I’m a lottle* late with my write-up about that hazy, crazy last week of April when it seemed the food universe was spinning around this little burg called Portland. It started off with the convergence of the IACP conference — that’s the International Association of Cooking Professionals. Though I certainly spend a lot of time in the kitchen, I can’t be called a professional so shelling out for the four-figure cost of registration seemed a tad…excessive… so I initially ignored much of the media surrounding the big event. Then just the week before the eat-erati were about to descend on the city, I found out that they were still looking for some volunteers. Hobnobbing with foodie royalty and chitchatting about all things edible for free? Hot dang!

Unfortunately I was a little late to the party and most of the sexier volunteer spots — like, oh, helping out (and eating) at the opening gala and, say, being Madhur Jaffrey’s kitchen assistant — were already taken. But there were still jobs to do — and for the chance to sit in on a few sessions I could stand to work a few hours at a less than glamorous job.

In looking at the website it didn’t look like I’d actually get to go to any sessions since they all seemed full, but in fact I got to attend two of them, plus the exposition and book fair. Really, I was only limited by my own schedule as they were incredibly generous about letting volunteers sit in. Then again, I didn’t try to crash the chocolate tasting or the Judith Jones talk.

I went to a rather heated panel discussion on “The Death of Recipes” — some people would like to see recipes wiped off the face of the earth; who knew? Michael Ruhlman went head-to-head with Karen Page (thanks to extramsg, the video of the exchange is here) about whether or not Americans are too busy to cook at home. The audience was on Ruhlman’s side (partly because Karen Page was being sort of insufferable) in large part for saying crowd pleasers like “It may be fundamental to our humanity to spend time everyday cooking for our families.” Amen, brother.

Speaking of fundamental humanity, my favorite event of the week was a talk by Bryant Terry and self-proclaimed “food justice activist” who seeks to reclaim our humanity by reclaiming food for the corporate grasp. He’s written two books: Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen and Vegan Soul Kitchen — though he pointed out that he didn’t pleaded with his publishers not to use the word “Vegan” in the cookbook title since he felt it pigeon-holed the book when what he really wanted to talk about was sustainable eating. But marketing shorthand won out and so “vegan” it is. His session was billed as a cooking demo, but what it really was was a food activist rally and inspirational speech. And I gotta say, I got no problem with that. Especially since at the very end, he made us all some citrus-spiked collard greens. Yum.

The culinary book fair and expo hall events the next day weren’t quite as thrilling as I’d hoped, though I did get to buddy up to bread-genius Peter Reinhard and watch Ruth Reichl try to figure out what kind of strange pre-packaged crunchy snack product she was eating. Oh, and see Michael Ruhlman and Karen Page glare at each other as they were seated perilously close together by virtue of alphabetical order.

That Saturday we celebrated Willy Week’s 3rd annual Eat Mobile fundraiser for Mercy Corps. We’ve been to all three and this was by far the best organized, easiest to navigate and most fun one yet. Congrats to you, Willy Week. It helped that C and I had PJ and Brendan in tow to help us cover more ground fast and try everything before they ran out of food. No small task when there were 30 carts and, what? 3000 people?

Highlights include porchetta from The People’s Pig, truffle sandwiches from Savor Soup, beignets (beignets!!) from Violetta and spicy thai grilled peanut butter sandwiches from PBJ’s.

Ummm… I don’t actually understand what “I Pentagram Food Carts” means… should I?

Gotta admire the chutzpah of lugging your own wood oven around. They were turning out some damn fine pizza, too.

Why, thank you!

Thank the pig.

And did I mention that the Portland Farmer’s Market season has just started in earnest, too? So in addition to IACP and Eat Mobile I’d been grazing my way through the markets. Hey, it’s local, right?

After all that socializing and fooding, I couldn’t convince myself to attend the granddaddy of all food tasting events, Taste of the Nation, a benefit event catered by the best and brightest of Portland’s food scene. It sounded like an amazing time with fabulous food, all for a good cause, but I’ll have to wait and hope that next year’s event doesn’t come at the end of a week of non-stop eating. Either that or hope that by this time next year, I will have figured out how to make my stomach as big as my hungry eyes.

*that started out as a typo, but I like it as a word meaning “a lot, but I want to pretend it’s just a little”

Do you like pie?

Do you like avocados?

Do you like avocado pie?

You may not know it yet, but, yes, of course you do.

