I had some fun on the kitchen this weekend. When we went for groceries the other night, I did what I usually do and built a meal as we wandered through the store. Broccoli looked good as usual, so into the basket went a bunch. Hmm… we haven’t had shrimp in a while. Green onions and red peppers were in good shape. We were getting a can of coconut milk for something else which wasn’t going to take the entire can, so I had that to work with. An asian meal was starting to take shape. I found some nice jalapeños for kick and the rest of what made sense for an asian meal.

So here’s what I ended up throwing together:

• 8-10 flowerets of Broccoli (halved)
• 2 carrots (sliced thinly on the diagonal)
• 3 green onions, sliced on the diagonal)
• 1 small red pepper (chopped coarsely)
• 8 oz mushrooms (cleaned and quartered)
• 2 thumbs of ginger (chopped)
• 3 red jalapeños (sliced thinly)
• 10 large shrimp (10-15 count), peeled and cleaned
• 1/3 can of coconut milk
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 lime (huiced)
• cilantro (minced)
• pasta (I used whole wheat fusilli)

Cook the pasta

Heat a stirfry pan over high heat. Stirfry the mushrooms in a bit of oil. Remove from the pan and set aside for later. Heat more oil. Add the green onions, stir a bit, and add the carrots and red peppers. Cook briefly until almost done. Remove from the pan and add to the mushrooms.

Heat more oil, add the ginger and chilis. toss and cook briefly. Add the shrimp and a couple pinches of 5 spice powder. Cook, until the shrimp is just done. Remove and add to the vegies.

Add a bit more oil to the pan if needed. Add the coconut milk, peanut butter, and lime juice. Stir until hot and blended. Add the cilantro and stir it in. Add the vegis and shrimp. Toss and serve.

We’d been reading about FishBar in Chicago Eater and such for a while. They opened just over a week ago and we decided to check them out this weekend.

The space is laid out like a dinner with a wrap around bar an a couple booths off to the side. The place was busy when we got there, just before 5pm on a Saturday, so we were shown to two open spots at the bar. The staff was prompt, friendly and on top of the situation. We were greeted and seated immediately upon entry.

Here’s the view from our seats:

We started by ordering drinks: a Belgian IPA for me and an “Old School” for Suzanne. Drinks are served in mason jars, something that seems to be a “thing” these days.

To kick off the food we got the ceviche of the day, some Eastern Fluke. This was nice, mixed with red onions and pineapple among other things. The texture was good, and it was flavorful. Maybe too flavorful. There wasn’t much nuance: I tasted little other than the pineapple. Notice that this was served in a jar as well. I thought including the lid included was a nice touch.

(Alas, I was trying a different tool for capturing notes and photos and screwed up somehow with the result that the remaining photos didn’t save.

Next up was a batch of fried belly clams. I’m not big into clams, and definitely not into these. Even Suzanne, who enjoys clams in general, found these to be too soft and mushy for her taste. We are assuming it was due to the type of clam, as the preparation seemed fine.

As Fish Bar is sibling (and next door) to DMK Burger Bar, and somewhat specializes in seafood-on-a-bun, we got a lobster roll. This was rich and tasty. That said, we’ve had better (see Nettie’s Crab Shack).

To round things out and see that we got our daily quota or yummy carbs, we had a side of tattered tots.

One thing I noticed was a healthy selection of hot sauces. I know why: with the exception of the ceviche, the well seasoned tater tots, and the beer, things were on the bland side. Maybe I’m just not that into seafood (other than shrimp and scallops, anyway).

If we go here again, I’ll be getting a burger from DMK next door.

I had a Chinese Food craving that had been going on for several days, and we had to go out to Best Buy anyway, so we decided to find a neighborhood Chinese restaurant.

We just went out wandering, choosing a direction we hadn’t explored before. A few blocks away we spied a neon sigh. “Sushi”? “Diner”? It seemed promising, so away we went.

What we found was a Chinese/Japanese restaurant: Dee’s

We started off with Vegetable Spring Rolls (Crispy filled with vegetables). These came served with a sweet sauce (which was vaguely reminiscent of pineapple, but had little merit otherwise) and a truly wonderful hot mustard that reminded me of wasabi. The rolls themselves were good, stuffed with vegies, with a crisp, hot wrapper.

Seeing as it’s winter in Chicago, meaning it was f&*king cold, we opted to have a soup as well. I was thinking of trying the hot & sour soup, but Suzanne noticed the Sizzling Rice Soup that came as a serving for 2. We opted for the seafood version with shrimp and scallops. This was hot and tasty. Perfect for a cold winter evening.

