Mary Ladd

I write professionally about food and drink, spicy goodies, catering tales of woe, and what it's like to run around the Bay Area with Anthony Bourdain.

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Pig Hunt Movie

Img_2120 The advance promo trailer for a Robert Mailer/Zack Anderson film I worked on last year has been leaked to YouTube and a few other spots on the Internet. It's violent and graphic. And no, I didn't get to cook any of the leftover pig.

The link below goes to the trailer on YouTube, included as well are links to our MySpace Page and Official Website. Please take a second if you have a YouTube or MySpace account and either post a comment or vote. Feel free to pass this along.

Pig Hunt Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WPeJgvJ8rQ

Myspace:
www.myspace.com/pighuntmovie

Official Website:
www.pighuntmovie.com
www.dontbescared.org

Posted at 08:45 PM in Film | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

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Hot Stuff Chocolate Happenings

More chocolate fun!

Posted at 08:12 AM in Events & Invites, Film, San Francisco, Sweet Treats | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

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Chocolate Documentary Screening

Chocomouth My Dad rolled his eyes when I said I was going to see a "chocumentary" next month. His loss! There are two screenings to choose from, and the film runs almost half an hour. Check out the website, which is colorful and appealing.

IN SEARCH OF THE HEART OF CHOCOLATE- a filmmaker, a
chocolate shop, assorted chocoholics, and lots and
lots of chocolate

FEBRUARY 12th, DELANCEY STREET 6:30 & 7:30 PM
600 Embarcadero Street San Francisco, CA 94107

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Bay Area filmmaker
Sarah Feinbloom is screening her new chocumentary
featuring the Bay Area’s own Jack  Epstein of Chocolate
Covered in Noe Valley, and his customers, Richard
Anderson
, Suzanne McKee, and many others at the
Delancey Street Screening Room, in San Francisco on
February 12th, 2008. Featuring chocolate from Charles
Chocolates and Noe Valley Bakery, art by Liz Mamorsky,
sound by Robert Berke Sound and animation by Kaitlin
Chong,  and editing by Anne Flatté, this melt in your
mouth experience celebrates the Bay Area’s finest. A
perfect evening for anyone who loves chocolate and
film, followed by a delicious chocolate reception by
Joshua Charles Catering.

6:30 PM & 7:30 PM SCREENINGS, followed by a chocolate
reception. Please reserve seats by emailing
[email protected]
Tickets are $10, and DVD’s will be available for
purchase

In Search of The Heart of Chocolate is a delicious
romp through the rich and creamy, melt in your mouth,
passionate world of chocolate. Follow filmmaker  Sarah
Feinbloom as she searches for the origins of her
chocolate obsession, interviewing chocolate
enthusiasts along the way, delving into chocolate
cake, art, fantasy, chocolate croissants,
spirituality, sex, love and hot fudge, and journeying
into the past to uncover chocolate’s special place in
our hearts.

Sarah Feinbloom is an award-winning Bay Area filmmaker
whose work includes documentaries, dramatic narrative,
and fundraising videos. Her film on the religious
lives of teenagers, What Do You Believe? was featured
on the cover of the San Francisco Chronicle Date Book,
and screened at the Mill Valley Film Festival, on PBS,
and at festivals nationally and internationally.
Recently she completed a documentary on child
trafficking in Thailand called Daughters and Sons that
was featured on NPR and won the Best Short Film on
Child Advocacy at the Artivist Film Festival. Sarah
thoroughly enjoyed making her latest  film, a
chocumentary-In Search of The Heart of Chocolate,
which involved lots of taste-testing and sampling.

www.chocumentary.com

Posted at 01:00 PM in Events & Invites, Film, Food, San Francisco, Sweet Treats | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

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Watching My Father's Glory revs up the cooking & entertaining motor

FathersgloryInspiration can come from unexpected places. It's easy to find some while watching the charming French 1991 film, My Father's Glory. The film offers a low cost way to feel French, a "mini vacation" of sorts. It takes place in turn of the century Provence, and is based on the writings and life of Marcel Pagnol. The film is stocked with scenes of French people cooking (okay, it's primarily the French women on this one), competitive hunting (guess who gets the guns?), eating and sharing.

