Gastronomie

Resources for finding Persian foodstuffs

Clearly, I'm just a bad blogger. I've been totally remiss in putting up a list of places where one can procure Persian oddities (read: ingredients) such as kashsk, leemoo-amoni, torshi and the like.

So, I respectfully submit to you a list of Persian markets in the Bay Area.

(And for those of you outside of the Bay, there are a couple of online sources listed at the bottom. Because, you know, as much as I would love to be able to provide resources across the country, I do still have to hold down my paying job).

The first celebration for New Years

Tonight is Charshanbeh Soori, the Tuesday night preceding the Vernal Equinox (which, in case I hadn't mentioned it, is the exact moment the year turns over).

On this night (which literally means "Eve of Red Wednesday"), bonfires are lit in backyards, beaches & parks all over the world, and Persians of all ages come together to jump over the fire as we sing, "Sorkhee-eh tow az man, zardee-eh man az tow, " which means "Give me your healthy red color as you take back my sickly pallor".  It's a night to enjoy the company of loved ones, and wipe the slate clean... create a tabula rasa, as it were, for the year ahead.

In the Bay Area, my favorite celebration is put on by the Persian Center in Berkeley. They always have plenty of food and music, and the spirit is incredibly jovial; there is something magical about meandering about a street filled with thousands of people who speak your language.

Food at the event includes such specialties as Ash-e Resht-e (recipe follows), kabob, Baslogh (a sweet made of cornstarch, sugar & walnuts) and, of course, lots of tea.

Nowrooz, a celebration of food and life

A few facts about my birthplace, my vatan:

• It has several wickedly cool five-star hotels in Tehran, Isfahan, the Island of Kish, and many other cities.
• Nearly 70% of Iran's population is under the age of 30, and the median age is 23. That's an awful lot of young people who are chomping at the bit for change.
• Persepolis (Takht-e-Jamshid), the city that Alexander supposedly had one of his mistresses set afire, is still fairly intact, and an amazing, awe-inspiring monument to the Persian Empire.
• Some of the best snowboarding in the world can be found in Iran's Dizin ski resort

Anyway, why am I waxing poetic about Iran today? Well, March is upon us, and with it comes the Persian New Year.  It's a season full of celebration, food, dancing and revelry. It's a time to clear away the cobwebs of the past year, and start fresh.

Over the next few days, I will share traditional Nowrooz recipes, traditions, stories and more.

I invite you into my virtual home, to share a cup of tea, a story and a sweet. And, to each of my wonderful visitors I say, Aid-eh Shoma Mobarak (Happy New Year!).

Plugra Alert!

I was just told by my friendly Trader Joe's checker that they are not going to be carrying the big 1-lb blocks of Plugra after next month.

At around $3/lb, Plugra (which is not, in fact made in Europe as many people believe) is my favorite butter to cook with, bake with, etc. It has a wonderfully high butterfat content, delicious flavor (of course it's not cultured butter) and...

...it's $3 for a full pound.

What am I going to do? I don't WANT to spend $6 on half as much butter at Whole Foods. Though, I have been looking for an excuse to switch to Lurpak... hmmm.

Incidentally, my guess is that TJs is going to bring in their own private lable "European-style" butter (because that's just how they do)...

Sawtooth Ridge Cafe, Tahoe City

After driving around the Lake for a few hours on Sunday morning, we dropped the hounds off at the cottage, and meandered around looking for a place to eat. As we were getting close to town, I saw a sign proclaiming "Breakfast Until 3pm Daily!"  Never one to shirk breakfast no matter the time of day, we hastily swung into an open parking spot and hopped out.

The Sawtooth Ridge Cafe is not, from the outside, what you'd call "welcoming". It's on a stretch of North Lake Blvd that houses a Safeway, dry cleaners and CPA offices. As we crept up the stairs, C said, "uh-oh... looks like the place is empty... that's never a good sign." Undaunted, we swung open the massive wooden door to find a cozy little restaurant with a gorgeous view of the lake & mountains filled to about 2/3 capacity.

Bud Davis, the proprietor, (who, at age 70 or so, looks like he's never missed a day of exercise in his life), swept us to our table and offered up menus. The moment I saw Biscuits & Gravy, I was sold.

We ordered up two B&Gs, a Fat Tire for C, Black Butte Porter for me (what, you've never had beer with breakfast?) and a side order of sweet potato fries that seemed to be going to every table.

Now, let me just state for the record that my hubby is from the South. So, Biscuits & Gravy is no joking matter... these were good. Really good. The biscuits were light and fluffy (if I wanted a doughy hockey puck, I'd bake it myself, thank you very much) while the gravy was simple and creamy (again, don't go getting all Iron Chef with my gravy... sausage, cream, flour, fat... that's really all I want in it).

The eggs were clearly fresh and simply scrambled, and the potatoes were great. Fried in a cast iron skillet with onions, bell pepper and simple seasoning, the skin-on reds were exactly what breakfast potatoes should be.

Finally... those sweet potato fries... wow... soooo simple and delicious. A hair thicker than "matchstick", fried, buttered and seasoned with real sea salt... they were crisp outside, sweet & tender inside, and needed no condiments whatsoever.

We really loved this place, and would heartily recommend it for anyone looking for great, simple All-American fare in Tahoe City.

Off to Tahoe for the weekend

Well, I think I've gotten the TREO posting functionality figured out, but just in case...

Have a wonderful weekend and check back in on Monday morning.

