Food – Page 9 – A Wandering Feast

Why I love San Francisco’s Ferry Building

Market and Mission, two of San Francisco’s most famous streets, lead to the same jewel at the head of the Embarcadero – the Ferry Building. This beautiful structure, built over a hundred years ago, looks out onto a breathtaking expanse of bright blue sparkling water. Ferry service continues to run North through the San Francisco Bay to Tiburon, Sausalito, Angel Island and Vallejo, as well as East, to Oakland and Alameda. Fortunately, public transport is not all this magical building has to offer. It is also an epicenter of gourmet food.

Purveyors of everything ranging from organic coffee to farm fresh fungi line the aisles of its spacious interior, attracting a good mix of faithful locals and inspired tourists. Tiny store fronts serving decadent gelato and delectable chocolate peek out from between larger shops selling cookware and recipe books. The Ferry Building’s flagship restaurant, the Slanted Door (one of my all-time favourites), caters to a higher-end crowd seeking haute Vietnamese cuisine and luscious cocktails. Taylor’s Automatic Refresher, the other gem of the building, is a San Francisco institution, serving up gourmet burgers, must-try sweet potato fries and an assortment of old-school milkshakes and lemonades.

As if this weren’t enough, every Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday, the Ferry Building outdoes itself by playing host to an outstanding Farmer’s Market. Stalls of fresh fruit, local vegetables, aromatic herbs and pretty flowers line the front of the building, while tents selling hot snacks and brunch specials squeeze together in the back. We tried sturgeon with capers, onions and cream cheese on a freshly baked baguette, followed by “korean tacos” comprising deliciously spiced minced kobe and sticky rice wrapped in seaweed paper and lastly, a cheese-free but melt-in-the-mouth delicious pumpkin lasagna. We also picked up a few items from the vast range of regional artisan specialties including cheese, jams, sauces as well as olive oils, specialty salts and cured meats.

A huge fan of local produce and Farmer’s Markets, I only wish New York or Boston would follow suit. After being spoiled by two wonderful years of Borough and Old Spitalfields Market, I’ve struggled to find similar wonders in US cities. Ithaca Farmer’s Market, held every weekend in upstate NY, is surprisingly good and extremely popular amongst tourists and Cornell students alike. Are you listening Boston?

A Fortnight in Fog City

I’ve been in San Francisco nearly two weeks now (time flies!) and am thoroughly enjoying what’s looking to be a fantastic summer. After a couple of do-nothing days in NYC, I flew out to join the bf who, conveniently, will be spending the next month or so in SF for work.

We’re staying in Nob Hill which, as the name suggests, is no friend to the faint hearted. My first week here, I nearly died climbing up the steep incline that leads home. I’m getting better at it but continue to be overtaken by pesky locals who make climbing a 60 degree gradient look like sliding on ice. I have also learned that wearing heels in SF is social suicide (you *will* get left behind).

From Nob Hill, it takes me about 40 minutes to get to the tech start up I’ve been working at, located on yet another, [Potrero] Hill. The Muni is certainly not the finest public transport I’ve taken, but at $2 each way, I really can’t complain. So many friends are spending ~3 hours/day driving back and forth from the Valley that I’m pretty happy to be able to re-discover Milan Kundera on the train.

Anyway, on to the food! We’ve been oyster shucking, boatside brunching, farmer’s market-ing, tea tasting and generally face-stuffing and, so far, the City has not disappointed. More to come but here’s the low down on some great local restaurants.

Cafe Kati, a cute little place in Pac Heights offers a fun menu of Asian Fusion delights ranging from old classics like chicken lettuce cups to creative hits like peanut crusted prawns with green papaya, mint and fresh basil. The ambience is small, cosy and intimate. It feels a little like a quaint old bookstore. Service is friendly and the wine list is great. We tried the dragon roll, the prawns and the sliders – servings are bigger than you’d expect and the food is melt in the mouth delicious.
Damage: $70 for two, including drinks (but then we didn’t order entrees)

Next, we tried Frascati, a Mediterranean style bistro located on the corner of a lovely tree-lined street not far from where we live. There are a couple of very cute looking restaurants on this block, but Frascati stands out for a unique and seasonally fresh menu. The Duck Confit Salad was fabulously tasty, the Dungeness Salad good, but very small. The big let down came from the desserts. We ordered the bread pudding and the apple cobbler and both were giant sized portions of mediocre kitchen fare. Nothing memorable about them and certainly out of sync with the rest of the restaurant’s delicate, deliberate sensibility.

