Monthly Archives: August 2009

Plain and Simple

Posted on by 12 comments

Meet a crispy sesame biscotti named Regina.

Regina is not a glamour puss.

She’s not decked out in the latest and greatest. She’s not trendy in the least. And her sweetness is subtle, almost mysteriously elusive.

Regina is a classic Sicilian cookie, timeless and always welcome at any occasion.

“Biscotti Regina” is from “The Modern Baker” (DK Publishing) by Nick Malgieri, former executive pastry chef of Windows on the World in New York.

It’s a biscotti that is not sliced and baked for a second time. Instead, the dough is rolled into a rope, then cut into cylinders, each of which is dipped into an egg wash, followed by a good dunking into a bowl of white sesame seeds until thoroughly coated.

The biscotti bake just once, and emerge crisp, with a whisper of vanilla and just the merest hint of sweetness. It’s a cookie that’s perfect at the end of a meal with coffee or a sweet dessert wine, or as an afternoon pick-me-up with a relaxing cup of tea.

Read more

Filet Mignon — Bison-Style

Posted on by 15 comments

My new favorite filet mignon isn't made of beef.

As a kid frequenting Sizzler with my parents (yes, the Food Gal did haunt that establishment back in the day), my Dad would always order a filet mignon for me.

Because it was smaller than the other cuts on the menu, it was the perfect size for a smaller eater. It was always tender, too, a good choice for a kid who didn’t like chewing too much.

As I got older, and started cutting back on the amount of red meat I ate, filet mignon still popped up in my diet, but much less frequently. As my taste buds changed, I started enjoying it less, too, because it was always a little lacking in the flavor department, if you know what I mean.

Enter filet mignon made from bison. (Not to be confused with buffalo, which are a whole different species, even though the two terms are commonly used interchangeably.)

Before Northern Europeans settled North America, there were upwards of 70 million bison on the continent. But by 1889, after overzealous slaughtering, less than 1,000 bison remained. In 1905, the American Bison Society was formed to protect the animals from extinction. Today, thanks to efforts from ranchers, bison number more than 350,000.

Two such bison ranchers are Ken Klemm and Peter Thieriot, otherwise known as the Buffalo Guys (see what I mean about interchangeable terms?). Their herd of about 500 bison graze in northwest Kansas. They also contract with other ranchers in Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Montana. Together, they sell ramge-raised, hormone-free, antibiotic-free bison meat in stores nationwide and on the Web.

Leaner than beef, buffalo meat even has fewer calories and less fat (including saturated) than skinless chicken breast. It also has more iron than beef, pork or chicken.

Read more

A Feather In Its Cap for the Plumed Horse

Posted on by 13 comments

Caviar, ahi, quail egg, and a crispy arch of brioche.

The first time my husband and I dined at the Plumed Horse, shortly after its new owners unveiled its multi-million-dollar rennovation in 2007, our reactions were immediate: We were astonished to experience this level of high-dining in the sleepy village of Saratoga.

Don’t get me wrong. This town has long had a few quite lovely restaurants that stood out from the pack for their ambitious cuisine and service. They have true elegance, in an understated, quiet manner.

Contrast that to the supremely glamorous surroundings of the Plumed Horse, which could be beamed up and set down in Manhattan or San Francisco or Los Angeles, and fit in quite comfortably. The once rustic restaurant, originally opened in 1952, received the makeover of all makeovers two years ago. It also got a most skilled chef in Peter Armellino, a former chef de cuisine of Aqua in San Francisco.

The wine cellar is a stunner with floor-to-ceiling glass walls and shelves that hold 1,800 bottles. Even the floor is made of glass. Step onto it, and you’ll feel as if you’re floating in mid-air. Peer down to find two more stories of wine below.

From the soaring ceilings in the main dining room hang blown-glass, fiber-optic chandeliers that periodically change color from lime green to fuchsia. Three grand carts roll through the dining room, one holding champagnes, another cheeses, and the last, an assortment of aperitifs.

Like so many restaurants in this difficult year, the Plumed Horse saw a drop in business. But when we were invited in for dinner at the end of July, the dining room was buzzing on a Friday night. Our server happily reported that business had tripled in the past couple of weeks for some unexplained reason. He surmised that maybe people were just tired of scrimping and saving, and finally decided it was high-time to treat themselves a little.

