I've Done Some Things

So much for my online journal. Six months gone and I have no idea what I've been up to.

Just kidding! I've been working. Two or three jobs, depending on how you look at it. One used to be a job, but they ran out of money and it seems too important to let it fall apart, so now it's a volunteer position.

Plus freelance writing. Which is what I blame for sucking away my creative juices that used to charge this page. At the moment I am between deadlines, short of inspiration to pitch any stories. Finally the informal writing itch has re-emerged.

It was a quiet, tight winter, but spring always seems to breed hope. I keep saying I'm working harder than ever and earning less than ever, but I'm surrounded by intelligent, like-minded people, so it mostly seems worth it. In case I actually have an audience left that's curious about what I've been up to, a brief synopsis:

Job 1 has changed--it used to be as a Spice Merchant (yes, really) at Savory Spice Shop. The pay was low, my feet hurt a lot, but oh, was it interesting. Over 400 individual herbs and spices, plus another 170 proprietary blends to learn and guide customers through.

My bosses were kind of friends before I started, and I enjoyed getting to know them and my coworkers better. I left on excellent terms, and still stop in occasionally just to say hello.

Which is easy, since my new Job 1 is just across the parking lot. It's a local grocery store inside a farmers' market/co-op, called Queen City Pantry. Follow us on Facebook; those posts are mostly mine! I'm pretty much on my own in that job, splitting time with another employee, and between the two of us and the owner, we run the store. I already knew the owner, plus many of the vendors whose products we sell.

One of the best parts of the new job is that I negotiated Mondays off, which means I get a real weekend! It's a day later than most people's, but still, two days off in a row every week feels like luxury now.

Job 2 is more interesting--I am one of three part-time employees trying to keep a one-man bakery afloat. My titles include, Delivery Driver, Farmers Market Seller, Social Media & Marketing Specialist, and Disapproving School Marm. The stories I could tell...but the one-man baker is one of those intelligent, like-minded people I enjoy spending time with, and the bread is killer. If he ever gets his act together, we'll corner the Charlotte market for real, fresh bread.

In between, I do some writing. I've written about bees, about bananas at the farmers' market, about sous chefs, about farmers, about big-dollar dining events.

I helped my parents mark 50 years of marriage.

And just now, I've realized I really need to get my photos in some kind of order. My old computer recently crashed, I've started using cloud storage, only to find my phone had been uploading photos for a while. Now I have photos stored in 3 different places, unlabeled, in no particular order.

 But now I have to go to a pig pickin' with a bunch of chefs and other culinary glitterati at a local brewery. Because I want to. And maybe because I'm getting hungry. Hopefully I'll be back here soon to share some stories, but if not, it's probably because I'm sharing some other stories for money. Which isn't a bad thing.

Food, Fights, and Blood

When I go so long between blog posts, I usually depend on the trail of photographs captured on my phone to remember what I’ve been up to. And each time I delve down into those archives, I am grateful for what I find.

As summer turns to fall, I find I’ve been welcomed to many feasts.

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At the end of August, there was the first-ever Charlotte Food Fight, organized between the Piedmont Culinary Guild and the local chapter of the American Culinary Federation. The former is a new nonprofit started by Charlotte-area chefs, farmers and food artisans to create a network in support of the local food chain. The latter is part of a national organization best known for its certification program for professional chefs.

The event was held in the kitchens of the culinary program of the local community college. Each side presented an amuse bouche, appetizer, main course and dessert. They were plated at different stations, with guests circulating at will, and able to enjoy a North Carolina wine paired with each dish.

Naturally, I volunteered my way in, and so did Miss Chef. She is a member of both organizations, while I proudly wear my 4 PCG t-shirts any chance I get.

Photo credit Heidi Billotto

 

Once our volunteer duties were done, we were free to get in on the fun. Here are just a few highlights of “my” team. (Hey, I don’t give a toss about sports, so why not back these guys/gals?)

