Sweet and Sour Spectator

The Amazing Volcanic Pumpkin (An annual post)

2011-10-31T14:50:21Z

There comes a time in a young man's life when Halloween, like Gregor Samsa, goes through a metamorphosis from something familiar to something vaguely unsettling. One year Halloween means providing for the Dentist's retirement, and suddenly, the next year, it is a venue for impersonating Bela Lugosi. While trick or treating was fun when you are a "little kid", and visiting the local Haunted House was okay when you were only a kid, things change so that actually MAKING a haunted house, or as close as you can get to it, becomes a really cool thing.

I remember a Halloween in the early 1960's when I went through this change. Since I was the studious sort, not the juvenile delinquent type, my Haunted House was well... a little weird. After all, one must admit that a Volcanic Pumpkin is a far cry from a Haunted House. I don't remember where I got the idea, but I think it must have been from Mr. Wizard.

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Those of a certain age will remember Mr. Wizard, a.k.a. Don Herbert, who used to host a Saturday morning TV program creatively titled: "Watch Mr. Wizard" which aired on NBC from 1951 until 1972. Mr. Wizard persuaded me to take various objects and foodstuffs from the kitchen and put them together in creative combinations that my incredulous mother viewed with some suspicion.

This particular Halloween, I had recently learned that if you grind anything up small enough and mix it with air, you can get it to burn. Mr. Wizard had probably demonstrated this useful trick with something exotic like titanium powder (which burns REALLY REALLY well, by the way). Thankfully, I didn't have access to any titanium powder, so I had to make do with what I did have, which was flour. Plain old bleached white flour.

We set up a card table just inside the front door and covered it with a sheet. The sheet hid the studious looking fellow under the table, and the table supported a large, carved pumpkin illuminated from within by a candle. Also inside of the pumpkin was a funnel, which was connected to a tube, which ran behind the pumpkin and under the table. If you put a few teaspoons of flour into the funnel, and then blew on the tube just right, you caused a cloud of atomized flour to shoot into the air. And damned if Mr. Wizard wasn't right, the flame from the candle ignited the flour and an amazing shower of yellow sparks shot from the top of the pumpkin!!

We were set. We turned out the inside lights to maximize the effect and lay in wait for the first set of trick-or-treaters to ring the doorbell.

The doorbell rang, and we carefully and slowly opened the door, while hiding behind it. "Trick or Treat!" they yelled. But there was nothing to be seen save the ghostly pumpkin glowing eerily in the dark. A puff of air and a shower of sparks erupted from the pumpkin along with a satisfying crackle and roar. The effect was memorable.

Of course, an accomplice sibling then appeared from behind the door and handed out the candy. No one actually turned and ran, and no one went without their treat. It was, however, a tremendous hit. Pretty soon we had return visits; not for candy but for an encore performance. Groups of parents came by saying they had been told to go down to the Homchick's and see the exploding pumpkin. Many times the doorbell rang, and many many times a puff of air sent atomized flour into the air. All in all, it was an extremely successful "experiment".

The next morning, with the sunlight streaming in the windows, we saw the unintended effect of the prior night's activities. Every surface in the house was covered with a fine dusting of white flour. All of the furniture, the floors, the curtains, the windows; everything was covered with flour. Mother, being the kind soul she is, thought this was just as funny as the volcanic pumpkin, and cheerfully cleaned up while we were at school. I don't believe, however, that I ever got permission to try this stunt again

Jazz has always been popular in Europe

2011-09-26T05:27:50Z

Isn't the Internet wonderful?

Dear Brooks Brothers

2011-09-26T04:09:01Z

Dear Brooks Brothers, you have a great reputation, and you charge appropriately for it. Your men's clothing is traditionally styled, which is what I want. I've been shopping with you since college which is a h*ll of a long time. But if you don't put the sleeve gauntlet buttons back on your shirts, we are done. Understand?

