Restaurants

SARATOGA’s Uncorked! wine shop is a casual and inviting place for wine lovers, especially those with a taste for local wines. The shop offers a smattering of international selections, but the bulk of the wines come from California and many of those from the Santa Cruz Mountains. » Read More

MENTION Somalia, and most people think of warlords, pirates and Blackhawk Down. But I would like to plant a more pleasant word in your mind: suqaar. Suqaar (“su-car”) is one of Somalia’s national dishes. It’s a saucy, stir-fried dish typically prepared with beef or goat along with onions, bell peppers and a handful of spices. » Read More

LOMA PRIETA WINERY’S Paul Kemp is a pinot pioneer. But not that pinot. I’m talking pinotage. The pinotage grape is relatively unknown outside South Africa, where it was developed 85 years ago as a cross between pinot noir and cinsault. Cinsault is also known as hermitage, hence the portmanteau pinotage. » Read More

I HAVE avoided eating at San Jose’s E&O Trading Co. for years. I figured that its take on Southeast Asian food would do for Southeast Asian cuisine what some chains have done to Chinese food: sweetened it up, salted it up and dumbed it down to serve the masses. Why eat watered-down Southeast Asian food when Silicon Valley offers plenty of restaurants that serve the real thing for much less? » Read More

DID YOU SEE the new Domino’s Pizza commercial in which the company admits that its pizza tastes like garbage and it’s trying to do better? Now the company says it is taking bold steps, like using real cheese, sauce that doesn’t taste like ketchup and a crust that tastes better than the box it comes in. Radical stuff. It’s a novel bit of PR that must have been fueled by same really poor sales. » Read More

THE FIRST TIME I walked into Evvia was 5:30pm, and the restaurant had just opened. The place was empty, and when the hostess asked if I had a reservation, I confidently, and a little bit irritably, said no. The restaurant was empty! » Read More

Ex-Chez TJ chef Bruno Chemel has plans to open Baumé, a new restaurant in Palo Alto that aims to be a showcase for molecular gastronomy. Chemel, as you may recall, left Chez TJ last month after a dispute with owner George Aviet over his inability to garner two Michelin stars » Read More

THE RESULTS of the 2010 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition are in, and perhaps the most fascinating trend for Silicon Valley wine watchers is the showing that Santa Cruz Mountain wineries made in the upscale ($50 and up) pinot noir category. Simply put, they cleaned up, with far more winners than Napa or Anderson Valley and exactly as many decorated wines as California’s hallowed pinot territory, the Russian River Valley. » Read More

MILPITAS doesn’t quite have the ring of Napa, Healdsburg or Sonoma, but Mark Capalongan is doing is his best to put Milpitas on the winemaking map. Together with his wife, Sandy, Mark is the owner and winemaker of Big Dog Vineyards, Milpitas’ sole winery. » Read More

NETO’S SAUSAGE Company’s twice-a-week barbecue held just outside the small market wasn’t exactly a secret, but it had the feel of a neighborhood gathering that attracted a select, sausage-loving crowd. » Read More