Fusswich: First the Big Mac, then Pizza Hut's stuffed-crust pepperoni. Last week, Berkeley blog Local Lemons took on the Filet-O-Fish sandwich for its Fast Food Slow series ― a locavore re-engineering of chain restaurant dishes (if you can call them that). For her fishwich, blogger Allison scored line-caught local cod, baked brioche buns, whipped up Anchor Steam beer batter, and made tartar from scratch. Recipe here. As for the original? We'll let Allison tell it:
McDonald's uses approximately 11 million pounds per year of hoki in their Filet-O-Fish, and 4 million pounds of Alaskan pollock. They recently added pollock to the menu as the population of hoki began declining ...When Lou Groen invented the fish sandwich in 1962, he opted for halibut. McDonald's quickly swapped out the more expensive fish for Atlantic cod - and we all know the sad state of the Atlantic cod population.Enjoy your super-luxe simulacrum.
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No word on whether Show Dogs partner David Addington will be there. In September, Addington announced that Clark and Pirie were on board with a massive restaurant slated for the Warfield Building, which Addington owns. In November, San Francisco voters sank Proposition D, a measure Addington vigorously supported in his ongoing campaign to spur development in Mid-Market.
The ratio of frosting to cake in these wee treats is appropriately high. The creamy dollops account for most of each variety's unique flavor and profile of associations. Pink Lemonade, with its salmon-hued top and strands of miniscule Meyer lemon confetti, evoked 10-cent cups of iced Minute Maid, and made us all nostalgic about the one time we actually tried to sell lemonade in front of our house. We think we were ironic about it even then. If only we'd had Twitter. Ruby Red Velvet and Cinnamon Horchata were other winners, not that there are really any losers in cupcake land. The rules are different if you order up a delivery, but for walk-in customers, cupcakes are a dollar apiece.
Mission Minis 3168 22nd St. (at Mission),
Calling on Brackett's Japanese heritage and two years' experience cooking in a Tokyo-area soba restaurant, Peko-Peko caters izakaya-style meals and sells exquisite bento boxes that John Birdsall has talked up in SFoodie and Alice's daughter, Fanny, has praised on (RIP) Gourmet.com.
With its shoebox size and wraparound counter, Guerrilla Cafe should be the perfect place to recreate that crowded, Sapporo'd-up izakaya feel. However, the small room also means that the dinners sell out fast. Brackett says that he is no longer taking reservations but is leaving half the seats open for walk-ins ― and at his first pop-up izakaya, in early October, 125 diners circulated through the 25-seat cafe.
Brackett has hired a friend who grew up in her grandmother's izakaya to grill the yakitori (Soul Food Farms chicken meatballs, wings, livers, and more esoteric bits). Meanwhile, he'll be cooking dishes like donburi topped with ikura (steelhead roe) and Santa Barbara uni; a crab and watercress salad (the greens come from the stream in back of a friend's house); and petrale sole kara-age. The chef scores the small flatfish to the bone before deep-frying them, and they're meant to be crunched through, head, tail, and all. Prices aren't firmed up yet, but Brackett says they should range from about $2.50 per yakitori skewer to $14 for larger items like the sole.
Oh, and Brackett had one more bit of news regarding his bento business:
Number 89: Brown Sugar-Black Pepper Biscuits from Little Skillet
Little Skillet daddy Farmer Brown worked out the formula for these angel biscuits, adapting a recipe by late Southern cooking icon Edna Lewis. Their rise comes from both baking powder and yeast, ensuring the airy lift of the former within the chewy structure of a Parker House roll. Little Skillet chef Christian Cicle packs brown sugar and a sprinkling of pepper on top, yielding biscuits with a delicately craggy surface. The taste? A semi-subtle buttermilk tang and molasses-y sweetness, with the buckshot sting of black pepper ― a worthy re-do of a Southern classic.
Little Skillet 360 Ritch (at Townsend), 777-2777; daytimes only
See also:
No. 92: Cracked Half Dungeness from Swan Oyster Depot
Pricing is still being finalized. For the first Family Meal, entrees are around $12, salads and appetizers approximately $8, and family-style entrée platters serving three to four for around $30 (drinks extra). How reservations will or won't be accepted is also TBD. Feely says, "For now reservations will only be accepted by people who know how to contact me," Feely told us via e-mail ― meaning that, if you're not acquainted with Feely, it's unlikely you'll be chowing on Sunday's birria. A public contact for reservations should be posted in coming weeks.
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@SFoodieFarming is acknowledged widely as a creative art form. An art form that is guided by the efficiency of recycling resources, rather than the efficiency dictated by the market economy. Farmers are understood as designers who learn to observe ecosystems and to craft complementary agricultural techniques.
