Category Archives: Enticing Events

Bay Area Barbecue Championship and Quick Food Gal Giveaway

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Barbecue chicken and more await you at the Bay Area BBQ Championship. (Photo courtesy of the event organizers)

If you love barbecue, you are destined for one smoke-a-licious time at the Bay Area Barbecue Championship on July 16 at the Oakland Coliseum.

Starting at 9:30 a.m., 32 teams will square off in four categories: Chicken, Brisket, Pork and Ribs.

Celebrity judges — including Bay Area Chef Joey Altman and everyone’s favorite retired pilot, Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger — will determine the winners. But there also will be a People’s Choice Award for members of the public to cast votes on whose ‘cue they believe clobbers all the rest.

After you’ve had your fill of smoky, charred meat, take a seat inside the Coliseum for the A’s only double-header of the year as they take on the Los Angeles Angels.

General admission tickets are $48 each, which gets you five food/drink coupons for the Barbecue Championship and one plaza outfield seat for the double-header.

VIP tickets are $78 each, which includes the food-drink coupons, plus a field level seat and access to VIP hospitality.

All tickets must be purchased in advance.

The event benefits Alternative Family Services, which provides services for foster children in Northern California.

Contest: I’m happy to be giving away three general admission tickets to the barbecue fest and baseball game (a value of $48 each) to one lucky Food Gal reader. Contest is open only to those who can make it to Oakland on July 16. Since the event is this Saturday, this will be a quick contest. Entries will be accepted only until noon PST July 13. The winner will be announced on July 14.

How to win?

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Anzu Gets A Fresh Look, New Campbell Eateries, Half-Off Wines & More

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Anzu's new glam look. (Photo by Matthew Millman)

Restaurant Anzu Gets Glam

The Hotel Nikko’s Restaurant Anzu in San Francisco has debuted a chic new look with its bold citrine, black and white decor.

Jewel-like chandeliers, beaded pendant lighting, a black wall treatment, heavy, damask curtains and oversized white banquettes add an even more luxurious feeling.

You can still enjoy an array of sushi there, but the restaurant also has added a new emphasis on prime meat with  Kurobota double pork chop ($33), local rack of lamb ($34) and Wagyu beef that’s cooked tableside on a sizzling hot Japanese river stone ($34).

Campbell Welcomes Tasty, New Businesses

Downtown Campbell is hopping lately with new foodie places, including an intriguing Austrian-California restaurant, Naschmarkt (pronounced “nash-marked”), which just opened.

Long-time South Bay foodies may fondly remember the now-shuttered Cafe Marcella in Los Gatos. Those owners, Alain and Martine Staebler, have partnered with their son-in-law, Austrian chef, Matthias Froeschl, to open this restaurant that is named for Vienna’s largest open-air market.

Look for classic wiener schnitzel with lingonberry sauce, Hungarian beef goulash, steamed Scottish salmon with baby artichokes, and apple strude — but of course.

Soda pop buffs will get a kick out of Rocket Fizz, which also just opened downtown. Owners Chris Dunn and Lisa Pelgrim sell more than 500 varieties of soda, including more than 50 root beers. They’re all sold in glass bottles, which can be purchased individually, by the pack or by the case.

Don’t miss the candy selection, either, that boasts more than 2,000 kinds from around the world.

Finally, if that wasn’t enough sugar for you already, wander over to the new downtown Frost Cupcake Factory.

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Scenes From the Food Gal’s Cooking Demo At Macy’s Union Square

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Yours truly with Chef Earl Shaddix of All-Clad. (Photo courtesy of Barry and Eva Jan)

It was an unbelievable standing room-only crowd a couple of Saturday afternoons ago at Macy’s Union Square San Francisco, when I did my first cooking demo ever.

Chef Earl Shaddix of All-Clad was on hand to act as host and assistant, when I demonstrated how to make my late-Mom’s one and only tomato beef chow mein.

The event was crazy fun. It was a blast. And it was downright exhausting. I was so pooped that I joked to some of my cookbook-author friends afterward that I don’t know how they do these all the time without keeling over.

The day was a total whirlwind. The event started at 2 p.m., but I got there two hours earlier in order to make two batches of the dish ahead of time to ensure there was plenty for samples and to prep for the third batch, which I would make in front of the audience. From the second I got there, it was non-stop chopping, peeling, stirring and talking — until I finally left the store at 4 p.m. to go back home. Whew!

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Mighty Tea and a Mighty Food Gal Giveaway

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Mighty Leaf Iced Tea blends. (Photo courtesy of Mighty Leaf)Iced Tea pitcher to make quenching your thirst a breeze. (Photo courtesy of Mighty Leaf)

Might you be getting just a bit parched on these toasty summer days?

Then, you might very well enjoy a glass of quenching iced tea, wouldn’t you?

Mighty Tea makes it a snap with its hand-blended, whole-leaf tea leaves in eco-friendly pouches.

Enjoy a sip of Sunburst Green Iced Tea (with low caffeine and the burst of orange flavor), Ginger Peach Iced Tea (made with black tea), Calypso Mango Iced Tea (with tropical fruit flavors and South Indian black tea), and Organic Black Iced Tea.

Contest: One lucky Food Gal reader will win samples of each of those iced tea flavors plus a 50-ounce Bodum Iced Tea Pitcher with a removable infuser to hold tea pouches or tea leaves.

Contest is open only to those in the continental United States. Entries will be accepted through midnight PST July 2. Winner will be announced July 4. How’s that for a Fourth of July bonanza?

How to win?

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“Top Chef” Tour Rolls into San Jose

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"Top Chef'' favorite, Fabio Viviani, cooks in front of a crowd in San Jose on Tuesday.

It’s not every day that I get kissed on the hand by “Top Chef”’s resident Italian charmer, Chef Fabio Viviani — while simultaneously getting kissed on the cheek by fellow hunky “Top Chef” alum, Ryan Scott.

Yes, Tuesday was that kind of heart-fluttering day.

It was all in a scorching afternoon’s work when the Bravo TV “Top Chef Tour,” which has been winding its way across the country, rolled into San Jose for two days of madcap fun inside a tent set up behind the AT&T store on Stevens Creek Blvd. Although this is the fourth year that contestants have gone on the road like this, it was the first time that the tour stopped in San Jose.

Another "Top Chef'' alumn, Ryan Scott, prepares to battle against Viviani.

Yours truly was asked to judge one of the “Quick-Fire”-style battles between Viviani, who owns two restaurants in the Los Angeles-area, Firenze Osteria and Cafe Firenze, and San Francisco’s Scott, who used his “Top Chef” earnings to start a catering company, Ryan Scott 2 Go, and a mobile sandwich truck, 3 Sum Eats. Look for him to open his newest venture in a month — Brunch Drunk Love (how cute is that?), a brunch-only restaurant that will be open only on weekends at the Bruno’s site in the Mission District.

Those signs of affection from Viviani and Scott were humorous attempts to butter up the judge. But being the professional that I am — ahem — I did not let any of that sway me.

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