Laying in bed watching the pretty, busty French mama spread butter on bread for young Marcel made me want to make or share more food for my family and friends, stat. A dinner party idea began to form vaguely in the back of my mind. Although I was full from dinner, my mouth watered throughout the film. I recited French words back to the screen, paying attention to pronunciation. My pulse quickened at the mention of the ortolan songbird, which is now a forbidden delicacy in France. Ortolan is something I've always wanted to try. "Mmmmm," I murmured, thinking the adult Marcel knew he had it good as a kid.   

My Father's Glory relaxes the spirit with its sentimentality and family depictions. I came away renewed, and excited to crank out some decent home meals because of it. Thanksgiving didn't seem so much like a chore list but more of an exciting undertaking. There were some successes, too. I thought of the film's warmth as I took my time while feeding and caring for a friends' cat (no, I wasn't thinking about eating him). The film helped me decide to later make some good meals: buttery poached eggs one morning, pumpkin curry for dinner, and a grand Naples style feast for a few friends on Friday. For that, I have the makers of My Father's Glory to thank.

Posted at 05:36 PM in Books, Film, Food, Travel | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

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2046 fuels late night Chinese food chow

2046 Screening the film 2046 last night at the Embarcadero cinema made me hungry. Although I ate some popcorn before the film started, my thoughts kept wandering to food during the dark, sexy film. I was running through a list of items to prepare for Oscar's birthday party: Hawaaian pork with rolls, new potatoes, chicken wings, steamed green beans, cherry tomatoes, donuts, soprasetta, salami, lamb's milk cheese, yellow cake, and more (a mixed bag of food, but all good stuff that he loves).

In 2046, Chow Mo Wan orders things like lamb casserole and snake in a fancy dining hall. The problem is, we don't really get to see him eat. Most of the restaurant scenes instead show drinking, smoking and carousing. Also, there are many passionate love scenes throughout the film, which only further stirred my appetites. Seeing the seductive women make me want to do my hair in a big, mussy fashion the way the Su Li Zhen and Bai Ling characters do. They are hot! It helps that I've had Gongli a crush on Gong Li since a college film course.

After getting a free movie poster and leaving the Embarcadero, Oscar told me, "Let's just go home and you can drink some water," when I told him I was hungry for Chinese food. Water. As if. That. Could. Ever. Work. For. Me. After some debate, he indulged my food craving, and we ambled to Chinatown. He probably realized I wouldn't sleep until I got my fill, somehow. We should've headed to the "tried and true" Yuet Lee restaurant, where we had our second date. It is open late, and many cooks of all ethnicities crowd in for catfish clay pot and other savory dishes. I didn't want to walk too far away from BART, and steered us towards someplace closer, by saying, "Let's be adventurous!"

We ended up in a bizarre restaurant called Silver. It has a bare bones decor, with love songs from the fifties to seventies playing. Other customers included: tourists, tatooed, and even a young Chinese family, with girls dressed in similar tops and coats. I liked that Silver has duck and sausage hanging up in an open kitchen, and tanks of live seafood. The biggest turnoff was seeing waiters count their cash rather than pay attention to us, and having to ask for water three times.

Rather than get 1/2 a duck for $9.95, and a few orders of dim sum, we went for the most expensive meal option, at $9.95 a pop. The egg rolls were soggy, and I later noticed it's because they are rewarmed in a microwave. Our more than decent soup had a tasty chicken broth with sausage Sweetsourpork dumpling. Next, we enjoyed pork fried rice, sweet and sour pork (with HUGE chunks of onion that I polished off), spicy pork, and Sichuan Beef. "We get a ride of luxury," Oscar said as he paid the bill. Ah. He knows I hate BART when it's late. Too bad the "luxury" included a cab that reeked of cigarettes, and a tour of Market Street, complete with sirens and police, breaking up something at a check cashing joint. I kept licking my lips and groaning, regretting that I bit down on so many onion chunks.

I would go back to Silver for soup or duck, but only if it's late at night. There are much better places for lunch in that area.

Now I have to figure out how to get my hair teased and ratted just so, and where to put our beautiful new poster.

Posted at 12:59 PM in Film, Food | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

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