Cake and Commerce

My Garden 2007 - Tigger Melon

I bought the seeds through Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, a company owned by Jere Gettle, a young seed collector who founded the company when he was only 17. This particular melon was 'discovered' in a market in Armenia. They're rather lovely, with white flesh that looks like it should be so sweet. Alas, mine was more savory than sweet. I could imagine it in a summer soup - but given its tiny size (about a pound) it would take a lot of melons to make enough to feed more than one person.

Sadly, only one melon ripened. There were three others that grew but just didn't flourish in my garden.

Cheese. Ah cheese.

Yesterday morning I was listening to NPR Morning Edition as I usually do when I'm waking up in the morning or driving to work. And I heard a familiar voice - John Putnam  of Thistle Hill Farm in Vermont, the maker of the heavenly Beaufort meets Emmenthal "Tarentaise". It was a great story - basically a discussion of how the changing climate in Vermont may eventually force the Putnams to change the style of their cheese to more closely resemble Cheddar, something they hope they will never have to do.

The story is wonderfully descriptive - you learn about the farm, the cheese, the cows, and why the Putnams don't have bells on their cows.

You can listen to the story here.

And if you want to learn more about farmhouse and artisan cheesemaking in the US, definitely check out Sasha Davies' spectacular Cheese By Hand.

This is an essential read and reference for anyone serious about cheese in the US. Sasha and her husband Michael took a tour across the US in 2006 and visited some of the very best cheesemakers in the US, taking pictures, recording audio, and documenting the process of making great cheese. It is an intimate look into a world that most people have never seen, at least at this level.

She also discusses at length the issues that all consumers, not just cheesemakers, deal with on a daily basis when deciding what to eat and why. Lately she has been examing issues around social responsibility, sustainability, organics, and big food.

I first met Sasha in 2003 (I think) when she came to work at Artisanal in NYC where I was the cheese buyer. Sasha left a well-paying job in the tech world to pursue her passion for cheese. For her first few months, she worked as a minimally-compensated intern. Eventually she ended up at Murray's managing their brand-new cheese caves before the call of the Cheese By Hand project pulled her in an entirely different direction.

If you bookmark only one cheese blog, Cheese By Hand should be it.

I'm still trying to figure out what was going on here

Driving down a country road outside of Boston last week, I drove by this guy.  Did I mention that it was over 90 degrees farenheit that day? And that he wasn't hitchhiking?

Now that you've experienced "Molecular Gastronomy" on TV and in restaurants....

Why not try it at home?

Thanks to the mad geniuses behind the popularization and globalization of Molecular Gastronomy/ "New Cookery", one of the best and worst food trends ever, you too can be a mad scientist in your kitchen. Yes, that's right, The Brothers Adria, Alberto and his trailblazing brother Ferran of El Bulli fame, are bringing the principles of food science gone crazy to a kitchen near you with Texturas, their line of food additives. The products are mostly starches, gums, seaweed extracts, proteins, amino acids and salts - the tools of the "New Cookery" trade.

Now you too can create show stopping dinner parties. Just buy a kit and let the fun begin.

I stumbled upon this new line of products at this year's Fancy Food Show. Their US distributor, Koerner, was showing the line at the show. Sadly, no free samples were available, but you can buy yourself a kit along with all the tools from their website. I grabbed a brochure though and read it with great interest. According to the brochure, this line of products will revolutionize the way you cook. From the brochure:

Since its inception in 1997, elBullitaller has had the goal of broadening the range of possible textures in cooking. The fruit of this experimentation is a series of techniques that, like foams, clouds, etc., have brought about an evolution in our style.

We present the Texturas line of products, essential for you to be able to incorporate some of our best-known techniques to your kitchen, such as hot gelatins, airs, melon caviar or spherical ravioli.

The products that make up the sfericacaion, gelificacion, emulsificacion, espesantes and surprises lines are the result of a rigorous process of selection and experimentation. Texturas is a gateway to a world of magical sensations that will no doubt continue to grow.

