Feeding My Passion

Finally, after a long time with no movement on my photo essay, things are finally coming together!

I got an email yesterday from ForageSF, a group that serves a foraged meal (the menus are mouth-wateringly awesome) once a month to a small group of people who are fast enough to sign up. Which I just happen to be this month, on Friday 7 May. The founder of the group has already agreed to give me access to the foraging, preparation, and consuming of this meal. Access has been the most challenging part of this essay, as it often is with any in-depth, long-term photojournalism project. So except for the photos, the “foraging” portion of the essay is waiting for me in San Francisco next week.

This evening I made pictures of a family going out to grab a fast-food meal, take it home, and eat it. I’m feeling pretty good about how it turned out, so that part is done.

And I’m probably leaving tomorrow to stay at my youngest sister’s house in Sacramento so I can photograph the “big organic” portion of the story when a subject is ready for me. While I wait for a subject, I have plenty to do besides making photos to wrap up my class which include, but aren’t limited to: Book reports, putting a portfolio together, and going through my exit interview (via Skype or phone). On Wednesday. I’ll take Amtrak and then BART into San Francisco, and check into the youth hostel near the city center, which is the closest one to the Mission district, where the foraged dinner is being held.

Then on Saturday, I head back to Sacramento, and if I haven’t made the photos for the “big organic” section yet, I’ll stay there until I do, or until 14 May, when I give David’s fantastic Nikon D200 back to him (THANK YOU DAVID!!) and head back to Merced.

Then I begin my victory lap around the west coast. You think I’m kidding?

As a very good friend of mine just said about my lack of progress on my food-related photo essay since we were in Santa Cruz much earlier this month, “Your project is kind of stale.” I don’t think she was trying to be punny, but she’s got a very playful sense of humor, so I don’t know.

That was yesterday, today is a brand new day! I’ve got access and an appointment for the “fast food” section of my photo essay on Thursday evening, kind of a naturally perfect situation. It’s a family that I met soon after I moved here (Merced, Calif.) that is very physically active (the father coaches soccer, the mother is a yoga instructor, their sons all participate in one sport or another), and like many families, they are busy, so they often grab some fast food on Thursday evening, which is their busiest day of the week, after they all get done with their soccer practice/yoga class/whatever. And there I will be, bearing witness to their meal, from discussion about where to go, to going, pickup, and partaking.

Huge load off of my mind.

And I have access, at least verbally, to the other two sections of the essay: big organic and foraged. Just waiting for the other two shoes to drop from this 4-legged creature. Stay tuned!

I made this photo from the kitchen in the Branding Iron, a restaurant that’s been in Merced for more than 52 years. When I was a kid growing up in Merced, it was the best place in town (probably still is) and when my grandfather gave me a choice of any place in town when I turned 9, I chose The Branding Iron.

Wow, that sounds really familiar!

So that was day 1 of my first 30-day series. This is day 30 of my second 30-day series. Besides having a much better camera this time (thanks to my brother-in-law) than than the one I started with, I’m also feeling much better about the photos I’m making under any circumstance, even in this dark environment. And it’s not just the higher ISO. Moments are better, expressions are better, rapport is better. I had A LOT of catching up to do with my classmates, but now I feel confident I only have a lot of catching up to do with my classmates.

My mother was quite determined to get the last of the chocolate transferred into the fondue pot. The fondue was good.

My family has a fever, and the only prescription is more ice cream. Fortunately Gunther’s in Sacramento scratches our near-constant itch.

My dad had mocha almond fudge, my mom had baseball nut (vanilla ice cream with raspberry swirl and peanuts) and Swiss orange chip. I had baseball nut and peanut butter cup, on a sugar cone. My sisters weren’t there, but they sure wished they were.

One of my favorite things to make from my favorite cuisine in the world, Vietnamese goi cuon. The filling ingredients are pretty flexible, though I’m partial to these: red leaf lettuce, hothouse cucumbers, green onions, rice vermicelli, cilantro, bean sprouts, poached shrimp (cut in half and place in the wrapper skin-side out so the pink shows through like it does here), and mint. We added carrots for a little color, and you can put in other herbs as well, red parilla, thai basil, rau ram, watercress, poached pork, vietnamese chicken or pork sausage (a delicious and subtle forcemeat).

