Feeling Blue for Chocolates?

I had some time to kill before my dinner at eVe in Berkeley recently, so I visited Chocolatier Blue, which is right next door on University Avenue.

The tiny shop from Chef Chris Blue has been open for awhile, and it’s opened a second location near Berkeley’s Fourth Street shopping district. But this was my first visit in the shop.


The soothing baby blue made the place seem like a spa, especially when you see this tiny nook with cushioned benches and calming light. Blue makes his chocolates by hand at the store, so they’re always fresh. What I noticed right away were the colors.

I’ve seen a lot of artisan chocolates, but these were by far the most outrageous in color and design (and maybe in shape too because I’ve never seen the curved rectangular shape in a chocolate piece before).

There were several interesting flavors to choose from. You can buy the chocolates in a box or by the piece. (On the side of the walls are also foreign chocolates from places like Italy that you can buy as a bar.)

I bought three pieces to try when I returned home. The round truffle with the tiny gold specks was Passion Fruit Caramel, which had a very thin chocolate shell and liquid filling. The odd rectangular shaped candy was Rosemary Grapefruit, which was sweet. The most interesting was the heart-shaped candy, the Champagne and Popcorn. Yep, popcorn. Funny huh?

The filling had two layers where the top thin layer was yellow and that’s the part that tasted like butter for the buttered popcorn. I guess the white part was the champagne? But it didn’t have a strong champagne flavor. I’m not sure if I would call this a winner, but it was unique.

I found that Chocolatier Blue’s chocolates are beautifully designed and are made with very thin chocolate shells and filling that’s more liquid than creamy. And with such exotic flavors, you can spend some time there figuring out your favorite.

Chocolatier Blue, 1964 University Ave., Berkeley. PH: 510.705.8800. www.chocolatierblue.com

More chocolate posts:
Chocolates for the Holidays
The Willy Wonka of Emeryville
A Chocolate Affair to Remember

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eVe Restaurant in Berkeley

Tasting Menu of Local Freshness
1960 University Ave., Berkeley
Downtown
PH: 510.868.0735
Open 5:30 to 10 p.m., Tuesday to Saturday
Major credit cards, reservations accepted
www.eve-berkeley.com

A lot has been happening in downtown Berkeley lately with the opening of Gather in the David Brower Center and reports that the chef behind Venus restaurant is taking over the defunct Downtown spot and calling it Revival. And on the edge of downtown on University Avenue, a husband-and-wife team has opened their first restaurant called eVe.

I visited eVe for dinner recently with my friend David, and since I got there early I quizzed my server about the restaurant’s name. There wasn’t a really long, drawn-out explanation other that the name connects with the Garden of Eden because this is the couple’s new beginning as restaurant owners. As for the whole lowercase-uppercase type treatment, it’s apparently just for aesthetics. (The second “e” in eVe is actually flipped to make the whole word look more rounded.)

When a new restaurant or store goes out of the way to be such a non-conformist in its name — especially with the English language — my gut reaction is that they’re usually trying too hard to be different. We’ll see.

The tiny restaurant has a contemporary feel with warm colors that do make it feel almost like a garden. The stylish surroundings make room for two rows of tiny tables that lead up to the center kitchen where the chefs work in plain view of everyone. The setup reminds me very much of the experimental Commis over in Oakland’s Piedmont Avenue where the chefs perform front and center.

The chefs are Chris and Veronica Laramie, who moved from Colorado. The couple met in culinary school in Paris.

When the Laramies opened eVe a few months ago, they experimented with the pricing for their new American cuisine that focused on local, sustainable ingredients. It went from an ala carte menu at reasonable prices to a three-course prix-fixed menu to now a two-course prix fixe menu for $25. (I think they’re going to stick with this plan for awhile.)

When David arrived, we started to go over the menu, which included about three choices in three columns. Each column represents the progression of the meal from a starter to entrée to dessert. But since this is only a two-course menu, you either skip dessert or add it for $11 to make it a three-course dinner.

The menu changes every week and you can get an idea of what’s on tap by checking the restaurant’s Facebook page.

