Category Archives: Enticing Events

Your Chance to Try the Food Gal App, Cindy Pawlcyn Celebrates with Cake, and More

Posted on by 4 comments

FoodGalApp

Try the Mini Food Gal App — For Free

Yes, now here’s your chance  to try a mini version of my Food Gal “Ultimate Guide to Bay Area Dining” — for free.

Available at the iTunes store, the  free version has 21 recommended restaurants on it. If you like what you see, you can download the complete app with 70 more restaurant write-ups for a mere $1.99. It’s just like trying a cookie sample at the supermarket. With that first bite, you’re sure to enjoy it so much that you’ll want the whole shebang.

The map feature cleverly lets you find my recommended spots closest to you no matter your location in the Bay Area. Also new to the app is the ability to make reservations through OpenTable.

There might be no such thing as a free lunch. But now you can partake of my delicious mini app for free.

Cindy Pawlcyn Celebrates 30 Years

Chef Cindy Pawlcyn’s pioneering Mustard’s Grill in Yountville will celebrate its 30th anniversary in a very sweet way.

We’re talking cake — a different one featured daily for 30 days, from now through June 15.

Chef Cindy Pawlcyn celebrates a mega anniversary. (Photo courtesy of Alex Farnum)

Chef Cindy Pawlcyn celebrates a mega anniversary. (Photo courtesy of Alex Farnum)

The cake will be available on the dessert menu daily not only at Mustard’s Grill, but at Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen in St. Helena and Cindy Pawlcyn’s Wood Grill & Wine Bar in St. Helena.

Read more

Pop-Ups by Former Ad Hoc Chef, Love Apple Farms Celeb Cooking Demo, and More

Posted on by Leave a comment
Chef Dave Cruz will be cooking in Oakland. (Photo courtesy of the chef)

Chef Dave Cruz will be cooking in Oakland. (Photo courtesy of the chef)

Chef Dave Cruz To Do Pop-Ups in Oakland

You know him as the original chef for Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc restaurant in Yountville. Now, after leaving the Keller fold, Chef Dave Cruz is embarking on a series of pop-up events in Oakland — a prelude to opening his own restaurant some day.

The first dinner, May 18, will feature Chefs Simone Fung and Sebastian Mendieta of S+S Gastropub, cooking with Cruz at their downtown loft on Jackson Street in Oakland. The five-course dinner that night will be reminiscent of the hearty, seasonal meals he did at Ad Hoc. Dishes will include salad of Asian baby greens with slow cooked egg; crisp pork belly and clams; and strawberry shortcake with strawberry sorbet, Tokaiji-macerated strawberries and arlette cookies. Price is $85 per person.

Two seatings are available for the BYOB dinner: 5:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. The exact location of the dinner will be emailed to guests after a reservation is made.

Read more

Maui Part II: The Island’s Bountiful Agriculture and Aquaculture

Posted on by 9 comments
Snails -- being raised for escargot and other gourmet dishes -- on an urban Maui farm.

Snails — being raised for escargot and other gourmet dishes — on an urban Maui farm.

Napili FLO Farm

If former massage therapist Monica Bogar has her way, Maui restaurants will some day spotlight organic snails on their menus.

After all, there’s already a waiting list of restaurants eager for the mollusks she is growing aquaponically in ingenious systems devised by her and her Uncle Tony. I had a chance to visit their homestead on the west side of the island, during my trip to Maui, courtesy of the tourism and conventioner’s bureau.

An urban farmer for the past 12 years, Bogar started her Napili FLO Farm a year ago. She now sells her microgreens, edible flowers and watercress to Maui restaurants such as Star Noodle, Hula Grill, and Pineapple Grill, the latter where Isaac Bancaco is chef and a huge supporter of hers.

Monica Bogar and Chef Isaac Bancaco inspect one of Bogar's aquaponics systems.

Monica Bogar and Chef Isaac Bancaco inspect one of Bogar’s aquaponics systems.

