Category Archives: Meat

Bay Area Barbecue Championship and Quick Food Gal Giveaway

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Barbecue chicken and more await you at the Bay Area BBQ Championship. (Photo courtesy of the event organizers)

If you love barbecue, you are destined for one smoke-a-licious time at the Bay Area Barbecue Championship on July 16 at the Oakland Coliseum.

Starting at 9:30 a.m., 32 teams will square off in four categories: Chicken, Brisket, Pork and Ribs.

Celebrity judges — including Bay Area Chef Joey Altman and everyone’s favorite retired pilot, Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger — will determine the winners. But there also will be a People’s Choice Award for members of the public to cast votes on whose ‘cue they believe clobbers all the rest.

After you’ve had your fill of smoky, charred meat, take a seat inside the Coliseum for the A’s only double-header of the year as they take on the Los Angeles Angels.

General admission tickets are $48 each, which gets you five food/drink coupons for the Barbecue Championship and one plaza outfield seat for the double-header.

VIP tickets are $78 each, which includes the food-drink coupons, plus a field level seat and access to VIP hospitality.

All tickets must be purchased in advance.

The event benefits Alternative Family Services, which provides services for foster children in Northern California.

Contest: I’m happy to be giving away three general admission tickets to the barbecue fest and baseball game (a value of $48 each) to one lucky Food Gal reader. Contest is open only to those who can make it to Oakland on July 16. Since the event is this Saturday, this will be a quick contest. Entries will be accepted only until noon PST July 13. The winner will be announced on July 14.

How to win?

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Steven Raichlen’s Thai Grilled Chicken

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Break out the grill for Thai-style chicken fragrant with lemongrass, ginger and curry powder.

The Aussies may love their shrimp on the barbie.

But we Americans can’t get enough of chicken on the grill.

After all, it’s economical, versatile and always a crowd-pleaser.

Especially when it’s tender, moist and flavored with a fragrant Thai paste like this one from “Steven Raichlen’s Planet Barbecue!” (Workman Publishing) by that master of the grill, Steven Raichlen. This book, of which I received a review copy,  is sure to whet your appetite with its more than 300 recipes inspired by the cuisines of six continents.

You marinate a quartered chicken (we used chicken thighs) with a paste of garlic, fresh ginger, lenongrass, cilantro, sugar, pepper, soy sauce and curry powder. Raichlen says to use a mortar and pestle, but a food processor will make easy work of it even quicker.  Let the paste do its magic on the chicken for at least four hours in the fridge or overnight.

The southern Thailand-style chicken grills up with nicely charred skin that takes on a golden hue from the curry powder. You can really taste the lemongrass and ginger, plus a warm earthiness from the curry powder.

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Chef Richard Blais Cooks In A Peach Orchard, Whole Foods Fund-Raising Days & More

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A beautiful Suncrest peach. (Photo courtesy of Frog Hollow Farm)

A Peach of a Time with “Top Chefs Masters” Champ Richard Blais

Get ready for “Peaches & Tango: A Dinner in the Orchard’‘ on July 23 at Frog Hollow Farm in Brentwood.

Farmer Al Courchesne, owner of the organic Frog Hollow Farm, has always dreamed of pairing his juicy, wonderful peaches with the drama of tango. Now, he’s doing just that — with the help of recent “Top Chef Masters” victor Richard Blais.

Meet Chef Richard Blais. (Photo courtesy of the chef)Blais will cook a feast using locally grown produce, featuring such delights as beet tartare with candied wasabi, grilled pork belly with cauliflower and peaches, and liquid nitrogen ice cream cones. Sit down to enjoy it all in the orchard, amid rows and rows of Suncrest peach trees.

To top the evening off, Trio Garufa, a company of contemporary Agentine tango dancers, will be performing, then teaching guests how to do the tango, themselves.

Tickets are $200 per person. Proceeds benefit the Chez Panisse Foundation and the Edible School Yard, both dedicated to fostering school curriculum and lunch programs in which students learn to grow, cook and share food at the table.

Whole Foods Community Fund-Raising Days

At least four times a year, each Whole Foods store sets aside a day in which 5 percent of the day’s net sales goes to a non-profit.

For June 22, the San Jose Whole Foods, 1146 Blossom Hill Road, has chosen as its recepient, the San Jose Police Foundation, which is the prime source of private support for the San Jose Police Department. And if you’ve been following the city’s budget woes of late, you know those funds are needed more than ever.

For those who live in San Francisco, if you shop on June 23 at any Whole Foods locales in that city, 5 percent of net sales will go to Project Open Hand, which provides meal and nutrition services.

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My Dad’s Steak Sauce

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An Asian-style steak sauce that tastes of family and childhood.

On their wedding day, brides usually share a first dance with their father.

I did not.

It’s not that I didn’t want to. It’s just that when it comes to elderly Asian-American parents, you know you’re treading dangerously if you dare bring up any idea that involves them making even the slightest spectacle of themselves.

Oh, my shy, reserved Mom made it perfectly clear that if I made her get up and dance in front of everyone, she wouldn’t come to my wedding. I kid you not.

On top of that, my husband was quite sure his own father wouldn’t want to be two-stepping anytime soon. No, siree. My husband’s mother also was bedridden and couldn’t attend our nuptials. So, in the end, we decided to do away with that whole parental tradition and just share only the one dance with each other as man and wife.

I sometimes wonder, though, if I still should have taken my Dad’s hand and led him through one father-daughter twirl.

You see, my late-Dad actually liked to dance.

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Pop-Up Tea Time, Free Father’s Day Burgers, Food Gal Cooking Demo & More

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Salmon rillettes with seaweed brioche -- with oolong tea. (Photo by Justin Lewis)

“Kettle Whistle” Pop-Up Tea Times

Those of you mourning the fact that Pastry Chef William Werner won’t be opening his Tell Tale Preserve bakery/cafe on Maiden Lane in San Francisco after all will rejoice to hear that you can still enjoy his innovative sweets in a new concept now.

He has teamed with Naivetea, an artisan tea company in Burlingame that was started by husband-and-wife, Lawrence Lai and Ann Lee, which specializes in oolong teas.

They will be presenting “Kettle Whistle” afternoon tea seatings at various locations around the Bay Area each month. The first will be June 25 at the Burritt Room at the Crescent Hotel in San Francisco. There will be two seatings: 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.

Tea with strawberries on yogurt sables. (Photo by Justin Lewis)

The three-flight, prix fixe menu is $55 per person. It will feature an array of Naivetea’s hot and iced premium Taiwanese  oolong loose-leaf teas paired with Tell Tale Preserve’s savory and sweet pastry creations.

For reservations, call (415) 643-4894 or email: events@telltalepreserveco.com

Free Burgers for Dad on Father’s Day at The Counter

Bay Area locales of The Counter want to treat Dad in meaty style on Father’s Day by giving the big guy to a free burger.

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