basil, frisee, pineapple, jicama

sam, who puts together the vegan selections at dinner in no-name, made a skewer composed of a slice each of jicama and pineapple, sandwiching a leaf of frisee and sweet basil. very nice, more so because i hardly ever encounter jicama in large enough slabs that the natural sweetness and juiciness is apparent.

dairy products

the morning lineup in no-name now includes a cheeseboard that, to be honest, is quite extravagant. yesterday the cheeseboard featured a triple-creme brie that had been aged to the point of near-explosion, a tomme de ma grand mere, a huge port salut, and an unidentifiable but really good blue cheese. they've also taken to making the yogurt with straus organic whole milk; coincident with that change, the yogurt became tangy and balanced, smooth and unctuous. the degree of improvement is almost difficult to believe and is probably at least partly due to raelene getting more familiar with how this yogurt culture works.

transports

ill-effects from yesterday's chili onslaught: none. no-name has had these tiny peanut-butter cookies filled with a dab of house-made banana jam for about two weeks now. completely gluten-free, they dissolve in my mouth and make it happy. for dinner, sam had also made phyllo cups and filled them with chevre whipped and then lightened (honestly) with whipped cream and topped with shreds of pickled red onion. there was, in addition, a tray of deconstructed brownies that were deep and dark, tasted vaguely alcoholic, and produced a slow-growing, subtle heat. further investigation revealed that the unfamiliar flavour was a combination of madagascar vanilla and five-spice powder -- sichuan peppercorns (not really a peppercorn), star anise, cloves, cinnamon, and fennelseed -- and the heat from smoked cayenne.

chili

we had a chili cookoff today. our judging team ("looks good, but how would you market it?") was by far the most organized (some would say anal) of them all. i don't think i've ever eaten more different kinds of chili in a single day. there was plenty of excellent chili, and the best entries were standouts: the midwest chili connection had made their own buns and sausages for a minneapolis-style chili which was itself a little underspiced but which had a rich, full flavour. robert morgan's 3 day smoke in your eye, make your grandma cry chili featured beef that had been first smoked and then grilled before being stewed in an almost adobo-like sauce (he tied for first place in the "traditional meat chili" category). at one end, in a bowl of ice, josef desimone had a large mound of rare ahi chunk chili, with cubes of pico de gallo gelee -- not chili, but really good. a team of brazilians tried to pass off a creamy seafood moqueca as chili in the "where did you grow up" category (it wasn't chili either, but was pretty good on rice), and team bunny diablo made a rabbit-based chili that had the same thready texture that ropa vieja has. special mention to the tasty, vegan, locally-grown chili made entirely with sun ovens-- it took 2 days and 3 sun ovens to separately cook the beans and the other vegetable components.

hiatus, followed by beets

after a long hiatus spent mostly in portland, i returned to the fold today to find, at lunch, tiny cups filled with tiny cubes of steamed rainbow beets (the ones striated and splashed with gold, red, and purple) and shreds of shiso. a steamed beet is a beautiful thing. in slice, the improbable smoothie of the week was The Pineapple King: pineapples, sandpiper strawberries, agave syrup, spearmint, crushed ice, and macadamia nuts. improbable but marvellous.

potatoes

no-name surpassed itself in the spud department today. russian banana potatoes, about 5 inches long, roasted and caramelized with garlic, ginger, and shallots, were tender and savoury. roasted fingerling potatoes served cold with trumpet mushroom shreds and green garlic were a perfect counterpoint -- dense and full of garlic flavour.

braising

the long, slow, low-heat cooking of braised beef makes each slice almost the ultimate comfort food -- tender to the point of being unctuous, full of deep, beefy flavour, and good even when cold. they should serve it with mashed potatoes loaded with butter, chives, garlic, and black pepper. it would rock out.

hello april and passover

a long hiatus, some of it was spent in hawai'i. i returned to find myself in the thick of passover preparations. today, on the first day, passover-friendly dishes abounded at no-name today. top on my list: perfectly-cooked slices of flatiron steak flavoured with haroset -- or their version of it anyway, a relish of black mission figs, apricots, dates, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, and ginger. the vegetarian section yielded a salad of black-eyed peas with mozzarella and roasted zucchini, awash in olive oil and red onion slices and emanating a powerful scent of basil and garlic. concluding remarks by a dish of mango chunks in an unctuous cream composed of young coconut meat, dates, vanilla, and ginger juice.