East Bay A-Z: A is for A Cote

Name: A Cote
Where: Rockridge, Oakland
Type of Food: French/Mediterranean
Tab (appetizer, entree, tip): $69.72 for 2
Dinner Menu

A Cote specializes in well-executed, simple, rustic French dishes. We started with the wood-roasted mussels with Pernod and an order of pommes frites with lemon aioli. The frites were perfectly crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, and the tender mussels were served with crusty bread for sopping up the Pernod and cream sauce. At the recommendation of our server, we moved on to the grilled pork loin with rhubarb gastrique, and the grilled skirt steak with gigande beans. The pork was lean yet tender and incredibly flavorful, and the skirt steak practically fell apart on my fork. We did not indulge in dessert, but I’ll have to save room next time: lots of restaurants treat dessert as an obligation, but A Cote has put as much thought into their dessert menu as they have their dinner menu.

You’ll have to be a bit more of a social person to enjoy this restaurant. The space is cozy, and not particularly quiet. They also have a large, family-style table in the center of the dining room if you are not averse to sitting next to strangers.

East Bay Eating from A-Z

I work in Sacramento during the week and rarely have time to go out and find good eats. So when I return to the Bay Area on weekends, I have a tendency to fall back on safe, reliably tasty food options that I miss when I’m away. In an effort to change this, and to introduce enthusiastic eaters to the bounty of delicious food that is the East Bay, I am going to devote the next 26 Thursday nights to eating at a new, never-before-tasted place. Restaurants, food stands, taco trucks, Vietnamese, Ethiopian, cheap, expensive… There are absolutely no limits here, except that the place needs to start with the letter of the alphabet designated for that week. I will then write a brief blurb on each eatery and post it here on Fridays.

Since I started last week with A and ate at B this week, I will have two posts for this week. Stay tuned…

recipe: lemon artichoke chicken for one

this is a quick dish i threw together (just now!) with stuff i had around the kitchen. lemon juice and canned artichokes make this a light dish with a nice, citrusy zing! this will taste best with homemade chicken stock, but you can also find real, prepackaged and unsalted stock at most supermarkets. i used thigh fillets since i’m a dark meat gal, but you can do breast fillets if you’d like. and now, just a few quick ingredients:

chicken fillets, as much as you like.
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp salt (or more to taste)
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tbsp butter, divided
1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup chicken stock
juice of one lemon
4-5 artichoke hearts. adjust to your tastes.
1/2 tsp dried oregano
linguine, again as much as you like.
1 tbsp fresh chopped parsley. flat-leaf only, no exceptions!
salt and pepper to taste

1. combine flour, salt, and pepper in a shallow dish. dredge chicken fillets in flour mixture.

2. heat olive oil and 1 tbsp butter in a pan until rocket hot and almost smoking. shake excess flour off chicken fillets and brown in pan, about 2 minutes per side.

3. when chicken has browned, remove from pan and set aside. add chicken stock, lemon juice, artichokes, and oregano. when simmering, return chicken to pan. continue simmering until chicken is thoroughly cooked about 5 minutes. taste often and add salt and pepper as needed.

4. meanwhile, bring a small pot of salted water to a rolling boil. add linguine and cook until al dente, about 9-10 minutes unless otherwise specified on package. place linguine on plate and top with chicken, leaving reduced chicken stock mixture in the pan. add remaining tablespoon of butter to the mixture and stir until butter is incorporated. pour mixture over chicken and pasta. top with chopped parsley,

why potlucks rule

the potluck has long been a thing of convenience, curbing the expense of feeding a large crowd and eliminating (or rather, redistributing) the hassle of food preparation. i have been to some awful potlucks at community gatherings, and especially at work where managers skimp on holiday parties after a bad year. you know what i’m talking about: dry rotisserie chickens from the big box wholesaler, the pre-packaged m&m cookies, that thick and gluey potato salad from the grocery store deli. nothing screams thoughtless, obligatory potluck dish more than that potato salad.

when you have a bunch of friends that know and love the kitchen, however, and you invite them all to a pot luck, good things are bound to happen. everyone has a staple dish, or core set of ingredients, that they always turn to when they are looking to knock some socks off. brought together in the same venue, the end result is a great exchange of flavors and ideas among food lovers. this is the potluck being redefined, thanks primarily to the recent growing interest in all things gastronomical. in no time, the word potluck will no longer strike fear in its attendants’ hearts, instead planting butterflies in their stomachs that can only be sated by that delicious bite of something! (ok, that was a little dramatic. but at the very least, we will look forward to them.)

at our housewarming party on sunday, all of our guests got to partake in a wide variety of tasty dishes, prompting many compliments and requests for recipes all around. some highlights are as follows:

• spanakopita (we even got to watch them being made in our kitchen!)
• cold soba peanut noodles with peas and peppers
• walt’s italian pasta salad with corkscrews and fresh tortellini
• char-grilled balsamic chicken thighs
• for dessert, a flourless chocolate cake (also baked in our kitchen)
• and some sticky rice pudding and flan, both compliments of my awesome aunt liza

of parmigiano-reggiano and suchlike

when i tell people i buy parmigiano-reggiano, the real deal, at whole foods for around $25 a pound, a lot of them look at me like i’ve lost my mind.

the thing, though, is that you can’t put a price on quality. and real parmigiano-reggiano has a buttery, nutty, meaty taste that cannot be emulated by any other “parmesan” out there—they are not aged as long, are softer, and contain less salt and glutamate, all of the finer things that contribute to the cheese’s naturally complex flavor.

you might find ones that are close. trader joe’s has a a pre-grated parmesan cheese they sell that is imported from (i think?) argentina. at first taste, it has all the flavor features of parmigiano-reggiano, and it adds a pretty good finishing touch to pastas.  the other night, however, i tried making my near-foolproof recipe for fettuccine alfredo (recipe to follow) with it, and the dish fell flat. the cream sauce had an uncharacteristically thick, clumpy texture, and the clove of smashed garlic i normally add easily overwhelmed the parmesan. and when i reheated the fettuccine the next night—fettuccine alfredo never reheats well anyway, and i don’t make a common practice of it—the dish had lost any semblance of parmigiano-esque flavor. needless to say, i am never skimping on my parmigiano-reggiano again.

any aspiring cook, even a total noob, can yield immediate results as long as they use the right ingredients at the highest quality. now, i’m not saying you should be dropping tons of cash on ingredients all the time. but for those who scoff at shopping for groceries at whole foods or other organic markets, try it just once. i swear, whatever it is, will be the tastiest thing you’ve made yet.