Bi-Rite Catering

Update Review, Reception Catering, July 2024

I recently attended a reception catered by Bi-Rite.  I've enjoyed their breakfast catering at events in the past (see below!), and know the business has a good reputation, so I was pleased to see them picked as the caterer, rather than say, Costco platters.

Menu Part One.

We had an extensive menu: 3 platters, 2 kinds of savory tartlets, 2 kinds of skewers, 2 kinds of cucumber cups, and two desserts. 

Menu Part Two.

The menu cards were quite detailed, with all ingredients listed, plus easy to skim common allergen marking (e.g. gluten, soy, etc) and dietary preferences (vegan, vegegarian).

Platters

Platters are reception staples.  Bi-Rite offers all the standards: cheese, charcuterie, veggies.  Alone or mixed.  We had several different styles.

Specialty Cheese Platter. $235.

"Calling all cheese lovers! This elevated platter features five guest favorite cheeses, including: a buttery triple crème; a sharp yet milky cheddar; a bright and nutty semi-firm sheep cheese; an alpine that is robust and savory; and a semi-firm goat with truffle. These cheeses are accompanied with fresh and dried seasonal fruit, fig jam, almonds and cashews, and Rustic Bakery crackers."

Classic decent cheese platter.  I was a bit let down that the seasonal fruit seemed to be fresh grapes and dried apricots, which, given that it was peak summer, doesn't really seem so "seasonal".  

I tried the triple crème, and it was nicely oozing and soft, but I didn't find it particularly flavorful (I prefer a nuttier flavor to the rind at least).  The crackers were local Rustic Bakery flatbreads that are pretty good.  ***.

This was designed to serve 15 to 20. They also have a cheaper, smaller cheese platter.

Specialty Charcuterie Platter. $225.

"A robust selection of the most popular cured meats from our favorite makers. Salami Rosa, Soppressata, salami piccante, prosciutto, and duck pâté are garnished with marinated olives, housemade cornichons and pickled vegetables. Served with whole grain mustard and Rustic Bakery crackers."

Next was charcuterie, also designed to serve 15 to 20, which was priced slightly lower than the cheeses, a slight surprise to me.  It came loaded with meats as expected. The full lineup of meats was: Salami Rosa, Pate Rillette Perigord Natural (Duck), Salami Picante, Salami Sopressata, Prosciutto Sliced, the crackers were Rustic Bakery Olive Oil & Sel Gris Flatbread Crackers, and the pickled vegetables were carrots and cauliflower.

The pickled veggies were really quite tart.  I appreciated that they included a pate, as I do love a good pate.  This one was fairly lower end of average though, not particularly smooth, creamy, nor flavorful in the way I like.

Vegetable Crudité Platter. $85.

"A selection of #PeakofSeason, fresh, crisp veggies accompanied by our creamy, tangy plant-based Green Goodness dipping sauce."

The final platter, just veggies. Only designed to serve 10 to 15. 

The platter had a mix of raw (celery, bell peppers, carrots, cucumbers, radishes) and steamed (broccoli, cauliflower, green beans) vegetables.  While I do like all of the cooked ones cooked, I would have preferred them left raw.  Something about soft room temperature veggies doesn't do it for me.  But otherwise, these were fine vegetables, the fresh ones nicely crisp.  The green goddess dressing as a bit boring, not as herby or vibrant as it can be.  ***.

Skewers

Skewers are their most popular appetizers, available in 3 varieties.  All arrive cold and are meant to be served at room temperature.  All priced at 30 pieces for. $80.00, or 50 for $130.

Our hosts selected the most popular (chicken) and one vegetarian (tofu) for skewers. Bi-Rite also has mozzarella/olive/pepper skewers that our hosts did not select.

Ancho Chile Chicken Skewers. $80.

"Our most popular platter, tender marinated free-range chicken breast is grilled and served with a tangy chipotle-lime aioli dipping sauce."

I don't care for chicken, so I didn't try these.  I did try the aioli, and found it pretty bland.

Sesame Glazed Tofu Skewers. $80.

"Locally made tofu is marinated with soy, sesame, and ginger then grilled for a delicious plant-based appetizer. Served with a tamari ginger dipping sauce."

The tofu had lovely grill marks.  I didn't try it.

Cucumber Tartar Cups

Cucumber cups ... I'll admit I haven't seen these on a cocktail reception menu in years.  Something about them kinda screams out dated to me.  Yes, cocktail menus often have tartar, and yes, it often comes on top of something grabble, but wonton chips, squid ink crackers, nori wraps, and the like seem far more common as a base, or, tartar comes in a cute little cone.  But Bi-Rite has chosen cucumber "cups", which were really just big hunks of cucumber, as the base.  Available in two varieties,  30 Pieces for $80.  We had both.

Albacore Tuna. $80.

"Jewel-like cubes of albacore tuna are dressed with an umami-rich, tamari-based sauce and mixed with diced, ripe mango, and scallions before being scooped into a crisp, refreshing cucumber cup. Garnished with black sesame furikake for added flavor and depth."

