After spending a glorious weekend in Capitola, my honey and I stopped in Half Moon Bay for an impromptu lunch. We stuffed our faces full of deep-fried tacos a la Flying Fish Grill and then checked out a local fish market across the street called Half Moon Bay Fish Market. For those faint of heart, do not venture further…

This little mom and pop shop is brimming with tanks full of live lobster, crabs and shrimp and the ground is lined with crates full of fish of every size. I made the rookie mistake of wearing flip-flops and got my toes wet with slimey seawater and fish scum. Oh and the smell…I had to cover my nose with my sweater. Needless to say, this place ain’t Whole Foods but the fish is fresh!!

I chatted briefly with one of the fishmongers who told me that the majority of their seafood is caught or sourced locally. There is a wide selection, ranging from the mundane salmon to the slightly more exotic sea bass. We ended up with a pound and a half (which set us back about $18) of fresh, local halibut.

Later that evening, we prepared Chili-Glazed Halibut with Avocado Tomatillo Sauce and it was absolutely delicious!

If you’re ever in the hood, I definitely recommend checking out this quaint fish market! There’s also a small shop next door with fruit and vegetables and pantry staples.

Last weekend, for a regularly scheduled weekend adventure, Kele and I headed out to D.C to visit his grandparents and catch a ball game. Our San Francisco Giants (you can take the girl out of the city, but you can’t turn me into an East Coast sports fan just yet) took on the Washington Nationals. After a day full of hot dogs, beers, and fly balls skimming my head, my old friend called and asked for a next-morning date at the local farmer’s market in Dupont Circle. Of course I jumped at the chance.

And WOW. I was the grownup version of a kid in a candy store, with my wide eyes and my mouth salivating as I took it all in. Peaches and summer squash and sweet corn overflowed every stall. Fresh seafood and grass-fed meat sat near homemade breads and just-made empanadas. It wasn’t a gigantic market – like my beloved Marin Farmers Market – but the quality and variety in every stall made it hands down the best market I’ve visited since leaving the West Coast! Every grower I talked to was helpful, the prices were remarkable, and the produce looked to be some of the freshest I’ve seen.  Plus, it was full of locals, unlike NYC’s Union Square Market and San Francisco’s Ferry Building Market, which are great but often overrun by tourists….so here you could actually buy great food at amazing prices, rather than just coming as a look-e-loo!

If you ever find yourself in our nation’s capitol, check out the Dupont Circle Farmers Market, a must stop for any market-lover. Oh, and if you’re looking for a nearby spot for a delish meal, try Founding Farmers, a “farm-inspired American” restaurant focused on supporting local farmers. The prices are reasonable and it boasts adorable décor. I had the slow-cooked pork sandwich on homemade ciabbata bread and a late harvest salad, both highly recommended!

If you’re trying to eat locally or seasonally, then you’re undoubtedly basking in summer’s bounty right now! There is so much amazing fruit to be had that you might have forgetten all of the dreary days in winter when you were relegated to only eating citrus and pears.

Stone fruit – above all other summer produce – holds a special place in my heart, which is why I’m totally in love with Frog Hallow farm, an organic farm located on the Sacramento River Delta. This 133-acre farm produces 25 varieties of peaches, nectarines, cherries, apricots, pluots, plums, as well as pears and grapes later in the year. They supply fruit to restaurants like Chez Panisse as well as local farmer’s markets, including the Ferry Building, Castro and Inner Sunset locations.

I spent some time at their stand pestering the workers about the different apricot varieties. The staff couldn’t be nicer as they explained all of the nuances between the types. Ultimately, I ended up with an assortment, which I transformed into Apricot Chutney (check back on Friday).

Here are the three I picked out:

• Golden Sweet – The name says it all. This is the sweetest variety, delicious eaten while still warm from the sun! When I was in the booth, a customer took home a whole 10-pound box. He told me he makes jam with this variety every summer and it is to die for. Yes, please!

• Blenheim – This is a new variety for Frog Hallow. It is the same size as the Golden Sweet variety, but not as sweet. It’s great for jam or chutney.

• Robada – These babies are pretty big when it comes to apricot standards. As such, they are also the most bitter. They have a beautiful color and are great for savory purposes, like bread stuffing.

