Good Things I Have Eaten Entry #3: American Hops

On the first week of class after summer break, we did two days of beer class. With lectures in the mornings and tastings in the afternoons, we summed up a whole world of beer in twelve hours of class.

I learned a lot about the brewing process and the different styles and traditions of beer making.

I had always thought that I love all beer rather equally, but actually, I learned that I don't love beer itself, I love the hops in beer. Monks in the middle ages discovered that hops (bitter, green, cone-shaped flowers) help preserve beer and provide a pleasant bitterness and balance to the final product.

English and American styles of beer tend to go heavy on the hops, but not all hops are created equal. Different varieties of hops have decidedly different aromas and lend very different flavors to the beers. English hops tend to be spicy and reminiscent of Indian food, and English Ales, although interesting, in general don't taste that good (especially when served warm and flat, pumped by hand from a cask).

I can proudly say that American Hops are the best. Cascade is the hardest working American hop, and it gives the distinctive, crisp, citrus aroma to great American Pale Ales like Sierra Nevada. In two days of beer tasting, Sierra Nevada tasted the best. Full flavored, refreshingly bitter, satisfying but not cloying like the syrupy, bready Belgian beers, S.N. completely stole the show, all thanks to the mighty American Hops that go into it.

Some get turned off by the robust, piny bitterness of American Pale Ale, but these are not only my favorite beers, but my favorite beverages in the world. I like them more than any wine, cocktail, soda, coffee, or tea that I drink. I am truly a converted hop head.

An American Hop Head.

Working Back Through My Travels: Lisbon

Oh boy was I impressed by Lisbon. Never has a place without surfing made such a strong and immediate impression on me. The city feels small but bustling. There are tons of cool, old cultural sights. Awesome old buildings, a big church that was built in the 1300's, a Moorish quarter you can only enter with a tour guide because the narrow pedestrian streets criss-cross in such a tight, overlapping maze that anyone but a local would get lost (and locals still get lost there). They have a bridge that looks just like the golden-gate bridge. They have awesome weather and deep blue sky. The old part of town, just above the city center, is packed with restaurants, record shops, and cocktail bars. A seven-euro cab ride takes you from the airport to downtown. The food is good, especially the baked goods (like slightly sweet Portuguese cheese tarts).

Lisbon is one of those rare places, where after just a short time, you feel like, "Wow, I really want to live here. This place is cool." The city just has a really good vibe and energy, and along with the rest of Portugal, it doesn't get enough credit.

So I'll say it here: Lisbon is f***ng awesome.

Good Things I've Eaten: Entry #2 (French Edition)

Our class just spent the last week in France on a study trip. Although it is easy to make fun of their silly accents, high taxes, penchant for clothing with horizontal blue stripes, rampant cigarette smoking, and funny hats, their food has to be taken seriously. Below I've listed only the best and most memorable food and wine experiences of the week:



1. Bresse Chicken, Montrevel-en-Bresse When the farmer took us to the pastures where he raises these chickens, I think we all felt a slight pang of jealousy for their lifestyle. Each bird has fifteen square meters of verdant pasture to himself. They spend their lifetime frolicking on the carpet of green, native grasses, eating locally grown corn, milk, and insects. They hang out, they look for worms, they exercise, and they soak up the warm sun and fresh air of the French countryside. Towards the end, they spend a week in a warm, dark room to relax and fatten up for their big day.
For lunch, the farmer served the chicken simply roasted, with only a touch of salt and pepper and the roasting juices as a sauce. These birds have a clean, satisfying flavor that is hard to describe. They taste how a chicken is supposed to taste, and every morsel carries this essential, pure chicken flavor. This, the simplest meal of the trip, easily reigns as the most memorable and satisfying.



2. Perfect Salads One thing France definitely has on Italy is its salads. While French food seems to lean heavily towards butter, animal proteins, and duck fat, they offer fresh, crisp salads as a counterpoint. Fresh lettuces, maybe tomatoes or carrots, and the bright, tangy Dijon mustard vinaigrette and nothing more. Simple, refreshing, satisfying, the salads in France are done right.



