Banana bread is a pretty common thing to make when you have a couple of bananas on the kitchen counter that are simply too soft, too blackened, and look too unappealing to peel and eat. For some reason I overbuy bananas all the time so I bake banana bread pretty frequently. I’ve tried dozens of recipes but the best one I’ve found by far is from one of my favorite bakers, Flo Braker. You can find it in The San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook and I’ve probably baked at least 30 loaves and probably many more using this recipe.

Although it bakes up great as written, the recipe is very forgiving and stands up to a variety of substitutions and additions. I’ve used brown sugar instead of granulated sugar. I’ve used half whole-wheat flour and half all-purpose flour. I’ve added tablespoons of flax meal, oatmeal, and wheat germ. Sometimes I use pecans, sometimes no nuts at all. Ditto with the chocolate chips (butterscotch chips are perfectly acceptable too). I’ve also traded out the buttermilk for 2% milk, 1% milk, and whole milk. One time I added diced pears with the bananas and I’ve been known to throw in dried cherries or dried cranberries. The resulting bread is always a little different in taste and texture but it is unfailingly delicious.

Try it yourself. I want to hear all about the crazy ingredients you put in and what you left out.

This version uses pecans, mini chocolate chips, flax seed, and 1/2 whole-wheat, 1/2 all-purpose flour.

Banana Chocolate Chip Bread
(from The San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook)

This recipe is from Flo Braker who writes about baking for the newspaper.

1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup finely chopped toasted walnuts
1 cup mashed banana (about 2 medium bananas)
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Adjust the rack in the lower third of the oven; preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan.

Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large bowl. Stir in the walnuts.

Combine the banana, eggs, buttermilk, oil and vanilla; add to the flour mixture. Stir until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 1 hour and 15 to 20 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the loaf comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in the pan, then turn the loaf out onto a rack to cool completely.
Slice thinly to serve.

Serves 16

Amy Treadwell
Editor

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What’s your favorite type and way to serve salumi? Let me know and enter to win a copy of Salumi.

Spaghetti alla carbonara (Spaghetti with Pancetta and Eggs)

This is the quintessential Roman pasta. Cooks commonly disagree about the amount of black pepper, the proper ratio of pancetta (Romans actually prefer guanciale, cured pig’s cheek, which is hard to find in the United States) and whether it should be allowed to crisp, or if the cheese should be Parmesan only or part Parmesan and part pecorino. No matter what they decide, the pasta will be delicious. True carbonara contains only pancetta, eggs, and cheese—no cream. Because our supermarket eggs do not have the flavor or color of the golden yolks of Roman eggs, you can add an extra yolk to the mixture.

Wine Dolcetto, Valpolicella, Trebbiano, or Frascati

Serves 8 as a first course or 6 as a main course

3/4 pound pancetta, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
2 tablespoons salt
3 whole eggs plus 2 egg yolks
6 tablespoons grated pecorino cheese
6 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 pound spaghetti
4 teaspoons unsalted butter
4 teaspoons olive oil

Unroll each pancetta slice and cut it crosswise into 1/4-inch-wide pieces. Set aside.

Bring a large pot filled with water to a boil. Drop in the salt and then the pasta, stir well, and cook until al dente, according to package directions.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the whole eggs and egg yolks, the cheeses, and the pepper. Place the bowl near the stove or on a warming shelf.

In a sauté pan, melt the butter with the olive oil over medium heat. Add the pancetta and cook, stirring occasionally, until a layer of bubbles appears in the pan, about 7 minutes. The pancetta will be cooked but not crisp.

When the pasta is al dente, drain it and add it to the egg mixture. Immediately add the hot pancetta and most of the drippings, and toss very quickly to combine. The sauce should be a thick, creamy liquid. Taste and add more cheese and pepper, if desired.

Divide immediately among warmed pasta bowls and serve at once. This pasta does not reheat so make just enough.

Variation with Vegetables Although it is not authentic, you can add a vegetable to lighten this very rich pasta. Cook 1/2 cup shelled peas, a small handful of broccoli florets, or 1/2 cup cut-up asparagus (1-inch pieces) in boiling salted water until tender yet still quite firm. Refresh under cold running water to halt the cooking and set the color, and drain again. When the pasta is a minute or two away from being al dente, drop the vegetable into the pasta pot to warm through briefly. Drain the pasta and vegetables and proceed as directed.

Purchase Salumi.

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Peter Perez
Senior Marketing Manager

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Sunny McCoskey, the main character in Nadia Gordon’s Sunny McCoskey Napa Valley Mysteries is a serious foodie. Most of Sunny’s time is spent in California’s verdant Napa Valley solving murders and other quandaries. Nadia Gordon has given us a taste of where Sunny would eat and drink if she were to spend a weekend in the foodie heaven also known as San Francisco.

How to Eat Like Sunny McCoskey in San Francisco

There are two great ways to start a day of hardcore eating in San Francisco, and they’re both in the Mission. If it’s a weekday, then it has to be Tartine. Not fertile ground for the grapefruit and wheat germ crowd, the thing to get is a morning bun crackling with buttery sugar and a sublimely creamy cappuccino, then take your seat, if you can find one, among the apparently endless supply of hip-looking local freelancers. If it’s a weekend, head for Universal Café. Hopefully, you drank a little too much last night (extra points if you’re still dolled up in your club gear) and could really use a bellyful of ballast in the form of French toast with apple-quince compote, pumpkin seed praline, and whipped cream, or perhaps soft scrambled eggs with spinach and sharp white cheddar, mixed greens, and toast, or else poached eggs and creamy polenta with leeks, wild mushrooms, and sun-dried tomato pesto. Be sure to order a side of banana bread with cream cheese for the table, otherwise whoever got the French toast will be besieged by uninvited bite-nabbers. Beware the bottomless coffee cup. I’ve left the place hovering a few feet above the sidewalk.

