Fancy Street Food at Spice Kit in San Francisco

Bringing Asian Fast-Food to SOMA
405 Howard St. (at First), San Francisco
SOMA
PH: 415.882.4581
Open weekdays, 10:30 a.m.–8 p.m.; Saturday, 10:30 a.m.–3 p.m. Closed Sunday
No reservations
www.spicekit.com

I’ve been talking about the new outlets for a working lunch in Oakland, but I’m always reminded when I go into San Francisco how much better the worker-bees have it there.

During a recent day off when I was in the city on a weekday, I checked out the fairly new Spice Kit, a lunch spot on the bottom floor of a business tower in the SOMA neighborhood towards the waterfront. Specializing in Asian street food, Spice Kit has gotten some press because of its pedigree: the founder is Will Pacio (formerly of the French Laundry and Per Se) and the main chef is Fred Tang (who has cooked with Ron Siegel at the Ritz Carlton Dining Room).

With such training behind the stove, you know it’s not your ordinary $2.50 bahn mi sandwiches that you can get in the Tenderloin.

At the counter, the ordering process starts with you deciding whether you want a banh mi (the Vietnamese sandwiches made with a toasted French baguette), a ssäm (the Korean wrap using rice paper), or a salad.

Then you choose what you want in it. And the choices include: five-spice chicken ($6.90), Kalbi-style beef shortribs ($7.95), roasted pork ($7.75) and the vegetarian choice ($6.75) or tofu.

Because I knew I wouldn’t get here that often, I decided to try both a banh mi AND a Korean ssäm wrap. I know. I nearly killed myself that afternoon.

First the ssäm. I ordered it with the slow-roasted beef shortribs, which was marinated kalbi-style often used for Korean BBQ. It was my first time eating a ssäm wrap, and it looked pretty big and stuffed. It was also filled with red leaf lettuce, cucumber slices, seasoned rice, bean sprouts, kim chi and the house ssäm sauce.

The beef cubes were incredibly tender, and you could tell it was of a high quality. But it didn’t have a strong flavor. The taste was pretty mild. I liked all the other ingredients, but I didn’t feel like it had much of a kick like I expected from Korean food.

For the banh mi, I ordered it with the five-spice chicken. The baguette was stuffed with the traditional pickled carrots and daikon radish strips, cucumbers, jalapeno, cilantro and mayo.

The chicken, which was also very tender, definitely had the five-spice flavor, and this time I felt it was too much, somehow almost conflicting with the pickled vegetables in the banh mi. It was very filling though.

Side note: The limited menu also offers up steam pork buns, lotus chips and a ginger-peanut slaw as well as Asian drinks like Vietnamese iced coffee and Thai iced tea.

Spice Kit looks like a nice place for lunch and the portions seem like a lot for the price. But I somehow feel like it lacks authenticity, maybe because it’s emphasizing upscale Asian food because of the chef’s culinary talents. Still, it’s a place worth checking out if you work in the area.



Related posts:
Banh Mi in Saigon
Banh Mi economy
Cam Huong banh mi

Summary only...

Top Chef: Season 7, Episode 10

‘You’ve disguised yourselves as poor cooks’

Previously: It was “restaurant wars” but no one wants Alex’s crazy hands in any of the dishes. Alex is also rude to the staff, setting off some bad negative ju-ju. But it’s Kenny who gets the bad ju-ju as the “beast” is sent packing.

OK, let’s do it. Top Chef at 10 p.m.! Yikes. I want to go to bed while I’m retyping this recap. If some of this doesn’t make sense, it’s because I’m half asleep. Oh, the dancing cheftestants are back. Remember John and his bird nest of a hairdo? I don’t miss him at all. Or any of these other people. Oh wait, they’re still on the show.

It’s morning and we see Amanda first again. One of the cameramen must be having an affair with her or something because they’re always featuring her. Then we get Kevin talking about how Alex should have left instead of Kenny, and how Alex is clueless. I think Angelo misses Kenny also because he seems kind of off his game. It’s like Kenny was Angelo’s ying to his yang. Oh, Angelo is out in the garden with Amanda and Amanda is cleaning up a big coffee spill. Angelo’s talking about the show in the voiceover but at this moment you just see Angelo holding back his laughter because you just know Amanda did something really stupid when spilling the coffee.

The cheftestants arrive at the Top Chef kitchen and there are black boxes on the table with question marks. Then Ed says he sees Wylie Dufresne because he recognizes his side burns, while I say it’s more his Dutchboy hairdo.

Quickfire. Padma says they’ll be working with the mystery boxes, starting to cook with the ingredients but then through the course of cooking more mystery boxes will be coming in. All the ingredients will be used by everyone in their dishes, and it’s a high-stakes quickfire so $10,000 is on the line. Every time they have a cash prize, we’re always hearing about how the cheftestants would spend the money. Angelo just said he had to help his fiancée get a visa or something? I wonder where she’s from?

Angelo opens the mystery box and he jumps back slightly. I think it was the dead fish that scared him. Geesh, it's not like he found it in his bed. So in the box there are a whole fish, fava beans and a can with no labels.

They all start cooking and the editors show how everyone’s ignoring Alex, not even helping him find a can opener. Tiffany identifies that the can has hominy in it. Angelo looks a bit lost. See, I think he does need Kenny to challenge him.

