A Mother’s Day Care Package

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My Mom's tasty care package.

Tied with ribbons, double-taped or adorned with a wad of stamps, care packages come in all shapes, sizes and forms.

But inside, they really all contain the exact same precious thing — the warm, comforting reminder of: “I’m thinking of you.”

My late Mom always conveyed that message with a rather unusual care package — a dish of Chinese-style chicken and rice.

A simple recipe that she made up years ago, the dish is a supremely savory, one-bowl meal of Jasmine rice cooked with Chinese black mushrooms and chunks of dark meat chicken marinated in soy sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil. The rice takes on the flavors of the marinade, mushrooms and chicken until they all become fused as one.

It’s a dish my Mom would make regularly for our weeknight family dinners, stir-frying the chicken in a big wok before folding in the rice that had cooked separately in a rice cooker. As a kid, that was my task after school — to wash and measure out the water for the rice, before pushing the button on the rice cooker so the fluffy grains would be ready and waiting for my Mom when she arrived home from work to finish making the dish.

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A Toast to the Golden Gate Bridge’s 75th Anniversary, Andrea Nguyen Macy’s San Jose Cooking Demo & More

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Golden Gate Bridge Anniversary Cuvee medallion. (Image courtesy of Iron Horse)

Tiny Bubbles to Toast the Golden Gate Bridge

This year, San Francisco’s landmark Golden Gate Bridge celebrates its 75th anniversary on May 27.

Iron Horse wants to help you toast that monumental achievement with a special bottle of bubbly.

The new, limited-edition Golden Gate Bridge 75th Anniversary Cuvee is comprised of a base of 2007 Blanc de Noir. Its pretty rosy color pays tribute to the bridge’s unmistakable hue.

A 750ml bottle is $50. Additionally, 75 etched commemorative jeroboams also were created for $475 each.

Iron Horse will donate $5 from each bottled sold to the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy.

Join Cookbook Author Andrea Nguyen at Macy’s for a Tofu-Licious Time

(Photo courtesty of Andrea Nguyen)You may think you know tofu. But you don’t know it like Andrea Nguyen does.

My good friend and Bay Area cookbook author, Nguyen has just released her newest book, “Asian Tofu” (Ten Speed Press).

It’s a comprehensive look at the varieties of tofu on the market, as well as recipes for their many delicious uses. There are even directions for making your own tofu from scratch, if you want to give it a whirl.

Nguyen will be doing a cooking demo at the kitchen at Macy’s Valley Fair in San Jose, 1 p.m. May 12. You’ll learn how to make spicy yuba ribbons and get the chance to taste various artisan tofus.

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Outrageously Good Gourmet Marshmallows

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Strawberry marshmallows to sink your sweet tooth into.

When I was a kid, I thought marshmallows were the perfect food.

After all, they were cute, sweet, squishable, meltable and fat-free. What more could a gal want?

(OK, the fact they were still caloric obviously escaped my reasoning back then.)

Now, the inventive ones by Have it Sweet have me singing the virtues of marshmallows all over again.

Made by a husband and wife duo in Los Angeles, this small confectionary company turns out fresh, delightful marshmallows in mind-boggling flavors. Think bubblegum, cinnamon sugar. apple pie, lemon swirl, and double cocoa swirl.

Produced in small batches to order, the marshmallows are  made of all natural ingredients, including organic and sustainable ones when available. They get their hues from food-based, organic colorings.

Chocolate hazelnut swirl marshmallow (front) and fleur de sel caramel swirl marshmallow (back).

Recently, I had a chance to try some samples.

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Join the Food Gal at Macy’s Union Square San Francisco on May 19

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Yours truly, the Food Gal, will be making a return visit to the Cellar at Macy’s Union Square in San Francisco, 2 p.m. May 19, when I play host to a fun afternoon of Brazilian eats.

Gourmet entrepreneur Monika Batista will be cooking a specialty dish from her Brazilian heritage, as well as giving out samples of her irresistible Mani Snacks, gluten-free yuca root flour rolls that are pure cheesy goodness. They’re made locally in Los Gatos, too.

Come hear how this former landscape architect turned a love for a childhood treat into a thriving business. Admission is free.

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A New Farmed Salmon

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A new farmed salmon. (Photo courtesy of Verlasso)

When it comes to deciding whether to eat farmed salmon, the choice is not always clear cut.

Sure, farmed salmon in general gets a bad rap — and deservedly so. The Environmental Defense Fund issued a health advisory for farmed salmon because of high levels of PCBs. It takes  about three or four pounds of wild feeder fish to grow one pound of farmed salmon. Waste from open-water pens pollutes surrounding ocean waters. And the farmed fish can sometimes escape, posing potential problems for wild fish populations that can be affected by their parasites or diseases.

U.S. farmed freshwater coho salmon, though, gets a “Best Choice” recommendation from the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s “Seafood Watch” guide because it is farmed in inland tanks, lessening the potential spread of disease and pollution. They also require less wild feeder fish to grow.

Some chefs also favor a Scottish salmon, marketed as Loch Duart, which is farmed in the waters off the northwest coast of Sutherland. It’s billed as a sustainable alternative, but it, too, relies on feed made of fish meal and oil.

Now, into the fray comes a new farmed salmon, this one from the waters of Patagonia, Chile.

Known as Verlasso Salmon, this new farmed Atlantic salmon just launched last summer and is starting to show up in markets nationwide. Berkeley Bowl, which started carrying it in February, is the only retailer in the Bay Area selling it so far. You can find it at the seafood counter at both of its Berkeley stores for $14.80 per pound.

What makes this farmed salmon different?

Instead of needing three or four pounds of wild feeder fish to grow one pound of farmed salmon, Verlasso has developed a process to get that down to a one-to-one ratio. How? By supplementing the fish meal  feed with a special kind of yeast that is rich in omega 3s, which salmon typically get from ingesting other fish. In the future, the company hopes to get that ratio down even more, so that the farmed salmon can be raised with little to no fish meal at all, says Scott Nichols, director of  the Delaware-based Verlasso.

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