Tasting SF

Doña Tomás, Oakland

2011-12-10T20:00:00.001-08:00

I'm trying a new format. I realized that if I try and write about these meals, I will never wind up posting anything. So, for now, let's just go with photos.

This was a brunch from a few weeks ago at Doña Tomás in Oakland.

Bar Jules, Hayes Valley

2011-11-13T19:46:00.001-08:00

Will you be insulted if I don't write much about this brunch? I've been sitting on these pictures for awhile and in an effort to finally get them up I am going to sacrifice having much text.

This was Halloween at Bar Jules. Good food, good friends. Enjoy!

Starbelly, Castro

2011-10-23T19:14:00.000-07:00

It's nearly Halloween, which means Summer has finally arrived in San Francisco. Hooray! We decided to take a walk to enjoy the weather and also get some breakfast at Starbelly.

(Ok, that isn't exactly true. Kev wanted Eggs Benedict at Le Zinc's outdoor patio. I needed a new blog post and we had already covered Le Zinc so we thought: where else can we walk to brunch that I haven't already blogged about? That is how we wound up at Starbelly).

There is this great outdoor patio, but it was all full when we got there. It emptied out as we ate.

Some coffee and scrambled eggs for me. That is one giant piece of toast.

Sunny side up eggs for Kev, with what they call sausage. To me it was more like a spicy slider. Call it what you will, it tasted pretty good!

All in all - a decent breakfast. Nothing revolutionary, but a convenient neighborhood place. Even better if you can snag a table outside.

Piccino, Dogpatch

2011-10-16T17:16:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posting, but mostly it's because we haven't gone anywhere new in awhile. Finally this weekend we tried a couple of new places, including Piccino, over in the Dogpatch. We had tried to go there last weekend but were thwarted by a street festival of people dressed up in crazy clothes.

I immediately loved the look of this place - tons of wood, white and completely light filled. Very helpful for taking pictures, too.

I ordered an Arnold Palmer. It came with simple syrup since they don't sweeten the tea or the lemonade. We got some marinated olives, too.

We didn't order any pizzas, even though it seems that is what they are known for. Instead we got the white bean soup, which sounded like something I would make at home (but tasted way better).

We also got a poached egg over a semolina gnocchi. I'm still not clear how this was a gnocci - it reminded me more of a potato pancake, but with semolina. The flavors were great - egg and olive and zucchini and basil. Very savory and different than a normal, breakfast-style poached egg. The parmesan cracker was a nice touch too.

Extra bonus: they are located very close to CalTrain, so if you are just visiting San Francisco from one of the surrounding areas this might be a good option for you.

Local: Mission Eatery, revisited

2011-09-27T09:37:00.000-07:00

It's official, I have a new favorite brunch place. Local: Mission Eatery/Knead Patisserie. I've posted about both of these places before, and I just can't get enough. I love that I can walk there, I love that it isn't too crowded, I love how low-key the vibe is. And have I mentioned that I love the food?

This time we combined the best of both worlds - some eggs from the restaurant and some pastries from the patisserie. The poached eggs were exactly, perfectly the way I like them. We sat at the counter and I was excited that I could watch the chef make the eggs, so maybe I could learn her technique. Turns out her technique consisted of cracking an egg directly into the not-quite boiling water, leaving it alone to go deal with some other food, and then coming back to scoop the egg out. My eggs must smell my fear.

The croissant was also insane - so crispy on the outside but so soft and buttery on the inside. I realize that just sounds like a description of any old croissant, but this is something else entirely. You just need to try it for yourself, ok?

Both egg dishes were great, but I particularly liked the one with farro and tomatoes. I'm on a roasted tomato kick right now, so this really hit the spot.

I loved this breakfast so much I'm already planning on returning this coming weekend for my anniversary brunch. Save me a croissant!

Beast, Portland

2011-09-06T21:36:00.000-07:00

And... we are back to Portland. I didn't take any photos this weekend in San Francisco, so here's some more great Portland food. This was actually our last meal there, a six-course dinner at Beast.

You may have heard of Beast or it's chef, Naomi Pomeroy, if you watched the last season of Top Chef: Masters - she made it to the final four. That was how I first heard of the restaurant and why I originally wanted to eat there. As I started investigating where to eat for this trip I noticed that every list seemed to mention Beast, which sealed the deal for me.

The restaurant is run a little differently than most. For example: there are just 2 seating times (6PM and 8:45PM); all guests are seated at one of two communal tables; there is just one prix-fixe menu; and the chefs work from a buffet in the room where the meal is served. Literally you can have a conversation with them as they prepare your meal. While I think it would have been great to be inside to watch them cook, we chose to sit outside at this table for two, since it was such a nice night (and also because there was a very loud party of 12 inside and I was feeling anti-social).

Here's where my memory gets a little fuzzy. This meal was a month ago and I admit, I don't take notes. Bringing my giant camera out at meals is enough of a distraction, not only from the food but from whomever I'm dining with. I kind of feel I need to draw the line there - whipping out a notebook and pen just feels like too much. However what that means for you is a sort of hazy recollection of this meal.

This soup was a cold tomato soup with garlic bread croutons, almonds and cucumber (that's a borage flower as well). We cleaned the bowls and thought it was an excellent first course.

The charcuterie plate came next. This was a crazy dish of (starting at 12 o'clock): foie-gras bon-bon with sauternes gelee; chicken liver pâté on a leaf-lard cracker; steak tartare and quail egg toast; pork pate en croute and aramagnac poached prune; and lastly, a couple of pieces of salami. It was fun to get to try all the different flavors and my favorite was the steak tartare and quail egg toast. (Side note: we were instructed to start at 1 o'clock and finish with the foie gras bon-bon, since it is almost like a dessert in itself).

The main dish was pork shoulder. I love pork shoulder and was happy that this was the entree. The crust on it was insane - it was some sort of whole grain mustard rub. All of the flavors were amazing, and this was the highlight of the meal for me.

This is a good example of how my non-note taking doesn't do me much good when I am writing a post a month later. I remember that I liked this salad and thought it was really nicely dressed. The cheese course I sorta just picked at, because I was already ridiculously full and obviously needed to save room for dessert. We did particularly like the hazelnuts and honey.

I snuck back into the restaurant to take some pictures of the dessert plating . This is how they do it for all the courses - line up all the plates on the buffet and get them plated at once for serving.

The dessert was a tart topped with some cream and then some vanilla salt. I was very proud of myself for recognizing that the salt came from The Meadow, another awesome Portland place that we had been to the day before known for salts, bitters and chocolates (hey NYers, there's one in Manhattan too - you should check it out).

Truth be told, I had tried to cancel our reservations the morning of this meal. I was worried about eating six-courses - I was food-ed out from the week and I didn't think I could manage it. We were unable to cancel without a charge since it was the day of the meal. Looking back, I'm glad that policy was in place because it really would have been a shame to visit Portland and miss out on the unique charm of Beast.

Beast
5425 Northeast 30th Avenue
Portland, OR 97211

(503) 841-6968

Sightglass Coffee, SOMA

2011-08-30T10:02:00.000-07:00

(Blog news: Tasting SF has been nominated for "Best Food Blog" by SF Weekly. If you'd like to vote, please go here)

Sightglass Coffee is one of San Francisco's newer coffee roasters. They've only been around for a year or so, and for most of that time had been operating out of a small kiosk on 7th Street. Recently they opened a much, much larger space so we went over there to check it out.

The coffee is great but you must also try the baked goods. My favorite was the cheddar and black pepper gougere from the Tell Tale Preserve Company. Here is the saddest news though: I just learned that they are closing - the last batch of pastries went out this past weekend. I'm so glad I got to eat this one last time before they closed. And I really, really hope that they reopen soon.

We also tried the chocolate brioche with sea salt (with Mast Brothers chocolate). We liked this a lot too, and it did go better with my latte. It was made by Firebrand Bakery, which I had never heard of. If they are reading this, I have a suggestion: please can you try making a cheddar and black pepper gougere?

Part of the new space is a big mezzanine. Currently there is nothing up there, but I imagine they'll expand and put seating up there as well. It's kind of fun to stand up there and get a bird's eye view on the whole place. (And a nice way to get photos, too.)

Sightglass Coffee

270 7th Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

(415) 861-1313

Little Skillet, SOMA

2011-08-27T18:29:00.000-07:00

(Blog news: Tasting SF has been nominated for "Best Food Blog" by SF Weekly. If you'd like to vote, please go here)

What could be a better way to start a weekend than sleeping in til 11 (I didn't even know I could still do that!) and then heading over to Little Skillet for some insanely good fried chicken and waffles.

Little Skillet is on a small, alley-type street in SOMA, pretty close to Giants Stadium. If you're headed to a game and want some great food first, I highly recommend you stop over here. It's a pretty basic operation - order at a window and your food is delivered in a to-go box. No tables or chairs, just some cement stoops across the road.

I ordered the fried chicken and waffle, and it was probably the best fried chicken I've ever had - tender and moist - but that skin! That is some amazing crispy, flavorful skin. The waffle was pretty good too, but maybe not the best ever. It could have been a little crispier for my taste, but the chicken more than made up for it.

They also serve Po Boys, including a fried chicken version - no bones! I'm thinking I should get that one next time to ensure that I don't waste any of that precious skin.

Little Skillet

360 Ritch Street
San Francisco, CA 94107

(415) 777-2777

Broder, Portland

2011-08-14T22:18:00.000-07:00

I celebrated my birthday in Portland and we picked Broder to have my birthday breakfast. It was definitely the right choice. This place is fantastic - I can imagine that if I lived in Portland I would bring all of my friends here when they came to visit.

The space itself is on the small side (though fairly large if you compare to here) and feels very homey. It seems like a lot of places we ate at had a similar feeling, as if you were eating in someone's house. I liked that - it felt very unpretentious.

We got to sit at the window seats in the front which were open because it was such a beautiful day. Really, every day we were there was a beautiful day. Sunny, blue skies and 80 degrees is much nicer than San Francisco summer weather.

These strange looking things are called aebleskiver. Since I can't pronounce that, I'm going to call it a Danish pancake. These are served with two dipping sauces, and I chose the lemon curd and the ligonberry jam. The jam was good - but the lemon curd was amazing. It actually reminded me a lot of one of my favorite items at Tartine. But back to the pancakes: they were such a fun treat! Maybe it's because I never had them before, but something about having these for breakfast felt a little celebratory, which was perfect since it was my birthday. Also I now have it on good authority that Trader Joes sells aebleskivers as well, so I'll be needing to try that.

This is the Swedish hash, or pytt i panna, if you speak Swedish. I am so glad that it tasted as good as it looked. In the dish is potatoes, peppers, roast beef and ham, and on top of the eggs are pickled beets. It is the perfect savory breakfast dish. I could not get enough.

Because we thought it might be nice to have something healthy, we also ordered the yogurt and granola parfait. That's healthy, right? I only had a few bites of this one, since I was too busy power eating my pancakes. I really liked what I had - and Kev named it his favorite granola dish in Portland (we did eat granola at most breakfasts there).

I know I've already showed you all of these dishes, but I thought I'd share picture of the whole meal together, so you can see how Broder appealed not only to my stomach, but to my general aesthetic sensibility.

It was a great way to start what turned out to be our best day in Portland. We followed this meal with a trip to the Japanese Gardens, which I highly recommend if you are going to Portland, and then finished the day with a meal at Le Pidgeon. Stay tuned for that post!

Stumptown Coffee and Clyde Common - Portland

2011-08-12T09:55:00.000-07:00

People keep asking me what we did on vacation. I keep explaining that we ate. We ate and we walked around. And when we walked around, we were frequently walking to another place to eat. Stumptown Coffee and Clyde Common are two more places where we killed some time (eating) while waiting for our next meal.

Both Stumptown and Clyde Common are part of the Ace Hotel. We didn't stay at the Ace, but maybe we should have since we spent so much time over there. Another reason to stay at the Ace is the view of the Fish Grotto across the street. I may have been slightly obsessed with the Fish Grotto mural, and I seem to have more photos of it than anything else from our whole trip. If you need such a picture, let me know, I have quite a selection.

These pictures are from happy hour at Clyde. $3 for some pickled veggies, $5 for the charcuterie board and $5 wine and cocktails. We sat at the outdoor tables, which was great because the weather was so nice. What was not great was the amount of smokers walking by. This is the most confusing thing to me about Portland. For such a healthy, active city it is really surprising to see so many cigarettes.

We spent a few mornings in the Ace lobby, drinking our coffee and PG Tips. We were very excited to see PG Tips on the menu since it is our favorite. I love all of the succulents on the table and the branding inside the mug.

I also love that the saucer says Good Luck. How random. But thank you - I'll take it.

Lovejoy Bakers and Pearl Bakery - Portland

2011-08-09T21:11:00.000-07:00

In between eating, we did some more eating.

We stopped over at the Pearl Bakery. Check out this pastry.

It had the texture of a doughnut with subtle orange and anise flavors. Kind of like a very sophisticated doughnut.

We also went to Lovejoy Bakers, which is a little further out in the Pearl District. We liked that there was less traffic - both pedestrian and cars. There was also loads of outside seating which made for a great place to relax and read while waiting for our next dinner reservation.

We ordered some sandwiches and then just hung out. I love vacation.

Little Bird Bistro - Portland!

2011-08-06T19:09:00.000-07:00

We just returned from having spent five days stuffing our faces in Portland. In the weeks leading up to the trip, I was out of control doing research on all of the places we needed to eat and when we'd go where. And by "out of control" I mean I plotted and color coded my list on a google map so I could see, by neighborhood, where everything was and then made a daily agenda of all of our meals. Yes, I am just that kind of obsessive person.

The point is, we ate a lot. Seriously, I don't know that there was ever a time in my life where I have eaten so much every single day. So while this is a blog about eating in San Francisco, I couldn't let our Portland food experience go undocumented.

Our first Portland dinner was at Little Bird Bistro. Because the restaurant was just 2 blocks from our hotel I thought it would be nice to go there on our first night, as we were getting the lay of the land.

We decided to share an appetizer and picked the smoked trout gougeres. We had recently tried an amazing gougeres in San Francisco (cheddar and black pepper from Tell Tale Preserve Co) so we were curious what this one would be like, especially with the addition of the smoked trout. I am so so happy we ordered this, as it actually was probably one of the best things we ate our whole time in Portland. The texture of the gougeres was different than what I would have thought - it was more like fried dough than the croissant-like interior I was expecting. The addition of the trout was intriguing - you could taste it, but not in an overtly fishy way. The beet salad seemed a little strange to go with it, but it was incredible. I couldn't remember what the dressing was, and at one point I said to Kev, "there's a flavor in here that reminds me of Jewish deli". He thought I was crazy, but I wasn't far off - the dressing had caraway in it - the same seeds that are on rye bread. If any chef in San Francisco reads this - can you please put this on your menu? I will be your #1 customer.

