“Dude, that’s a gnarly one!! How’d you get it?”

“Damn, that one’s gonna sting like hell when you shower.”

After missing pieces of fingers, peppered arms, missing chunks of fingernail, one eventually comes to accept these battle wounds as the mark of the industry. The symbol of time spent fighting, battling on the line. And with time, they become more of an afterthought, rather then potential girlfriend-repellant.

Indeed, every scar has a story, every horrifying burn is a lesson learned, every callous a measure of intestinal fortitude. But above all, each is a rite of passage. A badge of honor to be displayed to the general disgust of the public, but to the appreciation and delight of other cooks. And I wear the few I have with pride.

WARNING: Don’t click “Continued” if you have a) just eaten b)are a pansy. (Well…are you?)

Actually, looking back on these now…that is f*cking GROSS. Ugh…I need a beer.

]]> http://www.theragingspork.com/blog/2010/04/13/battle-scars/feed/ 3 http://www.theragingspork.com/blog/2010/03/16/ravioli/ http://www.theragingspork.com/blog/2010/03/16/ravioli/#comments Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:17:35 +0000 Nate http://www.theragingspork.com/blog/?p=229

Rest assured, dear readers, I’ve been putting the pasta machine to good work. Our freezer is stuffed with batches and batches of tagliatelle and capellini…more than we want to eat, really. Anyway, here’s a quick little something on my last pasta project, some simple wild mushroom ravioli.

I’m a sucker for mushrooms, so I browsed the market for whatever types I could find. There’s just something intrinsically exciting to me about seeing that golden orange of the first chanterelles of the season, or taking in the meaty, earthy aroma of sauteing beech and oyster mushrooms. Anyway, I walked away from the market with about a pound each of oyster, beech, cremini, and baby shiitakes. A hard saute of each to drive out the moisture and amplify the flavor, some white wine, parsley and thyme, a rough chop and some ricotta, and you’ve got ravioli filling. Then a quick pasta dough of water, egg yolk, olive oil, and flour…laboriously kneaded and rested, then rolled into thin sheets of sfoglia.

It’s pretty simple from there, lay out the filling on the sheet, some egg white for binding, and then layer another sheet of pasta over the top, pressing to eliminate air holes. Punch em’ out with a cutter (shape of your choosing), dust with flour, and then you’re good to go.

Apologies for the photo quality…our kitchen lighting sucks.

I ended up serving these guys with a green garlic/asparagus soup…just in time for spring. And speaking seasonally…that’s part of the beauty of pasta…it’s versatility. For most of us, the idea of pasta can’t be seperated from ripe summer tomatoes. But with a little more thought, you can substitute any seasonal components you’d like to use. Butternut squash ravioli for the fall, artichokes for the spring…etc. And beyond that, you can dress em’ up or dress em’ down. Truffled lobster ravioli or a humble spaghetti pomodoro, both can be equally amazing.

My next pasta project…gonna try my hand at some cannelloni.

I won’t lie, I feel like a jumpy, excited little schoolboy waiting for this chrome-plated beauty to arrive on my doorstep.

If you haven’t had the opportunity to try fresh pasta before…well, my heart goes out to you. Haha. I can guarantee that once you’ve tried it fresh, you won’t go back to the dried stuff. Unless of course, we’re talking about sheer effort/time consumption, but, like I always say, good food takes time.

Anyway, I’ll (hopefully) follow up with an entry once she arrives…first on my list? Gonna try my hand at some short rib agnolotti.

]]> http://www.theragingspork.com/blog/2009/10/22/i-love-new-toys/feed/ 1 http://www.theragingspork.com/blog/2009/07/30/phils-fish-market-moss-landing-ca/ http://www.theragingspork.com/blog/2009/07/30/phils-fish-market-moss-landing-ca/#comments Thu, 30 Jul 2009 10:36:37 +0000 Nate http://www.theragingspork.com/blog/?p=184

It always feels like I’m apologizing for our lack of updates…well at least I have a legitimate excuse this time. I am now (for better or worse) no longer unemployed. What does this mean? Less time for updates…but on the flip side…more money to go out to eat! So if my lazy ass doesn’t get in my way, we can hope for some more updates. Now without further delay…

I’ve never been much of a Bobby Flay fan. Not since this whole debacle. (Namely, 3:30) Apparently he excels equally at both Southwestern cuisine and general douchebaggery. Sure sure, it was years ago and he may very well be a different man now. But I mean, seeing that, do we really still need to wonder why the rest of the world thinks of Americans as the rude, brash, annoying, uncouth nouveau riche? This is a grim picture of America’s cultural ambassadorship.

