- California Culinary Travel, California Food Fairs, Fests & Markets, Food Destinations, Food Haps Blog
Chocolate for Charity – Feel Good Indulging at the Ghirardelli Chocolate Festival – Sept 14-15, 2013
Hunger is no joke and neither is the tens of thousands of dollars Ghirardelli Chocolate and its partners raise annually to help Project Open Hand prepare and deliver thousands of meals and hundreds of grocery bags daily to San Francisco’s food-challenged. The Ghirardelli Chocolate Festival is your chance to do good while indulging! From sundaes to chocolate cocktails, the 2013 Chocolate Festival is affordable for families and friends – a mere $20 (or $25 at the door). Tickets include 15 tastes, from Ghirardelli (including mini sundaes !) and a bevy of amazing Bay Area chefs and vendors. NEW in 2013: Chocolate & Wine Pavilion: Sip and savor premium samples from…
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Best Food Shops in the Bay
Every year, (for 16 years if you can believe it!), I’ve visited all the best new food shops in the Bay and penned the “Bites by the Bay” column including my favorite picks for “Specialty Food” magazine. Locals know (as do the Fancy Food Show visitors), that we have a vibrant and influential culinary retail scene. Over the past few years, the shear number of new spots have been so numerous, it’s been brutal to pare down to nine or ten worthy contenders. Some of the notables spots I’ve featured over the years include Birite market (when it first opened in 1997), Tomales Bay Foods, the Ferry Building Marketplace, Blue…
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Fair Trade Baking Ingredients Forum at CIA at Greystone on Oct 6
Tracking down and understanding Fair Trade baking ingredients is a challenge for many commercial and cottage industry bakers. This forum at the CIA in Napa for food professionals and enthusiasts will address issue with a line up including author Kelsey Timmerman (Where am I Eating?, Where am I Wearing?), celebrity chef Malika Ameen (Top Chef: Just Desserts), and food consultant extraordinaire Clark Wolf. Master of ceremonies, Clark Wolf, will guide the conversation around the Fair Trade dilemma. After an introduction to the topic from Fair Trade USA, a grower will be Skyped/videoed to illustrate what Fair Trade has meant to them. Kelsey Timmerman will relate his adventures tracking down where…
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Cochon 555’s Heritage BBQ Cooks in Memphis, Louisville & St. Louis
Do you love great BBQ like we do? From Korean to Asado, Japanese to American, today’s gastrognomes love globally-influenced BBQ. The folks behind Cochon 555 launched a Heritage BBQ series to feature some of the hottest talents in the kitchen and heritage breed meats, cooked over hardwood, charcoal and smoke. The BBQ series is traveling to BBQ hot spots St. Louis (Aug 25), Memphis (Aug 30) and Louisville (Sept 8th). If you have ever been to a COCHON 555 event like we have, its all about a ton of top notch heritage meats, tasty drinks and community. The Heritage BBQ series was started in 2012 in an effort to bridge…
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Craft Brewery Tours, Tastings & Classes in San Francisco – Updated with New Breweries Opening this Fall
We’re in a golden age for craft beer in San Francisco Bay Area –and many of our established and new brewers are leading the way to inspire a national passion for artisan craft beers – be they kegged, bottled, growlered or casked. There’s so many ways to learn about beer around here — so get out and take a tour, visit one of the 25+ new breweries opening this fall, take a class or get a home brewing kit. We’d love to know if you have any favorite breweries or classes, or tours you think Epicurators should know about. Cheers! / Laiko NEW BREWERIES Eater SF mapped out the 27…
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Macarons at Bouchon Bakery – When in Wine Country…
The two-person-deep line at Bouchon Bakery steadily streamed through the door one recent foggy-then-sunny morning in Yountville: It’s the almond chocolate croissants. The bread. No, it’s the macarons. Say yes to all…and make Bouchon Bakery your destination for epicuring bliss. Who eats 25,000 macarons every month? After an incredible Sunday brunch at Bouchon Bistro, Laiko and I were lucky to get a peek behind the scenes at the bakery courtesy of Manager Krzysztof Pawlik. He explained that in this very contained space, the relatively small bakery team makes about 25,000 large macarons per month (they’re about the size of a moon pie). And they’re all made by hand (so far…
- California Culinary Travel, California Food Fairs, Fests & Markets, Food Destinations, Food Haps Blog
Good Eating at SF Chefs 2013
Another summer another great SF Chefs event, full of tastes from 200 or so from great San Francisco chefs, coffee roasters, distilleries, and wine makers from around the world. Full, yes, oh so full were we. I’ll dub Campari the “most creative” liquor presentation with shaved ices in all sorts of flavors including roasted canteloupe. Delfina Restaurant’s gelato sandwiched in a brioche bun added a drippy sweet dimension to the tastings which leaned toward lots of great shrimp, raw fish, and all sorts of meats. SF Chefs continues today, August 4th, with food and educational events so if you’re visiting San Francisco hop over to Union Square for a taste…
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Get Your Farmhouse Style On at the Marin Country Mart
I’d heard about the farmers market at the Marin Country Mart by Larkspur Landing. But what a surprise to discover a little bastion of country farmhouse style, Pottery Barn meets Restoration Hardware with a Bay Area twist. Dining options range from Bel Campo Meats (a farm up north that raises their own cattle) to El Huarache Loco (a small business incubated at La Cocina). Shaded white picnic benches and a sandy earth intertwine making this little slice of foodie heaven is worth a haul from the East Bay (actually it’s very close to the Richmond Bridge) or San Francisco. Plus they have really fun events like the “Folkish Festival” and…
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Shanghai Cooking Classes: A Letter from Lindsay
In China, it’s said that Beijing is the best destination for sight-seeing while Shanghai is best for eating. Since I build my agenda around my appetite, Shanghai has been the perfect home base for me over the past several months. This modern metropolis lives up to its reputation as a culinary hotspot, with access to cuisines from all over China and much of the world abroad. After sampling fare from Shanghai’s copious restaurants and street vendors, I set out on an Epicuring style quest to learn about as many of these creations as I could. Two of the local cooking schools have helped me along the way. If you’re lucky enough to make…
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Epicuring Guide to Daily Food Events and Tours
Based on our experiences as California Epicurators we’ve compiled a guide of our favorite ongoing experiences for travelers on the go. Need advice on the go? Ask us! We’re “Epicuring” on Twitter & Facebook or we can create a special tour just for you. Just email us at info (at) epicuring (dot) com. Daily (Check venue to confirm) San Francisco San Francisco is home to Anchor Brewing, which crafts 10 brews, including the famous and tasty Anchor Steam, in their handcrafted copper brewhouse, a tribute to the traditional breweries of old. Daily brewery tours in Potrero Hill are followed by a tasting (naturally!) and last about 2 hours. Reservations are…
