Local restaurant guy Josh Nelson and his wife, Gina Funk Nelson, welcomed their first child, a boy, on Wednesday. Josh’s stepdad, chef Randall Selland, tweeted about the newest addition to the family earlier today. “Still no name for baby Nelson,” he wrote on his Twitter page. “Josh and Gina doing great, they are sooooo happy. Brings a tear to your eye. We are very lucky.” Josh manages Ella Dining Room and Bar; until recently, Gina managed The Kitchen.

Otow Orchard in Granite Bay is offering local foodies a rare treat: a demonstration of the ancient art of persimmon-drying, called hoshigaki.

The public is invited to an open house at historic Otow Orchard on Saturday, November 14th to tour the farm, meet owners Chris Otow Kuratomi and Tosh Kuratomi, and discover the unique charms of hoshigaki, a traditional Japanese holiday gift associated with long life and good fortune.

Hoshigaki are whole persimmons that are peeled, hung with string over a pole and carefully hand-massaged over several weeks until the sugars contained in the fruit form a delicate "bloom" - a surface dusting that looks like frost. At the end of this painstaking process, the resultant fruit is succulently tender and moist, with a concentrated persimmon flavor.

The hoshigaki method is traditional to Japan, and was introduced to California by Japanese farmers who settled in Placer County in the late 1800’s. Because they are so labor-intensive, hoshigaki have all but disappeared from commercial production. However, the art of persimmon drying is experiencing a vibrant revival in Placer County, and if you look carefully, you may find packages of hoshigaki for sale at your local farmers’ market. They’re not cheap, but they taste marvelous – and they make a great gift for the food lovers on your holiday list.

Date: Saturday, November 14th, 2009
Time: 1pm to 3pm
Location: Otow Orchard, 6232 Eureka Road, Granite Bay; www.otoworchard.com
For more information: Call (916)791-1656

I just heard that a champagne and caviar bar has opened in Old Sac. Interesting choice in the middle of a recession. Called Cafe Americain, it’s located at 1023 Front St., where Ramona’s Comida Mexicana used to be. Open Thursday through Saturday from 5 to 9 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 9 p.m., Cafe Americain serves Sterling caviar (which is locally produced) and close to 20 sparkling wines (many of them from California).

As if you didn’t have enough to worry about, here’s some disturbing news: According to a report in the June issue of Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, farm-raised fish could be carriers of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, otherwise known as mad cow disease. That’s because some farmed fish are fed cow scraps. (I know: yuck.) It hasn’t actually been shown that fish can transmit the disease to humans. Still, the researchers who wrote the paper are calling on the government to ban feeding cow meat or bone meal to fish until the practice is found to be safe. So if you’re feeling smug because you always order the salmon instead of the burger, think again.

Last week, Mulvaney’s Building & Loan quietly began offering a lunch entrée worth seven points under the Weight Watchers Point System. The restaurant’s chef de cuisine, Eric Veldman-Miller, is a fan of Weight Watchers. He lost 45 pounds on the program, which assigns a points value to every food based on its calories, fat and fiber. (Instead of counting calories, dieters count points.) When customers began asking for a Weight Watchers-friendly lunch option, owner Patrick Mulvaney gave Veldman-Miller the go-ahead to create one. Currently, it’s grilled swordfish with white bean puree and roasted vegetables for $15. (The dish will change with the seasons and the chef’s whim.) The words “Weight Watchers” and “points” don’t appear anywhere on the menu. Instead, the dish is discreetly flagged as “an unexpected entrée.”

So is he going to do Weight Watchers, I asked Mulvaney. “No, I just watch my weight go up,” said the famously bacon-loving chef.

Crews began work Monday constructing an ice-skating rink in the middle of 20th Street between J and K. The rink, which opens Nov. 20 for the holiday season, is right next to the MARRS Building, home to Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Luigi’s Slice, Azul Mexican Food and Tequila Bar, and Lounge on 20. Now, it’s no Rockefeller Center, but MARRS is already one of Sacramento’s most happening spots. The skating rink is expected to draw an 40,000 additional people to the area. This is the first time midtown has hosted the rink, which in the past has been set up at St. Rose of Lima Park at K and 7th streets. Construction on the K Street Mall forced this year’s move to midtown.
 

