Oakside Cafe. After a false start to "Le Metro" in the Castro, which included dizzying circling for parking to discover the 'breakfast' place closed we settled at the Oakside, very much a neighborhood place, a place not found by searching the Chron food section. It's a place so grown into its surroundings, it can easily be passed and only found when looking back over your shoulder. It's the kind of place you cannot find a photo of on the Internet, and I don't know if I have the energy to circle around and around for parking to snap one and edit this post later... It is a home madeover -- tucked in the back corner is a counter with big blackboard overhead stating the offerings.

There are bread goods/pastries/cookies organized in cute baskets on one counter, and an entire display case is devoted to pirozhki. They have a big basket of bagels in the middle and a large section of the blackboard is devoted to the various toppings, so that's what we chose to have with soya (yeah!) latte and hot chocolate - Dad's fav. The drinks come in large glass cups with 'Altoid' advertisement sleeves to protect hands from the heat. Now that's unique advertising - give cup sleeves to independent coffee houses. Each Altoid sleeve came with a small sample packet of Altoid mini's attached.

The interior had walls and ceilings painted bright colors, blue intersecting with purple and bright yellow mottled down the side of the staircase and into the lower floor. Now you know why the different colors in today's post. We were quite early, perhaps the second customers of the day. As we sipped our drinks at a brightly colored round tables, I observed the other decor, and patrons. The furniture looked like it escaped my Mom's living room in the 60's. Captain's chairs (yes Mom was right, they are comfortable), funny little side tables, rectangular with a second level on a third of it and carved ball like legs. Hanging high from the ceiling were four completely mismatched lights/chandalier's including a stained glass "coke" one. A couple sat next to us, the gentleman with a long gray beard, flashing brown eyes and a black beret worthy of a Parisian. One of the men standing in line looked like he might be a linebacker escaped -- after visiting a tattoo parlor. Someone came in with a grandfatherly looking gentleman, and a woman with a young child came in to get some takeout bagels.

Now we're out of that character-filled place, and I discovered it was just kitty-cornered from a DMV, and yes, my Dad lost his wallet yesterday with credit cards & ID which kept me hopping. So we spent a good chunk of the rest of our time sitting in line watching for his number to pop up. It will be 4-6 weeks for his new ID to come.

Believe it or not I managed to get the hospital thing done, all the above afterwards, then bring Dad home, start a load of laundry and fix Dad a nutritious lunch and cover it with plastic wrap in the refrigerator with written heating instructions taped on top and a DO NOT FORGET TO EAT label on some specially prepared fruit AND I still managed to get to work by 10:30 a.m. I'm definitely getting better :-).

Tonight I made dinner at home, it was an abalone mushroom and french white mushroom with crab sauce over spaghetti al dente accompanied by steamed broccoli spears. I have to admit, the sauce came out of cans mixed together. However, the unique mushroom pasta sauce was a prepared sauce I found by carefully examining interesting canned goods in my local Japanese supermarket. It was a nice light sauce, wine, herbs and olive oil with the above-mentioned interesting mushrooms. I just added a can of crabmeat and it was quite fine.

The other night I made my Mom's famed eggplant dish -- think eggplant parmeasan lightened and with some killer fresh extras! Dad was really happy since it's been a few years since I attempted it. It keeps well afterwards, and although I halved the recipe we had plenty of leftovers. I even shocked my friends at the office by bringing some in for lunch to reheat in the microwave.

I have noticed that breakfast reviews and information is sadly lacking in the bay area, and even some of it is misleading. Searching for 'breakfast' can list those only serving brunch on weekends in the mix. Also I found it quite interesting that some that are open everyday start breakfast at 9:00 a.m. and what do their patrons do for a living?

