On our trip to San Francisco last week, my family and I managed not one, but two trips to Ton Kiang, which has possibly the best dim sum I've ever come across. 

My Dad turned me on to them a few years back, and it was a particular hit with my son, who's a huge dim sum fan, so we never would have made it out alive without at least paying a quick visit. 

I've had a fair amount of dim sum, including places in SFO like Yank Sing, most of the well known places in Seattle and Portland, and even Hong Kong, and I've have to put Ton Kiang at the top of my personal list. 

The individual dished are very well executed, and there is a ton of variety, including many dishes you don't see often.  They have a whole series of shrimp dumpings, similar to har gau, but including different greens such as green onions, spinach, cabbage, and snow peas.  It's well worth it to try them all.  The dumplings are all quite small, which is nice because it means you can try more dishes instead of filling up on giant hum bao right off the bat.  The fried taro was also exceptional.  Not to everyone's taste, but one of my favorites. 

Best of all, Ton Kiang is right down the street from the Wirth Brothers' Bakery, which is home to my wife's favorite poppyseed coffee cake in all the world. 

I've long heard of this fabled Bay Area Asian fusion restaurant, and last week I finally got a chance to try it.  We went to the one in Larkspur, not the one in SFO proper. 

E & O Trading Co bills themselves as a "Southeast Asian Grill", but I'd have to go with "Pan-Asian" or Asian-fusion.  There were elements from many different regions, including some Korean (great kimchee) which doesn't really count as "Southeast Asian". 

They have two different sections to their menu, Small Plates, and Big Plates, and we ordered mostly from the small plates menu and shared around.  My favorite dish was mussels in Thai red curry sauce, which made a very nice foil for the mussels.  The calimari was also excellent, with a slightly spicy coating, and sweet green chile sauce on the side.  My kids both love calimari, so it was a bit of a tussle, but I think everyone got some in the end.

The only downside to the experience was the fact that the restaurant was incredibly loud, but that may have been a function of the fact that it was Friday night, and there was an outdoor festival of some sort going on outside at Larkspur Landing. 

E & O also makes a wicked Singapore Sling, if you are a gin fan.  In fact, it's pretty sweet, so might appeal even to non-gin lovers.  The mai tai was only so-so, but that may be just not my thing. 

If you like pan-Asian food, and happen to be in the Bay Area, you will certainly enjoy a trip to E & O.

I was down in Northern California last week, and had a chance to check out some of the fantastic produce they have there-abouts.  We even made it to the San Rafael farmer's market on Thursday, which was truly amazing.  Beautiful produce, much of it organic. 

Anyway, I got to cooking one night and made an eggplant/tomato dish that worked out pretty well.

I started by slicing up some eggplant from Whole Foods into probably 3/8" slices, which got soaked in salt water, then drained, dipped in oil, and baked at 350° for about 1/2 hour until they were tender. 

I layered about half of the eggplant in the bottom of a backing dish, then laid out some onions and red sweet peppers that had been grilled on the barbeque, then more eggplant on top. 

Then it got topped with a mixture of chopped heirloom tomatoes, garlic, salt and fresh basil.  Over all that went some grated asiago cheese.  Then it was back to the oven, under the broiler just until the cheese melted. 

Last weekend my son and I headed up to the Indian Heaven wilderness with some friends, and had great fun doing it.  Food-wise, we brought stuff to keep up going, but that didn’t weigh very much.  For lunch, we had tortillas (low carb for me, white flour for him) with either PBJ or vacuum packed tuna fish.  We tried both the whole “gourmet” tuna fillet with lemon and cracked pepper, and regular old plain chuck tuna.  Both were good.  The whole fillet was a bit dry eaten cold. 

For breakfast, we had Nature’s Path “Optimum Zen” instant oatmeal, which was fantastic.  It’s seasoned with ginger and cinnamon, and includes roasted soy nuts and dried cranberries.  Very tasty, light weight, and a good nutritional balance.  The second day we had rice crispies with freeze dried strawberries and bananas.  We used Organic Valley powdered milk, which was much less penetential than the powdered milk I remembered from my childhood.  I think it seemed more finely powdered than I remember as a kid, and so dissolved better. 

For dinner, we had one Mountain House entree (sweet and sour pork, our favorite) and then ramen with freeze dried veggies and tofu.  That came out very well, and was a big hit. 

We also tried some “corn chowder” which I found at New Seasons.  It’s basically dehydrated yellow pea soup with corn and red peppers.  Not quite “chowder” but very tasty and filling, and convenient in a “just add water” kind of way.  The also had curried lentil, and green split pea varieties, which we haven’t tried yet. 

Rounding out the pack was some tea, hot chocolate, and s’mores makings (with organic, fair traded chocolate, of course). 

I brought a bit too much food, which is probably better than too much, but it was still nice carrying a less heavy pack on the way home.

After an extended period of back-sliding, I’m back on the low-glycemic wagon.  Due to a raft of stress-inducing circumstances over the last couple of years I’d gradually gone back to less-than-healthy eating habits, which lead to weight gain, and general unwellness. 

In the last month or so, the backbone has reasserted itself, and I’m back to eating low or no sugar added foods, wheat and “low carb” bread products (mostly low carb tortillas, which I happen to like anyway) and a lot more fruits and vegetables.  Not only have a lost a few pounds, but I feel way better.  I’m always amazed at how much of a difference diet makes in everyday wellbeing. 

It does take a while to power through the week or two of feeling like you are starving to death all the time, but the worst is over. 

The other thing that really makes a difference for me is the realization/remembrance of the fact that cooking is one of the things that really brings me joy, and when life gets “too busy” to cook I suffer for it more than just through eating crappy, soul-less food.  With that perspective in mind, it’s that much easier to make time to prepare tasty healthy food.  And it doesn’t really take as much time as all that to make a real difference in the quality of the food we eat.

