A Holiday Feast

Christmas is a time for enjoying time with family and friends; a time to slow down and appreciate the people you love. In my family, Christmas has always been a big deal, and we all enjoy gathering together in my parent's home for sharing stories about the previous year, good conversation, and of course great food. Typically, we have the standard fare; honey-glazed ham, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and of course, cornbread stuffing. Not that there is ever anything wrong with the old stand-bys, nothing at all. It's just sometimes, they can get a little bit, well, boring. So this year, my dad and I decided to dress things up a bit and make a few dishes that may have been a little unexpected, but made the meal exciting and really delicious.

Anyone who has spent any part of winter in the Central Valley knows that it gets cold, wicked cold. (Ok, maybe not mid-west cold, but California cold, alright?) And if there is one thing that helps warm the body and the soul on a cold winter night, it's a bowl of hot soup. So instead of just diving into the traditional meal head first, I decided to start Christmas Day dinner off with a Carrot Ginger soup.

Carrot Ginger Soup
1/4 cup butter
2 medium onions, chopped
2 tablespoons grated peeled fresh ginger root
1 1/2 lbs carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
6 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

In a stockpot, melt butter over medium heat. Saute onions until translucent, about 5 min. Add slivers of ginger, more or less to taste. 2 Tbs. can be a little overwhelming for some, so add or subtract as you see fit. I found grating ginger to be frustrating and time consuming, so I just used a vegetable peeler to make long slivers of fresh ginger. I added about 12 slivers, and it came out just right, but that can vary on the pungency of the ginger and your own personal taste.

After cooking ginger for 2 minutes, add chopped carrots and stock. I added about 5 cups of stock and left 1 cup in reserve in case I needed more liquid. It turned out 5 cups was perfect. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook about 20 minutes, or until carrots are tender.

Working in batches, using a blender or food processor, blend mixture until smooth. Pour the soup back into the stock pot, and heat on low until hot. Salt & pepper to taste.

Next came a tasty update on an old favorite; the staple that anchors the whole meal. Mashed potatoes. But this time, we made Garlic Rosemary Mashed Red Potatoes.

Garlic Rosemary Mashed Red Potatoes
5 lbs red potatoes
6 - 8 cloves of garlic
4 sprigs of rosemary
1 cup milk

Peel potatoes, leaving half of the skin on each potato in alternating strips. Boil potatoes and drain. Using whatever blunt instrument you have available, preferably a potato masher, mash the potatoes into thick chunks. Using a garlic press, add the cloves of garlic one at a time. Peel the leaves off the sprigs of rosemary, chop roughly, and add to potatoes. Add half of the milk and mix with an electric hand mixer. Combine the rest of the milk with the potatoes to smooth out the texture. Add more milk to taste.

No Christmas dinner would be complete without the centerpiece: The Christmas ham.
But my dad and I wanted to make the ham with a twist. And any reason to open a good bottle of bourbon in the kitchen is ok with me.

Ham With Bourbon, Molasses, and Pecan Glaze
1/2 cup apple juice (preferably fresh unfiltered)
1/4 cup bourbon (I like Maker's Mark)
1 3/4 cups (packed) dark brown sugar
1 cup pecans, toasted, cooled, finely ground
1/4 cup mild-flavored (light) molasses
3 tablespoons dry mustard

1 whole bone-in 16- to 18-pound ham

Boil juice and bourbon in small saucepan until reduced to scant 1/3 cup, about 6 minutes. Combine sugar, pecans, molasses, and mustard in bowl. Add bourbon mixture; stir to form thick paste. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Cover; chill. Bring to room temperature before using.)

Position rack in bottom third of oven and preheat to 325°F. Line large roasting pan with heavy-duty foil, leaving overhang on all sides. Trim off skin and all but 1/4 inch fat from ham. Place ham, fat side up, in prepared pan. Roast ham until thermometer inserted into thickest part registers 130°F to 135°F, about 10 minutes per pound or 2 hours 40 minutes for 16-pound ham.

Increase oven temperature to 425. You will have to sort of spakle the glaze onto the ham. Return ham to oven and cook until glaze is deep brown and bubbling, about 25 minutes.

