Everybody just chill the eff out: At Bay Area Bites yesterday, Stuart Leavenworth struggled to parse Michael Bauer's recent star-stripping of Oakland's Oliveto. Now, the last thing we want to do is insert ourselves into the spaghetti fight between the restaurant's defenders and, well, Bauer, but, since Leavenworth references a defense of Oliveto posted on SFoodie back in April (by ex-contributor Robert Lauriston), we feel we gotta weigh in. First, we don't happen to agree with Lauriston that "Chef Paul Canales is at the top of his game, and the restaurant has if anything improved." Before joining SFoodie, this blogger wrote restaurant reviews for San Francisco magazine, including an update of Oliveto. Last winter, we sat through two very disappointing meals (long waits between courses, a mushy pasta, painfully salty salumi). But we've no doubt that on special occasions like the seafood, tomato, polenta, and other blow-out festivals, the restaurant shines. And we suspect Bauer is right when he suggests that other restaurants in the same style have simply gotten better than Oliveto. That the things that once dazzled us at Oliveto we now take for granted at places like Perbacco and Incanto. Everybody feel better now?
But this is the very moment to start thinking turkey, or else risk wrestling a frozen ball of industrial quick-grow flesh Thanksgiving morning (no, you can't thaw it in the microwave).
It so happens Marin Sun Farms and BN Ranch are offering a special on heritage breed turkeys. (You know BN: it's the Bolinas ranch owned by Niman Ranch founder Bill Niman and his wife Nicolette -- think super-eco Slow Food.) From now through September, you can order from five breeds Niman chose in Kansas last year, including turkey superstars Standard Brown, Bourbon Red, and Narragansett. You know: range-roaming, free of hormones and antibiotics, and -- after the nasty part happens -- air-chilled.
Place your order now through September and the cost is $6.59 a pound (wait, and it bumps up to $6.89 -- something like a $5 savings for every 10 pounds of bird). You have to give them a $30 deposit, and arrange for pickup at one of several locations, but that's far, far in the future, right? Order online, or call 633-8997, extension 207.
| J. Birdsall |
| Pale and crisp as communion wafers. |
We inhabit a subculture peculiarly steeped in pork fat. At the Ferry Building, you can lunch on a gorgeously unctuous porchetta sandwich at Il Cane Rosso, and afterwards snack on a bag of lard shortbread from Humphry Slocombe (for sale at Boccalone) -- even wash up, once you get home, with peppermint-scented lard soap (again, Boccalone). So it was only a matter of time till someone started frying potato chips in lard -- even if that someone is a company in Pennsylvania.
Boccalone recently started selling Grandma Utz's Handcooked Potato Chips ($1), made from potatoes fried in pork fat, small-batch style. They're pale and crisp as communion wafers, and by the third chip, they suffuse your mouth with a kind of intimate animal sweetness. Are they the best chips we've eaten? Hell no. But they have a pork-chop-fat allure that's ultimately hard to resist. And that makes you wonder -- morbidly, perhaps, given what you imagine to be the cholesterol wallop of lard potato chips -- whatever became of Grandpa Utz.
Boccalone One Ferry Building (at The Embarcadero), 369-9955
| J. Birdsall |
| Boozely's pickles displayed at last week's Little Skillet happy hour in Ritch Street. |
Ever had a Bloody Mary at Zeitgeist? Chances are you chewed on one of Koester's pickled green beans -- for about six months now, the bar has used them as garnish. Having a steady customer (Koester said he sells Zeitgest about three cases of bean-packed Mason jars each week) seems to have given him the push he needed to become part of the underground streeet-food movement. Koester and partner Lyndsey Hawkins sell online, too. You can order even a single jar of pickles or jam, and Koester will deliver it to your place in San Francisco, at no extra charge. By bike.
J. Birdsall
Jars of dills are spiked with the fresh herb, garlic, and mustard.
In fact, Koester told us, everything about Boozely's is done by bike. When we caught up with him by phone, he was balancing 25-pound sacks of sugar and salt on his bike.
