Although I’m a total Top Chef junkie, except for the occasional Iron Chef episode, the Food Network usually doesn’t hold my interest. But the other night, while channel surfing, I came upon a promo for an upcoming episode of Dinner Impossible. The basic premise of the show: put a celebrity chef in a very difficult situation, with an unrealistic time limit, and see if they can get the job done.

This season’s star is Michael Symon, a motorcycle-riding, tattooed Iron Chef who, I have to admit, I would put in that “sexy-ugly” category, but I digress. Anyhow, Chef Symon was shown in a kippah as a rabbi explained to him the laws of kashrut, and that he was expected to cook a Passover seder for 100 of his hungriest congregants Uh, Food Network people: We’re coming up on Rosh HaShanah, not Pesach, but never mind.

Naturally, I had to record it, while I nearly wretched my way through Sarah Palin’s speech (sorry, I digress once again).

Yes, that’s right. We Californians are blessed in many ways to get locally-grown food easily, but wheat does not usually fall into that category. But Eatwell Farm, which provides Berkeley’s Tuv Ha’Aretz chapter, is now offering wheat berries at the Ferry Building Farmer’s Market in San Francisco. Consumers can actually grind their own berries to make flour. Check it out here.

In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s tomato season. Our CSA specializes in Heirloom tomatoes, so this means at this time of year, we usually get three different varieties in our weekly box: usually grape tomatoes, heirlooms and one other variety like Romas. While the temptation is always there just to eat them fresh with just a sprinkling of salt, I’ve discovered two new dishes this summer that are worth sharing.

The first requires slow-roasting cherry or grape tomatoes. I actually discovered this technique last summer, and there are plenty of food blogs to offer tips. I just cut the tomatoes open, put them on a baking sheet, drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil and sea salt, and put in a low oven (about 225 degrees) for a minimum of two hours. If you have the time, three or four hours is even better. Slow-roasting brings out all their tomato-ey essence. They also store longer that way; you can cover them in a bit of olive oil and keep them in the fridge.

For those of you wondering what will be on the menu at the 3rd annual Hazon Food Conference in Asilomar in December, as the person leading the volunteer food committee, I can tell you this: there will be food at the food conference. And it will be good. Beyond that, it’s hard to say, since we’re still working out the details of the menu.

However, I did want to raise “the meat issue,” because it’s what been occupying my thoughts a lot lately. When the conference’s volunteer Executive Committee met earlier this month for a planning retreat at the conference site, most everyone agreed that we should serve meat at the conference in order to show that it’s possible to get kosher, sustainably-raised meat. Except it seems that it isn’t – at least not in California. Shipping it from the East Coast is prohibitively expensive and not a very sustainable practice. But right now, it does not really exist here on the Left Coast.

With six months lead time (the Food Conference is Dec 25-28, 2008), we are hoping to find a way to make it all work out. How this will happen, I’m not sure.  But I’m relieved to have two competent people who volunteered to take this on with me because this non-kosher keeping, non-meat eater has been thinking about meat way too much for her liking lately.

I used to not really get quinoa. I’m sure there are some of you nodding your head in agreement. It’s hard to get excited about something that has so little taste.

But that’s because I had only had it mainly by itself. Quinoa is so ubiquitous here in the Bay Area, that once my friend Dorit showed up at a potluck announcing “I brought the requisite Berkeley quinoa,” and we all knew exactly what she meant. A Berkeley Jewish potluck isn’t a potluck without someone making quinoa.

But I digress.

I have since come around on the neutral little seed. First of all, it has protein. Second, it takes on whatever flavor you put with it. It mixes well with other ingredients and doesn’t dominate. And, it cooks in only 15 minutes.

My grandpa, who I call “Papa,” turned 98 on Sunday. While I go to New York every few months to visit him, I haven’t especially timed it around his birthday before. Given that he almost died in November, he made it clear months ago that if he should still be here, he wanted me there to help him celebrate his birthday.

