Dinner by Chef Sean Brock at Plum Restaurant in Oakland

Hope y'all are having a great Memorial Day weekend. Mine started out lovely when I made a reservation last night for a special 5-course dinner at Plum in Oakland's Uptown.

Plum is the East Bay casual yet refined dining spot of Chef Daniel Patterson of San Francisco's celebrated Coi. While the restaurant has generated a lot of interest under the watchful eye of Chef Charlie Parker, Patterson has decided to use it for occasional charity dinners showcasing some guest chefs from around the country. Last night, a dinner raising funds for the Larkin Street Youth Services featured Chef Sean Brock of Charleston's McCrady's and Husk.

Brock has garnered much attention for his restaurants because of his goal to locally source all his ingredients to create his elegant Southern dishes. The locavore approach, of course, marries nicely with the cuisine at Plum, which emphasizes local California ingredients.

The Plum dinner was fully booked, with the five-courses going for $75. I arrived and took my seat at the restaurant's long wooden bar counter, giving me a front row seat of all the chefs in action, including Parker (who looked like he was expediting the courses for the evening, and seen in bottom left of the above shot) and Brock (top right), who was in charge of the two main courses of the five.

Dinner started with two courses from Parker. The first was a chilled pea soup that was poured at the table into a bowl with lovely local wildflowers (the popular nasturtium), Parmesan cheese, mint and radish. (Sorry, I still feel awkward stopping the server from pouring while I get my camera out so with these soup photos, you only get the end result after the pour, which does sometime ruin the beautiful presentation.)

Despite the chilly evening, the cold soup was still refreshing with that spring-like flavor of the pea (which included some full peas that weren't pureed) and the nice crunch of the radish and creaminess of the Parmesan.

Second course was a tray of eucalyptus-smoked potatoes with artichokes, shallots, green garlic and dill. This was such a fun dish to eat because of the differing textures. The smoked potatoes did have a nice smoky flavor although don't know if I could detect that the smoke came specifically from eucalyptus leaves. Artichoke hearts are always lovely to eat, and so were the grilled green garlic, but there were a couple of ingredients on the plate that added to the complexity but weren't listed on the menu.

There were these thin vegetables that looked like they could have been very thin asparagus. But they were pickled and a bit crunchy. Being a pickle fan, I love this added ingredient. There was also a white foam that was very creamy, but I couldn't tell by the flavoring what it was made of. Everything on the plate pulled together nicely for a real celebration of California spring (again, despite the fall weather we've been having).

Then we moved onto the courses from Chef Brock, starting with this amazing Carolina catfish dish sitting on cornbread puree, field peas and crawfish "chowchow" and topped off with crispy pig ears.

The field peas were cooked like a French cassoulet, very comforting and creamy, although a bit sweet because of the chowchow (which I guess is a type of Southern-style relish). I didn't really detect much of a crawfish flavor, but that didn't matter since I enjoyed the catfish filet that was nicely golden brown. As you can guess, though, the winning ingredient was the crispy pig ear pieces on top that were such a nice added texture.

I had pig ears recently at San Francisco's SPQR, but these were done so much better. The SPQR's version was a bit chewy, but all the ones made by Chef Brock last night were definitely crispy, shattering with each bite for a resounding crunch. I'm sure it was deep-fried to get this perfect texture, but that was fine because I reasoned that they were just a few pieces and not an entire dish. (Although I probably could have eaten an entire dish featuring crispy pig ears.)

The fourth course was a crispy pork shank served with samp grits, wild ramps and asparagus. The pork shank looked almost like a breaded elongated croquette, with the somewhat shredded pork interior giving it more substance. The sauce on the plate, again, seemed to lean toward the sweet side (I think Chef Brock has a sweet tooth) but luckily that was balanced by the other ingredients and flavors, including a nice garnish of pickled shallots (like I said, I love pickled things) that help cut into the heaviness of the pork.

Last course was a lime custard dessert served in a bottled jar like a parfait, with gingersnap crumble, blueberries and condensed milk cream. I just dove into this custard, which had a balanced tart flavor and light creamy texture. It was a nice ending to this primarily Southern-themed dinner.

I really enjoyed the journey from California to Charleston in this special tasting menu, providing a nice contrast in styles of the two chefs while noting the commonality in vision about the food they serve. I like these special charity dinners (a more expensive and fancier version took place the night before at Coi) and look forward to seeing who'll be visiting next.

