Consuming Ambitions

Laban: Tangy Lebanese Yogurt

Today I attended a "Digerati" brunch hosted by Ron Gutman (founder/CEO of Wellnet), Erin Turner (of EA, formerly founder/CEO of Gigabeat), and Wikia CEO Gil Penchina. A great crowd turned out to enjoy the glorious weather (about 20 degrees cooler than last weekend, thank goodness). I captured a few folks on camera, photos below...check out the picture of the "Wiki Startup Gang of Three" featuring, in the spirit of collegial coopetition, Gil of Wikia, David Weekly of PBWiki, and yours truly representing Trinity investment Wetpaint.

Ron and his lovely fiancee Miri love to cook, and put out a wonderful Sunday brunch spread of Middle Eastern foods (plus some of Krispy Kreme's finest, just to cover their bases). As a yogurt fan, I was immediately drawn to a creamy white dip garnished with olive oil and a reddish-brown spice, served alongside pita wedges and crackers. Miri explained that in her native Israel, the cuisine has received many influences from the surrounding cultures (political tensions notwithstanding); one popular dish is the Lebanese staple yogurt known as laban (or labane or labneh). She said that the yogurt can be strained to remove excess fluids and intensify the flavor. Many popular yogurts in the U.S. are heavily sweetened and seem designed to mask the natural sour, tangy flavor of yogurt. True yogurt lovers enjoy that tangy sourness, even if the yogurt is flavored. In our local supermakets, I've found that Wildwood plain yogurt or Wallaby organic Australian-style yogurt are very good, traditional style products. Wallaby comes in a range of great flavors, of which my favorite is the maple, which does not qualify as a purist's yogurt, but is darn good!

Also on the yogurt theme, executive recruiter Anjula Acharia-Bath said she uses yogurt in lieu of cream in order to fatten up curries and other dishes for her British friends who expect Indian food to come that way. Anjula and I spent quite some time discussing Indian food, and it was clear that she views Westernized (restaurant) Indian food as excessive in its use of cream and butter. When cooking at home, she avoids those ingredients, but slips in some flavorful yogurt as a lowfat compromise when cooking for friends who crave the heavier flavor. I have similarly used yogurt as a sour cream substitute in certain recipes, or for a relatively sin-free baked-potato topping bar.

Thanks to Ron, Erin, and Gil for organizing a fantastic brunch, and especially to Ron and Miri for their hospitality (I will be thinking of the bottomless mimosa tank as I drift off tonight...)

Internet industry dinner at Zibibbo

Zibibbo?  Isn't that the new Web 2.0 darling that brings social networking to the untapped age 3-6 demographic?  Or maybe a Star Wars character; I can never keep it straight.

Last week I organized an Internet industry dinner that brought some interesting Trinity-funded companies such as Photobucket, Wetpaint, and Bix.com together with execs from other interesting startups as well as more established players such as Google, Yahoo!, and Facebook.  I felt fortunate to spend the evening with such a bright and energetic crowd, and enjoyed the many conversations I had about shared areas of interest in Internet media, publishing, and advertising.  One of the highlights of the evening was hearing Chris Sacca (now of Google, formerly of Speedera Networks where I worked with him when I served on the board there) recount hilarious tales of the guerilla marketing Speedera used to practice against its Goliath competitor, Akamai.  Ironic that he is now on the other, Goliath side of the table at Google!

On to the food and venue.  Overall, Zibibbo does a great job for group dinners and I would recommend it.  The service staff were helpful and pleasant.  The one knock is that the Gallery room, though large, is relatively narrow, and so it was a bit hard to move around during the pre-dinner cocktails and mingling.  Actually, one other complaint is that I never know where the double "b" comes in (Zibbibo? Zibibbo? Zibbibbo?).  But the food was solid end to end, starting with the appetizers (try the mushroom empanadas with goat cheese) through to the entrees (highlighted by suckling pig with watercress salad, cracklings and citrus-pepper vinaigrette) and dessert.  In general, the family-style platter format of Zibibbo, which does not work as well when the wife and I visit the restaurant as a couple, is very effective for a large group dinner.  When it's just the two of us, we often just enjoy the cocktail lounge, which offers a good drink menu as well as tapa-sized bar bites.

(BTW, thanks to Dave Lu of Fanpop for taking pictures!)

