Category Archives: New Products

A Tasty Way to Get Your Grains

SooFoo is a hearty blend of nine grains and legumes.

After you’ve been a long-time San Francisco patron of the arts, film producer and inventor of Skyy Vodka, what’s left to do?

For San Franciscan Maurice Kanbar, it’s creating a healthful grain mix that’s low fat, and free of sodium and cholesterol.

Kanbar started making the blend of California long-grain brown rice, brown lentils, wheat berries, oats, barley, black lentils, rye berries, green lentils and buckwheat for himself. But friends liked it so much, they urged him to package it and sell it.

So, SooFoo was created. The name is play on words of “super good food,” which is how Kanbar likes to describe his grain blend.

Read more

Girard’s Giveaway to Dress Up Your Salads

Newly revamped salad dressings from Girard's.

Sometimes we’re in such a rush to put food on the table that we can’t even be bothered with making our own salad dressing.

For times like that, reach for a bottle of tasty, already prepared dressing that’s seasoned with a bit of history, too.

Girard’s Salad Dressings got their start at Girard’s French Restaurant in 1935, located on the third floor of the landmark John’s Grill in downtown San Francisco. There, the Girard family first made their French dressing, which ended up being marketed and eventually sold to a large conglomerate.

Nowadays, Girard dressings come in 17 flavors, four of which have just been rejiggered to contain less sodium.

They are: Light Champagne, Olde Venice Italian, White Balsamic and Greek Feta Vinaigrette

Contest: One lucky Food Gal reader will win samples of each of the four newly revamped Girard’s salad dressings. Entries, limited to those in the continental United States, will be accepted through midnight Oct. 1. Winner will be announced Oct. 3.

How to win?

Read more

Mmm, Brownies

A stack of Cosmos Brownies (that's the Coconut Bliss on top).

Brownies may be one of the simplest baked goods to make, but it takes a sure hand to make really, really good ones.

Ones that are a little fudgy, a little cakey and full-on chocolatey.

Cosmos Brownie Company of Kentucky makes them just that way.

The brother-sister team of Karl and Karen Schrecke started making their brownies in their Cosmos Cafe in Bowling Green in 2004. This year, they added online sales, too.

These are hefty brownies the size of your palm. They come in six flavors: Mintalicious, Turtle, Coconut Bliss, Double Fudge, Peanut Butter, and Walnut.

Read more

“What Caesar Did For My Salad” and Food Gal Giveaway

Did you know that shrimp cocktail became popular in the 1920’s as a safe way to enjoy a “cocktail” during Prohibition?

Or that the crescent-moon shape of a croissant has its origins in Turkish legends?

Or that ancient Egyptians considered humble lettuce a potent aphrodisiac?

You’ll find those fun factoids and many more intriguing stories about well-known, beloved ingredients and dishes in the new  book, “What Caesar Did for My Salad: The Curious Stories Behind Our Favorite Foods” (Perigee) by Albert Jack, a writer and historian who splits his time between the United Kingdom and South Africa.

No doubt, this fascinating book will help you trounce your friends at any game of Trivial Pursuit or liven up any dinner party.

Contest: I’m happy to be giving away a free copy of the book, “What Caesar Did for My Salad” to two Food Gal readers. Entries, limited to those in the continental United States, will be accepted through midnight PST Sept. 17. Winners will be announced on Sept. 19.

How to win?

Read more

Piggy Pops

Chocolate, toffee and loads of bacon in a lollipop.

This little piggy…well, no doubt will head straight into your mouth.

Forget going to the market or home, not when this little guy is so irresistible.

Piggy Pops are fun pig-shaped bacon toffee lollipops made by none other than Chefs Duskie Eskes and John Stewart, who own Zazu Restaurant + Farm just west of Santa Rosa, Bovolo Restaurant in Healdsburg, and Black Pig Meat Company, a producer of premium meat, bacon and salami made from their heritage breeds.

Eskes and Stewart know their pork. After all, they were crowned victorious in this year’s Cochon555 heritage pork cook-off at Aspen Food & Wine.

Read more

« Older Entries Recent Entries »