Category Archives: Enticing Events

What is Portland, Ore.? (Part II)

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Pinot Noir grapes on the vine at Ayres winery.

What is Portland?

One of the finest wine regions around…

If you love Pinot Noir, especially ones with an earthy roundness in the style of Burgundy, you will go crazy for these made in the Willamette Valley.

I know I have. And it’s a love affair that’s lasted many, many years already.

Thanks to Travel Oregon, a group of food bloggers, including yours truly, recently was invited as guests to explore Portland’s famous wine region, which is considered the birthplace of New World Pinot Noir.

It was my first time to the glorious Willamette Valley, which sports 20,000 acres of vineyards, most of it Pinot Noir and almost all of it grown on  hillsides to avoid frost.

With 425 wineries, the Willamette Valley is as verdant and picturesque as the Napa Valley, but with a less touristy and corporate vibe. It’s still affordable, too, relatively speaking. While you practically have to be a neurosurgeon or Google employee #5 to afford to start a new winery in Napa, in the Willamette Valley, that dream is still accessible for regular, working-class folks with a bit of bank.

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What is Portland, Ore.? (Part I)

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A trip to Portland wouldn't be complete without a stop here.

What is Portland?

It’s where I had my first newspaper internship way back when at the Oregonian…

It’s where I learned it wise to carry an umbrella two out of three months that summer because that’s just how much it rains there…

It’s a pioneering eco-conscious city known for its great public transportation system, including free streetcar and bus rides in the downtown corridor…

And of course, it’s a region blessed with spectacular homegrown produce, world-class Pinot Noirs, incredible microbrews, legions of food carts long before it became trendy, and a vibrant restaurant scene any city would envy…

Thanks to Travel Oregon, a group of 25 food bloggers, including yours truly, recently was invited as guests to wine and dine our way through Portland.

Here are some of the tasty highlights:

A trip to Portland has to include a stop at Voodoo Doughnut, right?

Get in line behind the sign. And there's always a line, even late at night.

Trying to decide which one to order...

The one I had to have. Can ya blame me?

This doughnut shop is known worldwide and its wacky cruellers have even been featured on Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations.”

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Macy’s Union Square Mystery Basket Battle

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Chef Hoss Zare plating his first dish at the Macy's Union Square cooking challenge.

In one corner, a Swedish chef who cooks Italian food.

In the other, a Persian chef known for his infectious Hoss-pitality.

Of course, I can only be talking about Chef Staffan Terje of San Francisco’s Perbacco and Barbacco restaurants; and Chef Hoss Zare of San Francisco’s Zare at Fly Trap.

These gifted chefs and longtime friends squared off Wednesday night in a packed house in the Cellar at Macy’s Union Square in San Francisco for the ever popular “Mystery Basket Battle.” It was all in good fun for a good cause — ticket proceeds were donated to Meals on Wheels of San Francisco, which provides nutritious meals to home-bound seniors.

Chefs Hoss Zare and Staffan Terje joke around before the battle begins.

The three "mystery'' ingredients that had to be used in a dish

Yours truly was a judge, tasked to determine the winner of this cooking battle, which was as big on flavor as it was on laughs. My fellow judges included Kevin Blum, founder and editor of City Dish; Susannah Chen, associate editor of YumSugar; and Alejandra Schrader, a finalist on “MasterChef’‘ Season 2.  Schrader, a trained architect and urban planner, started her own private chef company, Cucina Cocina in Southern California, following her success on the TV show.

“It’s nice to be on this side this time,” Schrader joked as she watched Terje and Zare chopping and stirring up a storm during the 45-minute battle.

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Macy’s Cooking Demo: The Food Gal Makes Joong with Chef Alexander Ong

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Chef Alex Ong of Betelnut teaching me how to fold a joong rice tamale at Macy's. (Photo by Ben Seto)

Last Saturday afternoon at Macy’s Union Square in San Francisco, I wrapped my first Chinese rice tamale ever — before a standing room-only crowd.

I couldn’t have done it without the good cheer and great instruction from Executive Chef Alexander Ong of the popular Betelnut restaurant in San Francisco.

Though I’d grown up eating these glutinous rice tamales stuffed with pork belly, mung beans and salted duck egg yolks, I’d never made one myself.

But what better time to try my hand at it than last weekend, when the San Francisco International Dragon Boat Festival took place off the waters of Treasure Island.

The rice tamales (known as joong in Cantonese or zongzi in Mandarin) are the food most associated with the sport of dragon boating, which originated more than 2,000 years ago in Southern China.

All wrapped up and ready to be boiled for two hours. (Photo by Ben Seto)

The hidden filling of Chinese sausage and portobellos. (Photo by Carolyn Jung)

According to legend, a popular poet and statesman was wrongly accused of treason. So despondent was he that he committed suicide by jumping into a river. Local fishermen, who admired the statesman, paddled out in their boats to try to rescue him to no avail. They beat drums and threw rice dumplings into the water to try to scare away fish and sea dragons from his body.

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Cocktails, Sake & More

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The necessities for a complete absinthe tasting. (Photo by Liza Gershman Photography)

It’s Cocktail Time in San Francisco

Boy, is it ever, with the 5th annual “San Francisco Cocktail Week,” now through Sept. 25.

Celebrate the city’s grand cocktail heritage with a range of seminars, dining events and after-parties.

Learn about everything from “The Science of Taste,” 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. ($25 in advance or $35 at the door); to “How to Throw a Brunch Cocktail Party,” noon to 2 p.m. Sept. 24 ($25 in advance or $35 at the door).

Participating restaurants also will be hosting special cocktail events, including a Grand Marnier fete at Absinthe restaurant ($138 per person), which includes a cocktail punch reception and a three-course dinner, with each course featuring a different cocktail.

Last but not least, there’s the St. George Spirits Bathtub Gin BBQ, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Sept. 25 at St. George Spirits in Alameda ($35 in advance or $45 at the door). Try three new St. George gins. Barbecue grub will be available, too, for an added charge. For $5 off this ticketed event, use the discount code: FRIENDSANDFAMGIN.

For a complete list of events, go here. For a $5 discount off any seminar, use the code: FRIENDSANDFAM. That code also will get you $10 off tickets to some of the other events, but not to any of the cocktail dinner events hosted by participating restaurants.

Fresh ingredients for Happy Hour at Epic in San Francisco. (Photo by Liza Gershman Photography)

Sake to Me

“A Toast to Recovery” is the theme of the 6th annual “Sake Day,” 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Oct. 1 at the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California in San Francisco’s Japantown.

Taste more than 100 sakes, sample Japanese food and bid on exciting items in a silent auction.

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