When did gardening become cool again? (My dad will cock his head perplexed when he reads this, wondering when it ever wasn’t cool.) But seriously, gardening is almost as trendy as my new jeggings, as evidenced by the growing number of urban gardens and people’s growing desire to eat more local. In fact some 37% of households plan to expand their gardens this year, including replacing their front lawns with vegetable gardens, according to the Garden Writers Association.

Companies are growing green thumbs as well. Large companies, like PepsiCo, Kohl’s, Google, and Toyota have started organic gardens at the workplace, according to NYT. These companies, and others, have converted unused “park” landscape or rooftop decks into gardens that are maintained by employees. It’s an ingenious way to make use of neglected or unproductive space, as well as give employees a new way to work together.

Shortly after I read this article, I got an email from my company’s HR department announcing our very own workplace garden! So exciting! They transformed a rarely visited rooftop terrace into a small, but sparkling urban garden. It’s a real gem, I have to say. I am especially in love with all of the creative ways they optimized the space, like the gutters strung along the deck railing filled with herbs (pictured above). Genius!

This hanging fabric contraption serves as a cozy home for more herbs.

This large pot holds baby lettuces.

And this horse trough thing gives tomatoes plenty of room to grow.

All in all, it’s a tiny space but a great place to enjoy lunch or pick herbs for dinner later on!

After a year and a half, I finally decided to call it quits with my CSA Farm Fresh To You. Like most relationships, it started off hot and heavy. My initial boxes were always eagerly overflowing with sumptuous, ripe fruit, crisp vegetables and even love letters from the owner. But, in the past few months, things have turned sour. Literally. Sometimes my lettuce arrives wilted and many times I’m disappointed with the lack of variety. Christina also received some decidedly non-local items as well.

Needless to say, I’m excited to introduce you to my new CSA – Capay Valley Farm Shop! We’re still getting to know each other, but even after one box I can tell that we have a long future together!

Although all of the produce comes from the same region as my last box, the selection is more diverse and seems a fresher, perhaps because it’s a collaboration between several farms and ranches. (Read some adorable bios about them here).  It’s also seems less expensive – $24 for a “bushel” compared to $25 for a “Small Mixed” .

But, unlike Farm Fresh to You, they don’t deliver to customers’ homes. Instead, they deliver to a handful of centralized locations – mostly large corporate offices – around the Bay area. It’s still convenient; I simply pick up my box in my mailroom every other Friday instead of having it delivered to my front door – a fair tradeoff to save a few bucks each month.

The other tradeoff is selection. Farm Fresh to You has 20 different box types to select from, whereas Capay Valley Farm Shop only has two – a “peck” or a “bushel”. But, they do have some cool add-on options like nuts, olive oil and spices. I’m planning to add eggs to my box next month!

If you work for a large company and know your coworkers may be interested, try contacting Capay Valley Farm Shop. They may be open to delivering to your office as well!

Last weekend, Kele and I ventured out to Governer’s Island as part of our “explore one new thing” each weekend plan. Just a short 5-minute ferry ride from Manhattan landed us on the small gem of an island that has been the home to many-a-historic-event in the United States’ political past.  But it wasn’t the history, the perfect 80 degree weather, or the perma-view of the Statue of Liberty while we lounged in recliners that made the day a dream come true, it was the Blue Marble Ginger ice cream.

Blue Marble Ice Cream started just three short years ago in Brooklyn, and since has made a permanent appearance at the beloved Brooklyn Flea, became the featured ice cream at the U.S. Open and has a one-man-stand that serves up cones on Governer’s Island. They make their ice cream in small batches on a Hudson Valley NY farm using certified organic grass-fed dairy and organic sugar, their website boasts. And they source their fairy from Natural by Nature in Lancaster County, PA. Trust me, you can taste that this ice cream came from happy cows!

Ice cream is EVERYWHERE in New York. Honestly, I’ve eaten more ice cream in the last six weeks than I have in the last two years. So it was refreshing to stumble upon Blue Marble when I’ve been inundated with Pinkberry and ice cream trucks everywhere I turn. This is one ice cream shop I’ll be supporting for a long time. (New Yorkers, I’ve only tried ginger but let me know what I need to try next on my next visit!)

