This candy bar — jour et nuit by Bernachon –  my sister brought back from Paris was pretty darn great.  I need to figure out how to get more of this, might be the best chocolate bar I’ve ever had.

The other chocolates and pate de fruits from Patrick Roger were pretty good too.

Just goes to show that “caviar taste on a beer budget” is genetic.

This is our box for the week from Eatwell Farm.  We’ve got apples, oranges, lemons, strawberries, lemon balm, parsley, sugar snap peas, green garlic, spring onions, spinach, carrots, mixed greens.

We’re on the 12 week program (13th week is free) w/ a half dozen eggs, which comes to about $29 a box.  Considering we get our box next door, the fruits and vegetables are organic AND they’re picked the week of delivery, it’s a no brainer value — and ridiculous from a freshness standpoint.

You also get things you might not normally buy at the store like romanesco, daikon, rainbow chard, jerusalem artichokes, rutabagas, and watermelon radish.  And you learn to eat seasonally, which makes you realize we actually do have seasons in Northern California.

There are a few drawbacks.  It’s not always easy to eat everything in a week, and you do have to cook.  You might get weeks of weeks of something you might not like for example red cabbage or kale.  You might not have enough of something to finish a recipe — need one more eggplant or one more onion, so you’ll have to supplement that at the store.  You’ll also never get bananas (obviously) and probably some other “non-standard” vegetable.

Sign up with Eatwell if you’re in the Bay Area or I’d encourage signing up for another Community Support Agriculture (CSA) program like Eatwell Farm.  A lot of them are popping up all over California and the rest of the United States.

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* Hard to say whether or not CSA is scalable, I’m sure less than 1% of the country subscribes to a CSA.  But it would be great to see because in practice we feel healthier and feel better knowing where our  food comes from and the knowing the people who farm it.

]]> http://www.rebron.org/2011/04/28/eatwell-farm/feed/ 3 http://www.rebron.org/2011/04/27/acai-bowls/ http://www.rebron.org/2011/04/27/acai-bowls/#comments Wed, 27 Apr 2011 19:07:08 +0000 rebron http://www.rebron.org/?p=2576

I’ve been making these Acai bowls for breakfast or lunch and they’re delicious.  First had these at Lanikai Juice in Kailua and then had them again when I was in Los Angeles at a couple places.

Really simple to make, just need to buy or order the frozen Acai pulp, I get mine from Berkeley Bowl but can also get from Amazon.com.  The fuzion is good but I like the original blend.

To make it, just two of the smoothie packets, some soy milk (or apple juice but I like soy milk) in the blender and blend away.  Put it in a bowl, add fruit like: blueberries, raspberries, bananas, strawberries, and then add some granola.  I’ve seen some with a little bit of yogurt too but maybe too much.  I like Cafe Fanny’s granola but also Blue Bottle’s granola.  It takes at most five minutes to put it all together, which is great too.

This bowl is maybe 300+ calories but if it’s breakfast or lunch it’s not bad.  I like eating it post workout too — just tastes good and looks pretty too.

Oakland has some pretty good drinks.  A few that I really like:

• Gin and Tonic from Pizzaiolo; the tonic is a house made tonic by Cate Whalen
• As good as the gin and tonic is, I like their whiskey cocktail better.  It’s made with Buffalo Trace bourbon whiskey (my favorite liquor)
• Linden St. Black Lager or their Common Lager are really nice, can only be found on tap at just a few places.
• Blue Bottle’s Bella Donovan coffee is what I normally drink for coffee (daily basis)

Haven’t really tried Numi tea, another Oakland company.  We want to but just haven’t pulled the trigger we have so much tea in the house.  I get tea from Teance in Berkeley, their ba bao chao and pu-erh teas and we also get tea from Republic of Tea, Ginseng peppermint and several other kinds.  We’ve got a lot of tea.  We’ll try Numi eventually.

Power Dessert – Tofu w/ Chia Seeds and Maple Syrup

In a cup, add the following:

• 3 tablespoons of chia seeds (after soaked in water for 10 minutes)
• 2/3 cup of silken tofu (I like Hodo Soy’s from Berkeley Bowl)
• 2 – 3 tablespoons of maple syrup (real maple syrup not pancake syrup)

That’s it.  I’ve been eating this a lot lately, instead of ice cream and other desserts.

Emergency Dessert – Castella

My other go to dessert is Castella or Kasutera, a simple slight honey flavored sponge cake brought to Japan from Portugal.  They have these in the freezer section of Berkeley Bowl.  I like to keep it in the freezer and I like it as an emergency dessert for myself (as in if we’ve got nothing else) or in case we have guests over.  It’s good with tea, coffee, morning, afternoon, late evening.

