Today is National Cheesecake Day! We’re all in for celebrating, but where is the best place to indulge in Sacramento?
We know The Cheesecake Factory tops the favorite list for many. (Plus, they’re offering any slice of cheesecake for half price today.) We’re also hearing good things about their newest flavor – Salted Caramel Cheesecake – which made its debut on July 29th.
Rick’s Dessert Diner offers a multitude of cheesecake options – from Amaretto Cheesecake to Chocolate Kahlua.
Ettore’s European Bakery has a White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake that is finished with silky white mousse and fresh raspberries.
Or, if you’re in for just a bit of cheesecake indulgence, Gunther’s Ice Cream offers a fan-favorite Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream. We say, scoop it up!
Where’s your favorite place for cheesecake in the Sacramento area?
Archives for July 2015
Café Plan B
Café Plan B, a French restaurant in midtown which opened in 2014, had caught my eye many times and recently I had just the right occasion to check it out. A colleague and I decided to venture out of the office for a rare midtown lunch outing and we were not disappointed.
Right off the bat we loved the open-air feeling of the restaurant – an ideal mix of indoor/outdoor, even on a warm day. We decided to start our meal with an order of the Prawn Stix, pancetta-wrapped prawns which arrived on skewers with a spicy aioli on top. The dish was a perfect start to the meal and definitely had us excited for the next course.
Next we moved on to our entrees and of course we had to go with a couple of more traditional French dishes. The Croque Madame was so beautiful when it arrived that we almost didn’t want to cut into it. Stacked with ham and Gruyére, covered with a traditional béchamel and topped with a sunny side up egg, the sandwich was more than enough to split, especially when paired with…
The Mussels Mariniére, prepared in a traditional French style with garlic, white wine and parsley and served with grilled bread for dipping and a side of French fries (of course). We enjoyed the fresh mussels, flavorful broth and soaking up the broth with the grilled bread (my favorite part!).
If you’re looking for a French fix in midtown that is casual and won’t break the bank, we suggest you give Café Plan B a try!
Café Plan B
1226 20th St.
Sacramento, CA 95811
(916) 447-3300
Cheers! It’s National Tequila Day
Today might arguably be one of the best days of the year. Why, you might ask? Well, it’s National Tequila Day, of course! And this year, we should all celebrate because it’s also on a FRIDAY!! On top of that, it’s summer and here in Sacramento our farmers’ markets and local shops are bursting with the most amazing fresh fruits and veggies to play with in tequila concoctions. This trifecta makes for the ultimate tequila celebration, no excuses.
When thinking about the perfect way to celebrate National Tequila Day, Friday and summer all wrapped into one, it got my head spinning. I love to mix up a good cocktail (see two previous cocktail-filled posts of mine here and here). And specifically with tequila, I frequently make my own at-home infusions (more on that in a future post). However, for National Tequila Day this year I wanted to shake it up a bit (see what I did there?) from my usual fruit and herb-infused margaritas and make something a bit different.
I’m all about tomatoes in the summertime and here in Sac, we get the best of them. They don’t call it Sacratomato for nothing! I know what you’re thinking, “what do tomatoes have anything to do with tequila?” You just wait…
A fresh tomato-mint margarita. I was inspired by this recipe from The Chic Site, with a few little tweaks of my own.
The result is a super refreshing, lightly sweet and yes, tomatoey drink that will leave you wanting another (and another, and another). And, you know what? It’s Friday and National Tequila Day so you have my permission to have an extra one… or two.
Fresh Tomato-Mint Margarita
Adapted from The Chic Site
Ingredients
6 grape tomatoes (yellow, green, orange, red or a combination)
4 large or 6 small fresh mint leaves, plus more for garnish
Juice from 1/2 a lime, freshly squeezed
Juice from 1 lemon, freshly squeezed
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon simple syrup
2 ounces blanco tequila
1/4-1/2 club soda or sparkling water, to taste
Directions
In a cocktail shaker, muddle together the tomatoes, mint leaves, lime and lemon juices.
Pour in the simple syrup and tequila and shake with ice. Pour over ice into serving glass of choice and top with club soda or sparkling water to taste. Garnish with mint leaves, a slice of lime or lemon and a few grape tomatoes on a pick. Makes one large (approximately 8 ounce) drink or two smaller drinks. Cheers!
Snap a Food Photo and Win Some Dough
Calling all amateur food photographers! If you have great skills with the camera and love taking photos of freshly plated food, crops in the field, harvesting, animals, rural scenery, ranch life…basically anything California food and agriculture related, then it’s time to enter California Farm Bureau Federation’s annual photo contest!
The grand prize is $1,000 for the all-ages group, and there’s even a category called “Budding Artists” so those 13 years old and younger can get involved and get creative. So whether it’s a great photo of you and your pet hen, or a great scramble you made from her lovely eggs for breakfast, get online and submit your snapshot by September 30th to win!
Check out official rules, forms and past winners at www.cfbf.com/photocontest
Do the Macaroni!
By Shreya Suresh
I recently found out today is Macaroni Day. I’ve decided that henceforth, I am no longer celebrating my birthday—I need to save my energy for this instead. Since I’m new to the city, I decided to pick a random restaurant and order myself the best comfort food known to humankind: mac-n-cheese.
That’s the story of how I discovered Cafeteria 15L, a restaurant with just a touch of vintage charm. Fellow SacFoodie Liz sampled the Mac-n-cheese back in 2011 (check out the post here), and as a newbie to the Sacramento food scene, I couldn’t wait to check it out. While I loved the friendly waiters, the open space, and the big windows bringing in sunlight, my favorite part was the actual food. The mac-n-cheese was the perfect combination of creamy and crunchy, and the portion was small enough to reduce the regret of overindulging on a weekday. The meal was complete with a Pepsi.
If you pop in during the week between 4 and 7 pm, the happy hour prices will make your meal that much tastier. So why don’t you give this day the proper celebration it deserves?