Nancy Berry's Profile
In search of pizza dough on a Monday in San Francisco. Ideas?
Their dough is refrigerated.
Durum Wheat Flour in SF or North Bay?
Different Giusto's. The one in Petaluma is owned by Keith Giusto, who broke away from his family to start his own company. He has the bakery in Petaluma and Central Milling in Petaluma and Utah. I really like Keith's breads and his flours and grains are superb. I have purchased Central Milling unbleached white flour at Costco in Redwood City in packs containing two 10-lb. sacks of flour.
--NancyB
Buffalo Wings at Jack's Restaurant & Bar? San Bruno or Pleasant Hill
Jack's is owned by members of the same family that owns Lakeside Cafe in SF and Boulevard Cafe in Daly City. They serve excellent breakfasts and their lunch menu is varied and very good. It includes such Greek items as avgolemono soup, zucchini cakes w/yogurt sauce, a mediterranean appetizer plate, housemade Spanakopita, a Greek salad (offered with, or more authentic, without lettuce.) They also serve a very good meatball sandwich -- at lunch -- and meatballs and spaghetti and a bunch of other pastas and macaroni dishes (5 or 6 different macs and cheese) at lunch and dinner. I really like the fried half chicken, the polenta, and the fish and chips. Their hamburgers (8 oz.) are excellent -- you get a larger variety on the lunch menu -- and cooked accurately to order/ And their fries (regular, garlic and sweet potato) are excellent. Really good milkshakes, too! I like this place and Boulevard Cafe a lot. You may notice, however, that I've not mentioned the chicken wings -- I've been tempted by the platters of them that I've seen served when I've been to the restaurants, but I've never ordered them.
By the way, I'm talking about the San Bruno branch of Jack's and Boulevard Cafe -- I've never been to the one in Pleasant Hill.
--NancyB
Grocery Outlet Expanding
Not quite in SF, but a new Grocery Outlet is opening (according to a banner on the window) in the former Chinese grocery store in the strip mall at the end of Hickey at El Camino near Costco in South San Francisco.
Original San Francisco Dishes/Recipes
It' Its are oatmeal cookies, NOT chocolate (or white chocolate) chip cookies, sandwiched around vanilla, coffee, chocolate, or mint ice cream and then covered with chocoate. Never heard of chocolate chip or macademia nut It's Its.
Hosting dinner party. I need a chow hound idea for a purchased dessert. In the past I purchased from Tartine, humphrey ice cream, mission pies... all great yet need a new idea.Help :)
I really love the cakes, petits fours, gateaux, cookies, etc. at Nora's Patisserie at 29 San Pedro Rd. in Colma.
-----
Nora's Patisserie
29 San Pedro Rd, Colma, CA
Best place to look at range of KitchenAid stand mixer colors?
QVC sells the Kitchenaid 600 series mixers in a slightly wider range of colors: Gloss Red, Cinnamon, Pearl Metallic, Nickel Pearl, Gloss White, Gloss Black, Buttercup, Copper Pearl.
Gator’s at The Grill – Starting Next Week in San Mateo
We had the jambalaya, Melanie, and it wasn't very good -- mushy and not much flavor. The other dishes, however, were quite good. I really liked the smoky ribs -- I also liked the hot links' coarse texture and good flavor -- Gator makes a really good sauce that complements both the ribs and the links. The collards were also good, and the red beans and brown rice was very tasty.
And, by the way, Gator told me that he was changing some other things at lunch. The burgers will be served on Brioche buns and he's adding some Southern breakfast items like grits, maybe even shrimp and grits (I hope!)
--NancyB
Persian Groceries in San Francisco
The Parkside Farmers Market, a grocery and produce market on Taraval near 16th Ave. carries Sadaf products as well as lots of other Middle Eastern and Mediterranean ingredients. They also have a great assortment of beautiful produce. Also, in Millbrae, Dean's Produce at 451 Broadway carries a very large group of Sadaf products -- this store is even larger than Parkside and has all sorts of beautiful (and well-priced) produce, cheese, sausages, Russian dumplings, olives, etc., etc. One of my favorite stores.
