As much time as I spend in Southern California, I don't often get the chance to play tourist in my own hometown -- I grew up in LA, went to college there, and lived there until I was 26. When a good friend from here wanted to experience the true Southern California, I was happy to play tour guide last week. It was fun to show her some of my favorite places, and take a lot of photographs at the same time.
The above sign can be found at Zuma Beach in Malibu. To tell you the truth, I have never seen the stand open, but love seeing the food stand as you turn the big curve on Pacific Coast Highway heading north. The first couple days we were there were unseasonably warm, and the beach was lovely -- complete with a pod of dolphins playing in the nearby water.
The Southern California growing season is always a bit ahead of our Northern California season. The Wednesday Santa Monica farmers market was full of visions of spring, and it was really wonderful to see the abundance that we have to look forward to in Northern California soon. My find of the day was La Nogalera walnut oil -- a nicely balanced, light walnut oil that is grown and processed in Central California.
While firmly in the "Californian Mexican" camp, I have always loved Border Grill for their appetizers and cocktails. We stopped in one afternoon and shared a shrimp & hearts of palm salad, and a mushroom quesadilla along with about 20 pounds of chips and their wonderful salsas.
Nearly every Southern California trip in the past couple years has included a stop at Patisserie Chantilly in Lomita. A Japanese bakery with French-style pastries, everything I have ever eaten here has been impeccably executed. The epitome of perfection at Chantilly is the cream puff. As soon as I walk into the patisserie, I usually have a huge smile on my face that remains during the whole trip.
We stopped by the old farmers market on Fairfax and Third -- just a quick run-through to check it out. This particular farmers market (much more of a tourist destination with permanent store booths than the modern farmers market) makes me feel very old and curmudgeonly as it's hard for me to believe that a modern mall has sprung up around the market in what used to be the parking lot. This photo is of the famous diner called Du-Pars which is famous for its pies and breakfasts.
The trip was great. Additional food highlights included Mozza Pizzeria and Sunday Supper at Lucques, a vegetarian dinner we cooked for my family, along with other bites and nibbles throughout the Southland. Even five days felt short, and I feel like I didn't do my hometown justice. But there's always next time ...
Thanks for hanging with me while things have been a little quiet around here. I usually work freelance doing (data) consulting projects from home. But in the past few months, I've had a project that requires me to go into an office in the East Bay several days a week. I love the project, and am thrilled for the opportunity but it's thrown my entire schedule out of whack and it's my blog and my writing that suffer.
Things are good around here -- they have been for a while, which is fun and lovely.
So this morning I woke up to go to my East Bay job. Got dressed and ready and then received a phone call from my contact there asking me to work from home. It's a good day.
Other things that are making me happy this week:
- A fantastic gin and tonic from Bix the other night: (local) 209 Gin and Fevertree tonic. Doesn't get much better than that.
- The great speech from Marketa Irglova last night at the Oscars. She is one half of the Once duo and she and Glen Hansard won for best song. She didn't get a chance to speak because the music was brought up before she spoke. In my favorite moment of the night, Jon Stewart brought her back and had her make her speech:
"The fact that we're standing here tonight, the fact that we're able to
hold this, it's just proof that no matter how far out your dreams are,
it's possible. And, you know, fair play
to those who dare to dream, and don't give up. This song was written
from the perspective of hope, and hope, at the end of the day, connects
us all, no matter how different we are."
- Hog Island Oyster Company's Happy Hour. I hadn't been there in quite a while, and it's as good as ever. $1 oysters and $3.50 beers. Monday and Thursday nights, 5pm to 7pm. We also had a delicious cooked scallop dish that's worth a try if it's still on the menu.
- Did you catch Governor Huckabee on SNL this weekend? Politics aside, it was an entertaining skit. (Sound quality on this video is terrible).
- I finally made it to Sebo. Holy delicious temple of sushi.
- This "freeze project" that took place in Grand Central Station last month and was repeated in San Francisco this weekend. I wish I would have seen it.
I know that many phone calls lately have gone unreturned, blog posts have gone unwritten, and photos have gone un-uploaded. The truth is that I've been busy. Eating.
About week ago, it was cold and rainy here in San Francisco. My throat was hurting, and I was tired from a weekend of parties. I sat across from a friend at Thai House Express. M had suggested the location for a bowl of chicken noodle soup.
I took a bite.
"This is the best thing I've eaten in a week," I said.
It was sublime. After a second bite, it had become my favorite chicken soup in San Francisco. The broth was clean and flavorful, the wide rice noodles and chicken transcendent with tiny crispy bits of God-knows-what that added an extra punch of flavor that I loved.
"What about Shin Toe Bul Yi?" he asked.
"Oh yah, and then there was that good dish at King of Thai Noodles, and -- oh yah! Pizzetta 211!"
When you've found your favorite chicken noodle soup in San Francisco and it is probably the third or fourth best thing you've eaten in 10 days, you know it's been a great few days.
M lived in San Francisco for years and was back visiting. He had a restaurant list, scribbled on the back of an envelope, in his back pocket the whole time he was here. I was game to join him at quite a few (but not nearly all), and added a couple suggestions of my own to create a memorable trip of food in my own city.
Shin Toe Bul Yi. This Korean restaurant in the Sunset is known by many to have the best fried chicken in San Francisco. I love it, find the beef kalbi and panchan to be ok, and think that they have the best menu translations in all of San Francisco. Can't find the fried chicken? Look for "Chicken Small Pieces. Little spicy. (Deep fried)." Tip: the fried chicken is only available at dinner time.