Our evening began with an amuse from the chefs, a tiny pain perdu with a poached quail egg. I thought the presentation looked so pretty and the bread piece was perfectly browned and the quail egg was nicely poached. I just felt it lacked any surprising flavors to tickle my palate.

David and I both chose the same starter, the Sardines with risotto, daikon, Togarashi (a Japanese spice blend), bok choy and kumquat sauce. The plating was interesting with everything presented like art pieces on a white canvas.

The sardines looked smaller in shape than I expected (maybe that’s the size in season?) but they were nice and tender, lightly pan-fried. I really enjoyed the risotto, which had a lot of flavor and its heaviness was cut by the pickled daikon. While I loved the color of the kumquat sauce, I didn’t feel the flavor paired well with either the risotto or sardines, so it seemed a bit disjointed from the overall course.

For our second course, David ordered the Branzino (a white fish) with udon, swiss chard, lemongrass, water chestnut and shiso. As you can tell, there’s a bit of an Asian touch to several of the courses at eVe, and I don’t know if that’s a reflection of the seasonal ingredients right now at the farmers markets or because Chef Veronica Laramie is Peruvian and that country has a bit of history with Japanese immigrants? David said he enjoyed his fish and the udon noodles.

I ordered the duck, of course, which was a fan of duck breast cooked perfectly to medium rear and served with long beans, green papaya and tamarind. The plating was a bit odd IMHO with the two dried figs on each side. It made them seem almost like two eyeballs. And on top of that there was a big spread of a sauce that was distinctly dijon mustard and it reminded me of a big tongue sticking out at me with the two eyes on the side. (Do you see it?) I have to say, the mustard sauce was too strong and a bit overpowering against the duck.

The plate, again, was an assembling of contrasting flavors from the gamey duck to the sweetness of the figs to the slight sourness of the green papaya and the power of the mustard. The flavors were all familiar and comforting, but I still didn’t feel they married well together. It was like the flavors were trying so hard to blend together but in reality they retained their own distinctive characters, refusing to work with each other.

I give credit to the chefs for creating a comfortable, casual dining spot that attempts to raise the dining experience with their experimental dishes and prix-fixed approach. The food is delivered generally well cooked, but I feel the tastes need a bit more maturing. The sophistication level, while trying hard to come through, just needs a bit more refinement.

Still, at the $25 price point, eVe’s seasonal menu is value dining in Berkeley and opens the door for curious diners to try another way of dining out.

Single guy rating: 3 stars (Value prix fixe)

Explanation of the single guy's rating system:
1 star = perfect for college students
2 stars = perfect for new diners
3 stars = perfect for foodies
4 stars = perfect for expense accounts
5 stars = perfect for any guy's dream dinner



More Berkeley reviews:
Five: "Berkeley Hotel Dining Reborn"
Corso Trattoria: "A Taste of Florence in Berkeley"
Gather: "Vegetarians and Carnivores Come to the Table"

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Chipotle Corn Chowder Recipe from Dave Lieberman

What really happened with young and cute Dave Lieberman and the Food Network? A few years ago, Lieberman seemed like the next rising star at the network but then he was relegated to just the Food Network's Web site and then eventually he was totally separated from the Food Network family.

Too bad because I enjoyed watching him, and his "Dave Eats" Web series were fun to watch. Now he's on the circuit promoting a new book called "The Ten Things You Need to Eat," which he co-wrote with a New York Times health writer and focuses on 10 healthy ingredients like beets and quinoa.

I got an e-mail promoting his book and noting that this month is National Nutrition Month and how Lieberman is the spokesman for healthy eating for Del Monte, the canned goods giant. Since I'm from Hawaii, I grew up with Del Monte, which owned tons of pineapple plantations. I generally buy Del Monte products until a few years ago when I reduced the amount of canned goods I bought because I started to use more fresh, seasonal ingredients that I can easily get at farmers markets.

Anywho, a sample recipe attached to the e-mail was for Chipotle Corn Chowder, and that caught my eye because I had some leftover chipotle peppers in my freezer. It was an odd sample recipe to include because I don't think chipotle or corn is listed as one of the 10 things we're supposed to eat. But why limit ourselves, right?

