Trying to Shake Up the Neighborhood 1817 Market St. (at Pearl), San Francisco Lower Hayes Valley PH: 415.874.9951 Open Monday to Saturday, 5 p.m. to midnight (till 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday) Major credit cards accepted Web site
My favorite drink right now is the Pisco Sour, the ubiquitous drink of Peru. I read about it a few years ago when I was first introduced to Peruvian cuisine, but it was difficult to find the drink in the United States because pisco (a kind of brandy) wasn’t widely available.
But in the last year, pisco has made a big return to California (it was popular during the Gold Rush) and now there’s even a bar bearing its name.
Pisco Latin Lounge opened last year right next door to the popular nuevo Peruvian restaurant Destino. (It’s no coincidence; they’re both by the same owners.) I dropped in recently to check out if they had the best Pisco Sour in town.
The long, narrow space had a mix vibe of Latin lounge and neighborhood bar. While the sun is still out, the natural light sparkles near the front where people can lounge on comfy sofas. Towards the back, there’s a tiny platform area called the “pagoda” that provides a more intimate gathering. (You can reserve that area if you have a large group.)
From 5 to 7 p.m., Pisco Latin Lounge offers special $6 drinks. The night I was there they had a special cucumber martini and a mulled cherry drink. But I was there for the Pisco Sour ($9), so that’s what I ordered.
I failed to mention that I visited on a Friday night. I remember now because the photo shows my Pisco Sour—which traditionally made with foam of egg whites and topped off with Angostura bitter—came with a happy face that my bartender made using the bitters. He was so happy that it was Friday.
It was a bit weird drinking my Pisco Sour with the happy face because it was like I was kissing the drink every time I took a sip. (The happy face never disappeared because the foam stayed thick till the very end.) The overall drink felt like it had too much foam and too much Pisco because it tasted strong.
The bar menu contains several interesting Peruvian-influenced dishes, so I decided to order the Camarones ($10.50), which was the tiger prawns with goat cheese salsa. The prawns looked like perfect bar bites when they arrived because each prawn sat on a maseca chip. So you could pick them up and pop them in your mouth. But I have to say that the overall look, while convenient for eating, did seem a bit rough around the edges. It didn’t look refined. And the taste was lackluster, partially because the maseca chip became soggy from the shrimp juices and salsa.
As more people started arriving and the music pumped up, I ordered the Pisco Negroni ($11) just to see if I could find another pisco drink to like. Made with pisco, sweet vermouth and Campari, the drink was definitely pretty in color but packing a lot of punch. Not sure if it was the different variety of Pisco used or the combination of vermouth and Campari?
Service at the bar was mixed. A couple of servers were friendly and engaging, while my main bartender was more flirty with the girls down the other end of the bar than attentive to the rest of the guests. It’s rare that I sit at a bar and not have a bartender ask me if I need another drink, but that’s what happened as I often emptied my glass and not have anyone push another one on me.
Pisco Latin Lounge seems like a fun neighborhood hangout, but the food and drinks don’t provide any sparks to heat up a hot night.
Note: I’m not giving a rating since this is not a full restaurant. It’s a nice place to drop in if you’re in the area, but I wouldn’t go out of my way.
I wouldn’t say Pisco Latin Lounge made the best Pisco Sour I’ve ever had. So now I’m in search of the best in town. Where do you think serves the best Pisco Sour?
Single Guy has been in a funk. I’ve been eating out so much that I haven’t really had time to check out food events because I mostly just want to stay home and digest. I don’t think I could be a full-time food critic because I would never want to go anywhere other than the restaurant and back home.
Hopefully, some of these upcoming food events might pull me out and get me to do something other than eat. Maybe you’ll be there too? I think I need a food intervention.
August 1-2, Saturday-Sunday. First Vegan & Vegetarian Food Festival in Sonoma. Tofu and bean lovers unite for this food event in the La Plaza Park in downtown Cotati. About 15 restaurants and vendors will showcase vegan and vegetarian fare from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information call 707.591.1786 or check out the Web site.
August 3, Monday. First week of Go Game Street Food Adventure. OK, this is different — a month-long street food scavenger hunt! It’s all part of the San Francisco Street Food Festival, which actually takes place on Aug. 22. But before then, the people behind Go Games will be challenging teams to find the hidden treasures of the city’s street food scene. The team getting the most points wins (not sure what but I’m sure it’ll be tasty)! At work our department used Go Games once for a team-building event and those guys are a lot of fun and creative. So check out their blog to find out more about creating a team and playing. If you’re not into the games, then you can always check out the street food festival, which is part of the Eat Real Festival at the end of August.
August 3, Monday. Mozzarella and Heirloom Tomato Tasting Class at 18 Reasons. This Mission neighborhood community food tank features a demonstration of making fresh mozzarella by cheese buyer Anthea Stolz and tastings for heirloom tomatoes by farm manager Simon Richard, both from Bi-Rite Market. Class runs 7 to 9 p.m. and cost $20. If you can’t make it on Aug. 3, the class is repeated on Aug. 24. Click here to purchase tickets.
August 6-9, Thursday-Sunday. SF Chefs.Food.Wine. An all-star cast of chefs in the city will be featured in this weekend event presented by Visa Signature. There will be special dinners and tasting tents and demonstrations in Union Square but you can expect to pay a pretty penny for admission (tickets range from $90 to $150). Click here for the schedule.
August 15, Saturday.Fig Festival at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. It’s nearing fig season and this fruit is one of my favorites to photograph because it’s so luscious. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., CUESA (Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture) will be hosting a fig education booth to learn about different farmers and different varieties. Featured food demo that day at 11 a.m. will be Marie Simmons, author of “Fig Heaven.” Event is free except $1 donation suggested if you eat a fig bar. For more information, go to the Ferry Building Web site.
And don’t forget that next week (Aug. 2-8) is National Farmers Market Week, so go out and check out a farmers market near you!
Rustic Elegance in a Home 1005 Brown Ave., Lafayette Downtown PH: 925.962.0882 Lunch Tue.–Fri., 11 a.m.–2:30 p.m.; weekend brunch, 10 a.m.–2:30 p.m., dinner, 5:30–9:30 p.m. (until 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday), closed Mondays Reservations, major credit cards accepted www.artisanlafayette.com
LAFAYETTE Lately I’ve been having a lot of fun venturing outside my typical San Francisco and Oakland jaunts because of some fortuitous access to wheels. One was a trip to Contra Costa County when I got an email awhile back from Foodhoe Foraging who suggested we check out the relatively new Artisan Bistro.
Opened in March, Artisan Bistro has a “stimulus menu” promotion running till the end of August. A lot of restaurants these days are offering up specials because of the economy, and Artisan Bistro’s mini stimulus package is a “Dinner for Two” for $75, available every Tuesday and Wednesday.
So Foodhoe picked me up at the MacArthur BART last Tuesday and we headed through the Caldecott Tunnel for some East Bay dining, guided by her talkative GPS navigator.
Artisan Bistro took over what was previously an Italian restaurant, but it really looks like it’s in someone’s home because the structure was probably a former single-family home. But that’s OK because I often love the charm of dining in a refurbished home—it just adds to the coziness.
But what’s confusing about the home layout is that—to optimize floor space with more tables—the traditional foyer area had been transformed into a seating area. So the front door was closed shut, causing a lot of people to walk up the front steps and realize that they can’t get in. You actually have to enter through the garden. (Foodhoe wanted to sit in the garden for optimal lighting, but it was a bit windy and I don’t like things flying into my food.)
Another reason why I agreed to follow Foodhoe all the way to Lafayette was to check out the chef, John Marquez. Chef Marquez has a very impressive resume, working at such fine dining establishments as the former Elisabeth Daniel, the French Laundry, Per Se, and most recently chef de cuisine at Coi.
The stimulus dinner had changed a bit since Foodhoe first read about it. The dinner for two was now just a prix fixe menu of $30 per person (no wine). Anywho, there were still some very interesting offerings.
Foodhoe started with the Baby Spinach and Bacon Salad, which was a large plate of greens topped with white anchovy, red onions, parmesan and croutons. It looked like any other salad to me, but Foodhoe said she really liked the red wine Caesar dressing.
I got the Steamed PEI Mussels that was a heaping helping of fresh mussels dressed with shallots and sherry vinaigrette. The vinaigrette gave a nice twang to the mussels, but the aroma of bits of fried garlic is what really made this dish stand out. I was really happy with this starter.
For our main courses, Foodhoe was gracious enough to order the Flat Iron Steak Frites because she knows I don’t eat fried foods and the plate came filled with French fries. The steak was topped with caramelized onions and served with some spinach. Foodhoe liked it but the meat was cooked more done than the medium she requested. I took a bite and thought it was good, but nothing special.
I got the Alaskan Halibut served with maitake mushrooms and a black eyed pea ragout. The halibut filet had a nice golden brown sear to it, but I felt it was slightly overcooked. The ragout was nice, but one dimensional in flavor. There wasn’t enough complexity to add to the overall dish.
Our final course was dessert, and Foodhoe got the Cherry Bread Pudding served with whipped cream and a spiced chocolate sauce, and topped off with a chocolate-covered cherry. The presentation was beautiful but the bread pudding, to me, tasted a bit like pie and less like bread pudding.
I got the Tiramisu, which is one of my all-time favorite desserts. At Artisan Bistro, the tiramisu is served with a banana cream and white chocolate-espresso sauce. The banana cream had a nice banana flavor, but I thought it overwhelmed the coffee taste of the traditional tiramisu when blending the two together. Plus, my tiramisu was way soggy from being drowned in espresso. So instead of feeling light and airy, it felt wet and cheap.
The service was very friendly and professional, and Artisan Bistro seems to be garnering attention because of Chef Marquez’s previous employment. But it’s because of his resume that I found this dinner to be lacking. I expected more, and I was surprised that the quality of the dishes lacked finesse. Where was the creativity or imagination?
Artisan Bistro might fit well in the Lafayette dining scene, but you would think this city deserves more than just what might be considered an average dinner in San Francisco. Who knows, maybe Chef Marquez might get more creative or challenge himself more after settling into Lafayette. Let’s hope so.
Single guy rating: 3 stars (Pleasing but no surprises)
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
Previously: Melissa the Mom is frantic so she develops a strategy to speak slowly. Jeffrey gets bumped on the head with a boom mic but still comes off as vanilla. Jamaican Jamika is pissed and Bobby Flay wants capers. Then it’s goodbye to Jamika and her winning smile, which apparently didn’t work this time.
In this episode all the environmental shots are moving so fast, it’s like the editors are on speed. Jeffrey’s hair is especially bushy this morning as he takes his place on the hotel balcony to look contemplatively out at the beach. Melissa says she’s out-cooked everyone, but she still wonders if she can win. Um, Melissa, if you out-cooked everyone, then there’s no one left.
In reality, we’re at the final three, so it remains to be seen if Melissa can out-cook tall Jeffrey and Seoul2Soul (or is it Soul2Seoul?) Debbie. The three arrive at Emeril’s Miami Beach restaurant and act all surprised that Emeril shows up, which doesn’t really surprise me because, doh, his name is on the restaurant.
Emeril explains the challenge and, let me just say, this is the biggest product placement for the overly hyped “Julie & Julia” movie starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. Any one who reads anything related to food has probably seen a mention of this upcoming film or seen the commercial or even maybe already went to one of the screenings. (I’m interested in seeing the film, but geesh, do I have to hear about it every day?)
So Emeril talks about his great friend, Julia Childs, and they show a clip of her on his show. He tells the finalists that the film is about one’s dedication to a dream or passion. With that theme, the challenge is to come up with a three-course dinner that represents their passion. They have $1,000 to shop and will be assigned a sous chef. They also have to present a live demo during dinner.
For inspiration, they go to a private screening of “Julie and Julia.” The three talk about how they can relate to the characters in the movie. Debbie connects with Amy Adams’ character, saying she was also in a dead-end job (aren’t we all?) until she decided to quit and run her own restaurant. Melissa the Mom compares herself to the great Julia Childs, saying they’re two peas in the pod because they both were Americans living in Paris, and they were both underestimated by those around them. Jeffrey relates to the movie because it talks about Julia Childs going to culinary school and Jeffrey loved learning about food at culinary school. He is vanilla, yeah?
They head off to a local market and start buying ingredients to craft their passionate dinners. Melissa is doing a French-inspired dinner with a lot of puff pastry while Debbie is going Seoul2Soul with braised Korean-style short ribs.
Jeffrey doesn’t really have a theme to his dinner, but it’s mostly seafood with some Mexican flavorings. He goes to the checkout worried he might be over his $1,000 budget and the total comes to $317. What’s sad is even after he realizes this, he’s not allowed to go shopping for more. I guess time ran out, or I guess once you check out you can’t go back in. So now he’s worried that his food might not be elegant or sophisticated enough because it’s cheap. BTW, Jeffrey’s hair always looks wet in this episode. It must be hot in Miami.
Commercials. Wii Sports. Why can’t you just go to the playground?