Hing Lung. I've only ever had Hing Lung duck jook to go, but it's like
magic to eat it late at night with chili paste stirred in. It's on
Broadway in Chinatown and I've heard that the only thing to eat here is
the jook and the donuts.
SPQR. M knew I wanted to take him here, and at 8 pm on a Saturday night announced that we should go. "No way in hell," was my response. I knew how popular it had gotten, and put my foot down. He persisted and we ended up getting in 45 minutes later though the quoted time was 2.5 hours. I didn't pull any weight (not that I have any to pull), or ask for any special favors. It was just a fortuitous question that got us in. And I'll never tell how.
Pizzetta 211. If I ever leave San Francisco, Pizzetta is one of the restaurants that I miss the most. There is not much that compares to whiling away the afternoon in the corner seats of Pizzetta with perfectly executed pizzas, good company, and a quintessential San Francisco feel. We shared two pizzas and a salad -- the winner was a rich no-tomato pizza with chard and potatoes. Delicious.
NOPA. I won't go on record with
the number of hours that Stephanie and I were bellied up to the bar
table here, but it was a fun Sunday afternoon/evening. M. joined us
a bit later in the evening (after we'd tasted most of their absinthe
cocktails) and we had a good meal, highlighted by white beans in tomato
sauce and a fantastic dessert.
King of Thai Noodles(Clement at 4th location). Pad Kee Mao, spicy with beef (stir fried dal rice noodles green long bean, bell pepper, thai chili and basil) is the best thing in the city to eat at 2 in the morning.
Incanto. This was my favorite meal at Incanto ever and went a long way in helping me understand why people love it so much. We sat at the bar, and had a quick bite of pastas before leaving for a busy Saturday night.
Tajine. Tajine wasn't on his list, but hit the spot one day as I picked it up to go. A highlight was the chicken with preserved lemons and olives.
Thai House Express (Larkin location). As stated above: Best. Chicken. Noodle. Soup in the City. We had other great things, but it was all eclipsed by the soup.
A16. You all know how much I love the new little sister to A16 (Yes, I've decided that SPQR is a woman -- sassy and cool and oh-so San Franciscan). So the truth is that A16's glory had dulled in my mind a tad in the past few months. I have so many memories of A16, though, and have had so many stellar meals that this apathy was not going to last long: My love for A16 is back in force. Arriving close to 10 on a Tuesday night, we were seated immediately. With four of us, we were able to order a good portion of the menu. I am pleased to say that the pizzas were spot on, the tuna conserva appetizer was remarkable, and that Liza Shaw must be performing miracles in the kitchen.
Yamo. This is a Burmese restaurant in the Mission -- a place that M has mentioned many times as something he craves. The take-out food that he brought me -- especially the curry chicken -- was good enough that I would go back.
Cafe Rouge. I have to admit to mixed feelings about Cafe Rouge. While I think that it's fine, I've never found it to be revelatory. However, it's difficult to knock a place with a $1 oyster happy hour with deliciously executed oysters. This restaurant wasn't on his list or mine -- was just a last minute decision as he headed out of town. It was a lovely meal, and a good way to end a grand run of restaurants.
Speaking of Flickr, I've been slowly going through the Vietnam trip photos and posting a couple a day. The photo above is one that I posted this week. Nine months after the trip, I am finally feeling like I can start to digest parts of it and talk about it. It took that long to not be completely overwhelmed by that amazing trip. So I've been writing a small amount about my impressions with the photos. You can see it all in the Vietnam Collection of my Flickr. You can subscribe to a feed of my Flickr photos using this link.
Also, if you read this site through an RSS reader, you may not notice the site's new look. I am happy to have new digs. Thanks for everyone who weighed in months ago about the new look. I chose a design that will allow me to swap photos in and out of the banner fairly easily.
(If you are reading this post on a RSS reader, you might want to click through to Life Begins @ 30 for the slideshow.
As we entered the Taco House last week, I steadied my grandfather on my arm. "The taco is $1.29," he said. "When I bought the Taco House, we sold it for 25 cents." Two women in front of the restaurant became really animated when they saw him. "You know who I just met," one exclaimed into her cell phone, "I met Bill. You know THE Bill."
My grandfather's name is Hank Silva, but in the Los Angeles community he is often known as "Bill". He bought Bill's Taco House in 1960 from the original Bill who had owned it for eleven years. Grandpa owned the restaurant for 25 years and many of his customers just assumed his name was Bill. He never corrected them.
The story that led my grandfather to own the Taco House is a real up-by-your-bootstraps, American-way story. He grew up very poor -- moving around, but mainly in the Central Valley -- and went to school very sporadically only through elementary school. During some of his youth, he picked fruit and cotton up and down the Central Valley -- figs, prunes, rhubarb, and strawberries. When the workers would break for lunch, grandpa and his best friend Tony would pretend that they were going to lunch as well. But they didn't have any money and didn't eat. When lunch was over, they would come back to the field, chewing on a toothpick and pretending that their bellies were full from the feast that they'd just eaten.
In 1939, grandpa had a small amount of money saved and felt that he was destined for something greater than ranch work. He wanted to leave the valley, but didn't know where to go. "San Francisco or Los Angeles," he told his friend Tony at the bus station. Grandpa had been waffling about which direction to go. "Just go buy me a ticket to either place." Tony chose Los Angeles. "You're going to Hollywood," Tony told grandpa, in a decision that was pivotal for grandpa's life and the future of our family.
