It's been well over two years now since the hungry writers at Bay Area Bites mentioned Big Sur Bakery. I figured it was time. Now, I can't quite pin down the exact moment I became obsessed with Big Sur Bakery. It was well before the recent Bon Appetit mention and even before the stunning My Nepenthe cookbook came out. I feel like it's always been this legend-like place that I've been trying to get past relationships, friends, and family to tag along and try. But most folks always have the same reaction:

You want to drive 5 hours round-trip to go to a bakery? In one day?
And I usually reply something like this: No, no. Clearly these people are missing something. It's not just a bakery--it's a cafe as well. With real food, too.
Oh, sorry. Let me get this straight: So you want to drive over five hours to go to a cafe?

And then I met my friend Danielle. She and her husband drove down Highway 1 on July 4th and had a chance to join in the Big Sur Bakery's special festivities (Danielle swears she's never enjoyed baked beans until she'd tried theirs). Oh and did I mention they did it in one day just for the heck of it? Reason #1 why I like Danielle. Reason #2 came to light when she mentioned how we should drive down and eat lunch there someday because she hadn't had a chance to try the normal, non-holiday menu. I didn't need much convincing. I'd found the best mini road-tripping, foccaccia-loving, landscape-gawking, jelly-donut eating companion ever. Our friend Janet had a chance to join us last minute, and we all set off on a recent cloudy Wednesday morning eager to see what all the buzz was about.

Decisions, Decisions at Big Sur Bakery

I was initially surprised at how small The Big Sur Bakery is from the inside. There are probably about ten tables and a nice wrap-around deck outside. The folks having lunch were a mix of tourists (donning hiking boots and cameras) and locals swinging in for a quick treat to take with them as they continued down the road. It has the kind of slow pace that makes you want to order a little something else when you're finished with your meal just so you can sit and languish away the afternoon. If you go for lunch as we did, do know that it's counter service only and the menu is much more limited than it is during dinner. Limited, but darn good. They display the lunch specials of the day in the bakery case right when you walk in, so you simply order and pay and they'll bring it on out to your table.

My two dining companions each ordered the seasonal corn soup and a slice of foccaccia: one with local tomatoes and caramelized onions and the other with leeks and goat cheese. Big Sur Bakery makes all of their breads and foccaccias on site in their wood-fired oven and it's apparent from the first bite. The crust is pleasantly soft yet chewy, and the toppings are thoughtful and would've been utterly delicious all on their own. That's the thing about the folks at The Big Sur Bakery: they're adamant about using local eggs and produce whenever possible, and you can taste this decision in the final product.

Foccaccias and Seasonal Corn Soup

For my own lunch, I decided to try the potato frittata and a side of house greens. The frittata was perfectly seasoned with a mix of herbs and a little salt and pepper. And the greens with shallots, roasted carrots and a lemon poppyseed dressing were quite memorable. A perfect compliment to the more substantial frittata.

Potato Fritatta and House Salad

Danielle was smart enough to take home a Citrus Morning Bun for the next day and reported back that it was a little pillow of heaven (yes, those were close to her exact words).

Breakfast Pastries at Big Sur Bakery

And my friend Janet made the wise decision to buy a jelly donut on our way out. They just looked too good to pass up. We had every intention of waiting until later that afternoon to try it, but we barely made it out the front door.

Strawberry Jelly Donut at Big Sur Bakery

This is, quite possibly, the best jelly donut I've ever had. We puzzled over what made it so extraordinary and decided it had to be the heaps of homemade strawberry jam, the fact that it seemed like the jam was actually baked right into the donut, the light airy dough, and the gentle and completely perfect dusting of sugar. If I lived close to Big Sur, I could be in a whole lot of trouble if this is a standard breakfast item.

I've been thinking about how to sum up our few hours at Big Sur Bakery. It's a special place-- that you can gather through recommendations from friends, numerous media reviews, and their very lovely cookbook. But I think the reason it remains so special is because there's a sense still --somehow-- that you've stumbled upon it. You leave feeling like it's your little place, and you can't wait to tell the friends back home who you know would appreciate it. I'll tell you this: I couldn't imagine any other place I would've wanted to be at 1 p.m. that Wednesday afternoon.

