ciao samin

2008-07-14T23:41:00.000-07:00

i so, so, so should be asleep right now, but am high on caramel-noyaux ice cream (can i just mention it's the most delicious thing i've eaten in a long, long time?). i'm mildly obsessed with noyaux right now--the other day as i was making an apricot tart, i decided next time i'd have to make the frangipane with some noyaux. i mean, can you even imagine?

i turned in my next piece today, for another magazine (this one's nationally distributed, so you can go to your local independent bookshop and drop ten or twelve bucks on it!), and it was an amazing relief. i took a subject that's been talked about for over thirty years, and told a story (i believe) hasn't yet been told about it. that's what i want to do with all of my writing.

i could do this for the rest of my life.

i haven't exactly chosen passions that are rewarding in any traditional sense--mine are amongst the least sustainable professions i can imagine. but sometimes, like last week when i was interviewing for the story, and i realized i was at the home of someone i've looked up to and respected for over a decade, i saw that sometimes, my path rewards me in other ways, ways that could never be bought with money (and good thing, because i don't have much of it). people are what give me joy, and fire, and luckily, i've met some really amazing people thus far. i hope it only continues...

"i didn't really want her to have it long"

2008-07-02T08:38:00.000-07:00

not much to say today, except how awesome is this?!?

my new tattoos

2008-06-25T22:44:00.000-07:00

celebrating my two favorite ingredients:

just. kidding. dad.

yikes! i'm pooped. we got a boar in today from riverdog. the whole transaction was kind of cloudy and i had no clue how big the pig would be.

when the driver came and asked for three large men to help unload the pig, i knew we were in trouble. problem is, we don't really have many large men around in the morning. i'm the strongest, and that's not saying much. so it took five of us to lift all 212 pounds of it out of the truck and bring it into the walk-in.

cl made light work of breaking it down, and i jumped in and did what i could with the loins and shoulders. i kept telling myself, it's just like a lamb, only bigger. a thirty pound lamb, i can break down and clean up in fifteen minutes. a two hundred pound pig is another story. it was still impressive that it didn't quite take an hour for the two of us to break down and clean up the whole thing--even more impressive, when i weighed all of the cleaned up parts, their cumulative weight was 209 lbs. only three pounds of waste (mostly glands and soft fat) from the entire thing!

2008-06-23T22:55:00.000-07:00

i can clearly remember when i realized i wanted to write--11th grade advanced english. i'd always eaten up books voraciously, and that class renewed my passion for reading after several years of super-duper dorky seminar level classes where i stopped caring about books and only cared about grades. we read, and we wrote, and i realized it was what gave me peace.

i've always loved to tell stories, and as a writer, i have always done best as a story-teller. i made it my new year's resolution to publish at least two stories this year, and now, i am halfway there. after the class with mp last year, i felt encouraged to reapply for the fulbright. with a recommendation from him, one from alice, and one from my shakespeare scholar professor, i felt like my application was impeccable. five years ago, i was the first alternate for a fulbright to italy to catalog traditional and endangered food-making techniques. i felt like this time, i could only do better. my writing was better, my idea more focussed, my recommenders knew me better--i had a great shot, right?

well, i was wrong. i was out in the first round. more than being devastated, i was shocked. i realized i had a decision to make--fall into a funk, or fall into action. mp, just as bewildered as i was, encouraged me to just write. so i did. i planned to write an article about garlic, and along the way, met chester aaron, a man whose story i knew i couldn't do justice to in just 1500 words. but i foolishly tried, and amazingly, ended up with this. how it became the cover story, i'll never know. i think it was because of winni's beautiful photos.

the best part about all of this is that it gives me some momentum, and some faith in myself. i've been saying i want to write for so long without having anything to show for it. i turned down so many chances that didn't feel right, and have missed many opportunities i thought were my only shot. but now, i've started my way down the path i've been waiting to walk for so many years, and i can see that this is the way it was always meant to be.

***i'm not sure if they'll put the story online, but i have a hunch that they will eventually, so keep checking!

aglio

2008-06-15T22:10:00.001-07:00

fresh pink Provence garlic, originally uploaded by Judy B.

let it be recorded here that i will return to italy, and i will get my project done, somehow, someway, someday. i will not lose the language it took so many headaches to learn. i will not let go of my italian friends and family. and i will not forsake the dream i've had for so many years.

