Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern in Portland

Last spring I got a call from a producer of Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre Foods asking if I wanted to help out with an upcoming Portland episode. She'd seen my book Food Lover's Guide to Portland, had checked out my blog and wanted me to help choose subjects and themes for the upcoming Portland show. We had a lot of back and forth for a few months before they came to Portland to shoot last summer.

I know a lot of the folks that they ended up featuring but I'm sure that there will be some surprises as well. People and businesses that I recommended include Steve Jones of Cheese Bar, Nat West of Reverend Nat's Hard Cider, Geoff Latham of Nicky USA, Earnest and Sumiko Migaki of Jorinji Miso, John Cleary of Newman's Fish Company, David Barber of Picklopolis, The Frying Scotsman, The Big Egg, Andrea Spella of Spella Caffe, Gabe Rosen of Biwa, Gena Renaud of Yume Confections and Naomi Montacre of Naomi's Organic Farm Supply. These are the folks that I remember talking about but I know there were more.

When the crew came to town last summer I got to tag along for a day. I haven't seen any of the show yet but if you watch it imagine me crouched between storage racks behind the sound guy when Andrew is making a very strange sounding ice cream (hint: smoke and bones). I even got to introduce myself to Mr. Z and we talked a bit about Vassar our alma mater. Now, more than a year later, the show is finally airing -- next Monday night on the Travel Channel. I'm really looking forward to tuning in.

Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern

Essential Pepin

This is an enormous cookbook as it should be since Jacques Pepin has aimed to cook down and encapsulate his entire career with it. I've been a fan of Pepin's for years. I first got to know him as many did -- through his televised PBS cooking series with Julia Child -- Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home. I love how at ease they are with one another. Jacques prefers black pepper, Julia prefers white and they bicker about it on camera. You get their character and humor unlike a lot of today's highly groomed food television folks. I also really enjoyed reading Pepin's The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen. If you're looking for an engaging read that takes you through the learning and becoming of a chef read it. It's such a good book.

I'd been talking about how I wanted Essential Pepin, which came out in fall 2011, for awhile and then one day out of the blue my ex-boyfriend's mom sent it to me in the mail. Love her. Here are some of the things that I've cooked from it...

The first dish I made from Essential Pepin is the chicken diable and it turned out great -- pan seared chicken with a red wine vinegary tomato sauce. Served it with sauteed sprouts, hazelnuts and white rice.

I often give scraps and trimmings to my dog but I made cracklings out of some of the skin since there was so much. Yum.

Really good breakfast the next morning with the leftovers.

I cooked up a big batch of Pepin's kidney bean and beef chili and got a lot of use out of it mixed with rice and coconut milk for dinner and sauteed up with eggs here for breakfast.

Pepin's not so pretty but very tasty lentil bulgur soup.

Essential Pepin by Jacques Pepin Pub. date October, 2011 704 pages $40, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Zenger Farm CSA Accepts Food Stamps

There are so many great food events in Portland and lately I haven't had time to go to many. One of my favorites of the past several year's has been Friends of Family Farmers' free and open to the public InFARMations held at Holocene every second Tuesday night of the month. The last one held featured Zenger Farm's new SNAP for CSA toolkit and I wish I could have gone and learned more about it. Here's the gist straight from the source:

Zenger Farm is launching a new toolkit to help Oregon CSA farmers begin accepting SNAP dollars (formerly known as Food Stamps) for their member shares. This is a key component in the fight for better access to good food for all.

Fast facts:

• SNAP brings more than $1 billion in federal food money to Oregon each year. • Zenger Farm Shares was one of the first Community Supported Agriculture programs (CSAs) in Oregon to accept SNAP. • While the traditional CSA model supports farmers by assisting with the upfront costs of farming, that same upfront capital investment is often a barrier for households on limited incomes. • In 2011, Zenger Farm received a grant to develop a toolkit to help Oregon CSA farmers begin accepting SNAP dollars. This toolkit will be rolled out at community meetings and conferences across the state, as well as through online webinars in 2013.