Now, when most people think of avocados they think of savory foods: guacamole, turkey sandwiches, cobb salads. And that’s all well and good because I love those things, too. But I have discovered that when you suggest a sweet avocado dish people tend to wrinkle their noses and express disbelief that such a thing is possible.

Is it possible? It’s not only possible, it’s outrageously delicious.

I give you the Avocado Mambo Pie — so good, you’ll be dancing all the way to second helpings and you’ll never be doubtful about avocado desserts again.

Avocado Mambo Pie

1-1/2 cups ginger snaps, crushed finely
6 tablespoons butter, melted

1-1/2 cups coconut milk (not light)
2 teaspoons (1 envelope) unflavored gelatin
3 ripe avocados
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 teaspoons lime zest
1-1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons sugar
mint leaves for garnish
orange and lime zest for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine ginger snaps crumbs and butter in a large bowl. Then press mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a 9″ pie pan. Bake for 15 minutes and then remove and allow to cool completely.

In a medium saucepan pour 1/2 cup of the coconut milk liquid (set the cream aside). Sprinkle the gelatin over the top and allow it to sit for 2 minutes. Then place over medium high heat and warm the liquid and gelatin until the gelatin has dissolved (do not stir). Remove from heat.

In a large blender, combine: gelatin mixture, remaining coconut milk and cream, avocados (pitted and skinned), mint leaves, lime juice, zest, sugar and salt. Blend on high until very smooth. Pour into cooled pie shell. Cover and refrigerate at least two hours.

Right before serving the pie, combine whipping cream and sugar. Whip with a hand mixer into whipped cream. Spread whipped cream over the top of the pie and garnish with orange and lime zest and mint leaves.

The good people of the North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission are once again sponsoring a sweet potato recipe contest this year. Last year, I tried my luck with a couple of recipes and this year I am once again throwing my proverbial hat into the ring with two entries. The first, you’ll see below — the delightfully homey, comforting soup with delicious sweet potato dumplings.

For my next entry, my thoughts turned to Morocco. My thoughts often turn to Morocco since I love the food and the country has long been high on my “Must Visit” list. Now, I don’t think the sandwich I actually came up with could be found in any Moroccan kitchen, but I like to think that it would right at home as a satisfying lunch after a morning of wander the Souks. If you happen to have some harissa handy, the sandwich will be all the more tasty (and Moroccan) with a dollop of it on top.

Moroccan Sweet Potato Pita Pockets

3 medium sweet potatoes
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1-15 oz can garbonzo beans (chickpeas)
1 small red bell pepper, diced
1/4 cup oil and herb marinated sun-dried tomatoes, diced
1/2 cup red onion, diced
2/3 cup fresh mint leaves, shredded

Dressing:
1 cup yogurt
juice of 1 lemon (about 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne powder (optional)
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
2 teaspoons granulated sugar

6 pita bread halves
mint sprigs for garnish

Peel the sweet potatoes and slice them on the bias making long diagonal slices about 1″ thick.

Bring a pot of water (at least 2 quarts) to a boil. Add the sweet potato slices and reduce to medium heat. Boil for 6-8 minutes or until slices are just barely tender.

Heat a grill (either indoor or outdoor) to medium high heat. Brush the sweet potato slices with olive oil and place them on the grill, cooking about 4 minutes per side. Remove to a plate.

In a large bowl, mix together the garbonzo beans, bell peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, red onion and fresh mint. Set aside.

In another bowl, whisk together all the dressing ingredients until smooth. Toss with bean salad mixture.

Put 2-3 slices of sweet potato into each pita pocket half. Fill the rest of the pita pocket with the bean salad. Garnish with mint leaves and serve.

Spring sprang, but proved to be a fake-out as often happens here in the fickle northwest. It’s back to being chilly and grey, but no need to let it get you down. Especially not when there’s soup to be had.

I felt like a steaming hot bowl of chicken and dumpling soup… but how about a bit of twist and make an even more nutritious and delicious soup by making *sweet potato* dumplings. Now you’ve got some serious chilly weather comfort food.

Chicken Soup with Herbed Sweet Potato Dumplings

Soup:
2 skinless, bone-in chicken legs
salt and pepper
2 leeks, stemmed and thinly sliced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 cup onion, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 stalks celery, minced

Dumplings:
2 cups sweet potatoes, cooked and mashed
2 cups flour
1 egg
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon dried sage
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt

Heat a large (5 quarts or bigger) heavy bottomed stock pot over medium high heat. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the chicken legs. Brown the chicken, about 3-5 minutes each side. Remove and set aside.

