Returned to Howie’s Artisan Pizza for some more good food and photos:
The delicious flatbread that accompanies the hummus and tahini appetizer. Who can resist warm, soft, puffy flatbread? Great plain or with the hummus.
The above-mentioned hummus and tahini.
Finally, I ordered the chipotle chicken sandwich just for variety. Loved everything except for the chicken breast. The pizza and flatbread are the true stars at this place. No reason to order anything else.
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Whenever I want pizza, I always return to Howie’s Artisan Pizza, which is located in the Palo Alto Town & Country Village. During my last visit, I ordered the pepperoni pizza and the cherry tomato, smoked mozz’ and salami pizza, both of which are pictured below.
I’ve also enjoyed the sausage and roasted red onion pizza, sun dried tomato pesto & scallion pizza and the works during previous visits. I don’t have a favorite pizza because all of them were quite remarkable.
Previously, I was not a fan of thin crust pizza. However, this place completely changed my mind as to how a great pizza should feel and taste. The real star is the pizza crust, which is both light and tasty. I could easily enjoy several slices of pizza at one sitting without suffering from that heavy and bloated feeling that a thicker crusted pizza would present. Now, I can’t imagine pizza served any other way.
The other standout dish is the hummus and tahini appetizer, which comes with their house-made flatbread. Like the pizza crust, the flatbread is amazing. In fact, their flatbread reminds me of naan, which I can never get enough of.
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After a recent trip to Beijing, I returned home to a request for 北京酸奶. Funny. No one mentioned that the yogurt tasted that great when we were over there or else I would have paid more attention. Anyways, 北京酸奶 is more of a drinking through a straw instead of an eating with a spoon type of yogurt. I did find a 北京酸奶 maker in the United States. Thank you Google! So far, I have only found their products in Northern California at Taste Good Beijing Cuisine in Milpitas. Why isn’t this being sold at 99 Ranch?
Anyways, my attempts at home-made yogurt are still works in progress.
First, heat up some milk until it just reaches a boil. For my first few attempts, I started off with 2 cups of whole milk just to make sure I was headed in the right direction. You don’t want to end up wasting a lot of milk if the recipe or technique is off.
Next, I pour the milk into a mixing bowl and cool the milk in an ice bath until it hits 115° F. Basically, the smaller mixing bowl containing the warm milk sits in a larger mixing bowl containing an ice/water mix.
Once the yogurt hits the target temperature, I add in the yogurt starter with a milk:yogurt ratio of 8:1, and whisk till smooth. Next time, I might run the batch through a blender to see if the end product will be even smoother.
At this point, I ladle the yogurt mixture into individual ceramic cups (which are really leftover French yogurt containers) and place them in the oven at 100° F for six hours. After six hours, place the containers in the refrigerator to cool.
If you do not sweeten the yogurt, it comes out pretty tart. I’ve added maple syrup to the yogurt at the time of consumption and that was pretty tasty. I’ve also added sugar (2 tsps per 2 cups of milk) while heating the milk and that works as well.
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My favorite fish used to be Chilean Seabass. However, because of concerns over sustainability and mercury poisoning, I have been avoiding that delicious dish for quite a few years now. The great thing about the Chilean Seabass was that it was such a forgiving fish. Even if you slightly overcooked it, it remained juicy instead of instantly drying out.
