Say Hey! Sausage Specialties at AT&T Park

You can't go to the ballpark and NOT get caramel corn, right?  So after my lunch of crab and garlic fries it was time to move on to something sweet.  I didn't research the caramel corn in advance - rookie mistake.  From my reading now, I see that there is a place that makes it to order.  But that is not where I went.   I just got in line at the first stand I spied that had caramel corn, enough though it seemed to be a hotdog stand.  Seriously, I know better ... I think all the wine must have gone to my head!

Caramel Corn. $6.50.

It is a bit hard to see from this photo, but this was a decent size cup of caramel corn.  Certainly enough for two people to munch on while enjoying the game.  I was a bit weirded out by the fact that it came with a fork.  Who eats caramel corn with a fork?

I quickly realized why it was provided.  This was not at all what I was expecting.  First,  the caramel corn was warm.  Not a bad thing.  But it was also very, very gooey.  I still tried to eat some with my fingers since it felt so wrong to use a fork, but it was way too sticky.  Very messy.

The popcorn itself was kinda soggy and didn't taste very fresh.  The caramel flavor was decent, but the whole sticky, soggy thing just didn't work for me.  I wanted to crunch and munch on popcorn!  It also was just popcorn, no nuts or anything else added in.

And $6.50? Um, no.  Would not get again.

I ended up bringing some home with me, and I stashed it in the freezer.  I enjoyed it much better this way, as it got crispy and formed little popcorn balls.  I still wouldn't get it again, and I wouldn't recommend getting it just to bring it home to freeze, but it did save it :)  It turns out the freezer is a great place for popcorn in general, my freezer always has glass jars of different popcorns in it, perfect for a quick snack! (I learned this trick from my mom.  There is a kettle corn vendor at their local farmer's market that makes this insanely good kettle corn, and she knows I love it.  So she always gets it and stores it in the freezer for when I come to visit, just in case I can't make it to the market while I'm there.  Such a good mommy!)

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Emily's Chocolates and Nuts

A few weeks ago, while working my way through a backlog of chocolates, we tried out a dark chocolate bar infused with specks of dried strawberries.  It was good, but left me seriously wanting for something with MORE strawberry, as the little flecks were just a tease (stay tuned for that review, as part of a much bigger series).  What I really wanted was fresh strawberries dipped in dark chocolate, but I settled for something more easily attainable: dark chocolate covered dried strawberries.

This is the only product I've had from Emily's Chocolates & Nuts, but apparently they make a large line of, well, chocolates and nuts :)  They offer plain nuts, and milk and dark chocolate covered confections: nuts, dried fruits, fortune cookies, graham crackers, etc.  Fun packaging and gift boxes are available, if you are looking for that sort of thing.

Dark Chocolate Covered Strawberries.

These were good.  The dark chocolate was decent quality, certainly higher quality than most of the chocolate you get wrapping other ingredients.  The dried strawberries were flavorful.  The ratio was a bit off for me, focusing too much on the chocolate, and not enough on the berry, although, I guess I didn't really want a giant dried strawberry.  It was fun to have something chewy, but just like the aforementioned bar with flecks of strawberries, it really just left me wanting chocolate covered fresh berries.

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Vintage 58 Wine Bar at AT&T Park

Continuing my Tuesday series of reviewing establishments at the ballpark ...

Like good ballpark goers, we started with all the classic foods, like the famous Crazy Crab'z, the legendary Gilroy Garlic Fries, and of couse, a hot dog.  But then it was time to move onto drinks.  Sure, most people at the park were drinking beer.  Or perhaps Bloody Marys or Margaritas.  We started that way too.  And Emil even unfortunately got the champagne at the Crazy Crab'z stand.  But then we moved up in the world, to Vintage 58.

Vintage 58 looks a bit out of place, as it is a wine bar.  With pretty good wine.  At the ballpark.  Yes, welcome to San Francisco.

Emil happily awaiting some bubbles!

