The past 24 hours in gossip, innuendo, and cold hard facts about the San Francisco food scene.
Working up the Chez Panisse ladder: Yesterday Tablehopper shared a rumor that long-ago busboy Jerome Waag, was moving into the downstairs co-chef position at Alice Waters' Berkeley restaurant. Today, Inside Scoop confirms Waag will take over the Summer months from David Tanis (May-Oct.) starting in 2012. The winter co-chef, Jean-Pierre Moullé, will oversee the kitchen the other half of the year.
Another kitchen seeing changes is Scott Youkilis' Maverick. Inside Scoop shares the new chef de cuisine is Emmanuel Eng (formerly of Sons and Daughters and Boulevard). Inside Scoop also reports that over at Youkilis' Hog & Rocks another new face will show up behind the bar (after recently adding Scott Beattie as a drink consultant). Erika Frey (formerly of Healdsburg's Cyrus) will become bar manager later this month.
After an almost two-month delay, Japanese curry should be here soon. The Tender shares Kare-Ken hit various construction road blocks, but is now set to open in the next few days (552 Jones at Geary).
No cheesy expansion quite yet: There was a Twitter rumor that American Grilled Cheese Kitchen was opening a second location. Well, they might, but Eater SF shares owners Nathan Pollak and Heidi Gibson are only in the scouting phase.
Where: Specchio
When: Sun., October 16, seatings available 6:00-9:45 p.m.
Cost: $40
The rundown: Reform Club, summer's hottest pop-up that got its name from a 19th century political club, Returns! This time bar manager Dion Jardine (bartender at Slanted Door & Heaven's Dog), and sommelier Becky Pezzullo, have brought on Jay Roberts, most recently Chef De Cuisine of Orson, and Eric Ehler, former Sous Chef at Serpentine, to work the stoves and create food.
Tom Silargorn, owner of the three-year-old Lers Ros, generally regarded as one of San Francisco's best Thai restaurants, initially came to San Francisco to pursue an education in art. But the lack of what he deems "real Thai food" in the city inspired him to show San Francisco what it was missing. In part I of SFoodie's interview with Silargorn, we talked about how he got into cooking and what he thinks his best dishes are.
SFoodie: Being in this location, there are a lot of Thai restaurants nearby. Even though you consider your restaurant to be different, do you view them as competition?
Silargorn: I follow a different thinking. Most people think if there are a lot of Thai restaurants it would be hard to open another one, but I don't think like that. If you have a lot of Thai and other Asian restaurants in one area, then people will come to the area to check it out. It becomes a destination. But I try do better than other restaurants.
I understand you're opening a new location.
We are, in three weeks! [Ed. note: At the time of the interview, it was three weeks away -- Lers Ros appears to be opening in a few days.] I'm working very hard on that. I decided I wanted to open a second location two years ago, but you have to work with the city, with construction - everything takes time. I already had the space in mind. I have a lot of customers from Hayes Valley, so I wanted to open there. I like the area, and it's not too far between this location and that one. I'll have to be able to go to both places easily, and if the restaurant was in a different area, it would be hard to control what happens in each of them.
A simple fact of life is, sometimes we all just need to get along. That's never more true than when a picky omnivore and a picky vegetarian are choosing a restaurant. If you find yourself stuck between two such charming individuals (or find that you are one), split the difference and head to one of these restaurants. Plus, meat-mouths take note: if you take a vegetarian or vegan to a restaurant with veg selections beyond the dreaded, uninspired grilled vegetable plate, you'll invariably get lucky. Rowr.
5. Minako, 2154 Mission, 864-1888.
Run by a sassy mother and daughter team in the Mission, Minako is an extremely veg-friendly Japanese restaurant. It's small, so it's not great for groups, but if you want to find a place where a die-hard fish eater and veg-head sushi lover can coexist in blissful peace, definitely check it out. Menu favorites include the fried veggie eel and avocado roll and the grilled eggplant with miso glaze appetizer. Just get there early, and prepare yourself to be reprimanded about something you order. Example: You will probably be told you're ordering too many fried things, but stay strong, that's only a suggestion.
4. Assab Eritrean Restaurant, 2845 Geary, 441-7083.
I believe Assab serves the best Ethiopian food in the San Francisco Bay Area, but I'm also prone to favoritism for reasons like, "they have pretty bowls," and, "I ate there with a cute boy once!" Regardless, Assab's vegetarian combo rivals the best meals I've ever eaten. If omni's want, they can order a meat dish on the side. That way, you can still dine communally, and everyone is happy. Plus, it's a good place for groups and you get to eat with your hands. What brings together people more than eating with their hands? Most things! But still!
