Such is life in this valley, state, world. But nothing could possibly compare to the moment that I lost in the passing of Tom Dowdy.

Tom Dowdy at the Poubelle Summer Party 2003...(photo by wjc)

I met Tom during the first time I worked at Apple. Over the years I left for other opportunities but I always seemed to drift back to Apple, and Tom was always there. Apple is an interesting and sometimes fantastic place to work but it was the fact that he was "just down the hall in IL2" or "across the bridge in IL1" that always lifted my spirits when Apple was merely an "interesting" place to work.

When he invited me to one of his dinner parties, we found that we had a mutual appreciation for the same music (progressive rock and, most notably, the band Dream Theater) and food. For the latter, "appreciation" is understating it a bit. It was full-blown obsession. Eventually, I was cooking with Tom at a majority of his legendary parties, and in recent years as his "lead" sous-chef. His dinner parties exemplified the concept that "you always cook for the people you love".

For me, it went deeper than that. I have always given freely to those that I love by cooking (being from a primarily Italian family, if you didn't learn that, then you weren't paying attention...). However, with Tom, it was a master lesson in the power of two friends in the kitchen exploring and discovering new things both about the food and each other, and then turning that into something that he(we) freely gave of ourselves.

He was a mentor to me for techniques and other things that I either didn't know or only had a passing familiarity. And I'm positive that I was able to teach him some things as well. Whichever way, he was always gracious, helpful, encouraging and giving - in his kitchen *and* mine.

We developed a kind of psychic link when we were in the kitchen. A nod, a glance, a grunt...most of the time we could finish each other's sentences as true friends often can. It was uncanny...and deeply satisfying.

Things have been tough (for me) lately, on all fronts. The valley tends to temporarily chew people up at times, even the strong ones and I have had no real inspiration to write about food here in Two. Ate. Yet I cook on, using techniques that Tom taught me as well as my own, to feed anyone who happens to be in the house. I do it gladly because...well, that just how I do. I always understood "why", Tom showed me the meaning of "why".

Only ordinary men could be so loving and giving. It takes an extraordinary person to paint himself as "just an ordinary guy" and still do all the things, and touch all the lives that Tom touched. He touched mine right down to the bottom of my soul. It is something that I will never, ever forget.

Tom, I hope to see you again someday, my beautiful friend, then we can be the ordinary men that we always want to be.

I have been going to the Central Texan for years and it never fails to disappoint...

Central Texan's owner Don, smokes a whole variety of meat including turkey and you can get single plates of meat or combinations limited only by your pocketbook. I have had all of CT's meat at one time or another and all are consistently good. Smoky, but still succulent, the meat needs no sauce at all (see below). Pork shoulder (pork butt), brisket and turkey are my favorites with their pork ribs and chicken following a close second. It really doesn't matter which one you choose...barbecue satisfaction is waiting for you. Oh and of course they do sandwiches as well. (Click here for CT's menu)

As for the rest of the food, it's a Texas-style barbecue joint through and through. You get bread. pickles, a few slices of white onion, which are standards for Texas-style. They also have beans (cooked with bacon) and a passable potato salad. Rather than give you little containers of salad, CT has a salad bar with potato salad, coleslaw and green salad. The salads are really just filler as they aren't anything special but they'll provide some sweet relief amid the smoke.

Sauce-wise, the meats don't need it but each table has a squeeze bottle of some generic sauce (CT doesn't make their own as far as I can tell) and bottles of Crystal and Tapatio hot sauces. The generic sauce adds little to the smoky meats except some added moisture.

But then again, you're really going here for the smoked meats...everything else is just window dressing. The meat at the Central Texan is worth the trek. In fact, you just may want to also get some to go for later on...

Ajiki-san and I are extremely food-compatible so an evening of yakitori and oden would do just fine. And although not the ultimate for that kind of thing, Toriyaki Kurumaya was well worth visiting...

Among the yakitori selections, the next best thing was the tsukune (grilled ground chicken). Formed into little cigar-shapes, the tsukune were basted in a not-too-sweet soy based sauce and grilled so they held their shape. They came to us on a small, oblong plate accompanied by a deep yellow-orange raw egg yolk. I wanted to taste just the preparation (sans yolk) at first...the meat was slightly pink inside which gave the tender morsel a slightly earthy taste which blended well with the caramelisation from the grill. But the tsukune mixed with the egg yolk pushed it over the edge. The richness of the yolk added another dimension to the dish...yes, I desperately wanted to lick the plate.

