Bacon Everything; Grape Stomping; Mooncakes; Eggs

Guest Interview

Market Report ()

Amelia Saltsman is the author of The Santa Monica Farmers Market Cookbook.  She's making a roasted tomato sauce.  Roughly chop the tomatoes and onions and add to a roasting pan with whole cloves of garlic. 

Roasted Tomato Sauce

This recipe is easily doubled or tripled. Use a larger pan and allow a little more roasting time.

2 1/2 pounds flavorful tomatoes, such as roma, Early Girl, Celebrity, or Costoluto Genovese

1 large onion, chopped
4 whole cloves garlic, peeled
2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
Several sprigs thyme
Kosher or sea salt
Generous pinch of red pepper flakes
1 to 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, optional
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Core tomatoes, cut into pieces. Don’t worry too much about the size; anywhere from quartered to 1-inch cubes is fine. Toss tomatoes, onion, garlic, thyme sprigs, and vinegar, if using, into roasting pan. Toss with olive oil, salt, and red pepper flakes.

Roast, uncovered, until tomatoes have broken down and thickened and onions are tender, 40 to 50 minutes. You should also see some nice browning around the edges of the pan. Use the back of a large spoon to mash the tomatoes and garlic. If sauce seems too thick, add a little water, stock, wine, or what have you, and stir, scraping up any brown bits. If sauce is too sweet, add a little vinegar, salt, or more red pepper.

Toss sauce with pasta, incorporating a little of the pasta cooking water. Or, to make a nice tomato soup, stir in 3 to 4 cups stock into the tomato mixture and heat. You can puree the soup if you like; just be sure to remove the thyme sprigs first.

Makes enough sauce for 1 pound of pasta or 6 servings soup.

© 2010, Amelia Saltsman

Ed Munak farms in Paso Robles.  He has many varieties of heirloom tomatoes and melons.  He has many heirloom melon varieties in green and orange flesh.  The cool nights allow for a very sweet melon.

Candy Rodarte and her family own Mike & Sons, a chicken farm in Ontario.  They sell California raised eggs including the pullet eggs. The pullets are 18-19 weeks old and their eggs are small but packed with nutrients.  The larger the egg, the older the chicken.

Music Break: Italian Dry Ice (instrumental) by Josh Rouse

Guest Interview

Terroir: Going Back to the Land ()

Rowan Jacobsen is the author American Terroir: Savoring the Flavors of our Woods, Waters and Fields.  Terroir is the concept of how the land where a crop is grown influences the taste characteristics.  Rowan believes the ecology of an area can affect the qualities of certain foods.  Terroir is a concept traditionally applied to wine, however it's also now used frequently to describe food. 

Guest Interview

Merroir ()

Christophe Happillon is a Maitre Ecallier, which is like a sommelier for seafood.  Merroir is a similar concept to terroir, but applied to the ocean.  Oysters feed on phytoplankton, which can affect the taste characteristics of bivalve.  Each estuary has very different phytoplankton which leads to very different qualities.

Music Break: Quiet Man is Dead Man by The Daktaris

Guest Interview

Mozzarella Bar a la Romana ()

This week Jonathan Gold reviews Obika, a mozzarella bar in the Westfield Century City Shopping Center.  The original Obika is in Rome and this California outpost flies in their cheese three times a week from Italy.  Jonathan likes the sausage n'duja and the mozzarella in carroza.  Jonathan Gold is the Pulitzer Prize-winning food writer for the LA Weekly. 

Obika
Westfield Century City Shopping Center
10250 Santa Monica Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA
(310) 556-2452

All of Jonathan Gold's Restaurant suggestions are on the Good Food Restaurant Map. 

Music Break: Santo Domingo by Rodrigo y Gabriela

Guest Interview

Tacos Jerez ()

Gustavo Arellano is the food editor for the OC Weekly.  This week he reviews Tacos Jerez, a Zacatecan restaurant in Huntington Beach.  Gustavo likes the asado de boda and the nopalitos con puerco, which come as daily specials.

17681 Beach Blvd.

Huntington Beach

 Music Break: Sassy Strut by The Soul Investigators

Guest Interview

Bacon Everything ()

Jeff Miller is the LA editor of Thrillist.com, an email newsletter.  For this interview, Jeff arrived with Bakon, a bacon flavored vodka and a t-shirt from Bacon Freak.  He recommends the following bacon-oriented dishes in Los Angeles:

• Bacon-wrapped matzoh balls: The Gorbals, 501 S Spring St., Los Angeles, CA, (213) 488-3408
• Bacon-wrapped meatloaf: First and Hope, 710 W 1st St. Los Angeles, (213) 617-8555
• Bacon, pork shoulder and chorizo burger: Tavern, 11648 San Vicente Blvd., Los Angeles, (310) 806-6464
• Bacon-infused bourbon and egg cocktail: Tony's, 2017 East 7th Street, Los Angeles, 213 622 5523
• Bacon and egg martini: Alston Yacht Club, 1320 Echo Park Ave. Los Angeles, (213) 481-0454
• Bacon chocolate bar: Animal, 435 N Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 782-9225
• Bacon ice cream: Scoops, 712 N Heliotrope Dr., Los Angeles, (323) 906-2649
• Brown butter and bacon ice cream: Coolhaus (truck)
  
• Bacon-wrapped asparagus: Nanbankan, 11330 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles, 310-478-1591

The newest food truck is Lardon, where every dish has bacon included.  A recipe for peanut butter and bacon cookies is here.

Music Break: Set Me Free by The Heavy

Guest Interview

Over the Mooncake ()

Eddie Lin writes the blog Deep End Dining.  He went to the legendary Phoenix Bakery for mooncakes, a delicacy eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival.  The bakery has been in LA's Chinatown since 1938.  Mooncakes usually contain red bean paste or lotus paste and a salted duck egg.  When the cake is cut in half, it resembles a moon.  These days, mooncakes are made with all kinds of things.  The Phoenix Bakery also makes a fruit nut mooncake with seeds, candied fruit and Virginia ham.

Eddie will be emceeing the Mid-Autumn Festival in Chinatown.

Making Mooncakes from Ed Lin on Vimeo.

Music Break: Shindig by The Shadows

Guest Interview

Grape Stomping ()

Good Food host Evan Kleiman traveled to Doffo Winery in Temecula to go grape stomping.  Doffo is a boutique vineyard run by an Argentine family.

(Photo: Elina Shatkin)