It's summer so it's grilling time, and that means burgers. Or at least it does when ground beef is on sale at the local supermarket. Yesterday I made burgers staffed with goat cheese - they were delicious. All you have to do is season the ground beef with salt and pepper, make a thin patty (about 1/8 lb), put a slice of goat cheese in the middle and cover it with another thin patty. You then bring the edges together and flattent he whole thing as much a you can. Remember, burgers shrink when you cook them.

I used ground beef with 7% fat (the goat cheese will add moisture, so you don't need a higher fat meat) and herbed goat cheese. I served them with the usual accrutements and condiments, I particularly liked ripe avocado on mine, it softened the flavor of the goat cheese.

Give them a try!

This is an incredibly easy recipe for ribs with BBQ sauce, it makes delicious, succulent ribs with little work. I got it from All Recipes.com. I've used both country style ribs and spare ribs for it, and I'm sure it'd work just as well with every kind of ribs. I've always made it with two bottles of BBQ sauce (my favorite is Jack Daniels) though I think next time I'll try using just 1, adding more water and boiling it down afterwards. As it is, there is too much BBQ sauce left over which seems like a waste. The original recipe is for 2 1/2 lbs of ribs, but I use it for whichever size package of ribs I buy.

• a slab of ribs
  
• 1 tsp. salt
  
• black pepper to taste.
  
• 1 onion, qurtered
  
• 2 bottles BBQ sauce
  
• water

Salt & pepper the ribs. Place them in a large pot along with the onion. Cover them with the BBQ sauce and enough water so that they are submerged. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat and simmer uncovered for 40 minutes. Remove the ribs and boil off excess water from the sauce.

Oil the grill and preheat it for high heat. Grill the ribs, basting and turning frequently, for about 20 minutes.

When I make burgers I like going beyond the traditional and trying different variations. Oftentimes this means stuffing them. Stuffing them with blue cheese and goat cheese have worked, but my latest attempt at stuffing them with mozzarella cheese and green garlic was less successful. I based my recipe on an epicurious recipe for Veal burgers stuffed with mozzarella cheese. Alas, I used ground beef instead of veal, green garlic instead of green onions and thyme instead of sage. The result were burgers that were good, but not special. The devil may indeed be in the details, but somehow I don't think so - so I don't think I'll try them again. Plus Safeway's sale on 7% ground beef is over so I won't be buying ground beef for a while.

Today is my birthday (yay!) and my friends Victoria and Penelope got me a great (and very appropriate) gift of yummy, exotic foodstuff. They went shopping to the Euro Mix Deli in Oakland, a place I'll definitely have to check out. Their comprehensive gift basket included:

Gia Russa Artichoke Bruschetta Topping from Italy. Haven't opened it yet :)

ZerGüt brand Ikra. This is an Eggplant "caviar" spread from Bulgaria. It's made with eggplant, carrots, tomatos, oil and spices and it's quite good. I'd served some of it at a Bulgarian dinner for Victoria and her husband Geoffrey a few weeks before. It has a pleasant smokey flavor, and it's good both as a dip for bread and a spread for sandwiches.

Ararat Young Walnut preserves, from Armenia. I have no idea what this is going to be like, I can see the young walnuts floating in a viscous liquid. I think I'm going to wait until I have a "tea" at home to open these.

Tkemali is a Georgian sauce made with sour plums. There seem to be at least three varieties, and the one I got is from red (as opposed to yellow or green, per the drawings on the bottle) plums. This is suppose to be Georgia's version of ketchup and it's used to accompany grilled meats and vegetables. I served it with plain grilled chicken breast and it didn't do too well. It had a very vinegary taste, though the hints of plum were nice. I think it may go better with lamb and I'll try it on that next.

Bliny mix from "JSC "Atlanta-Service". Blinis are small, delicate crepes from Russia. I've heard of them but have never tried them. They sound delicious. Yum, yum, yum.

Bahlsen's Kipferl were small hazelnut cookies from Germany. The croissant-shaped cookies are small, somewhat dry (which is why it's suggested they go very well with tea or coffee) and quite addictive. It didn't take me long to finish the package.

