Category Archives: Restaurants

Maui Morsels

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Thick, crisp French toast -- what a way to wake up at the Old Wailuku Inn. And this is only a half-order.

MAUI, HAWAII — Two weeks ago when invited to visit this spectacular island by the Maui Visitors Bureau, I had a chance to be a guest at a couple of complimentary accommodations as I noshed my way around the island.

Here are the highlights:

The Old Wailuku Inn at Ulupono

Total charm is what you’ll find at this B&B that evokes 1940s Hawaii, with its grand lanai, lush garden and handmade Hawaiian quilts that adorn the beds in each distinct room.

Janice and Tom Fairbanks run the Old Wailuku, a plantation-style inn that’s located in a residential neighborhood. It has seven rooms in the main house and three in a separate rear building.

Complimentary breakfast is included and shouldn’t be missed. It usually begins with a goblet of fresh fruit, including mango, banana and strawberries. That’s followed by a warm dish, such as mega French toast made from a crisp Vietnamese baguette that’s smeared with a creamy mixture of ricotta, cottage cheese and fresh mint.

The plantation-style sitting area in the main house.

The bedrooms are adorned with handmade Hawaiian quilts.

In the dining room, there’s a fridge stocked with cold cans of juice and soda to help yourself to throughout the day, as well as bowls of snack foods to nibble.

Star Noodle

I admit that when Chef Jay Terauchi was driving myself and a slew of travel bloggers to this restaurant, I secretly feared he might be a serial killer, about to do us all in and dump our bodies where nobody could find them.

That’s because Star Noodle is located off the beaten path, up a rather deserted road off the main highway, where there’s a warehouse or two and a couple of bulldozers idle on barren land.

A sampler of kimchee, shiitakes and other pickled veggies.

But continue up that road until you hit the restaurant, and you know you must be on to something because there will be a line of folks in the parking lot, waiting to get inside. Always a good sign, right?

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RN74 Celebrates Sweet Birthday, First Walnut Creek Restaurant Week & More

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Vanilla bean panna cotta with rhubarb, red wine and poppy seed granola. (Phot courtesy of RN74

San Francisco’s RN74 Offers Up Takeaway Treats for Bargain Price

To celebrate its third anniversary, RN74 in San Francisco is making batches of takeaway dessert treats for $3 each (regularly $5).

If you need an afternoon pick-me-up, head over to the restaurant, April 22-28,  to indulge in a to-go order of an assortment of French cookies, peanut butter mousse with sea salt and bourbon caramel or vanilla bean panna cotta with rhubarb and red wine.

It’s sure to be a sweet time.

Creamy peanut butter mousse with bourbon caramel and chocolate-covered peanuts. (Photo courtesy of RN74)

Student-Run Restaurant Opens in Sunnyvale

The Art Institute of California in Sunnyvale just reopened its student-run restaurant, The Bistro, with a new menu and decor.

Interior Design students, who revamped the space as part of a class project, chose neutral hues, bamboo and grasses for an organic, natural look.

Culinary students manage the dining room and oversee the kitchen, turning out seasonal lunches that are mostly organic. Choose from small plates, salads, entrees or sandwiches.

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Thai Lemongrass is a Family Affair

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Gingery ground pork with crunchy-chewy rice cakes make up this delight salad at Thai Lemongrass.

The Chakreeyarat family ran the tucked-away Thai Bistro in San Jose for many years.

Doing it all, every day, at that small eatery, though, eventually wore on  matriarch Pat Pongsil. She closed shop, and retired.

But it wasn’t long before the 70-year-old was itching to get back in the kitchen.

So, in August of last year, she opened Thai Lemongrass in a strip mall off El Camino Real in Sunnyvale, in what was once an Indian restaurant.

Last month, I was invited to be a guest of the restaurant. The dining room is simple and sparse. But from the moment you walk in, you feel like you’re in Pongsil’s warm home about to enjoy a most satisfying meal.

Pat Pongsil at work in her kitchen at Thai Lemongrass.

Thai Lemongrass is a true family affair. Daughter Jenny Chakreeyarat, who used to work at the nearby Ginger Cafe in Sunnyvale, runs the dining room. Her sister, Jennet, helps her Mom cook in the kitchen.

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Highlights From Florida — Beyond the Pillsbury Bake-Off

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When I wasn’t sequestered behind closed doors as a judge of the 45th Pillsbury Bake-Off last week, I did manage to get out and about to discover some other fun things in Orlando. Here are other highlights of that trip:

* Poached farm egg, aleppo pepper hollandaise, California asparagus and pork belly at Luma on Park in Winter Park, Fla.

A perfectly poached egg that oozes a bright orange yolk to make a dish of juicy pork belly even richer. It doesn’t get better than that at this sophisticated restaurant with a glam two-story glass wine “jewel box” that displays bottles upon bottles of fine vintages.

Not your average edamame.

* Togarashi spice stir-fried Japanese edamame at Emeril Lagasse’s Tchoup Chop in Orlando.

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A Chef Worth Getting to Know in Sonoma County

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Chef Steven Snook of the Restaurant at the Kenwood Inn and Spa. (Photo courtesy of Sylvias Photography)

Chef Steven Snook spent seven years working for bad-boy celeb Chef Gordon Ramsay in both London and New York.

And yes, he’ll be the first to tell you that he did get yelled at by the famous chef who’s known for his rather colorful outbursts.

“You think you’re doing it right and then you hear it,” Snook says with a knowing chuckle. “I got called ‘f—ing donkey’ many times, especially my first year there.”

After becoming sous chef at the flagship Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, then working at Maze by Gordon Ramsay at the London hotel in New York, Snook was ready for a change of pace.

Married to a former Gordon Ramsay pastry chef, and with a new baby, Snook and his family were ready to trade the hustle-bustle of New York City for a more bucolic existence reminiscent of the English countryside. They found what they were looking for in the Valley of the Moon, otherwise known as Kenwood in Sonoma County.

Squab with rhubarb from the seasonal tasting menu.

For the past four months, Snook has been the executive chef of the Restaurant at Kenwood Inn and Spa. The 26-room Mediterranean-style inn is surrounded by vineyards and fruit orchards. Its 22-seat restaurant with a roaring fireplace has the feel of an intimate, out-of-the-way European country-side restaurant. In Snook’s hands, it’s most definitely worth visiting, too.

The fountain in the interior courtyard.

There are only 26 rooms in this inn, surrounded by orchards and vineyards.

The one catch is that the restaurant is only open to guests of the inn. But you can become a “guest for the day” if you book an appointment at the inn’s spa.

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