A waiter in a well-known Fillmore Street restaurant, Koester currently makes three kinds of pickles (in what he described as "an undisclosed location" in the city): Boozely's Beans ($12), spiked with Thai chiles and mustard seeds; crisp, garlic-flavored dill spears ($9); and salty-sweet bread and butters ($10). Though citrus season is essentially cashed, Koester was making a kumquat marmalade and what he called Stolen Meyer Lemon Marmalade (both $8). "I know where every Meyer lemon tree in San Francisco and Marin County," he said.
And where did the name "Boozely's" come from? "It started with a nickname I was given," Koester said, a hint of sheepishness in his voice. "Probably because I like beer." You can call Koester at 297-9902.
Epic Roasthouse 369 The Embarcadero (at Folsom), 369-9955
Last night's party for industry and media showed off the new space: a bar and open kitchen with a raw seafood bar, and an upstairs loft with another small bar and space for extra seating. The walls showcase local urban artwork, and there was even an artist painting live (the result will be on display in the restaurant).
Though Limón's interior has undergone some major changes, expect the same high-quality Peruvian food, overseen by new executive chef Emmanuel Piqueras. The menu offers a very promising take on Nuevo Latino cuisine, a combination of modern technique with traditional Peruvian.
Last night's party sampled hors d'ouevres from Limón's regular menu, including grilled octopus, fried mac and cheese with truffle oil, scallop wontons, chicken causa (a traditional Peruvian stuffed potato dish), and ceviche shooters. The bartenders were on duty, showcasing cocktails (the restaurant offers only beer, wine, sake, and soju drinks). We sampled some, including Limón's take on the pisco sour and the mojito, both
made with soju. They were incredibly well balanced, and the soju made the
cocktails feel much lighter on the palate than the traditional versions. We also tried the house-made red wine sangria, which is very sweet and filled with lots of fruit, much the same as the sangria at sister restaurant Limón Rotisserie (1001 S. Van Ness at 21st St.).
We'll wait a couple of weeks to let the kitchen sort out the grand opening kinks before trying the full menu. Something tells us it's going to be good.
If only he'd lived to know Craigslist. We're no longer petals on Pound's black, wet bough, filing out of buses and trains in lines, anonymous faces in the crowd arranged in purely natural forms, images unaware of shared voices or relationships beyond position in place and time. Today, as a well-known 2004 documentary made clear, Craigslist is almost atmospheric in its presence, a hub around which life revolves, a wellspring of intertwined human stories. San Franciscans use it to share ideas, ditch unwanted furniture, meet lovers, and, on occasion, from time to time, find employment. The site is so expansive that one could explore it daily and discover something new on each expedition.
For example, you can buy food on Craigslist -- in the form of produce and livestock for sale in the farm and garden classifieds. For anyone who has ever fantasized about strolling through Dolores Park with an adorable pot-bellied piglet tucked under arm, or contemplated the marketable possibilities of home-cured mini-coppa, this section will provide plenty of fodder for your imagination. Check out a few gems from the past 24 hours:
There's a chicken starter kit for sale in Santa Rosa. This includes coop, feeder, bedding, and water and feed tray -- chicks not included. The price tag? $99.
Someone in Sonoma County is hawking nearly eight tons of Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, Dry Creek Valley Syrah, and old-vine Zinfandel in, at minimum, quarter-ton lots, at the cost of $2000/ton, $1800/ton, and $2500/ton, respectively.
A herdsman in Morgan Hill has "GOATS ALL SIZES."
Up in Healdsburg, there are farm-fresh eggs selling for $5/dozen or $7/18-pack. That's cheaper than Budweiser, folks.
Seedlings of Egyptian Walking Onions, a sprawling, hardy heirloom variety
of Allium cepa, live in Berkeley, desperately looking for a home. They're delicious and, as the poster notes, a real "dialogue-starter."
| chandoo.org |
Judge Susur Lee, the famed Toronto chef who recently opened Shang in New York City, told Swiss-born Striffeler that the judges were amazed that a team with no Asian members got so far in the competition. According to Philippe's wife Marcia, who blogged the cook-off, the judges considered Team USA to be the absolute best at presentation and innovation.
