Merry Xmas, Happy Kwanza, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy B-day To Me!

Back in San Francisco in time for the holidays, since I have been back it seems that I have done nothing but eat out and go to the movies, pretty typical holiday activities. My dinning out experience has mostly been “hit’s” with only one “miss”. So far I have dined at Chez Papa, Foreign Cinema, Pacific Catch (I hate this place, more latter) and Quince. Tomorrow’s my B-day so I know there is at least another dining experience in store this month!

Let me start my quickly getting Pacific Catch out of the way; the restaurant claims “We combine the bold sauces, spices and innovative cooking preparations of Asia, Latin America and Hawaii with local California ingredients to create a new kind of fish house”. I strongly and proudly embrace diversity, innovation and the fusion of cultures and food but sometimes if you don’t do it properly you can create a mess, something undesirable. I have been to this place twice and will never go again; each time I ordered a dish that had some type of “fusion innovation sauce” all over it – gross!! I don’t want to make you sick so I won’t say anymore other than remember the name of the place, it’s in the Sunset and if you like good food and appreciate different cultures (and don’t want to get sick) don’t go there!!!

Quince “OMG” (, I know that sounds silly coming from me) was to die for! The new location is simply stunning; the new minimal play on traditional design of the restaurant is as visually appealing as the food was gastronomically appealing! The hubby and I shared the starter and pasta course; we started with shaved Japanese Octopus with Buddha’s Hand over red rice followed by pasta in foie gras cream (I could have licked the plate on this one). Hubby had Sweetbread and I had a beef dish with Marsala Mushrooms. The other couple had the same thing with the exception one person had duck breast as her entrée. Our meal was accompanied by a bottle of very fine Italian wine from the Tuscany region. Dessert was petite and unnecessary since along with your very pricey check you are presented with a little sampling of sweets, all quite tasty. The meal was sublime; I highly recommend Quince when you are prepared to splurge!

One rainy evening we had dinner on the covered patio of Foreign Cinema; the movie playing was “Finding Never Land”. The drinks, food, oysters (me), wine and company was all good. Foreign Cinema is one of our neighborhood gems; it was another great evening dining in the Mission!

Dinner tonight is a mystery, I’m not cooking saving myself for tomorrow but I do plan to make a crispy duck for Christmas Eve. Christmas Day we plan to go to the movies followed by lunch at Jitlada http://www.jitladasf.com/, our favorite Thai restaurant.

So, stay tuned to see how this all turns out and what’s in store for the New Year!

Merry Happy Happy!!!

Ode to November

November 2009 ended for me in Chicago where I spent the last week assisting in my parents transitions to a nursing center, cleaning out their home and celebrating Thanksgiving. As children we were always taught that behind every dark cloud there is a silver lining. This blog is about the silver lining.

My parents are adjusting to their new living environment, they are safe and

being cared for 24 - 7 and for that I am truly Thankful! My sister and I managed to meet our deadline for moving my parents and have begun the process of decorating my parents' new suite. My nephew and his dear wife prepared a scrumptious Thanksgiving feast, and for that and for them I am Thankful!

Thanksgiving dinner was rather informal, after visiting the parents we went to my sister's house

and my nephew and his wife arrived shortly thereafter with the meal. He brimmed the turkey, and it was juicy and very flavorful and oh so delicious! My niece (nephew's wife) made a cranberry relish that was to die for; it was sweet, tangy and had zest and freshness that only citrus provides! My sister made cornbread dressing, my favorite Thanksgiving side, and gravy from the turkey drippings. Thanksgiving was perfect, the only missing parts was my husband and son in San Francisco holding down the forth until I return!

Like the weather life has seasons, as we move into December we will see what life has in store. December 3rd we will kick off the birthday month in my family celebrating my sister's birthday so stay tuned to hear about the birthday celebration....

Seasons Greetings!

SATURDAY NIGHT

THE MENU

Seared Sea Bass
Fava Beans & Pancetta
Roasted Beets with Pomegranate Vinaigrette & Point Reyes Blue Cheese

Chocolate wafers

The Sea Bass was seasoned with salt, pepper and smoked paprika and seared in about teaspoon of olive oil and butter in a really hot pan for roughly 60 seconds each side with a little shaved Buddha’s Hand to add a little zest.

Preparing Fava Beans is a labor of love; first you shell, then you add the shelled beans into a boiling hot pot of water to shell the skill and afterwards you have the most delicate bean to do with what you like. I had a little pancetta in the fridge that I didn’t want to go to waste so I sautéed the pancetta then tossed in the fava beans, yum.