We ate our way through several dishes of yakitori including liver, chicken/negi and the odd but delicious enoki mushroom and cheese yakitori. The oden was good as well but pretty standard in preparation and presentation.

Overall, I'd rate Toriyaki Kurumaya a 3.5 (on a scale of 5). It is worth visiting if only for the grilled chicken. The seating is built around a large square cooking area so there's action galore.

Tokriyaki Kurumaya is located on the second basement floor (B2F) of the Ebisu Garden Place which is connected to the Ebisu JR Train station on the Yamanote line. For reviews, Google "kurumaya ebisu" or "とりやきくるまや"

Wandering through Jinbochou looking for books, brought me across a Bagel & Bagel shop. Since it was nearly time for lunch (but lunch was still a few stops away), I felt the need to nosh. So in I went...

Looking around at the other neatly wrapped bagels, I discovered the "monthly bagel" which was called "matcha (green tea) and white chocolate harmony". Yes, it was green, and studded with pieces of white chocolate. Joining this one were espresso and cocoa, soymilk and edamame, pumpkin seed (yum!), and fig bagels. (And before you think that it's all loopy, there were the usual assortment of "standard" bagels: onion, plain, sesame, all-in-one and so on...)

I sprung for the cocoa and white chocolate bagel just on the "eating-should-be-an-adventure" principle. I also picked up a "volcano" bagel which looks a lot like an asiago cheese bagel. The bagels are a lot softer than usual but have a nice texture overall. The cocoa bagel was decent plain and not as sweet as I had anticipated. I threw half of it into the fridge just to keep it from going bad and found (the next day) that it tasted really good cold.

The volcano bagel gets eaten next but I haven't yet popped it into the toaster. Further research will commence soon...

Bagel & Bagel has a few shops in Tokyo, the one I went to is in Jinbochou near the A4 exit of the subway station. You can go here for a list of shops (with maps).

Sometimes you just need to revisit the past. Excitement aside, the past brings out the memories and memories bring out the satisfaction and so on...

Tuesday and Wednesday were the days to relive a bit of food treking. Hankering for the familiar, I went out to Nebari-ya for a nice natto-kimchee-tori soboro donburi lunch on Tuesday. Then onto Kazuki Ramen for late dinner on Wednesday.

Oh Two. Ate. Diary, the only other eye-opening things I discovered in the past 24 hours were the rather unique flavors applied to bagels (!), plus an interesting French restaurant nestled on a small backstreet (aren't they all?) in Hiroo but more on those later....

Yes, tonkatsu please... (photo courtesy of www.toncya-suzuya.co.jp)

But I never in a million years would associate tonkatsu (deep fried pork cutlet) as a chazuke topping. But Suzuya manages to pull it off....

The dish consists of a reasonable sized tonkatsu and a small pile of coarsley cut cabbage (cabbage is a typical pairing with katsu) sitting on top of a heated iron plate. Rather than a Worcestershire-based sauce (also typical for katsu), a soy based, thin sauce is poured over the food and served sizzling to your table.

From this point, you take as much of the sizzling food and pile it on the semi-giant bowl of rice served with it. Once you've arranged all of this in a pleasant pile, you pour green tea over the whole thing and proceed to dive in.

I think that this dish works well because even though tonkatsu is a typically heavy dish, the sauce is light and tangy (I think the hot iron plate contributes to that), and the cabbage is wilted slightly...the tea marries the flavors together and sinks taste the rice. It ends up being a filling, but not heavy, and very satisfying meal.

There are a few options that you can add to your dish, such as egg or kimchee, but the straight-ahead tonkatsu chazuke is the way to go.

There are Suzuya locations all around Tokyo - see their website above for directions...

Housed in a building that used to be a Meiji-era hospital (the original sign still is hanging at the entrance), Ichi's charm is it's rustic, old-timey atmosphere. The tatami is sturdy but worn, the tables and chairs a melange of styles from years past and low beamed ceilings remind you to humble your head so you won't end up knocking yourself out. It's a very comfortable, cozy room.

Food-wise, the soba is top-notch. The buckwheat noodles are hand-made (common to soba restaurants in this area) and delicious and served with some unique and less common soba sides....like, gobo and mame tempura, tororo (grated mountain potato) or tender cooked root vegetables.

