chocolateninja's Profile
best bacon
I'm a huge fan of Black Pig Meat Co.'s bacon. I was mainly eating the Niman Ranch bacon until my local Oliver's Market started carrying Black Pig, and I was pretty much an instant convert. Love that it is local to me too.
http://blackpigmeatco.com/
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Oliver's Market
461 Stony Point Rd, Santa Rosa, CA
Cowgirl's SF Drake washed-rind cheese
FYI: SF Drake sighting last week at Oliver's grocery store in Santa Rosa, on Stony Point Rd.
Thanks for the little SFDrake history tidbit, Melanie. Interesting! :D Kinda glad for those "most Americans" who get squicked out by "weird" mold...means more yummy cheese for us! :P
SF Board being badly spammed
Not sure if this is happening right now in other boards, but the SF Chowhound board is being badly spammed and I can't keep up with the posts (trying to report them as spam!). Just a late night/early morning FYI! (It's 1:45 am here)
BBQ Smokehouse in Sebastopol – Opens June 16, 5pm
Thanks for the report, PauliBee! I'm glad you posted, as I was hoping to check this place out this weekend, but it looks like I'm going to have to wait for my bbq til next week. *heavy impatient sigh*
Sebastopol: Infusions Teahouse - Organic Orange Ginger Puerh
You may not have enjoyed the Puerh, but a pot of their black coconut tea, along with a brownie (potless, harhar :P ), is one of my fav. treats when I'm in the area. I enjoy some of their citrus/green tea blends as well. And the prices for the loose-leaf tea, I think, are pretty decent. It's nice to be able to get as little or as much as you want.
June 2009 Grocery Outlet
9th already and no one has started June's thread yet? *confused look* :-P Ahem...anyway, just a few things I thought might be of interest when I stopped by Santa Rosa's GO this afternoon:
Sabra Roasted Garlic Hummus, 10oz, $2.99
Challenge salted butter, 1lb, $1.99
Cabot butter, 1lb chunk, $1.99
Lots of Martinelli's sparkling cider, $1.69 a bottle
Good Karma Organic Chocolate Rice Milk (made from whole grain brown rice), $1.29
Amy's Pizza, Vegetable Combo w/organic veg, $3.99
St. Dalfour Organic Tea bags (10 pack) in Ceylon and Darjeeling, $0.99
Yogi Tea, boxes of 16 teabags, in Chai Redbush (caffeine free), Green, and Green w/Ginseng, $1.99 a box. I really enjoy this brand. They do a good chai, and this is a good deal.
Decent-looking limes from mexico, 10/$1
Rapunzel organic dark baking chocolate, 55% cocoa, 9 oz bag for $1.99 I think this would be really good for melting and making chocolate-covered strawberries, now that strawberry season is starting up. I was sad at the lack of any other kind of good eating chocolate...but that kind of find is hit or miss at the SR GO, I think.
There was also a huge selection of name-brand cereals, raisin bran, cheerios, etc, including the "limited edition" box of Cornflakes (I think...or was it cheerios?) with the Spock/Kirk characters from the new Star Trek movie. :D
I also picked up a Spanish Rosado, Marques del Puerto, Rioja (50% tempranillo, 50% garnacha) for $1.99, since I'm partial to Spanish wines, and I thought a nice light rose might be nice if it warms up this week. I have no idea if it is any good, but I'll find out! And hey, if not, I was only out 2 bucks.
Oh, and it isn't food, but SR GO has a nice selection of Nature's Gate organic shampoos/lotions/bodywashes in various scents right now, for between $1.99 and $3.99, which is a great deal.
Cherries are here !!!
Any good cherry sightings in the north bay/Sonoma county area? I'm really craving them!
Saw an ad for Lola's recently for $1.99/lb (I think) but haven't checked them out yet. Wasn't too impressed with the cherries that Andy's Produce had out at BeerFest either...but maybe they will get some better ones in soon...*crosses fingers*.
What is your favorite hard to find candy?
Mmmm...I love Hopjes. I get my fix from my local Cost Plus World Market. If you have one of them near you, check out their candy aisles.
