Confession: We didn’t know where Mission Beach Cafe was.

For months people have been telling us to check out this café when we’re in the Mission—“They have great coffee,” “It’s a good place to work remotely.”—but something about the name made it hard to process. Mission Beach? Where can you access beach or ocean in the Mission? It didn’t matter how many times people said, “It’s on 14th and Guerrero. Right on the corner,” we just couldn’t wrap our head around the idea.

Well, it’s a good thing our sweetie lives a block away because we would never have checked this place out, which is absurd because it really is worth checking out. First of all, it’s not just a café; it’s a full-blown restaurant serving lunch and dinner as well as brunch on the weekends. In fact, we would say that the ambiance is much more upscale dining rather than casual café, but there’s no reason this should stop anyone from going for a to-go cup and a pastry. All of the pastries are made fresh on-site everyday and we can highly recommend the raspberry turnover seeing as we had it two days in a row. Like many specialty coffee places these days, they brew coffee per cup with each cup getting it’s own drip filter and as one would expect from this process the result is pretty darn satisfying.

We haven’t had a meal here yet, but it’s on the schedule. The menus look impressive and if their entrees are given the same attention as their coffee and pastries we’re sure this will quickly become a favorite for us.

Mission Beach Cafe [Official Site]

[Photo: Tea at Mission Beach Cafe via SanFranAnnie/flickr]

We’re happy to report that airports seem to be wising up when it comes to frequent flyers and their eating habits.

Airlines stopped serving full meals years ago, the record number of flight delays is becoming commonplace and the laundry list of carry-on restrictions is growing lengthier by the minute, meaning flyers have to get to the airport even earlier just to make it through security. That said, people are spending more time in the terminals and the need to catch a bite before catching a flight is more prevalent. But if we’re going to be spending top-dollar for food and beverage it no longer seems acceptable for a $20 tab to come from two McDonalds cheeseburgers.

Catching a morning flight last week we were pleased to become acquainted with the fairly new Terminal Two extension at Oakland International Airport in part because it’s shinny and clean, but mainly because there was a full service Andalé Mexican Restaurant & Bar and we were able to get made-to-order Huevos Rancheros for breakfast (we were particularly impressed watching the cook fire up a real grill and break real eggs into the skillet).

If we didn’t have to squeeze into a bridesmaid dress a few days later we probably would have enjoyed the seasoned Mexican potatoes that came with, but we figured that the 3 eggs, refried beans and fresh corn tortillas were already pushing it and took pleasure in the side of flavorful fresh fruit instead.

With our gate only a few paces away we were able to have our food plated and experience an honest, civilized breakfast. In fact, we were almost sad to hear our boarding announcement with the full bar and top shelf tequila calling our name, but we were grateful to have a happy, full belly for the trip and arrived at our destination ready to pick up flowers and finish reception favors.

We couldn’t be more stoked for the option to have carnitas, chorizo and guacamole instead of a shrink-wrapped, three day old deli sandwich at the airport. And with more weddings looming and a much-needed vacation on the horizon, for once we’re actually looking forward to the airport portion of our upcoming trips.

Andalé Mexican Restaurant & Bar [Menupages]
Andalé Mexican Restaurant & Bar [Official Site]

Photo: By Lucahjin

There's a pretty giggle-worthy post over at Eggbeater, in which a guest writer who works at an unnamed grocery store chain goes on and on about how rotten/funny customers can be. It's great shop-talk, in any facet of the service and retail industry, to bitch about customers. It helps remind you and your fellow retail/service workers that you're not alone, and it helps rob the customers of some of their seemingly infinite power to make your life miserable if they want to. But even if you're not in the industry, this particular post might get you to crack a smile, and if you recognize any of your own habits therein, might even help you to become a more conscientious grocery customer.

How to Shop at a Grocery Store in the USA [Eggbeater]

A recent thread on Chowhound identified San Francisco as the birthplace of fortune cookies. Not surprising, as those are one of those seem like one of the "ethnic" foods, like Irish coffee, cioppino, super burritos, chop suey and so on that claim this city as an origin.

Fortunately, the New York Times is on the case, with this hard-hitting, investigative piece from Wednesday. Turns out the fortune cookie did start showing up in the U.S. in San Francisco during WWII. It also seems to have originated in Japan, not China.

But plenty, and we do mean plenty of foods have their origins here in Baghdad by the Bay. Posters to the Chowhound thread mentioned classics like It's Its, the Hangtown Fry, the Mai Tai, Crab Rangoon and a bunch more. And somebody is saying the Martini was invented in Martinez. We could read for hours, if only it was that long.

