Thanksgiving 2004

When I was a kid, I never liked Thanksgiving turkey. I believe that I used to say things like "I wish that we could order pizza" or "Do we have to eat turkey again? We just had it a year ago" or something similarly obnoxious. I'm not sure if my dislike for turkey had to do with the fact that my taste buds were limited or maybe that my mom produced dry and uninteresting turkeys; in retrospect, it was probably more a former than the latter.

The turkeys have definitely improved with age, probably helped by better developed taste buds, and perhaps, by some new recipes that Mom has used. They have become memorable - I kid you not, but until I was about 18, the only turkey that I remember enjoying was the one marinated in a hefty bag in the fridge for several days before bbqing. I definitely remember a few turkeys over the past decade plus (my post-teenage life): the deboned turkey that exploded after being overstuffed; the sage turkey; the deep fried turkey that the dog licked before cooking and my scientist cousin and I decided that the oil would kill the doggie germs and not to tell anyone (ok, that one was after Christmas a few years ago, but a turkey is still a big deal. and no one got sick).

We now have Thanksgiving at my cousins Mike and Stephanie's house every year. And the turkeys continue to improve. Last year, Mike brined the bird...and it was an amazingly moist and juicy and tasty and smoky concoction all bundled into one. This year, he was a little short on time; no brined bird, but still memorable and delicious. I went back for seconds...it was that good.

Holidays can be a mixed blessing. Families and friends that should be family are not always on their best behavior. Tension that has flowed throughout the year can rear its ugly head at the wrong times. Holidays can also be a joyful time, everyone happy and enjoying life and each other's company.

While the turkey is not necessarily a perfect barometer for catching the party mood, perhaps in a way it does function to set the tone for the day. I always think about the novel Like Water for Chocolate, in which the main characters food transferred her feelings to its eaters. Thanksgiving has definitely become calmer and less chaotic, and maybe the bird feels the same way?

Musings on food and life...

The Birthday Girl

On November 2nd, otherwise known as Black Tuesday to every Kerry supporter, I began my 32nd year.

Birthdays are a somewhat odd celebration. Some celebrate as much as possible, taking the opportunity to relish the specialness of that one day which celebrates the passing of a year and one's entry into the world. Others see the birthday as simply a non-event, a blip in the passage of time. I definitely fall in the first category. Birthdays are good, and since I don't have a significant other or children to celebrate anniversary's, birthdays, etc., I take the advantage of the yearly celebration. And yes, a Sex and the City episode skirted quite nicely around this topic.

Food and wine are a passion - thus, the birthday has been celebrated by several meals with friends and family.

Lunch with colleagues at Clay Oven in San Mateo. I thought that the food was great - we all ate heartily, and then a few were touched with nausea. I suppose we won't be returning to Clay Oven anytime soon.

Dinner with Carrie at Frankie's Bohemian in Pac Heights, a Czech-themed brew pub. I had an entirely excellent brambory topped with vegetables and cheese. The brambory is a traditional Czech dish of shredded potato and zucchini, similar to a hash brown. Yummy! We decided that we have to return - especially because the bartender was so nice!

Friends joined me for drinks at Jade and dinner at Citizen Cake a few days later. I brought along two bottles of wine to accompany dinner, a 1999 Overture red table wine (the stuff from Opus One that does not make it into the Opus bottle) and a 1998 Mondavi Rutherford Hill Cabernet. Both bottles were excellent, although I think that everyone enjoyed the Overture the most.

Dinner at Cake did not disappoint. I began with a goat cheese flan, topped with beets and mache (a new organic lettuce, read a long article about the politics of the organic lettuce industry in the New Yorker and had just bought a carton of it that morning at the ferry building farmers market). Mache is sweet and mild (yes, at the same time), the beets were slightly tart and both worked nicely with the creamy goat cheese flan.

Hangar steak cooked a perfect medium-rare and topped with an herbed butter was perfect. It was served with a bunch of mache and a side of potato gnocchi in a light cream and sharp cheese sauce.

Of course I took advantage of Cake's desserts: two scoops of chocolate chip mint ice cream. So wonderful - real mint and chunky pieces of rich chips. Thanks to my enterprising friends, ice cream was served with a sculpted chocolate happy birthday banner, chocolate straws and a chorus of Happy Birthday.

My parents and Tony came for a feast of fillet mignon accompanied by a sherry-anchovy-dijon mustard sauce. While the sauce seems to be an odd combination, it worked quite nicely with the steaks. I made salads of mache, herbs and persimmons, dressed with a piece of creamy goat cheese and sherry vinaigrette, oven fried potatoes and Tony sauteed portabello mushrooms and red chard. For dessert, my parents brought a champagne cake - white sponge cake with a champagne based custard filling and whipped cream frosting.

Another dinner at an Italian restaurant in Burlingame (of course, the name escapes me). We shared an appetizer of deep fried calamari, which were excellent. The calamari was on the larger end (I love the legs!), and were only lightly breaded. It seems like much of calamari out there is just breading - this was lots of calamari with a bit of batter. My main course was linguine with clams in a wine sauce. So delicious.

And I still have Delfina to go - life is good - and my friends and family are very good to me.