October 2009 – Food Woolf

Culinary Tour of Michigan

I’m more than a little fixated on food. I work in the restaurant business. I write about food. Personal photo albums are dedicated to meals and ingredients. My wallet brims with receipts from restaurants. So it should be no surprise that my travel itineraries are structured to maximize breakfast, lunch, and dinner plans. When I hit the road, I’m always sure to go with an empty stomach, an open mind, and a stack of research on where to find the city’s best food. Give me a new city and I will give you a list of the top ten places to get food within just a few Google searches.

Over the past few years, I’ve had the great pleasure of becoming part of my husband’s Michigan-based family while eating my way through the south-east part of his home state. Lucky for me, my extended Michigan family appreciates my food-centric leanings and affection for culinary fact-finding missions. Thanks to my Michigan family and friends, I have discovered much of Michigan’s diverse food scene with nary a Google search.

After coming back from my fall trip to the Ann Arbor area, I decided to backtrack a little, to see what other people had to say about my favorite Michigan food destinations. After a good deal of research, I was surprised by the lack of comprehensive listings for such a culinary rich state. In hopes of making other food lovers aware of Michigan’s food traditions, I offer you this food tour round up.

Keep Reading for My Michigan Food Tour »

October 27

Cold Cure Cocktail

It’s cold season and everyone I know is suffering. The most recent flu bug—a nasty twist on a head cold with a sore throat, congestion, and undeniable exhaustion—is taking down the best of ’em. Even earnest, hand washing me.

I shouldn’t be surprised by my recent bout with a cold. When you work in a business that requires close contact with hundreds of people a day, it’s no wonder I’ve gotten sick. The flu shot and lots of hand washing helps, but sometimes the viruses that topple the ranks of fellow restaurant employees, wins.

So besides getting lots of rest, drinking plenty of fluids*, and eating chicken soup, my sick body has been craving another kind of cold cure. Bourbon, fresh lemon juice, and spicy peppers work its magic on burning away the final traces of a sore throat. Fill a tea pot with hot water, add freshly squeezed lemon juice, a shot of Buffalo Trace bourbon (or your favorite brown stuff) and sweeten the mix with a Jalapeño simple syrup. The drink’s warmth and fiery spice is the perfect late night answer to a cold cure. I’ve been feeling great ever since.

Continue Reading for my Cold Cure Cocktail »

October 15March 14

Moving from Blogger to WordPress

flowers cu

Home feels so much better after a really good clean. That’s true for this blog, too. Maybe you noticed a few changes. What’s different? Thanks to lots and lots of help, I ripped out all the old Blogger wiring and installed shiny, hi-tech Word Press tools to streamline the whole darn thing.

Along the way to making this blog a bit more pro-style, some things were lost (please re-sign up for my RSS Feed!!!). And some were gained (Yay, SEO! Stats! Organization!)

Truth be told, the actual move from Blogger to WordPress didn’t take that long–maybe two or three full days in front of a computer with a couple of tech savvy friends–but a whole lot of life got in the way. There were four months of waiting for the work of a designer I hired that, it turns out, actually had no intention of doing anything. A month to rebuild my confidence. And then, thanks to the nudging of my good friends Todd and Diane, I was able to realize I was playing the classic game of avoidance.

What was I afraid of? Other than flipping some switch and everything going *poof*, I feared the technology. Or more specifically, my lack of knowledge. So in order to get over my fear, I decided gut the thing myself. With LOTS of hand holding and guidance from my friends.

October 12November 14

Nancy Silverton's Focaccia Monday

Nancy Silverton—the woman that many call “the queen of bread” and the person I call my boss—is excited. “Have you tasted my focaccia?” she asks. I’m busy setting up the Amaro bar for a busy night’s service. There are four large buckets of ice needed for the well, a long list of wines to pull, and three kinds of citrus I have to hand juice before I can even think about taking a moment to focus on Nancy’s newest bread.

“You need to taste it,” she says. “We’re going to serve focaccia at Mozza to go every Monday. You should blog about this.”

Minutes later, Nancy appears with a thin, triangular slice of a roasted cherry tomato and herb foccia, just pulled from the oven. She watches me lift the focaccia to my mouth with an eagerness usually reserved for children just before they open a present.

“Do you like it?” she asks.

For more on Nancy Silverton’s Focaccia Monday »

October 11November 14

Know Your Audience

I had the good fortune of meeting an anonymous reader the other day. And not just any anonymous reader. A former anonymous reader.

It was late. I had put in a full shift behind the bar on a busy Friday night. It was nearly midnight when a woman in a wrinkled shirt and skull cap purposefully flopped onto a stool at my bar. Her posturing—the way she knowingly observed the closing servers as they criss-crossed the dining room and finished up odd bits of busywork—indicated that she was waiting for someone on staff.

That someone it turns out, was her girlfriend, my co-worker. The two of us were introduced as we counted money and processed the end of the night paperwork. The woman (I’ll call her “G”) made friendly banter until, just a few minutes into getting to know each other, she stunned me with a statement I wasn’t expecting.

“I used to read your blog,” she said. Her girlfriend shot G a look that almost looked like a wince.

“But then I stopped. It pissed me off too much.”

There was an uncomfortable silence. Upon seeing the stunned look on my face G added, conciliatorily, “It wasn’t just you. Your blog was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

To read more about

October 6January 4

Food Woolf Nominated for Foodbuzz ‘Best Writing Voice’ Award

I got the news today that I was nominated for Food Buzz.com’s food blogging award for “Best Writing Voice.” Amy, my editor at the LA Weekly’s food blog, emailed me with the news.

First of all, it should be stated that I still can’t believe I’m getting paid to write about food. Add to that, the fact that I’m getting paid to write about food at a Pulitzer Prize winning weekly newspaper that won that award for the incredible food writing of Mr. Jonathan Gold. Then, sprinkle on top of that, the fact that the only reason my food editor agreed to interview me for a job was because of the writing found here on this blog–it’s officially mind blowing what this blog has done for me.

I’m jump-up-and-down happy. Just typing the sentence “my editor emailed me the good news that I was nominated for Best Writing Voice” has my heart racing. I can’t believe it. It’s such an honor to be considered.

Continue Food Buzz Blog Awards »

October 5January 4

A Seafood Recipe–Inspired by an International Fish Market

The alarm went off at 6 AM—an uncharacteristically early wake up call for someone who waits tables past midnight. Eyes hazy from a lack of sleep, I stepped into the warm shower with dreamy thoughts of an early visit to an unfamiliar downtown market. Soon there would be coffee. And fish. Lots of fish.

International Marine Products

The day started early at International Marine Products (IMP), a small but world-class fish market open to restaurant professionals only. On the fringe of downtown Los Angeles, chefs from LA restaurants don hairnets or baseball hats while perusing the diverse selection of ice packed fish, mollusks, and shellfish.

Continue Razor Clam recipe »