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Valentine’s Day Treats, Chocolate Dinner & More

Posted on February 11, 2013 by foodgal 6 comments

La Boulange’s Valentine’s Days Offerings

From now through Feb. 15, your neighborhood La Boulange is offering three sweet treats especially for Valentine’s Day.

Choose from a box of raspberry and vanilla macarons for $12.50; a box of chocolate and raspberry macarons for $12.50; or a gorgeous heart-shaped raspberry fruit tart ($9.95).

Find them at any of the Bay Area La Boulange locations.

Sent Sovi’s Savory Chocolate Dinner

Who says chocolate is only for dessert?

Not at Sent Sovi in Saratoga, where Chef-Proprietor Josiah Slone will be hosting his third annual “Savory Chocolate Dinner” at 7 p.m. Feb. 28.

Jamie Oliver’s Quick Portuguese Custard Tarts for the Lunar New Year

Posted on February 8, 2013 by foodgal 19 comments

There are many symbolic dishes that will grace the table when folks celebrate Chinese New Year on Feb. 10.

A whole fish and whole chicken for family togetherness. Candied melon seeds as a wish for a sweet new year. And long-life noodles to foster many more years to come of such celebrations.

For me, though, it’s all about the custard tarts.

OK, custard tarts may be more associated with dim sum outings, rather than necessarily any Chinese New Year festivities.

But can you blame me for hankering for them? Who doesn’t love a warm, eggy custard tart with a crust so flaky that shards of pastry cascade all over your clothes when you bite into one?

Leave it to an Englishman to come up with a brilliant version, too.

That would be Jamie Oliver, whose cookbook, “Meals in Minutes” (Hyperion), I received a review copy of last year. The book is set up in a unique style: Recipes are grouped into complete menus that are designed to be cooked and on the table in about 30 minutes. As such, the ingredients are listed all together for all four dishes that make up each menu. And cooking directions have you moving back and forth from one dish to another, just like you would in your own kitchen when preparing a holiday meal made up of many dishes.

A Michelin-Starred-Chef Chocolate Box, New Kara’s Cupcakes Locale & More

Posted on February 7, 2013 by foodgal 7 comments

For the Discriminating Chocoholic

IfOnly.com may have created the ultimate chocolate box for big-time foodies.

The e-commerce site asked 10 Bay Area Michelin-starred chefs to create a chocolate bonbon for this special box just in time for Valentine’s Day.

Take a gander at the stellar chefs and their pastry chefs who contributed to the Constellation Chocolate Collection:

A Taste of Luxury at Spruce in San Francisco

Posted on February 6, 2013 by foodgal 6 comments

Step inside Spruce in San Francisco to be cocooned in plushness.

Baccarat crystal chandeliers in the otherwise dimly-lit, 70-seat restaurant create an intimate ambiance of drama and mystery. So much so that the chocolate mohair walls look almost black in the evening, all the better to showcase the eye-catching, over-sized charcoal sketches of whimsical figures, including a torso draped in an Adidas sweatshirt and the the backside of a bald man clad in a natty suit.

The six-year-old restaurant, with its hammerhead banquettes and faux ostrich chairs, is all about glam. Indeed, it makes you want to have an excuse to, err, spruce up just to go there.

Recently, I was invited to be a guest at the restaurant, part of the Bacchus Management Group of restaurants that also includes the Village Pub in Woodside, Mayfield Bakery & Cafe in Palo Alto, Cafe des Amis in San Francisco, and Pizza Antica locations throughout the Bay Area.

Chef de Cuisine John Madriaga has a deft touch with local ingredients, especially vegetables, not surprisingly since he cooked at Manresa in Los Gatos and apprenticed at Copenhagen’s famed Noma. He also has access to SMIP Ranch, the Santa Cruz Mountains farm that supplies produce to all the Bacchus restaurants.

Pretty in Pink for Valentine’s Day: Cranberry-Creme Fraiche Bundt Cake

Posted on February 5, 2013 by foodgal 12 comments

Just gaze at this vision in pink.

If ever there was a cake made for Valentine’s Day, “Cranberry-Creme Fraiche Bundt Cake” is it.

If you’re like me, you know to hoard a few extra bags of cranberries in your freezer even after the winter holidays. If not, you can easily buy them in the freezer section of most grocery stores.

They’re the key to making this girly frosting. And they provide a hidden filling of bright, sweet-tangy berries in the middle of this cake.

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