Chantrelle's Thanksgiving Weekend Continues

As I pointed out in my last article, we were a bit late for porcini season this year. But not so late that we didn't get any at all. We had a couple of beauties! On the first night we didn't have the time or the materials for a barbecue so we just sautéed the porcini in a little olive oil and shallots and tossed it with some farfalle pasta. I'm a big fan of not doing much to the mushrooms and just enjoying their earthy flavors on their own.

Day two however allowed for a trip to the store to pick up some mesquite for the barbecue. This is my favorite way to enjoy porcini. Once it was cleaned up, we just sliced it, basted it with olive oil and herbs and grilled to perfection. Once off the grill we squeezed a little bit of lemon juice and sprinkled a little bit of salt on them. Heaven!




We went back to one of our spots thinking we'd probably struck out but I stumbled upon two pretty little friends. The caps were destined for the dehydrator but the stalks were gorgeous grillers.



Having exhausted the porcini stash, we still had an insane number of chanterelles to consume. Along with Thanksgiving leftovers, we had chanterelles cooked in butter on toast. I felt a bit Top Chef-like serving chanterelles and bread two ways (on toast and in stuffing). ;-)


Day three -- or was it day four -- I decided to venture out into the chanterelle territory again. Who knew I missed a whole patch of them!? I had to think of another way to cook them. I thought, "I wonder if they grill well?" Since it's my favorite way to eat porcini we decided to try it. It is now my favorite way to cook chanterelles too!!

If you have access to any of these lovely golden fungi, you must make this recipe.


Spinach tossed w/ dressing of:
Chopped shallots
Lemon juice
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper

Cook french green lentils in chicken stock w/ a clove of garlic

Slice each chanterelle and half, toss with olive oil and pepper and grill. I used 3 large mushrooms for 2 people.

Chop and cook bacon to make lovely little bacon bits.

Assemble into the most beautiful warm mushroom salad ever created. Spinach first, then lentils, the shroomies, then bacon, then love....love the whole time actually, including with every fabulous bite.

Chantrelle's Thanksgiving Day

We head up to Mendocino every Thanksgiving. We've been going up for about 10 years. The purpose of the trip is to crawl through the woods looking for fungus. Some years it's quite successful. Other years, not so much.

This year we were a bit late for the porcinis. we found a few to grill, and a few to dry, but the real star of this trip was the chanterelle. Day one brought us a basket full along with a couple of coccoras (a mushroom that still makes me nervous to eat!).


I selected a handful of the chanterelles, cleaned and prepped them for wild mushroom stuffing. The recipe I used is based on this Bon Appétit recipe but I've modified it a bit. Firstly, it called for 1 pound of shiitake's and 1 pound of button mushrooms... I had pounds of chanterelles in my fridge! I used about 2-3 pounds of the chanterelles. I put them in the skillet with a stick of butter. I let them cook for quite a while because they had a lot of moisture. I cooked almost all of that moisture away.


Next I added the chopped leek and garlic and let that cook through for about five minutes.

Once the leek was softened I added 2 cups of good white wine, a huge handful of rehydrated porcinis (from last year's hunt) and about 1/4 cup of chopped thyme and marjoram from the garden. At this point I don't think there's much I cook without thyme and marjoram in it! The plants are out of control!!

Once most of the wine had cooked off, I stirred the whole mixture into a 1lb package of bread cubes (unseasoned). I added the liquid I used to rehydrate the porcinis and then some extra chicken stock because it still seemed a little dry. I put the whole bit into a baking dish and baked it at 350° for about 45 minutes until the edges had some yummy crunchy bits.

Meanwhile, I said we found some porcini right? We can't forget about those! We sliced up the stalk, brushed it with some olive oil and grilled it on the Weber with mesquite wood.


Meanwhile meanwhile... I roasted a whole chicken in lieu of a turkey since 1: I'm allergic to turkey and 2: there were only three of us. It's a foolproof excellent way to roast a chicken by the way. Take six pats of butter and wiggle them under the skin of the chicken breasts (three for each side). Then take chopped herbs... guess what I used? Yes, marjoram and thyme! Work those under the skin with the butter. Sprinkle the entire bird with salt and rub the entire outside with olive oil. Roasted at 400° for about 40 minutes until the internal temperature is 160°. I love my digital thermometer for this. I just put it in the chicken when I first put it in the oven, and set the alarm to beep when it hits 155° so I know I have a couple minutes left to finish the rest of the dinner prep.


It was a very successful Thanksgiving endeavor. The final meal: roast chicken, wild mushroom stuffing, grilled porcini, Caesar salad and cranberry relish.

What I'm Thankful For

I could do a whole, "I'm thankful for my family and friends" post but, let's face it, this is FoodPorn! You don't care about that stuff. It's about the food.

I'm thankful for:

My meal at the French Laundry

Farmers Markets

Fresh fish

My tastebuds having decided to like sausage and salt-cured pork

Wild mushrooms

Being able to pick fresh herbs from my garden

Being able to pick tomatoes from my garden in the summer

The weather here that lets me have a year round garden

Wine...Ridge and Kermit Lynch, you are my friends

My husband's homebrew

My son love of anchovies and sardines (and olives, capers and salumi)

For Neil Gaiman opening the door for me to do Celebrity interviews (I've met amazing people!)

Not being allergic to anything except turkey and that's minor (even at Thanksgiving)

Being taught to mushroom hunt so I can enjoy backwoods-gourmet meals

My grandpa teaching me how to keep a knife sharp (he was a butcher)

Whoever thought to put bubbles in water

Wine (yes, twice)

Planning trips around restaurants even if they are sometimes disappointing

Having people come to this site and allow me to blab at you about my tastes!!

Thank you!

Have a great holiday meal, eat well, hopefully locally, with people you love. The food tastes just that much better when surrounded by love.

Prosciutto-wrapped Salmon with "Beurre Rouge"

We had three bottles of Syrah to drink: '03 Cornas from France, '00 Hardy's from Australia, and '02 Ridge from here in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I wanted to make a special dinner for our cousin's birthday, but we don't really eat much meat so I had to find something involving fish that would go with Syrah. I think this worked!