Thank you elBullitaller for democratizing a process and method that, in the wrong hands, will no doubt yield some disgusting results.*

* Don't get me wrong. My favorite restaurant in Chicago is Alinea, which, no doubt, takes some, if not most, of its cues from a trend in dining ignited by the brothers Adria.

What I ate during my summer vacation

Last weekend I went to Boston with the sole intent of revisiting some of my favorite late adolescent haunts - ice cream joints, farm stands, lobster shacks, candy stores and a restaurant or two. I didn't have as much time as I would have liked to accomplish all my culinary missions, but those I did complete I photographed and posted below. Its hard to fit everything in to two days!

The next five entries all document some part of my weekend, though not necessarily in chronological order. I left a number of meals out - sometimes an ear of corn is just an ear of corn. And sometimes its huitalacoche*.

*corn smut...the Mexican "truffle"

Land's Sake: Community Supported Agriculture in Weston, MA

Across from the Field School in Weston, MA, where I attended my first deliciously addictive flea market, is an unusual sight in such a posh and exclusive suburb: Land's Sake, a non-profit farm that offers both CSA shares (basically a vegetable subscription program) on 25 acres of prime real estate.

I love this place for its rustic simplicity. There isn't an over-abundance of produce, but what they do have is very very good: honey made on the farm from hives that you can see from the road, wonderful heirloom tomatoes, interesting varieties of patty pan squash, corn from a neighboring farm, pick your own berries and flowers, and any number of other tasty things brought from the ground in season.

The farm stand is exactly what I imagine every farm stand should look like:

And almost every view has a pastoral background that takes you right out of the 'burbs and into the country:

Every summer, middle school students can come to the farm and learn about the stewardship of the land. It is just one of many really interesting program focused on bringing sustainable agriculture (and responsible eating, albeit indirectly) to the masses. At least those masses who have parents that care about these sorts of things.

I was particularly fond of the patty pan squash they had this year:

The tomatoes were rather modest in selection compared to Verrill, but every bit as lovely:

V Majestic, RIP

Once upon a time I did not own a Vietnamese cookbook. Not only did I not own a Vietnamese cookbook, but I didn't even know how Vietnamese food was supposed to taste. So when I first went to V Majestic, a Vietnamese restaurant in Allston, MA, I was absolutely blown away.

The menu was small and most of the 'real' Vietnamese dishes were specials, written out in long hand on the wall. There was not a hint of Vietnamese language anywhere in the restaurant, except in the kitchen. The owners had renamed every dish in english...bun became "glowing tofu" or "glowing chicken" and goi cuon was "summer rolls"...you get the idea. It wasn't so much about authenticity as it was about bringing Vietnamese cuisine to the masses. And when they opened sometime around 1987-88, there really wasn't much else in Boston for anyone to compare it to.

Times changed, of course. More Authentic Vietnamese restaurants opened up, and slowly V Majestic's clientele melted away. Perhaps it was because of the seediness of the restaurant - I remember on one occassion a panhandler practically shaking me down for change before the owner reluctantly chased him out. To get to the bathroom you had to walk through part of the kitchen, lift up a door in the floor, and climb down a ladder. This led to an anteroom of sorts where there was a cot and pictures of one of the owners in his Army uniform - it appeared he fought on the side of the south Vietnamese. And we know how that ended.

In recent years most of the restaurant's customers came to eat cheap "Chinese" food. That had always been a big part of the menu but in the early 90s, when my friends and I counted V as our favorite cheap eats place in Boston, very few people seemed to order it.

Last Saturday night my friend Claudia, who now lives in New York, suggested that we eat at V. As we sat down and started going over the menu, our server, who used to be a young teenager when we started going way back when, told us that this was the last night that V would be open. They had sold the restaurant to a Chinese Bakery, which would be opening up soon. I wasn't surprised (V had long ceased being my favorite Vietnamese in Boston), but a lot of people in the restaurant were devastated. I could hear gasps every time the server told another party, usually longtime customers like us.

Here's our meal from that last night...summer rolls, glowing tofu, caramel squid, chicken soup, and rolling chicken (chicken and onion rolled in rice paper and served with some kind of gummy, savory sauce):

RIP V Majestic. Although you weren't always authentic, you were very tasty.

