An evening with the cheeses of Burgundy

Lustrous canals, kir royals, and cheese that smells like feet: You must be speaking of Burgundy! The culinary capital of the provinces - the home of beef bourguignon and pinot noir - produces some of the most exciting, sensual stinky cheeses on the map.

Not often venturing out past San Jose, I've found it difficult to visualize and understand this specific region of France. How do these cheeses differ from the stately sheep milks of the Pyrenees mountains or the earthy camemberts of Normandy? Last week, The Cheese School of SF put it into perspective with an entire class on Burgundian cheeses (plus vino!).

Enthusiastically led by Colette Hatch (above), madame de fromage at Oliver's Market in Santa Rosa, the class weaved through eight cheeses and three wine pairings that characterized the larger "old Burgundy" prior to the 17th century. The region has undergone several leadership changes and geographical shifts in the last thousand years, and has previously included the Franche-Comte regions and areas south of Paris. Today, it encompasses the a sizeable part of central/northeastern France. Its capital is Dijon. (mustard!)

Epoisses

Burgundy is above all known for its smelly washed-rind cheeses like the Epoisses de Bourgogne, a sensuous orange bulb that bursts with runny butter funk when it's pierced. The freak factor comes from natural bacteria that form when a cheese is rubbed down in brine and/or alcohol. In this case, it's the local brandy Marc de Bourgogne, giving the cheese a boozy sweetness. The Langres cheese (pictured up top) from Champagne is equally impressive yet a tad milder, with a firmer texture and a lasting flavor of butter and grass. The region is also home to a bounty of goats, which produce the great ash streaked morbier and rich and tangy bucheron log.

My cheese plate (clockwise from top): Brillat-Savarin triple creme, Bucherondin goat log, Langres, unpasteurized Tomme Crayeuse mountain cheese, Marcel Petit Comte, Pascal Beillevaire Morbier, Epoisses, Bleu d'Auvergne. Depending on the day and time, most of these cheeses are available at The Pasta Shop. (You can buy me too!)

The deep fruit flavored cassis liqueur 

Making kir royales with cassis and a Cremant de Bourgogne bubbly

Another local specialty that's obtained prominence in the US is the kir royale, made from the blackcurrant liqueur creme de cassis. The story goes that Felix Kir, the mayor of Dijon during the first half of the 20th century, drank a very dry white wine called Aligote. One day, he decided to add cassis to sweeten it up a little and make it more palatable. While the original "kir" is made with white wine, the kir royale substitutes bubbly for some extra bling.

From left to right: 2009 Regnard Macon Rouge,
2009 Alex Gambal Bourgogne Pinot Noir, 2009 Joseph Drouhin Cote de Nuits Villages

An interesting point: Colette told us that the higher the wine's alcohol percentage, the harder it is to pair with cheese. Each of the three wines we tried - a chablis and two pinot noirs - hovered around 13 percent. My favorite was the center glass, a 2009 Alex Gambal Bourgogne pinot noir from Volnay. It was extremely smooth with ripe red fruit flavors. Its assertiveness stood up to the more powerful washed rind cheeses. It's also important to note that Burgundy is the home of pinot noir and chardonnay, and some of the most expensive wines in the world. They're the basis of California wine culture today. 

When you're drinking bubbly, your best bet is a triple creme bloomy rind cheese like this Brillat Savarin: heavenly moist fresh butter with a hint of lemon. One sliver is not enough!

Guerilla Marketing: Chive flowers and the Pacific East Mall

All I want for Christmas is some pork shank, pork butt, pork heart, hock, loin with skin on, bung, belly, ear, blood, brain, spare rib, snout, liver, kidney, marrow guts, pork tongue, tocino, something called pork melt?, and fish sauce on the side. (for stocking stuffers)

Fortunately you can get this for me all in one place... It's called The Pacific East Mall, and it's in Richmond. (Not the Richmond District, you snots, the actual city.) It's an ENTIRE MALL filled with Asian stores and restaurants, including milk tea joints, Banh Mi sandwiches and pho, pottery barns, dim sum, toys, candy, books, even a florist. 

