food – Page 10 – RectorSite

Miss Ann’s Rules

Miss Ann has been holding court over her little ramshackle greasy spoon shack on her own for
decades. The area has seen some good times and some bad, but is now going thru a small resurgence, but is still, by all accounts, in the ghetto. Ann’s Snack Bar is south of downtown ATL on Memorial Drive, a little south and east of the MLK memorial. It is an area of detail shops, used car lots, and bargain clothing stores in dirty storefronts, with a few isolated signs of a coming gentrification. No hablo espaÃ±ol: “yo hablo hip-hop, playa”. Yeah, it’s like that.

But don”t worry,she runs a tight ship, and everyone is welcome,and safe,at Ann’s. Its not easy to find, but the diligent will be amply rewarded.
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HiLo Cuisine Continued

I serve on the board of an organic farming organization, and there are members of the board who are incredulous that we charge $150 a ticket to our annual five or six course fundraising dinner which is held at one of Maine’s four-star restaurants. I always argue that many people will spend $150 a person on a dinner that is NOT expected to raise money for a non-profit organization. The same board members are also incredulous that anyone would spend more than $50 a person for a dinner…actually, we also hold an informal buffet lunch fundraiser charging $50 a person and some board members complain that THIS is too expensive.

It’s ironic, because many of these board members are also farmers who charge premium prices for their produce and don’t see anything wrong with that because they know that the price reflects the value and the work the goes into the product.

During my recent vacation in SF visiting the folks, I had a 24 hour peak food experience that illustrated how good food can cost $5 per person (Shanghai Dumpling King) and cost $25 per person (Yuet Lee) and cost $110 per person (La Folie), all of which can be justified and equally satisfying.
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HiLo Cuisine

Within a 24 hour period, the last day before we left SF, we grazed some of the great HIlo dining that San Francisco has to offer: late night, just before the 11pm rush, at Yuet Lee on Broadway in Chinatown; soup dumplings WAY out in the Richmond at Shanghai Dumpling shop; then around the corner from the Rector apartment to four star French dining at La Folie. All of it was great, in its own way, although we fed twelve people dumplings for less than the cost of one person at La Folie, but there’s more to be said about that…
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Rector’s Arrival

Eric of the Vines Eric and Alison landed in California on Thursday and were immediately whisked north into the wine country where we enjoyed two days tasting our way from Ukaih down to Sonoma with dinner and breakfast in between and an overnight in Santa Rosa.

The last time Alison and I were near Ukiah it was our pilgrimage many years ago to the Solar Living Center in Hopland where we learned about flushless urinals, functional passive solar heating, and other things that we’ve since applied in Maine. The center grew out of Real Goods, which is now owned by the “lifestyle company” Gaiam, which spun the Center off as a separate non-profit. The Center now hosts a growing summer festival, SolFest, which has become something of a Sundance for the alt-energy community.
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Happy Birthday Carol!

You’re A Peach!

Love, Eric and Alison

PS: You may retrieve your present in Alameda.

PPS: This is a picture of our first peach harvest! Four years after we planted two “Reliant” peach trees (one of them didn’t make it), we saw lots of blossoms this spring, and now it’s loaded with the fuzzy little orbs, which are turning the sweet color of your blushing cheeks.

Dinner with P&J

Paula and John Bungen visited Windswept Farm last weekend for a dinner and a walk-around on their way back to Boston and then on to San Francisco. We gave them a tour of the garden (peas are done; onions leeks and shallots coming along; edamame; limas; busting out in haricort vert; beets and chard; rutabagas; celery, parsley, and ancho peppers planted together; brussels sprouts and red cabbage; cucumbers; tomatoes on tee-pees; and potatoes all across the top) while we picked a few things for dinner. They enjoyed a drink on our screened-in porch while I rolled out pasta using the ancient recipe of “one etto flour, one good egg” illuminated by Bill Buford in his new book, “Heat” and further explored by Marc on Eats.

Dinner was hand-rolled and hand-cut tagliatelle with a zucchini sauce; homemade Italian sausage simmered with swiss chard; steamed button carrots with Portuguese olive oil; and green beans. The food matched well with a Bonny Doon Pacific Rim Reisling.
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Cookin’ in California

Chocolate Chef

Our week entertaining niece Masha was chugging along even with the worst heat wave in recent memory hugging the Bay Area. Monday was Chinatown day with all the usual shops and of course, dim sum.

Tuesday we had invited friends for dinner. Marc made the menu and then as usual said “dessert is your part”. After some thought, I decided to do fruit and chocolate,have it done ahead and something fairly simple. Masha has always loved to make strawberries dipped in chocolate so why not branch out. We rolled bananas in dark chocolate & nuts then froze them; dipped Turkish apricots in the same chocolate; then made Masha made white chocolate patties with dried apricots, cranberries and toasted almonds.

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Mem Day Meat in Maine

Real Time Maine Meat: 3:45pm Monday

Like most Memorial Days weekends I’m barbecuing — well, actually closer to smoking my meat as a kick-off to the summer barbecue season. Unlike most recent years, however, it is HOT and SUNNY in Monroe rather than cool and rainy, which is a nice change. For the past few years I’ve gotten carried away with all the apple and cherry and red oak wood that we have in plenty around us and will be trying to mitigate the smoke applied to a two pound hunk of London Broil that I’m attempting to ‘cue like a brisket using the North Carolina pork barbecue technique of wrapping the sumbitch in foil after an hour or two to finish cooking with a liquid baste. With pork bbq you add your cider vinegar ‘sauce” to the meat; here I’ll be using beer. I’ll update with results.

And despite success with Cooks Illustrated’s excellent general barbecue sauce for the table, I’ll be making a “Texas Ranchouse BBQ Sauce” to make the meal more brisket-like in atmosphere. What are y’all grilling on the Holiday?
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Big Food Wins?

If there’s one thing I remember fondly about Tifton, it was the gut-busting preponderance of good BBQ. Like to about killed me (as they say down south).

One can certainly eat well here in France but it’s a different kind of eating down there. I guess here they emphasize really fresh, simply prepared vegetables and then do really creative things with meat. There they give you a pure, simple, huge piece of meat and cook the vegetables to death. Either way, there are some places that make you glad that you have to eat three times a day (or 12 like the subjects of this NYTimes article…).

Joie de Julep

pre-muddle The Kentucky Derby is a great excuse to enjoy a Mint Julep once a year, especially when I’ve been able to coax a clump of our mint in our hoophouse to grow early enough to include it. It was a beautiful sunny early spring day, and we enjoyed our frosty juleps with our neighbors Liz and James alongside crackers and yogurt cheese mixed with the other herbs from our hoophouse (chives, tarragon, and chive blossoms) watching Barbaro rocket round the final turn for a true stretch run and win.
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Category: food