On Friday when I wrote about the success of the food truck talks I said that I had always had a dream that Sacramento could be an example for other cities. But I guess my statement might have been misleading. My happiness of the day was for the fact that we came to a compromise that makes things better than the silly 30 minute rule we have now. The new ordinances are far from being glorious examples for everywhere. I understand the need for a government to have ordinances, but still...

First off, there's still the distance rule from restaurants. I am a firm believer that - if your restaurant can't compete against a food truck, you shouldn't be in business. Seriously, if a restaurant's food and service isn't enough to keep the customers coming in, they need to reassess themselves and stop blaming a nearby food truck. 

I still argue that there are the customers who are in the mood for sitting down being served, drinking alcohol, and lounging with friends. They are different than the customer who hasn't got a lot of time or money to spend and wants to grab something from a truck. Sure a person can be both, but on any given day they are one or the other.

I think a private property owner should be able to have a truck park on their property and see no reason for there to be a "no return rule for 72 hours" except that it was a compromise with the restaurant/business owners.

What I am super excited about is the pilot of up to five food pods. There's already a property picked with so many possibilities. The plans call for something that, done properly, could create a pod that can be an example for other cities. More on that at a later date.

Cities throughout California and the country struggle with food truck ordinances. Every day there are news articles on this city or that talking about them. Restaurant owners complain in every city or town.  In California, there have been lawsuits because State law actually trumps local law so that, in reality, cities have no right to make ordinances for anything except for health and safety. Cities have already lost battles in court because there are no health and safety reasons for distance from a restaurant.

But Cities don't like lawsuits and trucks (and the public) want change sooner rather than later. That means compromise.  Compromise means that not everyone is happy and got what they wanted, but they can live with a deal. Friday's ordinance deal will be reviewed at certain marks in the future. Things can always change. 

So to be clear, the new Sacramento ordinances aren't perfect and aren't shining examples for the State or country, but they are better than what we have now.

When I started writing about the food truck industry/trend two years ago I had a silly dream. That, starting with a blank slate and using bits and pieces of ordinances from other cities, Sacramento could piece together the best set of ordinances in the State. As the Capitol, that we could be an example for other cities to look at in this nationwide struggle of food trucks, restaurants, and Cities across the nation.

Six months ago I would have told you it was never going to happen. That all sides were at a stalemate and nothing was getting accomplished. Every meeting that we had, the same arguments were being hashed out again and again. I think a big turning point was when discussions started to take place with Councilmen Shenirer and Fong getting involved. And, although some may not agree, I personally think part of it did have to do with the break off of the NorCal (now CalMFA) trucks from SactoMoFo.

God willing and fingers crossed, we will have some great, new ordinances in place this fall. Today we left a City meeting in record time - just over an hour. All sides were happy. I even hugged Randy Paragary and told him that I was happy that I could stop my personal boycott of his restaurants. I say fingers crossed because it's not legit yet. We still have to formally go to the City's Law & Legislation Committee and then on to the full City Council. The timelime looks to be Law & Leg on September 18th and then Council a few weeks after that.

I will provide a quick summation of what was agreed upon. This does not include lots of detail items that will be built into the language.

Currently the situation is that trucks can only be at a street location for 30 minutes at a time. They have not been allowed on private property at all - even if the owner gave the O.K.

The City has been split into zones. There is a long swath through the Grid of J, K, and L streets.  In that zone they can stay 1.5 hours and must be 400 feet from another restaurant. The rest of the Grid and City is 2.5 hours on the street, with distance differences per zone.

Regarding private property, they can now go (with owners permission) for 5 hours total and no truck can return to that location for 72 hours. If there is a special event, there can be waivers.

Here's the one I have been championing since the beginning - food pods! There will be a pilot of up to 5 food pods throughout the City. For those unfamiliar, it's like a food court for trucks. A private property is built up with amenities such as seating, ATM, bathrooms, wifi, etc. Trucks can safely park there for a shift or all day. They become happening, hip places to hang out. Such pods are popular in Portland and Austin where they have been shown to decrease crime and increase property values. (To see pictures of the SF SOMA Streatfood Pod, click the link.)
My piece, "Mobile Food Pods Revitalize Neighborhoods" here.

