Nobody Knows Anything

Welcome to Diane Patterson's eclectic blog about what strikes her fancy

Food notes from our recent trip

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We recently took an abbreviated spring break trip (because Darin had to get back to work today, for a conference) down to Anaheim. This is our third trip to Disneyland since moving back to the Bay Area — four years ago, two years ago, and this year. I think we may be done with Disneyland/California Adventure. If we decide to visit a Magic Kingdom again, we’ll probably go nuts and fly to Orlando. In two or three years.

Highlights of theme park visits:

  • We rode the new Star Tours 6 times in order to experience all of the possible sections. (The first two times we got two completely new rides, which led us to think there were hundreds of combinations. But no. Just 54.) This is a great ride. They will probably add new sections to it over time. I don’t need to go on it for quite a while, however.
  • Our visit to Knott’s Berry Farm was overall not great (I think it’s designed more for teenagers wanting to go on big crazy roller-coasters), but it ended with a bang: the stunt show was hilarious. Definitely see it if you’re there. (Also: the chicken dinner. But this is a given.)
  • The World of Color at California Adventure is amazing. Pro-tip: DON’T bother with the fast passes. We had tickets in the Blue section and Simon couldn’t see a damned thing. Actually, I couldn’t see half of it myself, so I could see his point of view. You can get reserved seating if you eat at the Trattoria (no idea if these seats are any good). The second time we went we stood in front of the Ariel’s Underwater Adventure ride, in the corded off section. We could see and hear everything, and we arrived about 5 minutes before the show started. This time we could all see the entire thing, easily.

But one of the great things about our trips is the fabulous eating we get to do in other places.

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Our favorite restaurant to stop at between here and Anaheim is Artisan in Paso Robles.

Artisan

Who knew Paso Robles was so cute? Who knew it was such an epicenter of foodie-ism? There are apparently several fabulous restaurants there, but the one we stopped at last year on the way to San Diego (and talked about so much that we knew we had to go on this trip) is Artisan. It’s a cross between a French bistro and California cuisine. Everything we’ve had there was fantastic. Whenever we decide to go on a car trip, we will probably try to stop here.

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In Santa Barbara, we always stop at McConnell’s Ice Cream for, well, ice cream.

Mcconnells

I used to go to McConnell’s with my sister when I visited her at college. And they’re still there, and they still have one million flavors, and they’re all insanely tasty. They had orange chocolate when we went! Does Swensen’s still have Swiss orange chip ice cream? Man, that brings back memories.

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Since we were staying at the Grand Californian, we of course went to the Napa Rose.

Naparose

I think our memories of the Napa Rose outstripped the reality this time around: it was good, but not break-the-bank good (which it ought to be for those prices). Still, of all the high-end meals we’ve had on the Disney property (Steakhouse 55 last year, an unbelievably AWFUL Japanese restaurant that I am pretty sure is out of business and deserves to be), this is by far and away the best. We didn’t even bother going to other places this time.

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On our way to Knott’s Berry Farm, I looked up places to have breakfast and I said, “Oh hey, there’s an Original Pancake House. We should go there.”

Good call on my part.

Pancakes

This is one of the best entrants in the Original Pancake House chain that either Darin or I have ever been to. He goes to the one in Cupertino a lot, and the 49er Flapjacks at this place in Anaheim were perfect. Simon’s omelet: awesome. My Dutch baby pancake: very yummy. Sophia ordered a bowl of strawberries and got an overflowing bowl of fresh, perfectly sweet berries.

If we could have gone to this place again, we totally would have. We just couldn’t fit it into the trip.

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Honorable mention (mostly because I didn’t take a photo):

Los Agaves, in Santa Barbara: down the street from La Super-rica. Much more comfortable seating than La Super-rica. Delicious food. Definitely recommended.

Blue Bayou, New Orleans Square: we went here two years ago and were deeply underwhelmed for the price. This year, we wondered what to do for lunch, decided to risk it again (especially after doing a web search on “best lunch at Disneyland”). This time, I guess we ordered better because everything was awesome. Downside: their vegetarian lunch item is kind of stupid (it was the same thing as two years ago, so I didn’t order it again). Pro-tip: go early to make reservations, and say that you really want to sit by the edge of the water this time. (If you sit near the door, the light streaming in makes sure that you can’t see anything. Very unpleasant.) You will have to arrive at 11:15 for an 11:30 seating, but it’s totally worth it. Much better to sit and watch the Pirates riders go by.

Trattoria Something Something, California Adventure: Forgettable. I think I had a salad. While better than many places to eat, it wasn’t that great.

 

 

Interview, Hway-ling Hsu, Sweetdragon Bakery

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My friend Nina is always waxing rhapsodic about Barefoot Coffee, which is near her house and which has baristas whose sole job in life it is to make coffee. (And they take that responsibility Very Seriously.) Recently a franchise outlet of Barefoot opened near me, so I decided to go check it out as a possible writing spot (upside: very comfy, many wall outlets; downside: farther away than other cafes near my house).

