Food, Wine and Travel ... With Recipes: TableConversation.com

Hail to the Mushroom King

My mushroom repertoire has been pretty limited. Mostly ordinary button mushrooms and, occasionally, dried shiitakes for Asian dishes.

It would have stayed that way, if I hadn’t met up with king trumpet—not a jazz musician but a meaty cultivated wild mushroom from Japan.

Tall and thick, with a small cap, king trumpet does what buttons don’t. It holds its shape when cooked. Buttons turn dark, thin and flabby and send out a lot of liquid. This is not a complaint. I love their flavor. But I like the way king trumpets retain their texture. And they don’t discolor a sauce because they are pale and don’t weep.

King trumpets are here now, along with three comrades—white and brown beech,which look like clusters of round buttons, and meaty, brown, flat-topped maitake.By next year, they’ll be around in massive abundance.

Hokto Kinoko Corporation, Japan’s largest mushroom  producer, is joining with specialty mushroom producer Golden Gourmet Mushrooms to build a plant in northern San Diego County. Scheduled to be completed by the end of Decmeber, this facility will yield an amazing six million pounds annually of the four mushrooms.

Perhaps this new source will help Americans catch up with the Japanese, who consume 26 pounds of mushrooms per person a year. We are way back in that race with only four pounds annual consumption.

A tasting at One Sunset on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles introduced such dishes as new style sushi, a roll of tuna, beech mushrooms and shiso wrapped in thin cut beef, and a cute parchment box that contained what looked like paella without the rice—shrimp, mussels, Spanish chorizo and king trumpets.

These are chef dishes, more complicated than most people could, or would, make. A simple mushroom sauce is more my speed. Specifically, chicken breasts with a creamy, wine-flavored sauce that incorporates sliced king trumpets.

The recipe isn’t mine—I borrowed it from a friend, Barbara Swain, whose cookbook, “Intimate Dining,” is one of my staples. In that book, she suggests mushrooms as an alternative to grapes for chicken Veronique.

Good idea. And I lavishly upped the amount of king trumpets, like showering attention on a new friend. No problem with putting in so many. The flavor is delicate. And the dish is not only delicious but super easy to make.

CHICKEN WITH KING TRUMPET SAUCE
Based on a recipe in “Intimate Dining: Memorable Meals for Two” by Barbara Swain (Fisher Books)

2 half chicken breasts, skinned and boned
½ to 1 cup sliced king trumpet mushrooms
2 tablespoons butter, clarified preferred
2 tablespoons dry white wine, dry vermouth or dry sherry
1/4 to ½ teaspoon dried leaf tarragon
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ to ½ cup whipping cream

Rinse the chicken breasts and pat dry with paper towels. Slice the mushrooms crosswise and set aside.

Heat a medium skillet over medium heat.  Add the butter and swirl to melt and coat evenly. Add the mushrooms and sauté until slightly softened, about 2 minutes.

Place the chicken breasts in the pan and sauté until lightly browned on each side, turning once, about 8 minutes.

Add the wine, tarragon and salt. Cover and simmer slowly 5 minutes. To test doneness, press a finger into the thickest part of the chicken breast. The meat should spring back. Do not overcook.

Place the chicken breasts on a plate and keep warm by covering with the skillet lid.

Quickly boil the pan juices until syrupy. Add the cream and boil until lightly thickened, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in any juices that have drained from the chicken. Arrange on 2 plates and spoon the sauce over.

Makes 2 servings.

Sake and Such at Angeli Caffe

Angeli Caffe was jammed last Thursday, the night allotted to special dinners apart from the restaurant’s regular menu.

This time, it was Japanese food paired with sake produced in Oregon, a novelty that alone could have drawn a crowd.

After a sweet, floral appetizer sake, Guest chef Jet Tila started the dinner with miso soup–not the bland, yellowish stuff that I always push aside in Japanese restaurants, but soup so good I wanted more.

This one was made with red miso and dashi (Japanese soup stock) prepared from scratch, not from instant granules.  Shimeji mushrooms and seaweed strands gave it substance.

