Dish on Dining: Bong Su -- CLOSED

Vietnamese cuisine on a grand scale
UPDATE: This restaurant closed on 3/07/09 because of economic reasons and dispute with landlord.
311 Third St. (at Folsom), San Francisco
SOMA
PH: 415.536.5800
Open for lunch, Monday–Friday, 11:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m.; dinner, Monday–Saturday, 5:30–10 p.m., Sunday, 5–9 p.m.
Reservations recommended, major credit cards accepted
www.bongsu.com

My friend Margaret from Hawaii was in town this week for some business meetings, so we got together for dinner on Tuesday. I decided to pick a place within walking distance of her SOMA hotel, so I made reservations at Bong Su, the upscale Vietnamese restaurant by the same people behind the popular Tamarine in Palo Alto.

Joining us was Margaret’s mother-in-law, Norma. The three of us walked into the restaurant from our brisk walk on an unseasonably cold San Francisco night and were instantly warmed by the cozy, ambient lighting of the restaurant’s tasteful Southeast Asian décor.

Opened in 2006, Bong Su has a handsome room fit for royalty. You enter and get a quick glimpse of the chic bar area popular during happy hours and turn right into the huge dining room that includes not one but two large communal tables.

Margaret, Norma and I were seated in one of the side booths and were warmly greeted by our server, who wasn’t shy about sharing his recommendations from the menu. (OK, we did ask.) Bong Su offers dishes inspired by virtually all regions of Vietnam, from the styles of Hanoi in the north to the exquisite Hue style of Central Vietnam and finally the hearty and more well-known dishes of Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon and the south.

Going with our server’s recommendations, we started with the Hot Pot Beef Rolls ($9) and Honey Roasted Quail ($11). (BTW, we were eating family style, which is probably the best way to enjoy the dishes at Bong Su and most Asian restaurants.) I also ordered the papaya salad ($11), one of my favorite standard Vietnamese fare because I loved the light, refreshing taste of the shredded green papaya.

Up first was the beef rolls and papaya salad. The rolls were fresh-style, which means they weren’t deep-fried like imperial rolls. Thinly sliced Kobe beef were wrapped in the translucent rice paper with a big bunch of greens, including some perilla (Vietnamese version of the Japanese shiso leaves) and cucumber. It came with a sweet-and-sour dipping sauce with pineapples. While filling, I told Margaret that I could barely taste the Kobe beef because it was overpowered by all the vegetables.

The papaya salad was an elegant presentation of the thinly shredded and crunchy green papaya in a traditional light fish sauce dressing and basil. The chef added strips of dried beef, which I’ve never seen at other Vietnamese restaurants. It was a bit like beef jerky and added an interesting twist to the classic papaya salad.

Next came the quail, which is a favorite of Margaret. (She says she hardly finds them on the menus at restaurants in Hawaii.) The quail was roasted with five-spice and honey and stuffed with sticky rice. It was cooked perfectly, making it easy to cut into the succulent meat. While the honey glaze was nice, I didn’t find the sticky rice particularly tasty. It could have been taken to another level with more herbs in the rice stuffing, which by itself was simply just sticky.

For our entrees I convinced everyone to go with the Caramelized Black Cod ($19) because I still have fond memories of the claypot fish dishes I had from my trip to Vietnam around this time last year. Bong Su’s version used Alaskan cod that was lightly dressed in the caramel sauce made with molasses and served with garlic and green onion. Everyone enjoyed this dish for its clean taste and the perfectly tender way the fish was prepared.

We also had the Red Lantern Duck ($26), which was Liberty Farm duck breast roasted to medium rare and coated with wine-currant glaze and served with rutabagas and Brussel sprouts. I enjoyed this dish, but I always love duck. I thought the Bong Su preparation was nicely done, but Margaret thought it was more rare for her tastes. (She likes her duck the traditional Chinese way that’s roasted well done.)

We ordered a side dish of Kaffir Long Beans ($8) and steamed rice infused with coconut milk and vanilla ($2). The long beans were on the spicy side cooked in a traditional black bean sauce. We all marveled at the cute presentation of the rice wrapped in bamboo leaf and served in a woven basket. There was a slight hint of coconut, but we weren’t fans of the texture, which was more like rice pilaf than plump rice that holds well together (and would have made it easier to pick up with chopsticks).

It seems like we had a lot for dinner, but we were able to squeeze in a plate of Bong Su’s beignets for dessert. Tonight it was made with a banana filling and served with black sesame ice cream (which looked kind of dark green) and two sauces: vanilla anglaise and chocolate. The beignets were light and fluffy but the banana filling weighed them down. It would have been better with a banana crème filling, which it was not. (It was more like banana fritters.) The ice cream was a bit icy and the chocolate sauce was unusually sour (and not like a bittersweet chocolate-kind of sour).

The service at Bong Su was extremely friendly and attentive. (The bus boys pretty much refilled my water glass after every sip I took.) And the room is beautifully done and made everyone dining there seem like they were all in the beautiful crowd. But the food, while prepared with precision and an attention to details, seem to waffle between traditional Asian flavors and the sweet-sour Asian tastes created to cater to an American palate. I preferred the dishes—like the cod in claypot—that were sophisticated but highlighted authentic Vietnamese flavors than the Asian-infused dishes that bordered on sugary. Bong Su can guarantee you an elegant environment with upscale dishes, but it lacks that extra oomph to truly be considered a gem.

Single guy rating: 3.5 stars (eat like the beautiful people)

Explanation of the single guy's rating system:
1 star = perfect for college students
2 stars = perfect for new diners
3 stars = perfect for foodies
4 stars = perfect for expense accounts
5 stars = perfect for any guy's dream dinner



BTW, thanks to Margaret and Norma for a fun night out. Hopefully I’ll see you when I’m in Honolulu in May!

Summary only...

How Far Will You Travel for Tea?

The farthest I’ve gone for tea is probably London. The most frequent? A toss up between New York and Portland, Oregon. But it’s nice sometimes when I can find a favorite tea right in my backyard.

This particular tea I’m featuring is my latest favorite. It’s a Red Peony tea that I got from Far Leaves Tea, which has operated a little tea room in the Elmwood neighborhood of Berkeley since 1998. I actually went to Far Leaves a long time ago when it first opened and I remember buying a black tea blend with blood oranges. The tea was overly roasted and the blood oranges were tart. So I never returned.

But recently I went to catch a movie with some friends at that old theater on College Avenue. We were early so we popped into the Far Leaves Tea shop. Since my last visit many years ago, Far Leaves has turned more into a lounge than just a shop. It had a big crowd of friends sipping tea at a big table in the front and in the back a bunch of tea zones made up of mats and cushions for people to escape through the tranquility of tea.

As I browsed their tea selection, I was captivated by the peony teas. I’ve mostly run into white tea made from the peony flower petals, but Far Leaves Tea offers a trio of white, green and red peony teas.

I ended up buying the red peony because the description sounded yummy: a sweet black tea with floral undertones. What I especially liked about the peony tea sold at Far Leaves Tea is that they’re tied into tiny bunches, called “rosettes.” So you can drop the entire rosette into your tea pot (a glass pot is especially nice to slowly watch it unfold) and when you’re done just get a pair of chopsticks to pull out the entire thing. No worries about a tea bag, mesh or strainer.

The Red Peony tea is more full bodied that the white peony teas I’m used to drinking. Iit has a sweet floral note similar to rose tea, which I love. During the recent wet and cold weather we’ve been having here in the Bay Area, this Red Peony tea has been great in taking me away to some place far far away. Preferably with in-house massages.

Red Peony Tea, $18 for a can with 7 rosettes.

Far Leaves Tea, 2979 College Ave., Berkeley. PH: 510.665.9409. Open daily, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Web site.

Summary only...

Get Ready for a Super Beefy Sunday

Super Bowl XLII is this Sunday, and I for one can’t wait. When millions are glued to their TVs (don’t forget, 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific), that’s also the best time to go grocery shopping or catch a movie. Ha!

OK, so I know some of you will be watching the game (either Eli following in his brother’s footsteps or the beginning of the Brady Dynasty) and probably preparing to feed some hungry fans. So I decided to come up with the following chili recipe, just because it’s been cold around the Bay Area lately so I wanted to make something comforting.

I didn’t really grow up with chili, so I can’t say I know what makes a traditional chili. There’s no Hawaiian standard, although in Hawaii we would eat the chili from this chain called Zippy’s (all you local folks in the islands know what I’m talking about) and their chili always seemed like the meat sauce in spaghetti.

I can’t say that my chili is influenced by any particular region. Some might think it has a Southwest flavor because I decided to roast an Anaheim chili and add that in. Some might think it’s more Midwest because I add beans (and according to Tyler Florence, there’s no beans in traditional Texas-style chili).

I also made it with two types of meat: beef chuck and ground turkey. I added the beef chuck because I like chili that has small chunks of beef instead of just ground meat. I think this makes it more hearty. But I also added ground turkey because, well, I had some extra in my refrigerator but also because I do often associated chili with ground meat. So you get the best of both worlds (and a whole lot of meat).

You might also notice in the recipe that there are no tomatoes, which I found were often put into chili recipes I researched. I actually did buy a can of plum tomatoes and was all ready to add it in. You see, I often keep my recipes fairly simple with very few ingredients. But with chili, you really can’t get away with multiple ingredients because you want a lot of different layers of flavor, especially when concocting your chili spices. Because of that, I was so distracted with cooking the meat and jotting down ingredients as I added them that I forgot to add in the tomatoes until it was too late.

But you know what? I didn’t really miss them. I think the tomatoes would have made the chili less brown and more red, and I sometimes associate that color with a beef stew. So since I was going for a really heavy-duty chili (which is why I also added in dark beer), I thought the dark brown coloring in the end was appropriate. You can try it and let me know if I made a touchdown or an incomplete pass. ;-) Enjoy!

Summary only...

Meat-lovers’ Super Bowl Chili

Copyright 2008 by Cooking With The Single Guy

Ingredients:
2 lb. beef chuck, cut into small chunks
½ lb. ground turkey
1 bottle dark beer, room temperature
2 cans kidney beans (15-oz. can)
1 cup beef or veal broth
1 red onion, diced
1 Anaheim chili, roasted
1 red jalapeno, thinly diced
1 red bellpepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T chili powder
1 T Spanish smoked paprika (pimenton)
1 T red pepper flakes
1 t Cumin powder
1 t ground cinnamon
2 T flour
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
cayenne pepper

For garnishing:
Grated cheddar cheese
Sour cream
Spring onions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Start by roasting your Anaheim chili. Place on a gas burner or under a broiler to blacken the chili, then place in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap to seal in the air. Let it sit for about 10 minutes and then remove the chili from the bowl and peel off the blackened skin. Dice the chili and set aside.