Another great restaurant tucked away on a quiet corner at the top of Nob Hill is Venticello, which means “soft breeze” in Italian. This hidden gem exudes old world romance and Tuscan charm. The lights are dim, the tones are warm, the tables are candle lit and the doors and windows are thrown open to the cool night air. The maitre’D was warm and welcoming and the service, prompt and professional. The Carpaccio and Polenta con Portobello were absolutely divine – creative, original and beautifully presented. The meat pasta was so-so and somewhat uninspiringly arranged in a plain white bowl. The dish of the night however, was definitely the veal Scallopini – absolutely to die for. Served with tiger prawns and a basil cream sauce, this is apparently their most popular dish and something I could not get enough of!

Russell House Tavern

Yesterday, after finishing two of my five exams, I joined a big group of friends in search of a long lunch somewhere across the bridge. After being cooped up in my room for 4.5 hours with a laptop and a timer ticking away, I was happy to go anywhere, but was even happier to check out Russell House Tavern, the new restaurant in Harvard Square. Located on a busy section of JFK Street, its easy to miss this place, especially if you’re used to ignoring the Finagle-a-Bagel that formerly occupied this building. The restaurant is actually rather large and when you step inside you’re greeted with a modern but tasteful ambience and a casual, quick fix feel. Bar stools and high tables dominate the floor, with lower, more intimate-looking tables set against the walls. If you venture to the back, a large staircase leads down into a cave-like expanse of richer-looking tables, a more old-world ambience and a hostess ready to seat you. This is clearly the real restaurant. The upstairs lunch area reminds me a little of Pizza Express, Ping Pong and other higher-end chains in England, while the downstairs is more brasserie-meets-gastropub.

We ordered burgers, crab cakes and an assortment of lunch time sandwiches. The grilled cheese was melt-in-the-mouth delicious and the fries were satisfyingly crunchy. The Tavern Buttermilk salad however, turned out to be a huge letdown, with an egregious ratio of romaine and almonds to grapes and fennel and a painful lack of Benton ham. Our waiter was friendly, prompt and helpful with recommendations and the food itself was quick to appear.

I’ll post pictures when I have some, but till then, there’s a delicious-looking selection on Russell House’s own blog (bonus points for hosting on WordPress!)

The Damage: Between $15-$20 including tax and tip
The Verdict: Expecting it to clean up the competition…..Great choice for lunch, large enough to accommodate big groups, can’t wait to check it out for dinner and try the famous Chip-in Farm Egg!

A Trip to Shalimar for some Authentic Indian

Deciding our skills best lay in food, Niya and I donated a home-cooked, authentic Indian meal to our Section’s Annual Charity Auction. One week later, on a beautiful Friday evening, we embarked on a pilgrimage to Central Square’s acclaimed Indian grocery store, Shalimar. We were cooking for four lovely, “mild spice” friends, and our elaborate recipes called, amongst other things, for paneer, okra and paranthas. As we approached the storefront, the rich aroma of ground spices filled my lungs, awakening long-lost memories of Indian-store adventures in Leeds.

Shalimar turned out to be a magical place, triumphantly living up to its British counterparts. Tiny aisles overflowed with giant sacks of basmati rice, unpainted shelves groaned under the combined weight of black jars, green jars, tall jars, fat jars, translucent jars with curious insides and opaque jars with unintelligible labels. Crates of gnarled, ancient-looking vegetables littered the floor, bottles of Limca and Fanta peeped out from an old fridge and the fragrance of ripe, juicy mangoes permeated every cramped, crowded inch. Mmmmm!

We predictably OD-ed at Shalimar but, luckily, its prices were just as old-world as its produce and we escaped without much collateral damage. Once home, we hit the the Raj Kapoor playlist and divvied up the recipes. I got started on the yoghurt marinated chicken curry, while N handled the palak paneer. We also made raita (a yoghurt based cucumber dipping sauce, traditionally used to cut the spice of a rich curry), bhindi bhunjia (chopped okra, sauteed with spices and onions), steamed rice with cashew nuts and peas and paranthas with methi (fenugreek) and onion.

Sauteed okra with onions, turmeric and mustard

The meal was a big hit and, despite a debilitating food coma, we even managed to drink some mango lassi for dessert. Yay Shalimar! I can’t wait to go back 🙂

The recipes:
Bhindi
Palak Paneer
Raita
Chicken

First Day of Summer

Nothing says summer like steaks grilling on a BBQ. Sunshine, a charcoal grill, a couple of beers and plenty of appetites – all key accompaniments to the arrival of summer. Deciding that May Day would be an appropriate time to celebrate, we opened up the NoHo patio to 25 sun-loving friends and fired up the barbie.

The menu included home-made, blue cheese and onion infused beef burgers, turkey and garden burgers, chorizo and andouille sausages, rib-eye steaks, portobello, chicken and vegetable skewers, greek salad, hefeweizens and of course, coronas.