Food Gal | Musings on food, wine, laughter, and life

Chef Mourad Lahlou’s Prawn-Kumquat Skewers

Posted on February 17, 2012 by foodgal 18 comments

If ever food on a stick could be drop-dead glam, this would be it.

I practically felt like lighting candles and artfully arranging silk pillows all over the floor to set the proper mood to enjoy them with.

“Prawn-Kumquat Skewers” will do that to you.

The irony is they couldn’t be easier to make, yet they look as if some fancy restaurant made them for a fortune.

The recipe is from the new cookbook, “Mourad: New Moroccan” Artisan) by Mourad Lahlou, chef-proprietor of the magical Aziza in San Francisco, the only Moroccan restaurant in North America to boast a Michelin star.

Born in Marrakesh, Lahlou left his native land at age 17 to study economics at my old alma mater, San Francisco State University. But the flavors of his homeland beckoned him into the kitchen and it wasn’t long before he was running his own restaurant, Aziza.

Over the years, the food there has morphed from traditional to astoundingly progressive, with flavors that are hauntingly true and clear.

Parcel 104 Marks a Decade of Deliciousness

Posted on February 16, 2012 by foodgal 10 comments

It’s a restaurant named for the original lot number for the Bartlett pear orchard that once thrived there.

It’s only open weekdays for lunch and dinner, not weekends, owing to the fact that it’s in a hotel that caters to the business crowd.

And that crowd is often prominently male, given all the tech companies nearby.

Parcel 104 in the Marriott Hotel in Santa Clara has always been one of my favorite places in the South Bay for its farm-to-table fare served in a warm, inviting, contemporary environment. As a journalist, I’ve also been partial to it as an ideal place to conduct lunch interviews, because you can actually hold a clear conversation with someone without the usual din found at so many of today’s trendoid spots.

I’ve dined at the restaurant many times over the years. On my most recent visit a couple of weeks ago, in which I was invited to dine as a guest, I was happy to find that the restaurant is still going strong after marking a decade last year.

A number of the staff have been at the restaurant since Day One, always a good sign that it’s not only a good place to work, but one that knows what it’s doing.

New Pizza Joint in the South Bay, Dungeness Crab Galore & More

Posted on February 15, 2012 by foodgal 7 comments

San Francisco’s Little Star Pizza Opens a Locale in Campbell

Pizza lovers will rejoice that San Francisco’s Little Star Pizza — famed for its deep-dish, cornmeal-crust pizzas — opened an offshoot last week in downtown Campbell.

Blue Line Pizza, named for the train that runs between O’Hare International Airport and Chicago, features organic salads, paninis, and both deep-dish and thin-crust pizzas.

The original Little Star has been a sensation ever since it opened its original Divisadero Street location in San Francisco in 2004 in San Francisco. There’s now a second branch in San Francisco, as well as one in Albany.

One taste of its deep-dish pie will tell you why it’s so popular.

I’m partial to the Blue Line (Little Star) with spinach, ricotta, feta, mushrooms, onions and garlic, as well as the Mediterranean Chicken with roasted chicken, red bell peppers, olives, onions, feta and plenty of marinated artichoke hearts. It’s a mouthful; it’s a meal.

Blue Line Pizza is open seven days a week for lunch and dinner.

A Crabby Time at Lark Creek Restaurants

Through the end of February, the Lark Creek Restaurant Group celebrates the bounty of fresh, seasonal Dungeness crab.

Its 23rd annual “Crab Festival” will feature a range of crab dishes at its various restaurants.

Sweet Potato Soup for Your Sweetie

Posted on February 14, 2012 by foodgal 15 comments

This soup is comfort in a bowl, yet elegant enough for company.

It’s velvety smooth, yet has surprising hits of added texture from feta cheese crumbles and chopped sun-dried tomatoes.

“Sweet Potato and Cumin Soup with Feta Yogurt” is from the new cookbook, “Soup, Glorious Soup” (Kyle Books” by food writer Annie Bell, of which I recently received a review copy.

It’s filled with more than 100 soup recipes — from rustic to refined.

Who Put Coffee and Chocolate In My Tequila?

Posted on February 13, 2012 by foodgal 13 comments

Someone very, very smart, that’s who.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, PatrÃ³n Spirits has introduced a new tequila sure to make anyone swoon.

PatrÃ³n XO Cafe Dark Cocoa is PatrÃ³n Silver tequila combined with coffee from Vercruz and Chiapas, and chocolate from criollo cocoa beans, the rarest and most expensive grown.

The result is a 60-proof tequila that’s the color of hot fudge sauce.

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