Starry Wisdom

Some of my friends know that I am somewhat particular about bagels. Unless they meat a certain threshold, they are just round bread. Mass produced bagels you find at the grocery stores here in San Francisco certainly fall into that latter category. Yeah, House of Bagels sometimes has worthy bagels, but just sometimes. A bagel must be toothsome, without that it’s not a bagel.

Anyway, for the past couple of years, we”ve been able to enjoy, on occasion, bagels imported from St. Viateur in Montreal via my pal Shiu. The Montreal-style bagel is pretty minimalistic – small and dense, but seems to be always seeded. Also, they have giant holes. I’ve not had them fresh, but day old and/or taken out of the freezer at a later date, and toasted, they make for the basis of a delightful breakfast.

Recently, my friend Yanny visited New York, and I asked her to bring us back some bagels for me. I have had some fresh New York bagels in the past, and so I knew that these were bigger and airier than their Canadian brethren. She gave me bagels from Ees a Bagel. These are a bit bigger than the bagels I remember eating, but they have the same consistency and ‘suggestion of a hole’ (which makes them easier to spread with cream cheese).

I kind of want to have a ‘fresh is best’ taste off between the two now – seeded bagels from both, head to head in a battle royale. A blind test would be improbable due to the form factor differences, but still, it would be fun. But currently, I think the St. Viateur are winning in my mind – the sweeter, smaller bagels, which fit easily in the toaster when cut in half, are possibly my new bagel ideal!

I just can’t think of anything. I think I cursed myself by not actually following through with my entry in the NYC Midnight Short Story Challenge. I entered this challenge, which begins with one week to write a 2500 word short story, with a genre, subject and character specified at the start of the contest, late last year. It seemed like it would be a good idea at the time, even though I knew I was going to be in Las Vegas the first weekend. I figured I could use that weekend to brainstorm, and then Monday night I could begin writing. Yeah, that was a smart plan… or not.

But the reality is, while I did brainstorm a decent story start, I couldn’t come up with an end, and we got stuck in Las Vegas for about 4 extra hours, so instead of having Monday night at home, I spent it traveling. And then one thing led to another, but there was really only one night that week when I was in any shape to write, Tuesday, and I just didn’t. So I failed.

And now, now I am cursed!

I had some ideas about what to write about today, and then, well, work got busy and I forgot.

But then I had an idea to write about, one that is interesting but which I am not really completely familiar with yet… And that idea is POPOS – Privately Owned, Public Open Space. These are public spaces in downtown San Francisco that are privately owned. It turns out that there are a fair number of them within walking distance of my office on California between Montgomery and Sansome. I’ve chatted about them some with my coworkers in the past week, and we’re going to start checking them out on our lunch breaks.

For more information:

Spur has a good article about the POPOS, and a map of them.

One of my favorite podcasts, 99% invisible, did a great story on them a couple of years ago, definitely worth a listen!

Just like last year, I’m going to try to post once a day in February. This year it will be harder as there is that pesky 29th to contend with.

Finally, it is time for my second installment of Hanukkah side dishes – and this time I bring you the recipe for noodle kugel. Kugels are a very common Ashkenazic side dish, and they can range from sweet to savory, but in my family the sweet has always reigned supreme. This recipe is actually courtesy of my mom’s good friend, and our next door neighbor growing up, Joan Futterman. Joan is a fantastic cook, and her Kugel recipe is, well, also fantastic.

Sweet Noodle Kugel
Servers at least 10

• 16 ounce wide egg noodles
• 16 ounce container cottage small curd cottage cheese
• 16 container sour cream
• 8 ounce cream cheese, softened
• 1 stick butter, melted
• 6 eggs, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp orange juice
• 1 tsp lemon juice (optional)
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 cup golden raisins
• 3 chopped or thinly sliced peeled large apples
• â…“ cup cinnamon sugar mixture
• â…“ cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1 stick melted butter

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F
2. Cook the noodles until al dente, and drain
3. Mix the rest of the ingredients together, except for the graham cracker crumbs and cinnamon sugar
4. Fold mixed ingredients into noodles
5. Put mixture into a greased 9×13 inch baking dish
6. Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs and cinnamon suger on top
7. Bake uncovered for 60 minutes. Check after 50 minutes to make sure it is not burning
8. Let rest for 20 minutes before slicing. The kugel may be served hot,at room temperature, or even cold

And yes, this is not a dessert, this is eaten with the main course!

Well, I owe you all another post about side dishes – I hope to be able to do that this week. But right now, I want to do a quick (I just wrote SQUID there, btw) rundown of the books I read in 2011.

I read a total of 23 books in 2011, which is far short of the 30 books I resolved to read, according to the resolutions I put in the champagne bottle last year, which we cracked open on NYE. Anyway, some more info:

Only 7 of the books were nonfiction, and two of those were memoirs. Maybe this is balanced out that one of the books was about deeds in California? I don’t know. That one was not one of my favorite books of the year.