Albacore, while probably the most consumed form of tuna in the US, is a bit of a non-standard option for raw tuna, compared to something like ahi.  But Bi-Rite uses albacore.  It was diced and mixed with little bits of mango for a fruity sweet pop and slightly tropical slant.  It was fine, but the sauce/marinade I didn't really taste, so besides the mango, the flavor felt a bit flat.  Luckily, we had the tamari sauce for the skewers that I used to amp it up a bit.

Fine, but nothing special, and the thick slice of cucumber really dominated.  Low ***.

Salmon. $80.

"Jewel-like cubes of Skuna Bay salmon are dressed with an umami-rich tamari based sauce and mixed with diced scallions before being scooped into a crisp and refreshing cucumber cup. Garnished with shaved bonito flakes for added flavor and depth."

We also had the salmon option, same base, same fine dice.  This one was a bit more flavorful as the marinade had gochujang and sweet miso in it, but there was still minimal saucing.  The cucumber again dominated.  But the fish was fine, not chewy, not fishy, etc.  Another low ***, and I had no clear preference between the two.

Tartlets

Bi-Rite has two small savory tartlets available, both vegetarian. 30 pieces for $65.00, 50 pieces for $95.00.  Our hosts selected both.

Sweet Corn and Goats Cheese. $65.
(Seasonal).

"Featuring seasonal sweet summer corn and roasted piquillo peppers paired with creamy cheeses on a buttery tartlet crust. These handheld bites are perfect for everything from lunch meetings to happy hours, receptions, and dinner events."

These sounded almost awesome to me: ricotta cheese, onion am, sweet corn ... but, they had goat cheese, and I just really don't care for goat cheese.  I skipped them, but nearly went back to try them several times.

Roasted Mushroom and Truffle. $65.

"Our most popular appetizers are back and better than ever! These buttery tartlet crusts are topped with an elegant combination of roasted mushrooms and cauliflower, along with black truffle tartufata and delicate cheese for a creamy, savory bite."

Well, these were a true delight.  I'll admit that I didn't really taste truffle, but, the filling was creamy, super rich in umami flavors, and just very enjoyable.  I didn't detect the cauliflower either, nor the cheese precisely, as mushrooms were the dominant flavor, but I really did love the complex flavor.  The savory tart shell was better than average too, made with a mix of different grains (wheat, rye, spelt, barley), so it too had some complexity.  

My favorite item, and I was happy to go back for more of these!  ****.

Desserts

Of course, sweets are an important part of an event!  Bi-Rite has cookie, brownie, and blondie platters, mini tarts, cupcakes, full size cakes, and pudding jars.  Our hosts only went for tartlets, available in two kinds: lemon meringue or chocolate salted caramel.  I didn't try the lemon meringue, as I don't care for meringue.

Chocolate Salted Caramel Tartlets. $50.

"These delightful tartlets feature a buttery, pastry crust filled with soft salted caramel cream, a layer of decadent dark chocolate glaze, and then topped with chocolate cookie crumbles. They're a delicious, perfect end to any get together."

This was a decent little sweet treat.  Lightly soft, lightly sweet tart shell that wasn’t particularly good nor bad.  Fairly standard thick, sweet, rich caramel.  I didn’t particularly taste the salted element.  A bit of chocolate ganache on top.  Basically, sweet, caramel forward, fine, but not really memorable. ***.

Original Review, Breakfast Catering, May 2018

Bi-Rite Creamery.  A SF institution.  The lines for the ice cream on a rare warm SF day are well known (which, I've never really understood.  Its fine ice cream, but, honestly, I've never been that impressed). 

"We may be known for our ice cream, but we started as bakers! Today our team bakes sweets like the ones we grew up with.  Our changing menu reflects the fruits offered by each season as well as holiday classics like pumpkin pie, Christmas stollen and hot cross buns."

But did you know that Bi-Rite started as a bakery?  And is actually known for their baked goods?  I didn't either, but, I was eager to learn more.

The bakery wing of the creamery makes a slew of items, ranging from cupcakes, bars, cookies, and puddings, to beautiful cakes, to breakfast pastries.  They are available at the Bi-Rite Markets, or, through their catering service, which is how I had them.

Granola. $45.

"Maple and brown sugar granola with almonds, sunflower and flax seeds, unsweetened coconut, and raisins." 

This was interesting granola.  From inspection alone, I did not think that I'd care for it.  It really looked quite plain, was loaded with way too many raisins, and had no chunks. Not my style at all.

My feelings on the raisins didn't change much (yup, raisins, but at least they were soft and not hard pellets, and yup, way too many).  And I did wish for chunks of granola (it did have chunks, they, uh, just were all of raisins).