It seemed fitting to order the salmon, since we were in the Pacific Northwest. The salmon entree changes daily. This was sockeye salmon on a crepe of creamed corn and fennel. The flavor on this was amazing, and like the trout, it wasn't super fishy - it felt very meaty. We were sharing both entrees and I think we were fighting over this one - we both couldn't get enough.

We also ordered a side of what they referred to as macaroni gratin, which is just a much fancier way of saying mac and cheese. This was a perfect mac and cheese - it had lots of crispy bits, it wasn't too creamy, but just creamy enough and the cheddar had a nice tang to it.

Our second entree was the pork shoulder with a fried poached egg, just in case a regular poached egg on your pork shoulder isn't decadent enough. The thing with this one was that the meat tasted incredible, but there wasn't much meat - it was nearly all fat. Now, I am not one to send things back to the kitchen, it really makes me uncomfortable, but this just didn't seem right. We spoke to the waiter who was incredibly apologetic and told us he'd get us another piece. When the second piece arrived - perfectly cooked - we were stuffed. But we persevered because we couldn't let such an amazing piece of food go to waste. So we had pork for dessert. Delicious, tender, you-don't-even-need-a-knife pork.

If you're going to Portland, I can't recommend Little Bird highly enough. The food and service are great and it's just a really cute spot - so much so that we even went back our second night to get an after dinner drink. If this place was in San Francisco I know we'd be regulars.

ps: If you are going to Portland and want to take advantage of my OCD tendencies, email me and I can send you my Google map and agenda.

Plow, Potrero Hill

2011-07-30T22:49:00.000-07:00

You know how sometimes you hear something mentioned multiple times in the span of a couple of weeks, even though you had previously never heard of it? For me, that was Plow. All of a sudden everyone kept talking about it. I enlisted my trusty friend and food partner (and frequent tastingsf hand-model) Britt to join me.

We headed over there on a Saturday morning to find that perhaps we were the only ones who hadn't heard of Plow. The place was packed with a whole bunch of people waiting outside. We put our names on the list and were seated about 30 minutes later at the counter, which gave us a good vantage point of what was happening in the kitchen.

Do you see what's happening in the kitchen? Those are lemon-ricotta pancakes on the grill. Normally I'm more of a savory breakfast person, but they looked so good we did a side order (1 pancake) to have with our eggs. That was a mistake though because it was my favorite thing and I wish we had ordered a full stack. The owner told us that it is all made from scratch, right down to the ricotta. They were light and fluffy and not too sweet. Really a perfect pancake, in my opinion.

For our main dish we ordered the scrambled eggs with lambs quarters. I will admit I had no idea what lambs quarters were when we ordered this and I expected to find something meaty in my eggs. Please stop laughing at me. It turns out it is really a type of weed that you can use in food, kind of like spinach. The eggs also had a generous amount of goat cheese, which I love, and the potatoes were nice and crispy on the outside and soft and creamy on the inside (aka a perfect potato).

There are certain ingredients (goat cheese, burrata, heirloom tomatoes, nectarines, pluots) that I am always drawn to. Whenever I see it on a menu, I'll order whatever that dish is. That is how we wound up with this salad. Also I love little gem lettuce, it always seems to be really crisp and fresh. This salad had little bits of mint in it too, which was a nice surprise every time you got a bite of it. Plus with the nectarines and pluots it made it feel so summery. If only there was some goat cheese on this salad, that would be perfection.

If you are looking for a brunch place to quickly pop into, or to have a big group meet up at, this isn't the place for you. But if you have some time and you don't mind waiting a little while for some good food, I'll see you in line. I'm having the pancakes.

Farm:Table, Tenderloin

2011-07-17T16:32:00.000-07:00

Today I had breakfast at Farm:Table, and it is quite possibly the tiniest restaurant I have ever been in. Tiny as in they have one small communal table that seats 8 very small people. What they have done though with their teeny tiny space is incredibly impressive and should make me ashamed when I complain I don't have enough kitchen space.

In this tiny kitchen are two very, very sweet guys making some excellent food and drinks.

The coffee beans they use are from Verve, which is out of Santa Cruz. I heard a woman from Australia telling the guys that this was the best coffee she had had while traveling in America. It was pretty damn good. They also make hot chocolate (using local TCHO Chocolate). My two year old friend who was with us thoroughly enjoyed hers - it was the first hot chocolate she had ever had, and she spent the rest of the day talking about it.

I just liked these two quirky details

We had the quiche of the day (different sorts of quiches daily) which was light and fluffy.

We also ordered the granola with yogurt and fruit. This is actually one of my favorite breakfast dishes and I don't order it as much as I should. Or make it at home as much as I should. Maybe if I had more kitchen space....

I ordered the hard boiled eggs with bacon and brussel sprouts and zucchini. This was great! Kind of random with the hard boiled eggs, but it totally worked. I really liked the bacon. The bread was toasted, which made it really crunchy on the outside. The inside was nice and chewy, and they gave us some spiced butter to put on it and that was excellent.

All in all, this place was pretty adorable, and you should check it out.

Farm:Table
754 Post St
San Francisco, CA 94108

(415) 292-7089

Wise Sons Deli, Mission

2011-07-10T15:16:00.000-07:00

People, the rumors are true: You now can get really great Jewish deli in San Francisco. Wise Sons Deli has had tons of press but I didn't get to try it until yesterday. We headed over to Heart to check it out, but next week they move on to The Beast and the Hare. They are still operating as a pop-up restaurant with no official home - but they are looking. And I am keeping my fingers crossed that they stay in the Misison, close to me, because this place is legit! And I do consider myself an expert: not only am I a Jewish New Yorker, but I am a Jewish New Yorker who spent 5+ years working in a NY Jewish Deli.

The pastrami is house cured, sliced by hand and excellent. And they have real rye bread! Real rye bread! Why has this been so hard to come by in San Francisco?

Perhaps you think 10AM is too early for a pastrami sandwich? Not to worry - you can get a bagel with lox instead. Two of the employees at Wise Sons run a pop-up bagel shop within the pop-up deli: Beauty Bagels. Cross your fingers that they open their retail shop soon (too bad for me that it will be in Oakland and not San Francisco).

The guys who worked there were also super sweet and seemed to really enjoy what they were doing. One of them saw me snapping pictures and came over to ask if I wanted to take some of him making an egg cream (egg cream!!). For those of you West Coast people that don't know what an egg cream is, see below for instruction:

(Truthfully, I'm not that into egg creams, but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate them, and I am happy to see that they have found a place here in San Francisco.)

Mmm, babka. Have you tried babka? Imagine a hybrid combination of coffee cake, brioche, chocolate and cinnamon and that is basically babka. Also it is fun to say: Babka.

Dear Wise Sons Deli,

Thank you for filling the hole in my heart (stomach?) that is reserved for Jewish deli. You have made it so that there is (nearly) no longer any food craving that San Francisco can not fill. I say nearly because I would still love a knish. Could you guys help me out with that one?

Thank you,

Tasting SF

Local: Mission Eatery, Mission

2011-06-29T09:38:00.000-07:00

Local: Mission Eatery has been sitting in my "places to eat" list ever since I tried the baked goods from Knead Patisserie. I got to try it this weekend with a couple of girlfriends, and it completely exceeded my expectations. I love when that happens.

The menu is broken up into "bites" and dinner. The dinner choices all come in two sizes, small and large. We started with a couple of the bites. These dishes set the tone for the meal - just a few ingredients, but those ingredients really pack a punch.

I love how pretty this is. They poured the soup table side. This wasn't a hit with my friends, but I really liked it. I love cucumber soup in the "summer" (summer in quotes because I live in San Francisco).

The entrees were also great. Simple foods prepared really well. I loved the flavor combinations in all the dishes. I kept saying "wait, what is that?"

One of the things that really appealed to me about this place was that all of the dishes, even though they were pretty simple, felt like that had been prepared with tons of attention and care. Clearly there is a lot of effort placed on high quality ingredients, and what's even cooler is that all of the ingredients are local (hence the name).

Even when I really like a place, I find that it usually takes me awhile to go back - not because I don't want to, but because there are so many restaurants in San Francisco that I want to try. I need to start a new list, restaurants to make sure to go back to - "go to" restaurants. This place would top that list.

NOPA, revisited

2011-06-20T11:27:00.000-07:00

Finally. Finally!! We made it back to Nopa, this time for dinner - and it really was worth the wait.

We got there a little bit before our reservations, so we were able to sit at the bar and get a drink. Just as our drinks were served, our friends showed up and our table was ready. Once again, we got seated on the mezzanine level, overlooking the kitchen, which in my opinion is the best seat in the house. I spent a lot of time peeking down there to see what was happening.

We took a long time looking over the menu. I wanted to eat everything - and I feel like I did eat everything, considering that as I write this 12+ hours after dinner, I am still full.

We finally decided on four appetizers.

I looooooved the warm goat cheese crostini. The goat cheese was incredibly creamy and spread on the crostini almost liked whipped cream and the pluot was tart and sweet and the perfect companion to the goat cheese. It was a perfect "summer is nearly here" dish.

We had been to the Farmers' Market earlier that morning, and had seen lots of beautiful squash blossoms, which was what inspired us to order that dish. I think I didn't pay enough attention to the description on the menu though - I wasn't expecting the whole thing to be fried. It was good - but certainly not my favorite. With all the fresh produce right now, I haven't been wanting much fried stuff.

The roasted onions were more my speed - they had that same feeling of summer. We really liked the pea sprouts that were part of it too.

The last appetizer was the arugula salad. Clearly I was going to like this no matter what. And it had fresh strawberries. Delicious.

At this point I was 1) licking the goat cheese out of the dish and 2) ridiculously full and overwhelmed when my dinner arrived.

I ordered the seared duck, which was recommended to me by the bartender. The fact that it had grilled nectarines also sold it for me. It was fantastic and I had never had orach before, which kinda tasted a little bit like kale. I got about half way through and hit a wall - I could not eat another thing. The rest will be for dinner tomorrow.

Mark got the pork chop, which also could probably feed two. I had a bite and it was tender and juicy. I can imagine that next time I might order this myself.

Kev got the burger, which made me happy because I really wanted to try it. Like the pork chop, it was really juicy. He thought it had a bit of a bacon taste to it too, which was appreciated. On the way home he commented that it was one of the best burgers he's ever had.

Britt got the homemade fettuccine with clams, tomatoes and peas. I took a bite and it was great. I love fresh made pasta.

All of us were way too full for dessert, which is disappointing because I would have loved to try it. I guess I'll have to save that for next time.

Lastly, because this is my 100th post (!) and because we had seats overlooking the kitchen, I'm including a little video (in case you want to see what the kitchen is like for yourself). Hopefully the chef doesn't mind that I was sneakily filming him. Enjoy!

dinner @nopa from tastingsf on Vimeo.

NOPA
560 Divisadero St
San Francisco, California 94117
(415) 864-8643

Flora, Oakland

2011-06-13T08:49:00.000-07:00

I've been a delinquent blogger. I meant to do a whole bunch of photo editing this weekend, but didn't get the chance. And so - I will leave you instead with a few images from my iPhone from a recent breakfast at Flora. I love the style of that place - check out that wallpaper.

We did order a bunch more food, but I got caught up in the conversation and forgot to take photos. I highly recommend the "donettes" though, which are served with jam and chocolate.

Great breakfast place, there's pretty much no wait for a table and if you're coming from SF, it's very close to BART.

Flora

1900 Telegraph Avenue
Oakland, CA 94612-2202
(510) 286-0100

Serpentine, Dogpatch

2011-05-29T12:10:00.000-07:00

This post is a little old, since this brunch was actually on Mother's Day. In a way this is a follow up to this post - we took my parents here the morning after our very triumphant dinner at Bistro Aix. And, I am happy to report, it was a hit - we were able to check off all the boxes that make for a successful family meal with brunch at Serpentine.

Check boxes include: 1. They take reservations 2. They have awesome, non-greasy breakfast potatoes 3. It's not too loud 4. The prices are pretty reasonable and 5. (Bonus!) They serve arugula on their egg sandwich.

That is the egg sandwich. I got mine with scrambled eggs. It has a really tasty dill aioli on there. Kev had his (below) with a fried egg and some pork sausage and was equally happy with it.

My parents both ordered the buckwheat pancakes (with a side of breakfast potatoes) and they were pleased. I was too full from my sandwich to take a bite, so you'll have to take their word for it.

All in all, a very successful food weekend, including a dinner at home of tortilla soup and this rhubarb and raspberry crostata, which was not quite as pretty as theirs, but tasted amazing.

Happy (belated) Mother's Day!

Serpentine
2495 3rd Street
San Francisco, CA 94107-3110
(415) 252-2000

Bottega Louie, Los Angeles

2011-05-20T17:18:00.000-07:00

I didn't have my camera with me, so here's just a few iPhone photos of the amazing baked goods at Bottega Louie. Dinner with some friends was pretty great also. AND I bumped into an old friend from high school. A very successful night.

Bottega Louie

700 S Grand Ave

Los Angeles, CA 90017

(213) 802-1470

Bistro Aix, Marina

2011-05-14T19:55:00.000-07:00

Last week, my parents were in town and I wanted to book some reservations for while they were here. Finding restaurants for my parents is a semi-daunting task: it can't be too loud, it shouldn't be too trendy, they should serve Diet Coke, and the food needs to be very accessible (read: American or "red sauce" Italian) for my dad.

I didn't know much about Bistro Aix, but it had been recommended on the Top 100 Places to Eat list, and although it is considered French (not American or Italian) everything I read about it, including the menu, seemed to fit the above description. I booked it. We sat in the front room which was comfortably chatty, so that was perfect (the back room however, is quite noisy, so make sure to request the front if you don't like noisy). The bar accommodated everyone, with both Diet Coke and this awesome beer. Love the label.

We ordered a couple of appetizers: burrata on crostini with arugula and pea shoots, which doesn't fall into the "accessible" category for my dad, but wow, was it good. The cheese was super creamy and the whole thing was seasoned really well, in a light vinaigrette. There was some coarse salt on it that added a little crunch that I liked. More accessible was the spaghetti with San Marzano tomatoes and basil. Everyone loved this, and I'd be tempted to order it next time as my entree.

Kev ordered another pasta dish, as recommended by our waitress, for his entree. This was tagliatelle with shrimp and clams in a spicy tomato broth. It was a good dish, but not quite as good as the spaghetti. My mom ordered the duck, which was great - juicy and tender.

