Whether enjoyed outside, inside or as takeout, restaurant food has never felt more special.
I am so grateful to restaurants for weathering all that they have in the past few years, and managing to come through it all to keep nourishing us in body, spirit, and soul.
Here’s to them, and to all that they provide, including these most memorable eats, in no particular order, that made my Top 10 for the year:
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With festive pine cones adorning simple plywood tables, string lights festooning sidewalk trees, and blankets as soft as cashmere at the ready, Cotogna’s parklet has got to be one of the nicest around.
That’s what I found when my husband, two friends, and I dined outside last weekend when it hovered around 48 degrees. The popular Jackson Square Italian restaurant has tables outside right on the sidewalk, as well as a sizeable parklet. The latter is where you want to sit if possible because it has a canopy overhead, so if it rains, you’ll probably be fine unless the wind kicks up mightily.
Indeed, with both an overhead and tall standing heater at each table, we were as comfortable as can be. In fact, halfway through dinner, two of us even shed our coats because we were that warm.
With our server’s charming Italian accent, we almost felt like we had taken a trip to Italy during the holidays, too.
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Chef Tanya Holland may have left behind the hustle and bustle of the restaurant industry in 2021 with the closure of her Brown Sugar Kitchen in Oakland, whose superlative fried chicken and waffles prompted a never-ending line of diners eager to enjoy comforting soul food at its best.
Thankfully, though, her cooking and community championing continue on in her new cookbook, “California Soul” (Ten Speed Press), of which I received a review copy.
It was written with Maria C. Hunt, a California-based journalist who specializes in cultural stories about food, wine, and lifestyle; and Dr. Kelley Fanto Deetz, who holds a PhD in African diaspora studies and anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley.
It’s a cookbook not just of recipes, but of stories, that reflect the struggles and triumphs of African Americans who migrated from the South to California. Holland knows first-hand that journey, being the daughter of a mother who grew up in Louisiana, and a father who hails from Virginia. As a child, Holland spent many summers in both states, immersed in the gardening and cooking traditions of her grandparents.
Her great-aunts would make their way to Oregon and Southern California. Holland, herself, would move to the Bay Area in 2001, drawn to the fact, she writes, that “California offered an openness to ambition (female and Black) thought leaders and entrepreneurs that I hadn’t experienced on the East Coast.”
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As you shake and stir cocktails galore this holiday season, try to refrain from polishing off every drop of the vodka.
Instead, save some to make this easy and delicious “Penne with Vodka Sauce.”
It’s from “Simple Pasta” (Ten Speed Press), of which I received a review copy. This engaging book is by Odette Williams, the Australia-born cook and writer who now lives in Brooklyn.
It is her second cookbook, after the huge success of her “Simple Cake” (Ten Speed Press), a favorite in my house and named one of the best baking books of 2019 by the New York Times.
Like that book, this one is filled with tempting recipes that aren’t overly complicated but deliver on flavor and pure delight.
It’s a book that you’ll reach for again and again to try your hand at dishes that include making your own fresh pasta or to substituting dried instead, as well as accompaniments like salads, cocktails, and desserts.
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For a real change of pace from the usual Napa or Sonoma Valley wine tasting, head to Point Reyes Station for a tasting of mead.
Yes, sparkling wines not made from grapes but honey.
Since 1997, Heidrun Meadery has specialized in this distinctive bubbly made in the French méthode champenoise tradition. It is one of North America’s oldest meaderies still in operation.
Mead is an ancient beverage that has been made far longer than either beer or wine. Owing to the different flower nectars gathered by the bees, the resulting meads boasts surprisingly intense and varied flavors, as I found when I was fortunate enough to try samples.
Heidrun recently partnered with the World Honey Exchange, a U.S.-based organization that helps honey cooperatives around the globe, particularly those in the threatened ecosystems of Patagonia, Ethiopia and Tanzania, gain access to larger markets.
Its three new limited-edition meads ($65 each) are produced from the nectar of Chilean Ulmo, Ethiopian Geteme and Tanzanian Miombo woodland flower blossoms respectively.
All of the sparkling meads are meant to be enjoyed ice cold in flutes, just like Champagne.
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