Bacon Leek and Cheese Crustless Quiche

2011-01-02T17:44:06Z

With the possible exception of "frying" bacon in a microwave oven, there is nothing with a higher deliciousness to work ratio than a crustless quiche. Some may claim that there is no such thing, but I draw their attention to the picture to the left. What do you suppose it is? It's not an Italian fritatta, because it has cream in it, making a custard. There is only one thing it can be.

There are at least two good reasons for making a crustless quiche. First, you may not have a pie shell, and you don't want to take the time to make one, for instance in the morning before leaving for work. Second, you might be craving a quiche but you are on a low-carb diet.

To make one of these, you'll need butter; a ramekin, gratin dish or pie plate; eggs; cream, milk, or half-and-half; and some sort of filling.

]]> To make the custard, use Julia Child's tip of breaking an egg into a measuring cup and adding enough liquid to make 1/2 cup of custard. If you need more, add more eggs and liquid—keeping to 1/2-cup increments. Use milk, half-and-half, or cream depending on how afraid you are of fat. It doesn't matter, so long as you have milk protein in the mix.

For the pictured bacon leek and cheese crustless quiche, I cut up two leeks, keeping only the white and light-green parts and then softened them in butter. I roasted five pieces of thick-cut bacon in the oven at 450-deg F and then crumbled them.

The gratin dish I was using held about 1 1/2 cups, so I made one cup of liquid from two eggs beaten with enough heavy cream to make up the cup. I also grated two ounces of Parmesan-Reggiano cheese, which added to the bacon and leeks used up the rest of the volume in the dish.

After buttering the dish, I scattered the leeks and bacon and one-half of the cheese into the dish, poured in the beaten eggs and cream and scattered the remaining cheese over the top. It was baked in a 375 degree oven until it was "golden brown and delicious" (30 to 40 minutes) and allowed to cool for a bit.

It really is easy. All you have to remember is one egg = 1/2 cup of liquid.

If you'd like to see some other ideas, here are Mark Bittman's thoughts on crustless quiches: Removing the Crust for a Savory Custard.

Blast off for 2011

2011-01-02T02:43:23Z

One of the best new things in San Francisco in 2010 was the installation of Ray gun Gothic Rocket ship near Pier 14 on the Embarcadero. This used to be the site of Crouching Spider by Louise Bourgeois, and I was so sad to see it go. But the Gothic Rocket ship has won my heart anew.

Here's a three-exposure HDR photo I took just after sunrise on December 30, 2010. (Click on it for a bigger version).

More of my pictures of San Francisco can be seen at my Flickr account.

Central Coast Wine Tour Highlights

2010-12-07T17:33:57Z

I took a trip over the weekend with some other wine-obsessed folks to visit several California Central Coast vineyards and wineries. The highlights were L'Aventure, Palmina and the several projects of Stolpman's winemaker Sashi Moorman.

]]> L'Aventure owner/winemaker Stephan Asseo makes wine from Bordeaux and Rhone varietals. These are BIG wines, folks, but they are impeccably well-crafted. It was disorienting to wade through Stephan's heavy French accent while tasting wines that could be from Australia. But as he says, this is what nature gives us in Paso Robles, so let us celebrate it. Over the last several years, these have become the most expensive Paso wines, but they make a good effort at being worth it. I'm going to buy one bottle of the 2009 L'Aventure Estate Cuvée ($100), which we tasted from barrel, and then I am going to wait five years before opening it. If you haven't tried these wines, they are worth seeking out.