That’s just one station above, with four chefs working elbow-to-elbow. No attitudes here.

This next photo is of the PCG’s appetizer, but I failed to get a description. I remember that’s crab meat on top of a panna cotta, and popcorn shoots as a garnish, but that’s all I remember. This is from one of the chefs I admire most, Paul Verica of Heritage Food & Drink. His plating is beautiful.

 

This was the main course…simplified, it’s pork with squash purée and chimichurri. Of course, there’s a lot more in there, like pork belly. But whatever…yum.

 

The dessert was presented by an all-lady team from 300 East. That’s a squash cremeux that’s being bruléed. I declare this the best way to eat squash, hands down.

I’ll save you all the buildup and say the PCG blew the competition out of the water. The chefs, though pretty damn tired, were exuberant about their victory.

The event was themed like a prizefight, thus the gaudy championship belt. In the ensuing months, it has made the rounds to all the establishments of the competing chefs. Ironically, as I happened to be in the last establishment this afternoon for lunch, I was asked to fetch it. So right now it’s in my living room.

I feel like a winner!

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In September I was also invited to the first in what is hoped to be a series of food + art events, created by CLTure, an online entity I’ve done some writing for. It featured another of my favorite chefs, Luca Annunziata of Passion8 (who incidentally, invited Miss Chef to the initial meeting of what turned into the PCG). He was paired with a local artist, Alexandra Loesser, and asked to create dishes based on five paintings commissioned for the event.

Turns out, they share a fascination with blood.

 

The artist’s current focus is on showing the contrast of beauty and brutality in nature. We tend to prettify it, thinking that “natural” means peaceful and harmonious. Nope, not always!

 

 

We got a little break with dessert, thankfully. Just a simple sweet potato panna cotta. Blood free.

 

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Somewhere in between those two events, I attended a PCG get-together at a local rum distillery.

 

And just this past weekend, Miss Chef and several of our friends took part in the South End Chili Cookoff.

It was a very Fido-friendly event. I think it’s organized in conjunction with a local firehouse. For a city with mostly cat sports mascots, Charlotte really loves its dogs.

 

I had to head off to work shortly after this started, but Miss Chef’s team didn’t win anyway so I guess I didn’t miss much.

And that pretty much takes me up to today which, though being a Tuesday, is kind of my Friday. So I’m about to kick back and enjoy a little R&R.

Right after I figure out what’s for dinner.

For those keeping up with my writing career, I just had another cover story published, about the place of local food at the big regional farmers market in Charlotte. You can read it here.

We’re not in San Fran anymore

Honestly. I can’t decide if I’m busily occupied or overwhelmed with busy-ness. But blogging hasn’t even registered on my “To Do” list for, like, months. I’ve had a hard enough time fitting paid writing into my schedule, I wasn’t even remotely interested in writing “for fun.”

Except that I’ve now blown two of my rare writing days doing very little, and finally realized I don’t know what to write. I think this is what they call writer’s block. I’ve never had it so bad.

So, to somehow make up for it, or maybe just to get some words down, I’ll unroll the ol’ blog page and see what falls out of my brain.

It seem only appropriate, though it’s three months later, to share the highlights from the remainder of our trip West. These will appear in non-chronological order, and will depend entirely on what sparks my memory and what photos I like enough to share.

There was a half-day on Alcatraz, which was more interesting than I’d expected, if only for the ferry ride across the beautiful bay.

 

Selfie time!

I had no idea there were gardens there, which have been maintained and restored. Made for pretty pictures.

 

Also, nobody tells you most of the place smells like bird guano in the summer heat. Birds, birds, everywhere.

 

Requisite shot inside the cell block.

There was our day trip down the coast to Monterey, to visit the aquarium, a bucket-lister for me!

Miss Chef has a thing for sea otters, so that was one of the first exhibits we stopped at.

 

Having visited many an aquarium, including the amazing 6-million gallon tank at the newer Georgia Aquarium, I was a little underwhelmed at how typical the exhibits were. And then I stopped at the kelp forest exhibit. I think my jaw may have dropped, and I know I got a little teary-eyed from utter delight.

