chez pim

my comfort food

tired of eating out and hadn't much energy to actually make anything fancy.

so..

made some jasmine rice in the cooker, whipped two eggs bought Saturday at the farmer's market with a splash of fish sauce until frothy, fried them in hot peanut oil until golden and fluffly and crispy around the edges.

ate the steaming hot rice and fried eggs with plenty of spicy and tangy Sriracha sauce--not the Vietnamese chicken brand, but the Thai brand which actually came from Sriracha, on the southeastern coast of Thailand.

simple and satisfying, not to mention comforting.

I think I'll go to bed now.

A lovely lazy Sunday lunch at Zuni Cafe: My favorite San Francisco part 1

A number of people noticed that I haven't written much about restaurants in my own city, San Francisco. There have even been some confusion about where I, in fact, live. I looked through my recent blogs and wondered a bit myself. I suppose I don't see eating in my own city as much of an event, I am hence far less inclined to make an effort of taking the photos and documenting the meals.

When I'm in my own town, I often eat at “simple” places whose cooking celebrate the California bounty that we here are so privilege to enjoy, Zuni and Delfina being two wonderful examples. I go to the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market every Saturday morning to stock my pantry with superlative fruits and vegetables, my week's cheese supply from the fabulous Cow Girl Creamery, breads from Delle Frattoria--the most perfect foil for butter and confitures, Marshall Farm's honey for my organic Strauss Yogurt, among other things. I also eat a lot at ethnic places, Vietnamese, Peruvian, Chinese, etc. I go to Naka-san's Kiss when I want a simple and restorative meal of impeccable sushi and other superb Japanese dishes.

I have written about some of these places, but I promise to do more from now on. It will be so much fun to share my favorite parts of San Francisco with you all.

In fact, coincidentally, I've been having something of a Zuni and Delfina "resurrection", eating at least four times at each of those places in the last month alone. I've actually just had the most perfectly lazy Sunday lunch at Zuni today.

Simplicity at its best

It's good to be home. After two days in the Culinary heart-of-darkness land, it's so very good to be home and eat my own food free of crap and preservatives. Breakfast this morning was a steaming bowl of latte, made with organic whole milk, a simply heavenly slice of toast, and a handful of superlative apricots bought at the Saturday Farmer's Market.

The toast was a crusty La Brea Bakery bread from Whole Foods, slathered with salted Strauss organic butter and a healthy dollop of simple Abricots Bergeron confiture from Mme. Ferber. The day is good again.

Culinary heartland, well, heart-of-darkness land

I am so beat, having just returned just a bit ago from a trip to Indiana. What fun! Yes, my glamorous job took me there, to a tiny speck of a town in the middle of the Indiana cornfields.

I had to leave San Francisco at an ungodly hour in the morning--9am on a Sunday is ungodly in my book—then had to change into a tiny plane that seemed made of tin from Chicago out to Fort Wayne, Indiana, then another 45 minutes drive out to Kendallville. Glamorous job, eh?

Best of the Wurst, now playing in LA

Remember the Scarywurst, ok Currywurst, in Germany I told you about? Someone made a movie about it. The movie, Best of the Wurst, is now playing in LA. Too bad it's not up here in SF as well. I really would love to see it.

Best of the Wurst: "A Korean American woman discovers Berlin through its ultimate street food: Currywurst." now at the LA Film Festival.

happy birthday my Sasha

"I am four, I am four, I am not three anymore."
"I am four, I am four, I am not three anymore."
"I am four, I am four, I am not three anymore."

Aparently that was the mantra that my little Sasha, my dear friend Linda's little boy, has been repeating all day today. (This is, of course, his birthday.) It was also the first thing he said to me on the phone when I called.

That's what made me smile today.