We of course still had our cornbread stuffing, a tasty green bean dish, and what Christmas dinner would be complete without pie? This year's Christmas meal was a wonderful escape from the usual; we succeeded in making an nontraditional dinner that made every one's taste buds wake up. I had a great time sharing the kitchen with my dad, and I think we made a pretty good team. Now I guess we have set a bar that we have to live up to next year.

Thanks to the folks at Recipezaar for the Carrot Ginger Soup recipe, and Epicurious for the Ham with Bourbon, Molasses and Pecan recipe.

Enjoy!!

Pollo Pibil

You might think that after being back state-side for almost a month, I would be over my desires for all things Mexico. Sadly, you would be mistaken. Ok, so I'm not exactly looking at vacation properties on the Yucatan anymore, but I am still thinking about the food. In particular, I have been wanting for some time to make something with "pibil" in the title, so I did my best to re-create a meal I had in Playa del Carmen. The original recipe, for those of you who have never seen "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" is made with pork butt and cooked in banana leaves; however, since there are only two of us and pork butt's tend to be a bit large, I chose two chicken breasts instead, and used foil instead of banana leaves because, well because I don't know where to by banana leaves in The City. So here is my attempt at winging a simple yet very traditional Mexican dish.

Pollo Pibil

2 1/2 Tbs. achiote paste
2 - 3 cups orange juice
1 large yellow onion
6 - 8 garlic cloves
1 small habenero pepper, seeded, deveined and finely diced
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

In a large bowl, dissolve the achiote paste in the orange juice. The paste is tough and sticky, and will take some work to dissolve completely. I recommend using a fork or spoon to smash up the chunks of paste to save yourself time and unwanted wrist strain. The paste will not completely dissolve, and there will usually be a few small clumps at the bottom of the bowl. Try not to worry yourself too much about this fact, realize that no one is perfect, and move on. WARNING! This mixture, which gives the pibil its characteristic deep red color, will have the same affect on your clothing. For this dish, make sure that your cooking clothes are ones you won't mind donating to the dust-rag pile.

Line a baking dish with foil, covering all sides and edges with foil. You want to make sure that there are no gaps through which the sauce can escape. Then loosely lay one more sheet of foil in the pan, folding it up all four sides. Once you have made a nice bed for the chicken, place the two breasts in the dish. Dice your habanero pepper into tiny pieces and stir into the juice mixture. The pepper is hot enough, but if you like even more heat, leave the seeds and veins in. Slice the onion in big, thick rings about 3/4 - 1" thick,leaving the narrowing rings in place and set in the pan with the chicken. Distribute the whole cloves of garlic around the pan. Finally, pour the achiote/orange juice mixture in over the chicken so that it covers the chicken and onions completely. Cover the dish tightly with another sheet of foil, and refrigerate for 1 hour.

With your oven at 375, leave the dish tightly covered with foil and cook the Pollo Pibil for about 1 hour. Leave it alone to cook; with that much liquid in the pan it will not dry out. Just let it do its thing, and worry about something else for an hour.

For a nice side dish, dice 1/2 a yellow onion, and saute until translucent. Before the onion finishes cooking, press about 3 or 4 cloves of garlic into the pan. Take 1 can of black beans and pour into the hot pan, and bring to almost boiling. Add salt and pepper to taste. Once you are ready to serve, sprinkle fresh roughly chopped cilantro over the beans and the pibil.

I have to say, except for almost ruining one of my favorite shirts, this dish was very easy and really quite good. The achiote and orange juice make a very unique flavor, and of course the habanero gives it a great kick. If you can't find achiote paste, which I brought home from Mexico, use fresh annatto seeds, finely ground in a clean coffee grinder. ENJOY!

Vacation Blues

Bienvenidos! Buenos Dias! Hello there friends! We have returned from our adventures along the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico. Back from the beautiful sun, white sand, blue water and cold drinks of an all-inclusive resort in Mexico. Back from room service, beach-side restaurants and amazing food in, you guessed it, Mexico. And, oh yeah, we got hitched! If you can't tell by this point, I am suffering from the vacation blues. Just a little bit. It's not easy being torn away from the lap of luxury in an exotic tropical locale and dropped unceremoniously back into the real world.



