I'm very happy to announce that Sunday Nite Dinner is participating in the 4th annual Menu for Hope charity raffle, which brings together food bloggers from around the world in the fight against hunger. Bloggers offer prizes that you can win by purchasing a $10 raffle ticket. The proceeds of the charity raffle goes to the U.N. World Food Program (WFP).

I was amazed to learn that in the last decade the number of people suffering from hunger and malnutrition rose from 791 million to 854 million. The WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency: each year, WFP gives food to an average of 90 million poor people to meet their nutritional needs, including 56 million hungry children, in at least 80 of the world's poorest countries.

The number of people suffering from hunger is staggering. We have seen it first hand in our travels to Africa and Southeast Asia. Participating in Menu for Hope is one small way to help people much less fortunate than us.

The charity raffle runs from December 10th - 21st with raffle winners announced on January 9th. Prizes vary from homemade cookies to touring the elBulli laboratory with Ferran Adrià. Since I'm a complete gearhead, I donated an Apple iPhone 8GB (US) as SND's prize in Menu for Hope. I use my iPhone all the time to keep track of shopping lists, find restaurants while out and about, get directions, take pictures of delicious dishes, and surf for new recipes on my favorite food blogs and forums. It's the perfect phone for the on-the-go cook or food lover.

The prize code for the Apple iPhone is UW27. Shipped within the US only.

How to Enter/Donation Instructions

1) Choose a prize(s). For a complete list of prizes offered worldwide, visit Chez Pim. For a list of prizes from West Coast food bloggers, visit Rasa Malaysia.

2) Go to Firstgiving, the online fundraising company used to manage the Menu for Hope charity raffle, and make a donation.

3) Specify the prize you would like to bid for in the 'Personal Message' section of the donation form. Every $10 donated will get one raffle ticket toward a prize. For example, a donation of $50 gets 5 raffle tickets, which can be distributed between different prizes, such as 3 tickets for UW27 and 2 tickets for UW33. This would be entered as 3xUW27, 2xUW33.

4) If your company matches your charity donation, please check the box and fill in the information so the corporate match can be claimed.

5) Please check the box to allow us to see your email address so that Menu for Hope can contact you if you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone.

Please spread the word to your friends and family to help in the fight against hunger! Let me know if you have any questions and thanks in advance for your generosity.

Update Dec 27th, 2007: The fundraising campaign is now over with $90,191 raised for the UN World Food Program! Check back on January 9th for the raffle winners announcement. Thanks to everyone, who donated to the cause!

Update Jan 11th, 2008: Congratulations Debra Braun! You're the lucky winner of the Apple iPhone. Please leave a comment and I'll respond via email to get your shipping info. Cheers!

A few weeks ago, a friend brought over sticky date pudding from Bakesale Betty and it was absolutely fabulous. We loved it so much we tried Betty's pumpkin and pecan pies a few days later on Thanksgiving. Both pies were excellent, particularly the pecan pie.

After all the great desserts, we had to check out the bakery for lunch to try their popular fried chicken sandwich. The shop is located in North Oakland's Temescal District. When we arrived at the small, unassuming corner bakery, the line was just out the door. It was a little chaotic as we tried to figure out what to order in the fast moving line. We quickly decided to order...

• Fried Chicken Sandwich ($7.25)
• Egg Salad Sandwich ($5.50)
• Lemon Raisin Scone ($1.95)
• Ginger Pear Scone ($1.95)
• Sticky Date Pudding with Caramel Sauce (price unknown)

Our order was taken by Michael Camp, who is an owner and married to Alison Barakat, a.k.a. Betty, a former cook at Chez Panisse Cafe. At the time, I had no idea who Michael was. He began putting our order together on a metal tray and asked for $16.00. Obviously, I thought he made a mistake and asked him for the total again, he said, "16 dollars." I asked if he included the sticky date pudding in the order because it wasn't on the tray. He replied, "it's on the house." Alrighty then! We ended up getting...

• Fried Chicken Sandwich
• Egg Salad Sandwich
• Lemon Raisin Scone
• Ginger Pear Scone
• Apricot Almond Scone (complimentary)
• Sticky Date Pudding (complimentary)
• Two Frozen Lemonades (complimentary)

Michael told us that he would bring out the sticky date pudding cake to us. We found a table, an old ironing board, in a sunny spot on the sidewalk and started digging into our bounty. The fried chicken sandwich was fantastic. The buttermilk-battered chicken breast was nice and crispy with cole slaw piled high on top of it. We really liked the lightly dressed, vinaigrette based cole slaw. The absence of mayonnaise in the sandwich and slaw was a big positive for us. Serving thigh meat instead of breast meat is the only thing that would make it better, since we prefer dark meat.

