Not for food pussies

I have a feeling that title is going to attract all the wrong kind of surfers. Oh well.

Anyway, the LAT food section had an excellent beginners guide to Kaiseki yday. Just when you thought I'd stop talking about Japan HA HA! I draw your attention to these paras:

In Kyoto at the end of March, chefs were all obsessed with the same ingredients. Young bamboo, the pale tips that are layered like an artichoke and have a subtle, minerally flavor. Fiddlehead ferns, mountain vegetables and young rapini. Cherry salmon were running, along with tai snapper and needlefish. And of course, the cherry trees were bursting into bloom.

It was also spawning season, and that meant a few ingredients that were a little scarier than cherry blossoms: snapper sperm sacs (which Murata steams over sake and serves with fresh sea cucumber roe), and sea bream ovaries (cooked in a sweet stock, in "one of those classics that never seems to change").

"You go there and what you have to eat — it's some amazing ingredients," Myers says. "A lot of things, that even as a chef you go, 'Whoa, oh my God, I've never seen this before.' " Mashed raw eel innards, for instance. "Bring on the sake!"

Like I said, not for food pussies.

I'm becoming quite fond of the LAT food section. Its more accessible than the NYT food section, but more sophisticated than other local food sections (eg, rarely a recipe that involves a can of condensed mushroom soup). They often have offbeat but fun recipes (cheremoya tart this week) and actually helpful articles for people who want to explore this city's remarkable food landscape. For example, the lead article this week was an indepth look at an LA institution, The Apple Pan, which is known for its burgers. Sample quote:

The burger arrives without a plate. It's wrapped in paper, shoved in a bag and slapped down in front of you on its side, with an edible edge peeking skyward. It's on a rather nondescript bun. "Granddad didn't want a sesame bun," says manager Sunny Sherman. "Knowing him, I figure he didn't think sesame added anything."

The NYT, on the other hand, skews towards the 45- 60 >$250,000/year crowd and DONT YOU KNOW IT. I just think its not that much fun to read. You feel like you've been seated next to the guy at the dinner party who's been EVERYWHERE and done EVERYTHING and feels a moral compulsion to tell you in depth and detail about his fascinating life. The lead this week was an article on the culinary joys of Istria (Croatia, for the uninitiated). Sample quote:

The octopus takes a couple of hours to cook, but the process is fun to watch, and the results are splendid. To make sure we’ve had enough, the chef sends out roasted branzino and griddled sole, both perfectly done. To finish, I’m encouraged to drink grappa with honey. To Italophiles, this all sounds oddly familiar.

Doesnt it just.

Incidentally, I have spent 10 days on the Croatian - excuse me - Istrian coast. Granted, I never spent hours watching anyone cook octopus, but I found the food to be at best bland and at worst a compilation of my food nightmares (plain pasta mixed with deep fried beef and saurkraut anyone?).