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Dishcrawl in Daly City – Sinugba

Lando — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 19:01:28 +0000

On March 16, join Dishcrawl for another special Filipino dinner at Sinugba in Daly City, CA. Treat yourself to a six course dinner for only $35. For those unfamiliar with Filipino cuisine, it just might be the perfect opportunity for some of you to experience it. Read more about Dishcrawl, Singugba, or to reserve your spot, follow this link.

I’ve had the pleasure of joining Dishcrawl for one of their Filipino dinners at Attic in San Mateo and I’ll say this – it’s an awesome experience hanging out with fellow food bloggers/lovers.

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Give the Gift of Foodzie

Lando — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 04:20:29 +0000

With Christmas steadily approaching, some of you might still be in a pinch to find that one special gift for the foodie in your life. Foodzie might just have what you’re looking for. Foodzie is an online marketplace that connects smaller food artisans with buyers in search of unique gourmet food. From specialty candy like bacon peanut brittle to spicy jalepeño jam, there’s so much to discover on Foodzie’s website.

If you can’t decide on a single gift to give, Foodzie has another solution for you. You can give the gift of Foodzie’s Tasting Box, a monthly sample of five different food products from Foodzie vendors. You can select from a 3 month, 6 month, or year subscription. This way your gift recipient gets to try out a fresh rotation of new products, possibly discovering new favorites each month. We were able to check out a Tasting Box courtesy of Foodzie that was packed with the following:

Alfajores Cookies by Maitelates
Heirloom Cranberry Beans by Zürsun Beans
Bacon Peanut Brittles by The Headhead
Parmesan Flatbreads by Little Ragghi’s
Fleur De Sel Caramel Popcorn by 479° Popcorn

As you can see, you get a good variety of samples.

The Tasting Box is the perfect gift to give any foodie. It even makes a great gift to give yourself.

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Foodbuzz Blogger Festival 2010 Saturday Taste Pavilion at the Metreon

Lando — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 05:53:38 +0000

Day 2 of the 2nd Annual Foodbuzz Blogger Festival – Taste Pavilion Photos

Here are some of our favorite photos that we took Saturday afternoon:

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Foodbuzz Blogger Festival 2010 Opening Night

Lando — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 23:56:17 +0000

It was just about a year ago, I was writing a post recapping the 1st Annual Foodbuzz Blogger Festival in San Francisco. I can’t believe that a year has already gone by and that the 2nd Annual Foodbuzz Blogger Festival just wrapped up this past weekend. Here I am again, recapping this year’s event.

Friday night started off with our Opening Reception and Street Food Fare. Hundreds of food bloggers strolled into Herbst Pavilion in Fort Mason to kick off the weekend. After a quick welcome from Foodbuzz and a foodie gift exchange with fellow bloggers, Foodbuzz finally turned us loose to savor all of the various food from restaurants and street food vendors that were in attendance.

A spread of Mission Minis Cupcakes was on display. The little cakes were arranged in an artful mosaic way, spelling out Foodbuzz. It definitely caught the attention of many.

Our first bite of the evening was some of Daniel Isberg’s Viking Gumbo. It was hard not to line up when we saw them mixing up the batch of gumbo to serve up. Spiced and seasoned just right to warm up the evening.

4505 Meats’ had a Pork Loin Sandwich on the menu. The pork loin was brined in jalapeño liquid and encrusted in corn meal. To finish the sandwich, it was topped with beans, onions, and a coriander aioli. A side of airy-melt-in-your-mouth Chicharrones was served as well. The Chicharrones ended up being my favorite of the evening. I only wished that Chef Ryan Farr had Lay’s Family Sized bags of Chicharrones to give away that night. I’d be first in line to grab a pack.

RoliRoti was busily assembling their Porchetta Sandwiches. I’ve spent many Saturdays at the Ferry Building Farmers Market enduring long waits in line for their porchetta sandwiches. There even were times that I waited in line and came up empty handed because they ran out of porchetta to serve. Just watching them slice the roast and wipe up the juices with the bread will get you to wait in line to get your hands around this sandwich. Being able to pick up a sandwich without the long wait was a blessing.

With all of the savory food surrounding us, Straus Family Creamery was serving their ice cream to satisfy everyone’s sweet tooth.