In a dutch oven or other heavy-bottom pot, warm about 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat and then brown turkey and beef chunks in batches on the stovetop. (You may need to add more oil each time you brown a new batch of meat.) Remove meat from pot and set aside. Add more oil to pot and then sauté onion and garlic until translucent (about 3 to 5 minutes), then add the beer. Cook for about 2 minutes and then add meat back to the pot, along with broth, red bellpepper, Anaheim chili and jalapeno pepper. In a small saucepan, heat the dry ingredients (chili powder, smoked paprika, pepper flakes, cumin and cinnamon) until you can smell them (about two minutes) and then toss everything into your pot with the meat.

The broth and what’s left of the beer should barely cover the meat in your dutch oven. If there’s not enough liquid, you can add more broth or water so that the meat is barely covered. Cover your pot and place in oven. Cook for 1 hour until meat is tender.

Drain and rinse your beans. Also prepare a slurry by mixing flour with a bit of water. After the meat has been cooking for about 40 minutes, take the pot out of the oven and add in your beans, and stir in the flour slurry until blended well. This is probably a good time to season it for taste with salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. (You can also adjust later.) Cover and place the pot back in the oven to finish cooking for another 20 minutes.

Remove pot from oven and scoop into bowls. Serve with sour cream, thinly sliced green onions or scallions, grated cheddar cheese and cornbread.

Makes 5 to 6 servings.

Pair with same dark beer used to cook the meat.

TIP: It’s important when browning the meat to not crowd your pot. That’s why I note that you should do it in batches. I actually had to do three batches: one time cooking the ground turkey, and two more times cooking the beef chunks in two batches. You want to get a nice seared color on your meat to seal in the juices.

HOW HOT IS IT?: You can adjust your chili to how hot you want it with the jalapeno and cayenne pepper at the end. For the jalapeno, you can add an extra one if you think one might not be enough. Also, adding the seeds will make it hotter. If you don’t want it too hot, then don’t add the seeds because they contain the heat.

ON TOP: While this recipe calls for a dutch oven and slow cooking your meat in the oven, you can also do the same process on the stove top with a heavy bottom pot. Just reduce it to a simmer after you’ve added all the ingredients. It should still take about an hour to cook on the stovetop.

FORGOT SOMETHING?: For some, you might want your chili with a traditional tomato base. I found that I didn’t need it. But if you want, then you can add a can of plum tomatoes. Just be sure to crush the tomatoes into smaller pieces with your hand, and then add the tomatoes the same time you add the broth. (You may need to adjust the amount of liquid you put in because the tomatoes may have a lot of liquid already. You don’t want your chili to become a stew.)

Summary only...

Jamie At Home: Episode 3, Peppers & Chillies

If you're here to read the latest summary of the brilliant Jamie At Home series, there's none for this week. That's because yesterday's episode was a replay of an episode the Food Network foolishly used as a "preview" episode before the series even began. Odd American programming! ;-) Anywho, there are five more episodes to go to watch our favorite London bloke (Sir Bloke that is) and I'll be back to the regular summaries next week when the Food Network starts airing new episodes again next Saturday.

Jamie At Home airs on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. on the Food Network. Visit Jamie’s Web site at www.jamieoliver.com. More on the accompanying book for the series here.

Summary only...

Oh, Ikea Meal

Last weekend I was at the Bay Street Mall in Emeryville so I decided to stroll over to Ikea next door. I was looking for some cheap chili bowls (didn’t find any). While I was there, I noticed a long line at the second-floor restaurant.

Now, I’m not one to shy away from a line. In fact, it always piques my interest. What is worth all the wait? I’ve never eaten at the restaurant (it’s actually more like a cafeteria), but I once went to a party where the host served Swedish meatballs from Ikea, and they were quite delish.

So I decided to check it out. Here’s a blow-by-blow of my experience standing in line for Ikea food:

12:19 p.m.—So here I am at the very end. As you can see, the line meanders a bit and it doesn’t seem to be moving that fast. Oh well, at least you can check out the sparkling drinks on special or other Ikea food like moose pasta. (I initially thought it was pasta made from moose meat but it’s pasta shaped like little moose. My bad.)

12:23 p.m.—I finally get to the part where you enter the queue. There are a lot of rules eating at the Ikea restaurant. For one, when you read the sign, it says there’s no “pre-seating” allowed. Meaning, no saving tables while your partner’s suffering through the line and you’re just sitting pretty taking up space. I like that rule.

12:30 p.m.—This line is sooo slow. I’m so bored. Oh, what interesting lighting. I bet you can buy it for a dollar in the store. They kind of look like paper ornaments I use to make in elementary school for the Christmas festival, you know? Then you put glitter designs on each panel. Ah, good times.

12:35 p.m.—I finally get near the front where I can clearly see the signs and start deciding what I want. The overall design is very Euro; I feel like I’m at a Swedish airport.

12:39 p.m.—I finally pick up my tray and start going through the food counters. First up are the drinks, your typical mix of soda, juice and water (a few Swedish brands). Actually, once I got to this point, the line started moving fast. And taking pictures while trying to figure out what everything is was a bit of a challenge. So everything seemed like a blur (and all occurred within the next minute) …

… like these desserts that I passed on. That’s a Swedish almond torte that really looked like airport food. …

… the salad counter also offered up lox plates. I love lox and they were probably good ones from Sweden, but I wanted some meat!

… Some wraps that were a bit Greek-inspired. Looks interesting, but I’m still jonesing for the meatballs …

… Woah, now that’s a lot of meatballs. This sign shows that the manager’s special is Meatballs and Macaroni for $5.99. But do you see those words on the bottom right? That’s right, it says you get 15 pieces. I’m pretty sure that’s 15 meatball pieces and not 15 pieces of macaroni pasta.

12:40 p.m.—I reach the hot counter and finally order my lunch. I decided to get the pasta special, which included a more portion-controlled offering of meatballs. Gosh, the meatballs are really steaming up the counter. You can barely see what you’re getting.

12:41 p.m.—Here’s the salad bar. My pasta special came with a small side salad. So I assumed I had to create it myself here at the salad bar since the servers didn’t give me a salad with my pasta plate. Normally, if you just want to eat a salad it’s $1.79 for a salad bowl (which is also the same price for the daily soup). Hey, where’s the dressing?

12:45 p.m.—I wasted a few minutes looking for the salad dressing, which is why it took me a total of four minutes before I got up to register. Sorry to the nice lady who was patiently waiting behind me! Anywho, I pay for my pasta special, which was only $4.99. BTW, that’s a total of 21 minutes from the start of the line to reaching the registers. That’s just as long as the line at Tartine Bakery!

Ah ha! Here’s the salad dressing! They’ve got it in these squirt containers near the soda dispensers. What’s odd is that they had regular Ranch, fat-free Italian and fat-free French. Why not make them all fat-free? Whatevs.

Here’s my pasta special. It was penne pasta in a simple tomato sauce (they called it marinara) with five meatballs and a piece of garlic bread. And of course the aforementioned side salad. Doesn’t this look kind of like a kid’s meal? You know what? It tasted like it too. The marinara sauce was so bland; it tasted like it was straight from the jar. The meatballs were all right. It was tasty but not any better than what I can make at home.

Overall, the Ikea food offerings are very much in line with its products: cheap and simple and doesn’t last very long. I think the line is from the fact that there are no other food options inside the giant Ikea store and when you’re exhausted from looking all around for a $2 chili bowl, then maybe a Swedish meatball doesn’t sound that bad?

Ikea restaurant, 4400 Shellmound St., Emeryville. Open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Summary only...

Food Gallery

I call this photo "Bellpepper in Motion." It was taken during my black-and-white phase. I'm not sure how it happened. I was just shooting a photo of this really interesting bellpepper and when I got the photo back, it was blurry. But then I like the blur. It's kind of seductive. Maybe I'm staring at bellpeppers for too long.

Summary only...

Dish on Dining: Vitrine at St. Regis

Elegant Fare in a Spa-Like Setting
125 Third St., (near Mission) San Francisco
SOMA
PH: 415.284.4049
Breakfast and lunch daily
Reservations, major credit cards accepted
Web site

Dine About Town is in full swing in San Francisco. It’s the Convention and Visitors Bureau’s annual effort to pump up restaurants in a city where the locals really don’t need much convincing to dine out. With prix fixe menus at a variety of restaurants available until the end of the month, DAT is a good opportunity to try some places you normally wouldn’t.

So when fellow food blogger Foodhoe and I talked about where we would go for DAT this year, we settled on Vitrine at the St. Regis Hotel adjacent to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. It’s a restaurant I haven’t tried. One, because Vitrine is in a fancy hotel and that often translates to $$$$ dining. Two, it’s only open during the days, making it hard for me to get to from my Oakland office.

Foodhoe and I decided to make a day of it. We both took Tuesday off from our regular day jobs and met up at Vitrine on the fourth floor of the St. Regis. You really don’t hear much about Vitrine because it’s often overshadowed by the larger and full-fledged restaurant Ame on the ground floor. But that’s a shame, because Vitrine is just as elegant and dreamlike in setting. As you walk in, you feel like you’re in a spa with the neutral colors and sheer curtains allowing the room to fill with sunlight.

Initially I thought the elegant design and color scheme (which was reflected in the servers’ uniforms) bordered on boring. But then I realized that the muted colors served as the perfect canvas to showcase the food of Executive Chef John Jackson. The menu is light American-California cuisine with a sophisticated flair (the breakfast menu includes a black truffle omelet).

The Dine About Town prix fixe menu typically comes with three courses, with lunch priced at $21.95 and dinner at $31.95 (tax and tip not included). At Vitrine, they offered a DAT lunch menu with two choices for each course.

To start, Foodhoe and I both went in separate directions. Foodhoe got the escarole salad with bacon, lemon vinegar and a slow poached egg. She said she liked the creaminess of the salad with the flavor of the bacon. I got the prawn (ironically it’s listed on the menu as “prawns” but there was only one huge prawn), which was simply seasoned with salt and pepper and sautéed. It sat on a buttery parsley root puree that was surrounded by a brilliant green parley juice. I especially liked the puree.

For our entrée, we both went for the Bluefin tuna. And why not? It was Vitrine’s reputation for flying in fresh fish daily from the Tsukiji market in Tokyo that initially attracted us to the restaurant. Today’s special was Bluefin tuna, which also happens to be my favorite sushi fish. We were each served two large pieces of the tuna that were encrusted with peppercorns and then seared on the edges. The pieces of fish were served sitting on cooked fennel, walnuts and currants. The dish was topped off with more thin shavings of fresh fennel, and as a final touch our server poured fennel jus onto our plates right before we ate. (I love it when they do at-the-table presentations like that.)

The tuna was fatty and juicy, which made it taste very much like prime rib. The fennel jus and accompanying fennel were elegant compliments to the tuna, neither overpowering or distracting from the actual fish. My few complaints were minor: 1) there were a lot of currants but they were difficult to pick up with a fork, and 2) my particular pieces of tuna were a little more on the done side than I would have preferred (while Foodhoe’s tuna actually looked perfect, with its seared exterior and ruby pink interior).

Side note: The other option for the entrée that we both passed on was half of a heritage chicken.

