People are giving up gluten. It may be because of a diagnosis of celiac disease or finding out you have a genetic predisposition to it. It may be a wheat allergy or from simply experiencing gluten intolerance whenever you eat it. Or it may just be a lifestyle choice after reading how gluten is a very recent addition to the human diet and that the medical community is realizing that the prevalence of celiac disease seems to have increased dramatically in recent years.

Unfortunately, testing for celiac disease and gluten intolerance is not perfect, so many individuals rely on their own instincts and bodies and embark on a complete makeover of their eating habits, realizing that they just feel better when they don't eat gluten.

Gluten and gluten-contaminated products are everywhere. And, often, they are in the foods we love the most. Bread, pasta, and cake are the most obvious culprits. But what about the wheat in soy sauce (used in the fermentation process), creamed soups (in the roux), or cola (via the caramel color)? Or malt vinegar, barley, rye, oats, triticale, and beer? Gluten hides in the most unexpected places.

Now imagine if you are gluten intolerant AND vegan. As I mentioned in a previous post, just because a vegan has to or chooses to avoid gluten, his or her ethical stance about animal products doesn't change. So, the elimination of gluten gets added to the vegan lifestyle. Luckily, awareness about gluten intolerance is becoming more prominent, making it easier for everyone to find food that works for them. Mainstream grocery stores like Safeway are tagging their gluten-free items. More and more exclusively vegan companies, like Eat Pastry are offering gluten-free products. Churches are even offering gluten-free wafers for communion. Allyson Kramer of Manifest Vegan transformed her vegan food blog to a gluten-free vegan food blog when she was diagnosed with celiac disease in 2009. And a recently launched blog called xgfx offers up animal-friendly, gluten-free recipes and resources because "While there are plenty of great resources out there for vegans, and many for the gluten-free crowd, there seem to be very few for folks like us who dwell in both camps." So, it’s easier than ever to find recipes and products that are safe and restaurants that are sensitive to the topic. But it's still rare enough that a little advice doesn't hurt.

In the Bay Area, several restaurants offer gluten-free vegan options that are definitely worth checking out. If you have celiac disease, or are severely gluten intolerant, I recommend calling ahead to see what practices they have in place in their kitchens to avoid contamination.

Photo Credit: Gracias Madre

Most of Gracias Madre's menu is gluten-free. There are only a few items that aren’t. I recommend… everything! But The Papas al Horno, Quesadillas de Camote, Enchiladas con Mole, Platillo de Legumbres, and whatever cheesecake they have at the moment should be the first things you try. Can you tell this is my favorite restaurant?

Souley Vegan's Fried Okra, Yams, Mustard Greens, Potato Salad, and Cayenne Lemonade

Souley Vegan is your destination for comforting, healthy, simple soul food in a truly caring and down-to-earth environment. You can tell that owner Tamearra Dyson built this restaurant out of love and it's become a destination for home cooking for the community surrounding it, vegan or not. Souley Vegan labels the items on the menu that contain wheat. My recommendations are the crispy and light fried okra, the simple and tender yams, and the mustard greens. And make sure to grab a cayenne lemonade to sip on!

Cafe Gratitude's "I Am Thriving" creamy tomato soup, "I Am Hearty" deep-dish pizza, "I Am Fortified" quinoa bowl, and "I Am Awakening" raw key lime pie

Café Gratitude recently went through a menu change (they are not exclusively raw anymore and have expanded to include cooked items). They've also lowered their prices by 24% in response to the rising cost of food and healthcare. They even offer a community-supported "I am Grateful" grain bowl where payment for the bowl is by donation ($7 recommended) and no one is turned away. The bowl was created "to allow for those in financial need to have access to organic vegan food." You don't see many restaurants offering that kind of service to their community.

