Amsterdam: On New Directions, the New Year, and Nostalgia

A year ago today, I was heading to Food Blog Camp and starting a course in Genetics at the alma mater. I went back to school for six months, spent the summer applying, spent the fall freaking out, went to Paris, and now 2011 is over.

The most telling sign that I have no idea about what happened to 2011 is when my day job had some recent major breakdowns. It involved a lot of backtracking and reviewing data. In a discussion, I remarked that one of our molecules was made recently, in June.

Everyone stared at me. Turns out it was June 2010. Wow.

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Blueberry Crumb Cake

I love crumb toppings. There's just something about sugar, flour, and butter baked together until it's crunchy. I'm especially fond of coffee cake, with the dense moist cake and dry crumbly topping. With my massive box of blueberries waiting in the fridge, Ina's blueberry crumb cake was definitely a recipe to try.

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What does one do with 2 3/4 pounds of blueberries?

There are many options, but there's at least two courtesy of Ina Garten.

Blueberry buttermilk muffins with streusel (from Back to Basics)

Blueberry sour cream crumb cake (from episode "Weekend Lunch" and Barefoot Contessa at Home)

More to come soon.

Breakfast tacos

I've been craving breakfast tacos ever since our trip to Austin. D. and I made a trip out to Pancho Villa, a Mexican supermarket a few blocks from us. Check out Michael's Pancho Villa post. We picked up fresh chorizo, fresh corn tortillas, and a tub of roasted tomato and pepper salsa.

D. put the tacos together and they were awesome. He decided to cook everything separately and pile them into the tortillas for a final heating, which turned out great. I'm not a big fan of breakfast burritos, but breakfast tacos pack the same flavors without having to eat a giant burrito first thing in the morning.

Breakfast Tacos

(recipe makes 6 tacos)

3/4 pound chorizo

6 soft corn tortillas (approximately 6 inches in diameter)

1/2 cup onion, diced

4-5 eggs, beaten

Sharp cheddar cheese, grated

Salsa

Cook the chorizo in a skillet and keep the ground meat from forming big chunks. Transfer chorizo to a bowl and return the pan to the stove. Cook the onion in the chorizo drippings, approximately 3-5 minutes, until soft. Transfer the onion to a separate bowl and return the pan to the stove. Cook the eggs in the chorizo/onion drippings, scrambling them as the eggs cook. Transfer the eggs to a separate bowl, then wipe the pan dry with paper towels, if necessary. Place the pan back over medium-low heat and put a tortilla in it. Add about 3 tablespoons chorizo, 3 tablespoons egg, 1 tablespoon onion, and 1 tablespoon cheese (amounts can be adjusted to taste) to one half of the tortilla and fold the other half gently. Toast taco until tortilla is very lightly crisped on both sides and the cheese is melted. Serve with salsa.

Coming soon: wrapping up the Austin trip and holiday eating.

Austin: Annie's, Koriente

Day two brought two interesting eateries, plus visits to the state capital and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library. Both are fantastic stops in Austin and easily reached on foot since we were staying downtown.

Annie's Cafe and Bar was the only re-visit during the entire trip and that's because it seems to be one of the few places downtown that serves a sit-down breakfast.

During our first visit, I had oatmeal, topped with bananas, cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, walnuts, berries and raisins. Perfectly cooked, although it was served a bit cold. I liked the interior decor, starkly black, white, and silver with clean lines.

Breakfast tacos are apparently an Austin and Texas thing and, while I haven't sampled a wide range of them, I love them more than the California classic breakfast burrito. Annie's version has chorizo, cheese and egg with a simple salsa and a side of fried potatoes. The salsa's nothing to write home about, but the tortilla was perfect, as was the chorizo with egg.

We headed to the Texas state capitol, where the Senate and House chambers have amazing chandeliers that spell TEXAS in bright lights, and the LBJ library, where we learned a lot more about him beyond his presidency during the Vietnam War. It was pouring, so we needed to dry off and find some inexpensive eats, because we were going to end the evening with beer. Lots of it.

Koriente fit the bill perfectly. Korean-influenced dishes that were well-prepared and inexpensive. The menu is vegan/vegetarian/gluten-free friendly.