The Sacramento food pods must be run by an Association. That's an important reason why the CalMFA was formed. Association(s) will be in charge of scheduling and maintaining the pods.

All of these items and ordinances will be reviewed at a six month and one year mark.

Perhaps my dream is coming true! Especially when you see the first food pod being developed. Maybe my dream of being a model for the State can be extended to be a model for the nation. Wouldn't that be nice?

Please read part 2: More Thoughts on Food Truck Ordinances

The Foodspotting Eatup gauntlet was thrown in Sacramento recently. The July Eatup was held at The Eatery in West Sacramento and the lucky Foodspotters who attended had no idea they were about to be treated so well! Chef Jess Milbourn had decided to test new menu items and served five well received dishes.

Harissa Bacon Caramel Corn

Peanut Butter Habanero Wings

Beer Battered Housemade Chicken Sausage Bites

Slow Smoked BBQ Pork Shoulder

Smoked Bacon and Vegetable Raviolis

It was still technically winter last month when we visited Heat Shabu Baru off Broadway. Apropos for eating a shabu-shabu dinner, apparently, as it is considered a winter dish in Japan.

Shabu-shabu is not a traditional Japanese dish as it was only introduced to Japan in the last century. Yes, the Japanese had a similar hot pot dish known as sukiyaki. Both sukiyaki and shabu-shabu have hot broths in pots where you cook thin slices of meats and vegetables. The difference is in the broths and in that with sukiyaki you take the cooked meat and then dip it into raw egg, which instantly cooks a thin coating on the meat. 

Heat Shabu Baru is the second shabu-shabu restaurant in Sacramento. It took over an easily missed spot vacated by a Burmese restaurant. The layout of the space is basically the same, although the furnishing are more contemporary and less Asian. Tables have electric burners in the center to heat the required hot pots.

I was here with a group of people as we gave Grubwithus.com another try. Grubwithus arranges family style meals with the restaurants and so we already knew what was in store for us. Almost all of my companions were new to shabu-shabu and looking forward to a new experience.

If I say "Chevys", what comes to mind? What memories? When was the last time you were there? I remember that in the late 80s Chevys was the place to be if you wanted to party it up with friends and have some great Mexican food. I remember watching the machine make fresh chips to go with their fantastic salsa. But somewhere around 2000 I realized that the only thing I bothered with was the chips and salsa and rarely did I order any food. How about you?

I recently went to a Chevys VIP event as they were introducing, or rather re-introducing, their original concept. The event was to award local, charitable heroes as well as to announce the brand's revamp. Sacramento has been chosen as the pilot market for this overhaul.

Chevys President Brian Wright was in town for this event and he explained the plan during his speech. Chevys was established in 1986 here in Northern California. Since that time the company has been bought and sold a number of times, each time with profitability and money as the motivator. Each new corporate owner would make changes here and there, tinkering with the concept. Somehow Chevys lost its way. Wright decided to sit down with the founders of Chevys, Warren Simmon Sr. and Warren "Scooter" Simmon Jr., to talk to them about its origins. What was the concept in 1986? What made it special and what had changed? So much had changed that the founder said that the current Chevys was unrecognizable to the 80s original. After hours of discussion, Wright came out of the meeting with a goal to go back to those 80s attributes that had made Chevys a hit.

When my normal band of Twitterati foodie friends wanted to go to Red Rabbit for lunch I was a little concerned. I've been trying to eat Paleo for February as a way to analyze my energy levels.  I had nothing to worry about as I had a delightful carnivore lunch.

Red Rabbit takes over the digs of my greatly missed Red Lotus. The red rabbit is in reference to the sculpture at the Sacramento International Airport, but it seems to also be a convenient reason to keep the same interior as Red Lotus. You can't blame them for saving some money. Besides, the interior has always been great in the first place. It's got a large number of booths and tables, a lovely rounded bar that gives ample room to pony up to, and still plenty of space to walk and move around people in your path. They also have a private room and nice back patio.