At first, he said, no party. But there are a few people who knew, and asked if they could come, and the next thing you know, we’re having a small party. So what to serve? Papa, who is pretty-much housebound these days, picked the restaurant. He said we’d pass around the menu, everyone would order what they’d want, and we’d order in. The restaurant he picked was Mama Mexico, a very good (non-kosher) Mexican restaurant not far from his apartment.

He had a few bottles of wine lying around, and I ordered a cake. But when I first arrived on Thursday, Hillary, his wonderful care-giver from Trinidad, told me that he had made a funny request. For hors d’oeuvres, he wanted shrimp cocktail.

An article in the food section of today’s San Francisco Chronicle features Nigel Walker, the farmer of Eatwell Farm.  Walker is “our” farmer at Tuv Ha’Aretz in Berkeley.  (San Francisco’s Tuv Ha’Aretz’s farm, Capay Valley, is also mentioned.)

While the article talks about how CSAs are becoming more and more popular, one of the more notable points indicated that many consumers are not ready to give up certain non-local fruits and vegetables:

I don’t mean join a CSA. I actually mean, hire someone to do it for you. In San Francisco, that someone is a business called MyFarm, whose employees will come over, design a garden in your backyard, and then do maintainence for it on weekly visits. You can read about it here.

I have to admit I am torn by this idea. By growing a garden in your own yard, of course you are much more connected to your food. But by paying others to maintain it for you, you introduce yet another middle-person.

So, we were on a conference call the other day. When I say “we,” I mean those of us who have the gargantuan task of menu-planning for Hazon’s 2008 Food Conference.

I am chairing this committee, along with Sue Carson, one of the co-chairs of the conference.  On this call, one person casually suggested a lox and bagels brunch. Lox and bagels were served last year at the conference. No surprise, as lox and bagels are often a staple at Jewish events.

But we most likely will have a lox-less conference.

Gasp. How could we take lox off the menu? Isn’t having a conference celebrating Jewish food without bagels and lox like holding a Japanese cultural celebration without sushi?

Exactly.

It’s sad to say, but both of these are cultural practices that need to be reconsidered.

I’ll admit, I’m pretty neutral when it comes to the Rachael Ray divide. I’ve seen her show, sure, and have been annoyed by her “Yum-O!” as much as everyone else, but when you don’t have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen, I can think of a lot worse things than using pre-made ravioli in a recipe.

It’s been a while since my husband and I returned from our month-long trip to Vietnam – the one that significantly changed my outlook on traveling to new countries as a non-meat eater! As promised, here is a photo journal of our food adventures.

I also included one of my favorite recipes from the trip – Steamed Lemongrass Fish. Enjoy!

Can anyone hear fava beans and not think of Anthony Hopkins?

“I ate his liver with fava beans and a nice chianti.” (The movie is Silence of the Lambs, in case you missed it, and the infamous line was said by Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter.)

But references to cannibalism aside, our Tuv Ha’Aretz has started here in Berkeley, and we’ve got more fava beans than we know what to do with. Which, when you get down to it, really isn’t that many at all.

Yes, folks, it’s serious. So serious that the Bay Area’s matzo shortage has made front page news. The woman behind me at Berkeley Bowl this morning was forced to buy a box of Sun-Dried Tomato Matzo. Who even knew they made such a thing? She said that since it wasn’t for seder, it was fine to use the rest of the week. Whatever. Call me a purist. I never got used to the idea of sun-dried tomato bagels, either. Just the idea of flavored matzo (besides chocolate-covered, mind you) gave me the willies, even though it might not be half bad. When I was buying my five-pounder two or so weeks ago, the guy behind me said “That’s a lot of crackers.” But after our family seder and traditional post-seder matzo brei brunch, I think I’ll have just enough to last me through the week. Phew.

A few days ago, I wondered whether my family was adventurous enough to try fennel matzoh balls.

Today’s lead story in the food section of the San Francisco Chronicle features young Jews who have no qualms about tweaking original Passover favorites, with what sound like delicious results. You can read the story here.