ForkAndPen

what the hell is baby corn

The Girl asked me last night - "what is baby corn - is it real corn?"

I had no idea but had a feeling it was not corn at all but something else. Nope - the internet has shown me that it is the same corn we all love but just a lot smaller.

(image from recipetips.com)

Check it out:

"Next time you enjoy a mini cob, think of the poor little baby corn, cut down before its prime."

also - wikipedia on baby corn.

Bay Area Dining Group #1 - Pacific Catch

While sipping some good wine and eating an average yet over priced steak, a few friends of mine, the girl, and I talked about starting a dining club. Simply a group of people that get together every week or so and go to a restaurant. We are going to try to vary the price range and type of food. And yes if you were to take the name above and make it an acronym it would be B.A.D.G - yes we are bad.

First place to try was Pacific Catch in the marina. We started off a few doors down at yuzu
while we waited for one of the only tables in the very small very crowded pacific catch. I hear the food at yuzu is not that exciting, though I have not tried it. Yuzu did have something going for it, they were having a special on one of my favorite beers - Hitachino nest red rice ale. They also had the white ale which is very good and then i braved one i had never heard of called Koshihikari Echigo Beer. I actually didn't like this one at all. Strong rice flavor with kind of a coors light aftertaste. Oh well - our table was ready at pacific catch and so i downed the beer.

We ordered a few different items. There were crisp and nicely salted sweet potato fries that were surprisingly good. The warm edamame with sea salt was better then most Japanese places in town that i have been too. Fresh, flavorful, and with plenty of sea salt. Oh and not wet with cooking water like you sometimes find. After that most of us ordered wasabi bowls. A big bowl of seaweed, daikon, rice, ginger, wasabi and most importantly pieces of ahi, ahi poke, or grilled eel. This is some straight forward food and rather cheap. If it was off the mark you would know, but they hit on pretty much everything. Yeah it isn't easy to get a table and the place is a mad house but damn i can't wait to go back.

Here are the pictures (click in for more):

Eat local or i will beat you up

The girl writes passionately about eating local. It's not just for good quality fresh food anymore. The point is to create a more sustainable earth that isn't going to explode in a few years. Unfortunately, this includes being careful even at the farmer's market.

At the SF ferry building market - some farmers drive 2 or more hours to get there. Is this really local. I still want to support them but we need to keep all of this in mind. There is lots of great produce close to SF that we can buy.

Replate

Check out their FAQ

Is that cardboard I taste?

In the "oh wow that is rather gross" category of news today - yahoo news puts out an article about a Beijing steamed bun place that supposedly was selling buns with 60% cardboard inside. At least they didn't decide to use people.

Getting Back to Eater

Just cause i am on a different coast, doesn't mean i can't read eater every day. This morning is the first time i have looked in a long while. Ah the food gossip:

Sietsema goes out on a limb and names Il Brigante "the city's most perfect evocation of the true Naples style..." Damn I want to try!

Oh and Sam from Top Chef 2 (yeah the hot one) is breaking up with the owners of his first restaurant - Spitzer's Corner. Hope he falls on a good place next - he seemed like he could really take off.