Benu: A Meal to Remember

My husband and I recently had a meal to remember at Benu in San Francisco. Voted by OpenTable customers Best Overall Restaurant, Best Food and Best Service in San Francisco, Benu's also earned two Michelin stars and has been called the best restaurant in America by Chef David Chang.

It's tempting to call Benu the Asian French Laundry since head chef Corey Lee was born in Korea, moved to the U.S., and worked for nine years at The French Laundry. The food marries traditional Asian ingredients with French preparation and modernist innovation. Chef Lee has likened himself to a craftsman, although many would say he's more like an artist. For each dish he starts by creating a flavor profile, then determines cooking technique, and finally presentation.

Whatever you call it, the food's remarkable. The tasting menu included seventeen courses in addition to buckwheat seaweed crackers to start. Each dish was a new adventure: the flavors, textures, artistry, and temperatures all combined wonderfully, seemingly melting in my mouth. Nothing came out as I expected when reading the descriptions, ingredients and flavors upended and transformed, curiously new and different.

I appreciated the way the food married traditional, even ancient, Asian ingredients with Western techniques and original forms. The minimalist style gave an elegant, refined tone to the experience, one that highlighted the food and the revelations each bite brought. It's difficult to describe the dishes because each one offered something new and unexpected, more subtle and nuanced than usual, reinvented and perfected, firing neurons and awakening taste buds that had been dormant.

Benu isn't for everyone, but if you're looking for a completely original, singular modern Asian European meal, try it. You won't soon forget it.

Tasting Menu:

thousand-year-old quail egg, potage, ginger: precious, quivering egg in warm vichyssoise with a ginger kick

oyster, pork belly, kimchi: our server announced this morsel wrapped in thin pastry was time-sensitive and to be eaten in one bite; melted in my mouth, and was gone too soon

monkfish liver, caviar, pistachio, cauliflower, lemon jelly, brioche: a fantastic, complex combination of ingredients spread on buttered, warm brioche; no essence of my grandma Neiman's chopped liver to be found

eel, feuille de brick, creme fraiche, lime: like a thin eel taquito dipped in creme fraiche with lime

caramelized anchovy, lily bulb, peanut, pickles: unexpectedly spicy and crunchy, no flavor of pungent anchovies here

salt and pepper squid: little morsels served on black shrimp cracker with cilantro, crunchy and spicy

foie gras xia long bao: like a French sui mai dumpling, this was one of Brad's favorites

homemade glutinous rice cakes with pine nut, pumpkin, black truffle: chewy cylindrical bites of rice with fragrant truffle and other ingredients, this one stood out for me

Hokkaido sea cucumber stuffed with shrimp, cucumber, onion, fermented pepper: nice combination of cucumbers from sea and land, briny and savory

chicken with black moss, mountain yam, celery: I think preparation was sous-vide, with white yam and delicate tendrils of moss

chicken velvet with abalone, abalone mushroom, chrysanthemum: I loved it, and the abalone brought me back to memories of big Chinese banquets when I was growing up

Japanese deer tartare, artichoke mayonnaise, walnut bread: I was most nervous about this; more subtle and delicate than I expected with Parmesan and meat raised in Texas

beef braised in pear, beech mushroom, sunflower seeds and leaves: tender, delectable umami combination of ingredients

"shark's fin" soup, dungeness crab, Jinhua ham, black truffle custard: another standout, better than real shark's fin soup, with the black truffle custard treasure at the bottom of the dish

grapefruit, espelette, white chocolate: an outstanding sorbet with flavors of bitter, sweet, and spicy combined; I wanted to lick every last drop

acorn-cranberry custard with banana ice cream: another home run, the custard in a surprising noodle form with small and super flavorful bites of regular and freeze dried banana ice cream and small, bright, red tart cranberries; I've never had so much flavor packed in just a few bites

chocolates: sesame orange, yam marshmallow, walnut, and almond coconut, a perfectly sweet ending

Google Chopper Bar Blondies

Google's got a reputation in Silicon Valley for providing free, tasty, and healthful food for its employees. The company has removed some sweets like M&Ms from its snack areas over the years, despite some employee protests. After all, research shows that deprivation doesn't work in the long term, but portion control does. The company's devised a system of categorizing foods by how healthful they are to help employees make smart choices:

"Green: Most Healthful Foods. Go ahead for good health! These are the best options for disease prevention and total wellness. Be sure to practice portion control with the exception of plain raw or cooked veggies. Pile these on!

