melkor

I'm with Jim on this - I've sworn off brined poultry after discovering pre-salting a few years ago.

I can't recall the last time I heard anything good about Rose Pistola. I'd go to Incanto, Quince, A16, or Delfina.

Some mushrooms are more likely to get pests than others - porcini and oyster mushrooms are frequently full of worms while chanterelles, black trumpets, yellowfoot, and matustake are generally pest free. Maitake don't grow here and we had a horrible season for morels this year, but in general we're very lucky with wild mushrooms. Porcini are abundant for about a month, if you pick enough of them it doesn't matter that some of them have worms. I only look for oysters on days when we're having no luck finding other edibles. This year the rain seems to be a bit late, usually we've got mushrooms from October through May. Any day now the rain will start...

A number of small scale commercial producers use modified 40' shipping containers to grow mushrooms. Some mushroom growing methods smell worse than others - sawdust and used coffee grinds work well for shitake, maitake, and oyster mushrooms. I've grown mushrooms at home off and on but I can never get motivated to put much effort into it since the forests around here are full of mushrooms for half the year.

The fire is good. Just don't stick your face over the the pan while you're adding cognac.

I much prefer rendering duck fat by chopping the skin and fat and heating it over a low flame on the stove top with a little water to get it started. The fat ends up tasting cleaner. Duck stock made with roasted bones is the way to go - toss the feet into the stock unroasted if you've got them. Duck demi-glace made with the stock is fantastic. On a slightly different note, I guess I'm the only person who hates duck served with a sweet sauce.

Either Jeanty or Bouchon if you're looking for bistro food - both are quite good, if Jeanty has deep fried smelt on the menu the day you're going I'd go there, otherwise Bouchon. My experience at Redd has been less than fantastic, I've found the restaurant much more focused on style than flavor. Cindy's is a train wreck similar to Mustards and Brix, I'd pass on a free meal at any of the three. Given that mushroom season will be in full swing I'd go to the Martini House - I haven't been in about a year, but there is no better time to visit than when porcini, chanterelles, and matsutake are popping out of the forest floor.

I think everyone expected the French Laundry to get three, after Per Se did last year in the NY guide it became a sure thing.

I make confit from whole ducks all the time, if you render all the fat from the ducks aside from the legs you'll get enough fat from two ducks to confit four legs. I haven't tried with one since it lasts forever in the fridge I always do larger batches. Three or more ducks will yield enough fat that you don't need to render the fat from the breasts. Most often I use the rest of the meat (don't forget the oysters from the back) and offal from the ducks to make a duck ragu. Duck breast au poivre is really good, as is seared duck with a duck demi-glace based bordelaise. Duck larb is also always a good choice.

Baumard is a fantastic producer. Nearly every Baumard wine I've tried has been excellent.

Pride does - I don't know what it costs on release but the market price seems to be around $85 for 500ml bottles.

I agree completely about the need for some new blood at the Chronicle - Bauer's reviews have more than their fare share of problems. As far as big ticket places? You can easily spend $400+ on dinner for two by ordering the tasting menu and wine parings in the city itself at Jardiniere, The Fifth Floor, Michael Mina, The Diningroom, Campton Place, Fleur de Lys, Masa's, and others.

I'm sorry but a similarity in size does not equate with "similar meat" in my books. Goats are herbivores, domesticated as a source of milk, fleece, and meat. Dogs are obligate carnivores, domesticated for working purposes. Using them as food is opportunistic and completely divorced from the species' biological role. ← I think the original dog/goat comment was an honest query rather than an attempt to derail this conversation. I haven't tried dog, nor do I have any desire to do so - goat happens to be delicious and available locally, so I've been eating it a lot recently.

How gamy the meat is depends on the breed of goat. Cabrito is more mild than chevon - but the same is true of sheep, lamb is more mild than mutton. Comparing goat to dog doesn't seem inflammatory, both are similar sized animals used for food in different parts of the world. Farm raised goats are fairly new to North America - any farm raised animal will be more mild than its wild cousin. I don't know if anyone is raising dogs for food, but I suspect they are eaten more out of necessity than anything else so even if they were biologically similar to goat the meat would be very different.