Elton Brown on Food Network must be credited for my basic roasted beets. No matter what the final preparation is for beets it always starts with roasted beets. Roasting beets intensifies the sweetness in the beets. I roasted the beets covering them in a little olive oil and coating them with sea salt in a 425 degree oven for roughly 25 minutes. After the beets cooled I peeled them, sliced them and added the pomegranate vinaigrette. Roasted beets are a staple in our house and they take on many forms. Tonight the beets were served in pomegranate vinaigrette with crumbled Point Reyes Blue Cheese on top. The beets were delicious and could have easily been a dessert course or with the after meal chasse course.

Dinner was finished with a chocolate wafer from Miette. I’m a happy girl; Good Night!

SATURDAY MORNING

Since I will be on the road again tomorrow I wanted to have a nice dinner at home tonight so off we went to the Farmer’s Market in the Ferry Building in search of dinner. We didn’t get as early a start as usual but I was pretty sure that my fish monger would still have something good and I was sure I could find really vegetables as well.

We arrived at the Ferry Building around 11:00 am so we immediately went to the fish monger and pick up a really lovely piece of sea bass. Then to the vegetable stands where we picked up beets and fava beans, my menu was formulating in my mind. The plan was to do something with the fava beans and we would have a meal.

After making a few other stops to by bread, snacks, fruit for the plane, bread from Acme and dessert from Miette it was time for lunch. We decided to try our luck at the Slanted Door and much to our surprise we got a table! The Slanted Door always pleases; we had oysters, Vietnamese crepe with shrimp and pork, five spice chicken and cellophane noodles with crab. The five-spice chicken wasn’t as spicy as I thought it would be but it was fresh and good, everything else was perfect and oh so delicious!

I love the Farmers Market in the Ferry Building, absolutely!

Home I go to nap, relax & pack by bags.

FRIDAY

This Friday was special, the end of the work week and the end of work for me for awhile. I am on my way to Chicago again for family matters and I am not quite sure when I will return. There were a few things I wanted and needed to do before taking off. I want to celebrate a birthday that I will miss and the holidays so I made a lunch reservation for Friday and invited two special people. So yesterday, a cold rainy day in San Francisco we had a celebratory lunch at one of our favorite restaurants Salt House.

We drove to the restaurant planning to park in a nearby parking lot but the parking gods were with us because we found a parking space in front of the door! Ok, it was a one hour metered space but who cares it was in front of the restaurant door so we had a nice leisurely lunch feeding the meter as needed. That’s the way City Slickers do it!

The food was sublime; between us we had the Crispy Shrimp Salad with Spicy Green Beans and Serrano Ham, Cassoulet (a perfect dish on a cool rainy day), Foie Gras Torchon and a Clam Stew with Beans, Kale and Linguica Sausage. Everything was perfectly seasoned and tasty; the Spicy Green Beans were so good and spiced with Harrisa. Needless to say we had a lovely glass of wine with our meal! We finished the meal with the Yuzu Panna Cotta, it was light and creamy and very flavorful with the candied Buddha’s Hand on top.

It was really wonderful to share this beautiful meal with two special people, a nice way to end the week!

Dinner by Iron Chef Laurine Wickett

The Mission neighborhood is one of the best dinning neighborhoods in the City, this food Ghetto is home to many of my favorite restaurants, bakeries and wine bars. Relatively new to the scene is the Coffee Bar http://www.coffeebar-usa.com/CB_HOME.html. The Coffee Bar is now hosting guest chef for dinners, this past Saturday we signed up for dinner with guest Iron Chef Laurine Wickett http://www.leftcoastcatering.com/chef.html. The food was awesome; I had the beet salad and the pork shoulder. The combination of the red and gold beets with the arugula and goat cheese was perfect, and the pork was tender and juicy. The dessert was OK; not bad but not great a nice ending to a great meal. A different dessert would have knocked this meal out of the park! Looking forward to the next time - I love the concept of the visiting chef!

Furlough Friday

Twice a month I have to take two unpaid days off from work and I love it! Working four days a week and having two long weekends a month is quite appealing to me. It is such a luxury to have a day to relax or catch up on chores.

This past work week although only 4 days was long with work activities from sun up to way pass sun down. Thursday afternoon I had to drive to Rohnert Park for an evening event, thankfully I did not have to make the drive alone. Traffic is what you would expect around 3:00 pm driving up to wine country. Across the road from my destination is a meat market/smoke house that I have seen many times but never went in. This trip with a little encouragement from my traveling companion we checked out BUD’s Custom Meats http://www.budscustommeats.com/. Inside we found all types of poultry, meat and wild game. I purchased lemon garlic chicken thighs, Texas baby back spare ribs and marinated tri-tip. Not much to say about the event and the ride home, it was work after all and the next day was furlough Friday!