Big Sur Bakery
Highway 1
Big Sur, CA 93920
(831) 667-0520
Hours: Mon 8am-3pm; Tue-Sat 8am-8:30pm; Sun 8am-2:30pm

Arizmendi San Rafael finally opened April 6th!

I've been looking forward to this bakery opening for months. Seasons, actually. You see, it's not that we don't have Arizmendi in the city. We do. And it's fantastic--although on the opposite end of town from where I live. But my mom is a quick hop from the new location in San Rafael and I find myself at her house often because a) she's cool, b) she cooks for me and c) she has much better cable and cute dogs. So when I heard that Arizmendi had finally opened this week, I made a point to cruise on over and check it out. All in the name of research.

If you're not familiar with Arizmendi, they're not only an incredible bakery but they use a very cool worker cooperative business model. Over thirty years ago now, Berkeley's worker-owned, Cheeseboard cooperative opened. The model was so succesful that they helped open another bakery in Oakland that year--Arizmendi on Lakeshore Avenue was born. The rest is history. So without going into too much detail on the ins and outs of cooperatives (although it's quite fascinating), in short everyone weighs in on decisions ranging from opening hours to new pizza flavors.

Part of their mission statement reads:

Acting on the belief that beneficial change can come through collective action, we are a worker-owned and democratically-operated bakery cooperative. We make decisions by consensus and we share all of the business tasks, responsibilities, benefits, and risks, while being accountable to each other.

Call me crazy but this sense of care and ownership shines through in the product. Without a doubt. In the San Rafael store, this passion is immediately detectable. While I was expecting a more watered-down Arizmendi experience that would possibly cater to a different, more suburban clientele, I was pleasantly surprised.

Here's a peek at what I found:

Arizemndi bakers preparing loaves of multi-grain bread



Customers. Many, many happy customers

When I was chatting with the bakers, they mentioned that the San Rafael store's opening day was Arizmendi's biggest ever (they have East Bay and San Francisco locations as well). It was apparent on my first visit that the excitment had yet to wane.

You'll see all of your Arizmendi favorites, including the english muffin and corn cherry scone!


And a new discovery for me--intrigued by the name, I had to try one:

"The Chocolate Thing," a simple, yeasted breakfast bun generously studded with chocolate

So while I visited the San Rafael shop for a few breakfast treats, there's a lot more going on at Arizmendi. They do incredible pizzas--you can check online for their pizza of the day and pop in to buy a slice or a light-baked pie to finish baking at home. They also do artisan breads, simple cookies, and coffee drinks using Equator beans. The San Rafael location has a spacious eating area to lounge and catch up with a good book or just people watch from of their huge street-side location. And if, much like me, you can never have too many morning pastries, here are a few additional suggestions. I can attest to their greatness:

• Corn Cherry scone: a simple, delightful combination. Crumbly. A little bit savory, a little bit sweet.
• Homemade english muffin. Enough said.
• Pecan Roll: This is a nice one to share with your breakfast buddy. Light yeasty dough, nuts, caramel flavor.
• Chocolate Chip Cookies: This is not a fluffy, airy cookie. It's rather flat, dense, and generously strewn with chunks of chocolate. One of my favorite chocolate chip cookies around. And yes, I realize for most people this wouldn't be considered a morning pastry...

Generally speaking, each Arizmendi location will have a few specialties that they only do at that location. I chatted with the bakers to see what would be uniquely San Rafael and they said it was just too early to tell at this point. They wanted to start with the standard, successful line of Arizmendi products and give themselves some time to get to know the customers, the location, and what's really popular. As of now, the pizza has been a huge hit (after all, where can you grab a quick lunch right downtown?) and the morning pastry crowd is growing each day. They hinted that there's a good chance you may see them rockin' the Marin Farmer's Market in the coming months, too. So there's a lot to look forward to. But it's safe to say I'm satisfied with the here and now: they're open, they've got the best scone in town, and I've got a pizza in my fridge waiting to be baked off.