It seems that you can’t talk about street food without mentioning tacos or taco trucks. So seeing Tacolicious featuring some of their tacos during the event fit the whole theme of being at a Street Food “Fare”. I was able to try their Guajillo Braised Beef Short Rib tacos.

Namu was also in attendance showcasing their take on street food with their Korean style tacos. What makes it a Korean style taco? You take the idea of a taco, but instead of a tortilla, you have slices of toasted seaweed, and you layer in kalbi – traditional barbecued Korean short ribs, rice, tomatoes, and top it with a kimchee salsa.

Does fine French food and street food add up? Well, for Spencer on the Go, that’s their entire concept – taking French cuisine and serving it from their converted taco truck. Here, we waited in line to order their New England Lobster Cappuccino, Escargot Puff Lollipop, and a Braised Lamb Cheeks Sandwich. Seeing French food come out of a mobile kitchen like this will make you rethink your perception of what street food is.

To think that this was only the beginning… We looked forward to what was in store for the weekend ahead.

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Rumba Desserts: Exotic Fruit Flavors of Peru

Lando — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:11:49 +0000

With the recent hot weather hitting the Bay Area, it’s almost instinctively that you crave something to relieve you from the heat. What better way to get your mind off the sun than a scoop of ice cream? Ice cream has always been my go to form of relief to cool off when temperatures begin to soar. But, even with summer winding down to the end of the season, you still can enjoy ice cream all year round.

Recently, I was fortunate to try a few samples of a few flavors of ice cream and sorbet from Rumba Desserts. This California based company focuses on capturing the flavors of Peru by using exotic Peruvian fruits, making their product unique and intriguing at the same time. How about a Purple Corn sorbet for being special? Rumba’s Citron Morado Sorbet is just one of their unique flavors that combines an Organic Peruvian Purple Corn infusion with Lisbon Lemon and Tahitian Lime Juice. It’s an uncommon flavor combination, yet it’s refreshingly exciting to your taste buds.

What really impressed me with Rumba’s products was how much flavor bursts through. Since Rumba Desserts uses all natural ingredients, you can expect their ice cream and sorbets to taste just like real fruit. The instant I tried the Mango Sorbet, I felt as if I was eating a real mango. It was far from tasting all artificial and sugar loaded. The taste of mango was there and you knew it.

A Scoop of Lucuma Ice Cream

The real highlight for me was sampling the Lucuma Ice Cream. Lucuma is a Peruvian fruit that has the characteristics of having a maple-caramel like taste. In ice cream form, this flavor was just pure bliss. It was amazingly silky, and the flavors truly reminded me of a caramel ice cream, only this time, the flavor was coming from the Lucuma fruit. It’s on my list of recommended flavors to try.

You can find Rumba Desserts at various specialty grocery stores around the Bay Area by following this link. There are also several tasting sessions going around, giving you the chance to sample some of Rumba Desserts’ ice cream and sorbets. For more information about Rumba Desserts and to see if a tasting is near you, you can contact them at info@rumbadesserts.com.

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A Bite of SF Street Food Fest 2010

Lando — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 18:37:09 +0000

La Cocina’s Second Annual San Francisco Street Food Festival concluded yesterday bringing on food loving crowds from all over the Bay Area. I had the chance to attend again this year. Although during last year’s event I did experience a few setbacks – limited space for the crowds of event goers that arrived, long lines, and vendors running out of food – I still tried to make the most of it and overall had a good time. Despite what had happened last year, I thought that having an event like this would help spread the awareness of smaller food entrepreneurs. It was good for the city and for the community.

This year’s event aimed to avoid the problems of last year’s event by providing more food vendors and space to accommodate all of the crowds, while still remaining true to the same concept of bringing together street food vendors and restaurants to celebrate their passion for food. Just a quick stroll down Folsom Street, I could already tell that this time around, things would go much more smoothly. By having more vendors and space at the event did help spread out the crowds so that the lines for food wouldn’t be so long. Below are some of the sights of yesterday’s event and what I was able to sample:

Pork Sisig Tacos from Hapa SF

Melon, Duck Prosciutto, and Lardo Salad from Flour + Water

Pork Sausage with Butter Bean Salad from Flour + Water

Curtis Kimball of @cremebruleecart armed with his torch

Vanilla Bean Crème Brûlée from @cremebruleecart

Chef Mourad of Aziza busy on the Grill

Fried Chicken with Harissa from Aziza

El Porteño Empanadas filled with Beef, Olives, Raisins, and Egg

A look at the Kung Fu Tacos truck

A list of all of the participating vendors of yesterday’s event can be found here. To learn more about La Cocina and the SF Street Food Fest, visit their FAQ on their website.