But alas, we are back, and I do actually have some fun stuff to talk about, food wise. I don't feel I need to torment you all with each and every bite I took while on holiday, but I will throw out a few high-lights (and low-lights.) First of all, the food at our resort was, well, resort food. The Secrets Capri resort boasts five different restaurants, each with their own theme and menus. Our best bet for breakfast was always the buffet, with food ranging from empanadas to omelets to poached eggs, the buffet had it all, not to mention a bloody Mary and mimosa station, and a fantastic Mexican coffee that is made with cinnamon.
The rest of the restaurants were good, not remarkable, but good. The choices were Italian, seafood, Asian, a steakhouse, and of course, the buffet. Everything we ate was always very well presented and tasty, although the portions were small; but my problem was that none of these things were foods I cannot find anywhere else, in any city or at any hotel in America. There wasn't even a MEXICAN restaurant at the resort in Mexico. When they did do a Mexican menu, like at our rehearsal dinner, it was fantastic, with seafood ceviches, grilled marinated pork, and an assortment of other delicious Mexican foods and deserts to fill our plates and bellies.




One of our best food experiences was while on our excursion out to see the ruins of Tulum and snorkel. Once we decided to take a much-needed lunch break after swimming in the Dos Ojos cenote, our driver took us to the town of Akumal, a small resort town perched on the white sands of the Caribbean. We stopped in a residential area, at a small restaurant with sand for a floor dug snugly into the beach. Our group settled at a long, rough-hewn wood table with a straw thatch shade, not ten feet from the lapping waves of the sea. Not only was the locale idyllic, but the food was amazing as well. Just a simple dish of tacos, chopped beef grilled with vegetables, served hot on a plate with warm, fresh tortillas, and an ice cold Sol cerveza is just about as perfect as you can get. I could have sat at that table on that beach all day, drinking Sol, eating the fresh chips and salsa, tacos and tortillas for the rest of the day and been happy. Very happy. So, so happy.


But, of course, we had things to do, and places to go. Later on in the week, once we had officially been dubbed "Mister and Missus", a few of us made a trip into Playa Del Carmen, a busy little beach town with a happening tourist area called 5th ave. (Not after the street in New York, by the way. It just happens to be 5th Ave.) After poking our heads into a few stores, buying a couple of Cuban cigars, we stopped at one of many Mexican restaurants on the avenue, La Parilla Mexican Grill. The place itself was nothing special, just a restaurant for gringos to trick themselves into thinking they are eating traditional Mexican cuisine. The menu even resembled something you might find at Chevy's. What was memorable about the restaurant was what I found on that menu.



Anyone who has seen the movie "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" will remember Johnny Depp's character, Agent Sands, ordering Puerco Pibil at every restaurant he visits. The dish is such a centerpiece of the film that in the DVD, director Robert Rodriguez walks the viewer through how to make the dish from scratch. The dish is pork, marinated in achiote and orange juice, wrapped in banana leaves, and slow cooked until tender and juicy. With the enthusiasm Rodriguez shows for the dish in the movie, I told myself that I would not leave Mexico without trying some. Well, I never found Puerco Pibil, but I did manage to find Pollo Pibil, the same dish made with chicken. The dish was simple: Chicken and onions marinated with orange juice and achiote, wrapped in banana leaves and foil, and cooked until perfect. The dish was great, although it did not provoke me to go back to the kitchen and shoot the cook. I can't help thinking though that the pork dish would have been that much better.

Mexico was amazing. No, really, I didn't want to leave. There was so much there left to do, so many things left to taste. We never got to go out and have a real, authentic Mexican meal. The food we had was good, no doubt, but it was made for gringo tourists who are afraid to leave their comfort zone of safe Americanized Mexican fare. Next time, we will have to travel further off of the beaten tourist path. I cannot wait to get back; back to the white sand beaches, back to the clear blue water the temperature of bath water, back to ice cold cervezas, and back to the warm and hospitable Mexican people who made our stay so enjoyable. Until next time.

A Fresh Choice in the Marina

I have been neglecting my wonderful blogs and the blogosphere as of late, and I have to get some new stuff up. My absence is excusable, however, as I have been spending my time preparing for my upcoming wedding next Saturday. That wonderful woman I have so often referred to as my fiance will very soon be referred to as my beautiful wife. Yes, dear bloggers, the next time you hear from me I will be a married man. As of Monday, we will hop a plane to Cancun, Mexico for two weeks of sun, sand, blue water and cold beer. I am hoping to come back to you with a few great foodie things to discuss. Hopefully none of them will involve dysentery.



