Chronicle Books Blog

Turmeric Squid with Tamarind Sauce
Thailand

This is calamari Asian-style, with lots of temperament and fresh flavors. The sweet-and-sour-tamarind sauce makes the dish light and fresh-tasting, so it is perfect as a snack or an appetizer.

Serve with salad or steamed vegetables. This recipe also works well with fish instead of squid; a similar dish with sea bass is common in Thailand.

Serves 2 as a main course

2 tablespoons tamarind pulp or 2 to 3 teaspoons tamarind paste
1 tablespoon palm sugar or brown sugar, or more to taste
1 tablespoon fish sauce, or more to taste
1/4 cup water
2 to 3 dried chiles, plus a few chiles for garnish
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon powdered turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 pound cleaned squid, bodies sliced, tentacles left whole
Vegetable oil for deep-frying
Fried onions or scallions for garnish (optional)

In a small pot, combine the tamarind pulp or paste, sugar, fish sauce, and water and bring to a boil. Remove the tamarind seeds if you used tamarind pulp. Add the dried chiles and boil over low heat for 15 minutes, or until you have a smooth sauce. Adjust the sauce for sweetness and saltiness with more palm sugar and/or fish sauce to taste.

In a shallow bowl, combine the flour, turmeric, and cardamom.

Heat oil in a deep fryer, or heat at least 1 inch of oil in a deep skillet over high heat. Working in batches, dredge the squid in the flour, shake to remove excess flour, and add to the hot oil. Fry until golden and crispy, and drain on paper towels. Garnish with dried chiles and fried onions. The sauce can be either served on the side or poured over the fried squid.

Variation: This dish can be expanded upon by including vegetables. Typical Thai vegetables would include spring onions, tomatoes, cucumber, and bell peppers or mild chiles. If serving with vegetables, toss the vegetables in the hot sauce and serve with the squid on top.

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Peter Perez
Senior Marketing Manager

When I was ten years old, I moved to Santa Cruz, California. Even though I had come from a small town in Southern California, I hardly went to the beach as it was about an hour trip on the crowded L.A. freeways. So, when I came to live just a few blocks from the beach, I found a whole new world. Surfing, boogie boarding, skim boarding—these were all new to me. Although I tried my hand at a lot of those sports, I never tried surfing as I felt it was too much the realm of the guys. I worried that they wouldn’t accept me, might make fun of me, and probably would see me as a nuisance rather than an equal. They’d probably steal all my waves.

Things have certainly changed since the early 80s and now girls are shredding it up with the guys, as evidenced by some of our recent surf titles. Tomorrow night, we’re co-sponsoring an event at Sports Basement in San Francisco for the release of Surf Girl Roxy, a book that celebrates women’s surfing. Local surf event company Tribal Surf has put together a fun event where surf fans can meet author Natalie Linden and pro surfers Julie Cox and Jen Smith from the Roxy team; see the film Shimmer; and pick up a signed copy of the book. Attendees can also enter a raffle to win some cool prizes such as tickets to the August Outside Lands Art & Music Festival featuring Jack Johnson, Ben Harper, Radiohead and Tom Petty, plus Roxy gear, Chronicle surf titles & other surprises. A portion of the raffle proceeds will support San Francisco Surfrider. Sports Basement will also offer 15% off all Sports Basement purchases that evening.

I’m looking forward to meeting these ladies who have not only shown that women can surf, but also be successful in the world of competitive surfing.

What: Roxy Surf Night
Where: Sports Basement 1590 Bryant St, San Francisco, CA Tel: 415.437.0100
When: Wednesday, April 30th, 6pm-9pm
Who: Surf Girl Roxy author Natalie Linden; Jen Smith, 2007 World & US Longboard Champion; Julie Cox, World-ranked longboarder.

April Whitney
Publicist

Walking around our office, you’ll find that every desk hosts a notebook of some sort. These lists, scribbles, and doodles help us stay organized, work out our ideas, remember things, and stay awake during revenue meetings.

It’s no wonder that journals—made to be personalized, to contain information unique to the owners—are chosen based on a reflection of identity (and, yes, function).