Original San Francisco Dishes/Recipes [Chowhound]
Solving a Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery Inside a Cookie [New York Times]

In the run-up to Thanksgiving (and the end of the election), we'd like to take some of the spotlight away from turkey for a while and place it on another, more accessible, everyday fowl. It's all fine and good to trade gobbler recipes, but how often are you going to use them? If your answer is any more than once a year, we have to seriously question your honesty.

Meanwhile, we've all got to have dinner on Wednesday nights and Sunday afternoons and so on, and the time of year for oven-cooking is definitely upon us.

It was with great pleasure that we watched today's Amateur Gourmet TV bit on how to roast a chicken. As the weather cools and the fog turns to actual rain, there is nothing in the world more delicious than coming home to a house that smells of roast chicken (or pot-roast or pie, or just about any oven dish). This method is effective, simply explained and looks delicious.

If you want to place your roommate or significant other firmly under your control, just time one of these dishes to come out of the oven about 15 minutes after they get home from a rainy day of football or mountain biking or work or some such nonsense. As the inimitably welcoming and comforting scent envelopes them, they will become absolute putty, willing to take out the trash, do the laundry, scrub the bathtub, anything for a bite of that delicious-smelling dinner.

But if you want to use your power wisely, we'd recommend making them do the dishes. Roasting pans are nasty.

AGTV: How To Roast A Chicken

Bad news in today's Chronicle. Seems some research types did a big study on mercury levels in the San Francisco Bay and discovered that there is quite a bit of the toxic stuff. Of course, they still say you can eat the fish, but you have to limit your intake. But really, do you want to eat something that, if you had enough, would kill you? Yeah, we do, too.

The good news is that local Dungeness isn't on the list, we're guessing because that's mostly caught in the open ocean. Also, rainbow trout, which we tend to catch when we go fishing, are at the bottom of the list. We didn't even know they lived in the bay/estuary.
So you've been warned, people. Fish from the Bay may be poisonous. Now you know.

Exhaustive test reveals mercury levels in Bay Area fish sport fish [San Francisco Chronicle]
CBDA Fish Mercury Project [San Francisco Estuary Institute]

In our travels around the great, cluttered void of cyberspace, we discovered another simple, yet very bright information source. The Original Tipping Page includes lots of straightforward information on the subject of gratuities, including a calculator and legal codes, as well as discussion boards where the inexhaustible topic of tipping gets bandied about passionately.
It might seem too elementary to create a whole website about a cultural norm taken so much for granted, but think about it, when the subject comes up in conversation, does it ever go away quietly? What about when you're faced with a tipping conundrum (how much do you tip a charter pilot, for example)? There's nothing more paralyzing than not knowing how and how much to tip, and we thank OTP for helping clear it up.

Photocredit: Uruguay Dreaming

The simplest ideas are always the best. Some chowhound-savvy genius, namely one rworange, started a thread on that website for people to give updates on what's at scratch-and-dent heaven, aka Grocery Outlet. This is great, as everybody knows Groce-Out has the best deals on the planet, usually on a bunch of stuff you'd never want, but occasionally on items you could really stock up on.

The latest:

Challenge European style butter is back, unsalted, 1/2 lb for $1.49. Just in time for holiday baking.

More Terra chips, salt and vinegar, blues, and a new one, red, stripes and blues or something like that. $1.99

Liked the watermelon juice, a bit sweet but for 69cents, a good way to get in the sandia daily quotient.

Almond/cashew Roca, $4.99.

One product that didn't work out was the fresh lasagne sheets imported from Italy for $1.99. No expiration date and the lot number stamped on the plastic was illegible. They were all stuck together and tore when we tried to pull them apart. Cynsa got the brilliant idea of slipping them in some warm water to see if they'd loosen up, which helped somewhat. Between two packages, we salvaged enough to make a mushroom and zucchini lasagna, but it was a lot of work. However, we did like the taste and texture of the product.

October 2007- Grocery Outlet [Chowhound]

Over the weekend, Alice Waters made an appearance at the 22nd annual Farm Aid concert in New York. The event--headlined by the likes of Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John "This is ooooouuuuurrr country" Mellencamp and Dave Matthews--is the longest running annual concert event in the country.

Along with the big name rock acts, Waters spoke about the farm crisis looming over America:

We have an unimaginable food crisis, environmental crisis, a cultural crisis. We need to spend the money upfront and what the effects could be have yet to be realized.

