The Best & Worst of Food, 2006

Worst Food Photos 2006



Favourite Restaurants/Bars, 2006
New This Year: Bar Crudo (5 visits) -*- Yield Wine Bar (countless visits)
New to Me: Coco500 (6+ visits) -*- Pizzeria Delfina (5 visits) -*- Piperade (3 visits)
Tried for the First Time (can't wait to return for seconds): Manresa -*- Boccadillos -*- L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon-*- Balthazar -*- WD50 -*- Babbo -*- Delfina
Perennial Favourites: Oola -*- Le Petit Robert -*- A16 -*- Zuni Cafe -*- Ti Couz -*- Just For You -*- Cafe Bastille -*- Moshi Moshi

Favourite Foodstuffs & Purveyors, 2006
Fatted Calf Petit Jambon, Bacon & Toulouse Sausages -*- St George Spirits & Hangar One -*- Will's Avocados -*- Petite Patisserie Tartlettes and Brioche -*- XOX Truffles -*- Citizen Cake Lemon Sandwich Cookies -*- Prather Ranch Meat -*- June Taylor Tomato Ketchup -*- Dirty Girl Tomatoes -*- Frisee & Cress from Star Route -*- Acme Levain -*- St Benoit Yoghurt -*- Michael Recchiuti -*- Marin Sun Farms Eggs -*- K & L Wine Merchants -*- Artichokes from Iacopi -*- Almonds from G. L. Alfieri Farms

Favourite Recipes, 2006
Bakewell Tarts -*- Parisienne Gnocchi -*- No Knead Bread -*- Philly Cheesesteak Turnovers -*- Artichoke Panzanella -*- Summer Pudding -*- Tomato Chutney -*- The Cooks Book

My Favourite Posts, 2006
How to trim an Artichoke -*- To Her Egg Master -*- Watch me Prepare a Dinner Party Almost Live -*- Everything I Ate for A Week -*- English Tea Party -*- Fairy Cakes -*- Dumb Design -*- Champagne -*- Eggstra, Eggstra! -*- Blogathon -*- Menu For Hope

My Favourite Friends, 2006 Food bloggers and non food blogger friends alike, thanks for enriching my life over the last year, I can't thank you all enough for being there for me through the ups and the downs.

My Family, 2006 To all those who started blogs: Mum, Beccy, Mollie and Dillon. To those without blogs, Dad and little Ben. To my dearest Fred, always by my side, I love you. And mostly to my beloved Granny who ended up in hospital two days ago with pneomonia and anemia for which she had to have a blood transfusion. Granny, I love you and I really miss you, I hope more than anything to be able to see you in 2007 and I hope you get out of hospital soon.

Happy New year, 2007, Everyone!

The Best & Worst of Food, 2006

Christmas Eve 2006

BEFORE
The fridge shelf bows under the weight

Chocolate Explosion: maybe using a zip lock as a piping bag is not such a good idea after all

Still the florentines turn out ok in the end

English Sherry Trifle made using homemade boudoir and custard a la Shuna, topped with Cadbury's Flake.

DURING

A feast for the eyes as well as the stomach. Thanks to everyone who helped us with the cooking and, most importantly, the eating.


AFTER

The fridge shelf returns to normal



I just opened my Christmas Present from my mum. Maybe I should have opened the parcel yesterday so I could have sent a sachet home with each of my guests. Thanks mum!

Here at Becks & Posh we would like to thank all our readers for sharing 2006 with us via this blog. We wish everyone the best of the season and a wonderful start to 2007. We are driving out of town today for more than a week. We are not sure yet whether we will be posting or not whilst we are away, but either way we hope to get back to the blog in earnest in the second week of January. Until then, I hope you all have a good one!



PS Thanks to all the wonderful friends (you know who you are), who joined Fred and me last night and helped make our Christmas so very special. We are so lucky to know you all.

Christmas Eve 2006

$57,906.70

I am speechless about the amount of money we raised to help the United Nations World Food Programme. Thank you to every single one of you who helped make Menu For Hope 3 such a wonderful success.

Frequently Asked Questions
When does the bidding end?
When will the winners be announced?


Menu for hope 3 | Menu for hope III

$57,906.70

The Odds of Winning a Menu for Hope Prize on the US West Coast

Bidding on the Menu for Hope ends at 6pm PST sharp on Friday 22nd December 2006. Exactly two days before the deadline I took a snapshot of all the donations and with the very generous help of my wonderful mum, who helped count up the bids by hand, I created this post which, for each of the US West Coast prizes, shows the odds of winning*, per ticket already bought, 48 hours before the bidding was due to close. For those of you who are still undecided, I hope this list is going to help you make up your mind choosing which prizes you'd love to purchase a raffle ticket for and help us raise even more money for the United Nations World Food Programme. Thank you all for your ongoing support and don't forget to get your bids in before the deadline.

