25823 Mon Sep 22 12:36:49 -0700 2003 8 1 San Francisco Bay Area 0 103897 It was a good food weekend for us ... Brunch on Saturday morning at Le Petit Robert. Great place for people watching. Great brunch. I had a fritatta -- can't remember what was in it! But it was great. Jason had greek yogurt with granola and fruit. Really good -- basically the same as the greek yogurt dessert that they sell at Chez Nous. I think that the brunch was around $30. Decent price, except for the outrageously priced side of potatoes for $6.50! Saturday night was a mish mash of food from the Ferry Building shops (I missed the market ... but ran to Acme and Cowgirl later). Bought Hobbs prosciutto from Golden Gate Meat Company. Wasn't my favorite. Rather stringy and gristly -- Molinari's is much better. Double Gloucester cheese from Cowgirl ... a loaf of ciabatta. Lemon cucumber and purple cherokee tomato from Capay Organics. A divine hot weather meal. Sunday found us in Mountain View for a couple of errands. On the way back to the city, we hit El Grullense on Middlefield for Al Pastor tacos. They were exceptional. I don't know if tacos al pastor "my way" is authentic or not, but these were made the way I like them. The pork was full of flavor, but pretty dry. No goopy barbecue sauce. Just a very good salsa. Whopping $1 each. Sunday night was the real scorcher. After glasses of wine sitting outside at Cafe Roma, we decided to go to L'Osteria del Forno. It was close by, and there was no wait. Those of you who have been to this restaurant are probably laughing out loud right now -- this is a very good place (we had not been there before) but going to a restaurant that only uses ovens and is about the size of my studio apartment is not really the best choice on one of the hottest nights of the year. We had a speck appetizer of prosciutto, white beans, arugula, and parmesan with oil and lemon. The flavors all went together wonderfully. The beans were toothsome and perfectly cooked. The pizza we ordered was great -- no tomato sauce, just mozarella, ricotta, and porcini mushrooms. Despite the heat in the restaurant, we had a fantastic meal. Oh yah -- stopped by Mitchell's as well. We almost left when I pulled number 51 ... they were serving number 11! But the scene, everyone hanging out, and all of the children trying to eat their ice cream before it melted into a puddle entertained us to no end ... and about 1/2 an hour later, we had our ice cream. So what did everyone else have this weekend? Any old favorites? New finds? The perfect place to eat in the sweltering heat? Mon Sep 22 12:36:49 -0700 2003 0 jen maiser 1 103900 I tried the Glen Park branch of La Corneta for the first time. Food was identical to the Mission outlet: great pollo en salsa verde and pollo asado, good rice and beans (a whiter, creamier variety than pinto). It's much smaller, stuffy and crowded, so we ate para llegar. I tried to eat dinner at Panchita's #3 but they were "closed for inventory." I think the sign said they'd reopen today. The highlight of the weekend was seeing Shakespeare's Loves Labor's Lost in Golden Gate Park. Had a picnic of cheese, fruit, hummus, various breads, leftover tapas, and wine (I KNEW I should have bought more bottles of Navarro's Rose when I had the chance, man is that a good wine). It's a fantastic way to enjoy a summer day in SF. I think this was the last weekend in SF, but they'll be at Lake Merritt for the next few weekends. -Nick Mon Sep 22 13:00:58 -0700 2003 103897 0 nja 2 103901 Oh, and by the way, I was in fact laughing out loud as soon as I read "L'Osteria del Forno." That's one of the LAST places I would choose to eat in this weather. Their pizza is one of my favorites in the bay area. Good, plentiful cheese and thin, crispy crust. Mon Sep 22 13:04:08 -0700 2003 103900 0 nja 1 103905 I was at Mitchell's, too, Jen! We got there around 9:00 and pulled #67 - they were serving #24! But it was better hanging out outside than staying in the hot house. I wonder if we overlapped... Mon Sep 22 13:34:03 -0700 2003 103897 0 Alexandra 1 103907 Too hot to cook. Almost too hot to eat. Had the ginger ice cream and the flavor of the month: lemon chiffon at Joe's Ice Cream on Geary, across from the Alexandria movie theater. Ate the most wonderful warm honeyed Loukoumades the SF Greek Food Festival at 245 Valencia at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral. Watched the Greek dancing and had twitching feet, opah. Drank retsina and ouzo. Ate grilled lamb chops, souvlakia, gyro, Greek salata, fat dolmathes, tiropita, rizogallo and galatobouriko. Better offerings than anything we have tasted at local restaurants. Happy time. Lots of smiles on everyone, young and old! This is a thriving community and we thank them for sharing their generous spirit. Mon Sep 22 13:44:52 -0700 2003 103897 0 Cynthia 2 103911 From the refrigerator: cold fried chicken. That's really tasty on a hot night. with a cold beer. Mon Sep 22 14:06:34 -0700 2003 103907 0 Cynthia 1 103915 Saturday night I spent the evening with some friends in Fremont, and we mostly ate ice cream. But driving home around 