The second pancake

A brother makes me pancakes. Without having to ask, he takes out a mixing bowl in the morning and heats a skillet on the stove. He whips up batter. I watch from a seat at the kitchen counter.

The first pancake does not come out right. No big shakes. I tell him it's like Katie Holmes' character in "Pieces of April." Something about how she is the first pancake, the first child in the family, the one who never turns out totally right. He looks at me funny.

My brother tries again.

And the other pancakes turn out fine. They are light and fluffy, served with slices of banana and strawberries, and scoops of vanilla ice cream. He spreads separate layers of Nutella and chunky peanut butter in between as well.

They are over the top and delicious. We take turns at the plate while drinking orange juice and Champagne. Is it any wonder he remains my all-time favorite sibling?

Waste not

"There are legal, fiscal and logistical measures that can be taken to reduce food waste... If we felt, as intensely as the desert-dwelling Uighurs do, that food is a finite, invaluable resource to be cherished, our situation would be very different.

"To experience just how different things could be, go to any landfill site in Britain, the US or countless other countries, and examine its contents. Among the mass of general detritus is an array of uneaten food... Some of it (has) evidently come from restaurants and individual households.

"But there are also entire crates of food that have clearly never seen the inside of a shopping bag: eggs, oranges, cauliflowers in sprawling piles like a scattered bag of children's multi-coloured marbles. The whole world is represented here... bananas from the West Indies, grapes from South Africa, rice from India or America. All of it has come from the earth, and to the earth it has been unceremoniously returned, now blended with plastic, paper and clapped-out furniture..."

Tristram Stuart writing in "Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal."

Going green

"Ulf's farm was a study in green. There was the lime green of Bibb lettuce and the arctic green of collards and the blackish green of Tuscan kale and the bronze green of mustards and the variegated green of cilantro, and many other shades of green, all set out in long, straight rows.

"The glowing pointillist dots of chiles and tomatoes and oranges were missing, for Ulf did not grow these things. He was a leaf man. He just grew greens."

Mike Madison, writing of a neighbor's farm in "Blithe Tomato."

Flannel cakes

"Funniest joke in the world:

'Last night I dreamed I was eating flannel cakes. When I woke up the blanket was gone!' "

Kurt Vonnegut, writing in "A Man Without a Country."

Chicks and bunnies

Because it is Easter.

What matters

"It doesn't take a genius to see that an ever-growing population cannot continue to devote limited resources to produce ever-increasing amounts of meat, which takes roughly 10 times more energy to produce than plants. Nor can you possibly be 'nice' to animals, or respectful of them, when you're raising and killing them by the billions.

"And it doesn't take a scientist, either, to know that a handful of peanuts is better for you than a Snickers bar, that food left closer to its natural state is more nutritious than food that has been refined to within an inch of its life, and that eating unprecedented quantities of animals who have been drugged and generally mistreated their entire lives isn't good for you..."

Mark Bittman, in "Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating"

Raising Ruth

"Mom's novel entertaining scheme involved more than a moveable feast: While her guests drifted from room to room, she served what she called 'interesting dishes they would not forget.'

"To that end she tried turning herself into a cook, pouncing upon every unfamiliar food that crossed her path. She discovered sea urchins at the fish market, their bristles still sharp and dangerous, and brought them home along with a smooth cactus flower she had unearthed in Little Italy.

"She found slick, perfumed lychee nuts in Chinatown, and one morning I opened the refrigerator to find an entire baby piglet staring out at me..."

Ruth Reichl, in "Not Becoming My Mother and Other Things She Taught Me Along the Way"

Resisting change

The folks in Huntington, W. Virginia, exasperate Jamie O. They make him cry on "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution."

Alice, the lunch lady, for example, and her colleagues give the British chef and good-foods advocate a difficult time in their school kitchen. They resist any dose of change.

"So what else are we preparing for lunch today?" Oliver asks.

"Mashed potatoes."

"We should probably start peeling potatoes then."

"Peeling potatoes?"

Meanwhile, children choose chocolate milk and strawberry-flavored milk over vitamin D. They eat pizza and chicken nuggets. They do not properly identify fruits and vegetables.

Hope moves

First Lady Michelle Obama writes in Newsweek of Let's Move, the nationwide campaign she is spearheading. Its primary goal: to solve the problem of childhood obesity in a generation.

This excerpt provides a decent taste:

"It's now clear that between the pressures of today's economy and the breakneck pace of modern life, the well-being of our kids has too often gotten lost in the shuffle.