The chunky egg salad sandwich was equally as good. It was topped with peppery arugula, which was a nice addition. Both sandwiches were served on good Acme torpedo rolls. The egg salad sandwich was a decent size, but the chicken sandwich was a very generous portion.

The scones were light and flaky with interesting flavor combinations. Our favorite scone was the lemon raisin with plump and juicy raisins. The scones would be great for breakfast with a hot cup of coffee or tea. Hungry Bear enjoyed the frozen lemonade because of the balance between sweet and tart. It was too tart for me, but I have odd taste buds.

As we were finishing our sandwiches, Michael came outside and told us the sticky date pudding was sold out. He apologized and gave us a voucher for a free pudding cake along with two shortbread cookies. It was completely unexpected and unnecessary, but talk about a great way to build customer loyalty.

The line grew longer during the lunch hour and we saw Michael on several occasions giving away cookies to everyone in line. I was sold on the food itself, but the extremely friendly service has me completely hooked. It's now my favorite bakery in the Bay Area!

I'm excited about going back for the sticky date pudding and trying out the banana bread. Hungry Bear wants to sample the lemon bars. I also want to figure out which sandwich I like more, fried chicken or egg salad? It's a toss up right now. I can't guarantee you'll get the same amount of complimentary food as we did, but the quality of the sandwiches and baked goods alone will make you come back for more!

Tip: Go early for sandwiches or they'll sell out and you'll be sad.

Location & Hours:
Bakesale Betty
5098 Telegraph Avenue (at 51st Street)
Oakland, CA 94609
Tuesday - Saturday: 7:00 am - 7:00 pm
(510) 985-1213
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Chocolate bouchons are amazing cork shaped brownies found at Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery in Napa and NYC. The recipe is also used to make the warm chocolate brownie served at Ad Hoc, which is our favorite dessert at any restaurant in the Bay Area country. Every time we go to Napa, we have to get a fix of bouchons from the bakery or the brownie at Ad Hoc. They are extremely addicting!

Our friend, Brennan, is a total bouchon junkie. When we bring back bouchons from Napa, we have to give the brownies to Deb, Brennan's wife. Otherwise, Brennan will eat them all and neglect to tell Deb about their existence. We accidentally outed him once... oops! We thought he'd share at least one.

A few weeks ago, I made bouchons for the first time and I turned it into a battle between Valrhona and Scharffen Berger chocolate. The recipe calls for Valrhona chocolate, but I also wanted to try bouchons using Scharffen Berger. It's our favorite local chocolate maker and we've been baking almost exclusively with Scharffen Berger for the last 5 or 6 years.

I present to you Hungry Bear's ginormous fruit salad. On Thanksgiving, we had the latest version of her giant fruit salad with cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon, pineapple, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, kiwis, persimmons and mandarin oranges. The fruit selection is usually seasonal, but we are fortunate to get good fruit year round in San Francisco.

Similar to Hungry Bear's Chinese sticky rice, the mega fruit salad is a featured item at our holiday feasts. You maybe asking, "Is it really that big?" Yes, the fruit salad is humongous. We actually weighed it this time and the fruit came in at 20 lbs! The bowl is 6.5 inches deep and has a diameter of 14 inches. That's a lot of fruit capacity... 3.1 gallons!

Why is there so much fruit salad? I often ask this question myself. It's not like she's feeding a football team. At most, there are 15 people at our largest gatherings, with plenty of other food and desserts. The reason why there is so much fruit starts with Hungry Bear's refusal to buy half a melon because it's not as fresh. She typically begins with a whole cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon and pineapple, which is a lot of fruit. Next, to balance the flavors (sweet versus tart) and colors, a lot of berries and tropical fruit are required, which yields a 20 lb fruit salad.

Hungry Bear's love for leftovers is the ultimate reason why all dishes are bear-sized, i.e. quadrupled. On Thanksgiving, the fruit salad was a huge hit as always. It was very refreshing after a heavy meal and a great interlude before the apple, pumpkin and pecan pies. We had a ton of leftover fruit and everyone was more than happy to take some home.

Now you have the story of Hungry Bear's ginormous fruit salad!