2008-06-12T21:50:00.001-07:00

great, just when i purged my life of parabens, the state gov't decides to spray me with pesticides on a monthly basis. blech.

stop the spray

the girl effect

2008-06-11T22:50:00.001-07:00

via superhero

head in the clouds

2008-06-08T09:03:00.000-07:00

though i'm not quite sure what my dream job is, i definitely look at kim severson's from time to time and imagine how wonderful it must be.

i had the great luck of meeting kim when i was just starting out as a cook. i'd just graduated from school, was editing the daily cal for the summer, and thought what i wanted was to be a newspaper food writer. she was working at the chronicle, and was very generous with her time and insight. she offered me a lot of help, which i didn't take. i sometimes wonder where i'd be now if i had gone down that path.

after she broke the trans-fat stories and entered the national spotlight, she moved to the ny times and now writes the kind of stories i look for first every tuesday night when i dorkily read the food section before i go to bed. she writes about people first, and food second. about culture and relationships to food, about history and tradition, and all with a sense of humor.

i totes look up to her, and i recommend her stories to everyone. check her out...

2008-06-02T21:14:00.001-07:00

i don't quite remember what it feels like to not be in constant pain, but i'm telling myself this is all for the greater good. the thing is, i am in love with this gym, the people who run it, and the other members. if i could, i'd go twice a day, every day. the soreness has grown to be a sort of background noise--i'd probably miss it if it weren't there.

in two short months, i have gained a ton of lean muscle. i'm stronger, (a little) more flexible, and can sleep through the night again. it's pretty amazing. my clothes fit better, i did 42 real pushups in a minute the other day, and i can hold plank for 90 seconds. i feel like i've known my chief abuser my whole life, and though she can be pretty evil during workouts (this evening she obvs had the number 100 on her mind, and we had to do 100 reps of every single horrendous exercise you can imagine), she's a pretty fabulous person and i know it's really for the best that she be so evil.

it's going to take me a year, give or take, to get to where i want to be, healthwise. but when i think that it took ten years to get here, a year doesn't seem so long. if anything, the protein thing might be what kills me--i'm just not sure i can eat too many more egg whites.

gispert

2008-05-26T07:24:00.001-07:00

070525-063, originally uploaded by Anna Watson.

i just had a waking dream about casa gispert for some reason--it's one of the most lovely and charismatic shops i've ever been to. if you find yourself at the water's edge in barcelona, stop by and get yourself a handful of smoked almonds.

you can do so much with wild fennel from the railroad tracks

2008-05-19T21:22:00.000-07:00

i sent these photos to dario and he wrote back to say that he was brimming over with pride.

we've been serving the porchetta with mostarda mediterranea (made in berkeley, so perhaps it's mostarda berkleterranea) and marble-sized bintje potatoes from full belly. ridiculous, if you ask me.

2008-05-18T09:46:00.001-07:00

i'm so happy for and proud of my friend jennifer--look at what she's created from scratch in a little over four years. amazing.

2008-05-16T06:26:00.001-07:00

simply cannot believe how hot it is.

from the ground up

2008-05-13T20:13:00.000-07:00

the other day at the farm, we made burgers. but these weren't any old burgers. they were utterly and completely from scratch:

homemade buns, check.
beef from home raised cows, check.
home made mayonnaise made with eggs from homegrown chickens and home-pressed olive oil, check.
homemade mustard made a la minute with home grown seeds and housemade vinegar and wine, check.
homegrown lettuces, check.
home canned pickles, check.
homemade guacamole made with avocados from the tree out back, check.

(we used all of the homemade ketchup up the last time we made burgers, and we didn't have any of the the family made jack cheese, so we went without those condiments).

the amazing thing is that this isn't a special event at the farm. dinner's like that almost every night. these peeps know how to live, if you ask me.

2008-05-07T16:49:00.000-07:00

it's spring, and i'm missing all of my far-flung friends. sometimes, the internet is not enough.

2008-04-30T21:57:00.000-07:00

it's so easy to get caught up in a way of thinking. we're fed all of this stuff all day long by the media--it's so constant that it becomes subconscious after a while. i mean, my family is from iran, and i have spent some long stretches of time there, and yet, i still think about it in some very stereotypical ways.

i'm kind of ashamed to admit how giddy and surprised i was to realize that an artistic community such as this might exist there today. i love it!

vandana shiva

2008-04-28T21:57:00.000-07:00

i just got back from a conversation with vandana shiva at herbst theatre. for many years, this woman has been a humongous source of inspiration for me--someone to look to for guidance and grace. she is an amazing activist, a brilliant scientist, a passionate environmentalist, a defender of women's and human rights, and a spirited author. her manifesto on the future of food and seed is a work of art, and i feel honored to have met her this evening.