For more information on Farm Aid, check out their official site. If all those, ahem, older rock stars can put on a show for 22 straight years, surely you can do something productive.

Farm Aid Concert Makes NYC Debut [WNYC]
Farm Aid [Official Site]

Now that summer is winding down, caprese salad time is almost over. Your chances to indulge in the goodness of tomatoes--heirloom and otherwise--are steadily dwindling, but when you make your next fresh mozzarella-juicy tomato-vibrant basil concoction, take care to just add olive oil and sea salt. Don't even think about think about drizzling a hint of vinegar over the goods, or else A16's Nate Appleman might come and get you:

"You could put me on record as saying that (vinegar) is the most nontraditional thing, and I see it all the time and I cringe," says Nate Appleman, chef of A16 in San Francisco.

Revisit the caprese [Rutland]
A16 [Official Site]

[Photo courtesy: What's Cooking America]

Perhaps more than any other season, the apex of summer is about finding the very best in seasonal ingredients, from basil to tomatoes to stone fruit to ... mussels?

Yes, we are in the heart of the peak harvest of the Northwest aquaculture farms, and they are pumping out some delicious mussels that the Chronicle's Olivia Wu describes as the "peaches of the ocean":

Large, succulent and pristine, without a trace of muddy-bottom flavor, they are superlative. A wonderful spring plays off your teeth when you bite down; there's no mush anywhere. Most important though, is the clean taste - there is not a trace of dirty guts in any mussel I've slurped from Washington state. You just get firm but tender muscle.

Washington mussels can be found at the following San Francisco dining establishments, among others: Kuleto's, Foreign Cinema and Anchor Oyster Bar.

Seafood by the Season: Northwest's mussel beach [SFGate]

[Photo courtesy: Whole Foods]

Here on the West Coast, sweet tea is a rare--and, some may say, impossible--commodity. And if you're like us, you really only have the foggiest notion as to what real sweet tea is and should be. Luckily, the nice folks at Slate have put together a nice lil' article expounding upon the wonder that is sweet tea:

Drinking sweet tea is one of the oldest and most exceptional Southern traditions. As Dolly Parton's character in Steel Magnolias puts it, it's the "house wine of the South"—a clear, orange-to-red tinted tea brewed from six or seven Lipton or Luzianne tea bags, poured hot onto a cup or more of sugar or a pool of simple syrup, and then diluted into a gallon pitcher in the fridge. It's served over a mound of ice in a huge glass—so cold that you can watch your napkin drown in a puddle of condensation.

Here in the Bay, your Southern sweet tea pickin's are generally slim (Memphis Minnie's BBQ and farmerbrown are two options), so you might be best served trying to make your own.

Southerners, weigh in. We need help!

I Wish I Lived in a Land of Lipton … [Slate]

[Image courtesy: Clemson]

Ok, when it comes to CHOW's "Obsessives" series, we're officially, um, obsessed.

The third episode (above) takes a trip up the coast to Philo, home to seaweed harvesters/experts John and Barbara Stephens-Lewallen. The happy married couple runs the Mendocino Sea Vegetable Company and are more than willing to preach the wonders of sea greens. In the multi-part video, the pair describes the four types of sea vegetables they farm (fish?), explains how to cook and dry them, and notes the coastal differences between seaweed species. As a bonus, Millennium's Eric Tucker even makes a cameo appearance to demonstrate how to make a quick little seaweed-centric salad.

Eat Your Sea Greens: Enter the world of seaweed harvesters [CHOW]
Mendocino Sea Vegetable Company [Official Site]
Millennium [MenuPages]
Millennium [Official Site]

No, not Grant Achatz or Wylie Dufresne.

No, not Pierre Gagnaire.

No, not even El Bulli's Ferran Adrià.

As Wired (yes, Wired) points out, it's renowned chemist Hervé This.

Back in 1980, This (pronounced "Tees") started fiddling with "cooking precisions"--rules he found from sources ranging from 19th-century cookbooks to old wives' tales to modern chefs' tricks. In short, he basically wanted to see which precisions were true and which were not. It became a hobby for This and his friend, the late Oxford physicist Nicholas Kurti. Soon enough, the term "molecular gastronomy" was coined. Over the past two and a half decades, This has continued to expand his knowledge base, gaining both followers and a wealth of "precisions":

In 2001, This came up with a formal system of classification for what happens when foods are mixed, baked, whipped, fried, sautéed in lime juice, and so forth. It shows, for example, how the 451 classical French sauces break down into 23 distinct types. More important, the system allows the creation and pairing of billions of novel, potentially tasty dishes. To demonstrate how, This randomly generated a formula describing the physical microstructure of a previously nonexistent dish, then asked chef Pierre Gagnaire to plug real ingredients into it. The result — a bitter orange, scallop, and smoked-tea concoction — delighted Gagnaire's customers.