This recipe is for 6 servings.

1/4-1/2 cup chopped shallots
1 head frisée, roughly chopped
1/2 c. chicken stock

Sauté the shallots in olive oil until soft. Add the chicken stock and reduce by half. Add the frisée, and briefly toss to coat with the shallots and olive oil. Remove it from the heat and put a lid on it to keep it warm and wilt the frisée. Set aside.

1 cup red wine (I used Syrah to match what we'd be drinking with the meal)
1/4 cup chopped shallots
1 stick butter

Sauté shallots in olive oil until soft. Add red wine and bring to boil. Boil until it's reduced to a syrupy sauce. Turn off heat and whisk in 1/2-3/4 of a stick of butter, one pat at a time.


2 1/2 pounds center cut salmon, cut into six pieces
12 slices prosciutto
1/4 cup minced parsley
1/4 cup minced thyme

Mix the parsley and thyme together. Press the herb mixture into the salmon fillets. Wrap two pieces of prosciutto around each of the herbed salmon fillets.

Heat a large skillet on medium-high heat. My 12 inch copper pan was big enough to do three salmon fillets at a time. Place salmon fillets in the pan with a little olive oil and cook about three minutes on each side.



To plate, put one tablespoon of red wine sauce on the plate. Top with the wilted endive and shallots. Place the fish on top of that. Squeeze a little lemon juice on the fish. Garnish with something pretty and green, I used micro arugula.

Voilà... delicious!! It was so good in fact, I forgot to take a picture before I dug in! Oops!!

Fish in Ancho Chile Paste

This is a quick and easy, tasty mexican-style dinner. Outside of the guacamole, it's all ingredients that are easy to keep on hand and you can use fish, shrimp or chicken...even beef I guess although I've never tried that.

Put 2 dried ancho chiles in a dish w/ enough boiling water to cover them. Let them rehydrate for about 10 minutes.

In a blender:
1/2 onion
2 garlic cloves
juice of 1 lemon
salt
3T or so olive oil
2-3 rehydrated ancho chiles

Puree. If it's too thick, add a little of the water used to rehydrate the chiles.

Pour this over 1 lb of fish of your choice, I used mahi mahi, cut into 1-inch cubes. Let it sit for at least 30min.

Dump the whole thing, sauce and fish, into a pan on medium-high heat. Cook until fish is done.

Serve w/ tortillas, rice, beans, guacamoles and garnish w/ some limes (the lime juice makes it).

The Waffle Recipe I Thought Was Already On the Site

Imagine my surprise when I went to link to my waffle recipe and it wasn't on the site! I've got pictures of the waffles on the site, you can get a coffee mug with them on it but I'd never put up the recipe! D'oh!

I make a double batch of waffles and freeze the leftovers to throw in the toaster for breakfast...Y'know, like Eggos but GOOD! I always have my waffles topped with berries and fresh whipped cream. This is one time where, season be damned, I'm having berries...wherever they're from!

2 c. flour
1 Tbl Baking Powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. Baking Soda

2 c. Buttermilk
4 eggs, separated
1/2 c. melted butter
2 Tbl. syrup
a little cinnamon
a little vanilla

Stir dry ingredients together. Combine egg yolks and buttermilk. Add egg yolk mixture to dry ingredients. Stir in slightly cooled butter. Add syrup and vanilla. Fold in eggwhites, leaving little fluffs of them showing in the batter.

Bake in waffle iron.

KFJC Interview: Rocket J. Squirrel and Chantrelle

One day my lovely friend who DJs at KFJC discovered my site and asked if I wanted to be on the radio with her. SURE! I said. So I went, we talked, we had a blast and here's the transcript:

Rocket J. Squirrel: This is Chantrelle we're talking to. Hi! So, I got all excited about your website, FoodPorn.com, especially the titles of your different sections.

Chantrelle: Aren't I clever?

Rocket J. Squirrel: Very clever... you had to do some research on the terminology I imagine.

Chantrelle: Yeah, don't check my website cache.

Rocket J. Squirrel: Oh, (laughs) don't look behind the Green door! So, talk to me about what food porn is.

Chantrelle: It is an incredible love of food.

Rocket J. Squirrel: Love? Biblically?

Chantrelle: Um, if you prefer... but it's safe for work. It's recipes, restaurant reviews...The restaurant reviews are under table dance, the recipes are under self pleasuring, the T-shirts and such are under toys. There's also amateur, asian, and celebrities -- that's an important one.

Rocket J. Squirrel: You've interviewed quite a few.

Chantrelle: I have, I'd love to interview more. My first interview was Neil Gaiman, which is how [you and I] met.

Rocket J. Squirrel: Did he talk about sushi?

Chantrelle: Well of course, we went out to sushi!

Rocket J. Squirrel: I think that's all he talks about when it's about food. I mean, he might have been on the macrobiotic thing when you talked to him but...

Chantrelle: No.

Rocket J. Squirrel: That's not something you really want him to discuss, you want him to talk about sushi.

Chantrelle: Yeah, that was pretty much the impetus of the lunch. He pretty much said, "Sure you can interview me, we'll go to sushi."

Rocket J. Squirrel: Where did you guys go?

Chantrelle: We went to Yoshi's because he was in the East Bay for something and it was a lunch gig. It was hard to find a place open for lunch that was easy to get into on short notice and I think it was fourth of July weekend too... years ago. But it was fun, he had eggplant sushi which he got because he was in the Bay Area and wouldn't find it elsewhere. It was great.

Recently I interviewed Alan Anton from the Cowboy Junkies who is also a big foodie. And Mark Van Name, the sci-fi writer, we just went to the French Laundry last weekend.

Rocket J. Squirrel: How was the French laundry? I've heard incredible...

Chantrelle: You have to ask?

Rocket J. Squirrel: Isn't it the one with the Michelin five stars or something?

