Holiday meal and gift ideas abound in Petaluma

With questions arising around COVID spikes, staffing issues and supply chain woes, restaurants and caterers took a bit longer to make their holiday meal announcements this year but have come on strong since I posted the early birds to last week's paper. There are a growing number of options, with more being announced to the “Holiday Food” pinned post every day, which can be found in the Petaluma Foodie's section of Facebook. Some restaurants, caterers and grocers do not run a robust social media presence, so they often post their menus to that page. However, as that number of offerings grows, so do the ordering deadlines loom, so make that decision soon so that you can make sure to have plenty of delicious food on the table come holiday party time.

Anna B's Kitchen offers a beautiful menu of holiday treats, including a delicious-looking wrapped bake Brie covered in either caramelized onions and bacon or sauteed apples and pecans. Main dishes are roasted turkey break roulade, chicken breast filled with mushrooms, mozzarella and spinach, portobello mushrooms stuffed with roasted garlicky tomatoes, herbs and ricotta, and roasted pork loin marinated with orange, garlic and rosemary. Some of the many other appetizers offered include a French onion dip with housemade crostini, a trio of triangle phyllo tarts, crab-stuffed mushrooms and a whole slew of galettes and savory baked treats. There is also a tasty dessert menu. Contact Anna directly to order at (415) 269-4381 or annabskitchen@gmail.com.

Bay Laurel Culinary (www.baylaurelculinary.com) has always turned out some of the best catered meals in the area, concentrating on local ingredients whenever possible. Their menu is truly impressive, and we've always thoroughly enjoyed the food we've ordered from them. This year's holiday menu is an “everything but the bird” affair, although I do see their BLC classic glazed nugget ham, so that seems like a good alternative. Their artisan charcuterie and cheese boxes, Dungeness crab salad, and liberty duck liver pate are just a few of their many starters, which alone could make for an excellent meal all on their own. We love their celery root bisque, roasted Brussels sprouts, and wine roasted mushrooms for sides. For desserts, the choices are classic lemon Bundt cake, pecan tart, bittersweet chocolate Bundt cake and Guinness gingerbread cake with a buttermilk glaze. This Saturday, Dec. 18, preorders are due for pickup reservations between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Friday, December 24. Also, check out their “Sugar and Spice” holiday gifts on their website.

Back by popular demand, F.A. Nino's (faninos.com) is again offering their Christmas tamales in beef, pork or coconut chicken mole. Pickup is on Sunday, Dec. 19, from noon to 4 p.m. at their tasting room and can be ordered through their website's “products” page. Preorders may already have ended, so if you are reading this and want some, set down your paper, grab your internet access device, and place your order ASAP.

OTL Fine Catering (previously Out to Lunch, www.otlfinecatering.com) is offering limited holiday meals by special order. We had an incredible beef Wellington from them during the last holiday season, and it was phenomenal. There is no mystery why they wine Harvest Fair awards every year. Please call for information at 707-766-9810.

Petaluma has a lot of great bread options, but Pane di Vero (panedivero.com) is one of our favorites and is currently taking preorders for their Thursday, Dec. 23 delivery. Visit their website for a complete list of parker house rolls, babka, pretzel rolls, cinnamon roll loaf, cookie boxes and much more.

Penngrove Market (penngrovemarket.com) has just posted their Christmas dinner menu, and it is as good as ever. We have enjoyed several special take-home dinners from them over the past couple of years and are always impressed with the execution and the quantity and value. This year's entrees are Liberty Farms seared whole duck, seared rib eye roast or Boar's Head brown sugar glazed ham. Dinner includes one of those mains, as well as two pounds of scalloped organic potatoes, two pounds of wood-oven roasted seasonal veggies and a winter green salad with cranberries, pistachios pickled onions and balsamic vinaigrette. You can also order a la carte orders for the main entree or sides. Orders must be picked up on Friday, Dec. 24, between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Feast of 7 Fishes

Pearl (www.pearlpetaluma.com) is again offering their “Feast of 7 Fishes” this holiday season, though the date has not yet been announced. However, as a Southern Italian/Italian American Christmas Eve dinner tradition, I would guess it will be sometime around Christmas Eve. There are no hard or fast rules about which dishes or fishes are part of a Feast of 7 Fishes, but often included more than one fish per dish. Last year's feast from Pearl was one of the best meals of our holiday season. Few chefs can pull off fish dishes quite like Pearl's Chef/co-owner Brian Leitner, making this a really special opportunity. Regular readers know by now that when we see any fish dish on Pearl's menu, from the fancy-sounding “halibut paillard” to the benign-sounding but bodaciously flavorful “fish stew,” we order it, without even checking the fine print. Their current “fish stew” is “rockfish, local Dungeness crab & mussels, sunchokes, tomato turmeric broth” and even just in black and white print, has my mouth watering. Often, word-of-mouth is enough to sell Pearl's special dinners out, so give them a call or shoot them an email if you are interested.

