From Bratwurst to Bimibap - Part 1 - by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

From Bratwurst to Bimibap – Part 1 - by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

I like to make many ethnic foods at home, so I have learned about ingredients by shopping at local markets around Monterey County, which feature Asian, Hispanic, and European foods. 

The Monterey County Weekly (Circulation: 200,000 – California) liked my idea for a story on three markets that are still going strong after twenty years: Mecca (German), Mi Tierra (Hispanic – Mexican and Salvadoran), and Asian-Filipino (Southeast Asian).

These stores have changed some items on display, but they can special order usually, if you know brand names.  I have slightly edited the article for clarity:

From Bratwurst to Bimibap

You’ll want to eat before shopping at Marina’s Mecca German Market.

The owner suggests that shoppers fortify themselves with a hot schnitzel sandwich – lightly breaded pork loin on a hot roll with sauerkraut and Swiss cheese – before examining the row of chocolates that fill up half the store.  (Note: This display has changed in 2019.  There are more soup and sauce options on the shelves now, but ask about special orders.)

Among Mecca’s chocolate offerings that seem to change with the season:

-Ritter Sport Chocolates

-Swiss Lindt Chocolates

-Sarotti Whit Chocolate

-Toblerone

-Chocolates with Poire Williams

-Asbach Uralt brandy-filled chocolate

-Mozart Herzl chocolate with a soft marzipan core surrounded by pistachio cream in a chocolate covering

From the chocolates, it’s an easy segue into coffee klatsch territory for Tchilbo, Jacobs, and Eduscho German coffees to go with Mecca’s selection of marzipan, orange liqueur, and chocolate/vanilla marmor cakes.

I highly recommend the cookies, too:

-Bahlsen’s chocleibniz – a butter cookie topped with chocolate

-marzipan cookies with chocolate bottoms

-almond cookie sandwiches with cream filling

-capellas – almond crescents with chocolate covering both ends

-Delobas – puff pastry with blueberry filling

-Florentines – delicate lace-like cookies

(Chocolates and cookies are my favorite renewable emergency foods.)

Eating sweets with your eyes lets you enjoy the deli counter more.

Mecca’s cooked veal and pork bockwurst sausage heats up easily and makes for a tasty meal as does the homemade bratwurst pork sausage.

I asked the owner what the difference is between the Italian and Hungarian salamis, and a customer answered, “About 500 miles.”

From Mecca, I set out for Marina’s Asian-Filipino Market.

End of Part 1.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Suggested Syrah Wine Tasting by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Suggested Syrah Wine Tasting by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Syrah is a grape variety that grows well in very hot climates like inland Monterey County California.

This wine tasting’s objective is to identify the effect of soil on the taste of Syrah wine.

Suggested wine regions:

Monterey County California Syrah Wineries:

Chalone

De Tierra

Rhône Valley France Syrah Wines:

-Hermitage

-Côte Rôtie

-Cornas

-St. Joseph

-Crozes-Hermitage

Australia:

Syrah is called Shiraz there.

BevMo, Nielsen’s, and Lopez Liquors on the Monterey Peninsula can probably supply many of these choices.  BevMo delivers.

Have fun tasting!

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Cafe Rustica's European Flair - Part 2 - by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Café Rustica’s European Flair – Part 2 – by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Laurent and I came back on another warm summer night for another gastronomic treat at Café Rustica.  I ordered lamb fillets, and Laurent had the capellini pasta with shrimp.

The meaty lamb fillets came three to a serving and surrounded an impressive piece of vegetable architecture:  a perfectly round mound of au gratin potatoes on a bed of sautéed spinach with strands of roasted red pepper draped over the top of the potatoes.

Sautéed tomato squares flowed down the sides of the au gratin potatoes.  The freshly prepared vegetables all retained their individual flavors.

A cabernet-shallot sauce covered the lamb fillets with pine nuts sprinkled around for flavor.  The sauce enhanced all of the flavors in the dish without overpowering any single one.  The savory lamb, like Florence’s rib eye steak on our previous visit, was tender enough to cut with a regular knife.

I ordered the Yalumba Cabernet Sauvignon from Australia to go with my meal.  The wine smelled and tasted like blackberries and had a strong, lengthy finish.

Laurent love the capellini pasta that came with sautéed shrimp.  The savory marinara sauce paired perfectly with the briny shrimp.  Halves of sweet, cherry tomatoes made up the vegetable contingent in this light, yet filling dish.

Laurent drank a Pichot Vouvray from the Loire Valley in France with his meal.  The mildly sweet taste of this wine went well with the marinara tomato sauce.

The pleasant, hardworking staff at Café Rustica make dining there such an appealing experience.  One of the co-owners told me that they treat all of their employees from dishwashers to hostesses with respect.

“Everyone contributes to the restaurant’s success,” she said.

This philosophy comes from the fact that both owners have been employees in restaurants as well as owners.  They are both chefs in their own right: One trained at the Internant School in Germany while the other trained at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco.

The owners’ dedication to cooking and their high regard for restaurant professionals have helped them create a restaurant that merits a trip out to Carmel Valley Village from the Monterey Peninsula.

(Congratulations to Rustica for being a 2019 Michelin Restaurant!)

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Cafe Rustica's European Flair - Part 1 - by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Café Rustica’s European Flair – Part 1 - by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Going to some of my favorite restaurants like Café Rustica in Carmel Valley Village when I was a restaurant reviewer for the Monterey County Weekly (Circulation: 200,000 – California) was an easy assignment thanks to their perfect food and wait service.

Even after twenty years, I still love dining on their terrace admiring grapevines at the wine tasting rooms across the street.  This restaurant merited two review trips and offers daily specials in addition to their set menu:

Café Rustica Blends Creative European Cuisine with Superlative Service

Dining at Café Rustica in Carmel Valley makes you feel like you have taken a European vacation.  The restaurant offers tasty fare from Italy, France, and Germany along with luscious Californian salads in a courtyard setting reminiscent of continental European restaurants.

My family likes the warm valley weather as well as the friendly ambience at Café Rustica.  On a recent visit for lunch, we conjured up Italian vacations by ordering limonata – a sour lemon soda from Italy with our meal.

For starters, I ordered escargots bourguignons (snails), a specialty of Burgundy France.  Butter, garlic, and parsley are the most obvious ingredients in the sauce, but the co-owner told me that her spouse uses a secret recipe for this sauce that utilizes no less than fifteen ingredients.  I used the slices of toast that came with the snails to soak up this delicious, mystery confection.

Laurent and I ordered 11-inch pizzas inspired by European dishes.  Laurent’s Lorraine pizza takes its name from Quiche Lorraine and is made up of maple-smoked bacon, caramelized onions, and melted gruyère cheese.  For me, these are the best ingredients in a quiche, so I really liked Laurent’s choice. (So did he.)

Caramelized onions were one of the ingredients on my flammekeuche pizza, a dish from Alsace (France), which shares a border with Germany.  I love the onions with cubes of prosciutto that sat atop a layer of crème fraîche.  I thought these ingredients would taste especially good with a slightly sweet white wine like Vouvry, which Laurent ordered on a subsequent visit.

Florence meanwhile was getting an eyeful and a bellyful of a large rib eye steak.  This steak came with a generous helping of herbed butter and French fries.  The meat was tender enough to be cut with a butter knife.

For dessert, Florence ate two scoops of Ciao Bello gelato from San Francisco.  Vanilla bean flecks colored the gelato and added flavor bursts to this creamy dessert.  Laurent and I had Lavazza coffees as dessert.

End of Part 1.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

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