The finalists arrive at this beautiful private beach home. Looks like someplace P.Diddy once used as a changing room before heading to one of his famous South Beach parties. In the center of the huge empty room is a minimally dressed table, and the three go snooping to see who’s coming to dinner. There are many recognizable names like Chefs John Besh and Rick Bayless, and a plethora of B-list Food Network Stars like the Neelys, Sunny Anderson, and that spiky hair blond woman who’s always trying to teach you the secrets of a chef. The Food Network wattage gets amped up a bit with Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto (you know he’s only going to say one word) and Ty-Flo.
The three head to the kitchen and standing there are the three latest rejects, aka their sous chefs. They’re each holding up the name of who they’ll be working for so Michael a Go-Go™ is there for Debbie, Health Nut Katie is there for Jeffrey and Jamaican Jamika is back for Melissa the Mom. There’s a lot of hugging and screaming, and mostly coming from Debbie.
Everyone starts getting down to prepping and Melissa gets busy making pastry dough for two of her courses. Then she channels Julia Childs again.
Katie asks Jeffrey how much he spent and after he tells her that he only spent $317 of his $1,000 budget, she tells him that maybe he can give them tips on throwing frugal dinner parties. Debbie is making her short ribs and Michael is worried it won’t be tender, but Debbie says to the camera that Koreans like to gnaw on their meat. And I have to say, this is why I’m not a fan of the kal bi because of the tough meat and the bones.
Debbie also focuses on Jeffrey’s risotto, saying it’s a risk because that’s the kind of dish that needs to be served up immediately. There’s a chance it’ll sit for awhile, but Jeffrey says he wants to go out of his comfort zone.
On Melissa’s side, it looks like she has a few mini crises to deal with as her orzo is super salty (and it looks like it was Jamika who salted it) and her potato tortes aren’t really golden brown so they could be undercooked. Hmm, wonder what Julia Childs would do now?
Commercials. Bush’s Baked Beans has that creepy commercial with the talking dog. Is this 1959?
Back in the kitchen, Melissa’s orzo is still salty but luckily she has two other pots of orzo that hasn’t been salted yet so she combines the two to try to dilute the salt. Then she does a smart quick change in her menu and move the pastries from the appetizer to the entrée, to give it more time to cook.
The chefs and guests arrive and that Francois Payard looks really angry. Don’t they know they’re being filmed? Melissa is up first to present her dishes and do her demo. I have to say, Melissa looks really good with makeup and her hair looks fantastic for TV. She looks very sophisticated, matching the settings and elegance of the dinner.
She starts telling a story about cooking with her mom and her culinary dream, and she’s very composed and the story is well thought out. Then she drops in that her mom committed suicide and I’m like, woah, and she just goes on like she just mentioned that she got carded at a bar when she was only 16. Everyone is captivated by her story and a couple of them are dabbing away tears. This is such an Oprah moment.
Bobby Flay is impressed and says she’s like a different person, almost poetic. Then she talks about her first course, which is a ratatouille. One of the Neelys liked the texture and the vegetables were nicely seasoned.
For the main course, she serves her brick chicken with potato torte. This is the course she does her demo and she starts cooking her chicken using the bottom of a skillet to weigh it down instead of a brick. Rick Bayless thought she did a fabulous job with the demo, but the angry-looking Chef Payard says his chicken didn’t have the crispy skin and it was still overcooked. Sunny Anderson also held her hand up and said her chicken was dry too. Everyone loved the potato torte though.
For dessert, Melissa serves up what she says is her mandatory dessert at home: cheese with a green salad. This sounds really simple and not very creative, but she saved herself by adding an orange-cream porchette, which is like a pastry roll, and even Payard liked it. Sunny called it “banging” and John Besh calls her an artisan, which is high praise. Maybe she is Julia Childs reincarnated?
Commercials. Fruit 2 Day says it’s the new way of eating fruit. Yeah, if you like pulverizing it and shoving it into a weird hourglass-looking plastic jar. Me, I like my fruit straight from the farmers’ market!
We’re in the kitchen and Jeffrey is searing his scallops, and the sear looks really brown to me. Debbie is plating up her dishes and her catering experience is showing because everything looks perfectly uniformed. It’s her turn to present and for some reason she decides to come running out of the kitchen doing her two-hand wave.
Debbie launches into her story about parents immigrating to the South and learning to make Southern food and then how she learned Korean cooking from her grandmother. She’s always personable and gets a laugh from the crowd. Then she serves her first course, which is a chili-rub shrimp over a savory Southern corn salad. Rick Bayless wonders how the Korean side of things was blended into the dish, and Ty-Flo felt like it was something he’s had before. I guess it wasn’t the ultimate shrimp and corn salad dish.
For her second dish, Debbie serves up her Korean braised ribs over grits. Gina Neely says it tastes bland while some complain that the ribs are not tender. Chef Bayless says he doesn’t mind that it wasn’t fall-off-the-bone tender, and that saves Debbie for now.
She decides to demo her dessert, which is a deep-fried Asian pear egg roll. She demonstrates how to fold the egg roll and then fries it up, finishing it off with powdered sugar. People felt she rocked the demo but Chef Marcus Samuelsson points out that the dough in his egg roll was raw, which must have been so gross to eat. (I’m not a fan of raw dough, which is why I never grew up eating cookie dough.)
It’s Jeffrey’s turn to present and he looks really tall and handsome. I think he’s lost some weight while on the show. He talks about his passion and tries to talk about eating raw scallops for the first time. Then he demos the first course of seared scallop and to me it seems so elementary. I would be embarrassed to teach this crowd how to properly sear a scallop. But they’re all very attentive and give him good grades for making the demo simple and energetic.
Then Jeffrey serves up his risotto, and John Besh is already making a funny face when the plate is placed in front of him. Jeffrey talks about traveling to Italy with his wife, trying to make a personal story out of risotto, and all the guests are making weird faces. Ty-Flo takes one bite and has a shocked look on his face. Then the comments. Angry Francois Payard must be more angry after eating the risotto because he called it the worst he’s had, and that it was like soup. To him, he said it was like killing Italian cooking. But the worst comment comes from Chef Samuelsson who says it was like disrespecting Italy. He’s talking the entire nation of Italians coming after Jeffrey for making such a failure of a risotto dish.
To add fuel to the flame, Bobby Flay asks Jeffrey how much he spent out of his $1,000 budget and Jeffrey tells him $320 (he rounded up from $317 to make it sound more) and Bobby shakes his head in disappointment.
His final dish is his chocolate mousse dessert. Chef Alex with the long last name (starts with G) says it was delicious and in the end Tyler Florence says Jeffrey is easy to watch and he’d like to watch him cook.
The other guests give more feedback, with a lot of people feeling like Melissa served up the best food. Chef Morimoto, like I said, adds just one comment and that was that he liked Debbie. John Besh also likes Debbie’s personality.
Backstage, Jeffrey is squirming already because he’s still feeling the anger over his risotto. Too bad. I love risotto.
Commercials. Brooke Shields says she’s growing lashes but it totally looks like false eye lashes. If she’s really growing her lashes, she should show them without mascara so we can see for ourselves. But I have a feeling her lashes are always long.
It looks like the next morning and the three finalists are all dressed up waiting to go to judgment. When they walk in, there’s more talk about the “Julie and Julia” product placement. Then the critique:
Melissa: Her pastries were the best thing they ate all night, but Bobby wanted to see more in her demo. She admits that she gets intimidated and that frustrates Bobby even more because he thinks she has so much to offer but she holds back.
Jeffrey: He did a great job with his presentation but the seafood risotto just didn’t work. Susie asks why he didn’t spend all his money, and really, Jeffrey has no answer. His predictability may be his downfall.
Debbie: She comes off comfortable and energetic, but her food had issues (ugh, uncooked dough) and not much flavor. Bobby wants to taste more Seoul2Soul than just hearing about it.
Commercials. The Food Network just showed a promo on “Julie and Julia” and then it was followed by a commercial of the same movie! Now I may not watch it out of protest over this over-saturation!
Back in the judgment room, Bob Tuschman asks each finalist to say something about themselves that the judges might not know but might help them in sending them to the finals. Melissa says she gives instant credibility to the working mom market (she already said that), Debbie says she’s human and she understands the entire population of America (then she should run for president) and Jeffrey says he’ll always deliver on good food.
The three are excused and the judges talk. And of course, since we’re one week from the finale, they’re all talking about how difficult a decision this is. And I guess it is a tight race, and maybe they should just leave it up to America like American Idol. But now, they talk some more about Debbie and Jeffrey starting out strong and staying strong, but Melissa the Mom has shown the most improvement over the course of the series.
Then they bring the three back, and without much fanfare or back story, Bobby Flay sends Melissa the Mom into the finals, and of course she’s excited and grateful.
So it’s either Debbie or Jeffrey, either a girl-girl finale or a boy-girl finale. Susie sends Jeffrey to the finale and Debbie is out, and you can tell on her face that she felt cheated even though she thanks the judges.
Debbie packs up and then hugs the two finalists who stole her spot, and she says that she showed the real Debbie. And as she turns to leave and partially cries at the same time, she waves with just one hand this time because the other one is holding her broken heart.
Next time: They’re back in New York for the finale and they each have to produce their own pilot. Melissa gets confused about which camera to look in and Alton Brown gets snippy when Jeffrey calls a tomato an onion. Who do you think will BE the next Food Network star? Here's a promo of the finale episode:
The Next Food Network Star airs 9 p.m. Sundays (and repeats at the same time Thursdays) on the Food Network. Check your local listing. Photos courtesy of the Food Network Web site.
Yesterday afternoon I went to the Fourth Street shopping area in Berkeley to look for some dishware at the Crate & Barrel Outlet Store. When I arrived, I literally landed in hog heaven.
The Pasta Shop was hosting its Hog Heaven II event inside and out the store. There were grills (working with Café Rouge next door) fired up with sausages for sale and tables setup inside with tastings of local and Italian cured pork products.
There were thinly sliced salumi from Fra’Mani, salame from Creminelli, nduja and more from Boccalone, and a range of prosciutto, coppa and speck from La Quercia. My cholesterol never took as big a hit in one afternoon as it did yesterday.
And these days, you can’t have a pig event without an appearance from Ryan Farr of 4505 Chicharrones. Here’s a blurry shot of him as he passes out samples of his popular chicharrones, or pork rinds. I typically don’t eat fried fat, but I tried just one to see what all the fuss was. It did melt in my mouth, but it wasn’t as crisp as I thought it would be.
So to demonstrate how I’m so easily influenced by the grill, I had just come from eating lunch (a large bowl of ramen plus a rice ball) but still got tempted by these sausages.
I ended up getting one of the freshly made chicken sausages from the Pasta Shop’s Chef Scott Miller. I really loved how the meat was nice and succulent and not densely packed. It tasted fresh and delicious, but it was a bit difficult to eat with all the grilled peppers and tomatoes on top. But when in Hog Heaven, sloppy is the norm of the day.
Dim Sum that Offers Few Jewels 3288 Pierce St., Richmond Inside Pacific East Mall PH: 510.526.6800 Open daily for lunch and dinner Major credit cards accepted, reservations for large parties
My friend Vera has been wanting to try the dim sum at Asian Pearl Seafood Restaurant for awhile. Inside the popular Asian mall known as Pacific East Mall off I-80 (where there’s a Ranch 99 market), this dim sum place attracts regular crowds and on weekends get so packed they literally set up tables outside the restaurant in the hallway of the mall. (They do put up wall dividers for some privacy.)
So when she asked if I wanted to tag along with her husband, Ray, I said sure and off we went to Richmond.
We arrived fairly early on a Saturday, so our wait was a matter of minutes. The restaurant actually didn’t seem that big. It was nearly full, but not overflowing, so no tables were set up outside yet.
Like several dim sum restaurants, Asian Pearl specializes in seafood at night. So when you walk in, you almost feel like you’re at an aquarium or fish store with all the tanks of seafood. Want a crab for a pet?
The dim sum comes out via carts. Asian Pearl’s dim sum may be popular because it’s among the cheapest in the Bay Area, with prices ranging from $2.60 for a small plate to $3.80 for large plates. (There are also special plates for about $5.50 or $6.50 but we didn’t order any of the specials.)
The first cart that arrived had the cheong fun, or flat rice noodles rolls usually stuffed with chicken beef, shrimp or BBQ pork. Vera ordered one of the shrimp and pork. The noodles seemed fresh and the filling was just the right amount, but the tastes of the filling didn’t stand out.
Then we got a bunch of steamed items, including a tofu skin roll and sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaves. The tofu skin roll is filled with vegetarian ingredients like bamboo shoots and mushroom. My mom loves to order this because she thinks she’s off-setting all the other fat she eats in other dishes, but I’ve generally avoided this. But I have to say Asian Pearl’s version was quite delicious because the tofu skin was tasty and the ingredients inside were finely chopped.
