Category Archives: Great Finds

The Newest in Urban Farming at Ecopia in Campbell

Posted on by 7 comments

A bounty of lettuces from Ecopia Farms.

Look closely at that bowl of beautiful, baby salad greens.

If only you could reach out and grab a few leaves to taste, you’d be amazed at their sweetness, pepperiness and all-around intensity of flavor.

What makes these lettuces different is that all were grown indoors under LED lights, using a fraction of the water a conventional outdoor farm would.

Ecopia Farms in Campbell is unlike any other agricultural endeavor — housed indoors in a non-descript, out-of-the-way warehouse in Campbell.

Utilizing the latest technology and know-how, it was founded by a couple of tech giants: a former CEO of Solectron, and a former president of Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space.

With water and land increasingly precious commodities, their goal is to create a way of farming that is not only more efficient and sustainable, but replicable in high-density urban areas.

Read more

A Sharp Find: The Perfect Edge

Posted on by 10 comments

Sean Maffitt at work on sharpening my knives.

Walk inside San Mateo’s Perfect Edge to be mesmerized by walls and counters covered in knives.

More than 25 brands in all: American, German, Swiss, Chinese and supposedly the largest selection of Japanese knives around.

Cleavers, chef’s knives, mezzalunas, and everything in between — some worth thousands of dollars.

Owner Mike Solaegui opened his first store in the 1990s in Burlingame. Now, his knife sharpening services can be found in locations around the Bay Area, including at various farmers markets and his flagship San Mateo store, which opened in 2001. His fleet of trucks make the rounds to many of the Bay Area’s top restaurants to care for the prized knives of chefs.

It’s also been the go-to place to take my own knives for the past couple of years whenever they get a little dull around the edges.

Knives, knives, everywhere.

The largest selection of Japanese knives around.

At the San Mateo store, you can often drop your knives off to be sharpened, then wait for them to be done.

Read more

Ingenious English Muffin Bread — Made In a Microwave

Posted on by 36 comments

Yes, I made this bread in a microwave. How cool is that?

Sometimes the best things in life happen by complete accident.

Take my discovery of this amazing recipe for “English Muffin Bread” that’s “baked” in your microwave in mere minutes. I kid you not.

A month ago, Rebecca from New Hampshire, emailed me out of the blue, frantically searching for this recipe by cookbook author Lora Brody. She’d made it before, loved it, but couldn’t for the life of her lay her hands on it again. So, she did what we all do: She Google’d it. The search engine returned a link to where she could find it: FoodGal.com. Trouble is I not only didn’t have that recipe on my blog, but I’d never even heard of it. Go figure.

After she and I exchanged perplexed emails, Rebecca eventually found the recipe again in Brody’s cookbook, “The New England Table” (Chronicle Books), and sent me a copy. It’s adapted from a James Beard recipe.

And it’s a marvel.

Read more

Full Circle Now Delivers to the Bay Area

Posted on by 8 comments

A typical small box of produce box from the new Full Circle delivery service.

Once a week for the past couple of weeks, a box just like the one above has landed on my front porch bright and early in the morning.

Besides organic fruits and veggies, its contents have also included this:

Artisan strawberry jam by Inna Jam.

And this:

Organic firm tofu from Oakland's Hodo Soy Beanery.

And this:

Raw milk Italian farmstead cheese.

All thanks to Full Circle, an organic produce delivery service, which started in Carnation, WA, and just launched in the Bay Area.

Read more

The Lettuce That’s Taking the Bay Area By Storm

Posted on by 12 comments

Little Gem salad with spring veggies and Green Goddess dressing at Redd Wood in Yountville. (Photo by Carolyn Jung)

No matter where you dine in the Bay Area, you’d be hard pressed to find a menu that did not have this particular lettuce gracing it.

Whether served cold and crisp in a salad or braised or grilled in a main dish, Little Gem lettuce is the new darling ingredient that chefs and diners just can’t seem to get enough of. Whether at Frances in San Francisco, Redd Wood in Yountville, Camino in Oakland or Mamacita in San Francisco, Little Gem is sure to be there front and center.

Read more

« Older Entries Recent Entries »