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Humphry Slocombe San Francisco: Whiskey & Cornflakes Ice Cream!

Monday, March 8th, 2010

Michelle, a SF foodie friend, and I were talking about this and decided that the first food maker that we can remember who mixed spices and various combinations of flavors was Vosges Haut Chocolat. Vosges does make ice cream as well with their creative concoctions. We are now lucky enough to live in the Bay Area where folks are constantly coming up with creative food combinations. Michelle said she could remember lobster ice cream and corn on the cob ice cream from summers spent on the east coast. My favorite ice cream has always been Graeters, a Cincinnati, OH original. But now there are creative ice cream shops in every major city such as Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream (Chocolate w/ Cornflakes, Queen City Cayenne, Thai Chili) in Columbus, OH and Humphry Slocombe in SF.

Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream is sold at their shop and at a gourmet food market in SF by the scoop ($2.50 a scoop) or pint ($8).

Humphry Slocombe Creative Flavors

I tried the Morning Secret that consists of Jim Beam, flour, corn flakes, vanilla, and butter. Boy was it buttery and the Beam was subtle! It actually reminded me of a fancier version of a superman ice cream! Michelle tried the Pepper-Mint Chip that was a combination of fresh chopped mint with Cubeb Pepper, and Valhrona Chocolate Chips. She said that the Pepper-Mint Chip was surprisingly a great combination that she expected to fail, but it just didn’t!

Shop:
2790 Harrison St
San Francisco, CA 94110

Posted in Eating Out, Store Bought | No Comments »
Tags: Ice Cream, Pints of Ice Cream, San Francisco, SF

Wild Kenai Red Salmon from Alaska

Friday, February 19th, 2010

A cousin of ours has a family salmon business up in Alaska called Wild Kenai Red Salmon. They actually shipped us these beautiful frozen and smoked salmon fillets to try after hearing about our food blog in an annual family Christmas letter. The fillets were delivered overnight via fed-ex in a Styrofoam cooler, arriving cold and fresh as ever.

We grilled the salmon fillet on a cedar plank with a mild soy-based glaze.

It looks like they have some nice recipes for salmon on their blog too: http://www.wildkenaisalmon.com/blog/

Zach: I have never been a fan of cooked salmon (I prefer it raw). Nor have I ever had sockeye salmon before. This fillet knocked my socks off. It was dense and tasted like a clean ocean spray, not fishy at all.

John: It was amazing how fast the salmon was delivered to us. The freshness was palpable. The fresh salmon was better than most cooked salmon I’ve had at restaurants. The skin was actually edible and did not have that fish-sitting-on-display-all-day taste.

Les: What struck me most about the fillet (delivered frozen) was the amazing color. I think these fillets would be an amazing foodie gift for friends and family who have it all and love fine foods.

Posted in Foodie Gifts, Home Cookin', Out of Town, Store Bought | 1 Response »
Tags: Alaskan Salmon, Fish, Foodie Gifts, Salmon, seafood

Drinking in the Season

Sunday, December 6th, 2009

We at BiTF appreciate a good blog, especially when it concerns tasty beverages. This blog not only appeals to our search for new tastes, but also to our aesthetic sensibilities. With its faux polaroid/recipe card layout, one has the ability to experience a blog in a different (to us) and refreshing way, even if it solely aggregates the work of our bloggy brethren. We invite you to check out Liqurious.

www.Liqurious.com

Along these same lines, we finally got our hands on a beer we’ve been jonesing to try. The beer is a Rauchbier, made with malted barley that has been dried over an open flame. We tried the Schlenkerla version, which seems to be the most available brand. According to Wikipedia, there are a few US microbreweries that make rauchbiers, along with some interesting international varieties including a Japanese beer named after the smokescreens used by ninjas. But, you certainly don’t need to be a ninja to enjoy this style of beer. As we love some BBQ smoke in most of our food, this beer hit just the right spot. Truly, if you were craving bacon and beer, this would satisfy both. Not only is the flavor in the beverage, but it will carry over to any food that you happen to be eating. Feeling too lazy to get out the grill? Grab a few rauchbiers and take a sip before each bite, it’s that easy. I look forward to pairing this with an actual smokey meal to fully enjoy the experience.

www.Schlenkerla.de

Posted in Drinks, Store Bought | No Comments »
Tags: Bars, Beer, Cocktails, Distillery

Cheapskate Foodie Gifts for 2009

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

Wine Thermometer – $7.95 @ Sur La Table

• Requires no batteries and it lists the name of the wines and what temperature range they should be in when served.

San Francisco Bay Area Food Wheel - $12.95 @ Online

• Be an informed farmer’s market shopper and support local farmers rather than always hitting the supermarket. This local food wheel tells you which foods are grown regionally and the time of year that they are in season.

Meyer Lemon Marmalade – $12 @ NapaStyle

• Made from California Meyer Lemons.