The sticky rice in lotus leaves, however, wasn’t as successful. This is one of my favorite dim sum dish, with sticky rice filled with an assortment of meats, usually Chinese sausage and chicken. But Asian Pearl’s version seemed lackluster, with minimal ingredients. It also seemed like the tastes didn’t blend well together, and the shape of the sticky ball could be called rustic when it plunked out of the lotus wraps in a deformed ball.
We also tried some of the often-ordered dim sum dishes to see how Asian Pearl lived up to the standards that we have for dim sum. So classics likes siu mai (the ground pork dumplings with shrimp), wu gok (deep-fried stuffed taro) and low bok gou (pan-fried turnip cake).
The siu mai was crudely made, almost too much of the ground pork and packed so dense that it didn’t feel like a dumpling and more like a hockey puck. The wu gok had just come out of the kitchen so it was hot and had a beautiful flakey skin from the deep-frying (yes, this is one of the few deep-fried things I eat, but I rarely go for dim sum so don’t call me out). But it had very little taste and I suspect the taro batter was more potato than taro.
The low bok gou had nice crispy edges from the pan-frying, but it was just average. The ingredients didn’t taste necessarily fresh.
We also tried the Shanghai dumplings, which is the popular soup dumplings where a tiny bit of broth is inside the dumpling and bursts into your mouth as you bite in. At Asian Pearl, they decorated it with some kind of orange thing, my guess is shrimp roe. It tasted fine but it didn’t have any soup inside, so it didn’t seem authentic.
Much of the dim sum coming out in the carts seemed pretty average, and there weren’t anything surprising or different that caught my eye. The only thing that was unusual was Asian Pearl’s steamed custard buns. This comes either steamed or baked (I liked the baked better) and the filling is a sweet custard, which makes this so heavenly. (Koi Palace in Daly City makes the best I’ve had.)
The server at Asian Pearl says their version is slightly different. Vera asked how but we couldn’t really understand what she was saying. When we tried it, we all recognized immediately that there was a salty-sweet thing happening in the custard. My guess is they mixed in bits of salty duck eggs, which is a popular but expensive filling for Chinese desserts just because of the labor of preserving the duck eggs.
Ray liked the salty-sweet combo, but I wasn’t blown away. Plus, I felt the texture of the custard has some crystallization of the sugar, so it wasn’t as creamy as I would have liked.
Asian Pearl doesn’t really have a whole lot of dessert-type dim sum either, so we ended up just getting the classic custard tarts, or dahn tats. These were also piping hot from the kitchen, but the crust wasn’t flakey enough and was a bit too thick to really enjoy the custard filling. And one of the last dishes we grabbed was another one of my favorites, the char siu (BBQ pork) baked rolls. These were fresh and good, but we were stuffed by now.
Even before we finished everything on our table, Vera was already planning our next dim sum adventure, going over other possibilities in the Bay Area. So that wasn’t a good sign for Asian Pearl because if it were really amazing, she would have been talking about our next trip back.
Overall, Asian Pearl offers up decent dim sum but doesn’t really stray far from the classic offerings like siu mai and har gow. I can see why it’s popular because there’s no other decent dim sum tea house in the near vicinity (the closest would be the pricey East Ocean Hong Kong in Emeryville) but I don’t know if I’d be all too happy to wait for an average 40 minutes on a busy weekend. Go early or don’t go at all.
Single guy rating: 2.25 stars (Reliable but Basic)
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
Summer is the best time for salads because the warm weather makes it perfect for a light meal. But it’s also because this time of year there’s a variety of ingredients that you can use to build your salad with.
One of my favorite salads (although I don’t eat it that often because of the bacon) is a Cobb Salad. I love it because of the presentation, with all the chunks of ingredients before you like a rainbow. And it’s a very hearty salad that can really feel like a meal worth biting into.
I decided I was going to build a Cobb Salad with ingredients that I find at my local farmers’ market. Right now, we’re seeing an abundance of produce at the markets so you can get really creative building a salad from what’s fresh and in season.
This past Sunday I went to my local farmers’ market in the Temescal neighborhood. This is one of the smaller markets in my area (but most convenient because I can walk to it) so it was a challenge trying to get ingredients close to a traditional Cobb salad. But I think I did pretty well. Here’s a look at what I bought to make my salad:
A. Prather Ranch’s Whiskey Maple Sage Sausages, $7 B. Flame and Black Prince varieties of heirloom tomatoes, Lucero Farms (Lodi, Calif.), $2.99/lb. C. Avocado from a farm in Temecula, Calif., $1.50 each D. Cowgirl Creamery Herb Fromage Blanc cheese, $6 E. Red Leafy Lettuce and a red bell pepper, Pinnacle/Phil Foster Ranch (San Juan Bautista, Calif.), $3.50 F. Honey Wheat Bread from Feel Good Bakery (Alameda, Calif.), $5 G. Organic feta cheese from Spring Hill Jersey Cheese, $4.94 H. Golden beets from VB Farms (Watsonville, Calif.), $1.75 I. Lemon cucumbers and chives from Happy Boy Farms, $2.50 J. Half a dozen large brown eggs, Glaum’s Organic (Aptos, Calif.), $2.25
Putting together the salad was pretty simple, although my version took some time because I had to prep some ingredients. I had a craving for the beets, so I had to spend some time roasting them in the oven and then peeling them. I also hard-boiled one egg ahead of time and sautéed chunks of one sausage to render off some of the fat and to make sure it was cooked before adding it to the salad.
Once I got those ingredients out of the way, everything else was simply just washing, rinsing and cutting into chunks. (If you’re keeping track, the rest included lemon cucumbers, heirloom tomatoes, red bell pepper, avocado, the leafy lettuce and feta cheese. A traditional Cobb Salad would have roquefort cheese, but none of the cheese mongers had that.)
For the dressing, I did have to go to Safeway to buy some low-fat buttermilk to make a Ranch-style dressing. So I started with ½ cup of buttermilk and whipped in the amazing Herb Fromage Blanc I got from the Cowgirl Creamery booth (this is optional but I took a bite and couldn’t resist buying it) and a tablespoon of finely chopped chives. I tossed in a pinch of salt and that was it. If you like, you can thicken the dressing more with either some mayonnaise or sour cream. Add a little at a time until you get the consistency you want.
I assembled my Farmers’ Market Summer Cobb Salad and then served it up with some slices of the wheat bread. It was quite a filling lunch.
So this weekend, go visit your farmers’ market and get creative in making up your own Cobb Salad! Enjoy!
Previously: The grill’s fired up in Miami and Bobby Flay wants the food out. Jeffrey says Debbie said “whatevs” about helping, but she says she was just being selfless. Michael has a lot of personality but not for the Food Network, so he and his Lorax hair are gone.
Opening scene of Jeffrey on the balcony looking out contemplatively. Debbie thought she was going home, so now it’s her turn to prove herself. The final four walk out to the hotel pool, which looks amazing, and they’re greeted by a very serious Chef Michael Symon of Iron Chef America. He’s wearing a white jacket ala Miami Vice and Debbie calls him a “culinary monster,” which sounds a bit scary.
Symon tells them that they have to demo a recipe live on a local morning show. Then he sends them on their way. Again, why so serious? Where’s his trademark hyena laugh? I notice Food Network stars aren’t as personable when they appear on this show as guest judges. Weird.
The contestants arrive at the South Florida live studio and the host tells the TV audience that they’re going to play tricks on the contestants when they come out. This host totally looks like he’s on some Web TV show selling household goods. Is this all South Florida has to offer?
Debbie is up first and she’s making catfish with edamame succotash. Chef Symon is watching with his serious face in the back with the other judges Bob Tuschman and Susie Fogelson. Symon tells them that they’re going to swap out the catfish with chicken and hide cooking utensils to try to trick Debbie up. But really, she doesn’t get fazed at all, moving along smoothly by using her hands to beat the eggs (gross) and saying you can use the recipe for chicken as well as catfish (that was smooth). Overall she kept her composure and the judges love it.
Next is Melissa the Mom and the host pretends to forget her name and keeps calling her Debbie. Then he tries to help Melissa to cook by adding a whole bunch of hot sauce to the dish, pretty much ruining the tapenade that she was making. Melissa keeps looking at the guy and saying “is this a joke?” and she also talks really fast, which seems to annoy Tuschman, who calls her frantic. Debbie is watching in the back and basically laughing at her. When Melissa comes off stage, she knows something was up and that this was the twist to the challenge.
Jeffrey goes in to do his demo, and boy is he tall standing next to the host. He’s making a gorgonzola and pear grilled cheese sandwich, and the camera guy says there are problems with his mic so they bring in the big boom microphone and then later hands him a hand-held microphone. Jeffrey keeps on talking, although I thought it would have been smart to playfully ask the host to hold the microphone for him while he continued cooking. I mean, at one point he was literally holding a knife to the host as he juggled the microphone and knife in one hand.
Jamaican Jamika is the last one, doing an herb-roasted chicken breast. Bob Tuschman in the back is rooting for her to smile because she’s a bit serious-looking. Then the cameraman plays a trick on her by coming up super close, which I personally don’t like when people do that to me. I’m all into my personal space. Sometimes as I’m waiting for the bus, this same woman walks by every day and she literally is within six inches of my face as she walks by when the entire sidewalk is open. She’s one of those people that have to walk close to a wall of a building so she’s always walking up next to me as I stand by the wall waiting for the bus. Ugh, I hate it. Anywho, Jamika doesn’t like it too and at one point she hits the cameraman accidentally as she tries to bring out her chicken from the oven. In her mind she’s thinking “what kind of low-budget operation do they run here in South Florida?” When she joins the rest of the gang, they tell her she’s been Punk’d like the rest of them.
Afterwards, Symon lets them know that it was all a trick, like they couldn’t have guessed it by now. Then the judges give little tidbits about their performances before announcing Debbie as the winner of this challenge. She’s all excited because it’s her first challenge win, and then I notice for the first time that Debbie likes to wave “hi” and “bye” with two hands. I always get nervous when people do that because they’re like “wash-on, wash-off.” Why can’t you just wave with one hand like normal people?
Back at the hotel, Jamaican Jamika is sad about her performance and she’s standing outside the balcony looking contemplatively. They really like to get the contestants out there posing like they’re looking into their future. Must be some magical balcony.
Commercials. That dog in the Brawny commercial looks like a big skunk from behind.
The contestants wake up and now it’s Melissa the Mom’s turn to stand by the balcony and look contemplatively. I think the only one who has not stood by the balcony is Debbie, but we have half an hour to go so you never know.
The four arrive at the pool and Chef Symon is there, and there are four massive grills and work stations set up outside. Symon introduces Michael LaDuke, who’s the senior executive chef of Red Lobster (which is a major advertiser given the commercials we see at every break). The chef says the winner of this challenge will get their dish on the menu, and again I don’t get how this is a great prize since they don’t get any residuals from people ordering their dish.
They have 45 minutes to make a dish featuring a fish with some kind of shellfish. Debbie gets to pick first since she won the challenge, and she goes for tilapia, which is a popular white fish in Asian dishes but also one of the cheapest.
Melissa grabs the artic char, which looks like salmon, and Jamika goes for mahi mahi (Hawaii’s own). I didn’t hear what Jeffrey chose because all that’s stuck in my mind is that he just said he’s going to use lots of chilies so he can “blow Bobby (Flay’s) mouth.”
Speaking of Bobby Flay, he arrives looking all Desi Arnaz with his hat, and then he tells Chef Symon to stop everyone. Then Symon goes around and asks each contestant what they’re making, and as they’re talking, Bobby tells Symon to take away the ingredients they planned to use to spice up their dishes.
So for Jeffrey, they take all his heat and replace them with an Asian pantry, which I think is actually an advantage because I think Asian sauces are easy to cook with. Jamika has her pineapple taken away from her and she almost throws a fit, while Melissa gets a whole dozen of habaneroes to cook with and Debbie gets some Mediterranean ingredients: olives, capers and anchovies.
Commercials. Citi says not to use your pet name as a password (but your porn name will do). I wouldn’t be caught dead in those college dorm rooms decorated by Wal-Mart.
All four look really confused about their new ingredients, especially Jeffrey and Jamaican Jamika. For awhile Bobby goes around checking up on the four with Symon, and then later on the judges start peppering each with questions about what they’re doing.
At one point, Melissa the Mom is going over her steps and she’s talking to the camera about what she’s doing. And then Susie asks her who she’s talking to and she says herself, and everyone laughs. I actually sometimes do that too when I’m cooking, but I use my inside voice.
Bob Tuschman asks Jamika way she looks so focused. She tells her that she’s pissed because she’s so stressed. I guess Jamika won’t be wearing the T-shirt with the words “Never let them see you sweat” on it.
Speaking of sweating, who’s bright idea was it to cook outside in the Miami heat? I would hate to do that.
Finally, Jamika grills her celeriac, which Bobby replaced the pineapple with, and she likes the flavor and then decides to cut them up and throw them into her “Jamika-me-crazy rice.”
Commercials. This is one thing I thought I’d never see … Crisco extra virgin olive oil. What the …?
