SobaAddict70

Saturday, July 5, 2014 We had breakfast at Kitchen Story. Kitchen Story 3499 16th Street (Sanchez Street) The Castro B and I have eaten here on three separate occasions, the most recent being yesterday -- all on days I have left San Francisco. It's becoming our go-to "bon voyage place". Eggs benedict with braised pork belly, kimchi, avocado, corn tortillas, and roasted heirloom potatoes and carrots. Egg white omelette, fruit cup, cream biscuit There will be additional pix on the blog once I get around to posting them. Stay tuned for more exciting adventures in the magical Kingdom of Far, Far Away...

Spaghetti con vongole: http://www.lidiasitaly.com/recipes/detail/1094 This is now my default recipe whenever I want to make it. I find that the addition of anchovy adds that extra layer of "oomph". Warm the oil and garlic... ...add the anchovy. When the anchovies have begun to melt into the sauce, add the clams and a cup of water. Lidia instructs a ladleful or two of pasta-cooking water but either way is fine. Cover the pot and steam on medium heat or until the clams have opened. Lift out the clams into a bowl with a slotted spoon, discard any clams that didn't open. Cool. This is what the liquid will look like afterwards. Add 1/2 the parsley called for in the recipe. Reduce by 1/3; shuck the clams in the interim. When the liquid has reduced, add cooked, drained spaghetti to the pot along with the clams and remaining parsley. Toss. Cook 1-2 minutes more, then plate and serve at once. Spaghetti con vongole ("spaghetti with clams")

Green beans recipe: http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/14/the-temporary-vegetarian-vegan-green-beans-braised-in-tomato-sauce/ There are many ways to make fagiolini e pomodoro. This is one method that doesn't involve blanching/shocking the beans. I adore this dish, however it's made. Add some olive oil in a saucepan, then the garlic, then warm over medium heat. Add the shallots. ...and the tomatoes. This is about 3 medium-sized Jersey tomatoes, trimmed and cut up. I didn't bother with removing the seeds and peel as indicated in the recipe. You lose too much "good stuff" that way. Let the tomatoes break down a bit, then add the green beans. The recipe instructs you to have the juices reduce, but as you can see, I went a different route. Since the beans will be braising in the tomato sauce, you want some liquid in the pot. Cover the pot and braise on low heat for one hour. This instruction differs significantly from the recipe I linked above; you may decide you don't want the beans to cook that long, and that's perfectly fine. There was a Saveur article that was published a while back about the difference between the way we cook vegetables in the U.S., and how Italians generally prefer theirs. Some people who are less charitable might say these beans are "overcooked", but that's the point of this dish; the beans need to be braised that long in order to achieve a texture I routinely describe as "silken". Towards the end of cooking, add some chopped basil, then taste for salt and pepper. Spoon into a serving bowl, drizzle the beans with some extra-virgin olive oil, then serve at once. Fagiolini e pomodoro ("green beans and tomato")

Red onion jam recipe: http://food52.com/recipes/86-toasted-goat-cheese-crostini-with-basil-and-red-onion-jam I used only one red onion for this recipe; it was, as previously mentioned, quite large. thinly sliced red onion, butter, sugar, salt (for exact proportions, see the recipe I linked to above) About a few minutes into things, I added some cracked black pepper. After about 30 minutes of simmering in a covered pot (the contents of which I occasionally stirred), it looked like this: Add the red wine (we used some merlot from 2012) and a tablespoon or so of red wine vinegar, then simmer over low heat, uncovered, for 20 minutes, or until it begins to have a jam-like consistency. Crostini with goat cheese, basil and red onion jam

After buying a few things from Falletti, we decided to take a walk around the Mission. We had originally planned to walk on the Golden Gate Bridge but it was foggy, and GG Park was closed to automobiles. Phooey. Random food-related pix: I was hoping to get a shot of the interior, but they were closed.

Falletti Foods is kinda like what would happen if Trader Joe's and Balducci's got together for some sexy funtime and out popped a baby.

Then, we went to a store that B and I are calling the "secret Bed, Bath and Beyond of San Francisco".

Then we went to Green Apple Books, a/k/a San Francisco's Cookbook Wonderland. People who love collecting cookbooks might want to take note of this store. This is high on my "to-get-next" list.

Friday, July 4, 2014: We started the day by going to Brenda's for brunch. I want everything on that menu. So hard to choose... Eggs benedict with Creole hollandaise sauce, fried catfish, buttermilk biscuits and cheddar cheese grits Sweet potato pancakes, warm butter pecan sauce Potato hash

I spent all of yesterday traveling so I'm a bit behind on recapping things. Six hours trapped in an airborne metal tube with a screaming infant makes for a cranky hobbit. +3 hours meant I got into JFK at 10 pm, then it took two hours just to get home. I was too tired to do any posts, much less cook dinner. Pix from Friday morning coming up in a little bit....