Friday I had a lunch date with one of my favorite people at Serpentine, sister restaurant to Slow Club. Like Slow Club, Serpentine has a very nice limited seasonal menu. My friend had the cod dish and I have the albacore tuna with a warm German potato salad. The tuna was perfectly seared, cooked on the outside and rare on the inside. The tuna salad was not quite a salad nicoise but really delicious with the mustardy flavor of the sauce, the tartness of the capers and the mellow taste of the potatoes. I enjoyed catching up with a dear friend over a really good meal on a Friday afternoon!

Rejuvenated after lunch I decided to bake an Apple Cake using a recipe inspired by James Beard; Don Farmer’s Fresh Apple Cake. This recipe can be found in The New James Beard book, copyright 1981. I have make this cake for many years following the recipe to the letter until about 8 years ago or so when I decided to deviate adding ¼ cup of Calvados (see Savoree on Foodbuzz for the recipe). The Calvados adds a little more flavor and moister to an already moist and delicious cake.

While working on the cake the husband readied the grill for the Texas spare ribs. On the menu for the evening; grilled Texas spare ribs and sautéed collard greens. The ribs were perfectly seasoned and didn’t need a thing. These were among some of the best ribs I have ever had and I have had a lot of really good ribs! The meal was accompanied by a bottle of Navarro Lopez Gran Reserva '01, a perfect match to the spiciness of the ribs and the greens.

Friday, November 6th was a perfect Furlough Friday!

3 Autumn Days in Chicago

Thursday October 29, I traveled to Chicago for my mother’s 92nd birthday! From Ohare I hopped the train to the City where my sister picked me up and we headed to the parents place. At my parents place I was greeted with love and affection; I’m so very fortunate! Later that evening my sister, an old friend, my nephew, his wife and I went to dinner at my sister’s favorite restaurant, Garcia’s. Garcia’s is a very nice neighborhood Mexican restaurant with two locations one in Lincoln Square and the other on Lawrence Avenue; the Lincoln Square location is much nicer but it was closed for remodeling. The food was good, the margaritas were just what the doctor ordered and an evening with family and a good friend was priceless!

Friday morning, the actual birthday started at Molly’s Cupcakes http://www.mollyscupcakes.com/ where I picked up two dozen mini cupcakes ordered before leaving San Francisco. My two dozen cupcakes included the red velvet, vanilla, chocolate and the carrot cakes. I had a little treppredation about ordering the mini’s for fear they may not be moist but my fear was quickly dismissed with the first bite; so good! My parent’s birthdays are a little quieter these days but there was a steady flow of family members and friends paying homage all day and it was a joy to see everyone!

Halloween night was very special, my sister arranged a theater date at the Lookingglass Theater http://lookingglasstheatre.org/content/ , we invited a friend and had dinner before the theater at Restaurant 676 on Michigan Avenue. We had a very good meal, although I am craving spectacular, I had an arugula salad with apples and parmesan cheese and a bowl of Lake Superior White Fish Chowder. My friend had a white fish dish with clams and risotto. My sister had smoked chicken soup, I taste it and it was really smokey and good; followed by shrimp flatbread. The food was enjoyable not too filling for a pre theater dinner.

The play was Fedra Queen of Haiti; the Lookingglass Theatre is housed in the historic Water Tower Water Works Building. The historic landmark was one of the few structures to survive the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The Theatre Company was founded in 1988 by eight Northwestern University graduates, Lookingglass ensemble notables include David Schwimmer of "Friends," Joey Slotnick of "Boston Public" and Tony Award-winner Mary Zimmerman. My husband is an alum of Northwestern Graduate School which did not factor into our decision at all to see the play.

The play is a must see; “an explosive retelling of Phaedra that would make Euripides, Seneca and Jean Racine blush.” This story of power and lust is set in a re-imagined Haiti evoked a range of emotions in a very satirical way. I have a love affair with the theatre and this production rates at the top of my many years of theater experiences here and abroad.

Chicago is such a great cultural city with world Class Theater, because it is home I don’t always have the opportunity to take advantage of all the City has to offer. But when I do it makes for a very special experience!

Early Sunday morning I flew back to San Francisco with great memories of a wonderful fall weekend in Chicago.

Madrid

Friday October 2, we arrived in Madrid by rail, the last leg of our vacation in Spain. The train ride was short and pleasant, I spent most of my time talking to a woman traveling alone from Atlanta. We took a taxi from the train station to our hotel. Shortly after we checked-in and settled into our rooms we ventured out to explore the City.