Grandpa met my grandmother in 1945 (a great story for another day), served in the Navy in World War II, and then returned home to support his family. He held many jobs including working at a bra factory (where grandma worked as well), selling Baby Butler children's furniture, and selling tract homes in Riverside County. In the late fifties he was working at a trucking company and had an accident -- he fell from the dock and injured his elbow. The insurance company compensated him for his injury by giving him $10,000 (the equivalent of $69,000 today).
That $10,000 insurance check is the money that grandpa used to buy the Taco House. The restaurant is on Martin Luther King Blvd. in Los Angeles, about a mile east of USC. "We were open until four a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays," mom recently told me, "and there would be a line down the block after the clubs in the area let out." The taco that they were all lining up for is, what I could imagine, the perfect drunk food. It's greasy and full of spices and a fully craveable meal.
Every once in a while, someone who had just been released from jail would come into the Taco House because they'd been craving Taco House food in the slammer. Celebrities also came into the Taco House -- sometimes limos would pull up and people like Barry White and the singers of the Fifth Dimension would come in to get their taco fix. Many people who grew up in the neighborhood and became successful -- singers, boxers, politicians -- would continue to return to Bill's Taco House. "I remember when Barry White was coming in and no one knew who he was," grandpa told me recently, "and then he kept coming back when he was famous."
Recently on a trip to the Taco House alone, I tried to assess the taco. It's a seasoned hamburger patty, grilled and cut into three pieces, with a slice of cheese ("What kind of cheese, Grandpa?" "Yellow cheese."), diced tomatoes, shredded lettuce, and a spicy chili gravy all wrapped with a fried taco shell that is more soft than crunchy but with a fried flavor. Today's taco is pretty true to the original recipe, and the one that grandpa used. I laughed the other day at a user review on the Internet recently that called it "good Mexican food." I agree more with a different user who called it "good junk food."
"We would get a delivery of fresh ground beef every day," grandpa said on the drive home last week, "and on Saturdays, we would order 500 pounds of beef." Each taco uses less than a quarter of a pound of beef, so that's a heck of a lot of tacos.
Grandpa was really well known in the community. It's still a treat to run into people who went to Bill's as kids in the sixties and seventies and talk to them about what they remember. Aside from selling popular food, he provided the land for a Head Start school next door to the Taco House that is there to this day, and gave back to the community in many other ways. When the Watts riots occurred in 1965, neighbors urged grandpa to leave as the riots were breaking out, and spray painted "brother" on the wall of the Taco House. The Taco House was saved from being burned or looted while businesses all around were destroyed.
Grandpa sold the Taco House in 1985. It's still in existence, and in fact there are now one or two other "Bill's Taco Houses" around town, though I have never been to them.
It's hard to know where our family would be had grandpa not come to Los Angeles, or had he not owned the Taco House. Much of the family -- my mom, my uncle, my godmother, my grandmother and even my dad -- worked at the Taco House at one point or another and it's a major part of our family history. My grandparents have taught me so many life lessons, but grandpa's ownership of the Taco House taught me some big ones:
Make people happy by giving them good, honest food.
Treat them with respect, no matter what their background or social status.
Intuition and real world experience trump formal education.
Once you have a dream, work and work and work until you see it to fruition.
The original Bill's Taco House is located at 219 E Martin Luther King Jr Blvd., Los Angeles, 323-233-1587.
There's a conversation going on over at Chowhound and participants are separating restaurants into several categories. Here's my list, with a bit of a twist on the categories. There is no priority within the category - the restaurants are just listed how they came out of my head.
Restaurants that I know to support local farmers are marked with an asterisk (*).
You'll probably notice that I don't have a ton of super high-end restaurants on the lists. I feel much more comfortable at the mid-level places, especially in San Francisco.
I'm not a meme girl, but if I were, this would be a fun one to pass around - dontcha think?
My creme de la creme: *A16 *Coco500 *Zuni Cafe
Bodega Bistro *Pizzetta 211 Absinthe Maki
Pesce
The Helmand
*SPQR
Favorite Hole in the Walls: My Tofu House Yummy Yummy Darbar San Tung El Tonayense Taco Truck La Palma Mexicatessen Chavo's La Corneta *Primavera Stand at the FPFM
May be a favorite, but I need to go a few more times: Alembic *Delfina *Pizzeria Delfina *Kokkari Cav Ino *Rubicon *Canteen Dosa *Foreign Cinema *Slanted Door *Spruce Koo
Sebo
Liked it better the second time *Piccino *Nopa
Underwhelmed by, but may retry given the overwhelmingly positive reports: Bar Tartine Maverick (I've gone for brunch only) *Incanto (retried in 1/08. No longer underwhelmed.) *Nopa (moved up 12/2007) Piccino (moved up 11/25/2007)
Underwhelmed by, and no plans to return: *Bacar (pre Robbie Lewis) Acquerello Ozumo (pre Mike Yakura) Cassis
Nua
Cannot wait to go to: *SPQR (Moved up, 10/1/07 then moved up again 11/7/07) Sebo (tried 02/08. Moved up.) *Quince
Haven't been, and want to go: *Aziza Ame Ducca Bar Crudo Spork Perbacco Ritz Carlton Dining Room Myth *La Folie Terzo 1550 Hyde Zushi Puzzle Nua (moved, 11/7/07)
Anyone who knows me and is reading along is probably chuckling right now, as "a bit" is probably an understatement. It runs in the family. One day, my mother asked the ex how the three generations of women in our family are alike. He deadpanned, "well you're all stubborn!"
