Vanessa Barrington

Food Orgies I’ve Lived Through: Oyster Bliss and IACP in Portland

 

You'd think it was the holidays judging by how much I’ve been eating. It’s a little weird when the forced austerity of tax time collides with not-to-be-missed eating opportunities. Credit card bills and elastic-waist pants are usually the result.  No regrets here because hey, this is just how I roll now. Living in the moment and all that.

 

I attended my first ever Kermit Lynch party on Saturday the 17 followed by 4 days of gorging on all manner of both street food and fine restaurant eats in Portland.

   

 

Oyster Bliss is all about oysters, homemade sausages by Chris Lee and Samin Nosrat, wine by  Kermit Lynch and desserts by Café Fanny, along with plenty of sun, friends, and music. It was a blast drinking buckets of rose, chewing on sausages, slurping oysters and laughing with friends and tablemates. It’s tough to spend a Saturday afternoon like that because it’s too tempting to continue the debauchery. Luckily I’ve reached the age of reason and spent the late afternoon and early evening napping.

 

Fanny's strawberry rhubarb tart

Fanny's Chocolate Pave

 Barely recovered from the oyster party, Tuesday I arrived in Portland and proceeded to eat my way through town. I had plenty of good company and made countless new friends. Here are a few of the pictorial highlights.

 

The dreamiest coffee ever from the sweetest 200 square foot storefront.
 

Porchetta sandwich from The People's Pig Cart. Yowza!
 

Ziba's pitas: like my grandma's strudel only savory with cheese and lamb and Ajvar!
 

 

Poutine from Spudnik
 

I've had some pretty sorry examples of Korean tacos. This was not one of them.
 

Ok so I probably didn't really need to eat Texas toast grilled cheese with hamburger.
 

Cutest shack ever
 

My roomie Amy's Schnitzelwich from Tabor. She was nice enough to share. It was a textural wonderland.
 

Civilized lunch with new friends Laiko Bahrs, Maura Sell, Brona Cosgrave, and Patrice Savery at Pasta Works.
 

Green garlic soup!
 

farmers market pizza!
 

Much to my surprise, I walked into the Chronicle Books party and there was my book cover all blown (and grown) up and looking gorgeous. I had to get a happy shot. It's blurry but too fun not to include.

In closing, the conference was inspiring, exhausting, exhilerating and magical this year. The best ever. Everyone I met, famous or not, was kind, engaging, friendly, and helpful. It felt like one big giant love fest and sharing sphere. It made me feel like anything is possible and we’ll all get where we are going by helping one another. And you know what? I believe we really will. I don’t know if it’s the new economy or Portland itself but the conference felt like one big happy family. Maybe I just had “city of the roses”-colored glasses on, but I don’t think so. I think it was real.

Mexico 2: Taxco

When I was in Mexico in January, I stayed in Cuernavaca pretty much the whole time studying Spanish during the week. The weekends were mostly free for day trips and wandering around the city. One day I took a bus with another student and amiga to Taxco, a town in the mountains in the Northern part of the state of Guerrero. Taxco has been a silver mining area for many years and is known for its plethora of shops selling silver jewelry. Silver is fine, but in my opinion, there are many other reasons to go to Taxco.

 

It is stunningly beautiful, the people are friendly, there are very very old and interesting churches nestled among white-washed buildings with red tile roofs. artisans doing interesting work that I hadn't seen elsewhere in Mexico, and even some of the tourist restaurants serve tasty food. 

The sun was shining that day and it was warm and breezy. A welcome change from the chill that descended over Cuernavaca about 4 days into my stay. We wandered, took photos, ate, and had a dreamy day that I'll never forget. The market in Taxco is particularly interesting as it starts in the street across from the bus station and ascends up up and up into the clouds, winding around indoors and out and,like many markets in Mexico, is a completely wonderful and slightly overwhelming maze. 

 

Artisans
 

Bean and seed pod art.

Meat drying in the market

Laundry drying

Beloved Virgin de Guadalupe

Even the walls are pretty!

An interesting dish with tortilla strips, green sauce, a firm cheese, cilantro, and sesame seeds.

Great enfrioladas (tortillas stuffed with chicken in a bean sauce with crema and queso)

The Golden Hour in Taxco

Walking to the bus, nearly sunset. So sad to leave.

Comida and Markets in Cuernavaca Mexico

I'm finally getting around to posting some of my food photos from my trip to Cuernavaca. I lived with a family there for two weeks while I studied Spanish at a wonderful school called Cetlalic How's my Spanish now? Let's just say it's better but I'm more fluent in the food of Mexico than in the language.