Home Plate. Back in the Marina, at the corner of Pierce & Lombard is "Home Plate". A very homey, even run down place, it had favorable reviews, and the breakfast was good. The decor was awful, it needed a paint job, and the walls were decorated with faded photos of baseball players/scenes. Dad enjoyed the banana-walnut pancakes, while I ventured into one of the specialties Savory Fresh Corn Cakes with bell peppers and salsa (and chili powder). It was a nice find, and the hot raisin scones they serve with fresh strawberry jam nearly when you sit down were very good as well. The waitstaff were also quite friendly. And they apologized profusely for charging $153.55 on the credit card rather than $15.35 on the first try....

The Grove. This morning our breakfast adventures took us into the San Francisco Marina District. As I was driving down Chestnut, I spied a man lifting a very large white cup to his lips through a large window. Ah ha! A place open for breakfast. At 7:45 a.m. there is plenty of parking in the Marina, quite the difference from any later day parking experience. The Grove is a unique neighborhood cafe, with rough hewn wood furniture and eclectic old pieces with a woodsy feel decorating it. It it is well worn, first noticed by the threadbare cushions lining the bench in front of the window. One of the more remarkable pieces is a mirror that is framed in birch bark attached with copper brass tacks, and rimmed with rounded wood as though branches were just halved and used as is. It definitely had a masculine feel to it, and guess what? Other than the female bussing the tables, the entire place was filled with men. Now that's quite interesting considering the demographic of the Marina, reputed to have the highest concentration of single professional women in the city. (And by my evening observation, the highest ownership of high strung well dressed and groomed dogs.) Do all the women cook breakfast at home? Are these men all from the Marina, or did they gather there hoping to meet one of out of the throng of single women residing there? The man behind the counder was very friendly and asked me questions as I was ordering the Country Eggs (eggs - poached I think as they were just too perfectly round to be cracked naturally over the croissant - on top of croissant which is on top of a thin slice of Niman Ranch ham, topped with white cheddar and bits of green, broiled or toasted). He was trying to determine if I was a local or visiting... he brightened up when I said I was more local than not, but usually enjoyed dinner rather than breakfast in the Marina. Dad found a place on the wooden bench in front of the window with the cushions, and I sat opposite bringing him his steaming hot chocolate and my mocha. He chose to sit next the the two men eating in animated conversation, all suited up for the day. I couldn't help but overhear bits of their conversation and found it quite amazing how they kept swinging wildly from the very personal and intimate discussion of various women in their lives, and business pursuits, as in strategic, detailed marketing discussions. I found myself wondering if men have two distinct brains that they can switch back and forth from without any transition? I do know that I'm going to call my friend living in the Marina who is always wondering where to meet men... I'll have to tell her to just walk a couple blocks to The Grove between 7-8 a.m. and there's no doubt she'll be quite popular!

This was rather a long day... getting up at 5:00 a.m., shepherding Dad through the multi-appointment/treatment day at UCSF. I was so fatigued and headachy I crashed upon getting home and slept for two hours until a friend called. And I thought it was the patient who was supposed to experience the fatigue -- Dad wanted to see a movie after a full day at the hospital. I'm afraid I didn't fulfill that wish for him today. But we did see "War of the Worlds" yesterday as a matinee, and we both enjoyed it. I'm afraid we didn't try out any new breakfast places either, we enjoyed a quick bite between appointments at the UCSF cafeteria about 7:30 a.m. Now I must say it gets thumbs up for hospital food. Short post, but time for some zzzzs for me. 5 a.m. continues to be early to rise.

4th of July!

And we're ready for it! Starting out this morning by making breakfast pizza -- fresh garlic & herb pizza crust covered with turkey ham, egg beaters and fontina cheese for a lighter version.

The weather is really beautiful! The forecasters were calling for 50-50 fog conditions tonight which could affect the fireworks, but I think we're going to be fine.

Noticing that my blog shows my life to have changed from exciting flying, sailing, world-view type adventures to more domesticity. I can be counted on to clip my wings for my family when necessary. And it has its own joys. I love to cook, but hate cooking just for myself. Since Dad's moved in it's been a 180-degree turn around so that I'm cooking home most of the time, despite our enjoyable forays out. Forensic evidence can be noticed just by observing the amount of dishwasher detergent that is being used. I was shocked to find that in about 2 weeks of Dad's moving in, I had used more dishwasher detergent than I had in the past 1 year! Ditto the dishwashing liquid.