They also happen to offer great gluten-free options -- as in pretty much the entire menu. Live mac and cheese, maple coconut "bacon" BLTs, and raw deep dish pizza. The creativity at Gratitude never ceases to amaze me. Important tip: make sure to eat dessert there (key lime pie highly recommended).

Source's Dan Dan Noodles, Truffle Macaroni & Cheese, and Baked Vegan Spinach Artichoke Fondue

Source is one of the most health-conscious, allergy-conscious, vegan-conscious places I have ever experienced. The staff is beyond kind and patient as you ask them over and over your usual "does this have...?" questions. Their cashew-cheese-based mac and cheese is gluten-free (if you ask for no breadcrumbs) and insanely yummy with truffle oil and a red pepper sauce drizzle. The gorgeous Dan Dan noodles are creamy and satisfying in an almond sweet soy sauce. And ask for live chips to go with an order of the Baked Vegan Spinach Artichoke Fondue to make it gluten-free. You won’t be disappointed.

VIK's Mix Vegetable Pakoras, Idli, and Masala Dosa.

I love VIK's. It's one of my favorite destinations on the weekend. Take the pup to Point Isabel, then pick up some Indian chaat and reminisce about my trip to Mumbai and Goa a few years back when I was too afraid to try anything served on the street. What’s great is that they recently started labeling their online menu with symbols for what's vegan and gluten-free, and luckily they have several items that are both—namely the Mix Vegetable Pakoras, Vegetable or Masala Dosa, Uttapam, and the Idli.

Here are a few additional places to check out:

• The Buddha Girl Roll at Sushirrito is gluten-free and vegan and has a delectable combination of Hodo Soy Spicy Tofu Strips, roasted garnet yams, shiitake mushroom, shaved cabbage, avocado, green onions, and crumbled rice chips.
• Vegan restaurant chain, Loving Hut, is happy to accommodate gluten-free guests. My fave is the Spicy Royal Noodle Soup at Westfield Centre. Just ask for gluten-free and they adjust the order for you.
• Gather in Berkeley clearly marks their menu for gluten-free and vegan options, and urges guests to notify servers of any dietary restrictions so that they can be accommodated. Some of the gluten-free/vegan options currently include yuba "pappardelle" in a mushroom "Bolognese" sauce; a young carrot plate with hen of the woods mushrooms, hay-carrot top pesto, fava beans, dehydrated kale, charred peel, and espelette peppers; and their famous vegan "charcuterie."
• Vegetarian (and super vegan-friendly) restaurant Ubuntu in Napa (named the #2 best new restaurant in the country by New York Times when it opened in 2008) has a lot of gluten-sensitive guests so they happily offer many options.
• Millennium is a great destination for gluten-free vegan eating. The restaurant even held a Gluten-Free Winemaker Dinner back in March. A must-eat is their plate of Crusted Oyster Mushrooms (with chickpea flour & thyme dredge, radish salad with ginger aioli, and grapefruit-habanero chile jam).
• Shangri-La Vegan in Oakland offers some of the cleanest food you can imagine. They post their menu daily on their website and most of the time the entire menu is gluten-free. With a Macrobiotic/Tibetan/Buddhist/100% organic menu (at very affordable prices), you will leave satisfied, light, and guilt-free.


Shangri-La Vegan moderate meal. Photo Credit: Wendy Goodfriend

Jen Biesty. Photo by Tamara Palmer

In our continuing quest to learn more vital yet elusive tips on how to best select produce for flavor and longevity, we turned to chef Jen Biesty of Scala’s Bistro inside San Francisco’s Sir Francis Drake Hotel. When we arrived at her busy kitchen one afternoon, she had set out a platter of beautiful dark red fruit. Even though it’s February and well past stone fruit season, we found ourselves asking if she had somehow managed to pick some plums for us.

Jen Biesty holding an Arkansas Black apple. Photo by Tamara Palmer

“They’re Arkansas Black apples!” replied the Top Chef alum. “I love these, they remind me of the apples in Snow White.