But it was good.  The almonds surprised me, they were a small size, and well roasted and sweetened. Really crunchy and somehow more flavorful than your average almond.  I also liked the crispy coconut flakes, which the description said were unsweetened, but really did taste sweet to me.  Which is probably why I thought the granola was decent, as it was beautifully sweet from maple syrup, brown sugar, AND honey.  And it very crisp, toasted with butter.

The flax and sunflower seeds gave a bit of bitterness, but not too much, and I didn't mind them at all, another surprise.

So for the style of granola it was, I liked it.  Better as finger food or with milk than yogurt.

This came served with our choice of Straus whole milk yogurt or Clover 2% milk.  It was a huge bowl of granola, but $45 still seems a little pricey for a few tubs of yogurt and granola.

Fruit Salad. $60.

"Freshly-picked, peak of the season fruit salad."

The fruit salad too was actually really quite good.  The pineapple and cantaloupe I didn't care about, the blueberries were good but nothing special, and the kiwi and mango were both fabulous, really juicy, really ripe, nicely sweet.  I almost wonder if they had some agave drizzled over it all?  They were too good to be "just fruit"!

Again, a big bowl, but, $60?  Maybe it was reasonable for this premium fruit.

Mini Pastry Basket. $45.

"An assortment of 32 of our favorite mini pastries to start your day."

The part I was obviously most excited for was the baked goods.  Bi-Rite has many different options for catering pastry baskets - just croissants/danishes, just scones, or mixes, full size or mini.  This was the most inclusive option - mini mixed.  So I could try ... everything.

The selection changes depending on what they want to send you, so we didn't get any muffins, nor quickbreads, which was fine with me.  What we did have was plain croissants, pain au chocolate, almond croissants, cinnamon rolls, and struesel coffee cake.

Yes, I tried them all (except the plain croissant).  They were mini, after all ...

Almond Croissant.

I started with what looked the most decadent, an icing drizzled almond croissant.

It was ... eh.  Fine.

The pastry was a bit spongy, not very flaky.  The sweet glaze on top was nice.

Almond Croissant: Inside.

And it wasn't very well filled.  The gritty almond filling wasn't particularly great either.

My least favorite, not recommended.

Coffee Cake.

"Warm cinnamon and brown sugar coffee cake baked from scratch."

Better was the coffee cake.

The cake was just sour cream pound cake, dense, moist, not dry, very buttery and rich, but, still just fairly plain cake.

The streusel though was good, brown sugar, cinnamon, and regular sugar, and I appreciated the layer both on top, and the layer in the middle.  Nicely sweet.  Lots of sugar.

My third pick, because of the topping, but still not an item I really wanted more of.

They also sell the coffee cake whole for $40.

Pain au Chocolat.

Things improved with the pain au chocolate.

The pastry was a bit better, more flaky, more crisp, but still not that great.

What was great was the filling, three large bars of totally not melted quality dark chocolate.  I really liked the chocolate.

My second favorite, because I liked the chocolate, but, a stellar pastry it was not.

Cinnamon Roll.

And finally, I saved the best for last.  The cinnamon roll.

This was actually quite good.

I really liked the sweet dough used, good flavor, good texture, just a bit crisp.  The filling was cinnamon and sugar, again, lots of sugar, which created caramelized edges that seeped out.  And of course, icing on top for more sweet.

This was certainly my favorite and one I'd gladly have again.

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Beacon Hill Chocolates

It is no secret that I really enjoy chocolate, and in fact, start every morning with (at least one) piece, alongside my morning coffee.  By mid-day, I'm ready for a sweet treat after lunch, generally involving chocolate again.   Luckily for me, there are many, many chocolatiers in this world, and thus, I have constant opportunity to try more chocolate essentially all the time.

Which leads me to Beacon Hill Chocolates, based in Boston, in, yup, you guessed it, the Beacon Hill neighborhood.  I walk by every day when I'm in town, as I always stay in Boston near the commons, and commute over to my office in Cambridge, strolling through Beacon Hill along the way.

"Beacon Hill Chocolates specializes in small batch handcrafted chocolates from Belgium, France, Switzerland, Italy, Brazil and the United States. The boutique’s special truffle collections elevate the art of chocolate with the most surprising flavors such as lavender, ginger, blood orange, Arabica coffee, Grey Goose Vodka, green tea, Chai, mint, bacon, chilies, lemon, vanilla, raspberries, hazelnuts and olive oil."

While I do think they make some of the chocolate in-house much is curated from other chocolatiers from around the world.  They do sell bars, and chocolate covered confections (espresso beans, candied citrus peal, gummy candies, etc), but the focus, at least for me, is the extensive truffle line up. 

8 Piece Assortment. $24.
Candy Cane. Chocolate Covered Cherry. Palet Des Neiges. Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel.
Paradis. Signature Chocolate. Vitamin C. Bolero.
(Clockwise, from top left).

"An elegant selection of 8 unique and delcious (sic) handcrafted chocolate masterpieces."

I was given a gift box of 8 assorted pieces, which included a mix of dark and milk chocolates, and a seasonal item as well.  No guide was given, but I was able to go to their website to dig up the descriptions of each.