The entire experience was amazing. The school has a unique method of teaching grammar in a cultural, political, and social context. The teachers are engaging and super smart. The family I lived with was warm and kind and Dona Mari welcomed me into her kitchen with open arms, let me help her and take photos and answered so many questions. She said she doesn't like to cook, but I don't believe her because it's not possible to make such wonderful food for a perfect stranger unless you like doing it.

The home was comfortable and the people in the city of Cuernavaca are inviting and helpful. Cuernavaca also has a wonderful market that is large, lively, and full of delicious things to eat. I think I'll go back. I have family and friends in Mexico now. So much better than being a tourist!

Here's the first installment of photos and captions. Enjoy!

 

A typical cena (around 3-4pm) after school. Soup, nopale salad, salsa, agua de jamaica, freshly made tortillas, some kind of meat (not pictured).

Freshly made gorditas in the market. Stuffed with beans, freshly fried and then topped with fiery green salsa, crema and delicious cheese. Craving these now!

Prepping the fruit for the punche, a fruit cocktail/punch to enjoy with the traditional New Years Eve Posole.

The punche on the stove cooking. Many fruits as well as fresh sugar cane and tamarind.

 

Tacos dorados to serve with the posole. Half are stuffed with potatoes and green chile and the other half with requeson (a type of cheese).

Here is the New Years meal. Posole blanco, (traditional accompaniments oregano, lime, chile, avocado) punche, tacos dorados, enjoyed at 11pm before fireworks. 

 

These are the fireworks. It's a structure with a bull in front carried by a runner. Fireworks fly off in every crazy direction and the people in the streets run with the bulls. It's nuts.

 

Another market photo

A really cool prehispanic cooking vessel in the excellent museum at the ruins at Xochicalco, an important site outside of Cuernavaca.

Gorgeous banana blossom on the tree at the school.

That's it for now. Look for another installment of Markets and Comida in Cuernavaca soon!

Hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park

Sometimes it's good to take a break. A break from everyday life, routine, daily paths, and rituals. For me, that's a break from food. Don't get me wrong. I always eat. But sometimes it's nice not to think about it so much. Let others do the shopping, planning, and cooking and just relax and take a different path for a change. Of course it's easier if you are somewhere as distractingly lovely as the Rocky Mountains. Here are highlights.

Don't worry. I'll be back to cooking and inventing soon. Seeing Julie and Julia made me want to get out all the pots and pans and bone some chickens, and brown meat and make sauces, and generally do more real cooking than I've been doing, which has mostly consisted of cooking corn on the cob, slicing tomatoes and making eggs.

A Tour of Food in Guatemala

Desayuno Tipico--displayed more artfully than most.

One of the most delicious (and least typically Guatemalan) dishes we sampled. Available only in the Garifuna town of Livingston, the soup is a coconut milk and seafood stock base with a whole fish, crab, shrimp, squid, and plantains served with a spicy green salsa to stir in and doughy buttered rolls. Yum!

If you go, look for this restaurant. You'll probably see Margoth sitting outside greeting and collecting money.

Here's the base for the soup Yolly made us for Christmas lunch.

Golden Chicken--A Criollo chicken fried until crisp. Criollo is a term that was used during Colonial times to refer to people born in Spanish colonies of pure European bloodlines. Identifying as
Criollo was a way to separate oneself from the indigenous people and the people of mixed descent to make it much easier to subjugate them. The very best free range chickens are now referred to as criollo. I think they should change the name.

This is how the soup was served. It was really flavorful and satisfying.

This was the beginning of the end. The fixins for our last supper. I made Thai food for our hosts and we were all happy to enjoy the usual indigenous ingredients with the flavors of a different cuisine. Lake fish.

This is the market in Panajachel where we bought the ingredients for our Thai-Guat supper.

Everything looks good at sunset on Lake Atitlan.

Orange limes. Hmmm. Very confusing for the brain. They are every bit as tart as limes and they look like limes and that's because they ARE limes.

I will try to blog from the road if I can download photos. Otherwise, I'll see you in the New Year. If you're looking for holiday recipes, go to Ecosalon. They'll be posting my recipes all month. Feliz las Fiestas de Invierno!

An All American 4th of July: Sunbathing Cows, Potato Salad, Grilled Peaches, Warm Beaches, and $4.56/gallon gas

Headed up to Gualala for the 4th of July weekend with a bunch of friends. On the way there, we saw something I’d never seen: Cows sunbathing on the cliff right next to highway 1. There were lots of them and we saw them on the way home too. Drought related? Are they depressed about Global Warming and ready to fling themselves off the edge to save us all from their methane gas?

With fires everywhere, smoky air, and really expensive gas, it sure did feel like the end of something…if not the world, then at least an era. It was fun and of course we ate well. Here are a few select pictures that are truly just a tiny representation. I was on vacation and not so much in the mood to photograph every morsel. I’m just happy to be out of the car and back on my bike. Driving just doesn’t feel right lately. I’m downright uncomfortable in the car.