Mo’s Bacon Chocolate Chip Pancake Mix - $12 @ Vosges Haut Chocolat

• Buttermilk pancake mix sprinkled with smoked bacon, sea salt, and milk chocolate candy bar chunks.

Rice Hull Pot Herbs – $13 @ Sonoma Living Green

• Heirloom lavender, mint, lemon basil, garlic chives, or oregano in 100% biodegradable containers that will last indoors or outdoors up to five years.

Sprinkles Cupcake Mix - $14 @ William Sonoma

Chocolate, Red Velvet, Spice, Vanilla, Lemon, Banana, & Pumpkin Flavor

• Sprinkles cupcake bakery originated in Beverly Hills and they now have a bakery in Palo Alto. Their cupcakes are really good!

Revival: Tassajara Bread Cookbook – Used $10-15 @ Amazon Online

• Classic baking cookbook perfect for a young foodie’s collection.

Revival: Chez Panisse Desserts – Used $10.99 @ Amazon.com

• This is another classic cookbook for a new or young California cook’s shelf. What I like about this cookbook is its use of local fruits in the creation of a defined approach to simple but elegant deserts that can be altered seasonally emphasizing fresh and local ingredients. It includes such recipes for meyer lemon soufflé, wild plum sherbet, as well as quince and apple recipes.

Cuisipro Herb Keeper – $20 @ Amazon

• Do your fresh herbs always dry up or go bad before you get to use them?

Truffle & Salt - $22.12 @ SaltWorks.com

• This salt is great on buttered popcorn, mac & cheese, and scrambled eggs.

Big Sur Bakery Cookbook: A Year in the Life of a Restaurant - $26.40 @ Amazon

• This is my favorite new cookbook of this year because of its recipes that utilize local produce and seafood. Now I need to get down to Big Sur and check out the restaurant.

Posted in Foodie Gifts, Store Bought | 4 Comments »
Tags: Foodie Gifts

A (s)Pacific Delight: Dungeness Crab Season!

Saturday, November 28th, 2009

$4.99/lb. Pre-Cooked Dungeness Crab from Coscto

$5 something a lb. at Whole Foods

4 crabs = 6 people

NOTE: The process of getting the meat out of the shells while sitting at the dinner table makes you think you are eating much, much more! This is part of the fun.

Steps to Deliciousness:

Click to continue »

Posted in Home Cookin', Store Bought | 1 Response »
Tags: costco, crab, Recipes, seafood, seasonal

Spotted Dick, Open Only in Case of Emergency

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

I don’t know what it is about the British Isles and their unfortunate names for certain things. Spotted Dick is by far one of the more unfortunate. Not only are they known for silly names, but also for their dearth of tasty local food. If ever there was a time to be proved wrong, it was during the week-long power outage we had about a month ago.

Noting our dampened spirits (pun intended), we picked up the running joke for the evening and then decided to actually eat it. A quick note about that week: we were running our refrigerator off of our car engines through an 800 watt inverter originally purchased for camping. While it rained, car running, dealing with the loss of the Internet, we read the instructions on the can of Dick by candlelight. All the while, we cracked terrible jokes, just the most awful lame jokes that you usually only laugh at when you’ve been enjoying some libations, but our lack of professionals like Jon Stewart to do it for us, we went on our merry way (at least two of us thought it was funny).

Beyond the dick jokes, we actually ate the stuff (the sponge cake, that is). The taste is if you were to take a sponge cake, bathe it further in trans-fats (don’t read the ingredients), soak it in a liquid form of molasses with raisins, force the raisins into the cake, and then add lead weights just to give it some more heft. I actually enjoyed it, though after reading about the amount of hydrogenation needed to create this product, I probably won’t have it again.

Posted in Store Bought | No Comments »
Tags: English, home cooking, Spotted Dick

Dry Farmed Tomatoes: Santa Cruz Farmers Market

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

I first heard about these tomatoes from a relative in Santa Cruz. She said they were the best but expensive, so I had to try them. Dry farming is a technique that I had not heard of before coming to California. Basically, the soil is tilled to a sponge-like consistency before the dry season and the soil is rolled over to make a hard layer to lock in the moisture. The plants are then planted without irrigation to force the roots to grow deep towards the trapped moisture. This technique is best suited for dry climates. The process results in smaller crops that are far more concentrated in flavor, have a higher nutrient density and last longer. I’ve only had the tomatoes but I’m going to seek out other produce to try. The tomatoes are dense, sweet and delicious. I’m going to get more from Dirty Girl Produce this Wednesday at the Santa Cruz farmers’ market. Dirty Girl dry farmed tomatoes are available at other farmers’ markets in the Bay Area so check out their site for more details. If you are interested in the process check it out here.

Posted in Store Bought | No Comments »
Tags: Farmers Market

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