Arizmendi San Rafael
(See their website for other Bay Area locations)
1002 Fourth St.
San Rafael, CA 94901
(415) 456-4093
Hours: Closed Mon.; Tues.-Fri: 7am-7pm; Sat. 8am-7pm; Sun. 8am-4pm
Twitter: @Arizmendi_SR

Cibo on a rainy Sausalito day

Most people wouldn't expect that I'd end up at Cibo (pronounced "chee-bo"). First, I live in the city and there are certainly treats to be had in my own neighborhood. Second, my immediate family, after waiting a good five minutes for a drip-to-order coffee, vowed never to come again. My mom just doesn't get the concept, and while I try to explain how much better it tastes, she tells me to call someone else when I want to go to Cibo. OK, so there's that. Then there are my friends who are confused as to why I'd brave Sausalito cyclist-hell to get my hands on a pop-tart and a perfect cappuccino.

Lingering at Cibo on a quiet Friday morning

So given these few hiccups, why do I go? It's a fair question. First, between working part-time in Sausalito during the week and visiting family in San Rafael and Larkspur--I'm in Marin a lot. And many of you may be familiar with the rather grim (although getting better each day) cafe scene there. So when Cibo opened, I raced right over. And while I'm often alone (thanks, mom and co.) let's clear up the cyclist myth once and for all: yes, it can get a little hairy on a sunny Sunday, but for the most part the cafe is a great locals spot--a modern, airy space where folks meet up with friends, bring in their laptops to get a little work done, and have quick meetings over the best coffee in town. The space itself, a 120-year old brick building, has concrete floors, massive windows, and exposed brick walls. It honestly just feels good in there. It's conducive for coming in off the busy street and taking a legitimate break. I bring in a book and find that all of a sudden I've read fifty pages without the urge to check my iphone. For me, that's huge.

While not necessarily speedy, Cibo baristas make a mean latte using Blue Bottle espresso

The infamous homemade Pop-Tart

Now on to the food. I've only been to Cibo once for lunch, and tried that infamous wild mushroom panini. It's worth every penny and stands up to the hype. But for me, the real draw are the pastries and sweets that Tera bakes each day for the cafe. The pop-tart has been a standard item from almost the very beginning. It's a relatively thin, crispy treat made with polenta so it has a delightful golden color and simultaneously flirts with both sweet and savory. Tera plays around with different fillings, but lately they've been doing apricot--the perfect antidote to a strong Americano. I tell you, your day will improve the second you bite into one of these. They do sell out though. I've come in a few hours too late on numerous occasions and, with hopes dashed, have had to settle on something else. Which is always a blessing in disguise as it's led me to the cinnamon-sugar muffin (or some of the locals call it the donut muffin). It's a small, light, airy little muffin doused, dusted, and rolled in cinnamon and sugar. It tastes, quite literally, like childhood--the most comforting little breakfast morsel around.

To celebrate spring, pastry chef Tera Ancona brought back the sticky bun!

Then a few days ago, I noticed a new item: a small sticky bun studded with nuts and strewn with layers of cinnamon inside. While I had just planned on getting a cup of coffee and finishing the paper, I was sucked in. The thing I really appreciate about all of Tera's treats are their size. Nothing is huge, overly sweet, or doused with frosting. When I spoke with her last week, she mentioned that there are a million places you can go to get a one-pound pastry if that's what you're looking for. Cibo isn't that. Instead, Tera wanted to create more of an opportunity for people to try a few sweets without feeling too committal or guilty about it. The size is also conducive to try a little something in conjunction with breakfast or lunch or take a few treats home for later. It's all about ease and pleasure: Tera and her husband Alfredo (of Angelino's fame) truly want for people to slow down, taste the options at Cibo, and treat themselves without feeling like it needs to be a major decision. And for me, it never is. I order freely and happily (albeit alone), cyclists or not.

