Category Archives: Enticing Events

Convenient CSA Pickup at a Caltrain Station

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Would you believe you can pick up this bounty at a train station?

Leave it to Luke’s Local — the gourmet convenience store at a Caltrain station — to make getting farm-fresh produce on your commute even easier now.

The tiny store, which opened last year in a long-vacant ticket office at the Hillsdale station in San Mateo, just started offering a Community Supported Agriculture “Meal Box” that folks can pick up once a week at Luke’s Local. Imagine getting off the train after a long day at work, then picking up a box that contains not only fresh fruits and veggies, but a couple of ready-to-heat meals that you can load in your car to take home.

A sample "Meal Box'' from Luke's Local.

Luke Chappell, owner of the store, is offering this new service in a joint effort with Farmshares, a Community Supported Agriculture program of local farms in the Capay Valley. When you subscribe to the service, you pick up your box every Wednesday night at the train station.

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Peet’s 45th Anniversary and a Food Gal Giveaway

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Peet's special 45th Anniversary Blend Tea. (Image courtesy of Peet's)

Would you believe that it was 45 years ago that Alfred Peet began roasting coffee in Berkeley, which forever cemented our love affair for a dark, strong brew made with fresh-roasted beans?

Now, each year, Peet’s commemorates the anniversary of the founding of the company by releasing an anniversary blend each of coffee and tea. No two years are alike, either, as each celebratory blend is made with that season’s new crop of the best and most interesting coffees to ensure especially bold and bright flavors.

And the companion 45th Anniversary Blend Coffee. (Image courtesy of Peet's)This year’s Anniversary Blend Coffee features Costa Rican, Burundi and Antiqua Guatemala beans. The Burundi lend a black cherry-like note to this lively coffee with subtle sweetness.

The Anniversary Breakfast Blend Tea features four micro-lots from China: Keemun Mao Feng, Yunnan Golden Snow, Golden Congou and Imperial Red. The tea blend, with its rich and malty flavor, is substantial enough to stand up to milk and sugar, if you like to sip it the British way.

The Anniversary tea and coffee are available for a limited time only — until about May 24 or until supplies last. The coffee is $15.99 per pound at Peet’s locations; and $8.99 to $10.99 for a 12-ounce bag in stores such as Safeway and Andronico’s.

The tea, $14.95 for a four-ounce tin, is available at Peet’s locations and on the Peet’s Web site.

Contest: Now, five Food Gal readers will get a chance to try both the Peet’s Anniversary Blend coffee and tea. Each will receive a one-pound bag of coffee plus a tin of the tea.

Entries, limited to those in the continental United States, will be accepted through midnight PST May 7. Winners will be announced May 9.

How to win?

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Gourmet Jerky, Cookbook Recipes Finder & Curtis Stone

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Krave's Basil Citrus Turkey jerky.

Craving Krave Jerky

When you think of jerky, no doubt it’s of those jaw-breaking, tough as shoe-leather strips sold at convenience stores and gas stations that you reach for only in desperation.

Now comes Krave Jerky, which is jerky you’ll actually want to eat.

The company was launched a year ago by Jens Hoj, former general manager of El Dorado Kitchen in Sonoma, and Jonathan Sebastiani, a winemaker whose family started Viansa Winery in Sonoma.

What sets these gourmet jerky products apart is that they’re actually tender, soft, moist and even sticky with marinade. They’re so meaty tasting that you almost feel like you might need a knife and fork to eat them. But rest assured, fingers work just fine.

The jerky comes in eight varieties, including Lemon Garlic Turkey, Sweet Chipotle Beef, and Grilled Sweet Teriyaki Pork. The Teriyaki Pork is the most tender of the bunch, with a candied-salty flavor of  a perfect Hawaiian plate lunch.

The Basil Citrus Turkey is the most toothsome of the bunch with a mild tang. Surprisingly, it also boasts the most calories at 100 per 1 ounce serving, compared to the 70-80 calories of the others. It also has the most sodium at 610 mg per serving, compared to the 140-400 mg of the others. But the turkey has 0 grams of fat, compared to 1.5-2.5 for the other flavors.

Jerky that actually won't hurt your jaw.

A 3.5-ounce package is $7.

But starting today, for a limited time only, Daily Gourmet is offering a deal on Krave Jerky. The new San Francisco-based company offers gourmet food products in special discounts for limited time offers to members, who are notified via email. Among the products that have been offered or will be are jams and vinegars from The Girl and the Fig in Sonoma, and vegan cinnamon rolls by Berkeley’s Cinnaholic.

A five-pack of Krave Jerky will be $28 (includes shipping) on Daily Gourmet.

The company was started by David Rangel, formerly with Microsoft’s Corporate Strategy Group and an executive at Groupon; and Chad Jackson, a software and Internet entrepreneur.

CookBookKarma for Cookbook Aficionados

If you love to cook from cookbooks, take photos of your dishes and post the results on your blog, you’ll be glad to discover the new site, CookBookKarma.

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Pebble Beach Food & Wine Extravaganza and Food Gal Giveaway

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Team Lexus -- culinary-style. (Photo courtesy of Lexus)

The fourth annual Pebble Beach Food & Wine extravaganza rolls into town, April 28-May 1, with more than 70 top toques and 250 acclaimed wineries doing cooking demos, wine seminars and glam dinners at the picturesque Pebble Beach Resorts.

Among the who’s who of culinary talent who will be participating are: Tom Colicchio of “Top Chef”; Yigit Pura, winner of “Top Chef Just Desserts”; Charlie Trotter; Ming Tsai; Tyler Florence; and the one and only Jacques Pepin.

Ticket prices range from $100 for a single event pass to $4,750 for a VIP four-day pass.

If that’s too rich for your blood — and I’m sure for most of us, it definitely is — the Food Gal has another way for you to enjoy a little of the action.

Four lucky readers will each win an autographed apron. (Image courtesy of Lexus)

Contest: I’m thrilled to be giving away four Pebble Beach Food & Wine aprons signed by Daniel Boulud, Michael Chiarello, Dean Fearing, Christopher Kostow, Masaharu Morimoto and Michael Symon, who are all part of the Lexus Culinary Masters team.

Entries, limited to those in the continental United States, will be accepted through midnight May 1. Winners will be announced May 3.

How to win?

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A Wine Dinner at Saratoga’s Sent Sovi

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A sampling of Varner wines ready to be poured at Sent Sovi.

Chef-Proprietor Josiah Slone carries many fine wines on his wine list at Sent Sovi in Saratoga.

But his unabashed favorites are definitely the ones by Varner, a boutique winery in Portola Valley. The winery, run by twin brothers, Bob and Jim Varner, specialize in Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. They are wines that marry well with Slone’s cooking, and the ones that he and his wife most like to kick back with in their down time.

I was lucky enough to sample the wines with Slone’s food when I was recently invited as a guest of the restaurant to a Varner wine dinner.

The first course was a refreshing cured artic char with the zing of preserved Meyer lemons from the chef’s backyard tree, which paired with the 2007 Varner “Home Block” Chardonnay. Slone made use of every bit of the rich fish, including frying the skin to make “chips” and scraping the flesh of the head to form a chopped fish salad of sorts.

Cured artic char with mache.

That was followed by what was one of the juiciest white meat chicken dishes I’d had in a long time. Cooked “sous vide’’ to keep the bird moist, the chicken was accompanied by caramelized fennel and a dice of sweet, spicy pears, which picked up the lush, complex quality of the 2007 Neeley “Holly’s Cuvee” Chardonnay that’s also made by Varner.

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