Great China in Berkeley

Shrimp & Pork Dumplings at Great China.

Finally got around to Great China, and should have been sooner, due to all the raves which turn out to be completely justified. Below is one of the best Hot & Sour Soups I've ever had.

As you can tell from above, the Shrimp & Pork Dumplings were very hot when they arrived at our table. Absolutely sublime.

Haven't had Chow Mein since...the Carter Administration? The version we had was Seafood Chow Mein with scallops, shrimp and calamari which tasted like they were very fresh, not from a frozem mixed seafood bag. The pasta, sauce and thinly sliced vegetables made this an unforgettable dish.

Walnut Prawns.

Probably the best eggroll I've ever had, a far cry from the eggroll stands that used to surround my college, which were super deep-fried. Here the cabbage & carrots tasted so fresh they were practically raw. 

Aroma Indian Restaurant in Benicia

Folks from Aroma opened Mirchi, so you gotta check it out. Sublime.

Lamb Curry.

Saag Paneer.

San Francisco Anti-Trump Protest @ Market & Powell

Monday, November 15th, 2:20pm. Protestors were in front of Westfield Mall, and they were really loud! Since they were sticking to sidewalks, they were stretched way out, and walking pretty quickly. No violence associated with this protest reported.

Cooter's Gulch

Booger Blister begged Cooter for a drag on his Amsterdam shag. Booger Blister's crusty beard parted ways like the Red Sea on Judgment Day as he imbibed the hand-rolled cigarette, right eye closed, shut tight like an Ironwood burl, left eye wide open, Wotan hanging from the World Tree, glimpsing wisdom from Starfire jewel blazing forth, inside Amber chalice, the God of Thunder echoing down a succession of cloud-wracked ridges, each fainter and more obscured in Tribulation mists, lumbering northwards to the Great Sea.

St. John the Revelator, Sixty-Six GTO, smoked hawg leg, scenic kudzu highways, she dropped a dime to CPS, Thanksgiving turkey teeming with germs and emotional context, clawhammer gack picked bourbon fifths and fourths, narrative mmph scuttled, mucous mouth, homeless hoarder stash syringed from sidewalk well breached the right turn lane. Flummoxed pontoons meandered on Bigfoot Bay, bass played out.

Manetti Shrem Museum Opening at UC Davis

The new Art Museum on the University of California at Davis campus, on opening day.

Robin studied Art and Graphic Design at UC Davis, but I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Pictured here, folks milling about prior to the ribbon-cutting.

We go to Davis a fair amount, as it's only about 40 minutes away, and has much to offer, including arguably the best Farmer's Market in the entire Bay Area. I can see why Robin misses living there--everything's close, it's easy to walk or bicycle everywhere. It's family-friendly, and hardly any crime compared to where we live and work. Unlike Berkeley or Austin, I'm sure there's not as huge of a fight when the University decides to expand, because Davis is surrounded by farms. The culinary scene is much improved from the old days, in fact today we had lunch at a new Poke place which was superb.

Above is a shot from the long line to get into the building, and this looks like some kind of femme photo set-up geared to girls of all ages (and actual genders) where you can hold pink dolphins, oversized candy, Cinderella costumes and other accoutrements while you get your snapshot taken. A little strange for a museum opening, but like many of the features around, kids with short attention spans need to be occupied.

The lines were pretty long outside and inside the building, but hey! It was free. I was getting impatient while in line, and at first I wasn't very impressed by the work I was seeing. Much of it lacking craft, a legacy of modern trends in Art, and I was thinking halfway through there was going to be nothing that would speak to me, and then I noticed this.

And this.

That.

And now some Artists I've heard of, and know a little bit about. Above and below, Manuel Neri, who has lived in Benicia (I think he's still there), Vallejo's neighbor to the east. I started getting absorbed in this guy's work. 

Wayne Thiebauld. One of the labels quotes him talking about focusing on light around objects in nature, and noticing that edges of things have a different light, in fact the edges have edges. This rendering of a staple gun is a meditation on light, contrasting color, and contrasting texture.

Aside from the work I found engaging, the other big story to this museum opening? Unlike almost every other university art museum I've been to, there's no calvacade of the greatest hits of Art History, no token copy of Picasso, Matisse, Cezanne, Rembrandt or Andy Warhol. Every artist in this show taught at UC Davis in the early days, and back then (and still is, to a large extent), professor artists were free to take risks and pretty much do what they wanted. Though some work didn't appeal to me, it definitely provided context.

http://manettishremmuseum.ucdavis.edu/about/latest-news.html

For more images: https://photos.ucdavis.edu/bp/#/folder/1742888

Sacramento Anti-Trump Protest

Today, earlier today about 2pm. Protestors are on the Interstate 80 on-ramp heading east, approximately where the Sacramento Food Co-op is.

Butter & Queen Boletes

Robin and our buddy Matt did a trade the other day, the result being we got a massive bag of freshly picked bolete mushrooms.

Butter and Queen Boletes.

Lamb shoulder blade cuts, with a light dusting of sea salt, and black pepper on the other side.

Salt-cured anchovy & black pepper.

Boletes sliced and sauteeing in juices from the lamb & coconut oil. At right you can see freshly picked oregano & thyme, and garlic.

Here I've just added some butter at the end of the bolete cooking time, along with the rough cut garlic and herbs.

