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:
And this:
And this:
All thanks to Full Circle, an organic produce delivery service, which started in Carnation, WA, and just launched in the Bay Area.
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.
Some people tote home T-shirts or snow globes from vacations.
Me? I’m prone to do that on occasion, but more often than not, my souvenirs involve food.
I love nothing better than scouring supermarkets or specialty food stores to bring back a real taste of the place I’m visiting.
When I walked into New York’s Eataly last month, I knew I’d hit paradise for edible memorabilia.
The multi-restaurant food emporium brims with the flavors of Italy. Bringing back some of the wondrous gelato, cheeses and specialty beef would be out of the question, of course. But dried pasta was definitely do-able. I scoured the plentiful pasta aisles there to find one that would withstand being shoved into my carry-on without getting badly crushed or crumbled. I hit upon the Alta Valle Scrivia Trofiette ($4.80). The sturdy Ligurian durum wheat pasta is a slender, tightly twisted 1 1/2-inch sliver that has a hand-rolled look to it. Traditionally, it’s tossed with pesto sauce.
There’s a new tofu in town — but its origins are age-old.
Misozuke is tofu that’s coated in miso, sake and sugar, then allowed to cure for two months.
The result is tofu like you’ve never had before — salty, umami-potent, spreadable like softened butter and as creamy as foie gras.
Vegans also have embraced it as a cheese substitute.
Rau Om misozuke is made by Oanh Nguyen and Dang Vu, two Bay Area entrepreneurs who have biology degrees from MIT and Harvard.
NEW YORK, NY — Yesterday, you got a glimpse of my savory adventures. Now, get a taste of the sweet side:
City Bakery has really fun, original baked goods, including a fabulous pretzel croissant. Yes, a flaky, slightly denser version of the traditional French pastry, only here it’s coated in seeds and a sprinkling of salt just like a pretzel. It’s addicting.
So is the “baker’s muffin,” a sort of monkey-bread in muffin form that’s showered in powdered sugar. It’s buttery and tastes like a cinnamon candied apple.
We bought three cookies (chocolate chip walnut, dark chocolate chocolate chip, and dark chocolate peanut butter chip) at Levain Bakery and boy, did our arms get a workout as we carried them around.