From Bratwurst to Bimibap - Part 3 - by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

From Bratwurst to Bimibap – Part 3 – by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Mi Tierra Market in Seaside, California sells clean, dried corn husks in bundles among other items, making my dreams for a tamale making party come closer to fruition – now I just need helpers to stuff the husks.

The produce section gleams.  Pasilla, lime-green Anaheims, yellow guerito peppers, and dark green jalapeño peppers glisten there.

Pudgy plantains invite frying, and brown-skinned yuccas feel rough to the touch.  Mi Tierra sells fresh cactus petals with their pickers.  These taste sour and go well with scrambled eggs made with chopped tomatoes and onion.

As usual, the drinks intrigue me.  I love horchata, which tastes like a rice pudding milk shake.  The jamaica juice looks good, too, and is described as a hibiscus flower drink.

Mi Tierra also sells champagne cola and other Mexican soft drinks like the guava and pineapple flavors of Jarritos and mandarin orange.  There is also Aga apple soda and Sidral cola.

Mi Tierra’s true beauty lies in its butcher counter, which extends the width of the building.  The butchers, who work under dangling strands of chorizo sausage, really ham up the service.

The immaculately clean counter presents a wide variety of:

-gizzards

-milk white tripe

-liver

-beef tongue

-neck bones

-hogs’ feet

-slim cuts of steak for carne asada

-ground beef and steaks

-cactus salad

-cream-like cheese called Queso Oaxaqueño

-seafood salad

-fresh fish on ice

-tiger prawns

All in all, the mouthwatering display made me want to run home and open some cookbooks.  (Note: Diana Kennedy and Rick Bayless explain technique well in their Mexican cookbooks.)

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

Click for Laurent Paget's Book

Ruth Paget Selfie

From Bratwurst to Bimibap - Part 2 - by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

From Bratwurst to Bimibap – Part 2 – by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Asian-Filipino Market in Marina caters to a largely Southeast Asian clientele according to its India-born owner.  The market offers goods spanning the culinary world from Thailand to the Philippines.

A love for snack foods seems to be common to all these countries judging from the vast selection of taro chips, seaweed chips, shrimp crackers, and coconut crackers for sale.  Snack fantasies led me to dreams of more substantial fare, so I headed over to the instant sauce section.

Many people avoid making ethnic food at home, because it requires a major outlay for basic ingredients.  Ready-made sauces can ease a new cook into a foreign cuisine, which is one of the reasons I like them.

Korean barbecue, Chinese roast duck, Cantonese noodles, and packets of Filipino kare-kare sauces are just some of the temptations on Asian-Filipino’s shelves.

I could smell the warm peppery masala spice mixture in the Indian food aisle before I got there and imagined how good it would taste in ground lamb kebab with cilantro and onion. 

I wanted to make coconut milk with the unsweetened, shredded coconut and season it with curry leaves to poach fish or shrimp.

Instead, I ended up buying a bottle of tea masala to make chai at home.

A penchant for habanera sauce led me to Mi Tierra Market in Seaside, which has Mexican and Salvadoran products.

End of Part 2

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

Click for Laurent Paget's Book

Ruth Paget Selfie

From Bratwurst to Bimibap - Part 1 - by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

From Bratwurst to Bimibap – Part 1 - by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

I like to make many ethnic foods at home, so I have learned about ingredients by shopping at local markets around Monterey County, which feature Asian, Hispanic, and European foods. 

The Monterey County Weekly (Circulation: 200,000 – California) liked my idea for a story on three markets that are still going strong after twenty years: Mecca (German), Mi Tierra (Hispanic – Mexican and Salvadoran), and Asian-Filipino (Southeast Asian).

These stores have changed some items on display, but they can special order usually, if you know brand names.  I have slightly edited the article for clarity:

From Bratwurst to Bimibap

You’ll want to eat before shopping at Marina’s Mecca German Market.

The owner suggests that shoppers fortify themselves with a hot schnitzel sandwich – lightly breaded pork loin on a hot roll with sauerkraut and Swiss cheese – before examining the row of chocolates that fill up half the store.  (Note: This display has changed in 2019.  There are more soup and sauce options on the shelves now, but ask about special orders.)

