Monday, September 21, 2009

Shame on me... the eating continues

Seriously this month's eating escapades have gotten a bit out of hand. The following things all happened in September, making it officially a month of gluttony: my birthday, a Labor Day weekend trip, a Napa visit, the monthly dinner club outing, a trip to Gary Danko to utilize a gift certificate and now a dinner at Saison, which was made long in advance, and happens to fall in September as well. Also, I am going to Hawaii in a few days, where I will end up eating out for most of my meals, since that's what happens when you travel and stay in a hotel.

I should probably have been fasting all month or doing a juice diet or something, in preparation for the upcoming donning-of-the-swimsuit-in-public, but instead I ate twice my body weight in butter-poached restaurant food. Oops.

Anyway, if I'm gonna sacrifice my waistline to boldly try all these restaurants, then I thought the least I could do is share the information with the world, so that others can benefit from my experiences. I know, so generous.

So, I kicked off this weekend with an excursion to the far northern edges of my neighborhood. And by that, I mean that I walked to Mission Beach Cafe for brunch. I had been there once before, for dinner, and was generally pretty pleased with the food and the overall experience, but seeing as it is so far (10 blocks!) and there are so many good places to eat around here, I had not since made my way back.

After a late start, and a long trek (again, 10 blocks!), I arrived closer to lunchtime, so I ended up getting the burger. I am writing about it, even though I don't have pictures, because I want to express that this is a very delicious burger. Possibly one of the best I have had in a while. It oozed meat juice all over my plate (+1). It had carmelized onions (+1). It had a thick slice of super-ripe heirloom tomato (+1). The bun was actually a roll, made of pretty decent bread (+1). It came with a giant side of crispy, salty, herb-y fries (+1). The whole thing was 12 bucks, with no stupid surcharges for the toppings - awesome! Sadly, I devoured the thing without thinking taking a picture, so you'll just have to go see for yourself. But the point being that it was really good, and you should definitely go there and get a burger. Oh, and the other stuff looked pretty good too.

Secondly, I went to a place called Saison last night. It's a "pop-up" restaurant, which means that it only happens once a week, and it's not an official restaurant. Saison serves dinner in the back of Stable Cafe every Sunday night, and you make a reservation through their website. Unlike Mission Street food, this pop-up dinner is really quite fancy, with several courses and an optional wine pairing. I got the wine pairing. Duh.

This time I took pictures, so you can see the beautiful presentation. The dining room is also adjacent to the open kitchen, so you can see the chefs working, and even interact with them before and after dinner. The whole thing was a bit long, with sort of long waiting periods in between courses, but the mellow atmosphere and friendly service made it seem like not a big deal.



The menu started off with an amuse bouche with two different watermelon preparations. Yummy, fresh little bites. The yellow one (above) had Indian spices, and the red one had a tiny bit of kalamata olive. Then we had a slow-cooked egg with caviar and egg custard, served inside an egg shell. It was super-soft and creamy, with salt from the caviar. Then a salad of thin sliced veggies on top of raw snapper and lemon creme fraiche.



Then a hunk of seared tuna in seaweed broth topped with dashi. This was smoky on the outside from being grilled, and sweet on the inside where it was still raw. The broth was salty and delicious, and hard for me to describe, since I am still fairly new to eating seafood.



Last, we had three types of pork: some grilled loin, some braised leg, and a slice of head cheese, which apparently includes all parts of the head, including brains and stuff. I have to admit, I wasn't excited about the terrine of head parts, but it actually wasn't bad. The flavor was pretty good, and it was only the texture of the various bits that was a little weird. At the end, we got a panna cotta with slightly syrupy peaches on top. The peaches were fantastic, although the panna cotta was nothing special. I almost would have preferred just a bowl of the peaches, but hey it was still pretty good, and I don't want to sound like I'm complaining.

The whole experience was fun, especially since you get to go to this place that isn't well known, and you enter into a back room through the courtyard. So it feels kind of special and intimate. I would definitely recommend the wine pairings too, since I felt like they really complimented the food. None of the wines were really my favorite types of wine, but they tasted amazing when I drank them with the food. I think that is the mark of a job well done by the wine director.