Chantrelle: Three stars

Rocket J. Squirrel: Only three?

Chantrelle: You can only get three!

Rocket J. Squirrel: I know I know. I think it goes to 11, at least I've heard... I haven't been there yet.

Chantrelle: It was my second time there. I went in 2003...

Rocket J. Squirrel: It was a spring day... you can probably remember every detail can't you?

Chantrelle: I can, I can. But we'd heard that Thomas Keller was spreading themselves too thin, opening too many restaurants, it had gone downhill, they raised their prices. They did raise their prices, but the quality did not diminish. It was a phenomenal, fantastic, wonderful five hour meal. I think I say in the write up online that they can't call it a review, because you can't review the French Laundry, you just go there and you're in awe. I toured the... well I didn't tour the kitchen, they stuck me in a corner so I could watch.

Rocket J. Squirrel: So it was like, Dear diary: today I went to the French laundry, oh my god I'm in love!! I'm so in love of going to marry it!

Chantrelle: Pretty much! I stood in the corner of the kitchen in awe. It was quiet, they don't speak above regular conversational tones. Everything looked perfect, everything was gleaming white. It's like being inside the inner sanctum of the food Vatican. It was amazing and I didn't want to leave, but I felt in the way... and I had to go eat!

Rocket J. Squirrel: You didn't tell them you'd do dishes?

Chantrelle: No, I'd probably break something!

Rocket J. Squirrel: That's a good way of getting out of doing the dishes. Wow, that's really cool. So give me the names of three people you'd like to interview next. And if you all are listening in, and I hope you are...

Chantrelle: My ultimate interview, which is the one that I pretty much set up the celebrities section for is Tori Amos. She's humored me and said I could get the interview but I haven't gotten one yet. Amanda Palmer, which should happen, sometime, hopefully.

Rocket J. Squirrel: They're both satellites of the same guy.

Chantrelle: They are... and so is Jonathan Coulton which should happen as well. I always feel like I'm poaching all of Neil Gaiman's friends.

Rocket J. Squirrel: Chabon is in there too. You should get Chabon.

Chantrelle: That's a good idea.

Rocket J. Squirrel: Is that how you say it... "sha-bow". I'm going to stick with "Sha-bow" since we talked about the French Laundry.

Chantrelle:I don't speak any French whatsoever so...

Rocket J. Squirrel: Oh, pardon. You don't have to speak French, you just have to have ze
fantastic accent.

Chantrelle: I'm not good at that either!

Rocket J. Squirrel: If you have ze outrageous accent zay don't care what you say.

Chantrelle: I'm not good at accents either except for a Okie because I grew up in a hick town.

Rocket J. Squirrel: That must be why you like real food. You're done with the cornpone.

Chantrelle: Exactly, although my mom is listening and still lives there so I can't talk too badly about it.

Rocket J. Squirrel: Oh no, no...We're talking about regional mom. And we're holding her hostage because she can go eat lunch until her darlin' has talked about the food porn enough and we're not done yet.

Okay, so that was the celebrity part. Tell me... what's your favorite thing for breakfast?

Chantrelle: Frittata, I make it every weekend. The recipe's on FoodPorn under self-pleasuring!

Rocket J. Squirrel: There you go.

Chantrelle: Frittata with potatoes and a good crusty French bread.

Rocket J. Squirrel: Where's your favorite place to go out for breakfast or brunch?

Chantrelle: Oh, it closed. In Santa Cruz it closed...well, it didn't close fully, it just closed for breakfast.

Rocket J. Squirrel: Which?

Chantrelle: Ristorante Avanti used to serve the most amazing breakfast. They don't do it anymore. So I don't go out for breakfast in Santa Cruz anymore. That's why make frittatas, because Avanti made frittatas so I had to replace it.

Rocket J. Squirrel: Do they still have Pergolesi?

Chantrelle: Yeah.

Rocket J. Squirrel: Is it still good?

Chantrelle: I don't know. I don't go there anymore. I haven't been there since college. I used to be there all the time in college.

Rocket J. Squirrel: I love that place. The cutest, cutest waiter in the world worked there with long curly brown hair. He was absolutely gorgeous. And then of course my best friend in Santa Cruz snapped him up. I didn't even have to ask her which one. She said, "Oh, I'm dating a waiter. You might've seen him at Pergolesi." I said, "I know who you've got."

Chantrelle: I used to spend many, many hours there during college, writing and writing and writing and writing.

Rocket J. Squirrel: Oh, the chocolate cake...truffle cake... Now I see why you call it food porn. It's all making sense to me now.

Chantrelle: It's true. It just happens with good food.

Rocket J. Squirrel: Where is your favorite cheeseburger?

Chantrelle: I don't like cheeseburgers. Sorry!

Rocket J. Squirrel: I can tell you where mine is.

Chantrelle: OK

Rocket J. Squirrel: It's on Valencia. And it's called... what's it called?... something "bun"... I'll go look it up because it's that good. I'll go look it up in a minute. It's gotten rave reviews. It literally was the best meat I've ever had and I'm a prime rib freak. This was probably the best burger because it was the best beef I've ever had...ever. It was so cool because the cook happened to be the owner and he opened up the restaurant because he didn't like the meat people were serving. He's like, "I really wanted really fresh, really juicy meat." Ohhh... Now I'm starting to get the food porn thing again.

Chantrelle: I understand! Oh, breakfast in San Francisco...I like Zazie... or however you say it, "zah-zee." It's probably French.

Rocket J. Squirrel: Oh, pardon...no, no, not pardon...[insert french stuff here]

Chantrelle: You can say whatever you want, I'm not going to know what you're saying.

Rocket J. Squirrel: I just said, "Your mom is listening." [laughing]

Chantrelle: But Zazie has this really good orange cinnamon French toast. It's to die for.

Rocket J. Squirrel: Oh yeah, I just swooned. Okay, keep going. Tell me about your other favorites. Just talk about your website because it's such a cool concept. FoodPorn.com by the way.

