uh ... art's Profile
Best dishes in San Francisco with an egg on top?
The Bistec a lo Pobre at Mi Lindo Peru on Mission near 29th is a nice big hunk of steak
fried with peppers and onions, served with potatoes, a fried plantain, and topped with
a fried egg.
I haven't been there in a couple of years, so no recent report, but man was it good. And
last time I was there it was well under $15.
Tomales Bay Oyster Company report
I stopped by Tomales Bay Oyster Company last weekend, first time since the spring and
I guess the first time since the Marshall Store people took over the operation. Still
really great and there have been some significant changes to the physical layout. The
parking lot has been expanded to about 3x its former size. Parking spaces are chalked
into the shoulder of Hwy 1 outside the gate, and there are now at least 70 picnic tables
on three levels each with its own bbq grill.
It's still free to picnic, no reservations, and no supplies provided other than oysters. Bring
your own knife, lemon, and protective handgear. Prices for the "very small", which is
the only size you should consider if you're eating them raw, were $10/dozen and $32/50.
On a Friday afternoon, we had the place to ourselves. Coming back down on Sunday it
looked like there were a million people jammed in there.
Post time is screwed, re-editing is screwed
Well, even if everything is collapsing I can still have a nice conversation with myself.
Post time is screwed, re-editing is screwed
And now the time is set right back on my other post. But still no edit link.
Post time is screwed, re-editing is screwed
Odd, both post time and editing are working here.
Post time is screwed, re-editing is screwed
Just posted here:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/656886
This was posted at 11:12pst and the time of posting appears as 2:12. Is
everything set to east coast time?
I made a couple of typos in the posting but there is no "edit" link at
the bottom of the page so I can fix them. Do I need to wait three hours
for it to appear?
[edit: ok, there's an edit button here. let's see if I can edit it.]
ChowDown (Chowing with the Hounds Picnic) 2009 Report
Hey, what a great time! Thanks to the organizers for all the work that went into putting it together, and heidipie, for dragging me along.
The pork roast sure was something. The skin was cooked about three stages beyond where I've ever let it get -- well into hard crack -- mmmm, pig candy.
I loved Daveena's cocktail-format interpretation of galaktoboureko. Next year I'll bring along a little campstove and a briki just in case they make a reappearance :)
The apple tasting was a great idea. As a rightcoaster even after a bunch of years out here I still haven't figured out your apple scene; nothing really tastes quite like an apple (and it's even worse for peaches though that's a discussion for a different thread). So having a bunch of them all lined up together was really helpful. I was only slightly disappointed that my favorite one had the dumbest name: ambrosia. I've always passed them over, having been fooled by red "delicious" (heh) more than a few times, but in this case the marketing is not entirely deceptive.
That was a nice little collection of wines over on the drinks table. In particular I liked the pair of (oops I wasn't paying proper attention to the labels) Rhônish reds, a 93 and a 96. The former was really tasty, the latter lively almost to the point of effervescence on opening but seemed to fall pretty flat after fifteen minutes or so. Melanie, what were we drinking?
All in all, a fine day out. I hope it can be brought together again next year. I'm not terribly adept at organizing anything, but I'm real good at providing encouragement to people who are :) So if someone else is organizing an organizing committee, sign me up.
Jody Maroni's at Bay Street in Emeryville
I went today. It's less a Sausage Kingdom than a Provincial Sausage Outpost. I don't
have a recent experience of the Venice Beach location but I seem to remember a
wide variety of sausage options at a reasonable price. Here there are seven pretty
basic choices and you're not getting away for less then $6.
Sausage sandwiches are $5.49 plus tax. The menu is here but the prices are
understated:
http://www.jodymaroni.com/sausages-jody-maroni/MaroniMenu2.pdf
add a dollar to everything on that menu.
There's also a couple of hot dog choices ($3.29 for a "smokin dog" up to $6.59
for a "giant kobe beef hot dog") as well as burgers ($4.99 or $5.49 with cheese).
Fries are $1.99 small, $2.99 large.
