The Virtues of Soba. I'm quite a fan of soba in its many incarnations. Growing up, I knew it as buckwheat and enjoyed it in my mother's old fashioned buckwheat pancakes. I also encountered it in France as "crêpes de sarrasin" from the region of Brittany. Galettes are also made of buckwheat in France, but are a different (and delicious) animal. But I completely fell in love with 'soba' in Japan as protein-rich noodles. So much so that upon my return to the states after my stay in Hokkaido, I started experimenting with making them by hand. I soon found what a tricky proposition this is.

Besides the amino acid values, there is a concept from a nutritionist's point of view of "Net Protein Utilization" (NPU). This measures how much of the protein in food the body actually is able to use. The egg is considered to be the 'perfect' protein food, and it's score is 94%. Buckwheat weighs in at 74%, while beef steak is at 67% and our other Asian favorite, tofu, comes in at 65%, the same score as chicken. No wonder buddhist monks are able to do lengthy fasts on just soba! When buckwheat is combined with wheat, as often is the case in the making of noodles, the NPU rises to 81%.

Soba is treacherously hard to make without combining with another grain or other binding agent. If you don't use hot enough water with the flour, or fail to knead it just right at the critical juncture, it will fall apart. I usually use yamaimo to bind it, but the most frequent binding agent is wheat flour added to the mix.

"The Book of Soba" by James Udesky is a marvelous guide to making great dishes from soba, unfortunately both hardback and paperback editions are currently out of print.

It's also been found to control blood sugar, which is a boon to diabetics and dieters. Enjoy some of this wonder food!

Lunch at Robata. This time I visited Robata Grill and Sushi for lunch with my father and actually took photos of their lunch special. I last visited in July.

I whipped out my camera after finishing the freshly made hot miso soup, and captured at last a photo of the daily bento special. It is newly invented each day, is well-seasoned and a good lunch treat.

Crispy Organic Sweet. Jo-Ann gave me an Oskri's Sesame Bar to try. Organic, vegan and quite tasty crispness with molasses and sesame seed. Recently the Marin days have been feeling like fall, so I made some Campbell's tomato soup and golden crackers with Havarti cheese for dinner, with a fresh Asian Pear (nashi) for dessert. It was quite satisfying and so simple I didn't think to photograph.

Another Dishy Dill Dish or Rather Superb Soup. Yes indeed I had gathered fresh dill, fresh lamb and other aromatic ingredients to make Lamb and Herb Soup for Weekend Herb Blogging as organized by Kalyn. However, my weekend got rather filled and I couldn't quite put aside the hours of prepping and fragrant slow simmering to get this done in time for last week. But happily enough, I can be in time for this weekend's round up. Ruth of Once Upon a Feast is hosting this weekend's event.

I made the soup today, and Dad & I enjoyed a generous bowl with Japanese thick sliced bread for dinner, with plenty left over for the freezer. It stands up well to freezing and reheating.

Here's the scoop on how to make it.

Lamb and Herb Soup

1 onions peeled and thinly sliced
1 pound lamb stew meat cut into slices/cubes
1/3 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon turmeric
12 cups water
1/2 cup dried chick peas
1/2 cup lentils
1 cup barley
1 cup chopped fresh dill
1 cup Sabzi Aash Dehydrated Vegetables
1/4 cup rice
1 cup yogurt to stir in table side


1) Brown the onion and lamb 1/3 cup of the olive oil in a large pot. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and turmeric. Pour in the water and add the chick peas, barley and lentils. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cover. Simmer for 60 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally.

2) Add fresh dill, Sabzi Aash Dehydrated Vegetables, and rice. cover and cook 60 minutes

3) Check to see that the meat is tender and the beans are done. Adjust seasoning and add more warm water if soup is too thick.

Serve in bowls with yogurt on side for individuals to stir in to taste.

For best results, cook it a day in advance so that the flavors meld.

weekend herb blogging

Global Partners for Development Gala at Safari West. Global Partners Gala started late yesterday afternoon at Safari West, and Linda, Yalda, Olivia and I decided to take the trip together. We took a short tour and I caught the above cute young giraffe while he was enjoying the post. The action was lively as usual, and it was good to get together with good friends who have the same goals of making a positive impact with leveraged dollars in East Africa. The silent auction was one of many successes of the weekend, and I was surprised to win three auction items this year, including a weekend away in a secluded cabin in the woods near a river... I heard that people had to be turned away as the maximum capacity of 300 was reached, and it really showed when everyone lined up for the buffet dinner, but it was a nice time to socialize.

