I wish you and your families a wonderfully sweet Christmas with good health and good fortune in all aspects of your lives. Lots of joy and crazy fun, too!
Caron
Then I came home to
While other writers and editors were swooning over the cheeses and making notes of specialty cheeses to pick up at their local cheese shop back in
Times certainly have changed and here we are at the end of 2007 with three thriving cheese shops in
Despite carrying very similar products, each of our local cheese shops is wonderfully unique. Having spent an afternoon at Taste last week I’m going to declare it the party shop. This is where to go not just for wonderful cheeses and other epicurean treats, but to simply have a good time. And, why not? It is in Hillcrest after all and shares space with Wine Steals next door. Call a friend and meet up on a weekend afternoon for a glass of wine and an international tour of fabulous cheeses. Go this weekend and pick up last-minute holiday or hostess gifts or fill the larder for the inevitable parties you're hosting or attending through New Year's.
Owned by Mary and George Palmer, Taste is a true reflection of their gregarious, open-armed approach to retail. Their clear enthusiasm for playing with food and educating customers is very endearing and will likely send you out the door with several delicious bundles.
There are no counters at Taste. The cheeses are on display on tables and shelves or in the refrigerated case that lines the wall next to a collage of cheese labels that goes to the ceiling. Want to sample something? Mary will bring the cheese to one of the tables to slice and probably tempt you with a pairing or two.
Enjoy the deep muskiness and incredible sharpness of Old Quebec vintage cheddar? Try it with a dab of red onion confit. It improves the taste of both. How about Colston Bassett Stilton? Oh, it’s mellow. But with a little dried fig compote mellow turns to memorable. The ultimate? Parmesiano Reggiano with rich, syrupy 12-year-old balsamico. Stunning on the palate.
Jars of these confits, compotes and vinegars are displayed throughout the store, along with local artwork that’s also for sale.
One wall of shelves holds gems like truffle salt (perfect on eggs, pasta or steak), honeys, pasta, crackers, olives and the very special Fra’Mani dry salami made by former Chez Panisse chef Paul Bertolli. Try this—it’s very mild but carries a splendid burst of garlic.
On a table against another wall are rich and fruity olive oils from
And, from Sardinia, there are jars of
Another table nearby is all about chocolate.
There are the elegant orange boxes of hand-crafted local chocolates by Dallmann Confections in flavors like jasmine, pistachio, fleur de sel, Provence (lavender, of course, with Bourbon vanilla) and rose water. Taste also features Eclipse Chocolat made by local artisan chocolatier Will Gustwiller (his shop is on
Also on display are bars of Vosges, Casa Don Puglisi chocolate from Modica and Chocolates El Rey from
Mary and George moved to
The Palmers share resources with Venissimo, whose owners have since bought Aniata so that the Stonebrooks could focus on distributing cheese. The same fabulous blue-and-white cheese paper you see at Venissimo is also used by Taste (more about that later), but the collaboration also allows them to split wheels of cheese that would otherwise be too much stock for one shop to carry.
I won’t list the 80 to 100 cheeses Taste carries at any given time; you can visit the shop or check out their website for that. But, I found some favorites that I had to buy or will return for that you should put on your list:
Because it’s so perfect crumbled in a salad, I pulled out my Grandma Anna’s weathered old wood salad bowl and filled it with organic baby romaine, fresh mizuna from Nijiya, chopped scallions, toasted walnuts, orange heirloom tomatoes from the farmers market and ruby red cherry tomatoes. No vinaigrette on this salad—just a good drizzle of unfiltered Italian extra virgin olive oil and 
Now, I loved the Purple Haze in the salad, but Mary also suggests adding it to mashed potatoes at the end of preparation.
I tried a lot of different cheeses at Taste but bought only a few because I hate the idea of these magnificently living foodstuffs going moldy or hard before I can finish them. Cheese storage has been on my mind and over the years I’ve gotten a lot of different advice on how best to keep cheese fresh. Aside from buying small portions and eating them promptly, what do you do? First some don’ts: don’t wrap them in plastic wrap, Ziploc bags or moistened paper towels covered by wax paper. Instead, Mary pointed directly at the lined blue-and-white paper she wraps the cheeses in. She calls it “Gore-Tex” for cheese. The liner wicks moisture from the cheese. The paper keeps the cheese dry. You can also use parchment or wax paper enveloped in foil. Label your little packages with a Sharpie pen. They should keep for several days. Ideally, you don’t buy more than what you can eat fairly quickly.
