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Served Up on a Stick
2007-08-29 07:48:00
Earlier this week, SF Gate food critic Michael Bauer attended the Association of Food Journalists conference in my home town, the Twin Cities. While he was there, he and the 60 or so conference attendees from around the country took the opportunity to visit the annual state get-together, the Minnesota State Fair. In his blog, Bauer writes about his visit to the festival, an homage to the state's agricultural heritage and a celebration marking the end of another summer past.While the fair features a multitude of art and science exhibits, musical performances, and carnival rides, I would argue that it is the food that draws people to this event year after year. Indeed, for a brief twelve short days at the end of each summer, the state fairgrounds become the proverbial center of the culinary universe. You see, among the 4-H livestock judgings, the farm equipment displays, the roller coasters, the REO Speedwagon concerts, and the stock car races lies the true raison d'être of the...
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The Best Thing Since Sliced...
2007-08-28 09:04:00
...Spam! Yep, you heard that right. Your favorite canned luncheon meat now comes pre-sliced in a single-serving pack for your dining convenience. What will those guys in Austin think of next??
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An Afternoon in Bodega
2007-08-28 06:46:00
On Saturday, Karen and I drove up to the Bodega Seafood, Art, and Wine Festival in Sonoma County, about 90 minutes north of San Francisco. What started as an overcast and cool day turned into a sunny and warm one as the day progressed. We listened to some music and checked out some of the pieces being sold by the many artisans and craftspeoples exhibiting their work at the festival. Of course, we also had a chance to check out the delectable cuisine being sold by the many food vendors in attendance. Here's a rundown of some of the food items that we encountered (and devoured):A shrimp po'boy on a Dutch crunch roll. We were a couple of bites in before we remembered to take a picture:Teriyaki chicken with a side of garlic fries. The chicken portion was huge:Some homestyle macaroni and cheese:A funnel cake topped with powdered sugar, strawberries, whipped cream, and cocoa powder:
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Happy Birthday, Big Guy
2007-08-24 09:58:00
The Big Mac turns 40.
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Alive and Kicking
2007-08-24 08:37:00
Lest you think that my recent lack of posts means that I have been not eating (as my friend Doug seems to think, at least judging from his comments in a recent post), let me reassure you that I am alive and well, but simply quite busy. Despite our somewhat hectic schedules, Karen and I have managed to fit in a few dining outings here and there.A couple of weeks back, Karen took advantage of her half-day Friday to hop on a mid-afternoon train and head down in my direction, meeting up with me just as I was getting off work. We had made plans to meet up with one of our friends, Diana, before she headed out to the other coast for grad school this fall. We left the dining plans up to Diana, who wanted to enjoy some cuisine that she might not be able to get in her new home city. She thought that some Indian food would be nice, so we headed to Amber India (377 Santana Row; 408-248-5400). This was our first visit to the Santana Row location, though we had previously dined at the Mounta...
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Hot Dogging
2007-08-10 10:16:00
Between a family visit, a sudden surge at work, and a wonderful event in my life (about which I'll probably blog one of these days), I haven't really been thinking much about food lately, especially not about cooking. In fact, I haven't really cooked anything for three weeks and counting. (No, making sandwiches and reheating leftovers don't count.) I know, it's quite disappointing, but hopefully things will settle down soon. Anyway, to tide you faithful readers over until that time comes, I thought that I would mention a CNN article that I read about Chicago's best hot dogs. This week, I transited through Chicago twice on a trip for work but never left O'Hare, so I was unable to sample any of these dogs. Luckily, there are places here in the Bay Area that carry that bright green relish that is a necessary component of a true Chicago dog.

What We Ate... At The Alembic
2007-08-04 02:07:00
Monday, July 30Dinner: The Alembic Bar, 1725 Haight Street; 415-666-0822Last Monday, we decided to check out The Alembic, a trendy new bar in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco.What we ate:Sliders: Moroccan spiced lamb burgers with harissa aioli and olive tapenade. Tasty, but I wish that we got more than two burgers for $10. Stout-braised oxtail: with melted cheese and roasted peppers on toast. Good, but also a bit expensive.Herb and Spice Dusted Fries: with lemongrass, garlic, and aromatic aioli.Spaetzle: with braised rabbit, bacon, gruyère, dijon mustard and tarragon. Absolutely delicious, our favorite dish of the evening.What we drank:Bourbon Old FashionedMint JulepMellow Yellow: not the soft drink, but rather a variation on a whiskey sourSara's Ruby Mild from the Magnolia Pub and Brewery, The Alembic's sister restaurant

Bottled Tap Water
2007-07-27 17:10:00
Recently, a lot of attention has been raised about bottled water and its negative impact on the environment. In addition to the obvious need to manufacture plastic bottles (much of which ends up clogging up landfills), a lot of energy is consumed transporting the water to the consumer. Bottled water opponents also argue that bottled water is far more expensive and no cleaner than tap water (which, in the United States, is quite clean). In many cases, it is simply bottled tap water. In fact, PepsiCo just announced that they would be changing the labeling on the Aquafina bottled water product to say just that. Aquafina bottles will now have the words "Public Water Source" listed on the label. I wonder if Coca-Cola will follow PepsiCo's move toward corporate responsibility by updating the labels on Dasani, their line of bottled water.

