I’ve been on a simple meals kick — trying not to make anything too fancy. I added Hoison sauce to my normal cadre of soy sauce and oyster sauce for a sweeter kick. I overcooked the fresh noodles, and they were a bit too soft for my taste. Don’t cook fresh flat noodles more than 4 minutes, you’ll regret it.

For years, Brown Cow yogurt was my favorite. Saint Benoit definitely rivals the top spot in my books as the best yogurt you can buy at your local overpriced organic mart.

Plus, you get cash back by returning the sturdy ceramic container. However, even with the rebate, it’ll still be one of the most expensive yogurts on the shelf.

After a few dozen stir frys, my wok has a nice dark coating of goodness which will add to the flavor of each new dish. If you have a carbon steel wok, you need to season it before your first fry. I found these directions at About.com to work just fine.

It’s been a long time since my last post.

I was thinking about what could spur me on to write again. And, what better way than starting with food.

Tonight on my plate is Chicken with Green and White Beans, stir fried in a searing hot wok with black bean sauce, sambal oelek, and soy sauce. I finished this by doing the “lazy guy’s fried rice” by just putting some freshly made rice in at the end.

Nice and simple: perfect for a cold Wednesday night.

It turns out that the Red Savina habenero chile pepper has been surpassed by the Indian Naga Jolokia, which peaks at about 970,000 Scoville units. The Red Savina peaked at about 580,000 Scovilles.

This is really spicy. To give you a sense of scale, the Thai pepper, which is already too spicy for most people, only attains about 100,000 Scovilles. The weak jalapeño pepper only hits 8000 Scovilles.

In honor of this pepper, Grant, the pepper guy, video taped himself taking a healthy bite of this insanely hot pepper. Sheer madness.

Yes, you too can close bags of chips without a clip. Now, I can finally go buy chips again, since I hate closing bags!

Coke is buying Glaceau, the makers of Vitamin Water, for around $4 billion cash. And so Coke ungulfs yet another beverage on the supermarket shelves. Most people are shocked when they learn how many products are actually owned by Coke.

Recently, I’ve been getting into Vitamin Water. It’s marketed as pure water with vitamins. Sounds pretty good for a health conscious urbanite doesn’t it? The problem is that there’s controversy over how healthy it really is, since each 20oz container can contain up to 200 calories and 30g of sugar.

I don’t expect it to get any healthier once Coke is involved.

We fought the traffic up Highway 1 this past Saturday to grill some oysters at the Tomales Bay Oyster Company. Armed with our cooler, breads, cheeses, and various other condiments, we set to work on shucking 50 oysters in the cool breeze. It was my first time shucking, so, after a bit of practice, I got the hang of it.

The Oyster Company was pretty accomadating. They provide a BBQ area and picnic table, oysters at less than $1 per piece, and various condiments for sale. Being that it’s Memorial Day weekend, the place was packed with people. Oysters sandwiches with brie and roasted red peppers are delicious.

Afterwards, it was off to a secluded beach in Tomales bay for a relaxing afternoon of skipping rocks.

Yesterday, Joel and I were out again scavenging for food in the SOMA. As usual, it’s hard to find a restaurants that we’re not tired of yet. And please, don’t even let me go into how often we’ve head to OSHA on 2nd street, desperate for something to eat after a long networking event offering stale-tasting finger foods.

This time, we decided to head up to Union Square. Finally, after some deliberation, we entered a touristy Italian place for a satisfactory meal. I ordered the Sauvignon Blanc, a white wine. Bad idea.

The wine that was served to me was the worst glass of Sauvignon Blanc (or any other wine) that I’ve ever had. Let me talk you through the wonders of how bad this was.

Sauvignon Blanc is supposed to hit you hard. Crisp. Clean. Acidic. These are the words that should pop into your mind as the wine first hits your mouth. When this particular wine hit my mouth, I thought the waiter had mistakenly given me water. Flat. Tasteless. Insipid.

After the SB hits you, there should be a development of floral flavors as the wine develops in your mouth. A nice finish should end the tasting. However, after the tasteless beginning that my wine had yesterday, it began to develop a little and then whimpered and died. It was the most pathetic excuse for a SB, like a sedated rendition of Beethoven’s Fifth. The interpretation of the grape left a sour taste in my mouth.

I’ll never order wine in Union Square again.

Last night I went to A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books and saw Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, speak about Chew on This, his new book aimed at preteens wanting to know about the ins and outs of the fast food industry.

Now, I want to make clear that I thoroughly enjoyed his discourse, and have a great appreciation for his investigative non-fiction. Eric is a great researcher who delves deeply into subjects, revealing an inner core that many people don’t like to think about.

But on this particular night, I got one of those feelings that told me I was a little out of place. I was probably one of the few guys in a room full of mostly concerned, liberal women (who are most likely moms). I’m not saying this was a bad thing, but just that I felt a bit strange.

In any case, he spent the majority of the time talking about his new book. It aims to shed light on food production in the fast food industry to kids. But, after flipping through a few pages worth, I was convinced that no kid would be interested at all in the book. First, the text is written in a tone not far from Fast Food Nation. Don’t get me wrong–I loved Fast Food Nation–but I’m no 11 year old kid. If you would have given me Chew on This when I was young, I would probably read it for 5 minutes, then fall fast asleep. It’s just not as gripping as say Harry Potter, which Eric refered to as the inspiration for his new book. All I can say is good luck to him with that one.

I was also excited to hear about the Fast Food Nation movie, which is definitely not mainstream. It will be debuting in a festival sometime soon, and hopefully will be held up for a wider release after that. Eric said that it would not be a feel good movie. I’ll be looking forward to that one.