What’s Cookin’

Hello, my fellow spoiled citizens of the Bay Area. Yeah, that’s a 72-degree forecast we’re looking at for this weekend in SF. Hell to the yes. Time to start plotting where you want to have brunch outside (because that’s how we do it here in February). This…

Did you notice the big alcohol shortage this weekend in North Beach? You can blame the tablehopper Barbary Coast cocktail crawl with Anchor Distilling Company, ha-ha. Saturday evening, a group of us gathered at the brand-new Devil’s Acre to kick off the night with pisco punch, and then headed…

Oooh, rainy day! Windy! Drama! Love it. I’m actually heading out in this mess for an invite I couldn’t turn down: a tasting of Masi Agricola wines (with Raffaele Boscaini) paired with dry-aged beef from Flannery Beef at Perbacco. I know, right? Golden. My weekend is starting early.…

Hi there! I am back from Hong Kong, a place that completely rocked my world on so many fronts. I had the best dim sum of my life (trust, I ate ALL the dumplings), the best jook, learned so much about Cantonese cuisine, and I was blown away with the…

Buon giorno, or should I say, “nei ho” (Cantonese for hello!)! I will be on my Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong in less than 24 hours, and I am kind of freaking out, a potent combination of excitement and stress getting everything done before I leave. (Why is it…

Greetings from the hopper infirmary, where if you call the “receptionist,” she sounds a lot like Brenda Vaccaro, and you may find her working in her flannel pj’s (pink with drawings of the Eiffel Tower, if you must know). Being sick is so damn lame. Hopefully I will be…

Hey there, ho there, hi there. Yours truly is a bit under the weather today. I managed to pick up someone’s nasty bug over the weekend, here’s hoping I squash it quickly. (I think this jook and sriracha will help.) Because next Wednesday, I’m going to be…

Excuse me while I put down this lobe of foie gras, my new Chapstick. Ha! But yeah, with the almost-miraculous invalidation of the foie gras ban in California that seemed to come out of left field, we’re going to be seeing a lot of it on menus in coming…

Welcome to 2015! I hope you started the new year with a bang. I had a stellar week in Los Angeles, catching up on so many places I hadn’t eaten at yet (Bestia, Squirl, Rustic Canyon, Sycamore Kitchen, Bäco Mercat), revisiting old favorites (Pizzeria Mozza, Zankou), impromptu stops (Connie…

Brrrr, how you all doing in your chilly Victorian and Edwardian abodes? Well, at least that’s the current state of my apartment, which means flannel pajamas are the attire of choice right now. (So glad my boss is cool with PJ Mondays.) I hope your holidays have been merry…