Taste Artisan Cheese & Gourmet Shop is located at
Have some thoughts about Taste or other cheese purveyors in
I think the answer is to keep all the hardcore dishes intact—the turkey, the stuffing, the gravy, the mashed potatoes and the sweet potatoes probably all revolve around recipes handed down through generations. They’re the immovable objects of the meal. So, do the novel flourishes at the periphery—the appetizers, side dishes, salad and dessert.
Certainly, the recipes for Thanksgiving dishes overfloweth. But, if time or talent is in short supply and you need to bring something smashing to the big meal, you’ve got a great selection of high-impact, low-fuss prepared foods from around
Let’s address appetizers. No, we don’t want to fill up on them before the main act, but no one wants a crowd so hungry they feel compelled to pounce on the food as it makes its entrance. So, here are some suggestions for host assignments or guest offerings—and some will work well as side dishes, too:
Assigned to make the green salad? Trader Joe’s comes in handy here. All you need to do is buy some bags of pre-washed lettuces—perhaps baby spring mix or the herb salad mix—along with a bag of dried cranberries, a package of candied pecans, a container of pomegranate seeds and their cranberry, walnut and gorgonzola salad dressing (or make a vinaigrette yourself). Add some thinly sliced red onions and slices of peeled orange and you have an amazing salad. Want to really impress? Add crumbled cranberry stilton from Venissimo (yes, I do love the place).
Speaking of Trader Joes… they really are the go-to resource for prepared foods for Thanksgiving. My friend Paula is a sucker for their corn and chile tomato-less relish, as am I. She loves to serve it as an appetizer with tortilla chips on a bed of greens. Pick up a few jars of one of their tapenades—olive or roasted red pepper and artichoke—or bruschetta—plain, mixed olive or mixed grilled vegetable—and loaves of sour dough baguettes to slice. Just stand in front of the refrigerated section of dips, close your eyes and pick. You’ll land on something amazing, like their spinach and artichoke dip, cilantro roasted pecan dip, artichoke jalapeño, or three-layer hummus (traditional, cilantro jalapeño and spicy). Then all you need are some boxes of crackers or, better yet, bags of pita chips with sea salt or “everything” bagel chips.
What about dessert? Again, Trader Joe’s is easy with their fresh pumpkin and pecan pies and a delicious-looking pumpkin cranberry pecan upside down cake. They also have pumpkin and apple pies as well as a lovely French apple tart in the frozen food section.
Of course, Julian pies are always a pleaser. If you can't get up to Julian, lots of shops sell them year round. I can find them locally at my little Tierrasanta Farmers Outlet and their sister store off
Want to send the crowd swooning though? Go for the non-traditional but oh so amazing pastries at Sage French Bakery on Convoy, next to Nijiya. Owned by a Korean baker, this Japanese-style French Bakery is one of the best in town and you can focus on chocolate with the Chocolate Mousse cake, Raspberry Ganache or Elby or enjoy the raspberry Mistral. This man is truly gifted.
I’ve only touched the surface. So, I leave it to you, dear readers, to offer some other irresistible ideas. Just click on “Comments” below and add your thoughts.
And, have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Caron
It had been awhile since I’d been over to Iowa Meat Farms on
I’m glad I went for a variety of reasons, but the first compelling one was that the recipe from the Food Network website called for a five-pound pork loin roast, bone in, tied and frenched (this is when the meat on the end of the bones is scraped off to create a little “handle”). When I called Iowa Meat Farms to tell them what I wanted in case it had to be ordered, the butcher asked how many people I’d be serving. “Eight,” I said. “Well,” he replied, “five pounds isn’t going to be enough—not with the bones in and shrinkage from cooking.”
That’s important information and not something I’d have gotten had I just picked up a pre-wrapped roast at the supermarket.
So, already I was experiencing a butcher conversion. Then I met up with Stan Glen, Iowa Meat Farms’ meat supervisor. He’s been in the business for 50 years, 15 of which have been with the store. He explained that while they don’t do the kind of butchering that involves an entire side of beef, “We do everything, carry everything and have access to everything.”
I told him my story, but he said that the real reason people should go to a butcher is the quality. “It’s what people who shop here are looking for,” he says. Both Iowa Meat Farms and Siesel’s carry nothing but mid-Western prime and choice beef—no chuck here. Because they’ve found that the quality can vary between slaughterhouses and packing houses, the company has signed on to a branded beef program, which certifies the source and quality of the meat. Their choice beef comes from a certified plant in
“It’s reminiscent of when I was a kid and there were two slaughterhouses in
Glen took me into the cooler room—a very chilly 36 degrees, where beef was dry aging.