For dessert, Foodhoe and I went our separate ways again. She got the house-made sorbet, which included strawberry-basil and mango flavors. I got the butterscotch pot de crème. My pot de crème came with three Mexican wedding cookies. I loved the butterscotch pudding, which had a faint coffee undertone. I could have done without all the crunchy things sprinkled on top, but the overall dessert was a satisfying end to my two hour lunch!

I wanted to also note that Vitrine has a nice selection of wine by the glass. Both Foodhoe’s Chardonnay and my Pinot Noir were very drinkable, offering up a slight complexity without the tannic kick start so often found in house wines.

At the end of the meal I asked our server if I could see the regular menu out of curiosity, and I was happy to see that Foodhoe and I made a smart choice in coming to Vitrine during the DAT promotion. I saw on the regular menu that the Bluefin tuna was also offered as an entrée, but at the cost of $24. For the $21.95 we paid, we got the Bluefin tuna plus a starter and dessert. Now that’s good DAT dining.

Overall, the food was as advertised. Light and sophisticated. Chef Jackson’s menu doesn’t offer anything innovative or unusual, but it’s executed with a light touch to enhance the natural flavors of the quality ingredients. Despite the high prices on its regular menu, Vitrine’s solid food, beautiful environment and exceptional friendly service makes it a pleasant, special-occasion dining destination.

Go here to read Foodhoe's take on our lunch (including dramatic photo of the fennel jus pour!).

NOTE: If you don’t get to a DAT restaurant before the end of the month, don’t worry. This year Dine About Town is split into two months. The second DAT will take place in June.

Single guy rating: 3.75 stars (elegant but not perfect)

Explanation of the single guy's rating system:
1 star = perfect for college students
2 stars = perfect for new diners
3 stars = perfect for foodies
4 stars = perfect for expense accounts
5 stars = perfect for any guy's dream dinner

Summary only...

What's Brewing At the Mint Plaza?

Today I took the day off from work and met a fellow food blogger for a lunch near Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco (detailed review of that mid-week lunch coming tomorrow). Afterwards I caught a movie at the Sony Metreon and then after that I walked around the new pedestrian mall known as the Mint Plaza.

It was my first time at the tiny city space in what was once the Jessie Street alley behind the San Francisco Mint building at 5th Street near Union Square. It was a rainy and cold day so there were hardly anyone sitting outside enjoying the orange chairs set out for people to sit at the plaza. But still, some poor guy had to put out and then collect all the orange chairs. The rain broke by the time I strolled over to the plaza, so there were some nice sunset views through rain clouds overlooking the area.

The Mint Plaza is supposed to be the city's latest restaurant ghetto, with several big-name restaurateurs working to open up dining spots here. But since the plaza opened in November 2007, none of the restaurants have opened. So it's still a pretty quiet alley as the night approaches. The most prominent restaurant set to open here is Chez Papa, the second location of this favorite French bistro in Potrero Hill. As you can see above, the space is actually pretty far along in terms of the main dining room with many of the furnishings already in place. No official word, though, on when it will actually open. But below looks like a good sign...

You can't really tell, but these papers I noticed on one of the tables in the second Chez Papa looks like menus. So it looks like they're at the stage where they're finishing up the details of what will be served. Sorry, I couldn't really get up close to actually read what's on the menu.

This is just a photo of the corner near the end of Jessie Street. The lighting was so pretty I just wanted to take it. But at this corner is actually the only food place that's set to open anytime soon...

It's the first sit down cafe for Blue Bottle Coffee, the local organic coffee roaster that's popular at farmers markets around town. They're served at a lot of high-end cafes everywhere these days, and they've always had their first location out of a stand near my old neighborhood in Hayes Valley. But this will be an actual space where you can sit down and enjoy the coffee inside. You might not be able to read the small sign at the door, but it says it's set to open on Wednesday, Jan. 23, at 8 a.m. Curses, I'm just one day too soon! I couldn't really tell if they really are ready to open because the windows were all blocked out by plastic bags. But if you work around this area of town, check it out tomorrow and let me know!

Summary only...

My Favorite Canned Soup from My Childhood

I don’t buy canned soup any more now that I found how easy it is to make soup using my nifty handblender. Plus, canned soup isn’t very healthy because of all the sodium that’s inside to preserve it. I rather be the master of my own sodium.

But because it’s mushroom season (and with our wet weather, we’re probably going to see a bit of wild mushrooms around for a few more weeks), it made me think of my all-time favorite soup when I was growing up: Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom. Sigh, it was so simple and tasty. My mom would let us eat as much as we wanted because it meant she didn’t have to make us lunch. (It’s funny how my mother would let us play with can openers and a hot stove.) I would sometimes mix the soup with some leftover rice to give it more bulk. And, of course, Cream of Mushroom soup is the base for a lot of American comfort dishes. I’m sure a lot of cans were used this past Thanksgiving for those green bean casseroles.

Below is my recipe ala Cream of Mushroom soup. I used a mix of maitake and shiitake mushrooms I got at the farmers market and a whole bunch of crimini mushrooms I got at my Safeway, just to fill everything out. It turned out to be a comforting, earthy soup. (I also found mushroom broth at Whole Foods. I never realized they had mushroom broth, so of course using it in this soup just pushed the depth of this soup over the edge.) Go out and find a mix of fresh mushrooms and leave the canned soup on the shelves! Enjoy!

Summary only...

Creamy Mushroom Soup

Copyright 2008 by Cooking With The Single Guy

Ingredients:
14-16 oz. mixed mushrooms (crimini, chanterelles, shiitake, etc.), diced in small bits
1 sweet onion, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1 twig of fresh rosemary, finely diced just the leaves (toss stalk)
½ cup white wine
3 cups mushroom or vegetable broth
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup water
2 T cornstarch
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

optional: ready-made frozen puff pastry (one to two sheets, defrosted)

In a large pot, warm 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium high heat and sauté mushroom bits, adding a pinch of salt to help “sweat” the mushrooms. (Cook until you get slight moisture around all the mushrooms.) Remove mushrooms from pot and set aside.

In the same pot, warm another 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium high heat and sauté onion and celery for about 5 minutes. Then add white wine and cook until the wine is almost evaporated (about 3 to 5 minutes). Then add broth and water. Simmer for 15 minutes.

Using a handheld blender or a food processor*, puree the soup base until smooth (goal is to get rid of any signs of the onions and celery). Return the mushroom into your soup and cook for another 10 minutes at a simmer. Then add cream and season with salt and pepper to taste.

In a small bowl, mix the cornstarch with some water to create a slurry. Slowly add this to your soup to thicken. (It helps if the heat is on high to activate the cornstarch.) Ladle into bowls and garnish with chopped parsley.

* Do not place hot liquid in blender. Let the stock cool first. And never fill blender or food processor by more than half.

Makes 4 to 5 servings. Serve with parmesan cheese crostinis.

Pair with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc.

PUFF IT UP: To dress up this soup, it’s fun to use the puff pastry trick to top it off. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Defrost your frozen puff pastry per instructions on the box then roll it with some light flour to even it out. Then place the top of your soup terrine or bowl on the puff pastry sheet to cut an outline (leaving about one inch around the border of your bowl’s edge). Ladle the soup into the terrine and then place the carved puff pastry sheet on top, stretching out the edges and pressing them against the side of the bowl. Using a small knife, cut a few holes for vents. Then use an egg wash (one egg mixed with a bit of water) to brush all over the puff pastry to help make it golden brown. Optional: Sprinkle some sea salt on the top of the puff pastry. Place the bowls on a baking sheet and but everything in the oven and bake until the puff pastry is golden brown (about 30 to 40 minutes). When done, let the soup bowls cool for about 10 minutes before serving.

Summary only...

Jamie At Home: Episode 2, Pastry

Jamie Oliver is working with pastry today, and the show starts off with less emphasis on the garden. I guess I was wrong thinking dough grew on a bush. This is why I don’t bake.

He starts inside with a primer on his shortcut pastry. Jamie’s making both a sweet pastry and a savory one. For the sweet, he combines butter, icing sugar and all-purpose flour using his hands, also working in a couple of eggs. For the savory version, he uses the food processor, pulsing flour, lard (ugh, I hate finding out what goes into pastry for this very reason), and spiked with fresh thyme, cheddar cheese, a couple of eggs and a splash of milk.

His tips about the pastry is to not knead it like you would for bread dough. Pastry should be crumbly, so Jamie says to treat it like building a mudpie (just patting it together). Then you wrap it up and rest it in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes before using.

Now that he has his pastry dough done, Jamie moves into the tool shed (sounds like he’s been a bad boy, yeah?) and gets working on his favorite pie, a Blackberry and Apple Pie. (You can find the complete recipe here on the Food Network site.)

He slices up some green apples, and tosses them with unrefined sugar, a few pieces of stem ginger from the jar and frozen blackberries. Then he gets a pie dish and places the sweet pastry dough into the pan, then throws in the fruits. He covers it up with another sheet of pastry and uses an egg wash (an egg sometimes whisked with a bit of water) to seal the pie. He tops it off with a sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar on top. After cutting some slits for ventilation, he places his pie into the oven at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.

When he brings out the pie, first of all he has a lot of smoke in his tool shed. That oven is on fire! Then all the liquid of the fruit has broken through the pie crust and it looks like a flood of berry juice. I love my Jamie but I have to say this pie looks like a mess. I think he should have sprinkled in some flour with the fruits to act as a thickening agent so that the liquid wouldn’t look so wet. The pie, after it sits for awhile, doesn’t look too bad but it almost seems like a crumble instead of a pie. That’s just a lot of juice. Jamie serves up a piece of his pie with supermarket-bought custard.

Next he makes a Steak, Guinness and Cheese Pie. He slices up three onions and sautés it with a sprig of rosemary. Then he adds three cloves of garlic, about a tablespoon of butter, two stalks of celery, two carrots, mushrooms (looks like crimini), and brisket beef all melding together in the pan. He adds water to top off the meat and puts everything in the oven at 350 degree to simmer for two hours. He’s basically making the meat filling but says it should be slightly on the dry side instead of like a stew.

He’s using pre-bought puff pastry, and that’s a man of my own heart because I always use frozen puff pastry sheets. It just makes life so much easier, and it’s pretty tasty. He places the puff pastry sheet into a pie dish that looks more like a bowl. Then adds the beef filling. He adds more cheese then rolls out more puff pastry for the lid. And again with egg wash to seal the pie and coat the top to give it a brown color. He scores the lid lightly and then folds up the sides from the bottom and it actually really has this rustic look that I kind of like. He bakes it for 40 minutes at (guess what?) 350 degrees. (I think his oven is stuck at that temperature in this episode.)

Jamie warms up some frozen peas to serve with his beef pie. How English. When he brings out the pie, the puff pastry really puffed up and by scoring it earlier, it really creates this interesting design for the top crust. I like it. Looks hearty. He tosses some of his peas on top and it looks really pretty.

For his final dish with pastry dough, he makes an Italian Ham, Nettle and Spinach Tart. It’s like a quiche, but rectangle and flat.

Jamie brings out his savory pastry dough and spreads it out, placing it onto a rectangular baking tray. He cooks it partially at 350 degrees.

