Yes, get your fix of green tea cakes and brioche donut holes at Satura Cakes’ third Bay Area location at 199 E. Campbell Ave. in Campbell. The other two are in Palo Alto and Los Altos.
Doors open Aug. 29 for your sweet fix of delicate baked goods with an Asian influence.
Hallelujah, I’ve experienced a miracle — albeit a modest one.
It didn’t involve seeing Jesus on a tortilla or the Virgin Mary in a rust stain on the side of a building. No, my miracle involved a teeny-tiny red berry known as “miracle fruit.”
Haven’t heard the buzz on this fruit, Synsepalum dulcificum, that’s native to West Africa? Well, brothers and sisters, let me fill you in. I’ve been intrigued by the fruit ever since reading a New York Times story about it in May.
This small fruit purports to have an amazing effect when eaten: It changes the taste of anything you stick in your mouth afterwards, particularly things that are sour or bitter, leaving them seemingly sugary sweet.
Admittedly, I was more a curious skeptic than any kind of true believer. So when my friend, Elaine Villamin, winemaker at her family’s Eden Canyon Vineyards in Creston, Calif. (believed to be the only Filipino-American estate winery in the country) asked me to come to a miracle fruit event she was hosting last weekend, I jumped at the chance. Elaine planned to have attendees test the reaction of the fruit on her wines, as well as a variety of other foods, including Tabasco, white vinegar, pickles, Spam, and her homemade pot roast. Talk about a rather curious last supper.
The event was held at Periscope Cellars in Emeryville. Trivia fans will note that its warehouse area was the set for the first season of Bravo TV’s “Top Chef.” The Kenmore appliances are still there as proof.
About three dozen folks forked over $12 in hopes of having a miracle last Saturday afternoon. The seeds ($3 each and just a tad larger than pomegranate ones) were picked just a couple days ago in South Florida, where they are grown by Curtis Mozie who sells them through his Web site.
We were instructed to pop the seed into our mouth, to suck on the smidgen of pulp that’s pretty tasteless, then spit out the bitter seed. We also were told the effect of the protein, miraculin, would last about an hour. Then we made our way around the tables set up with condiments and foods, trying each with eager anticipation.
For a long time, I tried my hardest to avoid fried foods. It’s not that I don’t like fried foods. It’s just that fried foods have a way of sticking around.
On the hips. On the waist. On every inch of my body.
But then, I married Meat Boy. Yes, with a nickname like that, he made me realize just how many big hunks of meat are naturally accompanied by something crisp, golden, and irresistibly fried. And well, faced with that onslaught, you succumb. You can’t help it.
So I do indulge now and then. But I make sure it’s worth it. In no particular order, here’s my personal list of Top 10 fried foods worth every dang calorie. If there are any other fried temptresses out there that can’t be denied, do let me know.
1. Glazed donut at Stan’s Donut Shop in Santa Clara. The puffiest, yeastiest, most pillowy donuts ever. Even people who have sworn off donuts make an exception for a glazed one here. Because the shop sells so many of them that the supply constantly needs to be replenished, the donuts almost always can be snagged warm, just out of the fryer. These donuts have been an institution since the shop opened in 1959. Seventy cents will buy you one donut and a whole lotta happiness.
2. Calamari with romesco sauce ($11) at Bocadillos in San Francisco. There is fried calamari. And then there is fried calamari. It’s the latter you’ll find at this lively, small-plates, Basque restaurant by renowned Chef Gerald Hirigoyen. With the lightest, crispest coating imaginable, the bite-size tentacles and ring pieces arrive at the table at once tender, crunchy, and ethereal. It will spoil you for any other fried calamari ever again.
3. Sweet potato fries at Taylor’s Automatic Refresher in St. Helena, Napa, and San Francisco ($3.99). Thin and crispy, it’s everything you want in a fry, and then some. The dusting of chili powder adds a nice contrast to the subtle sweetness of the fries. I order these every time I go to Taylor’s. You can’t eat just one. And you simply can’t not order them.
4. Regular or “spicy sauce” fried chicken at 99 Chicken in Santa Clara. This is fried chicken, Korean-style, served in a barest of bare-bones establishments in a strip mall off bustling El Camino Real. It’s fried to order, and arrives almost too hot to handle, in a gossamer breading. Purists will go for the traditional, unadorned chicken. Those who like heat can opt for the spicy sauce version _ the same fried chicken, but coated with a neon-red spicy-sweet, sticky sauce that is unabashedly finger-licking-good. Waitresses provide you with pop-up sponges to clean your hands afterwards. Help yourself to all the pickled daikon, and iceberg-lettuce salad fixings you want. Five pieces of chicken are $6.99 for the regular; $7.99 for the spicy.
That’s what you have in TCHO, the only chocolate factory in San Francisco that actually makes confections from cacao bean to candy. Located on historic Pier 17, the company was founded by former space shuttle technologist, Timothy Childs, who launched it with Louis Rossetto, co-founder of Wired magazine.
TCHO (the name is a combo of “technology” and a nickname for chocolate), is in the process of revamping an old steel molding line from a German castle to make it state-of-the-art with video monitors and computerized control systems. TCHO hopes to open its doors to the public for tours in early 2009.
Meantime, the chocolate is available for purchase online. What makes this chocolate company even more tech-friendly is that it does public beta tests on all its bars. Anyone who wants to shell out $10 for two 50-gram bars in plain brown wrappers can try them and send in their comments before the final formulations are completed.
TCHO uses “common sense” labels to simplify the descriptions of the chocolate bars. The first one, launched earlier this year, was “Chocolatey.” “Fruity,” a bar that supposes to be reminiscent of fruit without having any really in it, was launched a month ago. And lo and behold, this morning, “Nutty” arrived in my mailbox to try.
I’ll use my patented scale of 1 to 10 lip-smackers, with 1 being the “Bleh, save your money” far end of the spectrum; 5 being the “I’m not sure ‘d buy it, but if it was just there, I might nibble some” middle-of-the-road response; and 10 being the “My gawd, I could die now and never be happier, because this is the best thing I’ve ever put in my mouth” supreme ranking.
Confectioner Coco-luxe has opened its first store, and lucky San Francisco is home to it.
At the 1673 Haight St. (at Cole Street) shop, unwind with a big mug of Coco-luxe’s own hot cocoa served with fresh, handmade marshmallows. For an extra boost, get it with an espresso shot made with beans by local roaster, Blue Bottle Coffee.
Nibble on a green tea, “dreamy orange,” or malted milk truffle. Or get tempted by the array of chocolate bars in such creative flavors as “Monkey’in Around” (with banana chips, cocoa nibs, and a sprinkle of sea salt), and “Good Fortune” (with candied ginger and actual bits of fortune cookies). There’s even a cute selection of “to-go gifts,” and I mean to go. The chocolates are arranged in whimsical cardboard suitcases.