Plum Restaurant, 2214 Broadway (near Grand Avenue), Oakland. PH: 510.444.7586. www.plumoakland.com

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Quiznos' Subs and Suds Dinner

Reading my blog, you can probably guess that I'm not intimidated going to a fancy tasting menu or chef's dinner. But life for the Single Guy isn't all sweetbreads and truffle-infused foam. It's not always caviar and petit fours.

Which brings me to how I spent my Tuesday night this week. I was at a tasting dinner in a lovely SOMA loft in San Francisco. My host? Quiznos. The dinner? Subs, subs, and more subs.

Full disclosure: I've maybe eaten at Quiznos twice in my life. They have more creative subs than Subway, but it's not like a regular lunch spot for me. But when I was invited to check out the company's latest new subs on the menu, I was intrigued by the idea that the dinner would be paired with beer from San Francisco's own Speakeasy Ales and Lagers.

First off, here were the the guys guiding us through the dinner. On the left is Zach Calkins, the in-house chef at Quiznos who comes up with new menu items from the company's test kitchen in Denver, Colo. On the right is the guy from Speakeasy Ales, Kushal Hall, who's the lead brewer. Doesn't he totally look set for a "Fear the Beard" promo for the Giants?

Dinner began with the Honey Mustard Chicken Salad and a bowl of Broccoli Cheese Soup. These are regular items on the Quiznos' menu and are fan favorites. I thought the salad was what you would expect (I could have done without the long shredded cheese on top and the flat bread was a bit tough) and the soup was tasty and creamy. This course was paired with a glass of White Lightening American Wheat that was a nice, light-bodied ale.

Next was another classic, the Italian sub. And surprisingly with the first bite, I totally fell in love with this Quiznos standard. The light vinegar flavor with thinly sliced salami, ham and pepperoni, worked well with the nicely toasted bread. Not sure if the bread is this well toasted at the stores, but if it is, I would always get this.

A new item is the Pesto Turkey Bullet, which is inspired by the take-away sandwiches in Italy. This was also very good, with a nice balance of pesto sauce and thinly sliced turkey with mozzarella. It all fell together, again, because of the nice toasty baguette. I can see how this would be a great sandwich on the go. (The longer version of the bullet is called the torpedo.)

We washed the sandwiches down with a Big Daddy IPA, which was one of the night's favorite for me.

More new sandwiches: This is the BBQ Chicken Ranch, which Calkins said was inspired by the popularity of ranch dressings based on market research. This was good, but I felt the ranch dressing was overpowered by the barbecue sauce. Calkins says the ranch really contributes to the moisture rather than the flavor.

This is the Turkey Cuban Sub, inspired by the Cubana (which BTW is one of my favorite sandwiches). Instead of pork, Quiznos used the easier turkey (for the franchisees) combined with ham. Swiss cheese and pickles. I think the success of a Cubana comes in the toasted pressed bread, and at least tonight, the bread and preparation totally delivered. Hopefully this can be translated at the stores.

The previous two subs were paired with a Prohibition Ale, which is starting to get heavier as the nice progresses.

This is the Buffalo Chicken Sub and I was excited about this because anything that sounds like buffalo wings surely must be a winner. But Calkins admits that they're still tweaking this menu, so it probably will be different at the stores. On this night, the color wasn't close to buffalo wings and the chicken texture was a bit lumpy. And the flavor was more like spicy buffalo wings.

This is the new Smoked Chipotle Turkey Sammie (in a flat bread), and I like chipotle peppers but this lacked any punch. Maybe because my tastebuds got killed by the spicy buffalo sub.

We paired the past two with a Double Daddy-Double IPA. Say that 10 times fast.

The final two subs of the night actually weren't my favorites. The French Dip Sub looked cute and sounded like a classic, but lacked much flavor. The dip, admittedly, was a bit thinner tonight than what it might be at the stores.

The final sub was the Prime Rib Mushroom and Swiss Sub with garlic aioli. This sounded good on paper and really looked hefty, but I was overpowered by the mushrooms. It had that musky mushroom flavor that can be off-putting. That totally ruined it for me despite the tender beef.

The night ended with this extremely heavy Payback Porter.

It was an interesting night of subs and ale/lager, and I learned a lot about how Quiznos try to come up with new ideas but balance the excitement of new subs with the practicalities of rolling it out to stores nationwide while maintaining quality. Quite a tall order. But from what I tasted tonight, they definitely are adventurous and are not afraid to shoot for the moon.

