And you thought my blog obsession was over (at last count I have ten active blogs). Alas, it's not. My need to divide and subdivide, categorize and subcategorize is such that this blog obsession will only be over when MT (movable type, the company that creates the bloggins software) or someone else comes up with software that allow for subcategories. Now, wouldn't that be great? I could consolidate all blogs into two or three (one business, one personal, maybe one Spanish). Until then, more blogs it is.

And this one is on food. If you read my regular blog you know that I write a lot about food. Food is both a necessity and a hobby. As it's something that must be consumed daily, it's easy to obsess about it. As it's something that must be consumed daily, it's easily to de-obsessed. After all, it'll always be here.

With a new blog, I'll be able to categorize better. Recipes separate from restaurant reviews separate from restaurant reviews. Of course, it would be still better if I could subcategorize here as well, but c'est la vie. I'll keep dreaming.

So come on in, read my blog and tell me what you think.

I should have known better. I knew better. A brand of BBQ sauce (or anything else for that matter) that needs a celebrity to put their name behind them cannot be very good. And I already had an idea that that guy, Emeril, was a joke. For the first time I saw his show on the Food Network (in Oregon, at the Weasku Lodge, while Mika slept in my arms). He looked like a construction worker... no, he talked like a construction worker. He was making steak tartare (which turns out to be an uncooked ground beef patty) and he was going through the steps as if instructing us how to change a faucet. Is that the deal with him? How unlikely he seems to be a top chef? Is he a top chef, anyway, or a joke to everyone but himself - or is he in in the joke as well?

But I digress, I should have known better but I bought the damn BBQ sauce (Emeril's Sweet Original BAM B-Q). It was on sale at Safeway - Jack Daniels wasn't. I needed two bottles. It tasted exactly like Heinz. Even Mike thought that.

If the guy is not a joke, how sad for him! I mean, to give up your whole professional credibility in order to make a few bucks! How greedy or desperate do you have to be to put your name on such a low quality product?

Now for the review: If you like Heinz BBQ sauce, you'll like this, if not, or you've never tasted Heinz, avoid it.

Menu - Michaela's BD party - version 2 ( after initial round of shopping)

The menu hasn't changed much, with the exception of the salad (couldn't find arugula at Safeway yesterday, so I'm going with a mixed green salad).

Potato Chips
Tortilla chips
Baby Carrots
Steamed Broccoli
Baguettes

Guacamole
Salsa
Sour cream
Dip (storebought)
Cream Cheese

Mini P&J sandwiches

Provoletas on Bread

Chicken Satay
Tofu Satay
Beef Anticuchos
Mango Sausages
Grilled Portobello Mushrooms

Potato Salad
Mixed Green Salad with Gorgonzola Vinaigrette

Birthday Cake
Ice cream cake
Ice Cream

Sodas
Juices
Beer
White Wine

The Cook's Thesaurus is one of my favorite food websites, and probably the most useful site around. It's basically a food encyclopeadia; it gives you a description (even info about its origin and types) of almost any ingredient you can think of and tells you what you can substitute for it. Today, for example, I needed a substitute for sherry and the site told me that, as I suspected, I could use madeira. It also told me I could use red wine plus sugar, which I wouldn't have thought of myself.

You can find it at http://www.foodsubs.com/

I was looking for some bread for P&J sandwiches and came across Ironkids crustless bread. What a great invention! We haven't arrived at the crust issue with Michaela yet, but I hate crusts myself :)

Last night I went to dinner to Matterhorn in San Francisco with Mike, Mika, my parents and two sisters. Matterhorn is a Swiss German restaurant which specializes in fondue.

We had a great time. The fondue was very yummy (though not alcoholic enough for my parents' taste), the service great and the whole experience very positive.

A full review will be available shortly in my restaurant review page http://www.lacabe.com/marga/food/rest/

Tango Gelato is, as far as we know, the only creamery serving Argentine ice cream in the Bay Area (and possibly in California). If you've never had Argentine ice cream you are in for a treat. It's surprisingly light and dense at the same time (it's lower in fat than American ice cream but has no air mixed in), and extremely creamy. The dulce de leche ice cream is almost as good as what you can get in Argentina.

If you love sorbet, then you are in for a treat! Argentine sorbets, made with real fruit, are extremely flavorful.

