What happens when you combine meat, salt, and time? Evidently, a cultural phenomenon.
Late last year, bloggers Cathy Barrow of Mrs Wheelbarrow's Kitchen and Kim Foster of The Yummy Mummy got talking on the subject of cured meat. They wanted to take on specific projects each month of 2011; Foster dubbed it "Charcutepalooza." Turns out, plenty of other people wanted to do the same. And so, what started as a friendly challenge between two bloggers exploded into a major blog event on a global scale. To date, there are more than 180 blogs that have expressed interest in participating.
Get ready for that number to take a major spike. Today, Barrow announced a major update to the challenge's grand prize. Once Charcutepalooza is over, one blog will be selected, and that winner will receive an all-expenses paid trip to France (from New York, but still). While there, they'll receive three nights' accommodation in Paris, then high-speed rail fare to Gascony, where they'll take a week-long butchery and charcuterie class at the Kitchen at Camont.
SFoodie's countdown of the 92 best things to eat and drink in San Francisco, 2011 edition.
Like crème brulée, the Liège-style waffle makes a virtue out of the burning point of sugar. The street snack named for a Belgian city incorporates pearl sugar seeds in its batter. Once in contact with the blistering plates of a waffle iron, the grains of sugar melt and caramelize, while the ones buried in the batter turn chewy.
Star Stream's Remi Hayashi looked around for Liège-style batter recipes before realizing she could tweak her brioche dough to suit. The only lingering problem was the coarse sugar: The pearl kind is expensive. Hayashi tried the coarse-grained raw sugar called turbinado instead ― it worked. Star Stream's Liège waffle ($3.50) has the husky scent of browned sugar, a surfaced flecked with blisters, and a crumb that's heavy with butter. The buckshot effect of semimolten sugar is there in the interior, though the pockets are smaller than in the Belgian original. But it has the same knack of packing the hollows of your back teeth with chewy bits, like shards of Chiclets. This is not really a waffle, at least not as most Americans know it. It's a celebration of sugar.
Taco Bell's getting sued by a California woman pissed that the fast-food chain's beef products contain so little actual meat, they're guilty of false advertising. The L.A. Times explains:
The class-action suit, which does not ask for money, objects to Taco Bell calling its products "seasoned ground beef or seasoned beef, when in fact a substantial amount of the filling contains substances other than beef." It says Taco Bell's ground beef is made of such components as water, isolated oat product, wheat oats, soy lecithin, maltodextrin, anti-dusting agent, autolyzed yeast extract, modified corn starch and sodium phosphate, as well as some beef and seasonings.The attorney alleges that only 15 percent of Taco Bell's ground beef-like substance is actually even protein, and just over a third if it is even a solid ― the rest is some sort of starchy slurry, apparently.
SFoodie set out to do a little journalistic investigation. First stop: Taco Bell's website, which claims that the chain's "taco meat" is "made from" USDA-inspected beef. That "made from" part is troubling, but don't worry ― at least it never sees the inside of a freezer:
It tastes great because it's simmered in 12 authentic seasonings and spices and is never frozen. Moreover, our taco meat is leaner than what you'll find in a restaurant-cooked hamburger because of the unique way that we prepare our taco meat and remove fat.To test that taste claim, SFoodie's second stop was the Taco Bell at Duboce and Guerrero for the Beefy 5-Layer Burrito ($1.39), figuring anything that made such a confident claim for meatiness would have to deliver. Wouldn't it?
A weekly survey of bread in San Francisco ― the baked and the fried, the artisan and the novelty.
Old-Style Rye
Source: OctoberFeast Bakery, 1954 University (at Milvia), Berkeley
Toast-appropriateness: 1/10
Mariquita Mondays
Where: Incanto, 1550 Church (at Duncan)
When: Monday nights through Mar. 14
Cost: $29
The rundown: Did you know the offal king has a special way with produce, too? Incanto chef Chris Cosentino has kickstarted a playful collaboration with Mariquita Farm, one of his main organic purveyors based near Watsonville. Each Monday night until the spring, he'll offer a different three-course menu (appetizer, main, dessert) highlighting the best of his Mariquita booty. Keep in mind that while produce is the centerpiece, meals won't necessarily be strictly vegetarian.