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Monday Pop-Up with Ken Ken Ramen in the Mission

UPDATE (9/28/2010): Ken Ken Ramen is no longer doing the pop up at Panchita due to a conflict with the restaurant owner. You can read all about it from SFoodie. Like I say below, be sure to check Ken Ken's Twitter feed for latest information on where they'll be.


Everybody loves the pop-up restaurant these days in San Francisco. With Twitter and Facebook, it’s easy to create a buzz for these temporary eateries set up in established restaurants on their nights off or in someone’s home.

When I heard about the Ken Ken Ramen pop-up at the Panchita No. 3 restaurant (a Salvadoran and Mexican restaurant), I knew I had to check it out. You know I can wait for hours for a bowl of ramen, so I freed up my Monday night to head over to the Mission neighborhood.

Ken Ken Ramen is only in operations on Monday nights. And it’s important to follow their Twitter feed because this month-old pop up is still getting up and running. There are Mondays when for scheduling reasons they aren’t open, so it’s better for your sanity that you check first to make sure they’re planning to open for that Monday.

I visited last week Monday after a couple of misses, and I arrived early at about 5:45 p.m. (The doors officially open at 6 p.m.) I had read blog posts about the long lines (you know those foodies like to invade the new pop ups) so I thought I’d claim my position in line and read a book while I waited.

But the doors were already open and the trademark red paper lantern was hanging out front signifying that Ken Ken Ramen was open. When I walked in, people were already being seated.

On this Monday, the Ken Ken Ramen team was prepared. The team, by the way, includes Revolver owner Robert Patterson, Stephan Roesch, and chef Kenji Miyazaki, who typically works as a line cook at Bushi-Tei in Japantown.

As I sat at the counter, the place looked roomy in the early hours when it wasn’t packed. The staff was a mix of Japanese speakers and some of the Spanish-speaking staff from Panchita. The menu, as you can imagine, is pretty simple with just four types of ramen offered at $11 each: miso, shoyu, vegetable broth, and on this night a spicy miso.

They also have a variety of beer and start you off with a complimentary plate of edamame. The edamame is prepared with a spicy sauce, which was different and tasty but a bit messy to eat with your fingers because of the oil from the spicy sauce. (Most times edamame is just served steamed with a sprinkling of sea salt.)

My ramen came just a few minutes later and it looked like a large bowl that was beautifully garnished with mizuno greens. Every ramen bowl (except the vegetarian option) comes with fresh bamboo shoots, cha siu pork, fish cake and a day-long-soaked soft-boiled egg.

The broth looked tasty from the get-go because I could see the fatty pork residue on the edge. I got the spicy miso ramen, and there was definitely a nice heat to the broth even though it didn’t look red like some other spicy ramen I’ve had around town.

The broth was rich but didn’t really have a strong miso flavor. I enjoyed it, though, because of the deep flavors.

The homemade ramen were thin and crinkly. I felt like they needed to be thicker to feel more substantive, but they had a nice taste and were cooked perfectly with some bite. The rich broth easily clung to every string of noodle.

The pork was nice and tender, but there were just one or two small slices (you can order extra cha siu for another $3).

But I have to say the star of the bowl was probably the egg — a marinated cooked egg that was like a cross between a soft-boiled egg and a poached egg. The white was cooked to maintain the egg’s shape, but when you broke into it, the yolk was soft and creamy, oozing out to color the rest of your ramen yellow. It was simply masterful.

I appreciated the quality of the ingredients used for the ramen at Ken Ken Ramen, but I don’t know if I can call this the best bowl of ramen I’ve had in the Bay Area. It definitely is good (especially the egg) and I found the experience fun and enjoyable. But I wonder if the ramen can compete with the bowls served up just a couple of blocks away at Nombe (I find the homemade noodles at both places fairly similar).

Ken Ken Ramen is worth checking out at least once, and maybe more if you live in the neighborhood.

Follow Ken Ken Ramen on Twitter for location and times.

Other ramen adventures:
Racking Up the Miles for Ramen
Ramen House Ryowa: Berkeley
Tanpopo in Japantown: San Francisco

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Monday Night Dinners at Jardinière

Rotating Chefs Helm the Kitchen in April
300 Grove St. (at Franklin), San Francisco
Civic Center
PH: 415.861.5555
Open for dinner nightly at 5 p.m.
Reservations, major credit cards accepted
www.jardiniere.com

I’ve been meaning to go back to Jardinière for its Monday night prix-fixe dinner since the first time I tried this promotion last year. For $45 (before tax and tip), you enjoy a three-course meal with wine pairings, which is a great deal for the high-level of dishes paraded out the kitchen.

