Food News in the City of Trees

Go Farm to Basket

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You know how I love going on daytrips... well, I love going on picnics too- to the beach, the wine country even just down to McKinley Park. There's something just so romantic and timeless about it. Whenever we picnic though, I always think about how great it would be if someone else could pack the food for me so I could just relax and enjoy the day fully. Well, now there is! Sacramento Picnic Company is launching later this month. Their elegant baskets will be packed with fresh produce, tasty gourmet dishes and delicious local meat and artisan cheeses. I took a peek at their website and saw homemade jams and pickles listed, smoked salmon and chipotle deviled eggs with Osetra caviar, and creamy banana pudding listed amongst other goodies. This creative company offers "theme" baskets with prechosen items or you can customize your own basket. Baskets run roughly about $60. In addition to the food, the basket rental includes a picnic blanket, plates, silverware, napkins, glassware, wine opener, sparkling or still water and a map of some their favorite picnic spots. SPC will not have a brick and mortar location, instead they'll be cooking out of a local commercial kitchen and coordinating with local businesses, florists and vineyards to serve as pickup locations for the preordered baskets.

* I think this would also work great as a gift for new moms and dads. They're usually too exhausted to cook. What better than a romantic picnic basket full of tasty goodies so that they can picnic with their new bundle of joy?

More info: Sacramento Picnic Company
Phone: (916) 477-8269


Step Back in the Past

Remember The Coral Reef, Stan's Drive-In and The Hong Kong Café? These are just a few of the nostalgic food places that will be discussed next Wednesday. Time Tested Books in Midtown will be holding a reading, book signing and multimedia presentation of siblings Maryellen and Keith Burns' new book, "Lost Restaurants of Sacramento and Their Recipes."

The event is free and open to the public. July 17, 7pm. 1114 21st Street.
The book will be on sale at the event for $19.99.
More info: Time Tested Books


Vive la France!

Bastille Day is just around the corner and the folks at Matteo's/Supper Club have put together a pretty amazing French-inspired wine dinner to honor it. The menu will be offered on Monday, July 15th from 630pm-9pm and includes mouthwatering items such as crispy leg of Muscovy duck confit, classic steak au poivre with peppercorn crusted filet mignon and garlic butter basted escargot nestled in crimini mushroom caps.
Reservations are required so make yours now, before they fill up!

Location: Matteo's, 5132 Arden Way Carmichael
Cost: $58/pp + tax and gratuity

For more info, contact:
(916) 779-0727 or email: wineshop@pizzamatteo.com

For full menu & wine pairings: Matteo's Bastille Day Dinner


Pickle Me This

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By now, most of us have heard about (or tasted) the awesome pickled products from local company, Preservation and Co. From pickled habanero chips to horseradish dilly beans, these Sacramentans are rockin' the house with their tasty preserved foods. Currently their products can be found at The Sacramento Natural Foods Co-Op, local Williams-Sonoma locations, and Amazon.com. They make a crazy-delicious zesty Bloody Mary mix that I received as a gift from a friend and used to make crockpot Bloody Mary chicken. Loved it! Supposedly, they're planning on coming out soon with a All-Natural Bloody Mary Mix soon that will be Gluten Free, Non-GMO, and preservative free. Can't wait!

Product Website: Preservation and Co.
More info: Jason@Preservationandco.com

Dine Downtown Week, Jan 9-18

Photo Source: Unknown

 

 

For those in the Sacramento area, just a heads up- The Downtown Sacramento Partnership's annual Dine Downtown Week is coming up!

For a link to the participating restaurants and their menus (most of them are up):
Dine Downtown Sacramento 2013
* Business that are offering vegetarian and gluten-free are marked on the list with a (V) and (GL).

A few of the restaurants that are participating are: Mulvaney's, Restaurant Thir13en, The Red Rabbit and Biba.

Event: Japanese Food and Cultural Bazaar

Source : TanQ

It's just two weeks until the Buddhist Church of Sacramento's 66th Annual Bazaar. If you've never been, you must! And if you have, get ready for some delicious Japanese dishes- especially their finger-lickin' roasted teriyaki chicken, always a highlight. There's also music, traditional Japanese dancing and Ikebana exhibits to check out for the adults and several game stalls for the kiddos.

Come celebrate the Year of the Dragon!