Today Jo-Ann and I spent a day exploring and trying a ramen restaurant in San Mateo we'd heard a lot about, Santa Ramen. I had miso chashuu ramen, and Jo-Ann pork ramen with a shared chicken karaage set (2 pieces on rice). The broth was tasty, but heavy with oil and very salty, especially Jo-Ann's. Mine had some fresh moyashi which was a nice touch. We got there at 11:35 and the first seating was already eating (the restaurant opens its doors at 11:30). The waitress takes your order as you are standing inside. Even though we were the third party seated after the first group was inside, they had already run out of the stewed pork! We waited about 30 minutes to be seated (which isn't bad according to review sites), and it took another 30 for our ramen to come, although pre-ordered. We left around 1:15. It was fairly authentic, but still saltier than most I've had in Japan. The surroundings were crowded, noisy and uncomfortable with little effort to decorate. The only menu were pieces of paper taped on the wall with the various ramen combinations. Interesting and consistently popular, but I've had better.

Tommy's Wok. Tommy's Wok does a nice lunch special. It starts with a nice mixed green salad before your choice of entree with rice, vegetables and fruit.



I enjoyed the Mandarin Beef. Realize this is fusion food rather than pure Chinese and it is well-suited to Marin's palate which emphasizes local and fresh. The atmosphere is also friendly and relaxing and there are always beautiful orchids in the middle of the restaurant.

Cafe Trieste for breakfast. Paul had not been to Cafe Trieste in Sausalito for breakfast so I had the pleasant task of introducing it.

It was a lively weekday morning with all kinds of people breakfasting and conducting their early morning meetings, whether in person, cell phone or computer.



Paul enjoyed the croissant breakfast sandwich.



I splurged on the eggs benedict, but was disappointed by the rubbery eggs, separating sauce and burnt on one side potatoes. It also came about 20 minutes after Paul's was delivered. Very uneven and disappointing service.

Dill Cream En Croute. My dill offering today is a recipe that my friends INHALE every time I have made it. It does have a nice taste, and is really simple to make. You can also pick up a larger size of the crescent rolls and use some of the extra dough to make decorative cut outs (I did for this demonstration). This is my second entry in theme with the one-year anniversary of Kalyn's Weekend Herb Blogging.

I tried it out yesterday with two of my good friends, Daniel & Paul who dropped by in succession. Daniel, taken aback by the dense creaminess (equalling fat/calories) suggested blending with tofu (while continuing to eat it..). Paul mouthed compliments every few bites while the rest disappeared down his appreciative throat.

Yes, using full-cream cream cheese and regular crescent rolls have a calorie and fat punch, but it's usually a special treat brought to a pot luck or the like so people are sharing in a larger group, and it goes before anyone can get too carried away. It would be a good experiment to try making this with the reduced fat crescent rolls and cream cheese. It may take on a less rustic appearance if you substituted puff pastry for the crescent rolls as well. I think it's nice to have a recipe that has widely available ingredients that is easy to pull together in a flash for those last-minute invitations for a get-together with friends.



Dill Cream En Croute

1 (4 oz.) can refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
Minced dill weed to coat cheese block (dried dill weed is fine, fresh is fragrant!)
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese

Optional:
1 egg yolk, beaten

Keep the cream cheese chilled until ready. Carefully unroll the crescent dinner rolls, and press seams together to form a 12 x 4 inch rectangle.

Unroll dough on a lightly floured surface; press seams together to form a 12 x 4 inch rectangle. Place generous amount of minced dill weed on a plate or waxed paper sheet and gently roll the chilled block of cream cheese in it to coat the entire surface with dill. Put the cream cheese in the center of the dough and wrap up the sides, pinching to seal so that you have an attractive block. Turn seam side down on greased baking sheet. Brush with egg yolk for shiny appearance.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 22 minutes.
Garnish, if desired. (Fresh dill sprig looks great.)
Serve warm with crackers.
Yield: 16 appetizer servings.


Weekend Herb Blogging

Lunching South of the Border. Today I enjoyed the newly opened Saylor's South of the Border. OK, no dill in site here either. But one of the side benefits of blogging is that I'm choosing more interesting entrees. Without observation, I might pick a rather boring old favorite like tacos, but I ventured out to have a chili relleno, even after being warned that it was a bit spicy.



