August 27th, 2007
A few years ago when I actually attended a cooking school through HomeChef, the instructors strongly suggested that if you were going to cut corners in making pasta sauce, at least use the boxed stuff, like the Pomi Chopped Tomatoes, in place of chopping up tomatoes yourself. Any admittance of using a jar of tomato sauce or a can of chopped tomatoes was looked down upon as the ultimate cop out and sacrifice of taste and freshness.
Why? Apparently the sweet and tangy taste of tomatoes is compromised by canning it in those tin things. Jars of sauce are guilty of having lots of sugar and water added to them.
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Filed under: Italy, Kitchen | No Comments »
August 25th, 2007
Hit with a bout lately of work leaving precious free time left to cook a nice tomato sauce from scratch, I happened on this bargain at the local San Francisco Trader Joe’s.
Their Recipe #99: Traditional Marinara Sauce jar of spaghetti sauce sells for a whopping, brace yourselves, 99 cents! Yes, that’s $0.99, less than $1 (without tax) and all that. You’ve got to appreciate how they’re able to do this, when probably the most expensive piece of this purchase is the glass jar.
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June 26th, 2007
Pauline’s Pizza
260 Valencia
San Francisco, CA
415-552-2050
Tu-Sat 5-10pm
Dine-in or Take-out
Next to the old Levi Strauss building lies a clean, well-lit restaurant (not pizza parlor) that happens to serve kick-ass thin-crust pizza. The secret is in the fresh vegetables that are sourced from their own gardens in Berkeley and Angels’ Camp.
Though not dirt cheap, these pizzas provide great value in a nice ambience. I tried the Pesto (Medium, $13.50), and the Italian Combination (Medium, $17.25). The pesto is drizzled onto the pie after it’s baked. I usually sprinkle a ton of chili peppers and parmesan cheese on my pizzas by default, but this one was perfect without any additional tweaking.
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Filed under: Mission, Italy, Meals more than $15 per main course | No Comments »
May 4th, 2007
Osteria
3277 Sacramento Street
(between Lyon St & Presidio Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94115
(415) 771-5030
After a trusted friend recommended this place as a great value, locals secret in Laurel Heights, I went to Osteria for some Italian food. My friend was right! I had always thought that, being on Sacramento Street, the bustling Italian restaurant was for higher-income budgets. Well, as another friend always says… rich people are rich ‘cuz deep down they like bargains, too. 
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Filed under: Italy, Meals from $5-15 per main course, Budget | No Comments »
A few years ago when I actually attended a cooking school through HomeChef, the instructors strongly suggested that if you were going to cut corners in making pasta sauce, at least use the boxed stuff, like the Pomi Chopped Tomatoes, in place of chopping up tomatoes yourself. Any admittance of using a jar of tomato sauce or a can of chopped tomatoes was looked down upon as the ultimate cop out and sacrifice of taste and freshness.