There's a new wave of artisan chocolatiers, and the Bay Area is at the forefront.

Recipes and stories this week are: Grandmother's Oven-Baked Chicken, Almond Milk Curd (Hung Yun Dow Foo), Cojondongo (Gazpacho Salad), Mrs. Hyder's Mango Gazpacho, and Mango-Cucumber-Jicama Street Food.

All kinds of news-y tidbits: a soymilk maker, north Berkeley's old Bendean is now Bui, and kids' cookbooks from Williams-Sonoma.

It's high time for summer travel, and since we're foodies around here, we will be tempted to bring back souvenirs and gifts of...food. However, if you're doing international travel, there are some things you have to consider when you're going through customs. The San Francisco Chronicle explains the dos and don'ts of some of the more popular items that travelers try to bring across the border like meats, cheeses, fresh produce, and liquor. They also have a great list at the end of the article that has suggestions from Bay Area chefs of what kinds of things to bring back from certain countries, e.g. mole from Mexico and curry paste from Thailand.

There are many reasons why I miss the Bay area, one of the including the San Francisco Chronicle's Thursday wine section. Unlike a lot of newspapers, the Chronicle dedicates an entire section (naturally, with all the wine growing regions nearby). The section is always readable, even for someone who isn't a professed wine geek.

• After tasting 52 wines from New Zealand, a recommendation of 36, all Sauvignon Blanc, of course
• Traditionally, wines don't pair well with salads, the vinaigrette often killing the taste of wine. However, a citronette (olive oil and citrus juice) works perfectly on a salad. A recipe for blood orange and fennel salad to pair with one of the NZ Sauvignon Blancs is included.
• In the Cheese Course, it's Ewe's Blue, to be complemented with a wine with viscosity and a touch of sugar.
• Budweiser brews organic
• Qi Spirits has a new liqueur, Lapsang Souchong Tea Liqueur, "incredibly smooth and very complex, bearing rich, smoky vanilla notes, a hint of honey, and a wonderful orange-y finish that lingers in the back of the throat."

And don't forget the Chronicle will be issuing the Bay Area's Top 100 restaurants...I can't wait to see.

[photo: San Francisco Chronicle]

The previous post on Saveur's April 2006 issue highlighted a short article on how college students are dismissing their standard dining halls, even if they're serving sustainable, free-range, organically grown, slow food, and turning to things like taco trucks and food carts. Maybe they're cheaper, faster, easier to get to than trekking all the way back up the hill to the dorm. College was a long time ago for me, but the article still got me thinking about some of the great (dinners out in the Bay area), some of the not so great (joints around Berkeley), and some of the downright horrific foods (stuff I "ate" at home) that made up my diet, er rather gave me a reason to diet.

1. Instant ramen -- not even the kind you have to boil water in a pot on the stove top: this was the stuff that you add hot water to from the Sparkletts water cooler, cover, and wait three minutes.
2. Steamed white rice with canned tuna and soy sauce -- I have no words. It hurts me to think about it, too.
3. Top Dog -- one bird dog = not so bad. Two bird dogs with everything, plus a bite of someone else's hot link at 2 am = very very bad.
4. Fat Slice vs. Blondies -- with an occasional treat of Zachary's if I found someone with a car
5. The baked potato cart parked at the edge of Sproul Plaza -- I think it was called Spud Brothers. A baked potato doesn't sound so bad, until you add butter, sour cream, mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses!
6. A full day diet of pure sugar -- starting with a bear claw (Go Bears! that was the excuse) from King Donuts, a sugar shake disguised as a "smoothie" from Fresh Blend (the store was later replaced by Jamba Juice), and then more sugar! Ice cream from Double Rainbow
7. Steve's Barbecue -- Wuan ordah numbah two! Dae-jee bulgogi when I really missed home, because steamed white rice with canned tuna doesn't remind me of home
8. Chez Panisse -- made up for four years of crap.

Now don't let me be the only one. I know you didn't eat grilled mahi mahi with pineapple mango salsa at 3 am in college either!

So I'm poking around trying to motivate myself to plan a trip up to the Bay area sometime in the next few months, when what to my wandering eyes do appear, an announcement that SF Dine about Town is here!

The San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau and Visa are sponsoring this city-wide, month-long event that is now in its 5th year. There are almost 100 Bay Area restaurants that are participating by offering a three-course prix fixe meal at lunch ($21.95) or dinner ($31.95) or both.  Reservations specifically for SF Dine About Town can even be made via OpenTable.

I think the event is purely a promotional thing for both the Convention Bureau and Visa during a month which is typically slow for restaurants. Works for me, because a few of the restaurants are on my SF To-Dine List (A16!). Although, now I need to find a way up to SF. Unless we can convince Visa to do the same thing in LA!