On the minus side, it seems that Tango Gelato has started to cater to American tastes with some definitely American flavors (like green tea). And going to Tango Gelato requires a trip over the bridge (and looking for parking!), as Tango Gelato moved from its previous location in Fruitvale to San Francisco. It's currently located at 2015 Fillmore Street, between Pine and California streets.

http://tangogelato.homestead.com/

Sunday afternoon we took my father wine tasting in the Russian River region. We'd previously taken him to Napa and Sonoma and wanted to go somewhere new. We started late so we only hit four wineries, but it was a very pleasant (if long) trip. The region is very pretty, the wineries are much less busy than those in Napa or Sonoma and they are more generous with their wines, I think you could taste an average of 7-8 wines at each winery we went to. Hint for next time: eat before we go.

We only hit four wineries:

Martinelli Winery was our first stop and it had by far the best wines we'd ever tasted at a winery. They were also the most expensive at $35-50 a bottle. The artisanal wines are hand-made (that is to say, without the use of heavy machinery) and they were all very smooth and non-tanic and yet quite complex. These are the types of wines you can sip for hours and still enjoy every minute of it. We were particularly fond of the Sauvignon Blanc (and we're not white wine drinkers), though my dad's favorite was the Giuseppe & Luisa Zinfandel. We'll have to go and get a bottle sometime to gift him.

Suncé Winery, our second stop, looked more like a house than your typical winery. It's very small, and run by a Croatian winemaker who was also our host at the outside wine tasting. We weren't so fond of the wines. We found them generally shallow and not interesting. An exception was the Mariage a Trois, a mixture of cabernet, zinfandel and syrah, which I liked enough to buy a bottle.

By the time we arrived at De Loach Vineyards I was already a bit tipsy, and much more than that by the time I left. The winery has been recently sold to a French company that is planning to turn it organic in time (we wish them luck!). The wines were very much every-day wines, easy to drink, not too tanic, but not too complex either. Some of them are sold at Trader Joe's and I would definitely buy them there.

After lunch and sobering up quite a bit, we headed to Korbel, where we got to taste some of their new (and sold only to wine club members) red champagnes. They were interesting as a novelty, but we didn't find them particularly succesful. They were too shallow as red wines and the bubbles retracted rather than added to the experience. We did really enjoy several of their regular champagnes, however. The Korbel Non-Vintage Blanc De Noirs was particularly excellent and I will definitely buy it and serve it in the future.

In all we had a great time and this is certainly a region worth visiting again.

Casa Sanchez guacamole is the best commercial guacamole I've tasted so far. It's available at Albertsons and Beverages & More for about $6-7 for a 12-oz tub. It's expensive, but it's fresh, it contains no preservatives, oils or fillers. The next best thing to home made.

My website and this blog have changed url's! From now on, you'll be able to find this blog at http://www.marga.org/food/blog/ and all my food pages at http://www.marga.org/food/ The old url's will be automatically redirected.

I just posted the recipes I prepared for Mika's party. Eveyrything was well received. Recipes include a green salad, a potato salad, tofu and chicken satay, and anticuchos, Peruvian beef kebabs. All available at http://www.marga.org/food/party/mika2/

With my sister in town babysitting Mika, Mike and I had been doing a fair amount of eating out (and expect to do some more). Our last three meals have been at restaurants and in all they've been satisfying.

Tuesday night we had dinner at A Cote, a "small plates" restaurant in Rockridge We weren't as impressed by the food as we were in our first visit, but we had a good enjoyable meal.

For lunch Wednesday we went to Boci in Pleasanton. We enjoyed the sidewalk dining and the linguini carbonara, though the ravioli bolognese was a dissapointment.

Finally, for dinner tonight we went to Jojo on Piedmont Ave. We had a very nice meal in this unassuming French restaurant.

As usual, full reviews of the restaurants will be available at http://www.marga.org/food/rest/

We spent part of today, our 11th anniversary, winetasting in Livermore - our closest winemaking region. The wines were generally pretty good, though not remarkable, and the wineries cute and modern. In all we had a great time. We made it to four wineries, apparently all I can take before getting too tipsy.

