The Lazy Locavore

A Locally Grown Diet With Fuss but No Muss
By KIM SEVERSON, The New York Times
Published: July 22, 2008
A new breed of business serves city dwellers who insist on eating food grown close to home but have no inclination to get their hands dirty.

Also check out The Palo Alto edible landscaping tour in August.

Absinthe, Alameda CA

Sat July 18, took a tour of St. George's Spirits, otherwise know as Hangar One with Amanda and Donna. They have a generous flight tasting of brandies and whiskeys for $10. You can also try the absinthe for $10, which I believe is the only absinthe made in the US as of this time. They don't serve the sugar cube or opium/laudanum though. That evening I also stopped by the Save the Yuba Salmon film festival.

July 4th: Kayaking for Oysters

Took my guests on a kayak trip Sunday afternoon/evening, July 4th weekend. Launched from my brother's house in Inverness across Tomales Bay (about 1 km) to Tomales Bay Oyster Farm and beached there. The ultimate West Marin local food adventure. We arrived 20 mins late and were two dollars short for a dozen smalls and a dozen extra-small oysters, but they sold them to us anyway. The ride back with the oysters was warm and flat/calm. I had never been a big fan of oysters until I had them shucked raw and fresh from the ocean. Very environmentally sustainable too.

#C4 Panch Phoron Plus One

ELEMENT SPICE COMPOUND #C4
Panch Phoron Plus One
Inspiration: Bengal

Panch Phoron (Bengali for five spice) is staple spice combination from Bengal. We add poppy seeds, another common ingredient in Bengali cooking, to lighten this slightly bitter spice combo (mustard, onion, nigella, cumin and fennel) for Western tastes. In this mix, we only crack the slightly, rather than grinding them. Place about 1 teaspoon of Panch Phoron in a skillet with butter/ghee, and heat until the seeds begin popping (a technique called bagar). Use this spice mix in any curry recipe, or simply use it to grill fish or vegetables. Click here for a good generic curry recipe.

INGREDIENTS: Yellow mustard seed, onion seed, fennel, nigella seed, cumin, poppy seed.

#C3 Indochine Eight Spice

ELEMENT SPICE COMPOUND #C3
Indochine Eight Spice
Inspiration: SE Asia

Chinese/Vietnamese Spice is a canonical spice mix. The "five" in five spice supposedly does not refer to five spices but to five tastes, sweet, sour, savory and salty, or five elements, earth, fire, water, air, and metal (see, for example,
Chez Pim. Most five spices mixes do indeed contain five spices however: star anise, cassia cinnamon, fennel, cloves and szechuan peppercorn. Szechuan peppercorn is not a peppercorn at all but a flower bud with a mild numbing/analgesic property. Our modern update, Indochine Eight Spice, also includes ginger, black peppercorn and citrus rind.

The simplest way to use Indochine Eight Spice is to put in a broth. Add 1 tablespoon (5 ml) per liter of broth, then salt/pepper to taste. Indochine Eight Spice also works as a great base for pho (we like this vegetarian pho recipe). You can try it as a beef rub as well.

INGREDIENTS: Cassia cinnamon, cloves, star anise, fennel, szechuan peppercorn, black peppercorn, citrus rind, ginger.

1962 Cessna

The day after I got back from WA, Deepa and I were at work late and Ron was going to pick up his girlfriend in Monterey, so we tagged along. The two of us had never been in a small plan before. We flew from Palo Alto, touched down in Monterey, she jumped in and we headed right back.

Organic farm in rural Washington

In June, I visited Ginni Callahan's Slow Boat Farm - Columbia River Kayaking. I reserved an economy car but Thrifty gave me a Suzuki SUV. Slow Boat Farm is on Puget Island in the lower Columbia River. I did a moonlight paddle with her crew. I did a little farm work, and came home with some souvenirs: garlic bulbs, garlic scapes and some apple wood chunks from the apple tree we pruned.