My dad and I both ordered the crispy chicken breast with baby red potoates: he was sold on "crispy" and potatoes; I was sold on the Patricia Unterman review describing the chicken. It lived up to the description: the skin was really crispy and the meat was really juicy. I was also eyeing the burger at the table next to us, which looked amazing. As good as the chicken was, I was having food envy.

At this point we were all pretty full, but they had tarte tatin. I had been thinking about tarte tatin just before we went to dinner, because I had read this Smitten Kitchen post and was thinking 1) I want to make that and 2) mmmm, tarte tatin. And it really was lovely - warm and gooey and perfectly caramelized. Even my dad ate it, and that is saying something (no warm desserts, either).

Moral of the story: bring a date or bring your parents. And bring me, too.

Bistro Aix
3340 Steiner Street
San Francisco, CA 94123-2707
(415) 202-0100

Mission Cheese, the Mission

2011-04-29T20:41:00.000-07:00

We've been walking by the Mission Cheese storefront for what seems like months. I loved the drawing and font they had on the sign in the window, and I love cheese and I couldn't wait for them to open. I figured though it would just be a cheese shop, so I was even more excited when I heard they serve food and wine and beer.

When we walked in at around 2:30, the place was full. I loved the palette they chose in designing the space, and the Heath ceramic bar is just awesome. We ordered two grilled cheese sandwiches: the Cheddarhead (2 types of cheddar with apple and ale chutney) and the Pork and Cheese (Gruyere, salami, mustard and cornichons). Oh, and some coffee.

We loved our food, the coffee was great and it reaffirmed my love for this neighborhood. We spoke to the owner, who was very sweet and also totally inspiring in that she opened this place in a year and a half without any previous cheese-shop or running-a-business type experience.

I'm now plotting my return to try that mac n cheese. Yum.

Mission Cheese
736 Valencia Street
San Francisco, California

Scenes from Los Angeles

2011-04-24T17:28:00.000-07:00

Got to eat some great food while down in LA for the weekend. We mistakenly left our camera at home, so it's all iPhone photos instead. I like how they turned out! The Cross Process app is awesome.

We spent a lot of time on Abbot Kinney this trip. We had lunch at 3 Square, which we seem to stop at every time we are down there. This was their three sandwich sampler: pulled pork, salmon cake and grilled cheese with shrimp. The grilled cheese was my fave.

Intelligentsia Latte

We sort of happened-upon the Brentwood Country Mart by mistake. I was psyched when I realized that's where Farmshop LA was. We had already eaten lunch, so we just got a few snacks. The lemon raspberry cookie was insanely good. I really want to go back there for a meal.

We decided we needed dessert with our dessert, so we got an ice cream cone (Caffe Luxxe Coffee) at Sweet Rose Ice Cream.

So this last picture isn't in LA - it is at the brand new SFO Terminal 2. This place is awesome! Super clean and modern with lots of great restaurants, including the Plant Cafe. We got off the plane and needed to detox from traveling + all the sugar we had eaten. We were so happy to see this in front of us, and we got a fresh squeezed juice (carrot/ginger/orange juice). Plus we were able to pick up a loaf of Acme Bread at the Napa Farms Market, which meant we didn't need to go to the grocery store - so convenient! I think I need to only fly on Virgin America from now on.

Canteen, Nob Hill

2011-03-20T16:50:00.000-07:00

Some pictures from a recent dinner at Canteen - which turned out to be one of the better dinners we've had recently. We were both super impressed with the meal.

The restaurant is tiny, and we sat at the counter. The very bright green counter.

Amuse bouche - avocado with bay shrimp. Fresh and tasty.

Fresh rolls, spicy crab soup and sea scallops. The soup was super flavorful and not too spicy. The scallops were ok - but I think the weakest point of the overall meal. One of the highlights of the meal was watching the three guys in the tiny kitchen. The way they maneuvered around each other was amazing. Our waitress told us they had all been working together for years.

I ordered the lamb loin with sesame-chickpea puree and pepper relish. It was excellent. It was like fancy lamb and hummus.

Kev ordered the halibut poached in olive oil with green garlic, baby leeks, grits and spicy ham. Really light and nice flavors.

For dessert, we shared the chocolate pot de creme with chicory and the vanilla souffle. The pot de creme was different than most - it didn't have the same thickness that I'm used to. I liked it - but not as much as the souffle, which was amazing. The menu at Canteen changes weekly, but the souffle is always on the menu, for good reason.

The cool thing about this place is that it doesn't seem like it's trying all that hard - the food they make isn't anything crazy or fancy - it's all just done really well.

Outerlands, Outer Sunset

2011-03-16T12:24:00.000-07:00

I can't remember when I first read about Outerlands, but I remember seeing a photo with the wood paneled walls and thinking, I want to go there. I finally remembered to add it to my "places to go" list, and attempted to go there for breakfast this morning.

I say attempted because I didn't read the fine print - they don't serve their breakfast menu on Saturdays. Big, huge bummer, because I was really excited for the "eggs in jail" and the Dutch pancake.

They did have an egg dish on the menu though, so I got that - fried egg sandwich with cheese and bacon. Their bread was amazing. My only complaint is that I wanted a steak knife to cut it with - that crust is no joke and my bread knife struggled with the task. Also I have been debating if I should buy a Chemex so I was excited to get to try it out again. The coffee was excellent (they use Sightglass beans) and it convinced me to make the purchase.

That there is the grilled cheese and it is serious business. I love the little burned bits of cheese oozing out. It reminds me of french onion soup, which I also love.

I should have taken a whole bunch more photos because the place looks so cool, but I was too absorbed in enjoying the food and the company. I fully intend to go back though, both for breakfast and dinner, so expect an update in the hopefully not-too-distant future.

(PS: Before or after you eat here, I highly recommend you check out the General Store, which is just 2 shops down.)

Outerlands

4001 Judah St

San Francisco, CA 94122

(415) 661-6140

Mayfield Bakery and Cafe, Palo Alto

2011-03-11T10:25:00.000-08:00

I had big (eating) plans this weekend: 1) Nopa for dinner on Saturday night and 2) Bakesale Betty for lunch on Sunday. Want to guess how many of those plans happened? (Answer: Zero.)

Plan 1: Nopa, you and I can never seem to get it together. And by you and I, I mean me. I was all psyched to finally have dinner at Nopa (see: here) but forgot we had made plans to babysit. Oops. Another canceled reservation. When we finally get to eat dinner there, maybe in 2014, they are going to have to work really hard to live up to my expectations.

Plan 2: We were supposed to head over to Emeryville to go to Ikea, and then reward ourselves with Bakesale Betty, which I have still never had. As we got on the 101, at 10am on Sunday morning, we were greeted with a sign saying that 3 lanes on the bridge were closed. We got on anyway, saw the traffic, and decided to head South instead, to the Ikea in Palo Alto. Goodbye, Bakesale Betty..... maybe some other day.

We still needed to reward ourselves for spending our Sunday morning at Ikea, so we decided to hit up Mayfield Bakery and Cafe. Mayfield is part of the Spruce/Cafe Des Amis family, but I don't think you'd guess that if you didn't know. The vibe in there just feels really different than their other restaurants. Here's a picture to prove my point:

I think the staff at either one of those restaurants might frown at drawing on the linens. Mayfield is much more family friendly though (tons of kids in there for brunch) and drawing on the table was not at all out of place. Mayfield provides all the baked goods for the other restaurants that are part of the same management group. What this means for you as a customer there: if you go for dinner, they frequently give away loaves of bread at the end of the night. If you go for brunch, they give you delicious treats. Last time I was there, we got zucchini bread. Today we got these madeleines, which were really cakey and had the slightest hint of orange and were delicious.

Kev ordered the country breakfast, which is like your standard egg/potato/bacon/toast. But the potatoes! They call them "cottage potatoes" on the menu, but they reminded me of a potato pancake, which is weird because the texture is completely different - the insides are smooth and creamy in a crunchy, fried shell - but really, it tasted like your favorite Chanukah treat. Which is pretty awesome.

I ordered the romesco and egg flatbread with chorizo, roasted red peppers, pecans and arugula. Oh and a sundried tomato sauce. It was really, really good. They have a wood fire stove so the crust had that nice charring, and the tang of the sundried tomato sauce plus the spice of the chorizo, plus all the other ingredients, were a winning combination, plus it was nice to have something different for breakfast. And I just had to stop writing this post to go eat the leftovers, so, there you go.

Mayfield Bakery and Cafe
855 El Camino Real
Palo Alto, CA 94301
(650) 853-9200

Knead Patisserie, Mission

2011-03-05T15:05:00.000-08:00

Last week, in a moment of pure brilliance and gluttony, I decided to take a different route to the 101 and stop by Knead Patisserie for coffee and breakfast.

On weekday mornings before 11, you can find Shauna (the owner/baker) and her cart in the doorway of Local Mission Eatery, where the bakery is based. Once the restaurant opens at 11, the operation moves inside. You might want to click on that link to check out the website for the restaurant because it is a prime example of a logo so well designed that I'd want to eat there even if the menu didn't look amazing. I'm such a sucker.

I couldn't decide what I wanted, and I really wanted everything, so I picked up a whole bunch of stuff. This included the pomme d'amore, which is basically pastry wrapped around awesomeness: melted and brûléed caramel. I was ordered to purchase this by KelsEats, who happened to show up at the same time as me. Luckily it isn't very hard to persuade me, because that pastry was amazing.

I tried a little bit of everything and loved it all. I then begrudgingly shared with my coworkers, because even I realize that eating four whole pastries by myself at once might not be the best idea.

Knead Patisserie
3111 24th Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 655-3024

Coffee Bar, Mission (Potrero?)

2011-02-27T14:58:00.000-08:00

We stopped by Coffee Bar for some brunch this morning on our way to Whole Foods. It was perfect because it is super close to Whole Foods, there is parking (I think this is becoming a theme with me) and it was quick and easy. Oh yeah, the food was really good too.

We both got the Breakfast Sandwich - eggs over medium, bacon, brie and frisée on brioche. My egg and brie were both really runny and messy, but in a good way. I appreciate that in a sandwich.

The space itself is super bright and they have a nice outdoor patio for those days when it isn't freezing.

I like you, Coffee Bar.

Coffee Bar
1890 Bryant Street
San Francisco, CA 94110-1459
(415) 551-8100

Una Pizza Napoletana, SOMA

2011-02-19T14:18:00.000-08:00

First, a confession: I used to be that annoying person who didn't believe you could get good pizza outside of New York. This was before the new wave of artisan pizza places hit San Francisco, and before I discovered Marcellos, which I love and is, in my opinion, just as good as any slice you'd get in NY. I have now learned the error of my ways and eat what is probably too much pizza for my own good, if such a thing is possible.

Last night we hit up one of the newer pizza places, Una Pizza Napoletana. But before we talk about the food, here is some back story in case you haven't been spending your time following the comings and goings of pizza makers around town: the first Una Pizza was in New Jersey. Anthony Mangieri (the chef/owner) then moved the operation to the East Village where it was incredibly popular and written about extensively. He then decided he wanted to move to California, closed up shop in NY and headed to San Francisco.

The space itself is a decent size, but much of it is taken up by the oven (which is really the focal point of the room - how cool is that blue tiling?) and the small prep station where Mangieri makes the pizza. Customers are kept out of this area by a metal railing, but that doesn't stop them from standing in front of the railing and watching (and/or taking pictures). I would love to know how many pictures of Mangieri must get taken each day.

The menu here is simple: 5 different types of pizza. Some wine, some beer and some non-alcoholic beverages. You want a salad, or maybe some olives, or perhaps a slice of bread? You won't find it here.

The pizzas are all 12 inches. There were 4 of us (plus a baby) and we decided we'd just get all 5 types and take home whatever was left over. I'm sure you already know how this story is going to end. Here, take a look at the pizzas if you are unsure:

The four of us (and a baby!) had no problem finishing off all five of these pizzas. They brought them out from the simplest (marinara and margherita) to the most complicated (if you can call arugula, cherry tomatoes and smoked mozzarella complicated). All of the pizzas were really good, and I especially liked the margherita.

In terms of how Una Pizza compares to all the other pizza places in San Francisco: I think it is right on par with Delfina Pizzeria, which was always my gold standard. Both have that chewy crust which really makes it for me. The major difference between the two though is price: ALL of the pizzas at Una Pizza cost $20. When you compare that against Delfina, where the pizzas range from $10 - $17, ($12.50 for the margherita) it seems kind of outrageous. Plus Delfina will throw in some bread sticks for free, and you have the option of ordering things besides pizza (mmm, like their meatballs).

I don't mean to discourage you. Personally, I can't even look at this picture and not just want to eat more of that pizza. I guess my advice would be: If you've got $20 in your pocket and can afford to spend that on one pizza, this is a great place to do it.

Una Pizza Napoletana

210 11th St
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 861-3444

Ferry Building Goodies

2011-02-15T15:23:00.000-08:00

A few little treats from the Ferry Building:

Why yes, that is a cone of meat. From Boccalone.

Finally tried the ramen from Hapa Ramen. This was the fried chicken bowl with a sous vide egg. Yum. A little different than the top ramen of my college years. We also got the to go kit - basically they give you cold broth in one container and the noodles, meat and other fun stuff in a separate container with some instructions on how to put it all together. Excited to try that later.

And lastly, we picked up some chocolate, pear and red wine preserves (I know, it doesn't seem to make sense to me either, but I'm sure it's delicious) from the Tell Tale Preserve Company.

Happy eating.

Nopa

2011-02-06T23:00:00.000-08:00

Finally! Nopa! I think this was my fourth time making reservations at Nopa, and all the other times I wound up canceling for one reason or another. Today Sarah and I made plans for brunch, and luckily I had been sitting on these reservations from weeks ago, so we got to try it out.

We got there at 11AM, which is when they open and before they filled up. They seated us upstairs so we got this great birds eye view of the place. I love those yellow stools at the bar.

I loved getting to watch the chefs prepare the dishes. How are they so tidy? Why does my kitchen never stay that neat when I'm cooking?

Sarah ordered the oven baked farm egg with smoked tomato and pecorino. I love eggs baked in tomato and she was very happy with her order. We also ordered some fun drinks. I ordered my usual -bloody mary (hold the vodka, hold the ice) and Sarah got the cardamom grapefruit juice. The non-bloody mary was just on the edge of being too spicy for me, but in a good way (me = spice wimp). I loved how Sarah's drink was presented.

