chez pim

misled

Vienna Vegetable Orchestra

You've got to be an incurable curmudgeon if this video didn't put a smile on your face. It's from the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra, an entire orchestra playing musical instruments made from vegetables. How very crunchy!

Gallery of scary food: Happy Halloween

Flea market finds

A few eye-grabbing items found today at a flea market I stumbled upon.

reflexión 2

reflexión

recognition

When you travel as much as I do, a familiar face is always a welcome sight. Even if the face belongs to someone you don't even know.

Almost two years ago I went to the big food market in San Remo, Italy -just over the border from Southern France. I took a photo of a woman selling produce in the farmers' section of the market, where small farmers –mostly old ladies- sell produce they've grown themselves. She had a small, unexceptional stall selling a mound of potatoes and a few heads of curly Savoy cabbage: it was November and the pickings were slim. I took a shot –she looked away, playing coy for the camera, smiling only after the camera dropped back around my neck. It was one unremarkable shot amongst the hundreds I took that day.

Tastespotting, goes well with latte

This is my favorite thing to go with the morning bowl of latte these days. I go taste-spotting, following pretty pictures of food to all corners of the web.

You might have heard of TasteSpotting already as it's not exacly brand new. But -not unlike my lovely espresso maker Sylvia- I'm a bit slow on the uptake, and have just recently been hooked. And hooked I am now. You will be too if you like gastroporn as much as I do.

TasteSpotting relies on the collective good taste of the many foodies on the interweb to spot something tasteful and post them on the site. The photos are accompanied by a brief description and a link back to the original sites those photos came from. I've spent hours following the pretty pictures down many a rabbit hole. See you on the other side?

Would you like some pepper with that iPod?

When I was at the Fat Duck a couple of months ago for dinner, one of the dishes we were served on our Tasting Menu was not food at all. Rather, what came on a small square plate were two shiny new iPod shuffles. They were intended to accompany a dish that was perhaps even more bizarre than the gadgets themselves.

Heston Blumenthal, the chef, said he wanted to experiment with using sound to enhance a dining experience. Hence the iPod, playing the soothing sound of the sea breeze and waves gently caressing the seashore. The dish itself was dubbed Sound of the Sea, with different components on the plate representing something from the seaside. No Seagulls' poo or oil spill residue though, instead we had sand made of tapioca infused with miso, with medallions of Monkfish liver (Ankimo) in a seawater foam. There were also some bits of Abalone, clams, and Samphire, which, appropriately enough, is sometimes called Sea Asparagus.

Found beauty

(If you are reading this post on a RSS reader, you might want to click through to Chez Pim for the slideshow.)

Sometimes an inspiration can be found by the side of the road. I found these pretty flowers growing wild in our front yard. I grabbed a few Weck jars left-over from last summer's tomato confits, put a couple of flowers in each one and fill them with water. They became a simple and colorful flower arrangement for my dinner table.

What inspiration do you find from your yard?

Artichoke, by any other name

(If you are reading this post on a RSS reader, you might want to click through to Chez Pim for the slideshow.)

Thorny artichokes, l'artichauts épineux, épines, carciofi, these artichokes go by quite a few names around the Mediterranean. I was duly impressed the first time I saw them at the big market in San Remo a couple years ago. I'd never seen artichokes with such intimidating thorns before. They are vindictive little buggers too –and this I speak from first hand experience trimming them. I still go ouch every time I pick one up. You know, a little pre-emptive cry for the inevitable future.

According to many chefs and serious foodies I know –and the French Wikipedia even agrees- these thorny artichokes are perhaps the tastiest of all the artichoke varieties. Hence the thorns as a defensive measure, perhaps? In France they are found around Nice and the surrounding areas, whereas in Italy they appear to be everywhere –though the size (hence frightfulness) of the thorns varies some. Beside the deadly thorns, these artichokes are also marked by the gorgeous violet/lavender streaks and the shape that is more elongate and conical than the usual round Globe artichokes common in the US.

I'm not going to give you a primer on trimming an artichoke. Frankly I avoid that kitchen chore whenever I can. But my friend Sam at Becks and Posh did a lovely illustrated post on this very topic a while ago so go and check her out.

How do you cook these artichokes (or any artichoke) you wonder? When we were on our cooking vacation –is there a different kind?- in Mougins a while back, our friend Mikael did his take on the classic Provençale dish of Mediterraean Seabass and Artichokes for us. I've worked out a recipe here for you to try.

Seabass and poached artichokes in mandarin-olive oil emulsion
For 4

Latte art, for the rest of us

This is not a tasting note

No no, Chez Pim hasn't turned into Vinography. I do wonder what Alder would make of this, though.