Ichi itself is a hidden gem worth searching out (sorry, no directions or pictures I was so taken by the location that I neglected to do either) in this area. I'm sure if you ask one of the locals, they'll be able to tell you where. It's some extra work, but worth it in the end.

Beer and salt and well-traveled chopsticks... (photo by wjc)

After setting up the grill, we paraded out the grillables and proceeded to get our cookout on...

One cannot possibly believe the variety of seafood in Japan. Even more astounding are the prices. Given that there were just three of us, I really wanted to buy one of everything just on price principle alone. But saner heads prevailed and we ended up with some small trout, prawns and cockle shells for the grill.

Small and delicious trout... (photo by wjc)

The trout were the clear winner. Fresh beyond belief, the off-white meat was moist and pulled away from the bones with ease. The minimal salting gave it that extra little boost.

Yes, those cockles were pretty big... (photo by wjc)

The cockles were pretty huge and cooked in their juices with a little sake and soy sauce. Texturally, they take some getting used to but the hot liquid more than made up with the chewy mouth feel.

OK, now just hold on a second...I will eat anything once. When we were in the supermarket, we passed by the meat section. And right along the side they had packages of horse meat (basashi). I had never eaten horse but was assured that it was one of the most delicious meats around. Oh, did I mention that it was horse *sashimi*?? Actually, horse meat is low-cholesterol and low-fat and has a real brilliant red color - it's sometimes referred to as "sakura" for it's cherry-like color.

Basashi (horse meat sashimi)... (photo by wjc)

The dish is served with garlic and ginger puree and soy sauce. As with katsuo no tataki, you dip-dip-dip into the three flavors and devour. I was pleasantly surprised at the taste and texture, No, make that completely blown away by the taste and texture. The meat itself has a creamy-ish texture which resembles butter and the taste is on the mild side along the lines of carpaccio. Mixed with the garlic and ginger, I could not stop eating it.

Kiyosato Ham knows their pork products... (photo by wjc)

Finally on the grill-parade, was sausage from a local smokery. They were a typical Japanese pork sausage - small, nearly one mouthful bite-sized with snappy casings - but the flavor was anything but typical. Having smoked my share of meat, these were fragrant morsels of smoky-porky goodness. They needed nothing but a little grill heat to bring out their juices.

We ate on into the night with other food and drink: beer, a nice ZD 2000 Carneros Cabernet, some cheese, a crab/broccoli/greens salad, marinated tuna over rice and a whole host of other things, that led to a quick soak in the ofuro and some well-earned sleep.

- four cloves of garlic
- kosher salt
- two egg yolks
- one cup of olive oil
- dijon mustard
- lemon juice (1/2 lemon)
- room temp water
- white pepper

1. Mince garlic with a pinch of salt and keep chopping until you achieve a paste-like consistency.
2. Add garlic to the egg yolk (which should be in a small-ish bowl) and whisk to break the yolks.
3. *This is the labour intensive part* Start adding the olive oil drop by drop and whisk well after every one...after the yolk starts emulsifying you can add the oil in a thin stream. Keep whisking until all of the oil is incorporated. The mixture should be thick and mayonaise-like.
4. Add a bit of the lemon juice and water to thin. The lemon juice will "whiten" the mixture a bit.
5. Add a small (1/4 tsp) amount of the dijon mustard and white pepper to taste

I had never heard of the restaurant (I'm kind of bad that way...I guess I should do more research) but was really blown away by the experience....

We started with a charcuterie plate. They offer the plate with one of three different main meats (pate, rillettes or terrine - we opted for rillettes) and paired it with a small wedge of Spanish sheep's cheese drizzled with honey and blanched almonds, some slices of herby sopressatta, cornichons, olives and crispy baguette slices. Simple, homey, good...this is a staple of our Sunday French dinners at home.

Next was a six-cheese sampler. They have 12-14 cheeses to choose from and it took some time to pick. We ended up with a Jean de Brie, a Fiscalini bandaged cheddar, and a Vella dry jack from the "cow" menu. A Cypress Grove Midnight Moon from the "goat" and an Abbaye de Belloc and a Roquefort coulet from the "sheep" menu. The Jean de Brie was amazingly creamy but not so flaccid that it wouldn't stand up to the Domaine la Milliere, 2001 Chateauneuf-du-Pape we chose for wine. The others were excellent as well with tatses ranging from subtle/smoky to tangy/salty. The clear winner from that group was the Abbaye de Belloc which dense and rich and fruity. I was ready to order an entire wheel of this and make a night of it.