It was excellent, with just the right spicing to make it interesting without the need of fire hose cooling. I also liked the crisp fresh salad which had sliced fresh carrots and red and green bell peppers.


The cheery interior ambiance was also quite soothing. I would definitely visit again.

Eric's Tsing Tao. A new Chinese restaurant has opened in San Rafael, Eric's Tsing Tao or Tsing Tao Eric's - it was hard to deciper the order from the various renditions. I was half-searching for a restaurant which may have a dish using dill, but once I saw the photo of the Strawberry Crushed Ice with Ice Cream, my fate was sealed. It looked nearly identical to a Japanese dessert that I enjoyed many years ago. So in I went. Since there were no 'plates' suited to a single diner, I determined that I would just have to order what I wanted and take some home for a later meal.



Eric's is a simple menu, for example there was only one choice of fried rice on the menu "Eric's". It was quite tasty with a mix of chicken, beef and pork with egg and onion.



I ordered chicken asparagus as the main dish, it was very fresh, but the sauce (with a black bean note) was a little more sharp tasting than I prefer.


Finally, the reason I chose Eric's Tsing Tao -- the dessert. There was an article on the window outside touting "Taiwanese Street Food" and this selection was on the menu below the glass which I assumed was that theme. Basically this dish consists of a mound of freshly crushed ice, with strawberries, ice cream and sweetened condensed milk on top. This mimics the dessert I was so fond of in Japan, the difference being that in Japan it's usually served in a footed clear glass bowl that's deeper and it's more round and pointy with artistic flair. Eric's rendition also had some kind of other syrup in the base once you dug in a bit, a nice taste, but I couldn't identify it.

Changing Look. Out with the old, in with the new! I'm making changes to the look and other elements of Anna's Cool Finds in hope that it will allow for greater flexibility and the ability to add comments. It may take a few days to update all the sidebar links, but they will be back! In the meantime, I've uploaded a photo I have on file that shows my favorite bird friend, the snowy egret who often greets me by my deck in the mornings.

Week Long Celebration of Weekend Herb Blogging. I found doing the herb blogging yesterday as part of an event quite engaging and discovered that next weekend marks the one-year anniversary of the start of Weekend Herb Blogging with Kalyn. Kalyn will be doing a week-long retrospective leading up to the anniversary weekend and is hosting a favorite herb contest. I thought all evening about it, and finally chose dill as my favorite.

I've decided to 'vote early and often' by consciously including dill in my diet and blog repeatedly over this week leading up to the big day on Sunday. If it is my -- favorite -- then I should be able to eat it with abandon all throughout such a short time frame, you think?

After my morning meetings at Marin Professionals, I've returned to catch some lunch before going to volunteer some blood at the Marin Blood Center (of the Pacific) who are desperate enough to contact me for it, even though through all the sticks and pricks over the last 8-odd years they've never been able to draw anything from me. Knowing it is such a need, I'm game again if they are.



Needing to prepare some lovely white, variegated and purple eggplants last evening, I prepared them by salting and leaving in a colander for 30 minutes, rinsing then brushing with nice organic olive oil before grilling on the barby. This set me up perfectly for today's wrap!

Colorful organic eggplant, tomato and dill havarti wrap

In honor of Kalyn's South Beach diet theme, I've used La Tortilla Factory's high fiber/low carb tortillas for the wrapper.

1 tortilla (low carb!)
2 slices grilled eggplant
1 vine-ripened organic tomato slice
1 wedge dill Havarti cheese

Arrange it for eye appeal (it helps fill you up!), then re-arrange for wrapping, do so, and bon appetit!

Weekend Herb Blogging

Secrets of the Yamaimo. This is my first participation in a food blogging event -- Weekend Herb Blogging hosted by Kayln. I bought some yamaimo (mountain or long potato) as I had planned to make some handmade soba noodles using it as the binder instead of wheat, but that's quite a project so I decided to use it in other ways. I haven't experimented with this yet, but I also suspect that vegans might enjoy using yamaimo as a subsitute binding agent for eggs in some recipes.

Yamaimo was first cultivated in China, but made its way to Japan where it has been cultivated and appreciated ever since. Handling it can cause itchy hands (not to mention itchy lips!), but that can be overcome by using gloves when peeling the bumpy light brown skin off it and either liquefying it by grating, or slicing much like jicima. Yamaimo is also used in Chinese herbal medicine for several indications, one of the more interesting being anti-aging. This probably arises from the fact that the root contains 0.012% of diosgenin (a natural DHEA), and antioxidants as well.