The Koriente pickles fell flat, as they had lots of heat but no flavor. My japchae, however, was lovely. The noodles were tender and toothsome with the veggies cooked to perfection. Unlike many other versions of japchae, this wasn't greasy at all.

I'm a sucker for green tea ice cream and they make a simple scoop of green tea ice cream fabulous with chopped pistachios and a drizzle of honey.

Afterwards, we fulfilled our mission with lots of beer at The Side Bar and Casino El Camino, the latter having great food to satisfy late-night drunken munchies.

Annie's Cafe and Bar

319 Congress Avenue

Austin, TX 78701

Koriente

621 E. 7th Street

Austin, TX 78701

The Side Bar

602 E. 7th Street

Austin, TX 78701

Casino El Camino

517 E. 6th Street

Austin, TX 78701

The Breakfast Post

I woke up this morning to D. making waffles with strawberries... I knew I married him for a reason. What can I say? I'm easily impressed.

With that said, I thought I'd clean out the memory card a bit and post about some of our favorite breakfasts.

The aforementioned waffles with strawberries:

When we got married, we had a small post-wedding brunch for a handful of friends. Many of them have scattered all over the country, so reunions were infrequent. For that brunch, our best man picked up a box of Bisquick from Costco. Let's just say we have half of the box left and D. and I are looking into creative uses for it. For now, waffles work just fine. Strawberry season is ending here in Southern California, so we're enjoying whatever's left in the supermarkets.

Occasionally, on a weekend morning, we wake up and head out for breakfast. Our favorite stop is Perry's Cafe. It's the classic diner with American and Mexican-American dishes served quickly and deliciously.

I usually do something with eggs and potatoes, but this particular instance, I decided to clog my aorta with corned beef hash, hash browns, eggs, and biscuits and gravy. Trust me, I didn't eat for the rest of the day.

Perry's Cafe
4620 Pacific Hwy
San Diego, CA 92110

We live a few blocks from the North Park branch of The Mission. These pictures hail from D.'s birthday in April, when we decided to go out for breakfast on the day of his birthday. It fell on a Tuesday and it was great to grab breakfast out before work.

The pancakes are big and a bit heavy, but they're good and the berry compote swirls make great toppings.

The Mission- North Park
2801 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92104

And lastly, a breakfast dish I was obsessively making for a couple of months. When we were in Las Vegas, we had breakfast at the buffet at Bellagio and one of the items was French toast with Nutella and bananas. It's an indulgent meal, but so very good.

Nutella-Banana French Toast
(Inspired by The Buffet at Bellagio)

Per serving:
2 slices of slightly stale white bread
1 banana, sliced in 1/4 inch thick slices
3 tablespoons Nutella

1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch nutmeg

Spread Nutella on 1 slice of bread and arrange bananas in a single layer. Place the other slice on top to make a sandwich. Mix egg, milk, cinnamon, and nutmeg together. Completely soak banana/Nutella sandwich, then fry on a hot pan until thoroughly toasted. Sprinkle with with powdered (confectioners') sugar.

Breakfast is clearly the most important meal of the day. You betcha.

Oaxaca: La Olla

Could there be anything wrong with an airline that serves complimentary booze?

I'd say no, except I did find one thing. The airline could serve it on a red-eye flight, the people behind yours truly become trashed and start talking REALLY LOUDLY all. freaking. night. long.

With that said, however, I do have to give a massive shout-out to Mexicana Airlines. Fantastic service, decent food, tons of leg room, and the aforementioned free booze. Top all of that with a great fare and our trip to Oaxaca was off to a boozy and thrifty start.

By the time we arrived, we were massively sleep-deprived and needed some calories and caffeine. La Olla has been mentioned on many food and travel sites, so we decided to stop there for breakfast. The one thing we loved about Oaxaca was the strong coffee. It's strong and beautifully balanced, so we were chugging mug after mug of black coffee without cream or sugar. Even though I'm not a big fan of adding cream and sugar to my coffee, I usually do it when I think it'll help. In Oaxaca, however, it would have ruined the perfectly pungent brew.