The Father of Molecular Gastronomy Whips Up a New Formula [Wired]

[Photo of a "margarita" in a snow cube with salted foam courtesy: elBulli.info]

This is Gary Vaynerchuk. He has been making "wine webisodes" at Wine Library TV for over a year now.

Though the Jersey native has a little bit of Guy Fieri in him, from the jock overtones right down to the single wristband, a more suitable comparison might be Emeril. Like the Food Network pioneer, Gary brings that palatable excitement and hyperbole as well, not mention an abrasive, possibly polarizing style.

Despite what you may think of his shock jock tendencies, there's no denying that he knows his stuff. His intricate and original descriptions of the wines' aromatics and bouquets are downright fascinating, and he's definitely going into uncharted territory by trying to make wine more accessible to the masses. With the recent commercialization and growing popularity of gourmet food in the media world, there must be a market for wine as well. Will his success spur the Food Network--or another network--to embark on a wine-centric show that appeals to the common man?

In the meantime, if you fancy yourself a wine person (or an aspiring one) we'd recommend checking out his site regularly. You are sure to learn something. If nothing else, his love for wine might rub off on you, or maybe after a couple minutes, you'll start a petition asking Gary to switch to decaf. Either way.

90 Point Wines Under 15 Bones - Episode #286 [Wine Library TV]

If you have a hard time differentiating the candied coxcombs from the fish maw, perhaps you should consult Chef Cosentino's menu to assist in your offal-identifying endeavors:

• Amuse bouche of duck fat fried rabbit ear with carrot aioli and chervil
plouche
• Salad of crispy sweetbreads & warm beef tendon with chilli & mint
• Terrina of lamb tongue & fries (testicles) with lamb’s tongue lettuce &
pickled grapes
• Fish maw with chickpeas & agretti
• Pork tripe, beans & blood cooked in vescica (bladder) with creamy polenta
• Candied cockscomb with cherries & rice pudding

Blood, Sweat, & Tripe [Hungry Magazine]
Incanto [MenuPages]
Incanto [Official Site]

In one of the more entertaining news items of the week, Aquafina announced that its labels will clearly state that their bottled product is really just tap water. According to the AP report, a group called Corporate Accountability International is in the midst of a water crusade of sorts, intent on getting bottled water companies to stop misleading the public when it comes to water sources. With Aquafina's newfound admission, it seems they've slayed their biggest adversary; Aquafina (owned by PepsiCo) is the most prominent bottled water brand in the country. Up next: Dasani:

The corporate accountability group is also pressing for similar concessions from The Coca-Cola Co, which owns the Dasani water brand.

Dasani's Web site says that Dasani comes from local water supplies and is then filtered.

"We don't believe that consumers are confused about the source of Dasani water," Coca-Cola spokeswoman Diana Garza Ciarlante said. "The label clearly states that it is purified water."

Regardless of what happens to Dasani, the Aquafina label bombshell will surely make consumers think twice about shelling out $2 for a bottle of water that could just as easily come from the sink. Will this affect your bottled-water-buying ways?

Aquafina Labels: It's Tap Water [Forbes]

In any case, Nigerian food, unlike its Eastern African counterparts, remains a rare commodity in the restaurant world, but Berkeley can now boast to have a rare representative. Luckily, Patricia Unterman's review of the just-opened Lagosia sheds a lot of light--for us at least--on the wonders and idiosyncracies of Nigerian cuisine:

[A dining companion] professionally pulled off a wad of gluey iyan (pounded white yam), rolled it into a ball, flattened it with her fingers and used it as a scoop for efo, a spinach and goat stew. I dropped my knife and fork and did the same thing.

This single change in the delivery system expanded the flavor, texture and tactile pleasure of eating the saucy, gently spicy dishes at Lagosia, a handsome new West African restaurant in Berkeley.