Cibo
1201 Bridgeway (corner of Pine and Bridgeway)
Sausalito, CA 94965
Map
(415) 331-2426 (CIBO)
Hours: 7 days a week, 7 am-5 pm
(415) 331-CIBO (2426)

With summer fast waning and the autumn fruits making their way to market, it's time to turn to one of my favorite holidays. The Mid-Autumn Festival or, as many of us call it, the Harvest Moon Festival, celebrates the brightest and fullest moon of the year. It was once a time for families to relax and enjoy finally the fruits of their summer labor. Nowadays, in that peculiar way modernization and urbanization has of thinning out traditions, people might simply exchange moon cakes or go out to eat at their favorite Chinese restaurant. A few purists will try to hike up a hill for a midnight picnic with hot tea. Or, if you're Andrea Nguyen, you spend days making your own moon cakes from scratch.

Store-bought moon cakes are just like store-bought fruitcakes -- tasteless insults to the real thing. I can attest to the difference between one of Andrea's moon cakes and one of those brightly decorated, impulse-buy boxes that line the checkout counters at Asian markets this time of the year. Follow closely the four-page recipe in her cookbook, and you, too, can give friends and families one of these memorable treats.

Or, like me, stop at Kee Wah Bakery and stock up on "piggy basket" buns filled with sweetened lotus seed. At a couple of bucks each, you can get one for every sweet-toothed pork lover in your full-moon circle. I can never resist their gorgeous tins to hold diminutive mango and pineapple teacakes, my favorite flavors there. This year, I snagged a long, flat persimmon tin. In past years, I fell hard for a collectors' series of smaller tins decorated with smiling monks sipping tea and munching cookies.

Kee Wah Bakery is a much-loved Hong Kong chain that was founded in 1938 by Mr. Wong Yip Wing. He started out by selling candies and loaning out comic books to kids; his shop quickly became known as "The Chamber of Dreams." Since then, it has grown into a famous chain that bakes up a wide range of high-quality treats. They are the place to go for hard-to-find favorites such as Portuguese egg tarts (think dan tat crossed with crème brulee); delicate, rolled tuiles; and excellent, homemade, Asian-style cookies (not too sweet) made with real butter. I also love their packaging for its elegant simplicity. The tins are optional; you receive them when you buy a set of cakes.

As their loyal fans immigrated to the US, Kee Wah opened bakeries in California. Their first foray east across the ocean popped up in Monterey Park, of course, then two other shops in San Gabriel and Rowland Heights expanded their Southern California options. More recently, Kee Wah's bakeries in the Bay Area, two smack in the middle of Milipitas and one in Dublin, have brought their famous tea cakes, bridal cakes, moon cakes and Hong-Kong-style cookies, tarts and buns to Northern California.

Like other Hong Kong-style bakeries, it's partly serve-yourself and partly a Western-style bakery where you point into the display case. Grab a tray and a set of tongs, and then help yourself to the buns and cookies. Their staff will assist you with their special pastries and cakes. In the tradition of Asian service, complicated questions receive curt answers, so be sure to keep your expectations low if you're using this as an educational fieldtrip without a Mandarin or Cantonese speaker at your side.

Fortunately, it doesn't take too much to figure out what you want to eat in a glass-walled bakery, and their clearly written, English-language signs should offer all the guidance you need to avoid allergy-inducing walnuts or vegetarian-unfriendly pork fluff. Their walnut shortbread cookies will please the tamest eater, while their phoenix cookie with melon seeds, date seeds, sweet rice flour, and preserved bean curd should be interesting to the more adventurous.

Kee Wah Bakery

Map

1718 N. Milpitas Blvd.
Milpitas, CA‎ 95035
(408) 956-8999

386 Barber Lane
Milpitas, CA‎ 95035
(408) 383-9288

4288 Dublin Blvd. # 107
Dublin, CA‎ 94568
(925) 829-3939

I stupidly made our reservation for 7:15pm, not even considering the fact that we might have wanted to see the magnificent Big Sur sunset from our perch at Nepenthe. (Sunset is currently at 7:27pm). I know, I know, kind of a cliché Big Sur "thing to do" but it was my husband's very first trip to the magical little coastal town of Big Sur and we were celebrating his 1-year anniversary of moving to the United States.