I got the "hot italian". On an oniony bun with grilled peppers and onions. It was
ok. Surprisingly unsalty. Not terribly hot. Decent flavor. The sausage is smaller
than the bun but it's served wrapped so that the sausage is sticking out an inch
from one end and the other end is wrapped in paper so you don't notice immediately
how they're tricking you into thinking you got a real big one.
Comparison to Top Dog: twice as expensive, maybe 10% better because of the
grilled peppers, maybe 20% worse because of the limited options, one kind of mustard
in little packages, no self-serve cauldron of sauerkraut, no libertarian screeds tacked
to every available surface.
All in all, this is not something that's going to bring me back to the dead mall, but if
I'm there, I'll probably try another.
Eat Real Fest, Oakland, August 28-30
Right at the Webster St entrance. Plenty of tents all over the place: 4505 Meats, Chop Bar, the crème brûlée cart, etc.
Chipotle also had a big banner hanging off the second floor balcony of Bocanova. Right over the Korean BBQ truck.
Eat Real Fest, Oakland, August 28-30
We went. We went fully aware of the problems with last week's event and the slow foods thing last year and the disaster down at Shoreline earlier this summer. So with that background and a healthy dose of schadenfreude, we parked in chinatown, bought a bunch of sandwiches from Banh Mi Ba Le, and strolled down to the expected trainwreck. Got there on Saturday at about 1pm.
But it turned out to be an absolutely great event! Well organized. Plenty of really interesting vendors. Lots of people but the lines were pretty tolerable. Prices were perfectly reasonable for pretty much everything from the food wagons (though there were a couple of crazies at the farmerish market inside Bocanova who had a seemingly overprecious view of their wares). The guy from Nieves Cinco de Mayo had doubled the price of his ice cream but even so, with a huge scoop of his great stuff normally selling for $1.25 getting a huge scoop for $2.50 was still a bargain,
The beer situation looked to be a little difficult but Heinholds First and Last was doing a land office business.
I'm still not completely clear on what "street food" was supposed to mean. But there was a high proportion of vendors who actually worked out of carts. And pretty much everyone was operating somewhere outside the the conventional restaurant context. Each truck, tent, and trailer had an informative "who we are, what we do, and where you can find us" sign tacked up.
There was only one grave bit of disappointment. Right at the entrance, the first tent you encounter, was Chipotle Grill. I sure hope the organizers got their thirty pieces of silver for that, because it seemed to be a terrific mistake.
All-in-all, a fine way to spend a blisteringly hot afternoon. And proof that, given a lot of mistakes to learn from, it *is* possible to invite thousands of hungry people to the same place at the same time and have them leave happy.
Sour Cherries in SF
The Bowl (eastern) had what seem to be their first sour cherries of the 2009 season today. A smallish box of loose cherries, labeled "California", at $4.95/lb. I didn't sample.
Oakland: Unicos de Cuernavaca Tamal Shop - the best tamales in the Bay Area
It's the place that, for many years, had a sign out front saying "Head Cheese".
Here's a street view from, apparently, the time between Head Cheese and Tamales:
http://maps.google.com/maps?client=safari&q=5751+Market+Oakland,+CA&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF8&hl=en&ll=37.842597,-122.274635&spn=0.010608,0.015986&z=16&layer=c&cbll=37.842455,-122.27473&panoid=G_mp2imBXD-E3Mxhelqc9g&cbp=12,272.97,,0,4.21
Fire in Allston - Hanmaru burnt.
The Grecian Yearning burned down in 1986, along with the laundromat next door.
That time, I think it was the laundromat's fault. They bounced back pretty quick.
Back then, it wasn't such a hit to the neighborhood because the Deli King and Blake's
and the Seven Stars were all still operating, and Steve's Kitchen had recently opened
up, so we had plenty of alternatives.
--ex allstonian, '80-'90
Anybody Else Hate Berkeley Bowl's "Improvements"?
>" I would have gone to the Info counter and asked if this was it or if more "fabulous upgrades" were in the offing."