Yellow: Less Healthful Foods. Ease up a bit! These items are less nutrient dense and may contain more unhealthful fats. Refined grains, moderate fat meats and green items that no longer fit due to preparation are included in this category.

Red: Least Healthful Foods. Slow down and be mindful! These foods when eaten regularly and/or in excessive quantities can contribute to health problems."

Even if sweets have largely disappeared from snack areas, Google's cafes always offer something to satisfy the sweet tooth. Company chefs have posted some of their recipes online for employees, so naturally I requested some from my husband Brad. We decided to try this one for Chopper Bars, also known as Blondies, and they turned out both delightful and delicious in our heart shaped ramekins. They definitely satisfy any chocolate chip cookie craving.

Google Chopper Bars (aka Blondies)

6 oz. butter

2 c + 2 T brown sugar

3 eggs

1/2 t vanilla

2 1/4 t baking powder

3/4 t salt

2 3/4 c all purpose flour

18 oz. of mix-ins (we used 12 oz. of Ghirardelli semisweet chocolate chips but you could also use dried fruit pieces, M&Ms, butterfingers, Reese's pieces, toffee, etc.)

1. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

2. Cream butter and brown sugar together. It's easier to melt the butter first in the microwave.

3. Add vanilla and eggs to the butter mixture. Mix well.

4. Combine the wet and dry ingredients. Mix well.

5. Add in your choice of mix-ins.

6. Spread batter in a 9" x 13" pan lined with parchment and sprayed.

7. Bake at 350 F for 25-32 minutes.

This recipe is definitely Code Red for a special treat like Valentine's Day. Consider making some sweets for your sweeties.

Uncle Henry's Chow Mein

My cousin Shirley Quan recently put together a Young family cookbook and photo album. What a treasure! My late Uncle Henry, Shirley's father, was quite a cook. He learned mostly from his aunt who had both a Chinese restaurant in Woodland Hills called House of Kwong, and a Mexican restaurant near Olvera Street.

Uncle Henry used to make chicken chow mein for family birthday dinners (noodles are a traditional Chinese birthday meal) and big gatherings. Shirley continues the tradition by making the dish for Young family meals at Thanksgiving and Easter. It would be perfect to celebrate Chinese New Year this month, a lucky start to the auspicious Year of the Dragon. You should be able to find the ingredients at popular Chinese grocery store 99 Ranch Market with locations in Mountain View, Cupertino, San Jose, and more.

Uncle Henry's Chow Mein

2 lbs. fresh or dried noodles (preferably Quon Yick small noodles)
1 lb. chicken, sliced (chicken is optional; if using, you'll also need 1 T soy sauce, 1/2 T wine, 1/2 T fresh ginger shreds, and 1 T cornstarch)
1 medium onion, sliced
1 clove garlic, finely minced
3 stalks celery, diagonally sliced
6-8 dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked, cleaned and sliced
1 small can of sliced bamboo shoots
6-8 sliced water chestnuts, preferably fresh but canned will do
2 cans chicken broth
1 bunch bok choy, cleaned and cut into pieces, about 2 lbs.
1 lb. char shiu (bbq pork), sliced thin in slivers
2-3 lbs. fresh bean sprouts, cleaned, washed and drained
2-5 T oyster sauce (old style like Lee Kum Kee)
1 1/2 t sesame oil
green onions as garnish
oil for frying
salt
2 T cornstarch

1. Parboil noodles till limp but not cooked all the way. Rinse and let drain in a colander.

2. Heat 1/4" thick layer of oil in a wok or cast iron frying pan until ripples show on the whole surface. Grab a handful of noodles and distribute in an even 1" layer in the pan. Press down with a spatula. Cook for about 5-10 minutes on each side til evenly brown, stirring or pressing occasionally so it browns evenly.

