March 8

Recipe: Vegetarian Cassoulet It's a beautiful springy day in Davis today—65, sunny, fresh breeze. It makes me feel like I'm in the French countryside so I pulled out my heavy French pot and adapted this classic French meat and bean stew for vegetarians and vegans....

March 8

Nagato Sukiyaki Turns 40 We had a cozy dinner last night at Nagato Sukiyaki, a small, friendly family-run Japanese restaurant tucked in a strip mall off Fulton Boulevard. While plowing through our bowl of edamame, we discovered that Nagato is celebrating its 40th year of...

March 5

Upcoming Local Farm Tour If you have a special place in your heart for local family farmers, embrace the opportunity to hop on a tour bus with folks attending the annual Californians for Pesticide Reform Conference on March 19th. A special field trip will offer...

March 4

Real Pie Company Makes a Comeback When local baker Kira O’Donnell closed her Real Pie Company in early 2008, she left a lot of disappointed pie lovers in the lurch. Well, she’s back. O’Donnell (who writes about food for Sacramento magazine) is now making and...

March 3

Time to Pull Out Your Shortbread Recipes Bakers, prepare to tie on your aprons and pull out the butter. On April 24th you’ll have an opportunity to show off your favorite shortbread recipe (you have one, don’t you?) at the Sacramento Valley Scottish Games and Festival in...

March 3

Citrus Heights To Get Region's First Smashburger Smashburger, a Denver-based burger chain, plans to open its first California store March 31 in Citrus Heights. It’s the first of five Smashburgers scheduled to open in Sacramento in the next two years. Smashburger, which calls itself a...

March 2

There's a New Cheese in Town Locals who forgo dairy and gluten in their diets are all abuzz about a new product that just arrived in Sacramento: Daiya is a vegan cheese that claims to taste, shred, melt and stretch just like dairy-based cheeses yet contains no dairy, whey...

February 2010

Make It: Slow-Cooked Pulled Pork 5 pounds pork shoulder, cut into 2-inch cubes 4 10-ounce cans diced tomatoes 1/2 cup tomato paste 1 red onion, sliced 2 bottles dark beer 4 cloves garlic 2 tablespoons barbecue seasoning Salt and pepper to taste Place all the ingredients into a...

February 2010

Review: Shabu Japanese Fondue I’ve always had mixed feelings about restaurants where you cook your own meal. While it can be entertaining, the experience often is not easy or particularly fun. So it was with some trepidation that I visited Shabu Japanese Fondue, which...

February 2010

Fear of Frying? Not Here Sacramento isn’t known as a trendsetting food city. But by the time the foodie website Epicurious.com called fried chicken one of 2010’s top food trends, we were already there.      We’re not sure who got the...

February 2010

Ask Sac Mag Leave the electronic games at home, suggests Mario Ortiz, general manager of The Firehouse Restaurant in Old Sac. “The screens are now so bright and big that it can really distract other diners,” he says. Not all kids are enthralled...

February 2010

On Wine: Four Questions for Marcus Graziano At Capitol Cellars, his Roseville wine shop, Marcus Graziano turns customers on to great wines. (A second location, in Granite Bay, is scheduled to open in May.) We recently chatted with him about his profession and his passion. Have you seen a...

February 2010

A Sip of Old Ireland If hitting the rowdy pub scene for a pint of green beer in a plastic cup isn’t your idea of a pleasurable way to spend St. Paddy’s Day, you’re in luck. There are plenty of local places to get your Irish on without feeling like...

February 2010

Old Doggie Bag, New Tricks Recently during a girls night out at a local restaurant, a friend I’ll call “B” asked for “a little itty-bitty to-go container.” The server looked puzzled, and so was I: All of our plates had already been collected....

February 2010

Dining Divas: Matteo’s Pizza & Bistro Guests : Marilyn Park, wardrobe consultant for Doncaster; her daughter and business partner, Cathy Taylor; Sue Scotland, a Sacramento Children’s Home volunteer; her husband, Art Scotland, presiding justice for the California Court of...