malvasia bianca

We had dinner at the excellent Sushi Tomi tonight. Two of the tatami tables were taken over by a birthday party, hosted by a young caucasian girl, with a Bob the Builder theme. Multiculturalism at its best.

I hope that those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving had a nice one. We did; a congenial bunch of guests, a meal headed by cambodian chicken curry. Though there were other nice bits on the menu – in particular, Liesl made a very pleasant beef soup, also from The Elephant Walk Cookbook, and we made […]

I should really catch up on my blogging; in the mean time, some random links: Will it blend? I know where I’m buying my next blender from. John Baez on the state of fundamental physics. Just the link for the panda fan in your family. A followup to a traffic experiments article that I mentioned […]

I had not realized until recently that carpaccio only dates back to around 1950.

I’m pretty sure this is from The Top One Hundred Pasta Sauces, by Diane Reed, but that book was Jordan’s, so I can’t say for sure. The original recipe recommends spaghetti (or even vermicelli, which really doesn’t sound like a fit to me), but I prefer the fusilli that another recipe recommends: that way, the […]

Cleaning out my list of saved links: A visit to the Ghibli museum. Lean manufacturing books are next up on my reading list. I’m glad some Congresspeople are seeing the DRM light… Because the bad guys aren’t about to let up. I repeat: the bad guys aren’t about to let up. Google’s hardly a saint, […]

Last night, I had dinner with friends at Korea House in Santa Clara. (Which I recommend.) They had a raspberry wine on the menu, which I decided to try; it was okay, but the best part was the explanation of the name (punctuation, grammar as in the original): A hungry monk, eating wild black raspberry […]

You’ve (or at least I’ve) got to love this: Among those who ate the most chocolate–averaging more than four grams a day–average systolic and diastolic blood pressure was 3.7 and 2.1 millimeters of mercury lower than their chocolate-spurning peers. This result did not hold true for other sweet foods nor did it vary among men […]

A total cheese bomb – one pound of cheese is a lot of cheese if you’re pairing it with one pound of pasta. Requires managing three pots simultaneously, but it’s actually about as easy as can be imagined given that. It does take a bit of time, though, partially because of that but mostly because […]

Somebody was just asking about this recipe recently, so here it is. From the excellent Bittersweet; I’ve presented the version that is for standard bittersweet/semisweet chocolate (50 to 62 percent); if you’re using darker chocolate than that and want to know how to modify the recipe, buy the book! I did include some of the […]

The third in our “chicken curry by country” series. Or, I suppose, the fourth in our “chicken curry” series; I don’t have a single Indian version to highlight, but we’ve already seen one from (or at least inspired by) that country, and I’ll doubtless come up with more. Don’t worry about finding all the ingredients […]

The third recipe in my “curry paste” series, and the second recipe in my “chicken curry by country” series. I’m a bit dubious about this recipe’s authenticity, even before my alterations. But it’s yummy, which is what counts. Though admittedly not as stunning as the first installment in the latter; I can’t think of the […]

Tonight’s dinner. It takes a bit too long to make on a weekday: it’s not as complicated as the list of ingredients might make you think, but it does take a little while and requires you to juggle a few skillets. Nice if you’re looking for something a bit special to cook during the weekend; […]

If I’m going to post random recipes here (not entirely random – they’re all good!), I suppose I might as well try out other recipes in blogs I read. The kung pao chicken recipe from this blog entry is pretty good, it turns out.

Another very easy Indian recipe, basically a vegetable curry on a bun. Some of the quantities may be a bit off: this recipe I’ve modified (much) more than most. (I like eating ethnic food on buns. Go tortas!) Pao Bhaji, from Pat Chapman’s Curry Club cookbook. 1 onion, chopped 5 cloves garlic, minced vegetable oil […]

We did indeed make a new batch of curry paste last weekend; joy joy joy. Here’s a recipe you can use it in; extremely easy, though it wants to marinade from one hour to one day. So it’s not a bad strategy to take 5 minutes to prepare the marinade after dinner some evening, for […]

I’m starting to really miss good food. I’m not up for going out to eat right now, I’m not up for grocery shopping, I’m not up for cooking, and my body is only just now up for eating. But I was watching Iron Chef last night, and my taste buds let me know that they […]

One of our thanksgiving desserts was the “Marquise au Chocolat Taillevent”, from Patricia Wells’ The Food Lover’s Guide to Paris. A book that has served us well, though I hope she comes out with another edition before the next time we go to Paris, if only to find restaurants there that serve a decent raclette. […]

Thanksgiving dinner was quite pleasant, and surprisingly painless, given the amount of food. There were eight people eating dinner at our house; the food included a dish that could be labeled as a main dish if you wish, four side dishes, and two desserts. Which sounds like a lot of work, especially if you’re only […]

I was kind of bummed when Erubiel Durazo got hurt, and Scott Hatteberg’s performance has certainly been nothing to write home about this season. (I still have no idea why he’s gotten the contracts he has from Billy Beane.) But Dan Johnson’s performance has been a pleasant surprise: I’d literally never heard of him, but […]