The Plumed Horse is a fine choice to do that, too. Armellino’s food is the epitome of seasonal sophistication. The 41-year-old chef even grows his own herbs and citrus on the property, tucked away in flower boxes and a lower-level yard. There’s lemon grass, purple basil, Thai basil, tarragon, dill, thyme, and bay, as well as Meyer lemon, avocado, Mandarin orange, kaffir lime, and yuzu trees.

He gets tomatoes from a friend who dry farms them with little water so their flavors concentrate and become extremely intense. Figs come from a server’s tree. Another server grows a special type of Mandarin that looks like a kumquat, but with thinner skin. Armellino turns them into marmalade that he serves with foie gras.

“I’ve been a city boy for 20 years,” Armellino says. “To have the opportunity to grow things like this here, I just felt like it was my job to take advantage of it. How can you compare picking thyme out of the ground that’s been warmed in the sun to thyme grown in a hot house? There is no comparison.”

Kumamoto oyster with pressed caviar.

For dinner, order either a la carte or the chef’s tasting menu ($125 per person, with wine pairing an additional $70).

We opted for the latter, which began with an amuse of a Kumamoto oyster on the half shell with a blanket of pressed caviar.

Read more

The Mother of All Burgers

Posted on by 22 comments

A burger so flavorful, you won't know what hit you.

Sure, there are fancier burgers. There are even more expensive burgers.

But Snake River Farms American Style Kobe Beef burger patties are pretty hard to beat.

And this is coming from a Food Gal who is not typically much of a Burger Gal, either.

The huge, 1/2-pound patties are made of American-style Kobe — Japanese Wagyu cows that have been crossed with American Black Angus ones. If you’ve ever experienced the over-the-top, fatty heaven known as Kobe beef, then you have an inkling of what these burgers are like.

If fat indeed equates flavor, these burgers are exploding with both. Take a deep breath and let me fill you in. Each of these patties alone has 750 calories — 610 of those from fat. Yowza! Indeed, each patty has more than 104 percent of a person’s daily recommended allotment of fat, and 126 percent of your daily value of saturated fat. Lordy, that’s a true case of too much information, if there ever was one.

It would be an understatement to say that you probably can’t eat these burgers too often — and still live to tell about it. But boy, what a treat at least once.

Read more

Kick Off Your Heels At Martins West Pub

Posted on by 7 comments

Moist and crispy chicken breast atop British baked beans.

Cowboy boots would be right at home at the new Martins West Pub in Redwood City.

Sure, it’s a gastropub with a British sensibility to the food, but there’s a down-home, kick-off -your-heels look and feel to it, as if you’re stepping foot inside a modern version of an old Western saloon. And that makes sense when you know the history of the Alhambra building that houses it.

The 1896 historic building started out as a theater and — yup — saloon. Over the decades, one of its most famous patrons was none other than Wyatt Earp, who’d visit regularly to watch his wife, Josie sing from the rafters.

You can almost picture Earp in this rustic space that’s been born anew. The dining tables are unadorned wood. Exposed brick walls and iron chandeliers give a timeworn vibe. Water is brought to the tables in milk bottles, and the napkins are soft, cotton dishtowels.

The dining-room is moody dim. So much so that when you’re seated, the hostess will hand you a key-chain flashlight with your menu, so you can actually read it. You get to keep the key-chain, too, which has the restaurant’s logo on it. Consider it a modern-day version of the matchbook of yore.

Executive Chef Michael Dotson, formerly executive chef of PlumpJack Cafe in Squaw Valley, executive chef at Evvia Estiatorio in Palo Alto, and executive chef at Sens restaurant in San Francisco, has crafted a menu of small plates and mains, as well as pub snacks such as Scottish eggs, and a seasonal pastie.

If you’re a California cuisine-type who is all about crisp, fresh veggies, this might not be the place for you, as you’ll only find that criteria met in the Little Gem salad ($9). Otherwise, as is the traditional British way, you’ll find your veggies pickled, pureed in a mash, or fried, which is not necessarily a detriment if you’re in the right mood.

There’s a list of specialty cocktails as befits this historic saloon. I sipped a thoroughly enjoyable and refreshing Pimm’s Cup ($9), garnished with bright green shavings of cucumber skin.

The corndog version of haggis.

My husband and I, who were invited to come for dinner, couldn’t pass up ordering the “haggis on a stick” ($4). Neither of us has had tasted haggis before. Let’s face it — you don’t often find the traditional Scottish and British sausage-like concoction — a mix of sheep organs cooked inside the animal’s stomach — on too many menus around here. And at Martins West Pub, it’s reinterpreted as a newfangled version of a corndog on a stick.

Read more

« Older Entries Recent Entries »