In the same pot, saute the leeks, carrot, onion, garlic and celery until golden, about 8 minutes. Add back the chicken and cover with water. Bring to a boil then simmer until chicken is very tender, about 1 hour.

Meanwhile, prepare the dumplings. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Set aside.

Once chicken is ready, remove it from the soup with tongs and set it aside for a few minutes until it is cool enough to handle. Shred the meat from the bones and discard the bones. Return the chicken meat to the soup and bring the soup up to a boil.

Drop large spoonfuls of the sweet potato batter into the soup being careful not to let them crowd each other too much. Cover the pot and let the dumplings cook for about 8 minutes.

Serve immediately and serve with parsley for garnish, if you like.

I’ve spent most of my adult life thinking that I had a black thumb.

My house plants always died and I managed to off more than a few other people’s plants, too. I was a little fearful when we moved into our current home that had all these living things in the yard. How long would it before our yard became a burned out shell of its former self?

Well, it turns out that what plants really like to do is live and grow and so long as you don’t get in their way, they’re going to keep on doing just that.

Last summer, emboldened by a few years of managing not to kill everything in the yard, C and I decided to add a couple big vegetable container boxes to the front yard. Because, while I think flowers are pretty and trees are swell, what I really look for in a plant is deliciousness.

the veggie boxes in progress, last spring

So we set up the boxes and filled them with things that grow easily and that I love to eat like kale and tomatoes. And whaddya know? They grew!

Chris made covers for the boxes to see what we could sustain through winter. The kale and collards survived all right though really didn’t do any growing for 6 months. Now that it’s sunny again, they’ve gone straight to flowering. Initially I thought, “Bummer, they’re going to seed, that’s the end of that.” But after visiting the Portland Farmer’s Market I now know that what I’ve actually got is gourmet raab. Hotcha!

the new hot veggie on the market: kale raab!

I planted several lettuces that were supposed to overwinter well, but after that deep freeze in December only one really survived. It’s the aptly named “winter wonder lettuce” and it’s looking lovely indeed. I want to try growing more of these next winter.

This year, we’re expanding even more and diversifying our crops. I’m also eying the other side of the front lawn for more space, but we’ll see how our harvest is this year. So far we’ve got: leeks, radishes, carrots, fava beans, spinach and chard. Oh, and I’ve got potfuls of epazote and oregano that flourished through the winter on indoor window sills.

I should have guessed all those many years ago that all the incentive I needed to become a gardener was the promise of a fresh and delicious dinner.

Greetings and thanks for stopping by. Canape?

This is the blog formerly known as Cap’n Blog and Salty which was once found on www.nerdsonfilm.net. I will still be writing about food, travel and my beloved City of Roses. All of my previous blog entries will still be available here. And, hey!, I might even try to write new ones.

What’s with the name, you ask? Well, I’ll re-print what I wrote in my farewell on Cap’n Blog here:

The idea for “Tiny Sandwiches” came from a favorite childhood TV commercial that’s been lodged in my memory for some 30+ years. In this ad, a little girl carefully and lovingly makes a sandwich for herself, but upon discovering that there’s only a small amount of mayonnaise left (and, sorry, Market Brand Managers of America, but I can’t actually remember what brand it was), she instead decides to make a tiny sandwich to maximize the amount of flavor she gets from her beloved mayonnaise.

After seeing this commercial as a youngster, I would often cut my sandwiches into tiny pieces to pretend that I was eating just the one perfect bite of a sandwich.

This commercial has been rattling around my head for all these years and what it means to me is that when you’re cooking, the most important thing is to work with what you have and make it as delicious as you can. Improvisation, adaptation and creativity are the hallmarks of a good cook and are essential to having a positive cooking experience. Never mind that the original idea for this came from some nasty, industrial mayonnaise ad — the lesson is still very real. Plus, tiny bite-sized food is just inherently more exciting and fun to eat. And cuter!

We’ve been home a couple weeks now which I suppose means I should get around to finishing up writing my blog entries about the trip. And what better place to start than with Thanksgiving?