I made two preparations for your viewing pleasure this afternoon ( and for my lunch!) One is a very plain soup. The recipe is to grate about 4" of peeled yamaimo, liquefying it, then adding a packet of iriko (dried anchovy) dashi (soup stock) mix and 1/3 cup boiling water. Chill, garnish as you like and sip (taking care not to get too much on the outside of your lips or you will itch!). Garnishes may include decorations like thinly sliced raw okra or green onion, or may be more substantial like tekka (raw tuna) chunks. Here's what the plain soup looks like:




This yamaimo soup may also be used to make tororo soba, that is cool soba noodles with this as a dipping/slurping sauce. So although I didn't get to making the soba noodles with it, I'm still incorporating soba into the dish! It's popular and healthy, and my results looked like this:



Ohhh! I was trying to get this written under the gun and didn't use my gloves =scratch-scratch=!

I have not been able to get the comment function to work properly on this blog, but if you would like to contact me, my e-mail address is anna at annalou dot com.

Tagged with Weekend Herb Blogging: WHB

Have your bagel and eat it too. Like bagels? Me too, but I don't often indulge as it's hard to justify eating nearly your entire day's carb allowance in one fell swoop. The typical behemoth bagel packs in 363 calories, 70.7 carbs while containing a mere 3.1 grams of fiber. Kinda makes you feel like a troll to start off the day! The Alternative Bagel qualifies as a cool find and delicious way to start the day in that its stats are a more moderate 110 calories, 25 carbs, and a whopping 8 grams of fiber. And they have good mouth-feel too. Another nice way to start the day is with Humble Gourmet products. The Humble Gourmet produces jelly/jam and other preserves which it sells from local farmer's markets and on-line. They use the small-batch method and the flavors are impressive. Pictured is a small jar of their "Pluot" jam, and Peppermint Honey.

English Caramel Tea. Yesterday morning, Jo-Ann called me as I was signing the check for my breakfast and suggested getting together for tea. I suggested having it at my house as I have a pantry closet with about three shelves full and I wanted to try out my new French Coffee press with loose leaf tea. Besides, it was a beautiful day to sit on the deck and sip. I quickly picked up some apple-cinnamon rugelach at Bell Market in Tiburon to go with the tea, and headed home.

We tried a couple of my blends, but I broke out my favorite to end with, L'Epicier's English Caramel. My host sister Mika introduced me to this in Japan, and it was love at first sip. Although it has a French name, it is a Japanese company that makes it, and recently the company has become "Lupicia". Mika sends me 'care' packages of it, and I hoard it for special occasions. It was lovely.

Breakfast at the New Morning Cafe. Having spent far too much time indoors and at the computer lately, I decided to go to one of my favorite towns, Tiburon, for breakfast and enjoy the beautiful weather. It really is a beautiful day in Marin. Sitting by a window, with the sun streaming in, I was pleasantly surprised by a nice choice of tea. The New Morning Cafe stocks several varieties of Twinings Tea, and serves it in a real teapot. That is an advance on most places, an improvement would be having loose tea with proper pre-warmed pot and cup which sends me over the top with delight. I chose Earl Grey.

My mother loved Corned Beef Hash and made it fresh for weekend breakfasts when I was a child, so I ordered the freshly made Corned Beef Hash and Eggs from the menu. It was made from scratch and very good. The chef cooked the eggs just right as well.




It was really funny that after starting a new blog that deals with issues of the day (The Lull Before the Storm), I overheard quite the political conversation in the restaurant. I chronicled my experience of that on the other site.

Chirashizushi at Amberjack's. Sometimes it's the parking. You intend to go one place, but no parking there, and as luck has it, a rare spot opens up on a usually difficult street. Such is how I ended up dining at Amberjack Sushi in Mill Valley this evening.

The staff were really friendly and quite prompt. They served a nice miso broth to start (short on ingredients but the broth was well-flavored).

There was quite a lively crowd at the bar, and it looked well frequented by neighborhood folk who were very friendly with each other and the staff.

The miso was followed by my first course, an appetizer off their specials board, beef asparagus rolls. It took a while to come out from the kitchen, but it was tasty and well seasoned.



