Category Archives: New Products

A Different Kind of California Start-Up: Ewetopia

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Sirene (front) and Philosopher (back) feta-style cheese from Ewetopia.

Sirene (front) and Philosopher (back) feta-style cheese from Ewetopia.

 

Ewetopia is a start-up. Not in computers or chips. But cheese.

Made with sheep’s milk, of course.

Hence the cute name.

Andrea Mongini and husband Craig Meadows own a veterinary practice. If that didn’t keep them plenty busy already, they also own a sheep dairy farm in Denair, CA.

They just embarked on creating their first cheeses in partnership with one of my favorite producers, Fiscalini Cheese Company of Modesto, maker of the award-winning bandage wrapped cheddar.

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Exclusive American Kobe Ribeye Cap Served at The French Laundry Now Can Be Enjoyed at Home

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Presenting the American Kobe ribeye cap.

Presenting the American Kobe ribeye cap.

 

For the past seven years, almost all of Snake River Farms’ entire supply of ribeye cap — its premier cut of American Kobe beef — has gone to one restaurant.

The French Laundry.

That tells you just how magnificent this cut of beef must be.

Thanks to an uptick in production, though, that same cut is now available to the public, starting this week on the Idaho-based specialty meat company’s Web site.

Yes, you can cook up the same exquisite cut of beef used at one of the finest restaurants in the world.

It won’t come cheap, of course.

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And Now For a Beer That’s A Little Different

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Your eyes are not fooling you.

Your eyes are not fooling you.

 

If you think the foamy head on that frosty mug of beer looks a shade pink, your eyes are not deceiving you.

That’s because this beer has the unlikely ingredient of blackberries.

A full pound of blackberries per liter, in fact.

The Palos Verdes Brouwerij West’s beer is whimsically named “Dog Ate My Homework.”

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Tacolicious’ New Sauces and Salsas

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Tacolicious makes it easy to enjoy Mexican mole at home.

Tacolicious makes it easy to enjoy Mexican mole at home.

Four casual eateries in the Bay Area.

A cookbook debuting in September.

And a new line of sauces and salsas now selling exclusively at Williams-Sonoma.

San Francisco’s  Tacolicious is fast on its way to becoming its own mini empire. The restaurant was established by Owner Joe Hargrave in 2009, who is married to San Francisco magazine editor, Sara Deseran, who, not coincidentally, is the author of the upcoming cookbook, “Tacolicious” (Ten Speed Press).

I had a chance to try samples of the new line of salsas and cooking sauces. Proceeds from the sale of the products go to the Tacolicious School Project, which supports neighborhood public schools in San Francisco.

Break out the chips.

Break out the chips.

The cooking sauces come in three varieties: Tacolicious Mole Rojo Braising Sauce, Tacolicious Shot & A Beer Braising Sauce, and Tacolicious Guajillo Braising Sauce. Each 16-ounce jar is $12.95 and is printed with a suggested way of using it.

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Rutherford’s Round Pond Olive Oils

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Mini bottles of the 2014 Round Pond olive oil releases.

Mini bottles of the 2014 Round Pond olive oil releases.

 

We’re spoiled in Northern California and we know it.

We often take for granted the abundance at our finger tips, from glorious produce year-round to stellar wines to luscious olive oils.

Rutherford’s Round Pond Estate in the Napa Valley makes the most of all of that, crafting wines from 357 acres of vineyards, vinegars from Cabernet and Merlot grapes, syrups from its orchards of citrus, and oils from imported Mediterranean olive trees.

Recently, I had a chance to try its 2014 estate olive oils pressed in a state-of-the-art mill, one of only two olive oil mills in the Napa Valley.

The Italian Varietal Extra Virgin Olive Oil is made from such varieties as Leccino, Pendolino, Maurino, Frantoio and Coratina. It’s a quite full-bodied oil that really announces itself with abundant richness. It would be wonderful drizzled over a pasta dish to finish it or to give oomph to any green salad.

The Blood Orange Olive Oil, made with organic citrus, is sweetly fragrant. The orange taste is smooth and delicate. I envision baking with it or pouring it over soft-serve.

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