Hot Stuff: Food Section Round Up
We gobble the various food sections up each Wednesday. Here are our favorite nibbles from today's offerings.
SF Chronicle: Oooh, Ho, Hoh! (said with heavy French accent, mimicking one of our favorite cooking school instructors). The Grand Cafe has a new chef and Californicated French menu. We're seriously eyeing the $18 express (45 minutes!) lunch menu loaded with salad, entree and macaroons for a Friday in our very near future. Grand Cafe remains a lovely and relaxing space with takes on dishes such as: Cassoulet, fresh wild Chinook salmon, Boeuf Bourguignon, outside meets (meats? hehe) inside marrow bones with oxtail, and lighter fare such as Salade Nicoise and legumes pot-au-feu. Chow down on the chowdah with tips from Georgeann Brennan, who learned the ins and outs from her Dad growing up in the O.C. waay before it got a rep. SF's oftentimes chilly summers combined with easy-peasy prep give these thick and wholesome soups major appeal.
SF Chronicle (continued): Now Chow this! Tony Gulisano is a serious organic egg aficionado who is also the chef-owner of Chow restaurants. He serves up eggalicious rules and recipes. Gulisano's scariest rule is that eggs be cracked on a table rather than a bowl, or it warrants a "first demerit." We cried out, what kind of table?! We hope not wood! Perhaps because we've had safety-sani (sanitation) training, this rule caused immediate head scratching and visual equations of raw egg equals salmonella. As an experiment, we tried cracking eggs on the counter this morning. Yes, it was a counter because it is the same height and general feel as a table. Conclusion? More research is needed before giving up the bowl approach just yet. As Operation Egg Crack continues for us, it may be better to keep cracking eggs on a bowl, which will need to be cleaned thoroughly after using, anyway.
The Oakland Tribune: Oh, sweetie pie! Viewers of the movie "Waitress" and pie lovers will so get this next one. Winners of an expressive pie contest include "My Boyfriend's Been Gone Too Long Berry Cherry Pie" and "Over Indulgence Chocolate Puddle Pie." Soup and pasta two-fer in a pasta e fagioli recipe. How soupy the dish is depends on if and how much stock you add. Uh-oh: A trendologist gets a writer thinking about -- but never quite finding definitive answers on -- the negatives (allergen possibility, large amounts may be bad, etc.) of consuming soy products. Weigh your options before digging into the edamame accompanying three bean salad recipe.
San Jose Mercury News: World grilling covers dishes from interesting global locales. Grow your potato salad recipe file a new one with red potato salad in a whole-grain mustard dressing. Chef Charlie Ayers went from cooking for Google-heads to a cookbook with a 2.0 (big surprise!) in the title and plans for an upcoming cafe in Shallow Alto.