This is a fraction the size of that Georgia tank, but the huge strands of kelp swaying in the artificial waves and the natural schooling patterns of the fish make you feel like you are standing on the floor of the bay. I was surprised to remember I was perfectly dry and not in a submersible or something. Amazing. I came back again at the end of our visit, just to soak in a few more minutes of sheer bliss.

We may or may not have spent a lot of money in the gift shop there. Miss Chef does have an astounding number of sea otter themed shirts now, though.

For our foodie friends back home, one of the biggest highlights was our day in Napa Valley and our evening at the French Laundry.

Entrance and cellars to Schramsberg, one of the oldest wineries in the valley. Those bottles are stacked about 14 rows deep, if I remember correctly.

Our tasting room was very dramatic. And delicious.

 

We only visited 4 wineries, but managed to end up with 14 bottles plus two memberships in wine clubs.

Sending those bottles home in climate-controlled shipping was so prohibitively expensive we ended up buying the packaging and checking them as additional luggage. Every bottle made it safely home.

That afternoon we took a short nap in order to stay awake through our dinner at the French Laundry that night. Our reservations were at 9:15! When we arrived, we had to wait about 10 minutes in the courtyard, which was no hardship.

It’s hard to describe the experience of dining in America’s most famous restaurant. I was surprised the menu wasn’t more innovative, but Thomas Keller is interested in doing pure, quality food grown nearby, rather than pushing the envelope. The service was impeccable, and not in any way intimidating. The servers were warm, though professional, and took care of every detail with poise. One detail: when you leave the table for the bathroom, they don’t just fold your napkin, they bring you an entirely new one. Laundry, indeed.

Something about the place keeps you from pulling your phone out to photograph every dish, though you know your Facebook friends are dying to hear how dinner went. Too bad for them. I took only two pictures inside.

This is what I posted for my Facebook friends. You get to keep the laundry pin that comes with your napkin, and it becomes kind of a talisman for Those Who Have Been.

 

I stared at one of these across the room for an hour or two before figuring out these weren’t stylized initials or Russian characters. They are laundry instruction symbols! Get it? (Machine wash, no bleach, iron)

We didn’t leave until after 1 am. Along with copies of the menu, we also got some goodies to take home.

So long Napa, you were very good to us.

At some point, we also had dinner at Chez Panisse, where Alice Waters kick-started the whole local-food movement, way back in the 70s. Well, that’s Berkeley for you, I guess.

That was one of our better meals—totally classic French-inspired. Old school, but still fresh and interesting. I also broke the world’s record for painful bladder stretching on the way back via Bart. Half a bottle of wine plus lots of water will do that to you.

With all the amazing food we ate and places we visited, many people asked upon my return what my favorite part was. The answer has to be, just about everything. California is so different from everywhere else I’ve been, I loved getting a feel for a completely novel landscape and climate.

Golden Gate Bridge shrouded in midday fog, from Alcatraz ferry

Huge fields of strawberries and artichokes on the way to Monterey.

Sonoma Valley, which looked more like wine country than Napa Valley.

I was also delighted to forge a stronger connection with my family out there, getting to know my aunt and uncle as an adult, meeting one cousin for the first time, and hearing some old family stories from a different point of view.

As for the most memorable thing I ate? I think that would have to go to the pain au chocolat from Tartine Bakery.

 

As usual, the end of the trip arrived before we were ready for it. I took a few last shots from the plane as we headed away from the sun, back to the eastern side of the continent.

Some mountain or something, probably east of San Francisco. Notice how dry the land is.

And that, my friends, is that. Now it’s fall in North Carolina, and we’re already planning our annual mountain getaway next month. In between, lots of work, volunteering, special events and full schedules. One of these days I may catch up with myself. In the meantime, hope y’all enjoyed this vicarious vacation. I know I did, just now.