Paris graffiti

(If you are reading this post on Bloglines, you might want to click through to Chez Pim for the slideshow.)

Neat graffiti found on the streets of Paris, around the 13e. Suitable-ish for Valentines day.

A walk 'home' last night

Guess I'm not in London anymore.

no beating this spirit

scenes from New Orleans

Here are a few scenes from New Orleans. More later.

What do you see?

A deliciously stinky white truffle? Or something else?

happy christmas

Purple is the new brown

Brown is the new black

What plant is this?

Do you know what this is? I'll give you a clue, it's edible, delicious even.

A wife-saving kitchen, anyone?

I've stumbled on an old copy of the Boston Cooking School Cook Book from 1923, by none other than Fannie Merritt Farmer of that revered classic. Besides the interesting content, which I'll be writing about later I'm sure, the book is a treasure trove of old food ads. I'm going to be posting a few of them in the coming days. (I've got a bit of a computer issue at the moment so no long posts from me for a few more days.)

This one, for example, is an ad for a contraption to make ice cream. I wonder what it's all about. Something perhaps related to using liquid nitrogen which, strangely enough, is hardly new at all.

I've tried to find more information about this particular contraption on the web, but so far my search has turned up nothing. Has anyone heard of this company? Do you know what this Vacuum Freezer thing is exactly?

Can you see it now? A headline on Style.com, no? Well, never you mind, perhaps it's just me who thinks this guy perfectly accessorised. But then again my idea of a perfect Christmas present is three pounds of bacon from the Grateful Palate catalog.

I found him peddling little bags of deep fried pork crackling as I wandered the Ta Prachan market in Bangkok with Austin.

I've been looking through the photos I took while in San Sebastian, and found a few rather macabre shots from the Pescaderia or the old fish market in town. I thought it would be fun to share them.

Is it even possible for a restaurant to get better every time you go there? L'Astrance may have just proven that it certainly is.

The lunch today was even tastier than it was beautiful. Like this amazing dish, can you tell what it was? (Click on the photo to see the rest of the meal in the proper order.)

So my computer is dead. I was hoping to spend this quiet Sunday catching up on blogging and email (which has about a few weeks worth of backlog due to accessive traveling combined with laziness). Alas, it is not to be. My little computer went to sleep last night, and this morning it refused to wake up, no matter how I pleaded. Luckily I've spent the last day or two uploading recent photos into my flickr, so you could at least occupy yourselves with them until -or should I say if- my computer returns to life.

The first photo on this slide show was one of my favorite dishes of our shopping/cooking trip to the South. At the wonderful fish market in Ventimiglia, we found some anchovies so fresh they were practically breathing still. I couldn't help but bought some. When we got back to the house in Mougins, David set about fileting them with expert precision, then he cured them for a couple of hours, covering up the filets entirely in gray salt. We served them as the first course with a splash of good olive oil and some fennel flowers that we found in the garden. Simple, and just delicious. Click on the photo to see more of our cooking fun. Also, I've put up two other photo sets, from our trips to Ventimiglia market and San Remo market in Italy.

à bientôt...I hope. Wish me luck.

----------------------
Update!

Good news, my computer isn't dead after all. I walked all the way over to David L's penthouse to see if he could help resuscitate my baby, and as it turned out, it's not my computer that's dead, it's my power adapter. Silly me. So tomorrow I will find a new power supply, and for now I only have a couple hours on this battery to catch up on a few things. More posts on the French and Italian riviera and also many more on the week in Burgundy up soon, I promise.

Our handsome Joe at Dirty Girl has got some beautiful dry farmed Early Girl tomatoes now. Lots of them. I've been getting them every week, either at the Ferry Plaza market or Santa Cruz market or sometimes borrowing directly from the farm when he's not looking.

Joe's dry-farmed tomato is the size of a plum, and just about the sweetest and yummiest tomatoes you could find, beating your fancy heirloom tomatoes by at least a mile. Not that there's anything wrong with heirlooms, per se, but just because some tomatoes are labeled heirlooms, and cost you five dollars a pound, doesn't mean they are any good to eat.

Seriously, you've never really had great tomatoes until you've had dry farmed tomatoes. They are generally smaller and pack full of concentrated tomato flavors that have not been diluted by too much water while growing. The skin of a dry farmed tomato is a little stronger than that of the regular tomato, which is an added bonus because that means the dry farmed tomatoes don't bruise as easily. Joe's dry farmed tomatoes are seriously good, and good in practically anything. I have been using them almost everyday since the season began, in my stir-fries, pan con tamate, tomato tart, pasta, or just eating outright like a fruit. Because it is, in fact, a fruit.

And the height of the dry farmed tomato season is coming on fast and furious. So much so that Joe asked me to pass along a public service announcement. And by public service announcement I mean advertisement for my friend!