Chantrelle: Well, it just had its 10th anniversary. So I started out when not many people were using the term food porn and when I asked people for interviews they would assume it was something dirty and wouldn't want to talk to me.

Rocket J. Squirrel: Like a Splosh thing? We thought we invented splosh but apparently splosh has been around a while too.

Chantrelle: There used to be a FoodPorn.net, it has since folded... that was not my site.

Rocket J. Squirrel: It was like American Pie?

Chantrelle: Yeah. I'd have to give that sort of disclaimer every time I gave the URL. It's gone now so it's safer.... as far as I know it's gone. So one day, 10 years ago, some housemates and I were standing around eating tremendous food. Someone commented on how it was food porn with all the moaning going on with every bite. My husband disappeared into the attic, where our computers were at the time, came back down and said, "Somehow it was available and now it's ours." And we had FoodPorn.com! We just brainstormed from there and came up with the categories. We used to have Barely Legal which is the homebrew section. I just switched it to Barley Legal because that came up the other day and how clever that was with the beer.

It's just sort of grown over the years without a whole lot of effort. I come up with new ideas every once in awhile but most of the time I just put up what I eat and what I make and take pictures of things. It used to be weird to take a camera into a restaurant but now I notice that almost every table has them. People are taking food pictures everywhere now. I used to have to ask if it was okay if I took pictures of the food, but now it seems almost expected. I think that's the Food Network's influence on the world.

Rocket J. Squirrel: Who's your favorite Food Network chefs?

Chantrelle:I can't even watch that channel anymore. It's so soap-opera-y and not about the food anymore. But I do love Alton Brown.

Rocket J. Squirrel: There you go, Alton Brown. In England they have... what's her name... she's absolutely dahling.

Chantrelle: Nigella Lawson?

Rocket J. Squirrel: Nigella! She's great!

Chantrelle: I do like her. I have a hard time watching the Food Network now though because it's not over the top good food anymore.

Rocket J. Squirrel: I never really watched it but I cruised through one show. It was a contest for cake making or decorating. And the subject was Dr. Seuss. And I sat there glued for 30 minutes while I watched these people pull cats out of their hats and Horton hearing whos. They were in 3-D. They were, some of them, 5 feet tall. Some of them took eight people to move.

Chantrelle: Did some of them end up falling over before the competition was over?

Rocket J. Squirrel: I heard that, I didn't see it actually happen but I heard a lot of people talking about that. It was like Project Runway which is the only reality show I've ever been able to stomach.

Chantrelle: I watch Top Chef which is becoming, same thing, more about the soap opera and less about the food. But I still get inspired. I still want my husband to come home some night and surprise me with some Quickfire challenge. Just like, "I got you these things, make something in 20 minutes."

Rocket J. Squirrel: Isn't that Iron Chef?

Chantrelle: That's different. That's where they have a specific ingredient. In the Quickfire Challenge they tell them they have to make something for breakfast in 20 minutes or whatever.

Rocket J. Squirrel: Neil introduced me to Iron Chef. He had them all recorded. In Japanese.

Chantrelle: The subtitled ones, right. Before it was on the Food Network... before it became a food football game.

Rocket J. Squirrel: Apparently we get all of art bad taste from England and Japan. It probably wasn't bad taste until we got a hold of it though.

Chantrelle: We used to have Iron Chef nights at our house. We'd watch the subtitled ones, they were great. There were the ones with, we didn't make up this term but, vegetarian conversion moments: VCM's. I think the top-rated one was the octopus episode when they took a live octopus and butchered it to make stuff out of it. It made me never want to eat octopus again.

Rocket J. Squirrel: I can't eat them because they're smarter than me.

Chantrelle: They are smart! I can't eat them anymore. I still eat squid. I still get my cephalopods.

Rocket J. Squirrel: Squid are stupid. I love cephalopods. It's like eating sea snails... Give it to me it's great. I'm going to interrupt for this little story... the red octopus at the Monterey Bay aquarium. You have to go down there and yes, you have to see to sea otters but then you have to go see her being fed. She does the most erotic food porn dance.

Chantrelle: She's beautiful.

Rocket J. Squirrel: It's food porn for her because she's going to get fed right? And so she's just undulating for the longest period of time. But my friend used to work at the Steinhart aquarium in San Francisco. She was working there so she was in lab conditions. There is this room where they had all these tanks with different kinds of fish and every night there'd be fish missing. Different kinds of fish.

Chantrelle: I heard this story!

Rocket J. Squirrel: I love this story and it's totally true. They put cameras on the room to see what happened, they just never got a picture of anything coming into the room stealing fish. Well, somebody sat there all night till they watched the octopus come up out of its tank, push the lid aside, come up over the tank and move along the different tanks until it sampled which sushi it wanted, it went into the tank, ate its fill, put the lid back on that food tank... let's call it its buffet... then it went back into its own tank and pulled the lid back over it. It's just brilliant.

Chantrelle: Maybe heard that story from you.

Rocket J. Squirrel: Probably!

Chantrelle: I've retold the story since but I couldn't remember the source.

Rocket J. Squirrel: You should, it's a true story! But they had had the cameras on the door, that was the trick. So it was like, how could they miss that?

Chantrelle: I think that's the story that made me stop eating octopus. I think it was from you!

Rocket J. Squirrel: It's the story that made me... well I never actually ate octopus. But that's why I never have eaten it.

Chantrelle: I did, it would come on the chef's platter sushi plate thing. It wasn't anything I ever really loved but it was there so I'd eat it.

Rocket J. Squirrel: It's easy for me, I'm allergic to fish. I can eat crustaceans though.

Chantrelle: At least you've got something!

Rocket J. Squirrel: I can eat the expensive stuff: crab, lobster, scallops.

Chantrelle: Oh, the lobster dish at the French Laundry was amaaaazzzzing!

Rocket J. Squirrel: Who paid for this by the way?

Chantrelle: We kind of split it up, divided it up. The first time I went I'd gotten a gift certificate from my old boss who lives near here actually. It was a bonus for building a website for him. This time it was supplemented by friends.

