Hello Friends,
It’s good to see you. I haven’t been in your inbox in a while. Did you miss me? Since I last wrote this newsletter, I lost my father. Despite his long illness, the end is really the end. It takes time for this reality to sink into the body. As this newsletter is dedicated to food in all its iterations, I’ll tell you that all I ate for weeks was bread with honey-butter. Pure comfort food. Then my palate went flat. Grief, odd-shaped beast that it is, has unique physical impacts which none of us can predict.
My palate is back to normal and my groove, if not quite all the way there, is taking shape. It feels good to watch the sun’s light shift as we move into autumn. I’m sending out queries again. The asters and torch sunflowers in my garden are blooming and monarchs and other creatures are noticing. It’s literally buzzing (and chirping and fluttering) with activity outside my office window.
Life.
What’s Hot: Rooh, Sizzle, Farm & Lemak
Not all together and not all at the same time. These are just a few of the food and food-adjacent events that have caught my attention in October and November.
ROOH New (Oct 20)
San Francisco’s ROOH recently welcomed Chef Valice Francis to the kitchen. Chef’s culinary journey took him to Indian Accent in New Delhi alongside Manish Mehrotra (often hailed as “Best Chef in India”) and Masala Library in Mumbai, where Valice secured back-to-back “Restaurant of the Year” awards. Most recently Executive Chef at Indian Accent NYC (Michelin recognized, also with Mehrotra),
SIZZLE Drag Dinner (Oct 4, Nov 1)
In support of affordable mental health care for San Francisco’s LGBTQIA+ community, One Market restaurant will transform into a performance space where dinner is delicious, bitches.
Featuring a 4-course meal from Chef Mark Dommen and a drag performance by Bobby Friday and her queens, the Hallowe’en-themed show only goes on twice – October 4 and November 1.
Harvest Fare at Farmhouse (as of Sept 21)
Farmhouse Restaurant at Farmhouse Inn in Forestville, where Craig Wilmer is now Executive Chef, launched a new 6-course menu highlighting Sonoma County’s harvest. There’s squash blossoms and squab, cucumber and cod, and reimaginings of ravioli and egg drop soup alongside a classic Masami Wagyu Farm strip loin.
Don’t dawdle – this menu disappears with the changing of the clocks or the arrival of Brussels sprouts, whichever comes first.
Malaysian Nasi Lemak in Healdsburg (Oct 1, 8, & 15)
Did you miss Chef Jessy Manuel’s Halenia pop-up dinners this summer in Glen Ellen? No worries, Manuel is doing Tuesday dinners at Healdsburg’s Lioco Winery in October. No laksa this time – she’s riffing on Nasi Lemak or Malaysian fish curry. “Lioco’s clean, bright wines pair beautifully with bold Malaysian flavors,” Manuel says.
Oct 1 features Nasi Lemak Sambal Undang (prawn)
Where to Read My Work
Edible Marin & Wine Country published But First, a Sharp Knife, which looks at the 20,000th of an inch that Mike Solaegui considers when sharpening knives. I revisited Sausalito’s Fish to see what renewable efforts they’re up to (a lot!) as they celebrate their 20th year in the restaurant business. Mangia! is a deep dive into Marin, Sonoma and Napa’s heritage Italian restaurants and what it takes to pass a restaurant to the next generation. Again: a lot!
I took a deep dive into Marin’s burgeoning seaweed scene for Marin Magazine – there is some cool sea-centric stuff coming out of NorCal. I interviewed the hottest chef in Marin, and I’ve been helping Kevin at The Marin Dish with new restaurant news.
Giving credit where it’s due, my husband, Stefan, developed the recipe for this Whiskey Yuzu Sour, our drink of the summer. It’s easy to make and delicious.
More coming soon!
Restaurants On My RADAR
I may be the only one who still capitalizes the word – it is an acronym for RAdio Detection And Ranging, but never mind. I’ve been running around NorCal, Montana, Boston and elsewhere, once again eating all the things. Here are a few restaurants that have recently captured my attention.
