charlotteann

Of course! I should have known. Bacon comes from the pig’s belly so it stands to reason that pork belly would taste delicious, too. The last time I ate pork belly was in Las Vegas at Bouchon in the Venetian. Thanks to the several free vodka tonics post-dinner at the black jack table (I won $60) I can’t remember much about that meal. But, I did remember to file it away as a cut of meat to try again at home.

Most of the recipes I found online requested several days of preparation, including rubs, cooking followed by chilling followed by more cooking 24 hours later, and overnight braising. Yeah, right. My guest was due in six hours and I needed something considerably less labor intensive.

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I love char siu (aka Chinese BBQ). It’s cheap because I live near Chinatown and it tastes like pork candy. If I don’t nibble my way through the 1/2 lb (~$3.00) I typically buy every other week or so, I’ll use it in fried rice (see previous post) or soup. So today I bring you a little photo montage of this soup-making process.

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So I attempted to make some pork fried rice tonight. I didn’t let my rice dry out sufficiently and the whole thing ended up one lumpy, orange mess. Thankfully, the flavor was quite good. I started out stir frying sliced yellow onion with leeks until they began to brown. I then removed them from my wok and added the rice, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and fish sauce. At this point I knew it was over but proceeded anyway by making a little hole in the middle of the rice in which to scramble an egg. After mixing the egg back in with the rice, I tossed in the BBQ pork (got 1/2lb or so from Chinatown today for $3.80), shiitakes, and pea greens. After the pea greens had wilted a bit, I returned the onions and leeks to the mix and stirred in some Thai basil and green onions. To finish it all off I spooned in a generous helping of chile garlic paste.

For those of you unfamiliar with kimchi, you should stop being in the dark and go eat some. I don’t care if you go a Korean restaurant or buy a jar of it. Just eat it and feel magical. Here’s the wikipedia article: Kimchi. And here is my hero Anthony Bourdain experiencing it firsthand on one of my favorite episodes of No Reservations (in Korea, obviously).

The other night I was at a loss for ideas on what to cook and rather hungry. So I googled what was in my fridge (tofu, pork, and kimchi) remembering the steaming, spicy bowl of orange soup I had in Boston on a very cold night at a Korean BBQ restaurant that contained those very same ingredients. There were surprisingly many tasty-looking recipes for such a dish sans broth. It was delish and absurdly easy. And, considering how cheap tofu ($1.50 for a block of the organic stuff), kimchi (~$3.00 for two servings), and pre-sliced pork ($3.50 for 3 servings) at the local Japanese market is I’ll definitely be eating this more often.

Tofu, pork, and kimchi with rice

1/2 pound of thinly sliced pork
1/2 block of firm or extra firm tofu, sliced
1 cup of kimchi (I prefer the spicy stuff but it’s available mild as well)
2 tbsp peanut or vegetable oil
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
chopped green onions (for garnish)
steamed rice

In a wok or deep sautée pan, cook the pork in the oil until it is no longer pink. Add the vinegar and tofu and stir constantly for a couple minutes before adding the kimchi. Continue to stir until the kimchi is heated through. Serve over rice and garnish with green onions.

So I flew from San Francisco to Long Beach, then took a red eye flight to Boston yesterday and/or today. Even though it took the check-in guy and I some time to sort out how I could avoid paying $50 for my overweight bag, I still like jetBlue - they actually have free snacks. Alas, I have no pictures of those blue potato chips or the animal crackers because I was asleep when they were handing them out. But before I got on my plane to Long Beach, I hit up the Firewood Grill café near gate 12 in the international terminal at SFO. Not the one you see immediately after security, mind you. This was that perfectly fine airport bar & restaurant’s loser little brother. All of their pre-made sandwiches (prices unmarked) had tomatoes, the service was pretty slow, and my Italian sausage sandwich looked like this:

I know what you’re thinking. Well, maybe not exactly, but it’s something like, “Gee, who orders a fatty, greasy sandwich before a long flight?” or “Duh, airport food sucks!” You’re right about the first thing. However, I have had some totally decent airport grub after I got over how much it cost. Not at the Firewood Grill. You know what else sucked about the Firewood Grill? It took a long time because they botched my order. Not cool in an airport, dudes. Also, what’s up with that hexagon to-go container? I’d never bring that thing on an airplane. Maybe I am a little cranky because it’s raining over here in New England and the A’s lost to the Red Sox, but step it up little Firewood Grill brother! Even though we jetBluers have free snacks we always appreciate a real meal before flying.