Our gang arranged ourselves around a table in the floor center and perused the menu. One asked about the daily punch. I guess each day they mix a new cocktail punch and so you never know what it might be. This day it had rum, fresh orange and lime juice, a bitters, and some other things. Apparently the punch had quite a punch to it - or so says my friend.

Paleo means I can only eat meat and veggies, but no dairy, grains, starches (pasta/white potatoes), or sugar. I focused on the meats and selected the Farm Animal Lollipops and the Pork Belly small plates.

lamb, chicken, beef lollipops

The lollipops were a popular choice as almost everyone at our table ordered them. You get three large meatballs, about the size of a golf ball, of lamb, chicken, and beef. This, not surprisingly, led to a flurry of off-color ball jokes including - "These balls are too big for (my) mouth!" I started from what I thought would be the most boring to the most interesting - beef, chicken, lamb. The beef turned out to be my favorite ball, although not the sauce. The beef meatball was full of flavor and had a good fat content to it. It was served with a thick pureed marinara sauce which I found to be rather flat and boring. It needed spice. The chicken was my least favorite. Even though it was wrapped with a strip of bacon to provide added fat and flavor, I found it dull and the beer onion soup aioli it was served with faired no better. Both lacked flavor. The best combination of meatball and sauce was the lamb. There was a nice bit of heat/spice to the lamb and it was served with a mint chimichurri. The chimichurri was rather oily and I really wasn't tasting mint - it seemed more parsley to me. But of the three, the ball/sauce combo worked the best here. Even with these criticisms, which are my personal tastes, I would say it is a nice appetizer that I can see selling very well.


Our main items came out after about a 15-20 minute wait - a bit long for weekday lunch, but luckily I had time to spare. I chose the pork belly that was served with toastettes and a Meyer lemon and caper sauce. My pork belly was a lovely thing! A nice sized piece, it sat amidst a generous ladle of the sauce. I couldn't eat the toastettes, and so I carefully cut my pork belly up into small bits so I could make it last longer. I love lemon/caper sauces and found this one to have the sweet balance of lemony tartness to salty capers. I can see myself ordering this every time I visit Red Rabbit.

short rib patty melt

A couple of people had what also peaked my interest - the Braised Short Rib Patty Melt. Served on ciabatta rolls, the short rib was shredded, saucy, and topped with a good amount of melted cheddar. Jeremy enjoyed his and it was enough to make me put it on my list for a future visit.

Rodney selected the Bastard Banh Mi, which is bastardized by being served on grilled sourdough instead of baguette. This is something I am willing to try because I love banh mi, but Rodney seemed disappointed in it and later wished he had ordered his usual - a burger - after he saw one passing on to another table.


We were thrilled when the owner ended up comping us the brioche doughnuts with chocolate glaze - of which I could not enjoy. :-( I was told that they were nice and crispy on the outside and so light inside as to be described as "hollow". The chocolate glaze was sooooo tempting for me. We had a gluten-free person with us and they were nice enough to send out a little bowl of chocolate ganache since she couldn't enjoy a doughnut.

Red Rabbit has only been open a few weeks and so I look forward to seeing how it fares. The menu is definitely interesting enough for me to make future visits and I'm sure they will continue to tweak and perfect things over time. So far, so good. I wish them luck.

 

As soon I walked in the corner door of Sweetwater I was greeted by a loud "hello" from the bar. The bartender, Robert, was a very friendly with a big smile on his face. 

The last time I had been to Sweetwater was when it had been over in the East Sac area, about four years ago. The new location on 19th and S is definitely a nicer spot for grabbing the midtown crowd. Whenever I've been at Safeway across the street I've taken a gander to see people at the bar, so it appears to be surviving quite well. 

The reviews for the food had been rather mixed, and so will mine be. There were good and there was bad, making it a place that falls into a category of hit-or-miss. 

I started with the roasted artichoke. The split medium-sized choke arrived  perfectly cooked, but oily. A little lighter hand with the oil basting brush would have been in order considering that it comes with a small cup of butter and a small cup of aioli. There was a heavy hand with the aioli as well - too much tarragon.

