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On Vermouth

Paul Clarke--of the Cocktail Chronicles--writes about vermouth in The Truth About Vermouth in the SF Chronicle.

My favorite part was this quote from one of the bartenders at Bourbon & Branch:

Bar manager Yanni Kehagiaras says Vya's intense flavor is the reason bartenders at the Tenderloin bar choose to feature it so prominently.

"This is going to sound totally dorky, but I did a vermouth intensity chart where I rate them from the most to least intense," Kehagiaras says.

I'm a big fan of Vya (especially in an Americano or a Red Hook), myself.

Grilled Sardine Tartines

So, with the sardines that I bought at the farmers market this past weekend: Grilled Sardine Tartines With Onion And Arugula.

Yum, sardines!

This recipe combined a couple of my favorite things: sardines, arugula, thyme, and lemons. Oh, and grilled onions. And butter! And it turned out great, even though I didn't marinate the sardines for the recommended 2-8 hours.

Lamb burgers

(Not actually my lamb burger.)

With the ground lamb: Lamb Burgers, with a tzatziki sauce.

Very tasty!

And the lamb itself was from Marin Sun Farms, who, I just read last night, would like to buy a slaughterhouse in Petaluma:

David Evans, whose family has been raising cattle in Point Reyes for four generations, intends to submit a proposal to buy Rancho Veal. ... He would like to redesign the existing facility at Rancho Veal, bringing it up to the standards Grandin established; potentially add an aging room and a small cut-and-wrap plant; and reconfigure the current setup to handle not only beef, but also pork and lamb.

For the love of pork.

"I'm teaching this class because... well, I really like pork," said the instructor of the cooking class I took today [1]. And that's when I knew we'd all be okay.

And after eating what felt like a whole hog--a cuban roast pork sandwich; a mache and pancetta salad; a warm potato and sausage salad with arugula (I made that!); a pappardelle with pork sugo; a pork chili with cornmeal dumplings; a braised pork belly--after all that, I think that I can say, yes, I've had enough pork. Enough amazing, fatty pork. For today.

[1] "The Whole Hog", at Tante Marie's Cooking School.

"A Few Too Many" in the New Yorker

For Alex: the New Yorker has an exhaustive article on hangovers, both the causes and the cures:

There are other non-ingested remedies. Amazon will sell you a refrigeratable eye mask, an aromatherapy inhaler, and a vinyl statue of St. Vivian, said to be the patron saint of the hung over. She comes with a stand and a special prayer.

"Why Bother?"

Michael Pollan poses a question that I'd assume a lot of people have about how to fight climate change on an individual basis--"Why bother?". For my part, I was (again) inspired by the thought of planting a garden:

But there are sweeter reasons to plant that garden, to bother. At least in this one corner of your yard and life, you will have begun to heal the split between what you think and what you do, to commingle your identities as consumer and producer and citizen. Chances are, your garden will re-engage you with your neighbors, for you will have produce to give away and the need to borrow their tools. You will have reduced the power of the cheap-energy mind by personally overcoming its most debilitating weakness: its helplessness and the fact that it can’t do much of anything that doesn’t involve division or subtraction.

Now, to actually do it.

David Chang in the New Yorker

The profile of David Chang in the latest New Yorker (not online, sadly) is brilliant & scary all at once--I wonder if Chang is as manically miserable as the profile makes him out to be? He's certainly an incredible chef; our meal at Ssäm Bar last year was one of the more memorable eating experiences I've had.

The article's filled with great quotes, but here's one of my favorites:

"I'm so sick and tired of how awesome it is to work at Google or fucking Apple or one of those tech companies," he says. "Why can't it be awesome to work for a food company? Why can't we create an environment where people are trying to push each other to do great things, and we're not trying to steal from anybody, we're trying to be good to our farmers and run an honorable business, if there is such a thing anymore?"