The gritty truth: Hot Food Porn goes all Mike Rowe today, cataloging the kitchen jobs nobody who wants to clock out with a shred of self-respect (and reasonably clean fingernails) should have to perform. Highlights (in Porn's words): De-turding and peeling shrimp; cleaning mountains of pig skin (thank you Chef Ryan Farr); fluffing the chef/rubbing lotion on the chef's back acne. A 15-plus-year vet of kitchens ourselves, we've got one that Porn missed: sifting through a cutting board covered with diced tomatoes, feeling for the tip of a coworker's finger (complete with nail shard) before the owner rushes her off to the emergency. Okay, so that's not a repetitive task. Presumably.
Doggy bag confidential: Michael Bauer just can't get no love in this town. Today's Between Meals offers personal advice wrapped in awww, as Bauer suggests staying svelte by bringing restaurant leftovers home to your pooch. Logically, full of holes, we know, but combined with a photo of Bauer's dogs (one of 'em now deceased), it's really kind of sweet. Online commenters failed to get as verklempt as we did. I've always favoured a nice, healthy vomit, cracks blumama, keeping it classy with Brit spelling. For his part, seamusmcdermott recommends dysentery followed by self-medicating with camel feces. Sheesh -- can a girl catch some empathy up in here?
It's not just a source of information about the apricot variety the tweeter just snarfed, a marketing tool, or the source for the whereabouts of underground mini muffins. Twitter can be a diary of just how giving-birth-without-drugs painful it is to open a restaurant. Behold the latest tweets from Michele Wilson as she tries to open Gussie's Chicken and Waffles (1521 Eddy at Fillmore)
:Thank Goodness! The door i've been waiting on arrives tomorrow. This is the last major thing. Everything else is simple.
Let's hope all goes well tomorrow with my inspections. If so, we can open on Thursday!!!
Thanks to all those who are patiently awaiting our opening. We will do are [sic] best to make it right for you.
Chart Wilson's efforts on her Twitter page. And keep your fingers crossed about that end-of-week opening.
Roasted Estancia skirt steak served with a corn empanada and smoky pimentón chimichurri sauce was beefy and tender, with a leaner, less fatty mouthfeel than conventional grain-fed beef. During the three-course dinner, Estancia CEO Bill Reed and business partner J.P. Thieriot fielded questions. Reed claimed that grass-fed beef sales make up perhaps one tenth of one percent of national beef sales. The challenge with beef is the amount of land needed to produce it, far higher than that for, say, pork or chicken.
Addressing the carbon footprint issue -- does it makes sense for San Franciscans to eat grass-fed beef from Uruguay, rather than cattle raised primarily on grain and only finished with grass? -- Reed pointed out that how a steer is raised affects meat's carbon footprint enormously. He said Estancia steer are "raised in a free-range manner, sustainable, and there are no pens or feed lots. Estancia is able to use solar energy instead of oil, and does not put the steer under taxing conditions." Somehow, knowing an animal has lived a contented life in a pasture somewhere -- even one in South America -- can make it taste a whole lot better.
When Bourdain and his production crew rolled into the bay last spring, they unleashed a frenzy of speculation in blog world: where was Tony likely to show up, what would he be eating, what color sweater would he be wearing? (Made that last one up -- of course it was gray.) Turns out SFoodie has been sitting on the real story all along. Both I and SFoodie blogger Mary Ladd were on hand for Tony's local taping: Mary in San Francisco, and I in Oakland. Today I'll tell what I can about Bourdain's East Bay appearance (Mary will drop select details about S.F. in a future post). I say what we can, since we feel bound not to spill details that'd spoil the broadcast. So here goes.
Before I became SFoodie editor in May, I was a freelance food writer. In February, the East Bay Express published my cover feature La Vida Taco, a month-long crawl around the taco trucks of Fruitvale. Then, in March, I got a sort of mysterious email from a guy in New York. I called him, and he dropped a pant-load of questions regarding my epic crawl: why I did it, why taco culture seemed to flourish in Oakland, and if I could hook him up with a local vendor organizer I mentioned in my piece.
"It's a sad story," Manrique said by phone, reflecting on the fine-dining restaurant where he'd been executive chef for seven years. "It's such a beautiful place, and unfortunately, it is an example of what greed can make people do. That's the only word than can come out -- greed."
In a press release made public late Thursday, Manrique cited the three-year legal battle over ownership by survivors of Charles Condy. The former Aqua owner died in 2006, leaving his widow Mary and their three children to squabble over who owned the FiDi restaurant. "In the end, it's just a restaurant," Manrique said. "And the fact that they couldn't make up their mind about what should be done with it, that's why this restaurant is done. They created a loss, completely. They have to realize that there's not a fortune to be made from one restaurant." Aqua remains open, the kitchen led by ex-chef de cuisine Jason Pringle.
In 2007, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission launched SFGreasecycle, a program for restaurants and food service businesses to recycle their used cooking oil. It's been a cost-effective alternative to pouring oil down the floor drain, since backed-up pipes cost money and time. The program's kudos list details participating businesses, including Alembic, Farmerbrown, Gordon Biersch, and several King of Thai Noodle Houses. City officials have collected more than 20,000 gallons of used cooking oil since the program began. They decided to extend the program to residents after holiday residential collection events last year.
How to process your goo before heading out to the collection location? First, cool the oil in a pan. Pour it into a clean, nonbreakable, leak-proof container with a tight lid - one free of all water, soap suds, and food scraps. The take it to one of the following drop-off points:
• Haight-Ashbury Neighborhood Council Recycling Center 755
Frederick (at Arguello). Mon.-Sat. 9 a.m.-4 p.m.; Sun. noon-4 p.m.
• Dogpatch Biofuels 765 Pennsylvania (at 22nd St.) Tue.-Fri. 11 a.m.-7 p.m.; Sat. 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
• The city's Whole Foods stores accept drop-offs between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. on different Fridays. On the first Friday of each month, head to the Whole Foods at 1765 California (at Franklin). On third Fridays, go to the store at 399 Fourth St. (at Harrison). On fourth Fridays, take your oil-filled goodness to the store at 450 Rhode Island (at 17th St.).
For more information, visit www.SFGreasecycle.org or call 695-7366.
Anyway, we just learned that Joey & Eddie's is starting special regional Italian menus on Tuesday nights. Tonight's -- the first -- features the cooking of Lazio, home province to Roma, and includes spaghetti carbonara ($10), porchetta (roast suckling pig) with polenta ($20), and crostato de viciole (cherry tart, $8).
Chef de cuisine Marc Tennison is working out the seasonal menus with Manzare's input. Next up August 4 is Tuscany, which will feature ragu bianco con castagne (chestnut pasta with milk-braised pork shoulder, $11), and agnello ai carciofi (roasted leg of lamb with baby artichokes, $19). Following that, look for Emilia Romagna-Bologna (August 11), Liguria-Genoa (August 18), and Campania-Naples (August 25), with menus to be determined.
| Jen Siska |
| Creme Brulee Guy in Linda Street: Stafford likes his culinary showbiz. |
| See's Candies Milk Chocolate Bordeaux. |