I’m a big fan of Chinese noodle dishes, to the point of being somewhat indifferent to rice. We got some Soft Noodles with beef (Stir-fried with vegetables in a brown sauce). Mmmm .. brown sauce. This was very tasty. The beef was tender. We were both surprised that the noodles were flat, as we had been expecting fat round noodles. In any case, it was good.

The final dish we had was Garlic Sauce (with Shrimp). We were somewhat amused by this section of the menu in that it was organized around the sauce, with various protein sources that could be added. Amused or not, I loved it. It was plenty garlicky, and the shrimp was nicely battered and cooked just right. Our server cautioned us that it was moderately spicy and asked if that was ok. In return we asked if we could have it very spicy. He was happy to oblige. What we got was loaded with chilies and just perfect. I’d order it again without hesitation.

Dee’s is pretty basic and certainly won’t win any stars. It’s Chinese food for midwesterners, but it’s hot, tasty, and well prepared. And it’s nearby. I expect we’ll be back on occasion.

I had some mushrooms and onion left over from making quesadillas yesterday and I was on dinner duty tonight. I figured a risotto would be good. I love making risotto. We had picked up some dried porcini mushrooms for yesterday, more than we needed, so I used some of those as well.

Here’s the recipe I used (from Risotto).

Wild Mushroom Risotto

• 1/2 cup dried porcini mushrooms
• 5 cups chicken or vegetable stock (use the mushroom soaking water for part of this)
• about 1 pound of fresh mushrooms, cleaned, dried, and chopped chunky
• 4 tsbp olive oil
• 3-4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 oz butter
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• generous 1 5/8 cups of arborrio rice
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
• 4 tbsp chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
• salt & pepper to taste

Soak the dried mushrooms. Drain and dry. Heat 3 tbsp of oil. Saute the fresh mushrooms until lightly browned. Add garlic and soaked mushrooms. Cook for a couple minutes, stirring frequently. Transfer to a plate.

Continue on as a regular risotto.

When the risotto is nearing completion, add the mushrooms. Season with salt & pepper. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and cheese. Sprinkle with the parlsey and serve.

Suzanne found a nice looking recipe a while ago on Epicurious: Pan Stew of Scallops, Peas, and Pearl Onions. I thought it looked good so I gathered ingrediants and made it one night our friend Derrick was over.

Give it a try if you like the look of it. It’s tasty.

We had a very cool dinner tonight. It was called “The ‘Wiches”, a Street Fixe event hosted by Heart. As the name implied it was all about sandwiches. It was essentially a sandwich tasting menu. And it was good.

We made reservations a while ago for the 6:00 sitting since the 8:30 was already sold out. We got there a bit early at about 5:50 and were seated pretty quickly. Seating was classic Heart style at communal tables, which can be both fun and not.

first

By Kitchenette

Willey Farm Beet, Cucumber & Persimmon Sandwich
with farmer’s cheese, shaved fennel, apple, walnut

Calling this a sandwich is a stretch: to me a sandwich is eaten by hand, generally surrounded or enveloped by some kind of bread. We discussed this while walking home. Is a wrap or burrito a sandwich (I say yes), what about a low carb burger wrapped in lettuce? (I’m on the fence on this) The thing about this was that the top and bottom layers (i.e. the bread) was a couple slices of cucumber. I hesitate to to call that a sandwich

Despite this, it was delicious. A lovely flavor combination.

second

By Soul Cocina

Sloppy Jose Poquitín with Soul Cocina Chorizo
house queso fresco, pickles, Rancho Gordo midnight beans

Living up to their name, these were pretty sloppy. Crisp, tart pickles, and salty crispy chips. Very tasty.

third

By Good Foods

Crispy Pork Belly Slider
pickled onions, spicy mayo

Mmmm … pork belly. A nice slice of pork belly, with onions, some greens and a bit of sauce. OMG tasty. The pork was perfect, crispy and rich.

fourth

By Toasty Melts

Duo of Melts
spicy cheddar with tomato, cotswold with cranberry

Oh ya, this is where it’s at. Grilled cheese sandwiches!

The cheddar was indeed spicy, it had a very nice kick. I wasn’t so crazy about the fresh tomato on it, however. I found them too juicy and felt that they make a bit of a mess of things. Some dried tomatoes would have provided lovely flavor without the mess. The cotswald and cranberry was over the top delicious. Nice cheese and a beautiful sweetness from the cranberries. Of the two, this was my favorite. The two complemented very well: spicy and sweet.

I will say one thing that may disgust some people: grilled cheese requires ketchup. That. Is. All.

fifth

By Sweet Constructions

Dulce de Leche Ice Cream Sandwich
caramel ice cream, cinnamon-swirl snickerdoodle cookies

This was a great finisher to the meal. The ice cream was so yummy, and the caramel was brilliant. The cookies were really good as well. I didn’t think the combination was as good as the individual parts, though. The snickerdoodles were, I thought, too hard for the ice cream. To bite through the two layers of cookie, you end up squishing the ice cream too much. I think a softer cookie would have worked better.