More important than what I thought of their coffee, however, was the sweet treat I discovered there: chocolate sea salt cookies. I munched on one and thought, “Wow, this is an awesome cookie.” Then I read the ingredients and I thought, “WOW, THIS IS A TOTALLY AWESOME COOKIE.”

Because in addition to being a great balance between chewy and crispy, in addition to being just chocolatey enough, and in addition to being 4 small cookies in a resealable package (making portion control easier)…it was vegan.

The kindest way I can put it is this: the vast majority of vegan baked goods I’ve had, both that I’ve made and that I’ve bought commercially, have sucked. Big time. There’s a company that has their products in the checkout aisle of Whole Foods that look delicious and taste like cardboard. So generally it’s a big turnoff for me. These, however, were awesome.

Which made me try many other of this company’s treats. And they were all really, really good.

I met Nina for a writing date one day at the Barefoot near her house and I discovered the cookies were there too. I bought a pack and stuck one in Nina’s mouth. “Try this,” I said, after the fact.

“Dfaj fajgapto.” Then she nodded.

“What?”

After a quick drink of coffee, she said, “That’s a good cookie.”

I was so enamored of the products by this company I tried I contacted the baker via her email and asked if I could talk to her about her business. And maybe I could get that chocolate sea salt cookie recipe from her. We met at Barefoot in Santa Clara. Nina showed up too, because she wanted to meet the baker too.

Cookies

Hway-ling met us and immediately offered us samples of the products she was working on: a vanilla shortbread cookie made without wheat flour, and a pistachio shortbread. One of these was vegan too, which I thought was a neat trick with shortbread, but I honestly couldn’t tell it was. After she finished dropping off her wares and leaving a few samples of new products for the cafe manager, she sat down with us.

She is very friendly and funny and chatty. I loved talking to her. She didn’t want her picture taken (I tried, but pictures of hands over a face are not exciting), so sadly I don’t have that to share.

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A lot of us have “fans” of our baking, but very few of us decide to make a business out of our baking. How did you decide to go into business? 

No one ever actually said that to me.

After my youngest didn’t need me at home any more, I thought, What would I like to do? I decided to start this business.

(Hway-ling told us that she was a lawyer for many years, both before and after having kids, but she was done with the whole legal thing after the last left her nest. Nina is also a lawyer, and she is always interested in hearing about what other lawyers do after they finish with that.)

What does it take to start a small baked-goods business? I assume there’s more to it than just baking a lot of stuff in your kitchen and putting it into plastic bags. 

You have to get a Food Safety Certificate. Take a class, take a test, get a certification, get a license. There’s the Environmental Health Certificate, $750/yr. Pay a business tax to city of San Jose. If you form a business as an limited liability corporation (LLC) through Nolo, every year there’s a $800 tax, Before you can rent space, you have to have insurance. The agent said to me, “You have no track record and you have no experience.”

And there are things like: Who do I sell to? What do I package in? What are the labeling requirements? I didn’t know about any of that.

There are lots of barriers to entry. There’s lots of requirements but it’s not always clear whose requirements they are.

Do you bake in your kitchen? If so, did you have to get it certified somehow? If you make your stuff somewhere else, what place do you use and how did you find it?

You have to have a business license. You have to cook in a commercial kitchen that’s licensed. I use a rent by the hour commercial kitchen used by caterers, hot dog vendors, all sorts of people. I met a family cooking for their daughter’s shower or some big event.  You could do a sitcom set in one of these commercial kitchens.

In New York, where I used to live, you can get your own kitchen checked out and certified. But not here.

I also saw in that SF Weekly article that you began with recipes and techniques you found on the internet, but you’ve branched out from there. What do you do to create recipes? 

At the kitchen where I rent there were two guys with a food truck. So I asked them, do you need a dessert? They asked for three things I didn’t know how to make. Peanut brittle, pralines, and something else. I got some recipes, I practiced, I gave it to them and they said, “Yeah, we can use this.” From the peanut brittle I experimented with other things.  The stoves at the kitchen are gas and have no marks. You have to eyeball the flame. You have to use different kinds of pots. You have to be aware of the ambient air temperature. In the winter the kitchen can be 50 and in the summers…  To go into a larger production requires more, bigger equipment.

(She makes a ton of different kinds of brittle now, some of which she sells through Ourtisan.com. In case you’re wondering about the packaging there, the company name was Snapdragon and is now Sweetdragon.)

One of the things I love about these cookies is that they’re vegan. Was this important to you when you started or just came about as part of the recipe you used?

I think vegans are hungry.  No, I wasn’t intended to make them vegan. I started with a sandy sable cookie. I didn’t like the texture so I changed it to a soft cookie. Then I said it has no eggs, maybe I could take the butter out. So I experimented with different oils. For these I ended up with coconut oil.

What ingredients do you use? I assume you’re not going to Lunardi’s and buying King Arthur Flour from there.

I shop everywhere. I get a lot of things from Whole Foods. If you buy a case of something there, you get 10% discount. I shop at Cash and Carry. I order online.

How did you pick where to sell?

