TheFuzzy

All, Just as a warning, the "ricotta" recipe in last month's Saveur magazine is bad. You'll end up with milk porrige.

Shame. Let me know if you run across anything. I do find it bizarre, though, given the Chinese population of the Bay Area, that there aren't more "authentic regional" Chinese restaurants here. There are certainly authentic regional Indian restaurants. Go figure.

Gfron, For future notice, japanese stores sell fake fish eggs which are made from wheat gluten. They're for cheap sushi.

Ah Leung, Thanks for the recommendations! I've been to Yank Sing. They're very good, but only do dim sum. I was looking for more serious prepared dishes. Hopefully I can follow up on one or more of your South Bay recommendations soon. And yes, what I meant was I was trying to avoid "chop suey" places, and visit more of the kind of places I ate at in Beijing.

Yes. I went about 6 months ago. The service was excellent, but the food was middling-good and the markup on the wine is pretty high. Mostly: good, but more expensive than good. If you go anyway, stay away from the tasting menu. I shouldn't have let myself get talked into that by my tablemates. Some of the items were downright inedible. I'd suggest Clementine, Delfina, Foreign Cinema, or Farallon before you go to Quince.

Can't say I ever heard of it. It appears to be gone, though. There's no telephone listing for it.

Yeah, that would be it.

Folks, Stopped by there today. During busy times (lunch, etc.) they are selling "meat cones": a selection of sliced cured meats rolled into a paper cone.

Ah Leung, Thanks! I'll try some of the stuff in San Francisco and write it up if it's good. Where would you recommend for high-class Cantonese food? All the Chinese restaurants I know seem to be cheap diners, or good-but-not-traditional California-Chinese gourmet.

Alan, If you were in town for some other reason, I'd recommend visiting Fog City News and/or Bittersweet Cafe for impressive selections of chocolate. You might want to drop by Fog City News before/after you visit the Ferry Building in any case to get them to carry your stuff (the owner is Adam Smith. Yes, really). Beyond that, you also want to visit one of our Chinese supermarkets here. Sunset Super and the New May Wah markets are the most impressive. Neither is anywhere near Chinatown. If you do go to Chinatown, cut over to the fish markets on Stockton Street, 1 block from the tourist-thronged Grant Street. And keep in mind that with 40% of the urban population Chinese or Chinese-American, all of San Francisco is Chinatown. I expect you'll be occupied full-time, but saturday & sunday the Thai Temple will be having a Thai Food Festival in the County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park. Bizarrely for such a foodie town, San Francisco has no foodie bookstore. Stacey's (downtown) does have a large cooking section, though. Too bad I just found out you're doing the Chocolate Pavillion. If I'd known, my wife would have bought us tickets. Sold out now, alas.

Folks, I had some excellent Taiwanese Chinese food in Beijing on my last visit there. However, I've not been able to find a gourmet Taiwanese restaurant in the SF Bay Area. Anybody know one?

Folks, I'm about to order rennet. Does anyone have an opinion about Animal vs. Non-animal vs. GMO (I'm tempted to get it just for the un-PC value), in anything they've actually made? My cheesemaking teacher came out fairly strongly in favor of animal rennet, although we used non-animal in the class. Also, is there any value to the mozzarella culture which many cheesemaking suppliers sell?

Jaz, I just posted a writeup of our drive up the 101. Hurricane Kate's in Eureka was quite good. For the full writeup with several recomendations: Part 1 Part 2

Hah!

Folks, I know I can order rennet, ricotta baskets, etc. on the internet, but hey, I live in San Francisco ... there ought to be someplace I can buy these here. Only I can't find any place. Is there? (p.s. if there was a "where do I get" thread I was supposed to use, sorry ... I searched and couldn't find it)

Folks, Pie at the Humbolt County Fair: And the performing Kitchen-Aires!

Linzou, Cool! Any idea why they're so brown? Well, I've been keeping my Moroccan Preserved Lemons for 2 years now, I guess I don't have to worry about them.

All, Florentine Eggs: Arizmendi sourdough muffins, heirloom tomatoes, sauteed spinach, scrambled eggs, bechamel with parmigiano and herbs. With sweet potato home fries.

Patric, I'm going to confine my suggestions to the city of San Francisco, because if I did Berkeley, Marin, Oakland, Somoma, etc. this would take forever. For what the neighborhood names mean, see this handy neighborhood map. Bread: Arizmendi Bakery Coop is probably the single best bakery in the city, especially for sourdough (Inner Sunset). Boulange (multiple locations) is probably second, although Acme (Ferry Building) has won international prizes. For non-bread baked goods, Tartine Bakery (Mission) is pretty hard to beat. For that matter, just about any corner grocery in the city is liable to carry bread from Grace Baking, Semifreddi, Bakers of Paris, and/or Boudin, any of which are worth freezing and taking home to your relatives. Cheese: I agree with everyone that the #1 cheese stop is Cowgirl Creamery in the Ferry Building. Among your #2 stops could be Say Cheese (Cole Valley), Lucca Delicatessen (Mission or Marina), and Bi-Rite Market (Castro). Also, for bread and cheese, if you're going to be here on a Saturday you must must must go to the Ferry Building Farmer's Market. Beer: San Francisco is not a really good place for Belgian beers. There are no direct flights from Brussels, and few from Amsterdam, so you'll have a hard time finding real Belgians on cask. I'd recommend instead going to local brewpubs (where they make the beer on the premises) in hopes of them having a Belgian-style. Best shots among these are Magnolia's (Haight-Ashbury), 21st Amendment (SOMA) and Thirsty Bear (SOMA). The Beach Chalet also makes some decent beers (and has a terrific view of the Pacific Ocean) but I've never seen a Belgian-style there. Now, San Francisco does get 5 flights/day from Frankfurt, so it's an excellent place to have German beers. Good places for German beers include the Toranado (Lower Haight), Suppenkuche (Hayes Valley), and Shroeder's (Financial District). Feel free to ping me for more recommendations.

