Dinner at home: Prosciutto wrapped chicken, potatoes and asparagus

Last night we wound up doing some last minute babysitting, and were paid with a fantastic dinner. I forgot to bring my camera, so my iPhone filled in. 

Have you had the black olives from the olive bar at Whole Foods? They are my favorite.
(That's the chef with his striped socks on the striped rug).

You can't really go wrong with prosciutto, rosemary, cheese and butter.

Spork, Mission

After living in the Mission for two years, we have only just discovered Spork. We've walked by it countless number of times, but had never eaten there. I'll admit I was put off because we had heard that it was overpriced. But we wanted to go somewhere new (to us) and walkable, so this seemed like a good option. And it was! (though I do think it was kinda overpriced).

 When you are seated, they give you a paper that tells you the story of Spork. Here it is in a nutshell: The space used to be a Kentucky Fried Chicken. KFC introduced America to the concept of the Spork. The people behind Spork wanted to "serve slow food in a fast food shell". The menu changes daily based on what is fresh and seasonal. Got it?

The first thing you are served are their "original pull apart rolls" with whipped honey butter. These are SO GOOD. The rolls are soft and hot and fluffy, basically everything you would want in a roll. We also ordered what is probably my favorite name of an appetizer ever: Cauliflower and Calamari Unite! I partly ordered this just so I can keep saying the name of it.  I love that the calamari was grilled and not fried, and it was a really nice combination of flavors - one of those dishes that you really want to get a little bit of everything on your fork at once - calamari and mint and chili flakes and lemon aioli. I only could have liked this more if the calamari didn't have their freakish legs. I just can't make myself eat those. Luckily Kev doesn't mind them.

Kev ordered the In-side-Out Burger: basically a tower of a burger with caramelized onions on top and what they call "smashed fries". I would not call those smashed fries - they were more like roasted potatoes: crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside and very, very tasty.

I ordered the special pasta, which was fresh sheet pasta with ground beef, mushrooms, red onions, and chilis. It was good - but I liked the burger better. I think there were just too many chilis for my taste. 

We followed up our meals by sharing the strawberry crisp, which was also really, really tasty. Our waiter was very nice and also let us taste one of the Humphry Slocombe flavors they had that day: chocolate covered potato chip, which was kind of weird but definitely good. 

And what better way to end a big meal than with an after dinner hamburger?

Spork
1058 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110-2427
(415) 643-5000

Flour + Water, Mission

We had another early bird dinner, this time at Flour + Water. I'm not really sure how to get around having an early bird dinner there, because both times we have been there we've booked a table online and the only reservations have been three months out and at 5:30.  That's fine with me though because then it gives us plenty of time to get to BINGO. 

I'm not sure that the menu was designed to be shared as small plates, but it easily lends itself to that. There were four of us which meant we got to try lots of different things.  

That's the wood oven roasted heirloom beans with chili and parmesan and also the lemon thyme tagliatelle with braised chicken, citrus and pistachio. We all thought that the tagliatelle tasted kind of like really good chicken noodle soup pasta. I realize that the chef would probably not like to hear that, but we really meant it in a good way. Both of these dishes were great, and I especially liked the crunchy bits on the beans.

We ordered two pizzas - the top photo below is the mushroom pizza (way fancier name but I can't remember) with arugula added on, and the photo below that is a prosciutto pizza with more arugula and some chili. We like arugula.

Both pizzas were really good - though I don't think they are my favorite of all the artisan pizzas in the area (Pizzeria Delfina would be high on my list for favorites).

If you have dinner at Flour + Water, then you must also have dessert. And if you are going to have dessert, then you have to have the chocolate budino, which is incredible. A little pot of amazing chocolate, topped with sea salt and espresso-caramel cream. We also tried the blood orange & polenta upside down cake with clove cream. It tastes much better than it sounds - though not as good as the chocolate budino. Maybe we should have added arugula.

