The State of 31st Union

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Wine flights at 31st Union in San Mateo.

Wine flights at 31st Union in San Mateo.

 

David Hunsaker leads a busy life.

By day, he works in sales for a commercial printing business.

By night (and weekends), he oversees the farm-to-table restaurant he opened last summer in downtown San Mateo, 31st Union.

The name of the restaurant refers to the fact that California was the 31st state in the union. It also proclaims the restaurant’s commitment to sourcing ingredients from within the state.

The 50-seat establishment is compact, with wood tabletops affixed to sawhorse legs that are set close together. A large bank of windows lets in a lot of natural light, all the better to illuminate the funky, charming decor. Think rustic and reclaimed, with barn wood wall panels, a polished cement floor, and a California state flag hanging on one wall. The focal point is a chalkboard-like outline of California on a back wall, with feathered arrows pointing to the areas where the restaurant’s ingredients have come from. Even the hallway leading to the restroom gets an artsy treatment with a bank of clip boards, each holding a page from a vintage catalog.

The decor is all about funky, fun and reclaimed.

The decor is all about funky, fun and reclaimed.

The focal point of the restaurant.

The focal point of the restaurant.

It's a celebration of California.

It’s a celebration of California.

Recently, I was invited in as a guest of the restaurant to try Executive Chef Paul Burzlaff’s cooking. He was most recently sous chef at the Restaurant at Wente Vineyards in Livermore.

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Passover at Perbacco, St. Paddy’s Day Fun & More

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Chefs Staffan Terje and Joyce Goldstein team up for Passover. (Photo by Gamma Nine Photography)

Chefs Staffan Terje and Joyce Goldstein team up for Passover. (Photo by Gamma Nine Photography)

Sixth Annual Passover Dinner at Perbacco

Staffan Terje, chef-owner of Perbacco in San Francisco, will once again welcome guest Chef Joyce Goldstein, for a special Passover repast on March 27.

The two have teamed up for a half dozen years for this annual celebration.

The four-course dinner will feature recipes from Goldstein’s “Cucina Ebraica” cookbook. Dishes include “Crispy Fried Artichokes — Jewish-style’,” “Passover Soup with Chicken Dumplings and Eggs” and “Sea Bass with Rhubarb Sauce.”

Price is $49 per person. Space is limited. For reservations, call (415) 955-0663.

Comal Puts a Mexican Spin on the Seder

Berkeley’s Comal will celebrate Passover, March 25-26, with a Mexican twist on the Seder with two nights of special family-style dinners.

Dishes will include guacamole and chips (but of course), tequila-cured salmon and beef brisket adobo.

Tickets are $60 per person.

St. Patrick’s Day Fare

To get in the spirit of St. Paddy’s Day, Ame at the St. Regis in San Francisco will be offering beer donuts with chocolate stout  ice cream and chocolate fudge sauce ($12).

Beer donuts with chocolate stout ice cream. (Photo courtesy of Ame)

Beer donuts with chocolate stout ice cream. (Photo courtesy of Ame)

It’s enough to make you forget about corned beef and cabbage, right?

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Chef Matthew Accarrino’s Braised Chicken with Apples and Calvados

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A dish perfect for the home-cook from Chef Matthew Accarrino of SPQR restaurant.

A dish perfect for the home-cook from Chef Matthew Accarrino of SPQR restaurant.

 

Let me just say that one taste of this dish made me feel like I was sitting down to a repast at a charming country inn in the north-west of France.

OK, not that I’ve actually had the pleasure of visiting Brittany.

But it is known for its apples and its Calvados, a spectacular apple brandy.

So, you have to hand it to a dish that can transport you like that.

Leave it to Chef Matthew Accarrino to do so, too. If you’ve ever eaten at SPQR in San Francisco, you know he has a deft hand for creating lusty flavors in rustic-chic dishes.

Of course, most of us don’t have the patience or inclination to make a lot of chef dishes. That’s why we go out to restaurants instead, right?

But “Braised Chicken with Apples and Calvados” is one of those straight-forward, one-pot dishes that anyone can do.

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Best-Ever Browned Butter-Pecan Shortbread Domes

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Buttery shortbread with pecans and plenty of browned butter.

Buttery shortbread with pecans and plenty of browned butter.

 

Your honor, I can’t say I’ve sampled every pecan shortbread cookie in the world. But this one sure does pose a strong case for being the best, as it so claims.

Let me call my first witness — the cookie, itself.

Here you have the melt-in-your-mouth, crumbly evidence. It’s chock-full of pecans, then crowned gloriously with one perfect pecan half.

What makes this cookie even more decadent is that you coat the chopped pecans that get stirred into the dough in two stick of butter that you slowly and ever so carefully melt on the stovetop until the butter turns deeply golden and fragrantly toasty.

Then, add all the other ingredients straight into that pot to finish making the dough — all without a mixer. How easy is that, your honor?
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Some Like It Hot

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Artisan hot sauces that explode on the palate.

Artisan hot sauces that explode on the palate.

 

If you do, have I got the hot sauces for you.

Bob Henry of Henry Family Farm has been growing chiles in Virginia’s Shenendoah Valley for more than 30 years. Now, he’s bottling all that heat in a most pure form.

Henry allows the peppers to ripen on the vine, then hand picks them before extracting them within 24 hours of harvest. The extracts are bottled, with no additional spices or flavors, so that each pepper’s distinctiveness really shines through.

Henry Family Farm Chile Pepper Extracts are now getting a lot of attention, thanks to food and wine critic, David Rosengarten, who has been spreading the word about them and making them more widely available.

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