Sarah also got a piece of the goat cheese bread pudding, which was rich and delicious. Nice combo with the eggs. I got soft scrambled eggs with potatoes and leeks which was great but my picture wasn't so just imagine what it looked like, ok?

Great brunch, awesome service (I forgot to mention I loved our waiter). I will definitely be coming back here soon. In March, in fact - I just booked another reservation for dinner. Hopefully we won't have to cancel that one.

nopa
560 Divisadero St
San Francisco, California 94117
(415) 864-8643

Zero Zero, SOMA

2011-01-29T18:29:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, as part of my plan to try a bunch of the Best New Places of 2010, we headed over to Zero Zero. It wasn't on the Bauer list (though he did give them a great review), but a couple of local food writers had named it as their "Top Restaurant Stand By" for 2010, so we thought we should try it.

Unlike Bar Agricole, they don't tell you that you are meant to share the dishes, but we decided we wanted to do that anyway. The first two dishes we ordered (roasted meatballs and an arugula and beet salad with avocado and orange) were both excellent and we thought the meatballs were just as good as the ones we've had at Pizzeria Delfina. Unfortunately the photos of those two didn't turn out, so you'll have to use your imagination.

Next up we ordered potato gnocchi with ham, artichoke and fava leaf pesto. Yum.

We also ordered a couple of pizzas. Apparently we hadn't really eaten anything that day and we were all starving. The pizza on the left is the Fillmore (Hen of the Woods mushrooms, leeks, mozzarella, parmesan, pecorino, fontina, garlic and thyme). The pizza on the right is the Margherita Extra (the Buffalo mozzarella makes it "extra" - you can also order it with regular mozzarella). I preferred the Margherita of the two. They were both good - but I still think Delfina and Flour + Water do a better pizza.

At this point, we were pretty much stuffed but I forced everyone to order dessert. I really, really wanted dessert because I kept reading about their soft serve ice cream sundaes. The waiter brings you a sheet of paper and you get to fill out what you want. We chose vanilla ice cream with hot fudge, cocoa nibs, toffee, olive oil and salt. Oh, and you can tell them you only want the half order, which is what we did. I don't think I need to tell you that this was a perfect ending to this meal. I mean, just look at it, how could you not love that?

We all really loved our dinner here. Even if the pizza wasn't our favorite, the meal as a whole was excellent. PLUS we found a parking space right out front, so extra points for that. AND the prices are really reasonable - there were four of us, and it wound up being around $20 per person, with tip. This is definitely on my list of places to return to - I can see this being a top standby place for me for 2011.

Zero Zero

826 Folsom Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
(415) 348-8800

Bar Agricole, SOMA

2011-01-23T17:01:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we headed over to Bar Agricole for dinner. After Michael Bauer's Top New Restaurants of 2010 article came out, I made reservations at a few of the places he mentioned that we hadn't tried, and Bar Agricole was one of them.

Our waiter told us that the concept of the restaurant is that all the dishes are served in the center of the table to share, and for four people we should order five to seven dishes. Done.

Because this was last week, and because the online menu has changed since then, and because I was lazy and didn't write down what we ate, I can't exactly remember what we ate. I'll try my best.

This was the crab salad with farro. It had a really light, flavorful dressing and lately I've been really into farro lately so I was happy.

This was an artichoke and arugula salad. We're so predictable, always going for the arugula pick. We liked this one as well, it also had a nicely balanced dressing.

Check out this poached egg with beans. Egg was perfectly cooked and we liked the beans but this dish wasn't outstanding.

This was the pork and fennel sausage with roasted potatoes. We all really liked this one, nice texture and flavor.

We ordered one more dish, a guinea hen - which we liked - and passed on dessert. I wish I had more to say about this place but as I mentioned, we shared each of these dishes between four people so we only got a bite or two of each one. What we tried all tasted good, but there just wasn't enough. I'm all for smaller portions, but not when divided by four people.

The environment is really cool and the outside space looks amazing, but I think if I were to come back I'd make sure to go with only one other person.

Bar Agricole
355 11th Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 355-9400

Le Zinc, Noe Valley

2011-01-17T17:22:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we took advantage of the weather and walked over to Noe for some breakfast. When we used to live over there, Le Zinc was one of our go-to places for breakfast out (tied with Holey Bagel). Now that we're a bit further we don't get there as often, but we always enjoy it when we do.

There are a few tables in the front where you can sit, but if it's nice out I prefer to sit out on the patio in back. You can sort of see it through the window in the picture above. It's quiet and very charming back there.

They also serve a pretty good hot chocolate there. Actually, the menu has both a hot chocolate and a Viennois, but honestly I have no idea what the difference is. This is the Viennois.

Kev always orders the eggs benedict. They are pretty good here. In fact, he says they do them better here than anywhere else he's had in the city.

I ordered scrambled eggs and asked them to add some tomatoes, which they did. They weren't quite the perfect scrambled egg, but they were pretty good.

One of the best things about Le Zinc is you never seem to have to wait for a table, which counts for a lot in my book. If you live across town, I don't know that I'd suggest you travel to Noe just for this breakfast, but if you are in the neighborhood, it's a good pick.

Le Zinc
4063 24th Street
San Francisco, CA 94114
(415) 647-9400

Spruce, the Presidio

2011-01-08T16:56:00.000-08:00

If you ask me for my top three (higher end) restaurant picks in San Francisco, I would quickly be able to tell you: Range, Frances and Spruce. While the three are all pretty different in terms of atmosphere, the food at all of them is consistently amazing.

The first time we went to Spruce was because we had been given a gift certificate for our wedding (clearly these friends know us well!). After that meal, I couldn't stop gushing about the experience. I've been a few times since then, but usually just to the bar area. You don't need a reservation, you can order off the full menu or the bar menu (which features one of the best burgers I've ever had) and have amazing cocktails. The drinks menu also features an enormous selection of wines and spirits, if you're into that kind of thing.

The design of Spruce is definitely part of the appeal for me. It's really dark and masculine, with lots of dark wood, leather and velvet. It's a very sexy vibe.

Last night Kev and I booked a table for his birthday and the meal was just as good as I remembered. I wish we had gotten there slightly earlier so we could have had a drink at the bar, just because the bar is so lovely. Instead we ordered drinks at the table. The pink drink is the Bitter Berry Bramble (russian standard vodka, lemon, raspberry, bitter lemon soda) and the other drink is the Harrington (vodka, cointreau, garnier yellow chartreuse). I love that pink drink.

The gougeres is an amuse bouche sent by the chef. I hope he never stops sending these because I love them.

We ordered the beet and pear salad with hazelnut vinaigrette and warm goats milk cheese to share. They were nice enough to portion it out for us individually. I loved how the arugula was shaped around the cheese, it reminds me of Roman headpieces. This dish was my favorite of the night. It was perfect, especially since Kev doesn't really like goat cheese so I got his serving as well. All the flavors and textures went together so perfectly. You really wanted to get a little bit of everything on your fork. I probably could have had the full order of this and called it a day.

Instead, Kev ordered the tuna with Italian broccoli, pinenuts and warm olive vinaigrette and was really pleased with the dish. The tuna really felt meaty - I thought it was slightly dry, but he disagreed, especially with the addition of the olive vinaigrette.

I ordered the grilled bavette steak (I know, how shocking!) with duck fat potatoes. The steak was excellent - the outside was a little peppery and the meat was tender and juicy. Certainly as good as the steak at Range. I loved the duck fat potatoes as well - crispy outside, creamy inside, what's not to love?

We were too full to order dessert, but we did get some cute little treats with our check. The fruit jelly was pear (it was like they knew we were coming) and the cookie was maple with tangerine marmalade. We weren't too full to eat the additional cookies our very nice waitress brought us.

Excellent meal overall and a great way to start our 2011 food adventures.

Spruce
3640 Sacramento Street
San Francisco, CA 94118
(415) 931-5100

Intelligentsia Coffee, Los Angeles

2011-01-06T22:55:00.000-08:00

We just got back from a trip to LA and I had wanted to do a whole "scenes from Los Angeles" kind of post but I didn't get much further than this picture, taken at the Intelligentsia in Silverlake. We did have two great meals though: at Eveleigh (I didn't bring my camera) and Osteria Mozza (Mario Batali is anti-photo).

Not too much to say with this photo, but I loved these cups so I had to post them. Oh, and the lattes were good too.

Christmas Dinner: Timpano a la Big Night

2010-12-27T15:29:00.000-08:00

This year for Christmas, we essentially had one very long Sunday Night Dinner, which started on Friday afternoon and ended on Sunday morning - complete with two sleep overs. For Christmas Eve we made Kev's beef stew and for Christmas morning I made this strata. None of that compares though with what we ate on Christmas night. If you've seen the movie Big Night, you probably know what a Timpano is. If you haven't - you can check it out here.

I wish I could take credit for this creation, but it was really all Simon. He had been talking about making a timpano for well over a year and this seemed like the perfect time to do it. The recipe isn't hard, but it is super time consuming and labor intensive. He prepared the meatballs and sauce a couple of days in advance and then the rest of the steps were done on Christmas day.

While he made the dough, we drank some tea and ate some of Heather's amazing linzer torte.

And then the assembly began. We prepared two different timpanos - one meat and one veggie.

(click on any photo to make it bigger)

Got all that? Once the timpano comes out of the oven, you let it sit in the bowl for 30 minutes and then you very delicately flip it over onto a plate - this requires two people. Let that sit there for another 20 minutes.

Here's one of our timpanos (timpani?) patiently waiting its required 20 minutes.

And then, very very carefully, we sliced into it.

This is the veggie version. We held off slicing the meat version until we had all had a slice of the veggie. By the time we made it into the meat version, I was already in a food coma so don't expect any photos of that one.

After we were all thoroughly stuffed and couldn't possibly eat another bite, we had dessert. I made this Pear and Raspberry Crostata, from a new cookbook I received as a present. I love that the pears are halved and not thinly sliced. I also love the little hints of ginger in there and the tartness of the cranberries. This recipe is a keeper.

We used the timpano recipe from the official Big Night Cookbook. If you don't have $1,000 to spend on a cookbook (Simon found his in a used bookstore), you can look here for the recipe.

Hope you all had a happy Christmas as well.

Sunday Night Dinner: Slow Cooked Brisket + a Whole Lot of Other Stuff

2010-12-18T17:22:00.000-08:00

Hello Internet! I took an unintended break from writing/photographing, for no real reason actually, but then one week became two then two became... six and then here we are. So annnyway...

Here's a meal from a few weeks ago that makes me super happy. It was our turn to cook Sunday Night Dinner, and it was a cold and gray day, so I took the opportunity to spend the day in the kitchen, something I really wish I would do more of. The starting point for the meal was that I wanted to slow cook something, and I thought that this pulled brisket recipe sounded pretty good. But that didn't take all day, because basically you just brown it, add some spices and let that thing sit in the slow cooker all day. And by all day I mean, all day - a good 8 - 10 hours. Make sure you start early.

What did take all day were the accessories. The Smitten Kitchen recipe suggests serving the pulled pork with pickled onions and some slaw. Those things all sounded good to me, so I got to work on that. Because we weren't going to be eating though for another 8-10 hours, I just prepped what I could ahead of time, which meant getting those onions pickling, making the dressing for the slaw and chopping up a bunch of cabbage. Also, because we were transporting all of this stuff over to our friends' house I got to use our fancy new glass storage containers, which I highly recommend.

And then the baking began. I wanted to bring some cookies into work, and I frequently check out the Smitten Kitchen cookie section and think, "I wish I had time to make those" about pretty much everything on there. And since I was already having a love affair with Smitten Kitchen, and spending the day in my kitchen, I decided to make two different types: Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip and Pecan and Chocolate Toffee.

These are the Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, Pecan (but you knew that). I forgot to take pictures of the Chocolate Toffee cookies, which is just as well because I didn't think that they looked nearly as pretty as they should have. I highly recommend these oatmeal ones though, especially for this time of year. They taste like fall, due to the orange zest, clove, nutmeg and cinnamon, but still have that good old fashioned chocolate chip texture thing going on. These are a keeper. I personally didn't love the chocolate toffee cookies, but others preferred them, so go figure.

After all the cookies finally finished baking, we transported ourselves, the glass containers, and a slow cooker full of brisket over to our friends' house. We plugged the slower cooker back in for another two hours, and got back to work - next up was Mac and Cheese. I decided to use the Jamie Oliver version, because well, I love Jamie Oliver and also I liked that he used tomatoes in his as well as breadcrumbs on the top. We also added in what we like to call "cheesy nuggets" - basically the rinds of the parmesan that are set aside when the cheese is all done. These little bits add lots of chewy, cheesy surprises in the dish. While that was baking, we assembled all the other ingredients.. and then had ourselves a feast.

The only low point of the meal for me were the rolls - they just weren't very good. The brisket was excellent, and super super easy. The verdict on the mac n cheese was: More Cheese! (and that was after we had added well more than was called for) but I'd still make it again.

It was a long day and in the end, I wasn't very hungry - somehow being around all the food all day just completely made me lose my appetite - but it was extremely satisfying. I am very much looking forward to having some time off in the next few weeks to get back to making some more big meals.

The Summit, Mission

2010-11-07T16:02:00.000-08:00

Valencia Street seems completely unaware that the rest of the country is still in the middle of a recession. In the last six months or so, it seems like every time I walk along there I notice new stores and restaurants, and it's getting hard to keep up. I'm not complaining though, I love that this little neighborhood is thriving.

On Halloween we headed over to the brand new cafe The Summit.

At 2pm the place was packed and it was hard to find a seat, which seems slightly strange because the place is so huge. I think they probably could have done a better job of laying it out to make better use of the space.

Fear the beard!

I wanted a coffee and Kev wanted some tea, but tea is only served by the pot, so I went with that too. Check out the presentation: cute little tray with tea pot and cups and also a 1/3/5 minute hour glass timer. FauxBrian Wilson instructed us to wait until the green sand ran out and our tea would be done steeping.

I wish I liked the tea as much as I liked the presentation, but sadly (or not, sadly for my wallet) I prefer good old PG Tips.

I also ordered the pulled pork sandwich which was... ok. Not bad, but not great.

After a little while of sitting on a stool over by the window, the couch opened up and we headed over there. I got the coffee I had wanted originally (they serve Blue Bottle, by the way) and we sat on the couch with our books and just hung out. And the thing is, while I could sit on my own couch with my PG Tips and read a book, sometimes it's just nice to get out of the house - which to me is the appeal of this place.

25 Lusk, SOMA

2010-10-30T22:24:00.000-07:00

When I saw a reservation on OpenTable for 25 Lusk, it seemed obvious that I should book it. That week I had read about the opening several times (emails from Daily Candy, Urban Daddy and TableHopper) and Kev had told me that the owner is the brother-in-law of his friend.

