Note: This first appeared in A News Cafe as a considerably abridged two-part series. Here is the full-length version. It was not very long ago that celiac disease was virtually unknown. In the US, approximately 1 out of 133 people have it (source: Celiac Disease Foundation). In Italy, land of

Downtown Redding used to be a fair-to-middling food wasteland with little but fast food offerings, while chain restaurants sprouted like weeds in Enterprise and induced Westside residents to venture across the river in search of dinner. But a few brave folks have taken the bull by the teeth (to mix several metaphors) and fo

Sherven Square, that block of Market Street between Tehama and Shasta, boasts a surprising number of restaurants within a short walking distance: Sandwichery, Grilla Bites, Fasolini’s Pizza, Los Gordos, La Cabana, Kobe’s, Maxwell’s, Fatboy’s BBQ. Last fall, Village Deli opened its doors too, right across the street

Singaporean chef/cooking teacher Vanessa Frida speaks warmly of Thai sweet chili sauce and its all-around usefulness. M. de Joie had heard of it but wasn't really sure what it was -- there are many products labeled chili sauce or chili paste that don't taste at all like what a Californian might think. But Vanessa Frida know

"Now, tequila may be the favored beverage of outlaws but that doesn't mean it gives them preferential treatment. In fact, tequila probably has betrayed as many outlaws as has the central nervous system and dissatisfied wives. Tequila, scorpion honey, harsh dew of the doglands, essence of Aztec, crema de cacti; tequila, oily

It's been noted before in this space that strip malls can be an unlikely place to find good food. The many vacancies and low rent in Redding make them ideal for small family-run restaurants. Yuet Bistro is one such place.Yuet Bistro's interior is a bit more elegant and stylish than you'd expect given it's next t

Note: this was originally written and posted last winter. Not so appropriate for June, but still, a bowl of soup might be just what the doctor ordered.Before the sunny streak, this winter had been very much like the Shasta County winters Femme de Joie remembers from her childhood, when she had to walk fiv

It's been five years since Femme de Joie set foot in International House of Pancakes, and that was only because she was in an unfamiliar city for an unpleasant reason and didn't feel up to looking for a decent place to eat. The only memory she carries with her of that breakfast was how horrifyingly, overwhelmingly sweet ev

It was 1968 that Buz’s Crab Stand opened for business in a slightly grotty location between a dry cleaner’s and Safeway. Back then, after placing an order, customers had to keep one ear peeled for staff yelling through the noisy restaurant that their order was ready. The menu was short and sweet: fish and chips, a few b

Last June while wandering through San Francisco’s Chinatown, Femme de Joie and Amico del Signore stopped in at Vital Tea Shop (see here for details). We bought some tea and on our way out, asked Jason, the proprietor, for a r

Whoever said, “Location, location, location” is the key to success obviously never set foot inside Racha Noodle. Housed in a forgettable mini strip mall where California Street careens into South Market, this first restaurant opening by five Thai sisters (who also operate 5 Thais on Dana Drive) defies modern business mo

Strip malls are not usually the first place you look when choosing a restaurant. There's just something about those impersonal, interchangeable squares of real estate with high-gloss walls, big glass storefronts and acres of asphalt just a few steps from your table that scream Styrofoam taste at high prices! But in a

A few months ago Femme de Joie was searching the shelves at Winco for a decent loaf of whole-wheat sandwich bread without high-fructose corn syrup, when she chanced upon Dave's Killer Blues Bread. Attracted by the catchy graphics and healthy ingredients, she bought a loaf on impulse. After Amico del Signore had a taste, he

A recent update of this sadly-neglected blog brought a rebuke from an anonymous reader in the thriving metropolis of Hayfork, California. Their response to the review of Sailing Boat:Subject: edit out the cruditiesI don't like to see women

You eat meat, Fleischman. Well, say hello to meat. - Maggie O'Connell to Joel Fleischman, showing him the buck she shot, in "Northern Exposure."Meat is murder. - MorrisseyFemme de Joie has noticed a few comments directed squarely at her for mentioning that she ate horsemeat in France. O

Sailing Boat is still very popular after 14 years and consistently gets voted Best Chinese Restaurant in those polls certain publications run. The prices are low, servings are generous, the interior is clean and attractive, staff is friendly and service is quick. It's very popular for banquets, parties, and meetings. George