“You want an apple that’s firm, with a nice color,” she advised. “They all look a little bit different and they’re not just homogenized. If you can see the pollen or dirt from the tree then you know it is really fresh and just picked within a week or a few days.”

Meat is traditionally thought of when pairing apples with a protein, but Biesty has found that they go great with fish as well; she likes to shave them raw into a salad with chestnut and parsley, an accompaniment for sea bass. She picks the Arkansas Black apples in particular up at the Alemany Farmers Market in San Francisco from Chimayo Farms.

Eric Tucker holding a Chanterelle mushroom. Photo by Tamara Palmer

Chef Eric Tucker of Millennium Restaurant, a venerable temple to creative vegetarian cooking in San Francisco, was kind enough to let us tag along with him on a Saturday morning visit to the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, where he was leading a small group who had signed up for a beer-themed cooking class in honor of the conclusion of SF Beer Week. No matter the theme of a particular course, Tucker will meet students the day before to wander the market and decide on some ideas and direction for the next day’s session, a hands-on class that includes sitting down to a family-style meal.

He first led the class to Far West Fungi, which has a permanent stall inside the building. Tucker snapped up some beautiful black trumpets, chanterelles, and maitakes. Mushrooms are a staple at Millennium for their earthy, meaty qualities, whether it’s a sauce of black trumpets in a red wine reduction or oyster mushrooms simply fried. Tucker’s advice for selecting shrooms focuses on what you should avoid, which is just as valuable to know as what to pick.

“I’m leery of mushrooms that look too waterlogged or dark. Those you have to dry or use very quickly,” he said. “If you’re buying portabellas and the gills are really present and the caps are really open, you need to use those quicker than ones with tighter caps, which will have more life.”

“Or look at these,” he noted, pointing to some mostly beige Lion’s Mane mushrooms. “When they start to turn red, I associate that with some possible bacterial growth or breakdown.”

Sunchokes. Photo by Tamara Palmer

We ducked outside in the pouring rain to the Tierra Vegetables stand. Tucker started rifling through what we first thought were oversized knots of ginger root, but were actually sunchokes.

“You want the ones that are not caked in dirt, because they’re hard to clean and peel,” he explained, “And you want the larger ones.” While many like to work with raw sunchokes (shaving them thinly for a salad, for example), Tucker likes to slow bake them with white wine, olive oil, and herbs, the combination making a sort of guilt-free confit.

Golden Nuggets. Photo by Tamara Palmer

We finished at the Blossom Bluff Orchards stand, where some weird, nubbly looking mandarin oranges were about to be the subject of Tucker’s excitement.

“These are great for the zest!” he exclaimed of the variety, called Golden Nuggets. He likes to use them in savory applications, and for his beer class imagined they’d pair well with the bitterness of the hops in the different beer varieties. These can be a little difficult to pick. If they’re nubbier and heavier, they’ve got more juice, but they’ve also got thicker and more developed cell walls, so there’s a bit of a tradeoff when it comes to the insides.

Aaron London. Photo courtesy of Ubuntu

It’s still a good time of year for carrots, and chef Aaron London of Napa’s notable vegetarian restaurant Ubuntu has some valuable advice and a colorful, flavorful recipe to share. No matter what color or size your carrots are, he notes that the pigmentation should be deep and plush. Look for strong, rigid stems and leaves with some sheen to them that blossom out and don’t lay flat.

Carrots. Photo by Tamara Palmer

“If you’re at a Farmers' Market,” London says, “dirt is a good thing to see on a carrot. If it has dirt on it and any moisture, it will degrade and diminish very rapidly, meaning that if you see a soil covered carrot with all of the above attributes, then you’re really looking good because it must be super fresh. I know this sounds redundant, but it should smell like a carrot. Take that in mind and try hard to find a carrot that actually smells like one, and you will have found a winner.”