There were roasts the size of watermelons that would soon be cut for steaks and others that would be some lucky families’ prime rib roast for Thanksgiving.
But, I had gotten there just before the delivery of the Thanksgiving turkeys. Glen said that between the two stores, they’d sell over 3,000 for Thanksgiving. Once the turkeys were gone, 600 choice rib roasts were to be delivered along with 300 prime rib roasts. These would begin the aging process in anticipation of Christmas. Glen expects to sell 1,200 rib roasts at Christmas time.
Ah, but let’s return a moment to the turkeys, since Thanksgiving is approaching. To my surprise, Glen sells both Zacky Farms private label turkeys and free-range turkeys—but doesn’t necessarily recommend the free-range turkeys. “There’s a huge difference between conventional chickens and free-range chickens,” he explains, “but not much in turkeys. The conventional turkeys have more fat on them and are much more forgiving to cooks who only prepare turkey once a year.”
Since we’re on poultry, let’s follow up with the chicken discussion. At both Iowa Meat Farms and Siesel’s, only Sonoma Select free-range chickens are sold.
Glen claims there is a huge difference in flavor and safety between them and conventional chickens. And, he adds that chickens that are marketed as “air dried” are no better than conventional chickens.
“They plunge chickens into hot water to pick out the feathers, then they’re plunged into cold water, which soaks up the water. You get as much as 15 percent water in a conventional chicken,” Glen says. “With air drying, you get the same bird going through the same preparation process, but at the end they let them air dry. They lose some water, but that’s it.”
The free-range chickens aren’t stacked in cages and basically take in the outdoors. They’re given no hormones or antibiotics or animal by-products. They’re fed corn—and maybe indulge in a worm or two. The only trick in cooking a free-range bird is keeping the skin of the bird moist while roasting or grilling. But a little oil on the skin before cooking should keep in from drying out.
I bought a couple of whole chicken legs and was kiddingly talked into a half of a “Baja chicken,” a bird marinated in lemon juice, cilantro, garlic, pepper and a commercial Baja seasoning—reportedly the same one that El Pollo Loco uses. Over the weekend I baked both. I treated the chicken legs to a bath of citron honey from Trader Joe’s diluted with a little lemon juice, along with olive oil, garlic salt and pepper. They baked at 350 for about an hour and were tender and juicy with a lovely crispy skin. More to the point, the meat had flavor.
Then I tried the Baja chicken. The butcher instructed me to bake it at 350 for an hour, but in my oven it took more like an hour and 15 minutes before I got the caramel skin tones I was after. I’m a dark meat eater and thoroughly enjoyed the sweetness and moistness of the thigh and leg. It was especially delicious with the Brussels sprouts I thinly sliced and sautéed in olive oil and garlic, then finished off with a tablespoon of the porcini sage Epicurean butter I bought at the store.
Its dark, woody undertones were a perfect match with the Brussels sprouts.
I ate the leftovers the next night—and, to be honest, wasn’t keen on trying out the white meat, which I usually find too dry. This, to my surprise, wasn’t. Even with reheating, the breast meat was moist and absolutely delicious.
And, how was the pork loin I served last week? Actually, I served two. I bought the conventional pork loin roast but Glen insisted that I also try
There is no comparison. I made The Barefoot Contessa recipe—it calls for a mixture of rosemary, fennel seeds, lemon zest, garlic,
Everyone enjoyed the conventional roast, but none of us could get over the sublime flavor and texture of the
“These are free-range pigs,” Glen tells me. “They’re fed better and as a result they taste like pork did 40 years ago before the suits decided we wanted it as lean as possible.”
So, what’s the difference in price? The conventional pork is $4.99 a pound. The
So, let’s say you go to Iowa Meat Farms. What else will you find there? Essentially, it’s a full-service grocery with everything from soup to nuts: Yes, soup, nuts and also produce, cheeses, wines, coffee, jam, El Indio tortilla chips, olive oils, vinegars, mustards, breads. You’ll go crazy trying to figure out which barbecue sauce to choose. Do you dare to pick one of the Beverly Hillbillies or stick with Paula Dean or the Iowa Meat Farms house blend? Or one of the other hundreds of bottles?
