from my gold standard email:

“The appearance of young, green garlic at the markets marks a seasonal shift in southern California, indicating that spring is finally here. Tender and aromatic, green garlic is sold like leeks (it looks like them, too), with the leafy fronds still attached. Left in the ground, the bulb will eventually expand and separate into cloves. Thankfully, someone once saw fit to harvest the garlic early, and it has since become a much sought after springtime ingredient for season-minded chefs. Green garlic lacks the papery, protective casing of the matured bulb, so the perfume of garlic wafts unhindered around the stalls, almost sweet in its pungency. Despite the generous aroma, green garlic is significantly milder than its later season counterpart. It’s a pleasing substitute for onions in salsa and mixes well with soft, fresh cheeses like chevre and queso fresco. When cooked, it sweetens up, playing nice with other flavors without pushing them out of the way. Shellfish, scallops especially, match up well with its bright and savory flavor.”

more at laweekly.com, including photos

from dean and deluca in st helena. my favorite pear now. and i don’t really like pears.

i miss azami sushi, but chef niki nakayama has created a brilliant and tasty omakase world at inaka seafood inaka seafood. KL, MC and the two of us braved USC and SGV traffic to partake in a sushi feast:

just got home from our trip to napa/sf and the whirlwind tour of food (pork) that we ate during the week. eee gad. must eat my csa nantes carrots for the next few days just to detox and reopen the arteries. we made it home in 5h30m, not counting stops. the trip took 6h with stops. not bad. i much prefer the 101, but it adds another 1h30m to the trip. someday we’ll take the highway 1 like we had planned for this trip. dinner on the road was pain epi from acme bakery. (interestingly, both m and myself thought the rustic roll was better than the pain epi today.) it’s 1.30 in the morning so must go to bed. have to rest up – going to the gym tomorrow.

driving home on the I-5

i started my morning with irish steel cut oats – my first experience. it actually kind of reminded me of malt-o-meal without the grittiness. or soggy puffed oats. but this sounds like i didn’t like it and that’s wrong – i really liked it. need to do more research to see how it gets its texture. after a short tour of the CIA (culinary institute of america), we headed to the oxbow public market in napa and discovered historic downtown napa. now *this* is where we should’ve eaten last night. it’s a cute little town that reminds me of duluth, minn. that’s a nice idea: small-town feel and big-town foodie culture.

we sampled corn maize empanadas, oysters rockefeller and harissa oysters (and acme bakery’s pain epi for a palate cleanser…it is acme bakery, right? i swear…tastes like acme), a cheeseburger and chocolate milkshake at taylor’s automatic refresher. perhaps we should’ve ordered the nyc kim chee burger, but the cheeseburger came with a kick-ass egg bun. m thinks i should take up baking so we can be self-sufficient. all we need is a noodle maker and a sausage maker and we’re covered. we also sampled a french baguette and chocolate chip cookie from model bakery and 2 kinds of salumi (that’s right: salumi) from fatted calf.

our last stop was bouchon bakery for a bread comparison. i bought a crispy epi baguette. model bakery is better, but then again, i didn’t do an exact comparison.

this is hardly the post i should be writing as i have more pictures of pitaya, some pictures of baby G, a great night at inaka seafood with chef niki’s chef’s table, and a great story about a road trip from sunny lalaland to chilly napa valley; however, after one full day here in napa valley, what i want (need?) to write about is pork. i have eaten pork in the last 3 meals. and i’ve only had 3 meals in napa valley so far. we aren’t talking about a little pork. we are talking about *a lot* of pork. everything here in napa valley right now has pork in it. now, i love me some pork, but it’s amazing how much bacon is added to the dish.

last night, at bistro jeanty, m’s cassoulet had a lovely slice of bacon in the bottom of the clay bowl. i had pork shoulder (yes, i purposely had pork). i was looking for something light and delicate but the waiter sold me on the pork shoulder description and my pork-loving other half declared that last night’s pork shoulder (prepared french brasserie style) was the best pork she has ever had. wow. that’s an impressive declaration. i loved the dish, too, and it not only came with brussels sprouts but, wait for it, bacon.

this morning, we had complimentary breakfast at bardessono and there was a ham charcuterie selection in the continental breakfast and my eggs came with 2 slices of nueske’s.

this evening, at tra vigne, m’s rigatoni carbonara had bacon in it. lots of bacon in it. i tried to get away from a heavy, rich dish but couldn’t resist ordering papardelle with rabbit.

we have another day and a half here and i can’t find anything that’s not rich and, furthermore, that is pork-free. but, really, why would i want to? long live the pork!

update: here’s the chicharones and saveur at patio filipino in san bruno. talk about a trip with pork-y bookends:

went with parental units on 14 jan . white tablecloth ethiopian. one of our favorite ethiopian restaurants. consistently splendid and tasty. and this time we ordered the kitfo which was the best kitfo i’ve ever had. i ate the leftovers for breakfast today. mmmmm, injera.

remember when i blogged about the amazing doughnuts at rustic canyon? well, i finally took some pics (only to find out later that SG has decided not to make doughnuts). he asked if those are vanilla bean flecks in the dough…yup. neither m nor i are bakers but we are convinced that zoe nathan uses the profiterole dough for this babies. SG thinks it’s definitely some kind of choux pastry dough. here’s to awesome doughnuts with a shot of valrhona hot chocolate.

i have been looking at this fruit for months now and just recently a FM vendor posted a banner showing the inside of the fruit. upon seeing this, i realized this is the pitaya i ate in cancun in july. silly me. the restauranteur in cancun even showed me what the outside of the fruit looked like…i simply forgot. this is the red pitaya and there is a white pitaya (pics to follow). it has the consistency of a citrus fruit mixed with a kiwi. the seeds are kiwi-like. the fruit has a mild sweet flavor. this stuff sells for $8/lb. we just found the white pitaya in chinatown for $4/lb. bring on the dragonfruit!

finally! here’s the white: