Part One: NorCal

I decided to split California up into multiple parts. Due to its size — both in area and population — California has so many different regional cuisines it was so hard to pick just one meal that embodied the entire state. I started with Northern California and chose dishes quintessential to the Bay Area.

I was so excited to finally make cioppino. I don’t want to say I was intimidated to make it, but it’s one of those dishes I’ve been wanting to cook for so long but was so scared of messing it up. I really don’t know what I was so afraid of — it was so easy to make.

A little history: Cioppino is a seafood stew that was invented by the Italian fisherman of San Francisco’s North Beach in the late 1800s. North Beach has always had a large concentration of Italian immigrants, so it’s no surprise a dish like this originated from there. It’s basically identical to the Tuscan seafood stew, cacciucco. The concept for the dishes is the same: fishermen take the leftovers from the daily catch and combine them with a medley of wine, onions, herbs, and tomatoes.

This dish exemplifies everything I love about Italian cooking: minimal, simple, fresh. The list of ingredients for this dish are just: olive oil, shallot, fennel, garlic, white wine, tomatoes, broth, and then whatever seafood and herbs you like. I used this recipe as a reference point and used clams, mussels, shrimp and then whiting. Whiting is a member of the cod family, but is much cheaper and more sustainable.

Soups and stews are my favorite type of dishes to cook because it’s so hard to mess it up and so easy to fix it if you do. It’s really just sautéing up some veggies, adding your protein, adding broth, and then seasoning to taste. If it’s bland, add more seasoning. Added too much? Just add some more water and look — you made more servings! For this dish, I sautéed the fennel, shallot, garlic, and some oregano, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes in the olive oil. Once the veggies were nice and soft, I deglazed the pot with some white wine (about 1.5 cups) and let that reduce to about half. Then I added a can of crushed tomatoes, a bottle of clam juice, two cups of chicken broth, two bay leaves, and more salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. I let that simmer for about 20 minutes and then just added the seafood. It doesn’t take long for the seafood to cook at all — just put the lid on the pot and let it all steam.

I served the cioppino with another San Francisco delicacy: sourdough! Sourdough bread has a rich history in San Francisco, dating back to the California gold rush era where nourishment was scarce and thus bread starter was a prized possession.

Between being a descendent of Italian immigrants and growing up on an island where my mom would cook whatever fresh catch my stepdad brought home when he went out fishing, this dish was very special for me to make — and very, very delicious!

California = burritos; burritos = California. But did you know there’s actually a heated rivalry between Northern California and Southern California and their respective burritos? I won’t spend too much time talking about the San Diego “California burrito” since I decided to highlight the San Francisco “Mission burrito,” but the big-and-little of it is: California burritos have French fries, Mission burritos have rice & beans. Sure, there are other differences and each is rooted in its own history, but as an outsider, it’s really just fries vs. rice & beans.

The Mission-style burrito first became popular in the Mission district of San Francisco in the 1960s. Its distinguishing factors are the large size (12 or 13 inch tortillas), the aforementioned rice & beans, the tortilla being steamed, and the burrito being wrapped in aluminum foil. It’s the most mimicked type of burrito in the U.S. — think Chipotle, Moe’s, Qdoba, etc. I am definitely someone who is partial to potatoes over rice; but in burrito form I’ve got to say that rice wins out. There’s just something about seasoned rice, tender pinto beans, and marinated carne asada all rolled together in a humongous, warm flour tortilla that just makes my heart sing.

The making of this burrito was a very involved process, and I went to three different stores before I could even find a 12-inch flour tortilla, but it was all so worth it. I mean, look at that thing!

Let’s start with the rice. Similar to the way I made the dirty rice for the Arkansas meal, I sautéed half an onion in some oil and then toasted the rice in that same pot. I seasoned the rice with tomato bouillon and garlic salt, and then added an equal amount of chicken broth (2 cups rice, 2 cups chicken broth). For the beans, I just spruced up a can of pinto beans and added onion, jalapeño, cilantro, cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, salt & pepper and let it simmer for about 30 minutes.

For the carne asada, I marinated a flank steak in the juice of 3 oranges, 1 lime, some grated garlic, a bunch of cilantro, salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder, and oregano. I let it marinate overnight and cooked it on our flat top grill for about 7 minutes for a perfect medium rare. The carne asada came out perfect, my brother even said it was too good to even be in a burrito. 10/10 on the Mission-style burritos, San Francisco!

So .. the dessert. I originally wanted to make homemade fortune cookies since it’s believed by many that they were created in San Francisco in the early 1900s and SF has an extremely rich Asian cultural history. However, fortune cookies are now forbidden in my household … forever. The night before Alabama, our college football team, was slated to play Tennessee, a storied rival, my husband got this fortune cookie.

It simply cannot be a coincidence that Alabama then went on to lose to Tennessee the next day, ending a 15 year winning streak against them. My husband swore off fortune cookies for the rest of his life and it was too fresh of a wound to bring them up again by the time I made this meal. So .. I made rocky road ice cream!

I was so relieved to find out that rocky road ice cream originated from Oakland so I could make it for my meal. Making homemade ice cream seemed way easier than attempting to make a fortune cookie, and I love chocolate ice cream. I’d actually never had rocky road ice cream, so I was excited to try it.

I want to put out a disclaimer that I’m using the term “ice cream” lightly as this is not truly ice cream. I don’t have an ice cream maker, so this is a “no-churn” version. It had the consistency of a frozen custard more so than ice cream, but it was still really good.

I whipped some heavy cream mixed with Dutch (dark) cocoa powder in my stand mixer until stiff peaks formed. Next, I folded in a can of sweetened condensed milk and some Hershey’s chocolate syrup. Then I just added in slivered almonds and mini marshmallows and mixed until it was all incorporated together. I poured the mixture in a loaf pan, covered it in plastic wrap and aluminum foil, and froze it overnight. I was really impressed with how it came out, but I think in the future I’m going to just scope out ice cream makers on sale.

NorCal was all-around such a delicious meal. Next time, we are traveling down to southern California. Thank you for reading along!