Food on Fazal Majid's low-intensity blog

Dardenne dark milk chocolate praliné

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 15:14:23 +0000

It’s been a while since I last did a chocolate review. There are not many bars that can claim to be made using a patented process invented by a Nobel laureate. The Dardenne Lait Praliné (dark milk chocolate with ground hazelnuts) is one.

The special cooking process was invented in 1910 by Paul Sabatier (Chemistry Nobel, 1912) to make chocolate easier to digest for people who don’t tolerate it well. In any case, this is an organic and Fairtrade bar with a moderately high 43% cacao content (for milk chocolate).

My top 100 things to eat in San Francisco

Thu, 30 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Incomplete,never finished, and probably completely out of date after the aftermath of coronavirus. Check out my foodie map instead (although most likely just as out of date).

The caramelized onion and sesame baguette at Noe Valley Bakery
The chocolate-cherry breakfast bread at Noe Valley Bakery
The combination seafood salad at Swan’s Oyster Bar
~~The clam chowder at Ferry Plaza Seafood~~
The mushroom pizza at Delarosa
The salted caramel ice cream at Bi-Rite Creamery
The “crunchy sticks” (sesame-poppyseed-cheese twists) at Esther’s German Bakery (available at Rainbow Grocery and on Thursdays at the Crocker Galleria)
The El Rey chocolate toffee semifreddo at Bix (seasonal)
The pistachio macaroons at Boulette’s Larder
The burnt caramel and chocolate covered hazelnuts at Michael Recchiuti
The chocolate feuilletine cake at Miette
The belly buster burger at Mo’s Grille
The hazelnut hot chocolate at Christopher Elbow
The princess cake at Schubert’s Bakery
The ricciarellis (soft bitter-almond macaroons) at Arizmendi
The Charlemagne chocolate feuilletine cake and chocolate chip financiers at Charles Chocolates, when they have them
The chocolate hazelnut tarts at Tartine
The croissant at Tartine
The caramelized hazelnut financier at Craftsman and Wolves
The bordeaux cherry ice cream at Swensen’s, in a cone and dipped in chocolate (the ice cream itself, not the cone)
The flatbread at Universal Café
The Umami truffle burger
Captain Mike’s smoked tuna (Ferry Plaza farmer’s market)
The mushroom empañadas at El Porteño
The Tcho chocolate liquid nitrogen ice cream at Smitten
~~The macarons at Chantal Guillon~~
~~Pine nut Bacetti (Howard & 9th)~~
The Atomica pizza at Gialina’s
The salted hazelnut and chocolate shortbread at Batter Bakery
The chocolate velvet cupcake at Kara’s Cupcakes
The lobster roll at Woodhouse Fish Co.
~~The gianduja and pistachio at Coletta Gelato~~
The croissants and pains au chocolat at Arsicault (Arguello & Clement)
The lasagna served bubbling hot from the oven at Pazzia
~~The wild mushroom benedict at Mission Beach Café~~
The farm egg ravioli at Cotogna
The cioppino (spicy tomato-fish stew) at The Tadich Grill
The sada (plain) dosa at Dosa Fillmore
The French and Fries burger at Roam Artisan Burgers
The lasagna at Trattoria di Vittorio
The oyster fish & chips at Pacific Catch
The croissants and kouingn amann at B Pâtisserie
The Gianduja (chocolate hazelnut mousse) cake at Café Madeleine
The funghi misti (wild mushroom) pizza at Beretta
The pistachio ice-cream at Marco Polo
The crab cioppino at Sotto Mare
The foccacia at Liguria Bakery
The almond cookies at Victoria Pastry Co.
The Grandma Mary’s pizza at Slice House
Pretty much everything at Hook Fish Co.
Hand-made pasta at A Mano
Hand-made pasta at Barzotto, specially the pappardelle with braised beef ragu if they have it
The Belgian fries with dips, served in a cone, at Frjtz
The daily ice cream flavors at Mr & Mrs. Miscellaneous
The deli sandwiches at Cheese Plus
The deli sandwiches at Blue Fog Market
The deli sandwiches at Canyon Market
The deli sandwiches at Le Beau Mob Hill
The deli sandwiches at The Sentinel
Brunch at Petit Crenn
The sandwiches at B To Go, offshoot of B Pâtisserie
The sandwiches at Rhea’s, on Valencia
The quiches and pot pies at Café Madeleine
The ice cream at Humphry Slocombe

Divine Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Truffle

Tue, 19 Aug 2014 23:24:25 +0000

Divine Chocolate is owned by a Ghanaian cocoa farmers’ cooperative. All the profits go back to the farmers, unlike the “Fairtrade” scam where the expensive certification primarily benefits self-aggrandizing Western auditors and marketers. For that reason alone it is a brand I would like to love. Unfortunately, my experience with their products to date has been underwhelming—not bad per se, just very ho-hum.