Delarosa, Marina

I think there should be a term for a meal between lunch and dinner - the evening version of brunch - because lately we've been into eating dinner way too early for people our age.  We stopped into Delarosa at around 4:30 and pretty much had the place to ourselves, which was a-ok by us. 

Delarosa is owned by the same people that own Beretta, though that is not something you'd know by the look of the place. It's kind of like if Beretta had an identity crisis and went from being the gothy kid with the raven tattoo to the preppy cheerleader. 

All of the seating is communal, which I'm not sure how I would feel about if we were there when it was crowded. At 4:30 though - no problem.  

That's the salty dog above - vodka, elderflower, grapefruit juice, salt - which was very refreshing. I love drinks with fresh citrus. The salad was incredibly simple but amazingly tasty - just arugula, fennel and shaved parmesan. 

We also ordered the margherita pizza with burrata and added on some prosciutto.  It really worked well together - the sweetness of the sauce + the saltiness of the prosciutto + the creaminess of the burrata. I thought that the crust wasn't quite as good as at some of the other artisan pizza places. Kev disagreed. We ate the whole pizza.

Limon Rotisserie, Mission

Sarah and I wanted to have dinner, but there were a lot of logistics involved in making that happen. Neither of us were free on the weekend. I don't get out of work until late. Sarah doesn't have a car. And both of us wanted it to be inexpensive. Our criteria became: somewhere in the city (easier for me), near BART (easy for Sarah) and cheap. Normally that means burritos, but this time we came up with a better plan: Limon Rotisserie.

This might be the best deal in San Francisco, and I can't stop talking about it. For $7.25 you get 1/4 chicken plus two sides and two dipping sauces. And it was all really tasty. Sarah and I got the tacu-tacu, papas fritas, vegetales salteados and choclo. We didn't know what most of those things were either, so here's a visual aide. 

Sarah thought the corn was a little too mealy but really liked the tacu-tacu. I thought the corn was meaty and good, and really liked the papas fritas. We both liked the chicken, which was super flavorful and also the check, which was $25.

Dinner at Home: Bacon Sarnie (or British bacon sandwich, if you're not from 'ol Blighty)

This is another example of a British staple that a certain someone did not think you could get in America. There were many, many years that this someone mourned the loss of British bacon. And then one day we were in a little shop on Castro St (Healthy Spirits, if you're in the market for some British bacon) and there it was, in the frozen goods area. And there was much rejoicing in all the land.

Since that fateful day, bacon has been spotted in locations such as The Liberties Irish Bar in the Mission and Roxie's Market in the Sunset.

Tonight, British bacon was spotted in our kitchen. And for you, here is a step by step guide in how to make your own:

Step 1: Get your bacon out and cut 2 slices of white bread (can be any bread but "it tastes better on white bread").

Step 2: Heat up your pan on the stove with some oil and throw the bacon in with it. While that is cooking, butter your bread (bread is not to be cooked!)

Step 3: Take cooked bacon out of your pan and put it on your bread and watch the cool looking steam rise.

Step 4: Eat!

Dinner at Home: Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter

Yes, it is officially butter week here at our house.

I never have ingredients for things, unless I specifically go out to buy them, and I am terrible at making dinner during the week. Tonight I came home and there was nothing to eat, and then I remembered that I had an onion. And butter. And a can of tomatoes. And then I remembered this post (I guess it is also smitten kitchen week at our house). Like I said, today was my lucky day.

I don't know that I would call it the best sauce I've ever had, but it really was quite good. The butter  adds an unusual flavor, really smooth and rich and well, buttery. My only complaint is that it didn't really stick to the pasta.

Also! This sauce was the easiest thing to make. Just dump in the tomatoes, cut off a piece of butter, and slice an onion in half. Even I, the laziest of lazies when it comes to weeknight dinners, couldn't really complain. Throw it all on the stove, and 45 minutes later, you've got yourself a meal.   Just make sure to check that you have pasta first, as we were down to our last tiny morsels of it (I told you I never have ingredients!)