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Monday, November 28, 2011

Lily Storm/Dan Cantrell dinner/concert Dec 17, 2011

Very delighted that this wonderful duo will return to our dinner/concert series!! Stunningly beautiful music from 2 bay area musicians i greatly admire.


Lily Storm - voice
Dan Cantrell - accordion

Saturday, December 17
  8 pm
loft in oakland
$55/person, byob
for more information or to make reservations, vegshaku8 at gmail or 510 393 6096
 

soup
buckwheat, red bean, sweet potato, sauerkraut soup

2nd
roasted beets with romaine and yuzu poppyseed miso dressing

small plate
knishes (pumpkin dough filled with roasted/mashed root vegetables;potato, celery root, parsnip, turnip and leek) with mustard
brussel sprouts with hickory smoked tofu and capers

entree
dumpling squash stuffed with heirloom beans, sauteed greens, wild rice pilaf, cranberry - yuzu sauce

dessert
pecan rosewater pie
cranberry walnut rosewater sorbet

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

fried food class for chanukah

And the lord said, fry it up in some fat. Well, not exactly. But an interesting myth about some oil burning for a long time after the Jews got their asses kicked and the temple destroyed. Personally, i would prefer a supreme being to help out in ways beyond long burning oil....nonetheless fry we shall!

Tuesday December 20, 2011
7 pm
limited space for 8
$50/person
for more information or to make reservations vegshaku8 at gmail or 510 393 6096

all hands on class
we shall make
potato chips with rosemary salt
latkes (potato pancakes) and applesauce
donuts
lotus root tempura
pumpkin pakoras


and much more

bread baking class, january 15

Saturday, January 15
noon
limited space for 8
$50/person
for more information or to make reservations vegshaku8 at gmail or 510 393 6096

hands on bagel shop style baking class. Knead, roll, twist, turn, top, bake

bagels
pumpkin bagels
bialys

and to go with it
hummous
red lentil spread
basil walnut pesto
faux cream "cheese"

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

thanksgiving menu, 2011

Serving thanksgiving dinner at our favorite clients in the Berkeley hills. Prefer to think of them as friends, actually! Always a fun time at their events and dinners!  The friendly atmosphere the amazing view, the wonderful wines, always inspire us to present serious dishes.


November 24, 2011

appetizers
homemade potato chips with rosemary salt
knishes: potato-semolina dough filled with roasted potatoes, parsnip, celery root, leeks, chives and parsley

soup
Matsutake mushroom soup served in yuzu "cup" garnished with nameko mushroom and chives
side of yuba drizzled with yuzu and shoyu

entree
dumpling squash stuffed with goat’s eye  beans, chestnuts, sage, and collard greens
cauliflower steak with basil-walnut pesto
wild rice pilaf
cranberry madeira sauce
homemade multi grain rolls
pan seared brussel sprouts with smoked tofu (smoked with apple, pecan and alder wood)
green salad with lemon poppyseed miso dressing

dessert to include:
kafir lime truffles
cranberry-walnut sorbet

Thursday, November 17, 2011

i would like to be minister of food

As the occupy wall street movement grows and evolves, it appears that there will be some changes coming in the future. What these will be, is highly unpredictable. Will marshall law and a massive police state be the rule? We are already seeing insane amounts of police brutality with marines being hospitalized, 85 year old women being pepper sprayed and so on. Or will a more sane form of government actually come to fruition, somehow. Seems rather remote but perhaps there is a chance.
If so, i would like to be considered for the position of secretary of food. For decades, this position has been filled by someone from Monsanto or Conagra or some other absurd huge corporation. My first item of agenda if i was appointed this position would be to close the doors of Monsanto. Then close the doors of Conagra and then ADM, Dupont, and move down the line and utterly remove those corporations who have worked so hard to destroy our food sources.
I would then redistribute their wealth, land, resources (including the many brilliant (though without ethics) people who work for them) to small (25 acre or less) organic farmers.
People voted for change when they gave Obama the presidency. In terms of food (and most other things) we got status quo as he appointed a Monsanto lawyer as the food czar. In other words, the fox is guarding the chicken coop and having a field day. We need real change! Is occupy wall street going to be the answer? I have no idea but am enjoying watching the revolts begin and develop through the country and will continue to observe in person what is happening in the San Francisco bay area!

As minister of food, i wont offer any miniscule, tiny, ridiculous baby steps. Baby steps are for babies and well, apparently, also for the democratic party.  I will offer great strides in real food being grown to feed our country by closing the doors of  the corporations who have worked to destroy our food sources. And opening doors of truly sustainable agriculture and distribution

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

old client returns

Very glad to have an old client return the bay area. After a VP position at google, he then had an under secretary position with the Obama cabinet and is now back in the bay area about to start up his own company.  I first met him and his wife when they were looking for food for their wedding a few years ago. That wedding was the first of many times we have prepared food for them and their friends and family. This time we are catering a party of 75 for a fundraiser for the circus school that his wife is part of.
All finger foods that we will be passing around.