They’re so easy and inexpensive to make, that you can play around with them, people can make their own (I’ve taught classes and friends how to make them several times now.).

We served them with hoisin peanut dipping sauce and Thai tom kha gai (chicken coconut milk soup). Actually, “tom” means boiled, “kha” is galangal, and “gai” is chicken. Since the important thing is the galangal, you can actually vary the protein. The recipe I’m using now is from the inestimable David Thompson’s Thai Food, and he gives a couple two major variations of “dtom khaa” (his Anglicisation), the other with trout which I’d like to try sometime. Here are his head notes for the dtom khaa gai we made:

Although this soup’s name means ‘boiled glalngal’, it has become associated in most people’s minds with chicken. However, many othe ringredients can be used in a dtom kha: fish, shellfish, mushrooms of all kinds, quail and pork are some possibilities.

He also has five variations of tom yum (dtom yam in Thompson, hot and sour soup, made most often with shrimp in the US).

Day 2 on Shumei’s Santa Cruz Farm, where they use natural methods to grow produce that is beyond organic, at least organic as it is known and certified now. The friend I visited Santa Cruz with, Kamila, is a part of the Shumei organization, and I was fortunate enough to gain access and make pictures there for one of the four sections of my photo essay that is a kind of visual companion to The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan.

In reverse chronological order, so up first, the radish (kkakdugi) kimchi.

Radish kimchi is much easier and faster than the white cabbage (baek) kimchi I made a few weeks ago and have already consumed (yum!). There’s very little salting, no rinsing, no stuffing (except the jars at the end), and it doesn’t take as long to ferment.

The name, kkakdug, is onomatopoeic as it’s the sound of chopping the radishes into cubes to make this dish. I got the recipe (and the trivia) from Growing up in a Korean Kitchen by Hisoo Shin Hepinstall.

Portrait of kimchi as a young pickle – I’ve already covered the one on top with napa cabbage leaves.

This is before I’ve topped it with water. There’s chopped napa cabbage in there, along with watercress, mustard greens, green onions, grated ginger, lots of garlic (of course!), chopped walnuts, sugar, lemon juice, Korean dried chili flakes (duh!), sweet rice flour, fish sauce, and salt. Yum.

I’ve topped these off with water and they’re ready to start fermenting. The kimchi will sit out on the counter, with the lid on, for 2-3 days before I stop the fermentation by refrigerating it. Between now and Monday, I’ll be tasting, oh yes, I will be tasting.

Chocolate-Almond Buttercrunch Toffee – Kitchen alchemy at its very finest: Turning butter, sugar, salt, vanilla, baking soda, chocolate, and almonds into this glorious pile of delicious joy. David Lebovitz, who worked at Chez Panisse, is the awesome pastry chef who came up with this recipe. He has some amazing looking cookbooks as well, and I hope to be buying one sometime soon.

While the expense of making this recipe is considerable (2 1/4 pounds of candy calls for 1 pound of almonds, 10 ounces of chocolate (I prefer Ghiradelli 60% cacao because it’s assertive, and it needs to be), plus 2 sticks of butter – the cost of everything else is negligible), the technique is simple, and the results are stunning. I’ve made it probably a dozen and a half times now, and it is still remarkable to me.

I also still find it completely irresistible. I give the stuff away as quickly as possible since I can (and have) devoured the better part of a 2 pound batch in less than 3 days. Luckily I have selfless friends and photojournalism classmates who have volunteered to save me from this batch. Thank you thank you!!

This is about as fussy as I get when I cook or bake.

Before baking

After baking, but before devouring.

And where, do you ask, are the walnuts? There is a layer of finely chopped walnuts between the apples and the crust.

Delicious.

I’m happier with the second set of loaves from my first batch of brioche dough. I used smaller pans, so although the weight of the dough was the same as the first 2 loaves, the volume was better. I also let them bake longer (50 minutes as opposed to 30-40), which made them drier of course. But there’s so much fat in this dough (butter and eggs folks, and a lot of it), that it would take longer to ruin it than with other breads that don’t have the fat. In this case, a little drier is better.