A guy dressed in a black suit looking like Keanu Reeves with dark glasses bring in a mystery box, this one containing squid and black garlic. Then he comes in a few seconds later with ramps and passion fruit. And finally another box with fresh jicama. Interesting, I never saw jicama in its natural form. I always just see it as white strips at the salad bar.

As they’re cooking, they’re all kind of sweating. Eww, Angelo just admitted that he sweated into his dish. Extra salt. Gross. When time is called, they all look like they could need a good shower.

Tasting. Here’s how it went with Dufresne and Padma making the rounds.

Alex is first with a rockfish served with fava bean puree and sautéed squid. Dufresne asks if the ramp is cooked or raw. Alex says it’s “slowly melted.” WTF?

Tiffany made a fish stew. Wylie likes the broth.

Kelly made a Yucatecan seafood stew. Chef Dufresne says it’s spicy.

Amanda served up a crispy skin striped bass with squid fricassee. Dufresne asks if she used oil or butter, and she says a little bit of both.

Kevin came up with a pan-seared rockfish and salad. Wylie asks about the heat? Dufresne is really an inquisitive chef, always wondering what’s in a dish.

Ed made a sashimi of rockfish and hominy puree. Dufresne declares it excellent.

Angelo made some kind of fancy French thing, which I think he said was a pot au feu. Wylie says he was busy.

So who didn’t Dufresne like? He says Alex’s dish had components that didn’t all come together, and Amanda’s dish was a little oily. Plus, he says if you advertise your dish as “crispy skin” then the skin should be crispy.

His favorites were Tiffany’s stew with lots of integrated flavors and Kevin’s puree on the base of his dish. The editors show Kevin talking about how he’s never won a quickfire, and you know that means he’s going to win it. Then Chef Dufresne names Tiffany as the winner!! Dang editors trying to throw me off the scent.

Commercials. What? Sprint is still around? More fried chicken commercials. Church's is still around?

Elimination challenge. Padma says it’s a case of national security. Oh. MY. GAWD. The writers for this episode are so childish. You know it’s the CIA episode and Padma is saying stuff like “you’ve all been recruited as special agents by the CIA.” They have to “take on a new identity” and take a classic dish and disguise it as something else but retain the flavors. The writers for this show should not sit waiting for their Emmy.

They draw knives for assignments, and it’s dishes like French onion soup, cobb salad, beef wellington, etc. Padma says they’ll be cooking at the CIA Langley headquarters for CIA director Leon Panetta, and for some reason Tiffany and Amanda gets all excited like Panetta is some kind of rock star. Hel-LO, he’s a career Democrat politician. It’s not like he was involved in the cold war or did any undercover work. Anywho, the winner of this challenge also gets a trip to Paris and we hear Ed talk about how his girlfriend (not Tiffany) would love this prize. Who wouldn’t? Maybe Alex because I think he’s the only one in this group who doesn’t have a fiancée.

They shop at Whole Foods. Everyone’s wearing T-shirts so it looks like a hot day, which makes me think we’re moving into early summer of this filming. We learn that Alex was a videographer for weddings for years and has only been cooking for the last six years. Alex reveals that like it’s going to help him with this challenge because he can think out of the box, but it just makes me have less confident in him, and I wouldn’t hire him to film my wedding.

Kelly is making kung pao shrimp, which is weird because I’ve only heard of kung pao chicken but never shrimp. She's never made it, so she looks for a kung pao sauce in the Asian aisle to copy the ingredients from the back of the bottle so she knows what to cook. I don’t know how she’s going to mirror the flavors when she doesn’t even know how the dish tastes to begin with. But I say, add soy to anything and you’ll be good.

Angelo plans to recreate beef wellington by making a puff pastry pizza, but he’s buying frozen pre-made puff pastry and everyone thinks that’s going to send him home, like how John with the bird nest hair was sent home for using puff pastry.

Back at the Top Chef kitchen, Tiffany is excited still about the CIA, saying her favorite show was La Femme Nikita, which is why when Ed asks her what her spy name is, she says “Bridgette.” Amanda says she always wanted to be “Natasha” and seduce some spy.

Everyone is focused on their dishes and again ignoring Alex. This episode they spend a lot of time trash talking Alex, and Alex talking about how he’s isolated and doesn’t care. Then he yells out in the kitchen, “has anyone seen my smiley face cheese?” Or at least I think that’s what he says, and I don’t know if he’s being serious or sarcastic like he’s just saying something extremely crazy to see if anyone will respond. No one answers of course, and I really wanted to see what smiley cheese looked like.

Commercials. George Clooney is, duh, “the American.” He’s really lean in this movie, and since when did he have all those tattoos?

The cheftestants arrive at the CIA to some stupid music, and what’s weird is that they show them walk right in and there’s no one around or checking them. Talk about national security. I feel safe knowing cheftestants can just walk into the CIA.

Angelo looks like he’s a giant cooking the way he crouches over his tiny dishes. Kelly is busy making rice in the rice cooker, which she’s using for the first time, I guess, because they keep showing the cooker.

Amanda is worried about her French onion soup because it isn’t much of a disguise. She’s still making a soup. Kelly is also making a soup out of her kung pao shrimp.

Kelly asks Tiffany about rice cooking and whether the machine should turn off on its own. Yes, that’s how they work. But when the rice cooker beeps to say it’s done, Kelly opens the cooker and says it’s overcooked because it’s all mushy. Girl, that doesn’t mean your rice is overcooked. THAT MEANS YOU PUT TOO MUCH WATER IN THE RICE COOKER! Rice cookers are no brainers if you follow the water markings on the side. But she probably didn’t pay attention and now she thinks she has overcooked rice, which actually is “jook” or porridge. Tiffany basically tells her to cook the rice again, but Kelly tries to give up until Tiffany basically has to push her into making it old school on the stove top.

