List 96

Love: Having the prospect of a dinner out at Oakland's brand-spanking new Ramen Shop to look forward to when I emerge from my January Clean Program.  It was started by some Chez Panisse vets and is apparently already racking up 90 minute wait times.

Like: The idea of getting an indoor fiddle leaf fig tree, maybe for a corner of our sunny, West-facing dining room.  I saw this example on  Pinterest and like its wide, green leaves.  Plus it would be nice to harvest plump figs later this year without the problem of birds getting to the ripe fruit first.

Discovery: Barrel-aging cocktails without the barrel. Negronis have been off the menu for me this month, which meant it was the perfect time to barrel age a couple in this cool 2-cup glass jar with a bit of barrel wood inside, a very thoughtful gift from my friend Ralph.

barrel-aged cocktail kit found here

Obsession: Healthy grains and vegetables have been my constant companions during this experimental month of strictly clean eating, and I've come to feel satisfied by them in ways I simply wasn't before. So even though I don't have to, next week I imagine making things like roasted vegetable salads with lentils or quinoa, and spaghetti squash instead of pasta, and continuing to crave my new favorite daytime drink, the Energizer from The Plant Cafe - carrots, beets, parsley and ginger.  Clean January will yield to Cleanish February.

Roasted Vegetables with Quinoa recipe

Roasted Fall Vegetables with Lentils recipe

Roasted Spaghetti Squash with Herbs recipe

Complaint: That I haven't yet been able to cook from Charles Phan's gorgeous cookbook, which I got for Christmas, because nearly every recipe that catches my eye contains a few verboten ingredients. Still, it was a treat to flip through it this month and dream of things to try come February.

List 92

Love: I ♥ NY. What a crazy time to be there for a vacation.

There were the expected highs, like spending a wonderful Saturday in Brooklyn, perusing the flea market and ogling brownstones in Fort Greene and Carroll Gardens.  

There were the silver linings, like riding out Hurricane Sandy in the cozy Bowery Hotel, where strangers bonded and the staff kept us all safe, warm and well-looked after, even pouring champagne for everyone when the power failed as the storm raged outside. And getting to spend quality time with friends David and Tia in Brooklyn, who took us in when we were forced to leave Lower Manhattan, as well as with my brother. 

And, of course, there were the lows: seeing such a great city brought to its knees, dark, flooded, and scarred by destruction, and seeing so many peoples' lives upended. New York City will come back - and so will we. 

Blackout as seen from our 12th floor room at The Bowery

Like: Perla's calamari - narrow winner of this trip's best bite food bracket.  No picture (when you eat dinner at 11 pm you're too hungry to pause for photos) but it was delicious, pan fried in much larger pieces than you normally see, and served atop a bright lemon-basil sauce.

Discovery: ISH Premium Horseradish, sold at various green markets and food fairs around New York, as well as a handful of shops.  They make a citrus variety with fresh oranges and lemons that is to die for, and unexpectedly perfect on a cracker spread with blue cheese.

Obsession: Making my own punch, after having a glass of the daily special at Prime Meats.  It was so good I was inspired to track down this vintage mid-century Dorothy Thorpe-style punch bowl set on Etsy, and to find a few recipes, like Prime Meat's "Rosemary, Baby", to try out at our holiday party this year.

Complaint: Depressing but true: sometimes even the restaurant bathrooms in NYC restaurants have cooler interior designs than 98% of the restaurants in the Bay Area. Every place we went to had me pea green with envy that it's not in my town.  The manager of Perla gave me his theory: in general, restaurants here are dealing with smaller but more expensive spaces, and that forces them to be creative in a resourceful way (versus a hire-a-fancy-designer-to-come-up-with-a-theme way), plus they have the benefit of great bones and character to build upon - tin ceilings, brick walls, old mouldings, etc.  And, even when their interiors are the result of more effort and study, ala Keith McNally, they just look damn good, like they've been around forever.

Walter Foods:

Flatbush Farm and BarN:

Prime Meats:

Peels:

Perla:

Pulino's - including their bathroom

List 87

Love: FuseBOX, deep in West Oakland, which is currently open only for lunch 3 days a week, but has the feeling of someplace that will become a destination for foodies. Everything was delicious - from the assorted vegetable skewers to the host of housemade kimchees and pickles that accompanied a skirt steak, to a potted cheesecake with corn flake crumbles. Their wings are supposedly out of this world too. I need to get some coworkers to sign up for a Friday lunch excursion.

Like: Sylvie Bednar's Flags of the World book, which is so fun to look through, filled with interesting facts that decode each flag's various symbols, colors and patterns, that I bought one for us and a dozen more to have on hand to give as gifts to all the kids whose birthday parties Stella will inevitably be invited to in the coming year.

Discovery: The Strawberry Alarm pizza from Seattle's Flying Squirrel, which pairs spicy coppa salumi with the sweet fruit, along with goat cheese and toasted walnuts.  Who knew this combination would work so well? Might be worth trying at home before the local strawberries disappear.

Obsession: The perfectly-sized, nicely-weighted spirit glasses Pizzaiolo uses for their negronis. I tracked them down at East Bay Restaurant Supply, a good place to stock up on other things as well, like a commercial ice cream scoop and wood-handled whisks. Oh, and randomly, they have a GIANT taxidermy polar bear by the entrance. Yes!  

Complaint:  That there is no ferry commute option from the Berkeley Marina into San Francisco. I had the occasion to take the ferry roundtrip from Tiburon a few weeks ago, and can't imagine a lovelier way to cross the Bay each day for work (bonus points for walking through the Ferry Building twice a day, for a Blue Bottle coffee in the am, and then to pick up groceries for dinner on the way home.) Googling "ferry from the Berkeley Marina" showed some very promising activity up until 2009 - including site maps and a parking structure plan - but then the trail goes cold.  

List 77

Love: Cocktails at Aviary, where the science and imagination of molecular gastronomy is applied to alcoholic concoctions. Of course, I had to go with the Negroni-based option, called the 2-in-1. You start with a glass vial of carbonated Negroni and a tall glass with a white lady, all frothy egg whites and gin.  After a few sips you mix them together and a new drink emerges.  When I'm next in Chicago I want to try the 7-course cocktail tasting menu for sure.

Like: Ruxbin, a down-to-earth but gourmet Chicago BYOB, named one of the 10 best new restuarants in America by GQ.  Run by a brother, sister and friend trio, all surnamed Lee, we had delicious stuffed calamari,hanger steak, and a chocolate pot de creme topped with bacon cotton candy.

Discovery: That Bill Cunningham is pretty much the sweetest man on the planet.  Such a rare and unusual character, and such a lovely documentary. 

Obsession: Take Shelter, a terrific small movie from late last year, with Boardwalk Empire's Michael Shannon (decidedly non-Agent Van Alden-ish) as a working class family man in rural Ohio who becomes obsessed with his dreams and visions of an apocalyptic storm.  Is he prophetic or descending into paranoid schizophrenia?

Complaint: Hotel room service – how long it takes, the awkward standing around in a robe while someone brings the tray in, deciding how much to add to the 2 gratuities already on the bill.  Thankfully, this complaint has been solved at Public, Ian Schraeger’s new stripped-down hotel concept in Chicago, which aims to offer everything you need and nothing you don’t at a surprisingly affordable rate.  The best part of the stay: 6-minute room service left outside your door in a stylish bag.