The recipe was also interesting because it was called a corn chowder but it seemed more like butternut squash soup, which is a main ingredient along with the canned corn from Del Monte. I've reprinted the recipe below, but I totally didn't follow it. For one thing, I didn't feel like chunky squash in my soup, so I pureed the squash when they got tender, and then added the corn after. Plus, the recipe didn't sound healthy with heavy cream (even if it was just half a cup) so I used milk instead.

Overall it was nice, and I liked the smokey-ness from the chipotle (even though I didn't learn my lesson and still put in more than I should have -- at least I didn't put the whole can!). Any soup with corn is OK by me. You'll see in the photo of my soup and the actual photo from Lieberman's people that the two soup looks pretty different. So I think it's just preference.

Chipotle Corn Chowder

Ingredients
3 T unsalted butter or vegetable oil
Flesh from a 3-4 lb. pumpkin or butternut squash, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 large onion, diced
3 T all-purpose flour
1 qt. reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 can whole kernel corn
2 chipotle peppers, roughly chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
5 thyme springs
to taste salt
to taste black pepper, freshly ground
1 small bunch cilantro, stems removed and leaves roughly chopped

Directions

1. Heat the butter or oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the pumpkin and/or squash and onion and cook 5 minutes.
2. Add the flour and stir into the onion and pumpkin. Gradually add the chicken stock, stirring all the while. Add the corn, chipotle peppers, cream, and thyme and bring to a simmer.
3. Reduce the heat to low and simmer about 20 minutes, or until the umpkin/squash is fork tender but not falling apart.
4. Remove from the heat and season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir in most of the cilantro leaves, reserving some for garnish.
5. Ladle the soup into serving bowls and garnish with the remaining cilantro leaves.
   

Makes 8-10 servings

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Breakfast by the Bay

Yes, the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market can be a scene, crushed with young hipsters in their designer jeans and camera-toting tourists snapping away at some bell pepper. But this Saturday market is popular for a reason.

Along with the bountiful selection of fresh produce, flowers and baked goods, the farmers market provides one of the best views for brunch with outdoor seating facing the Bay Bridge (the pretty side).

The food options that line the side of the market facing the water can create some crazy lines, but often they’re so worth it. With a couple of new additions (namely Namu and Ryan Farr 4505 Meats), eating at the market got even more creative.

Spring is around the corner. So are endless days of sunny weekends (fingers-crossed). This just adds up to more people enjoying brunch at the farmers market. Here are just some of the breakfast scene at the Ferry Plaza that I took last Saturday. Notch this down as one of the reasons why we’re lucky to live in the Bay Area.

Home fries cooking on a skillet at Rose Pistola booth.

Kim chi fried rice. (Optional: Add an egg on top to make it more like breakfast food.)

Coffee drips at Blue Bottle booth.

Ryan Farr working the grill.

Raw/vegetarian options.

Longest line was at Roli Roti for the porchetta sandwiches.

The aforementioned view.

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TrueBurger in Oakland’s Uptown

Upscale Burgers Arrive to the East Bay
146 Grand Ave., Oakland
Uptown neighborhood close to Lake Merritt
PH: 510.208.5678
Open for lunch, from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Monday to Saturday, and dinner Thursday to Saturday till 8:30 p.m. (closed Sunday)
No reservations, major credit cards accepted
www.trueburgeroakland.com

Some longtime readers of this blog know how I’ve bemoaned about the fact that I have very little options for lunch around my Oakland offices. If I started a blog focused on my weekday lunches, I would have covered everything in a month.

But thankfully in the last few months, several new places have opened up, increasing my choices and making me really happy in the noon hour. Makes the rest of the day more bearable.

One of these new places – Trueburger – taps into the trend of gourmet burgers like San Francisco’s Burger Bar or more likely New York’s Shake Shack. At Trueburger, there are no fancy burgers with caviar or goat cheese, just straight up ground beef (made fresh every morning) and served with cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, onions and pickles.

The burger shack is in a former sandwich spot that was OK but never really made me want to leave my office for their generic turkey sandwiches. The space has been cleaned up, retrofitted and made fun with an interesting mural of Oakland’s landmark buildings along one wall.

