Month: March 2005 (Page 2 of 3)

Ben and Jerry’s New Flavors

March 20, 2005 / marga / 7 Comments

Ben & Jerry’s selling strategy must be based in introducing new flavors, as they do so quite regularly lately. We, of course, have to try them, though it’s been years since we found a new flavor we really liked. For the most part I stick to my old favorite Chubby Hubby and mourn the demise of Wavy Gravy.
So far, I’ve tried 2 of the many new flavors.

I really liked Fossil Fuel, a “Sweet Cream Ice Cream with Chocolate Cookie Pieces, Fudge Dinosaurs and a Fudge Swirl”. It reminded me a little of the dearly departed Wavy Gravy, in that it was a light-flavored ice cream with a fudge swirl, alas it doesn’t have the nuts. B&J’s fudge is delicious, though, so I’m glad there is another ice cream that features it.

I wasn’t as excited about The Gobfather, a “Chocolate Ice Cream with Fudge Covered Almonds & a Nougat Swirl”. I’m not a huge chocolate ice cream fan to begin with, and I didn’t feel the almonds or nougat swirl contributed much to it. Indeed, the chocolate flavor is so strong that the nougat was completely drowned.
I also recently had chocolate peanut butter chocolate chip cookie dough – a flavor I can’t find in their website – which I also wasn’t crazy about for similar reasons: the chocolate flavor overwhelmed the cookie dough flavor. I guess no more chocolate-based ice creams for me.

Alavesan Oxtails

March 18, 2005 / marga / 0 Comments

Some time ago I ran across the website of a Gastronomic Society from the Basque province of Alava. Wednesday night I finally made a recipe from the site, oxtails in red wine sauce. Unfortunately they didn’t turn out well. But hey, I have one more “A” in my list of international cuisines.

New restaurant from the Vatrans

March 12, 2005 / marga / 0 Comments

Vatran’s Flying Sausages has been our favorite area deli for years. It served delicious sandwiches and offered a very nice assortment of charcurterie as well as assorted food items from Europe. Recently it was sold, a fact that dismayed me as I feared the quality would go down (I’ll report on this later, we’ve decided to go there for lunch later today).
In response to my post about it, I got a message from the son of the owner. He told me they have opened a new restaurant in Alamo called Xenia! Bistro. According to the Contra Costa Times the new restaurant offers Romanian food from Mr. Vatran’s grandmother’s recipes. The CCT gave it 3 forks and said it was a great neighborhood bistro. It’s located at 115 Alamo Plaza, Alamo. We expect to head there some time soon.

Trader Joe’s Thai Green Curry Simmer Sauce

March 10, 2005 / marga / 1 Comment

Last night I made chicken simmered in Trader Joe’s Green Curry sauce. It was yummy. The sauce is a little bit too spicy for my taste, but it had a very light and yet full flavor, with a strong hint of cilantro. Its high fat content made the chicken feel wonderfully buttery and in all it was very enjoyable. I added some orange bell pepper to the chicken and served it with rice. In all, a thumbs up.

Buckhorn Grill at the Metreon

March 7, 2005 / marga / 0 Comments

Yesterday, a Sunday, we found ourselves hungry and the Metreon and headed to Buckhorn Grill, Mike’s favorite eatery at the place. The restaurant, part of a small Northern California chain, shares space with three other eateries. Its open dining room is darkish, comfortable and much nicer than those at conventional malls. Its also child friendly and you’ll find plenty of families with children around.
The Buckhorn Grill prides itself on its tri-tip, and both of us ordered the tri-tip sandwich ($8, in a special including side dish and a drink), with added blue cheese. Mike really likes this sandwich but I have my reservations. The meat is tasty and mostly lean and tender, but its drowned by the onions and bun. As the onions and blue cheese (and extra BBQ sauce) are all served cold, the sandwich becomes cold very quickly – not my ideal for a meat sandwich. But in the whole, it is a tasty sandwich.
The fries are short and thin, good but not remarkable. Mike thought the mashed potatoes tasted weird – though he ate them anyway. I thought they tasted OK but they were quite lumpy.
Buckhorn Grill
101 Fourth Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
415-369-6150
http://www.buckhornsteakhouse.com/