Well, if he’s good for one thing, it’s for leading me into this entry. See, as any of you Food TV’ers out there know, Bobby’s now doing a show called Throwdown, where he goes throughout the country, challenging people to various dish specific cook-offs.  As it turns out, Phil’s Fish Market, near Monterey, CA, is the site of Bobby’s cioppino battle, going toe-to-toe against owner Phil DiGirolamo himself. (Incidentally, I caught an episode where Bobby battles previously reviewed Mama Testa’s owner Cesar Gonzalez. Cesar wins.) I don’t actually remember who wins the challenge, but this was all the context I had while visiting Phil’s Fish Market myself a few weeks ago. 

Well one thing’s certain. Phil’s got a good PR/marketing guy. They’ve made no small deal of Bobby’s visit to Phil’s. Mounted TVs spool through slideshows of that day’s events, and ordering out catalogs (yeah, catalogs)  are tacked on along with the menus…faithfully adorned with the Food Network logo. And who can blame the guy? This publicity has drawn huge crowds…I mean, this place was packed.

As far as ambiance goes, Phil’s reminds me of a busy Chinese restaurant. Busy, boisterous, and crowded, minus the dank bathrooms. It’s brightly lit and warm inside, like a family restaurant…but somehow Phil’s still seems to retain it’s warehouse/fish market feel. Maybe it’s the actual fish market at the other end, which still stocks fresh lobsters, crabs, and some really beautiful looking seafood…including some gorgeous tuna filets that I just wanted to take home and rub all over my body eat raw. And of course, Phil’s famous cioppino can be purchased in gallon tubs for easy-take-home convenience. Also impressive was the oyster bar, stocking both fresh-shucked oysters and booze.

So, in reality, before you even order at the counter, your eyes have already been feasting on the cornucopia of fresh seafood all about. Then you get to the hanging menu , which, in being so extensive…is actually a little intimidating.

Maine Lobster, Steamed Mussels, Fried catfish, Littleneck clams,

Grilled calamari steak, Oysters on the half-shell, Salmon marsala,

Blackened sea scallops, Fried clam strips, soft-shell crab sandwiches,

and of course, cioppino.

Apparently, if it walks, climbs, crawls, or swims…it’s on the menu. Maybe this place is more like a Cantonese restaurant than I initially thought. That said, having such a plethora of delectable sounding choices makes ordering both a exciting joy and a painstaking dilemma. I probably spent a good 10 minutes just blankly staring while annoyed customers cut ahead of me in line. Paradise is having four stomachs and a bottomless wallet.

In the end, I went with the cioppino. I mean, how could I not? Time to see what all the hub-bub is about.

Bold, messy, and beautiful. Spilling over the sides of the bowl, and mounded high with seafood, this cioppino knows what it’s about and makes no excuses. My fears of not having enough food were allayed the moment the server laid this mamba-jamba before me. Allright, so portioning is not a problem here…but what about the taste? In reality, all I had in ways of comparison was the one I had over at, well, Cioppino’s in SF. Quite frankly, this cioppino blew that one out of the water. The flavor was nice and balanced…tasting of seafood and the ocean, without being overly fishy. The crab was cooked to perfection, as were the clams, mussels, and shrimp, their chewiness providing the right textural contrast to the supple, well-cooked fish filets. And, as every good (and safe) seafood dish should be, everything was fresh. 

Despite hopping on Food TV’s marketing gravy train, Phil’s still maintains what its about. And it shows, in both environment and its food. Simple, local (I think) and fresh, the menu doesn’t have much air of pretension about it, even with all the hype. It is what it is…fresh seafood that is allowed to be exactly that on the plate…fresh seafood…no miso beurre blancs or uni foam here. And while things have been spruced up and things look much more polished for the sake of family dining, Phil’s still stays true to what was, and hopefully, still is, a vibrant, thriving, smelly, local fish market. Somehow, surrounded by the warehouse walls and concrete flooring, the bustling of crowds, next to the fresh fish on ice, and being able to eat right next to the ocean and feeling the ocean breeze…that raw-ness, that immersion of “local, and right from the ocean,” it all just made some sort of primordial sense. Kudos, Phil, I am now a fan.