Folks, Lazy Creek Winery, established by former chef Josh Chandler with the goal of making wine which complimented and didn't upstage good food, has been sold to a regional combine group. They say they'll keep it the same, but how likely is that? This was vastly disappointing to me, especially since I found out by driving out to the winery. If you know a Bay Area restaurant which (like Pizetta 211) hasn't been receiving their Lazy Creek, this is why.

Folks, Thanks, all! To the House of Bagels I shall go ....

Folks, When I first moved to San Francisco, I was spoiled by the presence of Holy Bagel on the Upper Haight -- and old-style, made-on-the-premises, boiled-in-a-vat, no-fancy-flavors baglery. But then Manhatten Bagel bought them; in came the frozen dough, out went the experienced staff, and eventually Holey Bagel closed to be replaced by a Hawaiian ice cream parlor. The ice cream is very good but largely useless for a Sunday brunch. I've tried bagels from other locations, but Noah's standard of "spongey ring bread" seems to have left its mark; of the bagleries I've been to, only Katz seems to make them right, and they have very limited hours which makes it hard for me to pick up there. Are there other, quality bagleries that I don't know about? I sure hope so! (btw, I do make my own sometimes but this generally requires the whole evening before and makes a large mess)

Folks, I'm looking forward to the Chronicle classes. I did Sur Le Table when they had classes in San Francisco, and was really disappointed when the closed. I ended up missing a lot of cancelled classes because of lack of attendance. I think the problem with cooking classes in the City is that people don't have time, rather than a lack of desire or too much competition. Also, the drop in attendence, and Surly's decision to close, came in 2001 -- I think a lot of people stopped going because they'd lost their jobs. I, too, would like to see more "technique" classes; I did fish prep twice at Sur Le Table (once with Jay Harlow and once with Hugh Carpenter) and learned a lot which I'm still using. I don't want the Viking classes, which are too basic, or Tante Marie, which is too expensive.

Hmmm .... I don't know his name, but I love the "mushroom guy" at the SF Ferry Plaza market. He used to do the Civic Center FM, but moved upscale. I really don't know anywhere else I can get fresh porchini and bizarre wild mushrooms. And he's friendly. Also, the "kiwi guy" at the Civic Center FM is wild fun. His features are 100% Han Chinese, and yet he has this very pronounced flat midwestern (Nebraska I think) accent. It's a really startling contrast. And he grows kiwis in CA. Go figure. I'm also fond of the "dried pepper lady" at the Ferry Plaza (saturdays only). Really pricey, but where else am I going to buy woodfire-dried hot pimentos? And she sells organic wool. Imagine!

Folks, Aha, brunch, probably my favorite meal. I've stopped going to Ella's. As the weekend crowds have gotten bigger and the restaurant expanded, they've stripped down the weekend brunch menu in order to keep up with demand. Unfortunately, that means most of the stuff which makes Ella's worth waiting in line for is only available on weekdays. If you can get there on a weekday, though, do so and order a fried polenta for me! Kate's Breakfast, on Haight, was the hot spot for about 4 years and still commands hour-long waiting lists if you make the mistake of arriving after 10am on a weekend. It's still the best preposterously-huge-pancakes-buried-in-stuff breakfast around, or try the French Toast Orgy. Do not bring your Atkins friends there. Speaking of the Lower Haight, does anyone but me mourn the demise of Spaghetti Western? Memphis Minnie's replaced it, which is a good thing, but they don't do brunch. On the Upper Haight, Magnolia's has a limited menu of semi-classy brunch items, and never has a wait until noon, owing partly to prices $1-2 higher than the norm for the street. The Pork Store is another much-reviewed classic and possibly the best gourmet-greasy diner experience you can have for 1300 calories. Not for the faint of cholesterol. The Blue Front is good in a hurry for an egg dish and on a limited budget, but Squat and Gobble has been in steady decline for the last 2 years (possibly due to increased rent) and should probably be skipped. All You Knead is known for good blintzes and some of the worst service you can get on the Haight, which is saying a lot. As far as Cole Valley goes, I don't see what the big deal about Zazie is. Why do people wait in line? The portions are small, yet pricey. Zazie does a good dinner though. Crepes on Cole has overhauled their menu and added many new items and combos, making them much more attactive for a crepe-or-omlette brunch. Or if you just want pastry and serious coffee, try Bay Bread's 4th Boulangerie location Oh, and I second the recommend for Art's Cafe. Our new "stealth option" for late-start mornings is Q on Clement Street. They have a nice selection of eggy things including some which are rather exotic, and some good chilaquiles. And no lines until after 11. Further afield, Bette's Diner has not lost its touch; we did not at all regret the drive to get there on a Sunday morning (arrive early or wait!). If you can't get there, but the cookbook. Finally, there is a wood-fired pizza place in the San Francisco Airport International Terminal which will cook you a breakfast pizza with eggs, cheese, and pancetta.