i encourage everyone to learn more about her and her work:

navdanya

planting the seeds for change

south end press

2008-04-24T21:46:00.000-07:00

may i present my future husband:

hugh fearnley-whittingstall

2008-04-14T21:08:00.001-07:00

winter blues, originally uploaded by i.anton.

alright....now that i have a moment to breathe:

on david chang

i am a cook. not a chef, but a cook. i care about making good food, and being part of a community. i care about inclusion, and warmth, humility and honesty. above all else, knowing that my food was raised with care matters to me. there is so much about food that is celebrated that i just don't give a hoot about, so to find this profile of someone who feels the same way about so much of this stuff as me was really exciting. and to see him doing well was even better.

i especially loved the parts when 1) he recognized that just because he's not some great chef cooking fancy food, it doesn't mean he can't have standards and put everything he has into it, and 2) when his only goal was to be better than the crappy japanese restaurant across the street.

on barack obama

we cooked, he came, he said hello, he spoke, he ate, he went. there was mayhem and teamwork, and we nearly set the place on fire. it was all good. and the secret service guys were very cordial.

he's very inspiring in person. i got to sneak upstairs and see him speak for about ten minutes. the room wasn't very big, and everyone was so star-struck (even the celebrities!)--we all got so swept into what he was saying. he seemed so unrehearsed, so natural. the man is a great orator--you've got to give him that. he's just so positive. yeesh.

on the state of my muscles

for about a month now, i have been going to this super hardcore gym where they essentially beat me up. it's kind of incredible, and i totally love it. it's essentially a cult, and i've been officially inducted. it feels so good to get stronger, and leaner. i love it. the best part is that there are basically no machines there. we do all of the work on our feet or with our own body weight. they do have rowing machines, though, and luckily, i am really, really good on them (from when i did crew in college).

today was one of the hardest days yet, and part of our circuit was rowing. i was basically the weakest and slowest (yet youngest) one in my group on all of the other stations, but every time we'd get to the rowing machine, i'd whip out these crazy times. the woman next to me--totally strong and in amazing shape--kept looking at my clock in disbelief until finally, on the last round, she huffed, "you're really good!" it was pretty cool, because everyone else in the class is in such great shape, and i'm just plain not...yet.

the amazing thing is how quickly i've felt myself change--so many exercises i couldn't do a month ago are second nature already. i love it!

2008-03-31T20:54:00.000-07:00

i will post soon. i promise. i have so much going on, but i am under pressure, and exhausted, and i have a project i'm finishing this week.

one exciting thing--i'm cooking for barack obama this weekend. after that, i will have cooked for both him and hillary, so hopefully in a year's time, we can say that i've fed the president.

right now i am obsessed with:
protein
arnica gel
garlic
hulu.com
the ted talks
catalan farm strawberries

i miss you! i'll be back soon. promise.

my new hero

2008-03-25T23:03:00.000-07:00

david chang

2008-03-13T15:31:00.000-07:00

jerome, my cooking and life idol (and that of so many others), the reason why i don't wear socks at work, has an amazing new project coming up: open restaurant.

i think i'm going to try to go on the 28th with a bunch of people--let me know if you want to come!

2008-03-09T20:05:00.000-07:00

i've had a couple of great weeks, full of my food chain friends and mp and cp old-timers and new possibilities.

i've been working a lot, and thinking a lot, and starting a bunch of posts here just to quit and come back later.

i want so badly to be able to tell the stories i have in my head, but so many of my experiences are miraculous in such a way that words could only betray them. right now, i'm just feeling very, very lucky to know the people i know, and to consider them my friends and family.

i've been thinking a lot about success, and what it means to me. and i've been thinking that what gives me inspiration and strength to work toward the things i want to achieve is that there are so, so many wonderful people in my life who think outside the box when it comes to success. people who understand what hard work is, and appreciate humility, and work for so much more than just money.

i feel so lucky to have found these people, who believe in me, and want to help me, who want to work toward the same things for themselves, at such a young age. i can envision many alternate paths for myself that wouldn't have led me to even one person with these kinds of beliefs, and somehow, i was magically led to a whole community of them.

2008-03-03T19:29:00.000-08:00

yesterday i saw the INCREDIBLE annie leibovitz show at the legion of honor. that woman is amazing. everyone should go. admission is free tomorrow, if you're not doing anything.

2008-03-01T22:31:00.000-08:00

from the farmer's pen