My WHB post. Well, it's late Friday night, and I've finally gotten home from Napa and Sonoma through all the flooding and closed roads! Yikes! What a night in Southern Sonoma/Northern Marin counties! I went to meet Linda for her birthday wish of a spa day at the Silverado Spa in the afternoon. The service and services are impeccable and oh so relaxing! Then off to dinner at Shiso, a delightful Japan-esque Asian fusion restaurant in Sonoma. Then I came home with the navigational efforts from my friend Daniel at his desk in Berkeley and the kind CalTrans gentleman who stopped and asked if I needed help! Yes! How to find a road not flooded out/closed. He steered me well and I'm alive to write this post for Saturday!

So most of my ingredients were picked up a the San Rafael Farmer's Market (Sunday), the eggs, yuba and tofu all were purchased there. Fresh yuba to die for! The recipe is actually quite simple. I took a cake of medium firm tofu, well drained and mixed in a package of beech mushrooms and two eggs beaten. Probably one egg would have been enough, but I wanted to be sure the mix held together well.

Then I opened up a piece of fresh yuba (the package had three sheets) and filled it with a third of the tofu mixture and wrapped it. Yuba is proportionally high in protein and low in carbs. This is great for those wanting a wrapper without the grain products/gluten.

I lined the steamer bottom with parchment paper, and placed the wrapped tofu in them and steamed for about fifteen minutes.

So I just took it out of the steamer and plated it, drizzling with ponzu (soy citrus) sauces and adding some mixed green salad to the plate.

Here is what it looks like cut open. It's a healthy and delicious entree that is quite hearty. And I have the pleasure of hosting Weekend Herb Blogging this week!

My herb is the yuba, which is basically the skin that forms on thick, heated soy milk that's carefully removed and folded. It's usually found in dried form, which is soaked in water to reconstitute. Fresh is best though, and I am so lucky to find it at the Farmer's Market!

Yuba has the same great nutritional qualities as the soy milk it's made of -- high in protein and a goodly amount of calcium, low in sugars/carbs.

If you would like to participate this week, send me your entry before 3 p.m. Mountain Time on Sunday, you'll make the round up here and be part of the drawing for a food-related book!

Dessert First. Well I didn't have this Chocolate Lava Cake with Blood Orange Sorbet first, but if I'd have known, I would have been tempted. Lucky for me, Sachiko and I had just enough room after our feast at Betelnut to share this.

Actually we started with the 5-Spice Edamame. These were nicely spiced and garlicy. This promised good things to come.

Yes, this is Yuppified Asian Fusion, but what a fun atmosphere, and the flavors were good. A nice place to meet people, and to eye them too... and why not over something called "Happy Buddha Dumplings?" These were great vegetarian bites that included corn, tofu, fried shallots and kaiware sprouts.

And a couple of nice drinks like "Pink Lotus" and "Green Tea Lemonade" (with a kick) made the food glide down and the sights glide by. But my eyes stayed glued to the awesome Green Papaya Salad which included (besides green papaya) shrimp, grapefruit, herbs and "nuoc cham". These flavors blended into a beautiful crispness that I could go back for.

Another thing I'd go back for is the Firecracker Shrimp. These are also 5-spiced and come with a very smooth sambal dipping sauce. I don't know what is in the sambal, but I could dip everything into it, it's so nearly irresistable.

Then there was the Indonesian Mee Goreng with chicken, shrimp, tofu, cabbage and spicy soy. This was good, but a little less inspired than some of the other dishes we sampled. It made a nice foil though to the other flavors.

If you are looking for a fun atmosphere - warm, happy, bustling, and inobtrusive and good service, and some fun flavors with drinks, this is a nice place to stop. However, reservations are recommended as there was a large crowd waiting in the lobby even on a weeknight!

Service slippage. Caffe Oggi has been a favorite place, but I haven't been here for some time. Dad & I went the other day expecting to enjoy the usual friendly service and good food. The service was at best, indifferent. In fact the man behind the counter provided the worst service I've experienced in some time at any restaurant. The owner was in a corner, talking animatedly in Italian and not noticing. The restaurant was not crowded, so that wouldn't be cause. I was hard pressed to figure out why this man was so slow and surly, and indifferent to the woman standing behind me as well. This was extremely disappointing, and if it weren't for the food, I would say not to bother going.

My favorite vegetable fritatta with Swiss chard was as delicious as ever, the vegetables melded together softly with egg. The Swiss chard was nicely sauteed with garlic and olive oil.

Dad had the scrambled eggs with Italian sausage and Swiss chard. He enjoyed it too and commented on the generous portion of the sausage and how flavorful it was. Now, all that is needed is for the staff to get some training in customer service.