Zibibbo
430 Kipling St
Palo Alto, CA 94301
(650) 328-6722

 

Avatar's: The Best Place You've Never Heard Of

This week's restaurant tip comes from Prashant Shah of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, who describes Avatar's in Sausalito as "the best place you've never heard of."  Indeed, I had not heard of Avatar's, but a quick look at reviews on Yelp and Citysearch reveals that the people say Prashant is correct.  "Simply the best" and "Heaven on earth!!!" are some of the superlatives heaped on the eclectic restaurant featuring good vegan and vegetarian options as well as dishes for carnivores.

And for the Web 2.0 set, can it get much better than this?  Not only is the place called "Avatar," but the menu could be described as an ethnic "mashup" (e.g. Punjabi enchiladas) with heavy Indian and South Asian influence.  <geekhumor>Let's just hope that the food is not served by a Mechanical Turk!</geekhumor>

Avatar's
2656 Bridgeway
Sausalito, CA 94965
(415) 332-8083

 

Consuming Ambitions is One Month Old: Thanks for the Love!

When I embarked on my blogging career exactly one month ago, I never imagined how rewarding it would be.  For one thing, other bloggers and readers have been very welcoming and supportive.  Several of you have contributed ideas and advice, and a few even passed out some link love!  Zoli Erdos got it started, then last week I was really appreciative of Jeff Nolan posting on Venture Chronicles and Matt Marshall / SiliconBeat giving me some ink.  Thanks guys!

Secondly, writing about my culinary passions has made me realize how many other foodies are out there!  Before, there was no efficient way of identifying the other members of foodie nation, but now I have a steady stream of folks sharing culinary passions and ideas for the blog -- keep 'em coming!  It's nice to have other chowhounds out there to make me feel normal.

BTW, I'd like to acknowledge my fairer/smarter half who not only has been very supportive but also can lay claim to giving this blog its moniker!

Kent: Super-mango in season now!

No Lois, we’re not talking about your loverboy.  Perhaps one way Clark Kent acquired his incredible power was pounding down plenty of mangoes (yeah, hailing from another planet where people are endowed with super powers probably had something to do with it as well). Mangoes are a nutritionist’s dream: loaded with vitamin A, with some vitamin C and potassium to boot, plus rich in antioxidants. And as Lois knows well, mangoes also are believed to contribute to male virility!

Another reason to love summer: Kent mangoes are in season! Typically gracing our favorite fruit stands in July and August, the Kent mango is distinguished from the other three main varieties (Haden, Tommy Atkins, and Keitt) by its smooth, virtually fiberless flesh. So you can enjoy the aromatic, sweet, yellow fruit without running to the medicine cabinet to find that complimentary floss the dentist gave you but you never used.

Today I scored an entire case of Kent mangoes at 99 Ranch market in Cupertino for the ridiculously low sum of $3.99. That’s right, for the same price as a pair of mangoes you might find at a fancy grocery store in Palo Alto, you get – count ‘em – nine succulent trips to mango heaven. Gotta love the Chinese supermarket!

 

99 Ranch Market

10983 N. Wolfe Road

Cupertino, CA 95014

(408) 343-3699

 

Chocaholic Event at supperclub SF - July 18-23

Laura Roden of the Angels Forum tipped me off to the “Chocaholic” event currently in progress (July 18-23) at San Francisco’s supperclub (which is an Angels Forum investee). I have not yet visited the supperclub, but apparently it’s an international restaurant / nightclub (other locations in Amsterdam, Rome, and Istanbul) which combines gourmet food and drink with an art gallery and live performances. Without having experienced it, I can’t claim to know what all goes on at the supperclub, but it suffices to say that the web site describes Chocaholic as a “chocolate fantasy” in which you will not only taste the delicious flavors of chocolate but you will see, smell, and feel it. Those of you with recent experience feeding newborns may feel that this is hitting a bit too close to home, but when else can you experience live chocolate syrup wrestling? (Specifically white chocolate, because milk chocolate wrestling is so ordinary!) As one of my favorite humorists Dave Barry is fond of saying, I am not making this up.

All kidding aside, thanks Laura for the tip, and if somebody makes it up to the supperclub, I want to hear about it!

supperclub San Francisco

657 Harrison Street

San Francisco, CA 94107

(415) 348-0900

 

Heirloom Tomatoes: The Taste of Summer

There are many things I love about summer. Rather than blather on about the long days, warm weather, and seeing the boys of summer perform ballpark heroics and occasionally get indicted for perjury and tax evasion, I offer a paean to that juicy and colorful summer treat, the heirloom tomato. Available in a dazzling array of over 200 varieties of color, size, flavor, and appearance, the king of tomatoes is truly the taste of summer.