Tender White Satin and Crisp Purple Haze Carrot Salad With Strawberry Spinach, Raspberries, and Crushed Herb Vinaigrette

By Chef Aaron London, Ubuntu Restaurant

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

2 large carrots, peeled and sliced thin
Peel of 1/4 of an orange
1/4 onion, sliced thinly
2 oranges
1 Tbs. sugar
Mixed color baby carrots, carrot tops reserved for cooking and for garnish
1/2 pint raspberries
1 qt. picked greens, such as arugula, chervil, celery leaf, and mint
1 cup grapeseed oil
2 Tbs. crushed toasted hazelnuts
1 big handful of baby spinach
3 cloves crushed garlic
1 sprig rosemary
Salt
1Tbs. sugar
Edible flowers, or garnish of choice

For the carrot puree:

Sweat the onion, sliced large carrot, and orange peel in a little grapeseed oil with salt in a heavy bottomed pot until very tender. Add 1 pint of water and reduce it by half.

Place the carrots into a blender and blend on high until smooth and the mixture blends easily. At the end, drizzle in a thin stream of 1tsp. of oil to emulsify it and make it creamy and fluffy. Reserve puree.

For the tender carrots:

Wash the carrots and tops very well. Clean the tops off of all the baby carrots, and reserve some of the smaller leaves on the herb in ice water for garnish. Place the rest of the tops in the bottom of a roasting pan.

Lay 2/3 of the carrots on the carrot tops in 1-2 even layers, followed by the garlic, whole sprig rosemary, peel and juice of 1 orange, the sugar, enough water to cover and a pinch of salt. Cover with tin foil and cook until tender, about an hour, at 350. Once they are done, let them rest in their liquid until it is time to plate.

For the crisp carrots:

Take the remaining carrots and cut them into interesting shapes as well as shave on a mandolin. Place the carrots them directly into ice water so they crisp up and tork (twist into natural shapes).

For the vinaigrette:

Place the grapeseed oil in the freezer for 30 minutes before you need to use it. Blanch and shock the quart of “rabbit greens” (greens of choice as listed above) and place them in the blender with the oil and spin until smooth. Chill immediately.

Place the raspberries into a mixing bowl and lightly fork crush them with the micro-planed zest of 1 orange, a pinch of salt and a twist of pepper. Add in the hazelnuts and ½ cup of the green oil and let marinate for half an hour.

To finish:

Spread the carrot puree nice and wide on the bottom of 6 plates or wide bowls. The puree should be just above room temperature. Pull the tender carrots out of their cooking liquid and toss them in a bowl with the juice of one orange and a spoonful of the green oil and place them artfully into the puree.

Drain all of the water off of the raw carrots and toss them in a bowl with some of the green oil and a pinch of salt and dance them though the tender carrots, building as much height as possible.

Spoon the chunky vinaigrette evenly over all of the dishes, making sure to stir it often in order to insure even dispersion. To finish each dish, toss whatever spinaches and other garnishes with the lightest drop of oil, a pinch of salt and weave the leaves and edible flowers throughout the plates so it looks like their growing out.

Hickox in NYC at Food & Wine Magazine’s pop up restaurant in September 2009

Pastry chef Deanie Hickox is known to Northern California diners for her work at Manresa, Ubuntu, Rubicon and her current post, Coi. This year, Hickox received a semi-finalist nomination for the coveted James Beard 2010 Outstanding Pastry Chef award. She worked with Jeremy Fox at Ubuntu and Manresa. The two were married but parted ways after Ubuntu. Her Beard nomination was for her work at Ubuntu in Napa. She is a grad of the San Francisco California Culinary Academy pastry program, and was a 2008 San Francisco Chronicle Rising Star Chef, a 2008 Best Pastry Chef and a 2009 Napa Sonoma Rising Star Pastry Chef.

Hickox's picks cover Santa Cruz, Sonoma, and Napa, with some good finds in between. Her comments have been edited for length.

