Eric's demo at NW Bookfest
This morning I went to the Northwest Bookfest, partly to soak up the book vibe but also to see Eric Gower (a fellow member of the WELL's cooking conference) give a demo of some recipes from his new cookbook, The Breakaway Japanese Kitchen.
Mostly he demoed while giving us a piece of his mind about Japanese cooking in the US and in Japan, salt, combining flavors, brightening food with citrus, the importance of beautiful pottery, and the tragedy of eating good food without a good wine.
Sadly, the bookfest didn't have a health department permit to allow the audience to taste the dishes; but we got to take a look at them, anyway.
On the left is Ceviche Japonesa; on the right are some noodles with Edamame Mint Pesto.
I highly recommend the cookbook, by the way. I've made several dishes from it (including that edamame mint pesto), all of which have been excellent. One neat thing about the book is that although it's neither expressly a technique book, nor a book of quick recipes, it nevertheless does a good job of teaching techniques that can be used in other combinations, and nearly all of the recipes can be done in 30 minutes or less. Tasty food, quickly -- what could be better?
You can check out his website for some sample recipes and other good info.
Tomorrow: Brunch with more WELL folks, plus back to the Bookfest to see Tiffany read. What can I say, I lead a rich life.