Five highlights from the blogs this week:
1. With even more enthusiasm (and considerably more planning) than last year, we've taken up the annual challenge of profiling 92 of the city's best dishes on the 92 weekdays leading up to the 2011 Best of San Francisco issue. So far, our favorites have ranged from chocolate bars and tacos to a little molecular gastronomy. More heavy-duty eating is ahead.
2. Restarting his "Market Report" column after the holidays, Sean Timberlake surveys the Web for projects to make with beets. I once had a beet-infused-vodka cocktail in Portland ― can't say I'd recommend the experience. The recipes Timberlake finds for pickles, chutneys, and jam all look much, much more appetizing.
An admission: SOMA's Little Skillet hasn't been the same since a year ago, when chef and opening manager Christian Ciscle walked away from the Ritch Street window. Ciscle resurfaced at Café Divis, then disappeared again. Take heart, Ciscle fans: He's coming back in a big way.
Ciscle tells SFoodie he's signed a lease for 422 Haight Street ― the place with the roll-down door where Roland's Bagels briefly ruled ― and plans to open a chicken wing spot named Wing Wings. Not fried wings (though Ciscle was chicken-and-waffle frontman at Little Skillet), just wings, served up with a wide variety of sauce and toppings. Also lots of specials, sides, fresh-cut fries, and desserts ― no frills, he tells us. It'll be mostly carry-out, with only limited seating, and late-night hours.
And it turns out Ciscle will be just around the corner from the place where he and a buddy opened Big Sherm's Fresh Sandwiches back in 1997. "I am very excited to be back in my hood, and doing my own thing," Ciscle says. Expect an opening a few months from now.
Follow us on Twitter: @sfoodie. Contact me at John.Birdsall@SFWeekly.com
It didn't take long for the creative geniuses behind fast-food marketing to come up with a new way to make you fat in the New Year. Earlier this week we noticed a new menu item at our local Burger King, with the slogan "Jalapeño and Cheddar In it. Not on it."
Now, we've heard of stuffed-crust pizza, but not many cheese-stuffed burgers. And while the Jalapeño and Cheddar BK Stuffed Steakhouse burger ($3.99, $6.09 for the meal combo) is no chicken cordon bleu, the burger does have bits of cheddar cheese and jalapeño mixed right into the meat patty. According to the press release, the marketing campaign and TV ads start Jan. 17.
SFoodie's countdown of the 92 best things to eat and drink in San Francisco, 2011 edition.
SFoodie's roundup of tips, news, and rants from the week in animal-free eats.
• Four million animals and counting have been BURIED ALIVE in South Korea. It's the government's response to the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease and avian flu in the pigs, cows, and chickens. It's unbelievable. This is all because they're too cheap and too lazy to pay for and administer the vaccines or to euthanize. Tap water in parts of rural South Korea is running red with blood from the animals who struggled to survive underground. It's horrific and we cannot turn a blind eye to this. This is truly, truly horrific news that I think everyone needs to hear about so if you click through on one thing that I've ever talked about, let it be this. Heartbreaking.
• There's a new vegan bakery in Bernal Heights! Special Request is operating out of Wholesome Bakery's old space (Wholesome is now selling out of La Victoria on 24th Street) at 331 Cortland. The menu looks terrific and I can't wait to eat everything. Bring it, Bernal!
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Speaking of delicious baked goods, the SF Vegan Bakesale is TOMORROW! Bay Area Bites has a great post up with an interview with the organizers (I'm one of them! Hot!) and a recipe for cream-filled doughnut cupcakes. Believe.
• One last thing on the sweet tip because this looks UNSANE. It's a vegan version of the marvelous Cookie Puss ice cream cake! Carvel routinely offers tasty vegan ice cream concoctions but this one takes the cake! Literally! Hachacha. But really, when will one open here I NEED TO GET MY COOKIE PUSS ON! Gross!
• This week, fun food blog with the name that drives me to bitchn, The Kitchn, went totally vegan! The results are quite delicious. Go on, you food-obsessed lunatics, we want you on our team.
