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Don't get your hopes up too much about Alemany. We've seen a pretty steady decline in sellers since the Ferry Plaza market opened. I think this year's gas prices have really taken their toll on the number of farmers willing to truck their goods in. It seems like every passing week sees one less booth filled. Do try to get there between 9-10. By 11 or noon, most are out of the good stuff or cleaning up and getting ready to go. On the other hand, around noon, you can get some very good deals on items that the farmers' don't want to pack up and truck back home.

Cool! I've been in Hayes Valley a couple times lately, and wondering about Paxti's. I believe it did just open fairly recently. Even though Chicago stuffed crust style isn't my favorite (too cheesy), having grown up in the midwest and spent quite a lot of time in Chicago, I do sometimes get a craving. Speaking of stuffed, is there even anywhere that makes Calzone? ludja, thanks for suggesting Pasquale's. I haven't been there, yet, but, I work in that neighborhood and am always looking for decent places. I'll check it out for lunch some time soon. If you like a crispy sourdough crust, and don't mind vegetarian only, the to go slices and whole pies at Arizmendi (online pizza schedule) are very good. My favorites are their roasted sweet potato variations.

ludja, We get quite a variety of shell beans and peas among the various (and seemingly sadly waning) vendors at the Alemany farmers' market here in SF. Favas are still around, but, declining in quality. Plenty of peas, if you get there early enough. Frequently a couple of the Asian vendors will have packets of shelled fresh Lima Beans, blackeyed peas, or other beans. I got some beautiful maroon and cream speckled Limas a couple weeks ago and made a nice Batali inspired pasta, just to prove to myself that they weren't the horrible things I remembered from my youth. I don't remember seeing fresh cranberry beans, yet; but, they tend to disappear quickly, and we've gotten there kind of late the last couple weekends. There are often other beans still in the shell that various ethnicities go gaga over that I don't necessarily recognize.

LOL. Well, no problem, there then. I really like a good rosé. It's funny, it was hot on Saturday here in SF and I thought a perfect day for a rosé. We were at a restaurant which specializes in souffles and were planning on having a savory seafood souffle as an entree. Again, seemed perfect for rosé. I asked the waiter if they had any, and he said, "No sir, the wine list is very French, as you can see." I guess he thought I was hoping for a White Zinfandel not a Bandol. Anyway, we ended up with a Sancerre, which was very good with the seafood souffle, in its own way. If you get a chance, try the rosés from Navarro. Year after year, they're some of my perennial favorites. Navarro Old Vine Cuvée And that d'Arenberg ain't bad either.

Dude, that is so harsh! Don't blame real rosés for Sutter Home's White Zinfandel sins. It takes a real man (or woman) to admit they like pink wine in the face of scorn and derision from their peers!

I learned two things from trips to farmers' markets recently. First, there's a reason you never see Macademia nuts in the shell. They are one of the hardest nuts on the planet. No matter what the nice lady at the farmers' market sez about fresh roasted macademia nuts, (and it's true, they are better,) really, unless you have forearms like Popeye, you're better off buying them shelled. Second, I discovered one of my childhood nemeses, Lima Beans, are actually quite tasty. I got some beautiful cream and maroon spotted ones from one of the sellers and made the following dish. They have a great meaty flavor. 1 cup fresh lima beans 2 TBSP Olive Oil 1/4# pancetta, diced 4 cloves garlic, sliced thinly 1/2 medium onion, finely diced 1/4 tsp. chile flake 1/2 teaspoon dry thyme 1 teaspoon fresh thyme 2 Cups Chicken stock 1/2 # fettucine Salt, pepper, and freshly grated parmesan Boil your water, salt and give the beans a brief blanch (5 minutes) and remove from water. Turn the water off for the time being. In a heavy sauce pan, brown the pancetta in the olive oil. Remove pancetta and drain excess oil. Brown the garlic and onion in the oil, add dry thyme and chile flakes. Add a cup or so of stock and the lima beans. Cover and cook until tender (probably about an hour). Add more stock as needed. 45 minutes in, start the water again and cook your pasta. Mash the beans up a bit with your spoon. Add the browned pancetta and fresh thyme, check seasonings. Just before the pasta is quite done, pull it from the water and add to the bean sauce with enough pasta water to loosen it up and finish cooking the pasta in the bean sauce. Serve in warm pasta bowls and grate parmesan and fresh black pepper to top. edit - tweak recipe

Chris, Herbsaint has lowered its proof a couple times over the years before finally dropping it to its current 90. Someone like Ted Haigh (drcocktail) might know the exact dates for those changes, so you could know how old it wasn't. Or you could drop a note to the Sazerac company, who might be able to date it from the style of label. I'm not sure when they stopped using the ATF labels. The 80s, maybe?

