The Preferred Nomenclature: Delicious.
The best Chinese food in Napa? Sounds like a trick question to me. The truth is, every Chinese restaurant in the Napa Valley is homogenized through a distinctly American filter, which is what it is. I certainly don’t mean to disparage a Napa restaurant like Wah Sing, for instance (places that have an undeniably long history here in town), for being too simple or too similar. It’s just that when Wah Sing seems to serve the same food as Mini Garden, which serves the same food as China House, well then, what’s the point [... read more ...]
King me.
As I’ve mentioned here before, my philosophy is that the bread defines a sandwich in the same way that the crust defines a pizza: It’s practically everything, even if it’s not the only thing. Of course, with a falafel pita, the pita bread itself assumes the same important role in distinguishing the mundane from the noteworthy. Time and time again, I’ve found that the main downfall with most falafel sandwiches is simply the freshness of the pita. Flat breads, being all surface area, do seem to become stale rather quickly, and there’s really nothing worse than [... read more ...]
The #6 at Viet Nam on Broadway, San Francisco
I’ve eaten banh mi sandwiches all over the Bay Area, though I don’t claim to boast any first-hand experience with the banh mi sandwiches of Southeast Asia. I will say, however, that on most afternoons, the Vietnamese language flows freely at Viet Nam on Broadway, both behind the counter and within the restaurant’s tiny dining room. Does that guarantee anything in terms of quality or authenticity? Perhaps not, but it’s never a bad sign, either. Frankly, I just can’t imagine that Viet Nam’s banh [... read more ...]
Shred it yourself.
Among the hierarchy of pork, bacon may be the undisputed heavyweight champion, but carnitas will always be a top-ranked contender. If nothing else, carnitas excels in its elegant duality, offering the interior succulence of braised meat alongside the caramelized notes of a crispy, Maillard-encrusted exterior. In my mind, carnitas remains somewhat unique in this regard, although duck confit also boasts the same key attributes (to that end, both dishes are prepared in a similar manner, by slowly simmering the meat in its respective fat). Poultry aside, carnitas is a terrific expression of pork, and for [... read more ...]
I took a quick trip into San Francisco yesterday to visit some old chef buddies, two of whom work at Perbacco Ristorante in San Francisco’s Financial District. Although I did learn that their chef, Staffan Terje, fell just short of winning the National Cochon 555 Cook-Off in Aspen over the weekend, it was nice to sample some of the restaurant’s new dishes nonetheless (incidentally, the 2010 winner of Cochon 555 was David Varley of Michael Mina’s Bourbon Steak DC). Here are a couple photos of Perbacco’s appetizers…
Sauteed porcinis with a 63ºC egg.
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