Where I’ve Been Getting Takeout of Late, Part 6

A beauty of a prosciutto pizza at Vina Enoteca.
A beauty of a prosciutto pizza at Vina Enoteca.

Vina Enoteca, Palo Alto

Handmade pastas you can’t wait to twirl a fork into. Pizzas that make you lunge for a slice. An impressive Italian wine list. And creative cocktails that always put you in a peppy mood.

Vina Enoteca has long been one of my favorite Italian restaurants because it offers all of that with aplomb.

Ordering online is a breeze, as is parking when you pick up your order. These days, there’s plenty of open parking slots in the adjacent lot behind the Stanford Shopping Center. Walk up to the host stand outside to pick it all up.

A simple cacio e pepe, made more special with a Parmigiano crisp on top.
A simple cacio e pepe, made more special with a Parmigiano crisp on top.

My husband can never resist a pizza topped with prosciutto. The Pizza Emiliana ($22) is like the super-model version of that.

It’s a stunner all right, with the paper-thin slices of prosciutto rolled up into pretty rosettes all over the pie that is also strewn with peppery arugula and Parmigiano Reggiano. This pizza is not merely good lucks and no substance. Not when the crust is wonderfully chewy on its puffy edges, and crisp in the center, and boasts yeasty, developed flavor through and through.

Shrimp and buffalo mozzarella pizza.
Shrimp and buffalo mozzarella pizza.

The Terra Mia ($24) pizza is equally delicious in a whole different way. The crust is painted with a sweet, sunny yellow tomato sauce, topped with milky fresh buffalo mozzarella, fresh basil leaves, olive oil, and plump shrimp. Even my husband said he never imagined a shrimp pizza could have so much flavor. The natural sweetness of the shrimp and the yellow tomatoes makes for an absolute winning combination.

A big, smoky tentacle of grilled octopus.
A big, smoky tentacle of grilled octopus.

Grilled octopus is as tender as it gets with a wonderful smoky taste. The Polipo ($18) is served with a chickpea puree, and shards of torn, airy bread made with squid ink, enhancing the taste of the sea in this dish.

The restaurant goes the extra mile again with a dish as simple as Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe ($16). The buttery, cheesy, peppery strands come garnished with a frico or Parmesan crisp. It may get a little soft in transit to your home, but you can always reheat it in a toaster oven if you want the perfect crunch.

Tortelloni verdi (front), tagliatelle alla bolognese (left rear), and lumache (right rear).
Tortelloni verdi (front), tagliatelle alla bolognese (left rear), and lumache (right rear).

The Tagliatelle alla Bolognese ($24) is a meat lover’s dream of a pasta. House-made spinach pasta gets tossed with a Rancho Llano Seco pork ragu that’s so thick and hearty that it’s like ground pork with just enough tomato sauce to moisten it.

For a little spice, there’s Lumache all’Amatriciana ($18), big shell-shaped pasta, bursting with sweet tomatoes, porky guanciale, and a quite peppery San Marzano tomato sauce.

Pop a stout, green Tortelloni Verdi ($22) into your mouth, and the filling of sweet fresh summer corn will burst forth blissfully. The sauce is a simple one of butter and mint, all the better to let the peak-season corn star.

Warm, crisp and golden out of my oven.
Warm, crisp and golden out of my oven.

Pro Tip: When accessing the restaurant’s web site to order online, do spend a moment to really look it over, because Vina Enoteca offers a lot of fun things right now besides just its regular menu of standout dishes. It just launched a monthly wine club, with each delivery encompassing three top-rated Italian wines ($95 per box for 12 boxes per year). There are Zoom wine tasting classes and cooking classes, in which you pick up the wines or ingredients the day before at the restaurant. There are frozen versions of the restaurant’s pizzas ($12 to $14) to stash handily in your freezer. There’s a pasta box ($85) ), so you can cook three house-made pastas with three house-made sauces in your own kitchen. And there are 4-packs of ready-to-bake croissants ($9 for butter; $12 for chocolate) that are imported from Italy. I can attest that if you bake them accordingly at 325 degrees for 25 minutes, you will end up with flaky, buttery, dreamy croissants that will start any Sunday morning off just right.

Bird Dog, Palo Alto

For most of us, traveling is not in the cards now. But you can still traverse the world in a most delectable way — through the ever-changing, family bundle to-go offerings at Bird Dog.

