MarlenaSpieler.com

Favorite Links

Here are a few food-related links everyone should know about. (Okay, and a few that aren't food-related.)

People

Dan Hubig (www.danhubig.com)

The fantastic Dan Hubig draws the pictures that have made my San Francisco Chronicle column, The Roving Feast, so much fun for both readers and myself. One of my life's thrills is waiting to see Dan's cartoon each time the column runs. Sometimes I'll write a column, thinking, "I wonder what old Dan will do with this?" He has combined the inner me with the outer me and thus created his own cartoon that captures my spirit and attitude.

Natalie MacLean (www.nataliemaclean.com)

Confused about what to drink? Don't be! Natalie MacLean, recently named World's Best Drink Writer at the World Food Media Awards, will send you a free wine newsletter: Nat Decants: wine picks, articles, everything you want and need to know about the grape; there are no ads and the email list is confidential.

Alain Passard (alain-passard.com)

If you can't get yourself to L'Arpége in Paris (with a fat wallet), slip into Star-Chef Alain Passard's website instead: you'll be ushered in by lyrical musical accompaniment, and once there, click onto recettes for a selection of the chef's famous dishes, including the ultra famous tomato with twelve flavours that is served as a dessert! And don't miss the green beans with white peaches and fresh almonds, the peas with ginger and grapefruit. If you don't understand French, get someone to translate, his Paris vegetable "revolution" is delicious and fun.

Publications

SFGate.com (www.sfgate.com/eguide/food/chroniclefood)

This is the website of the San Francisco Chronicle, where my column, The Roving Feast, is published every other Wednesday. Click Archives and tap in my name to view several years worth of blow by blows of my adventures...

Businesses

American Pie / Pholiota Translations (americanization.com)

Josephine Bacon and her team do translations and Americanizations for cookbooks.

Atelier Daguerre (atelierdaguerre.com)

Atelier Daguerre is the collaboration between two formally-trained fine artists who have exhibited fine art internationally but also have made careers in graphic design, map design, and illustration. Abigail Hamilton and Richard Thompson—besides having a marriage and two children in common—share a love of European daily life, travel, decorative arts and domestic interiors, good commercial design, and food and wine.

The Cheese Board (cheeseboardcollective.coop)

This Berkeley cheese shop is a national treasure for people who love cheese. Walk in, prepared to taste, taste, taste. I'll be surprised if you're not dazzled. (When it's very busy, it's hell, however.)

Clark Wolf Company (clarkwolfcompany.com)

Clark knows everybody and everything that is happening in the world of food, restaurants and chefs (especially in the foodie meccas of Las Vegas)... and most especially: Cheese! If they're milking and making cheese, Clark knows all.

Duchy Originals (duchyoriginals.com)

Delicous cookies, refreshing lemon refresher, exquisite chocs, refined tea... it's organic, and it's English food life at its finest — and why shouldn't it be? It's HRH Prince Charles company!

Scharffen Berger (scharffenberger.com)

Your deepest, darkest chocolate dreams... and they are one of the few chocolate makers who source the beans and make the chocolate itself, from the bean... visit their Emeryville headquarters to see it all happen.

Union Coffee Roasters (www.unionroasters.com)

Drink up: it used to be that Peet's was pretty much it, coffee wise — I always kept a supply in my freezer in Britain, and noticed that all of the other Bay Area ex-pats did the same. Nowadays there is Union Roasters, the caffeine brain-child of Jeremy Torz and Steven Macatonia who trained with the Peet's bunch in California's Bay Area. Jeremy and Steven not only make the best coffee on this little island (England, Scotland and Wales) but also are extremely nice people. They are passionate about good coffee and also about ensuring that the people who grow and harvest it live a decent life.

The New York Food Museum (www.nyfoodmuseum.org)

The museum is part virtual, and part real, holding exhibits all over the place, in public places throughout New York City. The pickle wing is such a great place to visit: history of the word, recipes, pickle timeline, and they even sponsor an annual NYC Pickle Day! I love the pickle wing!

Poilâne Bakery (www.poilane.com)

Eat great, rustic, French country bread: the sadly missed wonderful Lionel Poilâne lives on in our memories and in the bread that his bakery still makes, to his family tradition and recipe. It's sour and sturdy, makes the best toast, tartines, and accompaniment for cheeses or patés. I love it stale and layered into soup, topped with shredded and melted cheese. Visit their bilingual (English & French) site for mail-order pain levain.

