Category Archives: Enticing Events

Time for Bloody Marys, Longer Happy Hours & Foodie Events

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In the East Bay:

Meritage at the Claremont in Berkeley has made the Bloody Mary into a veritable meal in and of itself.

Sunday mornings, the restaurant sets up a special Bloody Mary bar with nearly 50 ingredients to choose from, including different vodkas, horseradish, hot sauces, pickled veggies, and even beef jerky.

At Sunday brunch, where a spread of Alaskan crab legs, roasted Prime Rib and eggs Benedict is available, the Bloody Marys are $10 each.  There are even non-alcoholic Bloody Marys available at no charge.

Enjoy some of Berkeley’s best eats at “A Taste of North Berkeley’s Gourmet Ghetto,” 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. March 24, at Shattuck Avenue between Hearst and Rose streets.

Restaurants, including Trattoria Corso, Poulet, Saul’s Deli, and Imperial Tea Court, will be offering food and wine tastings.

Tickets are $25. Proceeds benefit Lions Club Community Fund Charities, including the Bay Area Alternative Press and the Women’s Daytime Drop-In Center. For more information, call (510) 540-6444.

This weekend, noon to 4:30 p.m., March 20 and March 21, enjoy tastes of wines right out of the barrels during the “Second Annual Barrel Tasting Weekend,” hosted by the Livermore Valley Winegrowers.

More than 25 Livermore wineries will be offering at least one barrel sample to taste, along with gourmet noshes. Guests also will have the opportunity to pre-purchase some of the barrel wines at a discount.

Tickets are $19 if purchased by today; and $35 if purchased at any participating winery on either day of the event. For more information, call (925) 447-9463.

In Sonoma and the Napa Valley:

Richard Rosenberg of Healdsburg’s boutique Grape Leaf Inn was always intrigued by the stories of his grandfather’s speakeasy that operated during Prohibition. So he decided to create his own in that same spirit.

Prohibition – The Speakeasy Wine Club just opened in Healdsburg. The 30-seat wine bar features a fun clandestine entrance. In the front is a small shop selling wine-related items, including home wine-refrigerators. You enter the actual speakeasy by stepping into an antique phone booth (see photo below) in the corner of the shop. Once inside, you’ll find a secret door to the bar, where you can enjoy hard-to-find wines and 1920s-style beers.

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Pie for Pi Day

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Don’t forget to reset your clocks tomorrow for springing ahead with Daylight Saving Time.

And absolutely, positively, do not forget your pie, either.

That’s because Sunday is also National Pi Day. Yes, a day to celebrate the number which is “a mathematical constant whose value is the ratio of any circle’s circumference to its diameter in Euclidean space; this is the same value as the ratio of a circle’s area to the square of its radius.” Or so defines Wikipedia. Frankly, it’s been so long since my days of high school geometry that this is enough to make my head spin.

I’d much rather remember that pi equals 3.14. Or March 14 — get it?

Morton’s the Steakhouse wants to put you in the pi mode with, well, pie, of course. And Key Lime, to be exact.

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Meet the Food Gal at “Silicon Valley Reads”

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For the past two months, a flurry of activities have been held throughout Silicon Valley, all surrounding that most illuminating, must-read book, “In Defense of Food” by Michael Pollan.

March 19, noon to 1:30 p.m., you’re invited to sit in on a free panel discussion about this eye-opening book that outlines just how detrimental our industrialized Western diets are to our health. This event, one of many by “Silicon Valley Reads,” is designed to help promote reading and literacy in our communities.

Yours truly will be on the March 19 panel, along with Chef Charlie Ayers of Calafia Cafe in Palo Alto, and noted author and peach grower extraordinaire, Mas Masumoto. The event will be moderated by my former San Jose Mercury News colleague, Leigh Weimers.

It will take place at Adobe Systems Park conference room in the East Tower lobby, 321 Park Ave. in San Jose.

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Celebrate Persian New Year at Zaré at Flytrap in San Francisco

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Persian New Year begins March 20, the first day of spring. And Zaré at Flytrap restaurant in San Francisco is gearing up to celebrate in a big way.

Chef-owner Hoss Zaré, a native of Iran, will be hosting his first Persian New Year’s Celebration at his restaurant, a short hop from the W Hotel.

Think communal tables, where you can mingle and make new friends over a family-style spread of traditional dishes such as frog legs with pomegranate walnut sauce; and Thai snapper with fennel, winter vegetables and Persian pickle tartar.

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New Food Gal Veggie Seeds Give-Away — Plus Winners of the New Peet’s Coffee

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You can almost feel it in the air, can’t you? A little more sunshine peeking through, a little more daylight lingering at the end of the day. Yes, spring is on its way. And you know what that means?

Time for planting, of course. Yes, even for those with not-so-green thumbs like myself, this is the time to start thinking about the wondrous possibilities that we can nurture in our very own little window pots or in raised beds in the backyard.

To entice you further, the kind folks at the Cook’s Garden, a gourmet retailer of vegetables, lettuces and herbs, is allowing me to do a great give-away: Three winners will receive the seeds necessary to grow most everything in that colorful salad shown above. (OK, except for the cheese and olive oil, you wise guys.) Not only that, each winner also will receive a beautiful artisan oval cutting board to cut all those home-grown veggies on.

Call it the ultimate do-it-yourself salad when you grow the Myway Arugula, Lettuce Baby Red Mix, Tomato Persimmon and Tomato Carmelita, all by yourself.

When harvest time rolls around, slice the tomatoes about 3/8-inch thick, and alternate them in a row on a serving dish. Layer Myway Arugula and Lettuce Baby Red Mix over the top. Next, add slices of your favorite cheese over the top. Finally, whisk together olive oil, crushed garlic, dill, chives, salt, pepper, wine vinegar and dry mustard to taste. Drizzle over salad, and enjoy.

Here’s how to score those seeds and cutting board: Name the fruit, vegetable or herb that’s most like your personality, and why. Enter the contest by the end of the day, March 13. The three most clever or memorable responses will win. Contest results will be announced on March 15. Participants must reside in the continental United States.

To get you started here’s my own response: Kabocha squash. It’s Asian like me, as well as a little sweet, very versatile, and distinctive. It’s resilient — you can buy it, stick it on the counter, and it’ll keep just fine for quite a spell all to its self. It’s a bit starchy, too — and I never met a carb I didn’t like.

And without further adieu, here are the five winners of the last contest, who will each receive a bag of the new Peet’s Uzuri African Blend coffee:

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