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Coverage of the 29th Annual Santa Cruz Clam Chowder Cook Off & Festival

Lando — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:19:26 +0000

Saturday wasn’t your typical day at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. It was time to celebrate the 29th Annual Clam Chowder Cook Off & Festival, where individuals, restaurants, and organizations compete for the title of best clam chowder. All of the festivities efforts go to raise money for the City of Santa Cruz Parks and Recreation Department programs.

Rain or shine, we were going to cover the event as Foodie Correspondents thanks to Foodbuzz. Thankfully, the weather stayed dry throughout Saturday’s festival where the crowds of hungry chowder fans walked the Boardwalk in search of the best Manhattan and Boston clam chowders. Booths were all set up attracting crowds. Some simple, others with playful themes like dancing mermaids or Oompa Loompas complete with a Willy Wonka commanding the crowd. It was all about checking out each booth because to try out the chowder, you had to give up one of five of your precious tasting tickets from your tasting kit.

Just like last year’s festival, we walked the Boardwalk just before the public tasting began to see the final prep work being completed.

You could see contestants busily mixing up their batches of chowder, chopping the remainder of their ingredients, and setting up for the rush of people ready to come to their booth. I can recall the smell of bacon permeating the air at one of the booths. Seeing all of this action was enough to get anyone excited to eat.

Right when 1:00 P.M. hit, it was time for the public tasting. Armed with our tasting kits – which included 5 tasting tickets, a People’s Choice Ballot card, reusable chowder cup, and spoon – we began to line up. We sampled chowder from all three divisions: individuals, corporate/media, and professional, to get a balanced selection of different chowders. Below is what we were able to try.

Draeger Construction
Boston: This was the booth where I smelled bacon being fried, so I wanted to line up here first. Bacon fans would rejoice to the plentiful bacon bits. To complement the bacon, you had plenty of chunks of clams, potatoes, and celery.

Manhattan: Just like their Boston chowder, their Manhattan chowder was chunky. The taste of sweet tomatoes shined through.

Mom’s Clam Diggers
Boston: Right away, just visually the differences can be seen between Mom’s Clam Diggers’ chowder and Draeger Construction’s chowder. We noticed that their chowder wasn’t thick at all, but more of a lighter cream broth with a smokey and peppery finish.

The Clamtone Cruzers
Boston: It was back to the thicker Boston chowder with The Clamtone Cruzers. It seemed that the flavor mainly came from herbs they must have used.

Cabrillo Culinary Arts
Manhattan: Those who like a little heat would have enjoyed this Manhattan chowder. The chowder was bold and spicy.

Boston: On the other hand, Cabrillo Culinary Arts’ Boston chowder had a very sweet finish.

Aegis of Aptos
Boston: Strangely enough, the last Boston chowder that we sampled was almost a combination of every Boston chowder that we had. Both sweet and smokey, every bite reminded me of what I had throughout the afternoon. Almost the perfect way to end it.

We went to the festival not looking for the best… That’s left for the judges to decide. We were there more for enjoying everyone’s take on clam chowder and appreciating all of the uniqueness each competitor brought to the cook off. Whether they were cooking clam chowder based from passed down family recipes or just a plan amongst a circle of friends, everyone was out to have a good time.

