What to do when a neighbor leaves a bag of Fuyu persimmons on your porch?  When firm, they’re great sliced in salads, for example, with baby arugula or fast pickled with carrots and daikon.  But when they get riper and softer, I love using them in cookies.  These have a little more persimmon pulp in it, making them chewy.  I almost always use the chubby Fuyu persimmons but I’m sure Hachiyas would work just as well.
1 stick Smart Balance 50/50; or 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup nonfat Greek yogurt …

If you decide to visit the two Mendocinos, here are my suggestions for getting and staying there, dining and tasting.
Anderson Valley
Anderson Valley is about 2 1/2 hours from San Francisco via Highway 101 north to Highway 128 which meanders northwest along the Navarro River through spectacular redwoods to the coast.  The 27 wineries are easy to visit being concentrated on either side of the highway from Booneville to Navarro.  The list of wineries and map are located on the Anderson Valley Winegrower’s website at www.avwines.com
A good time to visit Anderson …

Imagine an exciting Los Angeles town that by the 1920′s, was home to three major motion picture studios, famous screen actors and musicians and a thriving nightclub scene.  It’s not the Hollywood most people think about, but West LA’s Culver City is where it all began.  It’s a pocket town sometimes overwhelmed by LA’s other neighborhoods – flashy Marina del Rey, tony Brentwood, funky Venice and chic West Hollywood.  But Culver City has a self-confidence all its own born in a rich and authentic Hollywood past.
If you want a taste …

New York City at this time of year is resplendent with holiday lights, Christmas trees and festive window displays.  Just walking  down Fifth Avenue in the crisp December air fills me with holiday cheer – and an appetite.  There is no lack of great Michelin star restaurants here, but during the holidays when you’re out-and-about, it’s easy to be drawn into the convivial and cozy atmosphere of the neighborhood cafe or bar.  Here are some ideas for your next trip to Manhattan!
Tribeca

Terroir Tribeca is the larger of the wine bars …

 
Appreciation of great wines deepens with positive memories of visiting the place of origin and soaking up the history and culture, the landscapes and most of all, tasting the food and wines at the source.  In a great wine capital like the Napa Valley, with wineries and restaurants lining its straight, flat roads, visiting the region is an easy thing to do.  In the historic city of Porto and the Douro Valley, it hasn’t been quite as convenient to get the full experience; after all, the majority of quintas and …

When immigrant Jacob Schram searched the relatively virgin Napa Valley in the early 1860’s to plant vines, he searched for steep hillsides that he knew from his youth growing up near the Rhine River would yield the highest quality grapes.  He found his vineyard site in the foothills south of Calistoga.  The wines of Schramsberg would achieve such renown for their quality that author Robert Louis Stevenson was inspired to declare on the veranda of Schram’s home that “wine is bottled poetry.”  After Jacob Schram’s death in 1905, the estate …

 
Ubuntu Executive Chef Aaron London learned about his James Beard nomination for Rising Star Chef, not from a phone call, but on Twitter – nine simultaneous tweets from friends.  This young 27-year old CIA Hyde Park alumnus already has back-to-back Michelin stars for Ubuntu Restaurant under his belt, and several years working at renowned restaurants in France, Canada and the U.S. including Daniel and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in New York, but he has only just begun.
Ubuntu is a restaurant that focuses on vegetables as a culinary specialty, using …

My motto is “discover the world and savor the classics.”  But when it comes to learning about wine, I believe in starting with the classics, and that applies to wine regions, specific appellations and producers.  With Italian wines, it can be a daunting exercise simply because of the sheer numbers:  Twenty official wine regions, 370 controlled appellations (48 Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita  and 322 Denominazione di Orgine Controllata), about 2,000 grape varieties of which most are indigenous to Italy, and a span of vineyards covering over 1.75 million …

Melbourne has been called the food capital of Australia for its use of seasonal, local foods, ethnically diverse flavors and relaxed ambiance.  Sound like San Francisco?  When the Bay Area was being touted years ago for its innovative use of fresh, artisanal ingredients in California Cuisine, seasoned Melbourne food and wine expert Roy Moorfield said they all just shrugged and said, “what’s the big deal?  We had it all along.”  And he was right.  My friend and I, both cynical food and wine professionals who have worked in San Francisco, …

Often compared to San Francisco without the fog, just halfway through my trip, I realized that San Francisco was really Melbourne with fog.  The southern port city of Melbourne has grown to become Australia’s food and wine capital, drawing on the abundant local produce and seafood, an ethnically diverse population and wine regions that are less than an hour’s drive away.
From the original British settlers in the 1830’s, Melbourne became a haven for immigrants from Europe and the Middle East post WWII, and then Asia in the 1960’s under skilled …