NO BIDS YET - UW41: Unique T-Shirt, Eggbeater


100% - UW07: Wine & Olive Oil, Fifth Flavour


100% - UW20: Homemade Sonoma Hamper, Life is a Banquet


100% - UW40: Chronicle Books Collection, Tea & Cookies


100% - UW14: Taste of Hawaii, Ma'ona


50% - UW30: traditional Andhra sweets called Sunnundalu, Mahanandi


50% - UW42: a signed copy of Tartine, Eggbeater


50% - UW45: Cradle of Flavor, Rasa Malaysia


33.3% - UW21: California Wine Country painting, Life is a Banquet


33.3% - UW26: Cookin' at the Costello, Hedonia


33.3% - UW30: Mamouls - rosewater flavored cookies, Mahanandi


25% - UW05: A Taste of Australia, Matt Bites


25% - UW47: Famous Street Food of Penang, Rasa Malaysia


25% - UW50: BIN 8945 Wine Bar and Bistro dinner, Chez Pim


20% - UW12: 1 year sub to all 18 Edible Communities, Edible Nation


20% - UW22: A Taste of Humboldt County, Christine Cooks


20% - UW23: 3 cookbooks from 10 Speed Press, The Bunrabs


16.6% - UW13: Mocha Me Happy, Cooking With Amy


16.6% - UW46: Cradle of Flavor, Rasa Malaysia


14.3% - UW44: Cooking Classes, Eggbeater


12.5% - UW15: Arabesque & Gift Voucher, Erin's Kitchen


12.5% - UW16: Impromptu Wine Bar Dinner, Gluten Free Girl


12.5% - UW49: A basket of goodies from Soif, Chez Pim


11.11% - UW04: a package to help aspiring food writers, Blog Appetit


11.11% - UW11: Coffee Lover's Package, Cook & Eat


11.11% - UW24: Rare Star Wars Memorabilia, Becks & Posh


10% - UW34: Armchair Food Tour of the Bay Area, Married With Dinner


9.1% - UW33: Cooking at home with Pedatha, Mahanandi


9.1% - UW39: one swingin’ cocktail kit, ThisNext.com


8.3% - UW27: Rancho Gordo Products, Steve Sando


8.3% - UW28: Signed San Francisco Chefs, Food Musings


8.3% - UW43: $200 Aziza Voucher, Eggbeater


7.7% - UW25: Blogher 2007 Conference Pass, Blogher


7.7% - UW37: Signed copy The French Laundry Cookbook, I Heart Farms


7.15% - UW38: A Persian Pantry, Gastronomie


5.9% - UW06: Homemade chocolate coconut macaroons, Orangette


5.9% - UW48: Distill with Lance at Hangar One Vodka, Gastronomie


5.26% - UW03: Tea With Harold McGee, Chez Pim


5% - UW09: Pangea Organics, 101 Cookbooks


5% - UW19: Signed Alice Waters Plate, Kungfoodie


4.2% - UW31: Gift basket, French food delicacies, Simply Recipes


3.6% - UW32: twenty 100ml bottles premium artisan olive oil, Simply Recipes


2.86% - UW02: Coffee with Thomas Keller, Chez Pim


2.63% - UW17: Delfina Dinner with... ...The Restaurant Whore


1.82% - UW35: A Chef in Your Own Home In Praise of Sardines


1.75% - UW10: Photography Lesson & Signed Cookbook, 101 Cookbooks


1.61% - UW08: TASTE3 Full Conference Pass, 101 Cookbooks


1.49% - UW36: Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco Gourmet


0.64% - UW01: Dinner for two at Manresa, Chez Pim


*Please forgive any minor inaccuracies in the counting, it was all done by hand and mistakes might well have been made. We like to think we created a representative list and faults, if there are any, are due only to human error and not to maliciousness. Since bidding has continued since we created this post, please be aware that these odds will constantly be changing between now and the end of the campaign. Thank you for your understanding.

- Please check with the individual donors for any shipping restrictions.

This will be my last post promoting Menu for Hope 3. From now on it's up to you and your bids. Thank you for your patience, thank you for bearing with me and putting up with my lack of regular posts over the past two weeks and most of all, thank you for your generous and kind support.

If you would like to do something further to help, you are encouraged to pass details of the campaign on to your colleagues, friends, work and other electronic message boards. It would be really great to get people from outside our food blogging community to bid as well.


PS In addition to the US West Coast prizes I have been tempting you with, there are equally alluring roundups of fabulous foodie prizes that can be found in Asia & the Pacific, in Europe, in Canada, in New York and in Central USA, as well as the fine wine prizes detailed here.

- Check this list for internationally shippable prizes only.

- Check with Chez Pim for all global prizes in one place.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Menu for Hope?
Where does the money go?
How much do the raffle tickets cost?
What are all those UW letters and numbers about?
So, how do I bid on a Prize?
When does the bidding end?
When will the winners be announced?
Will my prize be shipped to me?
Where can I read about prizes from areas outside the West Coast USA?
I don't live on the West Coast, can I still bid for these prizes?
Can I claim tax back when I make my donation?
How long do I have to make up my mind about which of all these amazing prizes I should bid for?
Is there any way I can donate a prize too?

Menu for hope 3 | Menu for hope III

The Odds of Winning a Menu for Hope Prize on the US West Coast