Below is the list of the winners of the 29th Annual Santa Cruz Clam Chowder Cook Off & Festival:

Best Professional Boston
1st Place – Severino’s Grill, Chef Antonio Gomez (Aptos)
2nd Place – Blackboard Catering, Chef Clint Hughey (Santa Cruz)
3rd Place – Lil Biscuit House, Chef Martin Krawetz (San Mateo)

Best Professional Manhattan
1st Place – Severino’s Grill, Chef Miguel Ponce (Aptos)
2nd Place – Blackboard Catering, Chef Clint Hughey (Santa Cruz)
3rd Place – Cabrillo College Culinary Arts, Chef Danny Pena (Aptos)

Best Individual Manhattan
1st Place – “Little Kahuna” – Brad Winding (Castro Valley)
2nd Place – “Dragonmama’s Red” – Michelle Ber (Fremont)
3rd Place – “Mitchell’s Chowder” – Zack Mitchell (Santa Cruz)

Best Individual Boston
1st Place – “Ye Oldde Cape Codders” – Darin Wallace (Oak Grove)
2nd Place – “Clam Rock” – Chris Hirz (San Jose)
3rd Place – “Clamma Lamma Ding Dongs” – Amy Gilmore (Roseville)

Best Corporate
1st Place – Dominican Hospital (Santa Cruz)
2nd Place – Jerry’s of Hollister (Hollister)
3rd Place – MYC Delta Clammers (Martinez)

Most Original Team
1st – Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing (Santa Cruz)
2nd – Dominican Hospital (Santa Cruz)
3rd – Cocoanut Grove Castaways (Santa Cruz)

People’s Choice
Professional: Severino’s Grills (Aptos)
Corporate: Dominican Hospital (Santa Cruz)
Individual: Grandma’s Clam Digger (Aptos)

Most Tasted
Professioinal: Carmona’s BBQ & Deli (Watsonville)
Corporate: Draeger Construction (San Jose)
Individual: Rosie’s Clam & Get it (Soquel)

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PAMA Cocktails and Cupcakes

Lando — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 07:03:12 +0000

PAMA Pomegranate Liqueur is made from combining all natural pomegranate juice, with vodka and tequila, to give you a complex tangy flare with the perfect hint of sweetness.

PAMA sent me a sample to try out and I began to think what would be the best way to enjoy it. A pomegranate martini maybe? Although I’ve always had a cocktail shaker and martini glasses tucked away in my cupboard, I never really put them to use. I checked out PAMA’s website and saw that they had a wide selection of drink and food recipes that called for their liqueur. They featured a Pomegranate Martini recipe that I was inspired by. I just substituted the orange liqueur with a small amount of orange juice for my version. Just combine the following:

2 oz. PAMA Pomegranate Liqueur
1 oz. Premium Vodka
1/2 oz. Orange Juice

I combined all of the ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice, shook it up, and poured it into a martini glass.

It’s simple and easy way to enjoy PAMA Liqueur. If you don’t feel like making a cocktail, go ahead and get creative by cooking a dish using it.

Also, PAMA is being featured by more Cupcakes in Chicago with their cocktail cupcakes. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, you can enjoy the combination of Belgian chocolate, Valrhona pomegranate mousse, pomegranate buttercream – all using PAMA Pomegranate Liqueur. You can order a dozen of these delectable cupcakes on the more Cupcakes website. They will ship them out, just in case you can’t pick up these treats yourself. These cupcakes shy away from traditional flowers and boxed chocolate Valentine’s Day gifts, making them a bit more unique and memorable.

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Happy New Year! Cheers to You All

Lando — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 16:44:31 +0000

With 2009 finally at a close, we want to wish everyone a Happy New Year. There were plenty of good memories to look back upon in 2009, so we’re already looking forward to what 2010 has in store. Cheers to good cooking, eating, and drinking to you all!

Just a sneak peak at what was going on in our kitchen last night. Plenty of food and cooking to bring in the New Year.

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SF’s Dine About Town 2010

Lando — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:49:20 +0000

With 2010 nearing, San Francisco is preparing for Dine About Town once again. Dine About Town allows you to visit select restaurants in the city who are participating in the program. With 2 Course Lunches at $17.95 and 3 Course Dinners $34.95, this just might be that extra push for you to try out a new spot. Dine About Town 2010 will run from January 15th to the 31st.

I was excited to see that Luce was participating this year again. Earlier this year, we had Lunch at Luce during Dine About Town 2009 and was very satisfied. Several other favorite restaurants of mine are participating, which is going to make it hard for me to chose where to go.

For a list of restaurants and sample menus, visit the Dine About Town website.

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