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.
The end of the year typically means looking back and looking ahead. What were the highs and lows of 2025? What are your resolutions, your hopes, your manifestations for 2026?
It’s been a big year, to be sure, not the least of which was leaving my previous job to help launch Abridged. And I’m looking forward to deepening routines and horizon-expanding travels in the year ahead. But as December draws to a close, I’m trying to appreciate New Year’s Eve for simply the holiday it is: the annual gathering with friends, the shareable dips and dishes spread out on a table, the sparklers and spectacle, the night my parents let me try my first sip of Champagne (disgusting).
My favorite New Year’s Eve came in Barcelona when I was 18. We wanted a bite out but hadn’t made dinner reservations, which turned out to be a near-fatal error (don’t be like me — check out the Sacramento-area restaurants still accepting reservations at the bottom of this newsletter).
Fortunately, one restaurant was able to slot us into a no-show’s table. We didn’t know what the menu was or even the price, which thankfully turned out to be very reasonable. But once we sat down, the courses arrived one after another: zucchini-and-cheese soup, grilled veggies and hummus, skewered chicken marsala over noodles, rack of lamb with potatoes, 10 courses in all. It was a testament to the possibilities spontaneity offers, and one of my life’s most memorable meals.
Just before midnight, our server brought over cups of a dozen grapes for each person. The Spanish custom, as we learned, is to eat a grape each time the local clock tower bell chimes at midnight, a good luck charm that results in “Chubby Bunny” levels of cheeks-stuffedness. I now force the tradition on my California friends with one tweak: with few clock tower bells around these parts, we pop the grapes in the final 12 seconds of the closing year.
Whatever your New Year’s Eve traditions, I hope it’s a wonderful evening celebrated with loved ones, great food and the drinks that bring you joy. See you in 2026!
Benjy’s Bites
Here’s my favorite item or two from a local restaurant this week. Send me yours at begel@kvie.org.
Hanoi 36 Streets | 3262 J St., Sacramento | 916-917-6410
Most of the U.S.’s Vietnamese immigrants came from southern Vietnam in the 1970s and 80s, and that region’s cuisine is well-represented in Sacramento-area restaurants. So it’s always exciting to find a place like Hanoi 36 Streets, named for Hanoi’s Old Quarter with a mural of Hoàn Kiếm Lake on its western wall, that specializes in Northern Vietnamese food.
That means appetizers such as dồi sụn ($15), an herbaceous sausage starter bound together with chewy cartilage and served with a chili dipping sauce. Phở tái lăn ($16 small/$18 large) is another Northern specialty at the East Sacramento restaurant, its thin beef slices fried with garlic in beef tallow before going in broth with your choice of noodles: dried and thin, or fresh and wide. For a familiar dish done exceptionally well, try the grilled chicken or pork vermicelli bowl ($17), a refreshing mix of chilled noodles, vegetable slivers and hint of heat that I’ve bookmarked for summer.
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.
We often spend the weekend after Christmas with my food-loving aunt and uncle, winding down the holiday hullaballoo with maybe a walk or a puzzle. This past Saturday, I came home to chips and salsa, mushroom dip, a cheese plate and a sectioned bowl of five different nuts or Asian snack mixes, with apple cider simmering on the stovetop.
But all eyes turned when my uncle removed the plastic wrap from his leek-cheese-za’atar rugelach, made using a recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi’s 2024 cookbook “Comfort.” This savory take on an Ashkenazi Jewish cookie was packed with feta, cheddar and cream cheese, encompassed in a cream cheese dough that rode the line of flaky and chewy. On a day full of choice food and company, it stood out.
In the news
Beer, tea, soda and sake tend to accompany Asian meals. But a wave of Northern California winemakers, from Amador County to Napa, are developing wines specifically to pair with Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese and Korean dishes. Longtime local wine writer Mike Dunne has the story.
Chris Woodard’s Sacramento County journey began when his family moved to Rancho Cordova, AKA “The Cho.” It’s easy to spend a great day in the suburb, as he illustrated for a recurring Abridged series. Start with a bagel, head to KP International Market and close it out with some of the region’s best kebabs, with other activities sprinkled in between meals.
Zoe B. Soderstrom’s latest Cooking in Season recipe isn’t a dish, but the coziest boozy drink for cold weather: mulled wine. She used pomegranate juice, oranges, a splash of orange liqueur and a bevy of spices to come up with a juicy, full-bodied version centered around a bottle of Zinfandel or Cabernet.
Happening this week
- Looking to end 2025 with a bang? Local restaurants with prix-fixe New Year’s Eve dinner menus (and available reservations as of Monday) include Daniello’s in Roseville, Franquette in West Sacramento, Restaurant Josephine in Auburn, Allora in East Sacramento and Alaro Craft Brewery in Midtown Sacramento.
- The Trax: Off the Rails held its grand opening Saturday at 400 Lincoln Blvd. in Lincoln, offering craft beer and pub grub indoors or on a heated patio. It’s an expansion from The Trax Taproom and Kitchen in Roseville, which owner Akmal Zadran opened in 2022.
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.