Love Grown Foods

As you may have noticed, I've been on what is turning into an endless quest to find a granola I really like.  I enjoy granola in many different applications - big clusters to snack on, as a topping on greek yogurt with some fruit, or even with milk as a cereal.  But, I haven't found a brand that I want to keep going back to.

I heard about Love Grown Foods years ago from another food blogger.  Like many others that I have tried, they try to be a little more healthy and do not use refined sugars or artificial sweeteners, using agave and honey instead, and even infuse their cranberries with apple juice.  They believe in only including ingredients you can pronounce :)

Sweet Cranberry Pecan Granola.

I tried the "Sweet Cranberry Pecan", made with "tart cranberries and toasted clusters of pecans and whole grain rolled oats."

This was fairly classic granola, composed mostly of toasted oats.  It did have some subtle sweetness and a few small chunks of pecan, although not nearly as many as I'd like.  It also had a bitterness from the flaxseed, that I somewhat liked, but found a little too strong.  Since I can't stand hard little chunks of dried fruit in my granola, like usual, I picked out the cranberries.

One thing I appreciated was the cluster size.  There were many clusters large enough to eat for a snack as finger food, and I enjoyed some that way.  I hate it when granola is mostly all broken up.  However, the granola wasn't quite flavorful enough of its own to really just munch on dry.

I liked it best when added to some soy milk and topped it with fresh berries, as the sweetness of the soy milk helped add some missing flavor.

Overall, this was decent granola, better than most I've tried recently and clearly high quality, but I will continue my granola quest ...

Read More...

Luxemburgerli from Confiserie Sprüngli

The Luxemburgerli from Confiserie Sprüngli in Zürich are perhaps the most famous macarons in the world.  They are tiny little things, according to Wikipedia, "the Luxemburgerli is lighter than a macaron and is about 1 inch (2.5 cm) in diameter."  The company has been making them since 1836.

Some business visitors came from Zürich recently, and of course, you know what they brought.  Maybe it was because they weren't super fresh (only a day old though), but I wasn't impressed.  The macarons from Sugarie are still my favorites.

Assorted Luxemburgerli.

Clockwise, from top left:

• Champagne Gold: This was super boozy tasting!  No doubt what flavor it was.  Brushed on top with gold coating.  It went really well with tea.  My second favorite.
• Caramel Fleur de Sel:  Thick caramel filling, little bit of salt on top.  I wanted to like this one more than I did.  The filling was just too thick and strange feeling, but obviously it couldn't be runny or it would run all over the place.  I think a caramel flavored cream might be more successful, or perhaps a cream and then thin caramel filling like some of the jelly filled ones.
• Pistacchio.  The cream even had bits of pistacchio in it.  I'm not a huge fan of pistacchio flavor though, so I didn't care for this one.
• Deluxe Cassis: "Extra-fruity cassis centre, embedded in a delicate champagne/cassis crème, enrobed in finest grand cru chocolate."  This was certainly the most unique macaron I've ever seen.  It looked a bit like a mushroom, with the chocolate coating only on the bottom.  There was only one cookie, on top.  Under that was intensely fruity cream (champagne and cassis), then a layer of cassis jelly, then another layer of the cream.  So the bottom half was only cream/jam dipped in chocolate.  It was intensely fruit flavored due to the jelly-like filling.  The dark chocolate was quality.
• Raspberry: The filling contained both a jam and a cream.  I loved the flavor of the jam, and the mix of cream and jam was far more interesting than just a cream.  My favorite! 
• ?.  I have no idea what flavor this was.  The inside filling was a creamy chocolate ganache, but I'm still uncertain as to what the cookie was.  The filling was more fudgy than cream based.
• Chocolate.  I think this had the same filling as the previous one, again, a fudgy chocolate filling rather than cream based.  I thought I detected coconut, but that might have been my imagination.
• Hazelnut.  Like the other nut based one, the cream filling had little bits of hazelnut in it.  Strong hazelnut flavor.

Read More...