Sonoma county for 3 days
Don't forget about the Tuesday evening Farmer's Market in the Sonoma town square/plaza. It has started up again (5:30 pm to dusk/8ish) Get a corn dog or two from Uncle Bob's corndog stand (awesome hand-dipped dogs!), pizza from Kashayas traveling brick oven, some fruit, veg and a loaf of bread or two from the vendors, and have a seat on the grass to enjoy your dinner and people-watching. There is usually live music of some sort going on as well. It's a great little taste of Sonoma county life.
Kashaya review: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/535507
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Sonoma Plaza
363 3rd St W, Sonoma, CA
Sonoma Plaza Farmer's Market
Broadway Sonoma CA, Broadway Sonoma, CA
Cowgirl's SF Drake washed-rind cheese
Hahaha. :-P Since the Drake is a limited edition, not around very often, cheese, I thought it would be nice to let people know when I see it available.
Cowgirl's SF Drake washed-rind cheese
FYI: There were at least six rounds of the Drake in the case at the Cowgirl's SF Ferry Building outpost, when I was there this afternoon (Friday, Nov. 7th).
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Cowgirl Creamery
1 Ferry Building, San Francisco, CA 94111
Cowgirl's SF Drake washed-rind cheese
Just a heads up: more Drake has surfaced at Traverso's (and apparently the Sonoma Whole Foods, per rworange's post earlier in the week: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/567285 ). When I last looked a couple of days ago, they had four whole rounds left in the cheese case (4 that is, after one came home with me...mmmmm).
Interesting restaurants in Santa Rosa
I know this is too late for the night of your post, but if you are interested in ethnic, I highly recommend Abyssnia for Ethiopian/Eritrean food. Good veggie options too. Here's a link to one of the reviews...look at the placelink for more info as well. http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/496128
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Abyssinia
913 4th St, Santa Rosa, CA 95404
Mother's Cookies abruptly shut down
And no more iced oatmeal cookies either. )-; Iced oatmeal and the taffy cookies that Ruth mentioned were a summertime tradition in our family...we ALWAYS had a bag or two as dessert when we went to the beach. *scampers off to grab a couple of bags of the white/black/orange iced circus animals before they are sold out*
Best brand/type of honey for tea???
Well, you probably want a lighter honey, and nothing with a fruity flavour, so that rules out things like blackberry, orange blossom or lavender, and the darker honeys like avocado or buckwheat. Something like star thistle would be nice I think. That is, if you have access to artisinal-type local or unpasturized/raw honeys. If you are stuck with something you can find in most mainstream grocery stores, SueBee brand might be okay, but I would encourage you to look up local honey producers or somewhere you could purchase raw honey (even if it isn't necessarily local). You might also want to look into agave nectar as a sweetener as well.
Candy you eat only during Halloween?
Awesome! I *have* been abnormally obsessed with all things candycorn-ish lately. *gryn* Matter of fact, I'm out of the stash I got a couple of weeks ago (just two bags people! and some of it is being used for decoration!) and need to restock. Also, on a side note, I've heard to stay far, far away from the candy corn "flavoured" hershey's kisses...but the pumpkin spice ones aren't too bad. I kinda like 'em.
Here comes the new look!
Completely agree with Cpt. Wafer and MMRuth on this one. I'll try messing with my monitor a bit, but gack...seems like there should be something they can do with the colours to make it a bit easier on the eyes for everyone.
I'm also in the "changing Places to Restaurants and Bars is ridunkulous!" camp. Places holds so much more than just restaurants and bars, and the new name doesn't reflect that at all. I think "Places" was a good overall descriptor,short, sweet and to the point.
Candy you eat only during Halloween?
GeminiGirl...if you continue to be PumpkinMellowCreme-less, send me an email dragongirl at gmail dot com, and I'll send you a bag or two...they are all over the place here. (couldn't find a private email addy in your profile so excuse the public posting)
Candy you eat only during Halloween?
Ooh...lessee...candy corn (brachs only thankyouverymuch and I make vampire teeth with them too! *gryn*), those mellow creme pumpkins, halloween-themed Peeps, the Palmer brand chocolate with the crispy bits (rice? it's the only type of Palmer chocolate that I kind of like...the plain stuff is just gack), Smarties, MaryJanes (the peanut butter ones), oh and did I mention candy corn? *giggle*
Santa Rosa/Petaluma- Regional Mexican Food Recommendations
In response to kareraisu's post above: FYI/TacoTruckSighting/Etc: The past week, I've noticed that one of the Delicias Elenitas taco trucks has been parked in front of a furniture store building quite near the corner of Marlow and Guerneville Roads in Santa Rosa...caddycorner to the Safeway shopping center, right "behind" (or to the east) of the Chevron station. I'm not sure when they show up or when they leave (although they weren't there around 11:30 pm on Monday when I went to check it out, and they had been parked there earlier during the night). I'm hoping to check it out soon and keeping my fingers crossed for some champurrado now that the weather has turned chilly. (-:
Janes Krazy Salt in east bay?