Then he works on the filling, sautéing onion with olive oil, then adds spinach, then leaves of nettles. I have to say, I’ve never eaten nettle. I think you sometimes see it at restaurants here. But I wonder if it’s more an English thing? It kind of looks like dandelion greens.

He seasons his mixture with salt, pepper and grated nutmeg. Then he adds fresh marjoram.

Next he makes the egg mixture with crème fraiche, parmesan cheese and three eggs. This gets all mixed together with salt and pepper in a bowl.

When he brings out the partially baked pastry, he spreads out his spinach mixture on top, then sprinkles pieces of boiled ham. Then he pours in the egg mixture, letting it flow to fill in everywhere. He throws more marjoram and parmesan on top and bakes it for just 12 minutes since it’s such a thin baking tray.

When it comes out, it looks thick and nicely golden brown. Jamie gets some baby watercress and tosses it with olive oil and lemon juice, and throws that on top of a piece of his tart. It looks like something from a fancy café. Brilliant.

Must be a British Thing:
Just some clarification on some of the terms Jamie uses.

Icing sugar=confectioner’s sugar

Stem ginger=Candied ginger in a jar

Grease-proof paper=wax paper

Jamieisms heard in this episode:

Crackin’ (amazing)

Shaky shaky

Nubs (clumps, as in “nubs of butter”)

Jamie At Home airs on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. on the Food Network. Visit Jamie’s Web site at http://www.jamieoliver.com/. More on the accompanying book for the series here.

Photos courtesy of the London Telegraph.

Summary only...

Hook Me Up: Cafe Dejena

I've always seen this cafe on 40th Street while I'm on the bus going to and from the Bay Street Malls in Emeryville. Cafe Dejena is like the only thing around this area, which is right across the street from the MacArthur BART station.

So it's Saturday afternoon and I just finished watching a movie at the Bay Street Mall (it was 27 Dresses for those who wants to know) so this time I got off the bus and decided to check this place out. It was kind of poor planning on my part because I got up late, caught a late movie, and now it's near the end of the day and I just realize the cafe closes at 5 p.m., so now I just have 20 minutes before I have to leave.

Like I said, Cafe Dejena looks like it's the only thing around in this neighborhood. I guess some consider this still the Temescal neighborhood in Oakland. The cafe's structure looks like something you'd see in Southern California with its make-believe Italian villa decor.

The cafe actually sells a lot of different things to eat, from Italian dishes to pastries and a variety of salads. It publicizes Eritrean specialties, which I just asked the people here and they say it's similar to Ethiopian food but don't call it that because the Eritreans and Ethiopians hate each other. Oh my. Anyway, they have a whole lot of food that I need to explore next time when I'm not rushing out.

I ended up just getting this really big blueberry scone and a glass of Tao Lotus green tea, which was nice and refreshing on this kind of warm winter day here in Oakland.

Cafe Dejena looks like it'd be a fun place to hangout on a really sunny day because of all the windows that really let a lot of light in. But the neighborhood, I guess being across from BART, can seem a bit sketchy. Still, it has free wi-fi and that's basically all one looks for when you have a MacBook and digital camera. ;-)

Cafe Dejena
Location: 3939 Martin Luther King Jr. Way (at 40th), Oakland
PH: 510.655.9328
Food: Eritrean, American and Italian delicacies, pastries, salads
Coffee: A variety of Italian specialty coffees, incuding espresso, macchiato, cappucino, latte
Tea: Tao brand
Wi-Fi: Yes, free (no password needed)
Outlets: Yes, pretty much throughout the place.
Restrooms: Yes
Seating: About 12 round tables throughout a wide open area.
Cleanliness: Pretty well-kept

Summary only...

Say It Ain't So, Bomboloni

I feel like someone has kidnapped my favorite bomboloni! That cream-filled Italian treat at Boriana's Corner in the Ferry Building in San Francisco just isn't the same. An impostor is in the midst.

After I raved about this "discovery" last year here and here, I felt it was my obligation to give a "downhill" alert.

Last Saturday after strolling through the farmers market, I went to get my favorite treat, the custard-filled bomboloni. But when I stood in line, I could see from the counter that the bomboloni looked different. (You can see in the photo above how they all look different.) They were all roughly shaped and not at all like the perfectly round puffy doughnuts of last year. And they looked like they were partially sweating because the sugar coating didn't look all there.

I still went ahead and bought one and once I bit into it, I could tell that it wasn't the same dough. I have a really strong suspicion that they've switched vendors and is no longer using the same baker who did the wonderful job last year. (The Boriana's Corner owner does not make the bomboloni herself but contracts a baker giving a vendor her "grandmother's recipe." I have a feeling she's shopping her grandmother's recipe to a cheaper baker.)

The only redeeming thing from my latest taste of the bomboloni is that at least the custard filling was the same as I remembered. Still, at $2.50 each, that's too high for an impostor. Bring back the real bomboloni!

Summary only...

Mini Dish: Frontera Fresco at Macy’s

Rick Bayless Paints Mexican Food in Lime

When celebrity chefs decide to make food for the average American, it’s a challenging balance of buying quality ingredients, exercising restaurant-style cooking and plating, and offering approachable pricing with a no-nonsense dining environment. Chefs like Wolfgang Puck and (local version) Charles Phan of The Slanted Door have brought their culinary visions to America’s shopping malls to varying success.

In the basement of Macy’s flagship Union Square store in San Francisco, celebrity chef Rick Bayless recently opened his latest spot to bring his noted authentic Mexican cuisine to the masses. A successful restaurateur in Chicago, cookbook author and TV chef, Bayless has headed west with his Frontera Fresco concept (the first Frontera opened at Macy’s in Chicago).

Frontera Fresco positions itself as a place for gourmet Mexican street food, fast. Bayless has said in other reports that he doesn’t like to open restaurants outside of his home base of Chicago that he can’t supervise first-hand. So the idea of a full-fledge restaurant in San Francisco appears out of the question. With the smaller Frontera Fresco format, which serves a limited menu, Bayless can feel assured that his local staff can translate his vision when focused on a few select items.

So what can you find when you visit Bayless’ Frontera Fresco?

First, I recommend sunglasses so you can shield yourself from the dominant lime-green walls that wake up passersby as they walk off the escalators leading to the basement food court at Macy’s. (Frontera Fresco has the prime spot where the chocolates section used to be outside the food court area.) Don’t get me wrong, I love the color lime (I was actually wearing a similar lime-colored sweat shirt on my first visit) but the vibrancy really does get to you if you stare at it too long. (Since my first visit, I’ve learned to sit on the side near the grill that doesn’t have any walls.)

Bayless’ scaled down menu includes tortas (sandwiches), huaraches (flat bread), quesadillas, salads, tamales and soups. My first thought was what happened to the burritos and tacos? Are burritos and tacos not authentic Mexican street food? Not having traveled to Mexico, I don’t have the answer. I just know that burritos are often the best value for a lunchtime bite. But apparently not at Frontera Fresco.

In the last few weeks, I’ve visited Frontera three times, mostly out of curiosity and convenience (I had to do some shopping for birthday gifts lately). My last visit was this past Saturday, when Bayless was actually in town for a Macy’s event that afternoon. (I didn’t stay for the event, but I did see a frenzied Bayless rushing out the Frontera Fresco kitchen with an assistant heading off to what I assume was some last-minute meeting about the special event.)

The tiny eatery operates like a restaurant, with chefs in white jackets supervising the line and servers who are quick to clear the dishes. You order at the counter and get a number, and then servers bring your food to you on shiny trays.

Side note: There’s no salsa bar like other fast-food Mexican places in California. Instead, you have to select the salsa you want on the side when you place your order. There are only three types of salsas (Jalapeno Cilantro, Tomatillo and Chipotle) but be sure to ask. In the beginning, the servers always asked me my salsa selection but in my last visits, they’ve neglected to ask so I think they’re slacking.

Here’s a look at what I’ve tried so far at Frontera:

Smoked Chipotle Chicken Huaraches ($6.95). I’ve never had this Mexican version of flat bread, so I decided to check it out. It came with chicken chunks, grilled red onions, red peppers and aged Cotija cheese. It looked huge when it arrived at my table, almost like a salad pizza. But when I first bit into it, I didn’t like the texture of the bread. It was soft and chewy, which almost gave it a taste of being stale. I wished it had more of a grilled flavor to it. While I liked the bean spread inside, all the toppings made it a difficult item to eat.

Torta Cubana ($7.50). After recently tasting my first Cuban sandwich at this taco truck, I decided to see what a fancy Torta Cubana would be like. (If you recall, my taco truck Cuban sandwich was filled with hamburger meat and hot dog bits. So anything would be a step up.) Bayless creates his Torta Cubana using pork loin and applewood-smoked bacon, all pressed between grilled bread. Of course, I’m a big fan of any grilled sandwiches or panini so this was a substantial lunch treat with its tasty bacon strips and thinly sliced pork loin mixed in with avocado and cilantro cream.

Sweet Corn & Green Chile Tamale ($2.95). Overall, I’m not a big fan of Mexican food because of what I perceive (yes, I admit that it may just be my perception) as a lack of diversity in ingredients (i.e., meat, beans, rice, tortilla) in the dishes. But I do have to say that I love tamales. I think it’s the comforting cornmeal. So I tried the sweet corn tamale, which turned out to be the most surprisingly delicious thing on Frontera Fresco’s menu. The sweet corn lived up to its sweetness, and the tamale was further moistened by creamy goat cheese. It was filling, making the $2.95 price tag one of the better ideas for a value lunch.

Chipotle Chicken Tamale ($2.95). Having had such a wonderful experience with the sweet corn tamale, I tried the only other tamale flavor on the menu: the chipotle chicken tamale. Unfortunately, this doesn’t compare to the sweet corn tamale. The chicken and corn masa were dry, giving the overall tamale a less than comforting feel. I had to pour on some extra salsa to give it some life.

Corn and Roasted Poblano Chowder ($3.50). This soup came out looking like something you might order at a fancy restaurant, with its crema swirls and sprinkles of aged Cotija cheese. But the texture was a bit rough and the taste was aggressive, with the roasted pepper taste overpowering any sweetness from the corn. It’s not something I would order again, even at a restaurant.

I also should note that I had one of the eatery’s Limeade (the classic flavor, $1.95) and it was this syrupy sick sweet-tartness that killed my tastebuds. Stick with water.

There’s no question that Bayless has sourced his Frontera Fresco with some quality ingredients. All the items tasted fresh. But the approach and balance of tastes, to me, fail to rise above other fancy Mexican fast food joints like Tacubaya in Berkeley or even straightforward places like La Salsa. While it’s true that certain Frontera Fresco items offer a distinguishable flavor (good or bad) that’s different than what I’ve tasted in California, I can’t say that it’s enticing enough to come back often, especially at the price level.

Tasting “authentic” Mexican cuisine in California via Chicago left me confused about what is the true taste of authentic Mexican cuisine. Sigh. Guess I have to add Mexico to my list of places to visit.