Concannon Vineyards, our first stop, seems to specialize in Syrah. Here we learned what a difference a few years aging can make. The 2000 Syrah was completely undrinkable for me - it was too tannic and acidic. The 1995, on the other hand, was quite pleasant. We found the other wines to be OK but unremarkable. I probably liked the Cab most of all, but it tasted just like your run of the mill $10 Cab (though it was probably more expensive than that). On the plus side, this winery has a very nice tasting room.

Stony Ridge Winery, our second stop, features not only their wines but those of Crooked Vine Winery, owned by the same people. Here we met some new wines for us like the orobianco (nicely drinkable) and the nebbiolo (id). But the Malvasia Bianca, a not-too-sweet dessert wine, was by far our favorite. If we only ever drank the dessert wines we bought, we'd have bought a bottle.

Our third stop was Steven Kent which was featuring Tamás Estates wines. All the wines here were nicely priced, completely drinkable but not too interesting. In a way, these are the perfect wines to serve at a party. They are sure to not offed anyone, beginners won't find them too challenging and wine lovers won't find them too cheap.

Finally, we went to Murrieta's Well, a very cute "boutique" winery owned by Wente. Murrieta is trying very hard to be different by offering unique blends and not-very-common grapes. It has a Chilean winemaker that comes a few times a year to select the grapes and do the blending. You have to pay $5 to taste six wines here, and is probably worth it as they were by far the best wines we tasted in Livermore. Of the two white I liked the "Los tesoros de Joaquín" Chardonnay & Semillon blend the best. It was a smooth yet bodied wine that I could imagine would be perfect for sipping before a hearty meal or drinking with bread and cheese. Of the reds, I liked the Tempranillo quite a bit as well, specially for the price. It was smoother than a cab but probably as satisfying. I also really liked the Sarzuela, a mixture of tempranillo with other grapes, though probably not enough to justify the difference in prices. Murrieta's pride and joy, the Red Vendimia, surprisingly didn't do much for me, even though it's a blend of cab and other varietals that I like.

My sister Katherine spent her spring break with us and very graceously babysat Mika most nights she was here. This and the fact that I didn't felt like cooking all week, meant that I ended up going out for most meals. I talked about the early part of the week, but there is more.

Thursday, Kahty, Mika and I went to lunch at Fontina in Pleasanton. We all enjoyed the sidewalk dining, the wheater once again was beautiful. Michaela behaved wonderfully. Alas, we found the food overpriced and not very good. I'm still hoping to find one good restaurant in downtown Pleasanton with outdoor dining where I can return again and again.

Thursday night is Survivor night so we didn't go out (poor Lex got bamboozled!) and instead got Panda Express take out. I'm not very fond of chains as a matter of principle, but Panda Express actually produces some fairly descent Chinese(American) food. The mandarin chicken is particularly tasty.

Friday we all had lunch at Emil Villa's, a local coffeeshop which seems to be operating under new owners. The food was quite decent (it usually is) and I found their grilled cheese sandwich particularly tasty (though also a bit overpriced).

For dinner we went to Benihana the chain "Japanese steakhouse" and a favorite of Kathy's. The food was fine and the "show" kept Mika's attention for a bit. Most importantly, Kathy had a good time.

Saturday we skipped lunch and Mike and I went to dinner at CreAsian, a local upscale fusion restaurant. The little restaurant is interesting but needs some more variety in its menu (it doesn't seem to have change since our last visit there over a year ago). Still, we had a good, if too-quick meal.

Today we took Kathy to brunch before her flight back home. We went to JD Restaurant in Castro Valley. Big portions, OK food, Kahty was happy again.

Finally, for the grand finale, our friends Regina and Boris took us to dinner at Pomegranate, a Mediterranean restaurant in Berkeley. It was one of the most affordable places we dined at this week and probably my favorite. The food was simple, hearty and very tasty; the atmosphere managed to be elegant/casual and comfortable at the same time and people didn't even seem to mind Mika going beserk (she was in too good a mood, sometimes a crying child is easier to control than a too-happy-child).

This week I'm planning to eat in, eat in and eat in. And cleaning up the pantry is not out of the question.

Tonight for dinner I made Estofado de Vaca Aragonés from the Delicioso cookbook. It was pretty good though not special enough to merit making again. Of course, I let it dry out in the pot which may have decreased the flavor. It was very tempting, though.

