I will sheepishly admit that I never watched as much Food TV as I do now, since I had Sophie. What else is a foodie mom to do whilst those frequent feeding sessions? If Sophie's eating, I may as well work up an appetite too. What I didn't realize is gone are the days where Food TV was simply how-to-cooking shows like Yan Can Cook or The Naked Chef - instead it's also fallen to the reality TV craze. This has resulted in the likes of the Next Food Network Star, Top Chef, Dinner Impossible and the show which was the inspiration for my next destination - Chefs Vs. City.
In the San Francisco Battle Chris Cosentino and Aaron Sanchez go to the Ferry Building Marketplace where they taste exotic olive oils from Stonehouse Olive Oils and sample local cheeses at the Cowgirl Creamery. When I saw this episode I was set on seeing for myself what appeared to be a much snazzier, upscale version of our Granville Island here in Vancouver. Well the Ferry Building turned out to be more like a boutique mall of gourmet delights. Not only did we stop here once on our trip to SF, not twice, but THREE times!
From the moment we entered the halls I knew this was going to be good - off to my right, I looked up, and there was the sign: Boccalone - Tasty Salted Pig Parts. As it happens, this is Chris Cosentino's "Salumi Baby". (Salumi = cured meats) His outlet to flog all that is piggy, salty and tasty. We picked up a couple of links of the Salame Pepato - melt in your mouth salami with a peppery kick. That's a pretty tame choice when you consider that the product of the moment there is Lardo Iberico de Bellotta - decadent acorn-fed Spanish backfat. Think hunk of lard from acorn fed pigs that's so high in monunsaturated fats it's comparable to olive oil.
Moving on, at Stonehouse Olive Oils we sampled the Zhug and Zhatar spice rubs that take the plain old balsamic and olive oil dip to the next level. As I was taking my third dip, out of the corner of my eye, I spied a chocolate shop - but not just ANY chocolate shop. It was RECHIUTTI. Up to this point I had only dreamed and drooled over the chocolate confections in Michael Rechiutti's cookbook "Chocolate Obsession". Well the dream was suddenly a reality and I sprinted over, leaving Sophie and Paul running after me. Trying not to be a complete glutton and win some good foodie Karma I carefully selected their Red Wine Pairing Box and Peppermint Thins (PEPs) for girlfriends, and then asked Paul to choose something just for us. He picked the Peanut Butter Pucks (PBPs).
Since I started breastfeeding Sophie I've had the most ridiculous craving for all things peanut butter and chocolate, so when Paul chose the PBPs I wasn't disappointed. I did gulp a little at the till when I realized 6 pucks (slightly smaller in diameter than a Reeses but double the thickness) cost $18! That's $3 a puck! I could get 27 Reeses for the price of 6 Rechiutti PBPs! But let me tell you this is unlike any peanut butter cups you will ever have - it's officially to us, the Mother of all Peanut Butter Cups. The highest quality milk chocolate enrobes organic peanut butter sprinkled with tiny nuggets of fleur de sel. Paul and I would take tiny little bites of each puck seeing how long we could make it last. Paul took 4 minutes - I managed to stretch this perfect bite to 10. We both shed a tear when they were gone.
Once we managed to quit ogling and drooling at Rechiutti we headed down to Far West Fungi. In the cold case housing the black truffles, my interest was piqued by a small plate of savoury macarons. Since a trip to Paris and Melbourne I've been obsessed with macarons (MACARONS, not macarOOns) but never had I seen them as a SAVOURY treat - always a sweet. Touted as the next "cupcake" in the pastry world, these sandwiches of delicately crisp and yet chewy almond meringues encasing a flavour packed buttercream or ganache are a testament of pastry skill (trust me - I've tried. I'm still working on perfecting them). Naturally I HAD to try a savoury version. In this case it turns out that it was salty AND sweet. The almond meringues enclosed a black truffle buttercream which, as a whole, reminded me of the time I worked at West and my boss Rhonda Viani made Black Truffle Ice Cream. This was food snobbery at its best, and they tasted oddly good- espcially to a myco-maniac like myself.
We ended our initial tour (for the second and third visit you'll have to wait for future blog posts) at Sur La Table. A much hipper version of Vancouver's Ming Wo but not nearly as stuffy as Williams-Sonoma. Being that I worked part-time at our kitchen store I have this curious habit of running in to compare prices and see what other gadgets could possibly be had. I was quite ecstatic when I stumbled upon Bakerella's new book "Cake Pops" (Think adorable decorated cakes on a stick. I had read about it in a pastry magazine and couldn't yet get it in Canada) I snatched it up and brownie pop mold to boot. It was only then that I realized I had to carry all this, plus the treats we bought, AND Sophie's diaper bag. I was kicking myself for not bringing the stroller.As we rushed off - not wanting to be late for our Gourmet Walking Tour, I saw the most curious onesie at the Prather Ranch Meat Company. I couldn't help giggling at it's "swiney" slogan - Praise the Lard. To this day, I still regret not picking one up for Sophie.
Next time.