The restaurant is located down a small alley (Lusk Street, to be exact) that I had never noticed before, near AT&T park.

The space itself has been written about tons, and it is really impressive. They've kept a lot of the original structure (beams and brick) and added modern details, some really warm lighting and lots of rich looking woods. The upstairs is the main dining room and I liked how spacious it was. At so many restaurants in San Francisco, you're on top of the tables beside you and can't help but feel as though you are part of the conversation of people at the tables next to you. The booths here are roomy and private and it's easy to forget that there are others in the restaurant too. Someone later asked me what the crowd was like the night we were there, and I had no idea - I hadn't even noticed them.

There were four of us at this dinner and we ordered a whole lot of stuff for all of us to try.

Cauliflower crème brulee, sunchoke escabeche, truffled wild arugula. This was my favorite of the appetizers. It sounds crazy - but it was amazing. Imagine taking cauliflower soup then brulee-ing the whole thing and adding truffled arugula on top and this is what you get. It was savory and smooth but also sweet and crunchy.

Wild Arugula, watercress, cucumber, grilled fig in a champagne vinaigrette. Fresh and flavorful, but nothing to write home about.

Braised pork cheek terrine, with roasted quince and apple compote, swiss chard and spiced cider reduction. I had texture issues with this one - the pork texture didn't work for me, but Kev really liked it.

Lobster ravioli, saffron lobster nage, shaved thai basil. It looks like soup, but hidden in that creamy broth are ravioli, stuffed with lots of meaty lobster. We all really enjoyed this one.

We also ordered four entrees to pass around between us.

This was the braised short ribs with roasted sweet potatoes and wilted escarole in a syrah demi-glace. The good part about sharing is you get to try everything. The bad part is you only get a little bit of everything. I really liked the short ribs, they were perfectly tender and were barely hanging on to the bone. The sauce was rich and a good match to the meat.

Verbena steamed pacific halibut, sea beans, tomato, eggplant, lemon-lobster vinaigrette. The fish tasted incredibly fresh and the citrus-y sauce made the dish feel really light. We liked this one a lot.

Grilled top lamb sirloin, roasted garlic, potato rosti, apple-spearmint demi-glace. I love baby carrots. This lamb didn't have that super-distinctive lamb flavor, which meant that Kev would eat it (whoever heard of a Welshman that didn't like lamb?). I liked this one, but it's been a week and I can't remember much more about it!

Pappardelle, grilled treviso, roasted baby fennel, braised artichokes, parmesan. Pappardelle might be my new favorite pasta, there's something about those fat ribbons that I always enjoy. This dish had a really smoky flavor, and while I didn't think it was as successful as the other dishes, I still enjoyed it.

Somehow after all of this food, our waitress convinced us we needed to order not one, but two of the dessert sample platters. We agreed.

There's a whole lot of stuff on this plate, but my favorite by far was the dulce de leche cheesecake. I'd definitely just order that if I were to get dessert here again. Not too sweet, creamy and light, it was the perfect dessert.

After dinner, Kev and I debated where this restaurant fell in terms of our favorite places to eat. I liked it - and I'd put it on the same level as my meal at RN74 or Commonwealth - but wasn't blown away like I was at Frances, which is now my high bar. Kev disagreed and thought it was up there with Frances. Either way, it was an impressive meal, especially considering they had only been open six days when we ate there. I'll be curious to return in a few months when they've really established their rhythm.

25 Lusk
25 Lusk St
San Francisco, CA 94107
415-495-5875

Universal Cafe, Mission

2010-10-26T21:21:00.000-07:00

It seems that no matter how many new (to me) places I eat at in San Francisco, I still haven't scratched the surface. Every week I'll read about a place, or someone will mention a spot that I haven't tried, and then I go home and add it to my "Eat Here" Google doc. Universal Cafe (like Bar Tartine) is one of those places that I somehow had never managed to try, even though people frequently mention how great it is. And so this past weekend, I headed there with the girls for breakfast.

This place is clearly popular, as we arrived there at 9:30 and even though it was raining out, there was a thirty minute wait.

We started with the beignets in a raspberry sauce (or were they doughnuts?). They were good, but not my favorites - a little too cakey for me, I wanted them to be lighter. The raspberry sauce also seemed a little thin.

Heather and I both ordered the soft scrambled eggs with cherry tomatoes and mozzarella.

The eggs were cooked the perfectly and the tomatoes gave it a nice sweetness. The salad was good too - fresh and crisp and perfectly dressed. The coffee was also really good, and surprisingly, not from Blue Bottle, Ritual or Four Barrel, where it seems most of the rest of the city gets their coffee (they serve Equator Coffee, if you're wondering).

Sarah ordered the veggie burger which I think she liked. I liked that it had a giant slice of heirloom tomato on top and lots of avocado

It was a solid brunch overall and I'd go back - though I don't know that I'd wait 30 minutes in the rain.

Universal Cafe
2814 19th St
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 821-4608

Bar Tartine, Mission

2010-10-24T16:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday for breakfast we went on a hunt for the best poached egg. The hunt consisted of me doing doing some googling for poached eggs in the Mission. We landed on Bar Tartine and I'm so happy we did. I've posted a few times on this blog about Tartine the bakery (see: here) but somehow, up until yesterday, I had never been to Bar Tartine.

When we walked in I became almost overwhelmed with how much I liked the interior. Before we had even touched the food I knew I wanted to come back because I liked the space so much. It's kind of like... deconstructed elegance. It's an amazing combination of classic (marble bar + mirrors), rustic (wooden tables and floors + antler chandelier), artsy (huge bouquets of flowers + eclectic groupings of artwork on the walls) and I love how high contrast it is (white walls + dark floors + pools of light).

The menu was different than what we had seen online, which was disappointing because there were two poached egg choices that I had read about and was really excited to try. While there weren't any replacement options, they did offer a side of two poached eggs, so I ordered that with a couple of slices of toasted Tartine bread.

I had high hopes when they put the eggs down in front of me. I like the whites of the egg to look fluffy and almost like balls of mozzarella, and these looked perfect. I fully expected when I put my knife in the yolk would ooze out, but it didn't - it was cooked pretty thoroughly inside. Nevertheless, my undying love for the bread made it all ok and I enjoyed it well enough - though it wasn't the perfect poached egg I was looking for.

Kev's food, on the other hand, was even better than I expected and it also was made with Tartine bread so I was very happy when he offered to share with me.

This was the Croque Provencal - gruyere, ham and heirloom tomato, topped with a fried egg, and it was so good. All of the ingredients they use are farm sourced and you can taste how fresh and flavorful it all is. One of the best breakfast dishes I've had in a long, long time.

My only complaint about eating here was the noise. Besides all the oohing and ahhing, we spent a lot of time saying, "What?" which gets kind of annoying. Nevertheless, I fully intend to go back - and soon.

Bar Tartine
561 Valencia St.
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 487 1600

Il Cane Rosso, Ferry Building

2010-10-18T15:35:00.000-07:00

Last week I had a vacation day so we headed over to the Ferry Building to have lunch at Il Cane Rosso - Daniel Patterson's rotisserie/sandwich shop.

I really love the Ferry Building, even if it is a huge tourist destination with really expensive food. But the thing is, the food is really good. And you can't beat it on a warm, bright, sunny day when you can sit outside and watch your favorite 1 year old show off her brand new walking skills.

We were lucky to score a table outside - and even luckier that we didn't need a jacket. I love October in San Francisco. It really is my favorite time of year here.

All of the food here is straight from the farm - this is the Marin Sun Farms roast pork sandwich (with jalapeno pepper relish and cracklins’). Don't be fooled by the look of this sandwich - it might look very basic, but the meat is juicy and tender and super flavorful.

This is the beef tagliata sandwich (meat also from Marin Sun Farms), with aged cheddar, roasted onions, rosemary, lemon aoli. I liked this one - but preferred the simpler pork sandwich in the end.

And what does a one-year-old from San Francisco eat for lunch? Iacopi Farm baked beans and polenta with sage brown butter and parmesan, of course. Luckily this one-year-old is a good sharer, and she didn't mind me reaching in and helping myself. I'm normally not a huge fan of polenta, but this one was super creamy and lovely.

And, to make this meal even better, it was 50% off. Have you seen Scoutmob? It's awesome. Just download the (free) app and you can present your iPhone to the cashier and voila - 50% off at Il Cane Rosso through December. And no, they aren't paying me to say that.

Il Cane Rosso
1 Ferry Building # 41
San Francisco, CA 94111-4231
(415) 391-7599

Camino, Oakland

2010-10-11T10:05:00.000-07:00

I love brunch. And I loved this brunch, in particular, with two of my favorite ladies, Sarah and Heather. This was another case of wanting to go somewhere (900 Grayson) and then finding out last minute that they don't do brunch on Sundays. Happily, we went to Camino instead.

I really loved the way this place looked. Lots of brick, worn wood and antique furniture. Not to be too California, but I was really feeling the vibe there.

Heather and I did our usual and shared some things - including these homemade doughnuts with apple and the french toast with fruit compote, hazelnuts and crème fraiche.

The french toast was insanely filling - I could barely finish my one slice. I also love that they give you a choice of still or sparkling water - and leave a carafe of it on the table for you.

Great meal, great company and now I'm ready to try dinner here as well.

Camino
3917 Grand Ave
Oakland, California 94610
(510) 547-5035

Baby Blues BBQ, Venice

2010-10-03T19:15:00.000-07:00

Just your typical baby shower, at the BBQ joint.

More photos here.

Commonwealth, Mission

2010-09-20T21:40:00.000-07:00

I wanted to try Commonwealth because I can't stop reading about it. It seems like every local food site has had some mention of it since it opened a month ago. If you've seen any of these articles, you know that the new restaurant is the product of Jason Fox (Bar Tartine) and Anthony Myint (Mission Street Food) and that it donates $10 from every tasting menu to local charities. We didn't order the tasting menu last night though, and instead ordered a bunch of different dishes and shared them amongst the four of us.

Instead of bread, Commonwealth serves homemade chips with vinegar foam. I liked that it was something different, but I'm not hugely into chips so this wasn't really my thing - I would have preferred some rustic bread and butter, but that's just me.

We ordered a few different appetizers, but I only got a picture of the soup. This here is the "summer squash, chilled soup, fried blossoms, shaved salad, vadouvan". I liked the soup - it was refreshing and flavorful, but I didn't like the fried blossoms as much as I did at Cafe Des Amis. We also ordered the tomato salad (nice, ripe tomatoes with olive, cheese and basil), shisito peppers with goat cheese and the gnocchi (with corn, maitake mushrooms, sage, parmesan and truffle oil). We all loved the gnocchi and agreed that if we were to come back we'd all want our own - no sharing this dish again.

We also ordered the halibut, hangar steak and the young hen with spot prawns in a chocolate-almond emulsion. I really enjoyed the halibut, which had a nice coconut flavor to it, and the hen, which was really tender. The spot prawns freaked me out a little - I don't like seeing their eyes - but once we removed their outfits (love that phrase, thanks Britt!) I felt much more comfortable.

For dessert, we ordered the White Russian (coffee ice cream, vodka gelée, raw milk mousse, génoise cake) and the Cinnamon Mille-Feuille (cardamom marshmallow, chocolate ganache, and burnt honey ice cream). Both of these were really different and complex, and I really liked certain flavors but not others. The vodka gelée was like a fancy vodka jello shot, and I could have done without it, but I liked the rest of the dish. I really liked the ice cream in both desserts as well, and it seemed extra cold and creamy.

It was a good meal, with some great dishes, but I didn't leave feeling as excited as I felt leaving Frances, for example.

As a side note, here's a little behind-the-scenes shot from our dinner - it was really dark in there, but thanks to some strategically placed candles (and some brightening in Photoshop) I was able to salvage a few photos.

Sunday Night Dinner: Delfina Pizza

2010-09-20T20:51:00.000-07:00

Birthday Pizza Party.

Beretta, Mission

2010-09-19T15:09:00.000-07:00

I was feeling a little stir crazy in our apartment this afternoon so Kev agreed to take a little walk with me. We had both just eaten some cereal and weren't all that hungry, but like my mom always says, you don't need to be hungry to eat. We wandered on up Valencia Street and noticed all the new restaurants that have recently opened. We first tried to go to Heart, but they were about to close for an event. Instead we headed over to Beretta for some small plates.

We ordered the beets with ricotta salata and the eggplant caponatina with burrata. The beets were nice and earthy and the cheese was really mild - I would have liked it with more cheese, but I think that about everything. The eggplant dish - which is composed of eggplant, tomatoes, basil, olives, capers, celery and pinenuts - was on the 2009 7x7 100 Things To Eat list. I've ordered this before and I remember liking it more. It's really interesting, because some bites (tomato+basil+eggplant+burrata) are excellent, while others didn't work for me (any bite + olive and/or caper). With fewer ingredients, I think I would have really enjoyed the dish, but next time I'll probably order the pizza.

Beretta
1199 Valencia St
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 695-1199

The Comforts of Home

2010-09-14T22:30:00.000-07:00

We just came back from a whirlwind two days in NY, celebrating my mom's 60th birthday. Can't get enough of black and white cookies or Dunkin' Donuts coffee. These black and whites may be the best I've ever had. According to my mom, they are like "cake air'. They came from William Greenberg on the Upper East Side (where you can also custom order your colors) and they are amazing. You can also get them shipped to you if you happen to be unfortunate like me and live somewhere where you can't find black and whites.

I think if someone opened a Dunkin' Donuts franchise in San Francisco, that also sold black and white cookies, they'd make a fortune. From me alone.

ps: Happy Birthday Mom!

Farina, Mission

2010-09-05T18:03:00.000-07:00

This morning we walked over to have some breakfast at Farina. I only just learned that you can have brunch there, and apparently I'm not the only one who didn't know this, because the place was pretty empty - very much unlike dinner there.

We both ordered the freshly pulped apricot/strawberry/mango smoothie. It was thick enough that I had trouble using my straw but I liked it better without - it was easier to taste it that way. It was also incredibly filling - that alone could have been my breakfast, and it was also our favorite thing that we had there.

I love the red and metal tables. Oh, and the coffee was good too.

Kev ordered sunny side up eggs with prosciutto cotto and toast. I got the eggs scrambled with bufala mozzarella. Both came with house made ketchup and apricot preserves. My eggs were light and fluffy and you could really taste the mozzarella. I think it needed a little more seasoning for my taste, but there wasn't salt or pepper available on the table.