Below is my Top 5 list of ways to enjoy heirloom tomatoes (would appreciate comments for other people’s favorites):

 

5. Bruschetta. Preferably made with high quality extra virgin olive oil and a ciabatta or similar rustic style loaf from a artisanal bakery (in the SF Bay Area, I like Grace Baking or Acme Bread Co.). Get the real skinny on Bay Area bread (do skinny and bread really go together?) at the San Francisco Bread Review.

 

4. Pappa al pomodoro. This tomato bread soup is an excellent way to use up the leftover bread from your bruschetta (it is one of several Tuscan dishes designed to make good use of bread after it has gone slightly stale). NYT article and recipe (subscription required).

 

3. Insalata Caprese. Salad of tomatoes, basil, and fresh mozzarella cheese. Not to get all food snobby, but the mozzarella di bufala campana imported from Italy really does taste different from our local product – the cheese is more delicate, tangy and flavorful. The Whole Foods in downtown Palo Alto stocks an excellent variety.

 

2. Tomato soup. Sometimes you just want tomato-ey goodness without even having to chew. I enjoyed the specimen pictured here this weekend at Wild Goose in Lake Tahoe. It was a soup made of yellow heirlooms, topped with a red heirloom jelly, and drizzled with a romaine crème fraiche. Yum!

 

And my favorite way to enjoy heirloom tomatoes…

 

1. Straight up! Sliced, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, and a dash of salt and pepper. This way the intense flavor of the tomato can truly be appreciated. So much food, so little time!

When Worlds Collide: Fortune Cookie Buzz Marketing

Though fortune cookies usually are not the subject of foodie attention, I do feel inspired to pass along an enjoyable story that lies at the intersection of my interests in food and customer acquisition strategies for online businesses. Yesterday Josh Kopelman regaled my colleagues and I with some of the guerilla buzz marketing stunts pulled off by his startup, Half.com (which in 1999 famously paid a town called Halfway in Oregon to change its name to Half.com).

Half.com was acquired by eBay in 2000, but even after that retained its heritage as a scrappy startup looking to find high-leverage marketing techniques. Mark Hughes, who was the VP Marketing at Half.com, somehow learned that:

• 97% of people given a fortune cookie will read their fortune

• 67% of those fortunes get read aloud to the people they’re eating with

• The fortune cookie industry is highly concentrated, with a few companies controlling most of the U.S. market (so dealing with only one, or a few, bakeries gives wide distribution)

Thus was born fortune cookie marketing! Half.com stuffed $5 coupons inside fortune cookies that were distributed to restaurants all over the country. To make the deal even sweeter, Half.com only had to pay the fortune cookie company for redeemed coupons ($2.50 each). Josh gleefully recounted, “I was happy to acquire customers at $7.50 a head all day long.” Mark is still practicing fortune cookie marketing and other creative techniques at his firm, Buzzmarketing.

Bottlenotes / RICHART Chocolate Paired with Wine Tasting This Thursday in SF

I just stumbled across Bottlenotes, a  wine club founded by Alyssa Rapp (whom I don't know, but wish to support because we share the same college and business school history!).  Bottlenotes promises access to "cult" and almost-impossible-to-get estate and boutique wines.  Though I may not have tasted the pleasures of the Bottlenotes wine club, I can say from experience that RICHART chocolates are out of this world.  In honor of Bastille Day, Bottlenotes is hosting a celebration this Thursday 7/13 featuring the decadent gourmet French chocolates paired with wine at the RICHART San Francisco Boutique in Union Square from 5-7pm.

Halwa: Lentils Done Right

Recently over lunch at Shiva’s in Mountain View, my friend Manish Chandra introduced me to a delicious dessert called Moong Ki Dal Ka Halwa. Well known to people familiar with Indian cuisine but new to me, the dish is a blend of lentils, milk, sugar, and spices. While moving through Shiva’s lunch buffet, my eyes had moved quickly over the unfamiliar golden brown paste garnished with almond slices, but Manish spotted it and convinced me that it was a must-try – when done well, it’s one of his favorite foods. Happily, he pronounced Shiva’s halwa to be excellent. Who knew that lentils could taste so good!

Manish was kind enough to put together a Kaboodle page about halwa which includes recipes and even a ready-to-eat version available via mail order.  You can check out his Kaboodle page via the badge below:

Moong Halwa

www.kaboodle.com

Shiva's
800 California #100
Mountain View, CA 94041
(650) 960-3802