Pick you way through Uncle Tony’s backyard to find a miraculous series of tanks — built from scavenged items, including styrofoam boxes, old fish tanks and a grandson’s former wash tub. “We are aquaponics dumpster-divers,” Bogar says proudly with a chuckle.

Read more

Free Tickets to Beta Tasting, Humphry Slocombe Now Available at Slider Bar, and More

Posted on by 3 comments
Try the frozen Fosters waffle from Waffle Amore at the upcoming Beta Tasting. (Photo courtesy of Waffle Amore)

Try the frozen Fosters waffle from Waffle Amore at the upcoming Beta Tasting. (Photo courtesy of Waffle Amore)

Come Hungry to Beta Tasting in the South Bay

Dishcrawl, the creator of tantalizing foodie meet-ups around the Bay Area and beyond, is introducing a fun new event on May 2.

At “Beta Tasting,” folks will get a chance to vote on their favorite eats from 20 experimental dishes created by more than 10 food trucks from the Bay Area. The event will take place at a secret location in the South Bay that will be disclosed closer to the May 2 date.

Some of the new dishes to be unveiled include: ice cream taco by Treatbot, frozen Fosters waffle from Waffle Amore, lemongrass slider from Yummi BBQ, and veggie musubi from Rice Rockit.

Tickets to the event are $2 per person. Dishes will be priced from $3 to $5.

Lemongrass slider from Yummi BBQ. (Photo courtesy of Yummi BBQ)

Lemongrass slider from Yummi BBQ. (Photo courtesy of Yummi BBQl)

Proceeds will benefit the Bay Area Mobile Food Vendors Association, a non-profit organization that helps support food trucks.

 GIVEAWAY: Dishcrawl is generously giving away free tickets to any Food Gal readers who would like to attend the event. Just use coupon code: foodgalfriends.

Get Ready for Blind-Tasting Bingo

Yes, that would be playing bingo while blind-folded. How much goofy fun is that?

The San Francisco Cooking School and Edible San Francisco invite you to an evening of just that at 7 p.m. May 1.

Read more

Charlie Trotter Tribute Dinner at M.Y. China, Sweet Fests Not to Be Missed, and More

Posted on by One comment
Martin Yan (Photo courtesy of the chef).

Martin Yan (Photo courtesy of the chef).

Martin Yan Hosts An All-Star Dinner at M.Y. China

Charlie Trotter, who shuttered his famed eponymous Chicago restaurant last year, will be the special guest of honor at a  6 p.m. June 9 dinner hosted by Martin Yan at M.Y. China in San Francisco.

If that weren’t enough of a draw, the dinner will be created in part by Chef Michael Rotondo, former executive chef of Charlie Trotter’s and now chef de cuisine at Parallel 37 in the Ritz-Carlton San Francisco. Dessert will be made by Yigit Pura, the first winner of “Top Chef: Just Desserts” and now proprietor of Tout Sweet Patisserie in San Francisco. And M.Y. China’s executive chef and master noodle-puller, Tony Wu, will be on hand to show his dough-twirling prowess.

The evening will begin with appetizers and sparkling wines from Domaine Carneros. That will be followed by a seated four-course dinner with wines by the Michael Mondavi Family Estate. A live auction also will be held.

The dinner, a benefit for the James Beard Foundation and the Chef Martin Yan Scholarship, is limited to 100 people. Tickets are $200 per person or $175 per person for James Beard Foundation members. Tickets can be purchased at MyChinaSF.com or by calling (415) 580-3001.

Pastry Chef Yigit Pura. (Photo courtesy of the chef)

Pastry Chef Yigit Pura. (Photo courtesy of the chef)

Dessert First!

Calling all sweet tooths: The Four Seasons Hotel in San Francisco will be the place to be 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. May 5.

That’s when 20 of the Bay Area’s best pastry chefs will ply you with all manner of signature sweets at “Dessert First!,” a benefit for Project Open Hand, which provides meals for people afflicted with breast cancer or HIV/AIDS, or are home-bound and critically ill.

Read more

« Older Entries Recent Entries »