More info about the toolkit and programMore about Zenger Farm Shares

Yard Fresh Pt. 26

I've been eating out a lot lately but that's not because I haven't wanted to cook I just want to see people and be out and about and, of course, there is so much good food to be had in Portland. I've also been pretty busy and it's been nice to turn off the mind machine and let others cook sometimes.

That said, I've still cooked a fair few tasty things lately and I'm very happy that more foods will be coming from my garden sooner than later. I've planted my peas and this weekend I'm going to get more veggie beds ready and start some seeds indoors. A lot of herbs are coming up now too -- oregano, mint, sorrel, fennel and then some. Please leave a comment here and let me know of anything you've recently cooked, eaten or planted that you love.

Some of what went into my Tom Yum soup. From top left Thai basil, Thai chiles, kaffir lime leaves, fish sauce, lemongrass, galangal, ginger.

Really simple Spanish braised beef with mash from Claudia Roden's The Food of Spain. Warmed me right up.

Quick salad with Toro's tapenade, anchovies and a garlicky citrusy vinaigrette with broiled cheese bread.

Planted sugar snap peas a few weeks ago but none have come up so planted another round this weekend.

Took this a few weeks ago -- red-veined sorrel, oregano and mint popping up in the garden.

Ham, egg and cheesy breakfast. Top of the morning.

I made a batch of Choi's Kimchi and it turned out great.

And then I made kimchi jjigae with a jar of it which I order all the time and have never made. Really good.

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For Your Viewing Pleasure Pt. 9

Another crazy spell work-wise so you get one of these picture-worth-1,000-words posts. This weekend I worked on the book's essays quite a bit and met yesterday's final edits deadline for them and last I weekend worked on some other things for The Toro Bravo Cookbook mostly related to the above photo of Toro Bravo's charcuterie manager, Josh Scofield, that you'll know about soon enough. (We also ate Spanish chorizo that Josh brought back from our trip there and drank Basque cider cocktails -- so working through the weekends isn't so bad.) Yes, the project that Josh was walking me through above relates to cured meat and, yes, you can do it in the comfort of your own home. Any ideas?

www.torobravopdx.com For Your Viewing Pleasure Pt. 8For Your Viewing Pleasure Pt. 7 For Your Viewing Pleasure Pt. 6For Your Viewing Pleasure Pt. 5For Your Viewing Pleasure Pt. 4For Your Viewing Pleasure Pt. 3For Your Viewing Pleasure Pt. 2For Your Viewing Pleasure Pt. 1

Cook the Book -- The Toro Bravo Cookbook

Even though we've finished testing and editing all of the recipes for The Toro Bravo Cookbook (due out October 1, McSweeney's) by now, I've been cooking them all again at home because they're delicious and I love them and also because you can never test a recipe too many times and in too many kitchens. This kind of obsessive behavior makes my friends happy since they get to eat more Toro food.

We're finishing up the essay edits for the cookbook now too so from here on out this project that we've been working on for two-plus years is going to look and feel more like an actual book. We've gotten some really rough layouts and of course those are amazing. Wouldn't expect any less from the fine McSweeney's team. Here's a little of what you can look forward to cooking and eating from the comfort of your home when the Toro Bravo Cookbook out this fall. Hope all is well!

Toro's tapenade chock full of tarragon, anchovies and red onion...

Toro's salty preserved lemons. They take 6 weeks to cure and mine are halfway there...

I'm going to do a full post on this soon but for now over the holidays my brother and I brewed the Toro Bravo Red (Breakside Brewery + Toro's recipe) in Cincinnati. He and his wife mailed me a couple bottles once it was ready so that we could try it for the first time together.

We toasted and tasted it together via Skype. Delicious!

A little closer...

Toro Bravo's limoncello. Grated my thumb but worth it. Two bottles of limoncello in the freezer!

Vodka and lemon rind combined...

Limoncello wrapped and ready for the wait...

Toro's limoncello strained after 30 days and into the freezer. Been drinking it the past couple nights and it is so good. Lemony goodness.