Because this is a mini review and Frontera Fresco is not a full-fledge restaurant, I’m not giving out my usual ratings. But I would say I’d definitely go back for the sweet corn tamale and maybe the grilled sandwiches, but nothing else.

Frontera Fresco at Macy’s Union Square, 170 O’Farrell St., San Francisco, basement level.

Summary only...

In The Kitchen: Cooking With Live Crab, Part II (Roasted Garlic Crab Recipe)

Here’s the second part of my two-fer on live crabs. It’s this really super easy way to prepare it after you’ve killed and cleaned it. It tasted soooo good that it was one of those rare occasions where I forgot to take a picture of the final dish to accompany the recipe below. The fragrance of all the garlic, butter, wine and crab juice melding together was so enticing that I started eating it right away once I was done filming the demo. Oh well, you can see the finished product in the video. Enjoy!

Roasted Garlic Crab
Copyright 2008 by Cooking With The Single Guy

Ingredients:
1 fresh Dungeness crab (about 2 lbs.)
6 T butter
6 cloves of garlic, minced
white wine (about ½ cup)
cilantro or parsley for garnish

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Kill and clean your live Dungeness crab, cutting it into sections with the legs. Place the pieces (including the top shell) in a 9”x13” baking dish or roasting dish lined with aluminum foil. Sprinkle butter pieces and minced garlic all around (not just on top but underneath as well). Add wine to create a ¼-inch layer of liquid for steaming. Cover your pan with aluminum foil and place in oven and cook for 20 minutes.

When done, transfer crab pieces into serving dish (if you use a nice ceramic baking dish, you can just serve straight from the oven in the same dish), making sure to reassemble the pieces to make it look like a crab and keeping all the juices and melted butter from the pan. Garnish with cilantro or parsley. Serve immediately with bread.

Makes one to two servings.

Pair with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc.

TIP: Before placing crab pieces into baking dish, place them on a cutting board and cover with kitchen towel. Then with the side of a hammer, hit the pieces to create some cracks. This will help the crab cook faster and infuse it with the butter and garlic. It’ll also give you a head start when ready to eat.

IT’S ALL COOKED: If you don’t feel like buying a live crab and killing it yourself, you can do this same recipe with a pre-cooked crab. But cook it for maybe 5 to 10 minutes to basically warm up the crab and to let the butter melt and infuse the crab.

Summary only...

In The Kitchen: Cooking With Live Crab, Part I (Cleaning)

I finally got around to making that cooking demo on how to kill and clean a live Dungeness crab. This, as some of you might recall, was something I had planned to do last year until I ran into a feisty crab who pinched my finger (making two puncture wounds) and totally threw my game off for filming. (I still ate him though, the bastard.)

It’s not like I find pleasure in killing live animals (and again, PETA, please don’t write me). I just believe certain food like seafood tastes best when fresh. And nothing gets fresher than killing a crab right before you cook it.

Most people who are willing to buy a live crab for the freshness will only end up dropping the whole thing into a pot of boiling water. While this works, you’re basically cooking the crab with all the innards and junk inside. So I choose to clean the crab before cooking it (which is what most Chinese cooks will do) to avoid messing up my cooking water with intestines and such. Gosh, this post is really getting gory.

For those who buy their Dungeness crab pre-cooked, you’re losing out on really moist succulent meat because even though some supermarkets say they got the crab that morning and cooked it, you really don’t know if that crab has been sitting around since the day before. (Crab meat begins to dry out after cooking, and even more so sitting in those refrigerated counters.) So why not cook it yourself? It’s actually a few simple steps (despite what you’ll see at one point as I struggle to remove the hard shell).

So today’s demo is focused on just the killing and cleaning part of cooking with a live Dungeness crab. My crab wasn’t as feisty this time because I actually bought him at the Richmond New May Wah Supermarket on Clement Street in San Francisco. So that meant more than an hour ride by Muni and BART back to my Oakland apartment. (You should have seen all the stares I got when people noticed my paper bag moving. Ha!) By the time I got home, the crab was pretty lethargic from being out of the water for so long. Still, at least it was fresh!

Come back tomorrow when we feature the good part—my demo on cooking the crab in a simple garlic wine recipe.

NOTE: Dungeness crab season in the Bay Area lasts until June, but most of the crabs are caught—and therefore more plentiful—early in the season in November. This year the season was delayed because of the massive oil spill in the Bay. Learn more about the season and crabs in the Bay Area in my previous post on crab fisherman Duncan MacLean.

Summary only...

Jamie At Home: Episode 1, Pumpkin & Squash

Jamie Oliver is working with pumpkins and squashes today. (Ooh, he has one of those so-ugly-it’s-pretty squash with all the knots, bumps and wrinkles.) He starts off at his outdoor oven by making an Asian-style pumpkin warm salad with duck.

He cuts a pumpkin into slices, and seasons them with salt and pepper, and then coats all the slices with coriander seeds, red chili, cinnamon, and olive oil. He places them on a roasting pan and puts it in his outdoor wood oven and roasts the pumpkin for about 45 minutes.

Already cooking is a whole duck, which looks nice and brown. But today’s all about pumpkin, so Jamie says he’s not going to get into specifics about roasting the duck because “it’s so easy.” He says to basically just season with salt and pepper and coat with olive oil and roast in the oven for about two hours.

He starts working on the other components for his salad, toasting the pumpkin seeds and then making the dressing.

In a bowl, he combines juice from two limes, 50 percent of olive oil, few drips of sesame oil, tablespoon of soy sauce, teaspoon of unrefined sugar (hmm, never heard of that), grated chili, grated garlic, and chopped spring onions, fresh coriander, and mint.

The dressing would be very Vietnamese or Thai if he used fish sauce instead of soy sauce.

He gets his duck and pumpkin from the oven and removes the meat from the duck breast with two forks. He starts to build his salad by placing the meat, then adding pumpkin seeds, squash pieces, coriander and mint, and drizzles the dressing on top.

I have to say, the idea of a warm salad, especially duck, sounds nice but it really looks like a big pile of mess.

Maybe Jamie will make his next dish prettier. He’s making Butternut Squash Muffins. (Complete recipe here on the Food Network site.) Never heard of that, so it sounds interesting. (I tried to make pumpkin muffins once and they came out so dense.) I bet they’re really filling.

He cuts up the butternut squash into pieces, including the skin! He assures us that the skin, after it’s been washed, is fine to cook with and it’ll be nice and chewy. Not sure I like that idea, but if Jamie says so. He puts the squash chunks and 400 grams of unrefined sugar into the food processor and pulses everything. Then he adds four eggs, a pinch of salt, 300 grams of flour, two teaspoons of baking powder, a teaspoon of cinnamon, and handful of walnuts and then pulses everything together. He smoothens out his batter with extra virgin olive oil.

He fills the muffin pan about 3/4 of the way and bakes a dozen for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

To top his muffins (they actually look more like cupcakes), Jamie makes icing with Clementine zest, lemon zest, lemon juice, sour cream and vanilla seeds from a pod (you can use vanilla extract if you don’t want to spend the money for those expensive vanilla pods). He also adds two tablespoons of icing sugar and blends them all together, then puts a dollop on each cupcake. (Jamie, you’re kind of skimpy on the icing, there, buddy.)

Back in the tool shed, Jamie is going to make a pumpkin soup, which is a classic that I’m sure everyone’s made. (Mostly because it’s one of those soup that also looks very pretty.) Here's the complete recipe here.

He uses some pumpkin that looks big and oddly shaped that sounds like he says is a “mustard de Provence.” He slices it into slabs.

Then he starts the basis of his soup with two carrots, two garlic cloves, two red onions, and two celery sticks. He roughly chops the celery and onions and then puts them with some olive oil into a pot to sweat them down. (He smokes up the place and for a bit he looks like a kid setting off the smoke alarm.)

Jamie slices up the carrots and garlic, then adds them with the onion and celery. He also adds a twig of rosemary, with some salt and pepper and puts the pot back on the heat.

With the chunks of pumpkin, he puts them into a pressure cooker. I’ve never cooked with one, but he just added the pumpkins with two liter of chicken stock and basically it only took six minutes to cook the pumpkin and get them soft. I need to get me a pressure cooker. (BTW, I noticed Jamie’s hands are all orange from handling the pumpkin. Good thing to keep in mind: If you don’t want orange hands, you might want to wear rubber gloves.)

He focuses on the garnish for the soup. So Jamie gets a few fresh sage leaves and puts them into a pan with olive oil, and basically quickly fries them up. He removes the sage leaves, and with the leftover olive oil he uses it to rub two pieces of ciabatta bread.

Jamie grates parmesan cheese right onto the two slices of ciabatta, and pats down the cheese onto both sides, then puts them back onto a dry pan to melt the cheese onto the toast.

After his pumpkin is all done in six minutes (again, I need a pressure cooker), he uses a hand blender (now I have that) to puree the soup until a beautiful orange smooth blend is created. He seasons with salt and pepper as he goes, tasting along the way.

(OK, I think I got confused. I missed the step when he added the pot of cooked vegetables like the onions, celery and carrots. What happened to those? Well, basically you should just add that to the pumpkin and it’ll all get pureed into a smooth blend.)

He serves up his soup by putting one piece of the parmesan toast on the bottom of a bowl with the other one on the side, then pours the soup right on top. He finishes it off with the crispy sage leaves and drizzle of good quality extra virgin olive oil. Pretty, natch.

Must be a British Thing:
Just some clarification on some of the terms Jamie uses.

Icing sugar=powdered sugar

Coriander=cilantro

Jamieisms heard in this episode:

Rock and roll
Bob’s your uncle (perfectly done)
Italian-styley

Jamie At Home airs on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. on the Food Network. Visit Jamie’s Web site at http://www.jamieoliver.com/. More on the accompanying book for the series here.

Photos courtesy of jamieoliver.com.

Summary only...

Creating Elegant Vegetarian Dishes

I love it when I just stumble onto a food event. And that's what happened to me today as I was shopping at Union Square in San Francisco. I walked by the Williams-Sonoma store and noticed a sign outside about a free cooking demonstration by Millennium's executive chef Eric Tucker. The demo started at noon and it was almost 12:25 p.m. so I ran up the three flights of stairs (you know, they're very grand but a bit too much when you're in a rush) and got there as Tucker was almost finishing up demonstration a salad dish.

Tucker has gained a lot of attention for the exquisite dishes he prepares at Millennium restaurant, one of the premier vegetarian restaurants in town. Apparently, he also offers some cooking classes in his kitchen. But today he was at the Williams-Sonoma flagship store. I love the third-floor kitchen demo area.

Here's the plated salad he demonstrated first. It's a grilled Belgian endive salad with pink grapefruit and blood oranges with a creamy garlic tarragon "Ranch" dressing. The salad was a bit warm, so I didn't find it as enjoyable. But the creamy dressing was nice and it really highlighted the season's vegetables, especially with the citrus.

