So the Valentine’s Day Gob Collection is up and ready for your consideration.
I apologize again for the redirect. I dream of a world where all my posts live in harmony. Or at least a world where my tech skills are more proficient. In the meantime, please forgive my luddite ways. And click on through to the other side.
thewarmestroominthehouse.blogspot.com/2010/02/love-is-like-box-of-chocolates-or.html
I just published a story about my misadventures with a new type of weed over the weekend. You can find it by clicking on http://thewarmestroominthehouse.blogspot.com
There will be more gob news here soon, I promise. In the meantime, a big thanks to Budget Travel for naming Gobba Gobba Hey as one of its favorite street vendors in SF! I was honored to be in such great company, along with Creme Brulee Cart, Magic Curry Cart, and Sexy Soup Cart, to name a few. You can read all about it here:
http://current.newsweek.com/budgettravel/2010/01/san_francisco_street_food_made.html
It’s official. I have the flu. Not the Flu, but “a flu.” Apparently while the incidence of H1N1 cases in the Bay Area has dropped, a bug of less famous but nonetheless formidable nastiness has been making its rounds. And I caught it. The worst is certainly over, but….
OK, I apologize for this but I’m now going to redirect you here – thewarmestroominthehouse.blogspot.com - because until I find a way to get my Word Press and Blogspot entries to make nice with one another by transferring entries with a simple cut-n-paste that doesn’t lose any links or content, well, I’m going to have to enter text into both templates by hand. So I apologize for taking the easy way out this time. But I have a good excuse. After all, I am just getting over the flu.
Gobs will be back soon!
I’m rarely at a loss for words. In fact I can get so revved up on a talking jag that I often have to apologize for going on, what I call, “autoblab.” I’ve also been known to utter words that don’t even exist. On occasion my left temporal lobe decides that the hundreds of thousands of words in the English language can’t effectively communicate what I’m trying to say and before I can stop myself, I’m speaking gibberish. What’s worse? I even conjugate this nonsense. Especially if caffeine or sugar or alcohol – or God forbid, all three – are involved. Throw in my western Pennsylvania accent that I’ve never totally lost and at times my speech can be almost indecipherable to the untrained ear. So I’m accustomed to the raised eyebrow or the questioning tilt of the head on the part of people with whom I’m conversing. But even I was surprised when earlier this year I found myself repeating the word “gob” to people who obviously had no idea what I’d just said; the fact I was asking them to buy this thing they’d never previously heard of only made the exchange more complicated and bewildering.
But what a difference six months, and a certain amount of press coverage, can make. I’d like to think of 2009 as the year San Franciscans added the word “gob” – or perhaps a different meaning for the word – to their vocabulary. It’s been heartening but especially humbling the way the city has welcomed me and my baked goods into its culture since I officially debuted Gobba Gobba Hey Gobs in late May. This time last year, barely two months since my move from Washington, DC, I was scratching my head as I scoured San Francisco’s media outlets trying to find my place professionally and personally in my new hometown. My book The Warmest Room in the House had just made it onto the Chicago Tribune’s Best Books of 2008 List – not that that honor made any difference or brought with it any guarantees, though. With the economy tanking and options for freelance writers disappearing daily, the only thing certain in my life was uncertainty. Eventually I found my place at the table not by writing about food but by baking and selling one of my favorite confections from my childhood. Gobs.
Now as 2009 comes to a close, it’s the gobs that have been included in some year-end round ups. Author and columnist Karen Solomon gave Gobba Gobba Hey a nod in her “Best Eats of 2009″ survey in SF Station, and the readers of 7X7’s Bits + Bites column nominated gobs as one of the Big Eat Suggestions for 2010. There was even a mention of my baking in the December 4, 2009 issue of The New York Times, as well as in the December issue of Conde Nast Traveler.
There’s not enough room here to thank everyone who helped make 2009 so wonderfully memorable, but if you’re reading this please know I am extremely grateful for your support. I thank you all, and I especially thank you, San Francisco, for adding the word “gob” to your lexicon. You’ve left me speechless. (Well, almost.)
Yes, Virgina, there is a gob gift box this year. And yes, they were supposed to be available for order on Foodzie.com as of December 1st. But like other things that often arrive “just in time for the holidays,” my schedule suddenly filled up with some immediate responsibilities and as a result, through no one’s fault but my own, I missed the opportunity to open my Foodzie store in a timely manner. But that doesn’t mean that you and your loved ones have to miss out, especially if you’re looking to share some gob love this holiday season.
So, here’s the deal: Place your order between now and December 13th for a box of one dozen gobs. The gift box will be delivered to your Bay Area door between December 19th and December 21st and will include one each of the following favorites from the past year:
Orange Cardamom Ginger with Saffron
Old School Chocolate and Vanilla
Mocha Almond
Ancho Cinnamon Chocolate
Spiced Pumpkin with Buttered Rum
Matcha Green Tea with Lemongrass Ginger Frosting
Gingersnap with Raspberry Butter cream
Strawberry Basil “Shortcake”
Oatmeal Cream Pie Gobs
Lemon Thyme
Chocolate Raspberry Absinthe
Carrot Cake
Sorry, but no substitutes.
Here’s how you get your hands on this deliciousness: Email your order BY DECEMBER 13th to GobbaGobbaHey @ Gmail dot com. Include your name and address and telephone. Deliveries will take place between December 19th and 21st.
Twenty five bucks. Done.
If this seems too simple, and if you’re wondering if there is a catch, well, there sort of is: Like the best Boxed Gift Sets, there are only a limited number available.
Get crackin’ and get gobbing people.
And thank you all for the love and support in 2009. May 2010 bring all of you the right mix of the things you need and the things you want.
Peace.
