Category Archives: Great Finds
A Visit to Della Fattoria in Petaluma
I owe my latest carb binge to Chef Adam Mali.
When I was dining recently at his restaurant, Brasserie S&P in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in San Francisco, I’d occasionally come up for air from devouring his dishes only to find myself drawn completely and helplessly to the bread.
Smoky, with a hefty dark crust and a chewy interior full of delightful air holes and developed fermented flavor, I couldn’t stop eating slice after slice.
Of course, I had to ask him where it came from.
When he told me it was baked in wood-fired ovens at Della Fattoria in Petaluma, I knew I had to stop in the next time I was in the vicinity.
So, I did earlier this week.
Bon Appetit magazine has called it one of the Top 10 bread bakeries in America. One taste and you’ll agree.
Michael Pollan In My Backyard
Yes, Michael Pollan made a splashy appearance in my backyard recently.
Um, that would be my tomato plant named for the respected food activist, author and journalist, not Mr. Pollan in the flesh, himself.
Of my four tomato seedlings planted this year, it was this one that grew most vigorously and produced not only the first tomatoes of the season, but the most fruit so far, too.
Guess it pays to be named after a man who takes food seriously.
The Newest in Urban Farming at Ecopia in Campbell
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.
A Sharp Find: The Perfect Edge
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.
At the San Mateo store, you can often drop your knives off to be sharpened, then wait for them to be done.