It was adorable.  It did look a bit like a real wine bar, with decorative wood planking and wine bottle displays.  They had a surprisingly large selection, including wine on tap, and at least 6 different sparklings (including a Giant's branded Mumm), a bunch of reds, and a few whites.  The bartender was pretty knowledgable about her offerings and was quite friendly.  My only complaint is that they wouldn't let you try a wine first to decide what you wanted, but would let you order a single, taste it, and then upgrade to a double if you wanted.  Which we of course did.  She also did pour a couple sparkling that had gone flat, recognized it immediately, and opened fresh bottles.

Sparkling Mulderbosch rosé, Giant's Mumm.  $14.50 each.

The sparkling wines were served in these cute plastic flutes.  The Mumm had a special Giant's label on the bottle, but was really just Mumm.  The rosé but was sweet and dry, quite refreshing, but I was in the mood for something sweeter.  We tried a few others as well, but I don't really remember any details.

The price was shocking.  While almost everything else at the park seemed ridiculously over-priced, these were reasonable at $14.50 each.  I'm pretty sure the champagne Emil got at Crazy Crab'z was more ($16?), and this as much better.

The still wines were offered in two sizes, single or double. They were also totally reasonable, $10.25 for a single, $20 for a double.  I wish I had photos of the double glasses, as they were very serious glasses of wine!  Given that people were paying $9 for a bottle of beer, these prices were incredible.

For reds, I tried both the Quattro Mani Barbera and the Trivento Malbec.  Both were full bodied, and decent, although I liked the Malbec more.  I also had a Sauvignon Blanc, but I didn't catch the name of the maker.  It was my favorite of the wines I tried.

Vintage 58 was a big hit with our group.  Decent wine, reasonable prices, and certainly where we'd return if we go back to the park!

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Catering by Trace

Trace is the restaurant located in the W hotel in San Francisco.  I haven't visited since it turned into Trace, but I went a few times back in its previous incarnation (the XYZ), although only for brunch.  I wasn't ever blown away, but it was always solid, and easy to get a reservation, which is certainly a nice thing in the SF brunch scene.

Trace provided catering for an event I was at recently, so I got to sample a few of their items.  Unfortunately, they ran out of the dish I was most excited to try, panna cotta, right when I got there!  That is what I get for arriving fashionably late! I love panna cotta, and was very grumpy at the hoards of people who were all walking around with multiple panna cottas in their hands.  Couldn't they have saved one for me?  Boo.

Anyway, their offerings were more interesting than standard apps at an event like this, but nothing was remarkable.

Smoked salmon, cream cheese, chives.

The ratios were all off in this.  Way too much cream cheese, making it impossible to taste the salmon at all.  There was also a very thin cracker-like layer, but I also didn't taste it.  All that came through was mediocre cream cheese.  Meh.

Pickled beets, goat cheese, pistachio.

Who doesn't love salads on skewers? :)

This was actually a pretty tasty bite, even though it involved goat cheese and pistachios, which I don't tend to like.  The beet was tart and really well pickled.  I think they have a pickled beet salad at the restaurant, which I'd totally consider getting after tasting these beets!

Chicken liver mousse, pickled rhubarb.

I was overjoyed to see this.  Sure, it wasn't the panna cotta, but I do love my liver mousses.  The mousse was creamy, smooth, with a nice liver flavor.  The pickled rhubarb was a nice crunch on top, but I didn't taste it much.  It likely provided a bit of acidity to compliment the rich liver.  The tart shell was unremarkable, but you needed something to serve the mousse on, and it was better than a crostini.  The mousse is also on their regular menu, and I'd order it if I was there.  Tastiest bite of the evening.

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Chicago Dogs at AT&T Park

A few months ago, a case of sport peppers arrived at my co-worker's desk.  Why? Because he loves Chicago-style hot dogs, and the peppers are an essential component.  He couldn't find them anywhere, so he had to get an entire case online.  Like ya do.

Now, I may be a bit of a food snob, but from time to time, I really can enjoy a good hot dog. But I'd never heard of a Chicago-style dog before.  I'm not really sure how, I guess perhaps because I've never been to Chicago? Or perhaps because, although I do enjoy a hot dog from time to time, it isn't something I would order out, more just something I'd get at a BBQ?

