We had just opened our laptop this evening on our ride back across the Bay when a dialog popped up: "None of your usual wireless networks could be found. Do you want to join wifi_rail?" Yes, please! Looks like BART is test-running a free wireless network. Our laptop only picked up on it in the Civic Center-Embarcadero range (the same area where our cell phone works), and it didn't allow us to connect to... [continue]

The fruit and vegetable world overflows with deceptive names, from English's lemongrass—there's no lemon in it—to French's pommes de terre—they'r'e not really apples. But you'll find no trickery in celery root. The warty, blobby vegetable is the underground portion of the thick green stalks everyone knows so well, though celery root usually comes from a variety raised for large roots and slim stalks. Celery root, or celeriac, has the herby taste of celery and parsley... [continue]

When we see parsnips at the store or in most markets, they're big, with a tough inner core. We were thrilled, then, to see smaller, in-season parsnips, split down the middle like a serpent's tongue, at the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market. The slimmed-down root vegetables have not yet formed the woody center that we chop from normal versions. That means higher yield and less work for the home cook. Given the odd carrot colors... [continue]

Winter's deep chill has arrived, and you can expect it to stay here for a few months. Forget salads for dinner; our bodies need food that coats our bellies and warms our hearts. And few dishes heat us like cheese fondue, the perfect dish with which to greet cold friends coming to your home for dinner. When was the last time you dunked bread cubes into a simmering soup of liquid cheese? Fondue went... [continue]

We know how it is with onions. You treat them as kitchen staples, something to throw on the shelf until you need an aromatic for the saute pan. You take them for granted. But in the cold snap of winter, root vegetables come to the front. Gone are the vibrant, ripe tastes of summer produce; gone are the warm, mellow flavors of fall. The intense, peppery taste of vegetables on sale at farmers' markets... [continue]

We remember the late 90's when every food magazine offered the definitive risotto technique. Writers trudged to Italian villages to learn how rural matrons made this popular dish. Even as newbie foodies, we rolled our eyes at these accounts. Why make it sound so treacherous? We have a tried and true technique, learned not at the side of a Piemontese peasant woman but through observation and common sense. Risotto is a stress-free dish that's perfect... [continue]

We all know the picturesque way to roast chestnuts. Come on, sing along; you know you want to. And believe us, if the SFist test kitchen possessed an open fire, we'd buy a chestnut pan and snuggle in front of the fireplace, toasting the dark-brown nuts and popping the sweet meat into our mouths like bonbons. Provided, of course, that the pan fit behind the spitjack we plan to buy when the fireplace appears.... [continue]

You won't find jujubes at your average farmer's market stall. If you want to buy the olive-sized, black and brown fruits, hunt out Asian-themed markets or tables selling Asian ingredients. We're not sure why Chinese dates, as they're also called, haven't made more inroads into Western cuisine, though some historians think that Homer's lotus-eaters were riding a jujube high. The chalky texture of a raw jujube isn't very appealing, but the flavor—a subtle mix... [continue]

Last week we were shopping at a local farmer's market and overheard two women discussing what to buy for dinner. "How about spinach?" said one. The other greeted her suggestion with a smirk and they both nervously chuckled before moving on to other vegetables in the stand. These days, it's not easy being greens. No sooner had newspapers tired of the spinach-borne E. Coli onslaught than another Salinas company issued a voluntary recall on... [continue]

Every cook wants their guests to swoon over the food, and few things induce fainting spells like a velvety, savory sauce. A good sauce transforms a dish from simple to elegant, but few home cooks take the time to make one. Even here in the SFist test kitchen, we're inclined to skip the fancier dressings for a simple meal. Fortunately, we make great pan sauces, which we assemble after we sear or sauté meat in... [continue]

Fleshy summer fruit on a hot day sings a siren song of sorbet. We see plump, yellow peaches and imagine a spoonful of frozen fruit that holds firm for a single flap of a hummingbird's wing. On the tip of our tongue, the sorbet melts into a liquid alive with the flavor of the season. You can buy sorbet, but a little effort will give you the chance to try bold new flavor combinations.... [continue]

We found the Rubik's Cube behind some puzzle books, led there by clues around the Main branch of the library. Once solved (by taking it apart and reassembling it; we're not proud), a phone number circled the cube. So went one of the puzzles in the Perplex City Live event held on Saturday in San Francisco, the first event of its kind in the U.S. Perplex City is a collectible card game, where you buy... [continue]

We're not just announcing today's live Perplex City event, we're also one of the destinations on the citywide scavenger hunt. Solvers today will find some puzzle that brings them here, and the ultimate answer to that puzzle is given by this clue: "Find a radio. Tune it to the Fahrenheit equivalent of 36.28 Celsius. If the station you're listening to owned a cat, what would be the cat's name?" We've turned off the comments for... [continue]

Keep an eye out for groups of people doing weird things all over the City on Saturday. No, no. Different weird things. The company behind Perplex City has organized a major live event here in San Francisco. Perplex City is a collectible card game with a twist: Each card is a puzzle and a clue to a hidden treasure worth $200,000. The puzzles range from yawningly easy to clever and intriguing to annoyingly difficult. The... [continue]

Tomato crops haven't fared well in California's recent heat wave, which might explain why market stalls aren't overflowing with the iconic summer vegetables. We spotted some recently, and took some home for a tomato tasting in the SFist test kitchen. Honest, we came up with this idea before the New York Times ran an article about a similar tasting . We used tomatoes from the Grand Lake Farmer's Market and stored them at room... [continue]

Unless you shop at farmer's markets—and we know you do, so send this to your friends—you probably have never tasted good garlic. Supermarkets usually carry one of two types that travel better than they taste. No surprise, since 70% of that garlic comes from overseas, where cheap labor keeps costs down. But there are 200 or more strains of the famous aromatic, and each tastes different from its cousins. Some have more heat, some... [continue]

As much as we enjoy planning dinners, sometimes we just want to assemble a quick meal from fresh ingredients at the farmer's market. How often do you get to the many markets here in the Bay Area? If you haven't been in a while, we'd like to urge you visit your neighborhood market and taste the treats on display. Scrumptious stone fruits such as cherries and nectarines are at the peak of their flavor... [continue]

We fondly remember some of the first dinner parties we hosted. But we doubt our friends look back so kindly on those early entertaining experiments. They probably remember two-hour delays before any food arrived, nervous breakdowns from the host, and missing side dishes. Think Pieces of April without the happy ending. Not anymore. We've conquered our entertaining woes. And we want to help you pull off your own special dinners for friends or loved... [continue]

Here in the SFist test kitchen, we love putting food on the table. But we also love choosing a bottle of wine to go with that food. Unfortunately, most cooks don't have as much fun with the task, and this makes us sad. Shoppers fret too much about finding a "perfect" bottle. You're supposed to enjoy wine, not stress about it. We thought we'd share some of our wine-pairing tricks to help you decide... [continue]

We geeked out on garlic last year, so we instantly recognized the twisty garlic scapes at the Grand Lake farmer's market last week. A scape is the stem that shoots through the middle of a bulb of hardneck garlic, the more flavorful subspecies of that aromatic bulb, which we'll cover a bit more in July or August. Thin garlic scapes bend into graceful arcs as they emerge from the soil, creating a striking vegetable.... [continue]