Baby Shower Sweets

Some new friends asked me to make some sweets for their baby shower.  They tasted my Red Velvet Cupcakes at Hamed's New Year's eve party and really liked them.  Nothing makes me feel so happy then when someone asks you to make something for their special occasion.  It's an honor.  Hope they liked them.  Let me know if you want any recipes.

These are all mini version.  One or two bites at the most.

Red Velvet Cupcake

Lemon Blueberry Tart

Chocolate Rum Tart

I'm a Lucky Girl

This sweet friend in Paris sent me some Laduree macarons!  How lucky am I?  Here is the lovely box filled with my favorites.  I've yet to try any local macarons that come close to Laduree.  The flavors are amazing and can't compare.  It's just so vibrant.  The texture of the cookie is also so smoothe, light yet very crispy, and full of almond flavor.  Wow!    Thanks Linley!

Came is this cute little box...

Best Onion Ring Ever!

Sear's Fine Foods.  
http://www.searsfinefood.com/index.html
Have you ever been to this place?  I heard it's the oldest restaurant in SF.  Soung and I first discovered this place back in '94.  Our first visit there.  We found it by accident, near our hotel for breakfast.  Back then, when our palate and experience were very green, we thought it was one of the best old time breakfast we've had.  It was hustle and bustle busy and no business but food business.  The original place closed it's doors in 2003, then a local restaurateur bought the place, remodeled and reopened in 2004.

When I went last month, I couldn't recall exactly the original place but it was definitely different.  It wasn't the small diner feel but trying to be.  They were known for their Swedish, dollar size pancakes, and those were still there.  

I had never been there for dinner but Sue and I had hard time getting into to some of the places on my list before 9pm, but this place got us in.  The best thing we had that night were the onion rings.  Wow!  The best I've had.  They were light, perfectly seasoned, and the herb touch was fab.  Everything else we had were good but nothing to write about, unlike these light as air onion rings.

Bouchon Bakery in Napa

Here is my second visit to Bouchon Bakery.  This time to the original one in Napa Valley.  

The store has amazing stuff.  The lines were a block long.  Everything was perfect, perfect town, perfect neighborhood bakery, almost too perfect baked goods, almost like Stepford wives town perfect.  The first time I visited Bouchon Bakery in NYC, I thought it was lovely but deep down I felt something was a bit not real.  I figured it's the NYC version, in a big upper crust mall.  When I first read about it Bouchon Bakery, I wanted the small town, neighborly spot feel.  The NYC one was a bit too commercial perfect, so when I saw the outside store front, I was super excited to be at the one in Napa.  

The Napa store did have a charming, old time bakery feel.  However, some of the baked goods were exactly the same as the one in NYC.  Especially the patisseries goods, and I'm sure they are the same ones in Las Vegas.  I realized that they prob don't make or bake the sweet pastries in the local stores but rather in some big factory.  The chocolate tarts were too perfect.  No hands can cut that perfect for all of them.  Same goes for the macrons, and eclairs. This is where my slight disappoint comes from.  I some how wanted to think, it was all made by hand and local.  Perhaps it is but somehow I doubt.  You see, I love neighborhood bakeries.  The one of a kind that bakes everything in house,  and reflects the personality of the things in the neighborhood.

They do bake stuff in house but I think it's just the breads and morning pastries which were good.  They had sandwiches to homemade chips.  Good stuff but still a bit too commercialized. It was a tourist destination and the lines reflected that.  Not the lines of local bakery but the lines to see Thomas Keller stuff.  I was one of them.  I'm good on Bouchon Bakery.  I still love Thomas Keller, now I just see the business side of it.

Here are some of the goods...

A peanut butter cup...again too perfect

The too perfect lemon tart

Fresh baked goods of scones, almond croissant, buns, and more.

Tuna sandwich.  This was nice, with the nice details of super thin red onion, kalamative onions.  They also sold homemade potato chips.  This is the local stuff I'm talking about.  Loved it.

The macrons were a bit larger than others you see, about 3 inches wide, but at $3 bucks each, I guess they had to be bigger.  I love the ones at Honore more but these were good.

