It’s like going to the movies, cept you get to drink wine, eat far better food and you’re encouraged to talk and ask questions. Mama and I don’t get out much and these little outtings over to Macy’s of San Francisco are a nice breather during the week. The trip over was kinda uneventful, no disasters or run-ins with anyone interesting. We wound our way down to The Cellar and found the kitchen, easy. There were a few places up front and we grabbed em’. The table was all set with Hummus, Eggplant Caviar, red & orange little maters, bread, water and here came the wines !!!

Stephen is an outspoken, quick witted guy that doesn’t miss a beat. There’s a reason why he started, Hands On Gourmet. He brings cooking classes to the people and you can’t do that if you can’t think on your feet and engage the people you’re with.
He started with some fancy risoto ball stuffed with cheese, little ‘mater, fresh basil and seasonings. Then, you take this ball and deep fry the sucker! Uh, that was good. The wine flowed. They had 2 whites and 2 reds. One of the whites was this sweet thing, goodbye nah. Then a crisp dry white that I liked, had words on the label. One of the reds was a nice Oregonian Pinot that we all liked a lot, then some fancy deeper red with more tanins in there. And the wine flowed.
There were a lot of sponsors for this gig, the major being the new Chow magazine. Whole Foods sent over the food & wine, Macy’s opened up their kitchen. Stephen got to do the shopping and I can only imagine what it was like shopping at Whole Foods when someone else is flippin’ the bill.

Here was our favorite for the evening, well second favorite for Mama. The cubed New York lightly pan seared then tossed with a chile mango salsa and sliced green onions, then speared on those KILLER bamboo picks. Check those out!

“Hi” says Gibbs.

Next he made a Summer Roll, not deep fried either. Had some kind of wacky Tapioca based wrapper. He says if you get a few holes in the wrapper it’s okay. But it’s not okay if you’re going to deep fry it, trust me on this. It was fine and all, but I’m not a fan of the seseme oil.
And last, but not least …

The phyllo dough stuffed with diced peach and some marinade of booze & maple syrup and a few other goodies. Oh and some made that day caramel sauce. Although, the testers at our table swore up and down the stuff he made there was at least twice as good. I don’t know cause I didn’t try, I don’t have a sweet tooth. It’s a Meat Tooth.

Just so ya know, Stephen wasn’t the only one working. He had Max the food editor from Chow and the cutest fry cook ever. Not to mention Macy’s servers, they were awesome. Wove their wily wine pouring ways through the happy crowd.
If you’ve been to a few of these types of events, you know how fun it is. If you haven’t? Please look in to it, even if you aren’t local. There are usually these types of things going on all over the damned place. We will surely be returning.
Biggles
If you are interested in attending some Macy’s of San Francisco events? Please contact our good friend Kim O’Neill, Kimberly.A.O’Neill@spamfreemacys.com.
Macy’s Union Square Cellar
351 Geary Street in San Francisco