-ps- For more info on the Boxed Set and All Things Gob, click yourself over to thewarmestroominthehouse.blogspot.com .
Illustration by: Phoneticontrol Illustration & Design/ Eric Broers
August and September flew by and October is threatening to do the same here at Gob Central. So it seemed like it was post now, or wait another two months til I had a chance to share the latest. Lots has been happening. Gobs just aren’t for the street corner anymore. There have been art openings, like the Street Food X Street Art event at Fabric8 Galleries here in SF, where the ridiculously skilled Phoneticontrol inked out this gob-inspired piece. There have been weekend festivals, like the Eat Real Festival in Oakland in August where so many Twitter followers came out to show their support that I was overwhelmed. The gobs also got their first TV coverage because of that gig, thanks to KRON 4, also here in SF. More gob fans have come calling, as have retail opportunities. The Commonwealth Club has asked me to participate on a panel discussing the street vendor scene, October 29th, and the talented bloggers over at Food Buzz have requested gobs for their upcoming November festival. Also, the discerning tastebuddies over at Foodzie.com will soon be offering gobs for mail order from their web site. But before any of that happens there are some exciting events on the immediate horizon, including LitQuake and Southern Exposure happenings, and last but not least, the gobs’ first marriage! Actually, the gobs aren’t getting married, it’s their first appearance on a dessert table at a wedding, but it feels very ceremonious – ceremonial? – just the same, doesn’t it?
Well, another week, another batch of orders to fill! Thanks for the continued support, and as ever, gob loves you and so do I.
As a thanks to all of you who tweeted pictures last week of yourselves enjoying gobbles, here’s a fun contest for this week: Be the first person to tweet a pic today, July 30, of yourself eating a gob from 4505 at The Ferry Building and I’ll deliver a dozen free gobs to your office next week! Today’s flavor is peaches ‘n cream – think Southern peach cobbler in a gobble size and you get the idea – so I know your pics are going to be hot Hot HOT! Can’t wait to see them and thanks so much for the support!
Thanks to everyone for the great feedback here and also on Twitter. It’s barely been two months since I started to get my gob on and the response has been encouraging and humbling. Thank you all very much. SF Weekly has written about Gobba Gobba Hey several times, San Francisco Magazine just gave GGH a mention in their August issue, The SF Examiner took notice of us in its Organic Food Examiner section, and we took part in a photo shoot for Conde Nast Traveler. Also several bloggers including Grumpy Glutton and 1hundredmiles have given the gobs some cyber ink. And the kind words that have been tweeted about Gobba Gobba Hey have been incredible. Gobs are now available at the Ferry Building in San Francisco at Ryan Farr’s 4505 Meats stall and also at Pal’s Takeaway in the Mission. Hours are limited at both locations so it’s best to order between 10 AM and 2 PM. We will also be participating in the SFBC Bike-In Movie Series, Fabric8’s grand opening soiree, Eat Real Fest and – while it’s not gob-related – you can look for yours truly to be a contestant in the First SF Food Wars on August 25th! Last, but not least, we’ve been making deliveries to homes and offices, and we are excited and honored to say that we have been asked to supply gobbles for a wedding this fall! Thank you all. Thank. You. The move to San Francisco always seemed like the right one and your friendship and support shows that we weren’t wrong! Until next time, you can find us at gobbagobbahey@gmail.com and on Twitter @gobbagobbahey . Love and gobs.
While I’m not always a believer that less is more, sometimes I do think less can be better. In certain situations. When it comes to All Things Gob, for instance, I realize there are occasions when a smaller confection might be better-suited to the circumstances at hand. So, I set out to deliver all of the same gob goodness of the original in a package half the size. The result? Gobbles.
In the pic above you can get an approximation of just how big they are. These, of course, are the black cherry lime gobbles. The cherries and spoon next to them are meant to provide scale, btw. They are not my attempt to create an homage to Claus Oldenburg.
And this image is not a suggested wine pairing for these gobbles. It’s actually the juice I extracted from the cherries. This gorgeous stuff is in the gobbles’ batter, along with bits of the fruit shown above, and it’s also in the frosting. The color was so rich that I had to snap a picture of it before I continued baking.
Also, I think in this era of “Food, Inc” not to mention food recalls, that it’s nice to see what goes into your food before it goes into your stomach!
Hopefully all of the gob flavors will take to this smaller size as well as the black cherry lime did. I’ll post pics of those as soon as they’ve cleared the test kitchen. Until then, remember: Gob loves you.
Until I can work on my digital imaging skills, I’m afraid some of the gobs are going to look an awful lot like some of the other gobs. I mean, really, all you have is my word when it comes to being able to discern if these are indeed a new variety. But you’ll have to trust me on this. And hopefully I haven’t steered you, or your taste buds, wrong yet!
Today we have the Orange Cardamom Ginger Gob with Saffron Frosting. (Pictured above, btw.) The cake halves are scented with ground cardamom and rounded out by orange zest and ginger threads. The frosting has been whipped with my recipe for saffron syrup. I am not prone to boasting – the sake of self-promotion aside, ahem – but these are amazing. Vision-inducing even. Nirvana. Here. Now. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed… but then again your idea of nirvana is possibly quite different than mine!
We also have Strawberry Gobs. I can’t think of summer without thinking of strawberry shortcake, so I decided that I wanted to try to make a gob form of the seasonal classic. What I ended up with is more like a cross between something you would be served at high tea and the traditional strawberry dessert. Bits of fresh strawberries are in the batter as well as the frosting and there’s a hint of lemon to keep things tasting fresh. I think you’ll like them!
And today I also have the Black Cherry Chocolate with Lime Butter Cream Frosting. People keep asking for these so who am I to say no? Enjoy!