Palmina is the Italian varietal project of Steve Clifton (Brewer-Clifton is his Burgundian label in partnership with Greg Brewer). We met in the morning at the beautiful Honea vineyard on Alamo Pintado Road in Los Olivos. The vineyard is planted with Arneis, Muscat Canelli, Pinot Grigio, Tocai Friulano, Barbera, Dolcetto, Lagrein, Nebbiolo, Sangiovese and Merlot. As you can imagine, selling wines made from Italian grapes grown in Santa Barbara County isn't an easy task, but Steve clearly has the enthusiasm and energy needed. He and his wife, Chrystal have been remarkably successful at the task, growing Palmina to its current size of 16,000 cases per year. Palmina's annual Red White & Green (colors of the Italian Flag) party was held that evening and I tasted through the wines. I was especially taken with the refreshing Arneis, the earthy Lagrein, and the elegant Savoia, a blend of Nebbiolo (50%), Barbera (25%) and Syrah (25%). All of the wines were bright and flawless. I hadn't tried any Palmina wines before, but now I'm a fan.

Sashi Moorman worked at his family restaurant and fell in love with wine, and then decided he wanted to be a winemaker. So he wrote a bunch of letters which were ignored. Then he flew to California and started knocking on doors. Somehow he talked himself into being Adam Tolmach's assistant at Ojai where he stayed for five years. In 2001 he went to work for Stoplman where he has been instrumental in raising the quality of the wines (and they are still on an upward trajectory). Sashi is a fan of French wines and he doesn't subscribe to the Loring Hypothesis that California wines are naturally ripe. In addition to Stolpman, Sashi is the owner of Piedrasassi, and the California winemaker for Evening Land.

Piedrasassi is a very small one-man operation dedicated to making wines from Syrah. We tasted from several barrels and the samples were amazing. The 2010 Rim Rock Syrah tasted exactly like a Côte-Rôtie.

Evening Land Vineyards (ELV) is a project started by Hollywood producer, Mark Tarlov, along with partners Danny Meyer, Domaine Jacques Prieur, and Dorothy Cann Hamilton, founder of the French Culinary Institute in New York City and CEO of the James Beard Foundation. The consulting winemaker is Dominque Lafon, and they have vineyards in Oregon, Sonoma and in the Sta. Rita Hills near Lompoc. There are a number of Evening Land vineyards at the Lompoc site, but the most interesting is the Memorious vineyard, planted from seed at the top of the chalky hill to the south-east of town. It's cold and windy up there, and dry too. We tasted a 2010 barrel sample, and it was floral, acidic, tightly wound, and just like a Burg from a good but not overly ripe year. Watch these wines. (They are having an open house in both Oregon and Lompoc next Saturday, December 11, 2010).

We also made a visit to Buttonwood Farm, who has been producing wine from estate fruit since the mid-1980s. The wines had stagnated in quality somewhat over the years, but recently are seeing a renaissance under the direction of winemaker Karen Steinwachs, formerly assistant winemaker at Fiddlehead. There are three Sauvignon Blancs with the stainless steel fermented bright and refreshing "Zingy" being my favorite. But my absolute favorite wine at Buttonwood was the Cabernet Franc, which is made in a light, bright style and which is a dead ringer for a Chinon.

Finally, I've been hearing good things about the food at the Ballard Inn. We had dinner there Friday night and the things I heard are true. This is excellent food, and some knowledgeable friends claim that it is the best food in Santa Barbara County, surpassing anything in Santa Barbara of Montecito.

P.S. Another reason I'm impressed with Sashi Moorman and his projects can be found by Googleing "Funes the Memorious". It is said that Northern California winemakers have Enology degrees from Davis, while Santa Barbara winemakers have Liberal Arts degrees. I think there is something to this.

Fats Waller's First Recorded Vocal

2010-11-08T06:06:39Z

In 1896 a new Trinity Baptist Church was erected, including an Esley pipe organ to help sing the praises of God. In 1918 the building was sold to the Victor Talking Machine Company, who were impressed with the fine acoustics and wanted to use it for a recording studio. I don't know when Victor/RCA first recorded the Esley Organ which they received as part of the bargain, but those turn of the century Baptists may have been surprised to know that their organ would play an important roll in the history of American Jazz.