Madrid, the capital of Spain is a bustling cosmopolitan city characterized by intense cultural activity and a very lively nightlife. Since this was the last leg of our trip and our second time in Madrid we did not feel the necessity to take in any specific cultural activity instead we opted to take in the City or let the City take us. We spent a lot of time wandering the promenades, little streets and squares in search of a tasty morsel and a little memento to remind us of adventures in Madrid.

Puerta (plaza) del Sol was our first destination located in the heart of Madrid. Puerta del Sol is bustling with tourist and beggars of every sort from street “performers’, the deformed and the outright hustlers. The side streets off the square were far more interesting and appealing. Near the plaza we stumbled upon the Museo del Jamon (Museum of Ham), we were quite taken with this place. A variety of Iberian hams hung from the rafters and all over the place, if you like eating from snout to tail you will love this place.

On one of our walks we were headed to the Plaza Mayor (main square). This plaza is also very lively with artist, musicians and other vendors. Lining the interior of this large rectangular stone paved plaza are many restaurants serving paella, an assortment of seafood and other Spanish dishes as well as a few American standards. The restaurants have tables and umbrellas in the square for alfresco dinning. One night we ended up having dinner on the Plaza because we could not find the place we were looking for. Although we did not dine where we intended the food was good, we had “paella mixta” with meat and seafood, the wine was great and we shared a wonderful evening laughing and enjoying life with good friends!

One day going no place in particular we saw a poster on the Circulo De Bellas Artes De Madrid building which was very close to our hotel advertising a jazz concert featuring a Spanish group performing flamenco jazz music. On a whim we purchased tickets for the performance taking place that night at 11:00 pm. We arrived at the concert around 10:45 pm and people were lining up to take the elevator to the concert hall, so we thought. When the elevator door opened we could see all of Madrid! The concert took place on the roof of the Circulo De Bellas Artes building; the panoramic view of Madrid was breathtaking! The music was mostly flamenco with very nice jazz rhythms; this concert was the highlight of our time in Madrid a truly magical evening!

There were other memorable experiences like Sunday at Plaza del Cascorro/Rastro. This small square is at the top of Ribera de Curtidores where the Sunday Rastro flea market is held. This was sprawling flea market, it seemed absolutely endless – the largest flea market any of us have ever seen! We were overwhelmed with the number of people at this market selling everything from socks to antiques. It was hot that Sunday and I thought I was going to pass out from the heat and the hoards of people. But before I passed out I managed to pick up a nice little way cool shoulder bag. After this experience we were craving a cold drink, Sangria it was for me!

We met lovely people along the way in Barcelona, Seville and Madrid, we had a wonderful time! The flights back to San Francisco was long and uneventful, the best kind made easy with fresh memories of a great vacation.

One little travel tip for those of you out there that enjoy good food always travel with a good dinning reference guide, you can stray from it but it’s good to have. When traveling I like the Michelin Guide, it has never failed me. This trip I did not have my guide but I still had a good time!

Well, it’s time to say adios to Spain for now and for me to move on to my next adventure at home, abroad or away so stay tuned!

All while we were in Seville I kept hearing in my head Miles Davis playing Sketches of Spain. Seville was mesmerizing; the pace slower compared to Barcelona with a beautiful hypnotic rhythm much like Davis’ Sketches of Spain a combination of jazz and classical Flamenco music. Seville was hot and humid but bearable; July or August certainly is not the time to visit. It rained a little but not enough to alter any of our plans if we had them. The beauty of our visit to Seville is that we had no plans we just let Seville take us through El otro lado del Rio, the other side of the river where it is less historic and where most reside and pass many moments.

Roaming the tiny cobbled streets, smaller than alleys really, we would stumble upon an important land mark or another. On one of our walks we stumbled upon a statue of one of Seville’s most famous figures in history “Don Juan”. Of course the guys wanted to be photographed in front of their “hero”; we obliged and took the silly photo of the three Don’s.

Seville is the center of bullfighting in Spain, so they say. One of the highlight of our visit in Seville was the Museo Taurino Sevilla. This museum is inside the Plaza de Toros de La Maestranza which holds a permanent exposition of paintings, sculptures, bullfighting costumes and a bullring! We took a tour and learned about the art and ritual of the fight. One thing we learned was that bullfighters are very religious; make sense since the outcome is not always in favor of the bullfighter although it really is most of the time. We all really found this experience quite enjoyable.

