Category: Food | Restaurants

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not surprisingly, I came back from Hawaii about 5lbs heavier even though I was eating oatmeal basically everyday still. (sadly that was for real)

Laying on the beach and eating spam musubi — they're kind of addictive, contributed to the problem.

It's funny how one week you're eating at the French Laundry, eating caviar and foie gras and baby lamb — going to hell but it was still good, and the next week you're getting down and dirty with spam, rice, and seaweed. $250 meal vs. $2 worth of good, yummy, tasty spam. No contest.

We ate for $35 a day per person in Maui too, so Rachael Ray can kiss my ass.

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• In other food news, we got Paw Paws in our CSA box the other day. It's the largest native fruit of North America and tastes like a cherimoya. Did not know that, that was a very cool new thing to learn.
• I finished a pretentious food book called Near a Thousand Tables. You have to be dubious of a book that uses the word "masticate" versus "chew". You like that. Dubious. I recommend it though, it just took a while to read and could have made the history of food a little more interesting. It was a bit too academic.
• Part of Near a Thousand Tables I learned about the Thrifty Food Plan issued by the USDA. On the low-end, a single adult male can eat on $4.84 a day, females $4.37. On the high end, $9.42/$8.50 a day. We're on the high end and want to get down to the more low and moderate cost plan. We'll see. Apparently lots of vegetables, potatoes, and other starches will do the trick. Or, I can buy three spam musubis and I can live off of that. I bet if I make 'em myself, I can sneak in a bowl of oatmeal too. :)

For my 30th birthday, we celebrated it by going to the French Laundry. While crazy expensive, it's quite an experience and fortunate to have eaten there once before. (I'd be happy to go again!)

The service is amazing, the tableware is exquisite, and the food can be described as a word 10x better than delicious. The meal took over 3 hours to enjoy and included salmon tartare, oysters and caviar, foie gras, truffles, bass, toro, duck, lamb, blue cheese, strawberry sorbet, chocolate, and more. I'm not the type to take pictures of food, so you'll have to go elsewhere for French Laundry food photos. The presentations are pretty good.

We also had a 1/2 bottle of sauvignon blanc from Work vineyards, and a glass of Syrah from TOR. The flavors of the wine really came out apricots and peach for the Work sauvignon blanc, blueberries from the TOR syrah.

After the meal we were able to tour the kitchen, which was incredibly clean, apparently they clean as they go. We also got to meet Corey Lee, winner of the James Beard award for Rising New Chef, who's also the chef du cuisine at the French Laundry. He's pretty cool, Korean background, only 28 years old. I pretend I can cook, this guy takes it to many, many notches above. Though, the strawberry sorbet we had for dinner was something I was able to make a while (I have the French Laundry cookbook).

Anyway, it's neat to meet folks who run the show, especially folks who seem down to earth. I had lunch w/ Kevin Rose and Daniel Burka the day before and it was the same deal — down to earth cool people.

**draft**

Here's a list of the people that we get our food from (they're within 100 miles from where we live in Oakland, California):

• Eatwell Farm, our CSA, delivers some fruits, mostly vegetables (organic and in season), and a half dozen eggs to us weekly
• Hudson Fish, our fishmonger, salmon, sablefish, prawns, bass, snapper, etc
• Rockridge Market Hall for cheese
• Acme Bread Company for baguettes
• via Berkeley Bowl Market, Straus Family Creamery for milk and butter, other non-local fruits and vegetables like bananas, pineapples, etc., spices, other grocery
• Stonehouse for olive oil
• Blue Bottle Coffee for coffee but also Peet's and Cole's coffee
• Imperial Tea Court for tea

Other interesting farms:

• Swanton Berry farms for strawberries
• Frog Hollow farms for peach galette (fruit is a little overpriced) but pastries are awesome

We also like these local wineries:

• Roshambo: sauvignon blanc
• Cakebread: chardonnay
• Navarro: riesling, gewurtzraminer, edzelweicker
• Roederer Estate: sparkling wine
• Chalone Vineyards: pinot noir
• Calera Vineyards: pinot noir
• Hanger One: vodka

I love lists and I'm seeing that I'm writing more and more lists too. I stumbled upon this site called Nutrition Data* and they have a list of the top 50 foods people search for. Number one on the list are bananas. Watermelons, apples, cantaloupe, and cheddar cheese round out the top 5. Mmm…cheddar cheese.

