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Monday, June 8, 2009
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The new Metreon Farmers Market isn’t my thing. There are good vendors as well as meh-treon quality, but the layout of this culinary corridor makes me want to sway my feng outside.
If I were a vendor, I would appreciate the shelter, climate control and modern plumbing of this indoor venue, but as a shopper, the space isn’t welcoming, the flow of customers is far from organic and sustainable and although there is natural light on either end of the building, it’s difficult not to miss the outdoor element.
Crafts seem an etsy bit out of place since they aren’t farmed (unless Monsanto came up with a new, patented, crop that I haven’t heard of) and although I’m always happy to see food stands (particularly ones made from produce that it available on site), the bakery and food booths dominated the hall and made it feel more like a food court than a Farmer’s Market.
...and speaking of markets. Trader Joe’s is scheduled to (finally) open in the former Greenbrae Tower Records space at the end of June.
Island Earth Farmers Market
101 4th St.
San Francisco, CA
415.834.5358
Trader Joe’s (not yet open)
2052 Redwood Hwy
Greenbrae, CA
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Sunday, June 7, 2009
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Project Open Hand’s Dessert First! kicked off:
... with a shake up among top mixologists Martino DiGrande:
... David Sehring:
... Shanti Deluca:
... and Michael Garcia:
... in a strained competition of Blue Angel vodka based cocktails. We enjoyed Garcia’s watermelon, lemon and Nikolaihof elderflower syrup “Beija Flor”:
... and One Market bar chef’s fruit filled “Shanti Sling” with lemon, strawberries, blackberries and lemongrass syrup before heading upstairs to this evening’s main event filled with un-savory (meaning sweet) characters:
Our cake walk began on a Boulevard paved with Jessica Sullivan’s droolworthy strawberry Pavlovas:
... which rang our bell.
Michelle Polzine’s:
... ar-Range-ment of Meyer lemon and boysenberry tartlets:
... with rose geranium were shooting into mouths.
Rooibos glaze added sheen to Michael Mina pastry chef, Bill Corbett’s tangy raspberry puree with whipped yogurt and meringues:
Sarah Ballard & co. Perba-trated the production of brachetto panna cotta with raspberries:
... and watermelon marshmallows:
Elizabeth Falkner’s:
... “rough, salty, sexy and sweet chocolate bondage”:
... had the crowd tongue tied with its steamed chocolate fudge cake, lychee gelee, leather essence, dehydrated olives, cocoa nibs and a Touch of Evil raspberry. Masticators filled their cavities but were disappointed when they found the napkins too small for use as blindfolds.
All of the sugar slingers brought a sensational selection of stupendous sweets in support of Project Open Hand’s programs which nourish the community through services including the delivery of food to homebound, critically ill and senior clients.
9th Annual Dessert First!
Project Open Hand
W Hotel
181 3rd St.
San Francisco, CA
Mark your Calendar
Ed Levine of Seriouseats.com is curating the comestibles for the Great American Food & Music Fest. He has lined up seminars, cooking demos and tasting tent tenants which will include such notable noshables as June Taylor’s “America’s best PB&J” ($6.00) with her strawberry conserve and Koeze peanut butter on artisan bread, Barney Greengrass’ bagel plate ($10.00), Pink’s hot dogs ($6.00), Katz’ pastrami on rye ($12.00), Bouchon Bakery’s chocolate bouchon ($2.00) and Charles Chocolates made to order s’mores ($5.00).
There will be Little Feat performing music and little feet in Chris Cosentino’s hot dog making demonstration. I guess chefs are the new rock stars...
Great American Food & Music Fest
Saturday, June 13 noon
Tickets $21.50 - $531.00
Shoreline Amphitheatre
One Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA
Porkapalooza is returning to Bloodhound.
Taylor and Ryan are pulling out the knives and breaking down and barbecuing a Heritage pig from Good Farm. Check out our post on their last pen-ultimate event and get your tickets early (last month they had a three digit waiting list.)
Porkapalooza
June 16 6-10 p.m.
Tickets $30.00
Bloodhound
1145 Folsom St.
San Francisco, CA
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Saturday, June 6, 2009
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A panini press ironed crusty creases into our chicken ($8.00):
... and prosciutto ($7.95):
... sandwiches which came with a pot of pickled vegetables.
The poultrywich was Cibo’s daily special and even though it was spread with mayo, it verged on dry. Pitted olives, arugula, bits of roasted peppers and zucchini offered a boost, but we both preferred the hammy sammy with smoked mozzarella, prosciutto, pesto and tomato slices.