]]> http://www.rebron.org/2011/02/13/power-emergency-dessert/feed/ 0 http://www.rebron.org/2010/12/08/chia-seeds/ http://www.rebron.org/2010/12/08/chia-seeds/#comments Thu, 09 Dec 2010 07:39:27 +0000 rebron http://www.rebron.org/?p=2461

Chia seeds

I finally finished the Born to Run book that everyone I workout with seems to cite so I figured I’d get in on the references.  One of the things I thought was interesting was the chia seed talk as well as pinole — which seems to be toasted cornmeal with sugar and cinnamon.  So chia seeds are supposed to be good for you and doesn’t taste like anything.  These two I guess are the super foods for the super athlete Tarahumara Indians.  Thought I’d give it a shot.

I bought some chia seeds from Amazon.  They’re not expensive and I’ve been taking 3 tablespoons, 3 times a day of chia seeds.  You’re supposed to put the chia seeds in water first to expand.  And then the seeds soak up the water and forms a jelly looking barrier around the seed.

Anyhow, I just add more water or pineapple juice (or any juice) to the seeds and drink it up.  I’ve also added it to soft tofu (taho) with maple syrup.

The health benefits are supposed to be pretty good, lowers blood pressure, helps with diet, high levels of omega-3.  We’ll see how it goes.  So far so good, energy is up and food cravings have been down.  In a month or two, will see if it actually helps with the diet and blood pressure bit.

True Burger

We ate at  True Burger, in Oakland, last weekend and have to say that True Burger is now my new burger place — post workout reward, post Tahoe/road trip meal.  It’s a small restaurant and they do burgers, fries, milkshakes, and that’s about it and they do it really well.

In comparison to In N’ Out, True Burger’s burgers have much better flavor, better bun, slightly larger, and less greasy.  In N’ Out’s fries aren’t very good, True Burger fries are crispy and tasty.  The milk shakes are tastier too, it’s vanilla or chocolate or with fill-ins like vanilla with strawberry, peanut butter, coffee, etc.  You could say that True Burger is looking to create reference, by the book best versions of the American burger, fries, and milk shake and they do a ridiculously great job.  Here’s a much better review but essentially, no more trips to In N’ Out.

red velvet cup cake, from Cupkates Bakery

Cupkates Bakery

The other “best thing I’ve eaten” moment was a week or so ago when I was gifted with a Key Lime pie cupcake from Cupkates Bakery.  If you see the Cupkates cupcake truck, wave them down and buy the $3 Key Lime pie cupcake.  It’s just crazy good.  I guess they drive around Oakland and San Francisco. 

Key Lime Pie $3/ea
A graham cracker crust, key lime cake, curd filled, and topped with meringue frosting. Available with or without toasted coconut.

pop-up general store (OPEN TODAY 6/30/2010 at 5pm – 7pm at Grace Street Catering) is part of this interesting food movement that’s happening in the Bay Area along with Jon’s Street Eats, Eatwell Farm, any Bay Area farmer’s market — where there’s this mix of food reverence, technology, and a bit of grunge.

Anyway, here’s pop-up general’s store description:

is a group of professional cooks {nearly all of us current or former Chez Panisse cooks} making the foods we love to eat. We Pop-Up every two or three weeks so that you can get your hands on some.

pop-up general store is effectively in Ghost town.  Whatever.  Will check it out.  One of our favorite restaurants that closed, Cafe Jojo’s in Oakland (which had the best steak frites), is now doing catering and offering products through the store so it’s pretty cool to see them back in action.

We’re over at the Berkeley Bowl and I’m about to go grab some Nutella.  Nutella has a low glycemic index and therefore ok to eat?  That’s what I told myself anyway.

Next to Nutella on the shelf is Nocciolata and instead of grabbing Nutella, I grabbed it instead.  Glad I did because Nocciolata is ridiculously delicious, tons better than Nutella — game over.  It’s available on Amazon and it’s worth seeking out.

Anyway, make sure you’re on a workout program before you buy a jar.