If you're into pancakes or french toast for breakfast - or some other non-egg dish - this isn't the place for you, as all the menu choices are egg based. But, if you're into not waiting in line, this is a great place for you - and me, as I hate waiting in line, especially when I'm hungry.

Farina
3560 18th Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 565-0360

Pretty Candy

2010-08-30T22:06:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy week and not much time to make food or go out for food. There was time for Miette though.

Cafe Des Amis, Marina

2010-08-24T08:44:00.000-07:00

Tonight we went over to the Marina to celebrate Britt's birthday with insanely good hamburgers at Cafe Des Amis. The restaurant is a sort of French Brasserie in the American style - according to our waiter. Like Spruce and The Village Pub, Cafe Des Amis has a masculine, old-money sort of feel, both in terms of the decor - red velvet walls, zinc bar, lots of highly polished surfaces - and the patrons. We were definitely on the younger side of the crowd in the dining room, but the atmosphere still felt lively and relaxed.

Our reservations were for 5:30 and the place was pretty empty when we arrived. We got lucky and were seated on the mezzanine level, which was much more spacious, had an awesome chandelier and fireplace and best of all had french doors that let in tons of light and air.

We ordered a few appetizers to get started. My favorite of the three was the nettle and spinach flan, which included organic egg yolk, parmesan, truffle and potato vinaigrette. The texture was really smooth and creamy and the nettles gave it an earthy kind of taste. Plus I love truffles.

We also shared the stuffed zucchini flowers with salmon mousse and a tomato salad with feta. I really enjoyed the zucchini but was underwhelmed by the tomatoes. They weren't very flavorful and didn't have that just-picked-off-the-vine taste that I was expecting.

Burger time! Between the 5 of us we ordered 4 burgers. You can add on carmelized onions, gruyere, bacon, or even an egg or roquefort. Or all of these if you're feeling insanely decadent. The burgers are served on brioche buns which is very "fa la la", according to our waiter - I'm not quite sure what he meant by that but I appreciated his enthusiasm. Who doesn't love brioche?

A couple weeks before this meal I had tried the Spruce burger for the first time and had declared that to be my favorite burger, but this version is at the very least tied - which isn't all the surprising given that Cafe Des Amis is owned by the same people as Spruce. It was incredibly juicy and the cheese and onions weren't overpowering - it just added some nice flavor. The bun was warm and soft - which is how I like it - and the fries were very... fried. There wasn't much in the way of potato inside the exterior but because they were cut a bit thicker it didn't bother me as much as it did at Absinthe.

For dessert we ordered the nectarine and blackberry tart and the profiteroles with warm toffee fudge sauce. I loved the tart - it was, well, tart, the pastry was light and the creme fraiche ice cream was a nice contrast with the tartness of the fruit. I didn't love the profiteroles as much, but I never really love profiteroles so that isn't so surprising. I did enjoy the warm toffee fudge sauce though.

It was an enjoyable dinner overall, and I'm excited to go back again, particularly to order seafood from the raw bar. Waiters kept appearing at other tables with huge tiered platters of "fruits de mer" - oysters, clams, shrimp, lobster. They also have late night dining, serving a modified menu from 11pm - 1am and are about to start brunch service. Something for everyone!

Cafe Des Amis
2000 Union Street
San Francisco, CA 94123
(415) 563-7700

Sunday Night Dinner: Chicken and Pasta

2010-08-22T00:05:00.000-07:00

I'm a week behind, since this is last Sunday night's dinner. I love both of these recipes because they take almost no time, look good on the plate and taste amazing. The chicken recipe is from here, no surprise it's Jamie Oliver. The pasta recipe is from an old issue of Domino Magazine. I can't find any links to it online since Domino is no longer around (boo) so instead I'll post it below. We also made a modified version of our favorite summer salad. Can you tell I love tomatoes?

(click below for recipe)

Pasta with Raw Tomato Sauce

3 1/2 pounds heirloom tomatoes, cut into large chunks

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tsp kosher salt

ground pepper, to taste

2 tablespoons pesto (I usually skip this step since I'm lazy and don't usually want to make pesto)

2 cloves garlic, cut in half

1 pound gemelli pasta (the recipe actually calls for strozzapreti or casarecci pasta, but it's easier to find gemelli)

1/2 cup basil leaves, torn

shaved parmesan

In a large serving bowl, combine the tomatoes, olive oil, salt, pepper, pesto and garlic. Stir well, cover and let marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes to 3 hours. Remove garlic. Cook the pasta. Drain and toss with tomato mixture. Stir in basil leaves, top with parmesan.

Boulette's Larder, Ferry Building

2010-08-16T20:08:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to try Boulette's Larder for approximately one million years but they don't do breakfast on the weekends. I finally made it there during the week and had breakfast for one.

I'm convinced the Blue Bottle coffee they served tasted better than getting it at the Blue Bottle store, which is just down the hall from Boulette's. I had a hard time deciding what to eat, and was torn between poached eggs and the scramble with nettles, burrata and olive oil. I picked the scramble, mostly because I will order anything that is served with burrata. It was good, and I liked the combination of flavors and textures, but for the price I wanted them to be the best eggs of my life, and they weren't (those would be from either Mama's or La Note, in case you're wondering). But if I happen to be at the Ferry Building between 8 and 10:30 Monday to Friday, I'd definitely go back.

Student Meal

2010-08-11T21:47:00.000-07:00

Can't beat beans on toast. Toast some bread, don't forget to butter the toast, add the beans, salt, pepper and grated cheddar cheese and you're set.

Birthday Brunch!

2010-08-08T15:58:00.000-07:00

Had a fun post-birthday picnic-brunch with the girls this morning.

Thanks you guys!

Cyrus, Healdsburg

2010-08-02T18:15:00.000-07:00

I don't know where to begin writing this post. I'm really apprehensive about it, because I know that 1) words can not do this meal justice and 2) There is no possible way for me to remember all of the amazing components that were part of this meal. And so, I'm starting with a disclaimer: there's a good chance I'm leaving some stuff out, the stuff that was so far beyond my food vocabulary and comprehension that I was not able to retain.

Cyrus is the kind of place you go to for a special occasion, and Kev booked this meal as a birthday present for me. It was a great idea really, because while I love food, this isn't the kind of thing I'd have ever booked for myself.

When we got to the restaurant, we were promptly seated and no more than a minute had passed before the champagne and caviar cart rolled on over. There's probably a whole lot that can be said about both of these items, but we didn't partake in either - I was more excited about the cocktails and caviar just isn't my thing. The presentation of the cart though did signal that this was going to be a dining experience unlike any other.

We got our menus and tried to decide between the 5 or 8 course Chef's Tasting Menu. I was partial to the 5 course meal because I was worried the 8 courses would just be too much for me. Kev convinced me to go for the 8 courses ("It's your birthday!"). Our waiter then upped the ante and told us how the chef loves to cook with black truffle, and for a small fee we could also add it to one of the courses. He recommended the poussin and we agreed. Go big or go home.

We began our journey with the canapes. This was not part of the 8 courses - this was just the first of the precursors to our meal. The idea behind these items is that there is one bite for each of the five tastes: bitter (eggplant with coffee bean); salty (manila clam with powdered chorizo in a gelée); sour (spring roll in a tamarind glaze); sweet (a strawberry bubble-like sphere); umami (shitake mushroom broth). I'm skipping a whole lot of ingredients here - don't forget that disclaimer I mentioned above. I really enjoyed this whole presentation and it was a great, fun way to start off the meal - and a good indication that this dinner would really be more than just dinner.

Our next non-course course was the Amuse Bouche. I'm really embarrassed to say I don't remember what kind of sashimi this was. I know it was flown in from Japan. I know it was incredibly delicate and flavorful and probably one of the best pieces of raw fish I've ever had. I think it was kampachi. It was served with a small slice of plum and more gelée, and the whole thing was outstanding.

Oh, would you like some bread? There is something like 8 different varieties of breads that are baked daily at Cyrus, and are served along with two different types of butters (a salted cow's milk and an unsalted goat's milk) and two different types of salts (a red salt and a maldon sea salt from England - Kev liked this one). We chose three different breads: bacon cheddar scone, feta and olive pinwheel and a whole wheat roll. The bacon cheddar scone was our favorite. The whole wheat roll was probably the only thing I ate all night that I was underwhelmed by. I could have made an entire meal out of just the breads and butters - and I would have loved to try them all - but I was holding back, as we still hadn't even gotten to the first course.

Ah, the first course. This was the Thai Lobster 2.0. Our waiter told us it is 2.0 because it's the second incarnation of the dish. While the menu at Cyrus changes frequently, this is one of the dishes that always remains - though now in a slightly different form than the original. I loved this dish. Lobster topped with hearts of palm, with avocado puree, cubed melon and a cilantro/basil/mint marinade. I wanted a bowl of that marinade to have like soup. I recently commented to a friend I only like melon when it is room temperature and the perfect level of sweetness, and of course this was that. All of these flavors together worked perfectly and I was really disappointed when it was gone. It's hard to pick a highlight in a meal like this, but I think this was one of my favorite dishes.

I haven't mentioned my cocktail yet. While Cyrus is also known for it's extensive wine list - and wine pairings - we skipped that part since wine isn't really our thing. I ordered the Peachy Keane - Buffalo Trace bourbon, peach puree, lemon juice, brown sugar-black peppercorn syrup and egg white. I wouldn't normally order a bourbon cocktail but I'm so glad that I did. It was light and refreshing and probably didn't really go with our meal but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The second course was a choice between foie gras torchon with cherry and pistachio and a buttermilk biscuit or scallop with rice noodles and pickled green papaya with a coconut milk froth. We split the two dishes, and I started with the scallop which was perfectly seared and succulent and the coconut froth and noodles complimented it perfectly.

The foie gras.... so this was my first time having foie gras and I really had no idea what to expect. I did not expect to love it as much as I did. It was creamy and smooth and rich and I loved it paired with the cherry compote and biscuit.

Courses three and four:

3: Turbot with sweet corn and scallions, lemon verbena

4: Chanterelle ravioli with slow cooked bantam egg and parmesan

The turbot was nice and light, with a crispy outer layer. The corn puree was sweet and was a nice contrast to the fish.

The ravioli was more like a deconstructed ravioli - which seemed to be a theme for the night. This was a dish that we would have missed had we gone with the 5 course menu and for this dish alone I'm glad we went with the 8. I always enjoy a gooey, runny egg and loved the different textures of the pasta, egg and parmesan crisp.

Course 5 was a choice of either:

Crispy poussin with potato mousseline, haricots verts, fine herbes with shaved black truffles or

Striploin of beef with daikon, ginger-tomato broth

We ordered both dishes. I started with the poussin and while it was good, it wasn't a stand out dish to me - even with the truffles. Had I ordered this in any other restaurant I think I would have felt differently, but at this point I had grown accustomed to the more outrageous dishes and while this was an excellent piece of meat, it didn't blow me away. It also felt like such a huge portion, especially knowing that there were so many more to go. I only ate a few bites of this before passing it over to Kev.

The meat was a piece of wagyu beef, and they pour the ginger-tomato broth table side. The beef was tender and well seasoned.

The next course was the cheese course. After you are thoroughly stuffed from all the previous dishes, the cheese cart shows up at your table. The cheese cart looked like art. It was a beautiful display of colors, textures and shapes and I couldn't stop thinking about how much my father-in-law would love this. Our waiter asked us questions about what kind of cheese we like and don't like (no stinky cheese for me please) and then served us each a piece of goat, sheep and cow's milk cheeses. Along with the cheese from the cart, we were also presented with a three tiered display of cheese accompaniments -sliced baguette, walnut raisin bread, crackers, pear butter, and a spoonful of date gelée. The cheese was excellent and our waiter did a great job of choosing suitable cheese for our palate, but I had to leave much of mine on the plate, as there were still two more courses coming. Or so I thought.

Turns out there were actually three more courses. Good thing I love dessert. As a very special treat, the chef sent out a what I'm calling the birthday course. I won't be able to do justice to the presentation, and it all happened so fast that I wasn't able to get a picture. The waitress who came to our table brought with her a wood platter of sorts. On one side was a bell jar that contained two fresh chocolate chip cookies. On the other side (not in the jar) was a blown up balloon attached to a nozzle. When she let the air out of the balloon, it caused a cocoa confetti explosion in the bell jar, showering the cookies with cocoa powder. I am so bummed that I didn't take a photo.

If that wasn't enough, a second waiter was also at our table, preparing us egg creams! Growing up my great-grandmother always had the blue glass bottles of seltzer and we frequently had egg creams, but it has been years since I have had one. This was not the U-Bet's chocolate syrup/milk version from my childhood though. The Cyrus version is way more decadent, with homemade chocolate syrup, cream and their own carbonated water. I'm totally going to steal this idea for a future party at my house. How awesome are those metal straws?

Here's dessert part two, and I think my favorite of the four(!) desserts we had, and another item we would have missed had we not had the 8 course meal (here's where I point out that two days later, I am still full). This is passion fruit gelato with miso custard and sesame sable. There's also some olive oil drizzled on top. It was sweet and tart and creamy and a little salty and just... amazing. One of the best desserts I think I've ever had. Also I would love to watch the person in the kitchen who lovingly places each leafy green on the sesame sable, so delicately. I actually thought about that a lot through the meal, with all of the dishes - every single thing that is on the dish is put on there so thoughtfully and artfully. I'd love to stand in the corner of the kitchen and just watch them work.

Here is dessert part three and four. This was the official 8th course of the night and we had a choice of:

Tiramisu with espresso gelato and toffee crunch or

Red velvelt cake

I started with the tiramisu. At this point I really could have been rolled on out of the restaurant but I had to try both of these. Normally I'm not a big fan of tiramisu, but this was presented as a deconstructed version, different than any other that I've had, and I really enjoyed the three bites I was able to handle.

The red velvet cake was even more unusual and also deconstructed - two cubes of cake presented with cream cheese frosting, slivers of beets and a little cup with a beet....cream? We loved this too.

After this it was all sort of a haze. Another cart was rolled over with lollipops, chocolates, salted caramels, shortbreads and more for the taking. We tried a bite of the shortbread and took a lollipop to go - I couldn't possibly have had another bite of food. More treats - brownies - were brought over to take home.

It's been 2 days since this meal and yet I can't stop thinking about it - it was more than just the food. Earlier today I called Cyrus to ask a question about one of the dishes we had tried. The woman who picked up the phone asked me to hold on, and a moment later the Chef was on the line! I repeated my question to him, and not only did he walk me through the ingredients, he asked, "would you like me to email you a copy of the recipe?" This accessibility was prevalent throughout our whole meal. I didn't spend any time here talking about the service, and how knowledgeable the entire wait staff was, how efficient and unpretentious and how much they seemed to enjoy what they do. Or how fun it was to watch the choreography of all the servers together, setting the food down simultaneously, picking up the finished plates within moments of your fork and knife setting down.

