I know, I know…what’s the deal with this? I am constantly harassed by my friends about the food I choose to eat. Menudo, chicken feet, coagulated pork blood and yes, bone marrow. I find it kinda funny that everyone is so interested in what I choose to eat, guess I should take it as a compliment.

I was wandering through my nearest grocery store the other night and say these fresh, tasty bones staring at me. Marrow bones…it has been quite a while since I had enjoyed this simple pleasure…so I dove in and picked up a 6 pack.

Now one of the great things about marrow bone is their nutritional value. Loaded with good fats and protein, this is brain food at it’s best. There have been some studies that seem to suggest that the rise of modern humans, and the increase in our brain size and it’s relation to cognitive thought are due to our consumption of marrow. We are the only inhabitants of this planet with the knowledge and the tools to break into large bones after the kill, so marrow was kinda our pot o gold after the hunt.

Marrow is quite tasty and easy to make, just take the raw bones and lightly dust them with some ground sea salt. Then bake the bones in a 375 degree oven until the tops are a wee but concave and a small amount of fat is sizzling in the pan. This usually occurs in 15 minutes or so. Remove and cool at room temp for 5 or so minutes and your off to the races.

Now just grab a glass (or 2) of a nice, hearty red wine, a few slices of lightly toasted baguette and your ready to hang out with our Neanderthal ancestors (well, minus the wine and bread if your gonna be picky) for a moment in time. And just think, you may just replace some of those brain cells you blew out in college…

The Porto Vista Hotel, where I am the Executive Chef has finally opened our new lobby just in time for the Little Italy Art Walk. This annual event brings many thousands of people to our little corner of San Diego for 2 days of art, eating and for some…drinking. This event was a perfect time to make some food from our banquet and special event menu’s to pass along to all of the people who stopped by the hotel to see what we have been up to.

We choose to do 4 samples from our bar and passed hour d’ oeuvre menu’s. One of these is this Caprese Satay. This is a easy appetizer to make for any size group of guests that may stop by your house. Organic sweet 100 tomatoes, fresh Bocconcini mozzarella and Horapha or spicy Thai basil. Sprinkle with a bit of ground sea salt and your ready to impress your family and friends with your culinary prowess and creativity. This is what you’ll need for this exciting and tasty dish.

Bamboo skewers

Bocconcini mozzarella

Thai or regular basil

Sweet 100 or another small cherry tomatoes

Now just follow the photo to assemble these tasty and easy appetizers and your ready to go!

chefRob

OK,

So I usually write about recipes and what not, but I just read a very disturbing article on MSN that said global warming is going to affect malted barley production and will increase the price of beer. I think my heart just stopped beating. Polar bears, arctic tundra, increased sea levels and now beer might become an endangered species…oh my!

Now before you all (and me) get our arms up in a roar, this study was made in Australia and New Zealand. One of my favorite beers, Coopers in from down under and now I am fully behind the global warming/green bandwagon, if it will save some south Pacific islands and my favorite beer.

Now one might think that this is only a local event, and will only effect those in AU and NZ, but this theory is flawed. Global warming will effect us all and beer, wine and all other distilled beverages, or all beverages for that fact will have their production compromised due to a lack of fermentables. While we watch the growing regions of the planet shrink and increasingly turn to biofuels as a failed attempt to wean ourselves off burning things to create power, we will lose beer in the process. Might as well just close up shop and call it a day, cause if we watch ourselves lose the ability to brew beer, we are staring our fate in the mirror.

I , therefore am now committing myself to walking to work 2x a week, more if I do not have to run errands during the build out. Once the restaurant is open, weather permitting I’ll walk every day to do my part to save beer (and the polar bears ;)).

R U in???

chefRob

more on this subject can be found here,

Beer lovers beware!

If you are into keeping beer off the endangered species list, please sign up/in to this blog and post a comment (and a link) to your site/post stating that you will do all you can or will discuss this subject. Since I have to moderate all comments, the non-spam links I will leave…and I will check to see if there is a post/article/page at the other end talking about this horrible fate we face together….Cheers!

Thai food for me is just one of those things…that I love. Now, it would seem that the world would be all fine and dandy when going out for Thai food (yea, I know I suppose to cook) but some Thai restaurants really stink. It always amazes me that some people think that they can cook, when it is so painfully obvious that they cannot.

While I was schooling myself in the finer points of Thai cuisine, I picked up a love for this salad called Pla Neua Ma Kheua Praw, aka Thai beef salad with eggplants (aubergines). It was cooking and spicy at the same time, tender and juicy with the right amount of saltiness and it went well with beer. Can’t really ask for anything more that that, now can you.

Now this recipe, straight from the classes I took in Thailand almost 10 years ago is hot, I mean HOT! It calls for 9 thai chilies, which for any layperson will burn your tongue and mouth for hours on end. If you are not a chile head, one of these will do. I ate this version and I, quite frankly have never sweated so much in my life. Thank budda (god) for Thai coca cola and beer Chang.

Your eggplants of choice are the small, ping pong ball size thai eggplant, or if you are lucky can use the pea eggplants. The pea eggplants are great for this dish, they are just kinda hard to find outside of Thailand. Eating eggplants raw might sound kinda strange, but with all of the other flavors and textures, it makes a wonderful and inviting change from the ordinary.

