Cook like a chef. Our cookbook collects recipes from restaurants around the Sacramento region

Benjy Egel
·4 min read

Ever wanted to make Zócalo’s cilantro-lime rice at home? How about Kru Contemporary Japanese Cuisine’s warm mushroom salad, Freeport Bakery’s almond horns or even the Firehouse Restaurant’s beef Wellington?

You’re in luck. Throughout 2023, I’ve been writing a hyper-local cookbook featuring recipes from 60 of Sacramento’s most beloved restaurants. With its release on the horizon, I’m ready to tell you about it.

“Sacramento Eats: Recipes from the Capital Region’s Favorite Restaurants” will hit local bookstores’ shelves and be available online on Nov. 17, though pre-orders are available now. It’s an ode to the Sacramento-area’s mouthwatering dining scene, produced by The Sacramento Bee and published by Washington-based Pediment Publishing.

Each recipe is accompanied by tantalizing visuals, many of them shot by The Bee’s photographers, along with a short write-up on the affiliated restaurant and its dish’s importance. Mulvaney’s B&L owners Patrick and Bobbin Mulvaney have penned a foreword, and many chefs such as Jonathan Kerksieck (Cacio) and Natalie Quach (Faria Bakery) gave helpful general cooking tips along with their specific recipes.

Greater Sacramento’s dining scene has so much to celebrate and be proud of, from top-tier produce to the way new Americans have expanded our palates with flavors from their homelands. My hope in writing this cookbook is to capture this moment when Sacramento’s dining scene is as strong as its ever been, to celebrate it among those who know local food and showcase it among those who don’t.

“Sacramento Eats” will retail for $39.99, but you can save 25% by pre-ordering online through Pediment Publishing’s website before Oct. 10.

What I’m Eating

My colleague Brianna Taylor graciously stepped in to write last week’s newsletter while I was on vacation in Iceland. Brianna wrote about a Folsom restaurant’s Maui garlic noodles, proceeds from which raise money for victims of the recent Lahaina fires in Hawaii.

Another restaurant of note a couple miles north of downtown Sacramento offers even more Hawaiian food. Tasty Hawaiian BBQ is a no-frills plate lunch joint for when you’re hungry — and I mean really hungry. Portions are enormous but extremely affordable, a benefit of the surrounding River Gardens neighborhood’s low rents.

Huli-huli chicken, or Hawaiian BBQ chicken ($9.60) as it’s listed on Tasty’s menu, was nicely marinated in its sweet teriyaki-like sauce and cooked long enough to take on a beautiful brown hue while remaining juicy. Take it as your main item with a little additional huli-huli sauce, or as part of the Hawaiian BBQ mix ($11) alongside short ribs and thin beef strips.

Tasty’s lau lau ($10) is another plate lunch option, all of which come with rice and macaroni salad over steamed cabbage (and can be ordered any time of day). Wrapped in banana leaves, the inner filling of stewed taro leaves and ruby-red pork has an earthy taste.

Don’t leave without trying one of the eight tropical smoothies ($4.49). I went for the Hawaiian chi chi (pina colada mix, strawberry and banana; no alcohol in this variation), while my dining companion opted for the Hawaiian sunrise (passion fruit and mango).

Tasty Hawaiian BBQ

Address: 2309 Northgate Blvd., Sacramento.

Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. all days but Wednesday, when the restaurant is closed.

Phone number: (916) 339-6615.

Website: https://www.facebook.com/TastyHawaiianBBQ/

Drinks: Soft drinks, including a range of dairy-free smoothies.

Vegetarian options: Nothing besides sides such as steamed vegetables, macaroni salad and rice.

Noise level: Quiet.

Openings & Closings

  • Mario’s Early Toast opened its new Folsom restaurant Monday at 6693 Folsom-Auburn Road, where Limon E Sal Taqueria Bar previously stood. Mario Astorga’s brunch spot is beloved in Roseville, Granite Bay and Rocklin for its 25 mimosa varieties, and had a Folsom location at 25075 Blue Ravine Road until 2017.

  • Halal fast food joint Burger Hub recently opened at 3315 Northgate Blvd., Suite 8 in Sacramento’s Northgate neighborhood. Look for cheeseburgers with ingredients such as beef bacon, pineapple and grilled eggs (the “Big Boss”).

  • Richmond Cafe is open now in Calvine Corner shopping center at 8347 Elk Grove Florin Road, Suite 127 near the Elk Grove border. The Hong Kong-style cafe dishes out noodle dishes, rice plates and specialty items such as French toast made with milk bread and stuffed with peanut butter.

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