I ordered their Cowboy Steak, a flank steak with chimichurri served with garlic mashed potatoes. This dish I liked. The steak was perfectly cooked to medium rare and sliced against the grain. There were a couple of tough bits, but I forgave that as I enjoyed the sweet chimichurri that graced it. The chimichurri was bright green to indicate the freshness of the parsley and herbs. The mashed potatoes were moist without being mushy and a bit lumpy to prove it was the real thing.

The creme brulee was a definite miss and the worst I've had in ages. Although it had a nice hint of lemon, the texture was gritty and pasty. 

As I said, it was hit and miss. Hit was the steak, miss was the creme brulee, and in the middle was the artichoke. Some have said that Sweetwater is more a watering hole than a restaurant. Perhaps. For a watering hole the food is better than bar food, but for a restaurant it could come up a bit. This was one visit, so it is worth another to give it another chance.

I thought I had been to Benihana before. Turns out I had been to a similar Japanese teppanyaki restaurant, and, like others, generalized and thought that the showy restaurant was a Benihana.

You might have been to such a restaurant yourself for an occasion. You are there for the show as much as you are there for the food, if not more so. The chefs perform tricks ranging from juggling pepper shakers, flipping food, and creative presentations. I would wager most people leave remembering the jokes and tricks more than they remember the food.

My friend asked me what I was in the mood for. Being in Texas, I said, "Barbecue!"

We drove into a commercial area near the airport where there was nothing but corporations and warehouses. Being that it was almost 9:00, the area was dead quiet. And yet we came to an intersection with a lot full of cars - we had arrived at Hard Eight. 

Formoli Bistro has been around for a few years. It has gotten quite a nice reputation during that time for fine food in a quaint setting. I finally checked it out for myself and find myself having mixed feelings.

The first time I went was with a friend for lunch to try their famous Whiskey Burger. We heard that it was quite large and so we split it and a salad. Note that they have a $3 split charge on it, something I don't really care for. $3 to slice a burger in half? The burger was a hefty beef patty that is cooked to medium rare. It's juicy and full of flavor from the whiskey and the cheese.

The burger is one of those items that has become so known that it will never be taken off Formoli's burger. It's popularity was obvious on my second visit when I went for dinner with a friend. She saw the burger arrive at the next table and couldn't resist. It looked so luciously juicy. As we waited for our orders, burger after burger was being delivered around us. In fact, I believe that at each table at least one of the people had ordered the burger.  But when our meals came out, the burger that was set in front my friend was obviously overcooked. The outside was crunchy, the thickness was thinner from the overcooking, and when she cut into it there was no pinkness like all those other burgers we had just seen. We somehow got a lemon burger! The wait staff did offer to remake it but my friend was hungry and wasn't patient enough to wait. At least they did take the burger completely off the bill.

I had been so enticed by the many delicious sounding offerings on the menu that I decided the best thing to do was to get two small plates versus an entree. I chose the sweetbreads and the poutine and, although delicious, was a bit disappointed in both.

First, the sweetbreads. The first time I had sweetbreads was at the Waterboy. Since then I pretty much judge all against theirs. Although both Waterboy and Formoli's price at the $13 mark, Waterboy serves a large, full plate versus the plate I got at Formoli's with two small sweetbreads on a bed of white beans. Although Formoli's was delicious and the white beans were a nice complement, I still felt shortchanged on the amount of sweetbreads on my plate. For preparation, sweetbreads have a membrane that has to be carefully removed by the chef before cooking. There was still some of the  membrane on one of mine. So the dish tasted great, but lacked in value to me.

My other choice was the poutine because it said it had a brie cream and mentioned braised short rib and pork belly in the description. Therefore, I had some expectations. Poutine is popular in the Montreal, Canada area where it is French fries with cheese curds and gravy. I was expecting French fries with the brie cream in place of the curds and then a gravy with some meat in it. Turns out the beef and pork belly were cooked into the sauce, according to the waiter. Thus the lack of any trace of meat on my fries. But the brie cream sauce/gravy was delicious. Again, a successful dish flavorwise. I just think that it would take another step to awesomeness if it had some bits of meat.

