Lunch at Llibertat Market
 Tripe in tomato sauce |
 Spinach frittata |
 Bread smeared with fresh tomato and drizzled with olive oil |
 Mushrooms and sausage |
 Pan fried mussles |
 Cava |
Galvany 180
Galvany market has not been renovated since its early construction about a hundred odd years ago. So you can still find some of the original construction including stained window glasses. The market has a very neighborhood feel with mostly locals shopping here. 
Quimet, An old fashioned bodega
A sweet wine that no amount of soda could help. A super salty and vinegery anchovy that was great in contrast.
Masclans, Since 1881 at Galvany
 Fifth generation grocers |
 Specialize in salt cod |
 Salt cod salad |
 Hors d’oeuvres in making |
 Salt cod, scallion, pepper, olive and olive oil |
 Salt cod and cured tuna hors d’oeuvres |
 Salt cod |
 Cured tuna recipe from Morocco, looks like ham. |
Looking for Pajareros at La Boqueria Market
French music has now stopped. Someone is playing TV loudly. I thought I heard what sounded like a bunch of unhappy ducks, maybe on their way to Boqueria market themselves. Sounds of shutters closing and water jets from the cleaning trucks rise above the sounds of TV.
Bar Central, La Boqueria Market
It is two in the morning. French music is coming through the windows. We have a tryst with the Aborigens at nine in morning for a early morning walkabout through non-touristy markets of Barcelona. Today we were on our own at La Boqueria, the touristy market off Las Ramblas. We took our landlord’s advise and ate at one of the shops towards the back of the market. An order of sea food platter, fried padron peppers and a big fat cuttlefish. Sea Food platter came with shrimps, langoustine, mussels, baby squids and a couple of different fish steaks one of which was somewhat overdone. The fried padron were not much different from our own grilled version. The cuttlefish hit low on the edibility scale.
Mam i teca, fitting in with the locals
Small family run restaurant with a wide selection at the bar.
Thanks to serious jetlag, we are up at 11 pm wide awake. So we joined the locals for a spot of dining. Much thanks to our personal foodie advisor (PFA) from Aborigens, we stepped into Mam i Teca, one of the oldest Slow Food restaurant in Barcelona.
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Bar Lobo, first meal in Barcelona
Neighborhood restaurant, food not too shabby, comfortable patio seating.
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Off the Grid, Picnic at Presidio
If the Sunday sky in SFO is clear, head out to Presidio for a picnic . You can take your own lunch but not to try some of the “off the grid” vendors would be a shame.
A wide range of food vendors …
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A 60 minute egg
After watching David Chang on season one of The Mind of a Chef, we gave in to the temptation and bought ourselves a makeshift sous vide machine (DorkFood temperature controller and a slow cooker). And here is the first 60 minutes egg at 143F as per Lucky Peach’s Egg Chart.
60 minute sous vide egg at 143F, yolk is runny but slightly thickened
Served on a bed of butter sauteed home grown chard, chard prepared like nettles in nettles and egg recipe, slow roasted tomatoes prepared like in tomato raisins recipe, and shavings of parmigiano-reggiano.
The egg is to weep for, with happiness of course. However there is a real hint of sadness too, popularity of sous vide will change the meaning of “hard as 20 minute egg”.
Memory of Hong Kong in San Francisco’s Chinatown
Place: Hong Kong Clay Pot Restuarant, Chinatown, San Francisco
Ordered: Biiter melon with frog and sea food clay pot
Served: Biiter melon with shrimp, sea food clay pot and a pot of tea
Hong Kong Clay Pot Restaurant, looking out towards Grant. Catch a narrow flight of stairs to get to the restaurant.
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Bengali Gimlet and South Indian Dosa
Place: Dosa @ Fillmore, San Francisco
Food: Egg dosa and spicy basil dosa
Drink: Bengali gimlet
 Egg dosa, cage free with onions and spices |
 Spicy basil chutney dosa with cashews and spices |
Gimlet was so good that I had to try and reproduce at home. And here is the variation that I ended with. To make the spiced syrup, toast the following until highly fragrant and nose is itchy …
- 4 Tbsp cumin seeds
- 4 Tbsp coriander seeds
- 4 Tbsp allspice berries
- 4 Tbsp black peppercorns
Crush above with mortar and pestle or equivalent gear and add to 1.25 cups water, 1 teaspoon turmeric powder (to give your drink a beautiful yellow color), 2-4 hot chiles, a handful of crushed keffir lime leaves, and 1 cup sugar. Simmer for 8-10 minutes. Cool for a few hours during which the flavors get to mingle. Then strain and keep. Makes about 2 cups and will serve 32 gimlets.