As for the actual dishes, here's what stood out:
• Scotch eggs ($4): "hard-boiled eggs encased in ground sausage, deep fried, cut into wedges and served with a sweet mayonnaise and mustard sauce"
• Suya ($6.95): "West African chicken kebabs in a spicy, ground peanut crust"
• Efo ($12.95): "... reminded me of an Indian spinach curry but with tender, mild, long-cooked goat"
• Jollof rice ($12.95): "A plate of aromatic, buttery red rice ... topped with spice-rubbed barbecued chicken with luscious fire-blackened skin"

Lagosia a nice intro to Nigerian cuisine [Examiner]
Nigerian Cuisine [Wikipedia]
Lagosia [Official Site]

A new study has revealed several juicy (no pun intended) tidbits about soda and you, and it turns out that there is evidence that suggests soda can be unhealthy. Though some soda-supporters are making a sensical argument that the scientific study merely prompts the question "is it the soda or the soda drinker?" (i.e., soda consumption is just one of many bad habits of unhealthy people), the wide ranging research project that studied about 3,500 men and women revealed the following tidbits, among others:

• "Frequent diet soda drinkers might save calories, but they face the same higher risk of heart disease and diabetes as people who drink sugary soft drinks every day"

• "[The study] found an association between daily soft drink consumption and an increased risk of developing metabolic syndrome ... people with metabolic syndrome have a combination of risk factors for diabetes and heart disease, such as high blood pressure and elevated triglycerides."

• "'In this group of middle-aged adults, consumption of just one or more soft drinks per day seemed to increase the risk of developing metabolic syndrome by about 50 percent,' whether the drink was artificially sweetened or not, [senior author of the Framingham Heart Study Doctor] Vasan said."

• "When compared to those who drank fewer than one soft drink daily, participants who drank one or more a day had about a 30 percent greater risk of developing new-onset diabetes, being overweight and having low levels of good cholesterol."

We guess it's true what they say about soda: you do it just for the taste of it. At least we now know why polar bears are well on their way to extinction. Feel free to add your own bad jokes in the comments section.

Diet Soda No Safer [SFGate]

You get this excellent video.

The commentary could use a bit of improvement (like when he says nothing but "...awesome!" after trying one pork bun) and the audio is a little low, but overall, we approve and look forward to future episodes of Dishola videos.

Restaurants/bakeries mentioned include Kay Cheung, Golden Gate Bakery, Eastern Bakery and Dishola's favorite, Mon Kiang.

Best BBQ Pork Bun in Chinatown [YouTube]
Dishola [Official Site]

As for Cafe Majestic, here's what Signore Bauer had to say:

One of [25-year-old chef Ian] Begg's strengths is the way he is able to come up with new ways to present popular items, such as foie gras. He sears the liver and places it on brioche over shavings of caramelized Brussels sprouts, which have the same earthy effect as truffles. He finishes the dish with a golden raisin sauce and splashes of vivid parsley oil.

When the waiter realized how much we liked the dish, he brought out one of the chef's experiments: foie gras ice cream with a small glass of sweet dessert wine. The glistening scoop looked like vanilla and had a similar creamy sweetness; the taste of foie gras hit at the end, the sensation cleared by a sip of wine.

It was an example of how servers go out of their way to enhance the experience. They're unobtrusive, but always there when you need them.

It's high time to discover the redone Cafe Majestic [SFGate]
Cafe Majestic [MenuPages]
Cafe Majestic [Official Site]

[Photo courtesy: SF Survey]

Dear MenuPages,

Sincerely,
Confitused

Continue reading "Ask MenuPages: What Is Confit?" »

San Francisco's annual AIDS Walk will take place this Sunday, July 15. It's clearly a fantastic cause, and there aren't many acceptable excuses for not contributing in some way.

If, for some reason (good or bad), you decide not to take a walk for AIDS on Sunday, there are plenty of other ways to make a difference. Among other things, you can make a donation, be a corporate sponsor or volunteer at the walk.

This year, you can even contribute by going out to dinner. On Thursday, July 10, Pasta Pomodoro (Irving location) and UCSF are teaming up to raise money (and awareness) for the AIDS Walk. Upon entering, present this flyer to your server and Pasta P will then send 10% of your bill to AIDS Walk San Francisco. Bring your friends and family.

If you know of any similar AIDS Walk promotions, please don't hesitate to share them here, either via email or in the comments field below.

AIDS Walk San Francisco [Official Site]
Eat at Pasta Pomodoro, Donate to AIDS Walk San Francisco [UCSF News]
Pasta Pomodoro [MenuPages]
Pasta Pomodoro [Official Site]

This morning, we took a look at the iPhone commercial that depicts said electronic appliance directing its calamari-craving user to a San Francisco restaurant that doesn't actually serve calamari.

Well, things done changed, and it's a bit creepy how much influence the iPhone already has.