Tucker's main demonstration was a vegetable gumbo. Some of the ingredients that would be going in were the above root vegetables. I liked the carrots to the right. They're actually an interesting purple color. Tucker says this is the original carrots before man got involved and pumped up the beta carotene to make carrots orange. So this is like an heirloom carrot because it's how carrots should be. I'm going to look for these at the farmers market because it looks so cool.

Tucker shows the inside of the purple carrot, which is this interesting yellow color. That carrot just amazes me again and again.

Tucker works on the roux that will thicken his gumbo. Just listening to him talk about his ingredients when cooking for the restaurant, it reminds me why I'm not a vegetarian. Don't get me wrong, I admire people who can sustain themselves with food from the Earth that don't add more stress on this planet. So I applaud them. But it is a lot of work. For example, Tucker made his roux from some kind of corn flour because wheat flour could be bad for restaurant eaters who are allergic to gluten. He also used a vegetable stock that he made sure doesn't include mushrooms because some people are allergic to that as well. Tucker actually is not a vegetarian. He does eat meat, although it's primarily an accent to the vegetables on his dish.

This is a can of pimenton, which is the Spanish smoked peppers. I use it often in making my paella. Tucker used it to give that spicy flavor for his gumbo because he knows his gumbo won't have all the traditional ingredients like andouille sausages and shrimp. So he has to imitate the taste with herbs and spices.

This is a garnish for his gumbo. Tucker grilled some mushrooms that were simply brushed with some olive oil and seasoned. He's actually planning to be in Sonoma on Sunday hunting for chanterelles. Sounds fun.

Here's Tucker's finished vegetable gumbo. It was really simple, just prepping all the vegetables and cooking them all down. I retyped his recipe below if you're interested.

Almost time to taste test!

Here's my sample taste of Tucker's vegetable gumbo. It didn't remind me of gumbo because I miss the sausage and shrimp, but it was very tasty. What I loved about it was the rich, full-bodied flavor. I was amazed he could achieve that without any meat or bones for the stock. I don't know if I'll be able to replicate that taste at home because I'm sure it comes from his stock that he makes at his restaurant. It's a simple vegetable stock but I'm sure they have such rich, complex vegetables added in that I'm sure that's why his stock has such body.

It was fun watching this top tier chef in action. I'm glad I kept my eyes open as I was shopping today. If you're a vegetarian or just simply like good food, you should check out Tucker's cooking at Millennium at 580 Geary St. near the theater district.

Winter Root Vegetable Gumbo
Copyright by Eric Tucker, executive chef, Millennium Restaurant
Makes 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients
2 cup rutabaga, peeled large dice
2 cup celery root, large dice
1 cup yellow onion, medium dice
1 cup carrot, medium dice
1 cup celery, medium dice
4 cloves garlic, minced
olive oil
2 bay leaves
1 t oregano, toasted
1 t thyme, toasted
1 t paprika, toasted
2 T can tomato paste
1 cup diced tomato
1/4 cup red wine
1.5 quart vegetable stock
2 T dry hijiki (sea vegetable)
3 T corn flour roux, (dark)
1 t gumbo file (optional)
salt to taste
black pepper to taste
cayenne or hot sauce of choice to taste

In a large heavy bottom pot, over medium-high heat, sweat down onion and garlic until lightly caramelized. Add rutabega, celery root, celery, carrot, and bay leaf. Continue to cook until tender. Add all spices, cook for 3 minutes; deglaze with wine.

Add the tomato paste, tomato and stock and hijiki. Simmer for 30 minutes. Slowly whisk in the roux, simmer another 10 minutes.

Note from Chef Ben: I see that in Tucker's recipe above, he didn't really explain the corn flour roux. But it's really simple. All you do is slowly blend some corn flour with some olive oil so that you have a nice thick liquid. Make enough to blend in with your gumbo.

Also, another major point Tucker made that I really thought was important is he toasts all his spices used. It was very aromatic when he toasted the combination in a small pan. The heat releases the oils in the spices, making them better for your cooking.

Summary only...

Seek and You Shall Find

Some of you might have noticed that I recently added a search function to my blog. You can find it on the right above the Blog Archive.

With more than 480 posts and counting, even I was finding it hard to look up previous posts in the archives. So hopefully this will be easier for you to Google a particular recipe or review. Maybe you want to reread the time I waxed poetic about my favorite tea or did a comparison of the Democratic presidential hopefuls to heirloom tomatoes?

Just be sure to click on the button that says “search Single Guy Chef” if you want to just search within my blog. If you want to search the whole Web, then go ahead. I can’t stop you. I’m not your mom. ;-)

Summary only...

The Naked Chef Gets Down and Dirty

Oh happy days! British Chef Jamie Oliver (Sir Jamie to you) returned to American television this week with his first show on the Food Network in a few years—“Jamie At Home” about cooking with fresh ingredients from your garden. I’ve been watching Jamie since his “Naked Chef” days cooking in that tiny London apartment/set. I’m a big fan of his simple approach to cooking and his enthusiasm for food. And really, he just makes me laugh.

The Food Network had a “preview” episode this past Sunday night to drum up interest in the show, which actually premieres this Saturday at 9:30 a.m. I really don’t get the whole concept of the preview episode, because all the Food Network did was show an actual episode “Peppers and Chillies” that is also scheduled to air again in the regular time slot in a couple of weeks?! Anywho, doesn’t really matter because I can watch Jamie again and again and again. When’s that “Jamie At Home” marathon?

I love the quiet approach of the new show. For example, there’s no transition music in and out of commercials. Just these artsy sketches of the program fading in and out. The focus is purely on Jamie’s cooking and his love for fresh ingredients. No food challenges. No eliminations. I love watching all the Jamie Oliver series because they’re produced not by the Food Network but by Fresh One, a venture between Jamie and Freemantle Media.

Because I love his new show, I decided to do these “food TV summaries” of each episode. They’re not exactly recaps because, really, there aren’t enough twists and turns in the plot of a half-hour cooking show to really write about. So each week (probably Sunday nights), I’ll just give a summary of his recipes that were featured, my thoughts on them, and a few fun Jamie facts. Here’s the first one:

Jamie At Home: Peppers and Chillies

Jamie’s cooking in his “garden” (I have my suspicions whether it really is his garden. I do know he credits a gardener named “Brian.”) so it’s a lot of outdoor stuff. And even though he’s focused on bell peppers and chilies, which really seems like a summer thing, I’m still feeling the heat watching all the beautiful, colorful peppers he’s using.

He starts off making baked peppers by cutting a red and yellow bell pepper in half and removing the seeds. He places them on a baking dish and then makes the filling with three to four cherry tomatoes, one minced garlic clove and a bunch of different hot chilies (which he takes a bite out of each one before he masterfully chops them into thin slices). He even tries this pretty orange chili called an apricot chili. Where can you buy those?

To the filling he adds capers, basil, a pinch of pepper, salt (he says a pinch but it’s more like a tablespoon), two tablespoon of red or white wine vinegar, five to six pitted olives and olive oil. He uses his hands to scrunch all the ingredients together.

Initially I thought, hmm, this doesn’t really look that interesting because he’s just putting peppers into peppers. Why not just make a salad? But after he filled the bell pepper halves with his ingredients, he draped each one with pancetta. Oh yea. Everything’s better with pancetta. (Pancetta is Italian bacon.)

He covers the baking dish with aluminum foil to create a steaming effect and places it in an outdoor oven for 15 minutes. When they all cooked down, they looked like these soggy mess, but he serves it up nicely by placing them on top of this toasted, rustic-looking slice of bread. He also pairs it with mozzarella with raw chili slices (again, the orange colored one) and “rocket” (his favorite green he often uses that’s similar to arugula).

Next up he moves inside to make his Spicy Pork and Pepper Goulash. (Full recipe can be found here on the Food Network site.) He begins by scoring a pork shoulder (basically just getting a knife and cutting a pattern onto the fatty exterior of the meat) and then sears it skin side down in a braising pan to render out the fat. Then he gets an amazing array of beautifully colored bell peppers and removes the seeds and chops them up. He takes the pork (beautiful browning, BTW) out of the pan and then sautés the bell peppers, adding two big spoonfuls of paprika. He also adds a pinch of salt, caraway seeds, roasted red bell pepper slices from a jar, two red onions finely sliced and fresh marjoram (or oregano). He puts the pork back into the pan with the other ingredients. To finish everything off, he adds a can of tomatoes and covers everything with stock (or water) until the pork is almost covered. He also adds a few dashes of red wine vinegar (for that “twang”) and cooks the covered pot in a 350 degree oven for 2.5 to 3 hours.

While the pork is cooking, he makes basmati rice as a side. And this is probably the only time I’ll be critical of Jamie. But he made his rice like he was making pasta. He had to drain the rice out, pouring out a whole bunch of water. All the times I’ve made rice, I’ve never had to worry about draining out excess water. You should really just put enough water to cook the rice and plump them up. The cooking technique for rice shouldn’t be the same as boiling pasta! Anywho, I’m going to overlook that since it has been a few years since Jamie’s been on TV.

Jamie serves up his tender goulash pork (BTW, never stick your finger into a pork butt right out of the oven) with his rice and some sour cream with chopped parsley and lemon zest.

For his final recipe, Jamie goes into what looks like a tool shed to make his smoked salmon with chilli salsa. (Full recipe here.)

He gets a “biscuit tin” (see translation below) and puts wood chips along with a twig of fresh sage and rosemary and places chicken wire over everything. Then he gets two salmon fillets, season them with salt and chili oil and places them on the chicken wire. With what looks like a pen, he punctures some holes on the cover of the biscuit tin and then covers the can and puts the whole thing on top of a gas burner to cook.

Then he works on his salsa. (I love the way he talks about salsa like he’s reminiscing about an old flame. He steps back and sighs as he says “salsa.”) In his salsa he adds tomatoes, a cucumber, lime (because you want that “schwiiiing”), spring onion, coriander, three types of chilies (yellow, red and jalapeno), avocado and some olive oil. He blends everything together.

When he opens the smoked salmon in the can, it has this mustard-brown color. He serves his salmon on a plate over a spoonful of the salsa. Of course, when he takes a bite to try it, he doesn’t have to say a word because he’s just dancing with joy. And I dance along with him at home because I love his enthusiasm and am so glad he’s back on TV. (BTW, I also like the music at the end by Tim Kay.)

Must be a British Thing:
Just some clarification on some of the terms Jamie uses.

Chilli=Chile

Tin foil=aluminum foil

Blackened peppers= roasted red bell peppers

Tin of tomatoes=canned tomatoes

Biscuit tin=cookie can

Coriander=cilantro

Jamieisms heard in this episode:

“Rock and roll”
“Hungarian-styley”
“Happy days”
“Wodge” (a heaping spoonful)
“Plonker” (looking foolish)
“Brilliant”

Jamie At Home airs on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. on the Food Network. Visit Jamie’s Web site at www.jamieoliver.com. More on the accompanying book for the series here.

Photos courtesy of jamieoliver.com and Sydney Morning Herald.

Summary only...