Anyway, we were recently at AT&T Park, and all of us arrived with slightly different agendas, although amusingly, none of us were there to see the game (this was a team offsite event).  I was there to try the crab sandwiches that I'd read so much about.  Emil was there to drink and be social.  And my sports pepper buying co-worker was certainly there to get a Chicago dog.  His enthusiasm for these dogs spread, so somehow, even though the rest of us were stuffed with crab and garlic fries, Chicago-style dogs were had.

I think only one stand in the entire park sells them, although you can get a regular hotdog or brat at pretty much every stand.  He got a bit worried when the first few places we stopped at did not have Chicago-style, and when I said I hadn't seen them anywhere (I had of course already scooped out all of the options, but admittedly, I wasn't looking for hot dogs in particular), but we searched until we found them.

Chicago Dog, extra peppers.  $7.

Since this was the first Chicago-style hot dog I'd ever seen, I had no idea if this was authentic or not.  My co-worker seemed to think it was a decent representation.

A pretty standard hot dog, but it was the toppings that make it something different.  Alongside the dog was a full pickle spear.  Ok, now that is strange.  A pickle on the side I'm used to, but inside the bun? And wedges of tomato.  On a hot dog?  It was topped with mustard and chopped onion, which are pretty normal, but also some crazy florescent green relish.  My co-worker assured me that the insane color of the relish was part of the experience.  It was also sprinkled with salt and pepper.  I was instructed not to add ketchup.  We ordered them his way, which included extra peppers.  Not sure how many come on normally, but ours each came with 5.  He clearly loves the peppers.

This thing was a crazy mess to eat.  The bun broke apart within the first bite or so, due to being absolutely stuffed full of toppings.  It was a regular bun, designed to hold just a dog and perhaps some ketchup, and totally couldn't handle the ridiculous amount of stuff in it.  I wonder if they normally use bigger buns?

None of the components were particularly good quality.  Very plain bun, although it did have poppy seeds on it.  Standard hot dog.  Generic pickle.  Barely ripe tomato.  Basic onion, mustard, relish. Slimy but spicy peppers.  All together they created some interesting flavors, but this isn't how I'd choose to eat a hot dog.

For $7, this was by far the best value we saw all day.  Even the basket of garlic fries cost more.  But, not something I'd get again.  The others seemed to enjoy theirs though.

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Gilroy Garlic Fries at AT&T Park

Some people go to AT&T Park to watch the ballgame.  Ok, fine, most probably do.  But I really don't care about baseball.  I do however care about delicious things.

My first outing to the ballpark thus started with the item that everyone claims is the best thing to eat at the park: the Crazy Crab sandwich.  Then I moved onto a disappointing dessert-like beverage.  Once it was time for more savory food, my research easily pointed me at the next thing to try: the garlic fries.

Scattered throughout the park are numerous Gilroy Garlic Fries stands.  They all had pretty long lines.  From casual observation, it really did seem like more than half the people I saw with food had garlic fries.  And the aroma was pretty hard to resist.  I had to try them!

Garlic Fries.  $7.75.

Like everything else served at the ballpark, they were not fresh, baskets were already prepared and sitting under heat lamps.  Sigh.  The park was crowded, so I know throughput was kinda high, but still.  Grumble.

They were served in a basket, which was then placed into a drink holder container.  An assortment of basic Heinz condiments were available from dispensers in the center of the food stand area: ketchup, mustard, relish, bbq sauce, ranch, and mayo.  No little containers were provided though, so you could basically only just dump into onto your fries, rather than have a vessel to dunk into.  I wanted to try all the sauces, and didn't know how much sauce I'd want, as the garlic fries might be flavorful enough on their own to not really require much, so this made me grumpy.  I tried to squirt different sauces around the perimeter of the cardboard drink holder thing, but as it had holes in it, this didn't work well.  I'm still not sure why they came in that strange holder in the first place, as the basket really wasn't designed to fit in there.  Anyway.

As I expected, the fries were lukewarm and pretty limp and soggy.  They weren't particularly good.  The bites I had with garlic were better, but there was far less garlic than I expected, and it wasn't well distributed.  For sauces, I liked the ranch the best, but all were very mediocre standard Heinz.  The BBQ was notable in how watery and flavorless it was.