11:08 p.m.

Miss Olivia, ever the hit of the party trying on the tiara I gave her.

Wow. What a wonderful party we had in Sausalito. Everything was perfect. The Chamber of Commerce contact greeted us and had two of the best tables available for us, in the shade, but yet dead center to the fireworks display and angled to have a decent view of the band. The band was great, and people were dancing and it was fun to see all the other inventive table decorations and feasts. Some were very fancy with real china and goblets - candles even. I would say ours was the most themed. I had a bright red table cloth and two centerpieces of red, blue & silver stars shooting out of three tiers. Everyone thought our party poppers were quite cool (I bought a box of 72!) -- a loud crack! and then streamers of curly ribbon flew out. The bubble gun also was a hit with bubbles floating over the crowd. We had lots of wonderful wine, and we all brought just the right combination of appetizers, fruit and chocolately things for a leisurely noshing. The temperature and weather held out just right. Neither too hot or cold, and the fireworks were lovely! After ours we're done, we could actually see San Francisco's and Oakland's starting -- lovely! This was a holiday to remember!

Arrowhead Mills. Tried their brownies using rice flour for wheat. I used avocado oil that I had refrigerated and poured off just remaining liquid part as the oil, and they turned out moist and flavorful. I put a little cut out heart in the middle of two for lunch, and sprinkled powdered sugar over each and brought out as a special surprise for my Dad.

La Maison de la Reine. This Vietnamese restaurant in the Corte Madera Town Center has very good food, the chicken rice noodle soup is made with their own freshly made chicken stock which is excellent. The vermicelli bowls are a lunch time favorite. Linda and I met for lunch there prior to a shopping session yesterday-- Linda felt in the mood to shop and wanted some shoes. As usual, I ended up with some new shoes, and Linda did not find her pair.

Coleman Purely Natural. Had a little BBQ with Dad and friend Daniel last night. We tried a new product - Chicken, Spinach & Feta sausage on the grill. It tasted great, although the heated feta seemed to spurt wildly when the sausage was cut into. I also tried Nate's mushroom polenta. Although Dad & Daniel found it fine, I was disappointed that the product would not cook as directed and I had to make it in 'mush' style rather than in crispy rounds. All I can find out about Nate's Polenta is that is was aquired by Monterey Pasta Co. in 2000. Molly Stone's, a great local market was the source of the dinner ingredients, including fresh asparagus that I also grilled, and a cherry struedel that received raves.

Non-food items! Believe it or not, my favorte household chore (now do note that I don't consider cooking a chore) is clothes washing! A couple of my favorite products are:

Shout® Color Catcher™: Using these sheets really does prevent a lot of color seepage into other clothes and the clothes are brighter! I buy them by the case!

Linen water: There are any number of good brands or off brands that work well. I have found Ross or Marshall's to have a lot of inexpensive ones. You can probably make these yourself with a little essential oil dispersed in water. One of my brand favorites is L'Occitane's Verbena linen water. The clothes come out of the washer with a fresher more unique scent than many of the commercial laundry products leave. I use non-scented detergent, then scent with my favorites.

GHOSTLY SAN FRANCISCO

It's been so foggy, it's made me think of old scary ghost stories. Here's a local ghost tale from Discovery Travel Advenures.

An Affair of Honor

After her husband died and left her a good-sized fortune, Dominga de Goni Atherton left suburban San Francisco and moved into the city proper. She built the Atherton Mansion at Octavia and California streets in the exclusive Pacific Heights district in 1881. Dominga lived there with her son George, an aimless bumbler, and his wife Gertrude. George was somewhat of an embarrassment to the socially prominent Athertons, and the two strong-willed women with whom he lived constantly called his manhood into question. That is probably why, in 1887, he accepted an invitation to sail to Chile. Ostensibly he was going to visit friends, but in actuality he sought to prove his mettle and earn a place of honor in his family.

