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» San Francisco Bay Area Digest

Hayes Valley’s Macaron Alley

Either the recession hasn’t hit Hayes Valley, or it’s just bad timing that macaron maker Paulette of Beverly Hills has opened a branch within a two-block stretch that also holds Miette and La Boulange.

A current Paulette special is chestnut, which dordogne devoured within half a block of the shop and deems “wonderful.” The flavor is “nutty and sweet in a more subtle and non-artificial way, a good alternative to pistachio,” says Agent 510.

Agent 510 also really liked the caramel pecan, with a real caramel filling that doesn’t hesitate to skirt the edge of bitterness: “These folks splurge for the good stuff. Yeah, I even licked the wrapper afterward.”

Caribbean chocolate has a softer shell, and comes off like a brownie bite with really intense chocolate flavor. Sweet wedding almond is definitely for the sweet tooths, but it has a good and unusual flavor. Vanilla is also too sweet, and a bit artificial; pistachio tastes utterly generic.

timpoblete did a comparison of Paulette’s, Miette, and La Boulange, and found the Paulette macarons awfully stale. Could it be they’re not flown in daily from LA? Miette doesn’t have the same lively colors as Paulette, but makes up for it with perfect texture and flavor. At La Boulange, your best bet is the rum raisin.

elainew is a fan of Paulette in LA and notes that the fruit fillings tend to be jelly-like.

Paulette [Hayes Valley]
437 Hayes Street, San Francisco
415-862-2400

Miette Confiserie [Hayes Valley]
449 Octavia Street, San Francisco
415-626-6221

La Boulange [Hayes Valley]
500 Hayes Street, San Francisco
415-863-3376

Board Link: Paulette Macarons (Hayes Valley), SF - anyone try it yet?

Posted on Friday, January 30th, 2009 by Cicely Wedgeworth in San Francisco Bay Area Digest | 3 Comments
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» San Francisco Bay Area Digest

Pure Flavors Shine Through at Tofu Tofu

“I finally found a worthy competitor to Pyung Chang in the South Bay” for Korean soft-tofu stew, reports DezzerSF. The unassuming Tofu Tofu has shot to the top of the “Dez Top 10” soondubu joints in the South Bay.

The stew arrives bubbling hot in its cast iron pot, with bits of zucchini, onion, and jalapeño. The use of jalapeño to augment the red pepper flakes, which are only medium spicy, lets the flavor of the anchovy-based broth shine through. You can get soondubu with beef, pork, seafood, or oyster; order pork and you get a nice amount of tender meat that appears to be a belly cut.

Tofu Tofu [South Bay]
572 E. El Camino Real, Sunnyvale
408-739-9844

Pyung Chang Tofu House [East Bay]
4701 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland
510-658-9040

Board Link: Tofu Tofu (Mopo?), Soondubu in Sunnyvale

Posted on Friday, January 30th, 2009 by Cicely Wedgeworth in San Francisco Bay Area Digest | No Comments
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» San Francisco Bay Area Digest

Where to Find the Best Morning Buns

Unlike over-the-top sticky buns, a morning bun “is just croissant dough lathered up with cinnamon sugar,” says BeanBoy, “but Masse’s morning buns are baked to sheer perfection.”

Strangely, he finds Masse’s croissants underwhelming; they’re saggy in the middle and more crumbly than crispy. “But take that same dough and twist it up into a morning bun and it is magic,” BeanBoy says. The slightly caramelized sugar doesn’t get gooey, and the crisp pastry still manages to dissolve on your tongue.

La Farine also makes a great morning bun, note a few hounds, and the College Avenue location has the advantage of being next door to the great coffee at Cole. Masse’s coffee is on the weak side, BeanBoy says—better to get the tea.

rworange loves the morning bun at Hopkins Street Bakery: “It is a soft yet flaky, yeasty bun with a delicate dusting of sugar and cinnamon.” There’s a cranberry version too, which has a nice tang.

The Downtown Bakery in Healdsburg makes a top-notch cinnamon breakfast roll that’s also available at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, says SFDude. “It is just excellent sweet bread rolled with cinnamon and sugar.”