Hill Station Ice Cream (www.hillstation.co.uk)

If you live in Britain, and lust after good ice cream, don't waste valuable licking effort with Häagen Dazs or even Ben and Jerry's. Get yourself some Hill Station Ice Cream, grown up ice cream — most with the flavors of spice: cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, all divine. The vanilla, coffee and chocolate are fabulous too — in fact, their chocolate rivals that of Bertillon! They also make Chardonnay and Pinot Noir sorbets. Visit their site to find out how to get yourself a big bowlful.

Chronicle Books (www.chroniclebooks.com)

Chronicle Books publishes high-quality, affordable books for adults and children. In particular, a number of Marlena's.

Travel

GraceAnn Walden's Walking Tour (www.sfnorthbeach.com/gawtour.html)

GraceAnn knows everything and everyone, on the street and behind the scenes. Join her for a foodie walking tour.

Insider's Italy (www.insidersitaly.com)

Go to Italy as an Italian, bypassing all the hurdles that ordinary mortal tourists have to jump over. Call my buddy Marjorie Shaw at Insiders Italy. With Marjorie you touch down on Italian soil knowing exactly where to eat lunch, how much to pay for your new shoes, where to find the best (of anything) and how to not waste time with second rate accommodations, restaurants, etc. (most of her restaurants are not listed in guidebooks). With Marjorie you'll know which gate to line up at to save yourself hours of queueing, or what cafe to stop for your morning cappuccino, and where to find the best artisan foods.

Promenades Gourmandes (www.promenadesgourmandes.com)

Be Parisian For A Day. If Italy is not your destination, but Paris is, call my friend Paule Caillat. Paule leads Promenades Gourmandes, which are basically days or afternoons in which you become Parisian, at least food-wise. You meet in a cafe, then shop in Paule's local marketplace, as well as visit all sorts of artisanal places you might not otherwise get to (or even find out about), then you trot it all back to Paule's custom-built kitchen and she holds an informal cooking class, which ends with the eating (of course). Paule's food is very very Parisian (as is Paule) yet often have a twist such as intriguing spicing added to the classics. It's good for groups, or just sign up and meet the others in the group for instant companions away from home.

Slow Food France (www.slowfood.fr)

Slow Food est un mouvement international, fondé à Paris en 1989. Des associations nationales ont été établies aux USA, en Italie, en Allemagne et en Suisse. Slow Food compte 76.000 adhérents dans 47 pays et 620 conviviums environ.

Villa Valentina (www.villavalentina.com)

Learn to cook Italian food in rural Tuscany with my pal, Valentina Harris: sometime UK television star-chef and enthusiastic cooking teacher/author. Valentina's cookery school is in the wilds of Tuscany, near both Liguria and Piemonte; one of her specialities is handmade pesto — I interviewed her doing this for a Radio 4 programme a few years ago. Her true mastery, however, is in risotto: the girl can stir up a risotto like no ones business. If you've ever fancied coming to grips with this saucey rice dish, take yourself to Valentina. And P.S.: One of these days I'll do a guest spot there, too. Whoever wants can join me and we'll cook and eat and shop our way to nirvana.

Zante Feast (www.zante-feast.org)

Zante Feast is a labor of love created by Sotiris Kitrilakis, founder of Peloponnese brand of Greek foods and also Mt. Vikos Greek cheeses. Zante Feast is a non-profit agro-tourism holiday offering dedicated to sustainable agriculture, and preserving the food traditions of and way of life of Zakynthos, Greece. The week includes tavernas, goat trails, music of Zakynthos, sourdough baking in stone ovens, cooking demonstrations with a superb village cook (and resource for many foodwriters), beekeeping, fishing on the sea in a boat, curing olives and making sheep and goats cheeses, not to mention eating lots and lots of everything, especially mezze. Themed-visits such as olive pressing, cheese making, wild foods gathering are planned as are trips across the water to the Peloponnese; trips will have the participation of a US or UK food writer specializing in the Mediterranean. So go, eat, have a great time, bask in the Mediterranean diet and lifestyle, and when you get there: give Sotiris a big kiss for me!

Fun

CyberHound (www.basset.net)

Your internet source for all things Basset.