Tula honey cake or Tulsky Pryanik is a traditional dessert from the Russian city of Tula. This one came with apricot-flavored apple sauce as filling, though they have other flavors as well. It was interesting, but I also found it a bit dry and not really something I'd be hankering over. I ate all, though :)

Costworld Double Gloucester with Onions & Chives is also called "pub cheese", it's supposed to have a strong cheddar flavor and I can't wait to try it.

Finally, I got and envelope of Pilau seasoning and one of schaschlik seasoning, both from Russia as well.

Truth be told, I can't believe just how generous Victoria and Penelope were. And I'm of course thrilled :)

I made this recipe for red-wine pot roast with porcini a few nights ago and I have to say I wasn't impressed. Granted, I used portobello mushrooms instead of porcini, as they didn't have any of the latter at the supermarket, but I think the problem was actually with the celery. Perhaps I used too much celery, perhaps the problem was that the celery had wilted (in a very strange way) after an afternoon left out of the fridge, or perhaps it was the type of celery (I'd bought organic celery at the farmer's market). In any case, the sauce tasted too much like broth. Mike liked it, I didn't.

Just earlier today I visited the Chevys' website to find out when the San Leandro restaurant would be opening. I'm not a fan of chain restaurants in general, but I can't resist Chevys tortilla chips and beef fajitas. Now I will have to.

I just learned that 8 workers were fired by Chevys for skipping work to attend immigration protests. That is an affront against every immigrant who proudly stands for their rights in this country. As an immigrant, I don't want to do business with any company that shows so little respect not just for its workers, but for immigrants in general.

I hope that other immigrants, and other Hispanics will join me on boycotting Chevys.

This recipe for a "base" for ice cream contains 2 ingredients and 1 preparation step. Still, I managed to mess it up on all counts. The results, however, where very interesting. This has to be the smoothest, richest ice cream I've ever tasted. There isn't even a hint of iciness, it's all velvety softness. It reminds me of the ice creams that are served in tiny scoops accompanying other sweets at fancy restaurants. Indeed, I think it would go superbly with something crunchy - perhaps toffee crumbs -, though given how sweet it is, something non-sweet may be a good idea. The taste was quite nice, though a bit too sweet. But if you like condensed milk, you'll like this ice cream.

The original recipe called for combining 2 cups of light cream with 1 cup sweetened condensed milk, mixing it well and putting it into the ice cream machine.

I couldn't find light cream, so I used 2 cups of heavy cream instead (thus the richness of the ice cream), and I didn't read the instructions well so I used 1 can of sweetened condensed milk. Finally I poured each ingredient into the ice cream machine, but realized my mistake and stopped to mix them. The original recipe is supposed to turn a very light ice cream base, clearly mine didn't.

A few weeks ago we had our friends Victoria and Geoffrey over for dinner and I made a Bulgarian meal. I had never cooked Bulgarian food before (thus this project) and I was pleasantly surprised. It was much better than I thought it could be. I was very surprised to find out that Bulgarian food has quite in common with Californian food, in particular its emphasis on local, fresh and seasonal ingredients. Bulgarians are particularly fond of vegetables, and its cuisine (which is a relative of both Balkan and Ottoman cuisine) features many vegetarian main dishes. As I have several semi-vegetarian friends, it's good to know where I can find recipes they may like.

My menu and comments are available at http://www.marga.org/food/int/bulgaria/

I reported some time ago that Joaquin Deli, our favorite sandwich place in San Leandro was being sold. The place is in escrow until June. The new owners are planning to keep the deli open, and the current owners will train them and pass their recipes along. So hopefully nothing much will change. We do love their sandwiches.

Meanwhile, Kolbeh, the Mediterranean restaurant which opened briefly in the space that used to be occupied by Casa Maria #2, has been revamped as a taqueria aptly named Taqueria. As I reported, that had been the original intention of the owner. I haven't been there yet - it just opened yesterday - but I have missguivings about the whole thing. There are already two good taquerias in the immediate neighborhood (Los Pericos and Pedro's) and I don't see a need for another one. Still, there is some hope for Taqueria. The place looks nice, and if the owners decided to go for a California approach to tacos and burritos (i.e. high quality and fresh ingredients and healthy choices) it could work. I will at least give it a try, so that I can report back. But if you try it before I do, please feel free to comment here.

