Broccoli & Chocolate

restaurants * food events * news

Events: SF Street Food Festival 2011

by 1 Comment

After attending the preview dinner for this event, K and I actually left our house on the weekend (gasp!) and went to the full festival. Here were our thoughts:

SF Street Food Festival 2011

Pros:

  • Lots of vendors means lots and lots of food.
  • Helpful, well organized, uniform signage throughout the festival and at each booth helped to communicate information and make sure it was obvious what was offered at each booth.
  • Varied vendors made for a wide range of food offerings.
  • Extremely well organized arrangement, complete with information booths at appropriate intervals.
  • An entire event where food is the main deal instead of the sideshow. Brilliant idea.

    SF Street Food Festival 2011. Good lord there were a lot of people.

… 

Read More »

Review: B

by Leave a Comment

Atmosphere: 3/5  ♦  Service: 3/5  ♦  Food Quality: 2/5  ♦  Value: 3/5Times Visited: One  ♦ Will I Return?: Unlikely.

No, my keyboard did not break one letter into writing the title of this post. The proprietors of B Restaurant in Oakland apparently decided their time could be better spent on things other than coming up with an extravagant name for their establishment.

Bar and transom windows at B

B boasts floor to ceiling transom windows which give the space a modern open feeling. You can enjoy the view from the windows while sitting at the contemporary bar that serves a full range of cocktails…. 

Read More »

Events: SF Street Food Festival 2011 Preview Dinner

by 2 Comments

Next week on Saturday August 20, 2011, the San Francisco Street Food Festival kicks off it’s third annual event from 11am-7pm on and around Folsom Street between 22nd and 26th Streets in the Mission district of SF. I believe that I, and friends, will be attending. These desserts will be there:

South American sugar cookies that are fabulous on the left, “cake pops” on the right that are magical.

This event is created and hosted by La Cocina, a “business incubator” non-profit organization that helps local low-income food entrepreneurs gain the experience, knowledge, and resources needed to become successful and sustainable small businesses. What does this mean? These guys provide stuff like education and rent-able small kitchen space (and more) to your local food cart lady who makes kick-ass tamales so that she can buy a food truck, start a catering business, or open a full scale restaurant to get her business off the ground. This is just an example, of course, but basically they support local and typically minority and low-income women to give a leg-up into the food industry. So that everyone can enjoy Tamale Lady’s tamales or Hummus Lady’s hummus. Sounds good to me…. 

Read More »

Review: Lake Chalet

by 2 Comments

Atmosphere: 4/5   ♦   Service: 4/5   ♦   Food Quality: 4/5   ♦   Value:3/5
Times Visited: A Few  ♦   Will I Return?:  Yes!

Happy Birthday to me… this is where I chose to spend my birthday this year with my family. Where’s a nice place that’s close to Hayward (my fam lives in Hayward), not too terribly expensive (I’m not that kind of birthday girl) and has food that all four of my super picky fams will enjoy (sorry guys, you know it’s kinda true)? The Lake Chalet.

For Mom: Lake Chalet is classy and upscale with nice views of the lake and outdoor seating. For Dad: It’s got a “normal” seafood/steak menu with things that are just short of the “art food” he so dreads. For Sister: The bar is nice and serves cutesy drinks, and the delicious-sounding choices on the menu make it difficult for her to choose though she’ll probably be happy with whatever she gets.

And for me: it’s a nice place with good service and good food. There. Birthday done…. 

Read More »

News: 7 Squared Project

by Leave a Comment

I was recently contacted by Kyle Garrett from Seven Summits Productions and told about a neat new venture called the 7 Squared Project. This is a bold project by two film makers who want to use their prowess with the camera to highlight 7 non-profits and 7 businesses in San Francisco with a crowd-funded mini-documentary series. Many of the featured businesses/non-profits are doing work that is geared towards food — Four Barrel Coffee, Heart of the City Farmers’ Market, La Cocina, Mission Pie, and the San Francisco Food Bank, to name a few (hence the reason I was interested in featuring this on B&C). If you’re still scratching your head, watch their short video on Indie-Gogo site and you’ll understand a lot better. Plus, exponents are pretty awesome, so I was excited right away.

7 squared

7 Squared Project

Per their press release:… 

Read More »

Review: The American Grilled Cheese

by Leave a Comment

Atmosphere: 4/5   ♦   Service: 4/5   ♦   Food Quality: 4/5   ♦   Value:4/5
Times Visited: A Few  ♦   Will I Return?:  Yes!
 

This super-cute, San Francisco-worthy restaurant can be found serving up gourmet grilled cheese every day of the week just next to South Park at 2nd Street in SOMA. When a friend of mine first heard that I was going to be working in SOMA and that I’m a veggo, he promptly took me to The American. And for that, I am grateful.