I realized one should not compare a dish to one you had somewhere else, but it just can't be helped. In the case of the poutine, my first experience had been at Kupro's, where they have a gravy full of bits of short rib over their fries. So when I saw short rib beef and pork belly mentioned on the Formoli's description, a similar image/expectation was formed in my head.

All in all, I think the dishes have all been well made and flavorful. There were several dishes on the menu that it was hard to decide what to choose.  I've always had wonderful, friendly service from the wait staff as well . I just had several disappointments in regards to value and expectations. 

I only learned about six months ago that Pho is pronounced as Fuh. Don't ask me how to pronounce the rest of the name. But that's not what is important when you judge a restaurant. It's the food that matters. 

Located in Rancho Cordova just off the freeway at the Bradshaw exit, Pho Bac Hoa Viet restaurant is large. On a Sunday night it was pretty busy with patrons with big bowls in front of them. We took a seat at a booth and perused the lengthy menu. There are plenty of versions of pho, or soups, but there is also a large amount of both Vietnamese and Chinese dishes. 

 

Have you heard about a restaurant that goes the extra mile by not only having biodegradable servingware, but they take going eco-friendly to the extent of low carbon emissions and recycling wherever possible? Better yet is the food - fresh and healthy ingredients.

That restaurant is Freshii. A new franchise which opened its first Sacramento area locations in Folsom and downtown.  Freshii originated in Canada in 2005 and since then has been growing like gang-busters. And why shouldn't it? They are serving real, fresh, food.

Some of Freshii's 70 fresh ingredients

What do I mean by real food? The concept is simple. Fresh, healthy, custom made dishes using whole ingredients like brown rice, chicken breasts, fresh vegetables. You choose what ingredients you want in a bowl, wrap, soup, or salad. You can also order pre-set combos. You won't find frozen, canned, adulterated food at Freshii.


Here is the clipboard you receive when you first walk in. You write your name and choose the ingredients that you want. Most vegetables are unlimited, while premium ingredients, like the proteins, cheeses, and certain fruits, have per ingredient costs. You can choose your dressing/sauce by calorie level and whether you want half, whole, double serving sizes. What's really awesome is that if you go to their website and enter in the ingredients, it will calculate the nutritional values for you. So you see the calorie, carbs, fiber, and fat content right away. Give it a try here.

Freshii Warrior Chicken Bowl

 
I chose to do a pre-set selection called the Warrior Chicken Bowl. It had Cajun chicken, corn, black beans, onions, cilantro, and some other things mixed with brown rice.  Poor Girl Kimberly ordered the Bliss Bowl with goat cheese, avocado, tomatoes, and more mixed with brown rice and with a balsamic dressing. You can choose to do noodle bowls instead of rice.

Here is a video where the company founder explains the process.



If you like soups, they have three broths: vegetable, chicken, or spicy lemongrass. When you select the vegetables you want in your soup, they quickly parboil them and then add them to the prepared broth. That way you don't have overcooked veggies in a soup that's been sitting around.  Each soup is freshly made for each person.

Freshii yogurt

Freshii is open for breakfast with oatmeal, muesli, and breakfast wraps. They also have frozen yogurt and toppings.

The stores themselves are eco-friendly. They have low carbon footprints because they do not use dishwashers, grills, or ovens. They clean with natural, biodegradable cleaners. They recycle as much as possible. If you are really into being green yourself, you can even bring in your own bowl which they will wash and then use to serve your food in.

You see above that my bowl was actually served in a to-go box. They don't mess around with unnecessary plates that will immediately go into the trash and then you want a to-go box for your leftovers. Instead, you eat out of the box and if you can't finish it, you seal it up and off you go. All of there servingware is biodegradable. The silverware is made from potato and corn starches. These implements have been around for years and I've always wondered why restaurants won't use them. The answer usually is "they are too expensive". Well Freshii proves you can use them and not inflate the prices of the food.

Kimberly and I are excited that there is such a healthy, fast alternative out there now. It is possible to eat that way while dining out. Since we live downtown, we can't wait for the second location.

The downtown location opens at 3rd and Q on Monday, April 11th. Since it is owned by Yogurtagogo's Eric Heffel, it will have a self serve yogurt section with six flavors. It will also be getting a beer and wine license. Heffel plans on having music and other events on nights and weekends.

