Cool to protest: Could efforts to boycott Arizona over the immigration law Governor Jan Brewer signed last Friday be seeping into your food? New York Times blog The Lede wondered earlier whether calls to boycott Arizona Iced Tea ― a company based on Long Island ― were real or jokey ("I think we should all also boycott Arizona Iced Tea because it is the drink of fascists," Chicago writer Travis Nichols opined via Twitter yesterday; New York's Daily News took him at his tweet.)
Meanwhile, mix-in master Cold Stone Creamery, a company that is headquartered in Arizona, is on Internet lists of the boycott-worthy, although calls to San Francisco's two outlets didn't turn up as much as a single spurned cone.
The festivities kick off on May 13 with "Cookin' the Mint," an epic dinner, reception, and dessert after-party honoring culinary notables Nancy Oakes, Bill Niman, Charles Phan, Judy Rodgers, and Bill Fujimoto. Tickets are steep for those of us who don't happen to be minted (actual cost: $500 and up), but will preview an ambitious public program to come in May that will be ten bucks a day.
Swallow and Volkwein caution that this dish needs to be prepared a day or evening ahead of time, and how many home cooks will go to the lengths of prepping sweetbreads for a salad? Probably not too many. But, given one's got a relative comfort level with offal in the kitchen, the recipe he's shared with us doesn't appear too difficult to execute, and could be a meal's show-stealer. Get cooking after the jump.
"That's great news," said Brett Emerson, chef-owner of Contigo, which opened on Castro at 24th just about a year ago. "We'd love to see 24th Street more of a restaurant destination." Fresca chef Jose Calvo-Perez seconded that. "It makes 24th Street more of a destination area and boosts the economy," said Calvo-Perez, whose father Julio opened the Noe Valley Fresca six years ago. "I would welcome any more businesses who want to come in."
But Brad Levy, who opened Firefly on 24th at Douglass 17 years ago, cautioned against what he sees as the wrong kind of restaurants flooding the 'hood.
calls a local chef
to ask what he or she is putting on themenu that night, and
what inspired its creation.
Phil West, chef-owner of the Mission bistro Range, sounds much like you'd imagine he would after reading over his menu: thoughtful and sincere, a man who rewards the person who stops to listen to what he has to say. We'd communicated over e-mail before reaching each other on the phone, and he'd been thinking about which of his new dishes was most appropriate to talk about.
His choice: Pork sausage, glazed rib, braised belly with carrot purée, pea shoots, and pickled shallots ($24). More specifically, one part of the dish.
At $16, it's certainly not the cheapest bowl in the city, but it might be the most exclusive, and that was admittedly part of the allure that hooked us two former disco dollies. VIP ramen!
pronunciation guides
to sort-of-common-but-not-obvious words we keepencountering on wine lists and menus. No more shame, no more pointing,
no more godawful imitations of a language you don't speak.
As an extra to last week's review of Patio Filipino in San Bruno, we figured it was only appropriate to devote this week's installment of Don't Sound Like a Tool to Filipino dishes. Yeah, we all know to pronounce adobo, but what about the ginataang pictured below? Because you know you want to order it.
That's the question SF Weekly's Jonathan Kauffman explores today, as he parses recent meals at Frances. Chef Melissa Perello has perfected purely modest food, Kauffman argues. Nothing wrong with that ― some of S.F.'s most celebrated kitchens have built national reputations on it. Except, as a diner, don't you have a right to expect more after enduring a three-month wait for reservations?
Read Kauffman's thoroughly honest explication (excerpt after the jump) at SFWeekly.com. Feel free to comment here with your own thoughts.