Weird things make me dig my heels in. When it comes to food, I get incredibly stubborn about going to places that are wildly popular, or that everyone seems to love. I don't want to be one of the herd of cattle, all shuffling off to the Cheesecake Factory, so I often try and find a lesser known restaurant or one that's not as popular but just as good.
This was the case for years with La Super Rica Taqueria in Santa Barbara. It's the taqueria that Julia Child allegedly loved when she lived in Santa Barbara. It's the taqueria that was mentioned by Michael Vaughn on Alias when he was trying to woo Sydney up the coast on a vacation with him. It's the taqueria that is on the top of the "must go" list of many Californians. Every time I drive by LSR, there are lines out the door. And so I got stubborn. I found excellent tacos nearby and decided that I wasn't missing much by never going there.
Last December, I drove down the coast with my friend Jeanne. She and I were both going to visit our respective families in Southern California, and so we decided to make a fun road trip out of the journey. The theme of this road trip? Tacos along the coast. It was a fun drive, and I believe we tasted 20 tacos over two days.
One of the highlights of the trip was La Super Rica. I took a deep breath, and prepared myself not to like it. When we snaked through the line and into the door, I noticed fresh tortillas being made in the back. My resolve began to crack a bit. By the time we got to the counter, we had broken our "two tacos per location" rule and tried four tacos. The one that stood out -- the one that still makes my mouth water 10 months later -- was calabacitas in a dark sauce with pork. Delicious with an herbal flavor made from a generous helping of epazote, the taco was one of the best that I've had this year ("I think it was epazote," Jeanne said when I just called her to fact check, "I don't remember, I was in a taco haze.").
I stopped by LSR for a second time yesterday. It was late afternoon so the line was relatively short, and I had an article that I'd been wanting to read, so I didn't mind the wait. After about 10 minutes, I tucked into my rajas taco and a taco of pork adobado -- a marinated pork with chiles. Rajas has been my dish of the summer, and I have made it several times at home. This rendition had a small amount of heat and was runny with cheese and studded with onions. Though it didn't make for a very good picture, the result was delicious and worth jumping on the bandwagon for.
La Super Rica Taqueria 622 N. Milpas Street, Santa Barbara
Closed Wednesday
Dungeness crab is a type of crab that's specific to the West Coast and is found from Washington State south to Santa Barbara. The local food-obsessed eagerly await the beginning of the local crab season each November, and our season began last week.
My first taste of crab was this morning as I had a crab salad at Swan Oyster Depot for breakfast. Many locals avoid SOD because of the tourist hype -- it's included in every valid guidebook for San Francisco and has lines out the door at lunch -- but if you go on off hours, particularly in the early morning, then the place is pretty empty and there's no wait. It's open at 8 each morning and you can order the full menu all day. If crab salad doesn't tempt your palate in the early morning, try going late afternoon right before they close at 5:30.
I am also looking forward to crab dishes this season at Pesce and Fish. Do you have any favorite Dungeness Crab dishes?
Today marks the beginning of the "What do Food Bloggers Really Eat" challenge as posed to us by Sam. She's asked us to challenge ourselves to photograph everything we consume over the next week and post the photos next week. I'm participating because the last time I did something like this, I feel it affected some rather large changes in my eating habits.
This week's going to be a bit out of control as I am travelling and staying with a couple of different families, but we'll see how it goes. (Hopefully I'll do better than I've been doing at NaBloPoMo - ha) Don't expect great food photography, as it will be very quick, unobtrusive snapshots of most things. And I'm not going to post everything I drink, as that would be boring and annoying for me and for you (coffee, coffee, water, water, water, wine, wine).
P.S. The pictures above are from this morning. The second shot from the left is a cup of clam chowder. I went a little pepper crazy, as I usually tend to do with their delicious chowder.
I know, I know, Maggie Mason doesn't care. But the rest of you can keep reading if you want to hear what I had for lunch.
I have had some really great meals since I arrived in Southern California on Friday.
Friday night was spent with friends at Musha, an izakaya restaurant in Torrance that is raucous and smoke-filled. Mom figured out how to turn on the loud, clanky fan above our heads and took it upon herself to get up and turn it on whenever we were in danger of getting completely smoked out. But the food was abundant and everything that came out of Musha's tiny kitchen was fully flavored and addictively good. This is the restaurant that I have only been to twice, but have craved almost every day in between. I can't wait to return.
Saturday night, as I mentioned, we went to Lucques. It's a lovely space with wonderful food. I had a spicy chickpea and kale soup, and told my dinnermates that I couldn't share because I was concerned that they'd catch my cold. Mostly true, but I also wanted to savor every bit of the soup that I could. Entree was a suckling pig dish which was confited and placed on top of cornbread and greens. Julie also went to Lucques recently and does a much better job than I at describing the suckling pig and her other dishes. As Shuna alluded to in the comments section here yesterday, the desserts at Lucques are special. My pannacotta was surrounded by citrus and flavored with ras al-hanout, giving it an unusual, delicious flavor that was delicate and wonderful.
Sunday was spent at The Hungry Cat -- a sister restaurant to Lucques. It wasn't really planned, but we were at the Hollywood Farmers' Market, and as the time approached noon, the heat became unbearable enough that we were ready for greyhounds and beignets. The Hungry Cat is the closest restaurant to the farmers' market and was a perfect place to relax for a little while and enjoy the heat.