OK, ranting finished.  Hopefully I’ll have some interesting cooking to report on soon.

Over the weekend, my wife and son went to a new restaurant in Hillsboro that sells mostly American-style quick lunch food, but they’ve also started selling Ethiopian food.  Hurray!  We’re huge fans of Ethiopian food, but Queen of Sheba is a very long drive from out here in the hinterlands.  Sadly, I can’t report on the name of the restaurant, since it wasn’t noted, but it’s off of Elam Young parkway, near the First Technology branch.  I got some of the leftovers, and they were very tasty.  Better still, they have real teff-based injera, not white flour, which were perfect.  I can’t wait to go there in person. 

I took my daughter on her first overnight backpacking trip this weekend, which would have been fantastic had it not been for the mosquitoes.  Other than that, it was a lovely trip, just to the Southeast of Three Finger Jack. 

Anyway, in preparing for the hike I spent some time researching good backpacking food.  One thing I had to work to keep in mind, though, was that much of the literature assumes that you are thru-hiking, or taking longer, more arduous trips that you can with a seven-year-old.  If you are only walking 3 miles a day, you have to watch out for the high-calorie, low space/weight stables common in the hard core hiking literature.  Since my daughter’s a bit “particular” we opted for Mountain House’s freeze-dried mac & cheese for dinner, which went over well, and was tasty enough, although their sweet and sour pork is still my favorite.  I want to try experimenting with some cheaper alternatives, like ramen and freeze-dried veggies/tofu, or instant refried beans and rice, which are pretty easy to come by. 

I also tried “Ultralight Joe’s Moose Goo”, which is 2 parts honey, 2 parts “corn flour” or masa harina, and 1 part peanut butter.  Joe suggests putting it on tortillas, which is what I did.  Tasty, callorie dense, and pretty stable.  Much less gooey than peanut butter by itself, and pretty easy to work with, at least when it’s 80° out.  According to the literature, it’s pretty much immovable below about 40°. 

Also a big success was Alacer Corp.’s ElectroMIX:  basically unsweetened electolite powder that you mix into a liter of water.  It tastes great, with none of the cloying sweetness of Gatorade.  Just the thing for hot weather, and it weighs practically nothing.

 

It’s been a weird time for me food-wise lately, so I haven’t had much to say.  I’m doing an SCA feast this weekend (North Indian/Mughal) which should be big fun, and I’m hoping to get some pictures.  Luckily most of it can be cooked ahead of time and frozen. 

I’ve gone back on the low-glycemic wagon, so expect to see more on nutrition as the days go by. 

I’m also doing some experimenting with lightweight backpacking, so I’ll probably have some pack food experiences to report soon. 

I had to go back for more garlic spears today.  To try something completely different, I got a boneless chicken breast, cut it up, and sauteed in coconut oil, then added the last of the lovely carrots, and cooked until just heated, then added the cut up garlic spears. 

Once those were just about done, I threw in some Thai “chili and sweet basil” sauce, which is mostly chili, basil, salt, and some soy beans.  Next went some bean thread noodles softened in boiling water.  Just before serving, I threw in a dash of soy sauce, and some chopped fresh mango.

Once it was off the stove and in a bowl, I added some very thinly sliced, raw red onion, and some pickled turnip.  I had some Chinese style “wulin vegetables” but Thai pickled veggies would be good too.

The result was light, not too spicy, and well rounded.  I just couldn’t resist the urge to take advantage of the garlic spears before they disappear.

Last night at New Seasons I noticed that the garlic spears have appeared (yay!) so I had to come up with something to showcase their mild, garlicky goodness.  While browsing around, I found some truly fabulous looking carrots, so those ended up in the basket as well, along with some frisee/curly endive. 

I sauteed the carrots in coconut oil until they were starting to get soft, then added a little salt, cinnamon and galangale, and just a dash of balsamic vinegar.  The garlic spears went in next, followed by the frisee, and just as the frisee was wilting, I tossed it all with some whole grain spelt rotini.  Quick, full of fiber, and very tasty.  The galangale gave it a very nice smell, and the slow sautee of the carrots along with the cinnamon really brought out their sweetness, which played nicely with the slightly bitter escarole. 

Garlic spears are one of my favorite heralds of Spring, and since their season is even shorter than asparagus, it’s worth picking some up if you see them.

I decided to enter a cooking competition at an SCA event this weekend, the theme of which was “30 Viking raiders have shown up at your farm, and if they like your cooking they’ll leave in peace”.  A worthy theme.  The only thing I didn’t like was that the one sentence comprised the whole rules.  Not very specific.  I took second to a dish made with (canned) tomato sauce.  Go figure.

Anyway, I decided to make a barley pilaf using only ingredients that appear in the archeological record in a Viking context, using techniques and equipment that they had available (again based on the archeological record).  I set up my brazier and tripod with a nice charcoal (real, not briquettes) fire and over it hung a big cast iron pot.  Into the pot went butter, onions, carrots, turnips, parsnips, and apples.  When those were starting to carmelize, I added probably 2 cups of pearl barley (hulless would have been better, but too expensive) and enough water to cook the barley. 

When the barley was al dente, I added salt to taste, and some chopped watercress.  The result was pretty good, and I think probably represents the kind of food that Vikings were eating day to day. 

I had intended to serve it with some chicken cooked with strawberries, watercress, and horseradish, but sadly the chicken wasn’t done on time, and the strawberries went bad in the cooler overnight, so I just cooked the chicken with some apples, onions and watercress and served it up for the evenings pot-luck feast.  Pretty tasty.