San Francisco Bay Area Digest

Oakland's Firebrand Artisan Breads, a brick-oven bakery with limited distribution in the Bay Area, sells a sourdough loaf that impressed TopoTail. Made of unbleached wheat, whole wheat, and rye flours, the sourdough is "one of the best loaves of bread I have ever tasted," TopoTail says. "Really crispy crust, moist and chewy inside, packed with flavor."

Lucky Ruth Lafler happened upon Firebrand bread more than two years ago at a restaurant. She bemoans the very limited distribution so far, but agrees that the bread is delicious.

Firebrand's website notes that its breads are sold at Bi-Rite Market and Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco. (Bi-Rite even filmed an interview with the Firebrand baker describing his technique, which you can check out here.)

You can also find Firebrand baked goods at Sightglass Coffee and Fifth Floor in San Francisco, as well as at Oakland's Disco Volante.

Bi-Rite Market [Mission District]
3639 18th Street, San Francisco
415-241-9760

Rainbow Grocery [Mission District]
1745 Folsom Street, San Francisco
415-863-0620

Sightglass Coffee [SOMA]
270 Seventh Street, San Francisco
415-861-1313

Fifth Floor [SOMA]
12 Fourth Street, San Francisco
415-348-1555

Disco Volante [East Bay]
347 14th Street, Oakland
510-663-0271

Discuss: Firebrand Brick Oven Bakery

When some of us come down with a case of the sniffles, a steaming bowl of chicken noodle soup can come to the rescue. AVinSF wasn't feeling well recently, and several hounds prescribed a number of San Francisco–based soup dispensaries that serve curative bowls of warm, chicken-flavored goodness.

mlutsky says St. Francis Fountain's chicken soup is the ultimate stress reliever, while pamf notes that Soup Freaks is in a new location across the street from its previous one on Mission Street in SOMA, so fans of its chicken soup are in luck.

Many hounds love the fresh, light pho ga—Vietnamese chicken noodle soup—at Turtle Tower, which now has three locations in the city. bigwheel042 prefers the Geary Street location, which is cleaner and cozier than the other two.

And in those "moments of real desperation," goldangl95 recommends soup from Whole Foods, which does the job, even if it requires a lot of doctoring to perk up the bland flavors.

St. Francis Fountain [Mission District]
2801 24th Street, San Francisco
415-826-4200

Soup Freaks [SOMA]
667 Mission Street, San Francisco
415-433-7687

Turtle Tower [Outer Richmond]
5716 Geary Boulevard, San Francisco
415-221-9890

Discuss: Chicken noodle soup
Chicken Soup Season - FiDi and/or Berkeley/Oakland

Two hounds recently weighed in on Fourth & Sea, a fish-and-chip shop in Petaluma, and they walked away with different opinions.

The fish, chips, tartar sauce, and coleslaw at Fourth & Sea impressed rworange, but she particularly liked the onion rings, prepared in a "light, tempura-like beer batter." The same lovely batter graces the big pieces of fish served with the restaurant's signature dish. The shakes were also great, she says, because they were "not overly thick and [tasted] of dairy pureness."

However, with two visits to Fourth & Sea under his belt, Civil Bear steps up as a detractor. "Found the fish & chips greasy and overpriced," he says.

Fourth & Sea [Sonoma County]
101 Fourth Street, Petaluma
707-762-6424

Discuss: Fourth and Sea Fish & Chips - destination worthy onion rings and milkshakes [Petaluma]

Lunch at Ma's Dimsum & Cafe stirred up memories of Grandma's kitchen for gordon wing, who filed a report on the Chinatown hole in the wall that often sees a lunchtime rush of older clientele looking for hearty, home-style dishes. While the restaurant's menu includes rice plates, noodles, and soups, most diners choose the clay pots, which come in two sizes, though only the smaller size is listed on the menu.

gordon wing and a guest chose a Chinese bacon/sausage/pork spare rib clay pot topped with baby bok choy; he recommends adding sweet soy from the squeeze bottles on each table. They also ordered a side dish of tender, garlicky bitter melon with black beans, a welcome addition to the generous portion of rice left over in the clay pot after they'd consumed the toppings.

Some dishes, such as gai loong pastries, indicate a Toisan (a.k.a. Taishan) influence—gordon describes them as "savory, chewy/crispy dim sum items that my Grandmother used to make." These can be hard to find, though you can more easily locate their sweeter cousin, hom sui gok.

Ma's Dimsum & Cafe [Chinatown]
1315 Powell Street, San Francisco
415-788-3532

Discuss: Ma's Dim Sum & Cafe ...... Clay Pots & More .... [San Francisco]

Camino, the Oakland restaurant renowned for its gorgeous dining room—a former furniture shop transformed by wide communal tables and a crackling fireplace—got a mixed review from sundeck sue, who says her recent dinner there was "both great and not so much."

Of the space, sundeck sue reports that it is "beautiful" but also "so noisy." She adored the tequila drink she ordered, a concoction of lime, blood orange juice, chiles, and salt. The wood-fired oven brought some of the dishes close to perfection, including a nicely seasoned grilled crab and a roasted asparagus side dish with black trumpet mushrooms and curly endive.

However, the crab and kimchi soup, as well as the vegetables served on the side of the roasted lamb, were nearly too salty to eat. And the service was spotty and forgetful: Though the stack of Acme pain d'epi loaves seemed so close, they were still too far for the server to retrieve, even after repeated requests.

"Feels like they're so close to terrific—but don't quite get there," she concludes.

Camino [East Bay]
3917 Grand Avenue, Oakland
510-547-5035

Discuss: monday @ camino [Oakland]