Restaurants I want to try

March 4, 2005 / marga / 3 Comments

San Leandro
Saigon Palace on 17580 Hesperian
Grand Taipei on 25036 Hesperian
Hawaiian Sista’s Cafe ( 10:00 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Tue.-Sat.)
Halan (vietnamese on Lewelling)
Vietnamese place by Pak n’Save
Ozeki Sushi
Castro Valley
$$
Sazio Ristorante Italiano
Doug’s Place (breakfast)
Dolci Amore
Hong Kong BBQ Restaurant (chinese)
Hayward
$$$
Le Maconnais
Caravan
East Harbor (hesperian & west a)- good chinese
New Hong Kong on Mission, dim sum
Berkeley Oakland
$
Taste of Africa +
Museum Kitchen +
Priya (indian buffet) +
Han’s Big Burger +
Vik’s Chaat Corner, Berkeley +
Kabana, Berkeley+
Addis +
Caribbean Cove
$$
Tsing Tao (dim sum) +
Restaurant Peon (dim sum) +
Kensington circus pub +
Phnom Penh House
Italian Colors (Montclair) +
Breads of India – (no res)
Soi4 – college, upscale Thai
Taste of the Himalayas
Bosphorus
Locanda Olmo – college, Italian
$$$
Chez Simone (piedomont ave, t-f-sa nights)
Zaika (indian)
Bucci’s (Emeryville)
Soizic
Eccolo
Fonda
La Belle Creole
Garibaldi’s
Zax Tavern (closed Su/Mo)
Chef Paul’s (pied)
Oliveto
Trio (grand ave, closed M/Tu)
La Rose (small, french fusion, closed mondays)
La Note (provencal, dinner Th-Sa)
Le Theatre (French/North African, closed mondays)
Tanjia
$$$$
Chez Panisse
Fremont
Mariam- Persian
De Afghanan Kabob House (fast food)
Milpitas
Shahnawaz – Indian
San Francisco/Peninsula
$$
Jakarta
P

Reviews up

March 3, 2005 / marga / 0 Comments

I just added a few reviews of restaurants I visited before Camila was born. These are:
Gregoire
A French take-out place in Berkeley I finally got to try while staying at Alta Bates. The food was awesome.
Aziza
An upscale restaurant in San Francisco serving experimental and traditional Moroccan food. Great appetizers, OK entrees.
Dragon Express
A terrible but super-cheap Chinese take-out place in San Leandro

New Restaurant Review site

March 3, 2005 / marga / 1 Comment

I just came across jatbar.com, AKA Jason and Terrys Bay Area Reviews, a new (to me) website with personal reviews of Bay Area restaurants. The reviewers specialize in the South Bay, and they have LOTS of reviews. It’s worth checking out.

Herb-Stuffed Leg of Lamb Braised in Red Wine

March 3, 2005 / marga / 0 Comments

Last night I made the above mentioned dish, also from the All About Braising cookbook I got from the library (and which I’m going to buy). It was good, though not worth all the trouble. A roasted leg of lamb is just as good (particularly the Armenian Leg of Lamb recipe) and much easier and cheaper to make – so I wouldn’t make it again. But we did enjoy it a lot.
It consisted of a boneless leg of lamb stuffed with a mixture of Italian parsley, mint, rosemary (you could also put thyme and/or sage), garlic and shallot, then rolled and tied up and browned on olive oil. The leg was then braised on a mixture of red wine and broth (I used beef, the book called for veal, lamb or chicken broth) with chopped onion and carrots, parsley stems and a little bit of chopped rosemary and mint. The lamb was then sliced and served with a reduction of the braising liquid.
I served it with steamed green beans and mashed potatoes from a box. Fresh mashed potatoes would have been better, but I hate peeling potatoes. When I mentioned that to Mike he told me he actually likes doing it – so in the future I’ll make home-made mashed potatoes.
In any case, it was a great dinner. Mika wasn’t too enthused by the lamb, but she did eat a lot of green beans 🙂

Short Ribs Braised in Porter Ale with Maple-Rosemary Glaze

March 2, 2005 / marga / 2 Comments

When I saw “All About Braising“, the new cookbook by Molly Stevens, at the library I had to check it out. I LOVE braised meats, but I haven’t had that much experience making them. I figure this would be an opportunity to learn.
There were so many wonderful choices in the book that I couldn’t make up my mind as to what to make so I had to let Mike decide. He decided on this recipe here and a leg of lamb recipe I’m currently cooking and that I’ll post soon.
I made the recipe pretty much according to the instructions, though I didn’t use bay leaves as I had misplaced them (ok, ok, they’d fallen behind the stove – sheesh!). I also wasn’t very dilligent about spooning off the fat, making the braising liquid fatter than it should have been. In any case, the results were very good and worth all the work. Mike loved it and would definitely like it again. I liked it too, but I think I like short ribs braised in wine better. Still, its certainly a dish you can serve to family and friends and make them happy. I would use about 1 lb of short ribs per person.
As usual, the recipe below is what I made.