Rocket J. Squirrel: That's very cool. Did they go with you?

Chantrelle: Oh yeah, they were there.

Rocket J. Squirrel: Okay, they didn't just send you to the French laundry with money.

Chantrelle: They subsidized my meal.

Rocket J. Squirrel: That's very cool. I need some sort of incentive to go... not an incentive, there's enough incentive, some kind of reason.

Chantrelle: You need someone to give you a gift certificate!

Rocket J. Squirrel: Not necessarily, I need a really good reason because I'm not going to go by myself. It has to be instigated around something.

Chantrelle: You can go with me!

Rocket J. Squirrel: I'll go with you, there you go.

Chantrelle: We've got to go back. We kept talking about how we were holding ourselves back from licking the plates...

Rocket J. Squirrel: Why?

Chantrelle: After the fact we were like, "Why did we not lick the plates?!" so were going to go back...

Rocket J. Squirrel: Are you a stickler for silverware too?

Chantrelle: No, I'm not! It's just so... when you're in there... I don't like the pomp and circumstance and the first thing I try to do is break down the waitstaff so they don't do the pomp and circumstance. I crack jokes with them and all those sorts of things so they know they don't have to be all uptight with us. I would love the good food in a subway station. I don't need all the white multiple stacked plates and unveiling the food at the same time. When you're surrounded by all of that stuffiness it starts to rub off a little bit and we felt like it would be a little weird to pick up the plate and lick it. And then regretted it after the fact. So next time I go, forget it, I'm lickin' the plate. I don't care.

Rocket J. Squirrel: I was still trying to find that burger place. It's so good! You can't just go out there and tell it's the best cheeseburger ever... I went on a worldwide and about decade-long search for the best tiramisu in the world. Well, in this part of the universe...it was crazy.

Chantrelle: So, what did you find?

Rocket J. Squirrel: Should I tell?

Chantrelle: Of course!

Rocket J. Squirrel: Okay, so this is the thing,I was in North Beach... there's actually several places, including a friend, that makes tiramisu in my book, because I have a very specific thing I want it to taste like. I don't like it runny and I don't like it like cheesecake because that's why you would go buy cheesecake if you want cheesecake.

Chantrelle: Exactly.

Rocket J. Squirrel: There's this perfect thing, it has to have a lot of whipped cream. It's got to be held gelatinously, non-oozy, by whipped cream as well. It's hard to explain. One of my friends makes it, of course she's buggered off to Austin, so she's not making it for me regularly anymore. I'm walking around North Beach and everyone's like, "Oh the tiramisu..." I went to one place and it was eh. I went to another place and it was really bad. I went to another place and it was really, really good. I'm feeling like Goldilocks at this point right? I'm dragging all my friends with me, this all happened over a couple of weeks. Some of the same friends came with me and they were like, "Oh God, here she goes, she's going to drag us through all the tiramisu." We're walking up Columbus, past Broadway and there's some little deli on the left-hand side...

Chantrelle: You're doing it again... you're not knowing the name!

Rocket J. Squirrel: No no no, everyone will know it, it's a famous place... everyone knows the name of the deli. The deli, the one that comes to a point on the end of the block. I can't remember the name of it because that's the only time I've ever been in it. So I walk in and I say, "I'm here to taste your tiramisu." And the guy behind the counter says, "I just sold the last piece." The woman in front of me had brought the last piece. And I was like, "Oh bummer, as I'm on this worldwide search for tiramisu..." And he says, "Oh, here" and he hands me a spoon with which he's been serving an entire huge industrial size pan tiramisu out of. And the spoon was about the size, covered with what was about two pieces of their tiramisu. I just sat there and looked the spoon for a minute and then it was...ugh...food porn! It was kind of an orgy of tiramisu. That was the best tiramisu, bar none, that I've ever had.

Chantrelle: Have you had it as a full piece? Or was part of the love the act of licking it off the spoon?

Rocket J. Squirrel: There were so many chunks of it... no, it was huge. The spoon was pretty big... you all just need to push your ears closer to the speaker and you can see what I'm doing... so, there are chunks and chunks of it so it was definitely a solid piece... oh god it was good! The licking of the spoon wasn't bad either.

Chantrelle: There is the Thomas Keller theory... well not his theory... but the law of diminishing return theory that he's got with his food where if you have two or three bites of something it leaves you wanting more but if you get this enormous plate of it you get full and sick of it and it's not something you want to come back to. So it's that leaving you wanting more idea.

Rocket J. Squirrel: He's not talking about lasagna, clearly. Oh, or macaroni and cheese... even Kraft...I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I love it, it's comfort food.

Chantrelle: It's okay, it's a lot of people's comfort food. I don't like cheese! Isn't that horrible?

Rocket J. Squirrel: That is such a weird thing for foodie.

Chantrelle:I'm a huge foodie and I don't like cheese, olives, or bell peppers. So I can never go to Greece.

Rocket J. Squirrel: I can never go to Japan because of the fish. And I don't like rice.

Chantrelle: Yeah, that would be another problem.

Rocket J. Squirrel: Yeah that would suck. But wait, the cheese thing... Are you talking about all cheese?

Chantrelle: All cheese. I hate it.

Rocket J. Squirrel: Whoa!

Chantrelle: It's rotten milk.

Rocket J. Squirrel: Okkaaayyyyy. Do you like milk?

Chantrelle: I like milk. I don't like milk that's gone bad.

Rocket J. Squirrel: You don't like sour cream?

Chantrelle: I don't like sour cream.

Rocket J. Squirrel: Do you like buttermilk?

Chantrelle: I like buttermilk waffles.I make my mom's excellent buttermilk waffles!

Rocket J. Squirrel: Hi mom! I hear you make excellent buttermilk waffles!

Chantrelle: But yeah, any sort of milk product that's no longer milk. I like whipped cream, don't like sour cream.

Rocket J. Squirrel: Oh, I love whipped cream...I just stopped drinking coffee but I love whipped cream, it's just harder to put it on something. My fingers!