Dinner at Frances

[ Originally posted else Jan 17, 2012 ]

I returned to Frances tonight after 1.5 years.  Many of the aspects of the restaurant were exactly the same, notably:

• I appreciate the casual, laid back setting. Being able to wear jeans to a Michelin starred restaurant and not be slightly underdressed is great.
• The house wine is totally decent, and only $1 per ounce, and you only pay for what you drink. Since I can only handle small amounts of wine right now, this is awesome, because I do get to enjoy the pairing of wine with food (normally I have to skip this since I can't have a full glass of wine).
• Prices were totally reasonable, particularly for the quality of ingredients.
• Tables are super close together, you can't help but listen to neighbor's conversations. I think we were closer to our neighbors tonight than we were at the communal table at Camino last night!
• House filtered still or sparkling water, free!

My overall impression this time around ... meh. Nothing was bad, but nothing was particularly good nor memorable. It has the feel of a lovely neighborhood restaurant, and if it really was convenient and in my neighborhood I'd go back, but I certainly don't understand the 3 month wait for a table. Some of my opinion certainly comes from the fact that I'm spoiled and eat a lot of good food on a regular basis. And some of it probably comes from ordering the wrong things - we didn't get the top 4 items that people rave about: the chickpea fritters with aoili, the bacon beignets with creme fraiche, the lumberjack cake, or the chocolate clafoutis.

Warm spiced almonds.

To start, you are given complimentary warm nuts when you are seated. A nice change from standard bread, although it reminded me of being on American Airlines (this isn't a bad thing, the warm nuts are always great!) The spices weren't all that distinguishable, but the nuts being warm was nice.

Grilled calamari with pickled currants, fennel, arugula, kabocha squash in lemon vinaigrette.

The calamari was grilled and had a nice smokey/charred flavor. It wasn't rubbery at all. I love squash and the chunks of kabocha squash were a nice consistency, not too mushy, not too firm. The fennel was crispy and added a nice crunchy fresh texture. But, the dish didn't really come together all that well and it was way overdressed with a very salty and lemony dressing. The greens were completely overpowered by the dressing, I couldn't finish them.

Baked cherrystone clams with winter greens, fennel, scallops, and bacon cream, topped with breadcrumbs and bacon crumbles.

The clams were chopped up and baked in the creamy sauce. The prevailing taste here was bacon (which is a good taste of course), but I didn't really taste clam at all. Nor did I detect any scallop whatsoever. And the breadcrumb layer was too thick, making entire spoonfuls mostly just taste like breadcrumbs. Meh.

Carnaroli risotto with crab, salsify, and meyer lemon.

After the previous night's amazing roasted crab dinner at Camino, I saw crab on the menu and got excited. Unfortunately, the crab was pretty lost in the creamy risotto. It was there for sure, but I couldn't really taste it, as the buttery/creamy sauce was overpowering. The rice was slightly al dente, which was certainly nicer than being mushy. Meh.

Wheat flour crepe crispelles with robiola nostrana, ricotta, parmesan, braised winter greens, wild mushrooms.

This was an interesting dish. A crepe stuffed with a blend of three cheeses and braised winter greens, rolled up and fried, and served with assorted wild mushrooms. Not what I had in mind when I ordered it.

Reading the description, I expected something more like a cannelloni. Somehow I thought I was ordering a pasta dish that would be bursting with a creamy brie-like cheese and delicious winter greens and mushrooms. Since I love brie, greens, and mushrooms, this sounded fantastic. Instead, this was more like spanokapita. The crepe being fried made it much more like a crisp filo dough and the filling was very ricotta-based and heavy on the finely chopped greens. The mushrooms were only on the outside, and I didn't really taste the robiola at all.

I did really enjoy the mushrooms though, well cooked, great flavors. Would not order again.

Pink Lady Apple Gallette with rum raisin ice cream (and caramelized banana and candied peanuts).

I love warm pie and ice cream, so this sounded perfect.