To try eventually…

Three Stars
The French Laundry

Two Stars
Coi
Cyrus
Manresa
Meadowood

One Star
Acquerello
Ame
Aqua
Auberge du Soleil
Aziza
Bouchon
Boulevard
Chez Panisse
Chez TJ
Commis
Ritz Carlton Dining Room
étoile
Farmhouse Inn and Restaurant
Fifth Floor
Fleur de Lys
Gary Danko
La Folie
La Toque
Luce
Madrona Manor
Masa’s
Michael Mina
Murray Circle
One Market
Plumed Horse
Quince
Range
Redd
Santé
Solbar
Terra
Trevese
The Village Pub
Ubuntu

Everyday

• Breads of India
• Cactus Taqueria
• La Calaca
• Lotus Thai
• Rikyu
• Shan Dong
• Zachary’s

Special

• Camino
• Commis
• Flora
• Gary Danko
• Pizzaiolo
• Rivoli
• Soi 4
• Trattoria La Siciliana

Breakfast

• Ole’s
• Rick and Ann’s
• Yank Sing/Ton Kiang

I deleted my previous post on Rikyu, I delete too much, oh well.  We ate there the other day and the waitress was like, “I think you wrote one of our very first reviews, aren’t you rebron?” Funny.  That’s my work nickname.  I’m not much of a reviewer.  More of generalist, go/don’t go, buy/don’t buy.

Anyway, go to Rikyu for some really good sushi and Japanese food.  The sushi chef is from Kirala and the quality of the fish is great.  We haven’t tried too many other things but the miso soup is really good and their salad is a real salad.  A lot of places serve wimpy miso soup and salad.  If you get shiso leaves with your sushi, I think you’re at a decent sushi place.  I’m still on quest for a Japanese place that serves fresh wasabi.

The waitstaff is cool, very attentive.  It just opened and it’s not in the most trafficked location so there’s no wait yet.  If you don’t feel like waiting for Kirala, then go here.  And while there are at least four other sushi places on College Ave. (and we’ve eaten at those too), one almost every two blocks, this one is the real deal.  It’s a homey, no nonsense sushi place.

• D’Artagnan – buffalo, truffles, blue foot chicken, game birds and meats
• Hudson Valley Foie Gras – foie gras
• Catalina Offshore Products – sushi stuff, sea urchin, tuna
• Dean & Deluca – gifts, pantry stuff
• Fortnum & Mason – tea
• Salumi Cured Meats -salami, finocchiona

Some tea recommendations (per request):

My absolute favorite tea – Rose pouchong from Fortnum & Mason

Other favorites:

• Puerh (various) from Imperial Tea court (based in San Francisco)
  
• Ginger Peach, Ginseng Peppermint, Good Hope Vanilla, and a few others from Republic of Tea
• Korean Red Ginseng tea
• Marrakesh Mint from Mighty Leaf tea and they have other good flavors
• Genmai-cha and Mugicha, a barley tea

I haven’t tried Numi Tea but they’re local based out of Oakland over near the Embarcadero.  Teance is local too out of Berkeley.  Starbucks serves Tazo and their tea is ok.

Puerh and Republic of Teas are what I regularly drink.  Tea is supposed to be good for you, does stain your teeth worse than coffee though.  I haven’t figured out what to drink when, e.g. if you’re sick drink such and such tea, though puerh and red ginseng do give me an energy boost and calms me down, and gingseng peppermint is my stress reducer.

Coffee in the morning and tea in the afternoon and evening.

Related thoughts on coffee and chocolate

Hood Honey ~ Harvested from OakTown NeighborHoods, this Honey from Oakland, CA is very popular with the locals.  Our bees stay out of trouble bee-cause they are too busy gathering sweet Oakland nectars.  This honey is a middle-range amber village mix.*

Supposedly eating local honey (a teaspoon a day for 2 – 3 months before allergy season), can help you from having bad allergies.  For those in the Bay Area, Marshall Farms has honey from different areas of the Bay.  The theory is that the honey has pollen from the area and you get to ingest some of that and so your body is used to the pollen.

I think I’m trying it a little later this year for it to work (still trying it though) and definitely will do it next year.  My allergy cocktail of claritin, nasonex, similisan, and a couple other things aren’t helping.

—

*  Even the beekeepers are making fun of the crime in Oakland.  Ridiculous.  Hood Honey is really good though.

** Random extras.  I still need to try Tupelo honey; and, Strauss Family Creamery, where we get our milk, makes really good vanilla and chocolate ice cream.  It’s cheaper than Ben & Jerry’s by a bunch.  Worth seeking out, tastes homemade.

This oyster po’ boy from Brown Sugar Kitchen, in West Oakland, is going to give Bakesale Betty’s fried chicken sandwich a run for her money.  You watch.

There’s Flora Restaruant, B Restaurant, and some new restaurant that just opened up near Jack London Square (folks from San Francisco) that I can’t seem to find, that I want to try.  Flora is in my favorite building (blue Art deco across from the Fox Theatre) in Oakland, that I’d love to own one day.  We tried Sura restaurant, a relatively new Korean restaurant on “kimchee row” on Telegraph, and it was pretty good.  Good soondobu.

