From the category archives:

restaurant food

Berkeley Bites: Elmwood Cafe Feeds People and Funds Worthy Projects

September 3, 2010 berkeley bites

A decade ago, and fresh out of North Carolina, Kara Hammond landed a gig at Cafe Fanny, a tiny slip of a place in North Berkeley opened 25 years ago by, oh, a certain famous local chef.
Hammond, who had run a homespun bakery in Greensboro, wanted to get some kitchen experience in the Bay Area. [...]

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Berkeley Bites: Tu David Phu, Saul’s Delicatessen

August 20, 2010 berkeley bites

What’s a nice, young, tattooed Vietnamese boy from West Oakland doing as the top chef in a Jewish deli in North Berkeley?
I’m so glad you asked. Tu David Phu wanted to take a break from working the stoves in Bay Area fine dining establishments, his resume includes stints at The Peasant and the Pear in [...]

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Slow Food Folks Serve Fast Food with Style

August 6, 2010 berkeley bites

Chef owners Paul Arenstam and Charlene Reis have a slow food sensibility in a take-out business better known for fast food. That’s because the culinary couple (partners in life too) come with stellar cooking credentials: She’s an-ex Chez Panisse pastry chef, he did stints at upscale L.A. joints [...]

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Epicurean Concierge Leads Food Lovers Through Berkeley’s Gourmet Ghetto

July 23, 2010 berkeley bites

What you can expect on a food tour of Berkeley’s Gourmet Ghetto with an epicurean concierge. Great eats — and a celeb sighting too.

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Learning to Love the ‘Hood on Foot: One Edible Adventure at a Time

July 22, 2010 berkeley bites

Getting to know the edible offerings in my neighborhood, on foot.

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Berkeley Bites: Christopher & Veronica Laramie, eVe

July 16, 2010 berkeley bites

This culinary couple met cute at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, no less.
He followed up his gastronomical studies with a stage at the prestigious Georges Blanc (three star Michelin) outside of Lyon, then the two headed to Miami, got married, and went to work at posh nosh spots in South Beach; [...]

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Berkeley Bites: Samin Nosrat, Ex-Eccolo Chef & Co-Creator of the Pop-Up General Store

June 25, 2010 berkeley bites

A profile of the fleeting food market co-founder Samin Nosrat, a poster girl for the current culinary reinvention trend.

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Farmer Jane: Females in the Fields

May 4, 2010 farmers' markets

A queen of green focuses her first book on female farmers, a subject author Temra Costa comes to organically. Farmer Jane: Women Changing the Way We Eat, grew out of Costa’s career in sustainable food, and her passion for eating locally and seasonally.

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Marvelous Mushrooms

February 17, 2010 comfort food

Regular readers may recall that every so often I get a bee in my bonnet about a particular kind of produce.
Persimmons come to mind. Brussels sprouts too. No surprise that a blog named Lettuce Eat Kale showcases a certain dark, leafy green, whether roasted or dehydrated.
Today, mushrooms get their due. Recently, I’ve become a tad [...]

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Valentine's Day Dining Out: Just Say No

February 12, 2010 food flotsam & jetsam

Allegedly, this coming weekend is a good one for amore.
That’s debatable, of course, depending on how your love life is looking.
What’s indisputable: It’s a great weekend for restaurants. This year, Valentine’s Day falls on Sunday, so presumably there’s a wider window (tonight might be a tad early, but tomorrow or Sunday works) of possibilities for [...]

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Sprouts Cooking Club: Growing the Next Generation of Chefs

February 1, 2010 baking

It took a teenager from Wyomissing, PA who had never heard of Alice Waters to figure out what was missing on the culinary scene in Berkeley.
When Karen Rogers landed at UC Berkeley in 2005 she couldn’t believe that there wasn’t a cooking club on campus.  So she started one.
But the Cal Cooking Club wasn’t just [...]

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Book Giveaway: My Nepenthe

November 13, 2009 baking

It’s always tricky to write about a pal’s book, you don’t want to come off sounding like a fawning friend, frankly.
So, in the case of My Nepenthe by Romney “Nani” Steele, I’m going to let others hand out the praise. Sunset describes Nani’s cookbook-cum-memoir as “a valentine to one of the most beautiful places to [...]

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Six Reasons to Eat in Sydney and Beyond

October 20, 2009 restaurant food

Indulge me, if you will, just one more vacation/holiday post before it’s back to regularly scheduled programming.
Well, as any of you who head home for the holidays know, spending time with your family and friends in your hometown is technically not a vacation. In my mind it’s a visit, a way to keep connected with [...]

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Friendship by the Numbers

October 9, 2009 restaurant food

5 gals
2 become firm friends at age 8
12 the age we all get together and become great mates
4 years tanning our legs along the C block wall
7 countries, 4 continents
5 marriages
4 partners from overseas
3 exes
1 20-year union
10 babies, ranging in age from 3 to 18
1 parent gone
15 years since our last weekend away as a [...]

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What Kind of Diner Are You?

September 17, 2009 restaurant food

I’d make a lousy restaurant reviewer. Here’s why: When I go out to eat I often choose the same dishes I know and love at a favorite eatery. If I’m trying a new (to me) joint, I’ll opt for recommendations from friends or scan reviews before hitting the dining spot to find the best picks [...]

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Simply Delicious

September 16, 2009 comfort food

Dudley’s Rhythm & Motion dance class on Sunday. Yogurt, granola, and berries for breakfast — topped off with a fig, no less — from around the corner at the architecturally splendid Stable Cafe, once the site of the San Francisco mayor’s carriage house in the 1800s, now adding some sparkle to an otherwise scruffy stretch [...]

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