The judges arrive and it looks like Eric Ripert is making one of his rare appearances as the permanent guest judge. (I think this is only his third apperance?)

Padma introduces Leon Panetta and a bunch of CIA staff who we don’t recognize because we’re not supposed to.

Back in the kitchen, Angelo is saying he doesn’t feel like himself. He really looks off his game. He calls himself clueless. Man, pull yourself together! You know I’d so slap him if I were there.

Angelo and Kelly are up first. They try the dishes and play a guessing game. Most people guess right away that Angelo made beef wellington. Panetta says it was a poor disguise and “if he were captured we would hang him.” He also throws salt in Angelo’s wound by saying the dish was salty.

For Kelly’s kung pao shrimp broth, everyone guesses pad thai, but Tom guesses correctly that it’s kung pao shrimp but I have a feeling he already knew beforehand. I mean, he is one of the show’s producers.

Next come Kevin and Tiffany. Leon Panetta guesses that Tiffany’s dish is a gyro, and Ripert says it’s the most elegant gyro he’s ever ate in his life. Kevin’s dish looks like a salad, so people guess it right away that it’s the Cobb salad.

Then a guy comes out and hands a note to Panetta. He glances at it and then excuses himself, and then all the CIA staffers have this serious face on them like he has to go brief the president about some national security crisis but I’m pretty sure he’s leaving so he can meet some senators for poker night.

In the kitchen, Amanda is all worried for Alex, who she says reminds her of a wise old Jewish uncle she’s never had. Amanda, you know you can rent one if you like.

Next up is Amanda’s French onion soup, which everyone guessed right away. Tom says the oxtail marmalade was too sweet, and one guy says it tasted like honey and lemon cough syrup.

They dig into Alex’s veal parmesan and right away Tom Colicchio says OMG. Everyone looks like they’re having a hard time cutting into the veal. Tom jokes that the veal is tough like “pulling a post in Yemen.” Where exactly is Yemen?

The last dish comes from Ed, who’s feeling pretty confident about how everything worked out for him in the kitchen. He’s making chicken cordon bleu, and of course, Frenchie Ripert guesses it right away. Tom says the chicken was cooked nicely and Wylie Dufresne says a lot of labor went into the dish, but Padma says it didn’t look like much of a disguise.

Commercials. Pledge, you changed your look from yellow to metal blue? You’re confusing me with this new multi-purpose bottle. I want my yellow Pledge back! Sketchers, your Shape Up shoes look like the equivalent of mom jeans.

The Top Chef quicklook this episode is of the cheftestants sitting around the table back at their townhouse talking about whether Leon Panetta knows a lot of secrets, and Kelly goes on a rip about whether he knows who killed JFK and where they keep the aliens. Then Angelo jokes that there’s an alien in the house and it’s Alex. You know, he does look like a Martian.

Quick glimpse of the Lincoln Memorial at night and then were at the stew room. Padma comes in and asks for Tiffany, Kelly and Ed. You can tell Tiffany and Kelly know they’re in the top group. Ed just looks stressed as usual.

The three are indeed the top and they all get their obligatory pats on the back, although no one is really gushing. Dufresne names the winner and it’s Tiffany. Wow, she also won the quickfire. This is the second episode where she took BOTH the quickfire and elimination challenge. My money is on Tiffany to take it all for this season! She’s the front-runner for sure. Of course, she wins the trip to Paris and she yells out “honeymoon” and pretty much Top Chef is paying for her wedding at this point. Ed looks disappointed like he’s going to be killed by his girlfriend for not winning the Paris trip. He says he’s happy for Tiffany but I don’t think so.

You know, Padma is really bossy this season. She talks to the cheftestants like she’s a supreme ruler or something. After telling them whom to bring in, she tells them “Thank you, that will be all.” What are they? Her butlers? Padma’s not coming off very supportive tonight.

Tiffany sends in Alex, Amanda and Angelo. Kevin looks shocked Angelo is in the bottom three.

Amanda says she’s aware her dish was not disguised adequately. She says she was going more for flavor. Tom says she could have made a panna cotta, and that the marmalade was so sweet it threw the whole dish off.

Angelo also knows he missed the mark with his beef wellington. Tom says the pastry was dried out and asks if it was pre-made. Wylie adds that the plating was sloppy, and Ripert says he had the freedom to be creative but it ended up just sad.

Alex’s face is getting red as everyone’s talking about his dish. I just keep staring at the big spoon in his side pocket on his sleeve. Tom asks if any one of them will admit to be the seventh best person on Top Chef this season, and that was so confusing to me. But Amanda yells out no, and Amanda I’m pretty sure the question was rhetorical.

The three return to the stew room and Angelo looks really mad and says he should go home. Kelly says she doesn’t care if he goes home and goes on and on but in short she's saying “BUH-bye.”

The judges get some more digs into the dishes, with Wylie Dufresne calling Alex’s dish dishwater. Ripert says Angelo’s beef wellington would make Julia Child sad, and adds that anyone could do a better dish if they knew how to cook.

Commercials. That State Farm commercial looks like it was filmed at the new Yankees stadium. But what’s with everyone wearing baseball caps with the letter “B” on it? Reebox, like I’m supposed to believe your new easy tone shoes are supposed to shape my butt?