Established restaurants continue to expand in the Bay Area. We recently visited the newest location of Henry's Hunan, its sixth. Henry's is one of the oldest continuously family owned and operated restaurants in the city. The first launched in 1974.
Henry's 2-month-old Excelsior branch took over the space once belonging to Granada Cafe, a '50s-style diner with vinyl booths and Formica tables. Now there's a private dining room in back and a full bar in a separate room on the left side. Both are available for parties, says Eddie Zhu, the friendly grandson of company founder Henry Chung. Zhu and his wife manage this location.
A beautifully hued drink that thankfully doesn't skew as sweet as you'd expect from a brightly colored cocktail, Orson's the Kitchen blends gin, sparkling wine, and Green Chartreuse with house-made lemon basil syrup. It's complex and savory, garnished with a big sprig of lemon basil. It evokes spring, and delivers the requisite warmth.
Orson: 508 Fourth St. (at Bryant), 777-1508.
Local TV host Liam Mayclem began his media career in the U.K. as a teenager working for BBC Radio. He's returning to his radio roots for "Foodie Chap," a new chef-oriented feature airing daily, short segments between 6-7 a.m. and 6-7 p.m., on KCBS (740 AM and 106.9 FM). A companion website, FoodieChap.com, launches on Monday along with Mayclem's radio spots. [Update, Jan. 17: The site FoodieChap.com is now scheduled to go live Wed., Jan. 19.]
In his reporting role as host of CBS5's Eye on the Bay, Mayclem often gets to cook with and explore the food of some great local chefs. But he found that some of the best bits happen when the cameras are off, and never make it to broadcast. Mayclem says it's those moments that have inspired his new venture.
The Jan. 8 shooting massacre at a Tucson mall is giving new impetus to a drive to make California eateries gun-free zones. State chapters of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence yesterday announced a new initiative to make the Golden State's restaurants and coffee shops places where so-called open carry of firearms is prohibited.
First stop on the Brady Campaign's agenda: Picketing on Jan. 20 at Brooklyn Brick Oven Pizza in Manhattan Beach, where advocates of open carry are planning to congregate. It's part of the CA Brady Campaign's "Demand Gun-Free Dining in California!" They've lobbied the California Restaurant Association to urge its members to ban guns, and they're asking concerned citizens to download a gun-free pledge, available with anti-open carry signage at the organization's website, and demand that owners of their neighborhood eateries (along with other retail establishments) sign it.
Open carry ― i.e., toting a firearm in public spaces ― is legal in California, as long as the gun is unloaded and holstered (unless you're a uniformed police officer). The issue made news a year ago, when at least one member of the group Bay Area Open Carry ― meeting at a Peet's in Livermore ― was frisked by a police officer. That spurred Peet's to prohibit open carry at its coffee shops, followed by the California Pizza Kitchen in Walnut Creek, where open carry advocates were planning to rally. But Seattle-based Starbucks has refused to ban firearms in its cafes, which have become places where open carry advocates gather, firearms strapped to thighs, waists, and shoulders.
"They looked like a gang with those guns," says Shikha Hamilton, vice president of the statewide Brady Campaign and head of its San Mateo and Santa Clara county chapters. Hamilton has protested at open carry gatherings in the East Bay.
The Abuelo rum event at Smuggler's Cove that we previewed yesterday? Postponed till February, though now there are two opportunities to meet master distiller Richardo Henriquez and taste his Panamanian estate cane rum: Sat., Feb. 5, and Sun., Feb. 6.
The other change: Tickets are now required, but entry is still free. Get your tickets ASAP ― we predict they'll go fast.
Abuelo Rum Distiller at Smuggler's Cove
When: Sat., Feb. 5, and Sun., Feb. 6.
Where: Smuggler's Cove, 650 Gough (at McAllister), 869-1900
Cost: Free
Tickets: Online via Brown Paper Tickets
Check out other upcoming events on SFoodie
