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.
Author: marga (Page 111 of 111)
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.
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.
Sunc
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/
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/
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 🙂
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/
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
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.
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.
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