Candy Cane Truffle. $3.

"Peppermint infused truffle center covered in dark chocolate and topped with crushed candy canes."

For the winter/Christmas season, a number of seasonal offerings are added, including egg nog, a hot cocoa snowman, snowman decorated, gift shapes, and this, the candy cane truffle.

This was a lovely, seasonal piece.  The chocolate was quite dark, smooth, and intense.  The shell had a proper snap.  High quality chocolate.  The peppermint center was subtle, but did not have a medicinal taste, as sometimes happens with peppermint.  I appreciated the extra mint flavor and crunch from the candy cane pieces on top.

Overall, clearly a nice quality piece, I'd love for stronger peppermint flavor, but, overall, very good. Third pick overall.  ****.

Chocolate Covered Cherry.  $2.75.

"Whole cherry enrobed in Belgian dark chocolate and infused with Kirsch liquor."

The chocolate covered cherry came in a red foil wrapper like many other brands.

I bit in cautiously, as these types of pieces often have liquor that comes exploding out if you are not careful.  This one did not gush.  

The dark chocolate shell was reasonably thick, snappy, and high quality.  Great chocolate.

Inside was a full cherry, very moist and soaked in Kirsch, although not particularly boozy tasting.

This was quite flavorful and enjoyable, and I'd get it again.  Quality components making a classic piece really shine.  My favorite in the box.  ****.

Palet Des Neiges. $3.

"Milk chocolate ganache with raspberry pulp and brandy enrobed in ivory French chocolate."

Oops, I got into this one before I took a photo!  

This one had a lot of promise (raspberry! brandy!), but didn't really deliver on those fronts.  It was a lovely smooth and rich milk chocolate ganache, and the white chocolate coating was very creamy and not the kind that makes people hate white chocolate, but I just didn't really taste the raspberry nor brandy.  There was some complexity to the ganache, but not distinctly fruity nor boozy.

***+ as an enjoyable piece, but not one quite as advertised.  Forth pick overall.

Dark Salted Caramel. $2.75.

"Buttery smooth old fashioned chewy caramels dipped in milk or dark chocolate and sprinkled with sea salt."

Beacon Hill Chocolates offers the salted caramel in either dark or milk varieties.  I had the dark.

The chocolate was a nice quality smooth dark chocolate, and I appreciated the pop of salt from the sprinkle on top.

Dark Salted Caramel: Inside.

Inside was a thick, rich, sweet, caramel.  This part didn't taste salted (just the salt on the exterior).  It was good caramel, and had a good "pull" to it if you know what I mean.

Overall a nice piece if you are in the mood for a sweet confection, the chocolate itself is not very dominant.  Third to last pick.  ***+.

Paradis. $2.75.

"Milk chocolate hazelnut gianduja topped with crunchy hazelnut pieces."

This was a very attractive piece.  I loved the thought of it too - like an upscale peanut butter cup with hazelnut instead.  Even the foil wrapper was an upgrade from common thin wrappers, it really was quite thick, and took a bit of effort to peel off.

The milk chocolate was creamy, good quality, higher end milk chocolate as expected from Beacon Hill Chocolates.  I'll admit that I clearly didn't read the description very well, as I expected to bit in to discover a hazelnut butter, some crunchy bits, etc, like a standard peanut butter cup.  Instead, it was smooth, creamy, homogenous filling.  The hazelnut flavor was minimal, but the gianduja was a really lovely consistency.  I did like the few bits of crunchy nut on top.

Overall, an enjoyable chocolate, great for a milk chocolate craving, not too sweet, and very subtle hazelnut.  Second favorite. ****.

Beacon Hill Signature Chocolate. $2.75.

"Our Signature Piece is the perfect bite of 72% single origin Venezuelan dark chocolate."

I love a good dark chocolate, and was quite excited for Beacon Hill's signature piece.  It was ... fine, but truly not any better than other generic brands.  The shell did not have much shine nor nice snap to it.  It was dark, but not particularly deep.  The filling was a bit grainy, not a smooth beautiful ganache.  It too was dark, but not remarkable.

Overall, fine, but not impressive, and not really a notch above a generic store brand.  My least favorite of the truffles I tried.  ***.

Vitamin C. $3.

"Milk chocolate is infused with orange, lemon, and lime to create a healing treat that is both tart and sweet."

This was an interesting one.  The outside was a lovely painted creamy milk chocolate.  Inside was a smooth creamy center that didn't taste particularly citrus, and didn't seem to be chocolate based either.  Below that was a crispy biscuit layer. So ... I'm not entirely sure what I had, but I did really enjoy the base and the creamy shell.  Second to last pick though.  ***. 

Bolero. $2.75.

"Vanilla buttercream fills a Belgian milk chocolate cup topped with dark chocolate sprinkles."

This piece was quite different from any other chocolate I've had before.  The cup was a lovely creamy quality milk chocolate, and the sprinkles were sprinkles, so those elements were not unexpected.  

