The Country’s Oldest and Priciest Cheddar

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A one-of-a-kind cheese.

A very special gift arrived from a very special friend last month.

A block of vivid orange, it’s believed to be the oldest, most expensive cheddar in America.

Made with utmost patience by award-winning cheese-maker, Hook’s Cheese Co. of Mineral Point, WI, it was a holiday gift from my friend, Karen Herzog, a food writer at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

When Karen first wrote about this special cheese for her newspaper, it created a sensation. NPR, CNN, CBS News, Yahoo News, and newspapers around the globe picked up her story about this cheese that had been aged 15 years and was selling for $50 a pound.

Good things always come in small packages.

Yes, a 15-year-old, cow’s milk, sharp cheddar. That’s like half a century in wine years and an eternity in dog ones.

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Get Your Fill — and Then Some — at Sancho’s Taqueria

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A huge, honking burrito.

Like quite a few high-end chefs these days, Adam Torres turned his back on white table cloths, waiters, sommeliers and all the other fancy accouterments that go along with fine dining.

Instead, he opted to refocus his considerable skills toward something far more casual and carefree — tacos and burritos.

But not just any run-of-the-mill tacos and burritos. We’re talking ones that will leave you swooning.

Then again, that’s not surprising when you consider they’re being made by someone who used to cook on the line at the esteemed Village Pub in Woodside.

Having been a fan of the Sancho’s in Redwood City that opened a few years ago, and the take-out Mexican food window that Torres used to run at La Tiendita Market in East Palo Alto, my husband and I were eager to try the new Sancho’s Taqueria, which opened in downtown Palo Alto late last year.

I almost always end up getting at least one fish taco ($3.95). Super crisp, fried nuggets of flaky fish are mounded high inside two small, soft corn tortillas and topped with cabbage and creamy, house-made chipotle remoulade. Sancho’s has long had a reputation for its fish tacos. After one bite, you’ll not only know why, but want to order seconds.

Fish taco on the left; Al pastore taco on the right.

I also enjoyed an al pastore (barbecue pork) super taco ($3.25), which came dressed with cheese, pico de gallo and salsa. Smoky and tender, the pork, like all of Sancho’s meats, are nicely seasoned.

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Top 10 Eats of 2009

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My Top 10 eats that make me smile. (And yes, those are coffee beans.)

Some people like to look back at the year to ponder, scrutinize and revel in their accomplishments.

I like to look back at the year to relive moments in time that I can’t forget because, well, they just tasted so darned good.

Yes, here’s my list of the top 10 dishes I had in 2009.

Oh, it was hard to narrow it down to just 10, believe me. I hemmed and hawed about which would make the cut and which wouldn’t because there were so many bites over the past 12 months that I truly savored.

In the end, I decided to limit it to the meals I ate out, rather than cooked at home. The dishes that made the list were ones that I still savor in my memory, again and again. They’re ones that I would rush out to eat once more in a heart beat. They are — in a word — unforgettable.

Here they are, in no particular order:

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A Festive, Non-Alcoholic Way To Ring in the New Year

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Here's to the new year with a taste of something sweet and tart.

Is it really just a day away from 2010? Seriously?

I’m not necessarily ready for a new year to begin, not when it seems like this past one just zoomed by at warp speed before I could barely catch my breath.

If I could, I’d like to rewind it back to, say, maybe summer to do all the things I had hoped to do but never got around to doing. Things like read more books, cook even more fabulous new dishes, host a few more dinner parties at home, clean out my closet, organize my desk better, go for a hike, and write more letters on actual stationary to be mailed with a real stamp.

Since I can’t turn back time, I’ll do the next best thing — usher in 2010 with welcome arms, eager anticipation and boundless hopefulness.

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Lunch With Tony? You Bet!

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Short rib sandwich with caramelized onions. Oh, yes, indeedie.

Recently, I had lunch with Tony at Lunch with Tony’s.

Uh, got that?

That would be Chef-Proprietor Tony Santos and his new breakfast-lunch cafe, named — you got it — Lunch with Tony’s. It’s located in Alviso. And if you don’t know where that is — and I’m sure many of you don’t even if you live in the Bay Area — it’s a bayside community that was once autonomous, but was annexed into San Jose in 1968.

Santos knows Alviso well. After all, he grew up just three blocks from what’s now his cafe. The building that houses Lunch with Tony’s used to be his grandfather’s bar in the 1940s. His grandfather was the elder statesman of Alviso, having been both its mayor and police chief in the 1950s. As you drive to Lunch with Tony’s, you’re bound to pass Tony P. Santos Street, which is named after Santos’ grandfather.

Have lunch at Lunch with Tony.

The simple, yet warm dining room.

Over the years, the old bar morphed into a couple of different restaurants, then fell into decline.

As Santos puts it bluntly, “It was condemnable when we took it over.”

Indeed, it took a year and a half of clean up and construction to get the family-owned building to what it is now — a cozy, casual cafe with cheerful orange walls and green columns. A corner outfitted with easy chairs and a coffee table, made of old planks from the building, invites patrons to take a load off.  During construction, Santos even found the original “Tony’s” sign that graced his grandfather’s establishment. He plans on hanging it in the patio area.

The "Tony'' of Lunch with Tony.

Ever since the 31-year-old Santos opened up his cafe on Sept. 9 (his birthday), the place has been packed. Workers from nearby Cisco Systems, Yahoo! and Sun Microsystems come in to get their fill, as does a steady stream of Santos’ cousins and old friends who still live in the neighborhood.

It’s the “Cheers” bar in sandwich joint-form.

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