CourtneyP

Beer seems to be the word on a lotta blogs lately, and I guess I’m no exception.

Maybe because it’s good.

Funny that I developed my taste for wine before I developed my taste for beer, because it seemed like the brews were the drink of choice of most of my friends in my younger years. Maybe it was a foodie snob thing, I don’t know for sure. Don’t get me wrong, I still heart my wine, but I’ve come to appreciate a good beer in the past few years… I guess it’s kinda like my developed appreciation for a good coffee (thanks to Mark and crew). I guess it also helps that beer is generally cheaper than wine, too.

I do think that wine snobbery helped a bit with this, for I learned a bit about my sense of taste and “Taste Wheels“. BTW, there are taste wheels for coffee and beer, too, which I prolly wouldn’t have ever looked for without my knowledge (albeit a novice knowledge) of wine taste wheels.

I wasn’t really thinking about blogging about beer today, but it’s just funny that as I was thinking about my consumption of malt beverages in the past week or two (and, ahem, its residual effects), I get notified that my department is going out for an early lunch-slash-brunch over at the new BJ’s nearby. Whoo… beer for brunch. I haven’t even finished my cuppa Kona yet, and my cow-orkers are talking about havin’ some beers! Meh… I think I’ll be partaking in the tasty root beer that they have on tap instead.

The last time I had beer for brunch, it was over at O’Reilly’s with the Reservoir Dog brothers, a.k.a. Andy and Mike… and it was pretty damned good with the Irish comfort food that they serve there.

But it’s prolly not the best idea at 11:30 in the morning during a work day. Heh.

Today, I braved the inclement weather with my good friend Michelle, and we once again went to see another “celebrity chef” over at Sur La Table in Santana Row.

The reason I enclose those words in quotation marks is because the fellow we went to see today, I don’t think he likes to be referred to as a celebrity… or at least, he really does not act like one.

I speak of one Anthony Bourdain. I became a fan of Tony Bourdain a few years ago after reading his book Kitchen Confidential, which is a great, gritty and real look into the culinary world (highly recommended, would do business with again, A++++). I had been eyeing the book for a while, when, seemingly reading my mind, my good friend Toni sent it to me as a gift. I was delighted when he landed his own show on Food Network, entitled A Cook’s Tour. The premise of this show was following Tony around the world, searching out eclectic local foods. It was an awesome fusion of travel and food programming that made a seemingly perfect television show (to me, at least)… honest and compelling, unlike what the networks seem to call “Reality Television” these days. It was refreshing to see a show like this.

Bourdain also published a book based on the show, naturally of the same name, recounting his experiences of travelling the world over a period of two years in search of the perfect meal. I think I do like the book a bit more than the show, for the reasons of the book being a more personal account of his experiences. Plus, he’s a damn fine writer. I haven’t read his string of fiction novels, but I am certainly compelled to pick one up.

So yes, back to today’s events.

Today was a special day because we actually got to see Tony cook. Yes, you heard (read?) me right. It’s kind of a rare thing to see him cook. As Alton Brown said in a Q&A earlier this year, when asked if he was given the keys to Food Network, “I’d produce more documentaries and specials and I’d make Tony Bourdain actually cook something on television, by force if necessary.”

This was also an excuse for me to pick up a copy of Bourdain’s new cookbook, Les Halles Cookbook, to learn a bit more about French cooking (it’s not as fancy as it seems, as a matter of fact, it’s simple and down to earth) and of course, to get his name scribbled in sharpie inside. I have not been to the restaurant of the same name that he is executive chef at, but I would love to. The closest I think I got to real French food was at Mon Ami Gabi, located at Paris Las Vegas (which, according to Kevin, who lived in France for a spell, was pretty authentic).

Oh yeah, here’s the obligatory posed photo:

During his cooking demo, Bourdain expressed his strong opinions on american foods (Kraft Singles are NOT cheese), other celebrity chefs (“He needs more than a catchphrase. He used to be a good cook.”) and the state of food-oriented television programming (he’s sad about the shape it has taken, very plain vanilla).

Curiously (okay, not really, based on his opinions), Food Network isn’t rotating A Cook’s Tour in their schedule as of late. We were informed today that he is supposedly going to continue his culinary adventures on the Travel Channel come next month! Yay!

Man, this sounded like one big promotional piece. But it isn’t, I swear! I guess it shows how enthusiastic I am for Bourdain and his work. I thanked him today for “Keeping it real”. Celebrity chefs needs someone like him amongst them to keep it real these days.

That all said, I’mma makin’ us some Boeuf Bourguignon tomorrow.

We are happy to report, with full bellies, that AB‘s “Instant” Pancake Mix is really freakin’ good. Fluffy, buttery, and super yummy. The recipe makes a boatload of pancakes, so invite some friends over to share!

Thanks to Good Eats Community on Orkut, I got the lead on this recipe. Thanks, guys!

I’ve really been into buying and consuming organic foods lately.

Okay, before you start calling me a card-carrying California Hippie, hear me out.

A recent interview on KQED’s Forum started my quest. Scoff if you must, but plenty of good points were made by Nell Newman of Newman’s Own Organics. Not only are organic foods good for the environment, they can be better for you.

In a Good Eats episode aired a while back, Alton Brown mentioned his use of organic milk (lowfat, not skim, for the flavor is a lot better) in making fresh yogurt from scratch. This prompted me to try a carton of organic milk, especially since the local market had it on sale for an equal price to regular milk. There is a difference! The milk tastes more… milky. It’s a true flavor, maybe even a bit creamy, if you may.

I recently started buying Wallaby yogurt, which is also organic. I bought it at first because it was one of the few yogurts on the shelf that had no corn syrup in it (which, in itself, is a bad thing for you as well, but that’s another blog entry for another day). Labeled as low-fat organic yogurt, it tasted better than many high-fat yogurts on the market.

I could go on and on about my good experiences with organic foods. There’s really no argument from me on what’s best to buy. It’s a win-win situation. You buy foods that are better for you, they taste better, you support small and local farmers, and you’re promoting the well-being of our planet. As easy as it is to pick up the mass-produced products at any old market, the extra effort to find and purchase organics is worth it, IMHO… although most often at higher prices.

totally unrelated side note: this was an entry I started writing last June and totally forgot to finish.

It’s funny that I am picky about something as silly as rice.

I guess it’s because I was raised on the white grained stuff, and have always had a well-stocked rice cooker available at my disposal for almost every meal.

A couple of weeks ago, I was in a pinch and bought a small bag of cheapo California rice at the local market. We noticed an immediate difference when we made a batch that evening… I didn’t even have to tell Kevin that it was a different kind than we are used to (we normally buy a certain medium-grained “Extra Fancy Premium Grade” Japanese rice). We weren’t too pleased.

Heh, and we thought that the challenge on Happy Family Plan for a father to be able to distinguish between different rice brands (and name the prefectures where they are grown in) was crazy.

My question is for the rest of you rice-noshers out there: what brand of white rice do you normally consume? Short, medium or long grained?