During a recent trek to the local farmers market, I found some whole butterfish chilling in the ice bins. At about $5.00 per pound, these fresh butterfish were a deal. I have tried them steamed, deep fried and topped with home-made sweet and sour sauce, breaded with panko and served as butterfish sliders, and also broiled in a miso marinade. Since butterfish is just as forgiving to the imprecise cook as Chilean Seabass, we instantly bonded. My type of fish. However, my local farmers market comes but once a week unless I was willing to travel to different farmers markets just to procure fresh fish. I don’t have that kind of time. So, to satisfy that midweek seafood craving, I discovered the retail counter at The Fish Market. At first, The Fish Market confused me since they marketed butterfish as sablefish. But, over time, I recognized that these were interchangeable names. Butterfish may also be sold as black cod. All the same good stuff. The Fish Market sells fillets, instead of whole fish. The price used to be around $15.00 per pound, but lately had climbed to over $20.00 per pound. The butterfish is really fresh at The Fish Market. They have also thoroughly deboned the fish. When I want to make my panko-breaded butterfish sliders, I love working with the butterfish from The Fish Market because I don’t have to hunt for hidden fish bones. I have also found butterfish at Whole Foods. Again, sold as black cod or sable fish. Their fillets are not as thoroughly deboned as the ones from The Fish Market. Makes no difference if I am steaming or broiling the fish. After cooking the fish, the fish bones are really easy to spot and remove. However, for the sliders, working with deboned butterfish fillets just saves a lot of time. Price wise, Whole Foods was originally a bit more expensive than The Fish Market. However, after the Fish Market price increase, Whole Foods inched up to second place.
Anyways, broiling butterfish cannot be any easier. Previously, I was using the Grilled Miso-Crusted Butterfish with Three Caviars and Avocado recipe from the Roy’s Feasts from Hawaii
The lovely butterfish from Whole Foods after sleeping all night in the miso marinade.
Misoyaki Butterfish after about six minutes under the broiler. The timing in the oven is key. You have to watch the broiler closely so that the miso marinade on the fish gets caramelized, but not burnt. The crisp miso crust is the tastiest part of the fish.
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Thank goodness for the photo because I could not read the Chinese and the English was utterly incomprehensible. At first, I thought the dish was named after a Chinese senator named Bao Zhikou. It could be possible, much like how Dongpo Pork 东坡肉 bears the name of 苏东坡.
From the photo, the pièce de résistance appears to be sea cucumber and Google Translate confirms my suspicions with an obtuse translation of Bao Zhi buckle Sea Cucumber.
The better translation will interpret 鲍 as abalone and 汁 as sauce. As for 扣, Google Translate offers the following possibilities. As a noun, 扣 may mean button, discount, knot or ouch. In this context, none of these are correct. As a verb, Google Translate offers buckle, button, deduct, button up, pull, detain, fasten, arrest, place, press, or take into custody. These are all wrong as well. My best guess is that 扣辽参 means steamed sea cucumber because 梅菜扣肉, which is a favorite dish, is preserved vegetables with steamed pork. So, my translation would be Sea Cucumber in Abalone Sauce.
So, where does distant senate come from? Well, 辽 could mean distant or faraway as an adjective. Senate, according to Google, is 参议院, so there you have it.
As for the related menu items, 清炖辽参 could be translated to Sea Cucumber is Clear Broth. I can see how “boils in its own broth without soy sauce” would be one way to translate clear broth. Google translates 金米烩辽参 to Golden Rice Braised Sea Cucumber. Of course, 金米 literally means Golden Rice; however, a closer translation may be available. I just haven’t found it yet. I am 100% sure that Bao Zhikou and Jin Mihui do not refer to competing senators with dishes named after them.
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Not sure how 木瓜炖雪蛤 ended up as The Chinese Flowering Quince Cooks the Snow Clam Synopsis. As far as I know, 木瓜 is papaya, not the Chinese Flowering Quince. I can see how 雪 which means snow and 蛤 which means clam ended up together as snow clam, but where did synopsis come from?
Google Translate says 木瓜炖雪蛤 means Papaya Stew Hasma. I agree with the Papaya and Stew part, but I have never heard of Hasma. Wikipedia reports that Hasma is a Chinese dessert ingredient made from the dried fallopian tubes of true frogs. Ugh, on second thought, Snow Clam Synopsis sounds perfectly delicious. Talk about a missed translation. Big difference between clams and frog fallopian tubes.
As for the 木瓜, I had to reverse search the Chinese Quince on Wikipedia and it turns out that Chinese Quinces and Papayas are both referred to as 木瓜. However, based on the photo with the reddish orange fruit with green flecks, I’m betting that I’m seeing a papaya and not a Chinese flowering quince. I think Google Translate wins this round.
