Category Archives: Bakeries

Part Asian, Part Italian — Momofuku Milk Bar’s Chinese Sausage Focaccia

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Focaccia gets a wonderful Chinese twist.

New York’s Momofuku Milk Bar bakery is famed for its playfully delicious “crack pie,” “compost cookies” and “cereal milk” ice cream.

But when a review copy of  the cookbook, “Momofuku Milk Bar” (Clarkson Potter) by Pastry Chef-Owner Christina Tosi landed in my mail, it was a more savory-spicy concoction that caught my eye.

“Chinese Sausage Focaccia” is a delightful mash-up of Chinese and Italian all in one bite.

It’s focaccia studded with garlic slivers and sweet Chinese sausage slices — with a veneer of Sichuan chile oil baked into it.

How’s that for breathing fire into this new “Year of the Dragon”?

The book offers a range of sweets and desserts sold at Milk Bar and plated up at the various Momofuku eateries started by the often off-color Chef David Chang. They range from the easy (peanut butter cookies) to the quite ambitious (“Tristar Strawberry Sorbet, Macerated Strawberries, Lovage, Ritz crunch and Celery Root Ganache”). The focaccia falls in the middle of those two extremes.

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Time for Nothing Bundt Cakes — and a Food Gal Giveaway

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How cute is this cake? (Photo courtesy of Nothing Bundt Cakes)

Bundt cakes are among the most homespun of baked goods.

Baked in one pan, then drizzled with a pretty glaze, it’s simple, sweet and thoroughly nostalgic.

Leave it to Nothing Bundt Cakes to take that basic premise and add major bling.

The bakery just opened a seventh locale in the Bay Area in the Fremont Hub Shopping Center (39952 Fremont Hub). It bakes up nine flavors of cake (from Red Velvet to Pecan Praline to Chocolate Chocolate Chip), then glides on a thick cream cheese frosting down the sides like the petals of a flower. If that weren’t enough, a colorful paper bloom fills the center, then fun paper butterflies, bees or other decorations are added. It’s a total party in a cake.

The cakes, themselves, are quite moist and have a surprisingly airy texture that’s more like a sponge cake rather than your typical dense, heavy bundt cake.

The cakes come in various sizes — from the Bundtini (the size of a cupcake; $18.75 for a dozen) to the single-serve Bundlet ($3.99) to a 10-inch cake that serves about 18 ($39.50).

Cakes are available at the bakery, as well as by phone and online orders.

Contest: One lucky Food Gal reader will win a gift card good for one free Nothing Bundt Cake individual Bundlet every month for a year (a $47.88 value). The only catch is that the winner must pick up the Bundlet each month in person at the Fremont store. As such, this contest is limited to those who can make it to Fremont regularly. Entries will be accepted through midnight PST Jan. 14. Winner will be announced Jan. 16.

How to win?

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Dungeness Crab Time, A New Indian Restaurant & More

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Fresh crab slathered with pesto -- at the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company. (Photo courtesy of the restaurant)

Dig Into Dungeness in Half Moon Bay

Hankering for fresh, local Dungeness crab, but don’t want to cook it, yourself?

Take a pretty drive along the coast to the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company, where Chef Gaston Alfaro is dishing up “Baked Pesto Infused Dungeness Crab.”

The crab is poached in a secret blend of spices and a splash of Mavericks Ale, then cracked and slathered in pesto sauce before being slipped into a hot oven for a few minutes. How good does that sound? Even better when you hear it comes with garlic bread.

Of course, if you’re a purist, you also can have your crab in the classic style, served warm or cold, simply with drawn butter and garlic bread.

Both dishes are $23 each. They’ll be on the menu as long as local Dungeness is available.

The modern interior of Arka in Sunnyvale. (Photo courtesy of the restaur

Arka Opens in Sunnyvale

A new contemporary Indian restaurant has opened in Sunnyvale, serving up the likes of vegetarian tandoori kebabs and “Doodhiya Gosht” (lamb curry with ricotta cheese, essence of screw pine and edible silver).

Arka Restaurant, Bar & Lounge will officially open in January, but it’s already opened its doors this month for a test launch.

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Alice’s Stick Cookies and A Food Gal Giveaway

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Alice's Stick Cookies are buttery and irresistible.

Whenever you think you’re too old to do something, just remember that the Bay Area’s Alice Larse started her sweet cookie company — at age 69.

She’d been baking these buttery stick cookies for years to the delight of friends and family before finally taking the leap to start her own business.

Alice’s Stick Cookies look like biscotti but taste like buttery shortbread. They won raves from the start, winning the top prize for “Best Cookie” in both 2004 and 2006 at New York’s Fancy Food Show.

Larse just retired from the business (and deservedly so), but new owners are carrying on her tradition with the cookies, which are now sold in 48 states and at such stores as Whole Foods, Andronico’s, and Dean & DeLuca.

The cookies — made with sugar, butter, malted barley flour and no eggs — come in four flavors: Lemon, Cinnamon-Ginger, Orange-Chocolate, and my personal favorite, Vanilla, which tastes delightfully like salted caramel-toffee.

One and a half stick cookies has 130 calories. An eight-ounce box of cookies is $9.95.

Award-winning cookies.

Contest: One lucky Food Gal reader will win four boxes of Alice’s Stick Cookies (one of each flavor). Entries, limited to those in the continental United States, will be taken through midnight PST Dec. 24. Winner will be announced Dec. 26.

How to win?

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