Annoyingly, calamansi disappeared from the farmers' market just about the time I got my cachaca earlier this spring. Fortunately, they are back and they make an awesome caipirinha. With their lime-tangerine goodness they are way better than those annoying kumquats. Depending on size, I recommend about 3 per cocktail. Yum!

In the Mission on Valencia Street between 21st and 22nd streets.

I've been meaning to try the Pinkus Unfiltered Organic Ur-Pils for a while now, so I took the nudge from this thread to give it a try. It's a bit expensive at around $3 for a 500ml bottle. However, it is one of the nicer pils I can remember having recently. Hazy yellow color and medium carbonation. Very clean taste, with just a touch of initial hops. My wife thought the flavor reminded her a bit of bread or tortillas. A great example of this style of beer. Perfect for a hot summer day. It would be a fantastic session beer. If it were a little cheaper I would fill my refrigerator with it and never look back. edit - had price wrong.

Here's a quote re: Lillet from the recipe for the Corpse Reviver #2 from "Vintage Spirits...", "...Lillet. Like Dubonnet, it has two varieties, red and white. One always chooses red Dubonnet, conversely, always choose Lillet Blanc." I can't recall where I read the about the two companies introducing the other varieties to compete with each other.

The recipe doesn't specify. I think in "Vintage Cocktails..." or some other source, I read that Lillet was initially only blanc and Dubonnet only rouge. They later introduced products to compete with each other; but, unless a recipe specifies you should assume that Lillet is blanc and Dubonnet rouge. RE: Absinthe Well, I suppose. I would like to try the Jade products. Hard to spend that ~$100 on faith that you will like them, though.

Sorry for the delay. The next cocktails are Absinthe based, and my plan was to make them with Henri Bardouin Pastis. As much as I like Bardouin Pastis, Absinthe cocktails made with it, aren't doing it for me. When you chill Bardouin Pastis down to proper cocktail temp, before I can get a photo, some of the essential oils precipitate out in a most unattractive manner. I suspect I am going to have to break down and get a more accurate Absinthe substitute. The two most available are La Muse Verte pastis and Absente. Any advice on which to choose?

The pizzas at Chow are really pretty good. Goat Hill Pizza can be pretty ok, if you order wisely (I recommend ham, mushroom, and artichoke) and like their style of sourdough crust. Little Star Pizza over on Divisidero is OK for deep dish and popular with the "kids". It's kind of slightly upscale Pizzeria Uno inspired type fare. Panhandle Pizza (take out only) also is pretty good for deep dish. In my opinion they use better ingredients and have a more interesting crust than little star. For more traditional style pizzas, I do like the pizzas at one of my favorite little Italian restaurants in North Beach, L'Osteria del forno. That said, I've seldom had pizza out at restaurants where I didn't think, "This reminds me, I should make pizza more often at home." Gotta try BBQ grilled pizza this summer! edit - forgot to add L'osteria.

The Carlo brand is the most commonly available on the West Coast. Idle question, they make both a "Pomegranate Concentrate" and a "Pomegranate Molasses". Is the Molasses just a more concentrated version of the same thing?

Digest: San Francisco Chronicle Wine Digest and 96 Hours section, Thursday, June 17, 2006 Time in a bottle: Older wines capture the imagination; do they still enrapture the palate?, W. Blake Gray Wine Business Insider: Lawsuits seek to let shops nationwide ship wine here, Cyril Penn California residents may be able to order wine from retail stores around the country if several lawsuits filed in the state are successful....Cosentino Signature Wines in Yountville has purchased St. Helena's Lorenza-Lake Winery...IKoves-Newland Vineyards and Winery in Napa Valley has been acquired by L'Attitude Wines...Paul Dolan has been elected board chairman of the Wine Institute...Wines & Vines magazine in San Rafael has hired wine publishing veteran Jim Gordon as editor...Dominique Demarville, the chef de cave (chief winemaker) for Champagne Mumm in France, is moving to take over a similar position at Veuve Clicquot... Letters to Wine: Bordeaux wines from the garage Bargain Wines: Ten food-friendly wines you can bring home to dinner, Leslie Sbrocco Benefits Rub elbows with Mendocino vintners and growers and sample wines at the eighth annual Mendocino Wine Affair June 23-24...Sample Sonoma's best in the Sonoma County Vintners 26th Showcase of Wine and Food July 13-15... Pairings: Cook up thin cuts of meat for a fast, fresh meal, Lynne Char Bennett Recipe: Creamy Lentils & Potatoes The Chronicle's Wine Selections: California White Rhone Varietals, Lynne Char Bennett The Cheese Course: A cheese to please those who like it mild, Janet Fletcher Are older wines better?, W. Blake Gray How should wine be stored?, W. Blake Gray Which wines will stand the test of time?, W. Blake Gray Spirits: Drink to your health with pomegranates, Leah Greenstein Recipes: Pomegranate Martini Courtesy of Martini House, St. Helena Regina Viola Courtesy of Santi, Geserville 96 Hours Bargain Bite: Jazz Caffe, Karola Saekel CRITICS' PICKS: Happy Hour Nibbles, Amanda Berne "As the clock ticks toward 5 p.m., that cocktail couldn't look better. But, three drinks into a primal happy hour, you're three sheets to the wind with no food in your stomach. For shame." Dining Update: Fog City Diner, Bill Addison Dining Update: Zibibbo, Michael Bauer

