Corti Brothers Newsletter for June 2006   Page 8  

Round Pond Blood Orange Olive Oil, Rutherford, Napa Co. Organic blood oranges with their raspberry character and late harvested Sevillano olives crushed together produce this fragrant, delicious oil for imaginative uses. 350ml (#1553) Sold out.

The movie “Sideways” did wonders for California’s Central Coast pinot noir, the wineries that produce it and some restaurants of the area. Perhaps the most influenced is my friend Frank Ostini’s Hitching Post in Buellton. The Hitching Post is probably the most famous of Santa Barbara county’s restaurants and with good reason. The cooking is very good–very Santa Barbara–in influence and execution. Lots of grilled things, tri-tips and all. But now, very busy. And now if you can’t actually go there to enjoy the cuisine, you have recourse to two products which will help you get that “Hitching Post” flavor without leaving home. They are: Magic Dust, all purpose seasoning salt and Smoked Tomato Pesto.

The Magic Dust is a dry rub for meats. The Smoked Tomato Pesto a puree-like conserve of smoked tomato which can be thinned to make dips, for spreading on bread, or myriad other ways as is done at the Hitching Post. Both products are delicious and the jars give ideas for use. Using them might just make you want to visit Santa Barbara’s wine country... seeing “Sideways” is another thing.

Hitching Post Magic Dust Seasoning 3oz jar (#1554)

Hitching Post Smoked Tomato Pesto Sauce 9.8oz jar (#1555) Sold out.

Summer is synonymous with barbeque of all types. Nothing is easier than using a dry rub seasoning on a piece of meat in the morning, refrigerating it and taking it out on coming home. By the time the barbeque fire is going, the meat will have come to room temperature, ready to fire.

One of our favorite rubs at Corti Brothers is Chocotal BBQ Rub produced by a noted coffee company, Jeremiah’s Pick Co. It is based on using coffee and cocoa nibs, two little thought of ingredients for barbeque. But both are used in barbeque--whether American with brewed coffee as an ingredient in some sauces–or Mexican with cocoa used in “mole,” Again, just rub on the Chocotal, and you are ready to BBQ.

Chocotal BBQ Rub, Jeremiah’s Pick Co. 4 oz tin (#1556)

Feeding Desire: Design and the Tools of the Table 1500-2005, is the title of an exhibition at New York’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, part of the Smithsonian. A large, coffee-table book with a delicious, informative text, wonderful photographs, and an elegant production to it, this is a must for anyone interested in food and its consumption.

"Eating is a social ritual....For centuries, flatware and cutlery have served as extensions of our hands, enriching how we experience food and the act of eating. Knives, forks, and spoons are among our most intimate objects of daily use...the tools of the table have also become tools of control, marking distinctions among social classes. [This exhibition and catalogue] explores the evolution, physical forms and social meanings of eating utensils over the past five centuries.”

“Focusing on objects produced in Europe and the United States, this is the first book devoted to showcasing Cooper-Hewitt’s astonishing permanent collection of cutlery. Seven original essays and over 200 full color and black and white illustrations...reveal changing ideas about food, fashion, decoration, mobility, hygiene, and consumption.” (From the dust jacket description. I could not have said it better.)

This exhibition also travels to Copia: The American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts in Napa from January to April, 2007. Definitely worth a special trip!

Feeding Desire: Design and the Tools of the Table 1500-2005 Sold out.

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