food

1. Apple pie, 2. Pesto, mozzarella, mushroom pizza, 3. Amazing sundae at Bi-Rite, 4. pad thai, 5. tuna, 6. fruit, 7. Macchiato at Ritual, 8. eel, salad, pickles, 9. soba noodles

2009 was a really stellar year for food, mostly because of my trip to Asia. In no particular order, here are my top twelve meals/foods of 2009 (because I can't narrow it down to ten!):

1. Dinner with my brother at Zuni Cafe in San Francisco. We had the most perfect heirloom tomato soup, shoe string fries (my favorite!), and parmesan risotto. Delicious.
2. The chocolate ice cream, whipped cream, salt, and olive oil sundae I shared with my brother at Bi-Rite Creamery in San Francisco.
3. My birthday dinner (the tasting menu) at Craigie on Main, in Cambridge.
4. The giant pile of homemade pizza and pie from Pi Day.
5. Pad Thai from a street vendor in Chiang Mai.
6. Sushi at Daiwa Sushi in Tokyo. This might be my single top culinary experience of my life, let alone my year.
7. Khao soi (curry noodles) from a street vendor in Chiang Mai.
8. Coconut ice cream (in a freshly opened coconut, drenched in condensed milk and covered with some sort of sweet crunchy thing) from a street vendor, again in Chiang Mai.
9. Mangosteens. Oh, glorious magosteens, why are you not available in the US?
10. Fresh ramen in Tokyo. Amazing. I'll never eat the packaged stuff again.
11: Fresh bread drenched in butter made by the master chefs/monks at Tassajara.
12. High tea at the Chedi Hotel in Chiang Mai.

There were some not-so-stellar food moments, too, like the hot peppers in Thailand that I think burned an actual hole in my tongue, and the fried toad skin, which I intended to try but couldn't bear to put in my mouth. Overall, however, 2009 was one of the best food years I've ever had! For comparison, here's 2008 and 2007.

Last weekend I went down to DC for one of my favorite meals of the year, Frank and Kristen's 13th Annual Pre-Thanksgiving. Luckily Baby Shipegan did not arrive early and interrupt the festivities. As usual, Frank made a delicious dinner: (left) chestnut soup, (center, clockwise from top) mac & cheese, brussel sprouts, spicy corn, mashed sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and turkey and gravy, and (right) apple and pumpkin pie, Indian pudding, and homemade whipped cream!

Thanks Kristen and Frank for another wonderful weekend!

CSA Vegetable Box, originally uploaded by zannect.

Dave and I joined a Winter CSA a few weeks ago, and it's been awesome. It's all organic produce from farms on the East Coast (including a citrus farm down in Florida), collected and boxed by a farm out in Western MA. Every Wednesday we pick up an 8-10lb box of fruits and vegetables. The photo is last week's box; this week (no pictures) we got eggplant, kale, green beans, onions, sweet potatoes, apples, cherry tomatoes, rutabagas, yellow summer squash, lettuce, and a green pepper. We both enjoy opening the box and seeing what we get every week; I can definitely see how some people might not be into the surprise of figuring out what you're going to cook for the next week, but we find it fun. We've already tried a new vegetable (celeric; we both really liked it) and discovered that we like parsnips a lot more than we thought. Also, the produce is in much better shape and is much more affordable than the grocery store in our neighborhood. We've signed up for a different CSA for next summer, which starts in June. I can't wait for all that wonderful summer produce....I had a little taste of spring earlier this week when it hit 47 degrees for a day and I seriously can't wait. Especially on nights like tonight, when it's zero degrees.

And since this is totally turning into a food blog, it's time to talk about coffee! Dave and I have given up on finding good coffee beans around here that sells for less than a dollar an once, no joke, so we ordered a bunch of coffee beans from our Brooklyn fave, Gorilla. It's even better than I remembered, and it's less expensive, even to have it shipped! Good coffee definitely makes it easier to get out of the house on a frigid February morning; it's probably the only thing that makes that even possible.

Boston Molasses Disaster, originally uploaded by zannect.

I've been away for a bit due a cold, some problems with our site host that had my site down for a few days, a relapse into my junior high days of inhaling trashy fantasy novels, and just plain winter laziness. Sorry about that! So, here's a tasty link for you and some food news.

