That's half a century in restaurant years: Food Gal clocks the weekend's edible events, including galas hyping the five-year anniversary of Restaurant Michael Mina. We know: $125 a pop is steep these days. But for all you dealers coming off a good week, check out what you get (through tomorrow): lobster corndog, poularde (a fancy French adolescent chicken), root beer float. Might be a classy alternative to the county fair. Also, there's special stuff themed around Mina's Clock Bar well into next week, including mixology guest stars Erik Adkins of Heaven's Dog and Scott Beattie, who became a star at Cyrus in Healdsburg. Full details at the Gal.
Cheesy consolation: Just in case you're not a dealer with a fat stack, you might want to take Gene Miguel's advice on Hoodscope (via the Ex). The pupusas at Balompie Café look like fitting consolation for the Mina prix fixe you're not having. Then again, they might be way more satisfying. Just sayin'.
• Mary Ladd hoisted a double-meat charmer at a place beloved by the hammered of Valencia, though the details might be fuzzy next morning.
• Soaring, sprawling Horatius busted out the Portuguese home-style in a space packed with glittery gourmet swag.
• SF Weekly food critic Meredith Brody rocked an anorak to brave the Outer Sunset fog; good thing Outerlands was there to revive her with soup and an open-face.
• We lined up behind Town Hall for a take-away cluster of lush baby backs and an even lusher hot link from its summer BBQ concept. Our cuticles are still orange from the experience.
• And finally, Ryan Farr set us up with a Dogzilla, a wiener heaped with kimchi and pork rinds in a twisted take on the chili dog -- fitting topper for a week in SFoodie that left us fishing out our fat jeans from back of the closet. We're not complaining.
| Janine Kahn |
| The Margherita: very superstitious. |
We much preferred the classic Italian quattro formaggio ($15) with its pillowy top of asiago, mozzarella, parmigiano, and ricotta. We tried the rectangular, thick-crusted Teglia/Siciliano pizza as a Colombo ($24), freighted with sausage, pepperoni, garlic, and oregano. We also tried deep-fried string beans, unbreaded but a little limp, and a generous serving of light, herb-flecked beef-and-pork meatballs (a bargain at $5) in fresh tomato sauce.
In this moment of artisanal thin-crust chic, Tony's seems sincere if old-fashioned: tasty pies topped with lots of quality ingredients on sturdy, bready crusts. Next time we'll check out a thin crust - maybe the clam pie ($18). Even though it's described as New Haven style. Additional photos after the jump.
Food and snacks begin at 6:30 p.m., with the film to follow at 9 p.m. Bring a blanket and a chair.
Frozen Hot Chocolate: Melt 8 oz dark chocolate & 1 tbsp sugar in 1.5 cups whole milk
(over med. heat). Cool and blend w/3 cups ice.
Kick things off Monday night at Jardiniere (300 Grove at Franklin), which is going French for its weekly prix fixe dinner ($45 per person, including wine pairings). Say oui-oui to courses of paté de campagne, Hoffman Ranch chicken fricassée, and apricot and almond claufoutis.
La Provence (1001 Guerrero at 22nd St.) is a warm and friendly bistro that, despite the name, holds to butter and cream rather than strictly hewing to the olive oil-steeped cooking of southern France. Tuesday's No Bastille Day dinner is slated to be a feast, and each diner receives a free treat: a glass of champagne or dessert.
There's the classic corndog, of course, deep-fried cheese on a stick (surprisingly pleasant, like a neatly contained grilled cheese), and deep-fried Twinkies and Snickers with optional Hershey's syrup. There's the Twister Dog wrapped in potato, and the twisted potato, aka the Tornado. Shiskaberries are chocolate-dipped fruit on a stick (because you need a little fiber, and deep-fried artichokes don't come on a stick). Chocolate-dipped frozen bananas and cheesecake (nuts and sprinkles optional) are always irresistible, if only because of the heat.
Finally, if you consider rib bones and foil-wrapped corn husks sticks, there are ribs and corn-on-the-cob from Big Bubba's Bad BBQ. Four out of five carnies told us Bubba's was their favorite. The fifth brought food from home. More photos after the jump.
Now you can commiserate with people who yearn for quality -- ar at least recognizable -- chow in the air. The blog Funny & Interesting Email Forwards offers a forum where readers from around the globe upload pictures and guesstimated descriptions of the meals they've confronted in flight ("some sort of chocolate desert," "egg product," "brown lumps of meat," "packets of goodness"). Hilarious.
The most appealing meal we spotted at Funny & Interesting is graavlax and rye bread followed by chocolate cake, served in first class on Scandinavian Airlines. Scariest? The JALways mystery pink substance. Vote for your favorite posts while trying to control your nausea.