Phil’s Fish Market
7600 Sandholtd Road
Moss Landing, CA 95039
www.philsfishmarket.com
Someone go and tell me how the other stuff on the menu is…I’m curious to see if this place is a one-trick pony.

Top Chef Masters

I’ll be honest, I was pretty shocked when I first saw the commercial. So I went looking through Bravotv.com to figure out what this business is about. They’ve got some pretty big names in the culinary realm jumping into this thing. Names like Hubert Keller (Fleur de Lys, SF), John Besh, Rick Bayless, and Wylie Dufrense. (WD-50, NY) I mean, these guys are established chefs, with established and acclaimed restaurants. Needless to say, I’m surprised. 

So I guess I’m unofficially plugging for Top Chef Masters…I’m curious to see what’s going to happen.

Ever notice how once life gets in a rhythm..time just seems to fly by? It seemed but only a few days ago that I first donned my PCI whites and strode, a fresh-faced greenhorn, into my first day of stocks and sauces. But after six months of  burns, cuts, cussing, pounding red bulls and messing up a hell of a lot…well…I’m still green. But I had the privelage to learn (and struggle) under some amazing instructors, and I can say I understand food a lot better than before. And from that knowledge comes greater admiration and respect for the craft.

But really, to write up my cumulative thoughts on my time in school would require more than a paltry paragraph. (Perhaps another entry.) Heh, but obviously it’s been awhile since we’ve written, so we’ll start out easy just to get the juices flowing. I guess we’ll begin with the end…my final menu.

So the premise of the final was pretty simple: prepare a three course tasting to be served to the judges, consisting of an appetizer, an entree, and a dessert. Utilize only the specific ingredients named on a list, and nothing more. Three plates of each must be made, totaling nine dishes. The three courses must exhibit a unifying theme, and judging will be based on workflow, efficiency, timing, taste, appearence, creativity, technique and execution. You have three hours. You can almost see it in your head:

…the chairman takes a step back, eyes intent on the camera…a moment of silent tension…and then he flings his hand towards the heavens and screams:

Allez cuisine!

Star-Anise Poached Lobster, Avocado Puree, Citrus Supremes

Something about shelling out 25 bucks for little more than a pound of meat makes you a lot more cautious when cooking it. But for all its hype, taking a lobster from thrashing-on-the-board live to buttery goodness on a plate isn’t as intimidating as one would think. It all lies in the timing. Well…having no qualms about driving a knife through a live creature’s head helps too.

Shelling a lobster is something of an art…it takes a certain amount of finesse to get nice presentable pieces of meat. Generally, cooking it properly ensures that the meat pulls away from the shell. If not, it sticks to the shell, and you end up with lobster confetti. Anyway, we make a quick beurre monte (an emulsified butter sauce) and flavor it with whole star anise. The shelled lobster goes in the star anise beurre monte and infuses/cooks until service. A quick avocado puree made with olive oil, champagne vinegar and lemon juice, and then we supreme some beautiful orange/blood orange segments. Toss in some dressed frisee and that’s about it.

Lobster poached in butter? It’s hard to go wrong…but the star anise adds a little twist to the flavor. And while you’re soaking in the richness, the sweet and tangy citrus comes in and cuts it a bit. The fat in the avocado puree helps the flavors to meld together, while still remaining bright from the vinegar and lemon juice. A little dressed frisee for texture, and bam, there’s your app.

Sichuan Style Smoked Duck Breast, Duck Confit Soup Dumplings , Celeriac Puree, Baby Spring Vegetables, Ginger-Citrus Sauce

If the app was relatively simple…then this, in contrast, was probably most damned complicated dish I’ve ever made…but as I’m steadily coming to learn, complexity isn’t always a good thing.

First we take a whole duck (no, not live) and butcher it up. The legs and breasts get cured overnight in a mix of star anise, 5-spice and other assorted goodies. Once out of the cure, the breasts are cold smoked with a mix of black tea leaves. After the breast picks up the scent of tea leaves, it gets scored and thrown into a pan. Low heat for 15 minutes or so, and the fat should have rendered out, leaving that crispy duck skin everybody loves. Meanwhile the duck legs are used to make duck confit. This is a pretty traditional French preparation, intended to preserve meat for long periods of time. In order to get super-rich, fall-off-the-bone tender meat, the legs are submerged in duck fat, then cooked on super low heat overnight. 30 minute meals, this is not.

