Noshachusetts

Nosh has not been very active, has she?
Well, that's what happens when you travel back East and stay with your moms. And I do mean that in the plural, not just the colloquial.
Food in MA: some good, some eh. But there were moments:
Amherst Coffee. Good coffee, nice scene, and a sweet little wine bar at night where I got to escape a raging rainstorm.
Chez Albert. Where my friend Tom and I dined after the wine bar. Lovely dark intimate place, doting waiters, and the two specials I had were magnifique. A salad strewn with pears, walnuts, and goat cheese; salmon on a bed of pureed potatoes with chard and sauce romesco. Complimentary tarte tatin, tres charmant.
Lone Wolf. Damn good breakfast, and cheap! That is, if you're used to SF prices. Me, I had the Rachel's Choice: 2 excellent scrambies, 2 huge soy sausage patties, a cup of fruit (which they kindly substituted for taters), and 2 heavenly multigrain pancakes dusted with powdered sugar.
Mom's house. This one has no web site but it does have eggs straight out of the chickens. And my Mom's partner's homemade wheat bread, topped with homemade strawberry jam. And all kinds of salad greens from the greenhouse out yonder.
But I'm back now, and while there's not much foliage action, there is great food. Kind of miss those accents, though...

The Chips Were Down

So Kimster and I tried to get some action at the Vegan Bake Sale today. We really did. After a lovely vegan lunch and iced lattes, we strolled through the summery throngs to Ike's Place and...nada. 3 p.m.; no baked goods. Oh, there was a clusterfuck trying to get sandwiches, there sure was. But as a sweet woman in a kitty-adorned t-shirt told us, the 50 vegan bakers had sold all their wares and made some bank for Give Me Shelter cat rescue. Good news! But for me, the vegan goodie itch needed scratching...
So homeward we went, to our shiny new Whole Foods. There to buy a vegan chocolate chip cookie for 99 cents. Folks, those WF bakers make a fine, chewy, chocolate-heavy cookie. Satisfaction guaranteed. And happily, the vegans are planning more bakesales...arrive early, comrades!!

Uduped Again

JP came home from Illinois, hungry and (maybe - just maybe) tired of pizza. The solution? Udupi Palace on Valencia: incredibly cheap, generous portions of vegetarian Indian food.
We'd eaten there the very first day they opened, and split a huge dosa, which had made us very happy. Another time we took close friends, who became enamored despite the lack of meat. Tonite I had the huge spring dosa, which comes with sambar (spicy soup), three cooling chutneys, and in my case, some fantastic raita (the charming waiter rushed it over when he saw me fanning flames from my mouth). Yup, it was h-a-w-t. JP and I also shared a lovely lassi, thick with frozen mango. And due to the hugeness of my meal, I now have the other half-dosa waiting in the fridge for a snack attack. JP polished off his masala dosa, making an Indian mother somewhere very happy.

Consider the Jujube

Round, like a brown stone
Firm or perhaps wrinkled, the jujube
Also known as Chinese Date
Taste like an apple-date with tiny pit
Slightly spongy, it is like
Biting into Autumn

Bap with a Vengeance

Tonite, JP and I went to our neighborhood Korean joint, Hahn's Hibachi. I'm kind of shocked that I haven't blogged about it before; it's so good, so close; so reliable. But here you go, my nosh of the day was their bibimbop with tofu. Korean comfort food, yes. A rainbow of veggies: slivered zucchini and carrots, strings of pickled daikon, spinach, bean sprouts and a lovely pile of tofu tossed in a slightly sweet marinade. All atop a mound of rice and crowned with a fried egg. Toss it together, maybe add a squirt of chile sauce, and feast. One bowl; a million flavors.

Take 5

If you like veggie juice, I've found a place that's inexpensive and very good. But damned if I know the name. It's a salad bar across from Crocker Galleria that advertises fresh juices, and they have something called Veggie 5. It's a mix of beet, carrot, celery, tomato and parsley. Fairly sweet, not at all bitter, and they keep some pre-made (though still fresh-tasting) so you don't have to wait a long time. And, it's only a little over $3 for a 16 ouncer! Drink up, cheapskate.

Plant on Water

What could be better, after a stretchifying pilates class, than dinner with your favorite pilates instructor at The Plant Cafe Organic?
Answer: not much.
This new cafe is situated right smack on the bay, and you can sit at an elegant wooden table, warmed by heat lamps, and be mesmerized by lapping water.
You can also eat amazingly fresh, delicious food. We had 2 salads - you can order them in small or large sizes, which I love - and both were plant-astic. Mine had baby spinach, goat cheese and pumpkin seeds in a champagne vinaigrette, while Rachel's boasted fluffy mixed greens, more goat cheese, beets and toasted walnuts.
My entree was quinoa with lots of veggies and baked tofu in a ginger-miso sauce. I also stole bits of Rachel's wild salmon, all crispy on top and meltingly tender inside.
I forgot to mention the whole grain bread and good-quality olive oil that's brought to your table with a cute milk bottle full of water; nice touches. I plan to plant myself there again, soon.

Ce-Reality

Friends know this about me: I am a cereal freak. Correction: FREAK. I love cereal, would take it with me as my one desert island meal, that kind of thing. But I don't eat just one kind; like Seinfeld, I keep a large stash of boxes in the cupboard. Then, in the morning, I mix maybe four kinds together, sprinkle on cinnamon and pour on the milk. Crazy but true.
If you share my version of cereality, let me suggest a new kind: Yogi, the tea people, now make cereal. And thanks to my pal Luis at Whole Foods, I went home with 2 free boxes to 'sample'. The goji berry version is gone, and it was delightful; not too sweet, nice crunchy flakes. I am still savoring the exotic Walnut Spice Crunch, which served as my afternoon snack today. The box touts 'digestive health' and 'five ancient grains' which get mixed up with nuts, spices and seeds. I say: this stuff is seriously great. It would be good on top of some ice cream or yogurt, too...if that's not too surreal for you.

My One and Onigiri

I love sushi. Raw is righteous. But I also love a little thing called onigiri: a ball of rice, wrapped in nori, with a yummy treasure buried inside: maybe pickled plum (umeboshi), maybe salmon.
Tonite at Ebisu (yes, I've mentioned it before), I ordered one and was glad I did. The onigiri was so large that Suzuki, our chef, cut it in two. There it sat on its plate like two pyramids of sticky rice garnished with my beloved, electric yellow pickled radish. I picked up one piece and bit into the mix of crackly seaweed, steaming rice and grilled salmon: heaven! Comforting, filling and a little messy to eat. Makes me want to be a Japanese schoolgirl...

Noshtober

Well, I'm going to make an attempt to write more in this, the month of Noshtober.
And for the first of the month, a brief blog to sing the praises of freeze-dried mango from our friend, Trader Joe's.
It comes in a bag with a top that rips open and reseals, always a perk for snacking in the cubicle. And the pieces are shaped like fat half moons, have a crispness when bitten, then melt on your tongue. Like potato chips, they are addictive and get all over your fingers, but who cares? You don't have to mess with a pit or get strings in your teeth...that's my kinda mango.