I love love love kale. I haven't always, but in the last couple of years, it's become my second favorite green vegetable (just after spinach). However, this dish may be pushing it into my top spot: boiled kale with a fried egg and toast, from Orangette. It's super easy--maybe 20 minutes of prep work and another 25 minutes or so just to cook by itself; it's quite healthy; and it's tasty far past what you would imagine. I keep meaning to take a picture of it, but I always forget when it's in front of me, because I start to eat immediately. Even if you're not a huge kale fan it's worth checking out.

In other food news, one of my favorite Christmas presents this year was a guided tour of the produce section at Whole Foods, led by Steve, who has just finished a season working on an organic farm. Dave and I came home with a slew of new vegetables that we never cook, including delicata squash (amazing!); fennel (raised soup to a whole new level!); and collards (his suggestion that we braise them with sweet potatoes turned out awesome), as well as some new ideas for stuff we make all the time. We also came home with some new spices to try (rice plum vinegar and gomashio) and some new types of rice (forbidden rice!). I've been cooking a lot more since we moved, and my cooking skills are improving rapidly, so I'm pretty excited to have some new things to try.

And in the sort-of-food-news and sort-of-bizarre-historical-anecdote-leading-to-public-reform folder, today is the 90th anniversary of the Boston Molasses Disaster, in which 2.3 million gallons of molasses flooded the North End after a storage tank burst, killing 21 people and injuring 150. The wall of molasses that exploded out when the tank's rivets failed was moving at 35 mph and was between 8 and 15 feet high, with 2 tons of pressure per foot. The disaster eventually lead to better building regulations. I learned about this as a small child, but I'm not sure it made it into history books outside of New England. You can read about it at a historian's site and on Wikipedia.

2008 in Food, originally uploaded by zannect.

Looking back over 2008 in Food (and comparing it to 2007 in Food), it's obvious I'm eating more local foods, more fresh food, and more homemade food. I've been cooking much more since I moved to Somerville! And wow, I can't wait for next summer and all the amazing fresh fruit and vegetables we'll be receiving from our CSA. As I look out the window at another six inches of snow, brand new this morning, I am longing for a fresh local peach or a tomato that actually tastes like a tomato....

2007 in food, originally uploaded by zannect.

There are certain people who do not understand why I like taking pictures of my food, but if I didn't, I would not be able to present such fascinating retrospectives as 2007 in food.
1. Food porn: Peppers and peaches at a farm stand in Amherst, from August
2. Indian pudding: Indian pudding with homemade whipped cream, from Christmas Eve
3. Pizza at Totanno's: Pizza at Totanno's, Coney Island, September
4. making cinnamon rolls: Cinnamon rolls starting the final rise, December
5. My dinner: Lobster dinner my first night on Cape Cod, July
6. Strawberry Shortcake: Strawberry shortcake after the half marathon, August
7. Omakase at Blue Ribbon Sushi: wonderful sushi from Blue Ribbon Sushi in Brooklyn
8. Donuts from Top Pot Top Pot's Famous Donuts (tasty, but not as good as cider donuts, but the picture is better), Seattle, June
9. Homemade pommes frites: Making pommes frites, from New Year's Eve 2006
10. post-Thanksgiving pecan pie: Pecan pie made late one night after Thanksgiving because I was craving it
11. blueberry pie: Blueberry pie, Cape Cod, July
12. homemade bread: My first loaf of Mark Bittman's No-Knead Bread

One of my most favorite things about living in New York is all the wonderful food options we have.

One of my least favorite things about living in New York is all the pretentiousness you deal with on a regular basis.

I discovered this weekend that when you combine the two, food loses. Here is a tale of pretension, waiting in line, and two six pizzas.

the bad
A couple of my friends have been going down through Time Out New York Best Pizza in New York list. Which yes, is pretty subjective, but fun. Several of us had gone to a brewery tour and beer tasting at the Brooklyn Brewery and decided to tag along on their visit to Una Pizza Napoletana, a tiny little brick oven joint in the East Village. (They don't have a website, or I'd link to it so you can read the over-the-top philosophy.)