-----
Parkside Cafe
43 Arenal Ave, Stinson Beach, CA 94970
Dean's Produce
451 Broadway, Millbrae, CA
Henry's Hunan now in Excelsior
A branch of the Henry's Hunan Restaurant cbain has opened in the old Granada Cafe space on Mission (between Russia and Persia) in the Excelsior district of SF. Counting Beijing Restaurant, we now have a total of two good Chinese restaurants in the neighborhood.
John and I went there the other day and ordered a few dishes that we'd had at other Henry's Hunan restaurants: Green onion cakes, Smoked pork with green beans, hot and sour soup, spinach with shredded pork and eggs, and stir-fried spicy calamari. Our favorite dish was the smoked pork and green beans -- the pork was nice and smoky and the beans were fresh and perfectly cooked. The hot and sour soup and the spinach pork were also very good, but I don't think that I'd order the squid again -- it was a bit overcooked. Next time I think we'll go for the dumplings or the vegetable pie.
Portions were very large -- enough for a nice lunch the next day - and they gave us some extra rice when they packed the leftovers up.
The owner, Eddie, is very friendly -- he introduced himself to us and asked (and later remembered) our names. Lots of family members working there, both in the dining room and in the full bar in the adjoining room -- there are dining tables in both rooms.and there's another room (I guess for groups) to the side of the main dining room.
All in all, it was a good meal and we enjoyed the friendly atmosphere. It's a nice neighborhood restaurant.
Best Chinese - Millbrae?
South Sea Seafood Village in SF is in the Inner Sunset district, not the Richmond district. I like it, too.
--NancyB
-----
South Sea Seafood Village
195 El Camino Real, Millbrae, CA 94030
Where to find good yellow corn on the cob? [moved from General Topics board]
The Brentwood corn guys at the Saturday College of San Mateo Farmers Market sometimes sell very good yellow corn. This past Saturday they had excellent bi-color corn that was about 75% yellow -- it was the Peaches and Cream variety and it is sweet (not as sweet as that yucky white corn) but also tastes like corn.
--NancyB
-----
College of San Mateo
1700 W Hillsdale Blvd, San Mateo, CA
Outer Richmond Chowhounding
Hakka is an excellent choice, much better than the restaurants listed so far. The food is delicately flavored, fresh tasting and really delicious. Recommended: salty-egg crusted pumpkin, the clay pot dishes, gai lan w/rice wine. Most seafood dishes were really good, especially the ones that featured lily turnips and fungi. Also excellent were the house special clams w/basil. This is a fantastic restaurant!
--NancyB
-----
Hakka Restaurant
4401 Cabrillo St, San Francisco, CA 94121
looking for a quality farm dinner (like Outstanding in the Field)
My husband and I have been to three luncheons at DaVero and all were really excellent.
The food was delicious -- especially the grilled meats, wood-fired oven breads and pizzas -- Ridge built the oven with his son, Colleen's delicious jams, marmalades and preserves all made with estate-grown fruit, and DaVero's very good and nicely priced wines. The company was great -- we were all there for the food and the "locavore" experience and we traded lots of stories and recipes. All in all a great time!
--NancyB
Where to find good yellow corn on the cob? [moved from General Topics board]
I bought some good yellow corn at Sigona's in Redwood City -- nice large ears that were sweet, but not too sweet. They actually tasted like corn rather than sugar.
--NancyB
Yummy World - San Mateo
Sounds delicious. Would love to have known about it.
--NancyB
Take out dim sum help
Another good place is Hong Kong Seafood Restaurant on Noriega at the corner of 33rd Ave. Their har gow and siu mai are excellent. They have a small take-out store with a separate entrance just next to the restaurant.
Hot Dog Rolls
Safeway sells Colombo's excellent hot dog buns -- they are more like a thinner sourdough sandwich roll than a traditional bun, but they hold up very well to a large juicy natural casing hot dog and taste very good. They shelve them with the other Colombo rolls rather than with the other hot dog buns. The package has a blue and yellow label.