Dish on Dining: Katana-ya

When it rains, find shelter in ramen
430 Geary St., San Francisco
Between Union Square and Nob Hill neighborhoods
PH: 415.771.1280
Open daily, 11:30 a.m.–1 a.m., weekdays, noon to 1:30 a.m., weekends
Major credit cards accepted, no reservations

It’s been a bit wet and cold in the Bay Area lately, so all I want to do is stay at home. Probably the only thing that can force me to put on my rain gear and venture out is the idea of a piping hot bowl of ramen.

That’s how I found myself this past weekend in San Francisco, with umbrella in tow, looking for Katana-ya near Union Square. It’s supposedly the best ramen in the city, which actually isn’t saying much because the general consensus is that the best ramen in the Bay Area can be found mostly closer to Silicon Valley. But I don’t have a car to make the trek down the Peninsula, so Union Square sounded like the perfect spot to get off BART and get myself a bowl of ramen.

Ramen is the crinkly soup noodles from Japan. Pretty much every college student has grown up with the instant version of it and a bowl of it can make people a wee bit obsessive (case in point: a whole blog searching for the best ramen). In Japan, the best ramen are often found in little stands or joints tucked inside a crowded neighborhood, serving the slurpily good noodles into the late hours or early mornings.

Katana-ya offers up that same feel, with its red banner out front and the dark, cozy room inside (there are a few tables in the front and a sushi bar in the back). Across the street from the American Conservatory Theater, it would make a great spot for a late-night snack after a show.

But I was there for lunch. And because of the rain, the tiny restaurant wasn’t too crowded.

The menu includes a variety of sushi, donburi (rice bowls) and ramen. With the ramen, you can customize it by choosing the broth (shoyu, miso or shio), picking the protein toppings and whether you want the broth light or rich. (Be warned, rich just means more pork fat.)

If you can’t decide what to get, the best way to go is to spin the wheel. Well, not literally. But on one page of the menu, Katana-ya offers combinations. In the center is a bowl of ramen, of course. Surrounding it (like a wheel) are other options that you can combine with the ramen, including sushi, various donburi or even fried rice. (The combo price varies depending on which category you go with.)

I ended up going with the combination ramen and BBQ Pork Donburi with Spicy Negi (thinly sliced green onions) for $9.50.

First up came the pork donburi. It was a nice portion that gave you a good taste of the dish but left you enough room for the ramen to come. While this place is all about the ramen, I have to say that when I took my first bite of the pork, rice and spicy negi, a big smile came to my face. My mouth felt like it was reborn, discovering that umami taste of savory, sweet and spicy. Plus, the rice (sushi grade) was perfectly cooked and fresh. I quickly ate the whole bowl and wondered if maybe I should have just gotten a full order of the donburi instead?

Side note: The spicy negi tasted like it was marinated with the same spicy ingredient used to make the Korean kim chi. So if you like kim chi (and I do), then you’ll like the spicy negi.

As I was still finishing up my wonderful pork donburi, with its clean flavors and freshness, my bowl of ramen came. I ordered the standard ramen (which comes with pork) but with a miso broth.

The bowl was big, making the ramen seem like it wasn’t very much. But when I stirred it, I could tell that I had a nice-sized serving of the ramen. It came with a couple of slices of BBQ pork (just like my donburi), pickled bamboo shoots (adds a nice crunch) and nori (the dried seaweed).

My mouth wasn’t as excited as when it took a bite of the pork donburi a few minutes earlier. The ramen noodles were chewy (like it should be) but if I made a guess, I would say it was overcooked by one minute. The broth was on the rich side (I should have asked for the light broth) so that meant it was a bit oily. Also, I didn’t really taste a strong miso flavor, although it looked rich with miso. (When eating other miso ramen, I could often smell the miso flavoring as I ate. I couldn’t here.)

Don’t get me wrong, the bowl of ramen was satisfying and it was the perfect cure for a rainy day. But the quality seemed similar to bowls I’ve eaten in San Francisco’s Japantown. So I don’t know if I would go as far as to call Katana-ya the best ramen in the city.

Still, it’s a decent bowl of ramen at a central location. And after the pork donburi and spicy negi, I’d be interested in trying the other combos with my ramen to see what else Katana-ya has to offer.

Single guy rating: 3 stars (clean flavors)

Explanation of the single guy's rating system:
1 star = perfect for college students
2 stars = perfect for new diners
3 stars = perfect for foodies
4 stars = perfect for expense accounts
5 stars = perfect for any guy's dream dinner

Summary only...

Craving Cauliflower Risotto

I recently went back to the Franklin Square Wine Bar in Oakland, where I had this wonderful cauliflower risotto that I raved about here. But the cauliflower risotto wasn’t on the menu! (I guess the owner didn’t read the part where I suggested that the cauliflower risotto be the restaurant’s signature dish!)

They offered a saffron risotto, which was fine but not the same experience of the creamy white risotto with chunks of cauliflowers. So you know what? I just made it myself at home.

The following is my riff on the Franklin Square Wine Bar’s cauliflower risotto. I added sausages and mushrooms to make it more of a meal, but the technique of adding cream and making it a bit more soupy I have to credit to Franklin Square. Like my buddy Jamie likes to say, it was brilliant! Enjoy!

Summary only...

Creamy Cauliflower Risotto with Kielbasa and Mushrooms

Copyright 2008 by Cooking With The Single Guy

Ingredients:
2 cups of cauliflower florets
1 kielbasa sausage, precooked (about 3 oz.), cut into small chunks
5 shiitake mushrooms, sliced
½ sweet onion, diced
1 cup Arborio rice
1 small glass of dry white wine
1-1/2 cups of chicken broth (or 14 oz. can)
¾ cup shredded Parmesan cheese (or Parmigiano Reggiano)
¼ cup heavy cream (or low-fat half-and-half)
1 garlic clove, minced
2 T unsalted butter
olive oil
sea salt to taste

In a medium saucepan, warm 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium high heat and add onion and garlic. Cook for about two minutes until onions are translucent, making sure not to brown the garlic. Add rice and stir with onions, letting the heat toast the rice for about a minute. Turn heat to medium and add wine and cook until most of it evaporates. Then start adding in the broth, using a ladle to add two scoops of broth (about ¾ cup) to start. Toss in all the cauliflower that you’ve cut into florets and the sausage pieces. Continue cooking for about 15 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon and adding two ladles of broth along the way as the broth gets absorbed, until rice is al dente, or almost done. In a separate sauté pan, warm a tablespoon of olive oil and then add sliced mushrooms and sauté for about two minutes to sweat the mushrooms and get some of the moisture ou t (adding a dash of salt will help extract the moisture from the mushrooms). When done, stir the mushrooms into your risotto.

Remove saucepan from the fire and stir in butter and cheese. Then stir in cream a little at a time until the risotto is as creamy as you like. Add salt to your taste. Let it sit for about a minute, then plate up your risotto. Garnish with more parmesan shavings and something green like some diced Italian parsley.

Makes two servings. Serve with small green salad.

Pair with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc.

TIPS: Warming your broth and setting it on the side to use while cooking your risotto will make sure your risotto has consistent heat throughout the cooking process. Be patient: Don’t feel tempted to add all the broth in at once. You’ll end up making soup because the rice won’t be able to slowly absorb the tasty broth. Also, you may not need to use all the broth or you may run out. If your risotto looks ready with a nice creamy texture, then don’t bother adding any more broth. If you run out of broth and it looks like your risotto still needs more time to cook, add some water. You’ll make up for the taste with some salt for seasoning later.

REVIEW OF RISOTTO: Risotto rice makes this dish unique with its short grain and creamy texture. So you can’t substitute it with the typical long-grain rice or even Japanese sushi rice. But you do have choices. There are three main Italian rice to make risotto: Arborio, Carnaroli and Vialone Nano. Arborio is the one most widely available outside of Italy and can be easily found in any grocery store. It consistently cooks in 15 minutes and produces a nice cream. Bu t don’t be afraid to experiment with Carnaroli and Vialone Nano if you spot them on a gourmet store shelf. They both cook a bit longer, but Carnaroli grains keep more of their shape so it’s a nice choice if you don’t like your risotto too mushy. Vialone Nano is creamier if you want to go the other direction.

Summary only...

Art With The Pour at Artesa Vineyards & Winery

NAPA, Calif.
In the final part of My Excellent Holiday Adventure to Napa with my friends Stella and Mariusz, we arrived at the primary destination of our day—the Artesa Winery for some wine tasting and sightseeing.

Stella had suggested the winery because it’s one of the newer spots along the Napa Valley stops. It’s not along the traditional Hwy. 29 route but a bit west toward Sonoma in the Carneros appellation. Artesa (it’s pronounced ar-TUSS-ah, and not Artesia like how I had it in my mind the whole time I was there) started in 1991 as a sparkling wine producer. But in 1997, they hired a winemaker and began producing wine two years later.

One of the distinguishing factors about Artesa isn’t the wine but the scenery and art displayed throughout the winery. For example, the above sculptures (which makes me think of “Stonehedge on a Diet”) decorate a water fountain at the front of the winery’s estate near the parking area.

All of the artwork at the winery is by Napa artist Gordon Huether, who for the sculptures outside seemed to like to play with light and the natural Napa scenes. This multi-color-tinted sculpture in the center of the stairways leading to the entrance reminded me of the plastic sculptures my dad used to create for his job at a plastic sign shop. He would have loved this sculpture. Totally something right up his alley.

Here’s the entrance of the winery. It really looked like we were heading into a bunker or something. But according to the Web site, the architectural design was trying to blend the winery into the natural landscape of Napa Valley. So instead of driving up and seeing a big mansion ala Falcon Crest, you get this bunker.

The three of us signed up for the four-wine flight ($10 per person) and started off with a couple of white wines. The people at Artesa are pretty casual about the wine-tasting, so they encourage you to take your glasses and wander around the winery checking out the artwork or the scenery.

It was such a beautiful day (albeit a bit chilly) that sitting outside enjoying your wine was a very popular choice.

We’re already into the reds. This is the final red of the day, a Cabernet Sauvignon. I have to say, I wasn’t very impressed by what the winery offered for its tasting. The two whites were weak and the first red (a pinot noir) was just so-so. Only the Cab at the end had any body and complexity that was enjoyable. (Also, the guy pouring the wine wasn’t very chatty about the wine. I tried to ask him a few questions about the wine and he seemed thrown by my questions.)

There’s artwork all over the place, in an area that really reminds me of a SFMOMA gallery or something. This was one of my favorites. I love the color and simplicity.

We finished up our red wine in the “club room.” There’s Mariusz, who’s busy surfing the Web on his iPhone.

Along with the “club room” for special wine events, the winery offers tours and this mini museum of viticultural artifacts.

Of all the fancy artworks and average wine for tasting, probably the best offering by Artesa is this beautiful view of the vineyards. The viewing deck faces west, perfect to capture that Napa sunset.

Artesa Vineyards & Winery, 1345 Henry Road, Napa. PH: 707.224.1668. Web site.

Summary only...