Hangar 1 & St. George Spirits

We've loved Hangar 1 Vodkas for years... but amazingly, we'd never been out to the distillery & tasting room at the old Alameda Naval Base until a couple of weeks ago when we were invited to attend an event called Exprescion (put on, of course, by Scion)*.

The space is amazing with stunning vistas of the Bay and city. So, C decided we had to go back there, armed with his camera case and during the day, which happened this past Sunday. I can't say that I didn't have a bit of an interest in it myself - I mean, what I wouldn't give to get my hands on one of those spaces to turn into my own personal loft-playground. But, I digress.

At the tasting room, they charge the bargain-basement price of $10 for the opportunity to try a ridiculous number of hand-crafted spirits, plus you get to take home a cordial glass. In addition, you get the fabulous company of the tasting-room manager and his staff. C & I shared one tasting (I was driving) and sampled the following:

• Aqua Perfecta Eaux de Vie in Pear, Kirsch & Raspberry ($36 each) - Phenomenal purity of flavors. Kirsch was particularly special, I thought; it's an uncommon flavor in these parts, and utterly a part of Jorg Rupf's heritage.
• Aqua Perfecta Zinfandel Grappa ($36) - I'm not a big Grappa fan, though C really enjoyed the clean flavors here.
• St. George Single Malt Whiskey ($45) - I loved this, and we had to have a bottle - the decanter that usually holds Knob Creek is getting a new visitor. It's packed full of complexity - they use 3 types of used casks for aging - port, bourbon & new french oak.
• Hangar 1 Vodkas in Straight, Mandarin Blossom, Kefir Lime, Buddha's Hand & Fraser Raspberry ($30-$36) - Truth be told, I have been coveting the Raspberry since Sam first told me about it - then she went and gave it an award - obviously, we bought a bottle of this, too. Of course, the true test was the Straight, which is truly the purest expression of vodka I've ever tasted outside of Russia.
• Liqueurs in Pear & Raspberry ($20). These are like drinking the sweet, juicy essence of fruit in each sip... there is a whisper of tartness in the raspberry that I found irresistable. We bought a bottle.

So, if you've kept track, by this time, we had shared a solid 5oz (at least - they are generous here) of 80-proof liquor, plus the lighter liqueurs.

And both of us decided right then and there that having St. George Spirits in our backyard makes us mightly lucky people indeed.

*For any music people out there... we went to see Mixmaster Mike. He rocked. And I felt soooo freaking old. Aside from being one of the only people with a wristband, the man himself looked old. Sigh.

2601 Monarch St.
(at the Old Naval Station)
510.769.1601

WBW #7 - Obscure Red Varietals

This month's Wine Blogging Wednesday is hosted by Andrew over at Spittoon. He picked a really neat theme, "Obscure Red Varietals", which prompted me to buy two wines.

WINE #1:
Wine: Apaltagua
Vintage: 2002
Varietal: 100% Carmenere
Appellation: Colchagua Valley
Price: $10

The Nose:
Overwhelmingly of smoked paprika. Beneath that (and it takes some work to get there, IMHO) there is brambles & blackberry. Imagine the smell of you hands after picking blackberries in August.

The Eyes:
Deep, dark violet, but a bit thin around the edges.

The Palate:
Again, the smoked pepper is fairly overwhelming. However, there is a long finish of ollalieberries (not quite as fragrant and juicy-sweet as blackberries). Still, this wine is pretty green.

Overall Impression:
It's hard not to like this wine - there is something about it that makes you want to play, swirl, sniff, taste and then sniff some more. But that said, it's overly green. And there are plenty of other better representations of Carmenere out there.

If this wine were a person, it would be...
The loud office manager with smoker's voice who has led such a fascinating life that you end up asking another question when all you really want to do is walk away.

Check out the SF Chronicle Today!

The Chron's Amanda Berne did a lovely piece on Bay Area Bloggers, covering some of my favorite people including Sam, Alder, Pim & Dr. Biggles.

Yours truly got a nod as well, with a reprint of my recently posted Ghormeh Sabzi recipe.

Congrats to everyone!

At long last - The Dining Room at Ritz-Carlton, Part 1

I know this has taken me a few days, but once you've read this post, you understand why it was so hard to put the experience in writing.

First, a word about the service... it was exemplary. Our head waiter, Herbert, could not have been a more consummate professional. He intuitively knew when to approach us, when to leave things alone, and when we wanted company - towards the end of our meal, we started chatting about wines, and by the end of dinner, we were exchanging our favorite late-night eateries in the East Bay.

Also, you'll note that I don't talk at all about wines, or the general atmosphere of the restaurant. This will come later in a "Part 2" post... I just can't subject you to reading this much in one sitting!

Upon our arrival, we had just a few minutes to wait, so we sat in the bar and each ordered a glass of Gosset Rosé. Our table was ready in short order, and we were escorted to our table - a 40" round set for two (side-by-side).  Some people might not enjoy being seated in clear view of the "staging" area, but for us it was like dinner theatre - watching how beautifully this crew moved together was utterly entertaining.

I had pre-selected the nine-course chef's tasting menu and requested that no menus be brought to our table - I wanted C to have no clue as to what might be coming.

Generally, you'll see that there were a LOT of "Gelées", but all were handled incredibly skillfully - tiny cubes of intense flavor which really complemented what they were served with.

Also, after our amuse-bouches, we each got a different dish. I'll list mine first, and C's second.

Amuse #1:
Demitasse of Sunchoke soup. A perfect, ethereal manifestation of our new favorite winter root vegetable.

Amuse #2:
Perfectly tender, seared Nantucket Bay scallop with a deliciously savory beet reduction, and topped with Osetra caviar.