My First Close Encounter with A Certain Vegetable

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Classic leeks in vinaigrette.

Classic leeks in vinaigrette.

 

When I was a senior in high school, my friends and I saved up our money to dine at Chez Panisse in Berkeley for the very first time.

We four thought ourselves so grown up and so in the know.

Of course, that feeling of confidence dissipated immediately when the first course arrived.

A platter was set before us, containing mystifying long, tubular things that looked for all the world like overgrown green onions. They had been simply grilled with good olive oil, and finished with salt and pepper. We glanced at one another, perplexed, wondering what they were and just how we were supposed to eat them.

Yes, that was my first encounter with leeks.

And I admit that I didn’t necessarily appreciate them then.

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We All Scream For Ice Cream Sandwiches, Tonga Room Fun & More

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Waterbar's take on the ice cream sandwich. (Photo courtesy of the restaurant.)

Waterbar’s take on the ice cream sandwich. (Photo courtesy of the restaurant.)

Restaurants Serving Up Ice Cream Sandwiches

With summer in high gear, pastry chefs are channeling their inner child to turn out kid-pleasing ice cream sandwiches.

Lucky for us, they don’t mind if the grown-ups indulge, either.

At Waterbar in San Francisco, fudge cookies sandwich sweet cream ice cream, then get rolled in crunchy, buttery bits of chocolate shortbread ($9).

At the Americano at the Hotel Vitale in San Francisco, they’re crafting the exotic candy cap mushroom ice cream sandwich ($8). If you’ve never had one, you’re missing out. The tiny mushrooms, foraged by Executive Chef Kory Stewart, impart a heavenly maple syrup flavor to the ice cream base. This is one mushroom made for desserts.

And at Prospect in San Francisco, fresh cherries make a star turn in ice cream stuffed inside two chocolate cookies, then all rolled in candied almonds (2 pieces for $4.50).

Prospect's cherry-chocolate ice cream sandwich. (Photo courtesy of the restaurant.)

Prospect’s cherry-chocolate ice cream sandwich. (Photo courtesy of the restaurant.)

 Tonga Room Celebrates the Fourth of July

How about a bona fide beach party — indoors — at the world-famous Tonga Room in the San Francisco Fairmont?

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Summer’s Made for Iced Tea — And A Food Gal Giveaway

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Mighty Leaf Tea's Ginger Peach iced tea.

Mighty Leaf Tea’s Ginger Peach iced tea.

I am not a soda gal.

Too sweet and too many unnecessary calories for me.

When I want to quench my thirst in summer, I reach for a glass of iced tea instead.

I don’t add any extra honey, sugar or artificial sweeteners, either. I like the tannic nature it has all on its own. If I really want to get fancy, I’ll muddle some fresh fruit, mint leaves or even cucumber slices in it.

That’s exactly what I did when Mighty Leaf Tea sent me some samples to try recently. Its over-sized tea bags make it easy to brew a big pitcher of iced tea in minutes. I steeped a bag of Ginger Peach Iced Tea for 5 minutes, then added some ice cubes to chill it down. Since I’d just come back from the farmer’s market, I sliced up some nectarines and added them to the iced tea for a pretty — and pretty delicious — gulp on a warm day.

The iced tea bags come in four varieties.

The iced tea bags come in four varieties.

CONTEST: One lucky Food Gal reader will win samples of Mighty Leaf Tea’s four iced teas:  Sunburst Green, Ginger Peach, Calypso Mango and Organic Black. What’s more, the winner also will receive the Takeya plastic iced tea pitcher and Takeya glass water bottle, both pictured above.

Entries, limited to those in the continental United States, will be accepted through midnight PST June 29. Winner will be announced July 1.

How to win?

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Santa Clara Welcomes Justin’s — A Long, Long Time in the Making

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Glazed pork belly makes an appearance in a maki roll at Justin's in Santa Clara.

Glazed pork belly makes an appearance in a maki roll at Justin’s in Santa Clara.

 

You can tell Justin’s in Santa Clara is a labor of love.

Housed in the old Wilson’s Bakery site, the restaurant took nearly three years to come to fruition as Chef-Owner Justin Perez financed the endeavor, himself, with the help of investors and in-kind trades.

He hand-made the wood dining-room tables, as well as the steel sculptures that decorate the spacious restaurant. Pastry Chef Meg McGraw crafted the framed flower paintings that hang on the dining room walls.

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Run, Don’t Walk, to B. Patisserie

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Front and center, the incredible kouign-amann from B. Patisserie, as well as a croissant and an apple brown butter coffee cake.

Front and center, the incredible kouign-amann from B. Patisserie, as well as a croissant and an apple brown butter coffee cake.

 

It’s a good thing I don’t live close to the new B. Patisserie in San Francisco’s lower Pacific Heights neighborhood — or I’d be 300 pounds.

If I lived within walking distance, it would be a far, far dangerous thing.

That’s because these are pastries worth every single calorie.

Pastry Chef Belinda Leong and business partner Michel Suas have created a very special place.

That’s because Suas, founder of the San Francisco Baking Institute, is a master of bread, which star in the bakery-cafe’s open-faced tartine sandwiches. And Leong knows her way with butter, having trained in Paris with Pierre Hermé, and staged at Fauchon in New York. She’s also headed the dessert side of the kitchen at Manresa and Gary Danko restaurants.

The result is the perfect neighborhood bakery that feels like a slice of Paris.

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