The (household) consensus is that the best restaurant in the East Bay is Rivoli.

They have $1 wine tastings and really good and nicely priced wine from all over.

Across the street is Casper’s hot dogs (really good old school hot dogs and milk shakes).  Next door to Wine Mine is Cafe Mariposa, this gluten-free bakery.  They sell their food to a lot of places including Whole Foods.

We try out new rice every so often brown rice, some multi-colored rice, jasmine, etc.  I picked up this brown rice Kagayaki haiga rice.  It’s supposedly brown rice in nutritional value but tastes like white rice.  It’s pretty good and probably we’ll keep this as our main rice.

While we’re here, if you can find/buy Louisiana gulf shrimp, it’s much, much better than the regular shrimp you get in the store, it’s not gummy, and it’s a little “shrimpier”/”murkier”.  We usually only get a chance to eat gulf shrimp in Louisiana so when we saw some in the store we picked some up and I remembered the difference in taste.

• Zachary’s Rockridge on College -Chicago style, spinach and mushroom or Zachary’s special
• CheeseBoard Berkeley Gourmet Ghetto on Shattuck – foo foo Berkeley style
• Pizzaiolo Temescal on Telegraph – wood oven, former Chez Panisse pizza cook
• LaneSplitter’s Temescal on Telegraph- New York style; thin crust

Too good.

Soup kick:

• Soondubu from My Tofu House on Geary in SF, or Pyung Chang on Telegraph
• Chicken soup from La Calaca Loca in Temescal
• Tom Yung Kung from Lotus Thai (we only do take out now, FYI)
• Seafood soup w/ handmade noodles from Shan Dong, downtown Oakland

Could use some more Oakland/Berkeley/SF recommendations maybe for Cioppino, clam chowder, etc.

Some notable soups I’m still hoping to find something comparable here: bouillabaisse in Marseille and French Onion soup in Montreal

A good friend of mine hooked me up with some Royce chocolate from Japan today. It’s pretty good.

I’d go with Neuhaus belgian chocolates for Valentine’s Day. Marie Belle is really good/artsy too and Bay Area local chocolate is nice too, Michael Recchiuti and Charle’s Chocolates. I’m cool with being cheap, but not with chocolate.

Not sure what it is with Belgians and chocolates (and beer and waffles and french fries) but they’re really good.

As we’re nearing Valentine’s Day here are my favorites:

• Neuhaus (belgian chocolates)
• Joseph Schmidt* (founded in SF but now owned by Hershey’s)
• Recchiuiti* (based in San Francisco)
• MarieBelle (based in New York) – expensive, killer hot chocolate though

But, I usually just eat slivers of the big baking chocolate bars

• Valhrona
• El Rey – killer white chocolate
• Scharffen Berger (local but now owned by Hershey’s)

* Part of the Eatwell Ecosystem

I’m not a coffee connoisseur but lucky to be in the Bay Area where there’s lots of really good coffee.  These are the coffee blends I like:

• Blue Bottle (Oakland based) – Bella Donovan and Espresso Temescal usually
• Cole Coffee (Oakland based) – Max’s Blend, for cyclists
• Mr. Espresso (Oakland based) – Gold Medal Blend
• Peet’s (Berkeley based) – Major Dickinson’s Blend, for cyclists
• Peerless coffee (Oakland based)- not sure what blend I like but lots of restaurants and donut shops serve their coffee
• Lion Coffee – 100% Kona coffee

I use a Chemex coffee maker primarily and also a Bialetti espresso maker, and a French press.

I’d love to check out more but it’s pricey to be eating out.

Two Stars
Aqua, San Francisco
Chez TJ (new), Mountain View
Cyrus, Healdsburg
Manresa, Los Gatos
Meadowood, St. Helena
Michael Mina, San Francisco

One Star
Acquerello, San Francisco
Ame (new), San Francisco
Auberge du Soleil, Rutherford
Bistro Jeanty, Yountville
Bouchon, Yountville
Boulevard, San Francisco
Chez Panisse, Berkeley
Coi (new), San Francisco
Cortez (new), San Francisco
Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco
Farmhouse Inn Restaurant, Forestville
Fifth Floor, San Francisco
Fleur de Lys, San Francisco
Gary Danko, San Francisco
L Bistro, Sebastopol
La Folie, San Francisco
La Toque, San Francisco
Madrona Manor (new), Healdsburg
Martini House (new), St. Helena
Masa’s, San Francisco
One Market (new), San Francisco
Quince, San Francisco
Range, San Francisco
Redd (new), Yountville
Rubicon, San Francisco
Sushi-Ran, Sausalito
Terra, St. Helena