Ready to take a shot at this? Here ya go, just follow this link for your Thai Beef salad with eggplant recipe.

Cheers!

chefRob

Today, for some reason has been a bit busier than normal traffic-wise on my site, aGreatChef.com. I dunno what it is, all that I can assume is that the weather is warming and folks are wanting to cook. Anyway I just thought I would post this image of my traffic sources for today (partial) and will be back in a day or so with another new recipe…cheers!

Tea…I always think about tea when I’m not feeling well, and today is one of those days. It was a long week at the restaurant, writing menu’s and working on getting a new logo, the bar built and making sure that the ansul system is being installed properly. I did take the time to go to a Rational demonstration and got to sample some pretty great food. For those who are not in the know, a Rational oven is this crazy oven from Germany that can do 8 things at once…really. Check it out here. It does seem to take some of the fun out of cooking, if you ask me…Now back to the tea.

While I was living in Vietnam we had some guests at the resort that were from south Asia, Pakistan and Bangladesh to be exact. After their group had finished dinner I was lucky enough to have some time to chat with them. It’s always interesting to meet diplomats oversees. After the 20 questions on how and why I ended up in central Vietnam we got to talking about tea. There are 2 teas that I really enjoy, Jasmine and Guava.

The Jasmine tea I would drink would have fresh Jasmine flowers in it, and was one of the best tasting teas I have ever had. The Guava tea was made with dried Guava leaves. While not as tasty at the fruit, it is still quite good. It also is quite good for you, in one study, Guava tea was found to help you fight the flu! More on that here.

While I was talking tea with the diplomats, someone at the table asked if I had ever had Saffron tea. I thought that they were out of their minds. Saffron tea, for what like 80 dollars a glass I thought to myself. The next day I had some of my cooks whip up a small batch and guess what….it was really good.

To make this tea you will not need a small fortune, nor will it break the bank. Spanish saffron (azafran) works really well and is a fraction of what true saffron costs. That’s my big, secret chef’s tip of the day. Wanna try to make Saffron tea? Here is what you’ll need;

Saffron tea (1 glass)

a pinch of saffron, maybe like 10 of those little red buggers

1 tablespoon sugar (less if you like)

1 cup simmering water

1. Place the saffron and the sugar in to a coffee mug or tea cup and pour the hot water over the ingredients.
2. Steep for 5 minutes.
3. Stir and enjoy!

Hard huh. Sometimes the easiest things are the most enjoyable, and this certainly rings true with this recipe. So sit back, reserve a few minutes for yourself and enjoy a nice cup of Saffon tea.

chefRob

OK,

So an exhaust hood might not get a normal person exited. Chefs are, by any stretch of the vocabulary not normal so this get me excited!!!

It means that we are one day closer to opening, one day closer to doing what I love to do and one day closer to turning on my hometown to the foods I have experienced in the last 15 years of traveling and cooking around the country and the world.

So, without further ado…the hood!

and another view of the view…

chefRob

The dinner, with the talents of Kellie Flynn as my sous chef went off without a hitch. That is, if you do not count the 7 different stores I had to go to to get everything I needed :).

Since we were a bit busy, I could not snap any photo’s of the dinner itself, but I did manage to get a couple of the breakfast the next morning….compliments of Kellie.

the Buffet…

my plate…

mmm…tasty!

chefRob

Every other year the Sarcoma Alliance of Orange County (CA) holds a benefit auction to raise money for the families and those afflicted with this horrible form of cancer. Sarcoma is a soft tissue cancer that afflicts many of us, our friends and our family members every year. In support of this great and worth wild cause I offer a in-home dinner for 10 at this auction and it gets snapped up every year.

Well tonight is the night for this years lucky bidder and since the menu is Thai, I thought it would be fun to post the menu that I am doing this evening up in Newport Beach.

Sarcoma Alliance Auction Dinner 2008

• Miang Som - Miang of lime, pomelo & prawns.
• Kobe beef and chicken satays with peanut and sweet chile dipping sauces
• Steamed Black mussels, basil, coconut & lime
• Marinated Scallops (raw), lemongrass, lime and mint
• Petite filet(s), potatoes, roasted carrots, massaman curry sauce

If you would like to learn more about Sarcoma cancer of the Sarcoma Alliance please follow the following links;

Soft Tissue Sarcoma - National Cancer Institute

Sarcoma Alliance - National site

I’ll post some more recipes beginning tomorrow, I have been a bit backlogged with the restaurant opening.

Best,

chefRob

OK,

So I began the process of opening another new restaurant today…day 1…ground zero…whatever you want to call it. As glamorous as it sounds, I worked with Drevan on the menu’s (dinner, banquet, catering) and went over the equipment list, which I will have to go over in detail very soon. Out of all of this grandeur, I did find time to snap some pictures (4) with my iPhone. I know this thing would come in handy one day.

This is the status of the Glass Door restaurant as of 17 March 2008.

Restaurant - the kitchen,

the bar, from the kitchen,

the Glass Door bar close up,

and finally the view (and what a view it is!)

More photo’s when I get my DSLR in house and work some magik!

chefRob