"And let's be honest with ourselves: our kids didn't do this to themselves. Our kids don't decide what's served in the school cafeteria or whether there's time for gym class or recess. Our kids don't choose to make food products with tons of sugar and sodium in supersize portions, and then have those products marketed to them everywhere they turn. And no matter how much they beg for fast food and candy, our kids shouldn't be the ones calling the shots at dinnertime. We're in charge. We make these decisions..."

Chocolate and Guinness

To mark St. Patrick's Day, Nigella Lawson offers up, among other dishes, a chocolate Guinness cake "loaded with sugar, chocolate and a cream cheese frosting that recalls the foamy head of a pint" on NPR.

The cake would also work well without frosting. Now if only I actually had a bottle of Guinness somewhere in the house.

Chocolate Guinness Cake
from "Feast" by Nigella Lawson

1 cup Guinness
1 stick plus 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cups superfine sugar
3/4 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking soda

for the topping:

8 ounces cream cheese
1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and butter and line a 9-inch springform pan.

Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter - in spoons or slices - and heat until the butter's melted, at which time you should whisk in the cocoa and sugar.

Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the brown, buttery, beery pan and finally whisk in the flour and baking soda.

Pour the cake batter into the greased and lined pan and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Leave to cool completely in the pan on a cooling rack, as it is quite a damp cake.

When the cake's cold, sit it on a flat platter or cake stand and get on with the frosting. Lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth, sift over the confectioner's sugar and then beat them both together. Or do this in a processor, putting the unsifted confectioners' sugar in first and blitz to remove lumps before adding the cheese.

Add the cream and beat again until it makes a spreadable consistency. Ice the top of the black cake so that it resembles the frothy top of the famous pint. Makes 12 servings.

"Ripe" for review

For a book on "the search for the perfect tomato," Arthur Allen's "Ripe" is peculiarly and surprisingly light on passages that actually celebrate the popular fruit.

Aside from a few odes to its color, shape and texture, the Washington, D.C.-based journalist takes a technical approach to tomato appreciation, telling "a story about agribusiness through a single crop, examining its travels from a seedsman's laboratory or greenhouse to our tables."

In accessible but sometimes pedestrian prose, Allen writes of meetings with farmers, breeders and canners, examining historical developments and their impacts on various aspects of the industry. The tomato yield in California, for instance, increased from two million tons in 1965 to 11 million tons in 2000.

Sections on UC Davis agriculture professors and tomato breeders Jack Hanna and M. Allen Stevens prove educational, as do chapters on field workers in Florida (where the tomato is the number three crop behind oranges and sugar) and on consumers in Italy (as recently as a century ago, most Italians didn't even eat tomatoes).

By tackling the topic from the perspectives of business and science, the author engages his readers' heads more than their hearts.

(A version of this review appears in Publishers Weekly.)

A day for Pi

It is apparently a day for Pi - 3.14285714. It is a day for pumpkin pie, with an easy recipe lifted straight off the can.

Pumpkin Pie

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 3/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
2 large eggs
1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree
1 12-ounce can evaporated milk
1 unbaked 9-inch deep-dish pie shell

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Mix sugar, salt and pumpkin pie spice in a small bowl. Beat eggs in a large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in the evaporated milk.

Pour into the pie shell.

Bake for 15 minutes.

Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F; bake 40 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate. Makes 8 to 10 servings.

Double dose of Dahl

Elizabeth Grice writes in The Telegraph about Sophie Dahl, author of "Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights: Recipes for Every Season, Mood, and Appetite" and star of "The Delicious Miss Dahl," which premieres March 23 on the BBC.

"Classically dressed, not a utensil out of place, Dahl drifts charmingly through the rituals of omelette Arnold Bennett and cherry chocolate compote in a spotless kitchen. 'I am a Virgo. I tidy as I go. I can't abide mess in the kitchen or anywhere else.' She loiters in specialist food shops where there seem to be no other customers...

"And everything, sometime, somehow, recalls a childhood of fragrant kitchens, especially that of her paternal grandmother, Gee-Gee (mother of her actor father, Julian Holloway). On a grey winter day, you could easily fall into her languid mood of culinary escapism."

What Hollywood eats

For the 16th year in a row, chef Wolfgang Puck spearheads the Governors Ball, which takes place after the Academy Awards.