The trip proved to be his undoing. George Atherton developed kidney problems during the voyage and died. The ship's captain preserved George's remains by storing the body in a barrel of rum, which was shipped back to the Atherton household several weeks later.

George was duly dried out and buried, but shortly thereafter, his spirit apparently decided to avenge itself on the women who'd tormented him in life. Dominga and Gertrude reported being awakened at night by knocks at their bedroom doors and by a cold and disturbing presence. The phenomenon grew so troublesome that Dominga sold the mansion and moved out. Subsequent tenants also have been unsettled by phantom knockings and roaming cold spots. A séance conducted by a local psychic identified several spirits active in the house, including those of George and Dominga.

Where: 1900 California Street, San Francisco
Tours: San Francisco Ghost Hunt Walking Tours; (415) 922-5590; http://www.sfghosthunt.com/

Rose's Cafe. Having found a San Francisco favorite breakfast place (Cheer's Cafe on Clement) now vacant, I had to find a substitute adventure for breakfast with Dad.

Standing spritely on the corner of Union & Steiner in Cow Hollow is Rose's Cafe, and it's bright welcoming awnings and open door looked promising. The prices are a little upscale for a neighborhood restaurant, but the menu and surroundings were comparable. There were some inventive items to choose from, and we decided to try the breakfast pizza. What a delight. Fontina cheese, thinly sliced ham and two eggs with bright cheery yolks came atop a thin crispy wood-oven fired pizza crust. The cafe mocha and hot chocolate were served in white porcelain bowls reminding me of breakfast in Paris.

Vasco. Well, just skip it. Noisy, slow and mistaken service. Food - ho hum. On the bright side, it sits on a cozy corner in Mill Valley.

Dad did like the ice cream sandwich cookies for dessert though.

Big disappointment. For an unfortunate reason, I visited Seattle again earlier this month. My Aunt Winona passed. But it was a great opportunity to visit with relatives and get reacquainted with my many wonderful cousins. I spent some extra time with my cousin Shirley (Winona's daughter) going over her geneological research, and what I could remember of my efforts.

Shirley has really dug deep and verified a lot of facts, and debunked a favorite family legend. I was often reminded growing up that I was related to Sir Francis Drake, through my great-grandmother, Susan Drake, and I thought it rather romantic to be related to such a famous pirate! My father spent a lot of time reading about him, and was quite happy to find that there is a street named after him nearby in Marin, Sir Francis Drake Blvd. - and that the reason is because he actually voyaged here. Oh well. Big disappointment.

Apparently, we are rather related to a Dutch family that lived in New Amsterdam (New York city) named Draat? (I'll have to get the exact spelling from my cousin). So now that I've discovered some Dutch roots, I'll have to post a very homey Dutch recipe for Stamppot. Stamppot originated in the Dutch farmlands and there are many varieties. Basically, its boiled mashed potatoes with other interesting ingredients mashed right on in! And often some kind of sausage placed on top. Kale and endive are very popular stampot ingredients, and the result is quite delicious if you can get over eating a very green shade of potatoes.

Here's one recipe I like that uses carrots:

Hollandse Winter Stamppot

8 large wither carrots, peeled and sliced
3 very large onions, peel and cut into rings
3-4 cups water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp margarine (sunflower is preferred)
10 medium potatoes, peeled and cut up
3/4 cup margarine (again, sunflower is preferred)
1 cup pure maple syrup

Place the carrots and onions in a 6-quart Dutch oven, along with the water, 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp margarine. Boil until tender. Meanwhile, boil the potatoes until tender in a separate pot.

Drain the carrots and onions, reserving 1/3 cup of the boiling liquid. Return the carrots, onions and 1/2 cup reserved liquid to the Dutch oven. Drain the potatoes and add them to the Dutch oven. Mash the carrots, onions and potatoes until well incorporated. Add the 3/4 cup sunflower margarine and salt and pepper to taste. The dish should be a lovely orange color from the carrots. Heat the maple syrup and pour over the stamppot and enjoy. The addition of the syrup is a Friesian (Northern Netherlands) addition and children love it.

