An Open Letter to Our Readers

We have to ask: are you enjoying the Yummy letter? We know you’re out there, because we’re up to nearly 18,000 subscribers in just our first four months, and we love reading all of your emails.

We’re so happy that you love Yummy, but we also need your support. To keep Yummy free, we are asking businesses to consider advertising with us at our rock bottom introductory rates – a banner ad for six months is just $200. That’s only eight bucks and change per week!

And it works: one advertiser told us that their ad paid for itself the very first day it ran when someone booked a four-top for dinner using their Yummy letter coupon.

Whether you own a restaurant or a real estate company, the Yummy letter is a great way to reach thousands of smart food and wine lovers every week. You can design your own ad or, for a small fee, we can do it for you.

Whether you want to advertise your business or you just want to show your support, you can use our simple online PayPal system to pay with a credit or debit card. (Should you have any questions about how to use the PayPal system, please contact our Web designer, at jeremy@yummyletter.com.)

You can also pay with a check by sending it to:

the Yummy letter
261 Buena Vista Ave. East
San Francisco, CA 94117

Thanks for reading the Yummy letter – we love hearing from you, too – and thanks for your support!

Ceviche for Napa, Wine Bar for North Beach, Top Chef Masters Spoiler

I slid over to the town of Napa to interview former Top Chef contestant Marissa Churchill for the July issue of Northside SF and met her at the casual place she had chosen, Pica Pica Maize Kitchen in the Oxbow Market.

Lunch was really good. At Pica Pica their menu concentrates on the arepa, a pocket sandwich, made from corn filled with goodies like pulled pork or chorizo. They also serve yucca fries with a creamy garlic dipping sauce.

While we were there, we noticed that in a central and nearby section of the market, Pica Pica was opening a ceviche bar. I spoke to one of the cooks and he said the ETA was in August.

As lunch progressed at the market and tourists wandered in I noticed that the busiest venues were Pica Pica and Kara’s Cupcakes. Michael Mondavi’s Folio Enoteca & Winery, which combines a tasting bar with food, was dead.  It was Monday, and Hog Island Oyster Company wasn’t even open.

The meat at Five Dot Ranch was looking fresh and yummy, but pricy – a little over a pound of sweetbreads was $14. I pay $7.98 a pound for sweetbreads at Little City Meats in North Beach.

Wine connoisseur Dario Zucconi has long created a nice wine program and ongoing
wine classes and tastings at his uncle Agostino’s restaurant, Tommaso’s Ristorante Italiano on Kearny in North Beach. He is also associated with Vin Nostro Cellars.

Now, he’s poised to open his own place, The Vin Club wine bar and café. Look for Vin Nostro wines plus wines from all over the world as well as specialty cheeses, charcuterie plates, panini, and baked items.

The location is a stone’s throw from the legendary Tommaso’s; in the space that once housed Broadway Joe’s Sports Bar at 515 Broadway between Kearny and Columbus. Look for an opening this month.

My favorite low calorie, no cholesterol snack food Popchips has debuted two new flavors: sour cream and onion and cheddar cheese. Like their other flavors they have less than half the fat of fried chips, no cholesterol and zero trans fats.

Popchips is giving away 100 free cases of product to anyone who pops over to Facebook, registers, and answers this question: What would a snacker do for a free case of Popchips? Do it by this Friday or you won’t get popped.

If you miss the contest, you can buy Popchips at Safeway, Whole Foods and even Target.

Restaurateur Surinder Pal Sroa is bringing Indian food to Old Town Novato with the opening last week of Anokha Cuisine.

First Sroa took over the Golden Egg Omelet House earlier this year and made it better, now he’s launched Anokha next door. The menu carries all the usual suspects for Indian dishes, including tandoori.

Sroa also owns Lotus Cuisine in San Rafael and Café Lotus in Fairfax.

So, why Novato? Sroa has been a resident since 1987.

Amanda’s Feel Good Fresh Food Restaurant in downtown Berkeley, California, celebrates its first anniversary on Saturday, July 25.

The restaurant that brought fresh tastes to Downtown is pulling out all the stops for its one-year anniversary.   

Highlights of the daylong celebration will include free food, entertainment and raffle prizes, including a year’s worth of weekly meals at Amanda’s.
   