Right after we got back from our trip to Vietnam, we headed out to Ban Rai, a pastoral town northeast of Bangkok in the Uthai Thani region of Thailand. My dad has something of an agricultural empire out there growing mostly pineapples and sugar cane by the ton. The plan was to head out there and chill out for a couple days, including Thanksgiving day. I took this opportunity to see what kind of Western-style holiday meal I could create from the goodies to be found at the local markets.

But first…

we took a tour of the farm and showed the folks around beautiful Ban Rai.

baby pineapple!

two of my dad’s newest ventures: a lime orchard and…

dragon fruit! I never knew what a dragon fruit tree looked like…

Thursday morning Pop, Chris and I head out to the Ban Rai fresh market in downtown. It’s pretty hopping and fuller than I remembered it. I stroll past the deep fried hot dog vendor and past the vat of live frogs and straight to a veggie stand where I got all the greens I needed for the evening.

I got that giant bundle of lemongrass I’m holding, plus several bunches of basil and a big knob of galanga — all for 20 baht, about 60 cents.

I visited the chicken vendor and picked up the biggest bird they had — no turkeys here, but this would do. Plus it was almost certainly free-range and local. We probably saw it crossing the road the day before. The thing about buying chickens in the country is that they’re going to come with a lot more… bits… than a city slicker like me is used to. I knew the feet would be there and the head, while a little unnerving, was not unexpected. But what really freaked me out? Lungs. Lungs! Of course, I know chickens have lungs, but I never thought about that before that day.

Anyway, back at the market: I got a big Thai pumpkin and some fruit, meanwhile Chris was chatting up the khanom krok vendor and trying to eat the fresh hot delicacies without setting his mouth on fire.

We spent the day visiting scenic spot around town, swimming, reading, lounging. Oh, and I did a fair bit of cooking. As did Chris.

Now, the challenging part about cooking Thanksgiving dinner in Ban Rai is that there is no oven and only two burners in the house. Plus, since my dad doesn’t cook, there’s a dearth of cookware. But we were prepared.We bought a grill at Tesco — actually 2 — and procured charcoal from a local. While we were musing about what to use for kindling, Pop’s farm manager handed us a dried out coconut husk. Brilliant — it made for mad efficient fire starter.

The grills we got were Thai style which is to say that they were designed for short super hot blasts on the grill, not for smoking a whole chicken. So we had to do some… modifications. This is what it looked like in the end:

Chris monitors the grills

It all wound up taking a lot longer than we’d planned — the chicken was on the grill for, oh, about four hours in all. But it worked!

My idea for the dinner was to combine the traditional dishes on the Thanksgiving table with the local flavors of Thailand. Sure, it was possible for me to make candied yams with marshmallow fluff, but wouldn’t it be more fun to do it Thai style?

So here’s what we wound up with:

kaprow (holy basil) deviled eggs for a starter

roasted Thai pumpkin

brown rice stuffing with green “mountain apples” and cashews

The main event: the bird stuffed with lemon grass and galanga. it’s ugly from being manhandled by crappy tongs, but that didn’t keep it from extreme deliciousness.

and here’s the whole table, which also shows the “green beans” which were really cut up yard-long beans.

Everything turned out well, but the real star was the chicken which, after being closed up in the grill with all that lemon grass and galanga for hours was buttery tender and infused though with the flavorful herbs. Yum!

I have no picture of dessert, but it was a galanga-spiced Thai pumpkin pudding with a sago (AKA tapioca) and coconut pudding topping. Pretty tasty, too.

The sad part of the meal was that Pop wasn’t feeling well so he couldn’t join us for the meal. But it turned out to be fine because we just got to have the whole meal over again two days later when he was feeling better! Hooray for Thanksgiving day leftovers.

Our main goal in visiting Vietnam was to go to the central region of the country and visit some of the places Chris’s dad had been when he was stationed there during the war. We’d do some sightseeing — and eating, of course — while we were there, too.

We started out in Hue, the former capital of the Nguyen dynasty which ruled from the mid 1800s until the 1940s. The city sits on the scenic Perfume River and the old Imperial City at the edge of town is still fairly well-preserved. The weather was like the crummiest Portland winter day put on repeat: overcast with a drizzle that never stopped. We got pretty thoroughly soaked after a visiting a few places, but still got a good sense for the sights and sounds of Hue.

