So many posts dedicated to pork within these virtual pages, and I’ve never really mentioned the almighty Mongolian Pork Chop at Mustard’s Grill in Yountville. So, at long last, here it is: The one dish that has purportedly sold more than one million times over Mustard’s 26-year history. It’s a pretty good chop, glazed with the Mongolian-style marinade and the Chinese-style mustard sauce (they swirl together beautifully on the plate). More than anything, it’s an honest pork chop. Of course, Mustard’s Grill itself ranks as a true Napa Valley fixture, and in my mind, chef Cindy Pawlcyn’s restaurant remains [... read more ...]
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The Culinary Timeline is a side-project that I've been working on since October. I'm hoping to have most of it complete by the end of January, with any luck. Until then, updates around here will be weekly, rather than twice weekly. Do stay tuned. • • •
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These days, when a rising-star chef leaves any given restaurant, it has the potential to become news. Here in the Bay Area, we’ve seen this phenomenon recently with Nate Appleman exiting SPQR and with Jeremy Fox leaving Ubuntu. For the guests who have come to appreciate these restaurants, the departure of an executive chef can introduce many question marks, and quite possibly, a large degree of doubt. It all makes perfect sense, of course, since today’s professional chefs now have true rock-star potential. When David Lee Roth left Van Halen, it was certainly an issue for the band’s early [... read more ...] Fresh Spring Rolls with Pork @ Sa Wad Dee Thai Restaurant, Richmond. This summer, I’ve become enamored with San Pablo Avenue, especially the eight-mile stretch that connects Richmond, El Cerrito, Albany, Berkeley, and Emeryville. I really enjoy the character of these neighborhoods, and being the major thoroughfare that it is, San Pablo Avenue offers so much of what makes the East Bay unique. For those of us who typically plan dinner during lunch, San Pablo Avenue plays host to a handful of noteworthy Asian restaurants, while also providing the culinary home to several East Bay institutions, including Everett [... read more ...]  I’m not sure if the following recipe appears in Morimoto’s cookbook or not, but a couple months ago, when I tasted the delicious pork belly sliders at the pre-opening festivities at Morimoto Napa, I decided that I really needed to learn to more about the Iron Chef’s approach to swine. Fortunately, I have a friend and former chef-school roommate who has cooked at one of Morimoto’s East Coast restaurants, so he’s actually executed this pork belly recipe dozens of times, if not hundreds. As I found out, the recipe itself doesn’t really contain any guarded secrets or esoteric [... read more ...] More Photogenic than Candlestick Park: San Francisco's Transamerica Pyramid (1972) and the Columbus Tower (1907). My Mondays are usually spent focused on food and wine, but today, it’s burgers and Budweiser at Candlestick Park. The Niners are playing the Saints tonight, and although I do consider New Orleans my second home, I’ve been bleeding red and gold for far too long to jump on any Super Bowl bandwagons. I haven’t been back to the ‘Stick since the Giants played their last game there in 1999. Ten years earlier, I was at Candlestick for Game 3 of the [... read more ...] Pulled Pork Sandwich with Macaroni and Cheese. The pulled pork sandwich at the Brown Sugar Kitchen is good, but when it shares a menu with the Bay Area’s best oyster po-boy, pork becomes a tough sell, even for yours truly. Look, I worship the pig as much as anybody, but the oyster po-boy at BSK remains formidable. In my mind, the oyster po-boy is the star — the pulled pork sandwich is just an astronaut. However, if you have a shellfish allergy, then the pulled pork sandwich (pictured above) will prove smokey and succulent, slightly spicy, with a [... read more ...] A few weeks ago, I found an odd little book titled “L’Art et Les Biscuits,” which features the historic advertising and marketing campaigns of Lefevre-Utile, the French biscuit company known as LU here in the United States (originally founded in Nantes in 1846, LU was purchased by Kraft Foods in 2007). “L’Art et Les Biscuits” captures LU in its heyday, documenting the company’s ad campaigns from 1897 to 1914, the same era that marked the Golden Age of French lithography. As one might expect, the lithography movement influenced a large portion of Lefevre-Utile’s advertising and packaging, and many [... read more ...] Having read and reviewed dozens of wine books since launching this blog back in 2008, I’ve become pretty up-to-date with most of the material available. As I’ve found, wine can be an endlessly scientific subject, yet at the same time, it can also become endlessly philosophical. With wine, there’s much to discuss, and as the world of wine continues to expand, the literature dedicated to this subject is bound to increase accordingly. For the true wine nerd, I’ve been mulling over my list of the “top 10″ most indispensable wine books, which I will divulge near the [... read more ...] Pad See Iew (#45): Thai rice noodles, carrots, broccoli, egg, an exceptional sweet black bean sauce, pork. My ode to San Pablo Avenue continues this week with a quick review of Sa Wad Dee Thai Restaurant in Richmond, which for me is the East Bay’s best option for Thai cuisine. That said, I’m always a bit hesitant to crown any place king. I’ll certainly admit, there may be another local restaurant that offers more authentic Thai fare, but Sa Wad Dee definitely earns the benefit of the doubt. During my most recent visit, an overcast day prompted an [... read more ...]
With nearly 2,000 participants registered for Foodbuzz’s Project Food Blog, I certainly haven’t entered this competition expecting to become the next Food Blog Star. The statistics just aren’t in my favor — not by a long shot. Even if I actually believed that my blog was the most deserving blog in the competition, I still wouldn’t like my chances, just based upon the simple mathematics. There are just so many other great blogs out there, with many that I probably don’t even know about yet. However, I will go for the gusto regardless, and I’ll try [... read more ...] |
 
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© 2012 The Accidental Wino |
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