The following is from City of Treats, a food and drink newsletter by Abridged senior food editor Benjy Egel. Want it sent directly to your inbox? Sign up here.
Two months after its founding, City of Treats has surpassed 2,000 subscribers. I don’t get to do this work without your support, so here’s a “thank you” present.
Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street, which airs programming on KVIE and other PBS stations around the country, is hosting a livestreamed holiday cooking class on Dec. 17. These 75-minute digital classes normally cost $29.95. For you, my loyal readers, this one is free.
How so? Just register in advance on Milk Street’s Eventbrite page, and enter the code “SACRAMENTO” when prompted. You’ll get an invitation to the Zoom link after registering. The class has a cap, but we’re announcing it here first before informing other KVIE supporters, so you shouldn’t have any issue signing up if you act reasonably quickly.
Taught by Milk Street director of education Rosemary Gill and associate director of education April Dodd, the class will walk through butter-braised mashed potatoes, Brussels sprouts with cranberries, pears and goat cheese and a dark chocolate-coffee-cardamom terrine. You’re welcome to cook along in real time, or sit back and drop questions in the chat for knowledge to tuck away.
Thanks again for supporting Abridged and City of Treats. Here’s to a joyful holiday season, however you celebrate.
Benjy’s Bites
Here’s my favorite item or two from a local restaurant this week. Send me yours at begel@kvie.org.
Tealicious | 5101 Freeport Blvd., Sacramento | 916-758-5179
Tealicious’ crispy pork has layers of meat, fat and fried skin. (Benjy Egel)
Sactown Magazine’s winter edition, available now on newsstands across the region, includes two chefs raving about a surprising restaurant: Tealicious. The boba shop in an Asian-heavy Hollywood Park strip mall has a surprisingly robust Chinese barbecue operation hiding behind its doors, with poultry hanging from hooks in a kitchen window and a central section on the long menu.
The crispy pork ($14) isn’t to be missed, as Restaurant XO/Last Supper Society chef Byron Hughes told Sactown Mag. Slabs of pork belly with layers of meat, fat and crackly skin stacked up on the plate next to hoisin dipping sauce. I’m also a fan of the roasted duck ($17.50 for a half, $32.50 for a whole), a juicy marquee item served with sweet-and-sour sauce. Tealicious’ signature passion fruit tea ($7.50), made with green tea and a restrained amount of sugar, was a delightful accompaniment jammed with pineapple, orange and apple slices.
Egel’s Nest
I live, play and cook in this community just like you. This recurring section is a window into my life outside of restaurants and bars, always with a food and/or drink angle.
My grandma gets help around the house from a crew of wonderful women, and we all benefited from their Filipino cooking when visiting for Thanksgiving. Pancit, rice noodles tossed with shrimp, veggies and pork, landed on the table along with Thanksgiving leftovers on Black Friday, and buko pandan (young coconut, green pandan jelly chunks and condensed milk) followed for dessert. One woman’s mother-in-law also whipped up scratchmade tamales with their bonus Thanksgiving turkey — maybe next year, Zoe B. Soderstrom?
In The News
Young Sacramento eaters are ditching Yelp for Beli, a dining review app based around social networks rather than anonymous recommendations. Its fans include Chris Barnum-Dann, the chef/owner of Localis and Betty Wine Bar & Bistro. Read more from contributor Chris Woodard here.
Forget the grocery store: some hunters traipse Yolo County woodlands and El Dorado pine forests for wild turkeys each Thanksgiving. The meat “can be incredibly flavorful,” as one hunter told Daniel Hennessy.
Still working your way through Thanksgiving leftovers? Try stuffing them in Chinese bao, “Cooking In Season” recipe developer Zoe B. Soderstrom wrote.
Happening This Week
- A self-guided “Holidays in the Hills” tasting tour will take over the Placer Wine Trail on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Tickets are $60 for tastes from more than two dozen wineries, with ugly sweaters encouraged and a supplemental toy drive.
- LadyBird Tea House is hosting its second annual Vegan Holiday Market on Saturday in Fair Oaks Village. Canon is also hosting a holiday market on Sunday in East Sacramento, including bottle sales of the restaurant’s wine.
- Pancho Villa BBQ’s brick-and-mortar restaurant opens Wednesday at 6716 Madison Ave. in Fair Oaks. Tammy Chavez and Alberto Hernandez have served tri-tip tortas, pulled pork burritos and other Cali-Mex barbecue dishes from their food truck since 2020.
Benjy Egel is the senior food editor at Abridged. Born and raised in the Sacramento region, he has covered its local restaurants and bars since 2018. He also writes and edits Abridged’s weekly food and drink newsletter, City of Treats.