Convenient segway: this, to me, has definitely been something I’ve picked up in my time at school: Good things take time. I love slow food. For me, sometimes what distincts a good dish from a “I can die happy” dish is a matter of time. I mean, look at it…pork shoulder, lamb leg, short ribs, pork belly, these used to be considered “undesirable” cuts of meat. But mesquite smoke that pork shoulder for 14 hours, or red wine braise those short ribs for 4 hours, and what was once an unwanted cut of meat becomes the most delectable dish you’ve had this week. And that’s the beauty of cooking, taking something normal and mundane, and making it into something transcendental. I’ll take that braised pork belly over the filet mignon any day. (Maybe it’s Chinese in me.)

Anyway, back to the entree…

For the dumplings, I essentially tried to make xiao long bao. If you aren’t in the know, Xiao long bao are known as a Shanghai specialty, and are prized not only for their flavor, but for the unique quality of containing a bit of hot soup inside. The result is a sumptuous bite of…well…heaven. (And scalded taste buds if you aren’t careful.) Haha, yeah, I know what you’re thinking, “That pretentious little bastard!” People spend their entire lives trying to master this technique and here I am trying to put it on my final. Obviously mine fell quite a bit short…if we can even call them xiao long bao. Anyway, instead of the traditional pork filling, I filled the dumplings with shredded duck confit along with a cube of gelatinized duck stock, which would melt upon steaming, thus mimicking the prized soup quality of xiao long bao.

A quick celery root puree, blanched sauteed spring vegetables, and a ginger-soy-citrus sauce later and we’re there.

Right, so, before you cry foul and scream “hypocrite!” I’ll beat you to the punch and admit that these aren’t really traditional Chinese dishes. Consider them my “take,” utilizing French technique, while still maintaining a distinctively Chinese flavor profile.

Dessert Trio

Longan Mousse with Sesame-Honey Tuile

Compressed Kaffir-Lime Mango with Blood Orange Syrup and Candied Kumquats

Macha Ice Cream

Ehhh…this isn’t really the best picture out there of the dessert course, but it’ll have to do.

Dessert. The dreaded downfall of many a cook. (Just ask the guys on Top Chef.) The less said about this course the better. There’s a reason there are pastry chefs and there are savory chefs…but more on that another time. Given the debacle that was my baking and pastry final, I steered clear of cakes…and tried to keep the individual components as simple as possible, while still maintaining some uniqueness.

The trio starts with a longan (dragon’s eye) mousse that is most delicate flavor-wise. If you’ve ever had lychee, the flavor is somewhat similar. The mousse has a bit of richness from the cream, but still maintains a light and fluffy texture and the whisper of longan flavor.

Next comes the compressed kaffir-lime mango. Ever see vacuum-packed meat with all the air removed from the bag? Yeah it’s like that. The mango takes on a deeper, darker hue, almost having a jewel-like quality from both the infusion of the syrup and the compression. So what you get is a deep, sweet mango flavor that ends with a hint of the kaffir lime to pick things up.

Lastly, the macha ice cream ends the trio as the richest of the three components. The sweetness of vanilla and sugar is tempered by the slight bitterness of the macha powder, while the sesame-honey tuile lends some nice, nutty crunch.

And that all points back to one of the key tenets of fine cooking…do the simple stuff, perfectly. All the truffle stuffed foie gras in the world won’t matter if you can’t cook a pork loin perfectly.  Or put another way, a perfectly cooked, tender chicken breast speaks volumes more about a cook’s ability than some fanciful-looking lobster dish.

So at the risk (or the assurance) of sounding cheesy…what has school taught me? That I still have much to learn. (In a good way.) That I’m still an infant cook, but all that I picked up in school has set me up to continue learning, relishing, and celebrating cuisine as long as I decide to walk this road.

…yeah that was pretty cheesy.

(By the way, I’ve a bunch of photos I’d like to eventually put on the blog…but for some reason they keep on de-saturating when viewed with Firefox vs. Safari. Anyone have any experience with this?)