The first fast food people search for is surprisingly enough, a Taco Bell bean burrito. There's some other weird foods on that list including Kix cereal, Snickers bar, and a Dairy Queen blizzard.

In related searching, I was also looking up Super Foods. Everyone's got a different Super Food list but I guess it's this plastic surgeon (?) Dr. Pratt that put together a list of 14. Do you now see why I think I can write an Oatmeal Diet book, the dude's a plastic surgeon BUT I do find myself eating the foods below.

Anyway, here's the list and a description by the good Doctor:

• Beans – lower cholesterol, combat heat disease, stabilize blood sugar, reduce obesity, relieve hypertension and lessen the risk of cancer.
• Blueberries – lower the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer, and help maintain healthy skin to reduce the sags and bags brought on by age.
• Broccoli – boosts the immune system, lowers the incidence of cataracts, supports cardiovascular health, builds bones and fights birth defects.
• Oats – lower cholesterol, reduce the risk of coronary heart disease & Type II diabetes, high in fiber and protein.
• Oranges – support heart health and prevent cancer, stroke, diabetes and a host of chronic ailments.
• Pumpkin – helps lower the risk of various cancers (lung, colon, bladder, cervical, skin, and breast) and supplies nutrients necessary for healthy, youthful skin.
• Wild Salmon – lowers the risk of heart disease and cancer.
• Soy – helps prevent cardiovascular disease, cancer, and osteoporosis, and helps relieve menopausal and menstrual symptoms.
• Spinach – decreases the chance of cardiovascular diseases, a host of cancers, age-related macular degeneration and cataracts.
• Tea – boosts the immune system, helps prevent cancer and osteoporosis, lowers the risk of stroke, promotes cardiovascular health.
• Tomatoes – lower the likelihood of cancer, raise the skin’s sun protection factor and seem to play a role in preventing cataracts and age-related macular degeneration.
• Turkey – a perfect example of a Twenty-First Century "healthy" protein source, extremely low in fat, and provides multiple nutrients which help build a strong immune system.
• Walnuts – reduce the risk of developing coronary heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
• Yogurt – promotes strong bones and a healthy heart, another health promoting protein source, and a great source of calcium.

* What's neat about Nutrition Data is that they've created a Firefox search plug-in AND they're cool enough to recommend Firefox to their visitors. Here's what they say:

IF You Don't Already Have Firefox

Firefox is the new, critically acclaimed browser that many Internet Explorer users are switching to. It's packed with features, and is faster and more secure than other browsers. We highly recommend it!

Well NutritionData.com, I highly recommend your site!! (owned by Conde Nast)

Pinot Noir:

• Calera
• Chalone Vineyard

White Wine:

• Navarro
• Roshambo

Sparkling Wine:

• Roederer Estate
• Schramsberg

Vineyards to Visit:

• Napa Valley
• Clos Pegase

Sonoma

Anderson Valley

**draft**

The Post Club-Med-Cancun Diet (or the diet from hell)

So two weeks in Cancun with all you can eat, all you can drink, and all you can play (running on the beach, water ski, trapeze, tennis, weight room etc), I'm now at 189-190lbs. I was at 180-183lbs so I've gained between 6-10lbs in a couple weeks.

So here's the Post Club Med Cancun Diet in the negative:
– no (little) sugar
– no red meat
– no milk
– no juice (except orange juice)
– no (little) processed foods
– no white bread/white rice

In the positive:
– *lots* of water
– lots of oatmeal, (kashi or smart start cereal)
– lots of fruits and vegetables