I get regular e-mails from the restaurant with the upcoming month’s list of Monday night dinners, and April’s offerings sounded interesting. Typically, Jardinière dedicates the Monday menu to a specific regional cuisine—Sicilian one week, New Orleans the other, and so on. But this month it was the chefs who would change each week.

Executive Chef Traci des Jardins welcomed back four different chefs who once worked under her in what she called “Alumni Month.” I went to dinner last Monday night when the featured chef was Peter Armellino, who went on to earn one Michelin star for his own restaurant, The Plumed Horse, in Saratoga.

The menu for that night didn’t include any meat, so I asked my aqua-vegetarian (that means he eats fish along with vegetables) friend Ken to join me.

Our dinner began with a seasonal salad of Delta asparagus and buffalo mozzarella, sprinkled with smoked almonds and a few pieces of wild arugula. I can’t believe how many asparagus salads I’ve had at restaurants so far this spring! Still, this was refreshing and light.

The salad was served with a tasting glass of Vincent Ricard’s 2009 Sauvignon Blanc “Le Petiot” from Touraine, France, which I felt was nice but wasn’t as crisp in flavor as I’d like. (Turns out all our wine for the night were from France, so it was like dining in Paris.)

The next course was a green garlic soup served with a few pieces of battered and fried Florida frog legs on one side and chopped pieces of rock shrimp on the other. In the center was a shellfish flan, which was engulfed by the brilliant green garlic soup that our server poured at the table.

It was this course that sparked my interest in the Monday menu because I love frog legs, ever since I had them pan-fried and sautéed in Paris. I rarely see them on menus, so I get them whenever I can. Unfortunately, the frog legs were deep-fried (which I’m not a fan of) and I felt that preparation totally masks the natural sweetness of the frog meat (all you taste is batter). Plus, there were just a few nuggets of the fried frog legs so it didn’t seem to be the star of the course, which really was the green garlic soup and creamy flan in the center.

Side note: I give Ken credit for being a good sport with this course. When I saw the menu, I didn’t think of frog legs as meat and considered it along the lines of seafood. I mean, frogs live around water, don’t they? But Ken reminded me that frogs are amphibians. But that’s still not red meat, right?

Our frog leg/garlic soup was paired with a glass of Domaines Schlumberger’s 2006 Pinot Gris “Les Princes Abbes” from Alsace, France.

Jardinière’s Monday prix fixe is generally three courses, but for some reason tonight we had four. (Maybe they didn’t get enough frog legs, which were the publicized main course, so the chef decided to add another course to make up for the soup?)

Anywho, our bonus course was a small piece of Alaskan halibut. Our server drizzled a ragout of wild mushrooms over the halibut at the table. It was served with a few fava beans.

The halibut was nicely cooked, with a slight glassy texture. The mild flavor of the fish was taken to a bold extreme with the ragout, which had a very meaty flavor like a beef ragout.

The course was served with a Domaine Des Nugues’ 2007 Beaujolais-Villages from Burgundy, France. The red wine was the perfect counterpoint to the rich and intense wild mushroom ragout.

Our last course was a pistachio sablé. I’ve never had a sablé before, but apparently it’s a French cookie. The sable, which was like a thin layer of shortbread cookie, was topped with thin slices of Ortiz Farms strawberries and served with a dollop of vanilla ice cream and some pistachio sprinkles.

The sablé was buttery and light, and I wanted more! Overall, it was a very elegant ending to our meal.

The sablé was served with an Ey’s 2007 Muscat de Riversaltes “Vigne lo Clavell” from Roussillon, France.

Jardinière’s elegant settings and the interesting menu from Chef Armellino made it an enjoyable evening. The fact that it was a Monday night made the work week seem to go by faster.

If you’d like to check out upcoming Monday prix-fixe menus, just visit Jardinière’s Web site.

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A Ducky Dinner at One Market Restaurant

Some of you know my rule about ordering duck — if it’s on the menu, I’m ordering it!

I love duck, so I never miss the opportunity to eat it when I dine out. And since it seems like a messy dish to make at home (I imagine lots of duck fat splattering and me running with my fire extinguisher to put out duck fat-induced flames in my oven), I rather leave the cooking of duck to the experts.