A Quick Update
2007-07-26 08:16:00
I apologize for the recent drought of new posts. I was out of town for most of last week attending a work event at the Seascape Resort in Monterey Bay. With family in town visiting me this week, I haven't had much time to catch up on my favorite blogs, much less add to my own. I definitely hope to get back into the swing of things next week with some new blog entries.However, I did want to pass along some unfortunate news coming out of the Chicago food scene. Grant Achatz, executive chef of Alinea, announced that he was diagnosed with Stage 4 squamous cell carcinoma of the mouth. Achatz, who worked under the tutelage of Thomas Keller at The French Laundry, opened his restaurant two years ago to much acclaim, serving up unique and innovative dishes such as his "PB&J", the essence of the sandwich compressed into a single bite. Achatz is undergoing chemotherapy treatment which could potentially affect his sense of taste. Hopefully the treatment will go well and he will have a s...
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Introducing... What We Ate
2007-07-16 09:28:00
Here's the first in what hopefully will be an on-going series of posts summarizing some of my dining experiences. I often find that when I am busy, especially with work (like I am now), I tend to let this blog go by the wayside. Hopefully, with this is condensed version, I can still share some of my stories, even when other things take over my life.Friday, July 13Lunch: Coco500, 500 Brannan Street; 415-543-2222One of the perks of Karen's job is that they have summer hours, which means her weekend starts at 12:30pm Friday afternoon. This past Friday, I took a half-day off to join her in an early weekend.What we ate:Braised duck panini: shredded duck on lightly toasted bread - dee-lish! Came with a watercress-orange salad on the side.Spaghettini: pasta with local squid in a ink-based sauce with a hint of lemon and olive oil. Also excellent.Truffled squash blossom flatbread: Also very good, though it seemed that it would be more appropriate as an appetizer (which is how we had i...

Range: Our Dinner in Pictures
2007-07-13 21:14:00
Last weekend, Karen and I were finally able to meet up with Tesha and Jeremiah for dinner out on the town. Even though my ex-pat friends have been back in the Bay Area for over nine months, it's been amazingly difficult find a mutually workable time to get together for a nice, sit-down dinner due to our exceedingly busy schedules. In fact, we were fortunate that Tesha had just flown back from Europe last Friday and was eager to meet up for dinner (despite the jet lag).Karen and I thought that we would introduce them to one of our favorite dining spots in San Francisco, Range (842 Valencia Street; 415-282-8283), a Mission District destination featuring American cuisine. Karen has this knack for picking out up and coming restaurants before they become the buzz of the town. Range was one such find, a restaurant that we visited well before it received its Michelin star rating.We started our dinner with a round of drinks. The ladies both opted for a peach bellini, while we guys wen...
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Ratatouille!
2007-07-09 06:41:00
I'm not talking about the movie, but rather the dish! My wonderful girlfriend surprised me last Friday evening by preparing this simple, but tasty French recipe for dinner. Karen opted to go with a quick version of the recipe with poultry sausage. She spent a good part of the afternoon shopping for ingredients and dicing vegetables, which included red bell pepper, zucchini, yellow squash, Japanese eggplant, tomatoes, onions, and garlic. In lieu of a hot pepper, Karen used a spicy turkey sausage with cilantro.The recipe was very fast and easy to make. First, she sauteed minced garlic in olive oil for a few minutes. Then, she added in all of the vegetables except for the tomato and continued to saute the mixture until it began to soften, perhaps about 7-8 minutes longer. Then, she mixed in the diced tomatoes and cooked it for an additional 3-4 minutes. Finally, she put in the sliced sausage, and the chopped basil and parsley, and cooked the mixture until the sausage was warme...
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A Visit to the Kwik-E-Mart
2007-07-06 09:13:00
On the way home from work tonight, I stopped at the local Kwik-E-Mart . Yes, the Kwik-E-Mart . In conjunction with Twentieth Century Fox, 7-Eleven has transformed 11 of its convenience store locations into Kwik-E-Marts to promote the upcoming The Simpsons Movie, which opens nationwide later this month. One of these temporary Kwik-E-Marts is located in Mountain View, CA, just around the curve from the Googleplex and, fortunately for me, on my way home from work.As I drove up to the store, I noticed that the 7-Eleven signs next to the parking lot had been liberated of their newly applied store logos, undoubtedly the work of souvenir-seeking scofflaws. However the store itself, with its new facade, was left unscathed.Not surprisingly, a lot of other people were also checking out the newly transformed store. I counted at least 25 people, both outside the Kwik-E-Mart, snapping photos and loitering about a la Nelson Muntz and crew, and inside the store, taking in the new decor. In ad...