Peethi ki Poori, lentil stuffed fried Indian bread
Peethi ki poori served with potato curry
No pain, no gain. This is one of the more complex of Indian breakfasts that is better left to special occasions.
Peethi: Soak 1 cup dry Urad lentil, whole or broken with no husk, overnight, grind in a food processor so it is not a complete paste with no additional water. Add 2 green chilis, 1 tsp salt, roasted and crushed black peppercorn. In a heavy pan, heat 1 Tbsp of vegetable oil. Add a pinch of asafoetida and 1 tsp cumin seeds. Cook for 30-45 seconds until fragrant and add the processed lentil. Cook until the mass becomes sticky dough like. Let cool. This can be made upto a couple days in advance.
Potato curry: Peel and chop one large Idaho potato, in 1.5 inch cubes. In 1/4 cup water, add 1 tsp turmeric powder, 2 Tbsp sour yogurt and 2 Tbsp of tomato paste and make into a smooth paste. In a pressure cooker, heat 1 Tbsp oil. Add 2 whole red peppers, 1 tsp dry urad daal, 1 tsp mustard seeds, 1 tsp cumin seeds until they splutter and add the tomato-turmeric paste. Stir until fried and add the potato pieces. Stir to coat, add 1 tsp salt and add 2 cups of water. Pressure cook at medium for 5 minutes after the pressure builds up. Switch off and wait for pressure to subside. You can keep like this this for upto two days. When ready to eat, warm up, crush some of the potatoes with the back of your spoon, adjust for salt and add 2 Tbsp of chopped coriander leaves.
Poori dough: Take 2 cups of whole wheat flour, add 1 Tbsp vegetable oil, 1 tsp salt and necessary water to make into smooth dough. Let rest until ready to use. Heat oil for deep frying and maintain temperature while you roll out the poori’s.
Now get ready to put together the meal.
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Aam ka achar, making mango pickles from scratch
Cut and sun-dried green mangos, mixed with whole spices and topped with mustard oil.
What sells for pickles in Indian grocery stores is not particularly tasty or visually appealing. Often it is an over-salted, pasty textured mass of disappointment.
Here is a young mango pickle recipe that is relatively easy to make if you have access to healthy dose of summer sun.
During early part of summer, you will find green mangoes in Indian grocery stores. Pick 4 mangoes that are super firm. Firmer they are, better they are for the purpose. Also gather some spices, you will need turmeric powder, coriander seeds, nigella seeds (aka kalounji), fennel seeds, fenugreek seeds, black peppercorn, and mustard oil.
Baci di Dama cookies with homemade nutella
Baci-di-dama cookies with homemade nutella
It sometimes feels as if David Lebovitz is an integral part of our kitchen curriculum. These Baci di Dama cookies are via him except we substituted almond flour for hazelnut flour. Whatever you do, don’t substitute the rice flour out. They imparted a nutty flavor that held up against the vast amounts of butter, chocolate and nuts in this cookie.
I wish we still had the batch of hazelnuts a good friend got us from Oregon. But those hazelnuts had participated in making of homemade nutella based on yet another of David’s recipes. Instead of chocolate, we used the nutella as filling.
Even without the filling, the cookies are amazing. With the filling, the cookies are superlative. If you are facing a weekend where your choice is between home improvement and making cookies, go for these please and I promise you that you will gain an year of life.
Nettles and eggs
Following recipe serves two. Start with 2 packed cups of greens. In principle you can use a variety of greens including spinach or arugula but I chose nettles because that is what I had at hand. Wash and spin dry.
In your favorite omelet pan on which eggs don’t stick, add 1Tbsp butter and nettles. Sprinkle a pinch of salt. Cook until barely wilted. Break open four eggs, gently.