Before we go, I wanted to tell you all about a great new restaurant out in the hip and fashionable Marina of San Francisco. On the corner of Steiner and Chestnut, Lettus Organic Cafe is a refuge from all of the over priced, pretentious restaurants peppering the Marina. The menu is almost totally organic, with each dish being made of fresh, healthy ingredients without tasting like baked cardboard as with many vegetarian dishes. It should be noted that the menu is mostly vegetarian, but with the option of adding grilled chicken, shrimp, or salmon it will satisfy most carnivores looking for a healthy alternative to heavy meat-laden dishes.

The restaurant is fittingly hip for the neighborhood, with sleek minimalistic furniture of light wood and steel, mood lighting through wood slats on the walls, and an open, spacious feel for what is a relatively small space. We stopped at lettus on a weekday around 6:30, and the restaurant was slow but not dead. Word has it on busy nights the line at the order counter can lead out the door. I ordered the spicy red curry with grilled chicken while my fiance tried the udon noodles with tofu. Other than the salmon dishes, every entree is vegetarian, but with the option of adding chicken, shrimp, or tofu. We started with the vegetarian spring rolls, which were served with two dipping sauces; a peanut sauce and a spicy dipping oil. The vegetables were crisp and fresh, and being one of my favorites, the peanut sauce was delicious.

Our entree portions were huge, so much in fact that neither of us cleaned our plates. The red curry was spicy without being overbearing, and was not so saucy that the rice and vegetables were drowned in it. It was just enough to give the dish a great flavor with the grilled chicken and fresh vegetables. My fiances udon noodles were fantastic, served in a tangy broth with tofu and cooked vegetables. For me, it is a testament to a restaurants quality when you want to share your dish with the people at your table, and we both picked off each others plates throughout the meal. The deserts, made totally in-house, are fantastic and made with mostly organic ingredients. I recommend the chocolate cupcakes.

In the spirit of being totally un-pretentious but unabashedly cool, Lettus offers its entire menu to-go, and even offers a daily "grab & go" area for those on the run. The place seems to be popular with the fashionable marina-ites, and I would recommend it for anyone looking for a healthy and fresh alternative without having to venture too deeply into the vegetarian world. For more information on Lettus, check out their website, www.lettusorganic.com.

Thanks are due to my friend Josh Marden who, as a former employee of Lettus, insisted I find the place and try it, and even turned me onto those delightful chocolate cupcakes. Thanks Josh.



So now, it's off to Mexico! See you all in two weeks!

Sunny October

Saturday, after a long Friday of cold weather and drenching rains, our favorite ball of fire decided to poke his head out and clear the clouds away, allow for a great early morning jaunt down to the San Francisco Ferry Building Farmers Market. Normally on a Saturday morning after a long and soul-crushing week at work, I enjoy sleeping in, lounging around whilst drinking coffee, watching cooking shows on PBS, and maybe eventually making an appearance outside for lunch. On this particular Saturday, I somehow woke up at the ungodly hour of 7 a.m. Once my fiance and I were both out of the warm and cozy confines of our bed, we hopped the K-line down to the Embarcadero to find us some good fall fruits and vegetables. And kids, don't be fooled; just because summer has left us doesn't mean that there aren't a bounty of tasty things ripening right now.



Ok, so first stop was to the good people at Frog Hollow Farm, who always have some of the best in-season fruits around. We picked up a few juicy Warren pears after taking full advantage of the sample trays and coming, very judiciously of course, to our decision. We had noticed on our way in while passing the good folks at Cowgirl Creamerythat they were selling fresh Buffalo Mozzarella. Both of us being fans of the combination of mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil, we grabbed a tub of the cheese after finding fresh basil and heirloom tomatoes in the market outside. Even near the end of tomato season, we found some great looking tomatoes, some the size of a baby's head. Seriously. I really can't wait to taste them, with that fresh mozzarella, some basil, and just a splash of olive oil. It's the little things that make me happy.