The Toro Bravo Cookbook: The Making, Breaking and Riding of a Bull (coming soon to a bookstore near you! Publishes Oct. 1st, 2013) McSweeney'swww.torobravopdx.com

Revel in Portland

A few weeks ago I got a complimentary copy of Revel in Portland in the mail since Toro Bravo chef-owner John Gorham is featured in it (we're currently working on the Toro Bravo Cookbook due out from McSweeney's Oct. 2013) along with nine other creative folks in Portland including illustrator Carson Ellis, filmmaker Lance Bangs, and architect Jeff Kovel. There's a Q&A with each person in this pocket-sized book filled with beautiful matte art and photos that's followed by a descriptive list of their favorite Portland places.

There are three Revel in New York books already and the group is looking to expand with books for Austin, Miami and Los Angeles next year.

It's a fun, inspiring read that makes me proud to be a Portlander. Although the group hasn't secured significant distribution yet you can find Revel in Portland at Reading Frenzy, Ampersand, Heart Roasters, Albina Press and you can also purchase it directly via their site.

The Revel team puts it best:

"The Revel In Portland Guidebook is a celebration of the Portlanders who wear their hearts on their sleeves. Artists, chefs, musicians, designers, filmmakers, troublemakers, and our city's most interesting characters. 10 interviews, pictorials and 72 personal recommendations."

Revel in Portland, Volume 1 $10 www.revelinportlandshop.com

John Gorham's chapter in Revel in Portland Volume 1.

Friend Food Pt. 6

I have incredible friends and family and we give each other a lot of love with food and drink. I started this blog series a while back to chronicle that. Here are some of the tasty things that I've gotten to be involved in with friends or have been given by friends lately...

Debbie gave me a big bag of delicious Green Salmon Coffee, from Yachats, to brew and fill my new mug withfor Christmas.

Several weeks ago my friends Chris and Karen invited me over for dinner and we made buttternut squash and chevre raviolis. So good.

What dinner looked like that night.

My friend Loly made peppermint schnapps and Kahlua for the holidays and I was lucky enough to get both!

My brother and sister-in-law gave me this mug with my nieces on it when I went home to Cincinnati for Christmas this year. It makes me happy.

My neighbor and friend Chris made a batch of this tasty raspberry jam and I got some.

And his girlfriend and my good friend Alison has been giving me eggs from her hens for years. I love my neighbors so much

My friend Michelle and her daughter Kylie and I making beet salad.

My friend Emily gave me this jar of rendered pork fat from a class that she took recently at Portland Meat Collective.

And just so you know that the gifting goes both ways -- here are most of the edible gifts that I gave to loved ones over the holidays.

Friend Food Pt. 5Friend Food Pt. 4Friend Food Pt. 3Friend Food Pt. 2Friend Food Pt. 1

Portland Zagat Guide Giveaway Winner!

Since we didn't get to #5 the closest #4 is the winner. Congratulations Mr. S. I'll be in touch about your winning copy of Portland's first very own Zagat Guide. Thanks for all of your comments. I'm looking forward to checking out some of those brunches. Happy Monday!

Portland Zagat Guide 2013 $14.95 www.zagat.com

Portland Zagat Guide Giveaway

This summer and fall I was lucky enough to get to work on Portland's first very own Zagat Guide. A few weeks ago I came home to a box of them hot off the presses on my front porch. Have you seen it yet? What do you think? I'm sharing most of my copies with friends and family but I'm also giving one away here to a lucky commenter. I've written down a number as usual and that numbered commenter will get a copy of the guide. And just so you know this is how you pronounce Zagat. I've botched the pronunciation for years.

What I'd like to know is this -- what are some of your favorite brunch spots in Portland? I've been going to brunch more these days and it's always nice to know of new spots. Some brunches that I've really been digging lately -- Kenton Club (pop-up brunch every Saturday and Sunday), EaT Oyster Bar and Interurban. I live in North Portland and tend to stay up in the hinterland for brunch but suggestions throughout Portland are welcome.

Check out this recent Oregonian interview with Nina Zagat.

Portland Zagat Guide 2013 $14.95 www.zagat.com