San Jose Mercury News - July 13th, 2005

Bay Area chefs to seekprize in Taiwan

By Carolyn Jung
Mercury News

Keep your fingers crossed for chefs Khai Duong (Ana Mandara Restaurant in San Francisco), James McDevitt (Restaurant Budo in Napa), Toni Robinson (Silks Restaurant in San Francisco), Arnold Wong (EOS Restaurant in San Francisco) and Christopher Yeo (Straits Restaurants in San Jose and other Bay Area locations) to bring home the champion trophy. The five-person culinary team will represent the United States in the 2005 World Culinary Contest in Taiwan, Aug. 4-7. This is the first time an American team has been invited to the competition, which is being held in conjunction with the 16th annual Taipei Chinese Culinary Exhibition. Dozens of teams from the Pacific Rim will compete. Finalists must prepare a seven-course modern Chinese cuisine menu in four hours, using ingredients unveiled just before the start of that day's contest.

The American team is being sponsored by the Bay Area's Asian Chefs Association, an organization Yeo cofounded.

TASTY FINDS: You may already know Lucini for its olive oils. Now, get to know its new pasta sauces: Rustic Tomato Basil, Sicilian Eggplant and Olive, Hearty Artichoke Tomato, Sicilian Olive and Wild Caper, and Spicy Tuscan Tomato. Made in Italy without added water, sugar or artificial ingredients, the sauces are cooked in small batches using San Marzano tomatoes. The results are brighter-tasting sauces with the vibrant flavor of fresh tomatoes. The sauces are perfect tossed with pasta, used as a bruschetta topping, or for simmering seafood or poultry. The 25.5-ounce jars ($7.99) are available at Andronico's and Lunardi's markets.

Alfajores (al-fa-HO-res) are South American shortbread cookies that date back to the Moorish occupation of Andalusia. And they are just plain delicious. Split Bean Coffee of Van Nuys uses an old family recipe that dates back to the late 1800s to create their take on the cookie sandwiches. Their fresh, buttery cookies come in two sizes and seven flavors, with fillings including traditional dulce de leche and such inventive ones as raspberry and guava. You can also get them dipped in chocolate. A dozen standard-size or two dozen bitesize.

The 2-year-old company also sells Nicaraguan coffee, chocolate truffles, toffee and homemade flavored marshmallows. For more information, go to www.splitbeancoffee.com or call (818) 448-5185.

Finally, a bottled low-fat, creamy salad dressing that isn't full of weird thickening agents. Galeos of Costa Mesa has created Miso Dressings that get their silky texture from, yes, Japanese fermented soybean paste.

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