3. Chablis Terroir: the term gets thrown around quite a lot nowadays and the concept of "terroir" seems mysterious and complex like most fancy French words. But when it comes to wine, terroir means one thing: soil-driven. In Chablis, we tasted at two different wineries with slightly different approaches, but each house had the same goal. They want their wines to showcase the unique, mineral-rich soils of the region. The first winery produces single vineyard/appelation, unoaked Chablis. Crisp, clean, mouthwatering, although they use the same varietal (all Chablis is Chardonnay), these wines are a far cry from the California Chardonnay I'm used to. The second winery (actually a large co-op of growers with a centralized wine-making operation) uses some oak in their Chablis, only because they feel the oak helps bring out the minerality by softening the green, fruity flavors. Again, these wines were, crisp, clean, and delicious. The man leading the tasting couldn't emphasize enough the importance of minerality. Chablis should taste like the minerals in the soil. After tasting more than ten Chablis, I think we got his point.

4. Steak Tartare, Brassiere George, Lyon The restaurant was big (Huge actually. I'd guess 500 seats), bustling, old-school, and very, very French. The lighting was retro. The waiters wore bow ties and black vests. The menu was big and full of classic French food: all the best dishes that got exported to bistro menus in the United States, served in one place and done right. Escargot, Steak Frittes, Cassoulet, etc... My decision was easy. I had to have the Steak Tartare, which they still prepare tableside. The waiter brings the freshly chopped meat, an egg yolk, tobasco, mustard, capers, onions, and salt and pepper, asks you how spicy you want it, and then mixes it all up and plates it right on the spot, with an air of cool, professional indifference. The tartare was seasoned perfectly and served with fries and salad. I couldn't have been happier.

Working Back Through my Travels: London

I have to write at least something about all the great places I've visited in the last two months. Things have been too busy recently, always one thing to the next, and I am afraid if I don't stop and look back at these great experiences, they will get lost in the blur. The amazing moments won't add up to anything if i don't write them down.

On the way back to California for my sister's wedding, I stopped in London. I spent a weekend with my best friend since Kindergarten. He has been living there for over two years now. I had been to London before, but Aaron showed me a completely different side of the city. Here are some of the highlights of the weekend:

1. Saturday morning, Borough Market Jamie Oliver popularized this market, which used to have a grittier, working class feel to it. Now it may be a little touristy or geared towards yuppies, but there's no arguing with the products on offer. Amazing fresh baked goods, cheeses, wines, beers, juices, oysters, sandwiches made from melted Raclette cheese, huge wooden tubs of pestos and olives. Almost anything you could want. Aaron and I grabbed coffee and then walked around. The products were arranged so beautifully and had such vibrant colors that just walking through the place, taking it all in, was a truly satisfying experience. We didn't even need to buy anything.




2. Rock and Roll Dance Party, Saturday Night Aaron described this pub as "The Happiest Bar in London". We had a group of about eight, and we were some of the happiest pub-goers in London that night. They play 60's and 70's rock music, geared towards dancing. Air guitar, leg kicks, faux-vocals, arm swings, more air guitar, anything goes when you're dancing to rock and roll. We didn't dare leave until all our clothes were sweated-through and the DJ stopped playing music.

3. Flea Markets, Sunday Morning We went to two different flea markets, each with a slightly different feel to it, and each with a huge diversity of goods for sale. Cool old sweaters, jackets, coats, scarves, glasses. New merchandise, old merchandise, cameras, records, fridge magnets, bags, ties, suits, almost everything. The second market had a food section, where vendors sold fresh ethnic food. Spanish, Indian, Japanese, Mexican, Chinese, Thai, and it all looked good. More importantly, people were really gathering in all these places. Diverse cross sections of the city came to purchase goods, to eat, to walk around, to see or be seen. It was impressive to see.



4. Coffee at "Look Mum, No Hands" This bicycle-themed coffee shop eptimizes "cool". They have vintage bikes in the interior, good coffee, microbrews, and barristas with awesome mustaches. This is just a fun place to hang out, read the paper, or do work on your laptop. If I lived in London, I would want to be a regular there. I might even develop a crush on one of the employees and after a few months finally arrive at the perfect moment to ask her out for a drink. It's that kind of a place.




