Well Fed On the Town

Photo by David Corby, copyright 2006.
Lest you thought Oakland was merely San Francisco’s little step-sister, here’s a brief update on good eats across the bay.
Water
A new restaurant called Water Lounge + Raw Bar has replaced the recently closed Pearl Oyster Bar and Restaurant. Externally, nothing seems to have changed save for the name of […]

Photo by DJ Wallstrom, from the Farmer Brown website.
Farmer Brown is a restaurant and bar that showcases the produce of local African-American farmers. The menu consists of riffs on American Southern food, such as greens, macaroni and cheese, fried chicken, poor boy sandwiches. The goal of Farmer Brown is to bring to city folk produce […]

Have you ever gone out for dim sum and wondered what to order? So have I. Here’s a short overview of a few items I ordered recently at my favorite neighborhood Chinese place, Happy Valley’s in Oakland.
You might have noticed that this is a departure from your regularly scheduled post. I’m new to vlogging, so […]

Like a bell to a dog, the very mention of the name Scharffen Berger tends to induce instant salivation among chocolate lovers. The Berkeley-based chocolate company is one of the few “bean to bar” chocolate manufacturers in the United States. Unlike most chocolate companies in the U.S., Scharffen Berger works with cacao farmers all over […]

Bittersweet, the self-described chocolate café of Oakland and San Francisco, is one of my favorite places to get a chocolate fix. Whether you’re looking for a good dark chocolate bar such as Hachez 88%, a steamy cup of probably the best vegan hot chocolate around, or some nice pain au chocolat, Bittersweet probably has what […]

Nobody writes obituaries for restaurants, except for those brief little blips you might see in the restaurant gossip column of the Chronicle. But those by the by tidbits are so dry and business-like. Such and such restaurant closed, chef so and so to relocate. Sometimes it’s just “[insert name of vaguely known but not quite […]

Every so often I get a hankering for a good plate of hummus. I mean hummus, not chipotle sundried tomato garbanzo bean spread from a plastic box on the supermarket shelf. I’m talking about a plate of hummus with a well in the middle shaped by a tablespoon, drizzled over with spicy olive oil and […]

Vegan baked goods are an odd lot. Without butter and eggs, they are like photocopies of a photocopy of a photo — pale imitations of the original. I do enjoy trying my hand at vegan baked goods, and have managed a pretty decent cornbread, but I’ve often wondered about those vegan goodies one sees in […]

Shuna “Fish” Lydon is known and loved by many people in the foodblogging community, bloggers and readers alike. She is admired in the blogosphere for her professional perspective on food, as well as her sensual prose. I have taken several cooking classes with Shuna and found her to be an engaging and knowledgeable teacher, encouraging […]

When you live in San Francisco, you often wind up milling amongst the clam chowder shacks and tacky t-shirt shops of Fisherman’s Wharf. Not necessarily because you want to, mind you, but because anyone who visits you insists on going there. To me, San Francisco is all about the Castro, the Haight, the houses along […]