3. Drain noodles on paper towels. Continue to cook all the noodles into round cakes. When cool, break into pieces and set aside in a large pot. Noodles may be prepared a day ahead.

4. If using chicken, marinate with 1 T soy sauce, 1/2 T wine, 1/2 T fresh ginger shreds and 1 T cornstarch for about 15 minutes. Stir fry in oil until lightly brown and remove from wok. Set aside.

5. In large pot or wok, add about 1 T oil. Sprinkle salt in oil and heat til almost smoking.

6. Add onions and garlic, quickly stirring until soft.

7. Add celery, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and water chestnuts. Add half the chicken broth, adding more as needed, and cook about 5 minutes.

8. Add bok choy and continue cooking about 5 more minutes.

9. Add char shiu and chicken if using. Add bean sprouts. Cook just slightly so vegetables stay crisp. Season with oyster sauce and sesame oil. Taste and add more oyster sauce if needed.

10. Make a mixture of 2 T cornstarch and about 2 T water and add to wok, cooking until slightly thickened. Mix everything with noodles. Garnish with green onions.

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Splendid Salads

This year I resolve to eat more salads. Fortunately many restaurants nearby offer delicious, healthy, and satisfying medleys. 

Some of my favorite, reliable local salads include:

Lulu's on the Alameda Chopped Salad: Mixed lettuce, napa cabbage, chicken, bell peppers, corn, tortilla chips with a cilantro dressing. I love the lime flavor in the dressing, and the crunchiness of the tortilla chips and peppers. I've also been to parties where this is served to wide applause.   

CPK BBQ Chopped Chicken Salad:  Sweet corn, black beans, jicama, cilantro, basil, tortilla strips, and Monterey Jack in a homemade ranch dressing. Topped with BBQ chicken, tomatoes and scallions, I always like to add avocado for a creamy balance. It's a go-to salad meal for me and my daughter Valerie (photo above). Yum.  

Amici's Artichoke Panzanella Salad: Classic Tuscan Bread Salad with artichoke hearts, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, red onion, romaine, basil, capers, extra-virgin olive oil, and red wine vinegar. We always order this when getting Amici's incredible New York style pizzas and bread sticks with Ranch dipping sauce. The common ingredient is Amici's soft and chewy bread: you gotta love the big, chewy croutons and wonderful melding of salad crunch and tangy dressing.  

Michael's at Shoreline Chinese Chicken Salad: They mix it all up for you in a big bowl. The crunchies and dressing meld together nicely with the chicken and vegetables. You can eat it outside with a view of the golf course after a relaxing walk along the baylands.  

Sprout Cafe has lots of great salads. Two of my favorites are the Farmhouse (red leaf lettuce, orange, roasted red beets, goat cheese, shaved fennel, cherry tomatoes, red onions, roasted red bell peppers, balsamic vinaigrette) and Somen (Japanese somen noodles, mixed greens, caramelized shallots, kaiware sprouts, carrots, bean sprouts, fresh herbs, crispy wonton strips, roasted chopped peanuts, chili lime vinaigrette). You can also create your own, but why bother when Sprouts has already designed such delectable and sometimes unexpected combinations?     

Whole Foods offers several great salads packaged up and ready to go. A favorite is the Sonoma Chicken Salad. You can even try making it at home from this recipe. 

I have a feeling this is a New Year's resolution that will be easy to stick to. Let me know if you have other favorite salads--I'd love to try some new ones too!

The Story of Sunset's Winning Coconut-Cranberry Chews

If you're looking for a new holiday cookie to make, consider these addictive delights. Flavored by butter, coconut, cranberry, and orange zest, this recipe makes a chewy, citrusy cookie that smells irresistible right out of the oven, with a delectable taste to match.

I first discovered this recipe at a Sunset celebration weekend held at company headquarters in my hometown of Menlo Park. Every attendee at the annual event received a little cookbook with recipes from their readers. This one was contributed by Nancy Jamison from nearby Woodside, the grand prize winner in a cookie recipe contest held ten years ago. 