THE CHEF CONNECTION
I have to admit I am biased when it comes to where I like to eat on my days off. I really enjoy eating at places where my friends are the chefs. I'm fortunate enough to know some really talented people so I eat very well! Commis and Aziza definitely top the list. And two of the best meals I had this year were at Cellar Door at Bonny Doon in Santa Cruz where my old friend, Charlie Parker, was the chef. He'll be moving on to Plum in Oakland soon so I'm really looking forward to eating there once he's settled."

One of the restaurants I'm most excited about hasn't even opened yet...Plate Shop in Sausalito. Kim Alter is a rock-star... she's definitely one to watch and I can't wait to see all her hard work pay off.

IT WAS SO GOOD…
Some random favorites: Gochi is an Izakaya-style restaurant located in a non-descript strip mall in Cupertino. I love their potato gratin with cod roe and the clay pot rice dishes...it has a pretty extensive menu so it's a great place to go with a large group and sample a bit of everything.

I'm still dreaming about a lardo pizza I had a couple of weeks ago at Oenotri in downtown Napa. It was so good I ate one and then immediately ordered another.

HAPPY HOUR
Favorite local drinking spot would be 15 Romolo in North Beach. It's a few blocks from work so it's an ideal place to start the weekend...and I have a little bit of a crush on the chicken wings and the Pimm's Cup with tequila.

MOM & POP SPOTS
I am currently obsessed with the Fremont Diner in Sonoma. I have to go there ever time I return to Napa. It's the kind of incredibly charming roadside, country spot that is really hard to come by these days. The food is exactly what I want to eat on my days off...non-fussy, comforting dishes made with great ingredients and care. I could wax poetic about the biscuits with ham, homemade jam and mustard. Or the chicken & waffles. And the mac & cheese. Not to mention the milkshakes served in Mason jars. I haven't tried the caramel cake or the fried pies, but they look amazing so they are definitely next on my list.

I currently live in Campbell so I have a few favorite places in the South Bay. I'm a big fan of Falafel's Drive In, which has been owned and operated by the same family in San Jose since 1966. The large falafel sandwich with a banana milkshake is my go-to cheap eat.

I think one of the best-kept secrets in the Bay Area is Stan's Donut Shop in Santa Clara. It's been around forever--possibly since the 50s--and hasn't changed one bit or lost its old-school vibe. They are ridiculously busy so the doughnuts are always fresh and still warm ever time I get one. I swear I haven't had a better doughnut anywhere in the entire country.

GUILTY PLEASURE

"My guiltiest local food pleasure would definitely be the glazed doughnuts from Stan's. I rarely crave or eat sweets, but this is something I never say no to."

"Have you tried the lamb brains?"

Well, it was just that sort of party. The lamb brains, so I was told, were simply smashing--like meaty custard, in the best possible way.

But the lamb brains weren't the half of it. The outdoor tables at last weekend's first Primal Napa event were a head-to-tail, guts-and-all celebration of going deep with meat. There were the strips of grilled beef heart, for starters, and a whole roasted Musquee de Provence squash stuffed with chunks of pork liver. Then slim slices of headcheese, unctuous slathers of nduja, much salume, even entire smoke-blackened lambs' heads, complete with jutting teeth and curled, fibrous tongues. "Yeah, just gnaw right on the jawbone," advised one chef-jacketed guy behind the table.

The setting was appropriately rustic, outside on a beautiful autumn afternoon, under the trees and up against the vines at the Chase Cellars' Hayne vineyard in Napa, with hay bales scattered and, for Napa, quite a young and stylish crowd. There was definitely money here, cool money with BMWs parked in the grass, strolling over for scoops of lamb brains and chunks of rare goat right off the bone.

