Category Archives: New Products

Get Your Hands on One of the Best Butters in the World

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French butter -- in all its glory.
French butter — in all its glory.

Buttah.

Creamy, dense, complex, and so rich that a a tiny swipe on the tongue will fill your entire mouth with intense milky, fatty lushness.

That’s Le Beurre Bordier — a French butter beloved by the most discriminating chefs and pastry chefs.

Now, you can get your hands on some in the Bay Area easily, thanks to the Frenchery, a French online marketplace based in San Francisco, which starting offering it a few weeks ago.

While mass-produced butter takes less than a day to make, Le Beurre Bordier needs a full 72 hours. Jean Yves Bordier uses milk from local farmers in Brittany to make his small-batch butter. Unlike conventional butter, he allows the cream to culture, and thus develop a fuller flavor. He also kneads the butter with a wooden machine for as long as half an hour to expel water and create an especially silky product.

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Sponsored Post: Wrapples with Pazazz

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Pazazz apples, along with layer upon layer of buttery, flaky crust, make up this cute little hand pie known as a "Williamsburg Wrapple.''
Pazazz apples, along with layer upon layer of buttery, flaky crust, make up this cute little hand pie known as a “Williamsburg Wrapple.”

Given the trials and tribulations of this unprecedented year, who can be blamed for wanting plenty of snuggle time underneath layers of warmth and comfort?

That’s why when I received samples of juicy, red Pazazz apples, I figured they rightfully deserved their own cocooning time, too. Under fold upon fold of buttery, flaky, golden crust, that is.

The joyfully named “Williamsburg Wrapples” are an ideal treat for this time of year when apples are at their peak. They’re like hand pies, but sport three layers of apples and four of crust instead, because they are not filled and folded over once like a turnover, but multiple times like a jelly roll. That means you get even more buttery pastry in every bite. A win-win.

With their very crisp texture, Pazazz apples work great in this recipe because they hold their shape well and their sweet yet gentle tart flavor doesn’t get lost in all those layers of crust.

Red-skinned with a cream-colored flesh, Pazazz apples are available at Albertsons.
Red-skinned with a cream-colored flesh, Pazazz apples are available at Albertsons.

Pazazz were developed by Honeybear Brands of Minnesota, a leading grower and developer of apple varieties. Indeed, they’re the ones who brought you the ever-popular Honeycrisp.

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Oakland Native Ray Roundtree’s Urban Flavors Gourmet

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Juicy, snappy sausages from East Bay company, Urban Flavors Gourmet.
Juicy, snappy sausages from East Bay company, Urban Flavors Gourmet.

During nearly three decades as a special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Ray Roundtree was used to packing heat.

Now, its his Red Devil Hot Links that do that.

The recently retired Oakland native traded a career in law enforcement for entrepreneurship when he founded his passion project, Richmond’s Urban Flavors Gourmet line of sausages, condiments and spices.

“It has been my dream to be an entrepreneur in this ever competitive marketplace,” he says. “I kept my promise to my parents for three decades that I would finish what I started with my career as an ATF agent. It is now time for me to venture into the unchartered waters of my new culinary endeavors ‘one bite at a time.’ “

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What I’ve Been Drinking of Late, Part 4

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Nothing spooky at all about this wonderful Seghesio Venom.
Nothing spooky at all about this wonderful Seghesio Venom.

Seghesio 2016 Venom

This wine makes me think of Tom Hardy. OK, so many things make me think of Tom Hardy.

Seghesio 2016 Venom Alexander Valley ($50) indeed carries the same name of the Marvel movie that got such pitiful reviews that even I haven’t deigned to watch it — Tom Hardy or no Tom Hardy.

I’d much rather take this Venom over that one. This inky wine, of which I received a sample, is made from 100 percent Sangiovese grapes. It gets its name from that fact that the grapes grow atop Rattlesnake Hill on the Seghesio ranch in the Alexander Valley.

Its an apt name for this steep slope of impenetrable volcanic shale. The vines have to fight their way through it, and in so doing, produce tiny yet intensely flavored grapes.

The wine is fragrant with of rose water and lavender. Dried cherries and vanilla meld with earthy, graphite notes for an exceptionally silky mouthfeel with a long finish.

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Okazu Miso Chili Oil Will Have You Smacking Your Lips

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Chili oil condiments made with miso.
Chili oil condiments made with miso.

If you’re a fan of Chinese-style chili oil, then you will love Abokichi’s Okazu line, which puts a Japanese spin on that fermented condiment by adding miso to it.

Jess Mantell and Fumi Tsukamoto co-founded their Toronto company, Abokichi, to make gluten-free, vegan, non-GMO, preservative-free sauces. They first started selling them at a farmers markets. They proved such a hit that they expanded to online and retail sales.

I had a chance to try samples of the three different varieties: Chili Miso, Spicy Chili Miso, and Curry Miso.

Okazu Chili Miso carries a good amount of heat with a big backbone of umami.
Okazu Chili Miso carries a good amount of heat with a big backbone of umami.

Miso paste, sesame oil, sunflower oil, tamari soy sauce, sugar, sesame seeds and a little chickpea flour form the basis of each of these umami-rich condiments.

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