2 am I realized I was hungry for something more substantial. So I swung by a couple of taco trucks. El Novillo was nowhere to be found; more interestingly, El Gordo was mobbed -- there was nowhere to park, at least ten people in line to order and at least another 25 milling around. With its festive neon sign and brightly lit glass front, it had almost a nightclub atmosphere. Although it was obviously the happening place in Oakland at 2 am on a Saturday night, I decided not to join the throng. I went home and cooked up a quick pot of not-entirely-successful red pepper linguini carbonara. Yesterday it was too hot to go out of the house (my front door faces south -- everytime I opened it I was hit with a blast of hot air). I survived on TJ's lime popsicles. Mon Sep 22 14:48:37 -0700 2003 103897 0 Ruth Lafler 1 103932 I found myself in East Palo Alto on Saturday watching my 11 year old play a football game from 11:00 to 1:00. It was HOT! However, we made the best of it by having lunch at Uncle Frank's Cafe, the barbeque joint on Pulgas. I had driven past that place many times and never stopped, but we were just around the corner, so we stopped in. It was warm inside, but we decided to eat there since we were too hungry to drive home to Oakland smelling barbeque all the way. My son had a pork rib dinner which came with potato salad and cole slaw. I had shrimp and fries. I tried a bite of each salad, but my son liked them so much that I was cut off. The ribs were very tender, very meaty, and the mild sauce was good. Nice smoky taste. The shrimp had just a dusting of cornmeal, not bad, but I'll try the catfish next time. The lady working there brought us out a big bowl of collard greens that she said were cooked for 2 days. They were great. Tender and a bit spicy. I usually put pepper vinegar on my greens, but these didn't need it. The ketchup and tartar sauce came in little packets like at a fast food place which would have been OK for take-out, but strange for eat-in. We brought enough home for the other kids to taste for lunch the next day. Everyone is excited about finding a new joint, so I promised I'd find an excuse to be in Palo Alto for work and pick up some dinner on the way home. They were out of paper take-out menus, but the lady gave me a business card and said she would just talk me through my order if I called in. Frank himself checked on us to make sure everything was OK. I can't wait to go back. The rest of the weekend we grilled and ate outside. Since I only had the one kid on Saturday night I fixed his favorite dinner: grilled swordfish and an iceberg wedge salad and lots of sliced tomatoes from the farmers market. Sunday night, the other 2 returned from camping so we had steaks and salad and grilled potatoes. Mon Sep 22 17:34:06 -0700 2003 103897 0 Pat Darnell 1 104104 Saturday morning I headed to the farmers market in Alemany, hadn’t been there for years and years, and just loved the scene! I picked up provisions for a picnic –- sweet and juicy thin-skinned seedless perlette grapes with the fully ripe yellow tones (not green like in the supermarket), fresh dates on the vine, heirloom tomatoes, blood oranges (an overlooked case was discovered in cold storage), fresh figs, Cuneo focaccia, and mussels from Pt. Reyes Oyster (manila clams had sold out earlier). Next stop was the potluck picnic in San Mateo’s Central Park, a reunion with former work colleagues. I had volunteered to cook for those who’d flown in from out of state and they appreciated the special tastes from my farmers market loot. Borrowing a trick from the previous weekend’s picnic at Hog Island, I brought along my wok to roast the mussels on top of the grill, then drizzled them with garlic butter (Plugra rocks!). I also grilled chipolata and merguez sausages that were great with the bottle of 1993 Ridge “Pagani Ranch” Zinfandel. Not wanting the party to end, some of us headed to Portofino Grill in Foster City (http://www.portofinogrill.net/) for dinner afterwards. It’s a couple doors down from Mr. Fong’s and is on the water with the same view. Not my first choice, and I wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of quasi-Italian food, but turned out to be pleasantly surprised by the experience. Before we had dinner though, my chow-lurker friend Angie and I motored on the keys in a boat just like the one shown below. A gentleman who lives across the canal was dropping his wife off at this boat dock to buy groceries and, with her permission, we asked him for a ride. It was fabulous to be boating on a warm and clear evening. I was surprised at how warm the water was when I dragged my hand in it. Anyway, back to the restaurant, a jazz ensemble plays in the lounge on weekends with a girl singer even. We couldn’t score a waterfront table outside, but our party of 11 was fine indoors in air-conditioned comfort. The breads were served with foil-wrapped butter, but what saved the day was the accompanying sun-dried tomato pesto. A cliché perhaps, yet a nice spread for the chewy ciabatta. We started with a couple orders of fried panko-dusted calamari for the table. Served