After the cheese renovation they put up a sign on the renovated cheese section
saying something along the lines of "please pardon the mess while we remodel
the store." It's still there. I'm guessing this wasn't the end. Various things are
still going on over by the breakfast burrito bar.
Their last couple of remodels (building out the northwest corner, replacing the
old checkstands, that umbrella thing) about, what?, six years ago, went really well.
Help me "wow" my staff on our Berkeley food adventure
The Pasta Shop sells the entire line of Fra' Mani products, which are another local "wow".
Help me "wow" my staff on our Berkeley food adventure
>>" cheeseboard (look, not eat) "
Looks great except for the above. Pick some random cheese region/type
(spanish blue or something) and talk to the cheese guy about it. He/she
will know more than you can imagine. Buy a half pound or so. You've
got a lull in the afternoon where it will come in handy.
Now, when you're at the Spanish Table you're also about four blocks
south of the Acme Bakery at San Pablo and Cedar. Go there. Get a
couple of loaves of Pain Epi and maybe a bottle of something French
from Kermit Lynch next door. Remember to bring a corkscrew. There's
your mid-afternoon snack.
And when you get to the Berkeley Bowl, it's currently citrus season.
Buy a bag of assorted tangerines and oranges to get you started the
next morning.
Personally, I hate La Note (bad coffee, chewy pancakes). Homemade
Cafe is a much more "Berkeley" joint that I'd recommend.
Gourmet Ghetto: not so much any more?
Of course there would be. Most thriving, free market specialty districts
are dominated by mediocre examples of whatever the specialty is.
Gourmet Ghetto: not so much any more?
What he said. Epicurious Garden wedging itself in with all the hype and
vacuity of a Disneyland ride seemed to me to be a final nail. Wine robots!
Still, the new Rivoli thing rumored to be going in to the old Phoenix
place should be cause for at least a little excitement.
Anybody Else Hate Berkeley Bowl's "Improvements"?
I'll admit to having a "wtf" moment when I walked in there one morning last month
and they were jackhammering up the floor for the new plumbing. But I think I like
what they did. The main advantage of the new arrangement is when the 15-or-fewer
checkout line snakes all the way back to the beer section, it's routed behind the cheese
and far away from the bread. This makes things a lot less insane for bread shoppers.
Where to have the best raw oyster experience in S.F.
Zuni's definitely going to give you that "best best best" thing you're looking for. I'd save El Rio for some other time. After a couple of drinks on the back porch you'll be in no condition to enjoy Zuni.
Help me "wow" my staff on our Berkeley food adventure
> "Strauss whole milk has a higher butterfat content than most types of milk,"
If by other types you mean reduced-fat types, then by definition yes. If you mean Strauss' whole milk has more butterfat than other brands of whole milk, then no.
Strauss claims 8g fat per 240mL milk:
http://www.strausfamilycreamery.com/nutrition.php?pid=3
Clover organic -- 8g per 240mL:
http://cloverstornetta.com/show/xmlsite/xml-standard.xml/xsl-generic_list_1_page.xsl/start_id-pncpcgoplncghgjdcoalbkgenkbhabmgnginepjp/
Even at the low end, Berkeley Farms / Dean Foods is 8g/240mL:
http://www.berkeleyfarms.com/products/nutritional-info/NutritionViewandPrint_whole_milk.pdf
Waffles and panini?
Making french toast in a waffle iron is fun. Maybe
just making the panini (or grilled cheese) with the
waffle plates would work too?
Kettle: Electric or Stovetop?
Electric. I'm very, very happy with this Chef's Choice. Durability,
performance and aesthetics are all high:
http://www.amazon.com/Chefs-Choice-685-International-Teakettle/dp/B0000667GV
Mini review in an earlier thread:
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/477867#3283419
What is your favorite CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP kitchen gadget
Coming in at precisely one penny under $20 -- the apple peeler-corer/slicer device.
http://www.lnt.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1866507
For years I'd see ancient, rusty ones for sale in New England yard sales and flea
markets. Ha ha. How could that possibly work. Then my mom got one. And I laughed and
said, ha ha, how could that possibly work. And she laughed back and said, "like this."