A few weeks ago, I spent a glorious evening alongside Chef Thomas McNaughton of flour + water learning how to make homemade pasta. flour + water happens to be one of my favorite restaurants in the city, so of course I nearly fell off my chair when I found out Thomas was going to teach a class on how to make his house specialty. Also, since I’ve never made pasta, I figured his class would be the perfect introduction!

We started off the class by making ricotta, which we later combined with fresh herbs and seasonings for the pasta filling. Basically, you bring milk, cream and salt to a “rolling” boil and then add some lemon juice and simmer over low heat until the mixture curdles. Sounds and looks gross. But, after you strain away the liquid, you’re left with delicious, unbelievably delicate ricotta that can be used for a number of recipes (or eaten plain).

But, back to the good part – homemade pasta. Chef Thomas taught us to make tortelloni, a rectangular, stuffed pasta that looks similiar to ravoli, using three simple ingredients: flour, egg, and salt.  Here are some tips about the ingredients:

• Flour: Use any type of flour (wheat, white, etc.) so long as it is “00″ flour. “00″ refers to how finely it is ground and is available at specialty markets. “1″ or “0″ grinds are more coarse.
• Eggs: Only the freshest, highest quality eggs will do. Chef Thomas uses eggs from Marin Sun Farms, which sells eggs at at the San Francisco or Marin farmer’s markets, or through their CSA.

Beside sharing his secret recipe, Chef Thomas passed along some other helpful tips on how to make pasta:

• Knead, knead, knead! The longer you knead a pasta, the better it will taste. Chef Thomas claims that his staff knead dough no less than 45 minutes before rolling, cutting and cooking it. Fortunately, the people in my class took turns, but even after 5 minutes of kneading by arms were spent!

• For stuffed pastas, roll the dough thin. It’s important that the stuffing isn’t overpowered by thick dough. You can use thicker cuts of pasta for spaghetti and other noodle-shaped pasta.

• Dress the pasta simply. Chef Thomas likes to let the pasta shine through by accompanying it with a simple butter sauce. Yum!

If you have tinkered with the idea of making pasta, grab a group of 3-4 friends together and make a night of it. It’s takes some arm work, but it’s fun and sooo rewarding!

This weekend, Kele and I partook in back-to-back nights of gorging ourselves. It all started late last week when I discovered that just across the street from our new apartment, the third annual New Taste of the Upper West Side would take place over the weekend. Bringing together more than 40 of the UWS’s best chefs under one roof plus getting a chance to taste a little bit of EVERYTHING in our new ‘hood, how could we resist?

The first night, Divine Desserts, was dedicated to sweets and was hosted by well-known pastry chef Jacques Torres. As an NYC newbie Im still learning who is who in the food world, but the night’s other heavy hitters included: Vera Tong of Dovetail, Jerry Thornton of Compass, Pichet Ong of Spot Dessert Bar & Village Tart,  Magnolia Bakery,  and Alice’s Teacup.

I can easily say I haven’t eaten that much sugar in such a concentrated amount of time in a very, very long time (except for the occasional sour candy binge before my eating habit conversion). But the sugar coma and subsequent sugar hangover was well worth some of the delectable things we tasted. The vibe of the night was WAY too much of a party scene for my liking and the majority of desserts were really good but not mind blowing…but those that did leave a lasting impression were from:

-Telepan – a high end restaurant that focuses on seasonal menus and works with Wellness in the Schools, a grass roots organization dedicated to children’s environmental health, nutrition and fitness in the NYC public schools – served up an insanely delicious buttermilk panna cotta with rhubarb sorbet, rhubarb soup and sesame seed tuile. (It’s on their restaurant dessert menu at the moment, go try it while it’s still around!)

-Soutine Bakery, coined “a little slice of Paris in NYC”, treated us to cocoa powder and semisweet chocolate philo dough filled with silky smooth custard. If I had an espresso in my other hand to accompany the treat, I’d have been in heaven. This is one bakery I must visit as everything looks beyond delish (ie homemade croissants).