TGATF's fig salad is supposed to be one of their signature dishes and it was a work of art: arrugula, pecans, semi-dried figs, chevre, and pancetta with a port vinaigrette. Everything played well off of each other - every bite was fresh and lively.

As for entrees, I was enticed by the steak frites (a very guilty pleasure for me) and Jan chose the braised beef short rib. The steak was a hangar steak cooked perfectly VERY rare (borderline bleu) with short very crispy shoestring potaoes and sautéd broccoli rabe. A small knob of port butter garnished the steak. The short rib had been cooked for hours in red wine and figs and the caramelization was pervasive. Garlic mashed potatoes and greens provided a bed for the rich slab of fork tender meat. I liked my entree quite a bit but I think Jan had the winner.

After so much food (plus cocktails beforehand), dessert was going to be tough. We opted for the chocolate-dipped dried figs which provided just enough "sweet" to round out the meal. The choice of chocolate (semisweet) counterpointed the intense sweetness of the figs. 2-3 little bites to meal-ending nirvana.

The Girl And The Fig pull all of this off without being stuffy or pretentious. The room is old style bistro and very inviting. The waitstaff was fantastic - everything was damn near perfect. Oh, and they've got a fantastic selection of pastis at the bar. This should be on your list of places to go to next time you're in Sonoma.

I'm not real sure that bacon ice cream is something more than just a novelty (and bacon-oatmeal cookies? definitely a novelty and a borderline "bacon-for-the-sake-of-bacon-in-something-that-really-doesn't-need-bacon-all-that-much" sort of thing) but I'd eat it. Once.

A few weeks ago, I was craving a potato salad but didn't want anything with mayo, or sour cream, or yogurt. I had been playing around with vinegars so hit upon a slightly decadent but pretty straightforward rendition that you could call a "salad". However, I originally served it as a side but recently made it for our annual Santa Cruz Shakespeare picnic outing....

1 Tbsp dijon mustard
1 Tsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tsp red wine vinegar
1/3-1/2 cup peanut oil (olive oil can be used but peanut oil is a bit lighter)

extra red wine vinegar
salt
pepper

Potatoes:
1. Wash/scrub potatoes. Don't peel them.
2. Slice potatoes into 3/8'-1/2" rounds
3. Heat duck fat in large round saute pan over medium heat. Add enough to coat entire surface of pan. In fact, you'll probably want to err on the side of "more".
4. Cook the potatoes until they are light-to-medium brown on each side. The potatoes will tend to stick so push them around to keep the fat underneath them (this is why you want to err on the side of more fat than less). I tend to try and keep the potatoes a tiny bit on the under-done side so they don't mush up...
5. As the potatoes are done, dab them briefly on paper towels then transfer them to a wire rack so that they can cool.

Dressing
Once the potaoes are done, you can make the dressing.
1. Put the mustard and two vinegars into a bowl and whisk them. Add a pinch of salt and a little pepper to season. Whisk again until well blended.
2. Pour all of the peanut oil into the bowl with the vinegar and whisk like mad until it emusifies. Add a bit more oil if you need to to get it to emulsify.

Garnish
1. Finely chop a medium handful of parsley leaves.
2. Cut chives so that you have about 2 Tbsp (or more) of small rounds.
3. Chop the lardon/bacon and fry crisp. Chop the bacon some more after cooking - you want small bits.

Assemble
1. Place the cooled potatoes into a shallow pan and pour some of the dressing over them.
2. Using your hands, move the potato disks around taking care not to break them, coating them with the dressing.
3. Pour the rest of the dressing over the potatoes and continue to coat them. (You may have to make more dressing depending on the number of potaoes you use but they should not be swimming in dressing....)
4. Toss the parsley, chives, lardon onto the potaotes and mix to distribute.

At this point, taste the mixture. Salt and pepper to taste. Then drizzle a bit more red wine vinegar over them and toss then taste. They should have a plesant tang from the additional wine vinegar. Serve at room temperature.