Judgment. Tom gets the same writers who wrote for Padma earlier in the episode as he talks about how the three had the assignment of taking a classic dish and disguise them, but their covers were blown, and they’ve “disguised yourselves as poor cooks.” Then Padma sends Alex packin', and the whole stew room sings out hallelujah.

No one seems really surprised, and Amanda is the first to hug her old wise Jewish uncle. The cheftestants clap but it looks pretty lackluster. In fact, a few of them are still sitting in their chair, not even bothering to stand up to say bye. Alex says he felt frustrated by the way he was treated, and brings up for one more time the pea puree conspiracy. He says people got angry at him because he’s a different kind of person. Maybe he really is an alien.

Next week: They’re at Nationals baseball park running their own concession stands, and Kevin looks angrier than Roger Clemens on his worst days. And someone is serving raw fish, but we’re not in San Francisco.

Top Chef airs every Wednesday at 10 p.m. on Bravo. Check your local listings. Photos courtesy of the Bravo TV website.

Summary only...

Confessions of an Ad Hoc Brownies Recipe Tester

Bless me almighty Chef Thomas Keller, god of precision and all-things culinary, but I have sinned. I have tried your brownies recipe from your “Ad Hoc at Home” cookbook — a James Beard award winner, thank you very much — and I cheated. Please do not strike me down.

I know that you’re all about being organized and sourcing the right ingredients, and believe me I get that by flipping through the pages of your beautiful book (well, actually mine since I paid for it), but I am only human.

I started by shifting the dry ingredients: ¾ cup all-purpose flour, 1 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder (I did use the E.Guittard brand you recommended), and 1 teaspoon kosher salt. But I confess, I do not have a shifter so I basically just shifted these ingredients through a hand strainer.

Then I melted half the butter in a small saucepan. And even though my cholesterol shuddered at the thought of using three sticks of butter (which I’ve learned from you equates to ¾ of a pound), I followed your instructions to melt the butter slowly and then pour it into a bowl containing the remainder of the butter.

But the warm butter didn’t really melt the remaining butter. So I basically had to mush it up with the back of my wooden spoon in my attempts to get the creamy texture you described.

Then I mixed the three large eggs and 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar, but I have an old hand mixer with metal blades and not the fancy stand mixer fitted with a paddle that you requested. I forged ahead, though, and added the ½ teaspoon vanilla extract (I wasn’t about to pay $10 for a small bottle of vanilla paste), and then on low speed blended in the dry ingredients and melted butter, alternating as I went.

Then I threw in the chocolate chips. I think they were 6 ounces. I didn’t use E.Guittard’s 61 to 64 percent chocolate because they didn’t have that at my local Safeway, so I resorted to using Ghiradelli’s bitter chocolate, which was only 60 percent. And I don’t have a kitchen scale but the bag said 11.9 ounces, so I threw in half the bag, which I figured was close to 6 ounces.

When my batter was ready, I poured it into my pan. But I confess that I don’t have the fancy 9-inch square silicon mold that you wrote in the recipe and had to just use what I did have: an 8-inch square non-stick metal pan.

I cooked the batter for 45 minutes (at 350 degrees) like you said, and sure enough, the edges were overcooked or slightly burnt, like how you warned in your recipe (because I didn't use the silicon mold). But I allowed it to cool and when ready, flipped the pan over to release the big dark cake and sliced them to resemble the photo in your lovely cookbook.

I did, however, dust the top with powdered sugar per your instructions.

So here’s my end result. Despite all the shortcuts or lack of proper ingredients or equipment, they didn’t turn out half bad. The brownies were darker than what I imagined, but I guess that’s your way to make chic brownies, and they were more cake-like than chewy. Still, they were good, especially when cold as the chocolate flavor was more pronounced and the goo of the chocolate chips created a nice surprise.

Chef Keller, I hope you can forgive me that I didn’t follow your recipe precisely. I did 10 Hail Marys, and offered my brownies to the needy (aka my co-workers), so I hope that makes up for my transgressions.

Past brownie recipes:
Espresso-Shortbread Brownie Recipe
Peanut Butter Brownies Recipe

Summary only...

Wandering Into DarTEAling Lounge in SOMA

The harsh afternoon sun streaking in through the window facing one of the typical empty industrial alleys of SOMA bounced off the delicate chinaware and colored glass jars. The sound of traffic is kept at bay as velvet cushions and draperies dressed the room in the familiar comfort of grandma’s parlor.

Glass chandeliers sparkled quietly in the corners, and the entire room sat empty waiting for life with a splash of tea.

This is how I found the DarTEAling Lounge in San Francisco’s gritty SOMA district.

A few weeks ago I took a day off during the week to go to a Giants game at AT&T Park. Afterwards, I walked up Third Street toward Market when I noticed this fairly new tea salon. (I think they’ve been open since March.)

It’s not where I would think to find a tea lounge, tucked on the corner of an alley that’s overshadowed by Interstate 80. But there it was. And as a tea lover, I had to check it out. Afternoon. Tea. What could be better?

DarTEAling presents itself as a Parisian tea lounge, and you get that feel looking at the wall of antique tea jars with labels the owner collected from various tea houses in Paris. For the rest of the space, it was one of those eclectically designed room where nothing matched but they all gave a sense of English tea with Mrs. Crumpets.

As I hinted to earlier, I was the only one this afternoon. It was intimidating to have tea alone — really alone — but it was my day off so I decided to throw caution to the wind.


