Old Sources of Inspiration

Farmer Jeff and I decided to go the big city a couple of weeks ago, San Francisco. We had been working/catering all weekend and needed to get out of town. We picked SF and decided to eat some Chinese food! We went to the House of Nanking on Kearney at Columbus, which is a favorite. We had the sweet and soft Asian eggplant in a rich, garlic sauce, the fried squid in vinegar (came close to lifting the dish to our lips to drink the sauce...at least I did!) and then their signature dish, Nanking Sesame Chicken. YUM. After eating ourselves into a coma we decided to take a drive.

We were headed to Golden Gate Park but then decided to visit Green Apple Books on Clement. We always find great books there, and I am tickled with the one I got! It is: American Food Writing - An Anthology with Classic Recipes, edited by the ever so talented Molly O'Neil. How can you resist a book that starts with a recipe for vanilla ice cream by Thomas Jefferson, includes other writing by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a recipe for Black Cake by Emily Dickenson, the virtues of a the hot dog by H.L.Mencken and ending with our new food writing hero, Anthony Bourdain.

The day after we came home from the City, Farmer Jeff and I decided it was time to get back on our "food plan". This is NOT A DIET because we need to eat like this for the rest of our lives. It is based on the plan laid out in the book: YOU on the diet. We followed this pretty strictly last Jan. and lost all kinds of weight and inches from around our waist. It really is sensible and pretty easy to follow, but does require a lot of cooking. Tonight I am cooking a big stir fry and will be using one of Zin's smoked pork chops as the meat. I will do my best to duplicate the sauce from the House of Nanking. We will eat this over short grain brown rice while watching Top Chef on Bravo. Yes...we live, eat, sleep Food!!

Picture of House of Nanking taken by the folks at www.nyceats.net