And then she proceeded to peel, core, and slice enough apples for three pies in a little
over three minutes.
When I got back home I went out and bought one and now apple season is even more fun. It's an absolutely brilliant piece of folk engineering.
Bay Area grocery shopping rant - is something missing?
>do you think they should put up a sign saying "berkley bowl
>customers, please only park here when our parking lot is less
>than 50% full"?
I think that they should put up a sign saying "Welcome Bowl Customers! Come in and check out our large supply of toothpaste and aspirin!"
But actually, I don't care what they do. What I care about is that you don't accidently park there and end up spending $60 more on the grocery trip than you planned.
Bay Area grocery shopping rant - is something missing?
And while we're way over here in the right margin, a couple of more things about the Bowl that might make it more pleasant ... If you've got 15 or fewer things, no produce, and aren't using food stamps you can use the register over by the chinese food steam tables.
Never park in the Walgreens parking lot. They're out there booting people all the time (and while I'd never encourage others to refuse to shop at Walgreens for this unneighborly behavior, it certainly keeps me away).
The shopping carts at the bowl don't have those magic lock-up-when-leaving-the-parking-lot wheels so if you've parked in front of Crixa you can wheel your stuff right across the street. It's polite to take the cart back, though the retrieval truck makes a couple of passes every day.
Tuesday is generally not a good day. I'm not sure why but it might have to do with the farmers market happening a couple of blocks away.
They make breakfast burritos until about 10:30 and they're ridiculously huge enough to be breakfast, lunch, and an afternoon snack burritos and they're very good especially with a big dollop of the "hot" (not really) red sauce.
Where to have the best raw oyster experience in S.F.
El Rio, a bar just soulth of CChavez on Mission. Fridays from 5-7. Free oysters.
An ongoing tradition for, geez, at least 15 years. Because it is a bar, it meets your
criterion of FULL BAR, though it does not have anything else to eat. But Blue Plate,
Mi Lindo Peru, and Can-Cun are all right nearby.
Otherwise, I'm not sure what could be meant by "best" -- that seems so exclusionary.
They're all basically the same species, served virtually preparation-free. Quality and
flavor tends to vary much more by the time of year than by restaurant.
That said, my best semi-recent memory was at Yabbies on Polk three of us early
enough for the $1 oysters, 36 of them, a bowl of chowder, and a bottle of fizzy wine.
The dollar oysters were 6-7pm weekdays, I don't know if/when it's still happening.
Help me "wow" my staff on our Berkeley food adventure
"Yeah. Not sure where that $5 number is coming from"
It's coming from the adjacent word "cone", the implication of sales tax, the way that adding "approximately" to the sentence didn't scan well, and the fact that I was attempting to make a rhetorical point rather than quibble over pennies.
No Morton, I don't think the 5 de Mayo mouthfeel is a defect in his equipment purchasing decisions. He seems pretty happy with the outcome. The overrun on his stuff is pretty close to zero. Also, he seemed quite happy to dish out whatever was still soft in the churn, which is definitely going to be clear of any iciness so that might be the way to go if there are concerns. Personally, it tastes like regular, creamy ice cream to me. With flavors that are just this side of nuts :)
But all that aside, the reason I even brought the place up was because the post is about a tour for folks in a cooking school. If we're sending them to taste the best that money can buy extruded from a half million dollars worth of industrial equipment, it might be interesting to compare and contrast with what a single crazy man with an ice bucket and a spoon and a giant heart can do.
Help me "wow" my staff on our Berkeley food adventure
Sketch and Ici will both "wow" your staff because they will say "Wow! We're paying $5 for a tiny scoop of ice cream!"
Some people are ok with that -- I guess it's a matter of personal preference. For my money, though, the wow-est, ice cream in the area is being hand-churned by Luis and his mom down at Nieves Cinco de Mayo in Fruitvale:
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/restaurants/que_dolce__fruitvale/Content?oid=483131
Round-trip bart tickets and a huge pile of ice cream will set you back about the same as a cone at Ici.
The cheese ice cream is astounding. As is the corn.
