foodtroy's Profile
Really good child friendly restaurants in Marin County.....prefer Novato or San Rafael
Not necessarily in Novato or San Rafael, but for good food we take our 2.5 year old to:
Fish (Sausalito)
Pizzeria Picco (Larkspur)
Table Cafe (Larkspur)
Punjabi Burrito (Mill Valley)
In Novato, we struggle to find good food, but my son likes Finnegans and Taqueria Mi Pueblo, which both have decent, but unremarkable food. La Boulange and Sonoma Latina Grill aren't bad either.
We often bring a sandwich for the kid to eat and then just go wherever we are hankering for. Nobody's ever given us a hard time about it.
Where to eat rabbit?
Tomales Bay Foods in Point Reyes Station has an excellent rabbit pate.
Anyone been to De Schmire in Petaluma recently?
Most of the reviews that I've seen have been a few years old. Has anyone been here recently? Is it any good?
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De Schmire
304 Bodega Ave, Petaluma, CA 94952
Peninsula - Gilroy : Good Taqueria close to 280/17/85/101
I'm driving down to Socal this afternoon from Marin County and I wondered if anyone had any suggestions for a good Taqueria/Taco Truck (or anything else worth a stop) between San Francisco and Gilroy that is relatively close to the freeway. While I'm usually willing to drive all over heck for great chow, I'd rather keep my driving time down since I'm going all the way to LA. My preferred route is to take 280 south to 17 then 85 then 101. Thanks.
from SF to Santa Rosa: must-do's, standouts, cannot miss items?
If you follow the advice of some of the others and head out to Sebastopol, you might want to go a few miles further west to Freestone and pick up some wonderful baked goods at WildFlour bread. Their cinnamon bun, scones, and goat cheese fougasse are particularly noteworthy (cash only). There's also a guy who makes wonderful tacos outside the grocery store more or less half way between Sebastopol and Freestone.
If you make it up to the Healdsburg / Russian River area - check out Dry Creek Peach and Produce on Yoakim Bridge road for wonderful peaches.
truffles - not chocolate
I bought an ounce of autumn truffles from http://www.gourmetfoodstore.com last fall for about $80 - turned out to be two truffles not quite the size of golf balls. Their flavor was good, but not nearly as good as a winter truffle. If you can wait until winter (they usually start showing up in december) you want fresh black truffles (tuber melanosporum) or white truffles (Tuber magnatum). Summer, Chinese, and Oregon truffles are all completely different. In the summertime, you are best off using truffle butter, oil or salt.
Bread flour in bulk - north bay
Full Circle in Penngrove sells bags of flour at a very good price. Wild Flour in Freestone and Della Fattoria in Petaluma do not sell their flour. The folks at Della suggested that I contact whole foods (petaluma) and said that their flour was Giustos, so I did and indeed Whole Foods will sell 25 or 50 pound bags by request and the flour is Giustos.
Bread flour in bulk - north bay
Novato costco only had the Con Agra flours. I'll check around at the local bakeries and report back.
breakfast in Petaluma?
I've only eaten there once - I had some lemony egg and spinach dish. I don't remember what it was called, but it was excellent.
breakfast in Petaluma?
Water Street Bistro has terrific pastries, plus quiche, etc. For a more "traditional" breakfast, check out Hallies.
Bread flour in bulk - north bay
I've been doing a lot of bread baking lately and the five pound bags from the grocery store just don't seem particularly cost effective. Does anyone know a good source for larger bags (50 lbs?) of flour - preferrably for bread baking?
Best sommelier in the Bay Area?
Stephane Lacroix at the Dining Room at the Ritz Carlton made some amazing pairings last time I was there.
Chinese food in Marin county?
Agreed that there is no authentic Chinese in Marin, but if you are hankering for some "Chinese Food" - House of Lee on 4th in San Rafael does decent Dim Sum and Pings at 817 Francisco Blvd in San Rafael does a good job on "American Style" chinese.
are you looking for duck fat in sf??
Just cook a duck. It doesn't cost that much more to buy the whole duck and then you've got the fat and the duck too!
Lunch around Union Square
Scalas is good for a group. Decent food - good mussels. Probably the best choice close to union square. If you wanted to venture a little farther afield - anything in the Ferry Building is good. If you wanted something a little more "authentically bistro" Plouf on Belden Place is a fun french bistro and Cafe Claude on Claude Lane is also good.
Where to buy truffles?
I recently purchased a truffle from gourmetfoodstore.com - prices were fair and quality was good.
