Chicken shit: Seriously? According to Slashfood's Sarah LeTrent (who got it from the New York Post) a former finance director at J. P. Morgan has reportedly spent the last few years trying to crack KFC's 11 secret herbs and spices. He may be close. For frick's sake, that's what a Wall Street exec's been expending brain power on? Knocking off Original Recipe?
Colon tickler: Last week at Becks & Posh, Sam was going all tingly over gut health -- namely, over Eatwell Farm's probiotic fizzy drinks, scored at the Saturday Ferry Plaza market. Lacto-fermentation, refillable "kanteen" (priced like a decent Syrah), and what Sam calls "muted fruit accents, gentle effervescence and [a] softly tingling aftertaste" - similar, apparently, to what happens to a bottle of Odwalla left on the kitchen counter a couple of days. Dee-lightful!
First course: Shrimp (or vegetable) sinigang or vegetable lumpia
Second: Hamachii kinilaw or chicken adobo
Third: Pancit or braised oxtail kare-kare
Fourth: Panghimagas
Before launching 18 Rabbits, Bailey Vercruysse logged many hours at the ovens of Citizen Cake and Taste Catering. Future plans include launching a breakfast line with what she calls ancient grains, as well as no- and low-sugar and wheat-free goodies. Baking is still done in South San Francisco, though Bailey Vercruysse would eventually like to move production to S.F.
Products from 18 Rabbits are available at markets throughout the Bay Area, including Berkeley Bowl, Bi-Rite, Bryan's Foods, Cal-Mart, Canyon Market, Draeger's, Lunardi's, Mollie Stone's, Other Avenues Co-op, Village Market, and Whole Foods.
It's made a sporadic appearance on the menu since April. Packed with caramelized onions, creamy horseradish, potato chips (in the sandwich) and arugula, it's a hefty culinary marvel that can feed a famished adult for lunch -- less hearty eaters just might eke out dinner from the half they don't finish. Oh, and be sure to get a puckery slushy lemon ice ($2.50) to go with.
| Intensely summery: Roasted goat with corn foam over cracked hominy. |
On the phone, the chef bristled at the suggestion that Saison is a pop-up in the mold of, say, Chris Kronner's Thursday nights at Bruno's or Mission Street Food. "My perception of a pop-up is that it's something out of a garage, or in somebody else's restaurant," Skenes told SFoodie. Saison offers two seatings of some 20 guests each in the indoor-outdoor space at the rear of the Stable. Semantics aside, Skenes -- a young chef with impressive chops -- clearly wants to avoid being lumped in with clunkier food from lesser chefs.
Last night's prix fixe was a suite of intensively focused summer flavors ($60 for five courses plus mignardises, with an optional $30 wine pairing - you pre-pay online when you make the rezzy). First, an amuse-bouche of raw lobster and caviar. Next, mixed melon salad with Bellwether ricotta, vadouvan-spiked vinaigrette, wild fennel, and other greens. A square of soft halibut over lemon verbena leaves and a subtly smoky shellfish jus. Slices of what was supposed to be suckling goat, with foamy corn milk and a stew of cracked hominy, red Camargue rice, and faro with raw sorrel. Finally, perfumey Lucero strawberries in cream-enriched sabayon studded with bits of shortbread. Bright's wine pairings, ranging from a Toni Joost Riesling Kabinett to a Broc Cellars Syrah from Sonoma, simultaneously framed and softened the contours of Skenes' cooking.
Maybe pigs are the gateway
drug of butchery, the giggly little high that leads inevitably to the synapse-busting experience that leaves you watching the fibers in your flokati coalesce into runes.On Tuesday, July 28th, meat gods Ryan Farr and Taylor Boetticher are slated to drop a load of whoa on Bloodhound (1145 Folsom at Langton) in SOMA, when they tag-team butcher the forequarter of a 175-pound steer hanging from the rafters. The creature will have been grass-fed (of course), raised at Magruder Ranch in Mendocino County and aged 21 days after slaughter. Farr and Boetticher's helpers will grind the flesh into patties, and grill the burgers (along with other beef parts) in the alley outside. Also promised: corn dogs, pancetta-wrapped peaches, chicharrones, and peach-infused bourbon cocktails.
Called Meat-Locker (that otherwise superfluous hyphen suggests, perhaps, the extra-kickass nature of the evening), the event costs $35 -- contact Brown Paper Tickets. Doors open at 6 p.m.
Mountains of vegetables were bathed and sliced, feathery dill stripped from its stalks, and garlic cloves carefully peeled in the morning session. The cukes had to rest in icy salt water for several hours before being steeped in hot brine heady with mustard seed and sealed in the afternoon. Conversation ranged from the wonders of composting to favorite restaurants. Many reminisced about their grandparents' canning, a skill that seemed to skip a generation and now appeals to a DIY crowd that loves to shop (and sell) on Etsy.com.
You can still purchase a share of the bounty online (eight 16-ounce jars of assorted dill and bread-and-butter pickles for $35), and pick them up at a pickle party at La Cocina this Wednesday from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Next from Yes We Can: canning tomato sauce on Wednesday, September 23rd. More photos from yesterday's event after the jump.
Let's do lunch:
Don't go kicking and screaming into Monday. SF Weekly restaurant critic Meredith Brody suggests holding on to that Sunday feelin' with a Mediterranean scramble (spinach, artichoke hearts, and feta) and a fruit bowl at Toast Eatery (1748 Church at Day, 282-4328; or 3991 24th St. at Noe, 642-6328).
Drink therapy:
A good rule of thumb? Avoid bargain sushi. Make an exception at Ozumo Oakland (2251 Broadway at Grand, 510-286-9866), where it's Sushi Monday: all-you-can-eat rolls, nigiri, and special appetizers for $30, 5-10 p.m.
Call it urban renewal: The Mad Dog in The Fog (530 Haight at Fillmore, 626-7279) is swankilicious, with circular booths, mirrors, and World Cup swag, but you can still score $2 12-ounce beers. Gooooal!