The bread was delicious... sweet with a vaguely wheat-y earthiness.

The condiments? Yes, that's right... jam, salsa, and the best butter on this planet. The butter was so rich and so flavorful that we considered trying to sneak it back into the States. Or take regular trips across the border to Tijuana to buy butter. Jam and salsa seemed weird at first, but they paired surprisingly well. We probably weren't supposed to pair them, but hey, they were there...

I ordered a tortilla de flor de calabaza (squash blossom frittata). The egg was mixed with squash blossoms, zucchini, onion, and epazote, a herb that is supposed to be pungent, but seemed to blend seamlessly with the other flavors. I could also have been so sleep-deprived that my brain wasn't processing unfamiliar flavors.

I don't normally like omelets for breakfast because they can be really heavy. Yet, this one was light and refreshing and was still heavy enough to stave off hunger for a while. All and all, a worthy stop in Oaxaca. La Olla is part of the Casa de los Bugambilias B&B and is also linked to the La Casa de los Sabores cooking school, which was highly recommended in our research for Oaxacan cooking classes.

La Olla
Reforma No. 402-1
Col. Centro Oaxaca, Oax. Mexico, 68000

Mary's Donuts

"Why would we drive to Santee for donuts?"

Famous last words, D. He would eat them as heartily as he ate the donuts.

After reading this thread on Chow, I had to try Mary's Donuts. I was once a disciple of the Krispy Kreme craze and seriously burned out on them. Truth be told, I thought Krispy Kremes were too sweet and occasionally greasy (i.e. one bite produced a little gush of oil). I swore KK off for a while and returned to worshipping the mom-and-pop donut shop.

I only have a picture of the shop because we ate the donuts before I had a chance to photograph them. Santee is a little bit of a haul from North Park, but those donuts are absolutely worth it. Alice listed them in her list of 100 good things to eat in San Diego.

Go to Mary's. Be happy.

Mary's Donuts
9031 Mission Gorge Rd
Santee, CA 92071

Random Notes: Good Food and 80's Bear

A ragtag collection of notes from the past couple of weeks. The first thing is that Bear had surgery for lipomas two weeks ago. Has it really been two weeks? Poor thing... he was woozy afterwards, so as he stood next to us in the kitchen the first night, we noticed he was swaying ever so slightly. Always the charmer, the vet staff sent him home with lavish praise about how sweet he was. Not that Bear ever needs to have his ego further inflated.

We fitted him with a cone, just in case:

Ugh, are you serious?!

Turns out all he needed was a t-shirt to cover the stitches. He didn't scratch very much, which was good.

Very cute... way too cute.

Notice the cute 80's-style t-shirt knot. His hind legs were tangling in the hem of the shirt, so we had to pull it back. All he needs is a scrunchie on one ear and a slappy-wrist bracelet.

Food-wise, some items worth mentioning... the first being a new guilty pleasure: Einstein's Bagels Apple-Cinnamon Coffee Cake. Yum. It's probably the baked apples and streusel, but I love it. It's not kind to the waistline, though.

I haven't been overly thrilled with our CSA, which has the smallest parcels during peak growing season. What's up with that? Our veggies rot easily, especially the roots (potatoes, carrots, etc.). One would think everything would be more robust right now, but we're apparently receiving the worst of the harvest. Sure, they should save some for market, but for what they're charging, this is ridiculous. However, the strawberries are good. Organic and picked when the sugars are fully developed, they're fantastic.

Phuong Trang's bo cuon mo chai, or ground beef wrapped in caul fat, is excellent. It's really moist and flavorful. Served with a generous heap of greens, dry rice paper, and warm water, it's perfect because the rice paper is moistened at the table.

At $9.50, it's a generous serving and worth every penny.

Day of San Diego Eats

We made several fun food stops this past Saturday, beginning with Belgian Frie in Pacific Beach. It's a fun little place where we picked up fries and waffles for breakfast... isn't that great?

The menu's composed largely of fries and waffles. I admit to being a fan of the chalkboard menus. When they're done well, they look great.

The fries are served a variety of ways or plain with a variety of sauces. D. and D.B. had the fries rancheros, topped with poached eggs, salsa, cheese, and sour cream.

