melkor

I went to Canteen a week or two ago. I've only been once, but I thought it was nice. The four of us shared most of the menu, some dishes were excellent some were just good. I'll go back, but I'm not in any hurry. The staff is great and I like the space, I just wish the dishes were a little more consistent.

I'd recommend Incanto, Delfina, Zuni, 1550 Hyde, and Mochica.

Unless its a lambrusco or a handful of other oddball reds.

The only appeal of In-n-Out is that it isn't as bad as the alternatives.

If you like Michael Mina's cooking then you'll likely enjoy the restaurant that bares his name. I prefer high-end food outside SF to what is available in SF. You’ve got plenty of options for high-end restaurants in SF – Michael Mina, Gary Danko, Campton Place, the Fifth Floor, Dining room at the Ritz, and a handful of others. I think you’d be better off at many of the restaurants in the city that offer more simple fare focusing on the great local produce available here.

As much as I like In-N-Out burger, Taylors in St Helena is much better.

Erm... Which valley?

It doesn't seem to me that a store should be responsible for refunding a wine based on the customer not enjoying it. If it were a flawed bottle (cooked, corked, etc) then sure, but it sounds like your husband bought a bottle after doing insufficient research and you didn't enjoy the wine. Almost everyone I know has made expensive mistakes at one point or another when buying wine, I know that I certainly have. Clearly they are interested in retaining you as a customer or they wouldn't have issued a store credit. Parker incidentally doesn't list a rating for the 93 yquem, the wine spectator rates it 86 points with a review that starts out 'Rather weak for Yquem' and ends with unsual advice for the a wine from this property suggesting the wine be drunk now (the review was published in 2000). In general I'd advise against drinking yquem young, lesser wines show as well or better early on in their lives - yquem doesn't really shine until its spent a few decades in the bottle.

I ended up making meatloaf. 50% lamb shoulder and 50% beef (chuck). I started by running an onion and a few cloves of garlic through the meat grinder before tossing them in a warm skillet with a little butter over a low flame, while the garlic and onions were softening up I ground the meat. Next I dumped the ground meat, the cooked onions and garlic, along with a bunch of herbs from the herb garden, a couple fistfuls of panko, an egg, and some salt and pepper into a mixing bowl and mixed until it came together. I then set the pan back over high heat, shaped the meat into a loaf and set it in the pan on its side. After a couple of minutes I turned it onto the next side, once all four of the long sides were crispy I moved the meatloaf onto a sheet pan and stuck it in the oven at 375*F. 15 or 20 minutes into cooking (once it was nice and crispy on the outside) I spread some bbq sauce on it (tomato based bbq sauce, made earlier in the day). I left it in the oven until the probe thermometer said it was 160*F inside then transferred to a rack to rest for half an hour before eating. It’s been a long time since I’ve made meatloaf, but this turned out pretty well. I think for lunch I’ll reheat some of the meatloaf on the grill, make a sandwich, and toss together some creamed spinach to go with it.

I've been using a Messermeister Meridian Elite 10" cooks knife for the past few years and love it. Fits my hand well, easy to sharpen, holds a good edge, good weight and balance, and the curve of the blade works really well when using it in a rocking motion on the board. The most important thing is to find a knife that is comfortable in your hand. The right length, blade shape, handle design, and weight are all different for different people. Go to a knife shop/kitchen store and try out everything you can get your hands on and see what works for you. Some things can be changed later, others can't - I spend most of my time using a pinch grip so I rounded off the spine with some sandpaper to make holding the knife more comfortable.

Acme (sf), Bouchon Bakery (napa), La Farine (oakland)

The Thai temple on the peninsula serves lunch every once in a while. That's as close to authentic as I've had around here.

Wine.com has the 2000 yquem for $220 also. 1999 is another good but unremarkable vintage for yquem and the wine can be had for much less - I paid $138 for my 750s and $69 for my 375s. I would suggest finding some of the 2001 Rieussec, Suduiraut, Climens, and/or La Tour Blanche if you intend to drink this wine in the next ten years anyway. The 2001 Coutet and de Malle are worth finding as well, though they aren't at the same level as the wines I've already listed. Long term (20+ years from now) yquem even from a weak vintage is likely to be in better shape than its peers, but if you aren't waiting that long to drink it, what good does that do you?