These buttery beauties make a winning holiday dessert because of the unexpected combination of flavors, crimson cranberries, and pretty white color. It's the kind of cookie that always generates recipe requests. They make an elegant homemade gift packaged up in clear cellophane with a colorful ribbon. Even people who don't like coconut may swoon over these cookies, because it adds more in texture than flavor.

With the wonders of Google, I easily tracked down Nancy in nearby Woodside. She replied just as quickly, and from there I learned the story behind the cookies. Nancy created this recipe over about a month's time, continually refining and testing before submitting it to Sunset's contest. Sunset awarded Nancy the grand prize winner, but she was surprised that Sunset adjusted the original recipe when they printed it in their December 2001 issue. 

Nancy strongly feels her original recipe is better, supported by blind taste test results with friends. The differences? She originally included twice as much salt (1/2 t), the additions of baking soda (1 t) and orange oil (3/4 t), less orange zest (2 t), and additional fat in the form of Crisco shortening (1/2 cup).

The Sunset printed recipe batter does have a somewhat dry consistency at first, but as the recipe states, "Don't worry: The mixture looks too dry, but it will come together as a dough." I found that it does, especially if the butter is halfway melted in the microwave instead of just room temperature. The cookies don't taste dry in my opinion. But if you prefer an even richer cookie, try Nancy's original version and see what you think. Either way, you can't lose with this winner.

Red Velvet Cake Taste Test

There's something so intriguing about red velvet cake: the name, color, and hard-to-pin-down flavor. It's got secret ingredients (buttermilk and vinegar), the familiar hint of cocoa, a history, and that luscious and unusual color. Oh that color, visually striking and dramatic, it makes a special dessert for Christmas, New Year's, or birthdays.

My husband Brad is an engineer, which means he likes to make things and experiment. When he first tasted red velvet after I made Sprinkles cupcakes from their mix, he became enamored of the flavor and decided to find the best red velvet cake recipe. This was hitting the motherlode for me, so I've encouraged him at every step.

In our experiments we've tried:

Sprinkles cupcakes from the store and made from their cupcake mix
Duncan Hines moist deluxe mix
America's Test Kitchen Recipe
Cook's Country recipe
ad hoc cake mix from Williams-Sonoma (from award-winning Chef Thomas Keller's Napa Valley restaurant)

Some learnings:
- butter-based recipes taste than better than the ones with vegetable oil
- refrigerating and even freezing improves the cake, with a firmer, yes even velvety, bite and a nice cool temperature
- not surprisingly, the recipes made from scratch taste better, although the Sprinkles mix is great

Brad loves America's Test Kitchen cookbooks and their scientific approach. He insists that they're the only cookbooks we should use. Sometimes I think this biases his culinary experimentation, but I can't complain with the grand winner, an adapted version of a recipe from Cook's Country.

If you want the original recipe, you'll need to register for a 14-day free trial membership. However, below is an adapted recipe that Brad's fine-tuned through his experimentation, with changes made to the amounts of flour, baking powder, baking soda, buttermilk, cocoa, and butter. He also changed the cream cheese frosting recipe since the original makes more than you really need.

Try it out and enjoy. The picture above says a thousand words why it's so velvety good.

Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Cake:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch salt
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons natural cocoa powder
2 tablespoons red food coloring
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

Frosting:
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups confectioners' sugar
8 ounces cream cheese, cut into four pieces, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch salt
Chopped pecans (optional)

