would work our way up Columbus to 15 Romolo (0.3 miles to 15 Romolo Place), followed by a stroll down Broadway to Lalola (0.5 miles to 1358 Mason St.)   Finally, we hoped we’d catch a cab back to the hotel.  But failing that, an energetic dash up Mason would get us back to the hotel (0.8 miles).  That’s five restaurants and 2.7 miles!

I’d never been to any of these restaurants, so I wasn’t sure what kind of reception we’d get by showing up (sans reservations) and ordering one drink each and a single small plate of food, then rushing off to our “next engagement”.  San Francisco is a pretty laid back place and true to form, we were welcomed energetically at all of these restaurants and there were no apparent hard feelings when we moved on to our next destination after a single plate.

We started out with Gitane, a restaurant that is less than a year old and is located a few blocks off of Union Square in a narrow, easily missed alley.   We ordered the stuffed Monterey Squid (very good) and a couple of house special Cocktails (very strong) and the trendy atmosphere made us feel like we were in New York City.

Next was B44, also located in a quiet alley, and the restaurant highest on our list for a return visit.  B44 is very welcoming, has a big bar, lots of seating, a friendly and relaxed staff, and great food.  We ordered a pair of Sangrias and the warm marinated octopus, which  was simply wonderful.

From B44 we moved on to Bocadillos, located in the North Beach area of the City adjacent to the FinancialDistrict.  Bocadillos is small, but comfortable and the service is attentive.  We had a spicy snapper ceviche, which was really good, along with a glass each of a big red wine from Spain.

From Bocadillos, we followed our map to an interesting part of town which includes the Hustler Club, the Condor Club and a bunch of shops that sell all kinds of “interesting stuff”, if you know what I mean.  While potentially not for the faint of heart, it’s a pretty safe part of town and very busy, even late at night.

We arrived at 15 Romolo, a bar located in the Basque Hotel just steps away from the Condor and which clearly does not belong on the list of “good Spanish restaurants in San Francisco.”  However, it turns out this place has a unique collection of sherries, they make a mean sangria, and serve up mighty fine marinated olives and a unique jambalini, which is a deep fried ball of “jambalaya” rice.

Saying our goodbyes to the kind folks at 15 Romolo (and the homeless folks just outside), we marched off to Lalola, a true neighborhood establishment at Mason between Pacific & Broadway.  There was a unique and pleasant cross-section of locals filling Lalola at 10:30pm, and we enjoyed reflecting on our evening, now 4 plus hours since it started, over a final round of sangrias.  Of course, we sampled the stuffed piquillo pepper, a thin pork loin crostini, and a lovely bean (actually, lentil) and sausage soup to pass the time!

And so ended our “Tapas Crawl” of San Francisco.  A truly memorable, and worthy of a repeat, tour of some of the best SF has to offer.

Enjoy!

Chris

The Road to Hana

Last August Laura and I made a return expedition to Hawaii, where we had exchanged our wedding vows four years before.  Hamoa beach, located near Hana Town on the island of Maui, is a beautiful black sand beach formed into a perfect crescent and referred to by James Michener as one of the most perfect beaches in the world.

Our adventure began with a stop at Mama’s Fish House in Paia, very near some of the best surfing in Hawaii, located just south of Mama’s on Paia Bay.  Regardless of the surfing, a trip to Maui is not culinarily complete without a visit to Mama’s for a tropical drink and some of the freshest, finest fish to be found anywhere in the Islands.  We happened to be at Mama’s when Owen Wilson dropped by for lunch, so we had great food and some TMZ thrill at the same time.

The Road to Hana is an adventure in itself.  First, learn the Shaka sign (thumb and little finger held out, three middle fingers curled in; think “hang loose”) because you’ll see it a lot while driving to Hana.  The Road to Hana skirts an ancient volcano at the point it plunges into the sea.  Over five hundred hairpin turns, dozens of single lane bridges and several hours of negotiating the narrow, winding road that follows the eastern slopes of the massive volcano Haleakala, brings you to Hana Town, arguably one of the most beautiful locales on the planet.

Hana itself consists of a few stores, a post office, a couple of churches, one restaurant, one gas station and a school.  While there are houses and cabins to rent along the coast in the vicinity of Hana, we opt for the amazing comfort of the Hotel Hana Maui.  The Hotel Hana Maui is the only resort on this side of the island and the resort also owns several of the stores in Hana as well as the Hana Ranch Restaurant, the only other restaurant in Hana outside of those actually on the Hotel grounds.

The Hotel has a collection of seaside cottages that are detached from the main hotel, and are modeled after the sleeping quarters provided to sugar cane workers on the early sugar cane farms.  This is an escape from the real world.  There is no TV, no Internet and no air conditioning.  But the ocean is crashing on the rocks 24 hours a day just a few steps outside the door.  It does not get any better than this!  We like cottage #217.  It’s closest to the ocean of any of the cottages and the view of the ocean is completely unobstructed!

As if the view and location weren’t enough, the Hotel has an absolutely world class spa that provides about any kind of spa treatment you could want.  Complete with saunas, whirlpool, ice cold plunge bath and outdoor showers, you’re gonna want to do some spending here.

The two places to eat in Hana are the Hana Ranch Restaurant and the restaurant on the resort grounds.  Hana Ranch Restaurant is casual, with sandwiches, salads, steaks and the usual fare.  It’s good, but is usually bursting with tourists who show up in clusters, looking green from sitting in a small bus with 20 other people rocking from side to side at least 500 times on the road to Hana.  The resort restaurant has a great collection of fish and other local dishes.  While the restaurant doesn’t keep up with some of the great restaurants we have in here in the San Francisco Bay Area, the food was consistently good.  And the fish is really, really fresh!  Regardless of where you eat, be sure to stop by the little general store across from the post office and buy a loaf of locally grown and baked banana bread.  That banana bread totally rocks, especially with macadamia nuts scattered throughout!

Two miles further up the road is the most beautiful beach on earth, Hamoa Beach, a black sand beach that played host to our wedding in August of 2004.  We were married standing in the waves off the beach and then had a private dinner on the beach, cooked on location by a chef from the Hotel and complete with a Hawaiian Ukelele player.  That was quite a day!

Another 15 miles or so up the road is Ohe’o Gulch, with Waimoku Falls located two miles up the slope of Haleakala and the seven sacred pools located on the shore.  The trail to Wailmoku winds its way through a bamboo forest that towers twenty or thirty feet or more over-head.  Waimoku itself is an amazing collection of water falls that crash down several hundred feet of sheer cliff.  This hike is worth it.

And finally, after that hot and sweaty hike, there is a roadside smoothie stand about a mile from the trailhead.  We stopped for a smoothie made with tree picked fresh bananas, coconuts and pineapples just in from the field.  It caught us by surprise to be addressed by name as we approached the stand.   We learned that along with most other businesses in Hana, the road-side stand is also owned by the Hotel Hana Maui!   Apparently the hotel concierge, who knew us well, had smoothie duty the day we stopped …

This year, we are off to Kauai for our anniversary, but our hearts belong to Hana.

– Chris