I Was a Taco Truck Virgin

NAPA, Calif.
I admit it. I never ate at a taco truck. Not because I thought I was too good to eat from a truck or because I didn't think the food was any good. It was just a matter of convenience. I never really lived anywhere that had taco trucks parked around lunch time, which seems to be the most popular time to visit a TT.

But during the holidays when I visited Napa Valley with my friends Stella and Mariusz, Mariusz made us stop at this taco truck parked on one of the main streets in downtown Napa after our visit to the Oxbow Public Market. (Yes, we could have gone to Bouchon Bakery or even grab a sandwich at Dean & Deluca, but Mariusz was craving a California taco. He doesn't find a lot of good Mexican food on the East Coast.)

This particular truck was extra shiny, and had the sign "Best Tacos" on it. I asked Stella if there was some taco commission or something that granted trucks the permission to put up a sign boasting to be the best. I mean, how do you know which one truly serves the best tacos in town?

Stella says the best way to find the best taco truck in town is to judge the line. And judging by the guys standing waiting for their tacos from this truck, we decided they must be pretty good. BTW, that's Mariusz at the very front of the line at the window putting in his order.

We got our food and got back into our car to enjoy our impromptu lunch. Above is the plate of three street tacos that Mariusz ordered. There were two types of pork tacos and a regular beef taco. Mariusz asked for the extra jalapeno and radishes, which he says is the only way to enjoy street tacos.

Stella and I shared the Torta de Cubana (or Cuban sandwich for $7). I never had one and it sounded interesting because the sign said it had jamon and chorizo. But I need to realize that jamon and chorizo doesn't necessarily mean it's the same type of meat from Spain. The jamon was everyday ham and the chorizo was hot dogs! Still, when all the meat was sandwiched together with the avocado, tomatoes and cheese, it was pretty tasty and satisfying (although a bit messy to eat). It's not going to win any points for fancy sourcing, but it really hits the spot.

So that's how I lost my taco truck virginity. It's about time, wouldn't you say?

Summary only...

What's In My Frig?

It's citrus season and that means I'm seeing more Meyer lemons at the market. I love them, and not just because all the fancy chefs use them. (OK, maybe that's partly why.) If you're not familiar with Meyer lemons, they have a smell and taste that's a bit like a tangerine with all the puckerness of lemons.

What I also love about them is the color. They have a deeper yellow than typical lemons. Above, I bought a four-lemon pack from my local Trader Joe's. I forgot how much they were. I think it was $1.79 for the whole pack. I thought it was a steal because normal lemons sell for close to 99 cents for one at Safeway. (I still don't understand why lemons are more expensive than limes?)

Even though I love Meyer lemons, having a whole pack in my frig does make me think what I can do with them. I usually just use lemons to slice into my iced tea that I brew myself and have pretty much every night for dinner. But just using them in my iced tea would take me a month to eat them all. So I went online and looked up a recipe for lemon curd.

I've never made lemon curd, but I found this easy recipe from the Barefoot Contessa. Turns out lemon curd is pretty much like creme anglaise, which is the custard that basically thickens as you slow cook it.

Now I have about a bottle and a half of lemon curd in my frig. I drizzle it on vanilla ice cream or mix it in with my yogurt to give it a lemony twist. So when life gives you Meyer lemons, make lemon curd! Ha!

Summary only...

Dish on Dining: Mission Beach Café

An Urbane Café in the Sun-Drenched Mission
198 Guerrero St. (at 14th), San Francisco
Mission-Dolores neighborhood
PH: 415.861.0198
Lunch, Mon.–Fri., 11:30 a.m.–2 p.m.; dinner, Tues.–Sun., 5:30–10 p.m. (till 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday); brunch, weekends. Closed for dinner on Monday. Pastry shop opens early daily.
Major credit cards, reservations accepted.
www.missionbeachcafesf.com/

This is a first for me: a review of a restaurant that I ate at in two different years. Follow along, will you?

In the last few days of 2007, I ventured to the Mission-Dolores neighborhood to meet my friend Sylvia for lunch. Sylvia used to live in San Francisco but last year moved to my old neighborhood of Park Slope in Brooklyn, New York. So when she came home for the holidays to visit family, I thought we should try a place that we both haven’t been to yet.

While Mission Beach Café is nearly one year old, we both never visited this bakery/café/restaurant. It’s actually not in the heart of the Mission District with all the other new and happening restaurants, but instead is closer to Market Street in what may be considered the start of the Mission.

While a small restaurant with a definite café feel in the afternoons (you can see people with their laptops sitting inside), it is also a very handsome room. I say “handsome” because it has a strong masculine feel with the dark wood floors and clean lines of the contemporary furnishings, which is probably the influence of partner Bill Clarke, who once owned a furniture store in the same spot.

On a sunny day (which is pretty common for the Mission District east of the fog belt known as Twin Peaks), this handsome room looks bigger and is filled with warmth and light, accentuating its classic, refined style. All this boggles my mind, however, because the food at Mission Beach Café is more bakery and café-like instead of the sophisticated restaurant that the décor seems to be selling.

The food underscores the pastry background of chef/owner Alan Carter. There’s a whole pastry counter up front and many of the dishes reflect this upscale, California comfort food.

For example, for my lunch with Sylvia I ordered the Beach Burger ($11.50). It wasn’t just a regular burger, but one with grass-fed beef, caramelized onions, roasted tomatoes and gouda. (It also came with a big side of French fries, which I forgot to substitute with a salad because I don’t like to eat fried foods.)

The burger itself was straightforward, although it had this nice salted tang to its edges that I liked. I had mines sans the onions and it was filling, but nothing spectacular. The fries were hit and miss. Some fries tasted nicely golden and crisp, while other pieces were a bit undercooked.

Sylvia got the house flatbread ($10), which changes every day. On this day, it was topped with chicken-apple sausage, Midnight Moon cheese and a pesto sauce. The flatbread is a huge order for one person, and while the thin crust is nice, Sylvia felt the pesto was a bit too much. (She was still tasting the pesto after we walked several blocks to Bi-Rite Creamery for some salted caramel ice cream, of course.)

We both also ordered the soup of the day ($3.50 for a cup), which was a sweet potato bisque with lime, chile and cilantro. I thought it was nice and full body and like the slight tang of lime, but Sylvia wasn’t impressed. (BTW, Sylvia is a great eating partner because she has a much better memory of ingredients in dishes than me!)

We left feeling mixed about Mission Beach Café. The food was interesting but it didn’t wow us in either taste or execution. I wondered if maybe it was the holiday season? Or maybe it was the lunch shift?

Because I couldn’t decide, I came back to the café myself for dinner in 2008. (Actually, last night on the second day of the year.)

The room looked even more sophisticated at night with the dim, ambient lighting casting a warm glow against the stylish furnishings. I sat at the bar (the café has a fun bar at the center of the room and a more casual wooden bar up alongside the window) in the center of the room and ordered a glass of Zinfandel after I eyed the Braised Rabbit Pot Pie ($18) on the menu.

Since I already decided on the pot pie and I was still feeling heavy from days of eating holiday baked goods, I started with the simple house salad ($7.50), which was a plate of mixed greens with slices of Bartlett pears, dried cranberries, roasted pecan bits all dressed in a cider vinaigrette.

My pot pie came in a bowl that was covered with the flaky crust, a specialty of Chef Carter. The crust was delicious and smelled of buttery goodness. The pie inside was a mix of braised meat with mushrooms, peas, carrots and Yukon potatoes. It was all very comforting and filling, although the overall taste of the filling itself again failed to excite me.

I finished my dinner with a slice of the banana butterscotch cream pie. (I know, I should have ordered their famous cannele.) This was definitely the influence of my server, who was so friendly and helpful that I fell for his arguments to try the banana butterscotch cream pie. While it was good and filled with banana, it lacked any cream topping (other than a few decorative streaks of cream on top) and I didn’t get a strong butterscotch flavor, either. But after the pot pie and the slice of pie, I was definitely done for the night.

Mission Beach Café has a handsome room and friendly service that play off the neighborhood feel of this restaurant, but the food doesn’t necessarily rise to the level to make people travel farther than the nearby Castro or Mission to dine here. It’s comforting and satisfactory instead of sophisticated and innovative. Sometimes maybe that’s all you need to start off the year.

Single guy rating: 2.75 stars (nice place to hangout)

Explanation of the single guy's rating system:
1 star = perfect for college students
2 stars = perfect for new diners
3 stars = perfect for foodies
4 stars = perfect for expense accounts
5 stars = perfect for any guy's dream dinner

Summary only...

Hook Me Up: A Bon Port Cafe

It's my last day on vacation before heading back to the real world tomorrow, so I decided to head into the city for some wi-fi cafe surfing. So here I am all the way at the Castro at the A Bon Port Cafe.

The cafe, right at the heart of the Castro across from Cliff's Variety, bills itself as a French-Belgian Cafe, so that means it has crepes for sale! Yum.

When I got here a few minutes ago, it was totally empty and I almost thought it was closed for the holidays. It was a bit dark and only one other person was in here. It almost looked like a pub at some oceanside joint.

Even the pastry counter looked a bit quiet. Looks like they didn't get their replenish orders since the holidays.

But the barista (I think?) behind the counter is very nice and friendly. The only problem is the cafe's wireless connection, while free, is a bit wonky for Mac users, according to the barista. It actually took awhile for my Web browser to recognize the cafe's connection. But after a few minutes, I was online surfing. (Of course, a couple of other people came in after me and they were Mac users too. So when they couldn't connect just now, they asked the nice guy to reboot the cafe's router, which he gladly did. Since then we've all been unable to connect using the free wi-fi. So I'm actually doing this post by using a stolen free-riding wi-fi from someone in the neighborhood. (So much thanks to whoever calls himself "Iliketogetmywheelsturned." Hmmm, maybe a mechanic nearby.)

The A Bon Port actually has this nice long wooden table where I'm sitting right now. At the end of the table is a whole bunch of outlets if you need to plug in your computer. There's also a nice lounge area where most of the people are seated now.

I ordered a cup of Peppermint Leaf tea and this lemon crepe (which is called the "Picpus") for $4.25. It was all right, nothing spectacular. The lemon flavor was a bit bland, so I mostly got any taste from the powdered sugar sprinkled on top. They offer 9 types of sweet crepes and 10 types of savory crepes. (The savory crepes are most expensive at $7.50 each. They also have sandwiches, salads, and Belgian waffles.)

Once the cafe filled up, it seemed more like a happening place. But the wi-fi is a bit wonky, like I said. Still, it is one of the few cafe-like places in this neighborhood where you can spread out your laptop and surf away.

A Bon Port Cafe
Location: 476 Castro St. near 18th St., San Francisco
PH: 415.558.0893
Food: Crepes, sandwiches, baked goods and Belgian Waffles
Coffee: Moschetti organic fair trade coffee
Tea: Honest brand
Wi-Fi: Yes, free (no password needed but a bit wonky for Mac users)
Outlets: Yes, five available near lamp in the back of the long table.
Restrooms: Yes
Seating: 12-seat long table in the back, and three small tables in the front with additional sofa with coffee table.
Cleanliness: Average.

Summary only...