Hard to beat that one. My dad worked at Oscar Meyer in the 50s. I'm pretty sure the thing that set him right on a divulgent career path was a similar job involving pig intestines. ooof. Nothing like 8 hours of intestine packing...

Uh, I wish I could work somewhere where the Junipero bottle wouldn't be noticed!? Really, it's just a "juniper tonic"?!

How do you pronounce, "Westvletern"?

Thanks Kerry! They do have an amazing selection of herbs there. Dried violet flowers are expensive, though. Maybe I should just spring to have a bottle of creme de violette shipped from England.

I can't decide if it was the time a dumpster full of spoiled beans became infested with maggots and I had to clean it out after the garbage men came or if it was the time the tofu factory next door clogged our sewer drain and our basement filled with 3 inches of tofu water which then had to be drained and mopped. I'm gonna say the dumpster, as at least the tofu drain water was relatively clean and not stinky. Well, only stinky in a tofu kind of way, which isn't really that bad in the grand scheme of revolting smells.

Long article about pomegranate cocktails in today's SF Chronicle Wine section: Drink to your health with pomegranates, Leah Greenstein It includes recipes for a "Pomegranate Martini" from the Martini House in St. Helena and the "Regina Viola" from Santi in Geyserville. Funny they don't mention making your own grenadine; but, I guess since all the bartenders interviewed are skipping grenadine altogether it would be superfluous to the subject. It seems, the field of pomegranate vodkas will soon be crowded with contenders.

Sorry to be particular about ingredients in this one. The flavor of the Sazerac whiskies really suggested themselves to me in combination with the Zirbenz and the musky weirdness of fresh squeezed meyer lemons. If you use another whiskey or regular lemons, you won't be having the same cocktail. Saaz Junior 2 oz Sazerac 6 year 1/2 oz Zirbenz Stone Pine Liqueur 1/4 oz Meyer Lemon Juice dash angostura bitters dash rich simple syrup Combine ingredients in an iced cocktail shaker and stir to chill. Strain into a cocktail glass.

FotF was wondering what the bartenders at Absinthe were up to with Zirbenz. In the interest of scientific liqueur research, I nobly sacrificed my liver in a quest to discover the cocktail. Called the the "Georgie Shaw" the cocktail contains scotch, zirbenz, pimm's #1, and regan's orange bitters stirred with ice. It is garnished with a long orange twist. Something like 2 oz, 1/2 oz, 1/2 oz, as far as I could judge. Unfortunately, I'm not much of a scotch drinker, so to me the peaty flavor of whatever scotch* it was completely overwhelmed the other ingredients. I tried my best but couldn't detect any trace of Zirbenz or Pimms in the cocktail. Also, while I was watching another bartender scale the wall of the bar to get down the bottle of Zirbenz, I missed which brand of scotch my bartender put into the cocktail. I've been trying to avoid the obvious gin and pine cocktail, and have been thinking that the flavor of Zirbenz might nicely complement the herbaceous and almost musty flavor of the Sazerac 6, possibly garnished with a Meyer Lemon twist and a thyme sprig. Will report back, once I have results of that experiment.** BTW, the bartenders and managers at Absinthe have a book coming out later this fall. Called, "The Art of the Bar," it is a big colorful coffee table size book with attractive photos and recipes for many of the classic and signature cocktails that have been popular at the restaurant over the years. *I checked my notes, and the scotch was William Grant. **First try was not quite there. 2oz Saz 6 rye, 1/2 oz Zirbenz, dash angostura, garnished with lemon and thyme. I think with a dash of simple and 1/4 oz meyer lemon juice this will be right on.

I picked up a set of champagne glasses (Marie Antoinette?) on eBay a couple years ago, and I am very fond of them. They're not super fancy; but, they were cheap, (dontcha just love when no one else bids?) and perfect size (4-5 ounces) for Martinis and such. Also have some regular heavy 8oz whiskey glasses I use for more "manly" cocktails and a set of very thin tall glasses my wife got from her grandmother which work well for highballs and such. And, of course, the usual tragically mismatched set of "survivor" wine glasses, souvenir shot glasses from college, pint glasses, mugs and the like. edit - spelling