A) The Ohio Players
B) James Brown
C) The flavor of my pulled pork sandwich from Yunece yesterday.

What do these things have in common?
They’re all funky.
That’s right, there was some serious funk coming off of my pulled pork sammie from Yunece 61 the other day. We’re talking get-down-with-your-bad-self, break-out-in-a-cold-sweat, make-me-hurt-myself kind of funk Add to that the nearly tasteless potato salad served on the side and you can pretty much toss my whole visit into the crapper. Continue reading “Yunece 61″ »

Our 7th (!) wedding anniversary was yesterday, and we made a weekend of it by celebrating with dinner out on Friday. Now since we have three little kids we don’t exactly eat out often, so when we do we run into that age-old diner’s dilemma: stick with a restaurant you know and love, or take a chance on something new. With the usual, you are very likely to be pleased, and with something new, you can only rely on word of mouth (or word of Yelp) recommendations. And there’s no accounting for taste, especially with the more adventurous kinds of food. We usually err on the side of the classic you know and love. It’s not that we’re not adventurous eaters–not Anthody Bourdain rancid shark, pig anus adventurous, but we can step out of our comfort zone when it seems like a winner.

This year we opted for a favorite we hadn’t visited in a while: Three Sisters.

Continue reading “Two date night dinners” »

There once was restaurant, mythical in its place on the Sacramento foodscape. It was a place where a man, woman, and child could go on a Friday night, eat prime rib, clam chowder, and drink cocktails by the bucket load. It was a place that shaped my childhood, my life, the lives of all Sacramentans, hell, the lives of all Americans. That place was the Palomino Room.

Located just off Watt Avenue on El Camino Boulevard, the Palomino Room was a treasure, a throwback, a repository of food, ambiance, and camaraderie from a different age. And now, it can live again.

The restaurant space that once was the PR, is now available for lease. For the last several years, it has been a horrid example of what happens when fusion cuisine goes wrong. That’s right, the “steak and sushi buffet.” But now, those days are past, and the space is once again available to be put right by some enterprising restaurateur. That’s right, you Paul Flemming, you Randy Selland, you Randy Paragary, you Virgas. It’s time to do your civic duty and restore the Palomino to all its vinyl boothed glory. The Paly’ needs to live again. You can make it so.

Every now and then, your intrepid culinary guide (me) gets the offer of a few schillings to write restaurant reviews for other publications. Not wanting to overlap the online and printed-page worlds, I’ve held back from covering restaurants in both places. Nevertheless, I realize that many of you don’t like to get your hands dirty by picking up printed pages, or don’t live in the geographic area in which said printed-page publications are available. To remedy this gap in restaurant knowledge, I give you a quick rundown on some of the area’s newest, and in some cases best, eateries not yet mentioned on this here ‘Rag.

Maritime Seafood & Grill- ****
Owner/Chef Morgan Song has created a dining experience that immediately needs to be considered among the best in the region, joining such familiar names as Biba, The Kitchen, Waterboy, and Mulvaney’s B&L. High priced and high class, this place sticks out in an otherwise depressing Carmichael strip mall on the corner of Marconi and Fair Oaks. Go there, now.

Maritime Seafood & Grill
6440 Fair Oaks Blvd
Carmichael, CA 95608
www.maritimeseafoodsac.com
Continue reading “The Best of the Rest” »

In a lot of ways, Tapa the World is the anti-late-night hangout. Despite the many years of being one of the only kitchens in town open until midnight, the joint has resisted the urge to turn itself into a euro-tinged, ultra-douche lounge, and instead focuses on putting damn good food on the tables until the clock hits 11:59.

I was at Tapa a few weekends ago with a few friends in from out of town. Having the newcomers in tow made me look at the old Spanish gal with a new, appreciative perspective. At 10:30 at night, there weren’t too many other places in town at which we would have had nearly as much fun, eaten nearly as well, or drank nearly so exotically. Continue reading “Tapa the World” »

Friday-
Celebrity Chef Challenge- This annual event and fundraiser for InAlliance, a non-profit organization that provides employment and living services for adults with disabilities, pits some of the area’s best chefs against one another in a contest of Olympian proportions. There’s bound to be great food and copious wine and talented chefs.
Where: The Old Sugar Mill, Clarksburg (10 min south of Sacramento)
When: Friday, 5-9pm
Continue reading “Watcha Doin’ This Weekend?” »

Forget traveling throughout the state looking for the best sushi. Next week, the best sushi will be in Sacramento. Why? Because the best sushi chefs will be at the Sacramento Convention Center as part of the annual SushiMasters competition on Tuesday, June 10.

Chefs vying for the ultimate SushiMaster title include Chef Koji Ogawa, Sakura Chaya (formally with the Japanese Kitchen), Fresno, Chef Billy Ngo, KRU Restaurant, Sacramento, Chef Tomaharu Nakamura, Sanraku Four Seasons, San Francisco, Chef Akifusa Tonai, Kyo-ya Restaurant, San Francisco, Chef Takuya Matsuda, Sushi Bar Nippon, San Diego and Chef Aung
Soe, Geisha House, Hollywood.

The event goes from 5:30- 8:30pm. Tix are $50 online/$65 at the door. Price includes sushi sampling, sake tasting, and a free bag of rice, which, with the escalating price of food, might be worth more than the ticket price itself. The event is sponsored by the good people at the California Rice Commission who remind you that rice production is yet another thing at which California kicks the rest of the world’s ass (ok, fine, I made that last part up myself, I doubt that the California Rice Commission would use the word “ass” in a agricultural slogan).

See you there.

This past Sunday Mrs. Eats and I were lucky enough to attend the second annual Sacramento food bloggers potluck. ‘Twas a rousing event filled with tasty vittles and plenty of food-geek conversations. I won’t give you the litany of flavor delights that were available to the attendees, for it would only make you jealous.

What you might find interesting, however, is a list of the local cooks/writers who attended, and the gastronomical riches available on their respective blogs. Continue reading “Eat, Write, and be Merry” »

A couple quick notes, one about a perennial “dead zone” and another about a case of storefront switcheroo.

The Loehmann’s shopping plaza storefront that has played home to a variety of dining establishments, most recently Giovanni’s pizza, will now be a casual sushi and Japanese eatery called Bento Box. I’m going to take a stab in the dark and guess that they’re going to serve California rolls, tempura, teriyaki chicken, and a noodle bowls. Oh wait, gyozas, I’m sure they’ll also serve gyozas. This is not exactly the Japanese-greasy-spoon idea I had last week; nevertheless, I wish them good luck.

The former home of Beyond Napa wine market in the Lyon’s Village across from Loehmann’s, will now be home to a fro-yo establishment adorably called Yo-Yo Yogurt. It will be a self-serve enterprise ala Big Spoon. Don’t fret about your friendly neighborhood wine seller though. Beyond Napa has moved one door down to take over the former digs of the Francisco Franco woman’s boutique (which, as far as I can tell, is still closed).

How’s that?

They stock the snack foods like crackers and packaged cookies directly across the aisle from their baby goods.

What’s that? You don’t like Wheat Thins with baby-fresh scent or the thought of diapers when scoping out the Double-Stuf Oreos?  Eww.  Neither do I.

This must be a thing for me, given previous posts on the whacked out way of organizing grocery stores.

This is at the Arden & Eastern location, so maybe they’ll have items in more appealing places later on following the remodel.