Is anyone selling king salmon from the boats in Princeton (Half Moon Bay) or other places on the coast? If so, what are the prices? I'd love to get some, but the prices (even at Costco) are pretty steep these days.

--NancyB

You should look at The Dark Horse Inn on Geneva. They pour a lot of big west coast brews. You can find what they are pouring now on http://www.beermenus.com, a really good website that shows current beer lists for lots of places in SF (and other cities.)

Pure Grain Bakery & Café in downtown Vacaville is a good choice. They bake wonderful breads and pastries and serve an excellent selection of sandwiches, soups and salads for lunch.

Here's a link: http://puregrainbakery.com

And here's a link to their sandwich order form:

http://www.puregrainbakery.com/orders...

Jack's restaurant in San Bruno opens at 7:00 on Sundays. They have a very nice breakfast menu:

http://jacksrestaurants.com/menu_brea...

They're just off 380 (El Camino exit -- turn right at El Camino left at Commodore Dr., left at Admiral Ct., then into the little strip mall) on your way back to SF from SFO.

OMELETTES

I took it home -- it was still delicious, though it would have been even better if I had eaten it right there. Well, I guess I'll have to wait for the new Rhea's Café to open in about a month (according to the cashier) at 20th and Bryant. They're supposed to have lots of seating.

On their Facebook site Rhea's Deli announced 4 new sandwiches, all of which contain locally made grass fed navel pastrami:

The 20th St -- with melted Swiss cheese, tomato, red onions, pickles, lettuce, mayo, and yellow mustard on a toasted french roll

The Freak #55 -- with grilled Rhea's Kimchi, melted horseradish chive cheddar, pickled red onions, baby arugula, garlic aioli on a toasted french roll

The Buster Posey #28 -- with the navel pastrami wrapped in another pastrami, melted pepper jack, creamy slaw, roasted pepper & garlic aioli, KC style bbq sauce on a toasted french roll

The Bryant St -- with smoked turkey, melted pepper colby, tomatoes, red onions, pickles, jalapenos, roasted pepper and garlic, spicy brown mustard on a toasted sourdough roll

John and I each chose The Freak and I must say that it was one of the best sandwiches I've ever had! The navel pastrami was absolutely fabulous -- the best pastrami I've ever had in California -- maybe even better than the pastrami I used to get long ago when I lived in New York. Highly recommended!!!

--NancyB

Just a short ways from West Portal at Portola and Teresita is Molly Stone's Tower Market. They sell all sorts of breads from lots of excellent bakeries. They also have a very good cheese section and deli. Also, it's right near Twin Peaks -- beautiful view of the whole city.

You have to order their fries well-done. These are great!

CORNED BEEF

Central Milling is owned by Keith Giusto. He has a bakery supply in Petaluma and will sell to home bakers if they come to the place. It's better if you call first to see what they have packed in smaller bags (that's if you want smaller than 50# bags.) By the way, they mill many flours, not just the one they sell at Costco -- see the following for more info re their flours and sales policies:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/14044/my-visit-central-milling

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/2172...

--NancyB

Yummm!! Goo Goo Clusters:

http://www.googoo.com/

Dark Horse Inn is great. John and I really like their burgers (I particularly like the one with blue cheese and bacon jam -- delicious!!) and they have a very good rotating tap beer list. See http://www.beermenus.com for the most current list and see their website (http://www.darkhorseinn.com) for their menu. They also have live music on Saturday nights. And, finally, they will be participating in SF Beer Week with a couple of dinners and some tastings.

That makes me very sad, Melanie. I really like that clabbered cottage cheese for a number of reasons. One, it tastes great. Two, it doesn't contain guar gum (or as I call it, edible phlegm) or any other non-essential additives.

I have found at least two acceptable (but not quite as delicious) substitutes at my local Safeway. Knudson has taken out the guar gum that they added when they were bought by Kraft Foods, and Daisy never contained it. They both come in small curd with either 2% or 4% milk fat. I prefer the 4%.

--NancyB

WeLoveJam is great! They make a really good fukushu kumquat marmalade that I sometimes crave and their Blenheim apricot jam is delicious -- also some unusual and good cherry apricot and cherry grapefruit jams.

These guys also make bbq sauce, ice cream toppings, pickles and pickled peppers.

TAMALES

WHOLE CHICKEN stuffed w/ STICKY RICE

Another product that works very well is SoftScrub -- get the formula without bleach.