This dinner was more than a meal, it was an event and not only the best meal I've ever had, but also the best restaurant experience. Thanks for taking me, Kev!

Cyrus Restaurant
421 Healdsburg Avenue
Healdsburg, CA 95448-3814
(707) 433-3311

Food Crawl Part 3: Oakland and Berkeley

2010-07-22T22:41:00.000-07:00

For the third installment of food crawl, we headed over to the East Bay. Heather planned this round which was great because she knows all the good places to hit in Oakland and Berkeley. We were supposed to start at Bakesale Betty's, but they ran out of chicken sandwiches before we got there (at 2:15 - they close at 3). Big huge bummer. Especially because we must have only just missed it because we saw plenty of people unwrapping or just starting their incredible looking sandwiches.

So instead, we walked down the road and started at Burma Superstar. I had never attempted to try Burma Superstar because I've been intimidated by the lines. If you feel the same way, I highly suggest you check out the Oakland location at about 2PM because it was empty. We ordered the tea leaf salad and rainbow salad and you should too.

This is the tea leaf salad, and the leaves really do come from Burma (or so says the menu). I loved the presentation of the salads at the table - they arrive with all the components segregated to a section of the dish and then the waiter (very quickly) goes through all ingredients and then tosses it table side. Besides the tea leaves there are tomatoes, lettuce, peanuts, fried garlic and a whole bunch of other stuff. It tastes like nothing else I've had before and I loved those fried garlic pieces.

I wanted to try the rainbow salad when I saw that it had 22 different ingredients. How can you pass up a salad that has 22 ingredients? I wish I could remember what was in it besides noodles (4 different types) more fried garlic, tofu, papaya, pepper, fried onion and 11 other ingredients I now can't remember. I actually liked this salad better than the tea leaf salad. All the different textures and flavors came together to make a really distinct and fun dish. I believe the menu called it "a party in your mouth".

Our next stop was over in Berkeley at Vik's Chaat Corner. This place is part grocery store, part restaurant. The restaurant is no frills: order at the counter, sit at tables that are reminiscent of a high school cafeteria, and eat your food with... biodegradable sporks.

At Vik's we ordered a couple of mango lassis and a veggie kathi and then tried to figure out how to eat the kathi with the sporks.

The four of us quickly devoured both the drinks and the food. The kathi (which is only served on the weekend) was really nicely spiced and flavorful and the lassi would have been perfect to drink with it if I hadn't finished it before the food arrived. I also liked that nearly everything that was left when we finished eating - plate, cups and sporks - were compostable and the restaurant has a big green bin to allow you to do just that.

Next up on the agenda was the Imperial Tea Court, also in Berkeley. They have a huge variety of different teas and also a decent selection of food. We decided to try a white tea and an herbal tea as well as some veggie dumplings.

Imperial Tea Court allows you to experience different types of tea service, and we chose the Gaiwan tea presentation. Both teas were really mild and subtle and though it wasn't my most favorite tea I've ever had, I really enjoyed the presentation of it as well as just hanging out and talking with my friends over tea.

Next up on our list was ice cream. We drove over to Ici in Berkeley and waited in line and debated which flavors to get. We were only going to get two, but we couldn't decide between them all and in the end picked three: toasted almond, chocolate caramel and orange rosemary toffee.

Ici is another shop I would love just for the design, but the ice cream really holds up. My favorite of the three flavors was the orange rosemary toffee - three flavors you wouldn't think to put together but tasted amazing. Everyone else picked the toasted almond chocolate almond as their favorite, but really everything we tried - including the flavors that we sampled before ordering - were great. I have to say, I much prefer Ici to Humphrey Slocomb, and I think it's pretty comparable to Bi-Rite Creamery.

After ice cream, we decided to take a little digestion break and headed over to the Berkeley Rose Garden which is now in full bloom.

We wandered around here for awhile, building up our appetites for our final stop, Boot and Shoe. Boot and Shoe is a pizza place and the sequel to Pizzaiolo (the name is held over from the former tenants of the location). We hung out for awhile in the bar, drinking sparkling rose, while we waited for a table.

The bar is tucked away in the back of the restaurant and after awhile we decided to stop waiting for our table and commandeered the back corner of the bar and started ordering food.

This is the farro salad minus the burrata but plus the ricotta. I only had a small bite of this one - at this point our group had grown to six - but I liked what I tried.

We also ordered a couple of pizzas: potato, pancetta, fontina and rosemary and a margherita pizza topped with arugula.

I loved the potato/pancetta combination but wasn't overwhelmed by the margherita. The atmosphere was fun and I liked the weird paintings on the wall and I would totally go back to hang out there.

This food crawl was the super-sized version of our previous food crawls and a really good time. Thanks Heather, for picking out such great spots. Now, when can we go back to Bakesale Betty?

(for restaurant addresses and phone numbers, click below)

Burma Superstar
4721 Telegraph Avenue
Oakland, CA 94609-2023
(510) 652-2900

Vik's Chaat Corner
2390 4th Street

Berkeley, CA 94609

(510) 644-4432

Imperial Tea Court
1511 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94709
(510) 540-8888

Ici
2948 College Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94705-2204
(510) 665-6054

Boot and Shoe Service

3308 Grand Avenue

Oakland, CA 94610-2737

(510) 763-2668

Favorite Summer Meal for Reasonably Lazy People

2010-07-18T21:20:00.000-07:00

Lately we've been obsessed with this salad. While it may seem like all we do is eat, during the week we are pretty lazy about making dinner. This salad is SO good and all the ingredients are so fresh and in season right now that it's become our go-to meal after work. If you have some good bread around you can also do it as a sandwich.

I give Kev full credit for this as it was all his idea. All you need is some combination of arugula, nectarines or peaches (we've also used raspberries), avocado, tomato, prosciutto. I also put crumbled goat cheese on mine. A little salt, pepper, lemon juice and olive oil and you're set.

Sunday Night Dinner: More This and That

2010-07-14T10:56:00.000-07:00

Another Sunday, another random assortment of food for dinner. This time though there was a main dish, which was an herb crusted salmon from an old issue of Blueprint magazine. It is ridiculously easy and quick to make and it's one of those recipes that you really can't screw up. You can find the recipe here.

I also had some ricotta cheese left over from the penne frittata that I didn't want to go to waste, so I was very excited when Smitten Kitchen posted this recipe for zucchini and ricotta galette. This is much more complicated to make in that there are a ton of steps - but it turned out very well and I'd make it again.

We also made a jicama salad that my friend Lex has been raving about - it's just jicama, tomatoes and green apples, tossed with lime juice and goat cheese (Lex had it with cotija cheese but I had goat cheese at home so used that instead).

And last but not least... yup, more tartine bread and a simple green salad.

(click on picture for better viewing)

Frances, Castro

2010-07-10T23:47:00.000-07:00

Way back in April, the night of our dinner at Ad Hoc, we returned to San Francisco with Mark and Brittany and got on the internet to book dinner at Frances. We were excited about it because after being open for only a few months, it had already been nominated as one of the best new restaurants in the country. And though it was only April, the first weekend reservation we could get wasn't until July. We booked it.

Tonight we finally cashed in that reservation (with different friends, since M & B had gotten double booked) and ate at Frances for the second time. The first time was about a month ago when we had lucked out when some friends from work had reservations and asked us to join them. I had so thoroughly enjoyed our meal the first time and I couldn't wait to go back. Luckily tonight's dinner did not disappoint - it was just as great as our first meal there.

Don't you just love that logo? It reminds me of doodles in a notebook for some reason.

The menu is broken into four parts: bouchees, appetizers, entrees and sides. All the bouchees are $6.50 each and it's really hard to decide what to pick. So you can do what we did (on both visits) and order all of them.

(Row 1: Applewood smoked bacon beignets with maple creme fraiche & chive; Panisse Frites (chickpea fritters with meyer lemon aioli; Row 2: Grilled calamari with warm bean salad, preserved lemon, Sicilian olive; Roasted beet salad with ras el hanout, wild flower honey, cilantro and avocado; Row 3: toasted firebrand challah with stracciatella cheese and herb salad)

All of these dishes are excellent but I think the chickpea fritters are my favorite thing on the menu. I've been noticing this pop up on menus throughout San Francisco, but I've only eaten them here. The exterior has a nice crunchy texture and the inside is soft and creamy. The beet salad is also fantastic - simple but so fresh and flavorful - thanks in part to the ras el hanout (I didn't know what that meant either, but our friends who we were with filled us in).

Kev ordered that fun little drink - it's called a Market Shot and "is whatever we find at the market that gets juiced, spiced, spiked". I can't remember exactly what was in this, but it included peach, meyer lemon and the house white wine. And it was really, really good. It made us all want to make our own and drink it outside on a warm day.

There were four of us at this dinner, so you might be wondering why there are only two pictures of entrees and it's because three of us ordered the trout. I usually don't like to order the same meal as Kev, and I never order trout, but last time we were here he had the trout and once I tasted it I was jealous. Not that my pork wasn't amazing, but the trout was something else. It's a smoked Steelhead trout served with fingerling potatoes, creme fraiche and grain mustard. The one non-trout dish we ordered was the herb stuffed Guinea hen, with polenta, chanterelles, white corn and apricot. And it was also excellent. Even our friend who ate it thought so and she was being extra critical, "since it's Frances".

And then there was dessert. Kev got the bittersweet chocolate pot du creme with roasted bing cherries, which he ordered for himself, since he's greedy with his desserts. The rest of us shared the cornmeal pound cake with ricotta semifreddo, olive oil and berries. We forgot it was semifreddo and spent the whole time eating it saying "what kind of ice cream is this? It's sooo creamy". The flavors of the cake, berries and cream all worked really well together and we worked hard to make each bite the perfect bite with bits of all three. The pot du creme was also excellent and not to sweet. The cookies it is served with were a little too salty and dry for our taste.

All in all it was an excellent meal and I'm glad that we booked a third meal there back in May - we'll be returning for another dinner here in August.

Frances
3870 17th Street
San Francisco, CA 94114-2030
(415) 621-3870

Sunday Night Dinner: This and That

2010-07-07T14:46:00.000-07:00

This was an untraditional Sunday night dinner. We invited a couple of friends over for what I have been calling "snacks". It wasn't really intended to be dinner, since it was more just some stuff thrown together. I love these kinds of meals.

I had made a couple of things earlier that day that we snacked on:

That is a cauliflower and carmelized onion tart, from Smitten Kitchen. I had made this once before, a long time ago and had forgotten about this recipe. I'm hoping that by posting it here I won't forget it again. It's pretty time consuming but the results are fantastic.

I also made this penne frittata with basil and ricotta which I found off of Sunday Suppers. I love how the cross section of this looks. Kev insisted that it "tasted like Christmas". I still can't figure out why that would be. I think we all liked the cauliflower tart better - I'm not sure that I would make the frittata again. It was good - just not anything special.

Throw in some cherry tomatoes, avocado and the famous Tartine bread that we love and you've got yourself a meal.

And if you're still hungry you can always make some (very rustic looking) ice cream sandwiches.

Paulette Macarons, Hayes Valley

2010-07-04T11:19:00.000-07:00

Hayes Valley is kind of the mecca for those with a sweet tooth. We've already covered Christopher Elbow and Miette. And if you aren't satisfied with the options at these two places, there's always Paulette Macarons.

If you go to Paulette, you should know that they have a picture taking policy. The policy is this: you have to ask. You can take a picture but if you don't ask first they will say to you, "excuse me but you have to ask". And then you will say, "I'm so sorry, can I not take photos in here?" and they will say, "yes, you can. But you have to ask".

I prefer the non-fruit flavored macarons. These here are some combination of espresso, vanilla, chocolate and coconut. And while they were all excellent, the macarons at Bouchon Bakery remain my favorites.

Absinthe, Hayes Valley

2010-06-27T21:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning we made our way over to Hayes Valley for brunch. The original plan was to go to Suppenkuche but it turns out they don't do brunch on Saturdays - just Sundays. Good to know. So we made our way down the street to Absinthe instead.

We got there about 15 minutes before they opened and no one else was waiting. About 2 minutes before they opened the doors people started lining up. About 10 minutes after we were seated, the place was full. Moral of the story: get there early or make a reservation, as it seemed like most of the crowd had reserved.

We ordered two egg dishes: the wild mushroom omelet with caramelized onions, gruyere and truffle butter and the fried green tomatoes with poached eggs and wilted chard in a ham hollandaise sauce. Both of these came with their breakfast potatoes, but we didn't realize that so we also ordered some fries.

Overall, I liked the omelet the best. All of the food was good, but I didn't think any of it was great. The poached egg and tomato didn't seen to have all that much flavor and I like my fries to have more... potato. These fries had a nice exterior but not so much going on inside. I think looking back we should have gone for a sweet as well as a savory - the ricotta-stuffed french toast or the banana-blueberry souffle pancake is sounding very enticing to me as I type up this post.

If you're in Hayes Valley and want some breakfast, I'd still go here over say, Stacks. What I was most impressed with at Absinthe was the cocktail menu, which I fully intend to go back for.

Absinthe Brasserie & Bar
398 Hayes Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 551-1590

Sunday Night Dinner: Jamie Oliver Style

2010-06-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

I love Jamie Oliver. His recipes are always straight forward and even better, so so tasty. Last Sunday, Kev and I made his Spanish Roast Chicken as well as his peach and mozzarella salad. We've made the chicken before and I don't know why we don't make it more often -- it was better than I remembered.

Kev had fun decorating the chicken with chorizo.

This salad is perfect for summer. Here's how you make it: take a whole bunch of mint leaves, combine it with whatever salad leaves you have on hand, throw in some slices of ripe peach and rip up some buffalo mozzarella. Oh and prosciutto! Tear off some pieces of prosciutto and throw that in there as well. Top with salt, pepper, lemon juice and olive oil. We used the Nudo lemon olive oil and it worked really nicely with this.

You might want to click on this picture to fully appreciate the potatoes. They cook with the chicken and the chorizo and absorb the flavors of both and cook for long enough that they get almost caramelized on the outside. The chicken stays incredibly juicy thanks to the whole lemons that are steaming inside it as it cooks.

If you're having a small dinner party, I highly recommend this recipe - it is so simple but a big crowd pleaser.

Sunday Night Dinner: Steak and Potatoes

2010-06-16T21:21:00.000-07:00

I've been delinquent posting about Sunday Night Dinners. This dinner took place on Memorial Day and was a great way to welcome in the summer. The barbecue was bought earlier that morning and these steaks were the perfect thing to christen them with.