You’re probably good until dinner, but why not squeeze in a little lunch, since you’re here? Many restaurants have tried and failed to unseat Slanted Door, but it remains my favorite lunch spot, now at home in the Ferry Building Marketplace on the Embarcadero. You can’t sit outside, but you can have a lovely walk by the bay getting there, strolling past the palm trees and the oversized partially embedded bow-and-arrow sculpture no one seems to understand the meaning of. And of course there’s the whole Marketplace to explore, with its gourmet cheeses, chocolates, wines, and whatever else you could need. Once at Slanted Door, I like to order the grapefruit and jicama salad and the chicken clay pot with chilies and fresh ginger and something from the delightful collection of German Rieslings that pair beautifully with most everything on the menu. I also like the staff at Slanted Door. Our waiters always seem to be nice people who are knowledgeable about the food and wine being served. Go figure! Slanted Door also serves afternoon tea 2:30 to 5:30 daily, which is a great little squeeze-in meal with rolls and noodles and tea to get you through to dindins. (As you head back outside, make a left on Embarcadero and stroll down to TCHO, San Francisco’s only chocolate factory. Stop at their beta store to sample the excellent product and you might just meet the makers themselves.)

Speaking of dinner, it’s time to spruce up and head to Quince in Pac Heights. No matter where you start, even if it’s a couple of states away, wear comfortable shoes and walk so you’re sure to have an appetite. I still regret the last few bites I sent off to the compost heap at my last visit. Wine list? Amazing. Bring your wallet. Pastas? Yes, please, several. Heavenly local organic produce rendered delicious in inventive but not silly ways? Yep. What about the meat? Is there no meat? Relax, there is meat, and it’s wonderful. If you’ve been to Oliveto in Oakland, Bay Wolf in Piedmont, or Chez Panisse in Berkeley, you have an idea of what to expect, which is to say simplicity in the Mediterranean vernacular executed at its near-perfect best.

There are perhaps fifty more places we should really patronize before dawn to say that we truly ate our way through the best of San Francisco, but I’m sure you’re ready to dance the night away by now, or else flop on a bench down the street from the restaurant and moan in a happy agony of excess. Tomorrow is another day, which you might start with a jolt of Blue Bottle Coffee and chase with a cupcake or two from Miette, but that’s another story. Hang on, there’s still time to roadtrip up to San Rafael for pollo al horno and plantains at Sol Food. Open until 2am on Friday and Saturday nights!

Cheers,
Hannah
Entertainment Marketing Manager

Nadia Gordon’s newest Sunny McCloskey Mystery, Lethal Vintage, is available now. Read an excerpt!

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Credit crisis or not, everyone needs to get dressed, so you might as well look good! Refresh your spring/summer wardrobe with bold pops of color. Start with a monochromatic base in your best neutral—such as white tee & jeans or cropped pants—and add bright colors from there!

Make a statement this season with bright jewelry. Pick up an oversize necklace to throw over that perfect summer dress. Or collect chunky bangles to wear with suits. We always love coral, but this season super-size it! Go for coral if you’re a sun or an earth or turquoise if you’re a moon or star. Learn more about your color type here.

Easy and inexpensive instant updates for women are always accessories. Whether it’s a bold scarf, colorful pair of eyewear, a bag, wedge, sandal, or espadrilles, use your color charts from Life in Color to be sure you’re on target.

Giveaway
See the world in color! Our friends at Bausch & Lomb are giving away an eye care package featuring a contact lens travel kit, multipurpose solution, rewetting drops, anti-itch drops, and emollient lubricating drops. Tell us your color type in the comments to win!

Nancy Deane
Senior Marketing Manager

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Your local Peet’s Coffee isn’t the only place designers can go for a change of scene or a jolt to the brain. And, believe it or not, the internet is not the only space for design communities.

If you’re a freelancer working from home you might occasionally miss the company of coworkers. Jelly is a “causal” work meeting group set up for this very purpose. The host provides a place to sit, wireless internet, invites interesting people to “talk to, collaborate with, and bounce ideas off of.” Started by Amit Gupta and Luke Crawford in New York, it has since spread around the country and anyone can start a “Jelly.” They just suggest that you “bring a laptop (or whatever you need to get work done) and a friendly disposition.”

In the same spirit of cross-pollination, Japan-based architects Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Tokyo’s Klein-Dytham Architecture (KDa) started Pecha Kucha. The idea was to provide a place for young designers to meet, network, and show their work—keeping it fun and casual, like the pub culture from Dytham’s native England.

Pecha Kucha is now being hosted in more than 170 cities around the world. Generally over drinks, a dozen or so presenters show 20 slides, spending 20 seconds on each slide. So the presentations are many and concise—a mixture of architects, graphic designers, industrial designers, and artists.

The next Pecha Kucha in San Francisco is May 1. I signed up to show slides on Chronicle’s publishing design. Yikes! The lineup includes architect Peter Anderson, Efe Cakarel of the online film hub The Auteurs, and Pecha Kucha founder himself Mark Dytham. So if you’re in San Francisco come on by!

Suzanne LaGasa
Designer

P.S. Check out AIGA’s site to find other design-friendly events, talks, exhibitions, and happy hours—whether to hobnob, share ideas, or just have a good time with people who get a kick out of discussing the latest soft drink logo redesign.

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