Where: 2401 Riverside Blvd, Sacramento, CA 95818. (916) 446-1866
When: August 11th and 12th from 12pm-9pm
Admission: Free
More Info: Website 
Entertainment Schedule: Schedule
Last year's festival: My Kind of Town
* Cash only

Upcoming Food Events

MAY
May 11-12 Paradise Chocolate Fest

http://www.chocolatefest.us/

May 12 Jubilee Pig Roast  

http://jubileefarmca.com/

May 12-13 Roseville Berry Fest

http://roseville-ca.patch.com/articles/berryfest-set-for-mother-s-day-weekend

May 18-20 LodiZinfest

http://www.zinfest.com/

May 19-20 Galt Strawberry Festival

http://galtchamber.org/strawberryfestival.html

May 19 West Coast Brewfest 

http://www.matsonian.com/wcbf/home.html

May 19-20 Castroville Artichoke Festival

http://www.artichoke-festival.org/index.html

May 20 Smoke and Fire Cookoff 

http://www.smokeandfirecookoff.com/

May 20 Pacific Rim Street Fest

http://www.pacificrimstreetfest.com/

May 26 Tour de Cluck

http://tourdecluck.org/About

JUNE

June 1 Davis Street Food Rodeo

http://www.davisdirt.blogspot.com/

June 2 Raley’s Grape Escape

http://www.raleysgrapeescape.com/

June 3 GOOD Street Food + Design Market http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/GOODstreetfooddesignmarket

June 4 Fourth Annual Urban Agfest  

http://slowfoodsacramento.com/4th-annual-urban-ag-fest/

June 8-10 Crawdad Festival 

http://www.crawdadfestival.net/

June 9 Old Town Elk Grove Chili Festival 

 http://oldtownegfestivals.com/our-street-festivals/

JULY

July 13-15 Brentwood CornFest

http://www.brentwoodchamber.com/survey.0.html

June 23 King of Feasts  

http://www.saczoo.org/page.aspx?pid=356

July 20-21 Marysville Peach Festival

http://www.marysvillepeachfest.com/

July 27-29 GilroyGarlic Fest 

http://www.gilroygarlicfestival.com/

July 29  Courtland Pear Fair 

http://www.pearfair.org

AUGUST
Aug 4-5 Watsonville Strawberry Festival 

http://www.mbsf.com/#

Aug 11 Woodland Tomato Festival

http://www.woodlandtomatofestival.com/

August 11 & 12  Sac Buddhist Church- Annual Japanese Food & Cultural Bazaar http://www.buddhistchurch.com/events/Bazaar.htm

August 18 SacramentoBanana Festival 

http://bananafestival.sojoarts.net/

August 18 San Francisco Street Food Festival

http://www.sfstreetfoodfest.com/

SEPTEMBER
Sept 11-13 National Heirloom Exposition 

http://www.theheirloomexpo.com/

Sept 13-16 Lodi Grape Festival  

http://www.grapefestival.com/

Sept 15 Fair Oaks Chicken Festival

http://fairoakspark.org/events/chicken-festival/

OCTOBER

Oct 5-7  California Avocado Festival 

http://www.avofest.com/

Oct 13 Trailfest 

https://cvrtf.org/category/trailfest-2012/

Upcoming Food Events

Photo: Source

February 18th, 4pm, $10: Live Music & Pre-Carnaval Feijoada Dinner at the Brazilian Center, (916) 387-7344.

February 19th, 7pm, Free : Beer historian & author of Sacramento's Breweries, Ed Carroll will be speaking at Time Tested Books, (916) 447-5696.

February 19th, 5:30pm, $25: Soup Line fundraiser @ Mulvaney's B&L, (916) 441-6022.

February 20-26: Eat to Feed the Hungry

February 24-March 4: Third Annual Sacramento Beer Week

March 3, 9am-1pm: Pig Day at the Davis Farmers Market

March 3, 12pm: Sacramento Beer & Chili Festival @ Southside Park.

*Dates, times & locations for events subject to change so please check with appropriate websites before attending.

Down & Dirty at Foodbuzz '11 - Day One

So this weekend I had the pleasure of heading down to SF and attending my first Foodbuzz Blogger Festival. I wish I had some juicy stories of illicit hazing where they made you eat vast amounts of uncured bacon or branded you with a secret Ancient Roman culinary symbol to share but it actually was just a fun-filled weekend of bloggers and lots and lots and LOTS ---did mention lots?---of food.