Everyone’s still cooking, and Melissa sure is smiling a lot. You know, I think it’s great when people can put on a happy face. But sometimes I get suspicious of TV people smiling non-stop. Don’t their jaws hurt? Maybe that’s why Symon is so serious when he’s on this show because he’s probably too tired from smiling on his own.
They present their dishes to the judges. Debbie’s up first and she made a rub for her tilapia. Bobby asks where’s the capers? And she says it’s in the sauce, but then she remembers she didn’t put them in the sauce, so then she pretends that there weren’t any capers. Bobby goes, um, yeah, there were capers, olives and anchovies. Debbie says it’s her bad for forgetting to include them. (I didn’t realize they had to use all the ingredients Bobby gave them either. He wasn’t necessarily very clear with his instructions.)
Melissa the Mom made a habanero-marinated fish and scallop and Bobby liked the balanced flavor of the habanero, which can be super hot. Tuschman, of course, comments on how she was calm and positive and “a joy to watch.”
Jeffrey is nervous about his dish, but everyone seems to be really happy with the Asian spin. Bobby comments about how Jeffrey is always making Mexican flavors and that it was nice to see him break out of his comfort zone. Jeffrey looks like he’s about to cry.
Finally, Jamaican Jamika presents her citrus grilled mahi mahi with Jamika-me Crazy rice, whatever the hell that is. Symon says he was disappointed about the way she didn’t really embrace the challenge, and Tuschman says it was painful to watch her as she muddled through what she was going to make.
Back at the hotel, Jamika is sad and starts crying because she knows she sucked. Maybe she needs to stand on the magic balcony again and then she’ll feel better?
Commercials. Yoplait frozen yogurt? Can you imagine? One day a worker at Yoplait accidentally puts his yogurt cup in the freezer and then (light bulb) decides to call it frozen yogurt. Oh. My. Gawd.
It’s judgment time, with Chef Symon joining in the deliberations. Since we’re nearing the end, you can bet we’ll constantly be hearing comments about “you’re all stars, but are you a star for today or tomorrow?”
Here are how the critiques when down:
Jeffrey: They liked what he did this week, but Bobby asks about his cooking show and Jeffrey talks about “Cooking Without Borders,” which, come on, is a stupid name because people will think of Doctors Without Borders and automatically think the show is about cooking in Cambodia or something. The judges say he hasn’t really shown many borders, and just one—south of the border. And then Tuschman calls him vanilla.
Jamaican Jamika: Bobby says she wasn’t Jamaican enough and Symon says she shutdown in her two challenges. Jamika says if you want attitude, you’re going to get it, but Susie says not for our network. In fact, Susie says “coo-coo” for the second week in a row, saying how Jamika is coo-coo for not smiling more because that’s her winning asset.
Melissa the Mom: Everyone liked the use of habanero and when they ask her why she should stay, she says she’ll be an expert among all the stay-at-home moms. And her attitude scares Bobby for a bit.
Debbie: Symon liked how she handled herself, but Bobby brings up the whole Capergate again, and then Susie starts to question how Debbie’s always stretching the truth a bit to “cover” herself, recalling last week’s “selfless” moment. Then Debbie breaks down because she says Susie called her untruthful and how that’s so hurtful.
Commercials. That BMW driving machine commercial is so weird because it shows the car driving on a big canvas with paint on the wheel but then they don’t show the finished piece. What? Is it too ugly to show? Kind of defeats the purpose of the ad, don’tcha think?
When we come back, Jeffrey is named the winner of the Red Lobster challenge, and now you can dine on Jeffrey’s dish both at Red Lobster and the Jet Blue terminal in New York. Woo-hoo! Next: The cafeteria at your child’s school.
So that just leaves the three girls left, and Bob asks them to each say something to convince them why they should keep them. Debbie says she likes to teach people and she has a unique culinary point of view, Jamika says she’ll be a star forever and “love me or hate me you’re not going to forget me” and Melissa plays the home cook card again.
Then they’re excused while the judges deliberate. Symon feels Jamika performed the worst this week, while Susie is totally loving Melissa the Mom. Symon likes Debbie, but Bobby doesn’t think she’s giving 100 percent.
The three return for judgment and Bob sends Jamika packing. “Oh well,” she says, like it’s “no biggie.” Jamika says she has no regrets, and then Debbie is talking about how she’s in the final three and she can just taste victory. Or maybe that’s just the capers.
Next time: Melissa dose her Julia Childs imitation, looks like they’re cooking for some major chefs in a beautiful dining room, and Bobby Flay is frustrated.
After the show, there’s a Red Lobster commercial with Jeffrey and that Red Lobster executive chef, but what’s interesting is that they got rid of the fancy French name for Jeffrey’s dish (some kind of ala nage or whatever) and the fancy fish Jeffrey used has been replaced with tilapia. Told you they were cheap.
The Next Food Network Star airs 9 p.m. Sundays (and repeats at the same time Thursdays) on the Food Network. Check your local listing. Photos courtesy of the Food Network Web site.
Last night my friend Joe and I finally went to see "Up" the animated movie, in 3-D. It was a beautiful film, with some fun moments, but waaaaay too sentimental. What's up with the people at Pixar? Do they want to be the next Hallmark Channel?
But one of the interesting moments in the film is the leads' reference to Fentons' Creamery, the Oakland ice cream institution on Piedmont Avenue. So after the movie, I suggested that we head to Fentons for some ice cream sundaes. It just seemed appropriate (or I'm such a sucker for subliminal messages implanted in films).
Actually, the story goes that the team behind "Up" would gather every Friday at Fentons as a way to celebrate the week. (Pixar's Emeryville offices are not too far from Piedmont Avenue where Fentons is.)
Fentons actually celebrates its 115th birthday today. So it's been around for a very, very long time. I remember first going to Fentons when I first arrived in Berkeley and my college friends (who were students at UC Berkeley) took me to Fentons for some ice cream. I'm pretty sure I was drunk out of my mind because I barely remember the place.
Fentons is still popular with the college crowd, and there were many Berkeley students or former Berkeley students there last night. One thing's for sure, there is always a crowd. Since I live in the neighborhood, my bus passes by Fentons all the time and there's always people waiting outside for a table.
The place serves typical diner food, but Joe and I were there for the ice cream and I guess the nostalgia since there are definitely better ice cream places around these days. But still looking over the menu was a bit overwhelming trying to decide what to get.
Joe took the lead and created his own sundae by ordering mango with coconut ice creams mixed with caramel and topped off with whipped cream. Joe loved the mango ice cream.
I saw that they had homemade pies so I ordered a slice. This is the peach pie. Sorry to say that it was kind of bad. It wasn't really the crust or the peaches, but it was the gelatinous filling. It was so sticky and goey that I couldn't finish eating it.
Along with my pie, I ordered a "junior" size of one of Fentons' classics, the Black and Tan Sundae. It's coffee ice cream (which I'm loving these days) filled with chocolate and caramel sauce. It's exactly what you think it is.
Here's a stuff animal of "Dug," the dog character from "Up," so you know the movie has really helped out business for Fentons, not that it really needed much help. I loved the dog character in the movie, he was sooo cute.
Fentons' ice cream may not be very special, but it's a very special place in many people's hearts. Fentons Creamery, 4226 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. PH: 510.658.7000. www.fentonscreamery.com
Right before the July 4th holiday weekend I dropped my pocket Fuji digital camera and broke it. This is the one I bring with me to restaurants so I can discretely sneak in some photos while I dine. So lately I've been lugging my big digital SLR to restaurants or coping with just the snaps I take with my cell phone.
It's tough being a food blogger without a working camera.
So as I wait for my little Fuji camera to be fixed (week two already), I went through the photos on my computer and realized I had taken a few pictures that I never got around to blogging about. But rather than deleting them, I decided to do this clean up post of just some of the things that never warranted a full post but is still worth looking at.
One was a return visit to Cesar on Piedmont Avenue near my Oakland apartment. After spending the day with my neighbor Joe, we wanted to go hangout somewhere in the afternoon and just casually drink some wine. We ended up at Cesar, and it was such a different scene, so quiet and relaxing instead of the crowded bustling vibe at nights. During the day, you can really see the beautiful interiors of this tapas restaurant.
While there, I nibbled on some jamon that were beautifully laid out like ribbons and served with these amazing crunchy caper pods. These are the pods where they get capers but before they're fully grown, so you get the salty taste of capers but in little seeds. I liked the sensation. Joe got this humongous bread pudding that looked so creative.
Cesar is a fun place to visit for an afternoon snack and wine. Cesar, 4039 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. PH: 510.985.1200
I went to an event at the San Francisco bar called Harlot in SOMA a few months ago. It had this really interesting decor that was part lodge and part Hollywood. The bar's theme is playing off the fact that the street in San Francisco once was where all the "ladies of the night" hung out, thus the name. So the tabletops had all these images of seductively posed women.
Harlot, 46 Minna St., San Francisco. PH: 415.777.1077
At the Grand Lake farmers market awhile back, I saw this booth with these beautiful cabbage where the leaves were so big and peeling back so gracefully. I think you might still see these around, although it's been awhile since I took this photo.
Once I had a craving for Argentinian food when I was reminiscing about my Buenos Aires trip. So I went to visit Tango Gelato in San Francisco, which serves empanadas, alfajores and helado, all my favorite things from Argentina. Unfortunately, the empanada was soggy (they reheat it in the microwave) and the alfajores was just OK. The helado (or gelato) was pretty good, and I would say that's the only thing you should get if you're walking on Fillmore and want something to cool you off. Ignore everything else on the menu. Tango Gelato, 2015 Fillmore St., San Francisco, PH: 415.346.3696
Awhile back I went to a Sunday baseball game with my friend David and we were desperately looking for something to eat for lunch. But a lot of the interesting places were either closed or crowded with pre-game fans. We found this small Carribean like joint called Primo Patio Cafe and decided to check it out. It had a fun decor but the food was average, and kind of sloppy. I had the ceviche, which was really tart and the fish was over-cured, David got a burrito special that was just OK, and I had the shrimp salad that was a bit watery. And it was a bit uncomfortable eating in the back garden because they had a plastic roof so it was like a greenhouse effect. Sunday baseball dining is tough going, I've found. Primo Patio Cafe, 214 Townsend St., San Francisco, PH: 415.957.1129
I bought these chocolates from Christopher Elbow's beautiful store in Hayes Valley. They were so pretty that I was planning to do a "food gallery" feature showing the beautiful design, but never got around to it. But aren't they pretty? They tasted sublime as well, like all of his chocolates. But it's been so long I forgot what the flavors were. I know the purple one was lavendar because I love lavendar.
Christophew Elbow Chocolates, 401 Hayes St., San Francisco.
I thought I'd do a post about where I go for Thai takeout. In my neighborhood, it's Sabuy Sabuy on College Ave. But I have to say, it's convenience over quality. The pad thai is great, but all the other entrees I've tried, like the curries and stir-fries, were bad with lots of wet sauce. But I love pad thai, and their version is fine for a quick dinner when I'm too tired to cook. What I love about it? They take just five minutes to make it! Talk about fast food.
Sabuy Sabuy Thai Cuisine, 5231 College Ave., Oakland, PH: 510.653.8587
And a recent trip was a visit to The Creamery coffee shop near AT&T Park in China Basin. This is a fairly new place and I love the design from the outside, so I decided to make a visit. The interior continues the nice warm wooden feeling, but the food was boring and they just had Mighty Tea to drink (I don't drink coffee, but they served Ritual brand). Most of the food they served were vegan. What? But supposedly they have wi-fi. If you just want coffee, then it's fine. But any fun snack? I don't think so.
The Creamery, 684 Fourth St., San Francisco. PH: 415.896.1445
Everyone Loves Free Food and (Not Free) Salumi 4395 Piedmont Ave. (at Pleasant Valley), Oakland Piedmont Avenue neighborhood PH: 510.601.0305 Open nightly from 5 p.m. No reservations, major credit cards accepted
I’m starting to feel like I don’t have to travel more than a mile for good food these days. With all the new restaurants opening in my neighborhood, I don’t have to spend BART money to go into San Francisco that often (and if there’s a BART strike, I can still walk to some great restaurants).
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the wonderful Commis that opened on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland. Today I’m featuring a restaurant that’s totally opposite from Commis—both in geography and price point. Both restaurants, however, are contributing to the area’s reputation as a food destination for very different reasons.
On the north end of Piedmont Avenue, Adesso is a wine bar as authentic as any you’d fine in Italy. Opened for a few months, it’s created all the elements of an Italian wine bar: house-made salumi and pate, Italian wine and drinks, lots of munchies with cheese and, of course, a neighborhood feel.
From the people behind Dopo just down the street, Adesso was designed as a place for people to drop by for some salumi and wine before heading to Dopo for a meal. That’s why when you look over the menu at Adesso, you won’t get anything larger than maybe a panini.
One of the big attractions of Adesso is its happy hour. From when the doors open at 5 p.m. till 7 p.m., Adesso puts out a spread of free food for anyone coming in for drinks. And I’m not talking about fancy pretzels and nuts. Envision marinated olives, marinated baby carrots, cece beans with rapini, tonnato with farm egg, lettuce gem salads, roasted beets, chunks of aged parmesan reggiano, croquettes and mini slices of ham and cheese sandwiches. These were some of the things I saw when I visited.