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Joey Brings the Mustard Belt Back Home
2007-07-05 07:22:00
In a high noon showdown earlier today, Joey Chestnut took down six-time defending champion Takeru Kobayashi by downing 66 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes to win the 2007 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. Chestnut shattered his own world record of 59 1/2 dogs, which he set last month in the Southwest regional qualifier. Kobayashi was credited with eating 63 dogs in a losing effort, but there was a moment at the very end of the competition where it appeared that he suffered a "reversal of fortune". Karen and I were both surprised that he was not disqualified for this seemingly obvious breach of the contest rules.
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A Strawberry Cooler for the Summer
2007-06-28 08:13:00
On our trip to Napa Valley last month, Karen enjoyed a wonderful pre-dinner cocktail at our visit to Redd. The drink, Strawberry Blonde, was very refreshing and a wonderful thirst quencher, perfect for a warm summer day. Karen was talking about the drink for days afterwards so I decided to see if I could get the formula for this cocktail. Guy, the general manager at Redd, was kind enough to share the recipe with us.The recipe calls for 3 parts of strawberry-citrus infused vodka, 1/2 part lime juice, 1/2 part Velvet Falernum, and a splash of simple syrup. These ingredients are mixed together, topped with club soda, and served on the rocks in a highball glass. The drink is so smooth that you barely even notice the alcohol.Of course, in order to make this cocktail, you need to have some strawberry-citrus infused vodka on hand. Since you'd be hard-pressed to find such a flavored vodka at the liquor store, you'll have to make it yourself. A few weeks ago, I picked up a magnum of...
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Garlic Crab Noodles
2007-06-24 21:40:00
A while back, Karen and I went out with a few of our friends to celebrate the beginning of the dungeness crab season, which starts in mid-November and runs well into the new year in this area. We chose to have dinner at PPQ Dungeness Island (2332 Clement Street; 415-386-8266), which specializes in this crustacean delicacy. The restaurant features several different preparations of crab, including roasted, drunken, and curry versions. As tasty as the crab is, a necessary component of the meal has to be a big plate of garlic noodles. The version served at PPQ Dungeness Island is very savory and pairs wonderfully with the sweet and delicate crab meat. Karen just loved these noodles and ate so much at that dinner the she coined a new phrase, garlic noodles full, to describe her state of being afterwards.Last night, I decided to surprise her with a little treat by making her a crab dinner which included, of course, a large plate of garlic noodles. I thought that it would be an inter...
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Tsunami Revisited
2007-06-24 07:47:00
Last night, Karen and I dropped in for dinner at the restaurant where we had our first "official" date, Tsunami Sushi (1306 Fulton Street; 415-567-7664), in the NoPa neighborhood of San Francisco. We had thought about ordering take-out last night, but the evening weather was pretty nice, so we made the short walk from Karen's place over to the restaurant. As an added plus, we brought along a $15 gift card from our CozmoDeck that we purchased earlier this year.The interior at Tsunami is cozy and the decor is very trendy; with the contemporary music playing in the background, you almost feel like you are in a nightclub rather than in a sushi bar. We didn't have reservations, but luckily there were a couple of open seats in the lounge area. We started out our dinner with an order of Tsunami fries, rectangular planks of yams lightly coated in tempura batter, deep fried, and served with a small dish of red salt. To accompany our meal, we decided to order a bottle of sake. Tsunami...
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Pizza and Beer
2007-06-20 09:02:00
Ah, pizza and beer - a pair made for each other, right? If you think so, you might want to check out the new brew coming from the land of Bill Swerski's Superfans, pizza beer.
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The Menu - Revealed
2007-06-20 05:57:00
Last week, I wrote about a menu that I created for Karen for our first home-cooked meal together. At the end of that post, I posed a few questions about the menu for you readers out there. Due to popular demand, here are the answers to those questions:Our first dinner: Oven Roasted Chicken and Cheesy Grilled PolentaI was a bit disappointed with my polenta as I didn't allow the grill to get hot enough before I threw on the slices of polenta. The result: very sad-looking grill marks. As Karen says, it's not grilled food without the marks. My bad. I have since done a better job with grilled food items.Dishes that I had never made before: Maryland Crab Cakes, Cheese Filled Triangles, and Baked Macaroni and CheeseNope, no entrees, just a couple of the appetizers and one of the sides. If I would have known how easy it is to make the crab cakes, I would have made them earlier.Dishes that I have yet to make for Karen: Grilled Garlic Cilantro Sea Bass and Smoked Standing Rib RoastI ...