Goat rocks. Mexican birria, Pakistani goat curry, Peruvian seco de cabrito, all easy to make, all delicious.

Nopa would be my first choice for a late meal. There are also a bunch of noodle shops around town that are open late. There aren't a whole lot of options in this town after 11.

Yeah - they gave out a number of Bib Gourmands.

Correct. One star is awarded to "a very good restaurant in its category" - clearly Range is in a different category from the others you list. I think a fair amount of the uproar over the guide comes from people who have never seen the inside of a Michelin guide.

Oh, you misunderstand, we've got the price point covered - you can easily spend big dollars for a meal in SF. Gary Danko is a bargain if you ignore what they are charging for wine. My point is that the quality of the food isn't at the same level as the prices, though much of that can be attributed to the higher labor costs. There are a handful of places in the city that didn't get any stars where you can spend $500 for two going light on wine. I don't expect to see a huge number of three stars in the area, but in a few years I'd be surprised if one or two of the two stars don't move up. What I'm most curious about are the restaurants that didn't earn a star and have been coasting on out of date Chronicle reviews and Zagat scores. Bauer has long had too much power in the bay area - how is it that La Toque has never been reviewed? Maybe Michelin will send him a copy of the guide, they have the address listed. How many more reviews do we need for the mediocre bistros that make the food section time and again? What will he review this week? Whatever it is, you can be sure they serve a beet salad. The Michelin reviews will hopefully draw some chefs back into their kitchens and reinvigorate some of these stagnant menus. We can hope anyway.

I've never been to Aqua in Vegas but I've never had a meal at Aqua SF that I thought was at that level. From my experience they aren't that focused on the details - maybe things have changed in the past year. I'll go back sometime soon and see. For as long as I can remember the city itself has been mediocre at the high end without any of the diners seeming to mind - hopefully the guide will be reason enough for the good restaurants to work to become great restaurants.

The bay area food culture is dominated by home cooking - if you can't duplicate the dishes served at Zuni, you can't cook. Home cooking isn't what the Michelin guide is about, nor is it about ethnic dives. The local and organic movement most certainly didn't start in the bay area - the movement is only noteworthy here because it's different from what people have been doing in Podunk Arkansas. It's taken for granted across Europe. The biodynamic movement is based there, countless multi-star restaurants across France are as ingredient driven if not more so than bay area restaurants. There are dozens of restaurants in the bay area I love to visit that didn't get stars, that doesn't mean they aren't worth visiting. The Slanted Door is no more deserving of a star than Zuni or Delfina - none of them got one, none of them should.

I think you'll find yourself in the minority if you are suggesting that you've left the French Laundry hungry. The restaurant may not be to everyone's taste but I've not heard anyone suggest the service was rushed or that they were hungry when they left. My experience has been quite the opposite. I haven't been back to the French Laundry in a bit over a year, but the previous dozen or so visits have all been excellent. The value of a meal is a very personal thing - the Michelin guides don't award stars for the value a restaurant offers. Would it be a two star in Paris? Perhaps, but taking into account the stars awarded in the NY edition there is no question that they deserve three stars in the SF edition.

The ratings aren't relative to other restaurants in the area. Bauer is well off the mark with his comments that the French Laundry prevented anyone else from getting three stars. The Michelin system is not to compare restaurants to each other within a region but to compare them to a more global standard. It's easy to argue that the Michelin guides in the states are handing out stars too easily - Aqua for example would never in a million years earn two stars in France. Just think what sort of fit the press would be having if Michelin only gave stars to a 10 or 12 restaurants.

No, we don't - that's why there aren't any three star restaurants in San Francisco. I agree that the list is longer than it should be, but over all they did a fantastic job. Next year some of the restaurants that were passed over will surely move up, and some of the over-rated places will move down. One star restaurants are certainly to be taken in the context of what they are trying to accomplish. There are no three star bistros but there are several one star restaurants under the impression they are serving three star food. All that said - what other restaurant guide has assembled a list half as accurate as this one?

I've also had good beef and lamb shawarma in the old part of be'er shevah.