The menu, beginning with appetizers:

Tempura Shrimp and Lobster

Mini Kobe Burgers with Aged Cheddar and Remoulade

Wasabi Pea-Crusted Crab Cake with Mango and Thai Basil

Smoked Salmon Pizza with Caviar and Dill Creme

Black Truffle and Ricotta Cheese Pizza

Vegetable Spring Rolls with Sweet and Spicy Dipping Sauce

Chicken Potstickers with Ginger Black Vinegar Dipping Sauce

For dinner, there is:

House-Smoked Salmon, Potato Galette, Creme Fraiche and Baby Greens with Butler-passed Warm Brioche

Chicken Pot Pie with Yukon Gold Potatoes, Baby Heirloom Vegetables and Homemade Pastry Crust

And for dessert:

L'Etoile de Oscar

Baked Alaska with Espresso Glace, Guittard L'Etoile du Nord Chocolate Sorbet and Toasted Meringue

Now who says people in Hollywood do not eat?

The literary Miss Dahl

"In New York, my mum and her friends were constantly waging a battle against the dread affliction of fat. They wrapped themselves in seaweed to ward it off, climbed treadmills with an almost religious fervor, and saw a bevy of nutritionists, trainers, and Russians with heavy biceps to ensure it didn't darken their doors.

"There were cabbage-soup diets, steak diets, grapefruit-and-boiled-egg diets, and failing that, a trip to a spa in Miami where everything was counted for you and printed out on a computer.

"At my school on the Upper East Side, we daughters translated the insidious information we received with clumsy teenage logic, and applied it to our mealtimes...

"We didn't think we were fat; we just sure as hell didn't ever want to get that way. Fat was the girl who sat alone in the cafeteria eating macaroni and cheese... Fat was what came between you and your Calvins. Fat, according to the silent mantra of our mothers, was something that could slink up on you in the night, like a witch from a bad fairy tale, slovenly, spreading, and out of control."

Sophie Dahl, in "Secrets of the Flesh" from the March issue of Vogue.

What Ohno eats

To prepare for the Winter Games, according to Sports Illustrated, speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno "has been on the same fit-for-a-parrot diet for 15 weeks; a meal rotation every three hours that includes oatmeal, salmon, brown rice, salad, fruit, seaweed, blue-green algae and, occasionally, pasta."

Is it any wonder he has but 2 percent body fat?

Though I could eat nearly everything on Ohno's list - what exactly is blue-green algae? - nowhere in that description do I see cake or ice cream or bagels and cream cheese or hamburger and french fries... Or anything else that might easily brighten a day. Imagine the discipline.

Oh well, so much for my Olympics speedskating dreams.

Martha's Place in Montgomery

Owner of the popular restaurant in Montgomery, Alabama, Martha Hawkins chronicles with simple grace in "Finding Martha's Place: My Journey Through Sin, Salvation, and Lots of Soul Food" the highs and lows of her life thus far. She reveals the inspiration and motivation behind her success.

The tenth of 12 children, Hawkins grew up in Alabama in the 1950s and '60s with little money but lots of love, and a mama who was always cooking: "Give her a pot of peas and a dash of salt and she could make a meal for the entire neighborhood."

With honesty and sincerity, she recalls her teenage pregnancy: "I was scared to drink water because I was scared I was going to drown the baby." She talks of her marriage and subsequent divorce, the three other boys she bore, her diagnosis with and treatment for depression, and her financial struggles.

The brightest passages, however, involve food. Hawkins celebrates her time in the kitchen vividly and passionately:

"When you eat a piece of my fried chicken you can snap your fingers afterward. Then there's chicken and dumplings and collards and steamed rice and smothered cabbage and black-eyed peas. For dessert there's pound cake and apple cobbler and banana pudding and sweet potato pie and strawberry pie and more..."

And for readers who can not get to Montgomery themselves to taste her cooking, Hawkins concludes the feel-good memoir with some of her best home-grown Southern recipes.

(A version of this review appears in Publishers Weekly.)

Southern Baked Catfish
from Martha Hawkins' "Finding Martha's Place: My Journey Through Sin, Salvation and Lots of Soul Food"

6 catfish fillets
2 Tbsp. melted butter
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. dried basil (or 1 tsp. fresh)
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. dry thyme
1 1/2 cups crushed dry cornflakes

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, mix together the herbs and cornflakes.

Place the catfish in a 2-quart casserole dish. Brush with the melted butter. Cover with the cornflake mixture.

Bake 15 to 20 minutes. Makes 6 servings.

Red beans and rice

When others begin to think of deprivation, I contemplate ways to indulge at the table Southern-style and toy with the idea of red beans and rice.

Red Beans and Rice
from "New Orleans Cuisine: Fourteen Signature Dishes and Their Histories," edited by Susan Tucker

1 quart dried red beans
1 pound ham or salt meat
1 carrot
1 onion
1 bay leaf
salt
fresh ground black pepper

Wash the beans and soak them overnight, or at least five or six hours, in fresh, cold water.