The menu has an extensive selection of tea services and tea. I ended up getting the Charlotte’s Simplici-tea, which for $15 gives you two sandwiches, a green salad and tea biscuits. For my tea, I wavered between the Creamy Dreamy Earl Grey (named for the touch of vanilla added to the Earl Grey) or the Peachy Apricot. I went with the Earl Grey, a classic favorite.

My tray arrived with the sandwiches I selected (curried chicken and classic cucumber) and a lovely salad. Everything looked like it should have been shared with someone else, so my afternoon snacked really turned out to be a late lunch.

Everything about DarTEAling is quaint and cute. It’s the perfect spot to bring your girls or host a bridal shower. The only negative I detected here is that they don’t have air and the windows are sealed shut, so on a hot SOMA afternoon it can feel stuffy with the only source of air being the front and back door.

Otherwise, DarTEAling is like an oasis in an industrial neighborhood. A place to escape the traffic and stress of the city and sip your way to enchantment.


DarTEAling Lounge, 470 Third St. (near Bryant), San Francisco. PH: 415.644.0142, Open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. www.dartealing.com

More tea posts:
Starting My Day at Teaism (Washington, D.C.)
L'Orangerie at the Alvear Palace Hotel (Buenos Aires)

Summary only...

Top Chef: Season 7, Episode 9

Frank Bruni’s Ultimate Critique

Previously: The cheftesants cooked up the world, except Stephen’s confused about Brazil. And OMG, they flash back to the pea puree-gate with Alex. I’m about to barf up some pea puree. Tiffany had immunity but she still goes for the win, and Stephen’s rice gets him cooked.

Hey, what happened? They didn’t do the intro with the dancing cheftestants. What’s up with that. Dance cheftestants, dance! All we got was some windchimes and Amanda talking about how she’s still around. Yeah, Amanda, you’re not the only one wondering why you’re still there.

Kenny’s talking about being in the middle, and how he has to break out. And he talks about the beast. I’m pretty sure he said: RELEASE THE KRAKIN.

The cheftestants arrive at the Top Chef kitchen and Amanda notices the red and blue aprons and blindfolds and she gets all excited. I think she’s a fan of blindfolds. Padma is there alone and she says it’s the tag-team cook off quickfire, which they’ve done in season’s past where they work in groups of four and one person starts cooking for 10 minutes and then passes the work onto the next. The winning team will get $10,000.

They draw knives and Amanda draws a blank. Oh. Must. Stop. Here. Can’t. Do. Airhead. Joke.

Kevin picks a knife that says first choice and Ed picks the knife that says second choice, so that means they’re going to pick their teams. Kevin is the blue team and he picks Kenny (naturally), Kelly, and gets Amanda. Ed is the red team and picks Tiffany (naturally), Angelo and gets Alex.

The team starts cooking, sending up Tiffany and Kenny to get it going. Tiffany looks like she’s mostly gathering ingredients and heating up pans, but she decides to make a fish dish. She’s thinking pan-seared snapper.

Kenny works with prawns and starts a mushroom cream sauce. He looks way ahead than Tiffany.

Then Alex and Amanda are next and Amanda starts making pasta for the cream sauce that Kenny started, and he’s on the side smiling because he thinks she’s picked up on his master plan. Tiffany on the other hand basically just watched Alex sprinkle salt on the fish. Really, that’s all I think I saw him do. Which is so unnecessary since they’re not going to be cooking the fish for another 10 minutes.

Kevin and Ed takes stage 3 and Kevin works with basil and parmesan for the pasta that Amanda cooked. I’m not sure what Ed did, but Tiffany is off to the side with Alex worried that either Ed or Angelo (who goes last) won’t notice that Alex had already salted the fish. Alex says you can see the salt there. But you know, it’s going to dissolve by the time Angelo steps up. That’s what salt does, Alex.

When it’s Angelo’s turn, the first thing he does is complain about the station looking like a mess. He says he can’t figure out the direction of the dish. Kelly is last and she sees the pasta and tomato salad, and she starts searing the prawns.

Angelo is wondering why the fish is already salted but of course this is after he douses it with salt, just like what Tiffany fretted about.

Time’s up and Padma introduces a guest judge, and in walks House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who you probably know is from my area of San Francisco. Even though she’s from here, I can’t help but say, what’s up with her eyes? She constantly looks like she’s a deer in the headlights. Do you see what I mean? I know, I'm mean to focus on that and she is third in line to be president, but maybe she could blink once or twice.

Speaker Pelosi starts with Kevin’s team’s sautéed prawns with angel hair pasta and cream sauce. Pelosi says it reminds her of the San Francisco Bay Area where all the ingredients and tastes are fresh. And she says the angel hair is nice and al dente, which she says is hard to do. Really? She should go to Chinatown. Anywho, she calls the dish delicious.

Then she tries Ed’s team’s pan-seared red snapper with wilted greens and maitake mushrooms. Pelosi says it was delicious and wholesome but – dun dun dun duh – it’s “a little salty.”

She rules that Team Blue (Kevin’s team) wins. They get $10,000 but no kickbacks please.

Commercials. Shit, they just announced Top Chef is moving to 10 p.m. next week from the 9 p.m. time! Argh@#$?!! Why would they change the time when the season is almost ending? That’s so stupid. And worst, I lose an hour in doing this recap. Ugh, more late nights in my future! Sigh. … Oh, did you see that AT&T mobile broadband commercial? I want to know what’s a “cold jam”? Anyone? Is it like Pearl Jam?