Some drawings and drinking were done while we waited to eat.

(UPDATE: you can vote on this as a t-shirt design here).

That's chive cream cheese on those steaks. That was not my idea - but now I think all steaks should be accompanied with cream cheese. Try it.

Happy Summer!

Range, The Mission

2010-06-13T16:53:00.000-07:00

Last night we were fortunate to get last minute reservations at Range. This made for one very happy Kev, since this is his favorite restaurant in the city. The last time we were there, we had reservations for 8:30. We didn't get seated until around 9 but they were so gracious about it - sending us extra appetizers and desserts to make up for it. To me, a gesture like that really goes a long way, and I'm surprised that more restaurants don't do this when they keep you waiting.

The menu - including the cocktail menu - changes regularly. Last night we ordered the Bottle Rocket - tequila, strawberries, chile, ginger, yellow chartreuse and lemon. The cocktails are always great here, and if you can't get a table, it's fun to sit at the bar and watch the bartenders create all sorts of fun drinks. This drink was interesting with the addition of chile - it gave it just the teeniest, tiniest little kick.

Though the menu changes often, you can always find both a simple green salad and a stuffed pasta listed. While all of the food at Range is great, I think the thing I most look forward to when going there are the salads. Last night we ordered the little gem salad with fried capers, radishes and paremesan in a roasted garlic vinaigrette. It was our lucky night because they sent over a second salad as well: This one was with aprium (apricot+plum), goat cheese, amaranth and walnuts. I'm really not sure which one I liked more: the little gem salad was a little salty and crunchy and full of flavor. The aprium salad was a little bit lighter and more summery and the leaves themselves had so much taste. The best thing about the salads at Range are that they are always perfectly dressed - never too much or too little dressing and they are always so fresh.

The pasta was artichoke ravioli with fromage blanc, meyer lemon and olive oil. It was perfect. They are really masters at putting different flavor combinations together.

If you are eating at Range and they have steak on the menu, however it is prepared, you should order that. Last night the option was pan roasted bavette steak with squash blossoms, basil, wheat berries and parmesan jus. Kev ordered that and I was jealous. So was the guy next to us - I overheard him tell his date he had food envy when this arrived at our table. The outside had a really nice crust to it and the inside was tender and juicy.

I ordered the Alaskan halibut with English peas, morel mushrooms, baby turnips and horseradish. This was a really nice, light dish and I liked the addition of the horseradish, but it wasn't nearly as impressive as the steak.

The desserts here are also pretty spectacular and we particularly like the fruit based options. This one was a pluot and aprium tart, which I thought was pretty clever. It was served with cardamom ice cream which was a nice contrast to the tartness of the fruit.

On our walk home we were talking about our top five places in the city for dinner and Range is high on that list. But don't go taking all the reservations now, it's hard enough to get in as is!

Range

842 Valencia St

San Francisco, CA

415-282-8283

Pizzetta 211, Outer Richmond

2010-06-06T22:34:00.000-07:00

I first heard about Pizzetta 211 from this article in Sunset Magazine about the best pizza places in the Bay Area. A couple of weeks ago I happened to be driving by and noticed it, and thought it looked so sweet - just a little storefront with a few tables and a tree with twinkly lights. So when it came time to pick a spot for a girls' lunch today, and one of the girls lives in the Richmond, this seemed like a good choice.

We got there around 1PM, and there was no one waiting ahead of us. This was lucky for us, because with only seven tables total - inside and out - we could have had a long, long wait.

We started off with some Limonatas, which is the best drink ever on a hot day, plus I love the little bottles they come in. The menu changes weekly, and I think this week must be goat cheese week, which is fine by me because I love goat cheese. Usually when a menu changes regularly, there aren't any specials - but they always have an addition of a daily appetizer and dessert on the menu. We had the special salad of beet, beet greens and crostini with goat cheese.

I really enjoyed this dish - it was really light and simple but incredibly flavorful, with little bits of chili to give it some kick. This is one to remember, because it would be so simple to make at home.

We then moved on to the main course: calzone and pizza. The calzone was filled with ricotta, tomato sauce and.... goat cheese! I really loved the calzone. The dough was chewy and had a great texture, and the sauce and the cheeses all worked really nicely together.

The pizza was topped with lamb sausage, roasted pepper, garlic confit and ricotta salata. Oh, and that's not basil you see on top - that's mint. It's really surprising when you take your first bite, expecting to taste basil and to find that it is something else entirely, but I thought it worked really well. The lamb meatballs were really juicy and flavorful and I liked how potent the garlic confit was. The crust on the pizzas here are much thinner than a lot of the other artisinal pizza shops in San Francisco. I enjoyed it, but the others in my group prefer the lighter, fluffier dough at Pizzeria Delfina.

We ended the meal with a piece of flourless chocolate cake and fresh cream, and really, what better way to end a meal than with a piece of chocolate cake?

With all of the amazing pizza places in San Francisco, and so many in my neighborhood, I don't know that I would go all the way across town to come back here. But next time I'm in the Outer Richmond I'll know just where to go.

Pizzetta 211

211 23rd Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94121-2008
(415) 379-9880

Guerilla Cafe, Berkeley

2010-05-30T21:31:00.000-07:00

We had a nice brunch in the sun at Guerilla Cafe.

Heather and I shared the Mediterranean Plate, which is two poached eggs, toast, tomatoes, olives, cucumber and feta. I really like the idea of this dish - I love poached eggs, and I like that it's served with something lighter than the normal stuff you get poached eggs with. My problem with it though was that the eggs weren't really poached. I love when you put your knife into the egg and the yellow runs out of it. This was more like a hard boiled egg disguised as a poached egg.

We also shared the Waffle of the Day - which was orange zest waffles - and they were delightful. They served it to us as 4 mini waffles which made sharing very easy. The orange was subtle but it added a lot of flavor.

Guerilla Cafe

1620 Shattuck Ave

Berkeley, CA 97709

510 845 2233

Italian Ice

2010-05-26T23:00:00.000-07:00

A couple of pictures from a recent trip to New York - enjoying some rainbow and lemon Italian ice with my niece and Toothless.

Does anyone know of anywhere to get Italian ice in the Bay Area?

San Francisco Food Crawl Part 2: The Mission

2010-05-22T22:38:00.000-07:00

After a fun - but rained out - first attempt at a food crawl, we finally settled on a date for round two. This time we decided to keep it all walkable, so all of the places we went were in the Mission. I like the idea of doing a food crawl by region anyway - San Francisco has so many different neighborhoods with great food, plus it's a good excuse to keep doing more of these crawls and exploring different areas of the city.

Our first stop was The Monk's Kettle. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I like a good font and logo, and this place has both. Even though they are known for their huge variety of beer - both on tap and in bottles - we were there specifically for the giant pretzel. And since our group was bigger this time (we lost one person, but gained three, for a total of seven) we decided we needed to order more food at each place.

On the left is the mac and cheese made with house-made cheddar ale sauce and toasted bread crumbs. We didn't love the mac and cheese - it was ok, but we all wished it were a bit heartier (the non-vegetarians were specifically mentioning it'd be much better with bacon). The pretzel lived up to it's reputation. It's served with stone ground mustard and more house-made cheddar ale sauce and it is so much better than the pretzels you get from street carts.

It's a little bit awkward going into a restaurant with seven people and then telling them you aren't really there for a meal - just to try a couple of things. Our waiter totally went with it and was very sweet about having us taking up a whole table. We definitely could have eaten more there - and I fully intend to go back to try the lobster pot pie - but we were pacing ourselves for the rest of the day.

Round two was easy enough to get to - across the street from The Monk's Kettle is a Pakistani/Indian restaurant called Pakwan. We stopped in here quickly to get some chai to go. I have to admit that I am used to the American-ized chai from places like Starbucks and Peets. This was so much more subtle and not nearly as sweet - and at $1 a cup, it's also a way better deal. We took our chais and headed down 16th Street to our next stop, Balompie Cafe.

So this place is tricky to find if you're like me and rely on Google maps, because Google maps will tell you it is on 18th Street and Alabama. Ignore that, because it isn't there. We were lucky because as we headed down 18th Street we happened to find it in front of us (it's at Capp, between Mission and Van Ness, if you're wondering).

There are a few locations of Balompies, but this one is the oldest one. The 7x7 list tells you to go to Balompies #3 (in the outer Mission/Bernal Heights area) but that wasn't walkable for us and really, I don't know how necessary that is because we all loved the papusas here. We ordered three different types - bean & cheese, zucchini & cheese and the loroco con queso, which was "native Salvadorean vegetables & cheese". Are you seeing the cheese theme here? Our group was comprised of cheese lovers, so we were all very, very happy. Each order comes with two papusas and costs $2.50. I really don't know of a cheaper meal than that.

This was my first ever papusa, and I am now a big fan. Usually if we want cheap eats in the Mission, we go to one of the many taquerias in the neighborhood, and I'm so excited to have a new option. We all left here talking about how we want to come back.

Next up on our list: Dynamo Donuts. By the time we got there - around 2pm - they were sold out of all donuts except the cornmeal rosemary cherry and lemon thyme. I was slightly disappointed because I had wanted to try the spiced chocolate donut. Once we tried these two though I didn't mind missing the chocolate - they were both incredible. The owner was also there and very friendly: he told me that on any given day they have about 7 - 10 different varieties, and that the spiced chocolate is not one of his favorites. The most popular donut, which they have daily, is the maple glazed bacon apple. I guess I'll have to go back for that one too.

He also took me out back to show me the patio that they were just finishing getting ready to debut - it opens tomorrow!

Our group had dwindled by this point, but our group of four persevered and headed back up 24th Street to Humphry Slocombe.

They are always so nice there and let you sample all of their crazy flavors. I tried two that I would never want to have a whole cup of - golden beet safron sorbet and thai chili lime sorbet. The beet one really tasted of beets, probably not something you'd really want for dessert. The chili lime was surprising - at first I didn't taste much, and then it really gives you a big chili punch.

In the end, we picked three: Secret Breakfast (cornflakes and bourbon), Balsamic Caramel and Chocolate Smoked Salt. We were too late to try the Harvey Milk & Honey Graham Cracker ice cream, which was only available today, for Harvey Milk Day. None of us liked the Balsamic Caramel - too much balsamic, not enough caramel. We all liked the Secret Breakfast but our favorite was the Chocolate Smoked Salt.

We left there full but not yet done with our mission: we had one last stop, at Anthony's Cookies.

I'm not sure if this is true in all cities, but I love that in San Francisco you can find, in walking distance from each other, shops that specialize in just donuts or just cookies. I wouldn't think that would be a sustainable business model, but Anthony's has been around since 1997 so they must be doing something right. We ordered three different types: Cookies and Cream, Toffee Chip and German Chocolate. Much like with the ice cream, the one we liked best was not the one on the 7x7 list: the toffee chip was the hands down winner. We all liked the cookies and cream and none of us liked the German Chocolate, which didn't really have much flavor.

Though we could have followed up our cookies with pie from Mission Pie or cupcakes from Mission Minis, we decided to call it a day here. We walked three miles, spent about $15 each and consumed more calories than those three miles could possibly offset. What a perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

(for restaurant addresses and phone numbers, click below)

The Monk's Kettle
3141 16th Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 865-9523

Pakwan Restaurant
3182 16th St
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 255-2440

Balompie Cafe
3349 18th Street
San Francisco, CA 94110-1904
(415) 648-9199

Dynamo Donuts
2760 24th Street
San Francisco, CA 94110-4263
(415) 920-1978

Humphry Slocombe
2790 Harrison Street
San Francisco, CA 94080
(415) 550-6971

Anthony's Cookies
1417 Valencia St
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 655-9834

Out The Door, Fillmore

2010-05-09T22:44:00.000-07:00

Out The Door is part of the Slanted Door family - it's the cheaper, more accessible version. I've been to the Out The Door downtown (yes, in the mall) a few times and it's a pretty good option if you are shopping and hungry. The menu at the Fillmore location seems pretty similar, but I did like the food better here - maybe because it was brunch, or maybe because... I wasn't in a mall.

I started off with some peppermint tea. Heather was not impressed - and made the good point of, "I can't believe they charge $3 to put some mint leaves in hot water". It was good though, and now I know what to do with the mint leaves I have at home so I don't have to throw them away because they've gone brown.

I always love going to brunch with Heather because I know she'll also want to get a bunch of things and share everything. This was the vegetarian steamed bun which we both liked. I want someone to show me how they make the dough for a steamed bun.

The brunch menu is a mix of mostly Vietnamese options, with some standard American stuff thrown in, like pancakes and scones. We ordered the rice cake egg scramble, which is made of rice cake, bean sprouts, pickled daikon and soy. My favorite thing at Slanted Door is the daikon rice cake, and this dish had very similar flavors. It was a really unique egg dish, and I would definitely go back and order it again. We also ordered the ricotta pancakes with strawberry rhubarb compote. The pancakes were pretty good - and I love anything with strawberry and rhubarb - but they didn't compare to the pancakes at La Note.

I will definitely be back here for brunch - I'm still wondering about the coconut caramel roll which we didn't try.

Out The Door
2232 Bush Street
San Francisco, CA 94115
(415) 923-9575

Bouchon Bakery, Yountville

2010-05-03T22:19:00.000-07:00

Before eating dinner at Ad Hoc, we had dessert at Bouchon Bakery. This is another one of those places that I'd like even if the desserts weren't amazing - it is so well designed and everything in there I really, really wanted to try. It was incredibly hard to pick what to eat - so we picked lots of things, and had dessert tapas.

There's a window in the bakery where you can see the pastry chef at work. It must be incredibly annoying to be this guy and have people taking pictures and gawking at you all day as you create amazingly intricate pastries.

The macarons really caught my eye - they always look so colorful and perfect. It's hard to tell in the photo, but the diameter is much bigger than the other french macarons I've had. We got two of these - the chocolate and the espresso.

We also got the strawberry rhubarb tart, which was really more like a cheesecake. A very good cheesecake. That's the espresso macaron above. I loved how the inside was actually a little bit cold- I've never had that before. Are they all supposed to be like that, and I've only been eating sub-par ones? We also ordered the chocolate bouchon, which was kind of like a brownie and really amazing. We all agreed that the bouchon and the macarons were the big winners. The cookies - both the chocolate chip and the chocolate chocolate chip - were only just ok.

Our celebrity sighting for the day - hello, Beethoven!

Bouchon Bakery

6534 Washington Street
Yountville, CA 94599-1397
(707) 944-8037