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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Cheese Pizza @ Little Star, Albany.
For the most part, Little Star Pizza trades on its reputation for baking one of the Bay Area’s best (albeit few) deep-dish pizzas. That certainly isn’t a bad thing, although in my opinion, deep-dish pizza is barely analogous to thin-crust pizza (same flavors, yes, but so much different in nature). Being a West Coast native, my sensibilities naturally lean towards a more Neapolitan-style pie, and Little Star’s thin-crust alternative, pictured above, is a pleasant and competent offering. Without being specific, or overly back-handed, I’d probably rank it near the bottom of my [... read more ...]
It’s usually surprising for most people to learn that, by volume, the Napa Valley accounts for just 4% of California’s total wine production (in total wine revenue, Napa would earn a much larger percentage, though I don’t have the specific figure for this category). Still, as one of California’s most important wine regions, it’s interesting to learn some of numbers that shape the Napa Valley. At my last board meeting with Slow Food Napa Valley, one of our members distributed copies of Napa County’s 2010 Agricultural Crop Report, which is published by the Department of Agriculture and Weights [... read more ...]
Stay Golden. The Pan Dore @ Mama's on Washington Square, San Francisco: Sourdough French toast, thinly sliced apples, and a sweet lemon-butter sauce.
Although my kitchen Spanish is pretty sharp these days, I’ll admit that it took some googling to decode the etymology of Mama’s delicious pan dore, pictured above. The word pan, of course, means “bread” — I did know that much already — but the word dore had me stumped. I eventually concluded that the dish must take its name from a conjugation of the Spanish verb dorar, to gild, or in the culinary realm, to [... read more ...]
Planned Pizzahood: The Margherita @ Emilia's Pizzeria, Berkeley.
I’m not an actual resident of Berkeley, so I don’t claim to know all of the subtleties of ordering a pizza at Emilia’s on Shattuck Ave. But I do know that Emilia’s is not your typical drop-in pizza joint like, say, Cheese Board, or Gioia, or Blondie’s, or Fat Slice. Unlike most other college-town pizzerias, eating at Emilia’s requires some planning: To begin with, the restaurant itself seats less than 10 people, and is only open from 5pm to 9pm, Tuesday through Saturday. It’s friendly, but it’s geared for take-out. [... read more ...]
Al Pastor Tacos @ La Luna Market, Rutherford.
When I was working as a wine educator in Rutherford and Oakville, quick lunch options were unusually scarce. Aside from an occasional Dean & DeLuca sandwich, Mexican food was the only feasible option up valley — not that I ever complained all that much. Being a native of California, Mexican food will always be a staple for me, and the tacos on this page represent literally hundreds of past lunches, especially the tacos al pastor at La Luna Market, pictured above. Conservatively, I’ve eaten over one thousand tacos at La [... read more ...]
Two slices, and then some: Mozzarella and Montalban cheese, red peppers, Kalamata olives, garlic olive oil. Please click the photo for a full-screen view.
To say that I’ve rediscovered pizza isn’t exactly accurate — I’ve never really gone too long without a slice. Let’s just say that my appreciation for pizza has been deepening for the last couple months. After a long week working in the kitchen, I woke up this afternoon with pizza on my mind. With a little motivation, I arrived in Berkeley just ahead of rush hour, and stopped by the Cheese Board Collective for [... read more ...]
The Torta Cubana @ That's It Market: Chorizo and Egg, Breaded Beef, Hot Dogs, Bacon, Ham, Queso Fresco, Lettuce, Tomato, Pickled Jalapeño, Guacamole, and enough Mayo to bring it all together.
A couple summers ago, Anthony Bourdain profiled That’s It Market on “No Reservations,” a culinary endorsement that must have provided an amazing windfall to the tiny corner store (no doubt, the “No Reservations” logo still appears on the market’s menus). Two years later, That’s It continues to earn high marks for its well-known torta cubana, a catch-all sandwich of profound proportions. Being in the mood for this [... read more ...]
Always mustard, never ketchup: The Cajun Corn Dog @ Uncle Bill's Gourmet Corn Dogs, Sonoma Square Farmers Market.
The best things in life are fried: I learned this simple mantra very early on, when I used to work the fryer station at K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen in New Orleans. We fried lots of delicious foods at K-Paul’s, including oysters, shrimp, soft-shelled crab, green tomatoes, duck skins, and of course, plenty of potatoes (K-Paul’s didn’t serve french fries, however. Instead, our potatoes were baked, halved, and then scooped. Once prepped, the skins and the “meat” were fried separately, with the [... read more ...]
Anti-Gyro: The Kitchen Door's "Fold-and-Eat" Lahmajune.
One thing that I eventually learned about Napa when I moved here six years ago was that there’s no place in town to get a good gyro. Granted, I could only try the one option that was available here at the time — I won’t name the restaurant, but it’s the most obvious guess — and quite honestly, that gyro was so dry and depressing that the memory of my disappointment has remained with me over the years. It failed royally, and the fact that I’m even venting about it now [... read more ...]
I learned something interesting about Cantinetta Piero tonight at Pancha’s of Yountville (which happens to be located right across the street): Apparently, all of Piero’s employees learned just yesterday that their last night would be Wednesday, July 6. Upon posting this news, I received some clarifications today from Jennifer Tomaro, Marketing Director of Moana Hotel & Restaurant Group:
“The owners of Hotel Luca have retained the two principles of Solage (Tim Harmon and Robert Watson) to help direct the operations of the hotel and restaurant. The hotel is still open and there are no changes planned at this time. [... read more ...]
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