Although the pace of Seville was a bit slower than Barcelona the tradition of dinning late in the evening was the same. We had better dining luck in Seville than in Barcelona our hotel was high tech with a computer in each room so we were able to do a little research before venturing out to dinner at night. Restaurant Salvador Rojo http://www.restaurante-salvador-rojo.es/Ingles/introduccion.htmrojo.es/Ingles/introduccion.htm was my dining highlight. The restaurant is located just across the street from the historic (everything is historic in Seville) Hotel Alfonso XIII. Salvador Rojo is a restaurant that a foodie would enjoy! It was a rainy evening and we were a little tired so we decided to dine a little early that night so we made a reservation for 9:00pm, because the Spanish dine so late we had the entire restaurant to ourselves.

Salvador is one of Andalucía’s most inventive young chefs, having won many a prize for re-inventive Andalucian dishes. The gazpacho was the best I have ever had in my life, with your typical ingredients of tomatoes, onions, garlic etc. but what gave the soup the dept was the unusual ingredient of pureed yams. I am bound and determined to find this recipe, simply outstanding!

Our last night in Seville we dined at a lovely little restaurant El Colmaito DE Cai. Since this was our last evening in Seville we decided to dine more like the Spaniards and have dinner at 10:00 pm. This was another wonderful experience; the owner greeted us when we arrived offering us a table inside or out, we chose a nice table outside.


The owner of the restaurant was very friendly and he asked where we were from when we responded San Francisco he told us that he just returned from a three week visit. While in San Francisco he said he dined at Delfina’s, Chez Spencer, Bar Tartine and he had ice cream from BiRite Creamery; all of these places are our favorites so I was confident we would have a great meal, and we did! I had garlic shrimp and a mushroom risotto; the shrimp were delicious seasoned with garlic, hot peppers and salt in a hot bubbly olive oil. The risotto was rich, creamy and yummy!



Seville’s old world charm was magical, truly Sketches of Spain!
Stay tuned for Madrid....

Adventures in Spain Fall 2009

Last month my husband, two good friends and I set off on our annual vacation choosing Barcelona , Seville and Madrid as our destination for 10 glorious days. September 23rd we flew from San Francisco to New York where we met our friends and from New York to Barcelona . We arrived in Barcelona September 24th the beginning of the Fiestas de la Merce.

September 24th is the day dedicated to the Virgin of the Mercé, the city's patron saint since 1687. This festival is the city's most important holiday, therefore, the entire week is packed with different events and concerts, and the city is literally buzzing with excitement and life. I should note that there is nothing remotely religious about this festival! Barcelona knows how to celebrate all night long, really I mean all night long! During the festival one of the most traditional things to do is to watch the "castellers", who usually gather on one of the main squares. The "castellers" are one of Catalonia 's most deeply-rooted traditions; it consists of building human towers: a delicate, acrobatic structure consisting of several people. My dear friend all most caused a catastrophe when she let out a loud shrill when one of the acrobats lost his balance and fell from the tower; he was fine. Another highlight of the festival is seeing the giant statues parade and dance down the street. There were drums, devils, monsters and all matter of happy creatures lighting up the night!

The trip was filled with fun activities, after a long night we would pull ourselves together and be ready for our morning coffee by 11:00am. After our morning coffee we would absorbed Gaudi’s work in all of its splendor and whimsy from the La Sagranda Familia to Park Guell. We visited the Picasso Museum and trolled the avenues to enjoy the street art from Miro to Lichtenstein; pretty impressive. Our hotel was on the Las Ramblas a classic European boulevard with cafes and bars, newsstands and metro stops, into an outdoor street theater-cum-circus. You name it and you will see it on Las Ramblas!

We had a few misses with food and a few highlights but the wine never disappointed. Tempranillo, Rioja, Granacha we had it all and Cava too! The first night we dined at La Barca Del Salamanch http://www.gruposilvestre.com/ where we had good basic sea food, the portion size was enormous with enough food to feed a family of five! Somewhere in the middle of our trip we dinned at Botafumeiro http://www.botafumeiro.es/, a very pricey seafood restaurant. The décor was a bit old school with photos of all of the rich and famous diners. I ordered Paella which was probably a mistake; it was good but not outstanding. However, the olives were delicious so much so that I bought a bottle home with me. The olives are in a mixture of vegetables and cornichons in a very mild herb olive oil – lovely!

The last night before taking off on an early morning flight to Seville the husband and I dined alone at a restaurant on Las Ramblas called Attic. We were a little skeptical at first since this restaurant was right on the tourist strip but it turned out to be quite nice. It was a very contemporary restaurant on the top floor of a building with a roof top terrace. The food was a combination of Bistro fare meets modern Spanish food. We had a simple meal of filet mignon and papa frites.

Stay tuned for our adventures in Seville , and be a little patient with me since this is my first blog!

Adios