Category Archives: Great Finds

Tuck Into Gochujang Sesame Noodles with Broccolini

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The Korean staple fermented pepper paste really jazzes up these sesame noodles.
The Korean staple fermented pepper paste really jazzes up these sesame noodles.

If you go nutty for Asian sesame or peanut noodles, then this version will definitely have you hooked from the first bite.

That’s because “Gochujang Sesame Noodles with Broccolini” adds the Korean fermented pepper paste to the mix for big, brawny flavor that grabs your taste buds and doesn’t let go.

Easy enough to make on a weeknight, this recipe is from “You Got This!” (Simon Element), of which I received a review copy.

It’s by Connecticut-based Diane Morrisey, a self-taught cook who’s a former caterer and executive at Whole Foods overseeing prepared foods.

She describes the collection of 100 recipes as being for “real people.” After all, as a wife and working mom of six kids, she knows all about how hard it can be to juggle multiple responsibilities while still trying to get food on the table every night.

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Michelin Three-Starred Benu Celebrates 15 Years

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The unforgettable mussel at Benu.
The unforgettable mussel at Benu.

Just before you’re escorted into the kitchen at Benu in San Francisco, you’ll spot a formidable column decorated with autographs from a who’s who in the culinary world: David Kinch, Michelin three-starred chef of now-shuttered Manresa in Los Gato; Chef Sang Yoon of Father’s Office and Helms Bakery, both in Los Angeles; Fuchsia Dunlop, James Beard Award-winning food writer and Chinese cuisine expert; the late-Charles Phan, founder of the Slanted Door restaurant in Napa and San Ramon; the late-Chuck Williams, founder of Williams Sonoma; and so many more.

Because since its opening in 2010, this fine-dining, tasting-menu restaurant has attracted everyone who’s anyone to its minimalist dining room for its elegant fare that blends East and West with incredible finesse.

It was the first San Francisco restaurant to receive three Michelin stars in 2014. It has maintained them ever since, too.

Opened by Chef Corey Lee, former chef de cuisine of Michelin three-starred The French Laundry in Yountville, Benu is also the first restaurant that Thomas Keller ever invested in that wasn’t his own.

The courtyard entrance.
The courtyard entrance.
A view into the kitchen.
A view into the kitchen.
Crocks of house-made soy sauce.
Crocks of house-made soy sauce.

While I’ve dined several times at Lee’s casual Korean restaurant, San Ho Won in San Francisco, which has a Michelin star, it’s been many years since I’d last been to Benu. And since my cousins, who are huge fans of San Ho Won, had never been to Benu, I figured it was high time we all went together.

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A Different Kind of Baklava

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Dar Baklava's Cashew Bird's Nest Baklava made with more nuts and less sugar than most baklava.
Dar Baklava’s Cashew Bird’s Nest Baklava made with more nuts and less sugar than most baklava.

In theory, I love baklava.

But in practice, sometimes not so much.

After all, I can’t resist crisp, buttery phyllo pastry layers with crunchy nuts. However, more times than not, it’s just too darn sweet for me.

Sherif Badawy thought the same when he immigrated to the United States from Egypt in 2011, and found what passed for baklava here too doughy and too drenched in syrup for his taste.

So, the pediatrician and marathon runner set out to create a baklava that was less saccharine yet still delicious and satisfying.

Single-serve packages.
Single-serve packages.

The result is Dar Baklava, his Chicago company that makes baklava packaged in bite-size pieces that boasts more nuts and less syrup.

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7 Adams Adds A New Seven

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Dungeness crab amuse-bouche kicks off the new 7-course tasting menu at 7 Adams.
Dungeness crab amuse-bouche kicks off the new 7-course tasting menu at 7 Adams.

“Tasting menu bargain” sure seems like a total oxymoron.

Especially these days when quite a few tasting menus bust the pocketbook at upwards of $500 per person.

So, when I come across one that hovers in the $125-plus range, especially one that delivers a filling and fulfilling time at a Michelin-starred establishment no less, I take notice.

San Anselmo’s Michelin-starred Madcap with its eight courses for $140 or 11 courses for $165 has long fit that bill for me. Of course my all-time bargain bliss is the four-course $52 menu at San Francisco’s Trestle, but that is more of a prix fixe with choices for each course rather than a bona fide tasting menu.

Just look for the "7.''
Just look for the “7.”

Happily, another modest-priced tasting menu, relatively speaking, has popped up on the scene now, this one at Michelin-starred 7 Adams in San Francisco.

Call it “7 at 7,” as it features 7 courses for $127. An optional wine pairing is $77 per person.

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The Nostalgic Taste of No-Churn Yuen Yeung Ice Cream Cake

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Sara Lee Pound Cake goes fancy and sentimental.
Sara Lee Pound Cake goes fancy and sentimental.

As a Chinese American kid growing up in San Francisco, I would peer into our family freezer to spy not only bamboo leaf-wrapped sticky rice dumplings and on-sale bags of shrimp for future stir-frys, but plenty of Swanson Salisbury steak dinners, boxes of Banquet boil-in-bag chicken a la king, and Sara Lee Pound Cake.

The latter of which I much preferred to eat still frozen.

Apparently, I wasn’t alone in that, either.

Not if the cookbook, “Salt Sugar MSG: Recipes From A Cantonese American Home” (Clarkson Potter), of which I received a review copy, is any indication.

That’s because deep within its pages is a recipe for “No-Churn Yuen Yeung Ice Cream Cake” made with — you guessed it — a Sara Lee Pound Cake, but one gussied up with layers of a fluffy whipped cream-and condensed milk flavored with Lipton tea and a dash of coffee.

For me, it is as if old-school Chinatown milk tea and that buttery dense pound cake decided to skip joyously together down memory lane.

The cookbook was written by Calvin Eng, chef and owner of Bonnie’s, a well-regarded Cantonese American restaurant in Williamsburg in New York. who is also a Food & Wine “Best New Chef,” with assistance from Phoebe Melnick, a New York video journalist.

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