with the tentacles (we retrieved the uneaten ones from the other end of the table for our side) and done to perfection, the squid was accompanied by tartar sauce and cocktail sauce. Neither sauce was particularly special – a squeeze of lemon was all this needed. We enjoyed a couple bottles of 2000 Ferrari-Carano Sonoma County Chardonnay ($42) with this. My main course was gnocchi with Bolognese sauce ($11). Our server said that the potato gnocchi were housemade and recommended it. We had requested a taste of the sauce before ordering, and liked it enough to choose this dish and an order of radiatore. Pillowy soft potato dumplings, not gummy or chewy like the pre-fabbed ones, that actually tasted like potatoes and were just a little bit sweet from natural sugars. The sauce was home-style with moist and flavorful clumps of ground beef, not dried out or sandy-textured. While not made from San Marzanos, the sauce was fresh tasting and well-seasoned. My order of gnocchi had the right amount of grated cheese on it, but the radiatore was buried in a blizzard of cheese and chopped parsley. I also had a taste of the Cajun sand dabs ($14). Filets were nicely seasoned and blackened. I loved how the crispy skin and curled edges contrasted with the delicate and sweet flesh. The dabs were sauced with a creamy lemon sauce that all of us agreed was out of place. With our entrees we started with the 1997 Ruffino “Gold Label” Ducale Chianti Classico Riserva ($55) which was excellent. Silky tannins and juicy acidity supported sour cherry fruit and a leathery complexity carrying very long and deep on the palate. A lively medium-bodied red was the ticket for a warm summer evening. This was, unfortunately, the last bottle in the cellar. Then we moved to the 1998 Robert Mondavi Stags Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon ($85/$55), which is just about my favorite of the CalCabs in this difficult year. A little horsey from brett, the nose and palate are concentrated with gnarly cassis fruit, chocolatey notes and licorice. The velvety tannins are sweet and fan out to a powerful finish. The service here is worth a special mention. The bartender greeted us warmly and stopped by later to see how we were doing. Our young waitress, Amber, was friendly and casual but a pro through and through. She did a great job of pacing with our group’s rowdiness but still getting us started on ordering cocktails, then apps, and moving us along on this busy Saturday night. The wine list doesn’t list vintages for all selections, and she didn’t balk at checking the specific years for the various wines I requested. When I ordered the Ruffino, she first said that it was sold out which was a big disappointment to me. Later she came back and said that the bartender had looked again for a bottle and managed to find one. When we asked for second bottle and none was to be had, she recommended the 98 Mondavi (which I’d tasted and liked before) and offered it at the same price as the Chianti, a $30 discount. She didn’t blink when we asked for a sample of the Bolognese sauce before ordering. Her bussers refilled our water glasses many times. All in all, Portofino Grill was much better than I expected to find and good for the price. The food was tasty and competently prepared, although some dishes had too much cream and cheese. The wine list is nearly all large California producers and mostly Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon with few food friendly selections, and I’d probably bring my own if I return. With the warm service here, as my friends in Foster City can attest, this is a good place to be a neighborhood regular to enjoy the music in the lounge, the waterfront outdoor dining, and to grab a night cap. Sunday I stayed in all day, covered in ice packs alternating between siestas and reading, and eating chilled fruits and chugging cold drinks. In the afternoon I heard an explosion outside, then the eerie quiet inside that means that all your electrical appliances have lost current. Apparently a transformer had blown, and a fire truck was soon on the scene, followed by a couple PG&E trucks. When power hadn’t been restored by nightfall, I inquired and learned that it wouldn’t be back on until after 11pm. I decided it would be best to leave the refrigerator door closed and go out. Time to hit the streets on foot. I headed to a distant ATM, still powered, to get some cash. Then I strolled homeward down Polk St. spotting the remains of the street fair (who could go out in that heat?) and poking my head into various restaurants to see how cool they were inside. Some had closed due to the black-out, and the remaining ones were too hot and too crowded. I ended up at Golden Turtle on Van Ness. While not that cool indoors, the tranquility of the place was appealing and I had a nice dinner here. On the way home, I was happy to spot the lamp I’d left switched on shining through the window ahead of schedule. Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/24173#93819 Image: http://www.portofinogrill.net/images/boatdock2.jpg Thu Sep 25 04:55:21 -0700 2003 103897 0 Melanie Wong