The filling is what was unique, described as buttercream.  When I think of buttercream I think of frosting, like on a cupcake or cake.  This was not that kind of buttercream, not fluffy.  Instead it was more firm, still creamy, but more like a regular soft chocolate ganache, but, without the cocoa base.  If that makes sense.  But it wasn't white chocolate ganache either, which is another more common chocolate piece filling.  It had a mild vanilla taste, strong cream taste. It was ok, just, different.

I appreciated trying such a unique piece, but, the filling wasn't a favorite for me.  Forth to last pick. ***+.

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Koolfi Creamery

As part of the SF Vacant to Vibrant program, the SF government is “helping small businesses, entrepreneurs, artists, and cultural organizations activate vacant storefronts to revitalize the area and promote economic recovery”, by paying their rent for the first few months, giving them grant money to seed their operations, providing resources to help with securing permits, etc. Many of these vacant storefronts are around my office and neighborhood, and it has been nice to see some activity in these pretty sad empty shops.  As someone who eats ice cream (or gelato or froyo) literally every day, of course I was excited to see, Koolfi Creamery, an ice cream shop as one of the latest batch of businesses.

"Koolfi Creamery creates Indian-inspired ice creams with fresh, local California Straus dairy. They are a queer and immigrant women-owned business that operates a shop in San Leandro and a pint wholesaling operation."

The business is not brand new, as they have a storefront in San Leandro, and do sell pints at a few grocery stores around.  The popup space is simple but well designed, and I found the staff remarkably friendly.

Flavors.

"Our ice creams are crafted in small batches with wholesome, real ingredients that I grew up with, and fresh local ingredients when possible. No artificial flavors! One lick and you will want a tub all for your self!"

I was even more excited when I saw their flavors. 

Many Indian flavors, such as their signature Malai koolfi, mango lassi, or Holi basil.  Sparkly fairy glitter rainbow sprinkles cake batter.  Slightly exotic flavors like jackfruit + coconut.  Even vegan offering like dark chocolate.

More flavors.

The flavor hits kept going and got even more interesting from there, with fresh strawberry with balsamic and tamarind, butterscotch with cashew pralines, roasted banana with gulab jamuns, lotus & rose ...

In addition to scoops, they also have toppings, and sundaes (which can include gulab jamun as the base!).

I had *such* a hard time deciding what kind to get my first visit.

Jackfruit & Coconut.

At last minute, I decided on jackfruit & coconut. The allure of the jackfruit was just too much. It is just too rare to see around SF.

The base ice cream was clearly fresh and high quality. No icy bits, smooth, and served at exactly the right temperature, not too hard, not too melty. The jackfruit flavor was subtle but present, and the coconut tiny bits within provided some texture. It was certainly not an overly sweet ice cream.

Overall, clearly a quality product, but the flavors were a bit less intense than I was hoping for. I’d love to try more though. ***+.

Savory Spicy Bun.

During my visit they also had samples of some savory spicy buns.  I didn't catch the name, but they were really quite flavorful, Indian flavors, with some legit heat to them as well. Fascinating, and I'd love to learn more about them (and understand why they had them, as ice cream and spicy savory buns don't seem like a natural product pairing ...).  ***+.

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Lufthansa Business Class, Short Haul, Europe

Update Review, May 2024 Travel

Flight Details:

• Route: UA 8766 / LH 1622, Munich to Krakow
• Departure: 11:25am
• Arrival: 12:45pm
• Seat: 1A
• Aircraft: A321

Standard inter-Europe flight, first class with middle seat blocked out, short flight, but still full meal service. Nothing notable or out of the ordinary. Note: no wifi available.

Food & Drink

Meal Tray.

I was seated in the first row, and had a meal tray in front of me within moments of when the FA could stand up.  No choice given, just, the tray.  On it was the main dish and dessert.  She very efficiently served the small cabin their trays, then came back with a bread basket, and then a cart for drinks.  The entire process was done in <3 minutes.  It was very impressive.

Main Dish.

The main dish was some kind of sliced meat (roast beef?), with a beet puree, roast beets, and creamy kraut.  Some mustard in there too.

The meat was tender, and even had a bit of pink, but I didn't care for the flavor.  Maybe it was veal?  

The rest was fine, very very flavorful components.  I brought a salad with me, and I mixed the kraut and beet puree in, and that was actually pretty satisfying.  Not an exciting meal, but it worked.  *** beet elements/kraut, ** meat.

No salt and pepper provided to go with, which I really wanted for my salad (luckily, I had my own of course).  Basic, a bit odd, but reasonably interesting and tasty.

Roll.

The bread basket contained a few different kinds of bread.  It was presented without tongs to get the bread, I was supposed to just reach in to grab one.  I was glad I was the first guest served?  I went for one that turned out to be cheesy and seedy.  It was warm.  It was fine, but not special.  **+.

Dessert.

