Something Old Something New

Eiji miso cod and strawberry mochi (photos courtesy of she-rene)

Lots and lots of puff pastry dough and butter, pizza from Americano

Brussel sprout chips (the lemon really makes it sing!), ADD burger drenched in grease from Marlowe

Pork bun from Spice Kit (short ribs are pretty money), kouglof and pain au chocolat et pistache from Laduree

some dish from the lazy ox, burma superstar leftovers

heart attack from namu, santa ramen on easter sunday

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The Line Starts Where?

Oh the irony

The former Taylor's Refresher, now Gott's Roadside, kicked off their new identity today with some free food, T-shirts, and a little bit of chaos. While it was painfully obvious that the event suffered from poor planning and severe miscommunication, it was very generous of the owners to celebrate by feeding the public they regularly serve. At the end of the day, the staff was really kind, friendly, and tried to keep the spirits high for the hundreds waiting bitterly in the biting wind. Let's just say that complaining definitely helped our situation.

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Il Cane Rosso

Not much to say since it just opened. They have plenty of seating, including bar stools inside the kitchen. Their menu sounded quite promising, but what we ordered ended up not being what was expected. Grilled peach sandwich was more of an open-faced canape on some too-toasted bread ($9). Rotisserie chicken salad was about a half cup serving ($12.50). Egg salad sandwich was simple, but we were given what felt like half of a sandwich (pictured.. the entire sandwich = half of a sandwich for $9). Polenta ($5, not pictured) was the best and the safest.

Summary: very small portions and pricey. Maybe Daniel Patterson is too used to Coi-sized servings and forgot that people usually only order one item for lunch. I would consider going back to try their porchetta, and potentially other seasonal dishes of interest in the future.

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Maybe Tomorrow

* Update 09Jul09: no tomato salad today (corn salad). Ryan Farr is up and running - chicken beer sausage -- best part was perfect toasted bun:dog ratio. Namu lines are getting longer than Tacolicious....

A few months ago I posted about the new Thursday market at the Ferry Building, something I've been looking forward to. Well, last week it finally came, and what an unexpected clusterfk it was! Eight word reaction: Ferry Building "street food" with Ferry Building prices. Apparently, Daily Candy was the primary source of the yuppie mob (I didn't know people actually still considered it relevant) and Tacolicious was the unfortunate target. I felt so terrible for them because they were clearly unprepared for the unending line, and the gusts of wind kept blowing their tickets away. I was one of the many victims of the lost tickets, and had to wait patiently as they scrambled around their tent.

The tacos were street-size, but the filling was pretty skimpy for $3.50/taco. I would only consider getting the short ribs again (mmm cola-braised) but I'm not sure I would wait in the ridic line for those prices. Maybe once they smooth things out.

Saturday's most popular truck, Roli Roti, was serving up some steak sandwiches (no porchetta, unfortunately) which were a little too chewy... should've been cut into smaller pieces. Their simple tomato salad was the highlight of the entire market -- fresh basil and cleanly dressed in olive oil and a little salt. Really the epitome of summer produce! No frills needed when you have tomatoes that sweet.

Namu's booth had prices more reasonable than their restaurant. Okonomiyaki - at $7 (still overpriced), it could've used a lot more filling/seafood, since it was mostly batter. "The real Korean 'tacos'" were the best deal, but were pretty much just ssam using nori, so don't expect a Kogi rival here. They tasted great, but the signage was a bit patronizing. They ran out of kimchi fried rice even before the peak lunch hour began, but it was fine with me since I didn't need to spend $8 on a cup of that.

With all that said, Thursdays have great promise once they work out the kinks. Tacolicious, please put weights on your tickets. Namu, please lower your prices or justify them by giving more food or more value in the amount of protein you put in your dishes. I'm excited to see what/who else will join the market, but in the mean time, I think I'll let the crowds die down a little. Or not. See you Thursday?

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Weekend Recap

This weekend was packed and the crazy weather led to lots of activity, some food-related and some not.

Front Porch: after years of passing by (it's right next to Mitchell's) I finally went. We avoided the 40-min wait by nabbing a seat at the bar. We got a few freebies (jalapeno cornbread, tomato "tartare" crostini) during the 20min wait for the food. Fried chicken was nice and crisp, but could've used some more seasoning. I wanted to try the shrimp and grits, but I only have one stomach and had to save room for some grasshopper pie. It was nice to finally try it, but I don't really have a desire to go back.

Mitchell's: yes, even after polishing off the fried chicken on my own, of course I had to get some grasshopper pie! The 30+ min wait was enough to digest my dinner, anyway.