In Healdsburg, Arandas is dishing exceptional Mexican fare in the space that once housed Cyrus. Don’t miss the oysters with leche de tigre, perfect with a classic margarita and so nice on the back patio.
In San Francisco, Altamirano in NoPa is the perfect neighborhood restaurant, embodying cool style with freshness on the plate – chef’s ahi sashimi tiradito was a recent #bestbite.
In Cow Hollow, The Brixton wowed me not for its burger, which I expected to be excellent, but for its Osaka-style sushi. Go get a spicy tuna stacked on crispy rice cake as soon as possible. I liked the Ichi Ban, too, sliced and layered like a savory mille-feuille. Yum.
Chef Chef Dennis Efthymiou at SoMa’s Luce, whose thalassa made it into my Top Dishes of 2023, is at it again, crafting a new stunner of an 11-course tasting menu. Kudos to the staff, who paced the meal for a max of two hours. It did not feel rushed but did include a Passion Oyster, its shell crafted of chocolate to precisely mimic the real thing, a butter apple as red as Snow White’s, warmed by a lighted wick and a banana croissant that had Stefan saying “oh my God” over and over again.
Over in Chinatown, a 6-course menu from chef Ho Chee Boon at Empress By Boon is equally elegant. On a blustery night, the city views from its 6th-floor perch were subdued but the duck soup warmed the spirit and set the tone for flavors ranging from Cantonese to Sechuan. We wished for doubles of California prawn, delicately sweet with a savory seaweed backbone. Don’t miss the wok-tossed lobster. The plating of claw and tail is stunning matched only by the sweet-spicy flavor of the lobster. I wished for a seafood fork, the better to reach every tiny morsel hiding within.
Montana on My Mind
Last but not least, should you find yourself in Big Fork, Montana, be sure to visit Bonfire. It blew away my Bay Area-spoiled palate, so much so that we ate there twice in three days. I wish I could have back the meal I ate at a restaurant across the street and use it to eat at Bonfire again.
Fabulous. Ping me for details.
Monthly Cookbook Column
My cookbook column went missing for a while, right along with my palate, but I am back with my fourth review. Caroline Eden’s The Black Sea. Originally published in 2018, republished with a new forward in 2023, this cookbook comes from a travel writer who journeys through the countries that surround the Black Sea – Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia and Russia – the stories newly relevant after Russia invaded the sovereign territory of Ukraine in 2022.
Read the entire cookbook review on my website.
Here Come the Holidays
I am deep into sourcing delicious and interesting goodies to be included in my annual holiday gift guides – boozy, foodie, sparklers and cookbooks.
Have you got a gem of a bottle or unique food item that my audience needs to know about? Please get in touch. I’ve got one or two open spots but only for treasured gift ideas.
What I’m Reading & Watching
Though I missed seeing Widow Clicquot while it was playing in local theaters, I did watch on Prime for $5.99. I did not recognize Haley Bennett (Hillbilly Elegy, Girl On a Train) but she is incandescent as the woman who changed winemaking. The movie is paced slowly and carefully, the better to enjoy the lovely production – all those candlelighted French farmhouse scenes and sweeping views of vineyards! If that’s your jam, watch on.
I just finished Butter by Asako Yuzuki, translated by Polly Barton. So, so much going on in this book. Food is a mechanism. For one character, it is a lure and robust indicator of personal passions. For another, it is a necessity for survival. That is, until it becomes something more. Butter is a turning point, a pivot around which the plot spins.
There is so much to unpack, I recommend reading this book alongside someone with whom you can analyze each meal, figure out the feminist mores of Japan, and why friendship can be more important than a love match. Enjoy the ride!
About That Image
Stefan and I stopped by Empress By Boon last week to try the new menu from Chef Ho Chee Boon. (Yes, you should get the Pekin Duck supplement.) It’s a fun menu with uni paired with housemade tofu and baked Alaskan cod that hits all the right notes. The wok-tossed lobster stole the show. You can see why.
Thanks for reading and be in touch.
Christina