So imagine, for me, what it’s like to have a night where every course is duck. Quack heaven, baby.

My duck dinner took place last Friday at One Market Restaurant in San Francisco. This Embarcadero restaurant and its chef, Mark Dommen, actually dedicate a five-course prix fixe menu to one animal every Friday and Saturday night. It’s called the “Weekly Beast” dinner.

Sometimes it’s suckling pig or rabbit. Other more predictable like lamb or goat. The schedule is released a couple of weeks before, and I checked regularly to see when they would get around to doing duck. Once the duck dates came out, I booked a reservation and arrived for my dinner featuring duck from Liberty Farms.

I’ve actually never dined at One Market, thinking that since it’s near the Embarcadero that it was partly a tourist trap. Yes, there were quite a few tourists sitting around me, but it’s actually a very charming restaurant with an active bar. This one Michelin-star eatery also offers a chef’s table, which always intrigued me but I never had a party big enough to reserve the whole table.

The Weekly Beast dinner cost $49, which is a nice bargain for five courses. I also decided to do the $20 wine pairing, which is quite a value because as you’ll see in the upcoming photos, my server poured me a nice-sized glass for each course.

My dinner started, ironically, with a bay scallop amuse from the chef. I expected it to be some kind of duck, but I guess this was the same amuse offered to other guests who were ordering off the regular menu. Still, it was quite refreshing with the pickled fennel shavings.

But now to the duck.

First off was a duck liver mousse terrine, which was served with pickled hon shemiji mushrooms and a streak of reduced balsamic vinegar. A tray of sliced brioche was brought to my table to allow me to slather on the duck mousse. The mousse had a rich, gamey taste, and the thick balsamic acted like the Chinese hoi sin sauce — a popular condiment for duck. The pickled mushrooms helped to cut the rich flavors.

The mousse was paired with an effervescent 2004 Iron House Vineyards Classic Vintage Brut from Green Valley.

Second course was a duck salad where the duck egg in the center was cooked to exactly 62 degrees. It topped a salad of frisee, seasonal asparagus thinly sliced, and home-made duck prosciutto. There were also bits of preserved duck that was tender and dark, contrasting with what was overall a light and refreshing spring salad.

The salad was paired with a 2008 O’Reilly Pinot Gris from Oregon (I love some of the wine coming from Oregon these days, especially this light-but-substantive pinot gris).

The third course was duck leg ravioli served with mustard greens, hen of the woods mushrooms, and nearly engulfed by a foie gras emulsion. I have to say, the foie gras emulsion had a very beautiful pastel color, and it actually added a nice savory taste to the ravioli underneath. There were about three pieces that were filled with minced duck leg. I found this course very enjoyable.

The pasta was served with a 2006 Old Press Syrah from Paso Robles.

The main course (No. 4) was roasted duck breast, ‘natch. It was served with blood orange segments, ginger and endive. But pay close attention to the caramel-colored pieces on top. I don’t know what they were but they were genius. Thin candy-like pieces that resembled the crackling of duck skin, but definitely not skin. It added a surprise element to the dish with contrasting textures. The duck breast was perfectly cooked and the sauce had a familiar deep flavor that complimented the meat.

The duck breast was served with a 2007 Morgan Twelve Clones Pinot Noir from Santa Lucia Highlands. This was the heaviest wine of the night, which made sense.

The fifth and final course was dessert, and I have to say I was a bit afraid of what could be a duck dessert. But similar to the salad, the main ingredient was duck egg as my server brought over a duck egg crème brulee. It came with a scoop of chocolate cream and a cute candy character that I assume was supposed to resemble a duck? The crème brulee seemed richer with the duck egg, and tasted so nice. I also enjoyed the shortbread cookie served with it. (No wine was paired with the fifth course.)

I had thought a five-course duck dinner would weigh me down (but I was all game for it because of my love for duck). But Chef Dommen created such an interesting and diverse menu that it kept me engaged without playing the same taste note throughout.

I thoroughly enjoyed my ducky dinner, and find One Market’s Weekly Beast dinners to be very intriguing. If you haven’t tried it yet, I highly recommend you check out the restaurant’s Web site to see the upcoming schedule. If you see a beast you love, do go and enjoy the feast.

One Market, 1 Market St., San Francisco. PH: 415.777.5577. www.onemarket.com, “Weekly Beast” every Friday and Saturday.

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