It was indeed served warm. I'm often disappointed with warm dessert and ice cream dishes as the pie is rarely warm enough, but this gallette was a nice temperature. But, the pastry dough was just kinda there, lacking any defining characteristics, not buttery, not flaky, just kinda mushy. Frozen Pillsbury dough is probably better. The apple filling wasn't spiced particularly well. The apples were cooked consistently, not too mushy nor firm. Well executed in some ways, but not very good.

The ice cream was Humphrey Slocombe Rum Raisin. Very boozy. Served at the correct temperature/consistency, not too hard, not too melty. But, I didn't really care for it.

Underneath the ice cream was caramelized bananas and candied peanuts. Those do not usually come with this dessert (normally served with chocolate clafoutis, alongside caramel sauce and salted caramel ice cream), but I was really torn between the two desserts and caramelized bananas sounded soooo good, so I asked to have them included in my dessert, and they humored me. The caramelized banana was everything I wanted it to be, with a lovely caramel layer on top. I probably would have loved the other dessert ...

Read More...

Michael Mischer Chocolates

Another local chocolatier, whom I discovered when he did a guest appearance at my local chocolate shop.  He makes bars and filled truffles, although I've only tried the truffles, his signature item.  All are made with single origin cocoa.

Irish Whiskey Truffle.

• Irish Whiskey Truffe: "Dark chocolate shell filled with an Irish Whiskey ganache".  Special St. Patrick's Day offering only. Tasting notes: I didn't read the box, so I didn't know it was an irish whiskey filling.  I thought it was just a dark chocolate shell with dark chocolate ganache inside.  The dark chocolate shell was smooth and shiny, with a nice snap, and the filling was creamy, but I did not taste any whiskey.  When I had a second one, after reading the box, I knew what I was in for, but I still did not tasty any whiskey.  Decent dark chocolate, but not that remarkable.
• Coconut Truffle: "Dark chocolate shell filled with white chocolate ganache made with shredded coconut and coconut oil."  Tasting notes: Really fantastic.  High quality, flavorful dark chocolate, smooth, with an awesome snap when you bite into it.  Filling is creamy and has great coconut flavor and texture from shredded coconut.  Dark chocolate and coconut go together so well!  Everything you always wanted a Mounds to be, but it wasn’t :)

Read More...

Popcorn Indiana

Sometimes, you just want a bag of something satisfying to munch on while you sit on the couch.  For me, popcorn, or ideally, kettlecorn, ranks very high on my list of munchie favorites.  Nothing beats fresh popped popcorn, or the amazing kettlecorn from the farmer's market in my hometown, but I keep trying packaged varieties hoping to find one that is a good substitute, for when I'm too lazy to pop my own ...

Popcorn Indiana makes a wide range of popcorn products, starting with a slew of "classic" popcorns, ranging from simple (butter, salt), to savory (white cheddar, american cheese, bacon ranch), to sweet (classic kettle corn, cinnamon and sugar).  Then they have some "exclusive" flavors like sriracha or hot cinnamon.  They also make a healthier "fit" line, or the complete opposite, several caramel flavors and "drizzlecorn".  And they also make popcorn chips in a variety of flavors.

Everything I've tried has been good, but I won't generally go out of my way for it.

Kettle Corn

Sweet & Salty Kettle Corn.

• Original Kettlecorn: Meh, not sweet enough. [ This is kettle corn, not caramel corn, so it isn’t that sweet.  But it also doesn’t have much salt either.  Mediocre. Not enough sweet & salty to keep it addictive. ] [ Not bad.  Salt level is very low though, more just like likely glazed popcorn.  Some pieces have lot more sugar than others. Its ok, but not great.  Better frozen. *** ]
• Cinnamon Sugar Kettlecorn: Decent cinnamon flavor, slightly caramelized pieces from the sugar, not bad.
• Hot Cinnamon: Sugary coating, like a red hot candy melted onto popcorn.  Good cinnamon flavor.

Chip'ins

I like popcorn.  I like chips. And I was pretty into Popcorners, a cross between chips and popcorn.  So when I saw that Popcorn Indiana had a similar product, I wanted to try some out.  Available only in savory flavors, like Jalapeño Ranch or Hot Buffalo Wing.

