Get your sweet on: Woodland spreads the fruit of bee’s labor with its honey festival

Want more food news? Sign up for the Food & Drink newsletter at sacbee.com/foodnews to get your weekly fill.

Hola readers,

I’m back from a well-spent trip to Peru, where I gorged on ceviches and lomo saltados that were only slightly offset by a four-day trek through the Andes to Machu Picchu. The most notable culinary highlight was getting to eat at Central, Virgilio Martinez’s elevation-based restaurant in Lima that’s fourth on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list and featured in a visually stunning episode of the Netflix show “Chef’s Table.”

You might catch me on a more local excursion Saturday, when the California Honey Festival takes place in downtown Woodland. Though honey isn’t thought of as a typical Sacramento-area crop like grapes or dairy, Woodland earned hosting honors by nature of its pollinator-friendly city programs and its proximity to the Robert Mondavi Institute’s Honey and Pollination Center at UC Davis.

Woodland is one of five Bee Cities in California, as designated by Bee City USA, a Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation program aimed at building and preserving local pollinator habitats around the country. The fast-growing Yolo County town of 61,000 also has an economic development arm called The Food Front, which seeks to attract, foster and retain food and agricultural businesses such as alternative milk producer TurtleTree.

The fourth California Honey Festival will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on May 7 around 405 Main St. It will feature a cooking demo stage, beer and mead garden, honey lab and education center, with live music and kid zones as well. Its the first honey festival since 2019.

Z Specialty Food will host the festival’s official after-party at The Hive, its 20,000-square-foot mead bar, honey shop and restaurant that opened at 1221 Harter Ave. in November. I got a peek and a taste last month at what the owners claim is the largest selection of honey in the state.

What I’m Eating

Craving a sit-down meal while in Woodland? Check out House of Shah Afghan Urban Eats, Juliana Garcia and Selymon Shahsamand’s modern halal restaurant at 538 Main St.

House of Shah leaves some of Shasamand’s family recipes intact and zhuzhes up others with contemporary inflections, though the Bay Area native’s mother and grandmother still have to sign off on the final product.

That approach shows up in the chapli kebab burger ($12), a mix of ground beef with cumin, coriander, red pepper and other spices. Fried crispy and served with garlic yogurt, your choice of cheese and traditional burger accoutrements on an excellent brioche bun from Woodland-based Zest Fresh Pastry West, it was the best item I tried.

More traditional was the tandoori chicken kebab plate ($14) with cumin-spiked pulao rice. I found the five cubes of chicken breast somewhat dry, but they woke up well with help from a vibrant green chutney and yogurt sauce.

Hot summer days must feel better with jala ($7), an Afghan sundae with a base layer of snow cone ice, two scoops of vanilla ice cream, a hearty pour of rose water and chewy rice noodles — yes, really. Topped with crumbled pistachios and cardamom, it was both refreshing and refreshingly different.

Openings & Closings

• Track 7 Brewing has issued a clarification after The Bee reported The Other Side, its rotisserie-based East Sacramento restaurant, was shut down. The restaurant is indeed closed, but Track 7 is keeping its business at 5090 Folsom Blvd. running as a taproom, according to social media posts.
• Elk Grove added five new restaurants during April, including Hidden Dumpling House, which replaced S.E.A. Bowl at 9635 E. Stockton Blvd. Look for handmade dumplings as well as Chinese American staples like chow mein and sweet-and-sour chicken.
• Pennsylvania-based Saladworks chose Lincoln for its second California location. Customers can build their own salads, wraps, grain bowls and more at 820 Sterling Pkwy., Suite 3070 in Sterling Pointe Center.