Previous reviews of Caffe Oggi:
April 9, 2007
August 30, 2006

Hosting Weekend Herb Blogging this week. Kalyn dreamed up this event a couple years ago over at Kalyn's Kitchen. Now if you have an inkling to participate this week, by making a post about any herb, plant, vegetable or flower - just remember to follow the rules, as I've been sent a reminder from Kalyn that this is part of my hosting duty. The rules are simple, yet keeps the event what it is!


But I want to inject some extra fun into it this week and see if we can break a record! If you would like a chance at winning a food-related book, do participate this week, and let's see if we can break a record for the number of participants! So once I've checked an entry for the 'rules', I'll put your e-mail address into a hat, and after the round up is made on Sunday, a winner will be drawn and I'll send an e-mail to notify and post the winner's name on my blog. What book? Well that will be a little mystery, but knowing me, it may be a little off-beat.


I've had a lot of fun with Weekend Herb Blogging, my first post for the event was on the yamaimo, back on September 24, 2006 (the first food photo above). And since then I've participated in the event with a Dill Havarti Sandwich, Dill Cream En Croute, Lamb and Herb Soup featuring dill again, and a German Cucumber and Potato Soup, with yes, dill again. I had to put dill in some Dilled Corn and Potato Salad for WHB before finally moving on to another herb. Yes, I really like dill! I featured celery in a Celery Cous Cous which makes a superb side dish, then got adventurous with a Chard Skillet Saute. I then went natively exotic with Sunchokes Gratin, followed by Sesame Salsify. I then went on a soy binge for Weekend Herb Blogging, showing how to make soy milk and tofu from scratch, and featuring a Hiyashi Tofu recipe. I had to do something with all that soy bran, so the next time I entered Tropical Okara Granola into Weekend Herb Blogging. That was followed by a Herbed Cheese Log which featured parsley, then Boursin Stuffed Peppadews featuring peppadews of course, next up was Spicy Spinach Salad with chocolate dressing discussing serrano peppers, and then my fun Cucumber Cups (pictured above) got a lot of attention when a Finish food publisher asked to reprint, suggesting replacing the cucumber juice with vodka.. go figure.


I continued to enjoy this event, and went on to post about broccoli in Broccoli & Boconccini Salad, next blogging about Ginger-scented Orange Roughy featuring ginger, only to find that I should be sparing the poor overfished orange roughy! I then went on to make a New World Raclette, featuring Swiss chard. Then I went a little wild featuring basil in Basil Kelp Salad (pictured above). I repeated the basil theme with a pesto from basil growing on my deck in my '0' Mile Meal post. I then featured green onions in an egg muffin recipe that was a variation of one of Kalyn's favorites. Sprouts were featured next in Moyashi, then on to a fall stir fry featuring orange bell peppers.


For the second anniversary of Weekend Herb Blogging, I blogged about a whole meal featuring a salad with ginger poached chicken (pictured above) and two herbs, mint and arugula. Kabocha was the featured centerpiece of a stuffed kabocha dish. Then a gift of porcini from a friend inspired me to post about porcini sauteed in butter and garlic over toast. I then went off the deep end and ordered four shitake mushroom growing kits for the kitchen (what was I thinking!), and blogged about the experience. I found an interesting green at the Farmer's Market, tatsoi and made Tatsoi sauteed with mushrooms and garlic over homemade zaru tofu for my last post of 2007. I then blogged about bitter melon in a post featuring that truly bitter vegetable in a stir fry. And for some reason my post last week didn't make it into the round up, but it was about making a meal from the local Farmer's Market.

Obviously, I've had a lot of fun with this event over the past couple years, and invite you to have fun with me this week!

A Taste of Terroir. Here follows the round up for the 2nd annual "A Taste of Terroir". The contributions have been excellent, and you will enjoy exploring each and every post.

Europe


I start with Europe because the first person to respond with an entry was Ulrike from Küchenlatein in Northern Germany who even includes a video on the making of Berliner Pfannkuchen (Berlin Pancakes)! Find out about the joke that is played on New Year's Eve with these.

United States


Moving west from Europe, the next entry came from Alaska. I'm not sure how much further west you could go without becoming east from there! Laurie from Anchorage who writes the blog, Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska, blogged about the best ways to freeze and thaw fish in her post that includes a mouthwatering recipe for Pomegranate Salmon and Parsley Couscous Pilaf. Even if you only thaw fish from Trader Joe's, this is well worth using her tips.


Holly who writes Phemomenon from Utah brings us World Famous Lion House Rolls giving us some historical perspective and still current popularity. These look good enough to eat off the page, no wonder they show up at every celebration!