He's got tomatoes, ladies and gentlemen, Joe's got lots of tomatoes. And he wanna sell them. To you. Yes. You. Don't be looking over your shoulder. It's you I'm talking to.

No, this is not goodbye. Certainly not au revoir, but more like à bientôt, or see you soon. Today is my last day in Paris, tomorrow I take the eurostar up to London, and after a few days I will be back home to San Francisco. Home, yes, home, I've caught myself saying that a lot lately. I guess that's what spending a few months as a vagabond does for you.

I've spent the last two days really just savoring Paris. The weather is gorgeous and mild. Yesterday, I walked all around the Marais and the lovely Ile Saint-Louis, stopping for a bite of cake at my new favorite find, a little teashop whose very playful name I forgot(!), I'll check the business card and tell you later. Also another stop for a lingering cup of coffee at the cafe Lutèce, which has the best view of all the places on Ile Saint-Louis. Then I sat down for a little rest right by the Seine, just below the bridge Pont de Sully where La Tour d'Argent is, enjoying the panoramic view of the river, the cute Ile Saint-Louis, the Notre Dame and Ile de la Cité, and a secret service guy hanging out on the bridge vigilantly watching over someone important who must have been eating a duck at La Tour d'Argent.

Last night ended with yet another lovely dinner, this time at Le Pré Verre, and with Anakin Skywalker no less! (Well it was someone who looked remarkably like him anyhow.) Dinner details to come, but suffice to say now that I highly recommend the place, for the food, the wine, and the very entertaining chef and staff. Oh, and how could I forget to tell you about the pre-dinner ice cream at Berthillon, from the original shop, of course. Everybody knows that Berthillon ice cream is sold all over the city, but I really don't think that it's a true Berthillon experience unless you get it from the original shop on the cute rue Saint-Louis en l'Ile. In fact, it's not even a true Berthillon experience unless you've tasted their fabulous Caramel flavor.

Well, this is it between Paris and me, at least until the Fall, where I hope to spend another month of two here. A Bientôt!

Click on the photo above for a Flickr-ing slide show.

A slide show (click on the photo) from yet another delicious lunch at Le Meurice last week, at the height of the heat wave. This remains, to my mind, the kitchen to watch. More on the meal later.

Haven't got time to write up that intriguing meal properly yet, so here are the photos for your pleasure for now. I'll tell more about the meal soon.

bon appetit,
Pim

Auto Vacuum Freezer Ice Cream, anyone?

I've stumbled on an old copy of the Boston Cooking School Cook Book from 1923, by none other than Fannie Merritt Farmer of that revered classic. Besides the interesting content, which I'll be writing about later I'm sure, the book is a treasure trove of old food ads. I'm going to be posting a few of them in the coming days. (I've got a bit of a computer issue at the moment so no long posts from me for a few more days.)

This one, for example, is an ad for a contraption to make ice cream. I wonder what it's all about. Something perhaps related to using liquid nitrogen which, strangely enough, is hardly new at all.

I've tried to find more information about this particular contraption on the web, but so far my search has turned up nothing. Has anyone heard of this company? Do you know what this Vacuum Freezer thing is exactly?

Some dishes from Urasawa

When pork is the perfect accessory

Can you see it now? A headline on Style.com, no? Well, never you mind, perhaps it's just me who thinks this guy perfectly accessorised. But then again my idea of a perfect Christmas present is three pounds of bacon from the Grateful Palate catalog.

I found him peddling little bags of deep fried pork crackling as I wandered the Ta Prachan market in Bangkok with Austin.

Dead fish

I've been looking through the photos I took while in San Sebastian, and found a few rather macabre shots from the Pescaderia or the old fish market in town. I thought it would be fun to share them.

What is this?

Is it even possible for a restaurant to get better every time you go there? L'Astrance may have just proven that it certainly is.

The lunch today was even tastier than it was beautiful. Like this amazing dish, can you tell what it was? (Click on the photo to see the rest of the meal in the proper order.)

What dreams may come..

So my computer is dead. I was hoping to spend this quiet Sunday catching up on blogging and email (which has about a few weeks worth of backlog due to accessive traveling combined with laziness). Alas, it is not to be. My little computer went to sleep last night, and this morning it refused to wake up, no matter how I pleaded. Luckily I've spent the last day or two uploading recent photos into my flickr, so you could at least occupy yourselves with them until -or should I say if- my computer returns to life.