Elimination challenge. Padma says the season wouldn’t be complete without … and all the cheftestants scream “Restaurant Wars!” Gosh, it’s like they rather do restaurant war than the finale. Yeah, running your own restaurant is fun, but that still means you’re still working as a team. I don’t see how that’s an advantage. Especially for the Red Team, which is the team that gets stuck with Alex.

Padma also lets them know that the guest judge will be former New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni. Kellys says he’s the toughest critic. Ever. (She apparently has not met my mom.)

Then these two guys come walking in with a big bottle of wine, and apparently they’re the Terlato brothers from Napa Valley. (Another Bay Area tie!) They’re providing the wine for restaurant wars so they probably paid thousands for this walk on.

The cheftestants get into their Sienna SUVs and we have to spend a few seconds watching the blatant Sienna commercial. Yeah, we get it. The door closes softly. Oooh. Let me bust out my $40,000 check.

Tiffany is with Alex and they’re heading to shop and you can tell she doesn’t won’t to work with him, basically telling him to stay on his side of the Sienna and focus on his own list. Angelo and Ed are in another car going to Whole Foods and they’re conspiring to get Alex to be the front of the house so he’s not touching the food.

They head back to the kitchen and start their prepping. Naturally, Angelo and Kenny emerges as the executive chef for each team and no other team members fight them for the title. The menu gets pulled together and Angelo’s red team comes up with tomato confit soup, black bass crudo, striped bass, slow-baked turbot (wow, lots of fish courses), sautéed rib eye, and lamb with, wait, did I hear right? Lamb with PEA PUREE! They found the pea puree and now they’re going to use it with the lamb. Please make this the last time we talk about the damn pea puree.

Kelly becomes the front of the house for the blue team, and their menu shape up to be a chilled corn soup, warm beet salad, Virginia strip steak, halibut, chocolate ganache tart and crispy cheese course.

Angelo assigns Alex to be the butcher, but he always checks on him and complains that he’s not doing it right. Tiffany is worried because her team looks totally disorganized while Kenny’s team is working along calmly. I think Tiffany is hoping there’s a twist where they switch one member of the team, but that’s unlikely.

The cheftestants arrive at the restaurant Redwood, which looks very fancy and kind of new. I think it’s in Virginia near D.C. But tonight, it’s going to be called (this is the Red team’s idea) EVOO or Kissing-Up-to-Miss-Ray, while the Blue team is calling it 2121, which is the address of the Top Chef cheftestants’ townhouse, which totally won’t make sense to guests arriving at Redwood, which probably doesn’t have that 2121 address. (Don’t you hate restaurant names that need a long explanation?)

The two teams have to work in tight quarters in the same kitchen, so they get to see how each other is working, but basically all we see is the Red Team scrambling and the Blue Team always looking over like “dang, we’re going to win by default because Angelo is going to have a meltdown.”

Commercials. That MasterCard Market Place commercial just said ibuprofen cost $12. I’m like, woah, where do you buy your drugs?

Alex and Kelly start to organize the front of the house, working with the wait staff. And I have to say, Alex isn’t helping his reputation. I can’t tell if he’s trying to be funny or if he’s serious, but he’s acting like a tyrant, demanding that the wait staff wipe down the tables and chairs to make them look new, and tells them they have to do it in 10 minutes! He comes off like a jerk, and people notice it. Well, mostly Kenny, who seems to really spend a lot of time watching Angelo and the other team but not really cooking.

The diners arrive and orders start coming in. They focus on EVOO first and already the kitchen looks slammed. The judges arrive and Alex is busy chatting with another table and doesn’t greet them. Deduction. Frank Bruni looks so serious. I think he’s hungry. Alex gets nervous and stumbles as he’s describing the restaurant’s concept.

The judges get the first courses of tomato confit soup and crudo of black bass and yellowtail snapper. Tom asks Alex why it’s called a summer salad on top of the crudo, and Alex says it “sounds better than micro greens.” Deduction. Gail says the crudo is salty, and Bruni says the soup from Angelo makes him want to try more of Angelo’s food.

The kitchen is still struggling in the back, apparently because Alex isn’t firing up the tickets at the right time. Then we see the judges waiting and waiting for their second course. Padma sounds like a cranky child when she’s like “where’s our food?”

The food finally arrives and they get two fish dishes: a striped bass with fennel salad and the turbot with eggplant caviar. Bruni likes Ed’s fish, saying it matches the restaurant’s Mediterranean theme. Gail thinks Tiffany’s fish is overcooked but nice.

The third course is the broiled lamb chop, but Alex calls it a pork chop, that catches Tom off guard. He corrects himself and says lamb chop and the other dish is a rib eye with fig marmalade. Bruni says the lamb was beautifully cooked, but no texture. And he doesn’t think the food says Mediterranean. Then he starts to critique the service, which he says is hit and miss. This guy just never stops critiquing even though he no longer hold a critic’s job. He must be hard to go to dinner with because he’s probably critiquing everything while you’re like, “Frank, I’m not going to take you to dinner any more if you keep going on and on about the McNuggets.”

Tom is still upset that they weren’t greeted when they arrived so he tells the judges to all leave without letting Alex know, but Alex sees them leave and he really doesn’t do anything to say bye.

