If you’re a fan of Newman’s Own Organics regular licorice twists, you’ll be glad to know the company has just introduced a new variation: Sour Licorice Twists.
They come in four flavors: Sour Apple, Sour Cherry, Sour Mango, and Sour Strawberry.
I had a chance to taste samples of each recently. If you’re used to the wince of some other uber tart candies on the market, these will come off as fairly tame.
The sourness is present, but not overwhelmingly puckery.
OK, just look at those faces above. How adorable are they?
For a closer look, head to the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market for the 4th annual Goat Fest, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 21.
Redwood Hill Farm of Sebastopol will be bringing some of their “kids” for you to meet.
Enjoy samples of goat’s milk lotions, soaps and face creams, as well as cheeses, yogurts, caramels, fudge, chocolates and ice creams.
There also will be cooking demos and chances to meet representatives from Cypress Grove Chevre, Laloo’s Goat Milk Ice Cream and other goat’s milk product producers.
For more goat fun, you’ll be glad to know that Redwood Hill Farm will be offering tours of its farm on May 12, May 13, June 9 and June 10. Cheese, yogurt and kefir will be for sale, so don’t forget to pack a cooler. You can even milk a goat while you’re there.
The always opinionated and colorful New York Chef David Chang will be the star attraction of an event, 8 p.m. July 17 at Herbst Theatre in San Francisco.
If the Easter Bunny doesn’t leave you some of these babies, don’t despair.
You can get them on your own from San Francisco’s premier chocolatier, Recchiuti Confections.
Malted Dark Revolutions (how’s that for a snazzy name) have turned the classic malt ball on its head. Bite into these glossy orbs and you’ll discover a crunchy malted cookie covered in a proprietary blend of dark milk chocolate.
When I wasn’t sequestered behind closed doors as a judge of the 45th Pillsbury Bake-Off last week, I did manage to get out and about to discover some other fun things in Orlando. Here are other highlights of that trip:
* Poached farm egg, aleppo pepper hollandaise, California asparagus and pork belly at Luma on Park in Winter Park, Fla.
A perfectly poached egg that oozes a bright orange yolk to make a dish of juicy pork belly even richer. It doesn’t get better than that at this sophisticated restaurant with a glam two-story glass wine “jewel box” that displays bottles upon bottles of fine vintages.
* Togarashi spice stir-fried Japanese edamame at Emeril Lagasse’s Tchoup Chop in Orlando.
Chef Steven Snook spent seven years working for bad-boy celeb Chef Gordon Ramsay in both London and New York.
And yes, he’ll be the first to tell you that he did get yelled at by the famous chef who’s known for his rather colorful outbursts.
“You think you’re doing it right and then you hear it,” Snook says with a knowing chuckle. “I got called ‘f—ing donkey’ many times, especially my first year there.”
After becoming sous chef at the flagship Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, then working at Maze by Gordon Ramsay at the London hotel in New York, Snook was ready for a change of pace.
Married to a former Gordon Ramsay pastry chef, and with a new baby, Snook and his family were ready to trade the hustle-bustle of New York City for a more bucolic existence reminiscent of the English countryside. They found what they were looking for in the Valley of the Moon, otherwise known as Kenwood in Sonoma County.
For the past four months, Snook has been the executive chef of the Restaurant at Kenwood Inn and Spa. The 26-room Mediterranean-style inn is surrounded by vineyards and fruit orchards. Its 22-seat restaurant with a roaring fireplace has the feel of an intimate, out-of-the-way European country-side restaurant. In Snook’s hands, it’s most definitely worth visiting, too.
The one catch is that the restaurant is only open to guests of the inn. But you can become a “guest for the day” if you book an appointment at the inn’s spa.