Le Cheval (Oakland location): pretty standard Vietnamese food, very spacious and perfect for Cyn's post-graduation lunch despite the slow service. Yay you're a lawyer (almost)!

Sketch: <3

La Mar: finally gave the US version a try and had a great time. However, the original location in Lima is definitely better. As to be expected, in Lima the ingredients were just fresher, the prices were lower, and the service was better. Business was also a bit slow which was surprising, especially given their great location and the hot day!

MR: I'm over the club/bar scene and usually limit those visits to happy hours. However, my friend's friend was having a get-together here and it totally reminded me of Freemans Sporting Club, except it was a bar and not a clothing store. Definitely a boys club but I was also very much tempted to get my hair washed because it was so freaking hot!

B2B: omg so hot. My group of friends likes to run it, but it was really difficult with the temp pushing 90 at 8am and the severe lack of water stations! If you saw Dharma scientists, that was us! ("What's Dharma? Must be an Asian thing") LOVED the beaver dam on Fell.

Underdogs: post-b2b lunch and watched the beginning of the Rockets/Lakers game. Fish taco Nick's way is so satisfying!

OK back to 60-degree weather.

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SAVE THE DATE

Umm, can you say YESSSSSSSSSS

Start it up: July 2 is a red letter date for the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. It marks the premiere of a new permanent Thursday market that will focus on sustainable street food. The market will be open 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on the south side of the Ferry Building in San Francisco.

The theme is "sustainable street food meets the best local produce," says spokeswoman Christine Farren of CUESA, the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture, which operates the Ferry Plaza markets.

There will be a handful of farm stands, including Dirty Girl and Swanton Berry Farm, along with food trucks and carts that will use ingredients from market vendors. Prepared food will come from Ryan Farr's 4505 Meats, Laiola, Pizza Politana, RoliRoti and Cap'n Mike's.

via sfgate

This makes me really happy. You know where I'll be on Thursdays!

Also, as a brief update to the street food craze, I checked out the creme brulee cart, and it's actually really good! I was surprised that the burly street merchant could achieve such delicate, smooth texture ha. His broham, however, was super slow and took like 30 min to serve up 5 plates of curry. I will have to go back another time. You can also add Little Skillet to the list! The French guy with the frog legs doesn't appeal to me though. French take-out is nothing new, anyway.

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Boulevard

1 Mission St. (and Embarcadero)
(415) 543-6084

American in Financial/Embarcadero

I went here for an anniversary dinner, celebrating one wonderful year. ... Even after having a horrible day on top of the 28-day rain streak, dinner at Boulevard gave my day a 180. We were greeted with fabulous service - a waiter that would not only laugh at our silly antics, but he even joined in sometimes. =) On top of THAT, he knew his salt! Now THAT makes a fab waiter. =) If that doesn't beat a story about huns and dragons, I don't know what does.

The food was very traditional American cuisine, and very high quality. I'm not much for foie gras, but I was RAVING about Boulevard's. It didn't have that uncomfortable jelly-like consistency nor the gross liver taste a lot of restaurants tend to have. Our entrees included the duck, which was ok, and...wow, I don't remember what I had... but it was fish. The thing about this restaurant is that, again, the food is very traditional, so it isn't anything you haven't heard of. However, what makes it special is that it's high quality, and they make each dish the way it should always be (but oftentimes isn't elsewhere). It does lack uniqueness, but that isn't what the restaurant is going for anyway.

For dessert, we had a very special banana cream + white chocolate "pie," which wasn't exactly a pie since the crust was made out of flaky pastry dough. The white chocolate also gave it a little spunk, which was nice.

All in all, my experience at Boulevard was great. Good company always makes good food better, and if it wasn't for that and the service, I would've had a not-so-happy anniversary (as illustrated below). =P

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The Slanted Door

1 Ferry Building #3
(415) 861-8032

French Vietnamese in SOMA/Embarcadero

Very trendy and always packed - they have lunch reservations for the weekdays! Located in the Ferry Building, this restaurant has a great view of the bay and the Golden Gate bridge, and is a fabulous place to eat for lunch (I don't think the prices are worth it for dinner). It has a very sleek (almost sterile) atmosphere - super mod and exuding the hip asian trend.

The food was actually pretty good. They put twists on traditional Asian foods, and I don't mean "twists" like P.F. Chang's. Their egg/spring rolls are fresh and good quality, as are most of their dishes. Serving amount is a bit on the small side, but it's definitely enough to keep you satisfied. The "shaking beef" was by far the winner - very moist and flavorful.

Good lunch place, but not worth the money for dinner.

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