Crab Miso. I had a late bite with my friend Linda at Piatti's in Mill Valley this evening. Piatti has rechristened itself "Piatti Locali" and only uses ingredients from within 12 miles of the restaurant, and mostly, with a couple exceptions, organic. We tasted some tidbits of squash blossoms filled with ricotta and deep fried with a light coating of flour, and served over a tomato reduction. It was reminincent of my mother's special squash flower dish that she said was a special treat her grandmother made her in the early summer. Traditions passed down. I also had a nice chardonnay and white nectarines with prociutto.

I mentioned to Linda a miso soup - Crab Miso - that I'd made for my Dad as I'm trying to get as much miso in his diet as possible during his radiation treatments. It is supportive in minimizing radiation damage to healthy cells. So, I'm writing my recipe below for Linda and anyone else who thinks it looks good. It is good by the way :-). Oh, and I just made this one up on the fly, it's my own creation. The measurements aren't exact, as I was just pouring/adding things by look and feel.

Crab Miso

~4 cups filtered water
2 packets iriko dashi (Japanese dried anchovy soupbase packets)
1/2 yellow onion, peeled and sliced lengthwise into slivers
2 cremini mushrooms, brushed and sliced
generous handful of fresh baby spinach leaves
4-6 oz Dungeness or other crabmeat, shelled
2 yellow finn potatoes, peeled and sliced in medium pieces
2 rounds of fishpaste cake infused with burdock, sliced in slivers.
2 heaping tablespoons of yellow miso (golfball sized lump)
Optional: Minced green onions

Have two cooking pots out. In the smaller pot, fill with water leaving room to put cut potatoes. Bring the potatoes to a boil and cook until tender. When the potatoes are nearly done, add the sliced fishcake and cook a little longer. Drain in colander. While preparing the potatoes, fill the larger pot with the ~4 cups water, dashi, onion and mushroom, bring to a boil and simmer. When it looks like the potatoes are close to done, add the spinach and crabmeat to the larger pot and continue to simmer. Add the cooked potatoes and fishcake from the colander to the larger pot, and turn off the heat. Mix in the yellow miso to the larger pot a little at a time so it mixes in smoothly for a rich and lumpless broth.

The potatoes are cooked in a separate pot so that the starch that leaches into the water can be drained off and won't make an off taste in the delicate miso soup. The fishcake is preboiled with the potatoes because the fishcake is covered in an oily coating and most of it rinses off in the potato water, and drained out in the colander, so there will not be an oil slick in your finished miso.

You can also add some freshly minced green onions to the soup in the serving bowls for garnish.

This is a kind of "homestyle" or "country" Japanese dish, served in a larger ramen sized bowl as an entree. For a more formal, first-course kind of dish, one would increase the ration of liquid to solid ingredients, perhaps artfully float an unshelled crab claw in the middle, and use a baby mitsuba (Japanese parsley) leaf floating rather than the minced green onion... and it would be served in a lidded black lacquer bowl.

Mitsuba

In the terrible, there is still wiggle room for wonderful opportunities. Naturally it is terrible that my Father was diagnosed with bladder cancer, and going through this with him has been a challenge physically (he's moved in with me temporarily and needs a lot of daily living care), mentally (my memory is like a sieve now since I'm used to just keeping MY mental lists, and when I need to keep my father's too at unexpected times, mine leaks right out and I forget my own things) and emotionally (there are no brite-line answers with cancer these days and it's sure up and down about whether you've chosen the 'right' path for treatment).

In all this rushing about from treatment appointment to consulting appointment to pharmacist etc. there are these little holes of time and if one grabs them, you can build the most sparkling memories and joyous times. In between this and that, I've been creating unique breakfast adventures with my Dad. I've been trying to either make something different each day, or explore a new venue on the travel line between UCSF and my home in Mill Valley. This morning we grabbed an hour between appointments to enjoy breakfast at Poggio.