This episode’s quickshot is of a server bringing back Amanda’s meat saying it’s overcooked, and Kelly telling her to watch her beef. This was probably the most boring quick look. Usually it’s some odd behind-the-scenes thing but this was just like watching the regular episode, which starts up again in a few minutes.

Now at 2121, Kelly goes around checking on people and she happens to be at the entrance when the judges come in, so she gives them a nice welcome. She tells them that the cuisine is “progressive American” or whatever that shit means. Pretty much it means it’s American food that we’re cooking right at this moment.

Kelly goes back to order the dishes for the judges in a really weird Kelly way, like, “OK guys, ordering two two perfect perfect, yeah?” That was kind of creepy.

They start with the chilled sweet corn soup with Maryland blue crab salad and a beet salad with warm chorizo citrus vinaigrette. Tom didn’t like the soup, which he says is thin with no flavor. Gail points out corn isn’t in season, which is weird for a restaurant emphasizing seasonal cooking. Bruni says Kenny’s beet salad was loaded with stuff, and Tom does some fashion metaphor about accessories and Bruni is quick to jump on naming the designer who quoted something or other. But they digress.

Next is Amanda’s New York steak strip with roasted sunchoke, and Kevin’s pan-roasted halibut with white beans. Tom thinks the steak was cut too thin and not grilled with a nice crusty edge. Bruni is all in love with how beautiful the halibut looks. Kelly is in the back of the kitchen and tells Kevin that Bruni thought his halibut was beautiful. And oh yeah, he likes the taste too.

Last course is dessert, and the crispy aged goat cheese looks kind of interesting being all encrusted and golden brown. But Gail and Padma think it’s too much cheese for one person. Bruni doesn’t like the ice cream with Kelly’s chocolate ganache tart (which I’m pretty sure she made in a previous challenge this season) but Gail likes the richness of the tart. Then Bruni weighs in on the goat cheese dessert and calls it a horror show.

Tom says overall the two restaurants had a good showing, but Bruni says none of them lived up to their names. And he upgrades the goat cheese course from horror show to “monstrosity.” Gail liked Kelly’s demeanor, which she says is less nervous than Alex.

Back in the stew room, Padma comes in and asks for the red team of Ed, Tiffany, Angelo and Alex. Kevin says that if his team is on the bottom, he’s going to blow his mind, or something like that. Somehow it sounded worst than what I just wrote. Maybe he said it’ll blow his mind. Actually, I don’t really care about Kevin’s mind. Moving on.

At judges table, Padma tells the Red Team that they won. Bruni says Alex was too nervous. Gail tells Angelo she liked his tomato soup. Padma tells Tiffany she liked her bass. And Bruni tells Ed he liked his turbot. Tom asks about the lamb dish, and Angelo says it was Alex’s idea but Ed and Angelo took care of the cooking, and you could tell Alex was looking at them like “Hey, you’re stealing all the glory and all I’m left with is the nervousness.”

Bruni names the winner as Ed, and he gets that big bottle of wine. I think that’s called a magnum. He also gets a free trip to Napa. I’m kind of happy for Ed. He’s like the underdog.

Ed sends in the Blue Team and they totally look pissed.

At the judges’ table, Kenny starts off talking about how the OTHER team was not executing things right or communicating, so he’s surprised that his team lost. Gail says it doesn’t matter for diners what’s happening in the kitchen as long as the food tastes good.

Bruni does tell Kelly that her service was warm though clumsy. I think he meant it as a compliment. Padma also says her soup was thin, and Kelly says that’s how she likes it. It’s funny how chefs cook for how they like to eat, but not how guests want to eat it. Funny, huh?

Gail says Kenny’s beet salad had too many things, and Bruni went on critic mode and says it was like the salad went through Hamburger Helper. Ouch. He does tell Kevin that the fish was cooked nicely, but Amanda’s beef was overcooked “like a great pair of shoes with a mediocre suit” or some other metaphor. I think for my reviews I have to start thinking up more obscure metaphors. Amanda’s shocked that her beef wasn’t done right and all the other judges chime in to say the beef sucked.

As they continue down the critique of the food, then it turns into this weird “bring down the entire ship” thing where Kenny talks about how Alex really should be going home because he didn’t do anything on his side. I’m really tired of how Kenny doesn’t stand behind his own cooking and instead tries to make himself look better by saying how awful everyone else is. Tom asks if Alex should go home, and everyone says YES. Me too, I don’t mind Alex going home this episode.

They head back to the stew room where everything explodes because Kelly starts out saying she’s going to be honest and say they talked about Alex and how he should go home, and Kevin says he’s not afraid to say he told the judges that, yeah, Alex should go home. Then it’s like a screaming match between Kevin and Kenny on who can say Alex sucks the loudest. Alex tries to defend himself, but Angelo tells him to ignore them because he’s basically safe being on the winning team. Wow, what an ugly scene.

Commercials. What’s up with the Nasonex commercial? It’s not even allergy season anymore. I’m so glad it’s not (knock on wood) because I totally have major allergies since moving here. So for the few months I can’t breathe, these months I can are like heaven. I live each day breathing deeply and loving it. I just took a deep breath right now. You try it. See? Heaven.

Oh look. A Dupont Circle sign. I really feel like I haven’t gotten the sense of D.C. I think it’s because they had too many guest chefs from other parts of the country. Back at the judges’ table, Bruni points out that the Blue Team really shouldn’t try to throw Alex under the bus when he’s on the winning team. For awhile I thought Amanda would be the one to go because she really ruined the beef, but when they all come back, Tom gives the run down and Padma sends KENNY packin’! OMG. I’m not a fan but that’s a shocker. I thought he had the chops to move forward, but apparently he’s all talk and not enough editing in cooking because he made two poor dishes and he still doesn’t know it.

