So for a dinner date last night I came up with a great menu centered around a live lobster. I didn’t manage to take pictures because I was hectically preparing the meal, but here’s the menu:
White pluot with lemon zest ricotta & olive oil (stolen from Peter’s prosciutto wrapped pluot & ricotta)
Lobster with fresh fava [...]

We’ve enjoyed dinner with my friend Peter before, but about two weeks ago I worked hard (read: begged) for another home cooked meal in the city.
Friend and I headed from Berkeley to the city for pre-show dinner at Peter’s (we were to catch the MF Doom/Pigeon John performance at the Independent, but when we arrived [...]

This is a Sardengna style recipe for the classic Italian dish of “zuppetta di mollusca,” or, mussels in a light stew. This is relatively inexpensive to make and very fast to cook, though I don’t recommend eating bottom-feeders like mussels and clams often. You can also add clams to this dish though I’ve found its [...]

For lunch today I cracked open an unusual bottle of Tempanillo rose (”Flamenco Rojo”) from a so-so Paso Robles winery that I have an unusual history with (which is a story we’ll save for another time). I paired it with a panino and a friend; Ga Eul came by while I was sauteeing some red [...]

About a week ago I bought a black truffle from Alba (.85 oz) and cooked two dishes with it. I first had a dinner party for three friends where I made
seared scallops with champagne-vanilla sauce on a bed of bitter greens (baby kale, frisee, arugula) with ginger-yuzu dressing
and then we had
black truffle risotto with crimini [...]

With staff at the shop we opened a bottle of this Gosset Sparkling Grand Rose–it’s new year’s eve 2006 and we decided to pitch in and get something really nice. Surprisingly aggressive effervesence, graphite, starfruit, green apple, sour fresh cherry, mint or lemon-tarragon, citrus peel (kumquat, orange? yuzu maybe is what that herb & citrus [...]