Our favorite morsel from the blogs.
Baby-faced BaoHaus owner Eddie Huang shows up calmer on tape than he does on blog. Today the New York restaurateur tells The Feast's Tamara Palmer why it still rankles that Mobi Munch walked away with the name "Chairman Bao" for its S.F. bun truck, after Huang says he made the name famous. Check out Huang's suggestions for other inspiring figures Mobi Munch could still switch to, if it wanted: Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Bao; Long Duk Dong Bao, Connie Chung Bao ― hell, even something in homage to William Hung.
SFoodie: One of the things I've been coming to Pauline's for since the early 1990s was your crust. Where did it come from? Were you a baker?
Weinstein: I taught myself to cook by baking. The crust itself came from our first chef, Salvario. However, he left abruptly six months into the restaurant's life, and we had to close the restaurant and come up with an equivalent crust because he never taught it to us. He would make the dough in secret. [Before he left,] we started measuring the ingredients to get some idea of the amounts he was using, but there was a secret ingredient we couldn't figure out.
Two chefs with ties to the Alembic are launching an underground eatery next week in Cole Valley. Jordan Grosser and Ted Fleury ― once co-chefs at the Alembic (Fleury's still there, actually) ― come together again Dec. 17 and 18 to cook a pair of pop-ups in private digs, marking the launch the Stag Dining Group, which also includes collaborators Anil Margsahayam, Emory Al-Imam, and Matthew Homyak. From the event website:
Stag Dining Group consists of chefs, hunters, musicians, artists, cyclists and conservationists. The existential question to this avant-garde group has not been "why?", but "why not?". ... We aim to provide a sophisticated (but not stuffy) dining experience that incorporates our passion for creativity, sustainability, eclecticism and our joie de vivre.
Since he left the Alembic in June 2009, Grosser's been consulting, cooking private dinners, and helping Iso Rabins with his forageSF's Wild Kitchen series. Grosser's also made cheese (ricotta and chevre) under the name Flosa Creamery for Rabins' Underground Markets. "Just a lot of random stuff," Grosser tells SFoodie.
Next week's six-course dinners (each accommodates 40 guests) include bay scallop crudo, Arctic char with quail egg and black trumpet pistou, and glazed pork belly with soy and green apple. Grosser hopes to forage at least some of the ingredients ― the mushrooms, maybe ― though he says there hasn't been a lot to forage recently.
Former SFoodie beer contributor Brian Yaeger recently moved to Portland, where he's combating instant-onset S.A.D. with ― you guessed it ― beer.
Portland's pods ― those clusters of food carts that nourish so many lumberjack look-alikes ― sprout up across Bridgetown so frequently that they have bestowed Bridgetown with yet another nickname: Cartopia, well documented on SFoodie here,
here, here, and even in this new book here. There are reportedly 500 carts in all. Saturday marked the grand opening of another pod, the D-Street Noshery, in the Southeast Clinton neighborhood on Division Street at S.E. 32nd Avenue.
Home to nine distinct food carts ― each lists several vegetarian offerings (even the sustainable fish and meat truck offers farm-fresh eggs) ― the D-Street pod's marvel is the truck from Captured by Porches Brewing Co., a nod to Rose City's best nickname, Beervana. Dubbed a "mobile pubhaus" by Captured by Porches founders Dylan and Suzanne Goldsmith, fresh beer is poured from taps directly drilled into the side of a shortbus. The brewery is based in St. Helens, Ore., roughly 30 miles north of Portland, but they receive special permits to pour beer on-the-go, so to speak. Speaking of on-the-go, if you don't have a growler to refill, bring in any ol' Mason jar and they'll come up with a reasonable price for the fill. The idea is so brilliant and obvious, it's only a matter of time before others follow in their wake. Rogue Brewing is already rumored to be working on a similar concept.
From Filipino adobo sandwiches to Korean galbi tacos, local food trucks are vehicles for cultural expression as much as strictly commercial ventures. Early next year ― if all goes as planned ― the Bay Area should see its first food truck steeped in a food culture that's so far been the exclusive province of brick and mortar restaurants: the Mediterranean-inspired farm-to-table cuisine born in the heady early days of Chez Panisse.