A year or so ago I saw some pictures of hard-boiled eggs in cool shapes on Craigslist. I decided I wanted to make some for my kids. The instrument apparently used was a sushimaker, so I got one (thanks Ebay) and then for one reason or another I didn't do anything with it. I finally tried it some time ago and it sort of works. The key is using a small enough egg that fits, putting it when it's stil warm and flexible, and then cooling it down. Alas, the egg usually breaks anyway and the shape doesn't last for long out of the mold - but my girl still liked it.

A couple of weeks ago I bought organic celery at the Farmer's Market - it came in a bag. I left it out on the table that afternoon, in moderate heat. By the evening it had completely wilted. Or had it? Had it been like this all along? I must confess that I've never seen such flacid celery in my life - not that I'm a celery connoisseur or anything. Weird.

A week or so ago I found (organic) green garlic at the farmer's market. I'd had heard of it for the first time only recently, when it was featured in one of the dishes we ate at Chez Panisse. But I figured it was worth trying to cook with it.

You basically use it like green onions or leeks, slice/chop the bulb plus the white and light green parts of the stem. It has a much milder taste than regular garlic. I tried mine both chopped and mixed in with mashed potatoes and mixed with cheese as a stuffing for hamburgers. In both situations we really liked it, though I think it's particularly flavorful when it's been browned.

Green garlic has a short season in the spring so get it now and give it a try.

Last week was my birthday - and this year I decided to celebrate it thrice. I had a "Murder Mystery Birthday party" the Saturday before, a pizza & cake party the evening of, and a tea party the Saturday following it. Plus my friend Regina took me out for brunch the day after the first party. Cool birthday week :)

The murder mystery we played for the first party was Free Form Game's Curse of the Pharaoh, a role playing game situated in Egypt in the late 19th century. I didn't really want to serve an Egyptian menu - I lived for a year in Egypt and I wasn't terribly fond of the food - but I still wanted to keep with the Middle Eastern theme - while keeping things as easy as possible. So I served an array of spreads: flavored hummus and Tahina sauce from Trader Joe's, leftover bulgarian red-pepper and eggplant spreads, homemade cucumber-yogurt salad (salt diced cucumber and let it drain, mix with plain yogurt, crumbled dried or fresh mint, chopped garlic, season with salt & pepper) and pita bread. I also added some stuffed olives, also from TJ's. For dinner I made my famous Chicken Tagine with honey and apricots. This is a relatively simple dish to make and it's absolutely delicious. It also escales well (I doubled the recipe to serve 13, and we probably had enough food left over for 4), it's exotic yet accessible and works great for company. People loved it. I served it with buttered couscous.

For dessert there was birthday cake - a little chocolate & almond cake from Just Desserts I got at Costco. It was $15 - the same price as their larger chocolate cakes (which I was going to get before I saw these ones) - and much, much better. The cake was quite moist and very rich, and it fed 13 of us with several leftover slices. I served it with vanilla ice cream.

In all, the food was excellent, the game a lot of fun, and the company couldn't have been better.

Thank you Mike for organizing it, and Regina, Lola, Iggy, Vienna, Frank, Victoria, Geoffrey, Penelope, Ramiro, Desiree and Grant for coming and making it possible!

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The day of my birthday I had a small party to which a few friends who couldn't make it to the mystery party came. I got stuffed pizzas from Zacchary's, which are, of course, my favorite. This time I ordered a Mediterranean pizza for the vegetarians among us and it was quite good - it has feta cheese, artichoke hearts, olives and peppers. Of course, I got a cheese one for the kids and a chorizo one for the meat lovers among us. We were all in cheese heaven.