Chantrelle: I drink coffee once every couple of weeks. My husband roasts his own coffee beans. So he'll make me a mocha with Recchiuiti hot chocolate as the base and a shot of freshly roasted coffee bean espresso... it's good.

Rocket J. Squirrel: That just woke me up.

Chantrelle: That's all you need!

Rocket J. Squirrel: That's pretty damn good. So, anything else? There's probably tons of things you want to put out there?

Chantrelle: Oh...probably. But, no, not off the tip of my tongue.

Rocket J. Squirrel: I can keep going...What's your favorite dessert?

Chantrelle: At Ristorante Avanti, the place that doesn't serve breakfast anymore, they still serve dinner and they've got this Pot de Creme which is...

Rocket J. Squirrel: "poh" de creme

Chantrelle: Yes, thank you. It's thicker than mousse so it's not fluffy, air-filled... dense chocolate and covered with whipped cream. But not sweetened whipped cream, I don't even know if the whipped cream has any sugar in it.

Rocket J. Squirrel: It shouldn't. Maybe a little bit of vanilla.

Chantrelle: Vanilla...yep. It's fantastic. And that came to mind because I just had it night before last.

Rocket J. Squirrel: Is it served in ceramic or crust?

Chantrelle: It's just a little blob in a cup.It's great!

Rocket J. Squirrel: Next time I want you to bring me a blob in a cup.

Chantrelle: A lot of times I get it to-go because I can't finish it at the restaurant because it's so rich, I need a long period of time to eat it. So I sit there all night with it and watch Dexter or something.

Rocket J. squirrel: I learned this week that watching Dexter while eating is sometimes not a good idea.

Chantrelle: It's really not. We're one episode behind though so we can't say anything.

Rocket J. Squirrel: I'm about two or three episodes behind... I don't know. I save them and then I just go cram them. Watch them all. My favorite thing to do with the season of whatever...

Chantrelle: We do that. We were three episodes behind, now we're just one.

Rocket J. Squirrel: Californication, still my favorite.

Chantrelle: I'm a whole season behind a that one. But, yes, desserts! Anything from Recchiuti chocolate.

Rocket J. Squirrel: What is Recchiuti chocolate?

Chantrelle: Recchiuti's in the ferry building. In the ferry building there's two chocolate places: Scharffenerger and Recchiuti. Scharffenberger does confections but they do more of the bar chocolate. Recchiuti does more of the confections. Little tiny pieces of amazing little chocolates.

Rocket J. Squirrel: Have you tried Tcho?

Chantrelle: No.

Rocket J. Squirrel: T-c-h-o. It's also the Embarcadero and friends of mine started it. Oddly enough, tech, SRL, Burning Man, they started this up out of the blue and it's really good chocolate. It's amazing good chocolate.

Chantrelle: We were at whiskey-fest a few weeks ago and there was a random chocolatier there, Pico Dolce [correction: Poco Dolce]. They did a lot of toffee stuff which Recchiuti doesn't do, they sort of filled a void. There was an espresso one, and a salt one, one that had a cayenne thing going on. There was some serious heat in that one.

Rocket J. Squirrel: Yeah, they like the pepper and chocolate these days. It's a new fad. I guess it's not new anymore.

Chantrelle: There was the salt and chocolate, then the cayenne and Mexican spice chocolate.

Rocket J. Squirrel: I guess it comes from mole so it's come north across the border. The first time I ever had, whatever it was, I think it was jalapenos and chocolate, somebody brought me chocolate chip cookies from New Mexico. And I was like, oh yeah, and you're eating them and everything's fine then you realize you keep tasting all these very complex flavors afterwards. It was just layers and layers of heat and then chocolate. It was really good. Then I found out afterwards that everyone's doing that.

Chantrelle: Not all trends are bad.

Rocket J. Squirrel: Lavender and chocolate, bleh. Bergamot in chocolate? No.

Chantrelle: Oh, I like bergamot and chocolate.

Rocket J. Squirrel: You can keep it. I can't handle anything peppermint in chocolate. No fruit and chocolate or peppermint in chocolate.

Chantrelle: I don't like fruit in chocolate either. Peppermint...

Rocket J. Squirrel: Nuts and chocolate are good.

Chantrelle: Peppermint I'm okay with but the ratio has to be right. York peppermint patties I think are great but Newman's peppermint patties...

Rocket J. squirrel: What about After Eights?

Chantrelle: Those are okay. But they're milk chocolate right? I like dark chocolate.

Rocket J. Squirrel: I love that people think that white chocolate is chocolate... it's not chocolate.

Chantrelle: No, no, no, not white chocolate. It's not cocoa, it's fat. Recchiuti actually had really good... we went on a tour thing there, or a little day of nibbling things. He talked about white chocolate and how most of the white chocolate in this country has been bleached And they've taken all the flavor out. They have to make it white because real white chocolate is sort of gray. And it actually has flavor.

Rocket J. Squirrel: They cover that in Switzerland by putting nuts in it. So the gray you think is just the nuts.

Chantrelle: He made me realize that white chocolate isn't a bad thing when it's pure and good and from a really good chocolatier.When they haven't added all this horrible stuff in it to make a pretty.

Rocket J. Squirrel: I overdosed on it in Switzerland. I actually went into OD mode. They bought us these huge Toblerones that are, like, bigger than your head. Never eat anything bigger than your head. That's what I learned. I can't even smell it anymore without going, "Oh God I remember the overdose."

Chantrelle: I like 68% dark chocolate.

Rocket J. Squirrel: That is the perfect one. I agree. 68-70%.

Chantrelle: It's just sweet enough, just bitter enough.

Rocket J. Squirrel: This is lovely. I have been turned on to and by food porn. So, FoodPorn.com and you're Chantrelle.

Chantrelle: I am.

Rocket J. Squirrel: Thanks for hanging out.

Chantrelle: Thanks for having me.