But given all these wonderful dining experiences, the top experience in my mind was today for lunch, at a food court in the Mitsuwa shopping center. Mitsuwa is the largest Japanese supermarket that I have ever been to, and the variety available is staggering. And if that wasn't enough, the market has a food court attached that features some excellent food, including Santouka Ramen -- a food stand that I would venture to say has the best ramen I have ever eaten. I first learned about this food stand from chowhound, and have only had a chance to go twice.
Both times, I have had a delicious shio ramen with a salt-based pork broth with charshu pork in it. The ramen was appropriately firm, and I found myself wishing I had a container to smuggle out the broth by the gallon. The sign at Santouka firmly states "No Takeout" and my dining mate and I conspired ways that next time we can get around that rule. It's my understanding is that Santouka is a Japan-based restaurant chain with a couple of outlets in the U.S. If you ever have a chance to try it, and fancy some ramen, it's well worth seeking out.
Today on Bay Area Bites, Amy posted to talk about Round Table Pizza's New "Pepperoni Artisan Pizza", which also uses the descriptor "organic" though their only certified organic ingredient is the tomato sauce. Which brings to mind more questions and pontifications than I have time for today. When do we give corporations and big business credit for at least acknowledging organic and artisan as worthy goals, and when do we stomp on them for obviously using marketing terms and trendy adjectives to pander for new business?
One of the foods that was ubiquitous in our house growing up is shown in a pretty close rendition above: bread with melted parmesan, tomatoes, and Vegesal. In our childhood house, it was usually sourdough slices. Today, I used Acme epi baguette, dry-farmed Early Girl tomatoes from Ella Bella, and parmigiano reggiano. I put the bread with parmesan under the broiler for a few minutes, and then added the tomatoes.
It's tempting to fancy it up with additional toppings or seasonings, but for it to be the comfort food of my childhood it basically needs to be only the ingredients above. For me, the only allowed substitution is avocados instead of tomatoes if I have them.
Since I've moved to San Francisco, my comfort food repertoire has changed somewhat. Now I include the following among my comfort foods:
I know that in American restaurants, comfort food dishes include meatloaf, short ribs, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, but when it's my turn for comfort foods, I turn to dishes that are slightly more eclectic.
I found the content of the book and the restaurant reviews to mainly be
engaging and fair. Many of the contributors are names that you may be
familiar with: Meredith Brody, Bruce Cole, Kim Severson, and Jan
Newberry are just a few of over 50 Bay Area writers who contributed to
this book. Descriptions tend toward story-telling. For instance, I
learned the history of Cowgirl Creamery, the number of jars of jam that
June Taylor makes in a year -- all with her stovetop kettle (answer:
20,000), and how Zuni Cafe is like a long-term, monogamous relationship.
My birthday and my mom's birthday are on the same day so there's always some sort of celebration or other. More often than not, I end up going to Southern California. This year, I lured family and friends to San Francisco with the promise of an amazing birthday dinner and a small amount of pleading. It worked, and it was fabulous.
Dinner at A16 started as an idea in the back of my head last year when I was describing the restaurant to my mom. "You would just love it," I said. "It's the kind of place I want to take everyone I love, and order everything for them." Yes, I am a control freak. But I felt that I had been there enough times to be confident about the "correct" things to order from the menu.
The restaurant has a back atrium area that you may have noticed if you have been there. Jason and I have sat there by ourselves before, and it has a benefit of not being anywhere as noisy as the rest of the restaurant. If you have a large party (we had 17), you can have the entire atrium for the duration of your event. All food was ordered family style, and shared between all.
The execution of each dish, and the service, was exactly the same as if there were two of us -- it was everything I expected it to be. I am a worry-wart, and there was nothing for me to worry about at this dinner. Everyone was happy, everyone was taken care of. The restaurant even did a great job of taking care of some "special needs": One person who doesn't eat pepper, a vegan, and a couple vegetarians. When I walked in a few minutes early and the server asked me to point out where the vegan would be sitting, I knew that I would be in good hands.
One of the highlights of the trip was that my grandparents came too. I conspired with my mom to not tell them that we were going to an Italian restaurant. This is because the second they hear that it's Italian, they look for spaghetti and meatballs, and are disappointed when they don't get it. My grandparents raved throughout the meal. My grandfather had been complaining all weekend that "all you people do is eat" and he inhaled three pieces of pizza, and a lot of other food. My grandmother who said that she "never eats lamb" is still talking about the lamb dish. I knew that I had succeeded when, toward the end of the meal, grandma asked "What kind of restaurant is this anyway?"
Every dish that was served was delicious, and my friends and family all were blown away by the meal that they had eaten. And as someone who has been there at least every other month since the restaurant opened, I felt like I had as good of a meal with 17 as I have on any other night. It was the best birthday gift I could have asked for.
The menu:
starters Zucchini salad with parsley, mint, green olives * Mozzarella burrata with olive oil, sea salt and crostini Fennel Salami (cured on premises)
main course Pork shoulder braised with red peppers, onions and rosemary Roasted Napa Valley lamb with garlic, herbs and lemon Eggplant parmigiana with tomato, fresh ricotta*
sides Blue lake green beans with garlic and anchovy Roasted potatoes with marjoram and celery Cannelini beans with garlic and oregano
dessert everyone chose their own dessert
* the asterisked items were modified from the menu due to vegans and vegetarians at the table.