It may be apparent from my search for the best galette jambon fromage, but I’ll tell you again: I love ham and cheese. I like them separately and I like them together. Today I made a sandwich, using emmenthal swiss, Black Forest ham, sprouted sour dough bread, and dijon mustard. Mustard used to make me cringe but it turns out to be a fine addition to any sandwich. Well, maybe not a meatball sub but I don’t eat such things.

I feel compelled to blog a bit about Michael Pollan’s “The Omnivore’s Dilemma.” I just finished the first section, which is basically about corn, in a couple days. Such speed and interest mean a lot to me because I normally suck at reading books. Sure, I can read quickly because I’m smart like that, but I can’t seem to finish them (if I can even start one). It’s a good book - I’m hooked on it like America is hooked on high fructose corn syrup - and plan on reading Pollan’s other books as soon as I (hopefully) finish this one. I also plan on avoiding corn-fed beef because the chapter about the sick cows in their poopy factories had me in tears. Not enough tears to become a vegetarian, but enough to always eat the joyfully rumenating cows, like this one!

Typically, I follow a recipe when I make something other than ramen, spaghetti, or a grilled cheese. But yesterday I decided to wing it with a boneless pork chop I purchased from my new buddy at the meat counter at Golden Natural Foods. I know I said it was pricey, but it’s also really convenient. I knew I wanted to use some sage and rosemary from my little garden. Dressing the linguine was proving quite difficult until I came upon some ricotta left over from lasagna I made last week. This recipe isn’t exactly fancy. I was even too lazy to mince garlic, but it tasted pretty good so… No whining!

Pork chop 
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 or 3 sprigs of rosemary
• 5 or 6 leaves of sage
• 1 boneless pork chop on the small side

In a cast iron skillet add the olive oil, rosemary, and sage and let cook over medium heat until fragrant. Add the pork chop, cook about 15-20 minutes on each side (depending on thickness). I was having trouble gauging the cooking time for this because I can get impatient and my meat thermometer is not very accurate. So you should probably rely on your own pig-cooking skills before sticking to my suggested 15-20 minutes.

Linguine 
• single serving of whole wheat linguine
• 2 tbsp fresh ricotta cheese
• 1 or 2 tbsp dried cranberries
• salt and pepper

Cook the pasta to that lovely point of al dente, drain, and return to the pan to keep warm. Toss with ricotta and pinches of salt and pepper or according to taste.

There are a lot of French people in San Francisco. Sure, some of them are just on vacation (as the French frequently are) but there’s a significant number of them actually living here. Not only do I get to eavesdrop on them arguing over the MUNI map, but in my near two years of living in the Bay Area I have also dined at some pretty authentic French establishments. I even worked at one, Crepe O Chocolat, that serves up some mighty tasty French goodies. But she stopped making galettes, something I consider tantamount to tragedy because they were so, so good. The point I’m trying to make is that when I lived in Paris, I would often ruin my dinner on Wednesdays with an enormous galette jambon-fromage from this awesome lady near the métro Jussieu in the 5th. I had a photography class over there, and it was simply impossible to concentrate in the darkroom without a belly full of gooey cheese, crispy buckwheat, and salty, fatty ham. I have never tasted a galette so delicious as hers, but I’m going to try. Enter this month’s “quest” (I gotta do something on this blog rather than bore you with my dinners).

Today I checked out The Butler and the Chef Bistro in the SOMA district. It’s across the street from San Francisco’s South Park - apparently the oldest in the city - which has two playgrounds and smells a little like dog poop. I think my galette would have been damn near awesome like the one I hold on its Parisian pedestal, but it wasn’t very hot, nor very dank. It was dry and salty. I’m cool with salty, but you best be buttery, too. It and its oddly seasoned organic spinach salad cost me $12. The restaurant gets points for being uber green and using Frenchy ham, but I used to pay €3.50 for something bigger and, you know, danker.

The journey continues…

PS.
galette: savory crepe
jambon: ham
fromage: cheese