The Wind Attack

This past Saturday I grabbed my camera, hopped on my bike and headed off to the Metro Red Line Station in North Hollywood. I’m familiar with this bike route, as I take it to work every morning. However on this morning, I wasn’t riding the train to Hollywood, but rather all the way to Downtown Los Angeles.

As the elevator doors opened to the 11^th floor of the Cooper building, I was greeted by an incredible amount of sunlight. A large open space lined with windows looking out into downtown was the setting Artisanal LA: a festival of locally made specialty foods.

The set-up was like a cross between a trade show and a farmer’s market. Granted, there weren’t piles of fresh produce, but there was plenty of other food for sale… and for sample!

The dominating food group was sweets. One piece of chocolate and I was done. It was too early in the day to be overwhelmed by the mountains of cupcakes, tarts, brownies, cookies, candies, chocolate and jam. They did all look scrumptious, but I simply wasn’t in the mood for sugar!

I am however always in the mood for honey… a natural and unprocessed sugar. Russell and Amy of Backwards Beekeepers who I had met some months ago at a Chicks with Knives dinner were in the house. They gave an interesting lecture on backyard beekeeping and were showing off both bees and honeycomb at their booth. And naturally, they were showing off the product of their hives too. Their honey was a medium color, not too sweet, filled with complexity and just a hint of spiciness.

The second most popular type of eats at Artisanal LA were spicy foods, my favorite of which were the Jolokia Ghost Pepper products of All Spice Café.

I first encountered these products made with the hottest chili in the world while shopping at Surfas in Culver City. I got to sample an upcoming ghost pepper strawberry balsamic jam which was sublime. It started out sweet, then smokey, then the heat started to intensify, burning my mouth in a the most pleasurable way. I washed it down with a slice of fresh mozzarella and the flavors lingered long after the fire went out.

Unfortunately, the Jam wasn’t ready to sell at Artisanal LA, but I was assured it would show up at Surfas soon. In the meantime, I got some ghost pepper caramel corn to hold me over until then.

There were also many mustards to try. I particularly liked this whole grain variety that listed Stone Brewery’s Smoked Porter in the ingredients. Yum!

The executive chef from The Peninsula in Beverly Hills gave a demonstration on making a pumpkin and chanterelle mushroom risotto. Unfortunately there were no samples of this… such a tease considering how good shallots and chanterelles cooking in butter smell.

The Chicks with Knives had an especially lovely booth adorn with fresh flowers and jars of quick pickles as part of their new “Perishable Pop-Up Pickle Shop” project.

Out of all the amazing booths at the festival, the one that everyone seemed the most excited about was Lindy & Grundy. Run by Amelia and Erika, the female butcher duo are planning to open up shop on Fairfax this December sourcing only whole animals from small farms.

This is the missing link: meat you can feel good about that you can buy any day of the week! I don’t often cook meat, but the meat I do cook is exclusively from the Farmer’s Market which means planning ahead.

Since they are working with whole animals, they are enthusiastically ready to teach their customers how to cook up less popular cuts in ways that will wow.

The women gave a demonstration of their craft by butchering a whole pig before an audience. The pig was from a small California farm and weighed about 70 pounds, which is small compared to an industrial hog that can weigh as much as 200 pounds!

The demonstration was fascinating, but also a little unsettling. The pig’s head was set at the front of the table for the duration staring out into the audience as its body was sawed, chopped and sliced into various pieces.

I got hungry as they talked about how they would cook the various cuts and then I felt a little nauseated as I stared at the pig head. Meat eating is a complicated issue. Amelia even admitted that she was a vegetarian for years, which is why she sources only small farm animals for a more humane approach to meat eating.

A complicated issue to be sure, but I do plan on supporting their business when they open. It’s a big step in the right direction and it will be a convenient and conscientious way to satiate my appetite for good, grass-fed lamb.