Persian Pub Grub, Whoopie Pies, Pig Galore & More

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Persian Pub Grub

Leave it to Iranian-born Chef Hoss Zare to reinterpret pub food with bold Persian flavors.

Tonight through Saturday at 8:30 p.m., he will team with Syre Piorkowski (a “beer sommelier”) and Ryan Corbett from the Monk’s Kettle in San Francisco to present special beer and wine pairings with Persian-style pub food at his Zaré at Flytrap in San Francisco.

Because pub grub doesn’t really exist in Iran, Chef Zare promises a most memorable meal, including sumac couscous salad with Dungeness crab; and chicken wings “Fessenjoon” with pomegranate walnut sauce. Each of five dishes will be paired with a different beer, and sometimes alongside a wine, as well.

Price is $75 per person, which includes the wine and beer. For reservations, call (415) 243-0580.

Time for Whoopie Pies

That would be gourmet ones from Marché in Menlo Park, which will be sold at the restaurant June 4-5.

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Dynamo Donuts Are Dyno-mite

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A donut is a donut, right?

Not in the hands of San Francisco’s wickedly good Dynamo Donuts, a short drive from the Holiday Inn Civic Center.

You’ve seen the lines. You’ve heard the swoons.

Let me tell you, it’s all justified for these gourmet donuts that come in such unusual flavors as Chocolate Rosemary Almond, Lemon Sichuan, Banana De Leche, and the much-ballyhooed Maple Glazed Bacon Apple.

First off, these are not teeth-gratingly sweet like so many other donuts. I know that’s hard to believe, given that they all come with a hefty dose of glaze or shower of sugar on top. But the flavors are actually balanced and quite intense at times. For instance, bite into the Candied Orange Blossom, and your mouth will come alive with an explosion of citrus flavor that’s so audacious, you can’t help but let out a yelp. The orange flavor gets revved up from candied orange zest inside the donut, as well as orange blossom glaze smeared over the top.

Second of all, the texture of these donuts is remarkable. It’s not just a round of airy pastry. Rather, a Dynamo donut has height, along with an almost brioche-like quality that makes for a quite rich and tender crumb.

That these donuts are so spectacular comes as no surprise when you realize that they’re the brainchild of Sara Spearin, a pastry chef who honed her craft at Postrio, Hawthorne Lane, Stars and Foreign Cinema, all San Francisco landmarks.

There are about 16 different donuts, selling for $2 to $3.50 a piece, depending on the type. About seven are offered daily with the bacon one available every day by popular demand.

Good thing, too, or there surely would be riots over this super puffy donut that has apples  in the batter, which have been sauteed in bacon fat, as well as a maple glaze that’s studded with crisp bacon bits. It’s salty and sweet. And if you try one, you’ll want another one immediately.

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A Taste of Jia — Google’s Chinese Cafe

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It’s some of the best tasting Chinese food around, made with organic vegetables, organic soy sauce and sustainable seafood. It’s available in unlimited quantities. And it’s all free.

But you can’t eat it — unless you work at Google’s Mountain View campus or know someone there who will invite you in as their guest.

That’s how the Food Gal got into Jia, the authentic Chinese cafe at Google, run by Executive Chef Olivia Wu.

Olivia and I go way back, to the days when she was a food writer at the San Francisco Chronicle and I was one at the San Jose Mercury News.

Two and a half years ago, with the newspaper industry already in dire straits, Olivia chucked her pen and notepad to put on a gleaming white chef’s coat instead at one of Google’s 16 campus cafes.

It wasn’t so far-fetched. After all, she’d already been a caterer and private chef, as well as mom to a son who is a cook at the well-regarded Publican in Chicago.

If you know anything about Olivia, you know she’s a stickler for authenticity and a perfectionist. I knew not to come to Jia, which means “family” and “home,” expecting chow mein and egg rolls.

Instead, what you’ll get is not Americanized, oily, gloppy Chinese food, but traditional dishes done up with primo ingredients, including an 11-grain rice blend made to her specification by Koda Farms. Sure, there’s a half dozen standard American dishes and sandwiches available at her cafe, but that’s not why employees trek from other campus buildings to take the time to eat here. It’s for Chinese food served the Chinese way.

