The Time Is Ripe For Braised Lamb Shanks with Sweet-and-Sour Kumquats

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Fall-off-the-bone tender lamb shanks get garnished with wine-simmered, sweet-tangy kumquats.
Fall-off-the-bone tender lamb shanks get garnished with wine-simmered, sweet-tangy kumquats.

Admittedly, I often hem and haw, even dodge, duck, and deflect, when people invariably ask me what my favorite recipe is in my cookbook, “East Bay Cooks” (Figure 1, 2019).

It’s like choosing a favorite child — or in my case, only one dessert to eat for the rest of my life.

It just can’t be done.

However, I will concede this: At this time of year especially, I will eagerly flip the pages of my cookbook until I stop longingly at “Braised Lamb Shanks with Sweet-and-Sour Kumquats.”

This comforting dish is from Chef Kevin Gin of Bridges in Danville. It’s one of those fabulous dishes in which your oven really does all the work — turning lamb shanks, cooked with an entire bottle of red wine and aromatics like thyme and rosemary, into fall-off-the-bone lusciousness.

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Did Someone Say “Chocolate Series”?

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Portland's Salt & Straw teamed with San Francisco's Dandelion Chocolate for this limited-edition ice cream flavor.
Portland’s Salt & Straw teamed with San Francisco’s Dandelion Chocolate for this limited-edition ice cream flavor.

If you didn’t get your fill of chocolate on Valentine’s Day already, head to your nearest Salt & Straw to really indulge.

The artisan ice cream maker out of Portland, OR launched this month its “Chocolate Series,” five chocolate-centric flavors made in collaboration with local chocolatiers located in the five markets that it has scoop shops.

Lucky me had a chance to try samples of all five limited-edition flavors now available at all Salt & Straw shops by the scoop or hand-packed pint ($12.95). If you don’t have a shop near you, not to worry; you can have all five flavors delivered to your door at a special discounted price of $68.

The "Chocolate Series.''
The “Chocolate Series.”

The five flavors are: Fran’s Almond Gold Bar, Cloudforest Chocolate Ishpingo & Mango, Dandelion Cocoa Nibs & Frangipane; Compartes Coffee & Love Nuts; and Exquisito Guanabana Stracciatella.

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A Visit to Monterey’s Coastal Kitchen

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Seared ahi with sunchoke puree, apple sabayon and diced apples -- at Coastal Kitchen.
Seared ahi with sunchoke puree, apple sabayon and diced apples — at Coastal Kitchen.

When Chef Michael Rotondo left San Francisco during the pandemic, it was surely Monterey’s gain.

The former executive chef of Parallel 27 in the San Francisco Ritz-Carlton, former executive chef of Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago, and the U.S. Bocuse D’Or “Most Promising Chef” of 2008, moved south to open Coastal Kitchen in February 2022.

That new fine-dining restaurant at the Monterey Plaza Hotel is right next to its long-time casual restaurant, Schooners.

Unlike the latter, though, there is no outdoor dining space. The white cloth-draped tables inside Coastal Kitchen’s warm-wood dining room are spaced out amply, though.

The dining room.
The dining room.

This is a tasting menu-only restaurant. In fact, it’s thought to be the sole tasting menu-only restaurant in Monterey. At $145 per person (with an additional $95 for wine pairings), it delivers a lot for the buck.

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Dining Outside at Bookie’s Pizza

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The unique 'nduja, pineapple and anchovy Detroit-style pizza at Bookie's.
The unique ‘nduja, pineapple and anchovy Detroit-style pizza at Bookie’s.

When a fine-dining chef who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and worked at Michelin three-starred Manresa pivots to making pizza, you know those pies are going to be damn fine.

And at Bookie’s Pizza in Santa Cruz, they absolutely slay.

Tucked inside Sante Adairius Rustic Ales tasting room at 1315 Water St. in Santa Cruz, Chef Todd Parker has set up shop, turning out Detroit-style pizzas with California farm-to-table panache.

Parker was the chef at Manresa Bread’s Campbell location when it first opened, which is where I first met him. The plan was for him to become the head chef at sister business, Mentone, when it was to open in Aptos.

Chef Todd Parker.
Chef Todd Parker.

But the pandemic had different ideas, delaying the debut of the pizza-centric Mentone, and leaving Parker to contemplate what the near future held.

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My Heart Beets

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Classic Georgian beet and walnut spread all ready for Valentine's Day.
Classic Georgian beet and walnut spread all ready for Valentine’s Day.

This Valentine’s Day, this dish will make your heart beat.

Or beet.

As in turn you into a true beet lover if you aren’t already one.

“Georgian Beet and Walnut Spread” will do that to you. It’s from the “Budmo!” (Rizzoli, 2022), of which I received a review copy.

Food photographer and stylist Anna Voloshyna of San Francisco wrote the cookbook as a love letter to her native Ukraine, where she lived for two decades before immigrating to the United States.

Lord knows that Eastern European country has been on everyone’s collected mind for more than a year, as we’ve watched in horror and sorrow the war that Russia has waged against it.

“Budmo!” provides a salve — if for a moment — from that nightmare. It is full of pride and passion for the culture, people, and food traditions that we all hope will endure no matter what.

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