Monthly Archives: July 2010

Special Tomato, New Indian Sweets, Piggy Event & More

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Tomato Time:

Are these gorgeous tomatoes or what?

These lovelies, known as “Taste Tomatoes,” were created especially for Taste Catering of San Francisco. The tomatoes, a cross between the Maglia Rosa and Zucchero varieties, is the brainchild of Baia Nicchia Farm & Nursery in Sunol.

With their sweet flavor and unique look, the tomatoes proved such a hit in hors d’oeuvres and salads with customers that the catering company wanted to make them available to the general public.

Starting July 19, you’ll be able to buy your own “Taste Tomatoes” at the San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers Market at Allstar Organics’ booth on Saturdays; Menlo Park Farmers Market at Baia Nicchia’s booth on Sundays; Berkeley’s Tokyo Fish Market, Mondays through Saturdays; and Baia Nicchia’s farm stand in Sunol on Friday afternoons.

Sweets with Indian Flair:

That’s just what you’ll find at the new Bengali Sweets, which just opened at 783 E. El Camino Real in Sunnyvale.

Open 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily, the 50-seat cafe serves up sweets and chaat (snacks) made by chefs Sohan Bhatt and Bajrang Bhamu, both of Sakoon restaurant in Mountain View. This is the newest venture of the Bombay Garden Group, which also owns Sakoon.

The Bengali region of Eastern India is known for milk-based sweets, including “Chenna Jelabi”, a cottage cheese-style milk-based dough piped in coils, deep fried and soaked in a spice-infused sugar syrup.

On the savory side, enjoy entrees such as “Chole Bhatury”, a rich chickpea stew served with fried bread dumplings and curries such as lamb Roganjosh. For more information, call (408) 736-4000.

For Carnivores:

Lamb lovers will want to head to the “American Lamb Jam,” 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. July 18 at Fort Mason Festival Pavilion in San Francisco.

Executive Chef Matthew Accarrino of SPQR in San Francisco hosts this meaty affair that brings together dozens of top San Francisco chefs who will create succulent lamb dishes paired with local wines.

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Ahoy, Lafitte

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Named after an 18th century French pirate, San Francisco’s three-month-old Lafitte restaurant has generated so much buzz lately that you’d think a battle had erupted on the high seas at its Pier 5 location.

It reached a frenzy last month when a certain high-powered San Francisco restaurant critic bestowed all of one and a half stars on the restaurant (ouch!).

Not surprisingly, Chef-Proprietor Russell Jackson, known as the “Dissident Chef,” took umbrage at that. While he acknowledges that some of the criticisms are valid ones that he was already working to correct, what really riled him were the sarcastic comments about the mohawk he and his cooks sport, a ‘do that he considers a symbol of solidarity in his kitchen.

Into these turbulent waters, I waded recently to check out the place for myself at lunch-time. To be fair, lunch is much tamer than the more ambitious fare offered at dinner, with a menu that changes every single night. Also to be fair, even though we paid the tab, one of two friends I was with was an old friend of Jackson’s. So, the chef stopped by to chat regularly, and threw in the free cookies at the end of the meal.

Lafitte has a cool, industrial vibe with exposed pipes, lots of wood, and a profusion of natural light from walls of windows. The kitchen is not only open, it’s on the Web. Thanks to a tiny camera perched on a beam, you can get a real-time look at what’s going on in the kitchen 24/7 by going to the “menu page” of the Lafitte Web site. Jackson says he installed the camera to be transparent, to “show what we do here and to show that I am here in the kitchen.”

You may remember Jackson from his time cooking at the now-shuttered Black Cat in San Francisco. He also was a private chef for the Counting Crows, and created a sensation for his underground dinners, where people would meet at surreptitious spots for his prix-fixe dinners done on the sly.

There’s still a rogue quality to the food. You feel that Jackson’s doing his own thing here, making food he wants to play around with.

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New Use For Bagels

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I’ve toasted them.

I’ve smeared them with cream cheese and jam.

I’ve piled slices of silky smoked salmon on them.

But until now, I had never stir-fried a bagel.

Yes, you read that right.

Of all the recipes in award-winning cookbook writer Grace Young’s new book, “Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge” (Simon & Schuster) that had me running to grab my wok — and there are many — the one that most intrigued me was this unusual one for “Stir-Fried Bagels with Cabbage and Bacon.”

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Uncomplicated Fruit-Topped Yellow Cake

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May Day, May Day, come in…

Blueberries in trouble…

Need life-raft to keep them afloat…

Do you copy?

Indeed, this simple cake bears the name of “Uncomplicated Fruit-Topped Yellow Cake.” But I had a slight, uh, complication.

Oh, nothing major. Just a case of sinking blueberries. Not as dire as what happened to the Titanic, that’s for sure. But still, a little annoying.

After all, when the cake is described as “fruit-topped,” you figure the fruit will stay, well, on top.

Not in the case of these berries. But next time, I’ll just be sure to toss them in a little flour before adding them to the batter, even if the original recipe didn’t call for that step. And there will be a next time. Aside for the berries’ losing struggle to stay afloat, this cake was perfect. Tender, moist, like a giant blueberry muffin, actually.

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Big Wines Come In Small Bottles

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They sure do now, thanks to Sonoma County’s TastingRoom, a new online wine retailer that sells wine packaged in mini 50ml bottles.

The idea is that it allows you to replicate a winery tasting room in the comfort of your own home by letting you try a taste of top-notch wines before committing to buying full-sized 750ml bottles.

How ingenious is that?

Recently, I had a chance to sample a six-pack of mini bottles from Rutherford’s award-winning Grgich Hills Estate that included: 2007 Napa Valley Chardonnay, 2008 Napa Valley Fume Blanc, 2007 Napa Valley Zinfandel, 2006 Napa Valley Merlot, 2006 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, and 2008 Violetta (a late-harvest, Botrytis-made wine that’s predominantly Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling with some Gewurztraminer).

The kit also included was a wine-tasting menu created by Grgich Hills’ winemaker that described each wine and gave a recommended tasting order.

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