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ABOUT ME: Name: Gutenberg Location: Somewhere near the Golden Gate Bridge. Occupation: BRPR (Bunrab public relations.) |
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Do you need to answer back? You can send me comments if you want to. If I want to, I'll post 'em in this very blog. -Gutenberg |
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December 17-23 , 2006
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Saturday,
December 23, 2006 Joe’s Cable Car restaurant was in the Christmas spirit by giving out a gift with lunch.
They even pulled out the folk art Santa:
...to complete the holiday effect. My 6-oz. "chopped beef steak" with avocado ($9.75):
... hit the spot. I like the way they grind their beef to just the right texture (which they do in full sight, with choice, chuck.) The meat was cooked to the requested medium rare with melted, sharp Cheddar collapsed between the patty and the vegetable matter. O-rings ($3.00):
...completed the circle of this artery insulating meal.
Joe’s
Cable Car Restaurant
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Friday,
December 22, 2006 Chubby and I were heading to the Letterman Theatre:
...in the Presidio but we needed to grab some quick chow on the way. We whipped by A16:
... and got seated immediately without rezzies (how lucky is that for a Friday night filled with hungry shoppers?) My Margherita pizza ($12.00):
... had more blisters than a centipede at the Bay to Breakers. This simple combo of tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil leaves was a little soggy towards the center, but was good enough for me to eat the whole thing anyway. Chubby got the Salsiccia ($14.50):
... with fennel sausage, grana padano, mozzarella, and some rapini to scrub out the cheesy sausage artery road block. This was a tasty combo but suffered from a damp center as well. Next time we will both have to ask for our ‘za’s fired a little longer. They got us out quick so we were in plenty of time to see a pristine print of Flags of our Fathers with top notch projection and sound. It was important to fill our bellies before the movie since popcorn is not an option in this non-milk dud friendly, carpeted screening room.
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Thursday,
December 21, 2006 Harmony Restaurant opened up this week in the Strawberry Village Mall in Mill Valley.
If they get all their Peking ducks in a row, their take-out shop will open next week with hot food and cold kits to assemble your own chow out of Harmony’s way. I think that they picked a good name for their eatery because I can hear the out of tune responses already. We are conditioned to think of dim sum as ultra-cheap eats so it’s difficult to swallow the idea of five bucks for an order of sui mai, but you really can’t look at Harmony as just another dim sum restaurant. Their focus is local, sustainable ingredients with an updated interpretation. The modern muted toned dining room is your first clue that this isn’t your typical cart go round. Not everything on the menu was available today. They didn’t have any pea shoot or vegetable green dumplings or the scallop and chive dim sum. So I went with the shrimp gow:
...which contained fresh and tasty pink meat. The Fun Gwor with pork and mushrooms:
... was okay, with distinct bits of fungus and pig, but it needed more of the promised cilantro and parsley, I preferred the vegetarian dumplings with black mushrooms, pickled turnip and green onions due to its tasty textural variations of crunchy and soft umami laced bites but it wasn’t something I would go out of my way to reorder. The sui mai tasted like solid, standard issue pork and shrimp stumps
wrapped in egg noodle.
... ($5.00 for each of the varieties that I had) were fine, nothing extraordinary, but to be fair, they are just getting started and they didn’t have a lot of the items that I wanted (due to priming the pump of their suppliers.) Next time I think I’ll check out their non dim sum menu like the chili wok tossed onion rings or Harmony Signature Beef. It’s too early to tell, but from the friendly staff and their fresh tasting chow they may not have such an empty dining room in the near future. They are going to have dim sum carts on the weekends but are not going to be Chinesey enough to remain open on Xmas or American New Years.
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Wednesday,
December 20, 2006 Have you seen that Ten Speed Press book called Hungry Planet? -G
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Tuesday,
December 19, 2006 Fennel and potato soup ($3.50):
... at Slow Club was just the thing to take the San Francisco chill off today. This thick rooty fluid was the anise-swer to my craving. Not only was it delish, it thawed out my fingers so I could enjoy my ‘za. Grilled flatbread ($9.50):
...had nice little blisters on the thin crust with a combo of chewy and crunchy regions. The melty mozzarella, shrooms and Italian sausage were tasty belly insulation. I wonder if more people order “flatbread” since it sounds healthier (and classier) than “pizza.” Slow Club
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Monday,
December 18, 2006
The Joy of Cooking says that the definition of eternity is one ham and two people. Obviously they didn’t have access to Fatted Calf’s hams. We got one of the larger of their petit jambon ($10 per pound):
...which weighed in at about two and a half
pounds. This is just the right amount for a few meals and some snacktime
refrigerator whittling of heritage pig.
...with gruyere and fava greens:
...were a highly recommended way to enjoy this smoky, pork treat.
From today’s bunrab email, Kate writes about Bette’s To Go: Gutenberg, I owe you a thanks, again. I have lived near Bette's To Go for over 6 years. Having always been mesmerized by the deli food, I have never ordered from the unobtrusive menu. But your review encouraged me to change my ways, and I must second your review on the Cubano. My goodness, what I've been missing! It was a good thing I ordered it to go, because I would have been tempted to get a second one. I am wondering about your assessment of the
staff as "wonderful",
however. In all the years I've been going, I'd say 95% of that service
has been curt and rather unpleasant. Kate
Dear Kate, I’m so glad you liked the Cubano too. It’s
nice in this cold weather to boot. -G
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Sunday,
December 17, 2006
As always, they were in top form with salmon cornets, smoked sturgeon, beef tenderloin:
... pork rillettes, foie gras, and every imaginable dessert:
The champagne was flowing, the wassailers were singing: ... and the cookie decorating station was going full force:
Cecilia
Chang, Margrit Mondavi, and other members of the food and wine community
came to raise a glass. Laura Cunningham looked
gorgeous engulfed by the crowds during her visit.
... chopped liver:
... (which
he personally prepares every year) was presented in
its buttery goodness.
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contents copyright ©
2006 by BunRabCo. All rights reserved.
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