Holiday Dining

I opted to stay out of both the kitchen and stores for the holidays, so we ate in a lot of restaurants the past few weeks. First, there was Citizen Cake in SF and Seven in San Jose (see below). Then, my husband and I stopped at Massimo in Walnut Creek after going to see the local Christmas Carol performance at Lesher Center on Friday night. We were seated promptly and I thought the menu was great. My picky husband went for the nightly pasta special - spaghetti! Ho, hum, I said. It was a chilly night so I wanted winter comfort food - and what could be better than rabbit with polenta. Their "Rabbit Three Ways" (confit, seared, and braised) was excellent, but the polenta was an out-of-body experience. It was simply wonderful, and the portions were large so I had enough for lunch another day. I highly recommend this restaurant.

Saturday we had a Sharks game, so we went to the bar at the De Anza hotel in San Jose. They have the best bar food. I love the grilled prawns with oranges and balsamic, and the carpaccio is amazing. Good pizzas too.

The following Monday, Sandy and I went to the movies in Albany. Ajanta Indian restaurant is close by, so we went there for dinner. We'd eaten there once before and loved it, and I've been wanting to go back. We had the scallop appetizer, which was nothing special, but the entrees we shared, Badami Murg and Palak Kofta, were both really tasty. We ordered medium spice, which was perfect.

Tuesday we had another Sharks game, so out again for dinner, but we were running late so we just went to Quizno's. We did at least stay home on Christmas Eve, and had a nice cheese fondue with apples, sausage, and baguette for dipping. This is a long-standing tradition for us, and was followed by the umpteenth viewing of Edward Scissorhands and then opening gifts. [Why, you might ask, would anyone want to watch Edward S. on Christmas Eve? Because, well, it IS a story about why it would snow in a bedroom suburb in California, isn't it?!]

For Christmas dinner, we decided to splurge and go to Jordan's at the Claremont Hotel in Berkeley. They have a buffet that's pretty amazing, although so is the price ($89). We had a table with great views of the bay and the city, and I definitely got my money's worth - crab, shrimp, salads, breakfast food (gingerbread waffles, BACON, sausage, wonderful eggs benedict), and the usual holiday fare (turkey/ham/prime rib). Of course, it was all lost on Mr. Picky, who ate about $7 worth of food. Should have taken him to Quizno's, I suppose. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it, although it will probably be a one-time thing. After dinner, we had a nice drive out to the Berkeley marina and enjoyed the scenery before going to see Seven Pounds at the Shattuck Cinema. Good flick, if you like to laugh AND cry. But we are serious Will Smith fans, so how could it be bad?

The day after Christmas (you'd think we'd have been sick of going out, wouldn't you?) we had Nutcracker tix in SF, so I had made a reservation at Jardiniere for after the performance. We arrived 1/2 hour early (but they knew we were coming from the ballet and had our table ready), were seated promptly, and had a nice table overlooking the bar. Luckily, there were several menu choices for Mr. Picky, including his favorite soup, butternut squash. I had the duck confit salad, which was really tasty, and he loved the soup. For entrees, he had the short rib, and I had the sea bass, which was one of the best fish dishes I've ever had. It was served with crispy skin over a bed of roasted veggies that were caramelized to perfection. Mr. Picky scarfed his entire plate, so I know he enjoyed it. In fact, he wants to go back. Now if we can just get a reservation at a normal dining time! It's no wonder the place is so popular.

OK, I should have been tired of dining out by then, right? Well, no, on Saturday I had a lunch with friends at Amarin Thai in Lafayette, a place I love despite it not being particularly authentic. The food is just consistently good, and it's a nice place for lunch when the knitting bug hits because there are TWO yarn stores in walking distance. So, a fun but expensive afternoon was had by all.

Finally, the dining binge ended Saturday evening with a visit to a local favorite, Left Bank in Pleasant Hill. We were taking the ex-sister-in-law and nieces out for dinner. The girls are picky, so with 3 picky eaters in the group Left Bank usually works. Well, the food was good, but the service was horrible. Our reservation was for 6:45, and we finally left at 9:00. Good thing they brought lots of bread to the table. Apparently they have a new chef and he sort of lost control of the kitchen. They apologized with an order of profiteroles for the table, so we were somewhat mollified. I sure hope they go back to their usual speedy service in the future.

That's it! Sunday night I made marinated, sauteed chicken breasts and salad at home. It would have been memorable if we hadn't spent the entire evening addressing our (late) holiday cards.