Masse’s Pastries [East Bay]
1469 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley
510-649-1004

La Farine [East Bay]
6323 College Avenue, Oakland
510-654-0338

La Farine [East Bay]
3411 Fruitvale Avenue, Oakland
510-531-7750

La Farine [East Bay]
1820 Solano Avenue, Berkeley
510-528-2208

Cole Coffee [East Bay]
6255 College Avenue, Oakland
510-653-5458

Hopkins Street Bakery [East Bay]
1584 Hopkins Street, Berkeley
510-526-8188

Downtown Bakery & Creamery [Sonoma County]
308 Center Street, Healdsburg
707-431-2719

Ferry Plaza Farmers Market [Embarcadero]
1 Ferry Building #50, San Francisco
415-291-3276

Board Links: Ode to a Misty Masse’s Morning Bun
Best Bay Area Morning Buns??

Posted on Friday, January 30th, 2009 by Cicely Wedgeworth in San Francisco Bay Area Digest | 1 Comment
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» San Francisco Bay Area Digest

Creamy Persian Eggplant

sairuh reports that House of Kabobs in Sunnyvale serves fantastic kashk-e bademjan, or roasted mashed eggplant dip topped with Persian sour cream, chopped walnuts, and minted olive oil, served with flatbread. As befits the restaurant’s name, the kebabs are also good, though the chicken koobideh (with ground chicken) is much more juicy and flavorful than the plain ol’ chicken chunks. The kebabs come with a generous amount of buttered saffron rice and a roasted tomato, plus a yummy garlic-yogurt sauce, a smooth and spicy red sauce, and a less appealing one that’s vaguely reminiscent of Thousand Island dressing.

katya, who reviewed the place back in 2007, says it still makes her short list for best Bay Area Persian, after Pomegranate and Shalizaar, noting that “the rice in the zeresht polo (studded with the usual barberries and other goodies) was better than many places that charge $5 more.” (Here, it’s $11.) It has a good tart-to-sweet ratio, and nice moist chicken.

House of Kabobs [South Bay]
161 S. Sunnyvale Avenue, Sunnyvale
408-735-8199

Pomegranate Mediterranean Cuisine [East Bay]
1585 University Avenue, Berkeley
510-665-5567

Shalizaar [Peninsula]
300 El Camino Real, Belmont
650-596-9000

Board Links: House of Kabobs in downtown Sunnyvale
Ground Shaking Persian Food at Sunnyvale’s House of Kabobs

Posted on Friday, January 30th, 2009 by Cicely Wedgeworth in San Francisco Bay Area Digest | No Comments
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» Home Cooking Digest

Ravenous for Rutabagas

Rutabagas, called swedes in Britain, are a root vegetable related to the turnip with a sharp-sweet flavor. Peel away their waxy skin before cooking. happybellynh says they can be used anywhere you’d use other root vegetables: in soups, stews, roasts, pot pies, and casseroles.

Rutabagas can be prepared like mashed potatoes: cubed and boiled, then mashed with milk and butter. Candy likes them roasted, covered, with a bit of stock until tender, then puréed with butter and sherry. soupkitten mashes them together with potatoes. Harters likes them mashed with carrots, and grated/steamed rutabagas, carrots, and leeks.

Rutabagas make good creamy soups. dkenworthy likes CHOW’s Smoked Paprika and Rutabaga Bisque, saying: “The sweet, smoky flavor of the paprika really complemented the sharpness of the rutabaga.” greedygirl recommends Gordon Ramsay’s caramelized swede soup.

And check out CHOW’s Rutabaga with Mustard and Scallions.

Board Link: Rutabagas -- educate me, please.

Posted on Thursday, January 29th, 2009 by Caitlin McGrath in Home Cooking Digest | 1 Comment
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» Home Cooking Digest

Simple, Scrumptious Salad Dressings

If you’re tired of plain oil and vinegar, Chowhounds suggest trying these easy, flavorful dressings to add interest to salads:

• Soy sauce, rice vinegar, grated ginger, wasabi, and sesame oil. Refrigerate overnight to let the flavors marry.

• Honey mustard dressing: 1/2 cup mayonnaise, 2 tablespoons each Dijon mustard and honey, and 1 tablespoon lemon juice. It’s particularly good on grilled chicken salad.

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 1 tablespoon each hazelnut oil and sherry vinegar, 2 tablespoons crumbled blue cheese, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix it up an hour ahead so the cheese starts to dissolve. This makes enough dressing for four servings of salad.

• Olive oil with sherry vinegar, mashed anchovies, minced shallots, thyme, a little Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper.

• Tahini vinaigrette.

• Penzeys salad dressing seasonings. The French vinaigrette, Parmesan peppercorn, and green goddess flavors are hound-approved for salads, as well as other dishes that need flavoring, like mashed potatoes.

Board Link: Got a good salad dressing recipe?

