Party On At Lazy Bear

Posted on by Leave a comment
Chef David Barzelay putting the finishing touches on a dish at his Lazy Bear in San Francisco.
Chef David Barzelay putting the finishing touches on a dish at his Lazy Bear in San Francisco.

Chef David Barzelay can get by on little sleep. Sometimes only two to four hours per night.

But that’s a good thing when one is essentially throwing a dinner party five nights a week.

His Michelin two-starred Lazy Bear in San Francisco touts itself as a “modern American dinner party in the Mission District.”

There is definitely an air of that, as I experienced when I was invited in as a guest of the restaurant recently. Dinner is $199 to $221, and must be reserved and paid for ahead of time in the form on online tickets. Wine or non-alcoholic pairings are extra.

You feel a little like you’ve been invited to a surreptitious dinner party, especially because the dark-fronted building doesn’t have a typical sign — just a small one painted with a black and red buffalo plaid pattern.

Walk inside and you’re escorted up the stairs to the dimly-lighted, cozy lounge, where your jackets will be whisked away, and you’ll be handed crystal glasses of pear-rum punch from a real punch bowl. Yes, when’s the last time you experienced that?

The upstairs lounge.
The upstairs lounge.
Smokey the Bear -- and a host of other bears -- are prominent throughout.
Smokey the Bear — and a host of other bears — are prominent throughout.
The bar on the first floor right when you walk in.
The bar on the first floor right when you walk in.

Lazy Bear immediately transports you to another time and place with its Boy Scout-hunting lodge meets mid-century modern decor.

Read more

Moroccan Lamb, Tomato and Chickpea Soup Sure To Warm You Up

Posted on by Leave a comment
A nourishing North African-style soup.
A nourishing North African-style soup.

On a wintery night, this is the soup you will want to curl up with in a most generous bowl.

“Moroccan Lamb, Tomato and Chickpea Soup” is substantial with tender chunks of lamb shoulder, nutty chickpeas, sweet carrots, and minerally spinach. It’s also a riot of aromatics, thanks to South African-Moroccan ras el hanout and harissa. And it’ll warm you through and through from the very first sip, given its kick of complex spiciness.

This very fine soup is from Gather: A Dirty Apron Cookbook” (Figure 1, 2019), of which I received a review copy.

The book features recipes from the whimsically named Dirty Apron Cooking School in Vancouver, B.C. that’s owned by David and Sara Robertson. Sara handles the business-side, while David, a long-time chef, oversees the classes, as well as Dirty Apron’s deli and catering business.

It’s the second cookbook by David, who also wrote “The Dirty Apron Cookbook” (Figure 1, 2015), which was designed to bring the cooking school into your home by teaching invaluable techniques.

The follow-up cookbook is all about sharing the love of home-cooking with friends and family in dishes such as “Creme Brulee French Toast,” “Kabocha and Wild Rice Salad,” “Spanish Manchego Meatballs with Saffron Basmati Rice,” and “Olive Oil and Rosemary Cake.”

Read more

A Prickly Affair With Persimmons

Posted on by 2 comments
While this is a faux persimmon, my new-found adoration of Hachiya persimmons is very much real.
While this is a faux persimmon, my new-found adoration of Hachiya persimmons is very much real.

Like so many great love affairs, this one began with trepidation.

After all, an astringent personality is not something one warms to readily. What was required was untold patience for its latent sweetness to reveal itself in time.

Such was my relationship with Hachiya persimmons.

Now, with its cousin, the Fuyu, the attraction was immediate. Cheerfully hued, beguilingly sweet, and ready to eat in a flash while still crisp, the Fuyu is thoroughly captivating in salads or pickled.

But the Hachyia? Well, it was more like that demon lurking in the shadows in a horror movie, biding its time as it transformed ever so slowly but surely into something blobby, oozy, and frightening.

Can you blame me for trying to avoid it for years?

Read more

Rooh in Palo Alto Is Smoking Hot

Posted on by 8 comments
Duck kebabs cooked on a mega grill at the new Rooh Palo Alto.
Duck kebabs cooked on a mega grill at the new Rooh Palo Alto.

When husband and wife, Vikram Bhambri, a Dell vice president, and Anu Bhambri, a former Microsoft senior software engineer, moved to San Jose from Seattle, they scoured the Peninsula for nine months, searching for a location to open their first Bay Area restaurant.

But the perfect locale actually turned out to be in San Francisco, which is where the couple, who also has restaurants in India, opened the modern-Indian Rooh in 2016. That was followed in quick succession by Rooh locations in Chicago and Columbus.

Now, finally in 2020, the Bhambri’s original dream has come true with the opening of Rooh Palo Alto — in a big way.

Executive Chef Sujan Sarkar in the kitchen.
Executive Chef Sujan Sarkar in the kitchen.
The custom grill that was fabricated in Atlanta to Chef Sarkar's specifications.
The custom grill that was fabricated in Atlanta to Chef Sarkar’s specifications.

It is the first of their restaurants to focus on live-fire cooking. In fact, it boasts a 13-foot-long custom grill, smoker and rotisserie. The Bhambris believe it’s the first apparatus in an Indian restaurant in the world. It can be admired behind glass from the dining room, as chickens rotate over the fire and whole pineapples hang overhead, turning soft and caramelized.

Read more

It’s Time for Restaurant Weeks Galore

Posted on by Leave a comment
The signature Ensalada de Col is featured on the Oakland Restaurant Week menu at Duende. (Photo by Eva Kolenko in my "East Bay Cooks'' cookbook)
The signature Ensalada de Col is featured on the Oakland Restaurant Week menu at Duende. (Photo by Eva Kolenko in my “East Bay Cooks” cookbook)

Now is the perfect time to try some new restaurants or return to favorites because Restaurant Week is happening in full force in so many Bay Area cities.

You’ll find specially priced lunch and dinner menus at participating restaurants.

Here are some of the most popular Restaurant Week celebrations in local cities:

Read more
« Older Entries Recent Entries »