The father of jazz organ playing and the undisputed master of hot pipe organ jazz is Fats Waller. The son of a Harlem Baptist preacher, Waller learned the pipe organ early in life before taking up the piano. By his late teens he was making a living as a musician, playing at rent parties and accompanying silent films on theatre organs. By his mid twenties, he had started a career as a Broadway composer and was in demand for recording sessions.

]]> It's fun to imagine sitting in the senior Waller's Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, listening to a teen aged Thomas playing stride piano style on the church organ. Had it not been for the march of recording technology and Victor's acquisition of a recording studio that had once been a church, imagining might be all we could do. Fortunately, the replacement of acoustical recording by electric recording in 1925 made it technically feasible to record pipe organs, and the presence of the Esley instrument in the former Trinity Baptist Church on North 5th Street gave us an organ to record, and we now have a unique historical record of some mighty hot jazz on the pipe organ.

These first recordings were made at Victor's Camden studios in May, 1927 and again in December when a group billed as Thomas Waller with Morris's Hot Babies made a number of recordings featuring Morris on the trumpet and the twenty-three year old Waller on the piano and organ. My absolute favorite takes from those sessions are the "Fats Waller Stomp," and "Red Hot Dan."

The "Fats Waller Stomp" was recorded on May 20th, and starts right off with a pipe organ segway with the ensemble joining in after a few bars. This is a real swinging—though episodic—piece with a number of remarkable interludes including Morris crazily flicking the valves of his trumpet like he was trying to get out a jazz version of The Flight of the Bumblebee.

"Red Hot Dan" is interesting for the first recorded vocal by Fats, and that he starts out playing the piano, switching to the organ half way through the take. The group on this cut was Waller, piano and pipe organ, Morris, coronet, Jimmy Archey, trombone; Bobbie Leecan, guitar, and Eddie King, drums. About two minutes into the take, Leecan starts a guitar solo backed up by Waller with some rhythmic chords on the piano. After a bit the chords abruptly stop and seven seconds later the pipe organ kicks in and we have what must be the first and probably one of the only examples of a pipe organ and acoustic guitar jazz duo. The rest of the band then joins in for a raucous and rousing finale.

Though the vocal on "Red Hot Dan" was only scat singing, Waller went on to be a popular pianist and vocalist, recording scores of 78s for RCA in the 1930s. Although RCA made Waller sing a lot of overly commercial dreck, he left us with some true instrumental masterpieces including an amazing piano solo of "Vipers Drag" and, true to his pioneering spirit, the first commercial recording featuring a Hammond Organ.

If you'd like to hear the "Fats Waller Stomp" or "Red Hot Dan," click on over to Red Hot Jazz and have at it. Almost all of Waller's recordings are available there via streaming audio. Happy toe tapping! Also, if you'd like to read more about the history of jazz organ, visit The Jazz Organ: A Brief History.

The Amazing Volcanic Pumpkin (An annual post)

2010-10-31T17:59:35Z

There comes a time in a young man's life when Halloween, like Gregor Samsa, goes through a metamorphosis from something familiar to something vaguely unsettling. One year Halloween means providing for the Dentist's retirement, and suddenly, the next year, it is a venue for impersonating Bela Lugosi. While trick or treating was fun when you are a little kid, and visiting the local Haunted House was okay when you were only a kid, things change so that actually MAKING a haunted house, or as close as you can get to it, becomes a really cool thing.

]]> Those of a certain age will remember Mr. Wizard, a.k.a. Don Herbert, who used to host a Saturday morning TV program creatively titled: "Watch Mr. Wizard" which aired on NBC from 1951 until 1972. Mr. Wizard persuaded me to take various objects and foodstuffs from the kitchen and put them together in creative combinations that my mother viewed with some suspicion.

We were set. We turned out the inside lights to maximize the effect and lay in wait for the first set of trick-or-treaters to ring the doorbell.