Some additional details if you are considering having an event there: I scheduled this meal about three months out. They are very clear about all of their restrictions - I didn't feel like there were any surprises that I wasn't previously aware of. If you have a certain number of people, you can have people choose from a limited menu. I suggest family-style serving if at all possible. I chose the dishes, and then they chose the amounts of each to serve, and did an accurate job of the amounts -- there was enough to take home doggie bags, but not so much that it felt wasteful. If you are interested in the cost per person, feel free to email me, or you can estimate by knowing that it was about average for a meal there. There was not a room fee, but I had to guarantee the number of people two days in advance. Our dinner started at 6, and the contract stated that we would be asked to leave at 9. We were finally asked to leave at around 9:30, and there were groups of people waiting to be seated -- so unless you have a very large party, or rent the area for the entire night, you have about a 3 hour window.
Andrew Jaeger, a chef from a renowned New Orleans restaurant family,
will in the next couple of weeks bring his Creole-style recipes and jazz to
the Condor, and open Andrew Jaeger's House of Seafood & Jazz in the legendary
North Beach club. He's leased space in the Condor from SAW Entertainment,
which owns most of the topless clubs on Broadway. Jaeger also has a New
Orleans restaurant with the same name in the French Quarter, at 300 Decatur
St.
For his San Francisco restaurant, he says, "I don't know if y'all put a
spell on me, but I'm sourcing my ingredients, and I'm going to take a look at
grass-fed beef and organic vegetables."
Jaeger's bigger-than-life tastes and personality should be a good fit for
the club that launched the topless club craze in the '60s.
In recent years, the Condor had morphed into a sports bar, and in the
past few months had gone upscale decor-wise for a short-lived changeover to a
burlesque venue. But offering burlesque in a neighborhood with so many
topless and bottomless attractions was fruitless. The Condor's sign will
remain; Jaeger will also put up his own sign.
He will serve food in the dining room-bar area that runs along Columbus
and offer live jazz in the part of the club that faces Broadway. Appetizers
will be $10 to $19, entrees $25 to $39.
How can he run two restaurants thousands of miles apart? Jaeger says that
the summer business is slow in New Orleans, while it's busy here.
This blog post was written by Jason -- it's an excerpt from an email that he wrote to a friend last night about our great dinner at A16:
Jen and I just got back from A16, one of the best restaurants in the City. And by “best restaurant” I don’t necessarily mean the fanciest (although it was kinda fancy) or the most expensive. I mean that it has the best food, and the most amazing staff — everyone from the Sommelier (a really cool chick who is more knowledgeable about wine than anyone I’ve met, but who makes you feel completely at ease and makes choosing the wine a highlight of your meal, not a dreaded test of one’s knowledge of the best Italian grapes from four years ago), to the waiter (who had done his own makeup and looked liked one of the dancers out of Moulin Rogue – it’s Halloween!) was totally on the ball, and were totally stoked that we were really into the food.
I had a starter of a fava been puree with really good canned Italian tuna and olive oil to die for. Then I had the roast suckling pig with the crackling on the side (crackling = the skin from roasting, a total foodie thing). And to help all that go down, a bottle that Jen chose, some kind of Sangiovese – a little bitter at the start, but it mellowed nicely throughout the meal. Jen had a salad with capers escarole and warm potatoes that was really good, and these lamb riblets which were phenomenal. We sat at the bar, which is a nice marble sort of bar, with plenty of room, so we got to watch the two guys tending the big ovens – one for the pizzas, which looked amazing, and one oven for the meats and other stuff.
Dessert was a ricotta mousse, with grapefruit and some kind of clear liqueur sauce. Good stuff. The wine for that was a Spanish Muscat, which although on the sweet side, went well when you had a sip right after a bite of the grapefruit.
A16
2355 Chestnut Street (at Scott)
San Francisco
(415) 771-2216
Reservations highly recommended and can be made through Open Table
"Free breakfasts at hotels are overrated," I mentioned to Jason as we were driving through a small town in Vermont. A sign on the side of the road advertising a hotel boasted "free continental breakfast." We were on our way to a friend's wedding. The scenery was beautiful with the leaves burning bright as far as the eye could see.
That morning, we had left an Embassy Suites in Boston and eaten a dismal free breakfast. Chemical-tasting sausage, flaccid bacon, and weak coffee. That evening, we arrived in Vermont to stay at a Best Western. The man who was at the desk reached into a box behind him and handed us two lunch sacks. "Here are your continental breakfasts for the morning." I didn't look at Jason because I was afraid I would start giggling. We rushed to the room to check out our breakfast lunch sacks. "Plain cake donut". Soft, almost moldy orange. And an apple juice with a foil top. Needless to say, we went into town for breakfast!
Jason's mom and stepdad celebrated their 10th anniversary this year in grand fashion - we all went to Death Valley in February for a remarriage ceremony and had a wonderful time.
Jason continued the celebration last week by taking them (and me) to the Olema Inn near Point Reyes. We both have spent a good deal of time in the Point Reyes / Tomales Bay area, and were very excited to share it with Jim and Cassandra.
Upon booking rooms at The Olema Inn, we were told that we should consider making reservations in the dining room downstairs, "Especially Monday nights," said the woman on the other end of the line. Monday nights? Who needs to make a reservation anywhere on Monday nights?
The Olema Inn dining room is an elegant, comfortable setting. The main dining area looks out on to a lawn and garden. There is a small bar that serves beer, wine, and shoju mixed drinks. Wednesday through Sunday, the dining menu is divided into salads, small plates, and entrees.
