UPDATE: Mean Bao is now closed. One balmy evening a few weeks ago, Arne and I were walking down Central in Nob Hill when a curious sight met our eyes. In the window of the recently vacated Ecco Gelato space was a sign with a cartoonishly irritated white blob – maybe a marshmallow? a…
Honeyed Blue Cheese Terrine with Dried Fruit
I don’t watch as much food television as you might imagine. I still enjoy Nigella Lawson; her unabashed – nay, wanton – love of food always delights me. Her show was pioneering in its stylishness (you may recall that she originally aired on Style, not any food network), with artsy shifts in focus and food…
Simple Olive Oil Crackers
I’ve been feeling ambitious in the kitchen lately. Well, not today. But I was last week. So when I made some pate (I’ll post about that later), I decided to try making some homemade crackers to go with it. I looked up several recipes, decided on a strategy, and headed into the kitchen. Ambition only…
Quick and Easy Refrigerator Pickles
After much dawdling trying to find the original, I have finally purchased a new power cord for my old digital camera. Though it’s ten years old and has fewer megapixels, this chunky old Sony has a beautiful Carl Zeiss lens and a lot more manual control than my newer, more portable Casio Exilim. I was…
Alta Lodge Granola
I do not care for cereal. Cereal is boring. It’s what you eat on grumpy, hurried mornings when you can’t think of or don’t have time for anything else. It’s pale brown and lumpy, and poured out of a pasteboard box. If you don’t eat it fast enough, it gets soggy in its cold milk…