La Boulange’s Valentine’s Days Offerings

From now through Feb. 15, your neighborhood La Boulange is offering three sweet treats especially for Valentine’s Day.

Choose from a box of raspberry and vanilla macarons for $12.50; a box of chocolate and raspberry macarons for $12.50; or a gorgeous heart-shaped raspberry fruit tart ($9.95).

Find them at any of the Bay Area La Boulange locations.

Sent Sovi’s Savory Chocolate Dinner

Who says chocolate is only for dessert?

Not at Sent Sovi in Saratoga, where Chef-Proprietor Josiah Slone will be hosting his third annual “Savory Chocolate Dinner” at 7 p.m. Feb. 28.

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For the Discriminating Chocoholic

IfOnly.com may have created the ultimate chocolate box for big-time foodies.

The e-commerce site asked 10 Bay Area Michelin-starred chefs to create a chocolate bonbon for this special box just in time for Valentine’s Day.

Take a gander at the stellar chefs and their pastry chefs who contributed to the Constellation Chocolate Collection:

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M.Y. China Ushers in the Year of the Snake

Martin Yan’s M.Y. China restaurant in the Westfield San Francisco Centre will be offering two special menus, Feb. 1-26, for the Chinese New Year celebration.

The first menu, $88 for two people,  includes: “Juicy Dumplings Sampler”; Peking duck (1/2 duck two ways –”Skin in Sliders” and stir-fried meat in lettuce cups); “Seafood Treasury” (shrimp, scallop, and calamari with mixed greens and mushrooms); “Forbidden Fried Rice”; and sugar puffs.

The second menu, $68 for two people, includes: “Seafood Dim Sum Collection (shiu mai, har gow, spinach dumpling); Peking duck (1/2 duck two ways — “Skin in Sliders” and stir-fried meat in lettuce cups; green pepper beef rib eye; vegetable egg white fried rice; and sugar puffs.

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Cheer on the 49ers with a “Kaepernicking” Cocktail

Oh, yes, you can. And it’s available at Ame at the St. Regis in San Francisco through Feb. 3.

The $14 cocktail is named for the team’s star quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, of course.

The “Kaepernicking,” available in the Lobby Bar, is appropriately gold colored with a rim of red. It’s made with El Jimador Reposado Tequila, Fees Lemon Bitters, orange slices, lemon juice, and a dash of Hefeweizen-style beer. The glass is rimmed in li hing mu powder (pulverized salty dried plum that’s sold at Asian and Hawaiian markets).

If you want to make your own, here’s the recipe:

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YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, CA — You may know that Chef Suzanne Goin of Lucques, AOC, the Tavern and the Larder, all in Los Angeles, is married to Chef David Lentz of The Hungry Cat in Los Angeles.

But you might not know exactly how the two met.

I knew part of the story, but not all of the details — until I asked Goin about it when I was the moderator for her cooking demo at the 28th annual Chefs’ Holidays event at the Ahwahnee Hotel.

Thankfully, she was a good enough sport to spill the beans before a rapt audience.

“So, Suzanne…” I asked, “David just happened to be dining at Lucques. And your sister just happened to be dining next to him that night? And the two of them just started talking?”

Goin chuckled and said, “There’s a part of the story that David doesn’t like me to tell, so don’t tell him I’m telling you all this. He thinks it makes him sound like a stalker.”

She went on to explain that in 1999, she was named one of Food & Wine magazine’s “Best New Chefs.” She appeared on the cover with the other honored chefs. She was the only woman among them.

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