I wrote about chilis and bones at Incanto at few days ago and as fortune would have it, Chef Chris Cosentino's annual Head to Tail and Sicilian Mattanza dinners are both quickly approaching. Head to Tail consists of five courses of expertly prepared offal -- the parts of an animal you've never eaten, and probably never even considered eating. As Cosentino himself explains in the clip above: "If you're willing to kill it you should shut the fuck up and eat it all." Fair enough, but only if it's coming out of Cosentino's own kitchen. The Fifth Annual Head to Tail (check a sample menu) will be held Monday June 9 and Wednesday June 11. $75 per person. Then on Monday, June 14, Incanto is hosting its tribute to the ancient art of Sicilian bluefin tuna hunting, the Mattanza Dinner: four courses, tons of tuna, Sicilian, enough said. It's going to be awesome. $65 per person. For reservations call 641-4500.
-- Brian Bernbaum
Purveyors of the Korean-style Chinese specialty comfort food known as za zang myun, Zazang (2340 Geary at Baker) is a tiny but charming restaurant plunked down on an indiscriminate block of Geary lorded over by the Kaiser Permanente medical complex. Za zang myun could not-too-imprecisely be called the spaghetti of the east, consisting of a pile of chewy, hand-pulled wheat noodles served swimming in an sturdy, ink-black sauce made from beef broth, black bean paste (hence the color), vegetables and either pork or -- in the popular seafood version -- squid and shrimp. While the color can be off-putting, the sauce is very mellow, which is where, I suspect, the correlation to comfort food comes in. In fact, I usually require a nice big squirt of cock sauce (heh) to amp up the heat level. Also, the price is right: at $4.95, a steaming bowl of za zang myun is one of the better lunch deals in town. And while many Koreans would probably call me crazy for saying this, while I really, really love the namesake dish, it isn't the real reason I go to places like Zazang ... follow the jump to find out the shocking truth!
Are our burritos better than the ones on every corner in Santa Ana? The Mexican has more than a mouthful to say about that. --Janine Kahn