Erikson's Ice Cream, Maynard, MA

I am usually a terrible snob about Ice Cream. I want local ingredients, real flavors, perfect texture, ideal milkfat and low overrun. But I make an exception for Erikson's Ice Cream, an 70 year-old ice cream stand that has been running continuously since the bygone days of neon. All ice cream is made on-site, at the dairy next door to the ice cream stand:

Things haven't changed much at Erikson's over the years. The staff is always made up of local high school kids, the pistachio is always green and tastes of pistachio paste, and there's always a line. Flavors do change from time to time, and in the last decade or so they added frozen yogurt. And of course prices do go up every year.

This year there were a lot of changes. The first thing I noticed was the new boards. Gone are the signs of yore, ugly hand-written posters behind plastic. Now they are ugly printed signs behind plastic:

They also added snazzy new purple cups printed with their name:

You are never too young to enjoy Erikson's:

Verrill Farm, Concord MA

In 1996 I attempted to bike to Verrill Farm, a small farm market and supplier of high-end produce to many Boston area restaurants, from my home in Cambridge, MA. Although only 12 miles away, I was bedeviled by the hills and by my less than adequate biking skills. It wasn't that I couldn't stay on the bike - I just wasn't in shape. At the end of the exhausting late spring ride, we were rewarded with a trip to some of Verrill's asparagus fields, which happened to be located in the town where I grew up. The fields were on on the driving route between my house and my high school. Although I had driven by them for over two years, twice a day, sometimes more, I had never noticed their existence. They had been hiding in plain sight. Today, whenever I drive past, I always look to see if the asparagus is still growing there.

I grew up with Verrill Farm. Back in elementary school, they took us there to see the cows and visit a working dairy farm. Back then Verrill was a dairy, but like most small family-owned New England Dairies, they couldn't compete. Instead of closing the farm and sub-dividing the farmland (they couldn't anyway because it was protected agricultural land per a 1982 arrangement), Verrill turned to agriculture. In high school, I stopped there for pick your own vegetables and berries.  In those days there was only a small rustic shack. In 1990 they sold the herd and started plans for the farm stand that stands there today:

In the Summer, Verrill is the go-to place for an incredible variety of heirloom tomatoes:

And  of course they win prizes for their efforts:

These happen to be my favorite tomatoes:

I think they're called Matt's Sweet Cherry Tomatoes, though I'm not sure. They're tiny and taste like golden sugar.

My family is also a big fan of the corn they grow at Verrill. They always have at least four varieties for sale - the prices ain't cheap, but the corn is always great:

And -- happiness -- located a mere 30 minutes from Boston is a source of the precious Mirai corn variety. Thank you Farmer Verrill!

Southern Maine Summer Field Trip

Every year I try to fly back to Boston for my family's summer rituals. Unsurprisingly, most of them revolve around eating: corn, tomatoes, ice cream, fudge, shellfish, Chinatown. This year I could only spare a weekend, so Mom and I squeezed in as much as we possibly could over two days.

Our first stop was Wells/Ogunquit Maine. There's nothing particularly glamourous or rustic about this part of Maine, but we've been coming here since I was a kid and why mess with tradition? Since it is only 1.5 hours from the house where I grew up, it is an easy day trip.

Mom picked me up at the airport and we immediately headed to the beach:

After a long walk, we went to the Lobster Pound, which, inexplicably, had closed its picnic tables for the season. There's nothing particularly wonderful about the Lobster Pound - it is just like any number of other lobster joints along Route 1 in southern Maine. Except that it has an outdoor area where you order your lobster and where they cook it for you.

The above pictures show the pound, the lobster kid weighing out a lobster, and finally, the cooker in which the bagged lobsters are dropped. Each net is tagged so that the order is matched with the correct table.

We then headed into Ogunquit to our favorite candy shop. Since mom is now diabetic I'm the only one buying anything. I couldn't say no to fudge:

As we headed out of town we stopped at a farm stand to pick up Maine blueberries. Though I prefer the wild version, I don't think they grow this far south - if they do, they aren't a commercial crop.

We finished off a quart on the ride back home. Day 1: mission accomplished.