I read two books by David Foster Wallace in 2011, A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again and The Pale King. The latter is his posthumously published ‘last’ novel, although it’s to complete, so I’m really not sure what to call it. Despite that fact, it ranks as one of my favorite thing read in 2011, without a doubt. It’s also one of the two books published in 2011 I read this year, the other being Tina Fey’s Bosspants which I did not like nearly as much!

I read almost half (eleven) of the books electronically, via the Kindle reader on my iPad. Actually, wait, I read 12, so really just over half, of the books electronically; I read Bossypants on Mackenzie’s actually Kindle. It’s very convenient, and very comfortable to read this way in bed, but I do have some misgivings about the whole thing. The last physical book I read this year was a reread of At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft, back in September, which I own at least two copies of in various collections.

Last night I had some friends over for Hanukkah dinner. I made a bunch of things, but the two things I want to talk about the most are the some of the side dishes. Tonight I’m going to talk about the relatively healthy one, Kasha Varnishkes – which are buckwheat groats and bowtie pasta. The buckwheat is a very nutty/earthy grain, which is a great complement to a hearty meat dish, such as the brisket I served.

Kasha Varniskes
From The Frugal Gourmet on Our Immigrant Ancestors by Jeff Smith.
Serves at least 4, and up to 8.

1 Cup kasha (buckwheat groats)
1 egg, well beaten
2 tablespoons rendered chicken fat or vegetable oil (I had a plethora of fat from the chicken soup I made)
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 Cups chicken stock
1 Cup bowtie pasta
Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Start water boiling for pasta, but do not cook yet
2. In a small bowl mix the kasha and the egg, make sure all the grains are coated with the egg. Put a medium nonstick fry-pan over medium high heat, and cook the kasha egg mixture, stirring and pushing down with a wooden spoon, until the egg dries and the grains are mostly seperated. Set aside.
3. In a heavy 4 quart pan pan, heat the fat or oil and saute the onion until translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Add the kasha and salt and pepper to taste. Stir and cover. Reduce heat to low, and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes, until the kasha is tender, and the liquid is absorbed. Cook the bowties at the same time.
4. Add drained, al dente cooked bowties to the buckwheat. Mix well and serve hot.

Stay tuned for a MUCH less healthy side dish in the coming days!

Today was my last day at the Job that I’ve had for the past 8 years. Well sort of, in that the company name was different (as we were acquired by Cisco 4 and a half years ago), and my position was slightly different – but things were probably more similar than not, even to this day. But sometimes, one needs a change, and I guess it was that time for me.

I’m starting a new job, at a small place – the smallest place I’ve ever worked at – on Monday. There will only be three of us here in the Bay Area, but there are more in Portland and elsewhere. IronPort was fairly small at around 100 people when I joined in 2003, and grew many times over before we were bought by Cisco, which was two orders of magnitude bigger. I miss working for a small company.

Still, leaving today – handing in my badge and laptop was weird. Saying farewell (not goodbye, I hope) to my coworkers of eight years was, well, awkward and sad. But, like I said, I guess it was time for me, so I’ll get over it. And I’m really excited to get started at the new place on Monday (which, for the near future, will be located in my dining room, as they are still negotiating a lease for a SF office).

But not not writing:

Yesterday, Mackenzie, I and about eight other friends drove up to Marshall, CA to eat oysters and clams at Hog Island Oyster Farm. This was a celebration for our friend Ali’s birthday this Monday. Unfortunately, Friday night was a night where I needed a drink or five (not the best end of the week at work – nothing terrible, just lots of last minute work of the sort I abhor), so we woke up in the morning a bit later than intended. We actually only left about 15 minutes late, but I was lax in looking at the direction on the map, so I blindly followed the GPS to go up 1 through Mill Valley, instead of going all the north and cutting across on Francis Drake. This is more or less meaningless to 99% of humanity, but the important thing of note here is that yesterday was the first part of a two-day National Multiple Sclerosis Society Waves to Wine bike ‘tour’. The first day started in SF and went through Stinson Beach going up 1. So basically, I had to navigate around hundred and hundreds of bicyclists, on a twisty, hilly road – which was harrowing. I was very glad when we finally made it to Tomales Bay, and only had to deal with the normal weekend cyclists, which are much easier to navigate around.

Once we got to the Oyster Farm, we began to quickly consume/over consume shellfish. We (much of the we being myself) shucked dozens of oysters for eating raw, as well as grilling some up. We also grilled up 2lbs of manila clams. All of this was delicious, but even more delicious (maybe) were the oysters that we got up that were grilled by the Hog Island people with a delicious maple chipotle sauce. Actually, why bother comparing, it was all delicious, as were the accompaniments we brought up from home – cheese, charcuterie, bread and a lovely melon and feta salad that Mackenzie made.

If any of you are anything like me, you will probably be saying “This Post is Useless WIthout PIctures”. Yep, I forgot to snag my camera as I left in the morning, and my 3+ year old iPhone is just too slow/cruddy for me to bother with much. I really need to consider getting a new phone one of these days…