Rocket J. Squirrel: She's a friend of mine and she wanted to come hang out. I was thinking, I don't know anything about food porn and I just saw your site for the first time yesterday. I thought, "Oh god, this is hysterical!" So yeah, check it out.

Chantrelle: Now I'm starving for lunch.

Rocket J. Squirrel: I know, and your mom, her stomach is probably growling!

The French Laundry Revisited - With Mark Van Name!

It's been six years since my first trip to the French Laundry. I'd heard rumors that Thomas Keller had spread himself too thin, opening too many restaurants, too many projects, that the French Laundry had slipped and wasn't as good as it used to be. I don't know what these people are talking about!! And I apologize in advance for the length of this article. It was a nearly 5 hour meal. You'll have to cut me some slack.

But I'm jumping ahead of myself. A few months ago I was contacted by my friend, Ticia, about an interview with Mark Van Name. He was coming out to the West Coast for World Fantasy Con, wanted to go to the French Laundry, and could I get reservations? Oh sure, you betcha! I have no insider connection, I just had to hope, keep my fingers crossed, and war dial the reservation line at 10am. The first day I tried for, I couldn't get in. I called back three days later for the second available date and, miraculously, got a table for five at 6:30 PM. I about dropped the phone I was so excited.


When we arrived, the first thing I asked to do was see the kitchen. I didn't do that last time and was kicking myself for it. I also wanted to do it before we started drinking wine...I figured that was a smart move! I was giddy standing in that kitchen. I was in complete awe. It was so quiet, so clean, and so precise. No one spoke above normal conversation levels and no one was rushing. I watched them assemble a plate of foie gras and it was so perfect (of course if it wasn't it wouldn't have gone out to the table). I felt like I had been granted access to the inner chambers of the food Vatican. I could have stayed there all night, watching, trying to learn, being enamored with the food and the dedication of the chefs. But we also felt we were in the way so we moved along.

We then headed up to our table in the corner of the second-floor. Earlier, when we'd just gotten into our hotel we were early so I took a little nap. The first thing I said when I woke up was, "Salmon Cone." I anxiously awaited the croquette. It was just as heavenly as I remembered. The waiter then went over the menu with us in detail and I conveyed my weird, inconvenient-as-a-foodie, food aversions. These of course would not be a problem for the magicians in the kitchen.

Before we dove into the menu and I wanted to get my standard interview questions out of the way. I knew once we started eating we would want to talk about nothing but the meal! I also liked posing the questions before we ate knowing at some of the answers may end up changing throughout the meal... and I was right.

Chantrelle: What is your favorite comfort food?

Mark: Macaroni and cheese. The kind that is fake cheese, Velveeta. The kind that probably turns your insides orange!

Chantrelle: What is your best childhood food memory?

Mark: I don't have many. I'd have to say Thanksgiving. We were living in a house with two adults and 10 kids and food was scarce. My mom usually worked so the other woman in our house did most of the cooking and she wasn't a very good cook. But on Thanksgiving my mom cooked and it was the only day we had food in such excess. And there were pies! I would eat until I had to lie down, my stomach was so full. The rest of the year we would have things like stuffed peppers with one pound of meat stretched between 12 people. Thanksgiving was the only day we could eat as much as we wanted.

Chantrelle: If you were forced to eat food from only one region or country what would you choose?

Mark: Italy I think. I love Florence. That's if I didn't have to worry about my health. If I were worried about being healthy I'd have to say China. But without taking health into account I'd say Italy with France being a close second.

Chantrelle: I'm always torn between Italy and Japan because I love sushi so much.

Mark: Japan doesn't do breakfast well. Have you ever had natto?

Chantrelle: Funny, I never thought of breakfast when I asked this question! I think that tips the scales for Italy. I make a frittata every week, I will never go anywhere near natto!

Since my interview with one of the cowboy junkies, the way I phrase this next question has changed. And it's changed in a way that is perfect for you!

Mark: Which Cowboy Junkie?

Chantrelle: Alan Anton, the bass player. He's a huge foodie.

Mark: Ah. Margo Timmins' voice is like an angel.

Chantrelle: I agree! I used to ask what you want your last meal be. Apparently that was a little too morbid and depressing. So now, you are about to be shot into space, what do you want your last meal on Earth to be?

Mark: My answer may change after tonight!

Chantrelle: We predicted that may be the case. But as of now....?

Mark: The 16 course truffle menu at Robouchon in Las Vegas. With the banana cream pie from Emeril's.

Chantrelle: Really? Emeril??

Mark: You don't have to eat anything else there. But if you like banana cream pie he has the best.

Chantrelle: And my favorite Food Porn question: What do you consider the sexiest food?

Mark: It depends on who is eating it. Anything can be sexy with the right person eating it! A hot dog eaten correctly by a woman can be quite sexy. But I'd say foie gras. Cooked perfectly but not cooked through so it's just warm in the middle.

(This question was later revised when the white truffle course was served! Wait for it....)

Formalities out of the way, it's time for serious eating.

First up, the famous, now classic, "Oysters and Pearls". I was concerned. I don't like cooked oysters, I don't really like caviar. That was the biggest blob of caviar I've ever seen on a plate in front of me. After my first bite I added to my list of sexiest foods. There was so much sumptuous butter in the dish I don't think I would've cared what was cooked in it. Pure, fatty bliss. I almost licked the bowl but I restrained myself. This was followed by a black truffle brioche. Everyone else got some cheesy thing. I got a hot-air-filled pastry balloon of happiness.

For the next course, it was a choice of soup or foie gras. Mark got the Moulard Duck "Foie Gras au Torchon" with Gingerbread Purée, Tokyo Turnips, Watercress, Pecans and Cranberries. He was a happy, happy man. If I could go back in time I would take a picture of his face upon the first morsel of foie hitting his tongue and pair that with the sexiest food question. The rest of us got the Musquée de Provence Pumpkin Soup with Chestnut Beignets and Whipped Maple Syrup. It was sweet, it was toasty, it was autumn in a bowl...a very refined, fancy, somewhat elitist autumn. Before this course we got some bread. Luckily I had a piece left so I actually got to mop up every last drop of the soup!