I also made my mixed greens salad and I actually ate quite a bit of it :)

For dessert I got a Safeway three-mousse cake. I've gotten this cake several times before and it's always a crowd pleaser. Nobody can believe it actually comes from Safeway. It's also about $15 and it feeds 12 quite easily (it's also rich so you don't need to serve huge slices).

In all I had a great time, and I was quite happy to be able to share this time with friends.

--

Finally, last Saturday I went to tea with my usual gang of friends, though this time Boris also joined us. We went to the Garden Court at the Palace Hotel and, of course, I had a great time. I already wrote a review which is waiting Mike's editing but in summary the place was beautiful, the food was amazing, the teas were high quality, but the service was rushed and we felt unwelcomed to linger. That's too bad as otherwise it could have been a superb experience.

Afterwards we went to the Ferry building and tried some olive oils. I was too full to try anything else, though Charlotte actually managed to eat a whole hotdog! It was a nice afternoon.

Now my birthday is over, but Sunday is mother's day so I still have something to look forward to :)

My friend Aamani, like me, works from home so once every couple of weeks or so we get together for lunch. Last week we went to the Cornerstone Cafe. I've been there from time to time since I wrote my review some years ago, and I usually enjoy our brunches there. This time I wasn't that impressed by lunch. I ordered a cheeseburger and I specified that it be medium rare (they asked). It wasn't - there was no hint of pink to the meat and it tasted dry and boring. The accompanying fries were standard. Service was friendly and prices are reasonable, and I think Aamani enjoyed her sandwich, but I'll stay away from the burgers here.

Cornerstone Cafe
600 Dutton Avenue
San Leandro
510-562-2535

I'm a little late with this posting but better late than ever, right?

Last April was Mika's 4th birthday. We had a party for her the day after her birthday, but I wanted to celebrate the actual anniversary of her birth - so I invited our friends Desiree and Grant, and their kids Trent and Kali, as well as our friends Regina and Boris to meet us for ice cream at the Ice Creamery. The Ice Creamery is an old-fashioned ice cream parlor in downtown Castro Valley, which serves Fenton ice cream in more informal surroundings.

We've been to the Ice Creamery many times before, when we want to treat ourselves or the kids, and this time it was a real treat.

I don't know if they take reservations, we certainly hadn't made any, and when we got there around 6 PM or so on a Saturday evening the place was hopping. There were no tables to be found. The hostess/waitress (it's not clear who is whom there), however, tried very hard to accomodate us and was able to put some tables together as people left them so that we all got to sit together by the window. They were very efficient with the service, getting us menus and our orders in and out quite quickly, considering how busy the place was, and making a special effort to bring the kids ice cream first. Considering how antsy they were - 4 yo's are not known for the patience - this was very welcomed. They even put a candle on Mika's ice cream and everyone sang her "happy birthday". At her age this was thrilling rather than embarrazing.

The kids were able to run around and play around and all in all had the most wonderful time. I think we will make going to the Ice Creamery a yearly birthday tradition.

Perry's Food for the Soul, the Bar-B-Q place in the Pelton Center, is closed. Perry's had replaced another BBQ place, Bar-B-Que & Seafood Unlimited, and has in turn been replaced by yet another BBQ place, Pelton Smoke BBQ. The menu has remained virtually unchaged, though it now also features Korean style BBQ chicken, beef and ribs ($7-8), Oysters ($10, small, $13 large) as well as chili ($3-4.50) and burgers ($5-7).

A year ago I had heard that Perry's wasn't doing well and might have to close, but then I heard nothing else. We went there a few weeks ago and they seemed to be doing well, they just had had a large catering order so the only things left were links, an order of ribs and an order of chicken. We tried it with the mild and medium sauces and liked them better than the first time we tried them. Though still, we felt they weren't as good as E&J's.

But I guess the business wasn't doing well enough, or Stephanie Perry, the owner, just got tired of struggling, for it's been sold. It's difficult to believe that the same kind of business can do better under new ownership. They are charging similar prices, and I can't imagine they'd have the community support than Perry's might have. But who knows? Perhaps their sauce is a killer. I'll have to try it sometimes and see.