In a separate saucepan, clarify 1Tbsp butter and fry a pinch of ground spices (seeds of one green cardamom, 4 whole black pepper kernels, 2 allspice kernels). Add this to the cooked eggs and serve.
Bengali fish fry and Kentucky bourbon
Batter fried small river fish
Kentucky bourbon in a Kolkata home
Fish fry continues to be part of Bengali “afternoon/low tea”. The type and style of fry depends really on the season and availability. Bigger pieces are typically fried lightly coated in turmeric and salt and served with a dash of lime. Smaller fish are dunked in a a spicy wheat flour or besan (can be substituted with garbanzo bean flour) batter before frying.
My father’s generation can perhaps tell the taste and texture difference between 30-50 different varieties of fish. Most of these varieties have now disappeared from the local markets. Now when I visit Kolkata, there is at least a once a week story about the good old days when fish were plentiful in the rivers.
To be honest, I like the ritual more than anything else. Family gathers at the table waiting for freshly fried fish to be served. My mother’s kitchen is only a few feet from the dinner table so we eagerly watch her as she heats up the mustard oil and fries for a good few minutes until the outside is fried crisp but the flesh is flaky. The pungent aroma of mustard oil mixed with the fresh fish oils is perhaps the best pick me up even on a muggy summer day.
I have developed a fondness for Kentucky bourbon and I think it goes really well with family and fried fish. And my family agrees one hundred percent.
The fish disappears rapidly leaving behind folks licking fingers. A few fish bones on the plate and aroma of fish and bourbon is all that is left behind.
Glamping in Big Sur
Gateway – Internet on one side and beach on the other …
After 14 years of living in Bay Area and passing by Big Sur at least a dozen times, we finally decided to spend a weekend there. What can I say, better late than never? And thanks to airbnb, we found this wonderful cabin within a stone’s throw of Pffifer State Park. And what a cabin! Constructed from a winery barrel that once held Burgundy in the foot hills of the Sierras, it offered the view of forest canopy, blue skies, blue sea, stars at night, and most importantly a full kitchen, porcelain toilet and a hot bath. The weekend was unusually warm for May making the trip to the Andrew Molera State Park more than just picture perfect. From the parking spot, the beach is a short 2 miles away that takes you through the camp site along the Big Sur river to where the river meets the ocean.
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An assignment in Bhopal
“ At first we thought somebody was burning chillies. In ten minutes the air was full of smoke. There was so much smoke you couldn’t see the ground through it. I grabbed my three children and ran with my husband. I had to leave my blind mother-in-law behind. In half an hour my 2-year-old daughter’s skin was like boiling water had scalded it. She developed sores on her eyes, later a hole in the heart and died after seven months. My two grandsons were born disabled”
Bombay Street Food in Oakland
Juhu Beach Club
Juhu Beach Club in Oakland is all about very Indian flavors served up in a modern setting. If I didn’t know I were in Oakland, I would have thought I was eating in London.
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Crepe fix in Paris
Bacon and egg galette
Located in Montparnasse, Cafe Josselin co-exists with several other creperies within a 300 ft radius, but Josselin is heavily croweded and others no so much. To avoid long queue during lunch hour, arrive at noon or earlier. Inside, it is warm and cozy – like a busy brewery. Service is fairly prompt and very soon you will find yourself sipping a dry cider.
Galettes and crepes are pretty much alike except one is made from buckwheat and other from regular flour. Galettes happen to be my favorite buckwheat concoction. Although, my mom-in-law’s buckwheat paratha stuffed with spicy potatoes is not too far behind. Galette should be crisp and lacy like an Indian dosa. The nutty flavor of buckwheat is perfect counterpart for butter. Not that galette needs any sprucing up, but I decided to order mine with bacon, egg and stuffed onions. My husband ordered one with ham, egg and stuffed eggplant caviar. Both were excellent, far nuttier and crisper than the ones we had at Breizh during our previous visit.
 Cafe Josselin |
 Apple Cider |
I love sweet galettes as well – buckwheat works really well with orange and chocolate flavors. If I had paid more attention to David Lebovitz, I would have asked for a sweet galette at Josselin. But since I hadn’t, we ordered a basic crepe flambe to share which unfortunately was very forgettable.
Locomotoring 