Monthly Archives: April 2011

Book Review: 97 Orchard

The story of the immigrant has always fascinated me. Perhaps because I have lived in so many places, I appreciate the importance of preserving one’s culture in foreign lands. In “97 Orchard,” the author focuses on the food, culture and history of 5 immigrant families — German, Irish, Italian, and Eastern European Jews — all of which lived in the… Read more →

The Oldest Pisco in the World

From my Brief History of Pisco in San Francisco post, you already knew that Pisco first arrived in the United States during the Gold Rush. But did you know that the oldest distillery in the America’s, Hacienda La Caravedo, was established in 1684? That makes it the oldest Pisco distillery in the world, and last Thursday night I had the… Read more →

Cooking Class: Part 3

In the third and final class of Anthony Bourdain’s Basic Techniques, we used the fish stock we prepared last week to cook a fish soup while the other students prepared a protein feast of steak, roast chicken, and beef bourguignon. As before, the class was divided in two halves. In the first half, we used our knife skills to dice,… Read more →