Poggio is a newish restaurant on the street level of the Casa Madrona Hotel. It was one of my favorite places to stay when I commuted to the bay area from Seattle before moving here. I even celebrated my 40th birthday at its previous amazing restaurant, Mikayla, which was on the top floor with a breathtaking view of Sausalito harbor. It's since been converted into a spa, and Poggio is the restaurant's replacement.

Poggio does not have a full-service breakfast, but you walk up to a charming marble topped bar and they have a selection of fresh, delectable pastries and breads, and a frittata of the day, as well as some organic steel cut oatmeal with the most succulent looking fresh berries for topping. The coffee is rich and well-flavored too, with free refills. The curly headed man serving us behind the bar said the record of refills was 20!

Dad and I chose the frittata, which rather than the usual pizza-looking egg concoction, was more like a crustless quiche. Ours was quite artful, with a filling of rigatoni and sundried tomatoes. The rigatoni made a lovely circle effect throughout the slice, and it looked as though each rigatoni had been stuffed with some sundried tomato filling. The slice was generous - I couldn't finish mine, and came with a couple thin slices of Italian peasant bread with pats of butter.

We sat in some comfortable wicker chairs, just on the line between the 'inside' and 'outside' of the restaurant on the sidewalk. We both faced the harbor and enjoyed the view of sailboats and lush purple flowering vegetation. All too quickly we had to hop up and run to the next doctor's appointment.

Burdock: Another one of my favorite unusual things. Of course, it is quite common in Japan, where I discovered it. My favorite way of making it is "kinpira gobo", which is slivered burdock and carrots stir fried and slightly simmered in sesame oil, mirin (sweet rice wine), and soy sauce, and sprinkled with sesame seeds. My Hokkaido Japanese family used to get quite a laugh when I would mistakenly describe the dish as cut up ningen and gobo (cut up people and burdock) instead of cut up ninjin and gobo (carrots and burdock).

Some folklore about kinpira gobo is that the dish is named for Kinpira Sakata who was superhuman . At that time, everything which was strong was called Kinpira. People who wish to be strong like Kinpira eat Kinpira-gobo! Actually, Sakata Kinpira is the name of a fictitious character in a "joruri" play (puppet drama) that gained popularity in the Edo period, who was depicted as a very strong man. Thus, the word kinpira was used to describe something strong.


I grew to love this dish so much, that I smuggled a couple roots home after my stay in Hiroshima as a high school student! Much to my surprise, my mother said she was quite familiar with the root, as her grandmother Coates who was quite an herbalist, dug up these roots in her native Kentucky to use in various herbal healing remedies.

I soon discovered that there is a lot of work involved in using fresh burdock. The roots are thin, and you have to scrape off all the outer coating, and then, the roots turn dark quite quickly! Keeping them soaking in cool water is the answer to that. However, I've found a much better answer these days. There are frozen packages of cut up burdock and carrots in the freezer of most local Japanese supermarkets! (My closest one is Nijiya). You just thaw quickly by taking the desired amount out of the bag and rinsing in a colander under running water! They are nice and evenly cut, and it makes the preparation a snap!

Going back to my Great-grandmother Emily Coates, naturally I begged my mother for more information about her healing remedies! Apparently, she was quite well-known for it, and when conventional doctors would give up and pronounce they could do no more (death or amputation expected) the local doctors would actually refer their patients to her! She saved many a life and limb from amputation according to my mother. On the other side of the family, earlier this month I heard from my Uncle Pat (Heath - I have 2 uncle Pat's, both born on St. Patrick's Day!), that my Grandmother Dorothy's family had an amazing healing salve called "sticking salve" that was composed of herbs, and just the last little bit in the family saved his leg from gangrene! Everyone is interested in the recipe for that one!