So, now I have three days to detox from my weekend of gluttony before I head off to Maui for coconut pancakes, fish tacos and loco moco. I'll try to take lots of photos and give a full report when I return.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Food adventures: eating ridiculously well

I have to say, I've been eating incredibly well lately. I've been to a new "nice" restaurant every week or two, which is sort of ridiculous, but hey, you only live once, right? In case you're curious, here's a quick summary of some of the recent experiences.


Gary Danko:
Got the 4 course menu and everything was quite good, but I kinda feel like any decent restaurant can make fresh lobster, corn, tomatoes and potatoes taste pretty good. Nothing on the menu here really "wowed" me. Especially for the price. And don't even get me started on the wine prices. Cheapest bottles are near $100! I can get an awesome dinner at Delfina for half the price, or Beretta for even less.

Sorry for the lame iPhone photo - once again forgot my camera.


Range:
Went here for my bday since it's semi-fancy and in walking distance from my house. The food is always good here, but I just don't have any idea why this place gets a Michelin star every year. It's good, but not really memorable, and I'm not sure it's as good as some of the other Michelin star recipients. I had better food at Bar Jules which doesn't even have a star.

Looks swanky, though, huh?



The Bazaar by Jose Andres (in LA):
This was a really fun dinner. The food was whimsical and delicious. Everything was presented in a playful manner, and often deconstructed using techniques from "molecular gastronomy". I am a loser and forgot to take my camera, but here is a picture and description of the "liquid olives" that we had.

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/youngandhungry/2009/04/09/liquid-olives-like-water-balloons-but-with-olive-juice/


Sebo:
This is regarded as one of the best sushi joints in SF, and the fish was of incredibly high quality, but I couldn't help but want some more interesting preparations. We had about 10 different plates of sushi, and almost all of them were nigiri style, with just a piece of fish on rice. Everything was good, but I think I am more partial to the fun and interesting preparations that some other places make. For example, I recently had a roll that included tuna, mango and macadamia nuts, and another that was lightly charred and had spice from a jalapeno slice, all of which really enhanced the fish, in my opinion.

Beautiful fish...



Ad Hoc (in Napa):
Just really simple, delicious food, served family style. We had a fresh garden salad with lots of veggies from the French Laundry garden. Then steak and carrots, then cheese and finally a peach crumble. Yum!

Summer on a plate! I could eat this all day. Bonus points for the fried squash blossoms.

As you can see, the adventures in Julieland have been fairly food-oriented lately. I sadly haven't done much in the outdoors lately. I'll try to get back on the bike soon, and maybe even get up to the mountains at some point. That is, if I can squeeze it in between restaurant reservations.

Thursday, September 03, 2009

Land of Sunshine (and cleavage)

Last weekend, I visited my Little Bro in Santa Barbara. He got a job at a company that makes and installs wind turbines, so he and his girlfriend moved down there. I kinda miss having him nearby, but I get his decision to go with the good job and the perpetual sunshine.


Rough day, huh?


We mostly hung out at the beach and wandered around the downtown, trying to find decent food. What's up with Santa Barbara have no good restaurants? You would think that a fancy town like that could pull together a decent cafe or something. Honestly, the best thing going on there is the Pinkberry (which I love, btw. And they are offering coconut flavor froyo this summer, so OMG get your ass over there!).

Also, what is up with the aggressive displays of cleavage? I guess that is a SoCal thing. I had to avert my eyes so often, I ended up just looking down at the sidewalk to play it safe. And behold! As I was looking down, I saw fire hydrants made of gold:


Yo, Santa Barbara is so fancy, even the fire hydrants are made of gold.


Other highlights of the trip: when a pigeon crapped on my shoulder while I was eating breakfast, and when Lola got completely wiped out by a wave and subsequently refused to go back in the water. Good times.

Thanks to Little Brother for hosting me!