Plow, Potrero Hill

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

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

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