Eatgeek is like a third child.  Kind of runs wild, acts out, does what it does because it lacks the attention of child #1 and child #2.  Child #1, of course, being my actual child, and child #2 being our artist/clothing business FLINC.  As third child, Eatgeek will likely start ditching school and smoking  doobies with that kid Ron with the mustache.  Maybe pick up a meth habit.  Till then, all I can offer it is architectural structures made out of pancake batter.

If you don’t like seared foie gras, then I can’t help you.  If you’ve never tried it and think it’s too luxurious, please know it is ridiculously easy to make at home and far cheaper than at any restaurant.  People will cry it’s so good.  Cry I tell you.

Foie gras is simply the fattened liver of a duck or goose.  The force feeding of these geese is well documented and we won’t go into that here.  But like everything, you should know the sacrifices your food makes from farm to mouth, and give thanks appropriately.

The first step is finding fresh foie gras.  You want to buy it raw, off the lobe, if possible (a whole lobe is 1 entire liver).  A whole lobe, should you be so bold, is about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 lbs. and runs about $75-$100.  Most of us will buy either half lobes or pre-cut slices.  The wimpy little number above is a 2 oz. piece.  A 4 oz. piece would be much nicer for you or your guests.

Once sliced, simply season with salt and sear the raw foie gras in a hot skillet over medium high heat.  The foie will immediately smoke and hiss and spit grease.  This means you’re doing it right.  It’ll also shrink a lot which will depress you seeing how much you paid for it.  Unfortunately, that’s how it goes.  The first side will probably be done in 30 seconds or less.  Flip and repeat using color as your guide.  Don’t overcook or the whole thing will just melt into a panful of very expensive oil.

Remove the foie as quickly as possible and drain on a paper towel.  Pour off about half of the fat and make a quick sauce.  I used a spoonful of orange marmalade and a splash of balsamic.  The sweet/sour really balances the fatty foie gras, but you can use anything — cherries, plums, sweet corn puree, port.  There are hundreds of variations.  I made a second serving with sauteed apples and it was a big hit.

Foie gras is an easy luxury that you can make tonight.  Go for it!

St. Patrick’s day is to meat and beer what Halloween is to letching and slutty clothes.  I’m not complaining.  But a line has to be drawn at green food!

No!

No!

Hell no!

Happy St. Patricks day, you secular lushes.  I’m personally celebrating with some corned beef silog.  Thanks, Jesse, for the inspiration

Via HSCL, her co-worker Jenn (hi Jenn!), Consumerist and various Tumblrs, SF’s current fast-food trend is apparently the Mc10:35.  The Mc10:35 is a mashup of a McDouble and and an Egg McMuffin made around 10:35 a.m, McDonald’s transition from breakfast to lunch.  It’s not really a secret menu item cause you make it yourself, but let’s not nitpick.

What everyone wants to know is, has anyone actually tried one?  What does it taste like?  An informal poll of my co-workers (who eat more McDonald’s than any set of co-workers I’ve ever had ) reveals both confusion and bewilderment.  Or, more succinctly, “Scott, what the f*ck are you talking about?”

Of course, the Mc10:35 shouldn’t be confused with the McDonald’s Japan “ハワイアンバーガー” (“Hawaiian Burger”)

Or the legendary Fatburger with Egg

Both HSCL and Jenn are abnormally excited about this, but I suppose everyone needs a dream.

UPDATE: Someone actually tries it and lives to tell the story.  Good man.

Leftover apritada (sorry, our camera had a tough time getting the colors right)Leftover riceSoft-scrambled eggsYummy yummy Spam (we didn’t have any Chinese sausage.  Well, not in the fridge, anyway.)Adding the eggsThe finished dishFinal addition: Lee Kum Kee sriracha.  Tastier than Huy Fong’s.Hot Jufran banana sauce.  Sweet and spicy, tastes nothing like bananas.

For my birthday, Wilson and Cristina decided to hasten the aging process by getting me two Boccalone salamis.  If your friends don’t buy you outrageously spicy, salty, fatty and expensive meat products for your birthday, are they really your friends?  I’m just saying, it’s something to think about.

Beautiful Boccalone kraft box

More beautiful Boccalone salamis

Still beautiful Boccalone salame

Almar cutting in.  It was quite the event.