Monday night is considered "Locals Night" at the Olema Inn, and the general vibe is much more casual. The menu on Monday nights focuses on small plates only. The staff greeted many people by name - and it was clear that we were some of the only tourists there. Diners greeted each other, dressed in everything from shorts and flip-flops to nicer dinner attire. A live band, The Pink Sabbath, played lively music and added to the spirit of the at-capacity room.
The Olema Inn focuses on a seasonal and mainly organic menu. Reading through the list of offerings, I noticed the names of many familiar farms. The chef, Ed Vigil, has been with the Olema Inn since 2002.
Some of the dishes that we tried that evening included:
Star Route Farms Little Gem Salad, Pt. Reyes Blue Cheese Vinaigrette, Popovers, Bing Cherries. Very good, very nicely dressed. There were about 3 or 4 bitesized popovers on the plate.
Fish and Chips. Jason's step-dad, Jim, is a Brit and had his eye on this dish from the second he sat down. When the waiter told us that we should consider having two dishes each and sharing, Jim replied, "Ok, we'll have ten fish and chips". We actually ended up ordering three orders of this - so that Jim and Jason could each have their own. It was an excellent rendition of fish and chips. I don't remember exactly what fish it was, but the batter was light and crispy. Nice thin fries on the side.
Bellwether Farms Ricotta Gnocchi, Pine nuts, Sage Brown Butter, Lobster Mushrooms and Black-Eyed Peas. I really enjoyed this dish. It was one of my very favorites of the week. The fresh black-eyed peas were fantastic, and the rest of the dish really melded together. I ate every single bean off this plate.
Seared scallops on a bed of mixed fresh beans. This had cranberry beans, and others in the medley. Well executed.
In addition to these dishes, we had several others which escape me - I didn't take notes specific to this meal. A couple of steak dishes, another salad, and several desserts including house-made ice creams, a peach crumble, and a trifle.
This was the first night in a fantastic four days that we spent at the Olema Inn, and I think that it was the best meal. The other meals were excellent, but there is something special about locals night at the Olema Inn.
I woke up this morning with a start. Sun shining into my apartment, "I'm late!" was my first thought. But I soon realized that we had not slept through the alarm clock, it was just a rare sunny morning in San Francisco. If you live here, you will understand: It has been cloudy in the morning for weeks on end, making waking up in the morning a daunting prospect. Jason has been taking the early train, and yours truly has been dropping him off faithfully at 7.00 in the morning. After a fun trip to the Department of Parking and Traffic to renew my parking permit, I decided that it was a good morning for a breakfast outing ... it was early enough to not cut into my work schedule, the weather out was amazing, and I was hungry!
The first thought in my mind was Desiree, a small restaurant in the Film Centre building of San Francisco's Presidio that serves up one of the best breakfasts in town. Driving cross-town through traffic, I was kicking myself for not being happy just popping into the dozens of places that would have been faster and closer to my location. As soon as I walked in the door, however, those thoughts disippated.
A restaurant that you only find if you are looking for it, Desiree was started by local chef Annie Gingrass once she left a position at a popular high-end restaurant here. This is a restaurant that epitomizes a seasonally-based menu, and an execution of dishes that relies completely on the integrity of the ingredients. This morning was a typical summer menu with offerings of granola with fresh fruit, scrambled egg dishes, Niman Ranch bacon, various baked goods, and an egg sandwich. I chose the "soft scramble" with tender broccoli florets, goat cheese, herbs, and halved cherry tomatoes. The eggs weren't cooked a second longer than necessary and arrived at my table with a side of potatoes and toast. The potatoes were remarkable ... they didn't look like much, but were cooked with herbs and a liberal sprinkling of pepper that made me wish for more after my plate had been cleaned. The egg dish was perfectly balanced ... the sweet tomatoes providing a wonderful counterpoint to the salty cheese and the herbs rounding out the entire dish.
One of my favorite meals at Desiree is a to-go lunch that is pre-made in a box with a sandwich, salad and cookies. This is no ordinary lunch box -- outstanding fish sandwiches, egg salad, and other delights. On a sunny day, pick up a lunch box and go out to Crissy Field for nirvana San Francisco style.
Their baked goods are a single reason that many people in town go to Desiree, and a friend recently told me of the race that occurs for the baked goods in the late morning -- there is a precious amount of time between when the baker brings up the baked goods and when the favorite ones disappear. If you miss the magic time (it varies), you don't get the goods.
Desiree has changed somewhat in the past six months or so ... it has expanded, and probably seats double the amount of customers, there is now a sign outside telling newbies that they should order first and then sit, and there is a refrigerator of to-go items. In my curmudgeonly moments, these are all things that make me suspiscious -- can they still provide the same product? The answer with Desiree is a resounding yes.
All of this ... the elusive location, the short hours (8-4, weekdays only), the mystery baked goods, provide seemingly annoying obstacles in the quest for the great breakfast or lunch. But trust me on this -- just go with the flow and get yourself there. You won't regret it, and you will quickly understand the popularity of one of our local treasures.
Desiree Cafe
in the San Francisco Film Centre
39 Mesa Street
San Francisco
(415) 561-2336
J and I often having a hard time deciding on somewhere to eat during the week. He tends to like something that is fast, "not drama", and somewhere that we know. I am usually a bit more adventurous -- I think it stems from the fact that he spends his day working at a mega-company with thousands of people, and I work at my teeny tiny studio apartment. We definitely have places we love to go -- noodle houses, sushi, random neighborhood joints -- but I think that we have both been kind of ready for some changes to our regular places. We finally found a new restaurant worthy of making it into the regular repertoire.