River Dog Farm potatoes and green beans, radishes, mint, parsley, hard-boiled eggs, and mustard vinaigrette.

Peaches expertly grilled by our Canadian visitor, M.

Me missing Flynn, who was on a "staycation" in San Francisco with The Wongs. I can't believe my dog saw The San Francisco Mime Troupe before me this year!

More Delectables from New Orleans: Domilise's Po-Boys

Things have been a little nutty around here. Lots of exciting new projects heating up. Not a lot of bloggable cooking going on so I'll leave you with some more New Orleans food entertainment. This is Domilise's way out on Annunciation. Our directionally-challenged cab driver had a heck of a time finding it despite phone calls to friends, GPS, and directions from a garbage man we pulled over. When we pulled up, she said: "you're going here??" These are the ladies hard at work making sandwiches.

This is the well-worn floor around the counter. How many people must have cooled their heels here waiting to order their sandwiches? One of the sandwich ladies lives in an apartment right off the dining room separated by 2 steps and a plywood door. The sign on the door said, "if you're not George Strait or God, wipe your feet."

Wanna try it?

We had the shrimp. Fully memorable. And the barbecued beef. Not so much, but still good. I'll be craving the shrimp sandwich for awhile to come and might have to recreate. Shrimp, ketchup, hot sauce, shredded Iceburg, mayonnaise. Yum.

Once we ate, getting a cab back was an impossibility. No cab driver wants to go all the way out there and risk missing a fare that may have flagged another cab and then drive all the way back fareless as well. Lesson: Be considerate to cab drivers for the greater good of all cab drivers and riders everywhere. 

Our cab search did not have a satisfying ending. We tried to bum a ride from another patron after waiting awhile for the cab we called. No go. So we walked our way out of uptown. My two dining companions and I needed to work off those Po-Boys and a few other things as well. We had some serious stores of New Orleans calories.  I think New Orleans must be the only city in America where one can't find a bad meal.

Why not? Everybody else is doing it.

They look good don't they? When I was thinking about blogging the beignets and chicory coffee at Café du Monde in the French Quarter of New Orleans, it occurred to me that every single food person from IACP probably took the same pictures and that a pretty good number of the people who blog would blog it.

I mean how can one not blog these beautious gifts from the fryer? I’ll just say that Café Du Monde is probably the only tourist food destination I’ve ever visited that was worth the crowds. I insisted on two orders instead of sharing one with my companion and we’re both glad I did.

From my search, these are the only other bloggers I know were at IACP who blogged the beignets, but I bet there are more. Not everyone revealed just how many they polished off.

The Kitchen instructs on how to make them at home.

Food Momiac focuses on the coffee.

Rancho Gordo expresses admiration for the city as much as the beignets.

Pim waxes poetic.

There’s plenty of food AND spirit in New Orleans

I’m here for the IACP conference (International association of culinary professionals) and it’s been truly inspiring. From the conference program itself to the people I’m meeting there—
but it’s really New Orleans I want to talk about. Inside that conference hall, one could be anywhere. Outside on the streets there’s a lot of spirit and some of the most amazing food I’ve eaten in a long time.

Yesterday we had transcendent fried chicken, corn bread, read beans and rice, pecan pie, and sweet potato pie at a place called Willie Mae’s Scotch House. The little corn muffins were savory, and a little sweet, with the perfect amount of fat, so they were moist inside and had a perfect quarter inch crust all around. I asked the young woman behind the counter how they got the corn bread so perfectly browned and crisp all the way around and she looked at me, shrugged her shoulders, and said, “you just bake it.” I wanted to ask the same thing about the perfect chicken but I knew I’d get the same answer. Then I decided the real question should be, "how do so many people persist in making bad food?" I looked up over the doorway to the kitchen and read the plaque that said, “Love makes everything possible”. So that's the secret.

That love is in the food and it's in the people. Everyone from our kind cab driver, who gave us his inside perspective on the issues that face this city, to every server, to the people in the shops, and all the great cooks. That love touches everyone I've talked to at the conference. We've all fallen for this place and it feels amazing to be here and witness for myself the culture and spirit of the city and the people here.

When we left Willie Mae’s, we walked out into a neighborhood that has been completely reamed by the hurricane and then the authorities. Right across from the restaurant sits a boarded up school that looks as if it's on stilts, But it's not. The entire bottom floor was washed away by the flood. And a block away are housing projects, boarded up but intact, that will soon be torn down to build townhouses for much wealthier people than the ones left here now. Will there be children here to go to that school if it's rebuilt? Will the people who move into those new homes appreciate the love in that fried chicken? I hope so.