John and Thomas' Page.

This week's Resolution Recipe: Rillettes... For Science!
I thought I had made this recipe before, but if so I can't find it. So I'm treating it as new.
"It gets right to the heart of what's good: pork, pork fat, salt, pepper, and time."
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Sunday was my dad's birthday. We spent the day with him and went out to one of his two favorite restaurants - he doesn't get out much. The one he requested is a local pizza place we've been to before. I did like my artichoke, feta, and green olive pizza. I made a standard lemon cheesecake topped with apricot jam and sliced fresh apricots, which came out pretty well.

His balance is still bad and he has arthritis in his feet, but is too stubborn to use walking sticks because he thinks "they would slow him down" (or, I think, he'd have to admit he needs them). We keep trying to nudge him in that direction by pointing out that runners use them without slowing down...

Last night we met our friends Ken and CJ for drinks and dinner in the city. They were happy to leave the East Bay heat for SF coolth. We tried a vaguely-potted-plant tiki bar we hadn't been to before. It's called Pacific Cocktail Haven and it doesn't hit you over the head with the theme. Everyone else really liked their drinks; CJ adored hers, which was a highball using root beer and absinthe so it tasted like alcoholic licorice. My two were interesting but were not in my happy place enough to get again. I suspect we'll go there again.

We had dinner a couple doors down at a Mediterranean restaurant. It was decent although a bit on the expensive end for its quality, being close-ish to Union Square. The baklava was quite nice - not too sweet for us.

This week's Resolution Recipe: Stir-fried Chicken Hodgepodge (chao jiza).
"My Sichuanese chef friends might be surprised to see me include this recipe - it's not a fancy dish and is rarely seen on restaurant menus. It is, though, delicious and a perfect illustration of the resourcefulness of Sichaunese cooking."

I think every culture with poor people has this type of dish. You can't stick to premium cuts (or even regular meat) when resources are limited. Heck, wok cooking in general is about using limited cooking fuel to its most efficient extent.
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