Jumbo prawns in an ode to chili crab -- included in the "Singapore'' meal box from Bird Dog.
Jumbo prawns in an ode to chili crab — included in the “Singapore” meal box from Bird Dog.

Rather than offering a la carte items, Bird Dog offers just one family-sized meal each week, which typically serves about 2 people, all packed in a cute, handled, cardboard box to tote home.

There’s a different part of the world highlighted in each week’s complete meal — from Tokyo to Cape Cod to Mexico to Argentina to Thailand to West Texas, the latter an ode to Chef Robbie Wilson’s childhood.

You won't be able to wait to tear into the contents inside.
You won’t be able to wait to tear into the contents inside.

The family meals are available Wednesday through Sunday. Put your order in early, as they almost always sell out. The new menus are announced on Tuesday on the restaurant’s newsletter. But you can sometimes get a jump on that, as the restaurant’s web site will often list that week’s offering as early as Monday.

Not many restaurants can do such a wide variety of cuisines so well. But Wilson is more than up to the task, having honed his chops at Michelin-starred restaurants in France, Tom Colicchio’s Craft in New York, the French Laundry in Yountville, and Matsuhisa in Aspen.

Bird Dog's organic "Hainanese'' chicken with three dipping sauces and jasmine rice garnished with fried shallots, green onions and cilantro.
Bird Dog’s organic “Hainanese” chicken with three dipping sauces and jasmine rice garnished with fried shallots, green onions and cilantro.

My to-go order two weeks ago was a “Bird Dog Road Trip to Singapore” ($165).

Admittedly, I was drawn to this one in particular because I’m a sucker for Hainan chicken. Bird Dog’s “Organic Hainanese Chicken” did not disappoint, either. The half chicken, juicy and tender, came with three sauces to use at will: a sweet thick soy sauce; a light soy sauce with garlic, lime and chili; and a fruity, fiery pineapple sambal. A container of crunchy, refreshing heirloom cucumbers, dressed ever so lightly with fish sauce and herbs, helped douse the flames if you over do it with the sambal.

Hainan chicken wouldn’t be complete without jasmine rice. This rendition was cooked with schmaltz, the chicken fat adding a richness and crisping up the grains here and there. A small container of chicken broth was included to pour over the rice, if you wanted. I’ve made Hainan chicken and had it at several restaurants over the years. Honestly, most of the time, this broth tastes rather weak. Not this one, which was shockingly concentrated in chicken flavor. I longed for a bucket of it to make chicken noodle soup with.

Also included were four giant head-on, shell-on prawns, grilled with a sweet-spicy glaze of tomato, ginger, garlic and Fresno chilies to mimic Singapore’s iconic chili crab. Yes, this was messy to eat. But who cares when it’s so finger-licking delicious? The restaurant offers add-ons with each meal, so thankfully, I had the foresight to add on four more of these devilishly good prawns ($24).

Chilled cucumbers and fabulous pork belly satay.
Chilled cucumbers and fabulous pork belly satay.
Wagyu satay and the perfect accompaniment of Japanese ale.
Wagyu satay and the perfect accompaniment of Japanese ale.

Two skewers of pork belly satay were included in the meal. These were incredible — succulent, smoky, and just fatty enough in all the right ways. If there were an option to have added on more pork belly, I surely would have.

Instead, I added on four skewers of Wagyu skirt steak satay ($60), potently minerally and beefy tasting, that went especially well with the garlic-lime-chili dipping sauce.

Included are directions for reheating everything. But truth be told, Singaporean food like this tastes just fine at room temperature, so I didn’t bother doing that when I brought everything home.

To end the meal, there was dessert in drinkable form — two mango and makrut lime lassis, tangy and tropical tasting, as thick and creamy as old-fashioned milk shakes, and just as sweetly satisfying.

This is not a budget meal by any means. But one taste and the quality and talent behind it are readily apparent. In fact, why Bird Dog has yet to garner a Michelin star remains baffling.

Mango lassis, plus the menu with reheating directions.
Mango lassis, plus the menu with reheating directions.

Pro Tip: Try the Japanese beer that so many celebrated chefs fancy, Hitachino Nest White Ale. Brewed with wheat malt, and flavored with coriander, orange peel and nutmeg, the straw-colored ale is very clean, crisp and light tasting, and boy, does it go down easy. A 332ml bottle is $10.

