It’s not spring. I wish it was, food-wise, but it isn’t. My diet is suffocated by a robotic procession of root vegetables. British cookbooks extol the pleasures of cozy winter cooking, but I live in California, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and I can’t eat any more cottage pie. Plus, your name is ridiculous. No more mashed Swedes, […]
On the Table
Posted inEat + Drink
What the Pho?
If we count the Toni’s Taste of Thai truck in front of Toni’s diner in Arcata (1901 Heindon Road), there are eight Southeast Asian restaurants in Humboldt. That’s only one fewer than the number of sushi restaurants, mathematically proving that Southeast Asian cuisine is pretty damn popular. If you doubt, ponder this: There is a […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Straight From the Farm
On a light-drenched afternoon back in October, the pumpkin patch at Organic Matters Ranch on Myrtle Avenue was thickly dotted with pumpkins of various shades of orange and some green Marina di Chioggia squashes, too. Chickens dressed in lustrous feathers tasted pumpkin in front of their coop. Two shiny black pigs enjoyed the sunny weather. […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Hum Plate
Maybe you overindulged during the holidays. You might still be trying to Bloody Mary your way through a New Year’s Eve hangover or gulping down liquid lawn trimmings as part of some sort of cleanse. Sorry. Here are some of the delights that await you when you return to the pleasures of eating. (You’ll be […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Crab.
Decadence does not have to be complicated. Christmas dinner in our family consists of three simple ingredients: homemade mayonnaise, sourdough bread and crab. That crab sandwiches have usurped ham and turkey at our table for close to a century is no surprise: The rosy-limbed crustaceans hold a special place in the heart of Humboldt County […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Wintery Booze
The official start of winter is days away, but the brutally low temperatures aren’t waiting for the solstice. That deep chill has set in, and fingers, toes and noses are feeling it. You can bundle up in mittens, coats, scarves or those weird half-face mask things to stave off the cold momentarily, but sometimes you […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Beans and Greens
Loyal readers may recall my rant from a few years back concerning my dizzying plunge into penury. Thank goodness I adjusted comfortably and today can happily report that good food is not dependent upon full coffers. In this interim of gift buying between Hanukkah and Christmas, I have been pinching my pennies more than the […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Game On
There will be blood. Don’t think that just because you didn’t shoot the beast yourself you don’t have to deal with it. The blood will leak through the plastic wrap and butcher paper, making your kitchen look like a crime scene. It will puddle and congeal at the bottom of your refrigerator. The hunter in […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Fieri in the Belly
Even over the phone, you can hear the hair. Guy Fieri is talking about his old job as table-side flambé captain at the Red Lion hotel in Eureka with the same fist-bumping joy he has over a drippy burger on his Food Network show, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. “It was the best job. Food is […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Nosh-giving
The planets and the calendars have aligned so that Thanksgiving falls on the same day as the start of Hanukkah. Go ahead, try out some Thanksgiving-Hanukkah hybrid names. “Thanksgiv-ukkah” is winning on the Internet, but follow your gut, because this cosmic convergence of family and feasting traditions won’t happen again for another 70,000 years or […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Bakers, Mustard Makers Break Free
When Mary Ann Hytken needed surgery two years ago, she began asking herself bigger questions. “The surgery gave me time to think about what I really wanted to do,” says Hytken, a former junior high English teacher. Faced with her own mortality, her mind turned to an unlikely source of inspiration: banana bread. Or, more […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Soup with Chestnuts
Holding in my hands a hot roasted chestnut, I could see the plump fruit through the slit cut on the charred shell. It was easy to crumble the brittle shell and skin to free the fragrant fruit; it tasted nutty, sweet and a bit like the woods from which it came. The outer shell of […]