Radish Salad and Pea Soup with Chevre

I never got any presents like a giant bag of just-picked radishes from my neighbors at 223 Manhattan Ave. But I came home to that a few days ago in my new city!

This is part of the reason San Francisco is The Best. 

I am on a radish kick right now, so I felt pretty bowled over and ready to stuff my face with this recipe I've been ogling: http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/11/recipe-of-the-day-radish-salad/

I also felt the need to put the kibosh on a bag of frozen peas now that fresh ones are all up in my space, so I whizzed them together with homemade veggie stock, fresh mint and a healthy dose of salt and pepper.

Finally, I got a riotously tasty fresh chèvre from Bi-Rite (thank you, girl with short hair, for the rec as I stared blankly at the cheese wall). I dolloped it on the soup and also smeared that all over a baguette (for good measure) and called this my first Perfect Spring Dinner of 2011.

The 22.5LB Wild Striped Bass: Part II

Here's the second meal from our friend, now affectionately known as Albert, the giant striped bass. I will admit to having turned up my nose to fish tacos almost all my life, but this was a game changer. Honestly, the fish wasn't remotely fishy or stinky, even when it got dredged in flour and some seasoning and then lightly fried. Fried fish! Under my own roof! Well, I never...

Then we splashed copious amounts of fresh lemon juice on the succulent little fish bits, and lots of lime on the avocado and cilantro and salted, julienned radishes and chopped onion (very, very conveniently, I had all of these on hand except for the avocado--in fact, having all these ingredients was my impetus for actually giving fried fish a go). Rounding out the lovely little color spectrum was a deep blue-gray tortilla and a chilly, pale pink Chinon rosé.

 

Tacos Without the Truck

I love me a taco. I love tacos sometimes more than I love pizza. And I love pizza a lot.

After living in Los Angeles for seven years, I got this taste for great tacos--preferably from trucks, preferably extra-greasy and absolutely smothered with cilantro and onions that came out of a plastic jug on the truck's side shelf. I can't find tacos like that here, so I have to make my own.

My refrigerator had a half a piece of steak leftover from the Farewell Winter meal, and I had a half a lime, some onion and fresh baby spinach in there, so all I had to buy was corn tortillas and cilantro... oh, and avocado, because I love those so much I could possibly live on them.

Pee Foods Key Foods has Chinantla tortillas which are made just literally down the street from me in Brooklyn, so I felt like a happy locavore buying them, and they're blue corn! These are pretty tasty when slightly charred over an open flame, but they're really tasty fried up in some vegetable oil until they're half-crisp, half-chewy-floppy.

I seasoned the steak with a bit of paprika, cumin, chili powder, cayenne and salt, sliced it really thinly so plenty of flavor coated each bite, and then really quickly heated it up in sauté pan.

All of the green ingredients and the onions were splashed with lime juice and some salt and black pepper before they were piled over the steak.

Add beer; the end.