Gratuitous cruelty alert: Unless you relish the sight of a sharp wooden implement piercing an animal's heart, and that same implement piercing a fellow animal's freakishly swollen liver, do NOT peek at the Beer & Nosh pic of foie gras and duck heart on a stick from last night's Mission Street Food dinner.
Gratuitous pain alert: Hot Food Porn serves up a slice of kitchen verité, the first in a promised series of in-the-trenches stories of life on the line (restaurant line, that is). Here's a blood-smeared taste: I have just cut off 1/3 of my middle fingernail and part of my flesh into a sea of 1 mm by 1 mm brunoise chopped red peppers with my Wusthof Classic Santoku (I knew I hated that bloody knife).
Gratuitious headache alert: In case you overdo it this weekend, Nate Courtland of LA Weekly's Squid Ink grinds out a hangover remedy classy enough to mask as brunch: Spanish tortilla with basil aioli. Reads like it'd go great with a beer.
The World Health Organization helped author a paper for Science that pinpointed the likely source of the swine flu as La Gloria, a picturesque pig-farming village in the Veracruz Mountains. But the World Health Organization isn't doing any research in La Gloria itself. Instead, the town is filling up with scientists funded by a consortium of biotech and pharmaceutical companies. They have stated their intention to do a rigorous investigation of backyard pig-farming operations. As opposed to, say, the enormous pig farms at the village's perimeter. Where hundreds of pigs are kept all squished in together and fed -- oh! -- biotech corn. And low-dose antibiotics. The kind that might, I don't know, create an antibiotic-resistant flu, perhaps? Is someone maybe trying to blame an epidemic on poor, small-time pig farmers? Scandal!
Pork giant Smithfield has kindly offered the information that its hogs recently tested negative for swine flu. This gesture is slightly marred by the fact that Smithfield itself selected the samples that would be tested.
Happy-hour specials are the sliver lining of the economic crisis. At Americano they're taking the form of $6 cocktails inspired, appropriately enough, by the Great Depression. There's the Sidecar, a drink said to have been invented by an American army captain living in Paris during World War I. Americano's version is classic to the core: brandy, oj, Cointreau, and lemon juice, shaken and served up in a sugar-rimmed martini glass. It's a warming beverage for chilly nights when you want to pinch a penny (assuming you consider a six-dollar cocktail affordable). Colli's brandy of choice is Italian label, Stock 84.
Noodle Theory recently opened in the Marina (3242 Scott at Lombard, 359-1238), a branch of chef-owner Louis Kao's popular fusion noodle shop across the bay in Rockridge. The San Francisco outpost is a sleek modern place with wood-topped tables.
We dropped by for lunch, and tried fried wontons ($7), a dish we usually avoid, on the recommendation of a friend who's a fan of Noodle Theory's version. We're still dubious about the concept, but the filling of goat cheese and yau choy (a Chinese green also known, unfortunately, as rape) was miles better than the usual cream cheese stuffing. We loved the fat grilled asparagus ($6) squiggled with an intensely mustardy aioli -- we asked for more aioli on the side, for the sadly unsquiggled asparagus at the bottom of the stack, and it was cheerfully brought to us.
We also enjoyed crumbled Niman Ranch pork in hot, spicy bean sauce, served over noodles ($8.50), with cooling, crunchy julienned cucumber and a scattering of chopped scallions -- a portion large enough to serve two.
Calling all Twitter addicts with a thing for wine: A Sonoma County winemaker wants to pay you a boatload of money simply to hang out, sip Zinfandel, and send tweets. Seriously.
Okay, so it calls for a bit more than that. Last month, Geyserville winemaker Murphy-Goode launched the search for a PR post it's calling "A Really Goode Job." The six-month gig starts in August, and will require the winner to wax enthusiastic on Facebook and via YouTube vids about the sheer awesomeness of wandering the vineyards while learning the ins and outs of winemaking from -- you guessed it -- Murphy-Goode. The best part: It pays the kind of scratch you figure most "lifestyle correspondents" would be happy to make in two years. The 10K monthly salary comes with free housing (M-G's Web site describes is as a "deluxe private home in the heart of Wine Country"). You even get free airfare.
Clearly, Spencer on the Go suffered first-night jitters - it took us 45 minutes to get our order of curried frog legs. Chez Spencer chef and owner Laurent Katgely could be heard cursing as he spooned stuff from copper pans into paperboard boats.
If you missed it, despair not. Katgely plans to fire up the truck's burners again tonight and Saturday, 6 p.m.-midnight, at Folsom and Seventh St. (Check for status updates on Twitter.) Terroir wine shop and bar directly across Folsom is inviting street-food thrill-seekers in to take a load off and score a little something to wash down that skate wing.
So how was last night's food? The curry-napped frog legs ($9) we tried were, well, okay, a few bites of moist flesh and vivid spice. Let's put it this way: They were the best damn frog legs we've ever eaten while squatting in a parking lot on Folsom. More pics after the jump.
Let's do lunch:
It's the threshold to the holiday weekend, but before stepping into the realm of ribs and brats, have a last fling with something vivid in a completely different way. SF Weekly food critic Meredith Brody recommends the sindhi chicken biriyani made with Punjabi basmati rice and kabli chana (spiced, buttery chickpeas) at Shalimar (532 Jones at O'Farrell, 928-0333).
Drink therapy:
Brazilians can make even an ordinary Friday feel like a holiday, especially with $5 happy-hour mojitos and caipirinhas on an open tab. Get giddy at Bossa Nova (138 Eighth St. at Minna, 558-8004), 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Soak up the Barbary Coast ambience at nostalgic prices: $1 off all draft beers and well drinks (not to mention the perennial $3 cans of Hamm's) at Mission neo-saloon Elixir (3200 16th St. at Guerrero, 552-1633), 3-7 p.m.
