Peninsula restaurants, food fests serving mushrooms, pho and wasabi – The Mercury News
Terry’s Restaurant + Lounge at the Cypress Hotel in Carmel, founded by the late Doris Day, and named for her son Terry Melcher, won the People’s Choice last month at the annual Big Sur Fungus Face Off. This fun, friendly and mushroom-focused competition took place at Big Sur Lodge, where local chefs battled to create the best mushroom-based dishes from freshly purchased ingredients. Chef Luis Reyes of Terry’s came up with a crunchy riff on fried oysters, mixing clusters of oyster mushrooms in a special batter and deep frying them. He beamed with pride as he accepted the award and, after a long day of cooking for a crowd of 300 people, headed to Terry’s for dinner. The life of a chef is tough.
Expert judges from Edible Monterey Bay also awarded Best Use of Edible Ingredients to Chef Pamela Burns of Wild Plum Café for her riff on steak and eggs, king trumpet sauce, enoki and porcini with garlic cloves and soy emulsion over polenta. Most Creative was won by Chef Adan Chavez of Big Sur River Inn for his beautifully crafted chanterelle tamale topped with mushroom mole. Best Overall was awarded to Chef Carlos Rene Esparza of Deetjen’s for a delicious dish of short ribs with noki mushrooms, porcini, pickled onions and a little cilantro over cheesy polenta. Their lips were glass models of ‘bathrooms’ set on carved wooden bases, complete with battery-operated lights.
The sold-out event raised funds for the Big Sur Health Foundation. Fungus Face Off includes a food walk and demonstration by Mushroom King Todd Spanier, who provides truffles and other fungi to many local restaurants.
Whimsical Son & Garden in Menlo Park offers a beautifully decorated tented enclosure near the Caltrain station. An impossibly small kitchen still manages to spread the word. On a chilly late January day, we warmed our hands over some excellent chai lattes and indulged in a garden omelet with homemade fries and toasted levain served with maple honey butter, which was a delicious way to start the day. Specialties here are bibimbap, loco moco and Korean Benedict with shortribs and kimchi fried rice.
While attending Peninsula Fresh, a press event put on by the San Francisco Peninsula, the region’s tourism and travel board, I met Jim Murphy of Half Moon Bay Wasabi (hmbwasabi.com), the only US-based farm to successfully cultivate the precious root. It turns out the leaves are edible and delicious, and he says the stems are sauteed with other Asian vegetables. He sells wasabi root directly to chefs, farmers markets and online. Murphy also carries a wasabi grater kit, made in Japan. There is nothing like burning from the root. By the way, the spicier the closer to the stem.
The event, which was held in the Farallon Room at Skyline College in San Bruno, was a small exhibition of many restaurants, farmers, fishermen, ranchers, orchardists and beekeepers, and highlighted efforts such as San Mateo County’s “As Fresh As It Gets” in its farm-to-table programs, which seek to provide food for hotels, school restaurants. pure form.
We also hear from publishers, including seafood rancher Chris Giannini of Pomponio Ranch, David Westendorf of Pelagic Group in Half Moon Bay, Adrian Hoffman of Four Star Seafood in San Francisco, Daniel Theobald of Twisted Fields in San Gregorio and Tiffany Nurrenbern of Zero Food print, discussing the hot topic, especially the farm that includes food. and thorn, the use of the word “organic” on labels.
Are you looking for Japanese food with Thai spice? Walk to Rin-Tei, a small and quiet place at the intersection of Crystal Springs Road and El Camino in flowing San Mateo. You’ll find a varied menu with clay pot dishes such as cod marinated in creamy citrus soy sauce, as well as soy milk mushroom pho and butter chicken, both of which are winter specials.
My friend ordered and liked the regular beef pho, recommended by the server, and we split the shrimp spring rolls, which came with a tangy, velvety peanut sauce. Kra Pao spicy fried shrimp served over basil and garlic white rice seasoned with chili, and sweet onion and bell pepper, topped with a fried egg. We will be back with the Japanese style of chicken cooked in garlic and carpaccio with wasabi and citrus soy. The tempting Rin-Tei plate includes papaya salad, shrimp fresh spring roll, fried calamari and Thai fried chicken. Rin-Tei, located at 104 S. El Camino Real in San Mateo, is open for lunch and dinner daily, except Tuesday.
Join the secrets of Chinese cooking with the new “House of Nanking Cookbook,” a love story to China and San Francisco’s Chinatown by father-daughter duo Kathy and Peter Fang. Part history, part technique, part culinary excellence and 100% collaboration, it’s the key to finding the right tools and timeless ingredients that have made the restaurant an integral part of Chinatown’s food scene.