Due to the overwhelming demand for calamari created by the ad, Pacific Catch has found a place for calamari on its permanent menu:

Turns out, Cox says, that calamari was only an occasional special at the Corte Madera branch (133 Town Center). When the calls -- up to 100 a day -- started coming in, executive chef Aaron Noveshen quickly put it on the menu. Now, spicy fried calamari is a hot item at the Marin and San Francisco (2027 Chestnut St.) locations.

Earlier: See, The iPhone Isn't That Smart [MenuBlog]
Pacific Catch [MenuPages]
Pacific Catch [Official Site]

In this day and age, restaurants are just popping up anywhere and everywhere.

In Redwood City, the first stand-alone restaurant from Safeway has opened its (non-sliding) doors to the public. Here's what the Chronicle has to say about Citrine:

Diners order at the counter from a color-coded grid menu, with dishes listed under the headings of five cuisine styles: Pacific Rim, Mediterranean, Latin and Caribbean, American and "New World." The kitchen uses Safeway's ingredients, such as O Organics and Rancher's Reserve, and the food is cooked to order in a large open kitchen.

Entree choices range from a slow-roasted Caribbean pork platter to cioppino, a red wine-marinated flank steak with fig balsamic chutney, and a grilled salmon flatbread. Salads include an Asian chicken salad, iceberg wedge, and date blue-cheese on spring greens. Interestingly enough, there's nary a hamburger in sight.

Even more exciting are the plans for the new cafeteria at Golden Gate Park's California Academy of Sciences. The project will be headed by two of the city's best restaurateurs: Charles Phan of The Slanted Door and Loretta Keller of Coco500. The high-profile pair will bring "sustainable produce and ecological practices" to the museum's new eat stations, which will include a 200-seat cafe and a smaller full-service restaurant. The opening date is slated for October 2008.

Opening: Safeway's first restaurant [SFGate]
Top S.F. chefs to feed museumgoers [SFGate]

In the old space of Juni and Osaka Grill comes Sudachi, a stylish Japanese eatery with a variety of sushi and tapas on the menu. In addition to the usual a la carte list of sushi/sashimi options and some recognizable specialty rolls (spicy tuna, California, "spyder"), Chef-owner Ming Hwang (previously of Tokyo Go Go and Shiso) has also tacked some unique rolls and tapas onto the menu. Take, for example, the punnily-named "High-Roller": fried sweet potato, grilled scallions, avocado topped with Kobe beef (!), momiji oroshi, yuzu ponzu (cute) and garlic chips. Provoking even more interest may be the non-sushi items, like the Buddha's Pouches (duck confit with a host of accoutrements) and seared hokkaido scallops. Plus, they've even got a dressed-up version of our Hawaiian favorite, poke.

In addition to the sushi and tapas, Sudachi plans to evolve into a full-scale nightlife center, with live music and everything. As of now, they've got a late-night menu and happy hour specials. More to come soon, we're sure.

Sidenote: According to Wikipedia, sudachi (pictured) is "a small, round, green citrus fruit that is relatively unknown to the world except in Japan, where it is used alongside another citrus fruit, the yuzu and the kabosu." Now you know.

Sudachi [MenuPages]
Sudachi [Official Site]

While other cities (ahem, New York, London, Boston) have been making a stink over the lack of respect--not to mention jobs--given to female chefs, our fair city puts them on a pedestal:

I do, however, remember the quail salad on a late spring evening in Bizou. The Hama Hama oysters at the bar in Boulevard. The simple, subtle, rich flavors of my first meal at Chez Panisse. It has not escaped me that of all the terrific meals I've eaten in and around San Francisco, for some reason the dishes I can still taste, were served in restaurants with women chefs: Loretta Keller at Bizou, Nancy Oakes at Boulevard and Alice Waters at Chez Panisse.

I've long wondered if the reason was that, at the highest level, women cooked differently from men. And whether I -- a man of a certain age with a diminished sense of smell, a less than discerning palate and a galloping appetite -- could really taste the difference on the plate.

Of course, I've also eaten delicious meals cooked by men. But those three were memorable.

