Monthly Archives: September 2010

A Look at Locanda da Eva in Berkeley

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Pizza strewn with kale and lovely lardo at Locanda da Eva.

How many food bloggers dream of owning their own restaurant?

A show of hands, please.

Well, Robert Lauriston, prominent Chowhound poster, and a former East Bay Express and SFoodie restaurant reviewer, has taken that leap with Locanda da Eva, which opened in South Berkeley in July.

The long-running restaurant site had been vacant for more than a year when Lauriston decided to take it over. He jokes that his writing background came in handy for crafting a Craig’s List ad that enticed his chef-partner, Huw Thornton, to come on board. Thornton was formerly executive sous chef at SPQR in San Francisco under then-head chef, Nate Appleman. He also worked at SPQR’s sister restaurant, A16, for two and a half years.

As you can guess, Locanda da Eva’s daily changing menu is Italian-focused with occasional excursions to other parts of the Mediterranean. On the menu, vegetarian dishes are noted, as are others that can be prepared vegetarian on request.

Last week, I had a chance to sample some dishes, when I was invited in as a guest of the restaurant.

For 37 years, the site had been home to the popular Mexican restaurant, Casa de Eva.  After the owners retired, Jim Maser of Cafe Fanny in Berkeley, opened Mazzini Trattoria in its spot. He installed a wood-burning pizza oven and had Berkeley Mills spiff up the interior with custom woodwork.

The interior still calls to mind a taqueria with its bare-bones tables. Mexican folk art-inspired, oil on wood paintings by Sonoma County artist, Laura Hoffman, grace the dining room walls. If you fall in love with any one of them, you’ll be glad to know they’re also for sale.

Of course, my husband and I couldn’t pass up trying a pizza.

And of course, we couldn’t say ”no” to one topped with the porky goodness of house-made lardo.

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The One and Only Joyce Goldstein

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Fish fillets cooked Catalan-style -- with pine nuts. (Photo by Carolyn Jung)

For four decades, San Francisco’s Joyce Goldstein has been a cooking teacher, cookbook author, chef and restaurateur.

She introduced us to tapas long before the now-crazed small plates trend existed.

She was making couscous at her restaurant before most people even knew what it was.

Now, she’s hard at work on what will be her 26th book.

And oh, by the way, she just turned 75.

This tiny, bespectacled woman continues to teach us all about cooking, eating and culture. Read all about her in my story in the September issue of Food Arts magazine, in which she is spotlighted as this month’s recipient of its Silver Spoon Award.

Then, enjoy this dish from her book, “Tapas: Sensational Small Plates from Spain” (Chronicle Books).

As Goldstein notes, “Fish in Pine Nut Sauce,” which I spied on Epicurious.com, is typical of many Spanish fish dishes in that it features sauces made with nuts. Fillets of firm, white fish are either baked in the oven or cooked on the stovetop in a homestyle, brothy Catalan sauce of tomatoes, green peas, dry white wine, garlic, and sweet paprika that gets its body from ground pine nuts and bread crumbs.

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Unusual New Peppers from East Palo Alto’s Happy Quail Farms

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Some like it hot. Or at least tongue-tingling.

That’s what Happy Quail Farms of East Palo Alto is hoping with its two new spicy peppers. Owner David Winsberg is believed to be the only one in the United States selling the Guindilla Verde from Bilbao, Spain and the Shaerma from Bhutan.

The light green, heirloom Guindilla Verde, with its grassy flavor and moderate heat, is perfect in piperade, egg scrambles, stir-fries or simply grilled and served alongside steaks. When it turns red, taking on a sweeter note, it’s typically used in Spanish chorizo, giving the sausages their distinctive, crimson tinge.

The dark green Shaerma is practically a national treasure in Bhutan, gracing almost every meal of the day.  Similar to a New Mexico Hatch chile in spiciness and to a Pimiento de Padron in flavor, this tender pepper is fairly hot, making it ideal for dishes with cheese to tame it a tad.

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A Clucking Good Time at the Foster Farms Chicken Cooking Contest

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In gleaming chef’s whites last Friday at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in St. Helena, six amateur and professional cooks took to the stoves, battling one another to come up with a delicious, appealing and creative spin on a protein so commonplace in our diets that most of us eat it at least twice a week.

Of course, that would be chicken.

This was the first ever Foster Farms West Coast Chicken Cooking Contest. The grand prize? A cool $10,000, plus a year’s supply of Foster Farms fresh chickens.

More than 2,000 folks entered the contest, which was limited to entrants from California, Oregon and Washington. On Friday, two regional finalists from each state competed in the final cook-off, which was judged by yours truly, along with Lena Birnbaum, associate food editor of Bon Appetit magazine; Elaine Johnson, associate food editor of Sunset magazine; and Michele Kayal, a contributing writer for the Associated Press and creator of the Hyphenated Chef blog.

The contest is the successor to the long-running National Chicken Cooking Contest, which began in 1949, but ended last year because of economic issues. That was when West Coast-based Foster Farms, family-owned since 1939, stepped in to carry on the tradition with a contest of its own.

The contest was open to both professional and homecooks. Contestants were required to use Foster Farms chicken in their recipes, which were designed to serve four, as well as an abundance of fresh and local ingredients. The only caveat was that the recipes could not involve grilling, as Foster Farms reps wanted recipes that could be cooked year-round in any part of the country.

At 8:30 a.m., we judges gathered with forks and knives to taste chicken bright and early. The contestants, who would cook in the kitchen three at a time and have 90 minutes to complete their dish, were already hunched over cutting boards, slicing chicken, chopping garlic and carefully measuring sugar and oil.

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A Farm in Silicon Valley? You Betcha

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Orchards and farms have all but disappeared from the Valley of Heart’s Delight.

But look closely, beyond the chips and wafers that now grow in the Santa Clara Valley, and you’ll still find a few, including the inspiring Full Circle Farm, an 11-acre, organic, educational farm designed to supply fresh produce to Santa Clara Unified School District cafeterias.

Last year, the farm grew more than 40,000 pounds of fruits and veggies, 10,000 pounds of which were donated to local food banks and shelters. The farm also supplied weekly produce to 55 community sponsored agriculture share holders and operated a year-round farm stand on its grounds. Moreover, it provided fresh vegetables to the school district’s children’s lunch program, where nearly half the students qualify for free or reduced-price meals.

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