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What were my most favorite bites of 2013, the ones I still remember to this day and can’t wait to enjoy all over again?
Take a look. Here are my Top 10 dishes of the year, in no particular order:
You won’t believe how much chocolate is in these cookies.
Are you looking for a can’t-miss chocolate cookie to bake this holiday season?
Look no further than this beaut.
This is one of the most chocolatey cookies I’ve ever had.
Consider: There are 1 3/4 pounds of chocolate in them — and only 1/2 cup flour.
Leave it to Pastry Chef Belinda Leong of San Francisco’s incredible B. Patisserie to come up with these decadent delights.
Petits fours that taste as good as they look.
Like so many little girls before me, I grew up with a play kitchen set.
Like you’re surprised, right?
I guess enjoying good food and cooking it — even if only in my pretend world back then — has always been integral in my life.
So, it was with great pleasure that I spent many an afternoon cooking up a storm on my pint-sized stove after pulling out ingredients from my matching mini fridge, then cleaning up in my would-be sink that actually had running water. Well, if you remembered to fill the hidden reservoir.
I remember my parents even bought me “food” for my beloved kitchen. There was a plastic fried egg with strips of plastic bacon attached to it. A plastic golden-browned chicken with its drumsticks looking so plump and enticing. And a big pink ham that looked like you could practically carve it.
But what I would have given to have had these instead: Divine Delights petits fours.
Pretty pastel-hued and resembling the most precious little gifts, they’d make any little girl’s play kitchen a whole lot sweeter.
Of course, the best part is even if you missed out on enjoying these cute little confections as a tot, you can easily enjoy them now as an adult.
Classic leeks in vinaigrette.
When I was a senior in high school, my friends and I saved up our money to dine at Chez Panisse in Berkeley for the very first time.
We four thought ourselves so grown up and so in the know.
Of course, that feeling of confidence dissipated immediately when the first course arrived.
A platter was set before us, containing mystifying long, tubular things that looked for all the world like overgrown green onions. They had been simply grilled with good olive oil, and finished with salt and pepper. We glanced at one another, perplexed, wondering what they were and just how we were supposed to eat them.
Yes, that was my first encounter with leeks.
And I admit that I didn’t necessarily appreciate them then.
Front and center, the incredible kouign-amann from B. Patisserie, as well as a croissant and an apple brown butter coffee cake.
It’s a good thing I don’t live close to the new B. Patisserie in San Francisco’s lower Pacific Heights neighborhood — or I’d be 300 pounds.
If I lived within walking distance, it would be a far, far dangerous thing.
That’s because these are pastries worth every single calorie.
Pastry Chef Belinda Leong and business partner Michel Suas have created a very special place.
That’s because Suas, founder of the San Francisco Baking Institute, is a master of bread, which star in the bakery-cafe’s open-faced tartine sandwiches. And Leong knows her way with butter, having trained in Paris with Pierre Hermé, and staged at Fauchon in New York. She’s also headed the dessert side of the kitchen at Manresa and Gary Danko restaurants.
The result is the perfect neighborhood bakery that feels like a slice of Paris.