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I’m not a chocolate connoisseur either.

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
• 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

I thought I had a post on coffee shops but I guess I deleted it.  I’ll put a list together — Bay Area coffee shops with good coffee, wireless, snacks, etc.  I can’t say I have a favorite.

I’ve been to the French Laundry a couple times and it really is that good but it’s really intense and goes a little overboard. It’s more like a clinic than it is a dining experience. Bouchon (bistro food) is so much cooler and cheaper. The only other restaurants I’ve been to are Boulevard, Chez Panisse, and Gary Danko.

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

Been going out lately to some nice restaurants in the East Bay.  Here’s what I thought anyways…

Recently went to Rivoli finally on Solano Ave in Albany.  Very tasty, a little pricey.  Italian/California Cuisine type restaurant.  It’s a small restaurant.  Awesome service.  The street is very cool.  Nice to walk up and down.

Rockridge 

• Oliveto’s (upstairs) - one of the best restaurants in Oakland, Italian/California cuisine, pricey, great food, nice atmosphere.  It’s a special occasion place.
• Hiro’s Sushi - been going here a lot.  family style, laid back Japanese food, very homey; guaranteed no line, so perfect if you get stuck at Kirala and you’re hungry.  Up the block, Uzen is pretty good too.
• Somerset - hard to characterize the food here, I guess upscale American.  The food is good, good for brunch, the decor is classy but lots of wood.  A friend of a friend owns it.
• Soi4 - trendy Thai, nice place for a hot date

Wood Tavern, haven’t been yet but supposed to be good.  Pearl is supposed to be good.  We also go to Cactus Taqueria, Citron or Acote on special occasions.  We also go to Zachary’s pizza when the mood hits.  Haven’t been yet to Pizzaiolo in Temescal.  And I do like LaneSplitter’s Pizza also in Temescal.

Temescal

• Pyung Chang tofu house.  Not as good as My Tofu House on Geary but pretty good.
• La Calaca Loca - quick Mexican food.  good chicken soup and fish tacos.
• Tanjia is this Moroccan place.  Very cool with Belly Dancing, food is ok.
• Bakesale Betty’s of course - oatmeal cookies, chicken sandwiches are too dangerous

Haven’t been to Genova lately for sandwiches.  Need to go back to Dona Tomas (fancy Mexican) to give it another chance.

Piedmont Ave

• Bay Wolf - kind of every day fancy, California cuisine.  Food is good.  Strangely went here twice this year.
• Jojo - my all time favorite restaurant, country French, menu doesn’t change much, best steak frites - my favorite dish
• Went to Fenton’s for an ice cream sundae.  The first few bites were good but their ice cream kinda sucks.  Tango Gelato down the block has no line and is 10x better.

Haven’t been to Lotus Thai this year… :-)  Cesar (spanish tapas) is so overrated, always packed.  Dopo (Italian) overrated and packed too.

On the hit list to try next is:

• Art’s Crab Shack, Ohgane
• And non-Oakland: Bistro Luneta (in San Mateo), Foreign Cinema (SF), Ozumo (SF) and that should do it

I’m surprised I haven’t written anything about Bakesale Betty yet so here’s the scoop/review (and here’s hoping she web searches for “Bakesale Betty” and my post comes up and I get like a free sandwich or something…). Here’s the Yelp review too since I stole their fried chicken photo…

Bakesale Betty is just a couple blocks away from me, so it’s very dangerous. It’s over in Temescal and it took over a location that used to be Merritt Bakery and before that a cell phone/pager store. Temescal is a “transitional” neighborhood and it’s transitioning to be quite the new/hot/Bay Area bohemian spot due to Bakesale Betty, Pizziaolo, Tagine, Dona Tomas, Genova, Lane Splitters, Dollar Cleaners!, and several happening Korea places, etc.

Bakesale Betty has this now super famous chicken sandwich. It’s a fried chicken sandwich, with jalapeno coleslaw on Acme bread and it costs $7.25 or $7.50 I can’t remember. Everyone in Oakland knows about it and people are coming in from San Francisco checking it out.

Bakesale Betty also has great oatmeal cookies, scones, and everything is good.

You may get lagniappe (an extra cookie or a lemon bar or something) if you’re served by the right person (or maybe Bakesale Betty and her girls think I’m cute…that could be it).

When we first saw Bakesale Betty, we totally thought she was going to go out of business really quickly because all she sold were lemon bars and these sticky date puddings. They were good but who banks their business on lemon bars and sticky date puddings. Now Bakesale Betty really helped make Temescal cool– you should see how their business is set up and the lines outside their door.

Bakesale Betty has a jingle. All companies should have a jingle. I want a jingle.

Bakesale Betty incubated her company through the farmer’s market circuit. Quite smart! And Farmer’s Markets really are becoming a place where new businesses do incubate.

Bakesale Betty has befriended the Fire Department 4 or 5 houses down the street. The Firemen come into Bakesale Betty’s often so everyone knows not to f*ck with Bakesale Betty. One of their best moves.

I’m kinda sick of restaurant food. I’ve been going out a bit lately and here’s what I don’t like:

• there are *no*, *none*, *zero* healthy, cheap, everyday type restaurants — a place where you could eat everyday and feel good about it, e.g. a healthy $5 - $7 meal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
• food portions are huge, I’m now just getting maybe two appetizers and sharing dessert versus getting an entree, it’s no wonder as Americans we are so overweight;
• the prices in general are whack, way overpriced! Across the board.
• the food is more or less the same (across genres), not very creative menus, nothing is wowing me lately (and I’ve been going to good places);
• Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Thai, Vietnamese places cater to an American palate so the food is not necessarily “authentic”. Sure different ingredients here but I hate it when it’s dumbed down.

It’s not that I can do better, I can’t. But at home at least I can control portion size, the quality of the ingredients, cooking some things correctly (salmon or any fish overcooked at a restaurant sucks!), and price to an extent.

To me the only good thing about going out to a restaurant these days is that I don’t have to worry about washing dishes and putting them away. And that’s about it.

There’s nothing like good pots. I’m doing a slow kitchen upgrade, kitchen 1.5 if you will. Kitchen 1.0 consisted of cheap Emerilware non-stick pots and pans built by All Clad. They’ve done well the past 5 - 6 years and it was a good starter set. All Clad’s marketing is pretty good but I can’t really say the same for their low-end pots and pans they’re just ok, a bit overpriced and slightly overrated?

So over to Matfer Bourgeat products. We got a 7 1/2 quart “sauce” pot (we use it as a stock pot) and I like it a lot. We got it from Pastry Central but I think there are probably cheaper places to buy these pots.

I christened the pot with this killer mussels with saffron and mustard recipe. The next day cooked some pasta in it and none of the pasta stuck to the bottom, sign of a good pot.