Monthly Archives: March 2009

Six Courses at the Fifth Floor, Plus an “Iron Chef” Champ

Gerald Hirigoyen's squab basquaise with spring vegetables.

Monday night’s James Beard Foundation dinner at the swank Fifth Floor Restaurant in San Francisco featured a who’s who of chefs behind the burners: Laurent Manrique of the Aqua Development Corp. of San Francisco; Ariane Daguin of D’Artagnan Foods; Jean Pierre Moulle of Chez Panisse in Berkeley; Gerald Hirigoyen of Piperade and Bocadillos, both in San Francisco; and Jennie Lorenzo and Lionel Walter of the Fifth Floor.

(Left to Right): Ariane Daguin, Jennie Lorenzo, and Laurent Manrique

But it was another chef who was merely a guest that night who received another big round of applause: David Kinch of Manresa in Los Gatos, whom everyone in attendance that night put their hands together to honor his triumphant victory the night before on the Food Network’s “Iron Chef America” show.

For those who missed the televised battle that was filmed months ago, Kinch trounced Iron Chef Bobby Flay by a whopping 10 points, mesmerizing the judges with his creative, elegant dishes spotlighting the secret ingredient of cabbage.

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Absinthe Again

The much-talked-about Le Tourment Verte.

I guess you all like your mystic, mythic spirits with the green glow.

Because when I posted about my first experience tasting absinthe (St. George Spirits’ Absinthe Verte, to be exact), boy, did you guys have a lot to say about it.

Quite a few of you wrote in, touting yet another absinthe — this one with the irresistible name of Le Tourment Verte (“The Green Torment”).  Maybe we should nickname it the “absinthe to the stars.” After all, it’s made the rounds of Oscar parties, the Sundance Film Festival, and Virgin America flights.

With that kind of cache, I had to try it. And what better day to partake of the Green Fairy than on a day made for green — St. Patrick’s Day?

Le Tourment Verte was kind enough to send me two tiny (airline-size) samples to try, packaged in pretty etched bottles. The regular 750ml bottle retails for about $47.

The color really grabs you. Unlike the St. George one with its green tea-like color, Le Tourment Verte is a bold emerald green. It’s only when you pour the contents into a glass, though, that you realize the bottle is tinted dark green. And it’s only on closer inspection when you read the label that you see the spirit contains artificial coloring, too. Hmmm….

Poured straight into a glass.

In a shot glass, this 100-proof spirit is almost the color of Scope mouthwash. My husband took a whiff and even declared that it smelled a little Aqua Velva-ish. Hmmm….

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A Taste of Nantucket at Marche

Clams and mussels with chorizo. (Photo courtesy of Chris Ayers)

Enjoy the flavors of Nantucket without having to fly to the East Coast.

Menlo Park’s Marche restaurant brings the impeccable seafood of that region to you for a special dinner on March 20. This will be the restaurant’s sixth annual “Taste of Nantucket” soiree.

Nantucket fisherman Stephen Bender will be flying directly from Nantucket with just-harvested Nantucket Bay scallops, Polpis Harbor oysters, freshly dug clams, and a wealth of other fish and seafood.

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Green Velvet Cupcake

Green, it is! (Photo courtesy of Sprinkles Cupcakes)

Yes, it’s what you think it is: A Red Velvet cupcake shaded green instead.

It’s a special St. Patrick’s Day cupcake that will be featured at Sprinkles  Cupcakes for the holiday. Priced at $3.25, it’s available now through March 17.

For even more St. Patrick’s fun, Sprinkles also is offering an Irish Chocolate Cupcake at the same price. It’s a Belgian dark chocolate cake topped with Bailey’s Irish cream cheese frosting, and a green shamrock.

At Kara’s Cupcakes in Palo Alto and San Franciso, all the cupcakes will get a dash of green.

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TCHO’s Newest Chocolate Product

Chocolate crumbles that when mixed with hot water become...

San Francisco’s only bean-to-confection chocolate factory is at it again with new goodies.

This time, TCHO has unveiled a Hot and Cold Drinking Chocolate. Its the latest from the company founded by a former space shuttle technologist, Timothy Childs; and overseen by CEO Louis Rossetto, former co-founder of Wired magazine.

A 300-gram tin of the dark chocolate crumbles is $10.50.  Put a few teaspoons into a mug, pour hot water over, and stir. Or mix with warm milk. Add brewed coffee or not. You can enjoy the drinking chocolate cold in water or milk, as well. You also can make a simple chocolate sauce from it to drizzle over your favorite ice cream.

The drinking chocolate is a precise blend of three of TCHO’s chocolates: “Chocolatey” from cacao beans from Ghana, “Citrus” from beans from Madagascar, and “Nutty” with beans from Peru.

...this creamy, frothy, warm drink.

I’ll use my patented scale of 1 to 10 lip-smackers, with 1 being the “Bleh, save your money” far end of the spectrum; 5 being the “I’m not sure I’d buy it, but if it was just there, I might nibble some” middle-of-the-road response; and 10 being the “My gawd, I could die now and never be happier, because this is the best thing I’ve ever put in my mouth” supreme ranking.

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