Thistle Meats (thistlemeats.com) is always a fantastic choice for special meal preparations and will be your last chance to get their wares before they close for January. Current holiday specials include pork loin roast, porchetta, Beef Rib Loin, Beef Tenderloin, whole goose, fresh sausages and my favorite, duck, plus local cheeses and a charcuterie board that includes many special items made in-house. You can old purchase Raft Wine and Hen House beer. Call 707-772-5442 or email lucah@thistlemeats.com to order or plan your event. Their holiday schedule has them open through Nov. 24, closed Nov. 25 to 28, and open the 29 — 31 again.

Restaurants

Though they rarely make the food news pages, I have to give a special mention to Lumberjacks, which is open on Christmas Day and offers a roast turkey meal daily through New Year's. The reason for the special mention is that their name has popped up repeatedly as a holiday meal savior, especially during this past Thanksgiving's April Pantry debacle. Few restaurants are consistently open on the holidays, but Lumberjacks is one. And for what it is worth when writing past articles about things such as my chicken fried steak guide, Lumberjacks always passes muster, even if they are not the haughtiest cuisine.

Risibisi (risibisirestaurant.com) has also announced that they will be open for the holiday, with Christmas Eve hours from 4 — 8:30 p.m. and Christmas Day from 11:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. with takeout from 3 to 5 p.m. both days. They also have a special holiday menu on their website, which is a special treat as many restaurant websites have been updated for the holidays. Starters include tomato crab soup, beet, mixed greens and Caesar salads, beef carpaccio, crab cakes and braised pork & ricotta meatballs. The main courses run the gamut from braised pork cheek risotto to king salmon to grilled lamb chops and another half dozen dishes in between, including their much-touted wild boar gnocchi. Although not listed, I am sure the dessert menu will be just as spectacular.

A Christmas Eve tradition around these parts, Della Fattoria (dellafattoria.com) has brought back their Tamale Pie Christmas Eve dinner, in person, at their restaurant. In the Weber family tradition (the owners), dinner is from 5 — 8 p.m. with advance ticket purchase. The dinner ticket comes with a glass of wine or sparkling water. You can also order yours to-go if you would prefer. Della also offers holiday orders for dinner rolls, Buche de Noel, bourbon pecan tarts, lemon olive oil cakes, whole apple braids, small panettones, and even holiday table centerpieces.

Street Social has announced three holiday events, the first being their “Fare of Italy and the wines of California” collaboration dinner this Saturday, Dec. 18, with Barber Cellars. Dinner will include four locally made wines paired with four Italian-inspired dishes, served up by one of the S.F. Chronicle's top 25 Bay Area restaurants. Although that list was not in order, and I have dined at a few of the others listed, I have dined at enough high-end restaurants around the world to be able to venture a guess that if that list were only 5 or 10 restaurants deep, Street Social would still be on it. Visit streetsocial.social for tickets.

Next up is Street Social's Golden Fried Chicken takeout preorders for Christmas Eve, and with their 4-piece dinners already sold out, you'd be hop on those 2-piece and 1-piece meals before they are gone. Their final holiday event and the second being their New Year's Eve Champagne dinner, with real French Champagne, from Lelarge-Pugeot. Visit streetsocial.social for orders and information.

Marjorie and Jevon, the young couple who own and operate Street Social, almost single-handedly, have a nice thank you note on their website regarding the community's support. “We sincerely appreciate all of your support as we have navigated through this time. We have been working hard to take every precaution to create a very safe outdoor and a regulatory capacity indoor restaurant environment for our guests and staff. We are following both the CDC and the California guidance regulations in every aspect of our service.”

