Category Archives: Enticing Events

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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Restaurant Architecture Tours, Bobby Flay Comes to San Jose, New Splashy Sonoma Winery & More

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The interior of Twenty Five Lusk in San Francisco. (Photo by Paul Dyer)

Behind the Scenes Look at San Francisco Restaurant Design

The San Francisco chapter of the American Institute of Architects is presenting a program this month that will have you looking at your favorite eateries in a whole new light.

Part of its “Architecture and the City Festival,” this “Tour, Talk, Taste: Food and Design in the City” series invites you into a couple of San Francisco restaurants, where you’ll have a chance to listen to the design and culinary teams explain their visions for each restaurant. Then, you’ll get to sit down with them over food and drink to learn even more.

Find out what went into creating Local Mission Eatery, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Sept. 25, which was built with environmentally conscious materials.

Learn about the creative process for hip Twenty Five Lusk, 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Sept. 27.

And find out how designers created a Ligurian Italian restaurant in the Mission at Farina, 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Sept. 30.

Tickets to each event are $40 for AIA members; $50 for general admission. To register and buy tickets, go here.

The interior of Local Mission Eatery, which boasts environmentally friendlyl materials. (Photo courtesy of the restaurant)

Get Your Beloved Meetinghouse Biscuits

Long-time Bay Area foodies know well the legendary biscuits that Chef Joanna Karlinsky used to turn out when she owned the Meetinghouse restaurant in San Francisco.

That restaurant may be long gone. But you can still get your fix of those impossibly fluffy, tender biscuits a couple of ways. First, Thursday and Friday evenings from 6 p.m. on, she’s doing a pop-up at the Oasis Cafe in San Francisco, where she’ll be selling her wonderful chili and biscuits, both freshly baked and frozen ones to take home for later.

Second, she’s cooking brunch on Sundays, 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., at The Corner in San Francisco. The simple, sit-down brunch will include such offerings as eggs Benedict, chili, Southern sides, and plenty of biscuits.

Finally, you also can buy the frozen biscuits via her Web site. A box of 24 frozen dough squares is $35.

Bobby Flay Book-Signing Event at Santana Row in San Jose

Meet New York celeb Chef Bobby Flay at 6 p.m. Sept. 23 at Sur La Table in San Jose’s Santana Row.

Flay will be signing copies of his new book, “Bobby Flay’s Bar Americain Cookbook: Celebrate America’s Great Flavors” (Clarkson Potter).

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“What Caesar Did For My Salad” and Food Gal Giveaway

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Did you know that shrimp cocktail became popular in the 1920’s as a safe way to enjoy a “cocktail” during Prohibition?

Or that the crescent-moon shape of a croissant has its origins in Turkish legends?

Or that ancient Egyptians considered humble lettuce a potent aphrodisiac?

You’ll find those fun factoids and many more intriguing stories about well-known, beloved ingredients and dishes in the new  book, “What Caesar Did for My Salad: The Curious Stories Behind Our Favorite Foods” (Perigee) by Albert Jack, a writer and historian who splits his time between the United Kingdom and South Africa.

No doubt, this fascinating book will help you trounce your friends at any game of Trivial Pursuit or liven up any dinner party.

Contest: I’m happy to be giving away a free copy of the book, “What Caesar Did for My Salad” to two Food Gal readers. Entries, limited to those in the continental United States, will be accepted through midnight PST Sept. 17. Winners will be announced on Sept. 19.

How to win?

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