Finally, diced organic red potatoes simmering in the butter/oil from the previous dish. Here I've just hit them with a good amount of smoked paprika, something I used to do with potatoes when I worked for Chef Tony. This made for a great breakfast, along with some raw arugula.

Here's the finished dish on the plate.

Above & below: cooking Beef (Carne Asada), Onions, Brocolli, & Boletes. Threw in some sesame too.

Pacific Northwest Journey 2016: Culinary Roundup

Local apples and cider at Port Townsend's Food Co-op.

We just returned the other day from our annual visit to Seattle for the Puget Sound Mycological Society annual mushroom fair. Along the way, we had some great meals at local restaurants and food co-ops.

Organic arugula is one of the best things you can take on a long car journey, or if you are manning a booth at a fair all day. I drink coffee every day, but after noon, I prefer fresh greens for a pick me up that's similar to a wheat grass shot, but much cheaper. 

Above & below: Indian cuisine at Glassy Junction in Weed, California, just past Mount Shasta on Interstate 5. Killer stuff. Aloo Gobhii (cauliflower curry) & Lamb Saag (tender lamb in spinach curry), served here with freshly cooked naan. Heightened and sophisticated use of spices. Best Indian food in Northern California.

Local cheeses and bread in Oregon. Some we got in Ashland, more later near Portland.

We always try to shop at Cooperatives when on the road, and October is Co-op Month. Here's a shot from our visit at Seattle's Central Co-op.

Pickled cabbage appetizer & tea at Seven Stars Pepper Szechwan Restaurant in Seattle.

Many of the meals we had in Seattle were just improvised from ingredients we bought at co-ops and Uwajimaya, the local Japanese chain with great sashimi, yogurt and much else. We planned to arrive in Seattle one day early just so we'd have time to check out Seattle museums, bookstores, and some restaurants. 

It made sense to us to focus on Chinese, so first we opted for Seven Stars Pepper, in a Vietnamese neighborhood just south of downtown, with plenty of free parking. Before heading to the restaurant (in a non-descript strip mall, natch), we checked out the neighborhood first. Definitely we'd be shopping the grocery stores here if we lived in Seattle.

Hand-shaven Dan Dan Noodles With Pork being served by the waitress (above & below) at Seven Stars Pepper. 

The hand-shaven noodles at Seven Star was without a doubt the star of the show. The pork and sauce was a balance of texture and flavor. We're lucky to have a few comparable restaurants here in the Bay Area.

I'm getting hungry posting this stuff.

Walnut Prawns at Seven Stars: spot on!

Tea-smoked Duck at Seven Stars. We were so full that we took most of this to go, and the next day we snacked on the duck with such concentrated flavor of duck, chili and szechuan peppercorn.

http://www.sevenstarspepper.com/menu.aspx

Condiments at Miah's Kitchen Xi'an Food in Redmond, Washington.

Robin & I had already decided on checking out this hand-pulled & house-made dumpling place, cuisine from the Xi'an region of China, because there was one so close to Bellevue College, where the mushroom fair was taking place. Some of the other vendors/mushroom experts tagged along. Above, you can see Curt with a small bowl of noodles and a small bowl of dumplings.

Josh here is ready to tuck into his large bowl of Biang-Biang noodles.

Britt ordered noodles in a rich sauce.

Robin's Biang-Biang noodles with beef & bok choy.

Britt's dumplings.

And finally, my dish: Stewed Pork Shoulder with bok choy and hand-pulled Biang Biang Noodles. All these dishes are savory, rustic, and similar to home-cooking. Judging from what we were lucky to experience at Miah's, the cuisine of the region is nothing fancy, though now the idea of hand made noodles seems exotic because we're so used to machine-made noodles. Great stuff, highly recommended.

http://miahskitchen.weebly.com

Ellenos greek-style yogurt: you can find it in many places in Seattle (& even Portland), such as Uwajimaya, or here, at Pike Place Market.

Here's some garlic grown by our friends Dan & Liann who live in the Olympic peninsula, in Sequim, Washington. They are also mushroom enthusiasts, and we always go hunting for chanterelles with them, as followers of my blog may recall from our previous trips.

We had some errands to run in Port Townsend, so we checked out the Food Co-op there (see the selection of local organic apples & cider at the top of this post), then decided to eat lunch at this Thai place nearby, which was surprisingly good. 

Ka Pao Kai at 123 Thai in Port Townsend, Washington. Chiles and chicken sauteed in a spicy thai sauce with an egg on top. I'm pretty sure I got the best dish 123 Thai makes--I highly recommend this. By the way, those red and green peppers are bells; even though I ordered my dish as spicy, it was still pretty tame as far as heat goes.

BBQ Pork. Pork loin sauteed in a chile-based sauce.

Larb. Great version of this chicken dish.

Pad Thai. Pretty much a spot-on version of the national dish of Thailand, and from what I've had & know about, this is close to the typical Bangkok version of Pad Thai that one usually finds in the United States. 

Lemongrass vegetables & chicken. Not much lemongrass flavor, but still delicious.

Curry Corner in Lacey, Washington. This is their lunch special--we both got Lamb Curry. Above, I opted for Palak Paneer (cheese cubes in minced spinach) for my vegetable side, below Robin got the Navrattan Korma (mixed vegetables in a cashew sauce). Dal and Rice were spot on, the iceberg salad pointless, and there wasn't much room for the rice dessert, because we were so full! The Lamb Curry was fantastic, highly nuanced, and in the same territory as Glassy Junction in Weed, and Mirchi & Allspice here in Solano County.