I find my Janes Mixed Up Salt/Pepper at my local Safeway and Raleys...(I live in Sonoma county) so maybe give either of those a try if you have them around. The salt is one of my current fav. popcorn toppings (along with a good sprinkle of olive oil) Seems like something Whole Foods, Andronicos or Molly Stones should have.
Kashaya's Brick Oven Pizza (Sonoma, Cotati, Santa Rosa)
Kashaya-Spotting Update: Herself, her magical brick pizza oven on wheels and her lovely pizzas were at last Saturday morning's Santa Rosa Farmer's Market at the Vet's Building. (a blessing, since Mateo Granados was absent...*sigh*) Not sure if she will be there every Saturday for a while, or if she's seeing how she will do there or...didn't get a chance to ask. Planning on attempting a trip to the FM this coming Saturday and will keep an eye out for her.
Shishito peppers...grilled, fried, etc. Who else serves them besides Alembic?
Not the same, and I picked up a few of both kinds of peppers (shishito and padron) at the Santa Rosa Farmer's Market (vet's building parking lot) this morning from a stand that I'm suddenly completely blanking on the name of...darnit...I'll have to go look it up now...but it's pretty much the only stand that ever has pimientos de padron at the SRFM. They are just now starting to come in.
Cowgirl's SF Drake washed-rind cheese
Saw two and a half rounds of it available in the cheese case at Traverso's, yesterday (Saturday).
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Traverso's Gourmet Foods
2097 Stagecoach Rd,, Santa Rosa, CA
High Tea in Sonoma County?
Doing the placelinking thang. (:
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English Garden Tea Rooms
1107 Cedar St, Calistoga, CA
Good butcher in Northern Sonoma County?
Geez...Places is barely useable these days! *grr*
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Black Sheep Farm
272 Potter Valley PO Box, Potter Valley, CA 95469
Grocery Outlet July 2008
If you are talking about the Sonoma Jack blue cheese slices, I've had it on sammiches from Traverso's (they recently, in the past few months, started having it as a cheese option for sammiches) and tried a slice or two plain, and it is tasty. Not overly blue-cheesy (ie: not too strong and overpowering for people who have issues with strong cheese), good slightly creamy texture. For blue cheese lovers, it's a great sammich or burger addition, and nice to have it individually sliced...as blue cheese is often difficult to get into slices without it crumbling. I might have to check out the Santa Rosa GO and see if they have it available.
Good butcher in Northern Sonoma County?
They aren't a butcher counter proper, but The Black Sheep Farm has excellent meat (heritage pork, sometimes duck, goat, beef, lamb) and I know they sometimes have goat available, as I saw it a couple of weeks ago at their Santa Rosa Farmer's Market stand. They are out of Potter Valley, but sell at both the Sebastopol Farmer's Market on Sunday mornings, and the Santa Rosa Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings at the Vet's Building...and since Chowhound isn't registering my updated entry in Places just yet (ugh, when is Places gonna be useable again!? This is getting redunculous!):
The Black Sheep Farm
Brock Fulmer & Deanna Spann
(707) 489-2814
PO Box 272
Potter Valley, CA 95469
Encyclopedia of Aguas Frescas
My current fav. is the jamaica with cherry that the Mateo Granados booth at the farmer's market has been churning out recently...the cherry brings an amazing depth to the traditional jamaica, adding a slightly deeper/darker intensity of flavour. He was also experimenting for a bit with adding anise hyssop (while the hyssop was in season) and I really enjoyed the hint of minty/anisey spice to the mix. (it was usually with the usual jamaica flavour...sometimes in combo with orange)
I would love to try an Agua de Elote (mmmmcorn!) and Amaranth Horchata just sounds so intriguing!
Healdsburg farmer's market
Check out this listing of Farmer's Markets from the Sonoma County Farm Trails site for time/date/location info on various FM's around the county:
http://www.farmtrails.org/farm_markets.html
