The Joy of Summer Tomatoes and Bread

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Add ricotta to your equation of bread plus tomatoes for a summer treat.

Add ricotta to your equation of bread plus tomatoes for a summer treat.

 

Few things are as simple and sublime in the summer as tomatoes on bread.

Be it as a grilled cheese or Catalan-style with the ridges of grilled bread rubbed with garlic, then smeared with the juices of a cut tomato, it doesn’t get better than that.

“Quick Pickled Grape Tomatoes on Ricotta Toast” offers up another way to enjoy that delightful duo.

The recipe is from the new cookbook, “Just Cook It!” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) by Justin Chapple, of which I received a review copy.

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Chapple is the deputy test kitchen editor at Food & Wine magazine and the host of “Mad Genius Tips,” the magazine’s video series. He’s all about time-saving tricks and clever hacks to get recipes perfect, such as browning beef for “New-School Beef Bourguignon” in a rimmed baking sheet all at once rather than in batches in a Dutch oven on the stovetop. It’s faster — and less messy.

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In Praise of Braise

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Braised pork cheek mole at -- where else -- Braise.

Braised pork cheek mole at — where else — Braise.

 

If you’ve been a fan of The Table in San Jose’s Willow Glen, then you’re already familiar with Chef Anthony “A.J.” Jimenez’s New American fare that’s playful and sometimes quite unexpected.

He’s brought that same style to the first restaurant he’s owned, Braise, which opened late last year in San Jose’s Willow Glen, in fact, just a stone’s throw away from The Table. He opened it with high school friend Josh Hanoka of Bray Butcher Block in San Jose’s San Pedro Square Market.

The small, laid-back restaurant done up in vivid blue features a small bar and bare wood tables. It’s the perfect place to drop by to unwind after work or to enjoy a girls’ night out, which is what I did with two girlfriends recently. They paid the tab (a sweet belated birthday dinner for yours truly), but Jimenez sent out a couple items on the house.

The dining room.

The dining room.

Everything is made to be shared, both small and large plates. A couple of his fun dishes from The Table have made their way here, including his house-made kimchi and his savory take on zucchini bread.

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Anchor Steam In Cans, San Jose Restaurant Week & More

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Anchor Steam's flagship beer is now available in cans.

Anchor Steam’s flagship beer is now available in cans.

Anchor Steam Now In Cans

No doubt you know Anchor Steam for its bottles, barrels and kegs. Now, for the first time in its 122-year history, its flagship beer comes in cans.

Not just any cans. But big 19.2-ounce ones.

The new cans are enough for two moderate drinkers to share or one thirsty person to enjoy more than a beer and a half.

It’s the same copper colored brew with malty, hoppy, deep caramel flavors that’s been made since Fritz Maytag acquired and revived the brand in 1965, making it the first hand-crafted beer to be brought back in the United States after Prohibition, launching today’s craft beer movement.

The tall distinctive gold cans with a big blue logo anchor retail for $2.49 each. Just in time for summer barbecues, picnics and camp-outs, the iconic beer is now easier to tote.

Hungry for A “Little Taste of San Francisco”?

If you are, then you’ll want to pick up a copy of the adorable and compact “A Little Taste of San Francisco” (Bluestreak Books) by Bay Area food writer Stephanie Rosenbaum Klassen.

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The 72-page book, of which I received a review copy, serves up more than 30 of the city’s quintessential recipes — from “Clam Chowder in A Sourdough Bread Bowl” and “Irish Coffee” to “Tofu Banh Mi” and “Oatmeal Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches.”

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Why Just Have A Regular Burger When You Can Have…

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A shu mai dumpling turned into a burger instead. You know you want this.

A shu mai dumpling turned into a burger instead. You know you want this.

 

A shu mai burger.

Oh, yes, I did just type that.

And it’s as divine as it sounds.

Leave it to Mark Bittman to come up with this pork-shrimp burger that tastes just like your favorite Chinese dumpling.

It’s from his new cookbook, “How To Grill Everything: Simple Recipes For Great Flame-Cooked Food” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), of which I received a review copy.

And when Bittman says “everything,” he means everything. This cookbook features 1,000 recipes and variations for everything from appetizers to seafood to meat to vegetarian dishes to condiments to breads to desserts.

It’s enough to make you want to stock up on charcoal or propane.

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Bittman also covers the in’s and out’s of both types of grilling, too, as well as grilling tips that are useful no matter if you’re a novice or a pro.

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The Oasis of Ambience

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Ostrich mousse with black truffle at Ambience.

Ostrich mousse with black truffle at Ambience.

 

The elegant Ambience in downtown Los Altos may have opened more than four years ago, yet it still flies relatively under the radar.

But thankfully, more people are finding out about this fine-dining gem on the Peninsula, as evidenced a few weeks ago when I was invited in for a repeat visit as a guest of the restaurant. The first time I dined there in 2015 on a weeknight, I have to admit I wondered how it managed to stay in business. I think my party of two was only one of three tables filled that night in what albeit is a small restaurant. But on the return visit, I was happy to see that about two-thirds of the restaurant was filled on a weeknight.

Cobalt water glasses.

Cobalt water glasses.

A sip of warm almond tea to get in the mood.

A sip of warm almond tea to get in the mood.

A tasting menu-only restaurant can be a gamble, especially in too-impatient-to-wait-for-anything Silicon Valley. It’s one thing to devote 2 hours or more to a meal on a weekend or special occasion. But on a Wednesday night after work? For a lot of people, that’s a big ask.

Chef-Owner Morgan Song makes it worth your while, though. Song, who cooked for years in Sacramento and San Francisco, most notably at Kiss restaurant, and his wife, who manages the front of house and greets guests warmly when they arrive, have created a subdued restaurant, cloistered from the stresses and vagaries of the day with a candlelit dining room with smoky glass windows that seems to make the outside world disappear.

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