Category Archives: Enticing Events

J-Pop Summit Festival, Filipino Fare, and More

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Enjoy sake and so much more at the J-Pop Festival in San Francisco. (Photo courtesy of J-Pop)

Enjoy sake and so much more at the J-Pop Festival in San Francisco. (Photo courtesy of J-Pop)

San Francisco’s J-Pop Summit

Get your appetite ready for the second annual J-Pop Festival in San Francisco’s Japantown.

The event, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. July 19-20, celebrates Japanese pop culture, music, fashion, film and food. Admission is free, though some activities will require a fee.

Among the new attractions this year is sake tasting. A number of booths will be set up on Webster Street at Post St., where attendees can enjoy sake tastings and even buy bottles to take home. Admission to this area of the festival is $10 and includes samples from all the participating sake companies. ID will be checked.

If you need some food after all that sake, look no further than the “ramen street.” A half dozen ramen restaurants will set up booths on Post Street between Laguna and Buchanan streets. The ramen will be priced at $8 per serving.

A “Bites & Snacks” area will sell both sweet and savory noshes, including natto (fermented soybeans), onigiiri rice balls by Onigilly, and mochi waffles from Moffle Waffle.

Additionally, look for more than a dozen food trucks, including the Creme Brulee Cart, Bacon Bacon, and the Chairman.

Celebrate Filipino Food at Two Events

Enjoy a one-of-a-kind Filipino-Franco dinner at Left Bank Brasserie in Menlo Park on July 24.

Chef Brendy Monsada will be cooking up dishes influenced by his Filipino heritage. The three-course $45 prix fixe will be served family-style and include beverages.

Among the offerings will be adobong manok (chicken drumette casserole cooked in soy sauce, sugar cane vinegar and garlic); beef kalderata (slow-braised beef short ribs in a savory tomato and peanut sauce); and pritong lapu-lapu (deep-fried grouper with heirloom tomato salsa).  And yes, halo-halo, the layered dessert of fruits, crushed ice, purple ube yam and ice cream is one of the dessert options.

For reservations, call (650) 473-6543 or email: kmolloy@leftbank.com.

For more Filipino fare, mark your calendar for Aug. 30 for the first Savor Filipino at Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco.

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Modernist Cuisine Comes to The Tech, Plus New Eats in the South Bay

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The humble mushroom Swiss burger, as deconstructed by the Modernist Cuisine team. (Photo courtesy of Modernist Cuisine)

The humble mushroom Swiss burger, as deconstructed by the Modernist Cuisine team. (Photo courtesy of Modernist Cuisine)

Modernist Cuisine Photo Exhibit at The Tech

Nathan Myhrvold, former chief technology officer for Microsoft turned culinary mad scientist, invites you to see food like you’ve never experienced it before.

The author of the seminal “Modernist Cuisine” books, is bringing 75 eye-popping, large-format photographs of food to The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose.

The exhibit opens June 25 and runs through Sept. 1. It’s the second stop on a three-year worldwide tour for this exhibit.

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Join the Food Gal and Chef Jose Esparza of Hult’s at Macy’s Valley Fair

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If you haven’t yet had a chance to check out Hult’s, the farm-to-table restaurant that opened in Los Gatos late last year, here’s your chance to get a first taste.

Hult’s Chef Jose Esparza will be joining me for a cooking demo at 6 p.m. June 12 at Macy’s Valley Fair in Santa Clara to cook up one of his specialties.

Hult’s was opened in the old Hobee’s locale in downtown Los Gatos by Alexander Hult, a former professional hockey player in Europe who was once drafted by the San Jose Sharks. He grew up in Sweden, where in between hockey seasons, he would help his mother in the restaurants of the hotel she managed. He created his own restaurant, Hult’s, with his wife, Sarah Chapman-Hult, a native of San Jose who in 2011 was crowned Miss Nevada USA.

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Kara’s Cupcakes Now to Offer Full-Sized Cakes, La Boulange PRIDE Macarons & More

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Kara's "Safari'' cake. (Photo courtesy of Kara's Cupcakes)

Kara’s “Safari” cake. (Photo courtesy of Kara’s Cupcakes)

Kara’s Cupcakes Bakes Up Full-Sized Cakes

If you are a fan of Kara’s Cupcakes, now there’s even more to love — in the form of full-sized cakes.

Six- and nine-inch artisan cakes are now available in Kara’s signature cupcake flavors, as well as two exclusive ones made only in the cake format: Paradise and Chocolate Eclipse.

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My Q&A at the Googleplex with Pastry Chef Bill Corbett of Absinthe

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Yours truly, interviewing Pastry Chef Bill Corbett, at Google headquarters. (Photo courtesy of Google)

Yours truly, interviewing Pastry Chef Bill Corbett, at Google headquarters. (Photo courtesy of Google)

 

It’s not every day you get to visit Google headquarters in Mountain View.

But a few weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to be asked to do an event there with Pastry Chef Bill Corbett of Absinthe Brasserie & Bar at San Francisco.

Corbett is one of the more than 50 chefs featured in my cookbook, “San Francisco Chef’s Table” (Lyons Press).

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