Wise Son's rye bread is very delicious. Other good Jewish-style rye breads are the one from Metropolis and the one from Le Boulanger on the Peninsula.

We had some delicious bread & butter pickles at Dempsey's Restaurant & Brewery in Petaluma. I usually don't like bread & butter pickles because they can be cloyingly sweet, but these were just wonderful, tangy and a bit sweet with a mustardy finish. We liked them so much that we got some to go.

I like the fried chicken at Jack's in San Bruno. It's available on the lunch menu and on the early bird dinner menu -- but you can order it ala carte after the early bird time limit. Jack's is across El Camino from Tanforan Shopping Center at:

1050 ADMIRAL COURT, SUITE A
SAN BRUNO, CA 94066
PHONE: 650-589-2222
www.jacksrestaurants.com

I really like the garlic fried chicken wings at Mr. Fong's BBQ and Noodles in the King Plaza Shopping Center in Daly City. This is the small home-style restaurant in the same center as the Tai Wu/Mr. Fong's larger and fancier dim sum and seafood restaurant.

These wings are fried and then glazed in a delicious sauce that's similar to but darker and more caramel-like than San Tung's. John and I like these wings a little better than San Tung's and So's (though I wouldn't ever refuse wings from either of those places -- I like them both a lot!)

Mr. Fong's BBQ is at 950 King Dr. #101 (King Plaza), Daly City, CA 94015
Telephone: (650) 878-8882

--NancyB

The Sunset (Magazine) Celebration Weekend is in Menlo Park tomorrow and Sunday (June 2 and 3) -- food trucks, cooking and grilling demos, gardening demos, travel info, beer and wine tasting, DIY info and books. Here's the website:

http://www.sunset.com/marketplace/sunset-celebration-weekend-2012-00418000075151/

And here's the schedule of activities:

http://www.sunset.com/static/cw/050912_CW12_Stage_Schedule_x1a.pdf

And, finally, here's the list of exhibitors:

http://www.sunset.com/static/cw/05251...

Their dough is refrigerated.

Different Giusto's. The one in Petaluma is owned by Keith Giusto, who broke away from his family to start his own company. He has the bakery in Petaluma and Central Milling in Petaluma and Utah. I really like Keith's breads and his flours and grains are superb. I have purchased Central Milling unbleached white flour at Costco in Redwood City in packs containing two 10-lb. sacks of flour.

--NancyB

Jack's is owned by members of the same family that owns Lakeside Cafe in SF and Boulevard Cafe in Daly City. They serve excellent breakfasts and their lunch menu is varied and very good. It includes such Greek items as avgolemono soup, zucchini cakes w/yogurt sauce, a mediterranean appetizer plate, housemade Spanakopita, a Greek salad (offered with, or more authentic, without lettuce.) They also serve a very good meatball sandwich -- at lunch -- and meatballs and spaghetti and a bunch of other pastas and macaroni dishes (5 or 6 different macs and cheese) at lunch and dinner. I really like the fried half chicken, the polenta, and the fish and chips. Their hamburgers (8 oz.) are excellent -- you get a larger variety on the lunch menu -- and cooked accurately to order/ And their fries (regular, garlic and sweet potato) are excellent. Really good milkshakes, too! I like this place and Boulevard Cafe a lot. You may notice, however, that I've not mentioned the chicken wings -- I've been tempted by the platters of them that I've seen served when I've been to the restaurants, but I've never ordered them.

By the way, I'm talking about the San Bruno branch of Jack's and Boulevard Cafe -- I've never been to the one in Pleasant Hill.

--NancyB

Not quite in SF, but a new Grocery Outlet is opening (according to a banner on the window) in the former Chinese grocery store in the strip mall at the end of Hickey at El Camino near Costco in South San Francisco.

It' Its are oatmeal cookies, NOT chocolate (or white chocolate) chip cookies, sandwiched around vanilla, coffee, chocolate, or mint ice cream and then covered with chocoate. Never heard of chocolate chip or macademia nut It's Its.

I really love the cakes, petits fours, gateaux, cookies, etc. at Nora's Patisserie at 29 San Pedro Rd. in Colma.

-----
Nora's Patisserie
29 San Pedro Rd, Colma, CA

QVC sells the Kitchenaid 600 series mixers in a slightly wider range of colors: Gloss Red, Cinnamon, Pearl Metallic, Nickel Pearl, Gloss White, Gloss Black, Buttercup, Copper Pearl.