Category Archives: Meat

A Hammy Food Gal Giveaway

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How'd you like a half ham like this to grace your holiday table? (Photo courtesy of Snake River Farms)

Snake River Farms wants to make your Easter especially hammy.

The Idaho-based specialty meat company produces extraordinary Wagyu beef and Kurobuta pork, which I’ve had the good fortunate of trying many times in the past. For Easter, they’re teaming with Tree Top to entice you to bake your ham with a sweet, tangy apple juice glaze this upcoming holiday.

Contest: To whet your appetite even more, one very lucky Food Gal reader will win a half bone-in ham from Snake River Farms ($99 value), along with a basket of Tree Top goodies and a recipe for the perfect glaze.

Entries, limited to those in the continental United States, will be accepted through midnight PST March 31. Winner will be announced April 2.

How to win?

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Stewing Over Time

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Stew that is the epitome of spring.

Admittedly, I sometimes stew about how time flies these days, about how in a blink of an eye a third of a year is somehow already gone. What gives?

But then again, why stew when you can eat it instead, right?

Especially when it’s a stew that’s made for the bright arrival of spring.

That’s just what “Green-As-Spring Veal Stew” is. It’s a recipe from “Around My French Table”(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) by everyone’s favorite culinary guru, Dorie Greenspan. The cookbook, of which I received a review copy, is filled with French comfort food for every season.

Cubes of veal simmer in broth with garlic, onion, carrots, celery and thyme until tender. Fish them out, then add a plethora of herbs and greens to the braising liquid. We’re talking bountiful handfuls of arugula, spinach, dill fronds, parsley and tarragon. Blend them all until you get a vibrant green sauce. Although the recipe says you can use a blender, food processor or hand blender, don’t opt for the latter, as the leaves may end up clogging it. Better to let your food processor or blender make easy, efficient work of it all instead.

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Shabuway to Expand in the Bay Area

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The huge vegetable shabu-shabu plate at Shabuway in San Jose.

How else but in shabu-shabu-style dining can you enjoy a hot, nourishing, relatively healthful cook-it-yourself meal, and get a steam facial all at once?

If you’re as much of a fan as I am of this traditional Japanese dish of thinly sliced meats and veggies cooked tableside in a pot of  bubbling broth, you’ll be glad to hear that Shabuway, which already boasts three locations in the Bay Area, will be adding three more this spring.

Tokyo-raised Eiichi Mochizuki opened his first Shabuway in San Mateo in 2004. That was followed by another in downtown Mountain View in 2006, which has proved so popular there’s sometimes an hour wait to get in. Last year, one also opened in the parking lot of Mitsuwa Marketplace in San Jose, which is the one I recently dined at as a guest of the restaurant.

The next ones to open will be in San Francisco’s Richmond District, Union City, and in Santa Clara on El Camino Real near the ever-popular Korean fried-chicken joint, 99 Chicken.

The meat is sliced to order.

With its glossy red interior, the San Jose locale features a large U-shaped counter in the center, where lone diners or couples can sit. Behind it, wait staff man a slicer to shave Kobe-style beef slices paper thin.

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Make Room For Smoked Meat Loaf

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Getting ready to smoke the meatloaf with plenty of hickory.

Sure, you’ve baked many a meat loaf. But have you ever smoked one — over hickory chips no less?

It may spoil you for any other version.

A beguiling smoky, woodsy flavor permeates this very moist “Slow-Smoked Barbecued Meat Loaf” from “Cooking My Way Back Home” (Ten Speed Press) cookbook, of which I received a review copy late last year. The cookbook is by Mitchell Rosenthal, co-owner and executive chef of three San Francisco restaurants: Town Hall, Salt House, and Anchor and Hope. The book features more than 100 hearty, Southern-inspired dishes from those restaurants.

This is one flavorful meatloaf, as the mixture of ground beef, pork and veal is suffused with your favorite barbecue sauce, Dijon mustard, grated Parmesan and a spice mixture that includes cayenne, paprika, cumin, coriander, oregano, celery salt and dry mustard.

Meat loaf that's as good as it gets.

The meat loaf can be cooked either inside a loaf pan or on top of a sheet pan. The latter will expose it to more of that lovely smoke, so that’s the method I chose.

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Chef Richard Reddington’s New Glam Pizza Joint, Celebrating Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup & More

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Not your typical pizza parlor. Redd Wood is glam and whimsical. (Photo by Nick Vasilopoulos)

Redd Wood Opens in Yountville

Acclaimed Chef Richard Reddington of Redd in Yountville has opened his latest venture — Redd Wood, a casual Wine Country pizzeria, located just up the block from his other restaurant.

The chic looking space was created by St. Helena interior designer, Erin Martin of Erin Martin Design. In her first restaurant project ever, she’s created a look that’s rustic yet chic with unfinished stone, steel, glass, wood, mismatched chairs and intriguing salvaged objects.

“So much of the Yountville area is about serious food and wine experiences,” Reddington said in a statement. “With Redd Wood, I want to create an entirely different ambiance.”

A wood-fired pizza from Redd Wood. (Photo by Nick Vasilopoulos)

Take a seat inside or out to enjoy wood-fired pizzas such as prosciutto cotto, Brussels sprouts, tellagio and red onion ($14), and pastas such as lamb bolognese, arancini and tapenade ($18). A dedicated charcuterie room turns out house-cured prosciutto and salumi.

Enjoy Prize-Winning Taipei Beef Noodle Soup

How popular is beef noodle soup in Taiwan?

Consider that more than 168 contestants battled over burners last year in the Taipei International Beef Noodle Festival cook-off.

But you don’t have to get on a plane to try this street food favorite.Chef Hou Chung-sheng with his prize-winning beef noodle soup. (Photo courtesy of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office)

Chef Hou Chun-sheng, the 2011 winner of the spicy beef noodle soup category, will be serving up samples of his specialty at two upcoming events in San Francisco.

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