Stewing Over Time

Stew that is the epitome of spring.

Admittedly, I sometimes stew about how time flies these days, about how in a blink of an eye a third of a year is somehow already gone. What gives?

But then again, why stew when you can eat it instead, right?

Especially when it’s a stew that’s made for the bright arrival of spring.

That’s just what “Green-As-Spring Veal Stew” is. It’s a recipe from “Around My French Table”(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) by everyone’s favorite culinary guru, Dorie Greenspan. The cookbook, of which I received a review copy, is filled with French comfort food for every season.

Cubes of veal simmer in broth with garlic, onion, carrots, celery and thyme until tender. Fish them out, then add a plethora of herbs and greens to the braising liquid. We’re talking bountiful handfuls of arugula, spinach, dill fronds, parsley and tarragon. Blend them all until you get a vibrant green sauce. Although the recipe says you can use a blender, food processor or hand blender, don’t opt for the latter, as the leaves may end up clogging it. Better to let your food processor or blender make easy, efficient work of it all instead.

Read more



SusieCakes Opens First Peninsula Location, Porchetta Time & More

Get ready for cupcakes galore at SusieCakes in Menlo Park. (Photo courtesy of the bakery)

SusieCakes Comes to Menlo Park

SusieCakes, which started in Southern California but has spread to these northern parts, is opening its newest location at 642 Santa Cruz Ave. in downtown Menlo Park.

The bakery, know in particular for its old-fashioned cakes and cupcakes, already has two other Bay Area locations: San Francisco and Marin County.

Join in the grand opening ceremony at the Menlo Park bakery, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. March 24. Dust off your favorite poodle skirt for an old-fashioned sock hop with 50’s tunes. Best costume wins a prize. There will be plenty of cupcakes, cookies and bars to sample, too.

Get a gander at this porchetta at Brassica. (Photo by Sean Knight)

Porchetta Sundays at Brassica in the Napa Valley

After a weekend of wine tasting, there’s nothing better than a big hunk of  juicy, slow-cooked pork to go along with it.

Every Sunday night now at Chef Cindy Pawlcyn’s Brassica in St. Helena, they’re serving up porchetta — a whole loin of pork stuffed with garlic, rosemary, fennel fronds and fennel pollen, then roasted in a Caja China charcoal oven for 3 1/2 hours.

Read more




Nutty Goodness and A Food Gal Giveaway

Cashews roasted and flavored with the sweet warmth of cardamom.

The Bay Area’s Sara Tidhar took hard times and turned them nutty — in a wonderful way.

Six years ago after a divorce, she found herself a single mom trying to take care of her kids and still make a living. It was her son who proved the inspiration for her predicament. He suggested she sell the roasted nuts she had always made for her kids as a snack.

That’s just what Tidhar did, roasting the nuts in small batches with organic canola oil in what she calls a “secret” method that she learned from her grandmother.

Santé nuts are now sold online, and at retailers such as Lunardi’s, Gene’s Fine Foods in Saratoga, DeMartini’s Orchard in Los Altos, Piazza’s Fine Foods in Palo Alto and Chateau St. Jean Winery in Kenwood.

Candied pistachios.

The roasted, seasoned nuts come in nine varieties, including Garlic Almonds, Cinnamon Pecans, Chipotle Almonds, Candied Pistachios and my favorite, Cardamom Cashews, which brings to mind chai tea. They’re addicting to eat just out of hand. But also would be great in your favorite baked goods, tossed into salads or in stir-fry dishes.

The nuts come in 5-ounce bags ($4.99) and new 1-ounce pouches ($1.99). Each individual pouch is one serving with 180 to 220 calories, depending upon the type of nut.

Individual bags to tote in your purse, backpack or briefcase.

Contest: One lucky Food Gal reader will win a sampler of the nine different nut varieties — four of the resealable bags and eight of the single-serve bags. Entries, open to those only in the continental United States, will be accepted through midnight March 17. The winner will be announced March 19.

How to win?

Read more

Cuvee Venus

One smooth, rich Cab.

Chef. Restaurateur. Cooking show host. Culinary radio host. And even winemaker.

Narsai David truly does it all. And always while wearing one of his flashy trademark bow ties.

Born to Assyrian immigrants and raised in the farming community of Turlock, Calif., David learned to cook from his mother. He went on to open the legendary Narsai’s restaurant in Kensington in 1970, along with Narsai’s Market eight years later, which sold all manner of specialty breads and pastries. It’s David you have to thank, too, for introducing the world to chocolate decadence torte, a rich, flourless dessert that so lives up to its name.

Read more

Shabuway to Expand in the Bay Area

The huge vegetable shabu-shabu plate at Shabuway in San Jose.

How else but in shabu-shabu-style dining can you enjoy a hot, nourishing, relatively healthful cook-it-yourself meal, and get a steam facial all at once?

If you’re as much of a fan as I am of this traditional Japanese dish of thinly sliced meats and veggies cooked tableside in a pot of  bubbling broth, you’ll be glad to hear that Shabuway, which already boasts three locations in the Bay Area, will be adding three more this spring.

Tokyo-raised Eiichi Mochizuki opened his first Shabuway in San Mateo in 2004. That was followed by another in downtown Mountain View in 2006, which has proved so popular there’s sometimes an hour wait to get in. Last year, one also opened in the parking lot of Mitsuwa Marketplace in San Jose, which is the one I recently dined at as a guest of the restaurant.

The next ones to open will be in San Francisco’s Richmond District, Union City, and in Santa Clara on El Camino Real near the ever-popular Korean fried-chicken joint, 99 Chicken.

The meat is sliced to order.

With its glossy red interior, the San Jose locale features a large U-shaped counter in the center, where lone diners or couples can sit. Behind it, wait staff man a slicer to shave Kobe-style beef slices paper thin.

Read more

« Older Entries Recent Entries »