Among Mecca’s chocolate offerings that seem to change with the season:

-Ritter Sport Chocolates

-Swiss Lindt Chocolates

-Sarotti Whit Chocolate

-Toblerone

-Chocolates with Poire Williams

-Asbach Uralt brandy-filled chocolate

-Mozart Herzl chocolate with a soft marzipan core surrounded by pistachio cream in a chocolate covering

From the chocolates, it’s an easy segue into coffee klatsch territory for Tchilbo, Jacobs, and Eduscho German coffees to go with Mecca’s selection of marzipan, orange liqueur, and chocolate/vanilla marmor cakes.

I highly recommend the cookies, too:

-Bahlsen’s chocleibniz – a butter cookie topped with chocolate

-marzipan cookies with chocolate bottoms

-almond cookie sandwiches with cream filling

-capellas – almond crescents with chocolate covering both ends

-Delobas – puff pastry with blueberry filling

-Florentines – delicate lace-like cookies

(Chocolates and cookies are my favorite renewable emergency foods.)

Eating sweets with your eyes lets you enjoy the deli counter more.

Mecca’s cooked veal and pork bockwurst sausage heats up easily and makes for a tasty meal as does the homemade bratwurst pork sausage.

I asked the owner what the difference is between the Italian and Hungarian salamis, and a customer answered, “About 500 miles.”

From Mecca, I set out for Marina’s Asian-Filipino Market.

End of Part 1.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

Click for Laurent Paget's Book

Ruth Paget Selfie

Suggested Syrah Wine Tasting by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Suggested Syrah Wine Tasting by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Syrah is a grape variety that grows well in very hot climates like inland Monterey County California.

This wine tasting’s objective is to identify the effect of soil on the taste of Syrah wine.

Suggested wine regions:

Monterey County California Syrah Wineries:

Chalone

De Tierra

Rhône Valley France Syrah Wines:

-Hermitage

-Côte Rôtie

-Cornas

-St. Joseph

-Crozes-Hermitage

Australia:

Syrah is called Shiraz there.

BevMo, Nielsen’s, and Lopez Liquors on the Monterey Peninsula can probably supply many of these choices.  BevMo delivers.

Have fun tasting!

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

Click for Laurent Paget's Books

Ruth Paget Selfie

Cafe Rustica's European Flair - Part 2 - by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Café Rustica’s European Flair – Part 2 – by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Laurent and I came back on another warm summer night for another gastronomic treat at Café Rustica.  I ordered lamb fillets, and Laurent had the capellini pasta with shrimp.

The meaty lamb fillets came three to a serving and surrounded an impressive piece of vegetable architecture:  a perfectly round mound of au gratin potatoes on a bed of sautéed spinach with strands of roasted red pepper draped over the top of the potatoes.

Sautéed tomato squares flowed down the sides of the au gratin potatoes.  The freshly prepared vegetables all retained their individual flavors.

A cabernet-shallot sauce covered the lamb fillets with pine nuts sprinkled around for flavor.  The sauce enhanced all of the flavors in the dish without overpowering any single one.  The savory lamb, like Florence’s rib eye steak on our previous visit, was tender enough to cut with a regular knife.

I ordered the Yalumba Cabernet Sauvignon from Australia to go with my meal.  The wine smelled and tasted like blackberries and had a strong, lengthy finish.

Laurent love the capellini pasta that came with sautéed shrimp.  The savory marinara sauce paired perfectly with the briny shrimp.  Halves of sweet, cherry tomatoes made up the vegetable contingent in this light, yet filling dish.

Laurent drank a Pichot Vouvray from the Loire Valley in France with his meal.  The mildly sweet taste of this wine went well with the marinara tomato sauce.

The pleasant, hardworking staff at Café Rustica make dining there such an appealing experience.  One of the co-owners told me that they treat all of their employees from dishwashers to hostesses with respect.

“Everyone contributes to the restaurant’s success,” she said.

This philosophy comes from the fact that both owners have been employees in restaurants as well as owners.  They are both chefs in their own right: One trained at the Internant School in Germany while the other trained at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco.

The owners’ dedication to cooking and their high regard for restaurant professionals have helped them create a restaurant that merits a trip out to Carmel Valley Village from the Monterey Peninsula.

(Congratulations to Rustica for being a 2019 Michelin Restaurant!)

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

Click for Laurent Paget's Books

Ruth Paget Selfie