The dessert was a bundt cake, with some kind of red fruit puree, and a bit of cream.  The cake was not particularly flavorful, but it was moist.  A blank canvas really.  I think the fruit may have been plum?  But completely pureed, no bits of fruit.  It was not too sweet.  The cream was fine.

Overall, not my style of dessert really, but nothing wrong with it.  **+ due to my own preferences, but it probably was a *** for most.

Original Review, September 2022

My first trip on Lufthansa, short haul business class.  It was a good experience. They blow domestic US airlines out of the water.

Flight Details:

• LH109, MUC-FRA
• Departure: 2pm (actual: 2:30pm)
• Arrival: 3pm (actual: 3:15pm)
• Class: Business

With a flight time of just 40 minutes, I absolutely did not expect a meal tray! The moment they could stand up, our flight attendants sprang into motion delivering trays within seconds. It was impressive, really.

Menu.

Our trays came with a cold snack-ish savory platter and a dessert, along with a menu card, advertising the "Tasting" featuring cuisine from Frankfurt. This is part of Lufthansa's new business class catering, featuring what is supposed to be local cuisine from different cities.

The menu came in several languages, including English, but I still wasn't quite sure what I had.

Meal.

"Smoked Tenderloin of Beef accompanied by buttered Wholemeal Spelt Bread with pickled Vegetables, Spundekas Quenelle and Pretzel Crouton."

This was a mixed bag. I love pickles, but the white pickled things on top were way too strongly pickled for me. I'm not sure what they were. The tiny baby zucchini was not pickled, and was fine, but mostly just a small baby cold cooked zucchini. Eh. The white thing also on top was crisp, tart (I assume pickled?) but I'm also not sure what it was. Fascinating stuff.

The beef was actually not bad, tender, sorta like corned beef. I liked the pretzel croutons, even though they were a bit soft. The flavor was good. The bread was kinda stale tasting, a kinda hard slice of spelt bread, that I didn't particularly care for. And buttered, with the beef? That was odd. Mayo, mustard, anything like that would have made more sense.

Then there was a lump that looked at first like tuna salad, but I realized was the Spundekas. I couldn't identify it at all. It sorta tasted like cottage cheese without curds, but, was strangely orange. I later looked it up to find out that it is quark with paprika. Ah. Anyway, I wasn't really into the flavor, but I liked the crunch from the seeds on top.

So, not awful, but not actually very good. The Swiss Airlines savory open faced breads on the same length flight (Zurich to Munich) were considerably better.

***.

"Frankfurter Kranz Kuppel with Almond Brittle".

Then there was dessert-ish.

Yes, this was the English translation. And no, there was no almond brittle anywhere in sight. I have no idea what this was really. It was decent, a mousse, fairly creamy, sweet. On top though was ... torn bread? Stewed plums? Definitely not almond brittle, that is all I know.

This was kinda enjoyable, even if not identifiable. That said, the little pudding I had on the similarly short Swiss airlines flight from Zurich to Munich was much better. I also learned that "Frankfurter Kranz Kuppel" is a Frankfort "Crown Cake", a crown shaped bundt cake with cream filling, which explains the "torn bread", I guess that was the cake. It was light and airy, and I didn't actually like it much. Maybe the pudding was supposed to be like the buttercream usually found in the layers of the cake? Was this a deconstructed version? And the stuff that looked like stewed plum wasn't ... it was just a fruity gel.

So, definitely odd. I liked the mousse, the rest though ... eh.

***.

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Convene Catering

Convene is a meeting space and event venue with several locations in the US, including in San Francisco, where I recently attended a one day event.  The space was well laid out with flexible room sizes, open spaces for breakouts, etc.  It is an attractive, modern space, and the event staff seemed quite professional.

But we are here to talk about the food and drink of course.  Our conference hosts selected a package that included all day snacks/drinks, a morning and afternoon treat, a lunch buffet, and evening reception.  The quality was above average, although I don't know the cost, it clearly was a nice offering with some more unique options than standard conference fare.

Snacks

Snacks.

Throughout the entire day, we had access to multiple snack shelves, with different variety swapped out every time they refilled (which they were constantly doing).  Most items were gluten-free.  Throughout the day there were many kinds of chips (some really interesting flavors too, like pimento cheese), veggie crisps, dried fruits, nut & fruit trail mixes, flavored dried fava beans, breakfast bars, cookies, gummy candy (Swedish Fish and Sour Patch Kids), mints, and chocolates (Tony's).

There were also drink fridges with assorted flavors of sparkling LaCroix and standard sodas, along with water taps for still or sparkling water, and locally brewed coffee and tea bags.

Clear Labelling.

Whenever food items were served, items were very well marked with the dish name, description, and all the common allergens called out.

Lunch

The lunch spread really surprised me.  Yes, it did have the expected conference sandwiches, salad, and cookies, but 1) the salads were excellent, no basic mixed greens or ceasar here, 2) the main dish options were far above average, and 3) the non-cookie dessert was fantastic.  The only real negative points were that everything came pre-dressed and were really quite over-dressed, and some dishes were awkward to serve in the buffet format.