-At Grandaisy Bakery (formerly Sullivan St Bakery) I grabbed a rum soaked brioche bread pudding with caramel sauce, which was my last treat of the evening and made it worth all of the night’s calories combined. Plus, the bakery uses locally sourced ingredients and seasonal fruits, so it’s FandFP approved!

-And finally, while not seasonal (unless there is a magic banana tree nearby) or over-the-top innovative, we tasted a Banana Pudding from Buttercup Bake Shop that featured spot on texture and taste.

So there you have it. And that was just our favorites….you can only imagine how many sweet bites we tasted before I could narrow it down to these.  All in the name of research.

Tune in on Thursday when I’ll give a rundown of my favorites from Saturday night’s event. (Sorry about the crappy photo, I didn’t bring my camera on the first night. Blame a bad phone camera!)

What’s the best way to make somebody hungry? Stick them in a theater with three all-star chefs and talk about food for two hours – that’s how! A few nights ago, I had the pleasure of listening to Thomas Keller (The French Laundry, Per Se, Ad Hoc), Michael Mina (Michael Mina restaurant, Aqua, RN74), and Traci Des Jardins (Jardiniere, Mijita, Public House) talk about “the way they eat now” (or at least that is what the program was titled). I loved seeing these chefs out of their comfort zone and on stage! Michael was surprisingly docile, while Thomas – unsurprisingly – bossy and opinionated. Traci held back most of the time.

One topic that got them all talking, however, was the differences between East and West coast cuisine – which felt especially pertinent now that Farm & A Frying Pan is bi-coastal. All of the chefs, who have experience working on both coasts, agree on a few key points:

1. Northern California has the best produce in the country – hands down. Thomas Keller especially believes the “product” (aka fruits, vegetables, etc) available in the region contribute to and “inspire” amazing cuisine.
2. East coast restaurants focus more on technique and presentation, while West coast restaurants care more about the “soul” of the menu. A good example of this is Napa. Where else in the world do people solely visit just to drink and eat? It’s not like Napa holds an annual jazz festival or something; people come just for the pleasure of dining.
3. West coasters cook more than their East coast counterparts and, as a result, demand higher quality ingredients. Traci argues that this is because West coasters shop for ingredients and have a closer relationship with their food.

Any East coast peeps out there who disagree? I don’t want to misrepresent.

Towards the end of the discussion, one audience member asked the chefs for tips on how to improve his cooking. Thomas Keller gave interesting advice: repetition. Instead of trying new dishes every night, try cooking the same thing over and over again until you perfect it and then move on to something new. Personally, it sounds a little boring, but then again I think Thomas has a pretty good track record so I might take his advice on this one.

I’m sure by now you’ve started to assume that Jillian is carrying on this blog solo. I promise you, it’s not for lack of loving FandFP, it was a matter of survival. To give you a glimpse into my last few weeks, we packed up and shipped out our entire apartment last Monday so for 14 days slept on an air mattress in sleeping bags (the romantic notion of that wears off after day 2). We’ve had nothing in our kitchen besides two plastic bowls and spoons (translation, we ate A LOT of cereal) and ate massive amounts of crappy take-out (although this is a great way to get your bf to beg for your cooking again!) And I’ve started my new job but haven’t fully transitioned off my last, so am doing two jobs simultaneously.  Things really reached a low yesterday when we drove through Manhattan for the first time (no respect for lanes whatsoever here!) only to spend 3 hours in IKEA. I know, excuses excuses. But today is a new day!

Don’t think I’ve forgotten you during this whole time. I’ve been doing research everywhere I go, from investigating locally sourced grocery stores to exploring local CSAs to my first trip to our neighborhood farmer’s market. Think of it as a mini-sabbatical only to come back armed with a larger arsenal of knowledge! I met my first fellow local food blogger, Dave from Dave’s Kitchen, who shared with me a slew of awesome NYC-based food blogs (I’ll share my new blog roll soon) and sent me a downloadable map of NYC’s farmer’s markets, so I’m well on my way!

So now I’m back with a vengeance. Look for me to be posting regularly from here on out. And if you or anyone you know has NYC-based food tips to help FandFP grow it’s East Coast version, please send away.   It’s GREAT to be back.

(This picture is a view of my street, not bad for my first NYC digs, right?)