The Blue Bottle Giant Steps drip coffee was made in a big cup:
... that they filled up, but next time we’ll ask for a shorter version (since it was much more dilute than we prefer.)
Cibo Café
1201 Bridgeway
Sausalito, CA
415.331.2426
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Friday, June 5, 2009
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Tacubaya’s tongue was spoken for so I had to fork-get my original order and go with a chicken taco ($3.40):
... which came in a crispy shell with cheese and tomato cucumber salsa. Despite the depressing dearth of offal options, this helped to lick my hunger (although I prefer the lengua.)
The enchiladas ($7.95):
... were filled with beef and cheese and topped with a tomatillo sauce and crema. These wet protein packed tubes were barely warm, which caused a loss of a lada enchantment.
Our favored Tacubaya dishes include the menudo (served on the weekends only) and the churros that are prepared to order and served hot after a tumble in cinnamon sugar.
Tacubaya
1788 4th St.
Berkeley, CA
510.525.5160
From today’s bunrab email, Sara writes:
Gutenberg,
Coulda swore you wrote up the taco trucks by the marin dump aka the recycling center. Can't find them under San Rafael reviews -- where are they hidden???
Sara
Gutenberg replies:
Dear Sara,
Ah, the Marin dump...the reason it didn’t hop out at you is that it’s filed under Taqueria Santa Cruz.
-G
Mark your Calendar
Each ticket purchase for the One Big Table Event benefit for the SF Food Bank provides more than 450 meals for San Francisco’s low income seniors and families (in addition to the ticket holder’s dinner at Hotel Kabuki.) The festivities include a silent auction with items such as a dinner for 12 cooked by Tyler Florence at the winner’s home.
The bank’s $50,000 fundraising goal will help ensure that San Franciscans are fed this summer.
The San Francisco Food Bank
One Big Table Event
Wednesday, June 10, 6-9 p.m.
Tickets $185
Hotel Kabuki
1625 Post St.
San Francisco, CA
415.282.1900
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Thursday, June 4, 2009
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On the Green Tavern
The Lark Creek Inn is out and the Tavern at Lark Creek is in. The cushioned chairs and carpeting are gone and the dining room now has a more casual approach to both the decor and the chow.
Dense and delectable Parker house rolls:
... came fresh out of the oven and set a comfort food tone for our dinner.
We started with the Bellwether Farms ricotta ($3.95):
... drizzled with lemon infused olive oil and topped with marjoram. This simple starter was delicious with the accompanying crisp croutons, but the ratio of cheese to toasts was such that the curds didn’t give whey as fast as the bready bits.
The burger ($7.95):
... was cooked to a perfect medium rare and had a brioche style bun which was good, but had a doughy influence over the sandwich due to its richness and lack of crustiness. It came topped with cheese (which we didn’t order but was fine by us) and picked beans, cauliflower and carrots for a pleasing crunchy, vinegary interlude.
We opened our faces for the open-faced, grilled asparagus tartine ($14.50):
... which was topped with an alchemizing hen’s egg laid over a nest of stalkable stalks. A morelly superior cream sauce kept the bread boat afloat in this vessel of vegetable virtuousness.
All of the entrees are priced below $15 and cocktails top out at $11. There are some vestigial vittles Inncluding the popular Caesar salad and butterscotch pudding, but Chef Randy Lewis has put together a more welcoming, everyday roster of local, high quality eats.
On Monday, June 15th the Tavern will donate a percentage of that evening’s receipts to the Corte Madera Larkspur Schools Foundation. So if you prefer cocktails and burgers to walkathons - this fundraiser is for you.
The Tavern at Lark Creek
234 Magnolia Ave.
Larkspur, CA
415.924.7766
Mark your Calendar
Shelley Lindgren, Jon Bonne and Rajat Parr are a few of the judges on the wine panel for this year’s Golden Glass event. The tie-tannic task of these ranking oenophiles will be to proclaim their preferred potables from a caskade of Italian, Spanish, New Zealand and US bottles with a focus on terrior-expressive and sustainably produced juice.
As you can see from our posting of last year’s event the carefully selected artisans are not restricted to wine producers, this year the Slow Food Plaza participants include The Slow Club, A16, Delfina, La Cocina Community Kitchen and Blue Bottle Coffee. Each admission ticket includes 5 food tasting tickets.
The Golden Glass 2009
Fort Mason Center
Festival Pavillion
Sunday, June 21, 2-6 p.m.
Tickets $60 advance, $70 door, $55 Slow Food Members and $20 for those under 21 (food only)
In other Tavern news:
Urban Tavern’s “Pay What You Think It’s Worth” lunch promotion next week includes 5 hours of free parking while you calculate the caliber of your caloric consumption.