Gift Ideas

For those who either don't have the time to shop around finding all the best local goodies, or simply procrastinate as we do, premade gift baskets are a great holiday gift. Barber Cellars (www.barbercellars.com) always has great options and has saved our skins more than once on the eve of a holiday party. Stemple Creek Ranch (www.stemplecreek.com) also offers some great gift baskets, and although their Holiday Harvest Gift Sampler is already sold out, they have plenty of other gift boxes to satisfy any meat lover in your midst. Cheese Trails (www.cheesetrail.org) is also a great local “basket” source and is currently offering an excellent selection of gifts on their website, including the “North Bay” and the “Cows and More Cows” cheese collections. They are currently both on sale for 15% off (coupon code: Petaluma2021), with free shipping in California and out-of-state shipping for a small fee, all to arrive in time for Christmas and New Year's, so long as you place your order soon.

Finally, in the gift basket realm, Kuksa Coffee Roasters (kuksacoffee.com) is again offering their great local holiday gift box, complete with treats from Petaluma Toffee Company (coffee toffee), True Delicious (almond biscotti), Cacao's Meow (fig & sea salt Brazilian chocolate), Eva's Delight (chocolate truffles), and of course, a bag of Kuksa's coffee. There are plenty of other gift baskets around Petaluma, chalked full of great local products, but these three were the first that popped into my head as we have partaken of all three in the past and enjoyed them all considerably.

Another great foodie gift idea: Tickets to the Petaluma Oyster Fest 2022, presented by Petaluma Sunrise Rotary for the fifth time, on Saturday, April 30, 2022, from noon to 3 p.m. at Bodega Bay Oyster Company (12830 Valley Ford Rd.) Admission includes fresh raw oysters or grilled oysters on the half shell and unlimited French bread, salads, and homemade brownies. Additionally, Chef Juan of Quinua Cocina Peruana, who is also a member of Petaluma Sunrise Rotary, will be serving two of his restaurant's best-loved dishes — Peruvian Paella (with fresh seafood of shrimp, calamari, baby octopus, mussels and clams, cooked in fish broth, rice, Peruvian peppers, onions and white wine) and Leche de Tigre Peruvian ceviche (fish, seafood, cilantro and whole shrimp.) Each ticket also gets three tickets for, “draft beers from Hen House Brewery, or sparkling and still wines from Bodega Cellars. Complimentary nonalcoholic beverages will also be served.”

In addition to food, there will be live music by Willow and Hound and raffle tickets for a chance to win one of multiple prizes donated by generous local merchants. This event was postponed from 2020 due to COVID. All prior ticket sales will be honored, or refunds are available if you prefer. For tickets, search “Petaluma Oyster Fest 2022" on Eventbrite.com. “All proceeds from this fundraiser will be used to fund a variety of Rotary community service projects benefiting Sonoma County residents and select international projects. A list of representative projects is available at our website: http://petalumasunriserotary.org. This event is a great way to give back to your community, help Rotary help our neighbors in need, and enjoy an incredible experience in the process.”

Mariapilar Ice Creamery posted three new flavors for the holidays, all highlighting local craft booze makers, all three of which are either women-owned or co-owned. With the addition of local elixirs comes the boozy flavors of Sherry Hazelnut Stracciatella (Sonoma Portworks), Brandy Caramel (Griffo), Peanut Butter Whiskey and Peppermint Chocolate Vodka (Sonoma Coast Spirits) and finally, the simple sounding, but incredible almond absinthe (Barber Lee Spirits.) We have had them all and would order them again, but that almond absinthe speaks to us for some reason. And we aren't even booze drinkers in our everyday lives, but there is something exceptional about this stuff.

Along with several other holiday season favorites, such as black licorice and some variants of peppermint, MariaPilar has also rolled out her incredible spumoni ice cream, but just for the holidays. Although I tend to love most ice cream flavors, I had never been drawn to spumoni, maybe because what I was exposed to as a kid was less than premium. Spumoni is layered ice cream of different colors and flavors. Typically, it is three flavors with fruits and/or nuts between each layer. However, it only took one bit of MariaPilar's, and I was hooked.

Mariposa's consisted of chocolate, vanilla with candied orange zest, and pistachio is excellent and may be my new favorite flavor, although that award seems to go to which ever Mariposa ice cream is in front of me at the moment. (Neapolitan ice cream is a variation of spumoni, layering chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry as those were popular ice cream flavors at its introduction.)