SakeOne’s Silver, poured with the soup, seemed dry and crisp at first, but became softer and sweeter as it interreacted with the flavors of the soup.

Three beautiful pieces of nigiri sushi came next, topped with tuna, salmon and sweet, chewy eel. No need to drown these in pools of soy sauce or overpower them with wasabi. Tila had brushed each with its own sauce and tucked in a dash of fresh wasabi root, making three perfectly seasoned packages.

Medium dry Diamond, which accompanied the sushi, could go well with non-Asian dishes such as pasta--anything with which you would serve a white wine, said Dewey Weddington, SakeOne’s vice president of marketing. All the sakes were served slightly chilled. Heating destroys the flavor, he pointed out.

Next came the salad course--platters of firm tofu wedges covered with bonito flakes, thinly sliced cucumber and strands of nori (dried seaweed). The distinctive ingredient in the dressing was seasoned sesame powder.

SakeOne’s Pearl, a creamy, cloudy, sweet sake, paired well with the light, sweet flavors of this dish.

Black cod marinated in fermented sake lees (kasu) arrived next, on platters of soba noodles. Sake One’s Ruby showed floral and fruity components as well as crisp notes—good for fish with slightly sweet components.

G, an undiluted sake in a chunky, macho bottle (the others were in graceful, slim bottles), accompanied Tila’s “homestyle teriyaki,” chicken marinated with soy sauce and mirin, presented on a bed of rice cooked with shiitake mushrooms, wine and dashi.

Dinner then ended with bowls of green tea and taro frozen yogurt dotted with bits of chewy mochi (rice cakes).

To learn more about Angeli Caffe’s Thursday dinners, go to www.angelicaffe.com. The restaurant is located at 7274 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046. Tel: (323) 936-9086.

SakeOne, the only American-owned and operated sake brewery, offers free tours of its facilities at Forest Grove, just outside Portland, Oregon. For more information, go to www.sakeone.com.

A Visit to Valpo

This is really scary. I can see through cracks in the floor boards to the steeply pitched rails beneath the little car in which I am riding. What if it should cut loose, plunge off the side or hurtle me to the bottom?

Ahhh. It reaches the top, the door opens, and I head out for a magnificent view of the harbor of Valparaiso, once Chile’s greatest port.

The harbor looks busy, but its heyday was long ago.  The opening of the Panama Canal put an end to the long voyage around the tip of South America, diverting ships far north of Valparaiso.

Although named a UNESCO World Heritage Site, this historic and picturesque city plays second fiddle to glamorous Vina del Mar next door. Tour groups go there for lunch after catching a few highlights of Valpo.

In order to see more, I have avoided the tours and taken an early morning bus from Santiago. My goal is to ride the historic ascensores (funiculars) that climb the dramatic hills upon which the city is built.

Constructed in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the ascensores are lovingly tended and, I presume, safe. More than a dozen still operate. The one I’ve just ridden goes up Cerro Artilleria (cerro means hill).

At the top, stalls sell tourist trinkets. A single restaurant has posted its lunch menu. And history buffs hike further to the Museo Naval y Maritimo (naval and maritime museum).

Another 250 pesos takes me down, and I board a bus to Ascensor Concepcion. “Tell the driver you want to go to Turri,” advises a woman at the bus stop, because that is the local name. This hill seems even steeper, but the trip is mercifully short.

Cerro Concepcion offers a cluster of inns, restaurants and cafes and a long walkway with benches where one can relax and enjoy the view. Still, I have been warned not to wander heedlessly, and I avoid an empty street where I see an individual I don’t trust.

Other tourists tell me that residents have directed them away from questionable areas and advised them to keep cameras hidden. Down below, I skirted two drunks as I headed toward a bus stop.

Downtown seems run down, and the houses that I have seen in the hills look flimsy and weathered, like homes perched above the ravines in Tijuana.