Bakers Club revisited
If you're interested in finding out about The Bakers Dozen in San Francisco, just go to our new website here: http://www.bakersdozensf.org You can print out an application and snail mail it to the address listed -- there's no online registration yet. The Bakers Dozen is open to anyone, home cook or professional, who is passionate about baking. See the website for more info re this wonderful group..
Does anyone know where to buy Quaker quick grits or quaker instant grits in San Francisco?
I believe that they sell Quaker Quick Grits at FoodsCo in SF. I go to the one on Folsom near 13th or 14th St.
Colma BART station - What's good around here?!
Boulevard Cafe, just down the hill from the Daly City Bart Station serves one of the best burgers in the Bay Area. They are also great for breakfast and serve it until 2:30 every day, and have some Greek dishes (like their fried zucchini cakes and avgolemono soup) that are very delicious. We also like their fish and chips and their milkshakes.
San Francisco International Beer Festival -- April 24, SF
Note that this message is from 2004.
--NancyB
Food Festivals? [2010]
More links:
http://www.fairsandfun.com/californiafairsandfun.html
http://www.californiafairsandfestivals.com/FoodFestivals.htm
http://gocalifornia.about.com/cs/californiamenu/a/festivals.htm
http://festivalsandevents.com/festival.php?state=CA
Food Festivals? [2010]
This website should give you lots of relevant info:
http://www.foodreference.com/html/upcomingfoodevents.html
Enjoy!!
--NancyB
Need recs for great Dim Sum in SF
Try these topics:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/316011
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/693226
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/44941
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/584326
Moving to Bay Area - What SF neighborhoods rival Berkeley in good, cheap eats?
Andronico's is at 1200 Irving St. (between Funston and 14th Ave.) in SF.
Good new burger place in (of all places) Parkmerced -- Hall of Flame Burger
John, Becky and I had some really good burgers and a very good chicken sandwich at a new little place in Parkmerced called Hall of Flame Burger. It's in the little, almost empty strip mall within Parkmerced itself at:
73 Cambon Dr
San Francisco, CA 94132
(415)-584-4444
They have a presence on Facebook, but no website. The menu is on Facebook.
Anyway, the burgers are quite good, cooked correctly to order and served with excellent fries. The meat is Niman Ranch and the burgers were juicy and served on good quality rolls that could handle medium rare meat. Becky was very happy with her garlicky grilled chicken breast sandwich with pesto, lettuce and tomato. It was served on a very good french roll and was juicy, not always true with chicken breast.
It's nice to have a decent place for a burger in Parkmerced -- good for SFSU students, too.
--NancyB
Source for *real* Canadian bacon (back bacon) or Irish bacon in San Francisco?
Shanahan's is now Roxie Market & Deli. They still sell lots of Irish foods (and they make GREAT sandwiches.)
So Restaurant is back -- Chicken Wings, Potstickers! -- on Bryant St. now -- anyone been there?
According to http://www.urbanstomach.com , So Restaurant (or was it Cafe) has reopened in SOMA at 1010 Bryant St. (b/t 8th and 9th St.) This was the restaurant run by the son of the owner of San Tung. The Urban Stomach blog rates their wings number 1 in SF. I can't wait to give them a try. Has anyone been here, yet?
Chowdown Report: Hakka Restaurant in San Francisco
John and I have been to Hakka Restaurant twice since the chowdown and have really enjoyed our meals there. Some dishes that we didn't have at the chowdown included House Special Clams, an absolutely delicious dish with loads of clams in a spicy thai basil sauce and Sauteed Lily Turnip & Fungus w/Scallops and Shrimps, another winner that also contained sugar snap peas,carrots, celery and ginger. The flavors were vibrant and fresh and the dish was also very colorful and the seafood was perfectly cooked. They also served us the daily soup, an interesting and good broth with a bit of pork shoulder that also conatained big chunks of not quite ripe papaya. This added a subtle fruitiness without overpowering sweetness. And for dessert both times, they gave us a really nice warm sweet tapioca soup that was studded with little bits of cooked pumpkin. The service was friendly and they really sought to please us. It's becoming a regular haunt for us even though it's about as far across the city as you can get from our house. Highly recommended!!
--NancyB