Back in the hot zone, surrounded by smoking coals, piles of logs and a whole Mediterranean coastline of fresh rosemary branches was Mr. Meat himself, Incanto and Boccalone's Chris Cosentino, jogging from fire to fire in his flaming orange t-shirt emblazoned "USDA Choice," his voice worn to a rasp. In fact, all the cooks seemed to be having a swell time, getting sweaty and grimy surrounded by fire and meat.

Mopping harissa marinade over a long spitted row of feet-on chickens, nuzzling a flat of eggs into a pillow of hot ash, angling an entire spread-eagled goat (furry hooves intact) over a pile of flaming coals: the concept may have been based in subsistence cooking, but the style was deep in the smoky flair that only flambeing can bring.

The mood was definitely gleeful--meat does that to people--and in a funny way, honest. There was no getting away from the fact that eating here meant eating something that once had a face, because that face, or at least the edible bits of it--the tongue, the cheeks, even the eyeballs--were probably right there on the table next to the legs or ribs or tenderloin. And the animals had a pedigree: ask any cook, and they could tell you where the meat they were roasting came from, who raised it and how.

Elbowing up to the platter of slow-cooked pork Hudson Ranch pork belly (divine), one could eavesdrop on any number of serious discussions about heritage pig breeding. Get distracted for a few moments by the leather-and-chocolate Pinots from Hirsch Vineyards, and the roasted goat legs would be all but picked clean, although a few succulent morsels could always be chiseled off and shared by the kind woman wielding a chef's knife on the other side of the table. This wasn't down-home (the highlights and sunglasses on display were much too expensive for that) but there weren't any waiters or coddling, either. In fact, you had to do a little begging just to score a little paper plate and skimpy napkin. Some of the meat was in bite-sized slices; some was simply hacked up and plattered, letting the hungry pull through the shreds and fat with eager hands and plastic forks. We cooked it, the attitude seemed to be. You figure it out.

Up front were hands-on displays of rock-star butchering (a cross-coast trend recently chronicled in the New York Times under the headline Slaughterhouse Live) with Fatted Calf founder Taylor Boetticher whipping through a beef forequarter with deft strokes and cool aplomb. Neatly wiggling out the ball of a shoulder, he pointed out that this particular breakdown didn't require too much finesse, since all the meat was destined for sliders, a rough grind of aged meat and creamy fat made into mini-burgers for the hungry hordes. (Too true: with all the variety meats on display, the table handing out hot dogs and burgers was the one with the surging six-deep, hands-out crowd, right from the moment the patties hit the grill.)

Not surprisingly, the list of participants read like a who's who of current carnivorishness: Fatted Calf, 4505 Meats, Boccalone, Avedano's, Perbacco, Star Meats...and Ubuntu? Wait, that Ubuntu, Napa's famous yoga-studio/vegetarian restaurant, the place my vegan cousin and his new bride had a nearly religious experience over the cauliflower three ways? Thankfully, Ubuntu chef Jeremy Fox (not himself a vegetarian) joined the party to show that open fire-cooking can do wonderful things to vegetables, too. There were terra cotta pots brimming with Rancho Gordo beans in spicy broth, slippery whole roasted torpedo onions, and more.

As the sun slipped away and the strings of white lights lit up across the wine-pouring booths, the heavy hitters came out, finally ready after their hours in the hot zone, staked and salted, roasted and smoky. It was primal, and it was delicious.

Sorry, Mr. Foer. You may not eat it any more, but you know how good it can be.

Photos by Stacy Cahill

At gala events you expect to see top chefs preparing bite-sized nibbles for guests. But at StarChefs events working chefs are not just preparing the food, they are the ones being celebrated. StarChefs is all about the chefs of today, and the rising star events are a great way to get a taste of what's hot at the moment.

If you're not a chef, it's possible you've never visited StarChefs. The web site offers recipes, community features, publications and articles that are geared for the restaurant professional. Roughly every other year, they also hold an event in our neck of the woods. For the first time, this year they held a Rising Stars Revue™ in Napa and toasted the up and coming chefs of Napa and Sonoma at the historic Charles Krug winery in St. Helena.