Posted on Thursday, January 29th, 2009 by Caitlin McGrath in Home Cooking Digest | No Comments
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» Home Cooking Digest

How to Cook Venison

Venison steaks and chops are delicious when correctly cooked. The meat tends to be very lean, says HaagenDazs, so be careful not to overcook it; treat it like beef but stop when it gets to the rare stage.

Marge says this venison with Madeira and green peppercorn sauce is delicious. Kaya_n_Austin cooks venison chops as she would chicken-fried steak. TNExplorer marinates venison steaks in red wine, crushed juniper berries, garlic, rosemary, and black pepper. Sear in a cast iron skillet, turn down heat to finish cooking, then remove steaks and add marinade to pan. Reduce, scraping pan, to make a sauce.

Board Link: How should I prepare Venison steaks and chops?

Posted on Thursday, January 29th, 2009 by Caitlin McGrath in Home Cooking Digest | No Comments
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» Boston Digest

Dining With the Chef at L’Espalier

Suze123 has been gifted with a dinner at L’Espalier and wants to know whether she should opt for the special-treat chef’s table in the kitchen or just sit in the dining room?

Go for the kitchen, says Joseph Helfgot, who chose that option a few weeks back to celebrate his son’s birthday. The service was so exquisite that servers literally walked diners through the kitchen on the way to the bathroom to ensure their safety, and offered careful explanations of each of the 14 dishes on the menu. There was also a kitchen tour with the chef, which is a fascinating look at “how a truly professional high end kitchen is run,” says Joseph.

Others disagreed, saying that the food was more the point than the service at L’Espalier, and that the kitchen space was cramped. But everyone agreed that both the seasonal and chef’s tasting menus are wonderful, if a bit rich at times, particularly the beef dishes. Suze was also reminded to ask the cheese cart to wheel by, otherwise cheese would be plated less festively.

L’Espalier [Back Bay]
774 Boylston Street, Boston
617-262-3023

Board Link: Chef’s Table at L’Espalier

Posted on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 by Joyce Slaton in Boston Digest | No Comments
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» Boston Digest

FuLoon Chowdown

A group of 12 Chowhounds met at FuLoon, a somewhat nondescript Chinese place in Malden, and had a delicious meal. The highlights:

• Ma po tofu, “excellent citrusy szechuan peppercorns and not overly sauced, permitting the tofu, ground pork and peppercorns to each stand out with texture, flavor and spice,” says gourmaniac.

• Dong po pork, which BarmyFotheringayPhipps says was served in one-inch cubes with fat that dissolved in the mouth: “Seriously, I never fully understood the import of the term ‘melt in your mouth’ before this: the effect was oddly like eating a soup dumpling without the wrapper. And when the fat was gone, the remaining belly was so intensely, richly flavored that it was rather like eating six pieces of perfectly-cooked bacon in one bite.”

• Custard scallop, fried milk custard, and fried scallop, which was silky, sweet, and rather bland.

• Szechuan whole fish, served in a brown sauce with whole peppers.

Other dishes, like Peking duck and spicy cabbage, were less successful, but several hounds liked the homestyle braised pork shoulder. The price was right, at $30 a head for a table full of dishes.

FuLoon [Malden]
375 Main Street, Malden
781-388-3338

Board Link: Fuloon chowdown 1/24/08

Posted on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 by Joyce Slaton in Boston Digest | No Comments
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» Boston Digest

Classic Fish and Chips

The Battery, a British/Irish-style fish and chips joint in Brighton, is receiving inconsistent reviews. Some people love the freshness of the fish, pointing out that paying the extra two bucks for a fillet of haddock rather than pollack really pays off as you get a beautiful piece of fish. Other hounds complain that the skin is left on.

“In the UK, that is how it is normally done and I would bet it’s the same in Ireland. Those who don’t like it often reflect that it stops them from eating half of the batter, so it isn’t all bad,” says chickendhansak. Still others are concerned about the Battery’s method for holding fish for orders. It is pre-fried, and then put on racks in glass cases in the front of your store. When you make your order, they’re whisked to the back and re-fried, which can lead to inconsistent results.

The fries are universally reported to be a bit limp in classic British style, which some people love and others hate. “Perfect combination of small, crispy ones and larger, soft ones. They know what they are doing here,” says chickendhansak, who is a fan.

The Battery [Brighton]
379 Washington Street, Boston
617-987-0884

Board Link: New Fish and Chips Joint in Brighton Center

Posted on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 by Joyce Slaton in Boston Digest | No Comments
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