The spot occupied by El Mariachi's has seen a host of restaurants come and go over the years. If Femme de Joie's memory serves her, El Mariachi's was previously owned by the fine folks at La Cabana and has been under the current ownership for about two years. M. de Joie ate there once shortly after the new management took o

To look at the impressive faux-Italianate façade on the new restaurant at the corner of Shasta and Market Streets - the Sherven Square complex - you'd think that, well, a Tuscan restaurant was housed there. There's nothing Asian about the terra-cotta colored exterior and the false shutters on second-story windows. The chee

It had been a bad summer for Ronny Cammareri Jr. 2010 had started out good: he was living at home rent-free. There was a fine looking chick he'd met at the candy store that was a definite prospect. He was going to classes at Kingsborough when he felt like it or whenever his old man, Ronny Sr., got on his case. "You'r

In June 2010 Femme de Joie and Amico del Signore were wandering the streets of San Francisco's Chinatown on an early summer evening. We browsed the identical shops with identical brocade jackets and other gewgaws destined to be garage sale items in a few years, and stepped over the hoses from the nearly-closed greengrocers

As noted before in this space, Redding seems to have more Mexican restaurants per square inch than any other town in the Sacramento Valley. If anyone can come up with a reasonable explanation, please speak up. This is not a complaint, you understand, just a query: we love Mexican food and eagerly seek out new, authentic pla

While dancing to the oldies in the freezer aisle at Trader Joe's, looking for an idea for a convenient appetizer, Femme de Joie came across Panang Curry Sticks, picked up a box, and gave ‘em a try.

A few years after opening his hugely successful destination Skyroom at the Redding Airport, restaurateur Peter Chu announced that his brother Mark would be opening a small casual restaurant in the Pine Street School in downtown Redding. Femme de Joie dimly remembers going there shortly after Chu's Too opened and not being i

Long ago, when Femme de Joie was a young and innocent child at Shasta College, an older-but-wiser man said to her, “Man, the burgers at Damburger are just like the burgers they had back in the ’30s. They’re salty and greasy and crispy.” There was a certain lascivious tone to his words salty

Femme de Joie and Amico del Signore have been enthusiastic fans of KPIG radio for several years after reading about it from a column by Jim Dyar in The Newspaper Of Which We Dare Not Speak Its Name. It was through the PIG that we first got wind of a BBQ joint in San Francisco called Memphis Minnie’s Barbecue Joint and Smo

Femme de Joie loves her a good sandwich, the drippier and messier the better. French dip with red onions and pepper Jack cheese, meatball with sauce, gooey chicken salad, Po’ Boy with olive salad, even that 70’s standby of avocado-tomato-sprouts-cheese… bring it on. But it seems to be well-nigh next to impossible t

Pio Loco first opened in 1986 in a former pizzeria on Lake Boulevard as a non-traditional Mexican restaurant; when the old gymnasium at the Pine Street School became available in the mid-1990’s, Chef Jeff Cerasaro upped sticks and moved to the considerably more roomy downtown location. Within the past few months Pio Loco

It’s Saturday night in Redding and you are sweating bullets: tonight you have a date with the object of your desires. You’ve done the meet-for-coffee and the safe lunch, caught a matinee showing of Pirates of the Caribbean, Part 16: Jack Sparrow Goes to Washington (did you notice how much Johnny Depp

Last July this email popped up in Femme de Joie's mailbox:Hi! As a well known and followed blogger, your opinion is clearly valued by many. We would like to send you some of our product, to do with as you please. Write about it, don’t write about it. Share it with friends or horde it for your

When you travel to other countries, you find that foods that seem completely bizarre to you are just ordinary, everyday dishes to the people of that culture. In Malaysia, for example, curried hard-boiled eggs are a very common Muslim street food. Whenever I saw people selling them, I would make a face, until finally the

Some places have been around forever, so long that you don't even notice them any more. They're just part of the landscape of daily life, like the stop sign, the broken sidewalk, your Uncle Fred. That's probably why it took M. de Joie so long to remember the very existence of Snack Shack. Back in the 1970s, Pere de Joie wor

April: Well, the cranberries were easy. I just had to open the can. Eugene: [needing support from his wife] Evette? April Burns: [sensing Eugene's outrage] What? Oh, come on. Everyone likes it from the can. Eugene: No one likes it from the can. - Katie Holmes and Isiah Whitlock Jr, "Pieces of Apr