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.

j. Weekly, the Jewish News Weekly of Northern California, features Hazon’s own Zelig Golden and Emily Freed in its cover story about young Jewish environmentalists.

Golden is an alumni of the Adamah program and serving as co-chair for Hazon’s Food Conference in 2008. (According to the article, he also makes a mean pickle martini — okay, I confess, I was the one who told that to the reporter, after Zelig made me one at my birthday Shabbos dinner earlier this year). Freed (whom, the article says, had her first candy bar at the age of 12!) is on the executive committee of the 2008 food conference, working to obtain food from local farms. And Jon Rosenfield, who is also featured in the article, will no doubt be at the Food Conference, we just don’t know what he’ll be doing yet.

First, a word from our sponsor: We interrupt Alix Wall’s posts about Vietnam (at least one more is still coming) to write about a more immediate concern: What is Alix going to cook for Passover?

My husband and I are hosting our family for Pesach. Maybe that isn’t a big deal for some of you, but for me, it is. I only had the seder at my house one other time, and I was so busy that I pretty much let all my family members do all the cooking. Not this year.

I am taking it very seriously this year; maybe because this is the first year that we are hosting, instead of just me. And maybe because I’m thinking of my mom now, and how flawlessly she could pull off a seder. Passover can be a difficult time of year for me; she died only a month after it. She was already very ill at her last seder, in 2002, but she managed to do a great deal of the cooking anyhow.

My uncle has let it be known that his expectations are high, now that I’m a professional chef. I don’t care about that so much. What’s dominating my thoughts these days is the memory of the pecan matzoh balls.

Despite the shock value of my photos from a few days ago, Vietnam is a fascinating place to visit for the food obsessed. And while markets have always been one of my favorite places to wander through in developing countries, this was my first big trip abroad since I started thinking differently about food.

As I wrote previously, I wouldn’t recommend that people who keep kosher go there. It simply would be too hard to avoid the treyf. The default meat there is pork, and shrimp comes in a close second. It’s ironic too that one of the most common fish dishes, fish in a clay pot – a white fish coated in a delicious concoction of caramelized sugar, fish sauce, shallots, garlic, ginger and chiles, is made with catfish – once again, not kosher.

But it sure is good to be home. For those readers who missed my series of posts about eating in Vietnam, here’s a reminder:

Dog. Cat. Porcupine. Deer.

The ‘Lonely Planet’ Guidebook describes the Vietnamese people as “fiercly omnivorous,” and I couldn’t think of a more apt description. We are not uploading photos so I can’t illustrate this post properly but today we took numerous photos of a skinned pig’s head, pig’s feet, live goats tied to a back of a motorbike, same with live chickens in a mesh cage, pigs tied in tortuous ways, the list goes on.

Greetings from Vietnam, the most unkosher place on the planet (kosher-keepers, never, ever come here, unless you plan on packing a month’s supply of canned tuna).

Below the jump, I’ve posted a few photos that give you a taste of our (for us) shocking food experiences in Viet Nam. Warning – they’re graphic, so look with caution.

Almost three weeks into our trip to Vietnam, and I’ve lost count how many times we’ve uttered the following statement: “That was the best meal we’ve had in Vietnam.”  Undoubtedly, things have greatly improved since my last post – basically since we reached the central part of the country. Vegetarian restaurants are plentiful in Hue (well, maybe plentiful is an understatement, but we found and ate in two, both of which charged local prices and were excellent), and in Hoi An, where we are now, every menu we look at as numerous veggie options.

We’ve now been in Vietnam for well over a week. And while I continue to be, well, pretty much disgusted by the way animals are treated (today we saw a common site here; two live pigs tied to the sides of a motorbike — photos will have to wait until I’m home), I am also partially awed by the Vietnamese willingness to see food as it really is before they eat it.

As I mentioned before, it is nearly impossible to keep kosher here, or for me to remain a vegetarian. I was doing a pretty good job of it so far, but this morning, when served noodles for breakfast with bits of pork in it, our guide reminded our host that I don’t eat meat. We were staying at Ba Be Lakes in a “home stay,” with a family that is incredibly poor, and makes extra money by taking in tourists. Food is plentiful, though, here, even with the poor. Anyhow, after the reminder, he promptly made me my own noodles — in a bowl of chicken broth.