When ready to cook, drain off the water and put the beans in a pot of cold water, covering with at least two quarts, for beans must cook thoroughly.

Let the water heat slowly. Then add the ham or salt pork and the herbs and onion and carrot, minced fine.

Boil the beans at least two hours, or until tender enough to mash easily under pressure.

When tender, remove from the pot, put the salt meat or ham on top of the dish, and serve hot with boiled rice as an entree. Makes 8 servings.

The Lunar New Year

Among foods prepared during the Lunar New Year, jai seems to me the most complicated. It is also perhaps the most fascinating.

Known alternatively as Vegetarian's Delight or Buddhist's Delight, the traditional dish incorporates a selection of dried and fresh ingredients, all of which symbolize luck and success. Eaten on the first day of the new year, it should bring fortune in the weeks and months ahead.

Ingredients such as fat choy, a form of black seaweed, and ho see, or dried oysters, signify wealth and happiness. The words fat choy, for example, sound like the Chinese words for "prosperity"; the words ho see sound like the ones for "good news." To eat these items, then, is to be particularly blessed.

Though its origins remain unclear - some peg jai as an ancient, annual offering to Buddha - the healthful, meatless dish can be cooked an infinite number of ways. Recipes and preferences vary by region and differ inevitably among households. Technically a stir-fry combined in either a wok or a large pan, the mixture won't be crisp, however. It will instead turn out quite soft.

Ellen Leong Blonder, who, with Annabel Low, penned "Every Grain of Rice: A Taste of Our Chinese Childhood in America," uses about 15 dried and fresh noodles, fungi, nuts and vegetables in her jai. She also provides illustrations of items such as fresh water chestnuts and arrowheads, handy to have when wandering unfamiliar aisles of an Asian market.

Admittedly, her recipe appears time-consuming. Most of the prep work, though, can be done at least a day in advance. For instance, soak, drain and chop bean-thread noodles and dried black mushrooms the night before.

Veteran chef and cooking instructor Ken Hom strips his jai down to eight or nine essential ingredients. In "Ken Hom's Chinese Kitchen," he simplifies the process by forgoing items such as fat choy and ho see.

His less-expensive version is the one more commonly found in Chinese restaurants around the United States. It reminds me in some ways of chap chae, a popular Korean dish with noodles and vegetables.

Like Blonder and Low, my mother adheres strongly to custom. Growing up, we celebrated with an elaborate jai. In the kitchen New Year's Eve, my sisters, brothers and I found items such as cloud ears, tiger lily buds and jujubes soaking in small bowls of water.

We watched our mother peel fresh water chestnuts and arrowheads, and rinse fat choy. We went to sleep as she continued to work.

Early the next morning, we discovered platters of jai on the dining table, as if by magic. Our mother had awakened before us.

In our bright, new clothes, with our faces freshly scrubbed, my siblings and I ate jai for breakfast. We had it with bowls of steamed white rice and dabs of preserved olives. We ate it sometimes for lunch and dinner, too - a fortuitous start, we said, to our Lunar New Year.

(A version of this essay appeared originally in The Oakland Tribune.)


Jai (Vegetarian Monks' Dish)
adapted from Ellen Leong Blonder and Annabel Low's "Every Grain of Rice: A Taste of Our Chinese Childhood in America"

1 3 1/2-ounce package bean-thread noodles
20 small dried black mushrooms
1/2 ounce cloud ears
1/2 cup tiger lily buds
20 small dried jujubes (Chinese red dates)
1/2 ounce fat choy (black seaweed)
1/4 cup dried lotus seeds
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. plus 1 Tbsp. vegetable or peanut oil
1 1/2-inch piece ginger
8 to 12 dried oysters, soaked overnight in water to cover
3/4 cup shelled ginkgo nuts
2 ounces dried bean curd sticks (also called dried bean flour skins)
4 ounces snow peas, strings removed
8 to 10 ounces tofu, cut into 3/4-inch dice
8 fresh or canned water chestnuts, peeled and sliced
1/4 cup sliced bamboo shoots, rinsed and drained
4 to 8 fresh arrowheads, lightly scraped with stems intact
12 pieces dao pok (fried wheat gluten)
2 cups finely shredded Napa cabbage
1 Tbsp. red bean curd
1 Tbsp. fermented bean curd

seasoning mixture:

3 cups water
1 Tbsp. sugar
4 tsp. oyster sauce
1 Tbsp. soy sauce

Soak the bean-thread noodles in water for 2 hours. Put the mushrooms in a small bowl with hot water. Let stand 30 to 45 minutes to soften. Cut and discard the stems. Rinse the caps, squeeze dry and cut into quarter-inch-thick slices.