Roasted Hominy. VG GF.

"Roasted sweet corn, baby bell peppers, tomatoes, lima beans, pickled tomatillos, green onions, avocado-lime vinaigrette."

The name of this dish, "Roasted Hominy", threw me off a bit, as it wasn't called a salad (yet, clearly was) and there was barely any visible hominy.  The hominy was a garnish really.  Calling it something like "avocado lime Southwest salad" would have made more sense ... 

Anyway, sadly, I'm allergic to avocado, and this was already (very) dressed with the avocado based dressing.  The fresh crisp baby gems looked incredible though, and I was sad to miss out on what looked like a very good salad, full of unique ingredients.

Seasonal Panzanella. DF.

"Seasonal fruits & vegetables, crispy prosciutto, white balsamic vinaigrette."

I did get to enjoy the next salad offering, although it too was a bit mis-named.  A "panzanella" is usually bread based, and, although this had croutons, it really wasn't what I think of as a panzanella.  It also didn't actually have any seasonal fruits as described (although I guess the tomato counts?).  That said, it was delicious (although it too was over dressed, it was already coated and tossed, AND there was extra dressing on top).

I *loved* this though.  The baby kale was a hearty base, the roasted vegetables (I found several types of squash in mine) were summer appropriate, the pickled red onions gave some tartness, the tomatoes were crazypants good - sooo flavorful and juicy and just a true celebration of summer, and the crispy prosciutto was totally addicting - crispy indeed, salty, and phenomenal.  I wish it didn't have all that dressing, but, it was really, really good.  I went back for seconds, and nearly for thirds!

****+.

Italian Hero.

"Prosciutto cotto, soppresada, fennel salami, aged provolone, calabrian chilli pepper aioli, giardiniera relish."

Next came your requisite sandwiches, for those who think lunch = sandwiches.  The Italian hero was on crisp baguette, loaded with meats, and actually held together well with the pick.  I appreciated that they were cut into small portions so I could try it (mostly out of curiosity, but also, I do love good luncheon meats!).

The baguette was pretty lackluster, soft not crusty, not particularly flavorful.  The meats and cheese were fairly average generic decent deli meats, the spreads were flavorful.  Basically, a reasonable Italian sub, just the bread was a bit lackluster.  *** fillings, ** bread, so **+ overall.

Sicilian Eggplant Relish Tartine. VG.

"Sautéed eggplant, bell peppers, tomato, golden raisins, chilli."

The other sandwich-adjacent offering was an open faced tartine.  It came on a very soft and flavorful focaccia, that soaked up a lot of juices from the topping.  Given how "meh" the baguette was, this shocked me, but I really liked this bread base.  ****+.

The topping was odd but flavorful.  I liked everything besides the bell peppers.  It did go really well with the focaccia.  ***.

Overall, ***+ and shockingly tasty, but I will ding the catering company one point here for not being practical to pick up with the serving tongs.  Every single guest struggled, lost the toppings, etc.  The soft bread base, the large size, and the tongs just didn't work at all.

Buddah Bowl. GF VG.

"Quinoa, pickled red cabbage, caramelized red onions, shaved carrots, sautéed red peppers, spiced sweet potatoes, sautéed spinach, sunbutter dressing."

On the heartier side, and to satisfy all the vegans and gluten-free diners, we had a buddah bowl.  You can't see it, but the base of this is just plain quinoa.  It came with different sections of toppings, including the pickled red cabbage, the carrots, the red onion, the spiced potatoes, etc.  Under that was a layer of spinach (that didn't seem sautéed as advertised, it was raw).  Again too much dressing globed on top as well.  The flowers were an attractive touch. 

I wanted to like this, but the flavors were mostly off for me.  I really didn't care for the sunbutter dressing that was all over it, and the spicing on the potatoes (Morrocan-ish?) was aggressive and not really the flavor profile I gravitate towards.  There was also tons of red peppers, and I don't care for red peppers.  So alas, not much here I was interested in. *+.

Another slight catering logistics issue, as this was not very practical for large format like this though, as the first people just got all the toppings, and it kept being left with just quinoa.

Salmon "Burnt Ends". GF.

"Caramelized BBQ salmon with roasted corn & zucchini succotash."

And finally, the other main dish, shockingly NOT chicken, was salmon.  Big filets of salmon, roasted with a bbq rub.  Fairly tender and flakey, cooked well done, but not dried out if that makes sense.  I like my salmon mid-rare, but this was good for that style of done-ness.  ***.

It was served over a summer veggie succotash.  The zucchini was cubed much the same size as the corn, the asparagus was very small pieces, and the other summer squash was larger hunks, making it fairly interesting to eat due to all the sizes.  All were soft but not mushy, fairly flavorful.  ***.  

Cherry Bomb Cookies. V.

On the dessert front, of course they had a basic cookie option.  At least it wasn't just generic chocolate chip?