Peeling the rind, which I really really liked.  We unfortunately (tipsily) left the salamis sitting in the sun and the rind got all soft and stinky, like ripe cheese.  We drunkenly called Cristina asking her if this was right, but Almar was already eating before she could say, “Uh…no.”

Hurry up!

Happy mouth

Check out Boccalone’s Chris Cosentino demonstrating how to slice salami.  Having a meat slicer would be awesome.

As a new dad, I can’t tell you how many times someone’s asked me if I’ve tried breast milk.  What kind of question is this?  My wife’s or other women’s?

Well, apparently, Daniel Angerer of NYC’s Klee decided to kick it up a notch and make cheese out of his wife’s.  He even provided a recipe.  How thoughtful!

City authorities sagely note, “The restaurant knows that cheese made from breast milk is not for public consumption,”  lest there be a stampede.

via Breast milk cheese on the menu in New York | Richard Adams | World news | guardian.co.uk.  Thanks, Julia.

Take four cups of breast milk, add rennet, salt and yoghurt – yes, four cups of breast milk, according to a recipe created by New York chef and restaurateur Daniel Angerer, who posted his formula for maple caramelized pumpkin encrusted cheese on his blog, and offered “whoever wants to try it is welcome to try it as long as supply lasts”.

Angerer runs the Manhattan restaurant Klee, and the breast milk is supplied by his wife and restaurant co-owner Lori Mason after the couple found they had an excess supply in their freezer intended for their baby daughter Arabella. Angerer explained on his blog:

“My spouse is feeding our baby with breast milk. We are fortunate to have plenty of pumped mommy’s milk on hand and we even freeze a good amount of it – my spouse actually thinks of donating some to an infant milk bank which could help little babies in Haiti and such but for the meantime (the milk bank requires check-ups which takes a little while) our small freezer ran out of space. To throw it out would be like wasting gold.”

So Angerer decided to experiment – “my over-stuffed home freezer and my natural cooking instincts made me think of making cheese out of (human) mother’s milk” – and posted the results on the internet.

“I was concerned a little bit with the thought of making cheese out of mother’s milk,” he wrote. “I wondered if it was ethnical – since I haven’t seen it on any restaurant menu yet. Conclusion – my spouse agreed – our baby has plenty back-up mother’s milk in the freezer so whoever wants to try it is welcome to try it as long as supply lasts (please consider cheese aging time).”

Angerer told the Toronto Star that customers at his restaurant have been asking to try the cheese and he has prepared some amuse-bouche – canapé of breast-milk cheese with figs and Hungarian pepper – but that he has no plans to sell it: “That weirds me out,” he said.

Of the two batches he’s made so far, the first tasted salty-sweet and the second was slightly spicy. “It depends on what my wife has eaten. That directs the flavour,” (eatgeek’s emphasis) he told the Star.

Lori Mason says the couple have been criticised for the recipe. “I think a lot of the criticism has to do with the combination of sex and cheese, but … the breast is there to make food,” she told the New York Post.

According to the Post, city authorities have told the restaurant to keep its breast milk cheese away from customers. “The restaurant knows that cheese made from breast milk is not for public consumption, whether sold or given away,” a spokeswoman for the city’s department of health said.

Two years ago the animal rights organisation Peta approached Ben and Jerry’s ice cream company with the idea of using breast milk instead of cow’s milk. That was too much even for the famously liberal Ben and Jerry’s, which turned it down.

The full recipe is on Angerer’s blog. Here’s the ingredients:

My Spouse’s Mommy Milk Cheese Making Experiment

(basic recipe using 8 cups of any milk – yields about ½ pound cheese)

• 4 cups mother’s milk
• 1½-teaspoon yogurt (must be active cultured yogurt)
• 1/8-tablet rennet (buy from supermarket, usually located in pudding section)
• 1 teaspoon sea salt

Spring greens, tomatoes, spicy tuna and a poorly poached egg.

Eatgeek’s moved servers, finally.  This will hopefully let us update much more frequently.  We’re also removing all the spam comments from the site.  Many of them are offensive, and if anyone’s going to be offending you, it’s us.  Please excuse the missing images and funny characters.  We’ll be cleaning up as we go.

Oh, Padma?  Yeah, she didn’t have anything to do with this post.