Fifteen chefs, sommeliers and a mixologist were honored with food, wine and prizes to boot. Interestingly there were several husband and wife teams, one of whom had to close their restaurant in order to attend. Some favorite dishes from the evening were:

Ubuntu Fregola in Caramelized Vegetable Juices with Salsa Maro from Jeremy Fox of Ubuntu

Poached Poussin with Summer Vegetables from Christopher Kostow of The Restaurant At Meadowood

Ricotta Gnocchi, Salsa di Pomodoro della Nonna and Pecorino from Nick Ritchie of Bottega

Chicken Fried Sweetbreads with Green Bean and Mushroom Casserole from Matt Spector of Jolē

Sauteed Maryland Wild Striped Bass, Ragout of Salsify, Black Trumpet Mushrooms, Bloomsdale Spinach and Spinach Vin Blanc from Restaurateur Award winner John Toulze the girl & the fig, fig café, Estate

Lemon Verbena Parfait with Summer Stone Fruit from Pastry Chef Deanie Hickox-Fox of Ubuntu

Long Ranch Goat Two Ways: Grilled and Braised with Rancho Gordo Beans and Salsa Verde from Host Chef Richard Haake of Winery Chefs

At the event guests got a chance to vote for their favorite dish. I had a hard time choosing between intensely herbal and fragrant fregola dish and the delicate yet crisp striped bass but in the end, the winner was Matt Spector and his decadent sweetbread dish. Looking at the recipes that were in the program, it's clear why we love eating out. With complicated techniques, multiple preparations and long ingredient lists, these were not dishes you would likely make at home!

One of the most beautiful dishes was this plated dessert from Deanie Hickox-Fox. Basically an unconstructed tart, it featured a bit of crunchy crust, sweet apricot with lemon verbena cream accented with a fruit puree, and garnished with edible flowers and a thin wafer cookie.

To make at home, I'd recommend the cocktail presented by Scott Beattie, the Bella Ruffina, a pretty rose colored cocktail perfect for warm Summer days or nights...

Bella Ruffina
4 ounces Braquetto di Aqui
1 ounce Carpano Antico Vermouth
1 dash orange bitters
1 Amarena cherry, for garnish

Combine the sparkling wine, vermouth and bitters in a champagne flute and stir gently. Drop the cherry in the bottom of the glass to serve.

Recipe reprinted from Artisanal Cocktails by Scott Beattie, published by Tenspeed.

After the bug arrives, I'm fully expecting a dining-out lockdown for awhile. We'll be tired, anxious, and way more comfortable staying at home and noshing on take-out or leftovers than juggling a new baby and a menu. I know others will say that it's the best time to go out, but for me personally? Not so much.

We're not major restaurant rovers anyway, so it's not a huge sacrifice. However, I have been musing over a list of "last ditch dines" for us. Some are brand new and potential favorites-to-be, others are old friends.

Realistically, I don't know how many we'll get to but it's always good to have goals, especially ones as tasty as these, so here you go, 12 Bay Area restaurants we want to hit before our late-June due date.

1. Contigo: Friend and fellow food blogger Brett Emerson opened his anxiously-anticipated Spanish/Catalan restaurant a few months ago. Unfortunately, while the press and other friends have already been lucky enough to partake and swoon over his pork belly bocadillo and homemade potato chips, I haven't made it to the table.

2. Ubuntu: I was already jonesing to try out the Napa restaurant that celebrates the purest flavors of vegetables, but after meeting pastry chef Deanie at a mutual friends' wedding, I was even more excited to make reservations. Among everything else on their menu, the cast-iron cauliflower and anything they think to do with artichokes beckons.

