Hello Friends,

I am just in from my bi-annual visits to New York City and Boston to spend time with family and eat all the things. Yes, I missed the Nor’easter by a day and had sparkling fall weather while on the Atlantic seaboard. The deciduous trees had their first real chilly evenings of the season and I spotted a few spectacular specimens in Central Park, from my seat on the Acela from Moynihan to Back Bay, and driving around Massachusetts.

I’m done sourcing for my holiday gift guides – Foodie, Boozy, and Cookbooks – and those will start to drop in November. My freshest goodies await, below.

As ever, I’m looking for hidden gems. Got ideas? Send ’em over.

Until then, take care, eat all the things and shine on!

Christina

What’s Hot:

These are just a few of the food and food-adjacent events that have caught my attention in October and early November.

June Baby’s Ube Colada, photo credit Nicholas Ruiz

Pumpkin Menu at North Block (thru October 30)

Pumpkinheads, unite! Ending just before the ghouls emerge, a four-course menu from Chef Antonio Natal at Yountville’s North Block cozies up to sometimes hot, sometimes chilly October by placing all things squash at the heart of a seasonally-driven menu. The menu:

wood-roasted kabocha with stracciatella and Calabrian chile
pumpkin caramelle with robiola, aged balsamic and hazelnut
Akaushi short rib with honeynut squash and charred radicchio
pumpkin budino with burnt honey, mascarpone, and pepita brittle.

$75 per person

The regular menu is available, too.

Make a Reservation at North Block

Fleet Week Barbecue By the Bay (Oct 11)

Is there a better spot to watch the Blue Angels than right next to the Golden Gate Bridge on the Marin side? Me thinks not. Cavallo Point is hosting a Fleet Week party in time with the soaring F/A-18 Super Hornets. Pair that with a family-friendly barbecue celebration and the afternoon will be rockin’.

Menu:

beer-braised BBQ pulled pork sandwiches
grilled organic chicken with smoky BBQ sauce
three-cheese mac and cheese
three veg-forward salads, corn on the cob buttermilk biscuits
strawberry shortcake and watermelon

Plus a separate kids’ menu with hot dogs and mini-cheeseburgers.

Each kid’s ticket comes with a kite to fly at the property’s Parade Grounds.

Beer & wine sold separately.

12 noon – 3 p.m.

$85/adult, $30/child

Make a Reservation for Fleet Week BBQ By the Bay

Salo-Salo at Abacá (Oct 12)

The Filipino tradition of gathering through food, a.k.a. salo-salo, is happening throughout Filipino-American history month. But, for one night only at San Francisco’s Abacá, chefs and bartenders from across the country are hosting a walk-around dinner party with plate after plate of Filipino American food and drinks. Dishes from Sarap Shop (San Francisco), Lasita (Los Angeles) and others include:

Golden Wagyu Salpicao with Turmeric Potato Chip
Gulf Shrimp Toast, Pinipig
Smoked Trout Roe Bringhe Paella, Lapcheong, Coconut Milk
Halo-halo Snow Ice, Ube Halaya, Leche Flan

Plus a skewer station, sisig fried rice, pork lumpia, and tons more.

With drinks from New York’s June Baby.

Starts at 6 p.m.

$85 per person includes 1 welcome drink + unlimited bites

Reservations are required.

Make a Reservation for Salo-Salo at Abacá

Farming Hope’s Feed it Forward Gala (Nov 7)

The San Francisco non-profit that provides hands-on culinary training for people facing employment barriers while also feeding the community – Farming Hope – celebrates its 10th anniversary with a food-forward party. Among more than a dozen chefs hosting stations are:

Melissa Perello (Octavia, Frances and Sorrell)
Nelson German (Meski, Sobre Mesa and AlaMar)
Ravi Kapur / Brett Shaw (Liho Liho Yacht Club / Good Good Culture Club)
Gavin Schmidt (The Morris)

The evening will also include a live auction and fund-a-need benefiting Farming Hope’s apprenticeship and community meal programs.

6 – 9 p.m., with an after party from 9 – 11 p.m.

$400 per person, including after party or $100 for after party only

Make a Reservation for Feed It Forward Gala

Where to Read My Work

Just in time for chilly season, I revamped my raclette seasoning recipe, which Stefan swears is better than anything he can buy in France or Switzerland – and all ingredients are available Stateside. Whee!

There’s even more new places in Marin to enjoy a great meal.

I dove deep on the return of Tartine to its ancestral home in Mill Valley.

More next month!

My “Culinary Voyages” Podcast

For my twelfth podcast, I sat down with Restaurateur Gianluca Legrottaglie and and daughter Alice (pronounced: Ah-lee-che). Legrottaglie’s latest project – CLementina – is more personal. When Alice was diagnosed with celiac disease, the family’s perspective on dining out changed. The result? A celiac-safe Italian restaurant with exceptionally flavorful pizza, pasta, and focaccia.

We dig in on how the restaurant idea became a reality, the joy of eating gluten-free in Italy, and how on earth the team figured out how to make gluten-free pizza that folds. Yes, folds!

October’s Best Bites: 7 Places to Eat Now

Sequoia Grove_A Taste for Cabernet_Halibut and Clams_horizontal

Halibut & Clams from Chef Bryce Palmer at Sequoia Grove Winery – photo credit Christina Mueller

For October, my look at restaurants in the Bay Area and beyond includes Cassava, a hidden gem in San Francisco’s Jackson Square and Payakk, hiding in Oakland’s Montclair neighborhood. I also sample the fare at New York’s only revolving restaurant, 48 stories above Times Square, visit Napa for an expansive (and thrilling!) lunch, and return to a Boston favorite.

Read October’s Where to Eat column on my website. And here’s September’s Where to Eat.

Clearly, I Am Not A Food Person

Tony (2026) movie poster

“Tony”

I went to see this classic Bildungsroman (coming-of-age story) with my friend and fellow food nerd, Jodie. As a Jersey girl who grew up two towns over from Bourdain (Tenafly and Leonia), I did not know he attended Dwight-Englewood, one of many little nuggets peppered into the movie. The story, a character-building study of the young man Bourdain once was, beautifully captures a specific time and place and Bourdain’s character-building journey.

I thought it was a terrific piece of film-making and especially enjoyed the ending. (Jodie and I both audibly gasped.)

Did you see it? Thoughts?

About That Image

Many things struck me as I gazed at this dessert of Butterfly Pea Dumplings with coconut at Oakland’s Thai “hidden gem,” Payakk – the asymmetry of the dish, the purple-blue color literally bouncing out of the dumplings, the shades of cream in the coconut and the choice of a cream-colored service plate, the way your eye is drawn to the mint sprig. The dumplings wriggled as the plate was placed on the table. The cool sweetness of the dumplings, the hot sweetness of the cream. I could go on…

Yum.

Thanks for reading and be in touch.