Crispian Bakery, Alameda

Anyone who knows me knows I have a serious weakness for well-made baked goods. So when I first heard that Crispian Bakery was started by two veterans of Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Bakery in New York, I knew I had to check it out.

It’s been a favorite ever since. Beth Woulfe is the pastry chef, and Christian Fidelis de Goes is the bread baker. Together, they make irresistible treats, all crafted by hand in small batches.

Impeccable pastries from Crispian Bakery.
Impeccable pastries from Crispian Bakery.

With indoor dining verboten now, you can’t just step inside the bakery to ogle everything in the case, unfortunately. Instead, you walk up to the window on the sidewalk, where a bulletin board has photos tacked up of the items for sale that day.

The walk-up window.
The walk-up window.

The huge sticky bun ($5.50), with a big toffee-like taste, is crowned with a generous amount of sticky walnuts. The filling for the danishes ($3.75) varies with the seasons, with a recent one featuring plump raspberries in a thin, creamy cheese layer. The croissants ($3.25) are crisp, with a nice little touch of salt, and so flaky that they leave shards all over you upon the first bite.

A baguette, a black pepper-Gruyere boule, and a stack of English muffins.
A baguette, a black pepper-Gruyere boule, and a stack of English muffins.

I can never resist the chewy ginger cookies ($1.25) or dainty chocolate chip cookies ($1.25). For a taste of nostalgia, get the Mallow More ($3), a smooth dome of hard chocolate shell that gives way to a fluff of marshmallow atop a buttery shortbread cookie.

The breads are first-rate, starting with the baguette ($2.75) with its formidable crunchy crust and long-developed flavor. One of my other go-to loaves is the black pepper-Gruyere ($8.50). You taste the nutty cheese and the piney, sharp peppery taste in every wonderful bite. The English muffins ($2 each) have a sturdy character and a true taste of grain.

The Mallomar that I didn't even know I needed in my life.
The Mallow More that I didn’t even know I needed in my life.

Pro Tip: Go early for the best selection. Even when the bakery had normal hours, it would often sell out of favorites long before closing. Now, it’s only open on Wednesdays, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. for coffee and cookies; and Thursday through Sunday, 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. If you’re planning to go on a Saturday or Sunday, Crispian allows you to pre-order items online for those two days only, which you should definitely take advantage of to ensure you get everything you desire.

More: Where I’ve Been Getting Takeout of Late, Part 1

And: Where I’ve Been Getting Takeout of Late, Part 2

And: Where I’ve Been Getting Takeout of Late, Part 3

And: Where I’ve Been Getting Takeout of Late, Part 4

And: Where I’ve Been Getting Takeout of Late, Part 5

And: Where I’ve Been Getting Takeout of Late, Part 7

And: Where I’ve Been Getting Takeout of Late, Part 8

And: Where I’ve Been Getting Takeout of Late, Part 9

And: Where I’ve Been Getting Takeout of Late, Part 10

And: Where I’ve Been Getting Takeout of Late, Part 11

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4 comments

  • Oh my goodness, you have tempted me again and I live on the other side of the country. I do wish we had a Vina Enoteca in our little town…well at least I can dream.

  • Hi Karen: I am so bummed that Vina Enoteca just temporarily shuttered this past weekend. Like so many restaurants right now, it is finding this COVID pandemic so challenging with the loss of dine-in service. It is still doing its wine club and Zoom classes, and hopes to reopen for some limited items at a later date. Fingers and toes crossed that this beloved place will make it through all of this.

  • We’re not going out to dine in so we’re trying to support our favorite places by getting takeout from them. For us it’s
    Piperade on Battery in SF
    August (1) Five on Van Ness
    and Zero Zero on Folsom
    It’s hard because we have so many places we enjoyed in the before-times but we’re not willing to risk dine-in or transport to get to other parts of the SF Bay Area.
    Your 3 look great, of course. I hope they survive.

  • Bob: I don’t blame you for wanting to get takeout over dining in or even dining outside at restaurants at this time. Every little bit helps these businesses. And I’m sure they appreciate you getting the food to-go. All three of the places you mention are among my faves. I, too, hope they can weather this pandemic and come out of it even better and stronger than before.

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