We meandered through the market a bit more, picking up a huge bunch of grapes from a small farm in Dinuba, which, coincidentally, is where my own dear mum grew up. With our bag heavy and fully laden with fresh produce, we took our leave of the crowded market, but not before grabbing an icy bottle of fresh-squeezed apple & cherry juice. I love me some good apple juice. It was just another lovely day in San Francisco, enjoying the brief respite between rainstorms with the sun showing up for just a little while before he disappears behind the fog for another year.

Sweet Tooth

Now, usually I don't have much of a sweet tooth. I save that job for my fiance. I do enjoy the occasional slice of cheesecake or bowl of ice cream, and we decided to use the Eat Local Challenge this month to try out two of the Mission's best kept secrets. These places are local in all of the best ways: They are small shops who believe in the benefits of using locally grown organic food for all of their delicious treats, and they are home-grown stops who have managed to make names for themselves in a city filled to the brim with gourmet bakeries, pastry shops and eateries.


Bi-Rite Creamery & Bakeshop, an annex of the Bi-Rite Grocery on 18th Street, (pronounced bee-rite, if you are my fiance) serves seasonally-flavored ice creams, sorbets, and specialty items made from locally produced organic ingredients. You can call to find out what flavors are in season, or just drop by and try out whatever sounds good. We got a scoop each of the Balsamic Strawberry and Raspberry with White Chocolate, both of which were some of the best ice cream I have ever tasted. It was so good, I had no problem eating ice cream at 7 'o'clock on a cold and foggy San Francisco evening. Check out their website here: www.biritecreamery.com



Next stop on our search for tasty local treats in the Mission was Mission Pie, a tiny shop on the corner of 25th and Mission. These folks make some amazing pies, made with care by hand with locally grown ingredients. This little pie shop has created quite a following of its own; in fact a lady in line in front of us was buying two pies but for no other reason that she couldn't get enough of their rhubarb. The pie shop is an extension of the Pie Ranch, an organization deditcated to locally produced food and urban renewal. They have recently purchased a ranch on the San Mateo coast to be the headquarters of their production and education programs. The storefront on 25th street sells the final product of all of their hard work. The Pie Ranch organization is the embodiment of local food; a group dedicated to education, sustainable agriculture, and ensuring the fewest steps between the earth and your stomach. Oh, yeah, and they make one hell of a pie. I reccomend both the walnut and the rhubarb. Maybe grab a slice of each. They're just calories, right? Check out the websites here: www.missionpie.com and www.pieranch.org.

Home Grown

This month, the good people at Locavores and the Eat Local Challenge website are hosting their third annual month-long eat local challenge. The challenge, as the name implies, is to eat foods grown and produced locally, generally within a 100 mile radius of your home. This includes finding locally grown produce, meats and dairy products to enjoy at home as well as finding restaurants that support local farmers and use their products in their dishes. Well, yours truly has decided to join in the fun, and will do whatever I can to eat as much bay-area grown food as I can in the coming weeks. I should mention, however, having grown up in the "green-belt" of California, the great Central Valley, I will make allowances for products grown in and around my home town of Lemoore, California. I will, of course, make it a point to find things grown by small, independant, and hopefully organic farmers. But really, home much closer to "Home Grown" can you get when it comes out of your Mother's garden?



Recently we stumbled upon a pair of Jam producers out of the Santa Clara Valley making apricot jam from the rare and endangered Blenheim apricot. The reviews of this small-batch jam were unanimous: It was the best thing anyone had ever tasted. Ever. So, we thought, why should we not try the best tasting jam in the known world, jam that tastes so good it causes seemingly normal people to eat an entire jar in one sitting? Why not, indeed. From a lone Blenheim apricot tree growing in their backyard in the Santa Clara Valley, once a beautiful and prosperous apricot orchard, these two guys began to produce their amazing jam for their family and friends. They then discovered just how fragile and difficult to handle these fruits were, and just how endangered the species had become. As their jam grew in popularity, spreading from their small group of family and friends to others wanting to taste this delicious elixr, they started trying to find more farmers of the apricots to make more of this fantastic jam.