I also want to thank Shalmanese because now I have these two volumes, courtesy of Green Apple Books: "Classic French Cooking", by Craig Claiborne, Pierre Franey and the Editors of Time-Life Books (1970) "American Cooking: The Great West", by Jonathan Norton Leonard and the Editors of Time-Life Books (1971)

I have LOTS of pix to post later, but in the meantime I'll leave you with this teaser: Dinner menu for four, for July 4, 2014: Crostini with goat cheese and merlot-red onion jam Spaghetti con vongole ("spaghetti with clams") Fagiolini e pomodoro ("green beans and tomato") Zabaglione More later.

The habanero sauce was described to us as a "vinaigrette". Yes, that's the yellow-brown sauce. Smelled like nothing. Tasted deceptive; the hotness bloomed on your tongue after about a couple of seconds. Wasn't very spicy to me, but B wimped out after a nibble. Could be because my tolerance has increased over time. On the other hand, Kin Khao defeated us both in terms of spice tolerance. The chicken noodle curry made me break out in sweat. Even I have limits. I think the cabinet had canned items, like Goya. Not for sale, more like decoration.

Well, I have another trip here in December, and probably another one in March. Can't plan that far in advance.

Apparently they also do a pop-up on the weekends in the Mission, at Boogaloos, and vice versa.

We didn't get much in the way of produce -- just a red onion the size of one of B's salad bowls (which you saw a pic of when I posted the apricot and date salad) and some Meyer lemons. I'll dig up the receipt later so you can try to guess how much all of what we bought cost. I thought it was just a bunch of marketing gimmicks -- for instance, Whole Paycheck says their fish is rated #1 by Greenpeace. Well, that may be true but what if the fish was sourced from southeast Asia? Which might mean that WF is now a party to the issue of enslaved fishermen. Most of their marketing stuff means nothing to me; as I said elsewhere, if you stopped buying from a supermarket, yes, even from a Whole Foods, none of them would notice that you were gone. If you spent a fraction of that money at a farmer's market, you might help a farmer pay his rent...you might even help save his farm. That's the difference in a nutshell.

afterwards, we went to Whole Foods (*gag*) to shop for food for tomorrow's main event (I personally would rather not shop at Whole Paycheck, but B doesn't mind; I recognize I'm fighting a losing battle here in that respect.) prices seem to be comparable (+ $1 in some cases) to USGM and the Ferry Building.

so, today we went to Parada 22 for lunch. Parada 22 1805 Haight Street (Shrader Street) Haight-Ashbury It's this sweet little place that has barely 10 seats and serves Puerto Rican comfort food. I noticed it last year during my first visit to SF in 10 years and decided to check it out. We were glad we did. Pernil asado, with Spanish rice, red beans (braised kidney beans, ham sofrito, green olives), side salad and maduros. Pastelon (sweet plantains layered over spiced ground beef, with green olives, peppers, raisins and onion); Spanish rice; braised white beans with carrots, potatoes, green olives, sweet peppers and pumpkin; side salad and maduros. Not shown is the bottle of habañero sauce. Flan

hehe thanks. originally this was going to be an eGullet Foodblog, but I changed my mind since this will be an ongoing thing for a while...

egg in a pond (whole wheat toast, fried egg sunny-side up), tomato salsa; heirloom tomatoes, basil, sea salt, black pepper, extra-virgin olive oil; fruit cup; barley tea this meal was prepped by B; I have an effect on people apparently. Not much planned today -- later we're having lunch at Parada 22. dinner tonight is TBD. tomorrow we have a dinner party for 4; one of the guests will have his 50th birthday later in July that I won't be around for. tomorrow's dinner is my gift to him. he has specific likes when it comes to dessert: must be either "creamy" or contain "chocolate". So, an apple pie is out but a slice of Sachertorte would be acceptable. This particular guest doesn't care for fruit, which makes things a bit challenging, but that's okay, I like challenges. More later.

We had dinner for four at Original Joe's SF tonight. Original Joe's SF 601 Union Street (Stockton Street) North Beach Bay shrimp cocktail Rapture, Cabernet, Lodi 2010 Caesar's salad House salad Kistler “Les Noisetiers,” Chardonnay, Sonoma Coast 2012 Veal parmigiana, side of spaghetti with meat sauce Steamed mussels, side of mixed vegetables Vanilla trifle, seasonal fruit ' Key lime pie, whipped cream Warm chocolate cake, pistachio gelato

lunch today: lamb and fennel sausage with bitter salad greens (dandelion greens, red chard, peppercress and arugula) and donut white peaches stufato di verdure, poached farm egg

pix inside the Ferry Building: overpriced chinese food, for the tourist with deep pockets

"gold-nugget" mandarin oranges haas avocadoes donut white peaches -- these were soft and honey sweet. i am telling you that y'all don't know how good the produce is here. i'm envious. fava greens