Reservations are required for this sobering study (alcohol is not included) in which diners eat up to three courses with soft drinks, coffee or tea before being asked what they should be charged (not inclusive of tax and tip.)
Urban Tavern
Pay What You Think It’s Worth Lunch
Monday - Friday, June 8th-12th 11:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Reservations Required and limited to 100 people per day.
333 O’Farrell St.
San Francisco, CA
415.923.4400
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Wednesday, June 3, 2009
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The Murray Circle dining room was full, but they serve the lunch menu in the Farley Bar:
... where I shelled out for the crab “BLT” ($16.00):
... which had a generous portion of Dungeness sandwiched between slices of heirloom tomato and avocado. If they were more miserly with the alchemizer of applewood smoked bacon, the sweet, delicate, crab meat could have sidestepped further into the spotlight, but complaints about too much bacon are like chiding a unicorn for having too silky of a mane.
Although the lunch tasting menu looks good on paper, the à la cavallo carte is how I like to roll.
Cavallo Point Restaurant
601 Murray Circle
Fort Baker
Sausalito, CA
415.339.4750
Mark your Calendar
It’s time to celebrate the seasonal release of Hangar One’s Fraser River Raspberry Vodka at the St. George Summer Open House on June 20th.
Entry includes 3 cocktail tasters, food and spirits tastings backed by live music from John Clark and the Wil Blades trio.
For an extra tenner, you won’t want to miss the smoky succulence of their agua azul before taking the shuttle back to the Bart station.
St. George Spirits
Summer Open House
Saturday, June 20, 1-6 p.m.
Tickets $35 advance, $45 at the door
21 and over only - picture ID required
Hangar One
2601 Monarch St.
Alameda, CA
510.864.0635
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Tuesday, June 2, 2009
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W treated us to lunch at Poggio where the squid:
... was perfectly grilled before being planted on a bed of arugula, radish and lentils. The grilled scallops over corn kernels:
... could have used a flavor detour to finesse the cob-bination of these sweet segments. Cloud-like spinach and ricotta gnocchi and a platter of vegetables:
... quickly cumulused in our bellies. The moist fleshed, chicken “al Mattone”:
... was brickended with morel filled spoon bread and the house made pasta with goat and peas:
... showed a mature kid sensibility.
Chef McNee:
...makes a mean misto and a pleasing porchetta so we can’t wait to see what porcine production he prepares for Cochon 555 on the 14th.
Poggio Trattoria
777 Bridgeway
Sausalito, CA
415.332.7771
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Monday, June 1, 2009
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Michael Mina’s recipe for Strawberry Shortcake with Grand Marnier Strawberry Compote and Chantilly Cream was a great way to make a fruity sandwich. We used demerara sugar to sprinkle over the top of the biscuits:
...(since we like the chunky crunch of the coarser crystals) and halved the booze (based on the Epicurious commenters reviews) for a simple, seasonal sweet.
-G
Mark your Calendar
Jeremy Fox, Christopher Kostow and Philip Tessier are a few of the top toques who will be featured at the upcoming StarChefs Rising Stars Revue Napa Sonoma.
Guests will sample the chef’s signature dishes with pairings selected by sommeliers Yoon Ha and Geoff Kruth as they stroll around Charles Krug Winery and for those who want to shake it up, Scott Beattie will be on hand with his artisanal cocktails.
StarChefs Napa Sonoma
Wednesday, June 17th, 7-9:30 p.m., VIP reception at 6 p.m.
Tickets $75 general admission, $125 VIP Reception
Charles Krug Winery
2800 Main St.
St. Helena, CA
Cochon 555 update:
All the porky pieces are falling into place for the heritage hog cooking competition on June 14th along with a sueeet price cut. The tickets are now $125 each ($95 with the “baconbits” discount code) and there is also a VIP reception (at $200 per ticket) which begins at 3:30 with reserve wines, artisan cheeses, specialty libations and Magnolia beer.
At 5:00, general admission includes a sampling of all 5 chef’s hoofy handiwork as well as a butchery demonstration by Taylor Boetticher in which he will show the crowd how he rolls his famous porchetta.
Cochon 555 - San Francisco
June 14th, 3:00 p.m. VIP Reception, 5 p.m. General admission
Tickets $125 general admission (or $95 with “baconbits” as a discount code) beginning at 5:00 p.m. or $200 for the VIP reception.
Advance ticket purchase required
The Fairmont
950 Mason St.
San Francisco, CA
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