Because the word has gotten out about the great free food, Adesso is consistently packed, as you can imagine, during happy hour. (There’s a later happy hour from 11 p.m. to closing.) That’s why in my last two visits, I went around 5:30 p.m.
During my first visit, I found that many of the happy hour items, which are laid out against a mirrored wall in the back, were also featured in the antipasti section of the regular menu. Typically they cost $8-$10 a plate, but come during happy hour and you’ll get to taste a bite of each. (The only regular antipasti that’s never laid out for free is the oysters on half shells.)
I noticed on my second visit, which was on a Thursday night closer to the weekend, the flow of free food didn’t come out as quickly as my first visit. While there were some great items like the marinated roasted beets and green beans in olive oil, the selection seemed sparse.
One of the popular items, though, came out later and it was these really cute fried rice balls called arancini (I initially thought they were mini croquettes). Everyone zoomed to the back wall when the tray of these golden brown balls was paraded through the room. Since I don’t eat deep fried foods, I didn’t grab a big plate and instead just picked up two just to try. Like all the antipasti at Adesso, they were cooked perfectly.
The large bar is split into two halves. Near the front are about four seats that face the salumi refrigerated section, where you watch the sous chefs slicing the house-made cured meat. The rest of the bar is where you can sit at the counter and talk to the bartenders about the list of Italian wine offered. The bar also serves a variety of beer and can also mix some tasty cocktails.
I found that the bartenders aren’t as friendly as the servers at the tables. The guys behind the bar seem a bit shy about striking up conversations, or they talked mostly with people they knew and sometimes just ignored others. The girls serving the tables were all friendly and helpful, and would strike up a conversation more often.
The wine, as mentioned, are all Italian and appear similar to the wine list at Dopo. I’m going to say that I’m not a big fan of Italian wine found in California restaurants, mostly because the more affordable wine from Italy aren’t often the most ready to drink. They often are more tannic and require more airing to make them smooth to the taste. I found this to be true of the wine I tried at Adesso.
In my two visits, I tried four different varieties of red (two from the northern regions of Italy and two from the south) and none were incredible, IMHO. I found that the ones I did like tended to cost $14 a glass, compared to $9. So getting two glasses of the more drinkable wine can really add up, and I guess makes up for the free food.
Of course, Adesso is also more about the salumi, which is front and center as you walk in. During my second visit, I sat by the salumi counter and watched as they sliced various salumi for guests. The menu lists more than 30 different types of salumi and pate.
I decided to try a plate of what was called Mache ($9), which was described as being made with honey blossoms and saffron. How beautiful is that? The thinly sliced mache had a golden color because of the saffron, I’m sure. And the taste was very subtle. Not spicy, but tangy. I enjoyed it.
If you don’t plan on eating a lot of salumi or pate (cholesterol check), and you get tired of the free food (can that ever happen?), then you can also choose from a list of panini and what’s known as piadina.
Keep in mind, many of the sandwiches or rolls are stuffed with more salumi and cheese. So maybe it’s not the best alternative if you’re concerned about your cholesterol. Thus, the red wine. ;-)
On one visit, I tried the Roasted Niman Ranch Beef and Watercress Panini ($12). The panini didn’t look that large when it arrived on the plate, but it was expertly grilled and crispy on the edges but light inside. The Niman Ranch beef was shredded to make it delightfully light when eating, and the flavors blended so nicely with the cheese and bits of watercress.
The piadina was described to me by my server as a flatbread with cheese made into a roll. By far, the most popular is the prosciutto and mozzarella di bufala, but are you with me that sometimes mozzarella is a bit too much when eating cheesy foods? So instead I tried the Calabrian Salame with Stracchino cheese ($11).
The piadina looked more like crepes rolled up into a wrap. But when I took my first bite, I was immediately transported to Italy. Not necessarily because it tasted fantastic. Don’t get me wrong, it tasted good. It’s just that the texture and taste of the piadina is sooooo like the kind of food you would find in Italy. It’s that Italian pastry taste that some people like and others might think seems foreign. I’m in the middle of the two camps. It tasted distinctly different but I can’t decide if it’s a flavor I would enjoy day in and day out.
Since Adesso is primarily a wine bar, you can’t expect the menu to be a full dinner with entrees or, for that matter, an extensive dessert listing. But they do offer three desserts: an affogato, housemade gelato or a flourless chocolate cake. None sounded especially exciting, so I ended up trying the affogato ($8.50).
I’ve had mix experiences with affogato, mostly because a lot depends on the espresso served with the ice cream. At Adesso, the ice cream is homemade vanilla gelato. I poured the coffee over the ice cream and then fell in love with the flavor. The vanilla is a bit sweet and sticky, but I think that was the perfect counter to the coffee. After awhile, it does feel like you’re eating coffee ice cream, but that’s still good to me.
Adesso, which is at the bottom corner of a new condominium building, has a fun feel with a flat-screen TV and a Foosball table that rarely is in use during happy hour. But you have to come knowing what it is: a wine bar. So the small bites on the menu, even when they’re free, won’t really fill you, I think, to the point where you’ll feel satisfied. But the food and salumi are so tasty that they become a wonderful vehicle to enjoy some drinks, a bit of conversation and some neighborly love.
Single guy rating: 3.5 stars (Sophisticated bites pre- and post-dinner)
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
A few weeks ago, I was shopping at Ranch 99 market, the huge mega store of Asian goodies.
They always have the most unusual Asian produce (this is not necessarily the place to support sustainable foods since most of the produce killed tons of airline fuel to get here). Something that caught my eye was this beautiful oblong shaped melon with dark yellow sections. It was called a Korean melon.
I’d never seen these before, and I’m a big fan of melons during the summer. The unusual sectioning of the fruit reminded me of the fancy Italian melons I sometimes see at the grocery store, but those are more round like a soccer ball while this Korean melon was oblong and about the size of a big papaya.
I’m not sure why it’s called Korean melons. Maybe they originated there or maybe it’s just popular among the Koreans. Doing some research on the Web, I couldn’t find the proper Korean name. I saw “boseok,” “chameh” and “dua gan.” Any of my Korean friends out there know what this is called?
Like any other melons, I picked one that was firm with a slight give. I definitely sniffed it to see if I could detect any perfume smell. You know, that whole sweet nectar from the gods thing.
When I got home, I cut into it and the seeds and flesh looked a lot like a honeydew melon. But the sweetness definitely was more like cantaloupe. Weird huh? I thought it was nice to eat, but I wouldn’t say it tasted any different than a really nice cantaloupe. And it wasn’t super sweet. So really, it’s just a matter of whether you feel like eating a yellow fleshed melon or orange fleshed melon.
Serve it with a side of kim chee and I’m so there!
Previously: The contestants made their annual trek to the media mountain of Ms. Rachael Ray, and Michael gets overwhelmed by the cameras. Katie the Health Nut doesn’t look up, except when she did, she’s told she’s out. Hey, what? Why no previews for tonight? Well, we know at least they’re in Miami.
They open with this humongous shot of the sun. Quick, turn away or you’ll be blinded forever! Whew, that was close. We hear happy music and Jeffrey is talking about going on a vacation. They all pack up and leave for the airport.
Next we see them arriving at the Jet Blue terminal and there to greet them is Ted Allen in his trademark black-rimmed glasses. So they all know what’s next. That’s right, a challenge. It’s bad enough they have to go through all that homeland security screenings, but now they can’t board without doing a little cooking.
Allen tells them that there are several restaurants in the Jet Blue terminal and they each will have to cook a dish in 30 minutes for the particular theme of the assigned restaurant. Oh, standing next to Allen is Chef Michael Coury of the Jet Blue terminal restaurants. The winner gets his or her dish on the menu. The contestants all get excited but I don’t see the big whoop because it’s not like they get a penny for every time someone orders their dish.
They start cooking in apparently an airport kitchen. Some of these restaurants look really fancy. I may need to check them out when I’m in New York this September (yay, just about seven weeks until vacation!). One of the weird things we learn about an airport kitchen is that the knives are tied to the counter. At first I thought, oh, maybe they’re worried that the knife will fly around in the plane, but then I realize that this is a terminal restaurant so it’s not going anywhere. Then I realize that, oh, they’re probably worried someone will “accidentally” pack the knife into his carry on after eating at the restaurant. See, the mind of Homeland Security in the post-911 world. Sigh. This is why people think shoes and nose clippers can be dangerous weapons.
Everyone’s plate looks pretty good, I have to say. Jamaican Jamika is the first to present, and she finds Allen and that Jet Blue chef are joined by Bob Tuschman and Susie Fogelson (Bobby Flay is probably still at the opening of his Burger Palace in Connecticut) and a Jet Blue pilot and steward who shall remain nameless. Jamika talks about the seared rear tuna salad with orange miso vinaigrette that she made, and she starts getting diarrhea mouth. You know how you go on and on? And then she brings it all home by mentioning how she doesn’t like to eat a lot before a plane ride because she doesn’t want to use the airplane bathroom.
Sure enough, Susie comments about how she didn’t like the idea of a bathroom brought up right before she eats. Bob says the dish doesn’t seem very original. Maybe he wants to flush it down the toilet?
Debbie comes up and she was assigned 5 Steak, which is an American steakhouse. So what did she choose to make? A spinach salad. Susie, who’s really in a grouchy mood, quickly questions Debbie about the logic in making a salad for a steakhouse. Debbie explains that not everyone wants to eat steak at a steakhouse and the salad is a good alternative for women watching their waistline. Susie later on says she’s tired of people thinking that only women are concerned about their waistline. Lesson learned: Feed a red juicy piece of meat to a network executive and she’ll stop growling.
Jeffrey presents his dish for an Italian restaurant, so he makes a bruchetta with gremolata. But first off he throws in a few personal tidbits. Like did you know he’s Lebanese? And his wife is from Italy? Do we care? Bob almost peed in his pants because he’s so happy that Jeffrey opened up to him.
Melissa the Mom is next, and she has to make a dish for a Spanish restaurant. She comes out speaking Spanish and stuff and talking about her plank with chorizo and potatoes. She sounds very authentic, and then she throws out the tidbit that Spanish was her first language. How does this blond Arizona could be John McCain’s daughter grow up speaking Spanish you ask? Because she had a Mexican nanny. Oh. My. Gawd. How more elitist can we get? Of course, Susie and Bob just loves learning these little facts about Melissa’s personal life and the Jet Blue chef says the flavors are spot on.
Michael a Go-Go™ presents his French-inspired surf and surf (huh?) with clams and frisee. He originally wanted to use oysters but couldn’t find a knife to shuck them. So what the shuck, he decided to go with the clams. Bob thought his presentation was typical Michael a Go-Go™, so by now he’s getting bored of it all. Ted Allen didn’t like seeing the vein in the shrimp. Shuck!
The contestants come back to the table and Ted announces that Michael was in the bottom because his dish wasn’t executed well. Then he names Jeffrey as the winner, which was surprising to me because they all fell over their heels for Melissa’s flavors, and really Jeffrey just made a toast with an egg on top. Anywho, if you’re ever at Aeronuova in JFK, you can order Jeffrey’s gremolata bruschetta.
Commercials. Totino’s pizza roll. Isn’t that just an Italian hot pocket?
We jump to the contestants in a van driving through the streets of Miami. Melissa the Mom comments about how she knows she’s in Miami because she sees the palm trees. Um, didn’t you realize you were in Miami when you landed and it said “Miami International Airport”? Doh.
They drive up to the Eden Rock Hotel, which looks amazing! It’s been a few years since I’ve been to South Beach in Miami so looks like there are some amazing new fancy places. Just as amazing is their suite where they’ll be staying. No more bunk beds! Jamaican Jamika is sooo excited about the digs that she gives off this primal scream that they could hear all the way in Jamaica.
They find a note that says “Meet me in the lobby.” If Gloria Estefan is the author of that note and she’s waiting in the lobby, I’ll DIE! I love her! Come on baby can you do that conga? Ha! Oh, it’s just Ted Allen again. Were they on the same plane, or did he come down in the corporate jet? (As an aside, Estefan is on tonight’s “My Life on the D-List” on Bravo. Yes!)
Ted Allen starts talking about how Miami is famous for its night life and how they have to work as a team to cater a party. Each person has to make two hors d’oeuvres (BTW, I’m going to say appetizers from here on out because hors d’oeuvre is too hard to spell all the time. They should call it pupus like in Hawaii.) and one signature cocktail.
Because Jeffrey won the challenge, he gets to assign everyone’s tasks for the evening. They’re back in their suite on the balcony strategizing about what they’re making. Basically, Jeffrey and Michael will work front of the house and the girls are all in the kitchen with Debbie as the “expeditor.” (Remember that term from Top Chef when Tom Colicchio worked as an expeditor at his own restaurant? It just means the guy barking “where’s the food?!”)