What is it about the cooking of WOMEN CHEFS that makes it more memorable, more comforting than that of men? [SFGate]

[Photo of Loretta Keller courtesy: Seasonal Chef]

The June issue of Vanity Fair features a fascinating article about the journey that tuna meat undergoes, from the fishing boat to the sushi chef. It's an absolute must-read for anyone remotely interested in fish, fish markets, sushi, Japanese culture and/or merely food in general. Here are some select tidbits:

• On the history of bluefin tuna, currently one of the world's most prized fishes: "Until the summer of 1972, bluefin tuna was basically worthless to American fishermen. Nobody ever ate it, and its sole commercial use was as an ingredient in canned cat food. The only tuna that people ate, the white stuff, also in cans, was processed from smaller, albacore tuna, and even that probably would not have gotten into the American diet if a California cannery hadn't run out of sardines and begun selling it in 1903."

• On the early morning auction at the Tsukiji fish market (pictured): "Tuna is the main event at Tsukiji, but everything from the sea—fresh fish, live fish, shrimp—is auctioned and sold here. At five in the morning, preceding the tuna auction, in another hall, there's the sea-urchin-roe auction. The most prized uni come from Hokkaido and its islands, and it's said that if you want to taste the best, freshest uni you must go there and eat it straight from the sea."

• On just how much the two million kilograms of seafood handled per day by the Tsukiji fish market really is: "Two million kilos is about four and a half million pounds, more than 2,000 tons. The Fulton Fish Market, in New York City, the second-largest fish market in the world, moves only 115 tons a year, an average of less than half a ton each working day."

The article goes to expound the history, evolution and Western rise of sushi, as the author tours the sublime marketplace (seeing all types of sea bounty, among them "sea pineapples" and whale meat), witnesses the auctioning of bluefin ("The tuna weighed 200 kilos. At ¥100,000 per kilo, the possessed bidder had paid ¥20 million—the equivalent of more than $170,000—for a fish whose parceled meat could never recoup that amount") and contemplates the problematic future of fishing.

Just read it, ok? It is the ultimate sushi experience.

If You Knew Sushi [Vanity Fair]

[Photo courtesy: Wikitravel]

Sometimes, you have cravings. We know this. Hence: Scanning the Menu, a new feature where the MenuPages Blog (and our trusty Find-A-Food search) will do all the leg work for you. Every week or so, we'll highlight a particular crave-worthy dish and illuminate restaurants around the city where you can indulge in it. Suggestions always welcome. This week: black and white cookies.

"The thing about eating the Black and White cookie, Elaine, is you want to get some black and some white in each bite. Nothing mixes better than vanilla and chocolate And yet somehow racial harmony eludes us. If people would only look to the cookie all our problems would be solved." --Seinfeld

As you are probably unaware, today just happens to be Loving Day. Just forty years ago today, the Supreme Court decision in the Loving v. Virginia case made interracial relationships legal. Putting aside the sheer ridiculousness that interracial relationships could possibly be illegal a mere four decades ago, nothing says civil utopia quite like a black and white cookie.

Unfortunately, the East Coast dessert deities are a bit hard to find here in San Francisco, which means that plenty of folks have never tasted the moist, cake-like pastry and the perfect marriage of rich chocolate and slightly-citrusy vanilla that coat it. But have no fear, there are places around the Bay to find adequate versions of the Manhattan classic. Check them out, post-jump.

Continue reading "Scanning The Menu: Black And White Cookies" »

Did you know that the 31 million gallons of Kikkoman soy sauce consumed in America are made in Wisconsin and Folsom, California?

The rise of soy sauce into the kitchens of the United States is a direct result of Kikkoman branching out to America well before other big name Japanese companies (like Toyota or Sony) crossed the Pacific. Plus, with the recent culinary focus on health and well-being, soy sauce (along with Japanese cuisine in general) has replaced heavier alternatives like butter, oil and cream. Even two of San Francisco's finest non-Japanese restaurants, Piperade and Myth, use soy sauce commonly:

European chefs now incorporate soy sauce into their dishes. Basque chef Gerald Hirigoyen of Piperade turns to organic soy sauce for his octopus salad.

Gerald Hirigoyen, Piperade Owner and Executive Chef: "Soy sauce is a great element of cooking, and I love to use it in my vinaigrettes, in the marinades, I think, to kick and to bring all the flavors out."

It's common for soy sauce to accompany salmon, and even pig belly. Myth restaurant's Sean O'Brien says it helps to keep his cuisine light.

Sean O'Brien, Myth Restaurant: "It helps to almost give you those same components as you would get from butter and cream but in a lighter, leaner version."

Kikkoman Soy Sauce Celebrates 50th Anniversary [abc7news]

Officer Josh Douglas said he was working nights two years ago and went through the McDonald's drive-thru in Charles City. He ordered a chicken sandwich, which came with lettuce and tomato.

