San Francisco Bay Area Digest

Now's the time to drink your suds. SF Beer Week, with its beer-themed food and drink events held all over the San Francisco Bay Area, runs February 10 through 19. It offers several limited-time-only products—such as Dynamo Donuts made with Almanac Winter Wit—as well as pairing events at area restaurants.

Brew-lover lessleyellen (a.k.a. CHOW Senior Content Manager Lessley Anderson) recently posted a beer twofer: a review of Southern Pacific Brewing, the Mission's new biergarten (where she recommended the blue cheese burger with pickled red onion), and a rundown of the Beer Week events that should be of interest to hounds. At the top of her list are the Dark Horse Inn's Magnolia beer and New Orleans–inspired dinner, and Bar Tartine's soul food and brew event. chuckl suggests the "Sau & Brau" urban pig roast at Drake's Barrel House in San Leandro, where you'll find 24 Drake's beers served alongside two whole roasted pigs.

This time of year, it's an embarrassment of riches. Beer Week coincides with the annual release of Pliny the Younger, Russian River Brewing Company's cult brew, which inspires obsessive behavior by its admirers, who trek to the handful of authorized outlets and despair when the taps run dry. j mather reported that Barclays in Oakland will soon serve Pliny the Younger, and a representative from the bar wrote in to say that when it's available, he'll try to give 12 hours' notice through the San Francisco Bay Area Chowhound board.

Southern Pacific Brewing [Mission District]
620 Treat Avenue, San Francisco
415-341-0152

The Dark Horse Inn [Crocker-Amazon]
942 Geneva Avenue, San Francisco
415-469-5508

Bar Tartine [Mission District]
561 Valencia Street, San Francisco
415-487-1600

Drake's Barrel House [East Bay]
1933 Davis Street, San Leandro
510-568-2739

Barclays [East Bay]
5940 College Avenue, Oakland
510-654-1650

Discuss: Pliny the Younger sightings 2012
SF Beer Week – Which Events to Hit?
Great First Visit to the new Southern Pacific Brewing in the Mission

khelvan adored the fresh Medjool dates at Sacramento's Corti Brothers; the fruit was moist and soft, quite different from the hard, sticky dates sold by other purveyors. Grocers have told khelvan that the difference in texture has to do with the way that the dates are processed—most are dried in order to increase shelf life, but this results in a chewiness that khelvan doesn't like. Now an SF resident, khelvan wants to know where he can find "non-processed" dates similar to the ones he had at Corti Brothers.

wally likes the dates grown at the Coachella Valley's Flying Disc Ranch, which are sold at several area farmers' markets. wally also points out that the texture change to the fruit has to do with when it was originally picked. Dates naturally get hard and sticky as time passes, so end-of-season dates will have the texture that khelvan dislikes.

Hounds also suggested buying dates from an unnamed vendor who can be found at Heart of the City Farmers' Market at the Civic Center and the Alemany Farmers' Market. Spenbald recommends the vendor's "variety of amazing dates," while Windy says the prices are great.

Heart of the City Farmers' Market [Civic Center]
1 United Nations Plaza, San Francisco
415-558-9455

Alemany Farmers' Market [Bernal Heights]
100 Alemany Boulevard, San Francisco
No phone available

Discuss: Where to find fresh (non-processed) dates in SF?

TopoTail praises Vegi Food, a Chinese vegetarian restaurant in Berkeley that serves simple, flavorful dishes at reasonable prices. In fact, TopoTail was surprised by how delicious the food is, considering that none of the dishes incorporate either garlic or onions, items the waitress told him are not used in Chinese Buddhist cooking.

The "skillful use of ginger" added spark to their dinner, which included mu shu vegetables (served without eggs, also per Buddhist cooking) and a chow mein dish of mushrooms, water chestnuts, and bamboo shoots on a pile of fried noodles. TopoTail also recommends the fried walnuts in sweet-and-sour sauce.

Better yet are the prices: The most expensive dish on the menu is $8.25. TopoTail also notes that the restaurant is cash-only and serves no alcohol.

Vegi Food [East Bay]
2085 Vine Street, Berkeley
510-548-5244

Discuss: Vegi Food – Berkeley

Despite many good South Asian restaurants in the Bay Area, it looks like a gap exists when it comes to Bengali food. When kermit asked for a South Bay recommendation recently, hounds were at a loss.

According to adrienne156, Bengali Sweets, which has branches in both Fremont and Sunnyvale, isn't the real deal. She visited the Fremont branch, which is "not Bengali owned nor does it have any actual Bengali dishes on the menu." The macher jhol, cooked with curry leaves, was "completely inauthentic," she says.

psb notes that New Bangla Bazar is "neither a bazar nor bangla" but does offer pretty good chaat as well as "cheap and decent" samosas.

Bengali Sweets [East Bay]
5029 Mowry Avenue, Fremont
510-713-0155

Bengali Sweets [South Bay]
783 El Camino Real, Sunnyvale
408-736-4000

New Bangla Bazar [South Bay]
924 E. Fremont Avenue, Sunnyvale
408-738-3213

Discuss: Desperately ISO Bengali restaurant in South Bay for tonight – Please help!

Red alert! mr_darcy says that the Cupertino branch of Michelle's Pancake House, a Northern California location of a Southern California–based restaurant empire, is serving some of the best dumplings he's ever had, and he's posted some delectable pictures (such as this one) as evidence. The chef, who hails from Shandong Province, turns out beautifully pleated dough, excellent dipping sauces, and house-made noodles. mr_darcy's girlfriend (shall we call her Elizabeth Bennet?) adored the red bean pancakes, which let the bean flavor shine through, unlike many versions that are far too sweet to be enjoyable.

High marks also go to the zha jiang mian, a wheat noodle dish topped with pork stir-fried in fermented soybean paste. The noodles at Michelle's Pancake House are house-made (though not hand-pulled) and the unique touches, like baby corn and carrots, added to mr_darcy's enjoyment of the dish.

Michelle's Pancake House [South Bay]
19060 Stevens Creek Boulevard, Cupertino
408-517-9886

Discuss: Michelle's Pancake House in Cupertino (northern Chinese)