D.D. and I ordered the lemon poppy seed waffle. Since Belgian waffle batter is yeast-leavened, it can be cakey and not at all crisp. However, this waffle was gorgeous and fluffy with a nice crust. It was topped with a great blueberry compote, lemon zest, whipped cream, and poppy seeds. The batter could have used more lemon flavor, but it was very good.

Of course, we ordered a lovely cone of fries with three dipping sauces, garlic mayo, curry ketchup, and honey mustard. The dipping sauces were fantastic and the fries were double-fried, making them nice and crispy.

Afterwards, we made a pit-stop at the cook's playground of Great News. One of these days, I'm going to post about Great News, but this post is already extensive enough without it. D.D., a Point Loma native, mentioned that he had heard about Cupcakes Squared and wanted to try it. Of course, I would never oppose a mission to satisfy one's sweet tooth.

Upon entering, we were offered samples of the Lilikoi, a vanilla cupcake with passionfruit frosting. The frosting was excellent and tangy with passionfruit. However, the cupcake didn't impress, because it was greasy. It squished with a little bit of oil when I bit into it. Oy. It was somewhat of an awkward moment, because we were surprised by the sample being... well, not that great.

We were also taken aback by the prices. The square cupcakes, while cute, weren't very large. They were about a 2-inch cube, but were selling for $2.75 to $3.50 apiece. While I understand that quality ingredients were used, it's still a bit much, considering our impressions of the sample.

D. ordered the Chocolate^2 and the S'mores (left and top, respectively), while I ordered the Lemon and "Red" Velvet (bottom and right, respectively). The "Red" Velvet intrigued me, because Cupcakes Squared doesn't use food coloring. I could definitely live without dyeing my innards red, but I can't live with bland. While red velvet is typically mild, this was a plain buttermilk cake with very little flavor. Texture was ok, but on the dry side. Once again, the frosting was fabulous. D.D. felt it should have been denser, since it was cream cheese, but it was delicious.

The unifying theme of this visit was that Cupcakes Squared makes killer frostings. While I love frosting, I don't think that anything can stand on frosting alone. Nope, not even cupcakes and their almost 1:1 ratio of cake to frosting. We all felt that the establishment had potential, but needs to work out kinks in their craftsmanship and consistency. I bring up consistency because my lemon cupcake was the winner. The cupcake had the warm eggy flavor of a pound cake, the lightness of a chiffon cake, and plenty of lemon. Although the frosting was supposed to be lemon, I was happy that it turned out to be a light and wonderful vanilla buttercream. I'm not sure if that was intentional, but whatever... I don't argue with good things.

D.B. and D. were pretty much done with the sweets, but D.D. and I were chatting about The Elegant Truffle, which had received raves on Chowhound.

Hey, we were already in the neighborhood.

The friendly staff hands out samples galore. I stepped out to take a phone call and apparently missed, as D.B. calls it, "a truffle buffet". Egads! When I returned, I was able to sample a dark chocolate brownie, which tasted fabulous, but was really dry. I couldn't resist the dark chocolate cheesecake and D. bought a dark chocolate-dipped banana.

Wow.

Yeah, it was that good. For those who like creamy cheesecakes, this isn't for you. This was a slice of dense, rich, fudgy heaven. The chocolate was explosive... bitter, dark, and sweet all at once. I'm sure it's sitting in my aorta right now, but I have no regrets.

We returned home to do some gardening and hang out with Bear. For dinner, we met up with M., C., and M. at Pizza Port in Solana Beach.

It was packed. Obscenely so. People were practically shanking each other for tables. If it weren't for eagle-eyed C., we would have ended up eating on the sidewalk. Once we sat down, we had the opportunity to enjoy their delicious creations. D. and I love the Carlsbad, a pesto/feta pizza with artichoke hearts and chicken.

There was also the Monterey, with more artichoke heart goodness buried under a classic tomato/mozzarella topping. Yum.

I love a weekend of eating well.