There was an extra "little" menu addition. We happened to show up during white truffle season. Just to add to my weirdness, I'm a fungophile who doesn't really enjoy truffles. I love to smell them and would love to hunt them (I never have) but they are too overwhelming of a flavor for me. I was the only one at the table that did not opt in to the truffle supplement menu. The waiter didn't want me to feel left out so asked if it was okay if he brought me a little egg custard infused with white truffle oil... like I would say no! It was lovely but still too truffley for me. I enjoyed two or three bites and really enjoyed it with our wine (2006 Corton Charlemagne, Coche-Dury that we picked up not too long ago as a pre-arrival at Kermit Lynch).

They brought the truffle humidor around for all of us to smell the beautiful fungus! Then shaved the most truffle I've ever seen on one plate. It was such a beautiful thing, I thought I'd share. Sorry there's no smell-o-vision!


My husband described the truffle experience best when he said, "The wine with the truffles made me taste colors I've never seen before." And when discussing the experience later, "Washing down a mouthful of freshly shaved white truffle with a slurp of Coche Dury Corton Charlemagne was a new peak moment for me as a foodie, though I suspect it guarantees that I will, in fact, be going to hell -- if not for the sheer decadence of such an indulgence, for the so-called "statutory grape" of opening an '06 a decade early."


After the richness of the truffles came a refreshing tartare of Medai Belly with Fuyu Persimmon, Yuzu, Black Sesame, Radish and Mizuna. The plate was a beautiful combination of colors. It was sweet, crunchy, fresh and made my sexy food list longer once again. I think I'll have to add this whole dinner into that list!



Exit fresh and light and return to rich and decadent: Maine Lobster Tail "Pochée au beurre doux" with Michigan Sour Cherries, Sunchokes, Piedmont Hazelnuts, Pearl Onions and Coffee-Chocolate Emulsion. Yes -- coffee-chocolate with lobster. I'm not going to say it was something I'd request on a dish again, but it wasn't bad or as weird as I thought it would be. It didn't take away from the dish, it was quite mild, but I don't think it added anything either. It wasn't a "miss" but it was the only thing all night that wasn't a life changing taste with each bite. The lobster itself was though!


We all had a funny reaction to the delivery of the Fricassée of Liberty Farm Pekin Duck with Cèpe Mushrooms, Toasted Farro and Brussel Sprout Leaves... we forgot it was on the menu, all thought it was the beef course and didn't two of the five of us order lamb? Well, yes they did but this is the duck you dingbats! What, are you getting full?!? You are only halfway through! But was I happy to get this duck afterall! I don't even like duck... or Brussels sprouts. It was moist, juicy, rare, tender, flavorful, roasty-toasty, rich and earthy. Turns out I like duck when it's been run through the Keller-Magic-Pan-of-Yum.

Now, no one else complained about this but me. The Snake River Farms "Calotte de Boeuf Grillée" with Horseradish Dumplings, French Laundry Garden Beets, Romaine Lettuce, Crème Fraîche and "Sauce Borscht" was an abnormally large portion for the French Laundry. I actually said, "Why is that so huge!?" I was already full at this point and had been powering through for a couple of courses. I took a couple of bites and shared the rest with the table (no one objected!). The meat just melted away. Two others at the table shared the Elysian Fields Farm Lamb Saddle with "Cassoulet" of Autumn Beans, Tomato Compote and Garlic "En Persillade". One of those two was my husband and he doesn't like lamb. He had a similar epiphany that I had with the duck. How can the kitchen transform flavors like that?

Thankfully the cheese course, "Camembert" with Black Truffle, "Pain Perdu," Quince, Celery Branch and Brown Butter, was next which meant I got a little refreshing salad break. This is the first time I've been happy about not liking cheese because I think I would have exploded if I tried to consume that much fat and richness at this point in the meal.


Ahhh, on to dessert. Simple, yes? Just sorbet and then a little chocolate, right? WRONG! First up was the Bartlett Pear Sorbet with Roasted Jacobsen's Farm Pears and Chai Tea Sablé. It cooled the senses, gave the illusion that you could keep eating. Pear sorbet has become a favorite dessert for me (Scream Sorbet at our farmers market sells their's, in season) and this one, of course, encapsulated every bite of peariness imaginable.

Second, "Gâtueau Saint Nizier au Manjari" with Mango-Chili Relish, Valrhona Cocoa Nibs, Lime Foam and Coconut Milk Sorbet. Can I just say that for the first time I *EVER* loved foam! Now I finally get the foam thing. It's not like a little pile of flavored bubble bath soap on your food, it's denser and flavorful, still light, and this particular one was like a little, frothy virgin margarita topped with crunchy salt and lime zest. And yes, this paired wonderfully with the chocolate.

That's the end of the menu, so were done. The album is over...Nope! There's that hidden track that's not listed in the liner notes! Now the multilayered box of cookies and confections: nuts, sesame, caramels, toffee, things I don't even recall. Then the plate of truffles: caramel, peanut butter, pumpkin, peppermint, coffee. Good Lord! Just like six years ago, this last surprise course came home with me for breakfast.


Thankfully we didn't have to find room for more food. Sadly, the dinner was concluding. Tea, coffee, a little parting gift of shortbread cookies. We lingered as long as we could. Mark then ventured into the kitchen to be awed by the work in there as well. He came out sufficiently venerated.

To be honest, I usually would have more quotes from my interviewee in my write-up. We talked about books: his and others ("Shoes off and the whale!"), tech work (Mark is CEO of Principled Technologies). We discussed many other restaurants: Pigeon, Beast, and Sel Gris in Portland, Little Washington, Alinea and El Bulli). We talked about his upcoming book projects, family, and more food. Alas, my recorder failed and all this has all come from memory. I think that means we have to do this again! We've all agreed to return to the French Laundry together and this time LICK THE PLATES!!! Etiquette be damned!