One Quick Bite Part II: Kitchen Door

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Armenian-style flatbread pizza at Kitchen Door.

When Martini House restaurant closed in St. Helena in 2010, I was crushed.

With its warm, polished wood interior and bucolic al fresco patio, it was the perfect place year-round to enjoy everything from an outstanding burger to a top-notch prix fixe dinner.

But I couldn’t have been more thrilled to find that Chef Todd Humphries resurfaced last year at the Oxbow Public Market in Napa with his newest restaurant, Kitchen Door.

The marketplace, reminiscent but smaller than the one at the San Francisco Ferry Building, is a mix of food, wine and tea vendors, most of them situated in a large, indoor walk-around space.

But Kitchen Door is an actual separate restaurant located at the rear of the complex. It’s a lively fast-casual establishment with an open kitchen sporting a wood-fired oven and rotisserie.

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One Quick Bite Part I: Wo Hing General Store

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Pork belly with Chinese noodles at the new Wo Hing General Store.

Opened late last year in the original location of the Slanted Door in San Francisco’s Mission District, Wo Hing General Store is the latest addition to the ever-growing empire of Chef Charles Phan.

It’s named for his Uncle Wo and his Dad, Hing, who opened a general store together in Vietnam after fleeing China. It serves up modern-interpretations of Chinese dishes such as jook, ma po tofu, pork and shrimp won tons, and barbecue pork spareribs with harissa — all executed by Chef Michelle Mah, formerly of Ponzu in San Francisco.

As happens when I’m out and about in the Bay Area on assignments for newspapers or magazines, I found myself in the vicinity of the restaurant after concluding an interview. In need of some lunch-time sustenance, I decided to give Wo Hing a try on my own dime.

It’s a casual place, dominated on the first floor by a large sleek bar with a colorful Asian graphic hanging above it.

The eye-catching bar.

Since I was eating by myself, I ordered just one dish — the 5-spice roasted pork belly with sweet soy shiitake mushrooms and Chinese Kansui noodles ($14), which are akin to thicker ramen noodles.

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A Lovely Lemon Cake from the Girl & the Fig

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Cake so good that you'll make time to make it asap.

Meyer lemons. Rich olive oil. And heady rosemary.

All in one moist, flavorful cake that’s a California take on a Mediterranean classic.

One bite will have you transported to a white sandy beach by a crystalline blue sea.

That’s how good it is.

“Rosemary Olive Oil Cake with Lemon Glaze” is from the news self-published  cookbook, “Plats du Jour” by Sondra Bernstein, proprietor of the popular Girl & the Fig restaurant in Sonoma, which serves up French country cooking with California sensibilities.

The book, of which I recently received a review copy, is full of recipes from the restaurant’s popular three-course “Plats du Jour” menu offered each Thursday evening, which incorporates the freshest seasonal ingredients. Cook a menu in its entirety or mix and match as you desire.

This simple cake couldn’t help but catch my eye, now that my backyard Meyer lemon tree is groaning with ripe fruit. You also can use Eureka lemons, too. But Meyers are less tart and more floral, making them especially wonderful to bake with.

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Special Perbacco Dinner, Dine About Town Time and More

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aStaffan Terje of Perbacco in San Francisco. (Photo courtesy of the restaurant)

Perbacco Welcomes Special Guest Chef Jan. 14

Chef Tony Mantuano of Chicago’s acclaimed Spiaggia and a recent contender on “Top Chef Masters” will join forces with Executive Chef Staffan Terje at Perbacco Ristorante in San Francisco for “Winter in Piemonte” — a special dinner Jan. 14 to benefit the James Beard Foundation.

The Perbacco dinner, which starts at 6 p.m., will feature four courses paired with wines. A live auction also will take place.

Price is $165 per person or $150 per person for members of the James Beard Foundation.

Chef Tony Mantuano visits San Francisco to cook at Perbacco. (Photo courtesy of Bravo TV)

“Dine About Town San Francisco” Time

The 11th annual “Dine About Town San Francisco” restaurant promotion returns Jan. 15-31, in which more than 100 restaurants will be offering up either/and two-course lunch menus for $17.95 and three-course dinners for $34.95.

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Time for Nothing Bundt Cakes — and a Food Gal Giveaway

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How cute is this cake? (Photo courtesy of Nothing Bundt Cakes)

Bundt cakes are among the most homespun of baked goods.

Baked in one pan, then drizzled with a pretty glaze, it’s simple, sweet and thoroughly nostalgic.

Leave it to Nothing Bundt Cakes to take that basic premise and add major bling.

The bakery just opened a seventh locale in the Bay Area in the Fremont Hub Shopping Center (39952 Fremont Hub). It bakes up nine flavors of cake (from Red Velvet to Pecan Praline to Chocolate Chocolate Chip), then glides on a thick cream cheese frosting down the sides like the petals of a flower. If that weren’t enough, a colorful paper bloom fills the center, then fun paper butterflies, bees or other decorations are added. It’s a total party in a cake.

The cakes, themselves, are quite moist and have a surprisingly airy texture that’s more like a sponge cake rather than your typical dense, heavy bundt cake.

The cakes come in various sizes — from the Bundtini (the size of a cupcake; $18.75 for a dozen) to the single-serve Bundlet ($3.99) to a 10-inch cake that serves about 18 ($39.50).

Cakes are available at the bakery, as well as by phone and online orders.

Contest: One lucky Food Gal reader will win a gift card good for one free Nothing Bundt Cake individual Bundlet every month for a year (a $47.88 value). The only catch is that the winner must pick up the Bundlet each month in person at the Fremont store. As such, this contest is limited to those who can make it to Fremont regularly. Entries will be accepted through midnight PST Jan. 14. Winner will be announced Jan. 16.

How to win?

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