So what does a visual field study of the journals chosen by Chronicle employees tell about us? Well, I can’t really answer that. But I can share with you what you may find if you were to walk around our office:

The Rex Ray Notebook (a classic unisex choice), the Xilocart Elefanti Chronicle Notes and Sunblooms Bound Journal.

A well-loved and well-worn Cupcake Journal, and the delightful Cath Kidston Ottoman Roses Notebook.

The Dumpling Dynasty Journal was a popular choice in our field research (above). Spiral-bound and slightly larger than our average journal, the pages of these specimens were densely adorned and held up well to the fury of the ballpoint pen.

The clear winners (in term of office popularity) were our very own Native Flowers and Native Herbs journals by the lovely artist Jill Bliss (above). With delicate floral illustrations and a soothing palette, the appeal is obvious. But this small journal also opens flat with a thin paper that’s perfect for both notes and sketches.

Of course, our study would not be complete without mentioning the infamous, classic, and all-powerful Moleskine (above). This anonymous, sleek black force is pervasive both in our offices and in the hearts of creatives worldwide. Available in many shapes and sizes, a Moleskine notebook is incredibly durable and its paper—an artist’s dream.

Not all the notebooks and journals we found were published or distributed by Chronicle Books. Our industrial designer Will Abbott has nightmares if he forgets to leave the office without his black spiral-bound Unique Journal by Michael Roger Press clutched tightly against his chest.

And our lovely receptionist Claire Fletcher belongs to that group of creatives whose journal (above) is an actual work of art.

If you like journals and journal art as much as we do, check out The 1000 Journals Project, which contains the beautiful and entertaining work of more than 250 contributors from around the world. And there’s more: A film about the 1000 Journals is just now beginning its journey at the San Francisco International Film Festival.

Suzanne LaGasa
Designer

Designboom and a few other blogs beat us to it, but we are proud to announce the first in a series of exhibitions and events entitled Local:Global. This series showcases the work of Bay Area creative firms that, like Chronicle, operate on an international level.

The first exhibition will be with San Francisco’s industrious and mordant studio CITIZEN:Citizen, founded by Philip Wood. Next Friday, May 2 will see the launch of their latest project, “Untitled” by Joe Gebbia. “Untitled” is a series of unique book-like objects that literally and figuratively are blank slates. A reflection of the manufacturing processes that publishers employ, these are denatured books—hard to pinpoint but easy to obsess over.

Chronicle has long explored the medium of the book through cutting-edge production and design, so Joe’s conceptual project fits right in with our exploration. The object values of everything we make is always a key concern; hosting exhibitions of the products from local creative companies is sympathetic to our mission. You shall hear more about these events as they develop, but for now please come to our first Local:Global show:

Saturday May 3, 10 AM–4 PM
Monday through Saturday May 5–10, 10 AM–5 PM
680 Second Street (between Townsend and Brannan)
San Francisco, CA 94107

Alan Rapp
Senior Editor

Come visit us at Maker Faire!

If you’ve never been to the amazing spectacle that is Maker Faire we’re ordering you to pencil it in your calendar this second! Maker Faire is a two-day, family-friendly event that celebrates the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset. It’s for creative, resourceful people of all ages and backgrounds who like to tinker and love to make things. Maker Faire will be happening on May 3rd and 4th and Chronicle will have a booth in both the food area and craft building. Swing by and visit us, say hi and be the first to see what we have coming on our list in the fall.

In addition to crafts and games we’ll have lots of our fabulous authors hanging out in both of our booths including:

Randy Stratton (Build this Bong)
Meg Mateo Ilasco (Craft Inc.)
Julia Myall (Cook it in a Cup)
Ruta Kahate (5 Spices, 50 Dishes)
Jennifer Carden (Toddler Cafe)
Jesse Cool (Simply Organic)
Tara Duggan (Pretty Pantry Gifts)
Ray Marshall (Castaway Pirates)
Lisa Katayama (Urawaza)

If you live in the area leave a comment below—on Tuesday we’ll randomly pick one lucky person who will win a pair of tickets to Maker Faire!

See you there!

Check out more Handbound posts.

Christina Loff
Craft Publicist