Not liking vegetables, Douglas said he went to remove the toppings and discovered what he described as a mucousy substance holding them together.

"Fortunately, I don't like lettuce. Because if I did I would have at least taken one bite before I realized what was the matter," he said.

Douglas and another officer went inside the restaurant, where they found two teenagers working. The employees said they were imitating a prank in a movie in which a state trooper orders a burger and the cook spits phlegm on it.

For Ronald's bastion of beef, this is just the latest in a rough week that already included a french fry class action suit, a franchise demolition led by a 92-year-old person, anti-McNugget rebels in Berlin, and an armed robbery.

Police officer sues McDonald's over spit in his sandwich [CourtTV]

Growing up, we were always fascinated by the glass bottles of Coca-Cola in the myriad Mexican grocery stores sprinked throughout the Bay Area. At the time, it seemed to be an infatuation with the aesthetic of the glass bottle, a nostalgic reminder of the halcyon pre-soda wars days.

Now, we know better; it was really just the cane sugar. The use of cane sugar versus high-frutcose corn syrup (which American Classic Coke uses) as a sweetner is a common topic of conversation around Passover time, but a recent debate in the Chronicle newsroom evolved into a taste test pitting Mexico against America:

We convened an all-star Food and Wine staff panel to taste MexiCoke blind against U.S. Coca-Cola Classic. We bought glass bottles of both and sipped them out of wineglasses.

All agreed that they taste very different, but we didn't settle on a favorite.

Executive Food & Wine Editor Michael Bauer lined up with Jon for the U.S. Coke; he liked its "cleaner finish" and lower sweetness level. Food Editor Miriam Morgan was conmigo on MexiCoke, saying, "It has a fuller flavor." I also liked Mexican Coke's finer mousse of bubbles and straightforward sugar flavor.

Taste Test / Classic Coke vs. Mexican Coke [SFGate]

Finally, we can eat; we can celebrate. But the cheers and consumption, experts say, will be short-lived. That's because the area will be closed for the entire month of June, the most abundant month for local salmon, in an attempt to preserve enough fish to restock the Klamath River spawning grounds.

That means local salmon will be plentiful this month, but next month supplies will shrink. Prices this season are hard to predict, but at press time locally caught salmon was retailing for as high as $26.50 per pound, compared to $14.99 for Washington salmon and $11.99 for salmon from Alaska.

Huitlacoche means "raven's excrement" in Aztec, but it's not actually dung. It's just fungus. Corn fungus, to be exact.

A delicacy and common flavoring ingredient in many traditional Mexican dishes, huitlacoche grows naturally on the ears of corn. It is often used in dishes like quesadillas and tamales to impart a smokey, earthy flavor. In 1989, the James Beard foundation even held a huitlacoche upscale dinner, though they renamed it as a "Mexican truffle."

According to Wikipedia, huitlacoche (aka "corn smut" ... yummy!) develops when a pathogenic plant fungus "enters the ovaries and replaces the normal kernels of the cobs with large distorted tumors analogous to mushrooms. These tumors, or 'galls', are made up of much-enlarged cells of the infected plant, fungal threads, and blue-black spores. The spores give the cob a burned, scorched appearance."

You can find huitlacoche in canned form in most Mexican groceries if you look hard enough. As for restaurants, Zazil serves pollo con huitlacoche and Tres Agaves offers chile relleno con huitlacoche en salsa jitomate.

So now you know the following tidbits: Huitlacoche is corn fungus. You can find it easily if you know where to look. And corn has ovaries.

Feel free to impress your friends.

Zazil [MenuPages]
Tres Agaves [MenuPages]
Corn smut [Wikipedia]

The origin of cioppino is the subject of some debate. A San Francisco legend states that the fish stew resulted from newly-arrived Italian fishermen at the Wharf. Supposedly, boisterous cooks at seaside eateries consistently asked the local salts to "chip in!" and toss random seafood into the big pot of bubbling mixture of fresh tomatoes and red wine.

On the other hand, Wikipedia says that ciuppin is the colloquial term for a Ligurian fish stew. With the proliferation of northern Italian immigrants in early San Francisco, we think it's possible that the true origin of cioppino could be an amalgamation of the two stories.

With the help of our little Find-A-Food buddy, we scan the menus for cioppino, post-jump.

Continue reading "Scanning The Menu: Cioppino" »

Five fascinating tidbits about tuna, including the different species and more, after the jump.

Continue reading "The Thing You Learned Today: Tuna" »

We digress.

Eight traditional grand Chinese cuis