Category Archives: Great Finds

“Ultimate Guide to Bay Area Dining” — Food Gal’s First App — Plus A Give-Away

Posted on by 13 comments

Yes, your favorite Food Gal has joined the app world.

I’m proud to be part of the new venture, “Know What,” an app that takes the guess-work out of figuring out the food and cultural hot spots most worth visiting in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Los Angeles region. The recommendations come already vetted by experts in those areas, including yours truly.

Here’s how it works: Purchase the “Know What Essentials” app for $2.99 to get 250 top picks for food, hikes, museums and bars in both Northern and Southern California. Then, you can add on more specific modules for an additional nominal fee, including my “Ultimate Guide to Bay Area Dining” ($3.99), which includes my spotlights on 72 delicious places around the Bay Area not to be missed. My guide will be updated regularly, too, at no future charge to you.

Since it’s map-based, it couldn’t be easier to use. Just click on the map to see the places near you worth checking out. So, for folks who regularly email me questions such as, “Where should I go eat after the game today at AT&T Park in San Francisco?” or “What’s a new place to try in downtown Palo Alto?” — and you know who you are — having my guide at your fingertips is the next best thing to me being right there with you to lead the way.

Other Bay Area guides available by local writers include: “The City’s Best Cocktail Spots” by Camper English; “Things in San Jose that Don’t Suck” by Gary Singh; and “San Francisco’s Top 30 Taquerias” by Burritoeater.

“Know What” and my “Ultimate Guide to Bay Area Dining” are available for iPhones via the iTunes store. Look for an Android version possibly toward the end of the year.

Contest: One lucky Food Gal reader will win a free copy of the “Know What Essentials” app, along with my “Ultimate Guide to Bay Area Dining.” Entries, limited to those in the continental United States, will be accepted through midnight PST Feb. 25. Winner will be announced Feb. 27.

How to win?

Read more

Two Cool Culinary Stores to Check Out in San Francisco

Posted on by 15 comments

The folks behind Bernal Cutlery conjure up a surreal Dutch Masters still life for this knife display. (Photo by Eric Zepeda)

Knives Galore at Bernal Cutlery

You know the proprietors behind Bernal Cutlery in San Francisco have to have a rather macabre sense of humor to come up with a knife display like this one above.

They also know their stuff. Their shop, opened in 2005, boasts the largest selection of knives in San Francisco, including Japanese, French and vintage ones.

It also offers precision sharpening using Japanese whetstone grinding techniques, as well as classes to teach you how to care for — and best use — your knives at home.

Owner Josh Donald calls himself a knife geek. He even worked with stone while studying sculpture and poured metal in a foundry in order to refine his knife-sharpening skills even more. His team also includes two sushi chefs.

Read more

Gourmet Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

Posted on by 21 comments

Ready-to-bake cookie dough balls with spectacular results.

In their plastic container, they almost resemble mini scoops of mocha chip ice cream.

But bake them in the oven to transform them into thick chocolate chip cookies with crisp exteriors and chewy interiors — the kind you’ll have an extremely hard time saying “no” to.

These ready-for-baking cookie dough balls are the brainchild of Erin Harrison, a single mom, who left a career as a film industry publicist for Pixar and Sony Pictures, to get her baking groove on.

They look like scoops of mocha chip ice cream.

Her South San Francisco-based Country Baking Company turns out cookie dough balls, a dozen to a container, which can be found in the refrigerator case at local Whole Foods markets, Lunardi’s, Draeger’s and Piedmont Grocery. Look for them soon at Mollie Stone’s, too.

Read more

A Crust That’s Flaky In More Ways than One

Posted on by 22 comments

A perfect holiday dessert with the perfect -- and crazy -- crust.

We’ve all learned that to make the perfect, flaky crust, you need cold butter, cool hands and a resulting dough that must be chilled before it’s baked.

Now, take those techniques that you’ve labored to master all these years — and throw them out the window.

Because here’s a supremely flaky crust that breaks all those rules.

It’s made with boiling hot butter that’s mixed with flour to form a dough that you press — while still warm — into your pan before baking.

How crazy is that?

It’s almost embarrassingly easy and pretty fool-proof. And it produces a crust that would rival any at a fancy patisserie.

Read more

« Older Entries Recent Entries »