Category Archives: Restaurants

The Time Is Ripe For Braised Lamb Shanks with Sweet-and-Sour Kumquats

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Fall-off-the-bone tender lamb shanks get garnished with wine-simmered, sweet-tangy kumquats.
Fall-off-the-bone tender lamb shanks get garnished with wine-simmered, sweet-tangy kumquats.

Admittedly, I often hem and haw, even dodge, duck, and deflect, when people invariably ask me what my favorite recipe is in my cookbook, “East Bay Cooks” (Figure 1, 2019).

It’s like choosing a favorite child — or in my case, only one dessert to eat for the rest of my life.

It just can’t be done.

However, I will concede this: At this time of year especially, I will eagerly flip the pages of my cookbook until I stop longingly at “Braised Lamb Shanks with Sweet-and-Sour Kumquats.”

This comforting dish is from Chef Kevin Gin of Bridges in Danville. It’s one of those fabulous dishes in which your oven really does all the work — turning lamb shanks, cooked with an entire bottle of red wine and aromatics like thyme and rosemary, into fall-off-the-bone lusciousness.

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A Visit to Monterey’s Coastal Kitchen

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Seared ahi with sunchoke puree, apple sabayon and diced apples -- at Coastal Kitchen.
Seared ahi with sunchoke puree, apple sabayon and diced apples — at Coastal Kitchen.

When Chef Michael Rotondo left San Francisco during the pandemic, it was surely Monterey’s gain.

The former executive chef of Parallel 27 in the San Francisco Ritz-Carlton, former executive chef of Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago, and the U.S. Bocuse D’Or “Most Promising Chef” of 2008, moved south to open Coastal Kitchen in February 2022.

That new fine-dining restaurant at the Monterey Plaza Hotel is right next to its long-time casual restaurant, Schooners.

Unlike the latter, though, there is no outdoor dining space. The white cloth-draped tables inside Coastal Kitchen’s warm-wood dining room are spaced out amply, though.

The dining room.
The dining room.

This is a tasting menu-only restaurant. In fact, it’s thought to be the sole tasting menu-only restaurant in Monterey. At $145 per person (with an additional $95 for wine pairings), it delivers a lot for the buck.

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Dining Outside at Bookie’s Pizza

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The unique 'nduja, pineapple and anchovy Detroit-style pizza at Bookie's.
The unique ‘nduja, pineapple and anchovy Detroit-style pizza at Bookie’s.

When a fine-dining chef who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and worked at Michelin three-starred Manresa pivots to making pizza, you know those pies are going to be damn fine.

And at Bookie’s Pizza in Santa Cruz, they absolutely slay.

Tucked inside Sante Adairius Rustic Ales tasting room at 1315 Water St. in Santa Cruz, Chef Todd Parker has set up shop, turning out Detroit-style pizzas with California farm-to-table panache.

Parker was the chef at Manresa Bread’s Campbell location when it first opened, which is where I first met him. The plan was for him to become the head chef at sister business, Mentone, when it was to open in Aptos.

Chef Todd Parker.
Chef Todd Parker.

But the pandemic had different ideas, delaying the debut of the pizza-centric Mentone, and leaving Parker to contemplate what the near future held.

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Takeout Time: Palette Tea Garden

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Iberico cha siu from Palette Tea Garden. And yes, this is the full amount.
Iberico cha siu from Palette Tea Garden. And yes, this is the full amount.

If you are seriously into quantity versus quality, then Palette Tea Garden in San Mateo’s Hillsdale Shopping Center might not be the place for you.

But if you’re craving top-notch dim sum made with premium ingredients — and don’t mind splurging a bit — then head here pronto.

That’s exactly what I did recently, intent on getting some superlative takeout dim sum in honor of the Lunar New Year.

Palette Tea Garden is owned by the same folks behind Koi Palace, which started in Daly City, and is the sister restaurant to Palette Tea House in San Francisco.

Siu mai, ha gow, and Wagyu black pepper seared buns.
Siu mai, ha gow, and Wagyu black pepper seared buns.

While I’ve enjoyed Palette’s xiao long baos before, I opted not to get them to-go, fearing they would not travel well. Instead, I opted for ha gow (four for $8) that were plump with shrimp, and siu mai (four for $7) that had a juicy filling of ground pork, shiitakes, and shrimp.

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The Return of Cyrus

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A perfect cube of succulent pork belly served with a zingy ale aged with cherry blossoms at the new Cyrus in Geyserville.
A perfect cube of succulent pork belly served with a zingy ale aged with cherry blossoms at the new Cyrus in Geyserville.

After a seemingly interminable odyssey, the wait is indeed over.

Cyrus, the acclaimed fine-dining restaurant that closed in Healdsburg in 2012 after a landlord dispute, finally reopened again last September in a striking new iteration in Geyserville.

Chef-Owner Doug Keane, co-owner Nick Peyton, and their team couldn’t be more relieved and thrilled to be back at it again. Neither can their legions of fans, so many of whom considered the original Cyrus their favorite restaurant.

The original Cyrus garnered two Michelin stars. The new one already scored one star — barely two months after opening.

At the entrance.
At the entrance.

Keane spent a decade searching high and low through the Alexander Valley, which was founded by the restaurant’s namesake Cyrus Alexander. He had all but given up when this site came available. Though this sleek contemporary glass, steel and concrete building is the polar opposite of the restaurant’s original Old World provincial aesthetic, it’s hard to imagine a more fitting place in this new age and time. At least, that’s what I found when I finally had the opportunity last week to dine here.

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