Same with the rubs. Go for spicy, Asian, maple and sage, chili cocoa or the intriguing Butt Rub? Or just close your eyes, stick your hand on a shelf and see what you get? There are so many to choose from.
All this, plus the meat—of which there’s a huge selection.
Rich-looking homemade sausages, thick-sliced bacon, dry aged steaks, brisket, pork ribs and chops and butt roast, short ribs, shrimp, salmon, ahi and swordfish. And, this time of the year, you’ll even find turducken. That’s a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken that are each stuffed with a different dressing—Louisina cornbread, apple/cinnamon, and sausage and herb. And, no worries, the butcher will send you home with written cooking instructions.
So, you get quality; you get experience and knowledge. But most of us would assume that shopping at a butcher is a sacrifice in price. Surprisingly, the price is right. “Our starting philosophy,” says Glen, “is how good can I get it? Then we think about cost.”
Iowa Meat Farms is located at
Have some thoughts about Iowa Meat Farms, Siesel’s or other markets in
This came in from George Schnurer of Betty B's Ranch (You probably see him at the Scripps Ranch and La Jolla Farmers Markets. He also sells at the Santa Monica Market every other week):
"Thanks for your concern. I was very fortunate. The firefighters saved my house. I did suffer damage to my grove. I lost about 50 to 100 avocado trees and a portion of my irrigation system was melted. The wind stripped alot of leaves and fruit from the trees. My front gate also burned down.
To sumarize - I was VERY,VERY fortunate. (Many of the farms and homes in the Western part of Highland Valley were badly damaged or their homes burned down.)"
I'm still hoping to hear from other market managers and farmers. Please let me know if you have information.
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The Carlsbad Farmers Market was cancelled last Wednesday and is cancelled again tomorrow, Oct. 27, according to Christy Johnson, the market’s manager. “Not only are some of our vendors recovering, but the air quality is still too bad to spend a day out in it,” she says. She’s relatively sure that they’ll reopen Wednesday, Oct. 31.
The Hillcrest Farmers Market will be open on Sunday, according to manager David Larson (drlinbaja@hotmail.com) . I’m trying to find out if he’s also opening the North Park Market on Thursday, but he didn’t respond to that question.
The Tierrasanta Farmers Market was closed on Thursday. I believe they’re reopening next Thursday.
Margo Baughman intends to open the Vista Farmers Market this Saturday.
And, I've just heard from Mike Manchor of the Rancho Bernardo Farmers market. The good news is that no one from his market lost any farms and they'll resume market at the Bernardo Winery parking lot next Friday -- only a block away from the burn area.
I’ve heard from a couple of farmers, including Paul Smit of Smit Orchards. They’re fine, he says, but tells me that Rancho Chico has been wiped out and others are severely damaged. He also says that the
Cunningham Organic Farms in De Luz, which raises avocados, exotic citrus (meiwa, nagami, kumquats and buddha's hand citron), nine kinds of tangerines, cocktail fruit, guavas and cherimoyas, is currently picking fuyu persimmons. Gale Cunningham, who also manages the Temecula Farmers Market, says all their crops are fine. All the calls she has received from participating farmers have been with good news. She is opening the market on Saturday. She also says that they’re a very tight group and eager to help, so if any farmers do need help, let her know (gcfarm123@aol.com).
If anyone knows the status of other markets or farms/orchards, please let me know. Post a comment or drop me a line.
For those readers outside of San Diego, we've been hit hard with fires since Sunday afternoon. More than 500,000 people here have had to be evacuated and 1,000 homes have been destroyed.
So far, my area has been safe. However, for obvious reasons I'm not going exploring new places to food shop until the emergency is over. Schools and many businesses are closed. People are being advised to stay off the streets unless they are being evacuated and all of us are otherwise preoccupied.
People here are being asked to help their neighbors in evacuation centers with the basic necessities. The well being of pets, this time, is being addressed. There are a number of places that are taking pets but also need supplies.
Things are still perilous today and don't look like they'll be abating before tomorrow when ocean winds are expected. But, as the fires are contained and life returns to some sense of normalcy, those people who lost their homes will need help. FEMA is on its way, but, well, it is FEMA. If the Cedar Fire experience of 2004 is any indication, the Red Cross and United Way, as well as local synagogues and churches and other groups will be taking donations to give to those who need financial assistance. In fact, I think the local Red Cross is already doing this. Please give what you can.
I will be back with more foodstuff soon!
Caron
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