According to the book, this traditional Aragonese stew has been made in the same way since the middle ages. It's interesting because it has a definite Middle Eastern taste to it - though it's not sweet, as a similar Middle Eastern dish might be.

It doesn't take much to get a last-minute table at a good restaurant in New York, just a $20-100 a bribe. At least this is what James Beard found out in his bribing experiment in New York. I don't know if it would work just as well in the Bay Area, but it might be worth finding out.

EPICURIOUS: GOURMET: JAMES BEARD: POCKET FULL OF DOUGH

*Update*. We've ordered pizza from here a few more times. My impressions continue to be the same, good, standard pizza. For future reference, my friend Tita, who likes thin pizza, didn't really like this one. Also I hadn't realized this but they charge for delivery.

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Pizza Guys is a northern Californian chain with a location in San Leandro. As far as I know, it’s only a delivery chain, with no actual eat-in restaurant. I recently got a flyer from then, so I thought of them last night when I was in the mood for pizza.

I ordered a large Hawaiian pizza (bacon, pineapple and extra cheese) and it got here in the promised 45 minutes. The pizza was pretty good though not outstanding. It tasted like your average delivery pizza. The crust was medium width (not think, not thick). The cheese tasted real and the pizza wasn’t too greasy. I'd order from here again.

Pizza Guys has a website where you can see its menu and print coupons.

Pizza Guys
15253 Hesperian Blvd.
San Leandro, CA
510-481-5555
http://www.pizzaguys.com/

Friday night was "girls' night out" for my friend Lola and I. We decided to go to Asena, a Mediterrenean restaurant in Alameda. The food was wonderful and I liked the casual atmosphere. It's not a place for tots, though, so I doubt I'll go there again aytime soon.

After Asena we briefly considered going to Tucker's for ice cream but we were too full. Instead we headed to our usual hangout, Horatio's, a local steakhouse that also has a very nice lounge where you can eat dessert. Their desserts are very good and it's a nice place to hang out.

Monday night I made braised lamb shanks with caramelized onions from this Epicurious recipe. They smelled wonderfully but tasted flat. I think next time I make lamb shanks I may use the Zuni Cafe recipe for braised oxtails.

Oftentimes when I ask Mike what he wants for dinner, he tells me "chicken cordon blue". He had no idea what chicken cordon blue was, but it sounded French and complicated and he figured I wouldn't make it. That way, he didn't have to actually think of something I could make for dinner.

Every time he mentions it, I call his bluff, tell him what chicken cordon blue is (for some reason he keeps forgetting) and he backs off from it. Finally, I figured that the best way to finish this routine was to actually make some chicken cordon blue so he could decide for himself whether he wanted it or not. I'm not sure now if that was such a great idea.

Chicken cordon blue (fried chicken breasts stuffed with ham & cheese) has never sounded that appealing to me, it made me think of '50s housewives, but I was determined to find a good recipe. I couldn't find any on epicurious.com, but allrecipes.com had plenty of well-rated cordon blue recipes. I decided on this one not only because it got great reviews, but because it was very simple and it came with a sauce. It was a great choice. The chicken was quite good and the sauce worthy of its many calories.

I diverged from the orginal recipe in a few ways. I used prosciuto instead of ham, Provolone cheese instead of Swiss, and beef bouillon instead of chicken bouillon. I also cooked it for only 20 minutes instead of the required 30 as several reviewers had complained that the chicken was too dry. The chicken was fully cooked after 20 minutes so it didn't require any extra time.

This dish is actually good enough that you could serve to company.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
4 slices Provolone cheese
4 slices Prosciuto
3 tbsp. flour
1 tsp. paprika
6 tbsp. butter
1/2 cup white wine
1 tsp. chicken or beef bouillon granules
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tbsp. cornstarch

Directions

Pound the chicken breasts until they are very thin. Place a slice of cheese and prosciuto on each breast. Fold over and fasten with toothpicks. Mix the flour with the paprika. Dust the breasts with the flour mixture.

In a large skillet melt the butter. Brown the chicken breasts on all sides. Add the wine and bouillon. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until done.

Remove the chicken from the pot and keep warm. Mix the whipping cream with the cornstarch. Whisk gradually into the simmering sauce. Simmer uncovered until the sauce thickens. Serve the chicken with the sauce.