Of course I looked into the healing properties of burdock. I found a good, brief synopsis at Whole Health MD: "Burdock has traditionally been used for a wide variety of conditions, including chronic skin ailments, rheumatoid arthritis symptoms, and cancer prevention. Animal studies indicate that burdock possesses strong hypoglycemic (sugar-lowering) properties, which give burdock theoretical clinical potential for blood sugar control. Burdock has also been used as a diuretic, a mild laxative, and a digestive aid."

On top of being very tasty, it's nice to know it's such a healthful food!

Jellyfish make quite a tasty dish!

Dried jellyfish can be found in Chinese markets. It has quite a crispy texture, and picks up the flavor of the oils/dressing you add to it.

Here's a good recipe for beginners as it mixes the jelly fish with more familiar flavors.


Jellyfish~ daikon & chicken breast salad

Yield: 3 Servings Ingredients:

1/2 lb Dried salted whole -jellyfish
1 1-pound daikon radish
2 ts Salt
1/2 lg Chicken breast
1/2 Egg white
1 ts Cornstarch
1 ts Sesame oil
1/2 ts Salt
1 1/2 ts Sugar
2 ts Dry sherry
3 tb Peanut oil
2 tb Sesame oil
3 Scallions

Instructions:

Soak the jellyfish in a large bowl of cold water for 24 hours changing the water a couple of times. Peel the daikon with a vegetable peeler; slice thinly; stack slices and cut into matchstick shreds. Put into a mixing bowl toss with the 2 teaspoons of salt and let stand 1 hour. Meanwhile drain water from jellyfish. Pour boiling water over the jellyfish and let stand for 15 seconds. Drain and run under cold water. Set aside. Bone the chicken breast and slice thinly; cut slices into shreds. Mix chicken with the egg white cornstarch and teaspoon of sesame oil; refrigerate for 30 minutes. While the chicken is marinating cut jellyfish into the thinnest possible shreds by rolling up each sheet and slicing it thinly. Place in a large bowl. Wring most of the moisture from the daikon shreds; add to the bowl with the jellyfish. Heat 3 cups water in a saucepan. When boiling turn off the heat and add the chicken shreds stirring to separate the pieces. Simmer for 1 minute. Drain and rinse under cold water. Drain and add to the bowl with the jellyfish. Blend the salt and sugar with the wine until they dissolve. Heat the oils in a saucepan and add the seasoned wine. It will sputter and evaporate. When the oil is hot++don't let it smoke++turn off the heat and add the scallions. Cool. Toss with the salad just before serving.

In case you are wondering if there are any health benefits to jellyfish, can't say that I know anything specific on ingestion of them, but thought the following was interesting:

Jellyfish are key to new treatment for arthritis

Collagen extracted from cannonball jellyfish has been found to relieve the onset and pain from rheumatoid arthritis. Dr. Peggy Hsieh has conducted preliminary testing that shows cannonball jellyfish collagen holds great promise for bringing relief from this debilitating, chronic disease. Dozens of food and pharmaceutical companies worldwide have expressed interest in marketing a commercialized product, if Hsieh’s research continues to confirm her results with a clinical study.

It all started over dinner at The Red Grape in Sonoma. After finishing an always WOW "Gorgonzola Salad", and tucking into the "Sonoma" pizza, it was time for those still hungry (especially Miss Olivia) to try out dessert. Yalda cautioned Miss Olivia that eating the marachino cherry on top of her hot fudge sundae wouldn't be so great, especially if she knew how it was made. I said that I could certainly tell her something about it that would insure that she wouldn't be tempted, and Yalda was sure that her Dad's information would be tops on that score. Linda noted that part of that story was that the cherry was soaked in lye for a month to begin with...

And here is my part of the marachino cherry story. Since some artificial red dye was found to be carcinogenic, and some feel that artificial red dye causes hyperactivity in children, more natural sources have been increasingly used as food coloring. One of the more common 'natural' sources happens to be ground up insects. Yes, that's right, a certain insect has been used for centuries as a common food dye. (Can you hear the 'ewws!' resounding around the table?)

