Deglazed

Deglazed was mentioned at one of my favorite food blogs, Becks and Posh. Thank you kindly for the mention, and to all the new eyeballs, “Welcome to Deglazed.” Do come back, ya hear?

Sometimes, the photo says it all.

Like walking down La Rambla, the pushy B44 waiter heckles me into a table. Bread with dipping oil infused with anchovies and herbs is a lovely teaser. And because one should never pass up fresh anchovies, I was compelled to order a beautiful composition of fillets set atop pears and aged manchego. Just try to impress me more when you put rabbit on the menu, an underrepresented protein in the states. B44 smothered it in hazelnut sauce, which felt a little Tuscan to me, but that’s the difference between love and crazy love. I could have ordered the churros and chocolate, but I usually associate those with 7AM intoxication and I felt sympathetic to my gluten intolerant dining companion. Poor wretch.

Cesar gets my heart beating for Barcelona in a completely different way. It’s Spain style tapas, meaning; go for a light meal to be enjoyed over drinks with the people around you. You can eat a small amount quickly or stay for a while, picking at a variety of cheeses, meats and cooked Spanish staples like squid, anchovies, patatas bravas and bocadillos. It’s a wonderful way to eat. If you are really hungry, order the paella which is almost as good as mine and better than most. And unlike Barcelona, the cocktail bar is one of the best around.

Both restaurants have hit or miss service. But that’s about 100% better than if you were dining in Barcelona itself. Helpful hint: don’t expect a back rub, be prepared to ask for the check three times and enjoy the whole experience, el attitude and all.

If you have never been to France to taste a properly made croissant, La Farine French Bakery can hold you over until you book your trip. In fact, La Farine is far superior to 99% of other bakeries in the Bay Area. Good luck trying to get out of La Farine without other perfectly made classics like brioche, pain chocolat, baguettes and crusty loaves of levain bread presented like plentiful cornucopias in wooden baskets. For a special addictive treat, hit the morning buns before they are sold out, and the do sell out.

It was worth the trip over the bridge (that’s right, I’m bridge and tunnel, go east bay!), and to find parking, and to squeeze into my best pair of jeans with heals, and to walk four blocks from the car, and to fail at getting the bartenders’ (plural) attention for a cocktail, because when I sat down, received my cocktail from our lovely waitress, I started to relax into the menu. And what a delight the menu was. Four of us could not properly get a sampling of their offerings. I keep going back and forth if it was trendy food (seared duck breast, farro, mustard greens, red onions, currant and pine nuts), or comfort food (country pork chop, cannelini beans, wilted greens and salsa verde). The conclusion is that Nopa is comfort food with frosting, and I can’t think of any other way I would want to eat. The perfectly cooked dishes were inventive enough to impress me, and familiar enough for me to scrape my plate with bread.

Take seasonal, high quality and sometimes unique ingredients, rich broth, fresh noodles, fair prices, throw it in a bowl, and you get…a line out the door. But the helpful servers at Noodle Theory on College Ave in Oakland, do what they can to seat you as soon as possible in a cozy, cramped but welcoming dining room with open kitchen.

The small, seasonal menu offers a fair variety for most eaters (vegetarians and those with allergies will feel limited), but listen closely to the specials, as that is where the pot of gold is. Recent specials have featured braised ox-tail in a spicy Szechwan broth with udon, and duck confit in a daikon radish broth with ramen.

Don’t want to wait? They offer take-out.

I will no longer be intimidated by vegetables like romanesco. It has never crossed my path before, but it certainly caught my eye this week. It’s most like cauliflower, which could be the least intimidating vegetable ever. Romanesco can be served just like cauliflower: as crudité, in soup, steamed, baked or sautéd. It’s just little bit nuttier than cauliflower, which certainly inspires me to welcome it home.

India Clay Oven, of San Francisco, has been bringing their tandoor oven to the Temescal Farmer’s Market for the past month and sampling their warm, fresh naan. It’s a wonderful treat for the morning stroll around the market, but I am told it will keep in the refrigerator for a week and will be very nice after a brief stint in the toaster oven. It would never last a week at my house.

Each year, Saveur Magazine puts out the top 100 list of food items around the world. It’s hard for me to understand how not all 100 items are from the Bay Area, but here are the one’s that caught their attention this year. Congrats to our local celebrities.

1. Rancho Gordo, of the Napa Valley, has wowed many local restaurants with 30 varieties of heirloom beans, all indigenous to the Americas. Just like heirloom tomatoes, potatoes and meats, heirloom beans pack exceptional freshness and flavor. But Rancho Gordo is not just beans. They also offer corn tortillas, masa, pozole, wild rice, herbs, greens, and (drum-roll please) Chile peppers!! Their quote, “Never trust a man who doesn’t eat Chiles.” should give you an idea about their enthusiasm for chiles. Find them at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market on Saturdays.

2. Avendanos market was written up as a butcher shop in Bernal Heights, but I see they are quite a bit more. Three visionary ladies (go ladies!) took over the closed space that was once Cicero’s family butcher shop. With Cicero as a consultant, they preserved the family butcher shop charm, and added prepared foods made from the finest ingredients. Brava!

3. My resolution for February 2008: Eat charcuterie at home, when it’s not a special occasion. Saveur has convinced me to scare-up Napa’s Fatted Calf, artisinal charcuterie. Fortunately, I don’t have to wait until my next trek to Napa. They are at the Berkeley Farmers Market and Ferry Plaza on Saturdays.

sidenote: Savuer was honoring the dying breed of traditional butcher shops. My favorite is at Piedmont Grocery in Oakland.

4. Peter Reinhart, the founder of Brother Juniper’s Bakery in Sonoma, got accolades for his life’s work as a baker, author and teacher of artisinal bread making. So what if he now lives in North Carolina. Surly it’s only temporary.

Notice anything wrong with this photo of the Blue Bottle espresso machines at the Temescal Farmers Market this weekend? Maybe it’s that no one is on them? Typically, you can find a least three baristas cranking away all morning, but due to a leaky propane hose, it was drip only for the day. I’m sure the drip was still worth the wait.

Best consumed traditionally, peel and pop, the Cara Cara, is back at the market. It tends to have a short season so hit these up now. Alpine Blue Farms claim it’s a cross between a navel orange and a ruby red grapefruit. But the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at UC Riverside explains that it was a mutation from a Washington navel orange tree discovered at the Hacienda Cara Cara in Venezuela in 1976. And a delightfully juicy and bold mutation it is.

If you are lucky enough to frequent the farmers markets that stay open year ’round, then you may have noticed piles of orange produce.

My favorite orange delights are the satsuma mandarins. My lazy nature loves the zip peal and mostly seedless pulp. Eating two or three at time is typical, and when my recipes this time of year call for orange zest, I grab a couple of satsumas to do the trick.

I can finally find hachiya persimmons soft and mushy and ready to eat like a slushy. It was worth the wait. If you have ever tried eating these before they are ripe, you know by your puckered lips that something was not right with the situation. It’s the fuyus that are great to eat when they are still firm.

If you have never had a freshly picked, organic carrot, now is the time to indulge. Think rich and juicy, unlike the whithering varieties bagged in plastic. Carrots are pretty cheap right now, so take advantage and start making soups and salads. You might just ward off cancer, stroke, high cholesterol, and other infections as you revive your mothers recipe for carrot raisin salad (which you should then share with me).