  Beginning at noon on July 25, visitors to Amanda’s will be offered complimentary organic cookies until 2:00 p.m., baked fries from 2:00 until 4:00 p.m., and organic apple fries from 4:00 until 6:00 p.m. Concluding the celebration from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. – free freshly-made sodas. Not that’s what I call a chow down!

Owner Amanda West has developed a menu that hits all the right marks with grilled all-natural meat burgers, chicken sandwiches, 100% vegan veggie burgers, freshly made salads, baked fries, raw organic apple “fries” with a honey yogurt dipping sauce, cookies, handmade sodas (sweetened with organic agave nectar), organic milks, and organic/fair-trade coffee and tea.

Some people (who probably need a hobby) have been counting the hours until the Top Chef Masters premiere tonight. Twenty-four of the country’s best chefs are squaring off to see who is the Master of the Universe… no, I mean the Top Chef Master.

Here’s the lineup:

* Rick Bayless: Frontera Grill, Chicago
* Wilo Benet: Pikayo, San Juan, Puerto Rico
* John Besh: Restaurant August, New Orleans
* Graham Elliot Bowles: Graham Elliot Restaurant, Chicago
* Michael Chiarello: Bottega Restaurant, Yountville, California
* Michael Cimarusti: Providence, Los Angeles
* Wylie Dufresne: WD-50, New York City
* Elizabeth Falkner: Orson, San Francisco
* Hubert Keller: Fleur de Lys, San Francisco
* Christopher Lee: Aureole, New York City
* Ludo Lefebvre: Ludo Bites, Los Angeles
* Anita Lo: Annisa, New York City
* Tim Love: Lonesome Dove Western Bistro, Fort Worth, Texas
* Rick Moonen: Rick Moonen’s RM Seafood at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas
* Nils Noren: French Culinary Institute, New York City
* Lachlan McKinnon Patterson: Frasca Food & Wine, Boulder, Colorado
* Cindy Pawlcyn: Mustards Grill, Napa Valley, California
* Mark Peel: Campanile, Los Angeles
* Douglas Rodriguez: Alma de Cuba, Philadelphia
* Michael Schlow: Radius Restaurant, Boston
* Art Smith: Table Fifty-Two, Chicago
* Suzanne Tracht: Jar, Los Angeles
* Jonathan Waxman: Barbuto, New York City
* Roy Yamaguchi: Roy's Restaurants, San Diego

Here is the scenario from Bravo’s Web site:

Each episode of Top Chef Masters holds two challenges for the chefs. The first is a twist on the classic Top Chef Quickfire Challenge which tests their basic abilities — for example in season 2 of Top Chef where the chef'testants had to create an amuse bouche out of items from a vending machine. Each Quickfire Challenge will be judged by a blind taste test and a five-star system, similar to fine dining reviews.

The second challenge is a more involved elimination challenge designed to test the versatility and invention of the chefs as they take on unique culinary trials such as working with unusual and exotic foods or catering for demanding clients. The food will be tasted and evaluated by the judges and a wide range of tasters for whom the challenge is aimed, whether it is patrons at a five-star restaurant or a room full of hungry kids — the food has to appeal to the diner as well as the critics if the chef is to survive.

SPOILER ALERT: If you don’t want to know who wins, close your eyes or shut off the computer!

We got the word just before press time that Rick Bayless, owner of Frontera Grill and Topolobampo, both in Chicago, and various Frontera Frescos in Macy’s around the country, is the winner.

Although I haven’t been to his Chi-town restaurants, I’ve been cooking from his books, especially, “Mexico – One Plate at a Time,” and have tasted several items from the Frontera Fresco in Macy’s San Francisco. Yummy!

Recently, I talked to a chef who worked with Bayless in Chicago and he said, unlike a lot of “celebrity chefs” he was in the kitchen every day. Dedication pays off.

For more information about GraceAnn’s tours of North Beach, Chinatown, The New Mission, and Nob Hill, visit www.graceannwalden.net or contact her at gaw@sbcglobal.net.

To read GraceAnn’s monthly column in Northside San Francisco, “Chef’s Chat,” visit www.northsidesf.com/chefschat.html.