Category Archives: Great Finds

Korean Tea, Part 1: The New

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Korean corn tea that tastes like popcorn in a mug

You’ve enjoyed trendy wine bars. Now, take a seat at a soothing tea bar.

Puripan Tea Garden opened its doors a month ago at San Jose’s Santana Row. This cozy oasis sells 70 types of loose-leaf teas, the majority of them Korean. Although Koreans traditionally don’t drink black teas, the store has imported a range of black teas from India and China, as well.

If your experience with tea has been limited to the bagged variety, you are in for a treat here. Most run-of-the-mill tea bags contain more tea “dust” than actual leaves. Glass containers here display tea leaf samples that can be opened to experience their intoxicating fragrances.

Take a breather at Puripan Tea Garden

Besides many types of green tea, Koreans have a tradition of brewing tea from grains such as corn and barley, as well as more unusual plants such as persimmon leaves. Store proprietor Ellen Kim explained that during Korea’s Chosun Dynasty (the 1300s), the tax on tea was so high that people resorted to brewing “tea” with other ingredients.

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Nuts About These Nuts

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Regular blanched almonds on the left; Sicilian Pizzuta almonds on the right.

As you know, I love nuts of all kinds. My latest paramour? The native Sicilian almond called Pizzuta.

This rather flat-shaped almondÂis amazing. It has a rich, intense, almost creamy flavor. Think marzipan — but with a pleasant, toasty bitterness and none of the aching, cavity-inducing sweetness.

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The Only Sustainable Sushi Bar in North America

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At Tataki Sushi & Sake Bar, it\s not business as usual.

That is just what Tataki Sushi & Sake Bar in San Francisco is believed to be.

The tiny, seven-month-old restaurant serves only seafood that isn’t overfished, farmed without proper management, or contains high levels of mercury and other contaminants.

Find out more about why business partners, Chef Kin Lui, Chef Raymond Ho, and Casson Trenor (a sustainable fisheries expert) decided to open such a restaurant by reading my story today in the San Francisco Chronicle Food section.

Tataki, the site of a former Subway sandwich shop, grabs your attention right when you walk in. A Monterey Bay Aquarium “Seafood Watch” pocket guide, which lists best and worst sustainable seafood species, is front and center on every table. A copy is also tucked into every take-out menu.

Co-chefs Raymond Ho (left) and Kin Lui (right).

Oct. 22, Tataki will be the site of the official launch of three new, ground-breaking sustainable sushi guides created in partnership with the aquarium, Blue Ocean Institute, and Environmental Defense Fund. Each will include information on as many as 60 different seafood species commonly found on sushi menus.

Sustainable artic char, similar to farmed salmon in taste and texture, but without environmental and health concerns.

Want to do the right thing? Then, you’ll stop eating unagi, bluefin toro, hamachi, octopus (tako), monkfish liver (ankimo), farmed salmon (sake), imported King crab (kani), imported albacore tuna (shiro maguro), and sea urchin (uni) from Maine — all of which are unsustainable, according to the aquarium’s new guide.

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And the Winner in The Cupcake Showdown Is….

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Sprinkles Cupcakes (Clockwise from back: banana, mocha, and chocolate marshmallow)

I came armed with a hat, sunscreen, bottled water, and even a book.

But this is what you must do when you prepare to do battle with the Sprinkles Cupcakes line.

You may recall how last week I intended to run inside the new cupcake bakery at Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, then dart across the road to the equally new Kara’s Cupcakes  in the Town & Country Village in Palo Alto. My plan was to compare the two to see whose cupcake reigned supreme. But of course, a lack of time trounced those plans once I spied the huge, snaking line at Sprinkles.

I did make it to Kara’s that day, where there was no line. And you’ve already read how scrumptious I thought those cupcakes were. So I thought it only fair to drag my bee-hind into line yesterday at Sprinkles to finally pass judgment.

Waiting in line for cupcakes at Sprinkles

At 2:40 p.m. on Monday, there was a line, but not too frightening of a one. Yet again, almost everyone in line was female. Oh, there were three guys queued up, but two of them gave up and left when they were only steps from the promised land — the bakery’s front door. If there ever was confirmation of which sex has the most patience, a cupcake line is unrefutable proof.

The woman in front of me recounted how her kids were so bold as to come last Tuesday — opening day of the bakery. They waited in line for one hour. Thankfully, my experience wasn’t as painful. From the time I planted myself in line to the time I walked out with my cupcake loot, about 25 minutes had passed.

I carried home one banana cupcake with vanilla frosting, one mocha (Belgian dark chocolate cake with mocha frosting), and one chocolate marshmallow (Belgian dark chocolate cake topped with marshmallow cream-bittersweet chocolate ganache). They were $3.25 each, just like at Kara’s.

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