Gratitude Gourmet

My friend Mary runs Gratitude Gourmet, which is a vegan website with a blog. We may do some collaborations, guest editing soon.

http://www.gratitudegourmet.com/about.html


Gratitude Gourmet was founded in May 2008 and provides easy-to-use earth-friendly Food, Drink, Restaurant, Event, Blog, and Gift resources that help you lead a healthy lifestyle and have fun at the same time! Become a Facebook Fan and follow us on Twitter. We're on Linkedin too!
We're also seeking your feedback during our 'beta' phase in order to improve this site and it's resources for you. Recommend a book, a recipe, an event, advertising, or a promotion. How can we make this site better for you? Contact us via Twitter or our Contact Form.
Gratitude Gourmet is now a TasteTV 2011 Awards Judge!!

Mary Vincent is Founder and CEO of Green Star Solution and Gratitude Gourmet. She has worked at global fortune 500 companies running global engineering and logistics projects and programs, including Sun Microsystems and DHL Express, and left Sun Microsystems in May 2008 to create and run businesses focusing on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Gratitude Gourmet is one of them. Previous to Sun and DHL, she served in the US Peace Corps in Hungary.
Mary also writes about sustainable food systems as a San Francisco Food Examiner, operates a Clean Tech Blog and Clean Technology Facebook Group, and speaks globally on Green IT, Clean Tech, Sustainable Food Systems, Green Business, and Environmental Entrepreneurship.

- In August 2009, Mary co-founded the Green Software Unconference Silicon Valley at the Computer History Museum, and only Whole Foods' Vegetarian and Vegan Food were served (the 1st technology conference that I'm aware of where only Veg food was served)
- In November 2009, Mary spoke at the Cornell University Net Impact Conference on the Future of Organics.
- In April 2010, Mary spoke in 3 UK cities (Aberdeen, Glasgow, York) on Green IT Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and spoke about Gratitude Gourmet and sustainable food systems and sustainable food software applications.

Chez Pim

Seriously famous food blogger in SF, travels, has a book, doesn't have a professional culinary backgroud, I believe.

Anyone know here?

http://chezpim.com/about

About Pim
Pim grew up in Bangkok, was shipped off to study in other places, and somehow found herself living and loving it in the San Francisco Bay Area. She quit her Silicon Valley job in 2005 to pursue a career in food: the writing, reporting, and basically anything interesting thereof that comes her way. Her recipes, writings, and photographs have since appeared in the New York Times, Food & Wine Magazine, Bon Appétit magazine, and more.

She’s also moonlighted as a judge on Iron Chef America, been profiled on Gourmet’s Diary of a Foodie, Food(ography), and cooked Pad Thai on the Martha Stewart Show, for Martha, natch.

Chez Pim chronicles her globetrotting adventures –and misadventures- in the world of all things edible, from her kitchen in Northern California, to the vibrant street-side fares in Asia and the refined world of Three Michelin Star restaurants. Pim also cooks a mean pot of curry.

World Tea Expo 2011

I've been chosen as a paid speaker at the World Tea Expo 2011, core conference, to lecture on the Art of Chai. As you know, I'm a bit of an obsessive on the subject, as you can see from much of my blog.

2010 program here, 2011 program not online yet, but I'll let you know when it is.

http://www.worldteaexpo.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1402&Itemid=568

The Art of Masala Chai

Spices should be steeped in boiling water for 10+ minutes, whereas teas should be steeped for 1-5 minutes, in hot to boiling water, depending on the type of tea. The chaiwallahs on the streets of India (remember Slumdog Millionaire?) make their chai by boiling water, adding the spice, then adding the tea later so it is extracted for a shorter time. They then add the milk and sugar before serving it to you for 2 rupees (4-5 cents). You can and should try making chai like this. However, realize that if you steep the spice in hot water for 5 minutes, then add the tea, the water may have dropped below the desired tea steeping temperature, unless you are preparing it on the stove top.

Element Spice has come up with a chai kit that allows you to make chai in a fun and ideal way. The spice and the tea come in separate containers. You steep the spice in one pot at the right time and temperature and at the same time steep the tea in another container at its right time and temperature. Then you mix the two liquids to achieve your ideal pot of chai.

The Art of Masala Chai

They'll be a lot of posts on this subject, focusing on my idea for Mix 'n Match Chai.

Why Mix 'n Match Chai?
In most coffee shops, even the ones that pride themselves on gourmet coffee and food, the teas, and in particular the chai teas, are largely an afterthought. Even on the rare occasion when the chai doesn’t come from a liquid concentrate or powder mix, there are problems with the way chai is made.
Chai literally means tea in Hindi, but in the rest of the world the term chai generally connotes tea plus spice, which is reasonable, since this is the way Indians almost always take their tea (plus milk and sugar or jaggery). Sometimes, in India, the term “masala” (spice mix) chai is used to specifically distinguish spicy tea from just plain tea, chai.

There are higher-quality chai mixes sold by gourmet purveyors available in the West. These mixes are significant improvements on the liquid concentrates and powders, in that they are whole leaf teas mixed with ground spices. They are still far from an ideal mode by which to make masala chai, however, because spices and teas have different extraction profiles, and so should not be extracted together, or at the very least not for the same amount of time.

Abalone Season Winding Down

So Abalone season is technically open till till the end of November, but it's cold and more often than not conditions are not diveable, so we've pretty much shut down. I also didn't make it up to John and Lisa's farmhouse for heirloom tomato harvest. But Alex did show Donna and me his dry ice frozen, deli sliced abalone, which is just superb.

Pretty pictures of tea and spice

Chai Extracts

Can liquid chai extracts, basically, brewed chai (spice plus tea), typically at a concentrated level, be good chai? I mean, if this works, then why don't we see gourmet liquid tea extracts?

http://www.harmonychai.com/
http://oregonchai.com/

More on My Chai Idea

16 Chai Combination Kit, $47
4 spice compounds x 4 teas
spice compounds: spark, cozy, balance, nirvana
teas: earl grey black, assam black, tung ting oolong, lemongrass tulsi tisane
makes about 44 cups
net weight approx 8 oz (226g)

36 Chai Combination Kit, $57
6 spice compounds x 6 teas
spice compounds: spark, cozy, balance, nirvana, quaint, savory
teas: earl grey black, assam black, tung ting oolong, genmaicha green, lemongrass tulsi tisane, rooibos tisane
makes about 66 cups
net weight approx 12 oz (340g)