What's a magpie?
When I google it, it comes up as: long-tailed black-and-white crow that utters a raucous chattering call
Very interesting... I learn something new every day!
I just thought I would stop by to tell you about a place M and I went to tonight. It's Magpie Caterers--Market & Cafe. It's really cute and can be found on this "random" street in Sacramento--R St and 14th St to be exact. [Just look for it down the street from Burgers & Brew. If you hit The Shady Lady, you've gone too far! ]
This place has an eclectic menu, and it was delicious! I had Black Mussels in White Wine sauce. The mussels were cooked with garlic and rosemary--the sauce was a white wine reduction that was actually more orange in color than I was expecting, but it was good! M ordered the Homemade (Pork) Sausage that was served with a very garlicky pesto-like sauce called "chimichurri sauce", and oddly enough, a giant red pepper. Their side dishes are wide and far between ranging from a Purple Potato Salad, (next on my list) Barley Kale salad (sounds good, right?), and off today's menu, we ordered the Pan-seared Creamy Polenta, and that was served with roasted red bell peppers (yum-o!). The polenta was indeed creamy--it tasted a bit grainy but it was still creamy tasting with the crunch from being pan-seared, and seasoned just right... I can't be sure what herbs they used, but I did enjoy it and may try to recreate. It may not sound like a lot of food but it was filling.
(Sidenote: They also have a wine list and a few beers on tap--including the local Davis brew, Sudwerks). Yet, if you know me, I had my eye on dessert. When I first walked in, there was this curious dessert they call a Carrot Cake Cookie--it's one of a kind because I've never seen anything like it! Basically, it's a cookie sandwich--the cookies taste like carrot cake (They have a consistency of oatmeal cookies), and in between the cookies is a cream cheese frosting. Hats off to the great chef who created this creative dessert because it was way fun to eat. There was one more thing that I had to try before leaving--Chocolate Mousse made with dark chocolate and avocado, topped with black salt, cinnamon, and chile. OH-MY-GOD! If you want to have a rich dessert, I think it would go something like that! With every bite I think you would catch a different part of it. The avocado is mixed into the mousse you could tell just by the texture and you can almost taste it. Secondly, it was the black salt that most surprised me. I never thought about coupling black salt with chocolate. And if I've never said it before, there's something about chile with dark chocolate that just works!
Is your mouth watering yet???
Their breakfast, lunch and dinner menus change daily. If you're interested/not yet convinced, they post their menus on their website: http://www.magpiecaterers.com/
P.S. Also saved for another day, they offer French press coffee (note: There is no espresso machine on the premises.) for $4... AND I'm willing to try breakfast there, when's the last time you had a Herb Cheddar Scone--I *heart* savory scones, you don't just get those anywhere!
Saving the best for last... A and I had our last supper at Aioli Bodega Espanola in Davis, a.k.a. the tapas and sangria place in Davis, California. We ordered a decanter of sangria to start with. Generally, they have a very extensive tapas menu. If it's your first time, it may take you an extra moment to take it all in and decide which dish(es) you will try. And you will definitely want to return to try something different.
We ordered three dishes: (Unfortunately, I can't tell you exactly what dishes we ordered--but I can describe them to you.) Shrimp with jalapenos and cilantro, Lamb with pearl onions, vinegar dates sauce (sounds as good as it tastes), and of course, we had to have an order of paella. Everything was so good. And yes, the two of us finished with the sangria!My favorite dish of the three may be the lamb with the dates, because it wasn't what I expected. The sauce was a lil sweet (of course, with all the dates cooked in to it), but it had a lil spice if I remember.
And we always have to leave room for dessert! We passed on the dessert that they had to offer at the restaurant. And instead, enjoyed (decaf--yes, Jackie actually had decaf coffee) coffee and cakes at Ciocolat in Davis. I believe A ordered the Chocolate Decadence cake--which is not just mousse on cake--it's the most heavenly chocolate cake I've ever had, and I ordered the something with fruit in it. I've broke and decided to look it up--I believe it was the Tropical Mousse cake which has passion fruit coconut mousee on top of a white cake (unfortunately, both these desserts are not pictured.) We joked about the chocolate mousse on top of a chocolate espresso cake--that I was getting the caffeine that wasn't in my coffee out of the cake. Funny how it turned out that I liked A's cake more, and she mine;o)
It was a lovely evening! Feel free to comment or suggest on the last lovely evening you enjoyed.
Yay for tapas, sangria, and chocolate decadence!!
First stamp in the passport... but not my first time out of the country:o) hahaha... Even if I was only there for 2 nights and 1 1/2 days, here it is:
On our second night/our first real night in Out in Vancouver, I decided we try the restaurant my sister recommended... It's called Coast Restaurant (1054 Alberni St, near Robson St)--the ultimate of seafood restaurants. They even have sushi on the menu! Apparently, the fish and chips are to die for in Vancouver/British Columbia. But I chose to go with the fish that doesn't get much love--the Arctic char. Wikipedia tells me it's commonly comparable to salmon and trout. It's a meatier salmon--if you've ever heard me describe it. Po ordered a big o bowl of mussels. I'd have to ask her what was in it because I don't remember. What I did find interesting was that both my fish and the steak were served with this curiously large tomatoes (see top left photo). They were really good tomatoes--sweet and tangy. As I reflect on it now, it disturbs me a little because it doesn't show much creativity in the taste/seasonings department.