Texas Barbecue
Directly after returning from Tokyo, we put on our every-three-years Texas barbecue party. It's every three years solely because our last one was three years ago. Back then, we were kind of flying by the seat of our pants, stabbing in the dark as to how to throw a party for more then 10 people at a time (we had 36). So this time we were way more prepared. The goal was to beat our 55 pounds of meat record and we blew by that like it was no thing at all. When all was said and done, we cooked over 80 pounds of meat (two briskets, six pork butts, six chickens, six racks of ribs, a bunch of sausage, rib tips/ends). The smoking started the Friday night before the Saturday party so we managed to have some 17-hour brisket hit the table. We had over 44 people show up and most of the food was GONE when they were done!

Recipe development
We have been playing around with beans and potatoes lately. It has been mostly beans as I have had an unnatural craving for the tasty morsels. Black bean salsa, black beans and rice, borrachos (pintos cooked in stock and beer)...so many bags of beans have graced our kitchen. As far as potatoes...we developed a recipe for a picnic involving white potatoes and vinaigrette. It was born out of a craving for a summer potato salad that didn’t have mayonnaise or yogurt and could travel well. I’ll post it here…in a day or two but you can go to Gastronome and see it here)

Sunday roast dinner
The first time I went to London, my friends Shelley and Richard took my jet-lagged ass to a local pub for a Sunday roast dinner. And even though there was a large plate of meat and potatoes, it perked me right up. Well, the drawn ale helped too… A few days ago, sitting in a local pub (Katie Bloom's), I remembered how good it was and decided to do a roast dinner on the upcoming Sunday. It was a straight forward menu: roast prime rib, white potatoes, baby carrots, salad, Yorkshire pudding. The roast was slow-cooked at 275° until it got to around 115°. It coasted to 125° then went back into a 500° oven for 10 minutes to form that classic crust. All that and a bottle of 2001 Clos du Lac Cabernet made a nice way to end the week.

Make no mistake, Hashiya serves spaghetti... (photo by wjc)

Hashiya is a spaghetti restaurant with a mind-boggling number of combinations. I lost count at 40 (well, our food arrived...). However, they do have some interesting dishes involving neba-neba...

I had expected to just have natto spaghetti because that's what we had spoken about last time we taked about going to Hashiya. While we were drinking wine earlier, Soma told me about another dish he liked better than the natto spaghetti: tarako-uni-ika spaghetti. Yikes!

Hashiya is a small place with about 12 seats total. Even at 9:30 in the evening, there was a line. They take their last order at 10:30 so eating late is ok. We ordered natto spaghetti and the cod roe-sea urchin-squid spaghetti.

Bolognese and natto...the marriage of two worlds. (photo by wjc)

The natto spaghetti has a meat sauce (Bolognese style) as a base; the natto is put on top of that. A dash of cream finishes the dish. Once mixed it takes on a creamy, semi-chunky texture. The taste of a classic Italian sauce fused with the earthiness of the natto is supremely unique. The cream rounds it out making the simple ingredients into a rich masterpiece.

Heavenly tarako-uni-ika spaghetti... (photo by wjc)

Even though the natto spaghetti was outstanding, the tarako-uni-ika pasta was a treat like no other. Since both tarako and uni are somewhat paste-like, both are whipped together to make a base sauce. Small strips of squid are added to that just before tossing with hot pasta. Visually, it's a stunning dish (my picture doesn't do it justice)...but the taste? Oh...my...

The tarako and uni mixture coats the spaghetti in a way similar to a pasta carbonara. The squid just comes along for the ride, adding a slightly different texture to the al-dente pasta (by the way, Hashiya KNOWS al-dente!). The saltiness of the tarako and the sublime uni is superb with the pasta. At times, it seemed like a red-sauced seafood pasta...I almost kept looking for the mussels. It was by far the most delicious pasta dish I have had in many years.

Even if you don't want to take the step to go all out neba-neba, Hashiya has enough pasta choices to choose from. (Their regular carbonara looked real good....) However, if you want something profoundly satisfiying, order the tarako-uni-ika pasta. Either way, you can't go wrong.

Hashiya is just south of the Hatagaya Station on the Keio Train line. From the station, cross the street and look up for the Rokugo-Dori Shopping Area sign. Hashiya is almost at the end of Rokugo-dori on the right side across from Nebari-ya.