For lunch, I go to Café Turri on Cerro Concepcion, near the funicular terminal. This restaurant is in another world from what I have seen.  Modern, airy and upscale, it could well be on a hill in San Francisco or in an exclusive part of Santa Barbara.

View windows look out to a broad terrace and the sea beyond, but it is too cold to sit outside, although other tourists clamor for these tables.

Lunch is elegant. Fish (reineta) has a creamy seafood sauce that incorporates oysters, shrimp, mussels and razor clams. The potato gratin that the waiter suggests is just right with this.

I ask for a red wine, and he brings De Martino Legada Reserva Carmenere 2006 from the Maipo Valley.

Dessert is a Chilean classic, mote con huesillo, or cooked wheat with whole preserved peaches. In this upscale rendition, it becomes Vanidad Porteno (portenos are inhabitants of this port city) and is paired with a glass of late harvest wine, Casa Silva Semillon Gewurztraminer 2006 from the Colchagua Valley.

Another 250 pesos, and I am back down, map in hand, walking to an ascensor nearby.  But I get lost in the warren of twisting streets and never find it. Instead, I come across an artisanal fair and buy a jar of merquen, a spicy red pepper seasoning that originated with the indigenous Mapuches of the south.

Another booth has chumbeque, a traditional sweet from Iquique made of  flaky cookies blended with  lime juice and cane syrup. And another has fancy handmade chocolates.

Continuing on, I see grand, faded, European style buildings from Valparaiso’s glory days. A market street is congested—produce stalls, bakeries, empanada shops and a woman nodding in a chair beside a table of goods for sale.

Farther on is a line of stalls aimed at local trade, piled with alpaca scarves and caps for the cold weather to come, cheap jewelry, snacks and, although it is May (autumn in Chile), nativity scenes from Peru.

A bus takes me on a swirling ride around the hills, passing a sign for La Sebastiana, the house of the poet Pablo Neruda, which is now a museum. 

I visited the house on a previous trip, so I don’t get off. On that trip, I stopped only long enough to see La Sebastiana and to have a quick coffee at a famous café of the past, Café Riquet (now closed). One of its customers was the Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet, or so a taxi driver told me. Pinochet was born in Valparaiso.

This time, instead of rushing in and out, I have wandered for many hours. Walking to the bus stop, I pass a pet food shop with hungry mutts clustered outside, modest lunch rooms and a bakery where frosting flows over cakes like folds of fabric.

Near the Parque Italia, a tree-lined square, I see a lively stall that sells obleas colombianas, and I buy one for the trip home. The tissue-thin wafers (obleas) are put together with arequipa, which is luscious, soft, Colombian style milk caramel.  It is a sweet finish to an interesting day, and in only an hour and a half, I am back in Santiago.

Touring Valparaiso.

Tur-Bus goes every 15 minutes from Santiago to Valparaiso. Buses are comfortable and seats are reserved. The ticket office in Santiago is inside the Universidad de Santiago Metro terminal.  A round trip ticket costs about $8.

The O microbus will take you around the hills of Valparaiso, affording good views of the harbor if you sit on the right. Board this bus on Francia just past Colon, above Parque Italia.

Ascensor rides are 250 pesos each way. Go armed with a map, a guidebook and enough Spanish to ask directions.   

Mosby's Classic American 4th

The sky was slightly misty, or was it smoke from the fires ranging around Santa Barbara? Still, the sun shone brightly on Mosby Winery’s annual Independence Day celebration and flag retirement ceremony last Saturday in Buellton.

Guests gathered in the patio behind Mosby’s historic adobe house to snack on spicy buffalo sausages, olives, cheese, salsa and chips and listen to country music.

Chicken and ribs were grilling over red oak out back, sending tempting aromas toward the visitors, most of them wearing red, white and blue.

The menu: A classic Fourth of July spread of chicken, ribs, green salad, potato salad, boiled sweet corn, beans, garlic bread and, for dessert, a cake frosted with a replica of the American flag.