As he’s exiting, he’s still going on about how Alex should be the one going home because he didn’t cook anything. Alex looks all weird like he’s guilty to still be there. So I guess someone forgot to release the Krakin. And now there won’t be anyone around to talk about Angelo anymore, or to say they’re so confident. What a shame.

Next week: They walk into the CIA, and Ed’s spy name is apparently “Muffin Winthrope.” And that molecular chef with the Dutch boy haircut makes an appearance again.

Top Chef airs every Wednesday NOW AT 10 P.M.!! on Bravo. Check your local listings. Photos courtesy of the Bravo TV website.

Summary only...

Contigo in San Francisco’s Noe Valley

A Neighborhood Gem with Catalan Flavors
1320 Castro St. (near 24th), San Francisco
Noe Valley
PH: 415.285.0250
Dinner Tue.–Sat., 5:30–10 p.m.; Sun., 5:30–9:30 p.m. Closed Monday
Reservations accepted, MasterCard/Visa only (no American Express)
$1.50 Healthy SF surcharge added per person
www.contigosf.com

Despite the recession, there are tons of restaurants opening around the Bay Area this month. But recently I felt the need to catch up with one notable opening that’s now nearly 17 months old.

Contigo, a tapas bar in the family-oriented Noe Valley neighborhood, is the brainchild of Chef Brett Emerson and partner Elan Drucker. While the idea of small plates were all the rage a few years ago, the buzz for Contigo was mostly generated by Emerson’s blog detailing his road to creating his own restaurant. The blog, In Praise of Sardines, has understandably ceased to continue after Emerson opened the restaurant, but going through the archives will give you an interesting look at the challenges of starting a business in San Francisco.

Emerson has created a bustling tapas bar, reminiscent of the friendly and boisterous bars in Barcelona. The front counter bar is consistently packed with people drinking wine and munching on delights from the kitchen as they watch Chef Emerson working near the jamon carving station.

His menu is influenced by the Catalan region of Spain, which is anchored by the cuisine of places like Barcelona and Valencia. Heavy on seafood because of its coastal nature, Catalan cuisine also emphasizes local ingredients with simple preparations.

Joining me for dinner one night was my friend Ken, who I remind you is a vegetarian who also eats seafood. Just no red meat, which meant we basically bypassed the entire appetizer section detailing the varieties of jamon — the cured ham from Spain.

We did start the night with a glass of cava ($9), the Spanish sparkling wine. We sat near the back overlooking the outdoor garden, and I could have just sat there all night sipping my cava and staring out at the various herbs and greens along the sides.

But we actually got some food, starting with this beautiful Little Gem Salad ($9) that was speckled with roasted red beets and topped with crunchy garlic chips. It was a beautiful representation of the season, with the salad lightly dressed with an aged sherry vinaigrette (called vinagreta in Catalan). I especially liked how Emerson sent out a few beets (mostly the pretty chioggia beets) barely cooked and thinly sliced for even more contrasts in texture.

Another salad was the Pulpo Salad ($9) or octopus with preserved lemons, celery slices, black olives and frisee all held together with a lemon vinagreta. The octopus was perfectly cooked, tender but not chewy, and the tart flavors make this a refreshing dish.

Continuing our tastes of the sea was the Local Calamars ala Planxa ($10) or calamari served up with my current favorite padron peppers. This striking dish of tender calamari and mildly hot peppers was spiced up Catalan-style with the bright orange romanesco sauce.

We also had a side of sautéed sweet corn ($7) with zucchini and cherry tomatoes, tossed in basil and pimenton (smoked paprika). This was simple, but a hearty reflection of summer all shaded in the orange tinge of the pimenton.

I did sneak in one meat dish for myself, and that was the Albondigas ($10), a plate of pork and jamon meatballs in a tomato sherry sauce. The meatballs were tender and nicely packed, with the fresh meat breaking apart in your mouth with each bite.

At this point, you might be thinking this isn’t really enough food for two people, and you’re right because we also ordered a plate of sardines. But our server (who I have to say was very friendly and helpful) didn’t hear me order the sardines so they never showed up. Ken and I were enjoying all the dishes we had (which came at a fast pace) that we didn’t even miss the sardines. By this time we were nearly full and were more interested in checking out the desserts.

For his dessert, Ken ordered the Blue Bottle Coffee helado (gelato) with chocolate sauce ($8). I took a bite and it had a nice subtle coffee flavor, with a wonderful texture.

I wanted to try the Bomba ($8), which I confused for a doughnut but is actually a cream dessert. At Contigo, it’s made with a layer of apricot helado and wild blackberry helado, then served with raspberry sauce and roasted apricots on the side.

It was a fun and pretty dish, and reminded me more of mousse than ice cream. The dessert is more whipped, giving it a light flavor.

It’s taken me a long time to get out and try Contigo because Noe Valley is a bit far for me. But the meal just emphasized how Contigo is one of the bright new restaurants in the city, providing glimpses of sustainable cuisine with a Spanish flair. It’s definitely a trip worth making again and again.

Single guy rating: 4 stars (Fresh and Flavorful)

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



Related reviews:
Boqueria Soho: “Did I land in Barcelona?”
Bocanova: “Service Improves but What About the Food?”
La Boqueria market

Summary only...