Monthly Archives: September 2011

Macy’s Union Square Mystery Basket Battle

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Chef Hoss Zare plating his first dish at the Macy's Union Square cooking challenge.

In one corner, a Swedish chef who cooks Italian food.

In the other, a Persian chef known for his infectious Hoss-pitality.

Of course, I can only be talking about Chef Staffan Terje of San Francisco’s Perbacco and Barbacco restaurants; and Chef Hoss Zare of San Francisco’s Zare at Fly Trap.

These gifted chefs and longtime friends squared off Wednesday night in a packed house in the Cellar at Macy’s Union Square in San Francisco for the ever popular “Mystery Basket Battle.” It was all in good fun for a good cause — ticket proceeds were donated to Meals on Wheels of San Francisco, which provides nutritious meals to home-bound seniors.

Chefs Hoss Zare and Staffan Terje joke around before the battle begins.

The three "mystery'' ingredients that had to be used in a dish

Yours truly was a judge, tasked to determine the winner of this cooking battle, which was as big on flavor as it was on laughs. My fellow judges included Kevin Blum, founder and editor of City Dish; Susannah Chen, associate editor of YumSugar; and Alejandra Schrader, a finalist on “MasterChef’‘ Season 2.  Schrader, a trained architect and urban planner, started her own private chef company, Cucina Cocina in Southern California, following her success on the TV show.

“It’s nice to be on this side this time,” Schrader joked as she watched Terje and Zare chopping and stirring up a storm during the 45-minute battle.

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Tipsy Figs

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Don't give these figs a sobriety test.

I am guilty of contributing to the delinquency of fruit.

Yes, the other night, I got fresh figs tipsy, even bordering on wasted.

But boy, did they taste good that way.

These black Mission beauties got a luxurious overnight spa soak in a tub of Port.

It was all in the name of making “Chicken Fricassee with Figs and Port Sauce,” which was published in Bon Appetit magazine, way back in 2007. The recipe is from the now-shuttered Cremant restaurant in Seattle.

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Macy’s Cooking Demo: The Food Gal Makes Joong with Chef Alexander Ong

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Chef Alex Ong of Betelnut teaching me how to fold a joong rice tamale at Macy's. (Photo by Ben Seto)

Last Saturday afternoon at Macy’s Union Square in San Francisco, I wrapped my first Chinese rice tamale ever — before a standing room-only crowd.

I couldn’t have done it without the good cheer and great instruction from Executive Chef Alexander Ong of the popular Betelnut restaurant in San Francisco.

Though I’d grown up eating these glutinous rice tamales stuffed with pork belly, mung beans and salted duck egg yolks, I’d never made one myself.

But what better time to try my hand at it than last weekend, when the San Francisco International Dragon Boat Festival took place off the waters of Treasure Island.

The rice tamales (known as joong in Cantonese or zongzi in Mandarin) are the food most associated with the sport of dragon boating, which originated more than 2,000 years ago in Southern China.

All wrapped up and ready to be boiled for two hours. (Photo by Ben Seto)

The hidden filling of Chinese sausage and portobellos. (Photo by Carolyn Jung)

According to legend, a popular poet and statesman was wrongly accused of treason. So despondent was he that he committed suicide by jumping into a river. Local fishermen, who admired the statesman, paddled out in their boats to try to rescue him to no avail. They beat drums and threw rice dumplings into the water to try to scare away fish and sea dragons from his body.

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Cocktails, Sake & More

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The necessities for a complete absinthe tasting. (Photo by Liza Gershman Photography)

It’s Cocktail Time in San Francisco

Boy, is it ever, with the 5th annual “San Francisco Cocktail Week,” now through Sept. 25.

Celebrate the city’s grand cocktail heritage with a range of seminars, dining events and after-parties.

Learn about everything from “The Science of Taste,” 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. ($25 in advance or $35 at the door); to “How to Throw a Brunch Cocktail Party,” noon to 2 p.m. Sept. 24 ($25 in advance or $35 at the door).

Participating restaurants also will be hosting special cocktail events, including a Grand Marnier fete at Absinthe restaurant ($138 per person), which includes a cocktail punch reception and a three-course dinner, with each course featuring a different cocktail.

Last but not least, there’s the St. George Spirits Bathtub Gin BBQ, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Sept. 25 at St. George Spirits in Alameda ($35 in advance or $45 at the door). Try three new St. George gins. Barbecue grub will be available, too, for an added charge. For $5 off this ticketed event, use the discount code: FRIENDSANDFAMGIN.

For a complete list of events, go here. For a $5 discount off any seminar, use the code: FRIENDSANDFAM. That code also will get you $10 off tickets to some of the other events, but not to any of the cocktail dinner events hosted by participating restaurants.

Fresh ingredients for Happy Hour at Epic in San Francisco. (Photo by Liza Gershman Photography)

Sake to Me

“A Toast to Recovery” is the theme of the 6th annual “Sake Day,” 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Oct. 1 at the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California in San Francisco’s Japantown.

Taste more than 100 sakes, sample Japanese food and bid on exciting items in a silent auction.

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A Decorative, Delightful Food Gal Giveaway

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My dining room, all spiffed up with a canvas made from one of my photos.

I can’t stop staring at the newest addition to my dining room.

See that artsy canvas hanging on the wall with the two cherries?

That’s actually one of my photos — enlarged and printed on a 30-inch-by-40-inch canvas frame. You might even recognize that particular image from the post I did awhile back about baking “Cherry Focaccia with Rosemary.” Here’s what it looked like:

My original image of the cherries.

How cool is that?

The free canvas came courtesy of EasyCanvasPrints, which offered me the chance to try out the photo-to-canvas process. All I had to do was pay the shipping cost.

The company offers a range of images to choose from. But of course, it’s way more fun to use one of your own photos.The larger the canvas, the higher the resolution your photo will need to be. The EasyCanvasPrints folks are great at getting back to you, too, if a sharper image is needed. You also can choose from various borders for your canvas, as well as color effects and retouching services.

I chose my photo of cherries because I liked the simplicity of the image. It’s not so fussy that I’d get tired of looking at it quickly. And when enlarged to that scale, it has a real presence in the room. Plus, it matched my deep red dining room walls so well.

I couldn’t be happier with the results. In fact, I’m already toying with turning another one of my photos into a large canvas for another wall — even if I’ll have to foot the bill for this one.

But hey, it’s a small price to pay to be so thoroughly mesmerized by my once plain wall, isn’t it?

Contest: One lucky Food Gal reader will win the opportunity to design a free 8-inch-by-10-inch canvas, courtesy of EasyCanvasPrints. Entries, limited to those in the continental United States, will be accepted through midnight PST Sept. 25. Winner will be announced Sept. 27.

How to win?

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