Posted by Anita on 05.02.06 10:35 AM
Always on the prowl for better breakfast, we tried out Ann’s Doughtnut Sandwich Shop for breakfast last weekend (based on a postive review on Yelp), and.. wow… I mean, I never though I would get nostalgic for the mediocre eats at Al’s Cafe Good Food.
First of all, service was surly. We were grunted to a table, and had threadbare menus shoved at us. Actually, make that ‘menu’, singular — did the waiter really want us to share? Uh, yeah. Sorry, I don’t read upside-down in the morning. After trying unsuccessfully to get the waiter’s attention, we got up and got a second menu off the counter.
Then we tried to order, only to find out that they don’t make poached eggs?? WTF!? I thought this was a coffee shop. Given the choice of scrambled or over-easy, I went with scrambled. No English muffins or sourdough, either — you’ll take white or wheat …and *like* it.
We were practically the only people in the place, but for some reason our food took forever to come. When it finally materialized, it looked like a dog’s breakfast. The hashbrowns were cooked in nasty artificial-tasting griddle grease, and were totally pale, cold, and underdone. The eggs, on the other hand, were rubbery and over cooked. I don’t expect much from diner corned-beef hash from a can, but it should at least be heated through and preferably a little crispy (this was neither). Oh, and as for my toast? Nasty bread with cheap margarine. (–shudder–)
While we were attempting to eat, a guy came in and sat at the counter, and asked for eggs with three slices of bacon, instead of the two slices listed on the menu.
Waiter: “No, it comes with two.”
Customer: “Well, I’d like three.”
Waiter: “No!”
Customer: “What do you mean, “No!”? I’ll pay for it!”
Waiter: “Get out of here!”
(customer gets up, slams menu on the counter, and leaves)
Waiter: “And DON’T COME BACK!”
I felt sick most of the day after eating here. I can put up with mediocre food, as long as it’s made with love. But this meal was obviously made with an extra helping of contempt.
Ann’s Doughtnut Sandwich Shop
4488 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94112
415.334.1761
breakfast, restaurants
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Posted by Anita on 04.24.06 4:41 PM
In honor of spring finally springing in my hometown, and also Arbor Day (April 28) and Green Day (no, not the band — Japan’s Midori no hi, April 29), let’s investigate all manner of green soups.
Here are a few I came up with, off the top of my head:
– cucumber gazpacho
– new mexico green chile soup
– avocado soup
– pea soup (fresh spring peas or split peas)
– posole verde
– cream of asparagus
– fava bean & artichoke
– herb soups like sorrel, watercress, etc.
– cream of spinach or broccoli
You could even do a chilled melon dessert soup.
But, in the end, I decided to make my friend Jan’s Creamy
Pea, Lettuce & Leek Soup with Lemon Crème Fraiche and Chive Oil.
Not only did I forget to take a photo, but neither did anyone at the Seattle party where this soup made its debut… so I can’t even poach one! Trust me, it was gorgeous. I’m so glad I was making it for a dinner party, or I might not have bothered with the creme fraiche or the chive oil — and they definitely made the dish much better.
cooking, recipes, Seattle, Soup o' the Fortnight
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Posted by Anita on 04.22.06 1:44 PM
I started out canning just to see how it was done, mostly dill pickles and pickled beets, and the occasional fruit preserve. Then I started pickling and preserving a few batches of produce from my friends’ gardens, as a way of helping them cope with overabundance — 2 years ago, in Seattle, it was a huge batch of brandied plums, and a batch of pickled serranos and carrots.
Last year was a tough year, as we were moving long distance from Seattle to SF, and living in a furnished apartment without access to our own kitchen gear. I did manage a very small batch of tomato-bourbon jam, and my first batch of nocino (green walnut liqueur).
Now I’m hooked: I preserve at home now mostly to get flavors I can’t get from retail products. And a lot of what I preserve ends up being holiday presents and hostess gifts.
I just took a marmalade class this past weekend with June Taylor, a local preserving maven — unfortunately, the citrus season is almost spent, but I may put up a batch of something simple, just so I don’t forget what I learned.
And we’re about to plant a bunch of fruit-bearing trees and plants with the express intention of preserving and infusing. It was fun coming up with all kinds of different plants, from trees to shrubs to vines to groundcover, that will give us something to eat. Most of our yard will be edible in one form or another.
As far as books go, I like Georgeanne Brennan’s The Glass Pantry, which you can get used online for about $2, and Linda Amendt’s Blue Ribbon Preserves. I just recently purchased Putting Food By, which many consider the bible of preserving, but I found the authors’ writing style horrifically pedantic… it set my teeth on edge and I slogged my way through it wondering what people see in this book. It is remarkably complete, so if you need a recipe for somethings really specific and unusual, it may be the only way to go (as ad-libbing in preserving is a definite no-no — you really want an expert to have sussed out all the biohazard stuff, and changing from one fruit or vegetable to another can throw that all out of whack).
cookbooks, drinks, preserving & infusing, recipes, Seattle
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Posted by Anita on 04.06.06 4:36 PM
In honor of Passover, I decided to make the Russ & Daughters Mushroom-Barley soup from the NYT Jewish Cookbook.
(Yes, it’s shown with a decidely un-Jewish grilled bacon-and-cheese sandwich.)