5. Pimm's Cup, Saturday Afternoon Aaron arranged a celebration for both of our birthdays (we were both born at the end of August). He gathered a group of friends and co-workers to meet at a pub with a beautiful garden in the back. Starting the drinking at two in the afternoon can be rough, but the Brits have developed a solution: Pimm's Cup. They serve the refreshing ,herbal spirit called "Pimms" with seven-up, fresh strawberries, oranges, cucumbers, and mint. Truly, it's lovely beverage, and sharing a few pitchers of the stuff with friends is a lovely way to spend an afternoon.

Good Things I've Eaten: Entry #1

So, I'm going to try to keep a journal of all the good things I eat. Every once and while I post some of the entries up here in no particular order.

Pliny the Elder IPA August, 2010, Bar/Cheese Shop Napa
For me, this is the beer of beers. You can't ask anything more from a beer than what Pliny gives you. This beer is clean yet fully satisfying. It delivers strong, bitter, yet crisp hop flavors of grapefruit and pine. The bitter, astringent hops are balanced by a round, smooth mouthfeel that finishes clean. Satifsying, refreshing, mouthwatering, perfect with grilled meats or hard cheese, and even better all by itself. Russian River Brewing Company, thank you for giving the world Pliny the Elder.

Carne CrudaJune, 2010, Osteria in Neive, Piemonte
In Piemonte, they like their carne cruda, raw meat, and they do it right. On this day, we hiked from Alba into the hills and before lunch we had climbed two big hills, tasted seven Barbaresco's at a winery along the way, and covered about eight kilometers. Hot, sweaty, hungry, the cool, perfectly season, bright red, raw veal was the perfect thing to eat. The primal yet refined protein fix powered us through the four course lunch, two more bottles of wine, and the eight kilometer walk back into town.



Beet, Apple, Orange, Ginger Juice August, 2010, Burrough's Market, London
I couldn't pass this up at the farmer's market. Bright majenta in color, the juice tastes sweet, tangy, and slightly earthy from the beets (at least two whole beets go into one juice). The spicy ginger comes on at the end, giving the beverage a fresh, invigorating kick. I wasn't hungover this morning, but this juice would probably be very good for a hangover.

Luca's Mom's Pickled Treviso July, 2010, Bra, Italy
Treviso is the bitter, elongated, purple colored cousin to Radicchio. A special variety of Treviso is especially sought after for pickling. Luca's Mom transforms the bitter, stalky vegetable into something wonderfully sweet, tangy, pleasantly bitter, tender, and slightly chewy. We pulled the stuff out of its jar with a fork and ate it with bread that we had toasted and spread with soft cheese. After eating almost all of it, we ceremoniously divided the last piece of the Treviso like stranded mountaineers splitting up their last chocolate bar. This stuff really is that good.

Back to School!

After more than six weeks of travel, time off, aimless wondering and a few aimless summer afternoons at the pool here in Bra, it feels good to be back at school and to have a (semi) permanent home again. I am looking forward to being (semi) productive and structured again once classes come into full swing.

This time of year always lights a fire under my belly. As the new school year starts I always feel focused, motivated, and determined to make the coming year the best ever. After I graduated from college and started working, this reflex never went away. Once summer moves into autumn, a new energy comes to me. I get excited. I feel creative. I feel like starting new projects, reorganizing my time, reinventing parts of my self.

Coming back to Italy, you can't help but feel this same energy. After the whole town (and the whole country) shuts down in August, once everyone comes back in September, it's like everyone starts over and has a new school year ahead of them. And there is much to look forward to. The harvest is coming. The forested hills just outside of town are surely bursting with young white truffles. The weather has changed. It's not hot anymore and we can finally drink all this wonderful red wine they make all around us. The pear trees sag with fruit and seem to beg to be harvested. Before we know it, the mountains will be covered in snow.

But, as Carlo Petrini told us on the first day, "Slow....slow", one thing at a time. Beer class today and tomorrow, a trip to France all next week. Terra Madre and Salone del Gusto festivals around the corner. While the back to school reflexes tell me to push, to dig, to maximize, get more, do more, truly, looking ahead, it is enough to stay calm and try to be loose and ready for all the experiences in store. Take things as they come. Let the year unfold. One thing at a time. Slow.