Lastly, the eclairs... they were close to the ones from Le Panier.  Very good and phallic.  :)

Nishino's

Last week, Samad and I went to eat at Nishino's for some sushi.  I forget how good this place is.  I usually come here for birthdays. It's my mom's favorite sushi place.  Just simple good quality food...no frills and trends.  Like Carrie said in SITC about George Cloony...like a timeless Chanel suit.  This is how I feel about Nishino's.  

We sat the sushi bar and Samad asked the chef to just make him something special and here are what he had.  I can't recall the names.

I, on the other hand stuck to the veggie items that I like...

Cucumber Roll.  Can't go wrong with this.

Veggie Tempera

For dessert, he let me choose and thought we should keep it light and had the Shiso Sorbet with Azuki Red Bean Compote.  Shiso is a Japanese mint like herb, leaf.  We eat this in Korean food too as a savory item, usually marinated in soy sauce, red peppers, and other spices.  We then wrap a little rice inside and eat it.  At first bite the dessert tasted a bit strange, like when you have a shot of wheat grass, but then when you ate it with the Azuki, it tasted better.  After finishing...it wasn't that bad.  It wasn't a dessert though.  More like a palate cleanser.

Having the sweet tooth that I do, I had to have something more decadent.  So, we also had some cupcakes at Cupcake Royale.

Toolbox Wine Co.

Sue and I did some wine tasting on our Napa food tour.  One that stood out was and all women company called Toolbox Wine Co..  It stood out because of the tongue in cheek attitude of their winery.  Their motto is that three girlfriends got together to "share the importance of a good screw to hold things together".  It's about fun in a male dominated craft.  

The wines were good.  I bought home a bottle of the Pinot Grigio.

One of the founders...

The wine store

ad hoc

Another place I got to try was my idol's place's ad hoc in Yountville.  This is the latest restaurant by Thomas Keller.  I tried to get a reservation at French Laundry but no chance.  I even called 2 months in advance.   

http://www.adhocrestaurant.com/ 

I love ad hoc.  It was better than I ever expected. The story of ad hoc is that  Thomas Keller wanted to do a burger place and when he found a space in Yountville that opened up, he secured it.  However, he didn't have time to work on the restaurant so he and his staff would do these one time dinners for the public.  It was 4 courses, $50, one menu, all served family style...vwahla...ad hoc.  It was such a success that he opened the place as a permanent restaurant, and a burger place would have to wait.  ad hoc is also about comfort food that he grew up with and one of his favorite meal is fried chicken so every Monday night is fried chicken night, otherwise the menu changes every night.

I went on a Saturday night and it was about the pork.  They also have a vegetarian entree option.  The other courses were all veggie friendly.  Here is what we had.

First Course was a citrus salad with fennel, and honey gastric.  It was light, tart, and sweet.

Second Course was the entree and sides.  Pork porterhouse was the main entree that Sue had. I had the veggie lasagna.  It was a deconstructed lasagna with greens and white sauce.  Our sides were butternut squash risotto and roasted greens with hazelnut.  I didn't even the need the lasagna. I loved the sides.  You also have the option to add a fish dish to this course and we did. It was a beautiful halibut with a light preparation that I can't remember exactly what it was.  We had so much food we didn't need it but wanted to try it all.

Third Course is the cheese course.  This was a sheep's milk cheese with olive tapanade, roasted tomato, and his famous croutons.  Thomas Keller is all about hand torn croutons.  It was a great dish with many accompanying flavors to highlight the cheese.

Fourth Course...my favorite was the dessert.  On this day was the pecan bar with caramel sauce.  This course I know so well and....it was okay.  Didn't know my socks off.  It was a traditional pecan bar but I think the prepared ahead of time didn't make it as fresh.  I also needed a little fruit to cut the richness.  Caramel was great but it was too heavy to the already heavy pecan bar.  A little banana or apple slices would have been a nice touch.

It was still an amazing dinner with all those courses.   We loved it!   Can't wait to go again.  

All of Thomas Keller's restaurant are in Yountville.  Bouchon looked like a little piece of Paris in CA, the Bouchon Bakery was right next door, and French Laundry is close by.  Those will be saved for another visit.