This week I checked out Sabores Mexican Food in Roseville, owned by the talented team that created Tres Hermanas in midtown Sacramento. Sabores is a cheery new addition to the Placer County dining scene. With its bright yellow and red walls, playful Mexican knick knacks (check out the statuettes displayed behind the bar) and quirky, glittering stars dangling prettily from the ceiling, the restaurant exudes fun. Popular menu items include the pork-stuffed tamales (tamales de puerco), smothered with ranchera sauce and melted cheese; and the fajitas de camaron, shrimp fajitas. The dishes we tried were fresh-tasting and light - I liked the fact that the kitchen doesn't deep fry the tilapia in their fish tacos, nor does it saturate the fish with a creamy topping, as many taquerias do. Service was a bit perfunctory, but I had a great experience.

10341 Fairway Drive, Roseville, (916) 786-2262; www.saboresmexicanfood.com

This has been a brutal year for Sacramento-area breweries. In the past 12 months, a solid handful have shut their doors, including Elk Grove Brewing Co., Beermann’s Beerwerks, Oasis and Greenhouse. The most recent victim of the recession: Sacramento Brewing Company, which closed Oct. 19. In a note on the company’s website that begins with the words “Goodbye, Sacramento,” Sac Brewing’s owners George and Sarah Irwin blamed the bad economy and said closing was “a painful decision.”

Beth Ayres, an owner/manager of River City Brewing Company in Downtown Plaza, sighed when asked about the troubles affecting local brewpubs. “Yes, it’s sad,” she said. “It’s been hard. We don’t see an end in sight yet. We’re hoping that the last couple of months were rock-bottom.” Ayres said River City’s bar is still busy, but its restaurant business is suffering. State-worker furloughs are one culprit. “State workers were our bread and butter,” she pointed out. “We’re not getting all the birthday and retirement parties and everyday lunches.” Another problem: The mall is practically empty. Only 60 percent of the stores are rented, and shoppers are few and far between. To keep the place open, the brewery’s owner/managers have taken pay cuts. “We’re weathering this,” said Ayres. “We don’t have any plans of going anywhere.”

Despite the doom and gloom, other breweries in town are hanging on and, in some cases, even thriving. “We’re doing very well, actually,” said Noah Whitmarsh, restaurant manager of Brew It Up Brewery & Grill on 14th Street. He attributed that to the brewery’s location near the convention center, Sacramento Theatre Company and Memorial Auditorium, a solid base of regular customers and a steady stream of daily deals and specials. Brew It Up is also the only brewery in town where customers can brew their own beers. “That keeps people coming back,” he noted.

There’s also some sense that beer and pub grub are probably just what the doctor ordered in these god-awful times. “I like to say that people have to drink about it,” said Glynn Phillips, the owner of Rubicon Brewing Company on midtown’s Capitol Avenue. Despite the economic downturn, he said his brewpub is still doing pretty well. Phillips chalked that up to a “superb location” and prices that are easy on the wallet: “You can get in for a pint and a bite to eat for less than $12 with tip.”

 

A travel story published in this past Sunday’s New York Times is a valentine to Sacramento’s dining scene. The piece, headlined “36 Hours in Sacramento,” singles out some of the city’s top restaurants, including Ella, Grange, L Wine Lounge and Urban Kitchen, and Lounge on 20. Writer Beth Greenfield praises Ella for its “modern elegance” and writes that Lounge on 20 “conjures up South Beach—without the limos, celebrities and models.” Other local spots that receive a little NYT love: Tower Cafe (for brunch), Harlows (for a nightcap), the Delta King’s Pilothouse Restaurant (for its shrimp Louie salad), Revolution Wines (“a tiny industrial-chic winery”) and the Sunday farmers market under the freeway. Want to read it for yourself? Here's the link: http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/travel/01hours.html?ref=travel

Summer peaches and apricots may be gone, but Sacramento foodies have a new crop to look forward to: Mandarins.

The crop is usually at its peak from mid-November to late December or early January, but I hear from Joanne Neft, former director of the Placer County Agriculture Marketing Program, that the crop is earlier than usual and the fruit will be “extra sweet” this year.

There are more than 65 mandarin orange orchards in Placer County, and growers are gearing up for the annual Mountain Mandarin Festival, which will occur on November 20th, 21st and 22nd at the Gold Country Fairgrounds in Auburn. The festival, which celebrates the harvest of our locally-grown Owari Satsuma mandarins, features live entertainment, crafts, a cooking stage with chef demonstrations and an area devoted to children’s activities (plus lots of mandarins for sale). There’s also a plethora of mandarin-inspired fare: 2008 nibbles included mandarin orange gelato and chocolate-dipped mandarin oranges. 40,000 people attended last year’s festival.

Mountain Mandarin Festival
Information: www.mandarinfestival.com; (916) 663-1918
Location: Gold Country Fairgrounds, 1273 High Street, Auburn
Preview Friday 12pm – 5pm
Saturday: 9am to 5 pm
Sunday: 9am to 4 pm