What is that on Jamika’s neck? Is that a scarf or some Elizabethan choker? Anywho, they all start throwing out appetizer dishes they want to make when Melissa the Mom says someone needs to make a vegetarian option. When no one jumped on the idea, she says she’ll make it, which means she’ll be making a total of three appetizers instead of just two.
Next we see they’re at Whole Foods and they have one hour to shop. Debbie finds some daikon and decides to use that as a base for her spicy chicken. Michael a Go-Go™ wants to make some tuna dish but it doesn’t look that fresh so he goes for the salmon.
After some more shopping and Jeffrey stressing about the budget, the contestants arrive at a place called Nicky Beach that has cute little bungalows. They have an outdoor kitchen set up and they have two hours to cook and prep their dishes. Everyone’s making their dishes and we get little glimpse of what they’re making. Debbie is working the big grill and everyone else is in a mad rush to get things just right. Jamika can’t get the jalapenos to be hot enough and Jeffrey can’t get the simple syrup mixture to boil on the stove top. Apparently, things aren’t as hot in Miami as they could be.
While everyone’s scrambling, Debbie is all Zen-like focused on her two appetizers. Seven minutes are left and Jeffrey and Michael want to hand off their dishes to Debbie so they can go take care of the front of the house. But Debbie is all focused on her food, and Michael a Go-Go™ is telling her what to do and she’s all like, gotcha. (I don’t think she was really listening.) Jeffrey instead gets Melissa the Mom to take care of his food.
The judges arrive (Bobby Flay made it back from Connecticut) and all the contestants go out briefly and Jeffrey greets everyone. But it’s more like he’s yelling at the crowd and then he says something in Spanish or Cuban?
Once the party starts, Jeffrey starts passing out the appetizers to the people who are just lounging around the beach area. Jeffrey brings a plate to the judges and Susie’s impressed but Ted Allen notices that Jeffrey just put lump crab meat on top of a store-bought chip.
Things look really crazy in the kitchen, but Jamaican Jamika sneaks away to serve her platter of jerk chicken and mango-cilantro shrimp to the judges. But because she’s feeling the stress of cooking in the kitchen, Jamika pretty much just drops off the tray and says she has to get going. Susie, of course, is the first to notice this slight. Bobby says the jerk chicken needs to be spicier. Ted likes the shrimp but thought it was weird to have the slaw on top.
Melissa the Mom is feverishly cooking five dishes in the kitchen, and she starts to wonder what the hell is Debbie supposed to do as the “expeditor?” If it means she just works on her two dishes, then she’s doing a helluva job. From a far we hear the laughter that can only be Michael a Go-Go™, who’s just playing it up with the drunk crowd at the bar.
Melissa brings out her Miami salmon shooters and Ted loves the idea. She also has a chicken bite with grilled onion and a veggie asada, which is the vegetarian option. Bob says she’s pretty likeable and Ted is impressed that she did three appetizers. Bobby says there are technical issues to the dishes, but you can tell everyone loves Melissa’s personality.
The drinks arrive and Bobby is excited, until he drinks the spicy margarita and complains, again, that there’s no heat. Nothing is heating up in Miami. Meanwhile, Jeffrey goes around asking people if they’ve gotten a bite and of course everyone says no. Jeffrey, one tip: If you’re serving the dishes and you don’t recall serving any to those people, don’t ask them if they’ve gotten enough food. Second tip: Don’t ask people if they’ve had enough to eat if you don’t have any food to offer.
Bobby notices that people are tackling others for a shrimp. So he heads back to see what’s the deal in the kitchen. He asks Jamika how things are going and he says he’s hungry and starts grabbing at some food to eat. Then he leaves and says they need to get the food out. But all the girls are so crazy busy that they just keep on treading water.
Out in the front, Michael is laughing it up with everyone, but he starts to see that no one is getting food. So he heads back to the kitchen and starts to do some cooking. He asks Debbie if she’s been cooking his food and she just pretends to go along. Michael a Go-Go™ takes a plate of his food to the crowds and starts yelling “who loves you?”
The judges are getting a kick out of it, and Michael brings his appetizers to their table. He starts to head off but Ted Allen has him come back to explain his dishes, which were a salmon ceviche and a shrimp in sweet chili sauce. Bobby asks him how he’s doing, and Michael says he loves the crowds. Then he says he loves the live crowds more than he loves the camera. Dun dun duh.
Debbie finally takes a break and brings out her two dishes to the judges, who seem so excited to see her. Tuschman says Debbie’s two dishes were the best he ate all night.
The party’s over, and they’re all dead tired. Everyone knows it wasn’t a success so they’re all dreading the critiques to come.
Commercials. They’re really playing up that “Julie & Julia” movie about the food blogger who cooks every Julia Childs recipe on her blog. They already made a movie about my Single Guy blog, it’s called “The Hangover.” Just kidding.
Looks like it’s the next day, and the worried contestants head into the judges’ room where we see the three judges plus Ted Allen.
Bobby says the biggest problem was getting the food out. He was starving, he says. Jeffrey says the menu was too complicated. Jeffrey says he decided to be the host and assigned Debbie to organize the girls in the kitchen. Debbie says she did the best she could, and her eyes water like she was overwhelmed and no one wanted to help her.
Here’s how the rest of the critique went down:
Jeffrey: He came out strong but over-promised because his food didn’t deliver.
Michael: He’s the host with the most, but not everyone buys that and he can be too much. (No, really?) Plus, his salmon just tasted like a piece of raw fish.
Jamika: People liked her personality, what little they could see of it when she wasn’t rushing away.
Melissa: The vegetable option was a smart move but three appetizers might have been too ambitious.
Debbie: Everyone loved her two dishes and said they tasted the best.
Bobby starts to question Debbie more about her role in the kitchen, trying to figure out why the food wasn’t coming out. She starts explaining how she was drowning in all the work and that she was being “selfless.” But she says there was no way one person could make 11 appetizers.
Then Melissa the Mom jumps in and starts telling the judges how she did her dishes plus Jeffrey’s, and Jamika did hers and Michael’s. So which dish did you do Debbie? The judges sound surprise at this because you could tell they initially thought Debbie was being the martyr so Bob starts trying to figure out who did what and it starts getting confusing.
When they come back from commercials (I know, boring commercials this week), Bob excuses the five so the judges can deliberate. Once outside and back in their suite, Jeffrey starts getting into it with Debbie. Jamika is narrating the fight, and there’s a lot of finger pointing and blame, but mostly between Jeffrey and Debbie.
Back in the judges’ room, Bob seems happier with Jeffrey this week but not with his food. They like Jamika and think she has potential as a food star. Then they all fall over Melissa, who Bob and Susie just LOVES. She is definitely the one to beat. Then they talk about Michael and how he still doesn’t like the camera, and Susie says they saw an unattractive side to Debbie, who didn’t really help her team.
They all say it’s a tough decision, but you know they all just want to give Melissa the win already.
The contestants return and Susie tells Jamika that she’s safe. Then Bobby gives Melissa the safe sign. Then Ted tells Jeffrey that “you get another chance.” Woah, what happened to “you’re safe”? Is Ted being different or sending an indirect message to Jeffrey?
That just leaves Debbie and Michael and Bob says Michael is a gifted entertainer but wonders if that gift will translate in front of a camera. Then he tells Debbie that her food was great, but she didn’t own up to her responsibilities in the kitchen. Something’s wrong with Bob’s voice right now. He sounds like he’s about to cough up a frog or something. Please don’t cry on TV Bob! He tells Debbie she’s moving on, which means Michael a Go-Go™ is really a gone-gone™.
Michael hugs everyone back in the suite and tells them that he’s crying because he’ll miss them. He wishes them well and he tells himself that he’s big and loud and the Food Network will never forget him. Especially since he stole a few plates and a box of cereal while walking out the hotel room.
Next week: They do a live demo with Iron Chef Michael Symon, someone takes away Debbie’s Asian ingredients, and Susie says coo-coo.
The Next Food Network Star airs 9 p.m. Sundays (and repeats at the same time Thursdays) on the Food Network. Check your local listing. Photos courtesy of the Food Network Web site.
Burger Bite for the Pre-Baseball Set 242 King St., San Francisco China Basin PH: 415.371.1600 Open daily, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. No reservations, credit cards accepted www.burgerjointsf.com
Today I went to another Giants baseball game and something I learned about non-AT&T Park food options in the neighborhood is that a lot of the fancier options, whether it's South Food + Wine Bar or Tsunami Mission Bay, are all closed on Sundays. It's like everyone doesn't show up in China Basin on a Sunday to eat, except when there are thousands of baseball fans who are tired of paying $8 for a hot dog.
I'm surprised because seems like restaurants could make a killing on a day game. So when my friend David and I looked for options after we got to the game early to claim our Brian Wilson bobblehead, we settled on one of the few options opened, the Burger Joint outlet on King Street just a few yards from "The Yard."
Burger Joint is part of a local chain that has four other locations in the city, SFO and Burlingame. When we walked in, I was actually surprised that the place wasn't more packed given the crowds streaming to the ballpark and the lack of eating options elsewhere. That just meant no major lines for us to deal with.
The restaurant offers a limited menu, mostly a hamburger, cheeseburger, a veggie-burger, grilled chicken sandwich and hot dog. The ingredients boast Niman Ranch beef. The Web site calls itself a 50s-inspired diner, but I have to say I didn't feel like I was in some 50s diner. It just looked like a fancy burger joint. (I guess it's a good thing that's the name.)
David had the turkey burger ($8.95) because he's more health-conscious than I am (he even eats veggie burgers, which I never touch). Burger Joint serves up your burger deconstructed so you can build it yourself along with the tomato slice, red onions, lettuce and pickles. David specifically made sure his burger was a no-mayonnaise zone because he's a mayo hater.
He liked his turkey burger although he wasn't a fan of the tomato, which was a bit mealy and probably the typical hot house tomatoes. But his bun was different than what I had, maybe a wheat bun?
I got the straight-forward hamburger ($7.95) made of Niman Ranch beef and served with French fries. I also got a root beer float ($3.95) because it was a day for something cold and nostalgic. The root beef float had a lot of ice cream, which was nice.
The burger was great but I felt the sesame bun was lacking. It was almost like the buns you buy at the grocery store, and it didn't hold up against the meat juices, causing it to be soggy at the bottom. For the fries, I generally would ignore it on my plate because you know how I don't eat deep fried food, but the menu specifically pointed out that it was prepared with peanut oil. So I figured that must be a healthy option, reasoning that they wouldn't point out the fact that they were made in bad oil, right? So I ate them and it was OK, nothing amazing. They were the thick steak fries, and if I cheat on my healthy eating I feel like it should be with shoestring fries.
Side note: There is a flat screen TV in the back that, of course, shows the game so it does give it a slight sports bar feeling.
They don't ask you how you want your burgers at Burger Joint because it's apparently all made the same degree of doneness, which was fine with me. Also, I did feel there was a slightly longer wait for the food to get to your table than at a fast-food joint, which, yeah I know, this isn't.
Overall, Burger Joint is pretty satisfying even though the menu is limited. It's a nice place to grab a bite before or after a baseball game.
Since this is a mini review, I won't be doing any ratings. But this is a place that serves up a decent burger and is good at a pinch when everything else is closed around town.
The summer stone fruits are out at the farmers markets right now, but something that caught my eye while strolling the Grand Lake Farmers Market in Oakland were these lovely cipolline Italian onions. First off, they have such an odd, funny shape. But they had the transcendent glow to them that made them seem so enticing. What would you do with them? Do you think it would work in a French onion soup recipe? I bet Italians use this a lot in summer salads.
BTW, the Grand Lake Farmers Market had a new layout to their booths. Basically, they switched all the crafts booth to the other side, giving the farmers' booths more room to show off their produce. Such a simple change and it really made a difference. It no longer feels cramped. Kudos to the smart person who sat there one day and thought, hmmm, wonder what would happen if we just switched sides?
The Personal Touch in Your Pasta 2401 Harrison St., San Francisco Mission District PH: 415.826.7000 Dinner daily from 5:30 p.m. to midnight Reservations, major credit cards accepted flourandwater.com
People are going crazy for pizza in the Bay Area. It seems like there’s a new pizza place popping up every week, especially ones serving up those thin-crust wood-burning variety.
Flour + Water is the latest establishment creating buzz about its pizza. In the outskirts of the hip Mission neighborhood, this stylish but approachable spot has been the latest white hot destination, filling up its wooden tables and stools on most nights. And before I visited, I read reviews where people were calling the pizza the best in the city. (People are so exultant on the Web.)
I recruited my friend Ken, and we visited last week for an early dinner. You can make reservations on OpenTable, which I did but since we ate early it looked like it wasn’t necessary. (The place seems to get packed around 8 p.m., fitting with the eating schedules of the young hip Missionites.)
The service was friendly, from those who greeted us upfront to our servers at the table. I mention this because some people have complained elsewhere about how Flour + Water is so popular that the service can be lacking. And I admit, we might have had better service because it wasn’t as crowded when we were there. (Another reason to dine on the early side!)