The hamburger choices are pretty simple: a regular hamburger called the Trueburger ($4.95), a cheeseburger ($5.45), a bacon cheeseburger ($6.45), and a double patty burger called the Double-Up ($7.95). For vegetarians, instead of a boring vegetable patty, the chefs behind Trueburger created a ‘Shroom Burger ($6.45), which is a crispy Portobello mushroom stuffed with smoked mozzarella cheese.

Trueburger works like a family affair, opened by Greg Eng and Jason Low, two longtime sous chefs who have worked at such restaurants as Bay Wolf in Oakland, and San Francisco’s Jardiniere, Delfina, and Absinthe. The two wanted to emphasize quality ingredients at an affordable and casual space.

When eating the burgers, which are cooked only after you order so it does take awhile to get your lunch, you can tell the ingredients are fresh and that the beef was ground on the spot. Sometimes the burgers can seem on the charred side and other times they’re juicy, getting the bottom of the fresh egg buns soft. But you can always count on the burgers to have that perfect pink center, not at all raw but not overcooked.

You can dress up the hamburgers with chili or griddled onions, which also works with the hot dogs on the menu. One day instead of the chili dog, I thought I’d try the Spicy Coleslaw Dog ($5.45). The hot dog was covered with cole slaw and lightly dressed with a chipotle sauce and smoke bacon bits.

Obviously, it wasn’t easy eating this hot dog, but it felt healthy eating this with all the vegetables despite the bacon. The chipotle sauce was pretty light, and I didn’t get a strong spicy bite.

I also tried the Spicy Chili ($4.50 for a bowl) that wasn’t very thick, but had a nice hearty taste. The spicy flavor was mild, almost like an aftertaste as opposed to spicy hot. A lot of people get the chili as chili-cheese fries ($4.50), but you know I’m not into deep-fried foods so I skipped that.

I know you’d want to see photos of fries, but all I have for you is one of the chopped salad selections. There are three choices of salads (BLT, Caesar and Chopped Green, $6.75 each) and they’re pretty large servings. The Chopped BLT Salad pictured above had chunks of eggs, tomatoes and bacon chunks, all dressed with an avocado dressing, which again was lightly clinging to the iceberg lettuce.

Milk shakes are also sold at $4.75 for the base flavors of vanilla or chocolate but you can add nine other ingredients for 50 cents each. I had the orange cream shake and it was nice and thick, but not super thick. I think I might get the caramel next.

Trueburger runs like a professional restaurant, but has the cozy feel of a family-owned business. While the burgers aren’t exactly eye-opening, they’re quality stuff and hits the spot for a weekday lunch. And since it’s in Oakland near my office, I no longer have to be jealous of my friends who work and eat in San Francisco.

Single guy rating: 3 stars (Quality basics)

Explanation of the single guy's rating system:
1 star = perfect for college students
2 stars = perfect for new diners
3 stars = perfect for foodies
4 stars = perfect for expense accounts
5 stars = perfect for any guy's dream dinner



More burger bites:
Burger Joint
Amanda’s Feel Good Fresh Foods
Good Stuff Eatery

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The Secret is Out on the Underground Market

One theory that holds true through the years – to make something appealing, make it exclusive. Better yet, call it a secret.

With the bubbling of pop-up restaurants and increasing street carts tracked by Twitter, another word-of-mouth food event in San Francisco is known as the Underground Market. It’s called that not because it’s necessarily underground (although sometimes in the cramped quarters it may feel like a cave), but because it’s below the law, assembling as a private club (to avoid Department of Health inspectors) to sell homemade goods and products.

On Saturday, I made it to SOMA to hunt down the Underground Market. I already did my bit by pre-registering with the organizer and creator, SF Forage, where I pledged my support to the homegrown producers and acknowledging that, yeah, these things were made at home.

Walking to an alley in the early evening, I found dozens of people who beat me to the side entrance as a line wrapped around the block and then had to be twirled around as if that would make the line seem shorter.

After waiting outside for about 30 minutes, smelling the scent of curry as I neared the entrance, I entered the underground. Not sure what to expect (I kept thinking someone would ask me for a password), all I knew was I had never been so close to so many strangers when food was involved.