I Love Bottega

I was on a work trip to San Francisco last week.  My friend Sue was there for training as well, so we went up to Napa for a girls weekend and enjoyed some great food and some spa time.


Yountville is this cute little, small town between Napa and Calistoga.  It is also the home to my idol chef Thomas Keller's restaurants.  It is also the home of Bottega, Michael Chiarello's Italian restaurant.  If you've never heard of him before, he is a famous chef and has his own show on the Food Network called Easy Entertaining.  He makes great Italian ingredient based foods that are rustic, simple but elegant.   He has also been on Top Chef as a judge and contestant on the Master Chef version of Top Chef.  It is here that he showed his meanie side of his personality and his stubbornness. 


Well, I've heard some great things from people who visited Napa and they all said that I had to try Bottega.  So my friend Sue and I went on Friday night.  We couldn't get a table until 9pm but it worked out well because by the time we got to Napa and checked in, it was around this time.


Bottega
6525 Washington Street, A9
Yountville, CA 94599
http://www.botteganapavalley.com/index.html



After we ordered and got our drinks, they plunk down a thick, warm, rustic sliced chuck of bread right on the table.  No plates, basket or nothing, just on the table lined with paper.  They also brought a little tub of butter and this luscious thick drizzle of grassy olive oil that had tons of parmesan reggiano, garlic, red chili peppers, and herbs I think.  It was amazing!  I would have been happy with just eating this and my wine.

We then had our first course of...


I had the Shaved Artichoke Salad Two Ways lemon olive oil braised and roman fried, shaved parmigiano reggiano

Sue had the Polenta Under Glass, caramelized wild mushrooms, balsamic game sauce.  Wow!  The best dish of the night!  It was creamy and had so much flavor.  Reminded me of the time Soung ordered the polenta at Scarpetta and I wish I had.  When you are at a uber chef's restaurant and you see the polenta on the menu, order it!  Don't expect to share because it's so good, everyone should order their own.

For our second course...


I had Spaghetti alla Chitarra, imported chitarra cut spaghetti, white head-on prawns, tomato-fennel broth, basil & tarragon.  I wanted a simple pasta and sauce dish.  This was good but it was a bit too fishy for me.  I even had them remove the "head".  They didn't have that many veggie items on the menu, they were willing to make accommodations but I really wanted to try something that the chef had intended. 

Sue had Confit of Half Duck mostarda di frutta, panettone bread pudding, red wine duck jus.  She said the best duck she has had by far.  I kept thinking about the ducks that float around
Greenlake when I go running.  :)

We were both full to the max but had to have dessert. Wow! They were amazingly good. I must remember to order the desserts first so I can enjoy them more.


I had Tiramisu Profiteroles, a tramisu & sponge cake gelato, “Cocoa puff”, chocolate sauce.  Need I say more than the pic?  I, like Ted Allen, love table side presentation and love that they poured the chocolate sauce at the table.

Sue had the Salted Caramel gelato Affagato.  It came with this Peanut cookie that was to die for.  Sue was too full and didn't want the cookie so I said I wanted a to go box to eat later.  Well, the next morning I was looking forward to eating the cookie with my morning coffee before we head out...guess what, Sue had eaten all of the cookie before I even got up.  She didn't even save me a nibble. 

There was a moment during dinner when chef Chiarello was making the rounds saying hello to his regular diners and friends.  It caught me by surprise when I saw him talking to our next table to the right.  I was trying to be cool and was trying to alert Sue to by using my ventriloquist voice but she couldn't understand.  I so wanted to take a pic and meet him but I didn't want seem star struck which I was.  Well, he passed our table by and went to another table. I was so jealous.  We even talked to the waitress to ask about him and she said he would totally take a pic with me and say hello.  She said she would try to have him over.  Well...it never happened.  I need to know to seize the moment.  He was right there.  :(


There was one dish that everyone was ordering that we didn't.  It was the Truffle Fries.  Everywhere you look, every table were getting a heaping plate of rustic, homemade fries.  I was kicking myself.  Sue and I had a quick snack of "tie me over" food at the hotel when we arrived.  We had some fries and wine a few hours before hand.   I'm definitely planning another weekend at Napa and getting these fries and the polenta!