Monthly Archives: March 2010

Meet the Food Gal at “Silicon Valley Reads”

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For the past two months, a flurry of activities have been held throughout Silicon Valley, all surrounding that most illuminating, must-read book, “In Defense of Food” by Michael Pollan.

March 19, noon to 1:30 p.m., you’re invited to sit in on a free panel discussion about this eye-opening book that outlines just how detrimental our industrialized Western diets are to our health. This event, one of many by “Silicon Valley Reads,” is designed to help promote reading and literacy in our communities.

Yours truly will be on the March 19 panel, along with Chef Charlie Ayers of Calafia Cafe in Palo Alto, and noted author and peach grower extraordinaire, Mas Masumoto. The event will be moderated by my former San Jose Mercury News colleague, Leigh Weimers.

It will take place at Adobe Systems Park conference room in the East Tower lobby, 321 Park Ave. in San Jose.

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Betelnut — An Oldie But Goodie That Tantalizes and Surprises

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Chef Alex Ong tells an amusing story about just how much he missed Chinese food when he was living in Florida, working for the Ritz-Carlton, way back when.

On his rare days off then, he and his wife would hop into the car to drive to the only Chinese restaurant in sight — Panda Express.

“There was no other Chinese food around,” Ong says in almost disbelief. “I told my wife, ‘We gotta get out of here!’ ”

Fortunately for all of us, the Malaysia-born Ong did get out of there and ended up here — at the venerable Betelnut in San Francisco, a short drive from the Fairmont Heritage Place at Ghirardelli Square. At the popular restaurant, which was turning out Asian street food before that turned into a mega new trend, Ong has been in the kitchen 10 of its 14 years.

Sure, you’ll find the likes of everyone’s favorite minced chicken lettuce cups, Shanghai soup dumplings, fried cauliflower with curry leaves, and green papaya-shrimp salad.

But Ong and his chef de cuisine, Michael Siegel, like to push the envelope, too. Their more daring takes on street food are not always an easy sell to their upper-crust Union Street clientele. If you go, though, you should definitely seek them out.

One of Siegel’s favorite dishes of late is his grilled venison with maitake mushrooms and butternut squash. I had a chance to enjoy this dish of tender, juicy meat when Ong and Siegel invited me to come in with my buddy,  local cookbook author, Andrea Nguyen. The servers often tell hesitant customers that if they order the venison and don’t like it, they won’t have to pay for it. So far, none has been inclined to send back this amazing dish.

Each night, the restaurant also makes a dish that’s not on the official menu: Beggar’s Chicken. Few restaurants dare to offer this classic dish because of all the work involved. A soy-marinated whole chicken is stuffed with mushrooms, pork belly and Chinese sausages, then the whole thing is first wrapped in lotus leaves, then inside a mass of soft, gray clay. It cooks in the oven for one and a half hours, then rests for an equal amount of time.

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How I Measure Time in Char Siu Baos

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When it comes to Chinese pork buns, there is BM and there is AM.

BM as in “Before Microwaves,” before those boxy, miracle appliances became standard on our kitchen counters. And AM as is in “After Microwaves,” when we realized we couldn’t live without the darn things.

Those two periods in time had a profound effect on how I ate my delicious pork buns.

I’ve always enjoyed both the shiny, golden baked pork buns, as well as the fluffy, white steamed ones at many a dim sum restaurant.

My parents often bought some home, too, tied up in a pink square box.

BM, those were always the steamed buns that nestled in our fridge, never the baked ones. Lacking a toaster oven, my parents thought it a wasteful use of electricity to turn on the oven just to warm up a couple of small pork buns.

But the steamed ones were easy enough to handle by just placing them in a steamer on top of the stove. It took a little time to heat up the burner, to get the water boiling and the steam to penetrate the baos, but in those BM days, it seemed more than fast enough.

As a kid getting ready for school, I often awoke before my parents did. It would be my job in the morning to turn on the stove to get the kettle boiling for their coffee, and to take a couple of buns out of the fridge to place in the steamer for our breakfast. Bread-like, filled with sweet chunks of barbecued pork, and warm enough to make your fingers feel toasty on foggy San Francisco mornings, it was a perfect wake-me-up meal at that bright-eyed hour.

I can’t remember when we got our first microwave. But I do remember that AM, we sure seemed to have a lot more baked buns in the house. After all, warming them up in the newfangled microwave was a cinch, even if you had to sacrifice crispy tops in the process.

Nowadays, I still enjoy both steamed and baked varieties. My husband, though, swears his allegiance to the baked ones. I’m not sure if it’s because, as in my case, they became more ubiquitous in his household AM. All I know is that when I told him I was going to try making my very own baked char siu baos, he lit up like, well, metal sparking in the microwave.

Good pork buns can have that effect on people.

And these are no exception. The recipe is from my good friend, Andrea Nguyen whose new book, “Asian Dumplings” (Ten Speed Press) was just named a finalist for an IACP cookbook award. (Wooo, you go, girl!)

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Celebrate Persian New Year at Zaré at Flytrap in San Francisco

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Persian New Year begins March 20, the first day of spring. And Zaré at Flytrap restaurant in San Francisco is gearing up to celebrate in a big way.

Chef-owner Hoss Zaré, a native of Iran, will be hosting his first Persian New Year’s Celebration at his restaurant, a short hop from the W Hotel.

Think communal tables, where you can mingle and make new friends over a family-style spread of traditional dishes such as frog legs with pomegranate walnut sauce; and Thai snapper with fennel, winter vegetables and Persian pickle tartar.

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New Food Gal Veggie Seeds Give-Away — Plus Winners of the New Peet’s Coffee

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You can almost feel it in the air, can’t you? A little more sunshine peeking through, a little more daylight lingering at the end of the day. Yes, spring is on its way. And you know what that means?

Time for planting, of course. Yes, even for those with not-so-green thumbs like myself, this is the time to start thinking about the wondrous possibilities that we can nurture in our very own little window pots or in raised beds in the backyard.

To entice you further, the kind folks at the Cook’s Garden, a gourmet retailer of vegetables, lettuces and herbs, is allowing me to do a great give-away: Three winners will receive the seeds necessary to grow most everything in that colorful salad shown above. (OK, except for the cheese and olive oil, you wise guys.) Not only that, each winner also will receive a beautiful artisan oval cutting board to cut all those home-grown veggies on.

Call it the ultimate do-it-yourself salad when you grow the Myway Arugula, Lettuce Baby Red Mix, Tomato Persimmon and Tomato Carmelita, all by yourself.

When harvest time rolls around, slice the tomatoes about 3/8-inch thick, and alternate them in a row on a serving dish. Layer Myway Arugula and Lettuce Baby Red Mix over the top. Next, add slices of your favorite cheese over the top. Finally, whisk together olive oil, crushed garlic, dill, chives, salt, pepper, wine vinegar and dry mustard to taste. Drizzle over salad, and enjoy.

Here’s how to score those seeds and cutting board: Name the fruit, vegetable or herb that’s most like your personality, and why. Enter the contest by the end of the day, March 13. The three most clever or memorable responses will win. Contest results will be announced on March 15. Participants must reside in the continental United States.

To get you started here’s my own response: Kabocha squash. It’s Asian like me, as well as a little sweet, very versatile, and distinctive. It’s resilient — you can buy it, stick it on the counter, and it’ll keep just fine for quite a spell all to its self. It’s a bit starchy, too — and I never met a carb I didn’t like.

And without further adieu, here are the five winners of the last contest, who will each receive a bag of the new Peet’s Uzuri African Blend coffee:

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