Do you sometimes skip dessert just so you an have another serving of kale salad? Me too! Kale is truly an astonishing member of the brassica family, beloved for its deep green (sometimes purple) color and its wealth of antioxidants and healthy minerals. Its distinctive bitter flavor makes it a hit with savvy chefs all over the world. And it loves to grow right here on our windswept, fog-kissed coast.
Posts Tagged: PLATED
Bagelry Hits the Spot
For decades this home of utterly firm, toothsome bagels and laid-back ambiance has provided instant shelter from the usual storms of economic chaos, relationship entanglements and social justice meltdown. In other words, it’s a place where the reliable, the cozy and the bagel all reign together.
New Leaf Serves Up Fresh Cooking Tips
Are you as addicted to New Leaf as I am? Outstanding fresh coffee, vigorous green health drinks bursting with minerals that slap your immune system into shape, custom-made sandwiches and that life-saving dinner alternative, turkey chili. All this plus a butcher section and a bracing selection of local premium wines? It’s safe to say New Leaf offers everything (except perhaps a parking lot large enough for cars powered by gasoline).
Soquel Shaman Brant Secunda’s Chocolate Quest
Shaman Organic Chocolate bars are the total package. Delicious, organic chocolate, every $3 bite of which goes to help maintain the endangered indigenous lifestyles and traditions of the Huichol Indians of Mexico.
Vinocruz Pouring it On
With the boldly colorful acrylic artwork by W.M. Vinci currently adorning two walls and hundreds of wine bottles providing the rest of the visuals, Vinocruz offers more sensory bombardment than ever. Steve Principe, who with partner Jennifer Walker re-opened the popular downtown wine tasting depot in late August, is still fine-tuning many attractive new features.
PLATED: Romance And Other Great Ideas
The scoop on Mission Hill Creamery, New Leaf’s newest home and Twisted Tasting at the Top of the Ritt.
PLATED: Heart o’ The Pinot
Up at the former summer estate of Alfred Hitchcock, the Brassfield family makes extremely small amounts of hand-crafted pinot noir wines for its Heart O’ The Mountain label, continuing a tradition of winemaking on the lofty Santa Cruz Mountains site that began back in 1881. With Brandon Brassfield at the helm, the family, once investors in Felton Empire Winery, replanted the sun-soaked vineyard with four different pinot noir clones, and with its first vintage in 2005 made a distinctive, terroir-driven impression.
PLATED: Indiana Jozeph
The proprietor of India Joze leads a culinary expedition to Istanbul, Shadowbrook’s chef in the spotlight and Chez Pim at Love Apple Farms.
PLATED: Primo Buttercreamo
Mini cupcakes for you inner child and a pinot for lovers.
PLATED: A Tasty New Year
I am a big fan of Pasta Mike’s, the locally-made product line created by Mike Ruymen. Well, I’ve been tracking a change in the visual brand of these comfort food accessories, and I recognized the design signature involved. Pasta Mike’s new labels are the work of James Aschbacher, the ubiquitous muralist and painter, who designed an image last year especially to express the colorful flavors of Pasta Mike’s products. “I wanted him to have something more dynamic,” Aschbacher recalls. “So I created a painting about Mike.” Yep, that’s Mike himself on the label, beard and all.