Robert from al forno Charleston wrote about heirloom grits, which I can relate to very well having been brought up by a southern mother. Charleston, South Carolina is a place I've visited and it holds a number of culinary surprises. He also takes us through proper cooking technique, and if you ever want to attempt authentic southern grits, you'd best bookmark his post!


Moving north again, Manuela gives us the secret of her state's official dessert: Boston Creme Pie, hailing from Massachusetts. Her blog is called Baking History: A Taste for the Past and she does a good job of the history as well as the baking as you can see from the photo.


While across the country, in Marin County, California, I was burning up the pixels documenting the terroir around making Breakfast Cheese, handmade in the oldest continuously running cheese factory (since 1865).

Phillipines


Gay who is the scientist in A Scientist in the Kitchen shows us a local dish that would be difficult to replicate anywhere else, the particular shrimp species being very geographically distinct. She contributes the directions for making Ginataang hipon: Freshwater shrimps in coconut milk.

Australia


Anna from Morsels and Musings writing from Sydney, Australia brings us a trio of famous local foods in the same recipe! Emu with pepperberry & rosella sauce is the one, and she describes the unfamiliar spices so distinctively that I can almost taste them.

India


Priya from Food and Laughter, writing from India, takes us on an amazing regional culinary journey ending with detailed instructions on making a special Halwa. Beyond the very local and intimate information, her food descriptions are so apt that they bring you right out of present time into the local colors, flavors and sensations of her world.

What a wonderful journey around the world! Thanks to all who participated with such well-written and documented posts, and I hope those reading will enjoy the variety and depth of each post.

It's time! A Taste of Terroir is being hosted here, with a round up in the next couple days, but first, I have to make a post on my corner of the world.

The Marin French Cheese Company seemed to be a very appropriate choice to blog about for this event since it is the oldest continuingly operated cheese factory in the United States!

I knew I found the product when I read the sign saying that the Breakfast Cheese started it all, being handmade since 1865, right here in Marin. And the milk comes from cows grazing here on the grass which has been fed by the sun in the same part of the sky that shines on my home as well. My Dad and I also tried one of the goat cheeses, which is made from Marin County goats milk too.

There is a lovely picnic ground next to the store.

The grounds are spacious and have picnic tables near the pond, and also in back of the store in a lovely green field. There is a deli as well as all kinds of nice accompaniments to cheese, such as crackers, salamis, olives, and of course wine. There is seating inside as well, but if you want to enjoy the wine with your cheese, you'll have to have it outside.

Because it is still January, although beautiful, it was too cold to sit outside, so Dad and I had our cheese snack in the deli area.

We had the famous Breakfast Cheese that started it all. It had a nice smooth texture, creamy but not too 'fatty' tasting. The proprietor who spoke several languages to visitors while I was there, noted to me that the Petit Dejeuner has basically the same flavor, but has added cream. A sample of that at the counter proved her correct.

We also tried the Yellow Buck Chevre. It was lovely and had that after-effect in the nose after each bite like a camembert.

And what other treasures are there to be found in this rustic factory?

Well besides the usual cutsie stuff (cow power aprons, etc.) there was a very inviting display of Rouge et Noir Brie cheeses with some champagne.

And some mild, spreadable quark in various flavors.

And Les Petits, including the Petit Dejeuner mentioned earlier. All in all, it was a beautiful day, a beautiful drive, and such a touch of localness in this delicious Marin French place. Stay tuned for a round up soon of the others who have contributed to this event.

Thai Restaurant Update. Marin is fortunate to have a large number of very good Thai restaurants. I've been very happy to discover that most of our Thai choices in Marin are consistently inventive, and delicious! I last summarized a list of reviews on September 13, 2007. Links to my reviews or other information about the restaurants appears organized by city below.

Thai Restaurants I've discovered

Corte Madera
Tub Tim Thai

Larkspur
R'Noh Thai
Tha Siam

Mill Valley
Thep Lela

Novato
Cafe Bankok
Chao Praya

Sausalito
Arawan Thai Cuisine
Kitti's Place
Thai Terrace

San Anselmo
Lanna Thai Restaurant
Orchid Thai

San Rafael
Bay Thai Cuisine
Citrus & Spice
Jhan Tong
Magnolia Thai Cuisine
My Thai
Royal Thai Restaurant
Signature Thai
Thai Smile

Thai Restaurants I've yet to try

Fairfax
Cafe Lotus
Siam Lotus

San Rafael
Bankok Thai Express
Thai House

Other Greater Bay Area Thai places I've reviewed

San Francisco
Be My Guest

Sonoma
Rin Thai