The Culinary Timeline is a side-project that I've been working on since October. I'm hoping to have most of it complete by the end of January, with any luck. Until then, updates around here will be weekly, rather than twice weekly. Do stay tuned.
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Brought to you today by the letter R: Two dozen Chelsea Gem oysters.
Maybe it was because it was happy hour, or maybe San Francisco just loves oysters, but Hog Island Oyster Company was doing brisk business on Monday at the Ferry Building. Sam and I were lucky to grab a seat at the bar when we did, and it was her idea to sip some Cava until the oysters went half-price at 5 o’clock. Sancerre and Muscadet followed and flowed. If you consider the old rule of thumb — that oysters are best in months that contain [... read more ...]
End-of-the-year recaps present a great opportunity to “re-purpose” some old content (I learned this valuable euphemism during the dot-com era). Here are 10 dishes that I really enjoyed this year, in no particular order. I’m not saying this list comprises my top 10 dishes for the year, but some of them could definitely qualify. Clicking the photos will transport you back to the original article — and perhaps, a much simpler time and place.
Crispy shrimp with ginger and onions @ Huong Tra, Richmond.
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Flounder special @ Yuet Lee, San Francisco.
What most Americans would recognize as “Chinese food” is far more likely to be Chinese-American, than anything truly Chinese. That said, it may seem surprising that there’s no chop suey or General Tso’s chicken in China, at least not as we know them. The staunch food-snob might label these Americanized dishes as a bastardization of the original form, although I feel that “bastardization” is much too strong of a term. Okay, if the food is served from a steam-table, then it probably is a bastardization. But whether it’s a buffet set-up or not, mom-and-pop Chinese restaurants outnumber McDonald’s franchises [... read more ...]
Asterisks denote all of the dishes ordered; the red asterisks were my favorites. Click the menu image for the full-size scan.
Among the hip new restaurants that have opened in San Francisco this year, Commonwealth certainly has more pedigree than most. Located near the corner of Mission and 18th, Commonwealth arrived with instant neighborhood cred, being the new venture of executive chef Jason Fox, who solidified his reputation at Bar Tartine, just two short blocks away. I have several friends who live and cook in the city — old cronies from when we all cooked in Napa restaurants [... read more ...]
More Photogenic than Candlestick Park: San Francisco's Transamerica Pyramid (1972) and the Columbus Tower (1907).
My Mondays are usually spent focused on food and wine, but today, it’s burgers and Budweiser at Candlestick Park. The Niners are playing the Saints tonight, and although I do consider New Orleans my second home, I’ve been bleeding red and gold for far too long to jump on any Super Bowl bandwagons. I haven’t been back to the ‘Stick since the Giants played their last game there in 1999. Ten years earlier, I was at Candlestick for Game 3 of the [... read more ...]
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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[... read more ...]
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