If I made this soup again, I think I would use a LOT less barley than the recipe calls for. I kept adding more and more liquid, and still it was a bit too much like porridge. I finally gave up — realizing I was going to throw the balance off even more. And it needed a LOT more salt than called for.
cookbooks, cooking, Soup o' the Fortnight
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Posted by Anita on 03.31.06 4:33 PM
I made the Cream of Cailiflower and Stilton Soup from Epicurious, replacing the stilton with Irish blue cheese. (I had found other Irish cauliflower-cheese soups elsewhere, but they didn’t sound as good.)
We served it with corned beef sandwiches.
It was delicious, and I can’t wait to have the leftovers for lunch!
cooking, recipes, Soup o' the Fortnight
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Posted by Anita on 03.29.06 3:13 PM
USPS announced their new Crops of the Americas stamps today. You can buy ’em online or at the local post office.
levity
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Posted by Anita on 03.20.06 3:22 PM
(links updated 1/2010)
I made a huge batch of posole verde yesterday, with Rancho Gordo hominy, and pig parts from Prather Ranch. I am drooling as I think of eating the leftovers for lunch.
The recipe was from the Williams-Sonoma Mexican book, which I still have checked out from the library, with some reality-checking of quantities from Rick Bayless. Tausend calls for 3 pounds of posole for a single batch, which would have been an amazingly awful mistake. I also used Bayless’s larger ratios of meat (2 pounds) and bones (3+ pounds, and substituting water for the chicken stock accordingly) and his suggestion of adding a pig foot for broth texture. I did use the W-S recipe’s sauce components, although I don’t think I’d bother with the pumpkin seeds again — a lot of effort and expense for very little payoff.
Dessert was a nearly flourless chocolate-almond cake frosted with with ancho whipped cream — from the same cookbook — which I liked very much.
cookbooks, cooking, Mexican
1 Comment »
Posted by Anita on 03.17.06 4:31 PM
For my second attempt at Italian soups for the fortnight, I made tortellini en brodo. Actually, I made about 100 tortellini, and now I have LOTS in the freezer…
cooking, Italian, Soup o' the Fortnight
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Posted by Anita on 03.16.06 10:17 AM
Don’t underestimate how hard it is to get a table at Dosa: Kathy, Neil, Cameron and I tried to walk in and eat here a couple of weeks ago, and gave up. Trying to work within the system, we gathered up 2 more friends — Dosa takes reservations for groups of 5 or more — and emailed early the next week to get a table. After 3 days without a response, I called and left voicemail. A very sweet woman called me back and apologized for the problem, and found us a table at the time we wanted.
Needless to say, my expectations ran pretty high after all of this rigamarole. Largely, I think they were met. The food is interesting, tasty, flavorful without being incendiary, and thoughtfully presented. Service was crisp but a little stand-offish, and our server was very helful when it came time to figure out what (and how much) to order — once we asked.
I was really pleased with how reasonable the prices were. For less than $45 per person, including tax and tip, we had 2 bottles of wine and a handful of beers, plus a ton of food. Our order included a refreshing chickpea salad, a pair of appetizers — crispy-spicy potato croquets and lush lentil dumplings — three dosai (paneer, egg, and rava masala), and two of the curries: a deeply spiced Tamil lamb, and a prawn coconut masala… oh, and a giant bathura. Each dosa came with its own bowl of sambar, plus two smooth chutneys: a gingery coconut one and a spicy tomato version. Needless to say, we didn’t have room for dessert, although I was tempted by the cardamom ice cream.
On the downside: The tables are awfully close together, the noise level is out of hand, the decor is warm but a tad bit stark — some art on the walls would help. Worst of all, the hordes of drooling, hovering patrons (staring daggers while you try to enjoy dinner) is really, really annoying. The hosts were letting people hang out in the dining area, not just the bar, and I found that extremely inappropriate.
If I could make a reservation for a party of 2 or 4, or better yet, walk in on a weeknight with a reasonable expectation of a table becoming available within the space of a leisurely cocktail, I’d become a regular. But given the hassle factor, I can’t imagine it being more than an occasional thing. I hope that once things calm down a bit, the owners might consider opening at least a few tables to reservations, while leaving the majority open for walk-ins.
Dosa
995 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415.642.3672
restaurants, The Mission
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Posted by Anita on 03.15.06 10:02 AM
Back in the ancient days, before I was Mrs. — yea verily before the dot-com boom — Boulevard was the place we always went for special occasions. We dined here Monday night to celebrate Cameron’s newfound employment, and it tickles me to no end that Boulevard is just as good as ever.
The service has gotten a little more sniffy, the clientele noticeably more swank, and the prices (never a bargain to begin with) have climbed proportionally. But the Beaux Arts decor is still gorgeous, the wine list is still deep without being impenetrable, and — most importantly — the food’s still creative without being too far out in left field.
There were a couple of missteps in our recent dinner — a desperately over-dressed salad, a server who left us sitting without water or drinks or so much as an “I’ll be right with you” for nearly 15 minutes, an awkward gap between the appetizers and the mains — but all was forgiven when our entrees arrived.
My heirloom pork chop was easily the best pig I have eaten in the states, perfectly cooked and richly porky with a perfectly salty, herbal flavor. And the accompanying pyramid-shaped raviolo was like a minature meal in itself: mascarpone mashed potatoes on the bottom, with shredded wild boar ragu in the top. Yum!
It’s nice when old standbys age well. I hope that Boulevard will still be around serving excellent food when we’re celebrating our 20th anniversary.
Boulevard
1 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
415.543.6084
downtown SF, restaurants
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