Upon recommendation from one of his basketball buddies, I had booked a table at the Big Sur Bakery and Restaurant, a little gem that apparently has been around for awhile, but which I'd never noticed or even heard of (even though I've been to Big Sur countless times.

It was an unseasonably warm evening and when we arrived the light was dusky and purple across the mountains behind us. The restaurant, even though it has quite a few windows, is cozy and dark and would make an excellent refuge from the typically foggy chilly weather I associate with that part of the coast.

It wasn't terribly busy, but it did take quite some time for the waitstaff/owner/host to work out where we'd be seated. Don't get me wrong, everyone was exceedingly friendly the entire evening, but it was a bit of foreshadowing to a night of slightly confused service. (Just to explain before I go on, there were a few instances of forgetfulness, and a general lack of confidence by the waitstaff; the restaurant could benefit from clarifying everyone's roles and responsibilities.)

Big Sur Bakery and Restaurant has a wood-fire oven which takes center stage on the menu. They base much of their seasonal, organic menu on dishes that can be baked, roasted, or braised in the oven. They also have a wood-fired grill.

The menu--which seems to change monthly--offers a handful of interesting salads and starters, five different pizzas (which looked amazing and which we vowed to try upon our return, and yes we will certainly be returning), a whole smattering of vegetable dishes (vegetarians take note: this place is an excellent choice for anyone who doesn't eat meat), and a well-thought-out selection of mains. In addition, there were two additional starters and mains on offer.

We started with one of the salad specials, a mound of microgreens grown and harvested just behind the restaurant, tender spring fava beans, baby asparagus, and fresh peas all lightly dressed with carrot-ginger vinaigrette. It was incredibly fresh, springtime on a plate. We also had a gorgeous salad of butter lettuce, microgreens, shaved fennel, pecorino, tarragon and lemon vinaigrette, which was perfectly balanced with fresh, tangy, sweet, and salty flavors.

The star of the evening had to be our main-dish special though: rabbit in the wood-fire oven, cooked two ways: roasted saddle of rabbit wrapped in Serrano ham and braised whole leg in au jus; served with French white beans, pancetta, carrots, and braised greens. It was so good in fact that we couldn't help but tell the tables next to us that they must order it. We also shared a grilled flatiron steak with red wine gravy and smashed Yukon gold potatoes, carrots, and braised fennel. The steak was tender and deeply flavored, but was a bit on the rare side (we had ordered medium-rare). The potatoes were a good choice, but neither of us loved the fennel and thought that could have been left out of the mix.

The wine list leans toward offerings from the central coast, with additional French and Italian wines. There are a decent number of wines available for under $40, but the prices go up rather quickly from there. We chose a gorgeous medium-bodied earthy Sicilian nero d'avola. Granted it was a abnormally warm evening, but the wine was served slightly on the warm side, a big peeve of mine. But the staff gladly chilled the wine for a minute and then it was perfect.

We finished with a brown butter rhubarb tart with brown butter ice cream and a tangy lemon pudding cake with lemon sorbet and huckleberries, both of which were perfect marriages of winter flavors (brown butter and citrus) meet early springtime fruits (rhubarb and huckleberries). We ordered a light moscato to pair alongside the dessert, but even though we reminded the waiter when the dishes arrived, the wine never did. Well, it did but only after we were long finished.

If you can get past the service not being spot on, which in my opinion you should, and accept some less polished occasional missteps (but always with a smile and an apology!), then Big Sur Bakery and Restaurant has a lot to offer. Romantic, tucked away, local and seasonal, and most of all superbly delicious.

Big Sur Bakery and Restaurant
Highway One
Big Sur, CA 93920
831.667.0520
map