Restaurant

I’ve never really appreciated tequila. The closest I came was a series of excellent, smoky, mezcal* cocktails at Mayahuel in New York a few years ago, and the occasional good tequila Francisco had around, though I was never concentrating just on it. That started to change last week– I was down in Sayulita, Mexico for vacation, and got the tip that I should check out the Sayulita Fish Tacos Tequila Bar. The fish tacos in the restaurant upstairs were pretty bad, but the bar itself was a revelation. A few notes of what I remember or jotted down: ...

Dumplings around SF. My favorites were the xiao long bao at Shanghai Dumpling King and the Pork and Chive (w/ unusually good chili sauce) from Kingdom of Dumpling. Full details at the bike blog, since this was a food / biking crossover: http://bikeit.tumblr.com/post/26301800287/dumpling-ride-recap

Great food at flour and water, and interesting strangers who it turns out know someone I know (I was just dining alone at the bar to celebrate a special week). The “smoked duck raviolini with charred onions” was phenomenal (dark, smoky, not caramelized-sweet onions in a rich dark-meat duck sauce over raviolini stuffed with duck), as was the garganelli with braised pork, peas, amaranth, and I think preserved meyer lemon. ...

My favorite place in the world to eat lobster is Five Islands Lobster Wharf on the coast of Maine, an hour East of Portland. It’s very informal– you can take live lobster away or have them cook one for you on the spot. Then you sit at picnic tables on a working dock, with lobsters boats coming and going, piles of traps, and the freshest, most flavorful lobster I’ve ever had. ...

Life brought me to Carson, CA recently, so on a suggestion from a friend who saw my gmail chat status (who knew that would be useful?) I checked out the Shin-Sen-Gumi in Gardena for their Hakata-style ramen. And am I ever glad I did– it was a delicious bowl of ramen. I’d accidentally arrived half an hour before they opened, but within a few minutes there were already another few people waiting– so it’s good I didn’t show up right at 6. I got the base Hakata ramen of pork, ginger, and green onions (choosing the default levels of noodle firmness and broth strength), and added spinach, menma, and a delicious medium-cooked seasoned egg. ...

Wow– forced out of my chilaquiles routine at the Primavera stand at the Ferry Building farmers’ market when they were sold out, I discovered their pork in green pumpkin seed sauce with thick handmade tortillas. Excellent.

And some days you just want a Mission burrito: (from El Toro) My favorite mission taquerias are: La Taqueria for deluxe tacos (a pair of chicken tacos with cheese and avocado added on– even at almost $5/taco it’s worth it) Taqueria Vallarta for basic street tacos – meat, onions, cilantro, with pickled jalapenos on the side La Corneta for shrimp or shrimp-and-steak burritos Taqueria Cancun (either one) for the best combination of coarse yellow corn chips and fiery-delicious green salsa El Toro for a basic veggie or meat mission burrito

One of my friends at the 28-course from-the-cookbook-of-El-Bulli/molecular-gastronomy dinner at Next put this excellent summary image together (you can click through and then click again to zoom in to the full-size image). This is all but one of our courses (it’s missing the liquid-nitrogen-frozen caipirinha): It was a fascinating dining experience and tour through the history of experimental food– with each dish, they told us what year it had been served in El Bulli (for example, the red mullet gaudi was in one of the earlier years– conceptual in terms of its mosaic-like appearance, but without the “magic powders” of later foams and smokes). ...

One memorable evening in Chicago involved a group of 4-5 of us eating at Avec, The Publican, and Au Cheval in succession. Any of their websites have far better food photos than my quick cell phone snaps below, but so it goes. At avec (a long, cozy, space with a lot of wood and light), the huge “chorizo-stuffed medjool dates with smoked bacon and piquillo pepper-tomato sauce” was one of the best things I ate all trip: ...

Taking it down a notch the next day (no pun intended), an excellent beef sandwich (with hot peppers, dipped in beef broth) from Al’s Beef:

This is what we ate (and drank). Click through for a higher-res version.

Quick takeout from Mission Chinese while packing for a trip, and it was intensely, all-consumingly delicious (and all consumed). Stir-fried pork jowl with radishes, mint, fermented black beans, and vinegar-anise-garlic peanuts. 

Very satisfying Ethiopian food:

I finally made it to Mr Pollo with a friend (and we lucked into the two last seats in the tiny 8-seat(?) restaurant, at the bar). What a great place– casual, wholly unpretentious, like sitting in an eat-in-kitchen in a friend’s studio apartment. If the friend had serious South American comfort food cooking talent. You sit down, pay $20, and get treated to four courses– whatever Manny has in mind to cook for you that night. It reminds me of my friend Clay, who’d said he wanted to start a restaurant serving “dinner” . ...