The middle of the week is often an obstacle for people, “hump day”, toughest day to get through. I totally understand but today was the opposite. It’s been incredible. A couple of weeks ago, New York Times reporter Kim Severson called to ask about the drought, if I’d done anything to change my cooking habits. The City of Santa Cruz where I live has one of the best rates of water conservation in California. It's because we're on our own local water supply. We chatted, then she asked if she could come to the house with a photographer. Of course!
The result of our conversation and her morning in my kitchen serve as the bookends to today's remarkable story in the New York Times. Kim is an ace journalist. She practically covered three-quarters of the state with her interviews, including tofu maker Hodo Soy in Oakland, renowned peach farmer Mas Masumoto in Fresno, food editor Margo True of Sunset, and chef Suzanne Goin in Los Angeles.
The focus is all about our drought-tolerant food, farming and cooking practices. What are our workarounds now and for the future?
When Kim came to the house, I made pressure cooker pho to illustrate how the drought has made me reconsider a particular approach to making pho. It’s a recipe that I’ve been working on for the book as a means to save water and time.
Yes, I shared the pressure cooker pho recipe with the New York Times for Kim’s story. The Pho Cookbook won’t be out until early 2017 so you can get a head start.
I was tickled by the initial reactions to the story: Tweets from a dear friend, Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon Vineyard and cattle rancher Morris Grass Fed. Both are local concerns. Long ago, participating in Morris Grass Fed's CSA got me using quality bones for pho.
The other amazing development this morning came with the Paula Wolfert Kickstarter. We surpassed our stretch goal of raising $80,000 and can now double the print run! None of us thought it would happen in such a phenomenal manner. We thought we’d be squeaking by in the last hours kind of thing, but people have strongly supported this project of passion, an experiment in small-batch cookbook publishing.
After we met our minimum within days of the launch, we didn’t know what would happen. Maybe that was it or we’d raise more at a very slow rate. But the momentum continued, thanks for over 1,000 people who have pledged.
If you’ve not joined us for this wonderful adventure, here’s the campaign’s main page. You can contribute as little as $5 or $10 for Jeff Bareilles’s expert cocktail making tips and a recipe for his Tangier Tumble, inspired by Paula’s work in the Mediterranean.
I feel like popping open bottles of champagne right now. If you all were here, I’d serve it up in wine glasses, yet another great tip that Mr. Bareilles just gifted me. The shape of wine glasses allows you to better enjoy the champagne’s aroma and flavor.
To top it all off, today is the exact 1 year birthday of The Banh Mi Handbook --7 and 8 must be my lucky numbers.
Cheers and thanks for all the support.
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