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Guest Blogging: Party with Paella
2007-06-17 04:58:00
Tonight, Karen writes about our most recent cooking experiment: paella.Growing up, I never celebrated Christmas or waited for Santa Claus to come down the chimney bearing gifts (instead I partied with Hanukkah Harry over eight glorious nights). Late December wouldn’t mean much for me if not for the unique New Year’s Eve celebration cooked up by my parents.It all started innocently enough. When my brothers and I were young, my parents went out and celebrated New Year’s Eve in the traditional manner. They hated it. Paying exorbitant prices for the same entertainment they could get on any normal night of the year, worrying about drunk drivers, and leaving the kids back home was not their style. So they decided to defy tradition and do up New Year’s Eve their way.And thus was born the New Year’s Eve family feast. Meals generally started around 7ish and the final course never finished before midnight. Dick Clark was often on in the background and the menu was always gut busting...
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Is It Over Before It Even Begins?
2007-06-14 07:07:00
Reports from Japan suggest that hot dog eating champion Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi may skip the annual Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest this upcoming 4th of July. Apparently, Kobayashi has not trained in months, having taken a sabbatical from competitive eating after his mother passed away earlier this year. If this is the case, the contest organizers might as well just give the Mustard Belt to Joey Chestnut, who recently shattered the world record, set by Kobayashi in last year's contest.

Spam Wars: BK v. McD
2007-06-12 08:25:00
Did you know: Over 6 billion cans of Spam are sold every year?It looks like Burger King is going head-to-head against McDonald's in a battle over breakfast in Hawaii. Both of the fast food giants are now offering breakfast platters featuring slices of Spam served with eggs and white rice in their Hawaiian locations.Now while I am, in fact, a fan of Spam - yes, I believe that you can call yourself a foodie and enjoy canned spiced ham - I wonder how well these breakfast platters will sell against the various types of loco moco-style plates sold by local eating establishments.
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Goodies in the Mail
2007-06-12 05:17:00
Today, I received a package in the mail. Inside the padded manila envelope were two copies of the Zagat 2007/08 San Francisco Nightlife Guide. Apparently, my blog caught the attention of one of the Marcom guys at Zagat, who sent me a nice email last week and offered to forward a couple of complementary copies. I actually have a paid subscription to Zagat.com (not that he knew about that) so I already had online access to all of the content in the book, but it's still nice to have a physical copy that I can leave in the car.I'd like to send out a big thanks to Michael in Corporate Communications, not only for sending me the guide (which is very cool!), but also for keeping in touch with the blogosphere and reaching out to their constituents. You can count on me to renew my subscription next year.
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The Menu
2007-06-11 08:46:00
When Karen and I first started dating a few years back, one of the first things that I wanted to do was to prepare a home cooked meal for her. Knowing that she is also a foodie, I thought that it might be more fun to have her select what she wanted for dinner. So, I created a dinner menu, from which she could select the dishes of her choosing. Here were her choices:AppetizersMaryland Crab CakesWith a side of homemade aioliBacon Wrapped Water ChestnutsMarinated in soy sauce and rolled in sugarFlorentine Artichoke DipServed hot with crusty French breadCheese Filled TrianglesSpinach and cream cheese filled phyllo trianglesEntreesGrilled Rib EyeRubbed with Montreal seasoning and seared on the grillBaby Back Pork RibsCured with a spice rub and glazed with homemade barbecue sauceThai Coconut Curry ChickenIn a spicy green chili sauce over steamed jasmine riceOven Roasted ChickenSmothered with a lemon zest garlic pepper pasteJamaican Jerk Pork TenderloinMarinated in a spicy habenero past...
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Swinging Steaks U.S.A.
2007-06-08 09:26:00
What I thought was a passing fad appears to be a national trend. As you might recall, I recently posted about two festivals, one in Wisconsin and another in Utah, celebrating what is probably one of the more famous 'cuts' of offal, namely Rocky Mountain Oysters. Well, it seems that there are many other such events taking place all over the country. I was able to find the following:Past events in 2007The 16th Annual Calffry, in Stillwater, Oklahoma; You can buy tickets for next year's festival starting March 1, 2008. There also appears to be a College Fest scheduled at some time later this year.Tiro Testicle Festival, in Tiro, Ohio, last Saturday in April;Testicle Festival East, Washington D.C., April 28Olean Testicle Festival, in Olean, Missouri, June 2;Upcoming events in 2007Ryegate Testicle Festival, in Ryegate , Montana, second Saturday in JuneRound the Bend Steakhouse's 14th Annual Testicle Festival, in Ashland, Nebraska, June 15-16;The 25th Annual Testicle Festival, in ...
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