The chirashizushi was ok, but nothing to write home about. There was an interesting inclusion of mixed green salad mix under the egg. I'm so used to traditional tastes, this wasn't a positive for me. I would have far prefered a shiso leaf. The fish was fresh -- my test is the saba. That can be REALLY FISHY if not fresh, and this one passed my taste test. Cool and smooth the pieces slid down my throat. I would have also have paid a little more attention to centering the presentation so that it lined up with the design of the laquered bowl rather than having it fall to the blank seam between the designs. But that's a small thing. It was my first visit, so I'll have to try it a couple more times to see if it's consistent, especially since the Yelp review was not so encouraging.

Chicken Pasta Pomodoro. Tried out a new product -- Kashi's Chicken Pasta Pomodoro for lunch. It claims: Honest Ingredients - True Sustenance - Naturally Flavorful. I've had Kashi's breakfast cereals before and have been favorably impressed. What would the frozen microwaved meal hold in the way of taste? I was pleasantly surprised. The 7-grain pasta that they use holds up well and still has bite to it after cooking, and the zucchini tasted unusually good for previously frozen as well. It was slightly soupy as you can see from the photo, but it's hard not to be a little when the product goes through the freezing/microwaving process. All in all a nice quick lunch with a punch of fiber (6 grams).




I'd like to also note a couple things -- notice the reference to the Iraq War Cost is gone, and a new link added for The Lull Before the Storm. When I started this blog, it was really an experiment, and intended to cover a wide variety of topics, tied in with "new and cool", however, it tended towards a food blog covering Marin County and sometimes San Francisco Bay area, with some travel commentary and musings on daily life. At one point I made a shift to concentrating this blog on those topics, but it really left me no place for other musings. It did seem a little discordant to intersperce posts about dead African babies with brioche 0000! Or techie crunch with the cereal. Soooo.. today was born my alternate blog, The Lull Before the Storm. It will cover 'creeping' issues -- those that fly under the radar or are big ones that started out small... musings, summaries and plausible solutions... It will probably not have the frequency of posting as this one, but I hope it will raise some questions and point to some innovative paths.

Venturing out for lunch. In Sausalito again today, I ventured over to Kitti's Place for lunch. My neighbor who is a food writer for a local Marin newspaper recommended this hidden gem to me about a year ago, and this was my second visit. Kitti's Place still doesn't have its own website that I can locate. I think it must not have seen the need because when a place is quite good, word of mouth usually brings the crowds in.

It was a busy lunch time at 12:30, and with such beautiful weather a number of guests enjoyed lunch outside under the big green umbrellas.

Kitti's has a well-rounded menu from sandwiches to more traditional Thai food. I was also impressed with their full page of weekly specials. I ordered off the specials menu. I chose the squash and red pepper soup to start.




The soup was hot and delicious and had an edge of spiciness to it without going overboard.


I enjoyed lamb satay marinated in apricot chutney with saffron rice and a cool crisp salad that had jicima and carrot straws on top. The meat had a well-marinated taste, not just like someone brushed the top while it was grilling. It was threaded on the skewers with zucchini, red pepper and onion as well. If you like lamb, you'll love this dish, but you'll have to hurry as the week ends for this specials grouping on September 23rd.

Breakfast with Dad. After Dad's eye treatment this morning, we decided to pop in to the Corte Madera Cafe for breakfast. It has been awhile since my last visit, since it's slightly off my beaten path, but I remembered it as good. The atmosphere makes you feel as though you are in a little country place with a chicken theme and painted backboard part way up the wall. It is clean, cheerful and friendly, and the proprietors obviously care about giving people a good experience. There are fresh flowers gracing a small table near the center railing, as well as beautiful hanging flower arrangements on the outside beckoning you to enter.

They obviously have a bias towards the fresh as both Dad and I originally had decided on dishes containing spinach, and we were informed because of the recall and doubt about fresh spinach it was temporarily not available. Dad enjoyed a 3-egg omelet containing ham, mushrooms and avacado.


I quickly scanned the menu after being disappointed that the scramble containing spinach and feta was not available and settled on the Eggs Benedict. There is a choice of hash browns or home fries and we both chose home fries. I am usually a bit wary of home fries as so often they are underdone on one side, and burnt on the other. However, I was delighted to find that Corte Madera Cafe does an excellent job on the home fries. They were cooked to perfection, golden brown on all sides without being over or under cooked, and were paired with yellow bell peppers and onion. Nice.

The proprietor kept an eye on the floor, and was friendly with the guests, filling in when the waiter looked busy to keep the flow going. I've been here several times in the past, and had positive impressions each time.