Free is the Best!

Back in 2010, I got some free compost from the City of El Cerrito on Compost Giveaway Day.  This year I noticed the city is giving away compost for an entire week starting yesterday until March 24th. This morning I brought a bucket with me to get my compost.  I will try to go get some more if I can find another bucket to put it in. I love that earthy smell!  Cracus loves it, too. He tried to eat it as I was trying to add it to the base of the mulberry tree. I think he actually ate a little. He likes to eat dirt occasionally.

While walking Cracus, I came across a patio umbrella stand someone left out on the sidewalk for free. It's a heavy duty one.  Sure it is old, but who cares. It is just going to sit outside and get weathered anyway.   I promptly picked it up with my car after walking Cracus back home. While walking Craucs, I also spotted a cluster of puffballs in the grass on the sidewalk.  I collected all of them in one of the clean poop bags.  I love having these bags handy. They are useful in many ways not just for picking up dog poop. With the exceptional rain volume this year, I have seen plenty of mushrooms while walking Cracus, but this is the first time I found something tasty.

I can't believe I got all these free things on the same day!

First Mushroom Hunt of This Season

dirty wild mushrooms

The rain season has started. It rained all day last Saturday and Sunday evening. Last night, Chef Pauly invited me to go hunt for some wild mushrooms. He has gone out during the weekend and already picked a bunch. This morning I picked him up and drove to one of our regular spots. Shortly after we got on the trail, Chef spotted a few white puffballs. I was very excited because I had never found puffballs before. Even though Chef saw them first, at least now I know what to look for.

We passed by our regular candy caps spots, but they weren't out yet. It usually takes about a full week of soaking rain for the candy caps to come out. We continued on and went off the trail to look for golden chanterelle. We started going down some pretty steep hill. Chef started to see the chanterelle. I was still trying to adjust my eyes and mind to see what I needed to see. It didn't take long for me to started seeing them, too. As usually, I screamed with joy then reminded myself not to be so loud. Both of us started picking and filling our bags. It was quite a work out as we worked out way down and up the steep hills, but I felt refreshed as we got back on the trail finally with out bags of mushrooms.

cleaned chanterelle and puffballs

Cleaning chanterelle is a lot of work as they are covered in dirt. I trimmed off the dirtiest parts and cleaned each one carefully. It is perfectly okay to ingest some dirt, but I just prefer not to have dirt in my food if all possible.

I cooked some of the chanterelle tonight for dinner. I dry sauteed the chanterelle expecting a lot of liquid coming out of them. To my surprise, only a little liquid came out and it was soon evaporated. I didn't have to transfer the mushroom liquid into a bowl. I think that's because these chanterelle were picked so early in the season, and they have not overgrown and pack up much liquid. Unlike the ones I picked in previous years, these chanterelle felt firm instead of plump. Even though these chanterelle are not as big as some others I have picked, I like the firm texture a lot better. I can't wait to eat the rest of them and pick some more soon.

cleaned wild mushrooms drying in the sun

"Food Trend Predictions for 2011"

Macarons from Macaron Cafe in Manhattan

I just came across "Food Trend Predictions for 2011," and once again, some of my favorites from 2010 have made the list. The 10 trends predicted are listed below, and I have written at least 3 items from the list during the last few months.

Food Halls
Korean Cuisine 
Macarons
Meatless Mondays; Tofu Thursdays 
Foraging
Tiki Bar Cocktails
Pop-Up Cafés
Sweet Potatoes 
Urban Wineries
Pimentón de La Vera

Making kim chi for the first time

Korean Cuisine
My favorite cuisine has been Japanese for as long as I can remember; however, Korean cuisine has increasingly beat Japanese when I get one of those dining out cravings. In the past year, I have made kim chi, tofu stew, and Jap Chae (Korean glass noodles), all for the first time. Of course, Korean BBQ ribs (Gal-Bi) have been a regular item of my summer bar-be-ques for many years.

Macarons
I had some macarons during my visit with my best friend in Baltimore in September. You just can't help not to like macarons when you see their beautiful colors and perfectly round shapes. They also come in so many different flavors. You just want to try them all. During my visit, my best friend got some macarons from two different local bakeries. One of her friends stopped by with more macarons she just brought back from Macaron Cafe in Manhattan. I happened to be going to New York City after leaving Baltimore, so I headed straight over to Macaron Cafe to try more flavors. One of these days, I will attempt to make them in my kitchen. I will be sure to write about it when I do.

Meatless Mondays; Tofu Thursdays
As an urban farmer, who doesn't keep livestock, I don't consume a whole lot of meat since it is much more convenient just to eat what I have in my veggie patches. Meatless days are quite frequent, and I don't think much of it. I don't see why we need to eat so much meat and with every meal when there are so many other delicious and nutritional things to eat.

Foraging wild mushrooms

Foraging
For selfish reasons, I am hoping foraging isn't going to be a trend. I pretty much only forage for wild mushrooms. It requires some learning curve and networking to be able to do this, so I am not too worried about running out of wild mushrooms to forage due to competition.

Sweet Potatoes
I am delighted to see sweet potatoes made the list; however, I am skeptical how it will become a trend since Americans are just not that crazy about vegetables. I have always loved sweet potatoes - baked sweet potatoes, sweet potato fries, sweet potato pie, and sweet potato soup (a dessert soup from Taiwan). Sweet potatoes are featured in many favorite dishes in Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, and other island nations, so sweet potatoes have always been a part of my regular diet. I wrote about the benefits of sweet potatoes and included a sweet potato gratin recipe in my Thanksgiving Festival at California Culinary Academy blog entry.

Whatever the trends are, I hope more people will steer away from processed food. Processed food tends to be high in fat, sodium, and calories. Besides, we shouldn't be eating food out of a cardboard box on a plastic tray. Something about it just seems so unnatural to me.