A three-wok station complete with cascading water was installed in the kitchen. The dining room was recently redone with a motif of colorful brush-stroke carps and decorative paper lanterns.  It also was reconfigured with more electrical outlets so that each table can accommodate an induction burner on days when Olivia offers the popular “hot pot” dining, where diners cook their food together in a bubbling pot of broth in the center of the table.

It’s one of her favorite ways to eat because it naturally brings people together to get to know one another better — not always an easy task in a large corporation.

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Stewing About Weather

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OK, it’s nearly summer and I’m still making stew.

What gives?

Hey, I wasn’t the one that ordered up last week’s crazy, uncharacteristic rainstorm in the Bay Area. Is it global warming? A freak occurrence that doesn’t mean anything? Or?

I like to think of it as Mother Nature’s way of telling me there’s still a little time left to enjoy one of my favorite methods of cooking — braising hearty vegetables with a tough, economical cut of meat in  one big ol’ pot on the stove or in the oven until they all turn tender and irresistible.

When I get the hankering for great stew, I often turn to “Braises and Stews” (Chronicle Books) by San Francisco food writer Tori Ritchie. It’s loaded with comforting dishes that are simple to prepare. Best yet, Ritchie’s renditions often take a little less time than other, standard versions found elsewhere.

Her “Harvest Pork Stew with Pumpkin” is a fall dish, to be sure. I changed it up to “Pork Stew with Kabocha” because I love the sweet, nutty, starchy Japanese squash enough to eat it practically year-round. You probably do, too, as it’s a standard in restaurant tempura.

By the way, a great tip to make cutting up a hard kabocha a little easier? Microwave the whole squash for a minute or so until the nearly impenetrable exterior softens enough so that you can get a cleaver or tip of a sharp, heavy-duty chef’s knife into it without much trouble.

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Star Chefs in San Francisco, Open House at Sunset in Menlo Park & More

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In San Francisco:

Get up close and personal with the Bay Area’s “Rising Star Chefs,” 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. June 16, at Ghirardelli Square.

StarChefs.com, the online culinary magazine, will be showcasing its picks for this year’s rising star chefs at this walk-around tasting event, featuring savory dishes, desserts and cocktails created by their top toques.

StarChefs.com chooses only four cities each year in which to pick its rising star chefs. More than 90 Bay Area chefs, sommeliers and mixologists were considered before the list was narrowed to these winners:

Chefs:

Matthew Accarrino, SPQR
John Paul Carmona, Manresa
Maximilian DiMare, Wood Tavern
Louis Maldonado, Aziza
Thomas McNaughton, Flour + Water
Scott Nishiyama, Chez TJ

Pastry Chefs:

Melissa Chou, Aziza
Catherine Schimenti, Michael Mina

Mixologists:

Erick Castro, Rickhouse
Brian MacGregor, Jardinière

Sommelier:

Sarah Valor, Commis

Concept:

Joshua Skenes, Saison

Restaurateur:

Shelley Lindgren, A16 and SPQR

Hotel Chef:

Josh Thomsen,  Claremont Hotel Club & Spa

Tickets are $95 per person. VIP tickets include a pre-reception with champagne and Petrossian caviar. A portion of proceeds will go to La Cocina, a San Francisco organization that assists low-income entrepreneurs in developing food-related businesses.

In Menlo Park:

Sunset magazine welcomes you to its 7-acre campus in Menlo Park, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., June 5-6, for its annual “Celebration Weekend.’‘

Join experts to learn all about food, wine, garden, home and design.

Foodies are sure to rejoice that the magazine has invited some of the most popular food trucks to park on-site to sell their delicious fare. Trucks include Sam’s Chowder House, Liba Falafel Truck, Seoul on Wheels, Gelateria CiCi, Kara’s Cupcakes, and Fruit ‘n’ Exotica.

His truck won’t be there, but Roy Choi, the man who started the whole food-truck craze with his Kogi BBQ in Los Angeles, will be on hand to do a cooking demo. Other chefs hosting demos include Ryan Farr of 4505 Meats in San Francisco, Food Network star Ellie Krieger, and Tom Douglas of Seattle’s Dahlia Lounge. For a complete list of chefs, demo schedules and featured recipes, click here.

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