The cookie was very average.  Lightly soft, lightly chewy.  Not particularly buttery, sugary, nor decadent.  I wasn't into the tart chewy cherries throughout.  Chocolate chips standard.  Good distribution of mix-ins. ***.

Dark Chocolate Tartlets. V.

But they also had these tartlets.

I often put tartlets down, as the tart shells usually aren't very good and I prefer larger format desserts, but these were very, very good.  The tart shell itself wasn't particularly interesting, just sweet and a bit soft, but the filling was fantastic.  Super rich, super dark chocolate.  The garnish of additional dark chocolate shavings worked well.  I really enjoyed this, although I wish it had a little whipped cream or fresh berries to balance it out.

****.

Break

For afternoon break, we had a simple offering, just a mocktail shot and donut.  I missed the morning break, so I'm not sure what they had then.

Passion Fruit Spritz. V. GF.

"Passion fruit tea, basil simple syrup, micro basil."

This ... was just too sweet.  Passion fruit + simple syrup = sweet overload.  I didn't taste the basil.  But they looked pretty? *+.

Mixed Berry Beignet. V.

"Berry compote, yeast pastry."

"I know these!", was my first thought when I saw the treat.  While they labelled them as beignets, and most of my encounters with these list them as donuts, I was fairly certain these are the same filled donut-beignets that I've had at sooo many hotel breakfast buffets worldwide.  Do they taste like fresh donuts?  Absolutely not.  Does the outside layer sometimes sorta peel off?  Yes.  But do I generally really like them?  Also yes.  Although mixed berry is usually my last favorite of the flavors (Nutella, custard, cream, cookie butter, etc are much better).

And yes, they were exactly as I expected, and exactly as they are from any hotel breakfast buffet.  Fluffy, lightly sweet yeasted dough.  Decent amount of smooth berry compote filling inside. The filling has no seeds, and is no clear specific berry, and isn't really like regular jelly donut filling either, but it is fruity and sweet and definitely works.  

*** in the grand scheme of things, but ***+ for how tasty they are, despite being a frozen mass produced little donut ball. 

Reception

To close the event, we had a very minimal reception.  I assume Convene has much more extensive packages, but our hosts did not select one.

Beer.

Three different beers were available, all in cans.  No cider, although one was a fruity summer beer.

Wine.

The wine lineup was one each of rose, white, and red.  All reasonable wines, in the $20-30 bottle range.

I went for the red, Benton-Lane Pinot Noir.  It was a touch acidic, but not bad overall.  ***.

Chips & Salsa.

The chips and salsa were both slightly above average.  Nice thick (but not chunky) salsa, good flavor.  Chips well salted. ***+.

I didn't get a photo of the root veggie chips, two kinds, purple and orange, that were absolutely fantastic.  Salty, greasy, flavorful, and totally hit the spot.  ****.

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Good Natured Selects

Snacks, snacks, snacks.  I love my snacks, particularly chip-like things these days.  Which lead me to Good Natured Selects.

"Good Natured Selects is all about those little snacking victories. That’s why we set out to craft a recipe made with real ingredients and packed with so much flavor it satisfies your snack cravings."

I'm unable to find much information on the company, nor an explanation of the 'Selects' part of the name, as they don't seem to have non-Select offerings, but their product lines all feature veggie forward crispy snacks, such as the Toasted Thins, Puffs, and crazy triangle shaped "Veg-ables".  All are gluten-free, non GMO, etc.  I've tried the thins, as my niece is recently gluten-free, and I'm exploring all sorts of snacks with her.

Toasted Thins

"These baked crisps are the tastiest way to eat your vegetables. In fact, they contain a half serving of real vegetables in every serving. Now you can get the goodness of carrots, bell peppers and spinach in a snack that the whole family will enjoy."

The toasted thins come in flavors like multigrain, ranch, and cheddar cheese, and all have a very vegetable forward base. 

Ranch.

"Starting with a blend of carrots, bell peppers and spinach, these carefully crafted thins are then baked and seasoned with the tangy buttermilk flavor of ranch to deliver the perfect combination of flavor and crunch. With a half serving of vegetables per serving, these Vegetable Crisps are here for the win!"

These are fairly interesting chips, er, toasted thins.  They are crispy and have the same satisfying form factor of a traditional chip.  And the base is more potato forward than I expected, while you can taste the veggies a little, the dominant flavor is still potato, in the direction of the taste of instant mashed potatoes, but, in a crispy form (which, makes sense, the first two ingredients are dried potatoes and potato starch).  The taste is familiar, but a bit different, and a bit healthy tasting.

The small ridges hold seasoning well, and although they don't taste like traditional ranch to me, the flavor is quite savory, a bit creamy, a bit zesty.  Good garlic/onion/sour cream flavors.

Overall, they are decent.  I found myself liking them at first bite, but after a few, they trended a touch too healthy-vegetabley for me, but, they really are a reasonable choice for a veggie forward item.  ***.

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