Yearly Archives: 2007

Buttercup Bakes at Home

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peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

I broke down and baked cookies today.  Steve had gotten me a slew of cookbooks for Christmas last year, including Buttercup Bakes at Home (2006), by Jennifer Appel, which has some enticing recipes, so I chose the peanut butter and chocolate chunk cookies.  This is an example of how important photos are in a cookbook.  I made this particular recipe because of how delectable the cookies look on the cover.  In fact, that photo made me ask Steve for this book in the first place.  Pathetic.  The only thing that went wrong was that the chocolate I had ready for piping seized up a bit while I tended to some drama involving Berry and the mail carrier, so rather than nuke really good chocolate twice, I just piped it on as it was, which resulted in big globs instead of attractive stripes.  The cookies tasted great and had the perfect texture – not too soft, not too hard and a bit chewy.  I like to put cookies in the fridge, and these worked very well toward that end, coming out kind of blondie-like.  Buttercup is a popular Manhattan bakery, and they seem to have made their recipes approachable.

Strings in El Cerrito

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Found a place in El Cerrito that has good, reasonable, chicken parm.  Matthew and I were driving around looking for some food this afternoon and thought we’d try Strings (11720 San Pablo Avenue, El Cerrito), a place we passed many times while driving but never trusted.  I think it has to do with its strip-mall-type locale and nondescript name.  It turned out to be a comfortable, diner-like place with respectable food.  We both had chicken parm, which came with a side of pasta alfredo, cafe salad and bread.  The cafe salad is a mixed green salad with raisins, sunflower seeds and a couple other oddities tossed in a creamy Italian dressing.  It’s a cut above the throwaway salad most places serve and fairly addictive at that.  The chicken parm was generous and had the right flavor — the result of the chicken, sauce and cheese hanging out together and melding.  $9.25 each.  Nice people run Strings; there was lots of repeat business eating lunch.

Tuk Tuk Thai in Berkeley

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Sweet sticky rice and mango at Tuk Tuk Thai

Sweet sticky rice and mango at Tuk Tuk Thai

Good place for a sweet Thai treat.  We’re often visiting Tuk Tuk Thai (2466 Shattuck, Berkeley) for lunch but thought we’d pop in today for a little sticky rice with mango.  While it’s easy to make this warm dessert at home, sometimes you don’t want to deal with it and have it handed to you.  They make a nice version here, with just enough coconut milk — it’s not swimming in it.  One word of caution:  if you already ate a meal and then want this dessert, share it.  Sticky rice goes a long way.

Buffalo wings in the East Bay

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Decent Buffalo wings alert for the East Bay.  That’s right, good Buffalo wings have made their way to Pinole in the form of a Wing Stop (1581-A Fitzgerald Drive).  They have a number of saucing options, sides and whatnot but we had only the mild Buffalo wings and were very satisfied.  They may not be as good as some of the best in the country, but they are very solid.  Top-shelf Buffalo wings are still a little crispy, and the sauce permeates the chicken, but not completely, and they are a little vinegary from the red pepper sauce.  Wing Stop’s lacked that underlying crispness and hint of vinegar – at least our batch did.  I’m picking nits, so don’t hesitate to buy a bucket of the damned things.  I have no use for teriyaki wings and their ilk, so I can’t speak for those.  Wing Stop has tables, which is a good thing since Buffalo wings are best eaten right away.  All in all, quite good for a national chain.

Pear Street Bistro

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Crab martini at Pear Street Bistro

Crab martini at Pear Street Bistro

A fancy lunch at Pear Street Bistro just for the hell of it.  When Matthew and I are together we tend to spend a little more on meals than we should.  Today we thought we deserved to give Pinole’s Pear Street Bistro (2395 San Pablo Avenue) a shot, after having seen the place reviewed on a local television show.  They showed a blue crab cocktail served in a martini glass worthy of further investigation. 

Pear Street Bistro's lunch plate

Pear Street Bistro's lunch plate

Pear Street Bistro is a modern, comfortable, loft-like space with stained concrete floors and some of those trendy polished aluminum chairs lining the front bar area.  The dining room is open and inviting — plenty of windows on one side and an open kitchen on the other.  Service was friendly and prompt.  I felt as though the server actually enjoyed working with us.  We both ordered the $16 fixed price lunch, which comes with a small appetizer or soup and entree (served together), dessert and beverage.  We added the blue crab cocktail to start.  Matthew loved the cocktail, which consisted of loads of loose blue crab meat atop a little guacamole at the bottom of the martini glass.  It was served with tricolor nacho chips, which may have been a little cheesy looks-wise, but worked with the dish in terms of flavor and contrasting texture.  Matthew inhaled the Cajun catfish with bruschetta before I had a chance to taste it, but he seemed quite happy with the affair.  My sliced rare ribeye over mashed potatoes was fancy-pants comfort food that hit the mark.  The potatoes were creamy good and hot.  My personal gripe is being served mashers that are cooling off into a lump, which renders all those butter and cream calories a waste.  Dessert was a simple dish of rich vanilla ice cream.  We walked out full and $55 lighter with no leftovers for the akitachow, unfortunately.  The photos here are a bit blurry, I know.  Bad cell phone camera!  Bad me for forgetting the real camera!