I’ll spare you guys the speech, but one book (of many) that you may consider reading on the topic is The Fortune Cookie Chronicles by Jennifer 8. Lee. Incidentally,  there’s a video of one of Ms. Lee’s presentations floating on YouTube. Check it out, and by all means, share your thoughts.

I’ve a confession to make…the whole Christmas ham thing?

Not a fan.

Christmas dinner always seems to play second fiddle to Thanksgiving. No one’s finished recovering from planning (or eating) that feast, so it seems like Christmas dinner becomes a matter of, “What the heck can I make that won’t require me to prep the whole day before?”

In our house, this has usually meant…the ubiquitous hot pot. Hearty, humid, communal sustenance for the cold winter months. And nothing constitutes family bonding quite like clacking chopsticks, sweaty faces, and fighting your cousin for that last piece of crab.

So the question I pose to you, dear reader, what’s the traditional Christmas dinner in your house? Cause…no one I know really does the whole Christmas ham business anyway…

Hope everyone’s Christmas was pleasant, restful, and fulfilling…and from us here at the Spork, we wish you a happy, safe New Year!

Keep eating folks.

Around the Belmont-San Mateo border, El Camino Real is an interesting mix of mattress vendors, timeworn motels, mom-and-pop stores, and used car dealerships. Not exactly an area where you would stumble upon hamburgers with Meyer Ranch ground beef and shakes with Clover organic milk. Lo and behold, newly opened Jack’s Prime serves up all that sustainable and humanely raised goodies that Bay Area denizens have come to demand and expect.

Jack’s Prime just opened at the beginning of October and seems to be garnering a good amount of attention already. Mmmm, cold beer. Have to hand it to Jack’s and their attention to the small things that make a huge difference. Frozen pitchers?! Great idea, folks. We kicked off the meal with some ice cold Boont. Jack’s even has wine available for those weirdos who would rather enjoy a Zinfandel over a cold one.

The interior features a very modern industrial minimalism with its strong emphasis on gray and metal. Thankfully, it didn’t feel like I was going in for a prostate exam or anything. Unfortunately for the wait staff, we snuck in 15 minutes before closing, but our waitress was fantastic and pretty understanding (and it was her first day!).

Nate and I both ordered the Maytag Blue Ribbon burger, complete with Maytag blue, caramelized onions, and beefsteak tomatoes. Pretty freaking good. Juicy and messy, just the way I like it. The bun was perfectly toasted and the spread tied the whole creation together. However, when we first received it, there was one glaring omission. No blue cheese. Nate and I were a bit perplexed, but the waitress quickly took care of it. Being the first week of operation, a few snafus were totally excusable, but it’s hard to call a burger Maytag blue if you forget to place the namesake between the buns. Also, in writing this, I just realized that there were sauteed mushrooms, which was not a part of the menu description. Sweet, free shrooms.

We ordered a pair of fries: the Mushroom Swiss and Breakfast. The Breakfast fries was topped with a fried egg and served with a side of Tabasco mayo. The fries were quite tasty, but we were definitely disappointed by the fried egg. Some of the ooey-gooey yolk running all over the fries would have been nice. Hopefully they’ll address this for all you future patrons.

Had to try the handmade shakes. I had the mint chocolate and Nate went with the black and white. Mmmm, pretty good. The shakes could easily be slurped up a straw (unlike those pesky In ‘n’ Out suckas) and were almost smoothie like, but they held very well. The mint chocolate had a delicious treasure trove of chocolate chips at the bottom. Great way to end the meal.

Based on the past reviews, it seems like we’ve been eating at a lot of burger and sandwich joints recently, but what can I say… I love sinking my teeth into a juicy patty sandwiched between two crunchy and soft buns. Does Jack’s deliver on flavor? Yes, very much so. Should you go? Yes, check them out and support a Peninsula restaurateur who is committed to serving good ingredients. Would I go back? Not for a while. I don’t mean to be a jerk, but I was a bit disappointed by some of the mistakes. We didn’t even get a dish comped. I understand the first week slip-ups, so I’ll wait a bit and let Jack’s iron out some of the wrinkles before I make a return visit.

Jack’s Prime
3723 South El Camino Real
San Mateo, CA 94403
650-638-1479
www.jacksprime.com
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