White Cheddar Chip'ins.

Close up of a White Cheddar Chip'ins.

These were exactly like Popcorners.  I would never be able to distinguish between them.  Decent white cheddar flavor, nice crunchy chip, slight popcorn taste.  I again liked the form factor.

Not bad, not great.

Drizzlecorn

And, I saved the best for last.  The ever-so-decadent drizzlecorn!  This is their base kettlecorn, already a bit sweet and salty, then drizzled with even more goodness, like dark or white chocolate, peanut butter, and other delicious things.

Dark Fudge Peppermint Drizzlecorn.

Ok, this sounded downright amazing: "rich, dark, chocolaty fudge that’s been sprinkled with the perfect amount of natural, cool, refreshing, peppermint".  Even if I didn't love the kettlecorn on its own, this sounded VERY promising.

Unfortunately, it sounded better than it was.  It was very one-dimensional.  It was kettlecorn, and it was drizzled with dark chocolate, and there were little bits of peppermint, all as promised, but the flavors just didn't pop.  It was sweet, but not sweet enough to be a real sweet treat.  The chocolate was indulgent, but there wasn't enough.  And really, what I wanted, was some salty counterpoint to balance it.

It did have the strange effect of being *almost* good, so that I kept eating it, strangely addicted to wanting to find a good bite of it.  So, at some level, they did make an addicting product ...

Read More...

Out The Door

Last week, I had an interesting problem.  I needed to get a little bit more food to supplement a dinner we were having at work (long story!)  I had to be able to pick the food up a few hours in advance, and didn't have facilities for re-heating it, but I could store things in a refrigerator.  So I needed cold items that could hold up for a few hours.  And ideally, I didn't want to go far to get it.

I quickly settled on Out The Door, in the nearby Ferry Building.  They are the casual takeout spin-off of the Slanted Door, known for having pretty good Vietnamesse food.  I've been many times, and although I've never raved about it, it has always been pretty reliable, and I knew I could ask to have the salads undressed so I could mix them at serving time, and figured things like spring rolls would hold up well.

There are several other Out The Doors too - one in Pacific Heights that was really awful last time I was there, but where I'd gotten decent take-out before, and a now closed one in the Westfield Mall that I used to love.  The Ferry Building outpost I've mostly used just for their cooking kits and baked goods, but I've always been a fan of them.

The food pretty much met my expectations.  All solid, decently priced, and certainly filled my needs.  Nothing was amazing, but nothing was bad.  I'd go again in a situation like this.

Taro Milk Boba.  $3.50.

While I was waiting, I got really excited when I noticed that they had taro milk boba! Unfortunately, I hated it.  The tapioca was decent, not gloopy or anything, but the taro milk part was really bad tasting.  I love the taste of taro, so it wasn't just me not liking taro.  It was also a strange thickness, presumably from the taro?

Sadly, I prefer the fake version from Quickly much more, and I wouldn't get another.

Fresh Spring Rolls. $8.00.

The non-vegetarian spring rolls are filled with gulf shrimp, pork, mint, lettuce, and vermicelli.  I ordered mine without the pork, as I don't like it.  The rice paper wrapper was fresh and had a good chew to it.  There wasn't too much of the vermicelli noodles (I hate it when rolls are 90% noodles!).  There were plentiful greens, that were fresh, crisp, and really made the rolls feel light and refreshing.  The shrimp was disappointing however, fairly fishy tasting.  Overall, a well executed roll, but I didn't love it.  They held up fine for a few hours.

The vegetarian version came filled with tofu, shiitake, cabbage, and mint.  They were likewise fairly well executed, but unremarkable.

The peanut sauce, which I was hoping to love, was just thick and gloopy, and I didn't care for it at all.

Overall, I just didn't like these much.  $8 is a fair price for rolls of this size, they are $12 in the restaurant.

Niman Ranch Beef Salad.  $9.50.