I took my friend, Michelle, to Lake Tahoe for her first visit. It was a gorgeous, sunny winter day. We toured the lake area and she took pictures to share on Facebook with her friends back east. She wanted to have lunch either on the lake or with a nice lake view. I didn't know where to go since I just knew the casinos and my favorite pizza joint (Blue Dog Pizza) and so we asked a guy in a tourist shop for a suggestion. He told us to go to the Beacon at Camp Richardson. 

All these years that I have visited Lake Tahoe I had heard about Camp Richardson but never been there. I know it mostly as a family camp ground/resort. Considering that it's been there since the early 20th century, I'm sure the restaurant's quality has gone through different cycles of bad to mediocre to good. Happily it currently falls under 'good', or at least, it was for our visit.

Most of the Yelp comments center on the Rum Runners, making it obvious that the place is a favorite for carousing during summer vacation after a day on the beach. After all, the Beacon is right on the shore, not 50 yards from the water. And although Michelle did have two of them, my concern is always the food.

We both had a couple of items on the menu that we were interested in. One we shared was the short ribs done with a Korean style teriyaki and served with rice and bok choy. Out came out a generous plate with about 10 short rib pieces sticky with teriyaki sauce. What impressed me was that these were not skimpy, thin slices but slices about 1/3 of an inch thick. I guess I've become too accustom to the thin ones at the Hawaiian BBQ on my corner. These were meaty and tasty. The bok choy was cooked correctly with a nice soy glaze on it. 

I had opted for the steamed clams in white wine garlic sauce. I got a large bowl full of sweet, baby clams. There was plenty of broth that was filled with minced garlic, sliced onion, and lots of white wine and butter. It was served with French bread fresh from the oven to sop up the abundance of broth. It was good, although a tad on the briny side. But with all that garlic, who cares? Yum.

Service was a bit slow, but we were relaxing and enjoying the view anyway. In the end, we were happy with the suggestion and I'll be happy to take other virgin Tahoe visitors there again.

The biggest reason I love food and travel is because of my dad. Considering that he came from a lower class upbringing in Ipswich, England during an era when they rarely saw a foreignor, you wonder where he got his adventurous spirit from. He took the Canadian immigration deal back in 1958, moved around Canada and the U.S. a bit, then married a Filipina. He took a chance with a job in Saudi Arabia and I thank God that he did. Thanks to him I got a childhood of traveling the world and an excellent education.

During our travels we rarely stayed in a nice hotel. Dad also drilled in finances and saving money. Plus he liked the closer contact to cultures. So we would stay in B&B's in Europe or cheap, but clean, hotels in Asian countries. We always rented cars and drove all over.

Keep in mind that this was all in the 70's and the world still wasn't as ethnically mixed as it is these days. Chinese and Indian restaurants in Europe were rare and generally mediocre. But if we drove through a town and there was an ethnic restaurant, we'd stop for a change of pace. Back as a child I hated Indian food. At that time it was only curry and tandoori.

Nowadays we are especially blessed in California with all sorts of cuisine and quality cooking. I am trying to get a better appreciation for Indian food now that they offer a lot more regional dishes. I would like to get as knowledgable about Indian food as I feel about Thai food. I've also gotten a new Indian roommate, Veena. So I'm sure I'll be better educated thanks to her.

Sooooo... I selected the Katmandu Kitchen for this week's Dining Out Meetup. This place has a good reputation. We were also pleased to witness that it was a very busy place considering it was a Tuesday night. The place was full.

Katmandu says they serve Indian and Nepalese food. There is not supposed to be much difference between the two.

Most of us orderd Thali, which means a kind of combo plate. Those who orderd ala carte only got the dish and some bread. Most people ordered a tika masala. We also had some vegetarians in the group. We don't get many at our meetups and I guess it all depends on my restaurant choices. But they generally do show up when we have Indian, Chinese, or Thai.

I'm going to go ahead and post this and then ask Veena for her comments on some of the food. She thought they made their stuff on the sweet side and so she thought the place was just OK. Her favorite Indian place is Mehran on Fair Oaks Blvd.