Working my way gingerly through the makeshift tables crowded into a warehouse that partly looked like someone’s low-rent home, I saw an endless array of baked goods. Some freakishly colored, some rustic in that Good Housekeeping sense, and others perfectly presented like it could be sold in a real store.

My favorite was these macarons by Christopher David, who sells his French treats online. The strawberry-lavender macaron was pure heaven, making it almost worth being pushed and shoved by backpack-wielding consumers. (Really? A stuffed backpack in tight quarters?)

Hand-made chocolates, jars of pickled vegetables, and more baked goods filled other tables. And while not officially a farmers market, there were also beautiful wild mushrooms and raw honey.

It seemed most people came not to buy but to consume, wandering the tables to munch on pulled pork sandwiches, quiches, and the popular pork belly buns. I found it difficult to eat in the crowd, but while trapped in one corner I was next to the guy selling homemade fresh ginger beer, which was a refreshing quencher at the moment.

I left after about an hour, but the market continued until the late evening when it turned into a Saturday night party. While it was packed in the beginning, I heard it got more manageable later.

While extremely crowded (the space was supposedly three times larger than the first market, which makes me scared about those early markets), the Underground Market is one of the best ways for a foodie in the city to enjoy a Saturday night. Since some of you couldn’t make it, here are more photos of this not-so-secret market.





To sign up for the next market, visit the SF Forage site.

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Ramen House Ryowa in Berkeley

Piping Hot Noodles Close to Home
2068 University Ave. (between Shattuck and Milvia), Berkeley
Downtown
PH: 510.883.0667
Lunch and dinner daily

I will drive great distances (when I have access to a car) for a good bowl of ramen. But after my last adventure, I thought I should maybe check out if there’s any good ramen closer to home.

So I visited Ramen House Ryowa in Berkeley on a Saturday for lunch. I’d seen this spot before but never thought about it until my friend Denise mentioned their butter corn ramen. (Note: I didn’t order this ramen because of the slab of butter dropped into the broth, but anywhere that serves corn is fine by me.)

When I entered Ramen House Ryowa, it looked like it had just opened because it was nearly empty except for one other table and because the family behind the counter seemed to be busy prepping ingredients. (Ryowa has another location in Mountain View, so I don’t think the Berkeley location is family-owned and may actually be part of a chain.)

The menu offers a nice lunch special that includes ramen and gyoza, but that’s only served during the weekdays. So I settled instead for just a bowl of Ryowa Ramen ($7.95), which I assume is the house specialty using a sesame broth that I’d never had before.

I thought it was really interesting too that there was this big jar of kim chi at my table, the cover slightly left ajar, letting out the pungent smells to entice you (if you’re a kim chi lover like me). I don’t think I typically see fresh kim chi at the tables at ramen shops, but I wished more people did it. I did try the kim chi, and while it was fresh, the flavor didn’t seem to stick to the vegetables. It was like it didn’t marinate long enough or it was just a mild batch.

When my bowl of ramen arrived, it looked huge and the sesame broth looked deep in color with the slices of chashu (roasted pork) fanned out on top. There was also a half of a boiled egg.

The chashu was just OK, it was no way near the amazing toriniku at Santouka Ramen in San Jose. The broth, which reminded me of the full body of miso, was enjoyable with lots of flavor although it didn’t have a super sesame taste. The egg was a little too hard-boiled for me.

As for the ramen noodles, these were crinkly like I remember of ramen noodles but they weren’t cooked to perfection. In fact, this particular day they seemed overcooked because they felt thick and fat. It was like they had absorbed a bit of the broth, making them soft.

Side note: The service, while friendly, is a bit neglectful. You might ask for things and if they get busy they’ll forget. Like how I asked for the check and they never came back and I saw them busy cutting more vegetables so I had to get up to pay, which is not a good feeling to leave with.

Since this is a mini review, I’m not putting Ryowa up against my rating system but I have to say that there’s probably good reason people drive far for a good bowl of ramen because nothing satisfies nearby. Doesn’t mean I won’t stop searching.



Other ramen reviews:
Santouka Ramen
Santa Ramen
Katana-ya

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