Ken and I both got a glass of Italian red wine to start, and then jumped into the menu with the help of our well-informed server. Ken is a vegetarian who also eats seafood (he told me a term for it and I forgot already), and that night’s menu seemed to cater to him because it was mostly vegetables options with a couple of meat dishes for entrées.
We started by sharing the seasonal White and Yellow Peach Salad ($8), which was made primarily with wild arugula and dressed with hazelnuts and saba. This was the first time I tried saba, which I’m starting to see more often on menus. Saba is a fruity sweet dressing that reminds me a lot of aged balsamic vinegar, but not as tart. It was a nice complement to the ripe peach slices, but I thought the salad was really distinguished by the nuts, which added a nice crunchy texture.
We also shared the Biancoverde pizza ($15), which is a white pizza because it doesn’t use any tomato sauce but uses ricotta and mozzarella cheese as its base. The pizza looked huge and had the puffy, slightly burnt edges you see often from artisan pizzas.
The pizza was topped with summer squash and squash blossoms and a whole lot of arugula. (We should have thought out our orders better considering the salad was mainly arugula as well. Oh well.) Overall, all the flavors were just pitch perfect, with the ricotta blending with the squash and the slight juices accentuated by the salt.
The crust, however, was a bit disappointing. It was already soggy in the center from the ingredients. While I appreciated the fact that the pizza dough had flavor, I didn’t think it was necessarily that different than other good pizzas I’ve had in town. I definitely wouldn’t call it the best.
What may be the best, however, is Flour + Water’s pasta. There’s a nice assortment of pasta dishes, all hand-made. And Ken ordered the special of the day, a Cappelletti ($16) sitting on a sweet corn puree. What was so amazing about this pasta (which looks a lot like won tons to me), was the milky texture of the cheese used as a filling. The flavor was so fresh like drinking milk but still creamy. Ken let me try a piece so I could tell you about it but I so wanted to eat his whole plate.
Instead, I got the Roast Lamb ($20), which was served with spinach, potatoes and figs. The lamb was served in two parts: seared leg and loin pieces. They were nicely cooked, retaining a lot of the juicy elements of the lamb meat, but the flavor wasn’t anything different. It was solid but not as exciting as the pasta.
We ended out dinner by sharing probably one of the most popular dessert at Flour + Water — the Chocolate Budino with Espresso-Caramel Cream and Sea Salt ($7). The budino is a dense chocolate custard similar to crème de pot, but it was so dense that it reminded me of a flourless chocolate cake. I always like any chocolate dessert paired with sea salt (I know it’s so 2007 but I still enjoy the pairing) and I especially like the delicate scoop of espresso-caramel cream that really added to the experience of this dessert.
I’ve tried a few new Italian places lately, but I have to say Flour + Water really delivers in the sophisticated-yet-rustic creations coming from the kitchen under the helm of Chef Thomas McNaughton, formerly of La Folie and Quince. The warm wood interior also adds to the richness of this location, and the communal table and bar in the front are probably the hottest spot to eat and be seen.
I wish this was my neighborhood Italian spot because I really dig its earthy vibe and fantastic pasta. Flour + Water = Satisfaction.
Single guy rating: 3.75 stars (Comforting pasta)
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
Here's my latest contribution to the 3 Bucks Bites site, and it's amazingly ZERO dollars. That's right, free food. Well, you have to go during happy hour and you have to buy drinks, but it's so worth it because the happy hour spread at Adesso wine bar in Oakland is so tasty. Get a preview with this 3 Bucks post, but come back next week when I do a full review on Adesso, another neighborhood gem in Oakland.
For this month’s Test Kitchen from the pages of Food and Wine Magazine, you guys overwhelmingly voted for me to try the Bucatini Carbonara recipe (more than 51 percent) over the other contenders.
This was also my favorite to try, so I was looking forward to making it.
The recipe comes from Chef Linton Hopkins of the Holeman and Finch Public House, a gastropub in Atlanta. Hopkins was one of 10 people featured as the Best New Chefs 2009 for the cover story. (Bay Area locals included Nate Appleman of A16 in San Francisco, who’s having a fantastic year coming off a James Beard Award win; and Christopher Kostow of Meadowood-Napa Valley in St. Helena.)
Each chef was asked to publish a quick-and-easy recipe. Chef Hopkins offered up his Bucatini Carbonara, which he supposedly adds a Southern twist to this Italian classic by using house-cured pork and local farm fresh eggs from Georgia.
Click here to find the complete recipe. But below you’ll see me tackle this super easy dish.
Your biggest challenge might be finding the bucatini pasta. It’s not normally found at your supermarkets. I actually went to a gourmet store, specifically my neighborhood Pasta Shop at Rockridge’s Market Hall. They have an assortment of fancy dried pasta, but I couldn’t specifically find bucatini. Thankfully, the recipe says you can also look for “perciatelli” and I found a packet of that at the Pasta Shop. It’s like perciatelli and bucatini are interchangeable because on the packet of perciatelli, I saw the instructions sometimes refer to it as bucatini. To be honest, it really just looks like thick spaghetti. The only difference I found is that the perciatelli (or bucatini) had a hollow center, almost like a thin straw.
Pancetta, or Italy’s version of bacon, is another key ingredient. I rarely cook with pancetta because I generally don’t cook with bacon-like products, but pancetta is my favorite of the bacon family because it is more silky and milder in flavor than American bacon. Pancetta can often be found in Italian delis or in the specialty meat sections of your grocery store. (I found it pre-packed in the deli section of Whole Foods.)
As you’re cooking your pasta, you start off by cooking the pancetta to render off the oil. It really creates a lot of oil, so this dish is not for cholesterol-minded people (which I generally am but I’m just cooking what I’m told!). It takes about 10 minutes to render off the fat over medium heat and then you add diced onions and a clove of finely diced garlic.
Another key ingredient to carbonara is the raw egg yolk. Yes, like several Italian specialties (i.e., tiramisu and Caesar salads), you have to add a raw egg, and specifically just the yolk. (I still have the whites wondering what to do with them.) The yolk adds to the creaminess of the dish. Of course, the heavy cream and parmesan reggiano cheese makes it luxurious as well.
Once you add the pasta to the cooked pancetta and onions, you add the heavy cream and cook for a couple of minutes to let it thicken. Then you take the skillet off the heat to add the cheese and yolk (you don’t want scrambled eggs) and then finish the dish off with some chopped Italian parsley. That’s it!
Because it’s such a rich dish (I literally could hear my arteries hardening), you definitely need to eat this with a nice red wine. I happened to have a California merlot in my cabinet, which went nicely. But you can pair with any medium Italian red or even an Argentine malbec. Of course, I also made some garlic bread to go with it.
Chef Hopkins suggests serving these in small bowls as a starter to a dinner. So the recipe makes about four servings. But I bet you could combine two portions and make it a quick weeknight dinner. Here’s how my bucatini carbonara turned out. How do you think it compares to the photo of the one in Food and Wine?
My tips and warnings about this recipe:
If you can’t find bucatini or perciatelli, I think thick spaghetti will do just fine.
The recipe called for four egg yolks, but I felt like that was a lot. You could probably get away with just three or even two if you’re not a fan of raw eggs. In fact, I made the recipe a second night with just the heavy cream without the yolks and it tasted just as good. (The yolk gives your bucatini dish a pastel yellow color, though, if you like that look.)
I know this is probably not very authentic for carbonara, but I think this dish would be helped by adding frozen peas for more substance.
The idea of serving this up in a bowl is smart because the sauce settles to the bottom. I like eating my pasta with sauce partially clinging and not drowned in the sauce. This recipe makes a lot of sauce so it’s nice to just find it at the bottom of your bowl. That’s where the garlic bread comes in!
Ease of cooking: This was super easy like promoted. What I liked about it was that it’s an all-in-one pan dish because you combine the pasta with your sauce (although you still have to wash the pot you cooked your pasta in) and then serve it up. Cooking time is less than 20 minutes.
Taste: You mostly get the flavoring of the pancetta as an underlining smoky flavor in this pasta dish. I enjoyed it but I have to say that how fresh your egg yolks are will really make a difference. My eggs weren’t super fresh, so I could really taste a raw egg flavor in my final product. (Also, cutting back on the egg yolks like I mentioned earlier might also help.) This is an extremely rich dish to eat and is probably not something I’d eat all the time. I do like the simplicity and ease, but it’s not going to do my heart any good.
Overall Grade: B+ (good but not spectacular)
Don’t forget to vote in the poll on the top right column on what recipe from Food and Wine’s August edition you want me to try!
Previously: Melissa shows she can cook shoulder to shoulder (well, not exactly), and Ty-Flo likes to yell stop to Michael. Katie cooks raw and can’t deliver, and Teddy bums out Susie so he’s leaving since she’s a judge. Tonight: Everyone meets Rachael Ray, Michael is nervous, and Bobby wants someone to cook something. Anything.
So we must be half way through, right? Hope so. Can you believe there’s nothing else showing on Sunday nights? Can’t wait for “Brothers & Sisters” to start up again.
Food Network apparently spent a pretty penny for all the aerial views of Manhattan because we’ve got several lingering shots for the opening. I guess that gives us a better look at Michael a Go-Go’s red streak of hair that still stands up in the morning. Katie knows she messed up last week and wants this week to be her redemption. Let’s see how that plays out. They all march out and head to the Food Network kitchen, and Bobby Flay is already there to greet them.
Bobby says this is their mid-terms (yes, they are half-way through!) and they have to show their culinary skills and tell stories at the same time. And they’ll do it all before a camera. And not just one set up at the Food Network station, but live on Rachael Ray’s daytime show. Everyone laughs when they see Ray on the video. Don’t know if they’re all giddy with excitement or it’s that nervous laughter like they feel awkward around her and don’t know what to say, so they just laugh. I bet Rachael gets that a lot on the street.
Ray talks about her YUM-O work (I bet she trademarked that) and how she likes to cook for kids. She says their challenge is to turn a grown up dish into something kid-friendly. Yes, this is the dreaded kids challenge, so you can bet there’ll be munchkins for judges.
Bobby introduces some adult-like ingredients and gives an ingredient to every two contestant. So Jeffrey and Jamaican Jamika get tofu, and Jeffrey says he’s never cooked with it. How can you live in California and never cook with tofu? Melissa the Mom and Michael a Go-Go™ gets Brussels sprouts and Debbie and the Health Nut gets squid. (I think they’ve got the toughest of the three ingredients.)
They start grabbing ingredients and Katie starts cutting her squid, saying she’s going to marinate them in citrus and make a salad. She thinks this challenge is easy for her because she’s all about making healthy foods for kids. Katie, you have to make the kids eat it!
Debbie’s going to make her squid look like onion rings, which I think is clever. Jeffrey is making chicken nuggets out of his tofu (why haven’t anyone thought of tofu nuggets yet?) and Jamika is going to cut her tofu to look like corn and make what looks like a corn salad (kind of boring I think).
Melissa the Mom of course is all excited about cooking for kids and she talks about texture and how kids like the texture of mashed potatoes so she’s going to puree her Brussels sprouts and hide them in the mashed potatoes. (Does she always just serve her kids side dishes?) But then she says she also does a trick of putting a raw piece of the vegetable on the side, which I’m confused because doesn’t this defeat the purpose of hiding the vegetable in the mashed potatoes in the first place?
When time runs out, Bobby introduces the judges, which, of course, are three little kids (two girls and one boy). And one additional judge: Rachael Ray. That’s so weird that she was there all the time, so not sure why they had her on the video in the first place. So odd. I guess they thought the contestants would be all star-struck that they wouldn’t be able to focus on cooking so bring on the star afterwards? Anyone else notice how the Food Network treats Ray like the queen? Even more so than the Barefoot Contessa, and she’s a Contessa!
Each contestant come up to do a two-minute demo. Katie the Health Nut is up first and she’s being really animated and sounds like she’s right off of Sesame Street. She demonstrates using a hollowed-out yellow bellpepper to hold her citrus calamari salad and she throws in Yum-O for good measure. The kids think she’s funny and most seem to eat the dish.
Debbie does her demo, making squid rings, but as she’s talking she’s having technical difficulties with her products and then runs out of time. One kid eats her dish and so cute calls the squid an octopus. I guess all squirmy seafood is the same in a kid’s eyes.
Melissa the Mom comes in and does her mashed potatoes with a Brussels sprout puree with cream cheese. But I guess she’s talking so much she doesn’t realize that she’s running out of time so she never explained her trick about the raw Brussels sprout. The boy judge likes her presentation but Rachael thinks it’s weird eating the raw Brussels sprouts on the side.
Next up is Michael a Go-Go™ and he’s making tomato soup and uses the Brussels sprouts to make these cute fried puppets. He realizes that he’s repeating himself on camera and in his mind it’s a crash and burn situation. But he drew a happy face and that always does the trick, right? The boy judge says the food wasn’t fried enough. BTW, this boy talks a lot. He’s the only one speaking most of the time. The other girl might thrown in a “it’s good” now and then. Plus, all the kids seem to be good about trying the dishes. They should have gotten more picky-eaters.