Dog. Cat. Porcupine. Deer.

The ‘Lonely Planet’ Guidebook describes the Vietnamese people as “fiercly omnivorous,” and I couldn’t think of a more apt description. We are not uploading photos so I can’t illustrate this post properly but today we took numerous photos of a skinned pig’s head, pig’s feet, live goats tied to a back of a motorbike, same with live chickens in a mesh cage, pigs tied in tortuous ways, the list goes on.

Greetings from Vietnam, the most unkosher place on the planet (kosher-keepers, never, ever come here, unless you plan on packing a month’s supply of canned tuna).

I made a recipe for a client today that was so delicious, I feel compelled to share. I wish I had brought my camera on the job today, to take a picture, but alas, I didn’t. And while I found a photo of these very veggie burgers on another blog, it says it’s copyrighted, so I won’t use it here.

Now before you think: “she’s getting all excited about veggie burgers?” and move on to “Serious Eats,” or “Amateur Gourmet,” or whomever, hold on.  (You can check out those great sites afterwards.) These veggie burgers are something else. They have beets. They have carrots. They have sunflower seeds and cheddar cheese(!) They are some of the best damn veggie burgers I’ve ever had.

There’s an ad that’s been driving me crazy lately, haunting me from the pages of the New Yorker, and elsewhere.

A cute young woman proudly shows off her kitchen, in which all of the cabinets that usually hold pots and pans and well, food, are replaced with closet space, making room for all of her clothing, shoes and trendy handbags. Citibank made this possible, giving her the freedom to transform wasted space into premium closet space.

It could be seen as funny, but I just saw it as sad. This woman couldn’t even make a cup of coffee if she wanted to; I think her appliances were gone, too. And I’ve been thinking about it more since I got to New York yesterday, and have been seeing every other person walking down the street with their take-out (when not getting it delivered).

Apparently China is now trying to tap the lucrative kosher market. A story on Bloomberg.com (thanks, Dad, for the tip) leads off like this:

Chinese exporters, facing a U.S. backlash over tainted food products, are turning to an unlikely group of inspectors to help clean up their act: Jewish rabbis.

While the whole story is rather humorous, I can only ask this question after reading the lead: What other kind of rabbis are there?

Find the full story here.

As a chef, I am an expert at making wonderful food – from other peoples’ recipes. My ever-growing cookbook collection keeps me busy with wonderful dishes, created by other people.

But one thing my CSA membership has done is it has forced me to start creating my own recipes. In the old days, I would decide what I wanted to make, shop accordingly, and follow directions. Now, things work differently. I think of what is in the fridge, and what I can make using the most ingredients that I have on hand. In a way, it’s like Iron Chef, although they have one ingredient to use in numerous ways; I am trying to use as much of my CSA box in one dish as I can.

That led me to this creation today: Wilted Arugula Salad with Sauteed Leeks and Apples. (Recipe after the jump)

Not too long ago, I posted here asking what Michael Pollan would do in a given situation. Today’s Chronicle asks the same question. It’s the lead article in the food section, complete with *huge* photos of Pollan and his son Isaac cooking, and then eating, lunch.

Among the interesting tidbits: that his next article is about orchid sex, and that he’s a little bit tired of talking about food.

When the weather is storming outside, (and I say this knowing that what we are experiencing here in Northern California is relative to other parts of the country), there is nothing that satisfies quite like a bowl of piping hot soup.

While I am no lover of winter, I do love eating soup and salad for dinner, and I do that mostly in the winter.

A few months ago, we had a glut of broccoli from our CSA, and quite a lot of carrots, too. I found a recipe for a broccoli miso soup on someone’s web site, and tweaked it considerably. I’ve now made this soup at least a dozen times, for clients, and for us. Our CSA ran it in its newsletter too, so I thought I’d post it here for anyone in need of a new soup recipe.

While absolutely delicious, I will say that in order for the broccoli to be pureed, it has to be quite soft, and with the tamari and miso, rather than a beautiful vibrant green, this soup is a rather bland-looking brown. Ah well. At least it makes up for it in taste.

Recipe follows the jump.