-kaifir lime sorbet, served in the limes and spiked deeply with rum
-socca, chickpea flatbread topped with julienned vegetables
-tofu smoked with tea and apple wood, wrapped in yuba, steamed and served with cranberry mustard.
-cranberry-pumpkin muffins
-kascha knishes. Pumpkin dough wrapped around buckwheat filling.
-ruggelach, our take on the classic jewish pastry, filled with fig jam, walnuts and raisins.

interesting note that at their wedding, i realized i had seen her father pitch against the mets a couple of times back when i was a young child.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

chinese dinner in San Francisco

A last minute call for a Chinese dinner in San Francisco that we will be serving on Saturday, November 12.
-watercress soup
-Smoked tofu and snow peas wrapped in yuba with cranberry mustard.
-tofu stir fried with peanuts and brocolli
-sichuan hot pot. Spicy broth at the table with tofu, flat tofu, eggplant, choy sum, bok choy, homemade noodles
-fried dumplings; homemade dough filled with taro, leek and sprouts
-jade pearl rice
-green tea ice "cream"

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

menu for David Murray dinner/concert, November 10

It is official! David Murray, the amazing tenor saxophonist and bass clarinet player is performing solo on the dinner/concert series! The tentative date was nov 14 but it is now officially Nov 10 and is sold out!

$75/person
 Reservations limited to 20 and this will sell out easily.
vegshaku8 at gmail for reservations or more information

soup:
dal with pumpkin and pumpkin pakora

salad
arugula-radicho salad with roasted pumpkin and beets with baby greens and lemon poppyseed miso dressing

New York course
knishes
pumpkin dough filled with potato and kascha
cranberry mustard
roasted acorn squash puree

entree
Thai sour yuzu curry with tofu, potato, eggplant and served in pumpkin bowls
jade pearl rice
black forbidden rice
lotus root pickle

dessert
apples baked in wine and spices, stuffed with pumpkin puree
spiced pumpkin rum sorbet

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Menu for tonight's dinner/concert with Kaoru Kakizakai performing

Once again, Kaoru Kakizakai returns from Tokyo to the bay area to teach shakuhachi lessons and while in town will perform on the dinner/concert series. Already sold out so please no calls about wanting last minute seats.
On the evening of a general strike in Oakland, one of the great shakuhachi players of our time will be performing some very old Japanese Buddhist music. Cori and i will be busy all day preparing a 5 course menu featuring 2 of our favorite fall ingredients; pumpkin and yuzu!

appetizer
yuzu sorbet served in yuzu cups, spiked with brandy

soup
roasted pumpkin soup with sage-yuzu potatos

small plate
pumpkin gnocchi with roasted brussel sprouts walnut yuzu sauce
tofu smoked in tea leaves and apple wood
raddichio salad

entree
Red curry in pumplin bowls.
small pumpkins willed with a coconut based red curry with long beans, tofu, flat tofu, long beans, eggplant and lotus root.
burdock pickled with sake, sesame, shoyu and sichuan peppercorns
jade pearl rice
forbidde rice

dessert
pumpkin cranberry yuzu cake
spiced pumpkin sorbet


Note: tofu and flat tofu made for us, today by our friends at tofu yu, a wonderful, small organic tofu maker in berkeley

The kitchen at occupy Oakland is mocking the city

I have been spending all my free time at the occupation of Oakland, recently. In addition, every day i bring with me an 8 gallon pot of hot soup and drop it off at the kitchen where the occupants, homeless and anyone who walks by that is hungry is offered a free meal.  As a chef, this is what i can offer to the occupation. Using leftover ingredients from my catering gigs along with donations from friends, clients and the occupation kitchen, i prepare hearty "peasant" style soups but from the finest local, organic ingredients. Same standards for ingredients apply as if i am catering a 125/person meal, the highest quality and only from small local farms and food purveyors.  Everyone has to eat, daily and we are doing a very small share of helping with the food needs at the occupation. The 8 gallon pot we bring disappears in an hour!
Yesterday for the first time, i did not drop off the soup and wander around but i stayed and served the pot to about 100 people. Quite a mix from some of the main organizers i have seen on stage to many of those i am seeing and meeting around the occupation as well as many homeless people and even a few that just got off work at one of the city buildings came by. The homeless have found a haven in the occupation with food, bathrooms and for the most part an environment that does not cast them out, completely.

It occurred to me yesterday, while i was dishing out some borscht a few feet away from the steps of city hall....the occupation kitchen is completely mocking the city and its approach to social services. Here we are, all volunteers, using all donated ingredients to prepare food for people and volunteers are dishing it out. No beaurocrats needed, nothing wasted. This is direct action! Food from farms and stores to cooks and chefs to the people.  There is a model to be looked at here, folks! It is working. True, it is a small scale but it is working and fairly efficiently.   This is democracy in action, everyone participating and creating and developing. I am blown away by the "free improvisation" nature of the occupation. Literally, much is being made up as it comes along.  And, so far, it is working.  Except for one "minor" glitch of police from 17 cities and counties showing up, last Tuesday and tearing the place apart, confiscating everything and wounding many in the process. However, anyone with half a brain can only see how the occupation grew from the police brutality. More people realized the importance for real change. This is not a joke, this is not some silly hope for change vote for a guy who is a moderate (i am being generous) who suddenly spoke like a progressive to get elected. This is direct action, directly taking responsibility for our future.  Me and my catering business will help feed the occupation as many days a week as possible. What are you doing to help or contribute?


One of the organizers who i see on stage often,  and who had 3 or 4 bowls of borscht, said, last night, "i do not know about all of you but i am going to just keep staying here and keep trying to create the closest thing to utopia as possible".   Very lofty goal to say the least. But it makes a lot more sense than doing nothing and allowing the status quo to remain or even, get worse.

Tomorrow the city of Oakland will try to take this to a whole new level with the first general strike to be called for in this country since 1946, when incidentally it happened in Oakland, as well.

A black flag is starting to rise in the city of Oakland.