Truffles

Here's my dilemma, and it's not a bad one. Someone recently gave me a jar of three Italian black truffles, and I don't know what to do with them. I'd like to use them in a Thanksgiving dish, but mainly I'd like to use these mythical little dooks to their best ends. All in all a nice piece of fried bacon would give more palate pleasure, but truffles have that potato chip bouquet and delicate richness that just might take center stage in some new recipe. They seem like they'd be a natural with crab, lobster, eggs, and other prissy proteins. Short of avocado nori with truffled sesame aspic, what do you do with these little tumors? I don't want to dick around trying to get on Thomas Keller's short list, but I don't want to slice these into Top Ramen with Tabasco either.

Local Restaurant Makes Good

The Left Bank, an SF Bay Area French joint with four or five doors, gets knocks for being a multiple-location heavy hitter. We stopped in that place with my folks this weekend and they had braised oxtails with olives, beef bourgignon, sand dabs, and all the roasted usuals. If you're out in the area and want to pay Sizzler prices for legitimate bistro plates, this is your reliable.

Pork trend.

I mentioned that I ate pork yesterday, and then today I ate pork twice.

For breakfast, I had a grilled pork chop with a buttered flour tortilla as a side. It was nice; I ate it while I worked. Some coffee was the drink I chose.

For dinner, I got chili verde at my corner Mexican joint. If you have not had good chili verde, then you are not me.

I am not sure what sort of pork I might eat tomorrow. If this keeps up, I can imagine a roasted tenderloin or perhaps some bacon in a crunchy BLT.

Please picture me as a slavering hound-man with unctuous, never-still cheeks

Alton Brown has a "blog"!

Alton Brown has a "blog"!

http://www.altonbrown.com/pages/rants.html

If you don't know Alton Brown, he's the self-styled modern day Harold McGee. If you don't know who Harold McGee is, then you aren't an apt scholar of food science, and someone should tie your arm to a tree.

What's new...I ate some pork and talked to a friend.

Tense week recap

So, here were the things causing me stress last week:

1. Téodor seemed to be making an offensive salvo in the "risotto" war

2. I had to cancel my book deal because I wasn't happy with the outcome

3. The Presidential election was looking grim

4. The baby gender sonogram was coming up

5. Mr. Bear missing, not paying rent

6. Unhealthy-looking front lawn.

Here's where they stand this week:

1. No action on the risotto front. Tension rises.

2. Book deal formally canceled

3. The Presidential election was won by a person who'd rather see a soldier die than a zygote

4. The damn kid had its legs crossed

5. Mr. Bear still missing, still not paying rent

6. It looks like there used to be a tulip patch where we put our front lawn. Man does that look stupid.

Oh well, at least my kid's safe from George Bush for the next few months. Unless they figure out a way to put tiny Jack Chick tracts into the amniotic sac.

Tense week

So, Téodor seems to have re-instigated the risotto wars, we had to cancel my new book deal, the Presidential election is a gridlock leaning the wrong way, Philippe is about to have his heart broken, the OBGYN tells us the new baby's gender on Thursday, Mr. Bear is incommunicado and behind a month on rent, and my front lawn is looking worse than ever. What's next? Oh yeah: massive Bay Area property taxes, refinishing the hardwood floor in the nursery, and Salvation Army volunteers jumping out from every corner, ringing bells at my face.

My advice to all high school students: flunk 'em while you got 'em, hang back as long as possible. Grades are a false honor. Plumbers make more money than lawyers.