Culinary Muse

La Cocina, Congratulations!

LA COCINA will be featured in the business section of tomorrow, June 23rd, New York Times.  Writer Laura Novak will be looking at the business model of La Cocina as a small business incubator. Read the article here.

The Culinary Muse is proud to be on the advisory committee of La Cocina. Check out their booth at the Ferry Building Marketplace tomorrow morning.  We usually start our morning with a hot cup of Morning Glory Chai before we start to shop. 

BRAVO TO BRAVE ENTREPRENEURS

I am constantly dazzled by the creativity that entrepreneurs display everyday. We love the Internet for making the world a smaller place and for getting the world out to like minded enthusiasts. And being a self-employed entrepreneur myself, I empathize with the amount of determination and courage it takes to put yourself and your ideas on the line. To say not only ‘yes, I can do this’ but to show up everyday and walk the walk. Here are a few San Francisco entrepreneurs that I would like to recognize. All have taken an interesting idea that they came up with themselves and ran with it. Bravo!

MY LAST FIX

I have a confession: I am a thrift store junkie. And like all hard core junkies I am always in search of my next hit. But a satisfying hit is harder and harder to find these days. I blame it on the re-sale shop phenomena which we all know are just pawn shops with a more respectable air and chintz curtains. Don’t get me wrong. I have been overjoyed to score my fair share of Chanel skirts and Stephane Kelian shoes at these stores. Items that without the financial incentive to their owners to part with them, they would probably never have left the closet. But the thrill of the chase is missing when I enter a re-sale shop. I feel like I am stealing heavily cut hard rock candy from a baby. The merchandise has already been pre-screened by the owner whose taste I am now subjected to. No chance of uncovering a vintage 1930s Harlequin costume while I am pawing through the color coded racks. Or of discovering a mis-marked Scottish Cashmere sweater for $10.

BIG NATE’S BBQ

An article in today’s San Francisco Chronicle reminded me that it was high time that I sing the praises of BIG NATE'S BARBEQUE. I met Nate Thurmond over ten years ago when we were both members of the same gym owned by Jim Simpson. The gym was then located in the basement of the Marine’s Memorial Building on Sutter Street at Mason. And what a great, funky place it was. I usually worked out on the men’s side of the gym because the men, who worked out in their underwear, were always nicer than the women who would snarl at me if I was on ‘their’ exercise bike for longer than 5 minutes. Anyway, the men who went to this gym included a retired NAACP lawyer, a judge, a hippy songwriter from North Beach, a musician, an evangelist, a retired FBI agent and a stockbroker or two for good measure. They had all been going there for many, many years. That is where I met the jazz musician Vernon Alley. He would tell me great stories about Billie and Carmen and Ella and Sarah as I sweated on the Stairmaster. He introduced me to Dinah Washington's music and her ‘Blue Gardenia’ CD. Another interesting man named Robert told me that you could always tell someone from Los Angeles (this would have been during his downtown days in the 40's through 60's) because the men did not wear hats. Take that, LA!  Back to Nate. We started ordering home delivery of his barbeque in 1996 and still do today. Our favorite is the ‘Memphis Pork Dinner’. Pork shoulder is slowly smoked until it is tender and falling to pieces. The pork ribs are great, too. Mr. Culinary Muse loves their coleslaw.  I love their potato salad.  It took me a long time to understand the purpose of the slices of brown wonderbread. Now I stuff them with morsels of smoky pork bits and nibble away as sauce pours down my hand past my wrist along my arm to my elbow.  Elbow licking good!

Mr. Weil, Fantasia, Blums and me

It was one of those marvelous life moments when you realize that all the stars, moons and planets have somehow aligned themselves in your favor.  There I was, sitting with Ernest Weil and his charming daughters, sipping tea and eating his famous Florentines and Almond Macaroons which he had baked just for us.  A little background: Mr. Weil is the man who created the Coffee Crunch Cake and he is the man who founded FANTASIA BAKERY in San Francisco.  When I wrote an article a few months ago entitled "Blums, Where are you?" I was contacted by one of his daughters, Sandy.  She was pleased to tell me that he was writing a cookbook which would be out in the Spring, 2006.  I had to meet this legend.  And I did.  An appointment that was only scheduled to last one hour was still going strong three hours later.  Only a previous engagement tore us away.  I am so honored to have been in his company for this time and to hear him share the stories of his emigration from Germany, his time in a French orphanage, his education at the Cordon Bleu and his arrival in America.  His is the story of so many of our own grandparents fleeing for their lives from Europe with only the clothes on their back. With luck a guardian angel lends a helping hand once they arrive in this country and then their own hard work that resulted in great success. 

The cookbook is now available through the website LOVE TO BAKE COOKBOOK.  It is a must for anyone who wants the original recipe for Coffee Crunch Cake, Florentines and great stories about San Francisco's beloved Fantasia Bakery.

Happy Birthday, Jim Marshall

Were you there last night? Chances are good if you happen to be a San Francisco political figure, a newscaster, a lawyer, a professional photographer, an old rocker, a sweet young thing, a photo editor or Joan Baez. Because last night we all gathered to celebrate Jim Marshall’s 70th birthday. The alcohol flowed, the jazz trio played, the hors d’oeuvres (no onions) were passed and the conversations all started with one of two of the following statements: "How do you know Jim?" or "Can you believe Jim made it to 70?". Not that we begrudge this amazing photographer his longevity. But as one guest said to me ‘it must be the genes’.

For those of you who do not know who Jim is just rent the movie Woodstock and check out the short, dark haired man with the Leicas hanging off his shoulder as he darts across the stage shooting pictures of Jimi. Better yet check out his website at Jim Marshall's Vault.

We met Jim in 1983.  He became part of our photo studio life while he was dealing with what he describes on his site as his 'dark period'. He survived and so did we.  To this day I have never known anyone who could drive round trip from Walnut Creek to San Francisco in 30 minutes.  Fast cars, lots of caffeine and always his Leicas.  We are honored that he took our engagement photo and so pleased to have a wall full of his photographs in our home.

Happy Birthday, Jim. We are looking forward to your 80th.

THE BEST SERVICE IN SAN FRANCISCO

Where will you receive the kind of service that was once the hallmark of a well run retail establishment? Not in Union Square. Not on the now fabulously swanky Fillmore Street and probably not even at Chanel. The Muse’s vote for best service goes to the staff at Walgreen's on Polk Street at California.

Just last night we were looking for an inexpensive bubble bath that did not smell like bubble gum or gardenias. The kind that you could use lots of every night to create mounds of bubbles and not feel guilty that it would all be going down the drain in just a few minutes. We asked the sales clerk where the bubble bath was located. She escorted us across the store and down the aisle all the while telling us which ones were on sale for the ‘buy one get one free’ offer and which she recommended. On another occasion the Muse has observed another sales clerk behind the make-up counter giving out good advice to an in-transition transvestite who was looking for just the right foundation color. Both of these transactions were performed with dignity and grace. Thank you, Walgreen's.