The first photo on this slide show was one of my favorite dishes of our shopping/cooking trip to the South. At the wonderful fish market in Ventimiglia, we found some anchovies so fresh they were practically breathing still. I couldn't help but bought some. When we got back to the house in Mougins, David set about fileting them with expert precision, then he cured them for a couple of hours, covering up the filets entirely in gray salt. We served them as the first course with a splash of good olive oil and some fennel flowers that we found in the garden. Simple, and just delicious. Click on the photo to see more of our cooking fun. Also, I've put up two other photo sets, from our trips to Ventimiglia market and San Remo market in Italy.

à bientôt...I hope. Wish me luck.

----------------------
Update!

Good news, my computer isn't dead after all. I walked all the way over to David L's penthouse to see if he could help resuscitate my baby, and as it turned out, it's not my computer that's dead, it's my power adapter. Silly me. So tomorrow I will find a new power supply, and for now I only have a couple hours on this battery to catch up on a few things. More posts on the French and Italian riviera and also many more on the week in Burgundy up soon, I promise.

Urasawa dinner

Dirty Girl's dry farmed Early Girl tamatoes: or why you should shop at the ferry plaza tomorrow, part duh!

Our handsome Joe at Dirty Girl has got some beautiful dry farmed Early Girl tomatoes now. Lots of them. I've been getting them every week, either at the Ferry Plaza market or Santa Cruz market or sometimes borrowing directly from the farm when he's not looking.

Joe's dry-farmed tomato is the size of a plum, and just about the sweetest and yummiest tomatoes you could find, beating your fancy heirloom tomatoes by at least a mile. Not that there's anything wrong with heirlooms, per se, but just because some tomatoes are labeled heirlooms, and cost you five dollars a pound, doesn't mean they are any good to eat.

Seriously, you've never really had great tomatoes until you've had dry farmed tomatoes. They are generally smaller and pack full of concentrated tomato flavors that have not been diluted by too much water while growing. The skin of a dry farmed tomato is a little stronger than that of the regular tomato, which is an added bonus because that means the dry farmed tomatoes don't bruise as easily. Joe's dry farmed tomatoes are seriously good, and good in practically anything. I have been using them almost everyday since the season began, in my stir-fries, pan con tamate, tomato tart, pasta, or just eating outright like a fruit. Because it is, in fact, a fruit.

And the height of the dry farmed tomato season is coming on fast and furious. So much so that Joe asked me to pass along a public service announcement. And by public service announcement I mean advertisement for my friend!

He's got tomatoes, ladies and gentlemen, Joe's got lots of tomatoes. And he wanna sell them. To you. Yes. You. Don't be looking over your shoulder. It's you I'm talking to.

This is not goodbye

No, this is not goodbye. Certainly not au revoir, but more like à bientôt, or see you soon. Today is my last day in Paris, tomorrow I take the eurostar up to London, and after a few days I will be back home to San Francisco. Home, yes, home, I've caught myself saying that a lot lately. I guess that's what spending a few months as a vagabond does for you.

I've spent the last two days really just savoring Paris. The weather is gorgeous and mild. Yesterday, I walked all around the Marais and the lovely Ile Saint-Louis, stopping for a bite of cake at my new favorite find, a little teashop whose very playful name I forgot(!), I'll check the business card and tell you later. Also another stop for a lingering cup of coffee at the cafe Lutèce, which has the best view of all the places on Ile Saint-Louis. Then I sat down for a little rest right by the Seine, just below the bridge Pont de Sully where La Tour d'Argent is, enjoying the panoramic view of the river, the cute Ile Saint-Louis, the Notre Dame and Ile de la Cité, and a secret service guy hanging out on the bridge vigilantly watching over someone important who must have been eating a duck at La Tour d'Argent.

Last night ended with yet another lovely dinner, this time at Le Pré Verre, and with Anakin Skywalker no less! (Well it was someone who looked remarkably like him anyhow.) Dinner details to come, but suffice to say now that I highly recommend the place, for the food, the wine, and the very entertaining chef and staff. Oh, and how could I forget to tell you about the pre-dinner ice cream at Berthillon, from the original shop, of course. Everybody knows that Berthillon ice cream is sold all over the city, but I really don't think that it's a true Berthillon experience unless you get it from the original shop on the cute rue Saint-Louis en l'Ile. In fact, it's not even a true Berthillon experience unless you've tasted their fabulous Caramel flavor.

Well, this is it between Paris and me, at least until the Fall, where I hope to spend another month of two here. A Bientôt!

Click on the photo above for a Flickr-ing slide show.

Photos from Le Meurice lunch

A slide show (click on the photo) from yet another delicious lunch at Le Meurice last week, at the height of the heat wave. This remains, to my mind, the kitchen to watch. More on the meal later.

Eye candy, El Bulli in pictures

Haven't got time to write up that intriguing meal properly yet, so here are the photos for your pleasure for now. I'll tell more about the meal soon.

bon appetit,
Pim