I'm sorry if this is getting obnoxious, but I'm having trouble containing my enthusiasm. I LOVE THIS PLACE!!! It even has a Korean karaoke bar like Jaguar in Oakland, but apparently they serve drinks here. The mall is anchored by 99 Ranch Market, a gigantic grocery emporium that I later found was a chain with locations across the Bay and beyond. No matter: This place was bomb. I barely bought anything, but I spent hours wandering around taking photos, snacking on pork buns and Chinese olive candies, periodically using the bathroom, and reaching for my phone to check various social networks and websites/blogs I subscribe to and enjoy browsing. 

My most tangible goal was to find an obscure grocery product to write about for my new feature project, Guerilla Marketing. In the future, I'll explore the Bay's (mostly mom-and-pop) ethnic markets and seek out obscure ingredients. I started small with some eye-catching chive flowers this time, but hope to really eat some crazy shit. 

Anyway, I hope these pictures make you a tenth as excited as I am. Hit me up if you want to explore together! 

AROUND THE MALL: 

Candy Box is crammed with kitschy sweets and anthropomorphic backpacks 

Pockymania

product in the herbal store World Ginseng Herb Company

strange dolls in the dehydrated fruit store TW Bestway

Santy

ChinaVille, an upscale pottery shop, imports their intricate pieces from Jingdezhen, China, "the porcelain capital of the world."

cool sign in the bakery

urchins!

99 RANCH MARKET:

Fuzzy melons in the city of produce: looks like a squash, feels like a peach, tastes like a gourd. 

Sad

You can buy the fish this way...

Or this way...

This is the RAMEN aisle. This is all ramen. 

Of course I bought some. My favorite was this seafood Ottogi Ramyon with nori broth and super plump noods. Almost to the udon level-they were that fat. I threw in some springy shimeji shrooms I also purchased at The Ranch. 

Okay, here's where it gets sexy. These chive flowers caught my eye because they looked too ornamental to eat. Snappier and more durable than regular chives, they can stand on their own in a stir fry, or act as a secondary flavoring ingredient. (The flavor is somewhere between garlic and green onion.) I didn't realize it at the time, but in addition to being used throughout Asia, they also pop up in European/Cal-Med/bistro food around here. (Let's do it!) Here are some quick links showing how the flowers are used in different cultures...

Flowering chives in Thai food: with recipe for stir fry with shrimp and oyster mushrooms

courtesy of Thai Food and Travel Blog

Malaysian/Chinese mom's recipe for stir fried garlic chive flowers with frozen tofu

From Little Corner of Mine

Example of chive blossom fusion food, made in the Philippines

From PetitChef

But beware: they stink! After a couple days in the fridge, it became harder and harder to justify using them. So far, I've managed to plop them in ramen noodle stir fry, ravioli dinner- and when I discovered there was no garlic in the house- a Spanish aioli. I've still got more, for better or worse...

Everything but the kitchen sink - because it's filled with dishes and disgusting rotting food - ramen. I made this in a hurry, so it wasn't unbelievable. It's got egg, ham, shimeji mushrooms, nori and chive blossoms for some crispy zing

More successful: I boiled some ravioli from work (works best with more savory flavors like porcini mushroom, beef or gorgonzola cheese) and made a butter sauce with the Parmesan and the chives. Just heat butter on low and add ingredients as desired. The fatty butter and rich cheese tamper the zingy chive, giving you a simple sauce with sophisticated flavors. Top with arugula, and you've got yourself a fantasy! 

Egg porn Vol. 273

Scrambled eggs with blood sausage I picked up at the Bacalhau Grill and Trade Rite Market in San Jose's Portuguese neighborhood. So heavy, I'm not sure I'd cook it for breakfast again. But great for afternoon tapas, I suppose. The sausage was mushy, chewy INTENSE!

The back of a Chinese cookbook I found at the East
 Bay Depot For Creative Reuse. The stuff of dreams...