I read about BF in the paper years ago as a high-quality local cafe. I stopped by the Roaster, near my house. I made a note to myself to go by every week with a sample…then I forgot. I made some candy and took it by, and they were ready tobuy. Now I’ve gotten calls from some local places, like a cafe in San Jose and some shops in SF, like Park & Pond — they only sell local vendors within 100 miles. There’s a new candy store in Bernal Heights — Rock Candy Snack Shop.

How do you find out about things like shelf life?

I test it all myself. Put it in a bag, mark it, put it on a shelf…I put things in the freezer to see what happens. We’re always finding things in the freezer.

I also try something of every batch of products I make, just to make sure I didn’t substitute salt for sugar.

Do you do all of your baking and experimenting in the test kitchen?

I still bake at home. I experiment and my family gets to eat the experiments. I also volunteer at Martha’s Kitchen. There are lots of volunteers there Tuesday and Wednesday mornings and they’re often my guinea pigs.

Is there any chance I could get the recipe for your chocolate sea salt cookies?

No.

 

How to make drip coffee

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Whenever I mention that I like drinking coffee, many people say, “Oh, so do I!” Whenever I mention that I like making it at home, I’ve many times heard, “Oh, it doesn’t taste good when I make it. I get it out.” Usually at Starbucks.

Honestly, making coffee at home — regular old boring drip coffee — is really easy.

Step 1: Stop going to Starbucks.

I think Starbucks and Peets make terrible drip coffee. They over roast their beans. Many Americans confuse extreme dark roasting with good coffee. STOP THIS. You are just encouraging bad behavior. There are many types of beans and different types of roasts. There are entire books dedicated to this topic. Suffice to say: enough with the Dark French roasts. You’re killing it for the rest of us.

Starbucks and Peets are good for one thing: coffee with lots of milk and sugar in it, to the point where you can’t even tell it’s coffee. I love Starbucks Gingerbread Latte at the holidays. I always have to tell them “no whip,” because who the hell puts whipped cream on a latte? STOP THAT. And Frappucinos? If you want a milkshake, get a milkshake. It tastes better and you’re not trying to fool yourself that it’s “just” coffee.

Step 2: You need good cold water.

Coffee is only as good as the water it’s made from, because the drink is mostly water. If you don’t like drinking the water that comes out of your tap, I guess you’ll need bottled. Most Americans overestimate the badness of their tap water, however, and underestimate the badness of bottled water (which is terrifically wasteful). Unless your water is seriously hard or has a sulfur smell, it’s probably okay. Just make sure it’s cold.

Don’t use water that’s been sitting around, because water can get flat. Just get water as cold as you can.

Step 3: Use freshly roasted beans and grind them yourself.

Beans get stale just sitting around. A good rule of thumb is about two weeks — if you don’t use coffee that quickly, try to buy as small an amount as possible, and preferably from a seller who will do you the honor of stamping when the beans were roasted somewhere on the package.

You don’t want to use pre-ground beans (like Folger’s or some other supermarket bean). Because when the coffee comes in one of those big canisters, you have zero idea when they were ground (possibly during a previous Presidency). The whole reason for grinding beans is to release those yummy oils that make coffee so tasty. So when you open a canister of previously ground beans, that yummy smell coming out? Is your coffee. All that’s left is dry, tasteless coffee bean bits.

So: get beans as freshly roasted as you can, and grind them yourself. I recommend getting a dedicated coffee grinder, like the Capresso Infinity Burr Grinder – Black, because you can set the size of the grind you want, and the grinder makes it perfectly. You can’t get the perfect grind in one of those spice grinders, because you’ll either under-grind (leaving coffee bean pieces too large) or over-grind (making the ground coffee too fine, which makes it more likely to slip through the filter, and therefore making the resulting coffee too strong).

Step 4: Use 1 tablespoon of coffee grounds per six-ounce cup of water.

Yes. For some reason, when calculating the perfect cup of coffee, you calculate a cup as being six fluid ounces instead of eight. It’s not like the English system makes any sense anyhow.

If you want strong coffee, make your tablespoons heaping. If you want slightly weaker coffee, make them scant. This isn’t rocket science; it’s just math.

So: in order to make enough coffee for you and your two friends (all of whom will have two cups, because your coffee is awesome), let’s say you’re going to make six cups of coffee.

Measure out 6 heaping tablespoons of ground coffee into the filter. Using a measuring cup, measure out 36 ounces of cold water.

Step 5. Use a good drip coffee maker.

I find the machines that have a cone filter (like Cuisinart or my late, lamented Krups) make better coffee than a Mr. Coffee (which uses a flat-bottomed filter — what’s that design about, anyhow? Don’t they know that the coffee is headed downwards?). But the coffee I made in the Mr. Coffee was just fine. I also prefer gold filters to paper filters, because you can reuse gold filters, and paper filters have been known to disintegrate in my hands. NOT THAT I’M BITTER ABOUT THAT.

Ta da! You now have very good coffee, made in your own home.

If you must go to Starbucks for coffee, don’t get their regular drip. It’s dreadful. Instead, get an Americano, which is espresso mixed with hot water and approximates drip coffee. (Americano = that weak stuff Americans drink.) Starbucks uses robo-espresso makers, which makes the espresso the exact same way every time. It’s a lot more tolerable than their drip.

You’re welcome.