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I’ve been using Paparazzi! for quite some time to take full page screenshots on a MacBook Pro. However, I recently started to encounter some problems with Paparazzi!. Specifically, Paparazzi! was no longer able to capture flash embedded on a webpage. After much grumbling, I even tested Web Snapper but experienced the same problem. Eventually, I traced the problem to the recent Adobe Flash Player 10.1 update. To get Paparazzi! working again, I had to uninstall Adobe Flash Player and downgrade to Adobe Flash Player 10.0. And, magically, Paparazzi! works again.
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Mount Diablo State Park (CA State Parks, Mount Diablo Interpretive Association, Reserve America) is located in Contra Costa County near the communities of Alamo, Danville and San Ramon. A visitor center is located at the summit of Mount Diablo where you can absorb a 360° view of the surrounding region. I could see the Golden Gate Bridge from the summit with the naked eye. However, I did use an inexpensive set of binoculars to confirm the sighting. During my visit, the center was closed on account of employee illness. However, the observation deck was still open to public access during this time.
The sunset, as viewed from the Juniper campground.
The Juniper campground features a trail that ascends up the mountain. On a hot summer day, I had no interest in heading up that trail.
The Juniper campground is quite large. The campsites varied in size and shade. Some sites were more exposed and had better views. However, even the interior sites with more trees were no match for the howling wind that swept through our campsite starting around 4 a.m. Hard to sleep while the tent is rattling around.
The Juniper campground does have running water near each campsite. In addition, the bathrooms are located at the far end of the campground with toilets and hot showers.
Once the sun sets, the sky really lights up with all the stars aglow. Right before the trip, I purchased Star Walk for iPad to see whether the iPad could make astronomy any easier. Incredible! Of course, with the iPad Wi-Fi model, Star Walk could not determine the precise location. However, I was able to enter Walnut Creek, CA, which was not far away. Star Walk works pretty much as I had expected. When I lift the iPad up to the sky, I can see the various stars and constellations in front of me. However, not all objects displayed on Star Walk were visible to the naked eye, so there’s some interpretation involved. Star Walk was not a mirror image of the sky. As I panned across the sky, Star Walk would track my movement and display the relevant celestial objects in my view. Simply amazing. A lot more fun than reading a compass and manually looking up star charts.
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Having a knife sharpener is the most impractical of practical kitchen appliances. You cannot prepare food without a sharp knife. From mincing to chopping to slicing to dicing, having a sharp knife makes these essential kitchen tasks an absolute joy.
So, after unboxing the Chef’s Choice 1520 AngleSelect Diamond Home Electric Knife Sharpener, I proceeded to sharpen all the dull knives in both of our knife sets. After dutifully performing its task, I summarily dismissed the knife sharpener to its storage closet. Talk about no reward for a job well done. But, why waste counter space for an appliance that will not be used again for a few months? So, the knife sharpener was feeling a little lonely and wanted some sun, so I started asking around for knives to sharpen and boy did I get a challenge. I really should have taken a before and after pic.
This time, I had a Chinese cleaver with a prominent nick. Wow. I knew this one was going to be a challenge. I re-read the instruction manual. Even though China is part of Asia, the manual indicated that Chinese cleavers should be sharpened as American/European style knives instead of Asian-style knives. After submitting the knife to a complete honing and polishing cycle, it was perfectly sharp. The nick was diminished, but still noticeable so I took the knife through a second honing and polishing cycle. This time, the nick disappeared. Success. I knew the Chef’s Choice Electric Knife Sharpener could put a sharp edge back on the knife, but wasn’t entirely sure about the nick. However, this worthy kitchen appliance passed the test. Good job. Not back in the storage closet you go.
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I spotted the following note on the box of oranges I brought home from Costco:
Treated to maintain freshness in transport with one or more of the following Thiabendazole, Imazalil and coated with food grade natural resins and/or vegetable wax.
At Costco, the warning isn’t too helpful unless you know what those unpronounceable chemicals do or you have access to Wikipedia. If the warning just indicated that the two chemicals were fungicides, that would have made the warning 100% more informative.
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