When 2G Brasserie opened at the back of Opera Plaza seven months ago, it had an intriguing menu and one of San Francisco's most respected sushi chefs, Masaki Sasaki, making nigiri. But Sasaki soon left to open Hecho downtown, and the restaurant's ambitions seemed to flag. (The ginormous restaurant is invisible from the street, so it wasn't much of a surprise.)
Cannabis butter. Love it, but unless I make it myself, I end up suffering from Geicoschizophrenia. Yeah, Geico. You know, somebody's butter will make you feel like a witty lizard, or a metaphor man on a microphone, or a disenfranchised caveman. I need more consistency with my cannabis edibles.
Revelation: you don't have to use weed butter to bake an amazing medical marijuana meal!
Duh, perhaps, from those well-versed in special herbs and spices, yet you'd be surprised at how many happy-go-lucky folks I've met whose eyebrows lift with intrigue after this announcement. Cannabis flour works the same way you'd use a good ol' bag of cooking flour. Think homemade biscuits and pancakes, or the batter base for some fried buffalo wings.
Whipping up some cannabis flour of your own is as easy as the Humpty Dance. But to do it right I recommend using the dry leaves you get from a growhouse after the trim session. Ask around: Chances are you're just six degrees of separation from a quiet garage that's just dying to get the excess leaves and shake out as soon as that last nugget is clipped.
The Fresh & Easy that opened on Aug. 24 in the 5800 3rd st. development in the Bayview is getting great feedback. It has a 4 1/2 Star rating on Yelp, something that's almost unheard of without a little extortion. Yelpers applaud its fantastic selection, high-ish quality, and go especially apeshit for the self checkout. Take that, CBS News.
However, the big question is, when are the Bayview's freaking Radio Africa & Kitchen and freaking Brown Sugar Kitchen going to freaking open? Ok, it's not as dramatic as all that, but since we believed they'd be up and running in early June, and there's still no sign, we're anxious. The neighborhood is in desperate need of more choices, and we're ready to get down on a plate of strawberries with spiced chocolate sauce and citron cream.
Luckily, there's an end in sight!
Of the roughly $200 billion spent to subsidize U.S. commodity crops from 1995 to 2010 (commodity crops are interchangeable, storable foods such as grains and certain beans, and cotton), roughly two-thirds went to animal-feed crops, tobacco, and cotton. Roughly $50 billion went to human-food crops, including wheat, peanuts, rice, oil seeds and other crops that become sweeteners, according to a database compiled by the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy group. About $12 billion went to crops that were turned into ethanol, a use that is consuming a growing share of the harvest.Much of those subsidized commodity crops feed animals raised for meat and dairy. Under the current system, which few politicians want to touch within 20 years of an election, fruits and vegetables -- which are supposed to make up close to 50 percent of our food intake -- are called "specialty crops," and farmers growing them receive only a few million dollars. (Also: tobacco? The thing the government has spent billions of dollars trying to convince us to stop buying?)
Born in Chon Buri, a coastal province about 45 minutes southeast of Bangkok, chef Tom Silargorn learned to cook by his mother's side. Three years ago, he opened Lers Ros in the Tenderloin and quickly earned a devout following of locals, chefs and food critics alike for serving the most vibrant and authentic Thai food many have had outside of Thailand. As Silargorn is quick to point out, that is entirely the point.
SFoodie: How did you get into cooking?
Silargorn: I learned cooking from my mom. The old style of the Thai family is that the wife stays home and cooks for the family and the husband works outside. As the youngest kid of [nine brothers and sisters], I always stayed with my mom, and because she was cooking for the children I just learned by always being by her side.
How did you end up coming to the States?
I came on a student visa for art school. While I was doing that I was also working in a Thai restaurant as a cook. But it was not real, real Thai food in the restaurant I was cooking - in most of San Francisco, I can say the cooking is not like real Thai cooking. So when I had the opportunity to open my own business I wanted to cook the way I learned, the way I knew how.
What is real, authentic Thai food to you?
The ingredients we put into it. Everything is homemade. It's not like we use things from a can or buy curry from the store. We make the curry from scratch.