The trip had a bad start when our flight from Hanoi was delayed 3 hours and we got to our hotel — which I picked, by the way — late at night to find it kind of a stinking hole. Evidence:

scary Santa on the front window

elevator fail

Stained, broken mattresses stacked up everywhere

We soon ditched the hotel for nicer digs across town and the trip got much better. But on to the touring…

in ponchos in the Imperial City

Me at the old Imperial City Library — they had to move all the books out because the building was faling apart. Sounds like some libraries I know back home…

group at the Mausoleum of the 12th emperor

We took a tour of the DMZ area including the town where Jim had been stationed. He said he recognized nothing which was good because the place wasn’t in great shape the last time he was there. The towns around the DMZ have transformed themselves from bombed out, decimated villages into thriving cities with nice roads, new construction and some pretty cool monuments to the Vietnamese heroes of the war, including my favorite: a huge roadside monument to the mailmen who continued to deliver mail through the war.

We made a stop in Vinh Moc, a town that had once been on the border the North side of the border and had been bombed flat by Americans. In response, the townspeople, dug a series of tunnels under the town where families lived until the end of the war. We took a tour of the tunnels and were duly impressed with their ingenuity, tenacity and engineering skill.

Vinh Moc tunnels map

We don’t have a lot of pictures from inside the tunnels since it was so dark, but you can see here about how big they are. I could walk comfortably most of the time, but my travelmates had to scrunch down a lot.

Some of the tunnel openings got to the sea and some to the mountains. We went out to the sea.

Jim and Liane on the beach right outside the tunnel.

Next we were off to Hoi An, a UNESCO World Heritage site for its unique blend of Chinese and Japanese shop house architecture which has been well-preserved for over 500 years. Sure, it was touristy and commercial, but still charming.

C and his dad with a dragon at the Fujinese Assembly hall.

Huge spirals of incense that you can buy and burn with a wish or prayer attached. There were several from Thai tourists who wished for the good health of the king.We were told that they take about 2 weeks to burn out.

There was a miniature replica of the Great Wall of China outside the Assembly hall.

Hoi An had a ridiculous number of adorable babies everywhere we looked. It must be something in the water.

Hoi An also had a whole lot of tourists, some of whom were being ferried around by cyclo drivers.

But as far as I know Hoi An only had one motokitty.

Perhaps the best part of our visit to Hoi An was when Chris and I rented bicycles and pedaled out to Cua Dai beach, about 5 kilometers away from town. This was a tiny bit terrifying because: first, if you have ever spent any time on the roads in Vietnam, you know that the drivers are deathwish daredevils — and that goes for all vehicles from the motorbikes to the tour buses to the water buffalo; second, even in a small town like Hoi An, the air is thick with exhaust fumes that make it difficult to breath even if you’re not exerting yourself; and third, we rented the bikes from a slightly sketchy dude for whom bicycle maintenance was a foreign concept.

But! we survived and had a great time, too.

C on his bike

bikes on beach

the surf on Cua Dai

stormy cua dai beach

one of our fellow riders and some of the scenery we enjoyed on our ride.

I’d heard that Hue, having been the home of the Emperors, was the food capital of Vietnam so naturally, I was pretty excited to eat what they had to offer. But either we were just going to the wrong places (very possible, as we went to many tourist restaurants) or Hue cuisine ain’t all that. It seemed like its main claim to fame was having lots of fancy ways to present the food and there was less focus on preparation. However, we were in pretty boring restaurants ordering not very exciting food.

“white rose” is rice noodles with shrimp

fancy veggies

We fared a little better in Hoi An where we ate more street food.

These street noodles stopped everyone who walked by them in their tracks, they were so beautiful. They looked like an alternate version of “cau lau” a local noodle dish that can only be made with the water drawn from the local well. delicious.

Another Hoi An special is fried wonton which are served sort of like Asian nachos with shrimp and veggies served over the top of the crisp “chips.” very, very good.

another version of Hoi An fried wonton

We had just an evening to spend in Ho Chi Minh City — we just had to wait for our morning flight back to Bangkok — which was a shame since its known as having the best street food in the country. We settled for a westernized street-food restaurant near our hotel for our one dinner and had some interesting dishes.

snails

fish sauce wings — I think I like the version at Pok Pok better.

shark ship! on the river near our hotel

On our last morning in Vietnam I woke up early and took a walk around the neighborhood then C and I ditched the group for our one shot at HCMC street food. We got a bowl of bun bo hue (ironically, we never had this in Hue) at a street stall around the corner. So, so good. We picked up a banh mi to go and headed home…

bun bo hue