The next morning, even though we didn't get the chance to enjoy the patio seating--we had breakfast at the Bellaggio Cafe, it's across the street from Vancouver Art Museum. I don't know about you but there is something about high ceilings that really open up the room. Despite the fact that I was sitting up in the corner up to the window, it didn't feel too crowded. If you're wondering what that monstrosity of a breakfast dish is at the top center... well, I'm gonna tell ya: They call it Neptune's Benedict. It's a eggs benedict but instead of ham, they used smoked salmon. It was quite delicious.
More recently, I'd like to discuss the Crab Cake Benedict. Honestly, maybe it's always been around and I am just now noticing. O-M-I-G-O-D... whoever invented the Crab Cake benedict took two great things and put them together especially for brunch. Squat and Gobble (San Francisco) makes a filling, tasty Crab Cake Florentine--on the menu, it's listed as a benedict with hollandaise. But I could have sworn they did the hollandaise different than usual. Instead of light and buttery--it was more of a tangy and orangy color. The other can be found at Sacramento's Tower Cafe. The Crab Cake Benedict can only be found on the weekend Brunch menu. The crab cakes are made with both Dungeness crab and shrimp with an avocado spread and a bernaise sauce! There's a poached egg in there somewhere... And all these flavors just come together. There isn't a thing out of place in this medley. My only critique would be that they make their bernaise a bit lighter (than Squat and Gobble's) and it works otherwise I would think that the avocado spread is too much.
Websites to reference:
Vancouver, British Columbia
http://www.coastrestaurant.ca/
http://www.bellaggiocafe.com/
San Francisco, California
http://www.squatandgobble.com/
Sacramento, California
http://www.towercafe.com/
If you didn't drink and you were about to fast for the next 30 days, what would you do?? My friends and I went to get pizza and the best dessert in town.
Put on your list of Places to go in Sacramento:
Luigi's Slice (Midtown--J St)
Rick's Dessert Diner (voted one of Sacramento magazine's favorite dessert places)
I don't care what or who you believe, Luigi's slices of pizza are comparable to Blondie's Pizza (from the Bay Area). No... it's bigger--the slices I mean! I said comparable, not the same. And please don't ask why I thought I could have two slices. My first choice of slice was their veggie pizza. Two words: simply good. It had mushrooms, olives, green bell peppers, and onions. Then I had to go with the meat lover's slice--that put me over the top: pepperoni, sausage, salami, and turkey bacon.
THEN, we headed over to Rick's Dessert Diner. See picture for reference. Going from right to left: Strawberry Amaretto Poppyseed cake a la Mode, and the other, the Black and White cake, which is "Chocolate sour cream layers filled with vanilla Butter cream iced in chocolate ganache." Unfortunately you can't quite taste the amaretto in the cake. The poppyseed cake and the strawberry filling in between the layers of cake were enough taste to go around. The chocolate cake is a very balanced way to do a chocolate cake. You could tell that the cake had sour cream in it because it was so moist yet still somewhat denser than regular cake. The vanilla butter cream in between the layers keeps the dessert from being too chocolatey.
With my return to food blogging, I will spare you of my apologies and just get right to it. Cooking is like riding a bike, right? You never forget? But truth be told I haven't cooked in a while... More accurately, I haven't cooked anything new in a while. The good news is: I have had GREAT food while out and about. So, in my return, I will be telling you all about where I've been and what I've eaten this summer. Please feel free to comment and share your own summer stories.
1st STOP: SF Outside Lands Festival--where there's not only music, but also a sampling of food from some great San Francisco restaurants, AND this place they call the Winehaven!
I have a secret love for Southern comfort foods--such as fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, collard greens, and occasionally some fried catfish. The Chef recommended Farmer Brown's to me. It appears a little more upscale than your usual greasy spoon--course I'm only going by the photos I saw on the website. I have yet to experience the restaurant, but I got a taste at the festival.
To explain the photo I was trying to create (top photo): It's supposed to be symbolic of my choice between two things that I long for... New Orleans cuisine (because I'm always searching for ways to improve my gumbo and I *heart* spicy foods) versus Southern food.
Like most people that are travelling in pairs... In the end, M and I decided to go half-sies on the two dishes: I went to get the Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya and M got the Fried Chicken and Mac and Cheese from Farmer Brown's. That's really the only way to go... if you want to taste everything!
My critique: Yat's Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya was good... spicy but that's how I like my jambalaya. It wasn't the sausage so I'm curious to what kinds of spices I can use to achieve that taste.
The fried chicken and macaroni and cheese from Farmer Brown's was good--it had a really clean and almost organic taste to it... Know what I mean?
Last but not least, I NEED to tell you about the organic S'mores I had (see picture above). If you don't know what an organic s'more is... well, lemme tell ya. Start with an organic graham cracker, then stack bittersweet chocolate and homemade marshmallow. It's from this company called Charles Chocolates, and I'm not sure if you'll be able to get this particular product from a store, but you can order it from their online store on their website: http://www.charleschocolates.com