I'm sorry, I'm obsessed with eggs. My preferred protein- they score eleven out of ten on the cost/deliciousness dynamic. So easy to prepare, so rewarding. So gourmet. So succulent, sexxxy. For pure visual recreation, I thought I'd post some egg pics of late. Some are my recipes, and some are from restaurants. Whatever floats your boat. 

SIDE DIATRIBE: I'm all for poached eggs at gourmet restaurants/cafes, but seriously, it's just fashion people! The best bite of egg ever has to be the yolk of a sunny-side up. When it comes to the base, unadulterated pleasure of luscious yolk dripping all over your face and body, nothing else compares. I'd like to see more chefs channeling the fried egg. Go for it people!

I love making pizza from flatbreads. Just take whatever's in the fridge and throw it on there. This guy has tomato sauce, caramelized red onions, fried sage, black olives and my beautiful baby chicken embryo. Just plop it on there and bake for a few minutes. INSANE.

Day after Thanksgiving breakfast: fried egg on green bean casserole with bakkin'

The best breakfast in the whole world: microwaved jasmine rice packet from Oakland's Koreana Plaza,  miso butter (you cook miso paste with butter on low for a minute), seaweed and poached egg. They start off separate, but become a miso/rice/egg mush by the end. Yolky rice is happy rice.

I spotted these Chinese tea eggs at the Imperial Tea Court's booth at the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market. They're basically hard-boiled in tea! Seriously the best idea of all time. 

Pleasantly surprised by the huevos rancheros at Bette's Oceanview Diner, Fourth Street Berkeley. Egg was perfect texture: soft and supple. With baked chz and some decent tomatoey salsa. Fresh and fancy. Thank you. 

Petaloomin'

Taking a day off from slinging wheels of Epoisses, I set off to Petaluma last Tuesday to visit cowtopia: a 470-acre organic dairy farm in the breezy beautiful Chileno Valley. My cheesemonger friend and I were attending the inaugural BACA (Bay Area Cheesemonger's Association) meeting. 

The 130-cow operation, run by fourth-generation dairy farmer and most accommodating man in the world John Taverna, supplies milk to Cowgirl Creamery as well as the startup gelato makers Cremeux ex Machina (two people making gourmet gelato out of a shed on the property) among others. 

Rather than writing up a big old long thing, I thought I'd just post some pictures from the afternoon. Let's not kid ourselves: you're just here for the cow photos anyway. 

ON THE WAY:

Petaluma Pie Company, a cute pie place downtown, serves miniature sweet and savory pies, plus cold-brewed coffee.  

Spinach feta hand pie

THERE:

Although the majority of John's cows are Jersey, there are a couple of black Holstein's running around. This is what happens when the neighbor's bull hops over the fence to have some fun. 

cow porn

A baby cow born at 10 p.m. the night before. John's dairy cows actually spend the majority of their lives pregnant, averaging about 9 babies in a lifetime. 

The milking parlor, where the cows gather twice a day. John is a firm believer in simple, low-stress operations. When the cow is more comfortable, it gives higher quality milk. 

The cows determine their own schedule, walking through the gate when they're ready to be milked. 

When they're done, they walk out here and eat some hay. 

In front: the Chimney Rock cheese from Cowgirl Creamery. Just one of the seasonal Cowgirl cheeses made from his milk.  

Three domestic camemberts from Andre Artisan Cheese, also made with milk from Taverna Dairy. Erna Andre, a former biologist, makes the cheese at Swallow Valley Farm in Valley Ford and then ages them at different levels to attain varying textures. My favorite was the youngest, gooiest one.  

After lunch, John dished up scoops of pumpkin and Oreo ice creams he makes from the unpasteurized milk. Ice cream-making is one of his hobbies.  

I scream! 

Looks like cement, but this is actually a shot of  hypnotizing black sesame gelato from Cremeux ex Machina. The couple Alex Saneski and Jenny Ko moved over from New York to start their own company, getting closer to where the produce comes from. Right now they're experimenting and perfecting their menu on a single gelato machine. But they have big plans for the future...