Here's some information from the trusted Urban Legends site (gee! some people doubted this was true?). "Cochineal and its close cousin carmine (also known as carminic acid) are derived from the crushed carcasses of a particular South and Central American beetle. These popular colorants, which today are used to impart a deep red shade to fruit juices, gelatins, candies, shampoos, and more, come from the female Dactylopius coccus, a beetle that inhabits a type of cactus known as Opuntia.

Dactylopius coccus was the source of a red dye used by Aztecs and Mexican Indians for centuries before the arrival of the Spaniards. Those indigenous peoples would collect cochineal insects, briefly immerse them in hot water to kill the beasties and dissolve the females' waxy coating, and then dry them in the sun. The dessicated insects would then be ground to a fine powder.

The Spaniards immediately grasped the potential of the pigment, so these dried insects became one of the first products to be exported from the New World to the Old. Europeans took to the beautiful, bright scarlet colour immediately both for its vibrant hue and for its extraordinary colorfast properties, ensuring that boatloads of cochineal insects would make the trans-Atlantic trek.

Today cochineal has been surpassed as a dye for cloth by a number of synthetic pigments, but is still widely used as a coloring agent for a number of foodstuffs, beverages, and cosmetics (because many of those synthetic dyes proved dangerous to humans when taken internally or allowed to leach into the body through the skin). It takes about 70,000 insects to make one pound of cochineal.

While cochineal is used in a wide variety of foods, it is not found in kosher products because Jewish dietary laws prohibit the inclusion of insects or their parts in food. The "ewww!" factor nothwithstanding, cochineal is a safe food colorant aside from a few rare cases of allergic reaction."

Cochineal is gathered by hand in the wild by campesinos using homemade brushes and nets to collect it. In 1996, Peru harvested 640 metric tons of cochineal, which accounted for roughly 85% of the world’s production. Of this, 500 metric tons were gathered from cacti growing in the wild. The campesinos photographed here are harvesting cochineal in Allpa Urquna, a small village in the mountains outside of Ayacucho, Peru. Photography by David McLain/Aurora & Quanta Productions

Cedrate: An ancient fruit, the actual modern equivalent is still in dispute. From a scholarly article in Petits Propos Cullinares 69 "Although all the modern authorities I consulted assured me that cedrate is the citron, in the past this does not seem to have been the case. Citrons and cedrates are referred to separately by d’Ohsson, writing in the late eighteenth century, for instance. Other evidence for and against is complex, inconsistent, and so far inconclusive. It is not helped either by Unger’s own confusion, which was what aroused my doubts about the identification in the first place. To cut a long and interesting story short, I tend to the conclusion that cedrate was the bergamot orange, a fruitful idea for which I am indebted to Ottoman historian Joyce Matthews."


Left: The bergamot orange.


According to Persian tradition the quince is an aphrodisiac, while the cedrate calms the physical passions.

The bergamot orange peel is the orgin of the bergamot essense used to make Earl Gray Tea. It is interesting to note that Earl Gray Tea used to be made from the leaves of tea originating in China, but today, most Earl Gray Tea uses India tea leaves.

What inspires me to write about cedrates today? Well, I opened a jar of "Cedrate Jam" this morning to top off some organic, homemade, whole wheat southern biscuits that I made for my Dad. One note is that the term 'jam' is a little misnomer, the jar I have from the maker Namakin is more like preserves. In fact, it was reminincent of my mother's homemade watermelon rind preserves. Quite tasty and different for a Sunday June morning. I could imaging myself in an ancient Persian garden while hearing the birds chirping outside my window in the trees.

Cedrate Jam can be found at Hatam's in San Rafael.

Brickmaiden Breads

One of my new favorite places, Tabla Cafe, gave me a gift of a day old loaf of Brickmaiden baguette. Very good! Day old even, it transported me to the days as a student in Paris. The pension keeper would give us a fresh demi-baguette with small white dishes of jam and butter, and a bowl of fresh milk every morning. This bread is done right! I paired it with some creamy unsalted Organic Valley butter, and The Humble Gourmet's White Peach jam. My Dad asked for seconds!