Reservations: Recommended; call 641-4500
It's not quite American Idol, and Matt Cohen isn't Steven Tyler, exactly, but the organizer of Off the Grid is auditioning vendors for the next season of Off the Grid: Ft. Mason Center. The Friday night food pod starts up again in March.
The 2011 edition promises to be bigger than last year's, comprising some 30 vendors, about a third more than in 2010. Cohen's collaborating once again with La Cocina, which will supply some of the sellers. Cohen's looking for 15-20 weekly vendors, 5-10 who can show up every other week, and 1-2 who can do a monthly turn. And like last year, all food needs to be rooted in Asian or Latin cuisines, or offer a twist on said cuisines. Business license, liability insurance, and proof that you're prepping in a commercial kitchen also required. You've got till Feb. 4 to apply ― application at Off the Grid's website.
Follow us on Twitter: @sfoodie. Contact me at John.Birdsall@SFWeekly.com
Good Food Awards Cheese Tasting
Where: 18 Reasons, 593 Guerrero (at 18th St.)
When: Tonight, Jan. 25, 6-8 p.m.
Cost: $15 for 18 Reasons members/ $20 for everyone else
The rundown: Shed a tear for the lactose intolerant. At a drop-in event tonight at 18 Reasons, all the final cheeses from the Good Food Awards will be yours for the sampling, complete with lovingly selected wine pairings. The cheese makers themselves will be on hand to schmooze and watch you eat: "Did you like that one? I made it all by myself!" Local favorites include Cowgirl Creamery and Nicasio Valley Cheese, but you'll also get to sample dairy from Vermont and Wisconsin (we're pretty sure the cow was invented there). Please note: The Good Food Month website says there will be preserves at tonight's event, though Rosie from 18 Reasons insists it's just cheese and wine.
Check out other upcoming events on SFoodie
Waiting in line for a custard tart at Golden Gate Bakery last week, SFoodie spotted stacks of knotted plastic bags filled with what looked like fried wontons. Was it already time for peanut puffs? The mental calendar whirred, the id followed, and we walked out with a bag of peanut puffs ($6 for a dozen). Unlike the custard tart, most of them actually made it home.
Peanut puffs, or kok chai, are a New Year's sweet found throughout the Cantonese-speaking diaspora ― fried dumplings filled with ground peanuts, sugar, and sometimes sesame seeds or coconut. Like most New Year foods, they're filled with symbolism as well; in Cantonese, peanuts can be called "coeng saang gwo," or "longevity fruit."
SFoodie arrived at Saturday morning's Wise Sons deli pop-up an hour after the doors opened. Surprise: Only one table was free. A mostly twentysomething crowd ― yearning, apparently, for a proper Jewish breakfast ― had packed Jackie's Vinoteca, which was buzzing with tales of high school Israel-trip hookups and Camp Tawonga exploits. The vibe was Jewish deli, like some younger, spiffier, less grouchy version of L.A.'s venerable Langer's.
First-time operators Leo Beckerman and Evan Bloom kept the menu tight for their inaugural effort adjacent to Off the Grid: McCoppin Hub, offering only cheese blintzes ($9), a bialy with lox ($8), and corned beef hash ($9) along with a few sides, allowing for prompt service. Everything but the lox was house-made. We started with a dense, chocolate-laden slice of babka ($3) and knew instantly that Beckerman and Bloom (yes, we've already made numerous Producers jokes) weren't fooling around. Babka is hard to come by locally, the Brooklyn babka at Pal's Takeaway excepted. The Wise Sons version was spot on, perfect alongside a cup of De La Paz drip ($2).
Both Inside Scoop and Grub Street hail the opening of Leopold's (2400 Polk, 474-2000), which started serving dinner this weekend. The pitch: Austro-Italian food ― pappardelle with braised short ribs, Wiener schnitzel, pan-fried trout wrapped in pancetta.
Thanks to Eater/Hotel Interactive, we learn that Seasons Restaurant, at the Four Seasons Hotel (757 Market), has become a steakhouse. The pitch: steaks from California ranches like Harris and Prather. Given the recent opening of Bourbon Steak and Alexander's Steakhouse, are there enough San Franciscans out there interested in Wagyu filets and USDA Prime porterhouses?