The salad gave no details on the menu, just that it was a Niman Ranch Beef Salad with oranges.  I'm not quite sure what I expected, but sounded better than it was.  It was basically just a mixed greens salad, with some slices of valencia orange, red onion, and crispy taro root.  I liked the crispy taro strips, but the rest of it, besides the beef, was fairly standard, and the red onion very harsh and a strange pairing with the sweet orange.  The beef was good: thinly sliced, with a really nice crust on it, well seasoned.

Overall: meh.  Would not get again, and didn't really seem worth the $9.50 price tag, particularly compared to prices of the other dishes.

Green Papaya Salad. $8.00

When I lived in Sydney, I got hooked on papaya salad.  Some places there made ridiculously good versions!  This was good, but fairly standard.  It contained shredded green papaya, shredded carrot, fried tofu strips, crispy shallots, roasted peanuts.  But not a whole lot of flavor, even with the dressing.  Fresh tasting ingredients, and I liked the crunch from the peanuts and crispy shallots, but still, fairly unremarkable.

I had some left over, and ate it the next day at lunch, and actually enjoyed it more.  The tofu and shallots were no longer crispy, which clearly wasn't as good, but the papaya soaked up the delicious dressing.

$8 was a good price for a large salad, normally $12 at the restaurant.

White Chocolate Mousse with Strawberry Gelee and Cookie Crumble, Salted Caramel Pot De Crème .  $5 each.

And finally ... desserts!  They offered four types of puddings, each layered, served in little jars.  You know how much I love puddings, so it was really hard to pick just two!

The first was my favorite.  The main layer was a creamy white chocolate mousse.  It was intensely white chocolate flavored.  So often things claim to be "white chocolate" and are really just fakely sweet.  This was actually very identifiable as white chocolate.  The bottom layer was strawberry gelee.  It was sweet, and a good flavor paired with the white chocolate.  The cookie crumble on top was I think a sugar cookie, and added a nice textural element.  This dish reminded me of cheesecake in many ways, creamy and rich, with fruit and cookie components somewhat mimicking crust and topping.  It was a bit hard to get a bite with all three layers since the jar was fairly narrow.  Overall, successful, and I'd eat it again, but I wouldn't go out of my way for it.

The next was the salted caramel pot de crème.  It was basically a sweet pudding, with a layer of very runny salted caramel, with whipped cream on top.  The overall consistency was too thin for my liking, a bit hard to eat, particularly the middle layer.  It was also too sweet.  I think it may have paired really well with a black coffee, but on its own, it was a bit over the top.  The salted caramel flavor was good though, and I did enjoy it, but probably wouldn't get again.

$5 was a fine price for desserts of this size, and the desserts were definitely the highlight of the meal.

Read More...

Scharffen Berger Chocolate

The first time my mother and sister came to visit me in the Bay Area, I lived in Sunnyvale.  I was working a zillion hours a day and had barely even been to San Francisco myself.  My world basically consisted of  apartment, my office, and the route between them.  I had no idea what to do with tourists.

Somehow, we found our way to the Scharffen Berger factory, to go on a tour.  It was my first chocolate factory tour, so it was somewhat interesting.  I know they are our local chocolate maker, so I feel like I should be loyal, but I don't really love their products.  They aren't bad, but really aren't that great.  Maybe they were better before being acquired by Hershey?

I've had a lot of Scharffen Berger over the past few years, but I didn't take notes previously.  I recently received a sampler pack including a milk, bittersweet, and extra dark variety, so we tasted them as a flight.

• 41%: This was very creamy, very smooth, nice mouthfeel, but a milk chocolate obviously, and not something we normally go for.  One fellow taster said: "not bad for milk chocolate ... just really really sweet!"
• 70%: Very bitter, not smooth/refined/balanced flavor at all. One fellow taster said "That is a lot better than the 36%".  [ hmm, now I like it, although very bitter for sure, like the bitterness ] [ Decent snap to it, fairly bitter, but not that balanced ]  
• 82%: More bitter, but still not smooth or refined.  One fellow taster remarked that it was "really fruity.  Doesn't have the best texture".  None of us really liked it.  Noted that it was good for baking.

Read More...