I experienced chocolate cravings today and stopped by the SF SOMA Whole Foods despite its mediocre range (Whole Foods’ selection is mostly abysmal, but they are the only grocery within walking distance of my office). They had a new bar by Divine, and I tried it out. This tuned out to be good call.

My favorite hamburgers in San Francisco

Sun, 02 May 2010 05:10:58 +0000

(updated 2013-04-21)

See also this list of cloth napkin burgers.

Bix
Mission Beach Cafe
Marlowe
Roam
Umami
Slow Club
Magnolia
Mos Grille
Custom Burger
Bistro Burger
Super Duper
In-n-Out

As a bonus, the most overrated burgers:

The Burger Bar in Macys—the Las Vegas one was OK, but the SF one is a wreck, far worse than even a McDonalds, with inedibly gristly meat the one and last time I had the misfortune to go.
Zuni Cafe—the shoestring fries are lovely, but the burger itself blah
Joes Cable Car—OK, but nothing to write home about
Five Guys—this East Coast chain is starting to make an appearance in the Peninsula (they have a location at Tanforan), it’s OK but I can’t understand the rave reviews

Amano Ocumare Milk

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 06:04:02 +0000

Amano, based in Salt Lake City, makes the best chocolate in the USA, their Ocumare bar, using only Venezuelan criollo cacao (the best in the world).

The founder, Art Pollard (photo taken 2 years ago at Fog City News in San Francisco) claims he gets superior results from roasting at high altitude in Salt Lake City, but I think superior conching technique is primarily to credit.
They recently introduced milk chocolate bars, the Jembrana and Ocumare. Despite its lovely green wrapper, the Jembrana leaves to be desired — it just doesn’t taste chocolatey enough. The Ocumare Milk comes through with wonderful texture, a rich, complex cocoa flavor while avoiding over-sweetness, the downfall of too many milk chocolates, specially in the USA.
It also avoids the harshness of some bars made by chocolatiers new to the world of milk chocolate — the abysmal Scharffen-Berger 68% cocoa “dark milk” bar comes to mind.

Ty Couz

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:16:32 +0000

One of the best values in San Francisco dining, their $8.50 scallop galette (Breton for buckwheat crêpe).

Update (2012-07-13):

Sadly, it closed a few months ago.

Mission to Marzipan

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 05:48:05 +0000

Is a new Ben & Jerry flavor I heartily endorse.

Anthony’s Cookies grand opening

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 00:44:24 +0000

Another gourmet treats shop joined the burgeoning scene in the Mission. Anthony’s Cookies opened today to a line that stretched around the corner.

As one of the officials present said, it takes courage to start a business in this economic climate. Specially in as business-hostile a city as San Francisco, if I may add.

Inside the store was a buzzing hive of activity, with the eponymous proprietor busy preparing batches of free cookies for the awaiting hordes. At $5 for a half dozen, these cookies are a steal. I tried the double chocolate chip, it came fresh from the oven and had a strong chocolate aroma and the right texture. All in all, a great addition to a neighborhood that already has more than its share of good places to indulge a sweet tooth. I added him to my Google map of recommended bakeries, ice cream parlors and sweet shops in San Francisco.

r n m restaurant

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 06:39:19 +0000

I have just eaten what is hands-down my best meal of the year at r n m restaurant (their capitalization, not mine), on Haight & Steiner in the Duboce Park/Lower Haight district of San Francisco (not to be confused with the formerly raffish and now utterly commercialized Haight-Ashbury).

The restaurant is named after the chef-owner Justine Miner’s father, Robert Miner, a co-founder of Oracle. The food was so good I am almost ready to forgive Oracle for their sleazy extortion tactics…

Christopher Elbow chocolates

Wed, 14 May 2008 05:32:27 +0000

A few months ago, a new chocolate shop opened in Hayes Valley. Christopher Elbow chocolates is based in Kansas City, not a place that immediately springs to mind when the Great American Chocolate Renaissance is discussed. I had bought some of their products from Cocoa Bella, however, and knew they were good, if pricey.

They sell moderately expensive chocolate bars (the No. 10 41% milk chocolate with hazelnuts is pretty good), drinking chocolate, and bouchéees. The latter are a little too bleeding edge for my taste (spices do not belong in chocolate), but the Bourbon Pecan is to die for, a light and moist, pecan marzipan, almost creamy despite the deliberately roughly chopped texture, and topped with ganache. Not surprisingly, it is usually sold out at the other outlets..