Eric and Phineas, the two knuckleheads just crazy enough to try something like this, are the epitome of locally grown small farm producers. After discovering the nectar of the gods in a small batch of jam from an ancient apricot tree, they began finding other farmers who grow these delicate little drops of heaven to help support the local small farms of the Bay Area and help preserve the Blenheim variety. So far they have succeeded: After years of producing around 100 jars of jam per year, they are up to around 7000 pounds of jam this year. Needless to say, the jam is amazing, and so are the two men behind it. They have dedicated themselves to preserving these wonderful fruits and the people who grow them, a noble cause no matter how you shake it. This is the reason we eat locally for this challenge and all year round. These guys are the reason we make the effort, the reason we spend an extra few minutes thinking about what we put in our mouths. You can read more about these two, their amazing jam, and the fun they have making it here. Then, check out their website, and please, order one of their fine, hand made and carefully prepared products, at www.welovejam.com. The batch of apricot jam is almost gone, so if you want some, you better act fast.

Table For Two

Several nights ago, my fiance and I took a trip to Oakland to celebrate the day of her birth. A couple of weeks prior, we had read in the Chronicle's Food section about a restaurant that would be having its annual Tomato Dinners on that very same day, so we quickly made reservations and began getting excited about eating a dinner inspired completely by tomatoes. Being the height of tomato season, this promised to be quite an amazing and delightful meal. Each year, Oliveto Cafe & Restaurant in Oakland holds their Tomato Dinners, three days of feasting on a menu of brilliantly inspired dishes each with tomatoes as a main ingredient. And yes, that includes the deserts.

Oliveto, a wonderful Italian cafe & restaurant on College Avenue in Oakland, has two dining areas complete with their own menus. The cafe, located downstairs, serves lighter fare consisting of salads, pizzas and pastas for a casual lunch or dinner, and the menu changes daily to go with what is in season. The upstairs restaurant, where the tomato dinners are held, is the more formal fine dining room that serves both lunch and dinner. The upstairs restaurant is a warm and modern space serving a full seasonal menu that also changes daily.

On any normal day, Oliveto's restaurant serves a delicious array of finely conceived dishes inspired by traditional Italian cuisine. To see Oliveto's full menus, click here. On this day, however, we were treated to a fantastic menu of tomato-laden dishes. For starters, I had the dry-farmed "early girl" and "flamme" tomatoes with burrata di bufala, and my lovely fiance had a green olive crostone with pancetta, green "brandywine" tomatoes, and wild fennel. My appetizer, basically tomatoes with fresh mozzerella cheese and olive oil, was anything but basic. The flavor of the ripe tomatoes paired with the amazingly fresh cheese was so flavorful that I could have eaten a few plates of it for my entire meal and been satisfied. The cheese just melted in my mouth and the flavors of the tomatoes were just so brilliantly fresh. I truly didn't want the dish to end. The crostone was equally as delicious, with the sweet green tomato mixing with the salty pancetta on the crunchy bread making an incredibly flavorful dish.

We shared a pasta dish, Tomato penne all colatura di alici, garlic, hot pepper, and tomato leaf sauce, a wonderfully flavorful pasta with the tomatoes actually infused into the pasta itself. The entrees' again did not fail to delight us. My fiance got the Grilled beefsteak tomatoes wrapped in pancetta, Paola's potatoes, Anchovy and Herb Sauce while I ventured out of my comfort zone a bit and tried the Charcoal-grilled Sika venison with roasted plum tomatoes and fresh shelling beans. The venison was cooked perfectly, just pink enough in the middle and bursting with flavor. It sat in a tangy sauce with the roasted tomatoes and beans that really brought the dish together but the venison was so moist and so tender that it could have been sitting in dishwater and I would have loved it.

And finally, dessert. Yes, I realize that the idea of a tomato-infused dessert might sound a little off at first, but bear with me. It takes a certain sense of adventure, but trust me, these guys know what they are doing. We ordered the Limoncello Baba with "sungold" tomato compote, basically a limoncello-soaked cake topped with a thick tomato sauce. The flavors together were wonderful. The cake was very tart, but the tartness was off-set by the warm sweetness of the tomato compote. We were tempted to order a couple of desserts, but couldn't seem to find the room in our stuffed bellies for any more.

We both loved our meals at the Tomato Dinners at Oliveto. We will make it a point to go back and try their regular menu as soon as humanly possible. Everything at the restaurant was so wonderfully executed; from the helpful and friendly staff to the brilliantly executed dishes. I would recommend Oliveto to anyone looking for a fancy yet completely un-pretentious meal for any occasion, any time.