Although this was the first Foodbuzz Blogger Festival I've ever attended, it's actually the 3rd annual festival that's been held by Federated Media, Foodbuzz' mothership. Anyhow, I arrived at my hotel Friday afternoon and met up with Debby from A Feast For the Eyes, whom I had been blog buddies with for sometime now (and was staying at the same hotel). She turned out to be just as pretty and sweet in person as she is online. My room was cozy but super cute; in fact, my only beef were the über amorous pigeons right outside my window. Although it was a bit funny at first, the pigeon porn went non-stop during my stay; the only thing missing was the bow-chicka-bow-bow soundtrack in the background. I'm telling you, pigeons have stamina!

Anyhow, once I was unpacked Debby and I walked over to the Grand Hyatt so I could get registered. At registration we were given cute name badges and a reusable Foodbuzz Festival bag filled with all kinds of goodies (Godiva coffees, an OXO peeler, gourmet chocolates, a DIY Cocktails Recipe book, a tumbler and lots of other cool SWAG).

While in line I met several bloggers, including the super adorable Josh from Just Eat! who joined us for drinks at the top of the Hyatt. After cocktails, Foodbuzz bussed us over to the Terra Gallery in the SoMa district for a welcome reception, blogger award ceremony and dinner. Rumor was that at last year's festival a lot of bloggers were snooty and cliquey, I found the ones I met to be the complete opposite. Everyone I spoke to, whether it was on the bus, the cocktail party or the dinner was super friendly (but I could see if how if you're not an extroverted person how difficult an event like this could be). What I didn't anticipate was that there were going to be so many kinds of bloggers there- male, female, mom bloggers, single bloggers, vegans, ethnic food bloggers, and lots of bakers! Some people like Julie from Willow Bird Baking came from far away (she had flown in from North Carolina!) and others like Dorothy from Crazy for Crust turned out to live in my hometown. There also seemed to be a good mix of festival "veterans" and newbies.

Photo of me chatting with Josh from Just Eat! (borrowed from A Feast For the Eyes)

Debby from A Feast for the Eyes with Julie from Willow Bird Baking

For the first part we mingled about, ate delicious hors d'oeuvres sponsored by Sabra and enjoyed plenty of wine. Then we moved upstairs for a dinner hosted by Electrolux. Dinner was set up in a buffet manner and there was an open bar (my favorite kind!).



It was a bit crazy with everyone clamoring to take photos but somehow the lines seemed to move forward. My two favorite dishes were from the "small plates action station."

Glazed Marin Sun Farms Pork Belly over Broccoli Puree, Wood Roasted Florets, Pickled Shiitakes and Chile Morita Vinaigrette

Pan-Seared DayBoat Scallops served with Grapes, Capers, Wood Roasted Cauliflower, Baby Parsnip Puree and Verjus

They look yummy, right? Although to be honest everything was tasty...well, everything maybe except for the Tuscan Beef Stew with honey cornbread, I wasn't wild about that dish---and I noticed that I wasn't the only one who left their bowl of stew on the table. It didn't taste like beef...it tasted like some sort of weird vegan concoction (no offensive to my vegan friends out there). Once the dinner portion was over, it was dessert time!



Heirloom Pumpkin Tarts with a Gingersnap Shell

We were presented with an incredibly long table of tasty treats, selected by Top Chef Just Dessert Winner Yigit Pura, in an array of colors and shapes--tarts, macaroons, cheesecakes, pâtes de fruits, ...well, you get the idea. I called it the Gauntlet of Sugar; however my ever-expanding hips called it, "Danger! Danger!" I have to admit though the 'Creamy Italian Nougat and Valrhona Chocolate Ganache Bites with Marcona Almonds," was quite divine. Okay, I ate three...and that was me restraining myself. Oh yeah, with all this talk about food you're probably wondering...didn't you say something about awards? While we were dining they did give out a few blog awards, but we were sitting at a table right next to the stage so everything sounded like that teacher from the Charlie Brown cartoons (do you know which one I'm talking about? If not click on the link youngster) so I had absolutely no idea what the featured speakers were saying so I just clapped politely whenever everyone else did. I did take a look at the list of nominees and winners later though. At around 9:30, with full bellies and heavy lids, we were bussed back to the Hyatt. It was a fun evening and as I walked back to my hotel, I was excited to start Day 2 of the festival!

More to come...