We went to La Bella Italia for lunch on Thursday. This is the restaurant that took over Pring's, our favorite coffeehouse, when the new owner couldn't make a go at it. I'd gone to Bella Italia twice before at this location, and my impressions of the food had been mixed. The non-pasta dishes had been pretty good while the pasta had been blah.

The lunch menu offers salads, pasta, pizzas and sandwhiches. When Bella Italia was at its old location, lunch there was a steal with pastas at $4 and pizzas $4-5. Prices have gone up a couple of dollars now, so that while the prices are reasonable, Bella Italia is no longer the bargain it was.

Mike had a sausage sandwich and I think he liked it, though it wouldn't win any awards. I had the tortellini bolognese, the same dish than Mike had had in our first foray into this restaurant, and my impression was similar. It was better than the other pasta dishes we had sampled there since, it was homey and perfectly eatable, though it was more a tomato sauce with meat added than a regular bolognese sauce.

Bella Italia is owned by a Sikh family. Supposedly the owner hates Indian food, which is too bad as I love it, and if there was an Indian restaurant in San Leandro I'd go there all the time.

Here is my previous review of Bella Italia.

Zachary’s Pizza has, without doubt, the best pizza in the Bay Area. Indeed, probably the world. I’ve never really had pizza in Chicago (whose pizza Zachary’s tries to imitate), but I just can’t imagine how it could be any better.

We saw Luso Mercado appear on East 14th Street, close to the Bayfair Mall, a few months ago. Apparently it relocated from some place else in San Leandro.

It makes sense to find a Portuguese deli in San Leandro, which until recently had a very large and active Portuguese community. Indeed, San Leandro's other claim to life is to be California's sausage capital. Many of these Portuguese settlers apparently opened linguiza factories .

I've been meaning to go to Luso Mercado for a while, just to check it out and see if they carry Brazilian products as well (they don't). We finally did a couple of days ago and found that Luso Mercado is, indeed, operated by Portuguese people (they were speaking Portuguese in the shop). The store concentrates on deli products and Port. They have an incredible selection of aged Port. If you're looking for a '69 port to celebrate a 35 birthday, you will likely find it here - expect to pay close to $200, however. Their selection of sherry, madeira and other fortified wines is pretty good as well. It takes us five years to go through a bottle of madeira, but next time we run out we'll certainly go there.

They had a variety of sausages (and linguiza, now we know where to find the real, real thing) and Portuguese cheeses. They also carry many, many cans of canned fish (specially cod), tons of Portuguese olive oil (I'll try some next time I run out) and assorted Portuguese products.

Luso Mercado Delicatessen
15100 E 14th St
San Leandro, CA 94578-1904
(510) 352-0163

Sargento now sells its cheese pre-cut in the shapes of stars & moons. They are a perfect size for a quick snack for a toddler. Plus toddlers like the shapes, Mika already asks me for a "star" or a "moon".

This is not to say that these are good snacks for Ms. Diary Mika - but she loves them.

Hard boiled quail eggs are a great toddler food. They are small enough that they fit easily in a toddler's hand and can be eaten in a couple of bites (less mess) and cute enough that they want to eat them. We find them at the San Leandro farmers market for 10 for $1. They are quite delicate, however, so often times one or two of those eggs have a broken egg shell by the time we bring them home. They are also a little bit tough to peel, the shell breaks into many small pieces. I usually rinse them after peeling them to get all the pieces of shell off.

What I usually do is hard boil a dozen at the time and then keep them, in their shells, in the fridge. When Mika needs a snack I peel one and give it to her.

I just bought a new ice cream maker, a Cuisinart ICE-20 on sale at Amazon for $50. It had gotten mixed reviews, many people were complaining that the ice cream didn't really get too thick and was more like soft-serve. But most of them liked it and the complaints seemed generalized to all ice cream makers.

It arrived last night and I quickly put the bowl in the freezer and couldn't wait to make ice cream. I made some today following the most simple recipe from its manual, and so far so good. The ice cream (cookies n'cream) was soft but firmer than I expected it to be. It's now firming up in the fridge. It tasted very much like Dreyer's. I bet Mika will be happy to have some when she gets home.

I'm already re-freezing the bowl to make some more tomorrow, I'm thinking of strawberry sorbet!