Exploring San Francisco

When it comes to food in San Francisco, it's hardly the tip of the iceberg, but we managed to hit 4 eateries in 3 hours. Thank you to Kirkleton for planning an awesome outing. We started with breakfast at Chow (the Church St. location), which serves traditional and simple dishes. It was a ridiculously good deal, as I had a full meal for $8, including tax and gratuity.

I ordered eggs, sunny-side up, rye toast, and home fries. Everything was great, especially the home fries. Kirkleton had a spinach omelette with toast and home fries, while Krazo had the blueberry pancakes.

We'll start off wtih my breakfast. I can't get enough of rye toast. Chow's wasn't bad at all, but I like mine with a bit more punch from the caraway seeds.


Krazo says that she orders blueberry pancakes every time she has breakfast with me. These look delicious... probably a touch better than the ones she ordered from The Mission in North Park, where we last had breakfast.

After breakfast, we headed out to to Dolores Park, where the Mission, Castro, and Noe Valley neighborhoods meet. Lots of dogs, which I always enjoy. It was a blazing hot day, so Kirkleton suggested a stop at Bi-Rite Creamery. Using organic and local ingredients whenever possible, the creamery produces amazing ice creams. The flavors are great and accompanied by richness not found in other ice creams. The "cream flavor" is very distinct and I believe it has to do with the quality of the ingredients used.


I had a single scoop with two flavors: Salted Caramel and "Ritual" Coffee Toffee. It was incredible and perfect for the weather.

When we headed out to Dolores Park, our original intention was to stop by Tartine Bakery. Even though we had an unplanned pit stop for ice cream, I strongly believe that there can never be enough dessert, so we had ice cream and pastries by noon. Hehe.

We lucked out and managed to beat the crowds to the bakery. When we had paid for our items and walked out, the line was starting to wrap around the corner and continue down the block.

I had to have a croissant, but I couldn't pass up the delicious offerings in the case. So, I also purchased a slice of lemon meringue cake. The photo of the case has the cake on the bottom. I have to say that I wasn't blown away by the lemon meringue cake. It was good, especially for a warm spring day, but the cake was a tad dry and the filling a bit too sour. Notice "a tad" and "a bit". It's not enough to ruin the cake, but just enough to be noticeable.

On the other hand, I bowed to the greatness of the croissant. This is the closest I have ever found, in the United States, to the croissants I experienced in Paris. Yum. Buttery, flaky, light, and not with gigantic air pockets, this was perfect. Heaven.

Our last stop had been planned for nearly a month. While at work one morning, Kirkleton surprised me with a phone call saying that he was by Blue Bottle Coffee Co. and he thought of me. Awww, so sweet. In addition to serving my major vice, Blue Bottle has coffee siphons.

On our trek around SF, we saved the best for last. Braving the insane crowds in Union Square, we detoured south into SOMA and stopped by Blue Bottle. Yes, it was really warm and, yes, we stopped for a hot pot of coffee. Two hot pots, actually.

The siphon works on a very fundamental principle: vapor pressure. Anyone who has taken a first-year chemistry course has the three physical states (solid, liquid, gas) rammed down their throats. Part of "gas" is learning about vapor pressure. The coffee siphon applies it like this... the water at the bottom is boiled and when it reaches its boiling temperature, it transitions from a liquid to a gas. As more vapor builds up, it expands, ultimately pushing the liquid up the tube into the upper filter, where the coffee grounds are. After the coffee is finished brewing, the lower chamber is cooled with a washcloth. As the water vapor cools, it contracts, creating a vacuum and sucking the coffee back into the chamber.

Cool, huh?

The result is very much like coffee from a French press, smoother and without any acridity from over-extraction. We had Ethopian yirgacheffe, which was incredible, and their 100% Yemen, which was ok.

They also had this crazy contraption, making what they called Kyoto-style coffee. It literally drips water one drop at a time into the grounds, resulting in a gradual, all-day drip cold coffee. Sounds kind of gross? Yeah, it's a little gross. Our kindly barista gave us a sample and the coffee was more like syrup. It packed a huge punch, but Kirkleton and I thought it would make a great iced coffee, which is how they serve it (we think).

Fantastic day and I can't wait for my next trip to SF. So many eateries, so little time.