Cocktail Times is hosting the Marie Brizard Cocktail Challenge, which will pit a San Francisco bartender against a New York counterpart for an ultimate liqueur showdown decided by the general public by online vote.
The S.F. finalists are:
•Joel Baker, Bourbon and Branch
•H. Joseph Ehrmann, Elixir
•Camber Lay, Epic Roasthouse
•Brian MacGregor, Jardiniere
•Joe Parrilli, Clock Bar at Westin Hotel
•Jackie Patterson, Orson*
•Tim Stookey, Presidio Social Club
•Amanda Washington, Rye
•Joe Wrye, Waterbar
•Sierra Zimei, Four Seasons Hotel
*Patterson has recently left Orson
Cast your votes in these last few days of the month. The S.F. regional final takes place on October 27 at Conduit Restaurant and the overall winner will be decided at the Marie Brizard International Bartender Seminar and Competition in Bordeaux, France on December 6-9. —Tamara Palmer
By Meredith Brody
Is there a more famous baked good than the one that inspired Marcel Proust’s seven-volume, several-thousand-paged novel, called, variously Remembrance of Things Past or In Search of Lost Time?
It’s “one of those squat plump little cakes called ‘petites madeleines’, which look as though they had been molded in the fluted valve of a scallop shell,” a bit of which which Proust drops in an herb tisane made from linden flowers. “I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the cake. No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure invaded my senses…”
Yikes! The first instance, perhaps, of the “I’ll have what he’s having” phenomenon. The tea-soaked madeleine crumb has unleashed a memory of the same treat that he tasted on Sunday mornings in his aunt Leonie’s bedroom at Combray – “and the whole of Combray and its surroundings, taking shape and solidity, sprang into being, town and garden alike, from my cup of tea.” And from that the many pages of A la recherché du temps perdu sprang.
Ferry Plaza's Delica rf-1 is a delicatessen imagined with a Japanese twist, the first such American venture by Kozo Iwata's massive Rock Field Company. Amidst the beautiful sushi rolls, salads and fried items is a lively remix of the Yankee classic of meat and potatoes: Roast beef sushi and wasabi potato salad.
Made from organic Meyer beef and lashings of wasabi and prepared nigiri style over rice rather than in a maki roll, the roast beef sushi is a fiery and delicious sensation. The wasabi potato salad brings much less of a buzz to the nose but still makes a wonderful counterpoint to crisp Romaine, edamame and snap peas. The roast beef sushi is available for $2 each and the wasabi potato salad is $8 per pound, or a complete meal of the two with rice is $7.50. The latter offers more food than it looks. —Tamara Palmer
