Three of our SacFoodies were recently interviewed by SubMerge Magazine, a local entertainment and lifestyle publication, as part of a feature on Sacramento food blogs.
We were definitely among some great company, so check out what we had to say about why we think Sacramento is a food town and what our last meals on Earth would be. You can read the article and latest issue of the magazine here.
Archives for December 2011
Plates Café & Catering
This holiday season, help the deserving and your appetite by putting Plates Café and Catering Center on the top of your to-eat list. Created though a partnership with St. John’s Shelter for Women and Children, the Plates Café and Catering Project helps once-homeless women transition into a state of self-sustainability. By working at Plates, each year 1,200 women learn valuable skills for careers in the foodservice, catering, retail and hospitality industries. Women also have the opportunity to earn their GED through the program, and are offered housing and childcare at no cost.
Plates Café offers full-service catering Monday through Friday, with a wide range of holiday and year-round favorites, including hot appetizers, tray-passed hors d’oeuvres, sit-down dinners and buffet service. Take a look at some of its breakfast, lunch and dinner menus, and you’ll be sure to see something that catches your eye.
Recently, Plates Café catered a local holiday party, which included a three-course dinner with a wine pairing for each course. Here are some of the highlights:
Vegetable fricassee with sweet corn, runner beans, fingerling potatoes, cherry tomatoes, summer squash, pancetta, and Dijon-shallot-basil butter
Fresh pasta (from The Pasta Queen), local and sun-dried tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, chili flakes, sweet corn, and house made basil-walnut pesto
So keep Plates Café and Catering Center on your radar. After all, eating savory food and supporting such a great cause is something anyone can enjoy, especially at this time of the year.
Plates Café & Catering
Located in Depot Park
14 Business Park Way, Building 149
Sacramento, CA 95828
(916) 381-2233
Last Minute Food Gift
For a recent holiday party, I opted to make my favorite rum cake to bring to the hostess as a gift that she could indulge in on her own or share with her party guests. So, with only mere hours to go until the party began, this tried-and-true Bermuda rum cake connoisseur took to the web to find an “easier” recipe than other recipes I’ve used in the past. With luck, I stumbled upon one courtesy of Bermuda’s The Elbow Beach Hotel then headed out to get all the ingredients. (Lucky for me, I had Gosling’s Black Seal dark rum on hand – what self-respecting, half-Bermudian doesn’t? – and was spared a very last-minute run to a specialty liquor store).
After a just over an hour of mixing, baking and glazing, I had this “rummy” treat to bring to the festivities. For an added personal touch (if you have time), print the recipe to accompany the gift. Happy Holidays!
Ingredients
Cake:
1 package yellow or chocolate cake mix (note: to save time, get the one with pudding already in the mix and omit the pudding mix below)
1 3/4 oz package instant vanilla or chocolate pudding mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 cup cooking oil
1/2 cup dark or gold rum (use Gosling’s Rum for authentic Bermudian version)
Glaze:
1/4 pound butter
1/4 cup water
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark or gold rum
Directions for Cake:
Preheat oven to 325F. Grease and flour 10-inch tube or 12-cup Bundt Pan. Mix all cake ingredients together. Pour batter into pan. Bake for 1 hour. Set on rack to cool. Invert on serving plate.
Directions for Glaze:
Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in water and sugar. Boil for 5 minutes stirring constantly. Stir in rum and remove from heat. Prick top of cake with fork. Drizzle and brush glaze evenly over top and sides.
Source: The Elbow Beach Hotel, Bermuda
Last-Minute Gift Idea: Local Roots Food Tour
With the holidays right around the corner, the SacFoodies will be posting some last-minute food gift ideas this week.
It’s no secret the SacFoodies team loves food – especially Sacramento food. So we were all excited to experience a few local eateries in a new way on a walking tour in the midtown and East Sacramento neighborhoods earlier this month, courtesy of Local Roots Food Tours. So, if you’re looking to give the gift of food to someone (not just foodies), I highly recommend giving one of these tours.
Here are some of the highlights from our tour:
Cafe Bernando
Our first stop was a private tasting at the Capitol Ave. location of this Paragary Restaurant Group property, which included a tasting of the eatery’s creamy, flavorful Orrechiette pasta dish. Not only does Cafe Bernardo use fresh and local ingredients, but the restaurant also makes its own pasta at a nearby bakery. The Orrechiette was outstanding—every bite was filled with the flavors of cauliflower, leeks, pancetta and Parmesan cheese.
Paragary Bakery
This private shop services all of the Paragary-owned restaurants, and the SacFoodies were lucky enough to score a sneak peak of the inside. Of course, the industrial-sized mixers and ovens were not much to see, but what came out of those were some of the tastiest morsels of the day—gingerbread cookies with browned butter cream cheese frosting (simply: WOW).
Cool fact: The bakery makes everything from pizza dough to bread to pastries, and it uses an average of 70 lbs. of butter per day.
Coffee Works and Juno’s Kitchen & Delicatessen
Coffee Works, one of the oldest coffee shops in Sacramento that does its own roasting, provided us with a much-needed caffeine pick-me-up. We were shown how the roasting process works, which was a bit more complex than the Keurig Single Cup Coffee Maker I’m used to.
Juno’s was a quick surprise stop on the tour, and while streetside, we got to try their Israeli Couscous with a side of roasted potatoes.
Both Coffee Works and Juno’s are the kind of neighborhood joints that make the Sacramento food scene so great—these gems are a bit off the beaten path but offer delicious options.
La Trattoria Bohemia
What would a food tour be without beer? At this Czech and Italian restaurant, we were able to enjoy a nice cold pilsner on the side of Margherita pizza and tiramisu. It was a refreshing treat, despite most of us already feeling stuffed to the gills.
Centro Cocina Mexicana
Our final stop concluded with another Paragary-owned restaurant, and by this time, we could barely fit another bite in our mouths. Thankfully, there’s always room for tequila! We ended our fabulous tour with one of Centro’s tequila infusions. As we sipped our fruity tequila (which one SacFoodie insisted tasted just like juice—but with a little extra kick!), we all agreed that the Local Roots Food Tours are a great way to experience a taste of the Sacramento dining scene.
Local Roots Food Tours
(800) 838-3006
www.localrootsfoodtours.com
Thankful Thursday
A big thank you to our friends at the Frosted Cake Shop and Best Friends for Frosting for bringing some holiday cheer to the SacFoodies today. We’ve been fans of Tessa’s work since earlier this year, and we were excited to meet Melissa today. Thanks again!