Put the cloud ears, tiger lily buds, jujubes, fat choy and lotus seeds in separate bowls, add hot water to cover and soak for 30 minutes.

Rinse the cloud ears well, drain, cut and discard any hard parts. Rinse and drain the tiger lily buds, cut the hard ends. Drain the jujubes.

Rinse the fat choy and put it in a small saucepan with the salt, 1 tsp. of the oil, the ginger and water to cover. Bring to a boil, turn off the heat and let stand 10 minutes. Drain the fat choy and gently squeeze out the water.

Open the lotus seeds and discard the bitter green parts inside. Put the lotus seeds in a small saucepan with water to cover, bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer until tender, about 20 minutes. Drain.

Rinse the soaked oysters to remove any sand. Trim off any tough parts. Steam the oysters in a small dish for 10 minutes over medium heat until soft.

Put the ginkgo nuts in a small saucepan with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer five minutes. Drain, then skin.

Break the bean curd sticks into 2- to 3-inch pieces. Soak for 30 minutes in a small saucepan with water to cover, simmer about 10 minutes to soften, then drain. Drain the bean-thread noodles, then cut into 6-inch lengths.

(You can prepare the recipe to this point one day in advance. Cover the individual ingredients separately and refrigerate.)

Blanch the snow peas in boiling water for 30 seconds. Rinse them under cold water and drain.

Combine ingredients for the seasoning mixture in a medium bowl and set aside.

Put the mushrooms, cloud ears, tiger lily buds, fat choy, lotus seeds, oysters, ginkgo nuts, tofu, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, arrowheads and dao pok (fried wheat gluten) in a large bowl.

Put the bean-thread noodles and bean curd sticks in a second bowl, and the jujubes, Napa cabbage and snow peas in a third bowl.

Heat a wok over high heat, then heat 1 Tbsp. of oil.

Add the red and fermented bean curd, lower the heat to medium-high and cook 15 seconds, breaking it up with a spatula.

Stir in the seasoning mixture, bring to a boil, and cook for two to three minutes.

Add the mushroom mixture and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the bean-thread noodles and bean curd sticks and cook 4 minutes longer, stirring occasionally.

Add the remaining ingredients and cook 2 minutes longer, tossing gently to distribute the Napa cabbage evenly. Makes 8 servings.


Vegetarian Delight
from "Ken Hom's Chinese Kitchen: With a Consumer's Guide to Essential Ingredients"

6 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. salt
4 tsp. sesame oil
1 ounce Chinese dried black mushrooms, re-hydrated
1/2-ounce cloud ears, re-hydrated
2 ounces bean-thread noodles
4 ounces pressed seasoned bean curd, re-hydrated
8 ounces cucumber
3 Tbsp. peanut oil
1 small onion, sliced
2 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh ginger
2 Tbsp. finely chopped garlic
3 Tbsp. light soy sauce
2 Tbsp. whole bean sauce
3 Tbsp. Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry
1 Tbsp. hoisin sauce

In a small bowl, combine the egg, salt and 2 tsp. sesame oil, and set aside.

Remove and discard the mushroom stems and finely shred the caps into thin strips.

Remove and discard any hard stems from the cloud ears. Set aside.

Soak the bean-thread noodles in warm water for 15 minutes. Drain well and set aside. Cut the pressed bean curd into thin strips.

Peel and seed the cucumbers, and cut them into thin strips.

Heat a wok or large frying pan over high heat until it is hot. Add 1 1/2 Tbsp. of the oil and, when it is very hot and slightly smoking, turn the heat down to moderate.

Add the egg mixture and stir-fry for a few minutes or until the egg has barely scrambled. Remove the egg from the wok and drain on paper towels.

Wipe the wok clean and reheat it. When it is hot, add the remaining 1 1/2 Tbsp. of oil.

When it is very hot and slightly smoking, quickly add the onion, ginger and garlic, and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Then add the mushrooms, cloud ears, pressed bean curd, bean-thread noodles and cucumbers, and stir-fry for 2 more minutes.

Add the soy sauce, bean sauce, Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry, hoisin sauce and remaining sesame oil, and continue to stir-fry for 3 minutes. Finally, add the cooked eggs and stir-fry for one minute. Turn onto a platter. Makes 4 servings.

The boy from Essex

"My name's Jamie Oliver. I'm 34 years old. I'm from Essex in England and for the last seven years I've worked fairly tirelessly to save lives in my own way. I'm not a doctor; I'm a chef. I don't have expensive equipment or medicine. I use information, education..."

Jamie Oliver, on accepting the 2010 TED prize in Long Beach, Calif.