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A Puerto Rican Oasis in Santa Rosa

El Coqui in Santa Rosa just opened, serving Puerto Rican food that’s “la real deal! Yay!” says snarkygirl, who’s pretty excited: “we’ve never had a Puerto Rican restaurant, at least not in the years I’ve been here.”

There’s tender and flavorful pollo al horno (roasted chicken), and darn tasty palomilla encebollado (steak with onions) and chuletas (pork chops). Arroz con huevos consists of perfectly fried eggs with garlic-scented white rice. With the main courses comes your choice of fried green or sweet plantains, yellow or white rice, and red beans or “fabulous black beans.” They have beer, but for a refreshing change, try the delicious molasses soda.

Despite the good meal, snarkygirl cautions that “if you need a guarantee of reasonable wait, good service, and hot food, you may want to wait a few weeks until things settle down to be on the safe side.”

El Coqui [Sonoma County]
400 Mendocino Avenue, Santa Rosa
707-542-8868

Board Link: El Coqui-Santa Rosa Puerto Rican

Posted by Cicely Wedgeworth | 0 comments
Tagged with: san francisco bay area, restaurants and bars, el coqui, puerto rico, puerto rican

Five Reasons to Love Shana Thai

katya has a thing for Shana Thai in Mountain View. Why?

1. Almost everything is good, with just two clunkers. “And a few are simply the best versions of certain dishes I’ve ever had.”
2. The chicken is good-quality white meat.
3. “Veggies” aren’t a cheap mix of onion, green bell pepper, and cabbage. Most dishes have vegetables like broccoli, green beans, and asparagus.
4. The “pretty and modern” atmosphere is nicer than at most Thai joints.
5. The green curry roti is “stellar.”

The roti is a simple wrap of Indian flatbread (roti) and slices of eggplant. Wrap the eggplant in the roti, dip in green curry sauce, and experience nirvana. You may want to stash some of that sauce in case of a future emergency involving criminally bland food.

Pumpkin curry is also excellent, and so are pad kee mao and pad see ew, with plenty of vegetables.

Default spicing is on the mild side, so be sure to specify if you want them to spice things up.

Shana Thai [Peninsula]
311 Moffett Boulevard, Mountain View
650-940-9990

Board Link: My New Favorite Thai Restaurant in the Bay Area: Shana Thai in Mountain View (And Be Sure to Try the Green Curry Roti!)

Posted by Cicely Wedgeworth | 0 comments
Tagged with: san francisco bay area, restaurants and bars, shana thai, thai

Alert the Vegan Police

Salon takes a peek at blog Quarrygirl.com’s “Operation Pancake: Undercover Investigation of LA Vegan Restaurants,” a 6,000-plus-word look at vegan restaurants in Los Angeles that finds that “vegan” dishes are often contaminated with egg, casein, and other verboten ingredients. Salon’s Andrew Leonard puts his finger on the most interesting issue: Fake meat from Taiwan (the most popular exporter) isn’t as pure as vegans would like. Why? The intrepid “Operation Pancake” investigators have the answer:

“In the Taiwanese and Chinese market [where most of these products are made and sold] vegetarian customers are only concerned with meat ingredients and not bothered at all if egg or milk ingredients are included [this is due to religious reasons in many cases, typically to accommodate Buddhists, who are often not vegan].”

Also, according to one Taiwanese manufacturer:

“There are few labeling regulations in Taiwan and they are rarely, if ever, enforced. We usually list the ingredients we put into food directly, but if if we’re using something from a third party we don’t always list the ingredients in that. It’s just not important in Taiwan.”

Does this remind anyone else of those guys who got busted for relabeling regular doughnuts as low-fat?

Posted by Joyce Slaton | 0 comments
Tagged with: media, food and cooking, fake meat, vegan, casein, egg, albumen, taiwan, operation pancake, salon, quarry girl

The Elusive Baked Chicken Bun

Baked chicken bao are not nearly as common as barbecued pork buns, and they’re often “just plain yucky,” says Chandavkl. The ideal bun is a little sweet, with a simple gravylike filling that isn’t amped up with extras like mushrooms. The chicken bao at Blossom Bakery can be “right on target” on the right day, Chandavkl says, but they can be awfully bland too. Restrain the urge to buy by the dozen, and cross your fingers when ordering.

Blossom Bakery [Chinatown]
133 Waverly Place, San Francisco
415-391-8088

Board Link: Baked Chicken Bao At Blossom Bakery in Chinatown

Posted by Cicely Wedgeworth | 0 comments
Tagged with: san francisco bay area, restaurants and bars, blossom bakery, bao, chicken bao, baked chicken bao, bun, chinese

How to Cook with Lavender

Lavender is not just a flower, but also a culinary herb, best known as part of the French seasoning mixture herbes de Provence. Use it in both savory and sweet cooking. “Many people don’t like the flowery aroma,” says LindaWhit, “but when used judiciously, it can add quite a lovely fragrance and flavor.”

gourmet wife adds lavender to stewed short ribs, and sarah galvin uses it with maple syrup, salt, and pepper when making cedar-planked salmon. AndrewK512 thinks it tastes great when sprinkled over roasted potatoes right near the end of cooking. ChefJune uses fresh lavender greens as she does rosemary, and says the herb adds a subtly sweet flavor.

gourmet wife adds lavender to strawberry and raspberry sorbets, and Old Spice adds it to pastry cream for fresh fruit tarts. Lavender is good in shortbread, say hounds, and sf toronto uses ground dried lavender in chocolate cookies.

Vetter loves lavender lemonade (steep the lavender in water and use this to make lemonade), and operagirl steeps it in simple syrup and adds Meyer lemon juice and vodka for a summertime drink. CHOW’s Lavender-Thyme Syrup complements more flavorful liquors.

Board Link: Cooking with Lavender?

Posted by Caitlin McGrath | 0 comments
Tagged with: home cooking, food and cooking, lavender, lemonade, sorbets, cookies, potatoes, shortbread, salmon, herbs