Owners of the Cibo per Strada food truck (the name translates as "street food" in Italian) are hoping for a formal launch in the East Bay in January or February. It's a collaboration between Hannah Hoffman who works at the Vintage Berkeley wine shop in Elmwood, entrepreneur Frank Sette, and David Seawell, a former Boulevard sous chef who now cooks at Sutro's at the Cliff House, with help from ex-Spencer on the Go cook John Desmond. Hoffman describes Ciba as "T-minus vehicle date" ― they should lock down an actual truck in the next week or two.
Hoffman, 35, grew up immersed ― pretty much literally ― in Chez Panisse. From 1971 till 1987, Hoffman's late mother, Lisa Goines, worked in the pastry department during the glory days of the house of Alice. "I literally grew up on the pastry table," Hoffman says. "From the time I was 3 weeks old I was at the restaurant every day. When I got older I washed lettuce, made ice cream ― I was really active in the kitchen." Hoffman eventually landed a master's degree in food anthropology, doing field work to study the food practices of groups as disparate as Afghan refugees in Fremont and bear couples (the gay kind) in San Francisco.
The gingerbread house is a holiday tradition that dates back to medieval times, but it's cropped up regularly in popular culture ever since a witch with a taste for human flesh tried to tempt Hansel and Gretl into her sugary abode. (And thus we find a way to successfully reference cannibalism in an adorable holiday-themed post.) But the following geeky versions successfully bring the gingerbread house into the 21st century.
8. Dr. Who TARDIS
When it comes to gingerbread houses, the devil's in the details, and this lovingly rendered TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension[s] in Space) time machine from the Dr.Who series is complete with a cookie K-9 peering out.
I know, I know, I'm supposed to be mister DIY, eschewing packaged goods so I can toil away in the kitchen milling my own flour, harvesting local sugar cane, and carefully tending orchards of orchids for vanilla beans so I can whip up a batch of Christmas cookies. Well, here's the thing: I'm a dab hand at jams, pickles, and a handful of other goodies, but there's plenty I just don't do.
For starters, I don't bake, so those Christmas cookies? Not gonna happen. I'm also not a chocolatier, and I'm certainly not a gelatin artist (seriously, keep reading). So, in spite of (or perhaps because of) my borderline compulsive desire to make everything from nearly molecular ingredients, I can appreciate that there are others dedicating their energies to producing the best possible product they can and selling it to the public. And if I'm not going to make it myself, I'm sure as heck going to buy it from the scrappy local artisans to emerge from the La Cocina incubator.
Friday's La Cocina gift fair at Mission Cultural Center showcased the best and brightest of the nonprofit's client businesses, but had a few things extra (and non-foodie) for color. Here are a few gift-giving ideas gleaned from the assembled vendors:
Sweets Collections gelatins
What at first looks like a paperweight of a flower encased in glass is in fact a 100-percent edible creation. Owner Rosa Rodriguez manages to coax stunningly beautiful, delicate, and elegant creations out of simple gelatin and coloring, and they'll stay, refrigerated, for a month. Major wow factor.
Good for: Hostess gift, holiday table
This dish is known to cause fear in the hearts of some some and delight in others. You might have an easy time identifying it, but how about the San Francisco restaurant where this picture was taken? Leave your guesses for both in the comments below.
The winner of last week's Mystery Spot is Sam, who correctly guessed that the dish pictured is Pipérade's namesake. Congratulations!
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San Francisco restaurant scene.
Glenn "Gator" Thompson was chef-owner of Gator's Neo Soul Cafe in downtown San Mateo from 2007-2009 before getting his current gig at Bayonne Casual Southern Dining in San Jose. This week, Thompson brings his BBQ back to San Mateo, partnering with Mohammad Azad, owner of The Grill, a small restaurant located at the San Mateo Commons Shopping Center, just off Highway 92.
SFoodie has learned that initially, Gator's BBQ menu will coexist with The Grill's current American diner and kabob menu, and be available on the right side as you enter the restaurant, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Plans call for an all-you-can-eat BBQ for $10.95 -- the rest of the a la carte menu will be transformed over time. If everything goes according to plan, expect a Thursday launch. Bring your appetite.
The Grill: 1855 S. Delaware (at 19th Ave.), San Mateo, 650-577-9999. Mon.-Fri. 6 a.m.-9 p.m., Sat-Sun 7 a.m.-9 p.m.