The American is in a cute homey place with framed photos adorning the walls, lots of counter stools, and outdoor seating. They specialize in grilled cheese and make ’em better than mom used to (sorry mom, but they’ve got Gruyère cheese, you know?). I love specialty shops like this that serve one thing and serve it with pizazz. And I love the word pizazz, just to let you know…. 

Read More »

Review: Minami Sushi

by Leave a Comment

Atmosphere: 3/5   ♦   Service: 4/5   ♦   Food Quality: 4/5   ♦   Value:3/5
Times Visited: One  ♦   Will I Return?:  Sure.
___________

Three words: Japanese power ballads. I should end my review there, right? I feel like that’s enough to get anyone over to this small sushi restaurant in the Greenhouse Marketplace Shopping Center at Washington and Lewelling in San Leandro.

But let’s consider that you maybe think of running out of restaurants that boast Japanese power ballads. In that case, there’s the food.

On a Saturday night Minami has decent patronage, which is always a good sign. The menu selection is good: there is a huge appetizer list, lots of donburi bowls, sashimi plates, sushi rolls, and a huge list of gourmet sushi rolls (I love these; think deep fried sushi rolls). This is, of course, in addition to dinner selections (tempura, teriyaki, katsu), udon noodle bowls, bento boxes and dinner combinations…. 

Read More »

Review: Paradiso

by 3 Comments

Atmosphere: 4/5   ♦   Service: 4/5   ♦   Food Quality: 4/5   ♦   Value:3/5
Times Visited: One  ♦   Will I Return?:  Si, Per Favore!
___________

Ok, you live in the East Bay, but not really in the exciting parts like Oakland or Berkeley. You’re sorta stuck in the Fremont/Hayward/San Leandro no-man’s land of the East Bay*. There are plenty of places to eat, but most of them aren’t particularly exciting. Enter Paradiso.

Like Hayward’s Buon Appetito and a handful of other places around this stretch of land, Paradiso is an oasis of culinary delight. With classy decor, an upscale menu, and service that will put a smile on your face (as well as a hearty amount of water in your glass), Paradiso is a welcome pleasure.

Inside Paradiso: the counter that surrounds the kitchen.

… 

Read More »

Review: Koyomi

by Leave a Comment

Atmosphere: 4/5   ♦   Service: 4/5   ♦   Food Quality: 3/5   ♦   Value:3/5
Times Visited: Twice  ♦   Will I Return?:  Yes Please
___________

New sushi place in town? I’m there. What’s different about Koyomi? Well, maybe not a whole lot. But I like it anyway.

Koyomi is located in a tiny strip mall that borders the sidewalk in Castro Valley across the street from the mini golf place. It’s got a nice big sign; you can’t miss it. And inside they’ve really made it look slick. Hardwood floors, comfy chairs, big screen tvs above the bar, and… double crown molding around the perimeter of the top of the walls. You read correctly. Double. This place is serious.

dining room

Inside Koyomi Sushi in Castro Valley.

Between the classy Frank Sinatra playing in the background and the new picture-friendly menus, I really like this place. The menu is pretty standard for a sushi place offering appetizers, sushi/sashimi, combinations, udon noodle dishes, full dinners, and a variety of sushi rolls. The service is great and the food is pretty dang good as well. The first time I came here, I enjoyed a sushi/sashimi plate that was quite good. We also shared a pan fried calamari just like the ones we enjoyed in Japan. Boyfriend enjoyed the squid immensely, but I thought it was a bit too bland and a bit too tough; it didn’t stand its ground against its Japanese counterparts.

sashimi platter

Sashimi plate from Koyomi.

… 

Read More »

B&C Hits Chicago, Discovers Pizza

by 6 Comments

Extra, extra, read all about it…

Deep. Dish. Pizza. As a California native, I’ve heard these words before. But until last week, I had never truly tasted them. Cue montage sequence of me packing my bags, flying to Minnesota, enjoying a wedding, then flying to Chicago. When the little airplane follows the arched red line to the dot on the map marked “Chicago”, fade to me enjoying this pizza:

chicago pizza

Chicago deep dish pizza from Giordano’s

Literally the first thing we did in Chicago was seek out Giordano’s Pizza in downtown Chicago, at the recommendation of a friend who used to live there. May we forever be in debt to him for leading us to this heavenly pizza. Like ambrosia on our lips, it enlivened us from the fatigue of our travels, it healed us our ails, and it relieved us of our sins, past, present and future. That’s how good the deep dish pizza is. I’m only hardly exaggerating…. 

Read More »