Winter Kraftbrew will be in the Landmark Ballroom at the San Jose Women’s Club. We will be pouring some fantastic Winter Spiced Ales, Porters and Stouts. Delicious menu to be provided by Naglee Park Garage. Come by for some excellent brew…s, live music, and good food.
Address: 75 S 11th Street, San Jose CA, 95112
Event Date: January 28th, 2012
Hours: 3pm-9pm
FREE admission – just pay to taste!
For Chinese New Year in South Bay you have to make a stop by Cupertino Village. I have to admit right off the bat that I am not a Dim Sum expert. However, my friend, originally from Singapore, knows Asian food in the Bay Area and has taken me to Joy Luck Palace (Cantonese) for Dim Sum (on weekdays) for the past two years to celebrate the Chinese New Year. There is a lot of variety and I’ve always found it to be tasty. This year I made a new tradition and that is to eat a chicken foot (not pickled) and it was pretty good!
After lunch/brunch, walk around and buy jasmine tea at Ten Ren and bubble tea or a green mango smoothie at Fantasia. Pick up Chinese New Year Candy and Mooncakes from Sheng Kee Bakery. Then, with your Chinese New Year shopping list in hand, stop by 99 Ranch Market and pick up everything you need. Mandarin oranges are the most popular and most abundant fruit during Chinese New Year so don’t forget to pick some up at 99 Ranch Market.
Everyone goes crazy over the parking at Cupertino Village on yelp. If you go during the week just make sure it is after lunch (but at least by 2pm to be able to eat at Joy Luck Place which closes for lunch at 2:30pm), it is much easier to park but at that point, remember, they are starting to have fewer Dim Sum choices.
(408) 255-6988
There is really not much more to say here.
But, I will say more … with so many taquerias in the area, each being good for different reasons, we never had a reason to stop in to Los Pericos. LP is an unassuming spot often filled with college students, young families, and sometimes a random homeless person. We now frequent Pericos to eat their tasty carnitas on nachos, in burritos, on salads, you name it. We also appreciate their chips bar with tasty salsa varieties (see photos). I don’t fill up the tiny cups, I put the salsas all together in the paper chips basket.
Give the chef a nod and he just might hook you up with extra meat, for real!
139 Water St
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
(831) 469-7685
We did a photo shoot for Santa Cruz Food Tours! They updated their website with the photographs and it looks great! Superb, tasty, and fun food tour with lots of Santa Cruz history too.
If you haven’t been out to a community dinner, they are a fun way to meet new folks and share in local, in-season foods. In Santa Cruz there are two Community Dinners that I know about but have only attended one of them so far. The photographs above are from Cellar Door’s Wednesday Night Community Table at the Swift Street Complex (3 course Prix Fix $30). This dinner pictured above actually took place last June, hence the strawberries and peas, but Community dinners and the first publication of the “Edible Monterey Bay” crossed my mind again this morning and I realized I should write about them.
The night that we ate at Cellar Door’s Community Table, we met a really nice couple from Carmel Valley who happened to be starting the first Edible Monterey Bay Magazine. When you have been a tourist in other cities you may have noticed the “Edible Oakland,” “Edible Columbus,” “Edible …” so you get the point, they are in many cities in this country (actually 70 magazines are out there www.ediblecommunities.com). When I saw my first “Edible” Magazine, I believe it was in Oakland and I was impressed with the variety of food stories featured and as a photographer was impressed with the images printed on this nice matte paper that has an earthy or organic feeling. I realized that reading the “Edible” magazine for an area would educate me on local, more unique farm to table restaurants as well as stories on local food specialties and farmers and their own great recipes. The “Edible Monterey Bay” magazine features local food cultures of Santa Cruz, San Benito and Monterey Counties, season by season. You can pick up copies for free at these locations.
Two Community Dinners in Santa Cruz:
If you think all there is to Santa Cruz is the beach boardwalk, you’re wrong, branch out. Actually the boardwalk is not a first choice for a spot to spend the day down in Santa Cruz. Of course, unless you have folks visiting from out of town who have kids. It is always fun to take the kids on the Big Dipper roller coaster or to walk out on the wharf and hear the barking animals below. Having just made that statement, let me contradict myself by telling you to check our three favorite Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk foods post! AND, check out The Picnic Basket, a new place to grab lunch down at the Boardwalk for keepin’ it classy. It caught my eye this summer when we took our niece to get a homemade corn dog and to get jerked around for awhile on the rickety coaster. The Picnic Basket doesn’t look like it belongs down by wharf area because it is quite tasteful looking in a retro beach kind of way, but not diner style-retro over the top. It is owned by Penny Ice Creamery which is a great sign. So one afternoon we finally got to stop in and get a great local El Salchichero hot dog with Farmhouse Kulture Kraut and a Santa Cruz Mountain Brew (check out their facebook page for $1 off coupon until 11/1/11 https://www.facebook.com/thepicnicbasketsc) or a Verve coffee. They have a rotating selection from Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing, Santa Cruz Aleworks, Uncommon Brewers, Boulder Creek Brewing Company, Corallitos Brewing Company, Seabright Brewery, and Sante Adairius Rustic Ales (yes, all in Santa Cruz County!). They let us have a taste of the local wine they serve and of course as we were quickly sipping, a train went by outside, nice touch. You can still get Penny’s Ice Cream with a choice of about 9 flavors in the case. I love all of the local foods and drinks you can get at the Picnic Basket, seriously check out their tasty menu online and their fun coupon deals from FB. PB is a healthy and tasty alternative, see their salad choices too. We are glad to have them around!
Kids, tell your parents you will let them go to The Picnic Basket if they take you to the Boardwalk. It just might work!
The Picnic Basket tag-line says it all: Local • Artisan Food • Drinks • Coffee • Ice Cream
125 Beach Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95060
| Mon – Sun: | 7:00 am | - | 12:00 am |
This is a really simple post but I wanted to feature this great BBQ Chicken Pizza by the slice that we had recently at Pleasure Pizza in Santa Cruz. I don’t typically like chicken pizza toppings because they can be dry and bland but this is a the best I’ve tasted because of its sweet and subtle spicy flare. There are now two locations for Pleasure Pizza. They are both across the street from each other on 41st Avenue and one is a more of a sit down restaurant “East Side Eatery” and one is a pizza by the slice spot “Pleasure Pizza”.
BBQ Chicken Pizza:
PLEASURE PIZZA | 11AM – 10PM DAILY
BY THE SLICE • TO GO • DELIVERY
4000 PORTOLA DR. SANTA CRUZ, CA 95062
PHONE / DELIVERY: 831.475.4999