As the name implies, her newest book features more than 50 baked treats perfect for celebrations, including “Nutella Star Bread,” “Coffee-Cardamom Monkey Bread,” “Bittersweet Chocolate Tart with Irish Cream,” and “Coconut-Cardamom Cupcakes.”
The founder of the sugary phenomenon known as Milk Bar, Tosi is a Lasso fan, and recounts hilariously in this Bloomberg story how she would rewind episodes to meticulously study just how everyone’s favorite soccer coach made his biscuits.
The recipe she came up with takes a couple of liberties that definitely enhance the original. Don’t get me wrong; the original recipe turns out shortbread that’s crisp on the edges, tender within, and incredibly melt-in-your-mouth buttery delicious. They are good, basic, and classic.
But hers go beyond that, keeping everything you love about shortbread, but refining it to make it utterly exceptional.
Stash Tea’s holiday “Christmas in Paris” is elegant and evocative.
Stash Tea’s 2021 Limited-Edition Holiday Flavors
When the weather turns blustery, a hot cup of tea really hits the spot, especially when it’s a brew with a special holiday flavor.
Oregon’s Stash Tea has got you covered, whether you want to treat yourself or gift friends or family. Choose from half a dozen flavors made especially for this festive season: Christmas in Paris, Licorice Spice, Holiday Chai, Christmas Eve, Christmas Morning, and White Christmas.
Choose from black, white, and herbal tea blends, either in convenient tea bags or loose leaf. I had a chance to try samples recently.
“Christmas in Paris”is an herbal blend with big hits of cocoa, lavender and peppermint, that makes you imagine sitting at a cafe on the Champs-Elysees enjoying this elegant tea. The “Holiday Chai” black tea will warm you up thoroughly with its cinnamon, allspice, ginger, and Jamaican rum flavor. And the “Christmas Eve” herbal tea with orange, cinnamon and clove is just the ticket for sipping in pajamas as you slide the last presents under the tree in anticipation of the next morning.
Six flavors of holiday Stash Teas to celebrate the season.
A box of 18 tea bags is $3.95. A Holiday Sampler Trio of three boxes of different teas is $12.95, while a Six-Flavor Seasonal Teas Gift Box is $24.95. The loose leaf starts at $8.75 (depending on the variety) for 100 grams.
Oryx Desert Salts From South Africa
You can now find a taste of the remote Kalahari Desert in South Africa at Whole Foods stores near you.
Oryx Desert Salts are harvested from underground streams running through ancient rock formations 280 million years old, then sun-dried. The salt is organic and unprocessed, with naturally occurring minerals including magnesium, zinc and potassium.
Oryx Desert Salts, regular (right) and smoked (left).
I had a chance to try samples of the regular salt and the smoked version. The crystals are more compact and crunchy than, say, lighter, fluffier, moist Maldon Sea Salt. They’re also larger in size than Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt.
Scallop with pine nut miso and pine nut brittle at Nisei.
When you enter Nisei in San Francisco’s Russian Hill neighborhood, you may experience a little deja vu if you’ve dined at Michelin two-starred Californios in SoMa.
The walls are a dramatic dark charcoal, just like at that daring, high-end Mexican restaurant. Both establishments were designed by Carolyn Cantu, co-owner of Californios, to create a cloistered yet elegant atmosphere. Some of the plateware are rough-hewed. minimalist matte gray at both, too.
And of course, there’s also an uncanny banana-caviar dish at each that will leave you talking long after you’ve taken the last bite.
It’s all not by coincidence, but in tribute, as Nisei Chef David Yoshimura was formerly the chef de cuisine of Californios. He opened Nisei in August to spotlight washoku cuisine or Japanese home-cooking that has deep reverence for seasonality and purity of flavor, and is often centered around rice.
In other words, don’t come expecting California rolls and chicken teriyaki. In much the same way that Chef Val Cantu doesn’t do burritos necessarily, but has broadened the definition of Mexican food, Yoshimura, who also worked at New York’s cutting-edge wd-50, does so with Japanese-American food, serving a 12-course tasting menu for $184.
Nisei does not offer outside dining, though its Bar Iris next door, which serves up Asian-inspired craft cocktails and small bites, has a parklet. If you dine inside at Nisei, the host will carefully check your ID and proof of vaccination before seating you. When I was invited in as a guest of Nisei recently, the restaurant actually let my husband and I sit by ourselves in the private dining room — with its own portable air filter system off in a corner — since the room wasn’t otherwise booked.
The embroidered kimono hanging on the wall in the private dining room.
While the main dining room is adorned with brightly colored murals, the private dining room is more sedate with a gorgeous kimono hanging on one wall, and a unique triptych on another that’s over-layed with gold leaf designed to flake off over time, altering the work’s composition naturally. Fleetwood Mac and other classic rock tunes play over the sound system to impart a casualness to it all, despite the room’s inherent grace.
But making them at home can seem like way more trouble than they’re worth. Better to just buy a bunch at your favorite donut shop, right?
Wrong.
Leave it to San Jose’s Beth A. Lee, founder of the OMG! Yummy blog to devise a recipe for a baked version that’s really not much more difficult than making biscuits.
