I love food, but I will admit that I am not a hugely adventurous eater. I love to watch the likes of Tony Bourdain travel to faraway places and eat things like, oh, cobra hearts, but i doubt that I'd be able to stomach it myself. In fact, I can hardly stand to think about some of the foods of my own cultural cuisine, Korean.

Frogs aren't considered all that adventurous, and yet, I doubt I could have eaten it, as Reid of Ono Kine Grindz did on a recent trip from his home in Hawaii to San Francisco. The restaurant is Dragonfly, a contemporary Vietnamese restaurant that he read about. He hasn't written any notes about what it tasted like yet, but the picture makes them look, at least to me, pretty damn good.

As if oil and gas prices weren't enough, now the heavy rains and cold weather in northern California have made fruits and vegetables expensive. Lettuces are at an all-time high, and it's difficult to find many things that are normally abundant in springtime.

In restaurants, there's gourmet salad at Mixt Greens and a new Japanese vegan restaurant, Cha-Ya, in Berkeley. Hanazen is the closest thing to sushi houses in Japan, and the Inside Scoop reports that Upper Noe has more Italian restaurants, Budo will re-open as Cuvee Napa with the move of former chef James McDevitt to New York, Home restaurants is undergoing staff changes, and Le Colonial has a new menu.

Recipes this week include: Turkey Trattoria Meatballs and Turkey Pineapple Salad to help stay thin, Avocado and Tofu Salad, Rhubarb Strawberry and Hibiscus Fruit Soup, and Japanese okonomiyaki.

Olivia Wu revisits Shanghai.

Yesterday's Wine section of the San Francisco Chronicle put out a great feature about a mini-controversy surrounding corkage fees around the Bay area. Restaurateurs charge a fee to diners who bring their own wine. However, the loss of revenue for the restaurant isn't always made up by such a fee. The issue wasn't about how much restaurants were charging. Some restaurants are bypassing the corkage altogether and simply disallowing BYOB. Bay area diners are more than a little upset, especially with such a strong, long and deep tradition fueled by wine country's proximity.

Personally, I have no opinion other than that the restaurateurs can do what they want. Diners, as well, can do what they want. If a restaurant does not allow you to bring your own wine or charges a prohibitive corkage, and you have a fabulous bottle that you want to drink, give your business to someone else who will welcome you.

What do you think?

[photo: San Francisco Chronicle]

No newspaper worth its weight in matzo doesn't have a story related to Passover. The San Francisco Chronicle dishes out some artichokes and fiery horseradish sauce. To change up the sweets filled with matzo, potato starch makes a sponge cake covered with berries.

It started with the Ferry Building Marketplace at Embarcadero, and now gourmet "food malls" are sprouting up all over the Bay Area.

The CIA at Greystone has expanded its program to include a full-fledged culinary program, just like its New York headquarters.

On the dining scene, watch the chefs at Rogue Chefs. John Bentley's gets a re-visit and an updated review, as does Cortez.

Baseball season has kicked off, and at Bay Area stadiums, the food has kicked off, too, with offerings beyond hot dogs and peanuts.

Pan-roasting the last of winter's vegetables gets praise, with a recipe for caramelized vegetables.

Thomas Keller is building a tiny empire over in the Napa Valley

San Francisco is abundant with excellent dining opportunities from Chez Panisse in Berkeley to Thomas Keller's French Laundry, but even New York, with its own wealth of stellar restaurants, had but four restaurants that were awarded Michelin's top honor of three stars. Thomas Keller's NY restaurant, Per Se, was among them.

The guide is due to be published in October of this year, and the anonymous reviewing group of one American and four European inspectors have already started making their way around the Bay Area.

So I forced one of my friends to snatch a copy of this past Sunday's edition of the San Francisco Chronicle with the knowledge that the Sunday magazine would have the annual Bay Area Top 100 Restaurants. I got it in the mail this morning, and was excited to look through it, but the first thing that caught my eye was the story about a Burrito Eater.

Charles Hodgkins is the Burrito Eater. His website, www.burritoeater.com, is basically a food blog in which he chronicles his quest for the "nine mustache" (out of 10) rated burrito in the Bay Area, ranging from Baja Fresh to holes in the wall. When he started, he thought he would have hit them all by the time he had eaten from 50 or 60 taquerias, but he says that there are over 170 places to get a burrito from a walk-up style stand. His top two favorites are Taqueria San Francisco and Papalote.

I wonder if Charles has ever pondered the idea of coming to Los Angeles.

Given that Saveur's website is "stylishly useless," it's almost unfair to post all the wonderful things that are in the April 2006 issue of the magazine I just received. Consider it simply an express-view for you as you ponder whether to pick it up in the check-out line. (And I'll do my best over the next few weeks to post any adventures I have with the recipes).

• A look at the changing fare on college campuses, which are ditching the dining halls and favoring the carts and trucks that serve fast, cheap, and authentic ethnic food like falafel and veggie pakoras at UVM and kimchee and bulgogi accessible to a number of schools in Philadelphia. Of course, I know all about the In-N-Out truck on the UCLA and USC campuses once a year.
• Cookbooks under review are Jewish: The Jewish Kitchen by Clarissa Hyman and Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South by Marcie Cohen Ferris.
• In the cellar, the wine of the month is madiran, a "dark, spicy, tannic expression of the French southwest."
• In a different kind of cellar, Campbeltown is Scotland's "other" whisky region.
• San Francisco chef James Schenk (of Nuevo Latino restaurant Destino) makes alfajores, South American butter cookies filled with dulce de leche.
• Stop all the debate. The original recipe for Buffalo wings from the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York!
• The feature of the magazine is Tuscan trattorias, with recipes for: arista di maiale (roasted herb-stuffed porkloin), fagioli sgranati (white beans with sage), piselli freschi (fresh peas with Prosciutto), pappa al pomodoro (bread and tomato soup), insalata di trippa (cold tripe salad - I doubt I'll be trying this one, but who knows?), pappardelle all'anatra (broad noodles with duck sauce), and fritto misto di coniglio e verdure (fried rabbit and vegetables - imagine serving that to your kids on Easter!).
• We love hummus, and who knew Saveur could dedicate six whole pages to the simple chickpea puree?
• Le Veau d'Or in Manhattan is "a real French restaurant: the music is terrible but the food is great."
• And finally, a look at the endagered Danish tradition of the smorrebrod (different from Swedish smorgasbord).

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!