Archive for October, 2008

Discoveries at Cheese Plus Harvest Festival

By Susie, 31 October, 2008, No Comment

Last weekend’s harvest festival at Cheese Plus in San Francisco introduced me to a bunch of new products as well as giving me the chance to meet a few food producers and enjoy their passionate stories.

As a chocolaphile, it was especially delightful hearing Charles from Charles Chocolates tell of his life-long involvement with chocolate while watching him make delicious mendiants with dried cherries and pine nuts. Tasting them wasn’t so bad either.

The California Artisan Cheese Guild offered a steady stream of tastings of California’s best cheeses.

Beehive Cheese from Utah coated with a lavender and coffee mixture had a nice rich cheddar flavor. On the small pieces I tried the coating had little to no taste. Must taste again! It has the honor of having won “1st Place, Flavored Cheddar American Cheese Society Annual Competition 2007 and 2008.”

Some other great discoveries were Ortiz line-caught canned tuna from Spain – rich and light. It’s pretty pricey but well worth a try to taste the best tuna I’ve had.

Sizzling sausage from Fabrique Delice filled the air. If you’re looking for exotic check out their rabbit, duck and wild boar as well as other varieties.

Obama’s Stars in “Bean There”

By Susie, 29 October, 2008, No Comment

Reagan had a Jelly Belly portrait. Now Obama has a dried bean portrait, symbolizing new hope sprung out of the labor of people and our earth. Well that’s my non-art-historian interpretation.

Check out how this great “craftster” portrayed Barack Obama so beautifully with just some beans, glue, and imagination. (Thanks to Rancho Gordo for the tip on this!)

America’s Future Food Capitals

By Susie, 24 October, 2008, No Comment

food Forbes Magazine named America’s Up-and-Coming Food Capitals today.

It’s exciting to see all of the towns and cities I have yet to visit and now have a good reason: Including Baton Rouge and Tucson. And not surprising for this Brooklyn food nut to see that town on the list.

Canvas Underground / Ghetto Gourmet Restaurant Experience

By Susie, 22 October, 2008, No Comment

Thanks to Vera for inviting me to a dinner with Canvas Underground, part of the Ghetto Gourmet network…a dinner which was anything but ghetto (in the slang sense of the word).

The delicious menu by Chef Peter Jackson made me want to take a roadtrip around the U.S. Here’s what we enjoyed:

East: Rhode Island Style Clam Chowder with Fresh steamed clams, homemade bacon, potatoes, with a side of cream and chopped potatoes to garnish the soup if we chose.

Southwest: Ancho Chile Fritters with Masa crust, fresh goat cheese, tomatillo – pumpkin seed sauce.
The chiles were dried and soaked to soften up. Very picante, a nice contrast to the creamy cool goat cheese.

South: Quail Pontalba with Roasted Wolfe ranch quail, tasso, sweet potatoes, wild mushrooms, creole bernaise sauce
The quail was a real discovery, and according to Peter they let the quail “mature” six weeks longer than is the usual practices. So they were meaty meaty and so delicious.

West: Chilled Poached Prawns with Avocado, ruby grapefruit, little gem lettuce, champagne-tarragon vinaigrette

Midwest: Caramelized Apple-Walnut Tart with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream with a deliciously tender crust

quail fritters soup pie
salad

Experience the dinner and learn more about the quail:

Cheese Plus Fall Harvest Festival in San Francisco

By Susie, 20 October, 2008, 1 Comment

Saturday, October 25th 2008 there’s another reason to enjoy Fall in San Francisco: Cheese Plus’ 4th Annual Fall Harvest Artisan Food Festival taking place at Cheese Plus on Saturday the 25th. It’s free—with more than 2 dozen Bay Area food artisans will be on site offering taste samples of their finest foods.

See you there! 2001 Polk Street at Pacific.

Here’s Cheese Plus’ Ray Bair preparing cheese samples at Slow Food Nation where I discovered lots of new cheeses and took many pics.