3. Duarte's Tavern: Speaking of artichokes, I've heard that Duarte's is the aritchoke lover's idea of heaven. I've already sampled their ollalieberry pie (purchased from The Milk Pail) and was seduced by a berry I had never tasted before in my life, so things can only go up with a visit to Pescadero and a calamari steak sandwich. Plus, this artichoke lover has to get to heaven somehow. Bonus: "Pescadero" never fails to make me think of Pinky Tuscadero and Happy Days.

4. Lavanda (old favorite): Well, technically we've only been here once for lunch and it was a few years ago, but we were really impressed by the menu. It's pricey, so it would normally be on our "special occasion" list, but I'm keeping it on this pre-baby list. Since we last visited, they've made a bigger deal about their organic and local provisions, and I'm looking forward to trying: grilled skirt steak with Salinas asparagus and spring garlic butter, stuffed risotto fritters, and potato gnocchi with black chanterelles, Hen of the Wood mushrooms, and nepitella.

5. Bar Jules (old favorite): Hands-down, Bar Jules is my favorite lunch spot in San Francisco. The atmosphere is so sunny and chill, it's the perfect place to meet girlfriends for a good, nourishing gabfest. However, their dinners are nothing to sneeze at, either. I especially love their flank steak and la quercia prosciutto with long cooked favas on toast and pecorino sardo.

6. Delfina (old favorite): Since my mother-in-law will be in town, we already have reservations for Mother's Day here, so I am this close to my stomach checking off Delfina's homemade pasta and grilled calamari with impossibly tiny warm beans.

7. SPQR (old favorite): Last time I was here, I was still in the nauseous stage of my pregnancy and couldn't enjoy my fried Brussels sprouts, cacio e pepe, and fried chicken to the fullest. That's a travesty that MUST be corrected! Also, a new travesty that must be avoided: not tasting their griddled Heritage pork spareribs with rosemary and fennel. I do think "griddled" is one of the most sumptuous words in the English language.

8. Flea Street Cafe: Sadly, Jesse Ziff Cool's other Menlo Park establishment -- JZ Cool Eatery -- recently closed in order to open a new place in East Menlo Park, but luckily Cool Cafe at the Stanford Museum and Flea Street Cafe are both still open. I've done Cool Cafe quite a few times and love their sandwiches, but I'm hankering to do a local, seasonal sit-down dinner at Flea Street very soon.

9. Martin's West Pub: It's a new upscale pub from Michael Dotson and it's coming to Redwood City in May. With items on the menu like Scotch Eggs, peat-smoked fries, and nettle-crowdie ravioli with brown butter consommé, morels, and spring onions, things are definitely looking up in suburbia. Oh, and the fact that they also have my favorite pub grub ever in the form of Ploughman's lunch means they were put on this earth for the sole purpose of feeding me.

10. Humphrey Slocombe: I've been scarfing down my pregnancy pounds in the form of all sorts of ice cream -- Haagen-Dazs Five, Foster's Freeze dipped cones, Blizzards -- so I think it's only fair I give this new place a whirl. If not just to roll my tongue over their oft-Tweeted bourbon-cornflake flavor, then to give major pocket props to fellow Are You Being Served? fans.

11. Piccino (old favorite): My husband has been an angel to scoot up to Piccino from the Peninsula whenever I've had a craving for their pizza, and when we met Mr. and Mrs. Piccino at a friend's dinner party, we made no secret of what fanatics we are for their pizzas. They told me I definitely had come up and eat with them when I was close to delivery. Apparently, their constantly changing pizzas have been known to send women into labor.

12. Pasta Moon (old favorite): Every time we go, I swear I'm going to try something new, and every time we go I don't try something new. I simply cannot resist their butternut squash and mascarpone ravioli with brown butter sage and Amaretti. However, because my husband is more enterprising, I know that their pizzas are awesome, their seasonal fritto misto is outstanding (especially when they include thin slices of Meyer lemons), and their Wild Mushroom Ragú with polenta, Marsala, and Parmigiano-Reggiano is totally bathable.