Dark and White Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Ginger

Posted on by 10 comments

Dark chocolate, white chocolate and ginger make up the trifecta of flavors in this fudgy cookie.

Consider this the ménage à trois of cookies.

You have the complementary duo of dark and white chocolates — then throw in racy ginger for an even spicier time.

Are you getting all hot and bothered yet?

Your taste buds sure will in the best of ways with these “Dark and White Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Ginger.” The recipe is from “Bon Appetit Desserts” (Andrews McMeel) by the magazine’s former editor-in-chief, Barbara Fairchild. Ever since receiving a review copy of this 686-page cookbook two years ago, I’ve been slowly baking my way through its extensive collection of 600 recipes.

These cookies bake up soft and fudgy in texture. They boast craggy dark tops with striking big chunks of white chocolate that get a little golden on the edges like toasted marshmallows.

Read more

Eating My Way Through Montreal in the Fall, Part II

Posted on by 10 comments

A magnificent steelhead trout with caviar, yogurt and dill "sponge'' cake at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Montreal.

MONTREAL, CANADA — One of the best meals I had in this city wasn’t where I thought it would be. It wasn’t in some storied white-tablecloth establishment that had been around for generations. Nor was it in some hip, counter-culture cafe headed by the latest bad boy-chef.

No, it was inside a museum, of all places.

The Musee D’Art Contemporain de Montreal boasts an impressive collection of modern Quebec art. It also has a restaurant worth seeking out, thanks to its young, self-taught chef, Antonin Mousseau-Rivard.

That Mousseau-Rivard is a chef at a museum is only apropos. After all, his grandfather, Jean-Paul Mousseau, was a famed artist whose works are part of the museum’s permanent exhibit, “A Matter of Abstraction.”

What the younger Mousseau-Rivard puts on the plate is equally a work of art — not only in looks, but in flavor and imagination.

Read more


Eating My Way Through Montreal in the Fall, Part I

Posted on by 8 comments

Inside the magnificent Montreal Notre-Dame Basilica.

MONTREAL, CANADA — Bundled up tightly in a trench coat, boots, gloves, scarf and a wooly hat, I have left the still sunny Northern California climate to make my way around Canada’s second largest city in the chill of early November.

I am joined by eight other food writers from around the globe, all of us hosted on this trip by Tourisme Montreal.

Our mission? To eat, drink and get to know Montreal’s vibrant food scene.

Naturally, we are more than up to the task.

I should have realized just how serious Montrealers take eating when I disembarked the plane at Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport and went through Canadian customs. When the agent realized I was a food writer visiting his country for the main purpose of eating, he asked to see my itinerary, then proceeded to point out which restaurants on the list he had visited and which he particularly liked. If that isn’t an auspicious beginning to a trip, I don’t know what is.

Read more

Ecopia Farms Introduces Salad Kits

Posted on by 7 comments

The very gourmet tasting "Winter Salad'' kit from Ecopia Farms.

Find yourself in a salad rut this holiday season, where you’re noshing the same ol’ citrus-, persimmon- or apple-topped one over and over again?

Ecopia Farms wants to help break that ho-hum cycle.

The innovative Campbell organic farm, founded by a former CEO of Solectron and a former president of Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space, grows gourmet micro-lettuces indoors under LED lights that now grace the plates of some of the Bay Area’s best restaurants. Now, it’s just introduced two salad kits for consumers.

Each kit comes complete with the farm’s artisan lettuce mix and micro-herbs. The “Holiday Salad” includes Point Reyes blue cheese, candied walnuts, brandied pears, a spiced apple cider vinaigrette, and Maldon salt. The “Winter Salad” includes pickled butternut squash, quinoa with currants, candied pumpkin seeds, Maldon salt and a tangy lemon vinaigrette.

Read more

Take a Taste of Lark Creek Blue at Santana Row

Posted on by 6 comments

Flatiron steak at Lark Creek Blue in Santana Row.

Gone is the nautical theme, along with the fishing nets, boat wheel and seafood-centric menu.

Yankee Pier at Santana Row in San Jose was put out to sea this summer, then underwent a renovation and was re-christened Lark Creek Blue.

The vibe is now less kitschy and more sophisticated with dark wood tables, leather chairs, blue-hued walls, and striking drum lights in the dining room.

You’ll still find plenty of seafood on the menu, all of it adhering to the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s “Seafood Watch” guide. But so much more, too, including Angus beef carpaccio with nori flakes ($11.50) , a 12-ounce Marin Sun Farms grass-fed ribeye ($39) and Bellwether Farm ricotto ravioli with confit tomatoes and black olives ($16.50). Each evening, a special “classic” dish is offered, too, from Southern fried chicken ($19.50)  on Mondays to Prime rib with Yorkshire pudding ($36) on Saturdays to an old-school crawfish boil ($23.50) on Sundays.

The warm-hued dining room with an open kitchen.

Recently, I was invited as a guest of the restaurant to try Chef Paul Bruno’s food. Bruno was formerly sous chef or executive sous chef at Mon Ami Gabi, Seablue and Michael Mina, all in Las Vegas.

Read more

« Older Entries Recent Entries »