The next morning, with the sunlight streaming in the windows, we saw the unintended effect of the prior night's activities. Every surface in the house was covered with a fine dusting of white flour. All of the furniture, the floors, the curtains, the windows; everything looked like it had just been hit by the seasons first dusting of snow. Mother, being the kind soul she is, thought this was just as funny as the volcanic pumpkin, and cheerfully cleaned up while we were at school. I don't believe, however, that I ever got permission to try this stunt again.

Ode to San Francisco

2010-08-27T14:27:35Z

San Francisco weather
Is boring
I like it
Except for when
It isn't boring

Plum News

2010-08-09T14:01:02Z

Anticipation has been high since word surfaced earlier this year that Daniel Patterson was working on a new downtown Oakland restaurant, and that Jeremy Fox, formerly of Manresa and Ubuntu would be in charge of the menu and kitchen.

The newest word from the sidewalk in front of the Ferry Building is that Jeremy is no longer associated with the project, having decided to devote his time to other personal projects. Daniel Patterson will be taking over the menu development, and will be donating his Mondays off in August to cooking the Plum demonstration dinners at Il Canne Rosso.

A Levi's Ad for Ring Fanciers

2010-07-29T22:28:12Z

Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market - Picture of the Day

2010-07-11T14:02:01Z

(Click on picture for larger version).

Della Fattoria - Picture of the Day

2010-07-10T20:42:35Z

(Click on photo for larger version).

Ernest Fleischmann: RIP

2010-06-16T03:58:32Z

Ernest Fleischmann, who died Sunday, age 85, is the only director of a major symphony orchestra with whom I have had a conversation. It is not surprising, that as a mere concert-goer, I have not had many conversations with symphony managers, but it is also not surprising that the one exception should be Ernest Fleischmann, as he was an elemental force of nature disguised as a music executive. For better or worse, when you thought of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the 1970s, '80s, or 90s, your first thought was of Ernest Fleischmann.

My first contact with Fleischmann was when I wrote to him in the '70's pleading for more contemporary music in the Philharmonic's programming, mentioning as examples Frank Martin, Olivier Messiaen, and Darius Milhaud. Ernest wrote back saying he would take my recommendation under consideration, but also mentioning the need to program music that would sell concert tickets. He finished with a flourish, referring to my trio as the "three Ms" (a reference to the well-known three Bs of classical music: Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms).

I also saw Fleichmann once at the refreshment bar on the main floor of Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco during an Intermission in 2001 or 2002. He was then retired from the L.A. Philharmonic and was artistic director of the Ojai Music Festival. I had heard that the Ojai Festival was trying to get the original Harry Partch instruments to Ojai so that Partch's music could be featured. I told Fleichmann how much I was looking forward to the upcoming concert. Sadly, he reported that the funds for transporting and insuring the instruments had not been forthcoming and that there would be no Partch at Ojai that year. I was crestfallen, but also jazzed at having had a conversation with the Great Man.

Here are a few remembrances from others more qualified to comment on Flieschmann's passing: Alex Ross, Mark Swed, Frank Gehry, Norman Lebrecht, the late Alan Rich, and Timothy Mangan.

Texture: Hydrocolloid Recipe Collection

2010-06-03T12:30:48Z

One of my favorite food blogs is Khymos edited by Martin Lersch. Khymos is the source of the best food-blog post ever: "Towards the perfect soft-boiled egg" (really, it is!) and is also where you can find the newest release of Martin's invaluable work-in-progress - "TEXTURE A hydrocolloid recipe collection." In addition to over 300 recipes using colloids (gels), it has a extremely valuable set of appendixes detailing gelling agents, their characteristics, and suppliers. This is a must have for anyone who is interested in molecular gastronomy. I know first hand, that you can find copies of this little jewel in some of the best restaurant kitchens in the world. Here's your chance to upgrade your kitchen, and it's a lot cheaper than a Molteni stove!