Check out Delfina, Incanto, 1550 Hyde, Mochica, or Zuni.

I'm not a fan. I'd go to any number of places instead.

Chateau de Fargues for most of it I would imagine.

I've been served cedar plank salmon in rural NY also - it sadly isn't just a west coast phenomenon.

Fortunately I don't think I've seen wasabi mashed potatoes on a menu in the last couple of years...

I'm confused. Are you saying growing local food in a concious manner is a false conceit and yet it tastes better? If the organic/local movement is creating better food, what is the problem? I'm missing your point, I think. ← I would assume his comments mirror my take on the subject; the overwhelming majority of the restaurants I enjoy eating at serve local produce, organic/biodynamic/sustainable whatever – in the future I’d expect that it will be a forgone conclusion that restaurants are all doing so. There will always be the local restaurants that are little more than Sysco outlet in one form or another, but the restaurants serving quality food now are working with raw ingredients rather than frozen packets and jars of things and for them to continue to be competitive in the future they will need to be buying whatever ingredients taste best. The best argument from a restaurant perspective for serving local ingredients is that most of the time they taste better. Good food brings customers in the door; pink mealy tomatoes in February are not longer acceptable because consumers are learning what food should taste like.

We got a late start this year and only started setting out plants last weekend. About half of what is going into the garden has been planted. So far we've got zucchini, crookneck squash, pattypan squash, small round red watermlon, huge orange watermelon, ambrosia melon, something called best ever melon that I felt compelled to buy when I found it at the nursery, butternut squash, eggplant, pasilla, habanero, and thai chili peppers, roma, Nebraska wedding, black krim, and mr stripey tomatoes, cucumbers, and cranberry beans. Leftover from the winter garden we’re still growing swiss chard, onions, garlic, carrots, asparagus, artichokes, mache, scallions, celery, and arugula. We’ve still got plant assorted beets and carrots, turnips, kohlrabi, tomatillos, brusselsprouts, cauliflower, leeks, lettuce, broccoli rabe and parsnips. The herb garden has the usual suspects: parsley, sage, cilantro, bay, rosemary, Greek and Italian oregano, basil, marjoram, thyme, tarragon, chives, lemongrass, and some catnip.

I had an excellent meal there when I was last in Portland.

Some people have really enjoyed Michael Mina, others well… not so much - I'm squarely in the not group, I've found the quality of the food inconsistent, the service spotty, and the wine list lacking. As far as I'm concerned the three multi-course tasting menus worth seeking out in the area are the French Laundry, Manresa, and La Toque - none of them are in the city itself. If you are looking for more than one fancy meal, add La Toque in Rutherford to your list while you’re in Napa.

My concern when recommending restaurants in SF to a New Yorker is always that the higher end restaurants in San Francisco are only really good when you compare them to other options in SF. Countless people have good meals at Boulevard, Danko, Campton Place and many other high end restaurants in SF - I'm not suggesting the food is bad; simply that it would be crazy to compare Gary Danko to ADNY or Boulevard to Daniel. At the upper end NYC is just a better food town than SF.

How many families does White Crane Springs feed? They are a beautiful biodynamic farm, producing absolutely stunning salad greens that can be yours for only $36/pound. To suggest that a $12 bottle of wine is a luxury good while you endorse a $4 peach seems inconsistent. As lovely as the world would be if everyone could afford to eat organic and biodynamic produce raised by the loving hands of a local farmer, the fact is that the bulk of the food produced by these good people is a luxury many people cannot afford. I think there is some confusion about who does what in the wine world. A winemaker is the person who is responsible for turning the fruit into wine, they may or may not be the owner of the winery and they frequently are working with fruit that they purchase on contract from a vineyard elsewhere. The people who grow the grapes and sell them to wineries are called growers most of the time, they are the people who this discussion is about – are the grape growers farmers? I find it fairly obvious that someone who spends their life growing grapes is a farmer. Their role in feeding the masses is no less significant than someone selling salad for $36 a pound or $8 pound cherries or half-pints of blueberries for $4 – all of them can be found at the SF Ferry Plaza market. As far as wine at farmers markets, the only place I’ve seen wine for sale at a farmers market is the St Helena market where oddly enough Longmeadow Ranch was selling their wine last I was there.

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