A dry spice rub added zesty flavor to the meats, and the chicken picked up even more flavor from steaming over beer, garlic and herbs after it was grilled.

There was plenty of wine too, poured at a bar shaded by grape vines.

Guests held up souvenir glasses etched with winemaker Bill Mosby's signature for tastes of Mosby Cortese, La Donna white wine, which is a blend of Cortese and Chardonnay, and a deeply colored Italian red, Ossessione, made from Montepulciano grapes.

Mosby (in the photo below) supervises the making of Ossessione in Italy, where he controls a vineyard in the Marche. The wine is bottled there, then shipped here. Only 400 casess were made of Ossessione 2005, the first release and the wine served at the party.

“It’s like a very well extracted Zinfandel or Sanviovese,” says Mosby, who specializes in Cal-Italian wines. He recommends it with robust dishes such as game, roast beef and sauerbraten. However, it went just fine with chicken and ribs.

After lunch, partygoers stood quietly for a moving rendition of taps followed by the burning of worn flags, supervised by a military honor guard from Vandenberg Air Force Base.  Retired military officers and parents of servicemen deployed in Iraq carried the flags to the fire.

To get on the list for next year’s barbecue or to order wine, call 1(800) 70-Mosby. Or email to mosbywines@yahoo.com. Cortese is $18; La Donna is $14, and Ossessione is $26. The winery is located at 9496 Santa Rosa Road, Buellton, CA. 933427-9482, just off Highway 101.

A Fun Place to Eat Fish

Going to Donde Augusto is like stepping into a carnival where raucous  barkers try to collar you for every sort of attraction.

This restaurant is in Santiago’s Mercado Central, which houses a lively fish market, an abundance of cafes, produce displays, spice sellers and much more.

The building alone is worth the trip for architecture buffs. They can inspect an airy wought iron superstructure that dates from the 19th century.

Inside, prospective customers face a barrage of invitations to buy. It would be nice to take home some of this glorious seafood—fresh scallops on the half shell, mussels, oysters, clams and fish such as corvina and dorado. But we kitchenless travelers can only admire, then head for one of the cafes to eat our fill.

Donde Augusto is the best known and most touristy, but I always eat there, because it has a balcony, from which I can look down on strolling musicians, families assembling at tables on the ground floor, waiters juggling trays of food, colorful heaps of fruits and vegetables, and a nonstop swirl of shoppers.

I always start with the same dish—locos with mayonnaise and potato salad. Locos are often confused with abalone, so it seems like a bargain when you get two thick, tender, sweet chunks of this pale shellfish for about $15.

However, locos are totally different. They are carnivores, whereas abalones are herbivores. Wild harvested deep off the coasts of Chile and Peru, where they cling to rocks and subsist on sea life, they consist of a single shell with tempting, delicious flesh.

Waiting for the locos, I have a pisco sour, the most popular drink in Chile as well as in Peru. The waiter, who is Chilean, confesses that he thinks pisco sours are tastier in Peru, but this one is good enough for me.

To accompany the cocktail, there are salty, flat,  glazed rolls called hallullas and fresh salsa, the pebre to which Chileans are addicted.

The locos plate is a good advertisement for Chilean produce as well as seafood.  The butter lettuce leaves are springy and super fresh. So is the tomato slice. And the potato salad is light and well made, dressed with the same intensely yellow mayonnaise as the locos.

When seafood is this good, I can’t stop at one dish, and so I order machas parmesana—razor clams on the half shell with creamy Parmesan topping. Twelve half shells seem a lot, but they are gone in a flash.

For dessert, I want something cool and refreshing, like helado de chirimoya—cherimoya ice cream. Marbled with orange sherbet, the ice cream is a good choice, and I spoon it up slowly so that I can spend a few more moments drinking in the vibrant scene below.

Donde Augusto, Mercado Central Local 66/166, Santiago, Chile. Tel: (56-2) 672-2829. To get there, take Line 2 of the Metro to Puente Cal y Canto. As you emerge from the terminal, you will face the large building that houses the Mercado.