Our new food obsession lately is Pauline's Pizza in San Francisco. The other day we were sitting in the restaurant (for about the 5th time in three weeks) and Jason put his finger on it ... "This place is so San Francisco". It's just a pizza place ... but a pizza place with a California spin that I just can't get enough of. The ingredients for the pizzas are seasonal, grown in their own garden, and often organic. Each day, they offer a special veggie pizza, a special meat pizza, and a seasonal salad in addition to a full menu of ingredients. The crust is delicious - medium thickness (though many claim that it's thin), wonderful tasting, and seems to have some corn meal. Our main goal is to figure out how to leave some pizza on the plate so that we can actually get to dessert, but that hasn't happened yet. If you live in the City and appreciate fresh ingredients, I would highly suggest checking out Pauline's. We always get the salad - wonderful ingredients and always holds my interest. Let go of control, and go with one of their special pizzas -- even if you aren't sure you'll appreciate the ingredient mix (ie., lemon zest on a pizza?), the specials seem to be tried and true and have not steered us wrong yet.
The first time or two that you go, I would suggest calling ahead to make sure they're open until you get a handle on their schedule. Generally, they are open Tuesday through Saturday, but they also sometimes close when they run out of dough (Which you've gotta love ... can you say FRESH ingredients?). They are open for dinner only.
Pauline's Pizza
260 Valencia Street (at 14th)
San Francisco
415.552.2050
Saturday, the boy and I were on different wave lengths. I had worked hard all week and was ready to play. He had worked hard all week and was ready to hibernate. We agreed to do our own thing during the day and meet up in the late afternoon.
At three o'clock, we walked to Swan Oyster Depot -- a local oyster place that is a fun way to spend some time and share a dozen oysters. I was looking forward to oysters and a glass of wine. We arrived to find something very unwanted -- a long line of about 20 people waiting for a seat at the long counter. We were both hungry, and not ready to wait.
I convinced Jason that 1) we should try out the new Hog Island Oyster Bar at the Ferry Building and 2) that we should take a cable car to the ferry building. He was game. There were storm clouds gathering quickly, but the rain had held off all day and I assumed that it would hold off a bit longer. I was wrong. The rain began to fall, and we got on to the cable car. We chose a seat in the front ... outside of course, and off we went with all the tourists. It wasn't until the rain began to drive horizontally into my face that I gave in, and agreed to move to the inside portion of the cable car.
We got off at the end of the line, and began a two block run in the pouring rain to get the the Ferry Building. Neither of us had umbrellas, and I didn't even have a jacket (sorry, mom). I was a little nervous about the boy's reaction to all this, knowing that he would have been just fine staying home all day and relaxing. He agreed to go out because I was a little stir crazy, and I was really pushing the limits with my cable car - rain - ferry building adventure. We arrived at the Ferry Building soaking wet.
The Ferry Building is an old landmark that has been reopened this year with lots of fun food stands inside. It's also the site of the Farmer's Market. Stores within the building have been opening at a steady rate since March, with people like me anxiously awaiting each opening.
The most exciting addition so far for me is the new Hog Island Oyster Bar. It opened a week or two ago, and I had been hearing great things but hadn't had a chance to check it out. Hog Island is an Oyster Farm in Tomales Bay, about an hour north of San Francisco. Jason and I spent a really great afternoon there in January shucking oysters on the bay and watching pelicans dive for their dinner. They have a booth every week at the farmer's market where you can buy a couple shucked oysters and eat them standing up in the middle of the market.
The new oyster bar is a long way from the oyster farm in Tomales Bay, where you don a goopy glove and shuck your own oysters. This is a gleaming, shiny, clean u-shaped bar that seats about 20 people. After trying to dry ourselves off, we took a seat at the bar and ordered -- a dozen kumamoto oysters, clam chowder, green salad with a local blue cheese, and a couple glasses of wine.
The large, floor-to-ceiling windows of the restaurant look out on to the bay and the Bay Bridge, and we were able to watch the storm from the warm safety of our seats. The water was dark and choppy, and the overall effect of the bay was beautiful. It's easy to love places like the bay on the sunny, bright blue days, but there is something about a stormy dark day in San Francisco that is equally as beautiful to me.
Everything that was served to us was the epitome of what I consider to be wonderful food: fresh, simple, wonderful ingredients in dishes that are not overly done. The fresh, small kumamoto oysters, the clam chowder which was basically a bowl of steamed clams with some creamy broth (!!!), and the deliciously simple salad with blue cheese -- we were having a wonderful time. At one point in the dinner, Jason declared, "I think this is the best place EVER!". My worry about him having a good time had subsided the moment we walked into the restaurant, and we were revelling in how happy a great meal could make us. We spent a few minutes talking to the proprietor and left the restaurant happy and full and looking forward to a quick return.
Okay, so you might be noticing a theme. A couple weeks ago I wrote about pumpkin pie, and now I am talking about pumpkin ice cream! I have been locked in my house for a couple days straight working, and the dear boy brought me a half-gallon of pumpkin ice cream decadence from Mitchell's last night. It is my favorite ice cream this time of year (to soon be replaced by December's peppermint and the winter season's ginger). If you are in San Franicsco, run to Mitchell's, brave the lines, and try out this pumpkin deliciousness!
You may be interested in reading my latest post for 
"Free breakfasts at hotels are overrated," I mentioned to Jason as we were driving through a small town in Vermont. A sign on the side of the road advertising a hotel boasted "free continental breakfast." We were on our way to a friend's wedding. The scenery was beautiful with the leaves burning bright as far as the eye could see. 
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