Category Archives: New Products

Farm-Fresh Teas and A Food Gal Giveaway

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Take a sip of the unusual teas by Grey Dog Tea.

Stinging nettles, sweet peppers and heirloom chiles — in tea?

You bet.

Last year, Baia Nicchia, the 9 1/2-acre farm in Sunol known for its impeccable tomatoes, started selling unique blends of teas, made from its organic herbs, fruits and vegetables that have been dried.

The teas proved so popular that farm owner Fred Hempel has now launched his own tea company, Grey Dog Tea, named for his pet Greyhound.

The teas are available in loose-leaf or bag form. The blends include ones with caffeine, as well as ones without. The actual tea leaves used come from San Francisco’s Five Mountains, which specializes in heirloom organic teas.

The four beguiling blends include:  “Dragon Mint Tea Blend” (heirloom teas, mints, chile pepper flakes and herbs), “Chile Mint Herb Tea” (heirloom chile pepper flakes, mints and herbs), “Citrus Stinger Herb Tea” (yuzu leaf, lemon grass, stinging nettles, sweet peppers, chile peppers, Persian spearmint, nasturtiums and citrus peel), and “Citrus Morning Blend” (heirloom oolong teas, herbs, stinging nettles, sweet peppers, yuzu leaf, heirloom chile peppers and citrus peel).

The signature "Chile Mint Tea.''

All of the blends have a purity of flavor to them, as if you were drinking something straight from the garden. The chiles in the blends won’t make you break into a sweat. They’re quite subtle, lending fruitiness and a delicate warmth.

I’m especially partial to the “Dragon Mint Tea Blend” because of how the gentle tannin of the tea leaves is lifted by the profusion of mint.

The teas sell for $9.99 to $16.99.

CONTEST: One lucky Food Gal reader will win a tin of Grey Dog Tea’s signature “Chile Mint Herb Tea,” plus a refill. You get your choice of loose-leaf or bags, too.

Entries, limited to those in the continental United States, will be accepted through midnight PST Dec. 22. Winner will be announced Dec. 24.

How to win?

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Gift Ideas for the Foodies in Your Life

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The "Mash Bill'' collection of truffles from Vosge Haut Chocolate. (Photo by Carolyn Jung)

For the Spirits and Beer Aficionado Who Also Covets Chocolate

Leave it to Vosges Haut Chocolate of Chicago to come up with a specialty box of truffles all about whiskey, bourbon, scotch and stout.

The “Mash Bill” is a nine-piece collection of dark- and milk-chocolate truffles, each of which incorporates Rogue Chocolate Stout, Templeton Rye Whiskey, Four Rose’s Single Barrel Bourbon and Bruichladdich Port Charlotte Scotch in the ganache filling.

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Ecopia Farms Introduces Salad Kits

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The very gourmet tasting "Winter Salad'' kit from Ecopia Farms.

Find yourself in a salad rut this holiday season, where you’re noshing the same ol’ citrus-, persimmon- or apple-topped one over and over again?

Ecopia Farms wants to help break that ho-hum cycle.

The innovative Campbell organic farm, founded by a former CEO of Solectron and a former president of Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space, grows gourmet micro-lettuces indoors under LED lights that now grace the plates of some of the Bay Area’s best restaurants. Now, it’s just introduced two salad kits for consumers.

Each kit comes complete with the farm’s artisan lettuce mix and micro-herbs. The “Holiday Salad” includes Point Reyes blue cheese, candied walnuts, brandied pears, a spiced apple cider vinaigrette, and Maldon salt. The “Winter Salad” includes pickled butternut squash, quinoa with currants, candied pumpkin seeds, Maldon salt and a tangy lemon vinaigrette.

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Gift Ideas, Including Ones From the French Laundry

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All you need to make Bouchon Bistro's Chocolate Tart in one amazing gift box. (Photo courtesy of the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group)

Thomas Keller Gift Selections

If you have a spendy budget and a discriminating foodie friend to shop for this holiday season, look no further than Chef Thomas Keller’s new holiday offerings.

First up, the “Bochon Bistro Chocolate Tart & Wine Port Gift Set” ($250), which provides everything you need to recreate the bakery’s famous chocolate tart, including a limited edition bottle of Meyer Family Port Wine.

Next, the “French Laundry Sparkling Wine & Caviar Gift Set” ($1,000), which includes a 2-ounce serving of Sterling White Sturgeon Caviar, a 375ml bottle of Schramsberg Blanc de Blanc Chardonnay-based Brut sparkling wine, and a buckwheat blini mix prepared by The French Laundry kitchen, as well as two mother of pearl caviar spoons for serving.

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The Verdict on the New Veggie Grill & A Food Gal Giveaway

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A taste of Veggie Grill's Papa's Portobella Burger.

With no offense to vegetarians, I admit that I have often had a love-hate relationship with wheat gluten products that try to masquerade as bona fide meat.

I love the idea. But I hate the taste and texture, which have always seemed a true letdown.

I can remember once going to a Chinese Buddhist restaurant with friends. After one of the dishes was set down at the table, my friend’s Dad dived in excitedly, then proclaimed that the molded, pressed wheat gluten slices tasted just like Peking duck.

I almost blurted out, “Are you high?” But I managed to restrain myself and just smile in silence.

Now, Veggie Grill is making me eat that thought.

The first branch of the Southern California fast-casual vegetarian restaurant recently opened in San Jose’s Santana Row. As a local food writer, I received a couple of coupons to try a few of the entrees on the house.

I went in with trepidation. But I came out a fan. Yes, even of the wheat gluten.

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