The Easy Bohemian

I love Sea Isle City in New Jersey.  It’s close to Philly but not too close.  It’s not a self righteously “dry” town like it’s neighbor to the north, Ocean City and not the over the top flash and dazzle that is Atlantic City.  My family has been vacationing there for generations, and for what [...]

To me, one of the great joys of cooking is the creation process.  Taking a pile of raw ingredients and transforming it into something, the total being greater than the sum of it’s parts.  Sometimes I see some beautiful produce, maybe a great cut of meat, then want to build a meal around it.  The [...]

You gotta love Sebastiani.  Through family infighting and strife the sale of the company, they still make damn good wine.  The Plungerhead is a tongue in cheek reference to the new Zork enclosure which looks like, well, a plunger honestly.  It zips right off and then you can easily open the bottle, no corkscrew needed. [...]

Ever had a truly exultant pizza experience?  Where the toppings are just right, and the crust is blistered and brown and beautiful?  There’s a definite crunch when you take a bite, but not like a cracker or a toasted pita, it’s crisp and chewy as well.  Ever had that? The greatest pizzas comes from being [...]

Finally, after a dozen trips out to San Francisco for my work in the IT field I’ve finally made it out to wine country.  I’ve heard so many secondhand reports from my friends about how amazing it is in Sonoma and Napa, so expectations were high.  Despite this pressure, everything was better than we could [...]

During our most recent trip to San Fran, my wife and I chance to eat at Saison, which I count as the most amazing dining experience of my life.   I don’t generally like the places that are so overly formal but this was just the right amount of high end service and laid back [...]

I’ve been to San Francisco a dozen times over the years for business, it easily ranks as my favorite city to visit.  I think living there with all of California’s problems and high taxes would be problematic, but for a week at a time it is utopia. Of all the times I’ve visited the Golden [...]

I must say, I love cooking using the sous vide technique.  The ability to cook and hold a food at the perfect temperature is such an amazing technique, it is tailor made for the home chef. Sous vide is a method of cooking food sealed in airtight plastic bags in a water bath for a [...]

To celebrate my 40th birthday upcoming the wife and I are heading out to Napa for a few days of great food and wine.  To get our palettes up to speed I’ve been buying nothing but worthy bottles of California’s finest, focusing on those wineries that either represent the area well or that we’re going to visit.  We’ve [...]

I recently attended an amazing dinner with big name chefs and crazy one off dishes.  Everything was fantastic…spring vegetables, halibut, lamb, all superb.  For dessert, a warm Madeleine and Queso Fresco Sorbet was served along with this fabulous Raspberry Fennel Jam.  The idea was to scoop a little jam onto a little sorbet or dip [...]