They came with 2 mints on the side, a cute touch, presumably to deal with the garlic breath :)

And, like many things at the park, the price.  $7.75 for a basket of fries? Meh.  It was a large basket, but I wish they offered a smaller size, since I wanted my crab sandwich, fries, and some sweet treats too!  Would not get again. One of the other stands also sold garlic fries, not with the "Gilroy Garlic" label, but perhaps they were better?

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Les Elements Patisserie

This review is a two for one special: a cooking demo AND some baked goods!

First, we start with the demo, which took place at the Ferry Building Saturday market.

Chef Luis Villavelazquez of Les Elements Patisserie was the guest chef.  I recognized him immediately, as he sells pastries at the market on Saturdays and Thursdays, and most recently, bread on Tuesdays as well.  I've enjoyed some of his chocolate chip cookies and very creative scones in the past (always made with unique flavors, with even more unique glazes on top!).

He is also currently working as a consultant at La Victoria Mexican Bakery in the Mission, where he got the inspiration for the dish he was presenting, a chamomile-goat milk tea with cinnamon crisp and caramelized yellow peaches.  He explained that in Mexico there is very little cow milk available, and that families have their own goats instead, and so he uses goat milk in this recipe.  It also has a lot more flavor than cow's milk.  His work at La Victoria is on modernizing their menu, while still keeping it fairly traditional.  He is also bringing in higher end ingredients.

His demo was very informative, and he taught us a number of tips, like how we could make the cookie portion of this dish in advance since it was a thin, hard style and would keep ok.  He also stressed the importance of measurements and weighing in the pastry world, and how pastry is very unlike savory cooking, in that it is about precision, not about just going with what you feel.   He is clearly a methodical, calm chef, and mentioned how it is important to him to take lots of notes, how he constantly is refining his recipes, and always cooks with a clean station.  He was also incredibly knowledgeable, and taught us about some of the chemistry behind his work, like how food processors break up the gluten structures in dough, how the fat content of goat's milk makes it so we don't need to add cream, and how, due to the high calcium levels, we could sprinkle the fruit with pectin if we needed to cut it up in advance, and this would help protect it and cause it to not break down.

 Chamomile-goat milk tea with cinnamon crisp and caramelized yellow peaches.

The milk was nicely sweet, with a subtle chamomile undertone, but as I don't particularly care for goat milk, it had more goat flavor than I like.  If you like goat milk however, this was probably pretty good.

On top was crumbled crisp cookies and the caramelized peach.  The peach was really well executed, softened but not mushy, and the caramel flavor to the glaze was really delicious and complimented the peach well.

This was a rather odd dish however, and I wasn't quite sure what to do with it.  Do you drink it?  Spoon it?  It was somewhat like the end of a bowl of cereal, where you have flavorful sweet milk and some little crumbly bits of cereal left.  Enjoyable, but definitely different.

Tierra Farms Cornmeal Ciabatta Roll.  $0.75.

Les Elements recently started offering breads at the market on Tuesdays only, so I decided to try one out.  I went for the small sized cornmeal roll.  But ... I think it had a sourdough base, and being a horrible San Franciscan, I just can't stand sourdough.  I did like the texture from the cornmeal and the heartiness to it.  It had a good crust on the outside.

I mostly didn't quite know what to do with this roll.  Cold, it was just a roll, unremarkable.  I warmed it in the toaster oven, and liked it much more, but it was still just a roll.  I tried it with some butter, with some strawberry jam, and even made a mini pb & j.  None quite seemed right, although the butter was the best.

$0.75 was a good price for a roll, and I appreciate that they sell single rolls, rather that requiring me to buy a dozen at a time.

[ Not Pictured ]

Cardamon Oatmeal Cookie. $1.75.

The cookie had an interesting flavor from the cardamon, but I didn’t really like it.  It had a nice heartiness, but was a hard style cookie, which I just don’t care for.

I've also really enjoyed their scones in the past, but unfortunately, do not have any notes from those.  I used to get them from the market on Tuesday mornings every time I had an afternoon flight, and they were the perfect treat on the plane later in the day :)

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