1. For the cake: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9-inch cake pans. Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl.
2. Whisk buttermilk, vinegar, vanilla, and eggs in large measuring cup.
3. Mix cocoa with food coloring in small bowl.
4. With electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and sugar together until fluffy, scraping down bowl as necessary. Add one-third of flour mixture and beat on medium-low speed until just incorporated, about 30 seconds. Add half of buttermilk mixture and beat on low speed until combined, about 30 seconds. Scrape down bowl and repeat with half of remaining flour mixture, remaining buttermilk mixture, and then the last of the flour mixture.
5. Scrape down bowl, add cocoa mixture, and beat on medium speed until completely incorporated. Using rubber spatula, give batter final stir. Scrape into prepared pans and bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Cool cakes in pans 10 minutes then turn out onto rack to cool completely, at least 30 minutes.
6. For the frosting: With electric mixer, beat butter and sugar on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add cream cheese, one piece at a time, and beat until incorporated. Beat in vanilla and salt. Refrigerate until ready to use.
7. When cakes are cooled, spread about 1 cup frosting on one cake layer. Top with second cake layer and spread top and sides of cake with remaining frosting. If you love pecans, you can sprinkle some chopped pecans on top. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve, up to 3 days.

Steve Jobs: Of Food, Memories, and Thanks

My daughter Amanda's iPad artwork

I finished reading the new Steve Jobs book by Walter Isaacson in three days, immersed, amused, inspired, and unsettled by what I read. The book paints a fascinating portrait of a singular man who led life the way he wanted to, warts and all. 

It also struck me how much food had an influence on his life. Jobs was not only famously a vegan and macrobiotic eater, he also became more than strict, maybe even disordered, about what he'd ingest and how he thought about food. He felt that fasting gave him a special energy, probably first experienced when he went to India as a young college drop-out.

Some of the ways food played a role in his storied life:

- He worked at an apple orchard and once ate only apples for a week, which inspired him to choose the name Apple for his and Steve Wozniak's company. The name had a friendly feeling, much better than the other names they'd been contemplating like Matrix and Executek.

- He unknowingly met his biological father at a Mediterranean restaurant his father managed in San Jose.

- He celebrated Pixar's Academy Award for the animated short 'Tin Toy' at the wonderful vegetarian Greens restaurant in San Francisco. 

- His non-alcoholic bachelor party took place at another favorite, Cafe Jacqueline in North Beach. 

- He had Odwalla juices and Peet's coffee available for employees at NeXT.   

- He thought he could use a disciplined diet to beat his cancer, but his inability to eat protein and other nourishment his doctors recommended contributed to a vicious cycle that sapped his strength.

- His sister Mona Simpson even referred to his eating habits in her touching eulogy, describing a typical dinner in his backyard with only broccoli served (and lots of it).

The book brought back memories of Jobs. Since my husband Brad worked for him at NeXT and we used to live in his Palo Alto neighborhood, we saw him throughout the years. Most notably, I invited him to speak at Stanford business school as a guest of the Marketing Club, and it was there he met his wife Laurene on October 5, 1989, exactly twenty-two years before his death. That night, as described in the book, he blew off a business meeting and instead asked her out to dinner. They walked to downtown Palo Alto and had their first date at St. Michael's Alley restaurant. And so I played an accidental matchmaking role that day, and have enjoyed telling this story many times since. (BTW, that was a memorable month for another reason: the 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake struck just twelve days later.)  

The book also described his erratic driving and rule-breaking parking habits. This brought back another memory of when he swerved and parked illegally in the red zone in front of Whole Foods in Palo Alto once when I was pushing my son in his stroller. I thought who is this jerk? Out of the car popped Jobs, who said hi to Brad. 

His wife started a vegan food truck business called Terravera, and I remember ordering lunch from it many times when it would park in front of Intuit where I worked. Jobs enjoyed many local eating spots including: Fraiche frozen yogurt, Evvia Greek restaurant, and Jin Sho Japanese restaurant. It seemed as if Japanese food was the one kind of cuisine he ate with pleasurable gusto, especially at his favorite sushi and soba noodle restaurants in Kyoto.       

From my mom's Apple II purchase to my daughter's new iPhone 4S, Apple products have benefited our lives for over thirty years. We still have the original 1984 Macintoshes and a NeXT cube in our garage. My daughter's iPad 2 sits on my desk next to me as I type this. My iPod gave me a whole new and better way to experience music. Jobs wasn't perfect, but he was perfectly fascinating and complex. I'm grateful for his contributions, awed by his inventiveness and determination, inspired to teach his lessons, and compelled to think different. Thanks, Steve.