Sandy's Birthday

My friend Sandy's birthday is right before Christmas, so this year we went to see Sarah Brightman in San Jose at HP Pavilion. Being a Sharks ticketholder, I go there fairly often, and have been wanting to try Seven Restaurant on The Alameda, so I decided to take her there as a birthday treat. We opted to share small plates, and we are both oyster lovers so we started with a dozen Hood Canals, which were VERY tasty, served with a nice mignonette. We had a butter lettuce salad with beets, which was nice, and then our favorite dish of the evening, mushroom strudel. Yum. We also had the crispy spaetzle with pancetta, which we really liked, and the chili relleno, which was just OK. For dessert, we had the creme brulee with honey and lavendar, and it was good as well. Service was excellent and we finished in plenty of time to make it to the event. Needless to say, Sarah Brightman was amazing (although her speaking voice is a bit annoying) - boy, can she sing!

Citizen Cake

My husband and I had tickets to see Phantom of the Opera at the Orpheum Theater in San Francisco last night, so I made a reservation for dinner at Citizen Cake since it's only a couple of blocks away. I'd eaten there once before and it was really good, and they have amazing desserts. John is a picky eater so he opted out on the appetizers, but I had their sous vide pork belly with dates and persimmons. Yum! Like pig candy. John had the pork chop with Brussels sprout hash and apple. Mr. Picky said the chop was wonderful, but didn't like the crunchy sprouts and didn't even taste the apples. (I just don't know what to do with him and his food fears!) I had the diver scallops with artichoke puree and fennel. Well, I can only think of one other time I've had scallops I enjoyed this much. For dessert, he had apple crepes with maple ice cream and I had gingerbread custard and vanilla ice cream. And then I went to the cafe and got a couple of small sandwich cookies to take to the theater, one lemon and one chocolate. These were absolutely the best sandwich cookies I've ever eaten. I hate Oreos, but these were truly amazing. We also had a wonder time seeing Phantom again, and this time we had great seats so it was spectacular.

Paper Chef 35

My entry this month is a "blood" orange risotto cake, with "drunken" Mexican white shrimp in a blood orange vinaigrette. It can be served warm or at room temperature. Unfortunately, I was unable to find real blood oranges (see Market Day below), so I made the vinaigrette with purchased blood orange vinegar and used plain naval oranges for the risotto cake (colored with a bit of red food color to simulate the real thing. The shrimp were marinated and baked in French brandy and Patron orange liqueur and a bit of salt and pepper. They were yummy. The risotto cake was made with orange juice, shrimp stock, orange zest, green onions, and shredded carrot, seasoned to taste. It was a bit sweet, since I used naval oranges instead of blood oranges, which would have been better. After peeling, I dipped the shrimp in the vinaigrette, and it was nice to spoon up a bit with the risotto as well, to help balance the sweetness.

Book Group Dinner

Well, it was a great success. I do this on occasion, and usually make 10-12 courses. This month was Italian. I even made fresh pasta, lemon sorbet, and ice cream. It was great fun, and I loved seeing all those smiling faces at the table.

The menu:
Firsts
Almonds and olives
Bruschetta with balsamic tomatoes or onion confit
Insalata mista, gorgonzola and walnuts, blood orange vinaigrette
Clementines with balsamic and black pepper

Seconds
Fetuccini with shrimp and lemon basil cream sauce
4-cheese baked ziti
Osso buco with olives and oranges

Sides
Pancetta and sage braised Brussels sprouts
Mushroom risotto, white truffle oil

Desserts
Lemon sorbet
Mascarpone ice cream
Carmelized pears with brandy
Honeyed figs

I also made dungeness crab ravioli with vodka sauce, but forget to cook the ravioli so my husband and I had it last night. It was probably good that I waited - I haven't hand made ravioli in a while so it could have been prettier. It was tasty though.

My friend Sandy said "I think the clementines, the tomato bruschetta, the osso bucco, and the fettuccine were my favs – oh, and have to add the risotto and the pears!" So I guess I did OK this month, and had lots of fun too. I even managed to finish the book while stirring the risotto!

Market Day

This week is both the Paper Chef competition and my week to cook a feast for my book group. Paper Chef's ingredients this month are blood oranges, brandy, crustacean, and rice. Thought this would be no problem, but couldn't find blood oranges anywhere. I found them two weeks ago at Trader Joes and Concord Produce, but I went everywhere today and none were to be found. I did find some blood orange vinegar at Whole Foods, so I'll use that. But I had great luck with Mexican white shrimp with heads on at Concord Produce, and am making risotto for one of the dishes for the book group, so I'll try a risotto cake for the Paper Chef too. Stay tuned!