SFoodie Pissy. Rant. Session.: Now that the weekend's events are over, let it be said: Could there be a better way to piss off editors than to name an even "SF Chefs. Food. Wine."? Though it clocks a mere four words, SF C.F.W. seems way too long, has too damn much punctuation, and just effs with any sense of language flow. Now that we got that off our chest, let us praise Stephanie Im of Bay Area Bites for coverage (in words and pics) much more clipped and streamlined than the name of the freaking event itself.
Girl's had enough: SFist probes the craggy man-paradox known as Anthony Bourdain. On the one hand, Tony loathes the shrill yammering of our fair city, with its NIMBYisms and Slow Food nannying in the lilting voice of Alice Waters. On the other hand, he just loves us, including the Ferry Building and pricey expressions of locavorisms. SFist's Brock Keeling lays it all out for Tony, S.F. girlfriend-style: But, see, you can't have it both ways, angel face. You can't shrug your shoulders at Waters and declare that you're in the "pleasure business," that you don't care how taste gets to your plate, so long as it gets there; then, at the same time, slam Sandra Lee as "evil" for her epicurean skills, or lack thereof. But, um, isn't there something besides Alice and Sandra? Yesterday, we scarfed a BLT huarache that embodied the snarliest street food, except that it was made with artisan bacon and heirloom tomatoes. Isn't that the kind of thing Tony loves about us?
| J. Birdsall |
| A serving from Adobo Hobo: Accessible and easy to like. |
The Mission's new-school street food phenomenon hasn't exactly fit into the slots observers like us have tried to squeeze it into. We've covered it as nightlife trend, the way we'd cover a Snuggie pub crawl, or as a news story filled with tension. Even as a gastronomic event.
On Friday evening, two things became clear to us. First, this new-school underground street-food movement isn't going away. And second, it's a phenomenon that doesn't fit any easy classification. It feels like such an eruption of the zeitgeist, we can't quite assign it a place yet. Except to say that it feels very much like the city at this particular moment.
Friday was mustache night, but only a scant quarter of the crowd had bothered to paste on fake ones, and fewer still were rocking actual lip fur. It didn't matter. In one queue some dozens of people long, a girl behind us asked, "Anybody know what this line is for?" That didn't seem to matter either. Could've been for soup, could've been for pear tartlets. The point wasn't to get a taste of any particular thing, but merely to be part of the scene.
J. Birdsall
Gumbo Man served up bowls heavy with andouille.
As it turned out, some of the food was pretty good. Adobo Hobo's chicken adobo was easy to like: a pair of skinned, super-meaty drumsticks on a hefty bed of rice, with a pretty mild adobo sauce that kept soy and vinegar in balance. A bowl of the Gumbo Man's andouille-studded creation was thick and satisfying -- not much heat, but loads of complex vegetal sweetness, with a whiff of smoke from the sausage.
If you missed this humble SFoodie blogger's appearance on "Broken Record Party" on Pirate Cat Radio this weekend, the special "Delicious Dish" edition of songs and local food gossip is now available in podcast form (playlist here). We shared some places to snack and eat, both on and off the streets of San Francisco, not to mention some 70-years' worth of tunes about food, from early jazz to super new rap.
| cat-chitchat.pictures-of-cats.org |
| J. Birdsall |
| Surprisingly delicate, with a subtle taste of bacon. |
Brand: Who's Your Daddy
Origin: San Francisco
Found at: Um -- weekends, somewhere on the streets of the Mission.
Cost: $3 for a bag that weighed in at just over 2 ounces on our kitchen scale. Bill told us he doesn't weigh the chips, just packs them into the bags.
Ingredients: Not listed. We're guesing russets, bacon, salt, and oil.
Back story: Earlier this summer, street-food vendor Bill (last name withheld for obvious reasons) had an epiphany: Slice spuds, and fry them in oil bobbing with bacon slices. WYD bacon potato chips made their first appearance in Dolores Park on July 3rd. Bill told us he was overwhelmed by the response.
J. Birdsall
Tasting notes: Extraordinarily delicate -- the chips are thin as a Fast Pass, which allows them to go deliciously brown during frying. Definitely not greasy (well, not excessively so), with moderate salt and a thoroughly subtle hog smokiness. Each bag contains both a big hunk and tiny, frizzled pieces of bacon. but despite the double-pork goodness, the taste is subtler than a lot of chocolaty bacon sweets we've choked down (only to revisit as bacon burps).
Buy 'em again?: First chance we get.
Extra credit: Part of the new wave of underground Mission street vendors, Who's Your Daddy is cagey about broadcasting its whereabouts. Follow WYD's Twitter updates to find out where you can score. Bill told us his Web site should go live any minute now -- we'll update to let you know when.
| J. Birdsall |
| A diner-lonchera mashup. |
Owner Veronica Salazar served up a prototype last Thursday at Mission Street Food. The weekend version was a diner-meets-lonchera mashup of salty, smoky bacon, sweet-tart tomatoes, and cultured dairy tang. Sunday at Alemany, Salazar used applewood-smoked bacon (ultimately, she'd like to source it from local smoked-meats company Hobbs) and organic heirlooms she scored from Watsonville's Tomatero Farm. Plan on seeing the BLT huarache as an occasional special at Alemany, presumably till tomatoes go away in the fall. We'll be sorry to see it go.
Eight dinners are planned, each a benefit for a different nonprofit. We're especially intrigued by Brown Sugar Kitchen's five-course Southern, Caribbean, and barbecue feast on August 23rd ($45), featuring fresh herbs and produce from City Slickers Farms' urban gardens in West Oakland. We love the food at breakfast-and-lunch-only BSK -- dinner should be a rare treat.
Camino's four-course, family-style dinner ($75) benefiting Civil Eats on August 24th will feature goat cheeses from Andante and Harley Farms. On August 26th, a five-course street-food-inspired menu ($50) by Radio Africa Kitchen at Coffee Bar will center around wild-foraged ingredients donated by ForageSF, a benefit for La Cocina.
The complete list of dinners, as well as information about making reservations, are at the Eat Real Web site. Remember: Terrific food tastes even better when you're also doing good.
Winners fed us poetry, a story about turning from vegetarianism to the flesh-eating dark side, even a kind of OCD-fueled ramble. All very impressive.
The last is from Justin Lanz, a fan of the food-stoked group hug, a kind of We Are The World with edibles. Just remember to wash all traces of pho and tongue tacos from your hands before mingling, please.
Bourdain's love for both high end cuisine and the streetside bowl of pho
or greasy tongue tacos shows that great food brings the world together. His
book inspired me to enter into cooking and he's helped me understand that a
simple meal can transcend family and strangers, even cultures, to bring us
together and remind us of our humanity.
Thanks, Justin. See you tonight.
Let's do lunch:
It's gonna be hot, perfect day to relive the summer you took that Italian vacay. Go all Cinque Terre, says Weekly food critic Meredith Brody, via grilled Delta asparagus with lemon aioli and salmon over boccacino pasta with rapini, aglio e olio, and salsa verde at Globe (290 Pacific at Battery)
Drink therapy:
Hipster vibes, naked lady paintings, and a buck off all drinks (plus $1.50 PBR pints) at Casanova Lounge (527 Valencia at 16th St.), 4-7 p.m.
It's like Cheers, only the regulars sometimes vomit in the restroom. Make a bleary connection over nightly beer specials at Shanghai Kelly's (2064 Polk at Broadway, 771-3300). Check the Web site for details.