Jeffrey comes on and talks about making spaghetti with his daughter but his son likes chicken nuggets, so he’s combining the two to make a tofu nugget pasta dish. He starts talking about breading the tofu like a beach scene with the tofu jumping in oil and then swimming in breading. It’s kind of overkill in my mind because I think the kids get the concept of breading a tofu. But that kills his time.
Last is Jamaican Jamika and she’s really even keeled. In fact, it’s almost lackluster in emotions. She talks about cooking for her nephew, CJ, and she makes her corn salad with tofu bits. Although she spends a whole lot of time playing with the corn husk. Cute for the kids, but she starts to run out of time. Rachael Ray looks more bored than the kids.
The contestants return and Rachael give them each a brief summary. She pretty much gives positive reports to everyone except Jamika, who she says needs to learn to cook and speak at the same time. Jamaican Jamika has really dropped to the bottom after weeks on the top. What happened?
Commercials. Meatloaf, the singer, is singing for A-1 steak sauce being poured on a meatloaf. Where was this synergy back in 1989? BTW, Meatloaf is still weird.
Rachael Ray tells the contestants their next challenge is to do a live demo on her show, but this time they have to think of an adult version of a popular kid meal. And they have to work in teams. I don’t think working on teams are very fair for a cooking demo on live TV. Already you’re nervous and then now you have to worry about sharing the spotlight with someone else. This is a disaster cooked up by the Food Network producers, I’m sure.
The teams are the same as this morning, so Katie and Debbie are working together to adultify chicken nuggets and mac and cheese, Michael and Melissa are doing tomato soup and grilled cheese (I’ve seen this done on fancy restaurant menus all the time) and Jamika and Jeffrey are teamed to redo hot dogs and baked beans, which sounds more like camp food than kid meals.
The contestants head off to shop for their groceries and of course Melissa the Mom is manic while Michael is drifting every where, Katie is pushing healthier choices on Debbie and Jamika and Jeffrey are playing the passive-aggressive game with their menu planning.
Back at the studio, they have an hour and a half to prep their demo. We get a little bit more about what they’re planning to make and Michael is doing something with lardon, which sounds really bad for you. This is the kind of things I avoid on a menu.
Jeffrey’s awkward relationship with Jamika continues in the kitchen. I can’t tell why they’re not getting along. Jeffrey’s friendly enough and Jamika used to be really confident in her cooking. But it’s like Jamika shut down this episode and is on cruise control and Jeffrey just wants to work by himself and just doesn’t want to deal with Jamika. Anywho, they’re making baked beans with chorizo and shrimp. Debbie and Katie get nosey and look over to ask what they’re making and when Jeffrey and Jamika tell them in their lackluster way, Debbie and Katie lie and says “oh, that sounds terrific.” Sabotage.
They had back to the apartments and Jamika is having a little breakdown with the girls. She’s all worried about her presentation, and Melissa the Mom and the Health Nut are trying to support her, but all Jamika can do is cry saying she feels like she’s coming up short on the recent challenges. She says she wants to hear the crowd cheer her name. Honey, we all want that. I have a tape recording of applause on my iPod right now.
Commercials. This woman in the Special K commercial is hungry and her stomach is growling really loud. That happens to me at work sometimes even after I eat breakfast. What’s up with that?
It’s the next morning and the contestants arrive at Rachael Ray’s really orange studio. They’re all nervous, but when Ray comes to greet them and ask how they are, they all say they’re doing great. Rachael asks the pointed question of whether they all got along in their teams and the camera zeroes in on Jamika and Jeffrey, but they lie of course and say they got along peaches.
The show starts and Ray introduces the judges, who are sitting back stage watching. Melissa the Mom and Michael a Go-Go™ are up first, doing grown-up grilled cheese skewers and tomato soup with lardons. They have five minutes to do their presentation, and Melissa goes off and running doing most of the talking because she’s demonstrating a mornay sauce first. Melissa brings up her kids again and Susie for some reason just eat that shit up. She’s already nodding her head like Melissa’s the bomb. You know who’s not the bomb? Michael. Suddenly he’s all quiet just doing nothing, and then he starts to make weird yummy sounds, you know, like Mmm good. Bobby yells at the TV: “cook something man!” He’s so frustrated at Michael, who’s not doing anything.
Finally near the end Michael does get playful as he lets Melissa feed him a skewer, and the three judges just crack up like Michael is the funniest man on earth. I don’t get it. It was cute but not fall on the ground laughing funny. Bob Tuschman says they’re both very likeable personalities, but they didn’t look like they were having fun during the demo. Bobby does like the food and says it was well seasoned.
Debbie and Katie the Health Nut are up next and they do a soy-dijon chicken tender with baked shrimp mac and cheese. Debbie starts off by making the cheese sauce and she says she has to use soy because she’s Korean, like that’s a rule. And Bobby comments that he knows she’s Korean already, but she always make that statement but don’t follow up with what does it mean in the cooking. I agree. It’s like she’s labeling herself.
Then they switch off to Katie, and it was pretty seamless and well choreographed. But once Katie starts doing her part of the demo, she doesn’t look up and that’s what the judges notice. They do end on time and they’re very happy with their presentation. But when they go back all happy, it totally gets Jeffrey and Jamika worried about their presentation.
Commercials. What’s the 50 million pound challenge? That guy at the drive thru window is intimidating.
Jeffrey and Jamaican Jamika are next. (You know, I feel like I nicknamed Jamika Jamaican Jamika for fun but she really hasn’t cooked much Jamaican dishes.) They’re making Spanish hot dogs and sweet baked beans, and Jeffrey starts off talking about his kids or something about his wife. I’m not really sure because he’s talking fast. But he’s the only one talking and Jamika is standing next to him almost like Vanna White. But she doesn’t even smile, she looks super serious. The judges are confused about what’s going on and people are saying things like Jeffrey’s hogging the spotlight or Jamika has shut down. All true. They run out of time and don’t really finish plating their dish, and all the judges in the back look so disappointed and frustrated. This was the worst presentation of the three, and everyone knows it. What’s worse is the judges eat the hot dogs and baked beans and don’t like it.
Rachael catches up with the judges back stage and gives her thoughts, but it really doesn’t matter since she won’t be joining them at judgment table. Back on her show, Ray announces to the contestants that the surviving five will move on to next week’s show which will be in Miami. What’s with this traveling show? Why can’t they stay in New York? They so want to be like “Top Chef.”
Commercials. Big Daddy’s House is coming back for another season. Did anyone watch the first season?
It’s judgment time and they’re all nervous going down to the judges’ room. This week pretty much any one of them could go. Well, except Melissa because she’s now the front runner and she knows it.
They go through each team and this is how it broke down:
Katie and Debbie: Katie needs to engage with the audience more and her chicken tasted dry. Bobby wants Debbie to go beyond her Korean-ness. She cries a bit.
Melissa and Michael: Michael bummed out Bobby because he didn’t show his personality and Melissa explained her raw vegetable theory of how kids like crunchy things like apples. Bob loves that tip and wished she shared it, but I kind of think it’s a stupid tip because crunchy Brussels sprouts are no way like crunchy apples. Bobby asks Michael what he sees when he looks into the camera and he replies “the depths of hell.” A wee bit dramatic, aren’t we? He also calls the camera “judge-y.”
Jamika and Jeffrey: The judges go back and forth about who’s at fault in their failed presentation, the scene-stealing Jeffrey or the shutdown Jamika. Jamika is at a loss and says she’s had a tough week and her confidence’s shot.
The judges announces who will stay (notice they don’t say winner of this challenge?) and first to stay is Debbie, whom Susie says needs to “bring it.” Then also safe is Melissa (of course) and Jeffrey (probably the only safe bet for the guys).
The bottom three—Katie, Jamika and Michael—are sent back upstairs so the judges can talk behind their back. When they go up, Katie starts crying about how she had so much fun this week and still can’t get the judges to love her.
The judges are frustrated by Jamika, who checked out this week. Susie questions whether Michael is really star potential when he has a fear of cameras. Bob thought Katie’s demo to the kids was hard to watch, although I thought it was OK.
The three return and Bobby tells Michael he’s safe and then Susie sends Katie home. Jamika acts really shocked and there are hugs all around. Katie says the judges were looking for a certain person, and it wasn’t her. So why did they make her a finalist? This is the dilemma of a reality show. But the former gymnast says she still has gold in her sight. Or is that quinoa that she sees?
Next week: They’re in Miami, and Ted Allen is hosting a cocktail party. Someone’s food is sloppy, and Melissa plays the diva.
The Next Food Network Star airs 9 p.m. Sundays (and repeats at the same time Thursdays) on the Food Network. Check your local listing. Photos courtesy of the Food Network Web site.
Spent my Fourth of July at a Giants baseball game, and boy are they on a roll! Today's game featured ACE and Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum, who's turning out to be as big as a draw for the Giants since the Bond years. Since it was the 4th, I had to get myself a hot dog. And this time I got one of those Hebrew National's hot dogs. This is the "San Francisco" hot dog ($6.75) that's topped with onions, saukerkraut, and Thousand Island dressing and served with a pickle. It was my first time having a Hebrew National. I know, I must have just passed by the counter on the promenade level on the way to my seat. It's also my first time eating saukerkraut and I like it. With perfect weather and a Giants win against the Houston Astros, it was a classic Fourth of July. Hope you're enjoying your holiday!
The fourth of July falls on a weekend, which works out nicely for a lot of picnics and grilling. I am not going to either but will be at a baseball game instead. But I’ll be with you in spirit, and I can have more of a presence at your event if you make this simple and easy shrimp dish below.
This is a great time to get sweet corn, and that reminded me of this slightly spicy corn dish I learned to make in Buenos Aires. It’s called humita, and it’s traditionally used as a filling for sweet empanadas. But they taste so good and is so simple to make that I think it makes a great side dish, and in this case a base for my Spanish-style shrimp.
The shrimp is really simple too, basically just seasoned with the Spanish pimentón spice, which you can find easily these days at any gourmet store. It gives it lots of color and a spicy flavor. Throw in some garlic and it’s good to go.
I finish this dish off with some microgreens just to add more color to the dish as if the fiery shrimp wasn’t enough. I got these beet tops at Whole Foods that are so colorful for the holiday, but you can substitute with any kind of microgreens or sprouts.
Have a great Fourth of July! Enjoy!
Pimenton Garlic Shrimp with Humita Recipe
Copyright 2009 by Cooking With The Single Guy
Ingredients for humita 1 onion, finely diced 1 green bell pepper, small diced 2-3 ears of corn 1 T butter 1 T extra virgin olive oil ½ cup milk 1 t crushed red pepper 2 t sugar black pepper salt 1 T flour
Remove corn from the cob. In a saucepan, warm butter and oil over medium high heat and then add onion and bell pepper. Cook until the onion is translucent, about 2 to 3 minutes. Then add all the remaining ingredients except the flour. Cook the corn for about 10 minutes to soften. Then slowly sprinkle in the flour to thicken the humita.
Ingredients for shrimp A dozen jumbo shrimp or gulf shrimp, shelled and deveined (but keep tail on for looks) (about half a pound) 1 T pimentón (Spanish sweet smoked paprika) 1 clove garlic, minced Extra virgin olive oil Salt
Season your shrimp with salt and the drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with pimentón to lightly coat. Then warm up a skillet over medium heat and add shrimp and garlic to cook (add more olive oil if needed). Shrimp is done when they’re opaque (about 6 to 10 minutes).
Ingredients for salad 1 cup beet tops or other microgreens like sprouts Juice from one lemon Pinch of salt and pepper ¼ cup olive oil 1 T sugar
Combine lemon, sugar, olive oil and salt and whisk together until well blended. Then drizzle a little at a time in your beet tops to lightly dress.
Now assemble your plate, starting with a base of the humita. Then add shrimp and top off with your salad.
All photography on this blog are original photos of Benjamin Seto unless noted otherwise. All photos are copyrighted and may not be used without permission. Contact owner for licensing rates.
Trying to Shake Up the Neighborhood
The long, narrow space had a mix vibe of Latin lounge and neighborhood bar. While the sun is still out, the natural light sparkles near the front where people can lounge on comfy sofas. Towards the back, there’s a tiny platform area called the “pagoda” that provides a more intimate gathering. (You can reserve that area if you have a large group.)
It was a bit weird drinking my Pisco Sour with the happy face because it was like I was kissing the drink every time I took a sip. (The happy face never disappeared because the foam stayed thick till the very end.) The overall drink felt like it had too much foam and too much Pisco because it tasted strong.
As more people started arriving and the music pumped up, I ordered the Pisco Negroni ($11) just to see if I could find another pisco drink to like. Made with pisco, sweet vermouth and Campari, the drink was definitely pretty in color but packing a lot of punch. Not sure if it was the different variety of Pisco used or the combination of vermouth and Campari?
Note: I’m not giving a rating since this is not a full restaurant. It’s a nice place to drop in if you’re in the area, but I wouldn’t go out of my way.