To sum up

In all the meal was a delight. Little bits of a bunch of things, all very different. It was just about the right amount of food. The price was quite reasonable for the caliber of the meal. I can’t say that we’ll be back, as it was a one-off, but I’m glad we went. I’d encourage you all to look up the folks that made the food tonight and drop in on them when you can. I’d not hesitate to.

I made some ravioli tonight for dinner: ricotta thyme filling with roasted heirloom tomato sauce. Everything made from scratch: the pasta, the filling, the sauce, and the ricotta in the filling.

Suzanne and I went to a ricotta making workshop recently and learned to make our own ricotta from scratch. Mix that with a bunch of fresh thyme, some lemon juice and olive oil. The pasta was a basic egg pasta: flour, egg yolks, olive oil, and some water. For the sauce, I took a few fresh, ripe hierloom tomatoes, cored them, rubbed them with olive oil and roasted under a 400 F broiler until they were soft, browned, and bubbling. Then I heated some olive oil, sauteed some minced garlic until it was soft but not browned. Next I broke up the tomatoes and add them to the garlic and let it simmer and reduce.

Our friend @Whore_Magazine tipped us off to Hog & Rocks, a new restaurant on 19th St (just off Mission). Their “thing” is ham and oysters. We went there for dinner recently with a serious fish and chip craving. Suzanne like oysters as well, so that was an added bonus.

The place is nice and looks like so many other trendy restaurants: open kitchen, high communal tables, lower tables to seat 2 and 4 at a time.

We went without reservations at about 5:30 on a Saturday evening. We were shown promptly to a table. Soon thereafter our server took our order for oysters, ham and a cocktail each. All this arrived fairly promptly and we gave our dinner order (and a beer for myself). The Newsom ham was very nice and Suzanne said that the oysters were as well, and had a couple rounds.

Our entrees arrived in a reasonable time. I went for the fish and chips, while Suzanne decided to try the Sea Scallops Crudo.

The fish and chips were ok. Just ok. The fish was tasty, and the chips were crisp. Everything was hot. I have a couple issues with the dish, however. It was served in a small bowl, with the piece of fish sitting on top of the chips. This made it problematic to cut the fish without mixing everything together.

The chips came with malt vinegar, as well they should. However there was no standard bottle that I’m familiar with (I’m from Canada):

Instead, there was a small dish of malt vinegar on the side. This meant that chips had to be dipped in it individually. Lame. You should be able to douse the chips liberally with vinegar and then chow down. Having the fish one top of the chips would complicate this.

To add insult to injury, there was no salt. No salt on the chips, and no salt on the table. Apparently I could have gotten some if I had asked, but as mentioned earlier, there was that great piece of fish overshadowing the chips, and thus making adding salt to the fries challenging.

Finally, it was good, but decidedly not a great, piece of fish. Also, I’d consider what I had to be a children’s size serving of fish and chips.

By now our cocktails were gone, and nobody seemed to be in a rush to refresh Suzanne’s or to bring me my beer. This kept up for some time. Far too long. In my opinion, the beer should have arrived when the fish & chips did, especially as I had ordered them together. When the beer did eventually arrive, it had no head. I can only assume that it had been sitting neglected for a while before being delivered to our table.

While the food was tasty, there wasn’t enough of it, and the service we experienced was worse than mediocre. Another gimicky and unsatisfying trendy restaurant. I doubt I’ll bother to go back.

Suzanne and I went to A16 the first time we went to The Exploratorium After Dark. That was in early February and I was new to dining in San Francisco. I asked Jean, the CEO’s EA where I was working at the time, to suggest a good restaurant in the Marina. The thing with Suzanne was new at that point in time and I was looking to impress. Jean was known to be a foodie and an explorer of the dining scene. She did not disappoint when she directed me to A16. We had a great meal.

Fast forward to early September. We were planning out monthly trip to the Exploratorium and thinking about places to eat. “What about going back to A16, we really liked it.” And so we did. It was one of the best meals we have had at a restaurant. Not just the food, but the entire experience.

We gave ourselves plenty of time to get from home in the Mission up to A16 (which is quite near the Exploratorium at the edge of the Presidio), as we often run a bit late. This time, however, we got there with plenty of time to spare. Instead of sitting around waiting for dinner service, we browsed a bit in a couple shops we’ve noticed but never gone into. Being foodies, these were the meat & olive oil shops near the corner of Chestnut and Divisadero: Marina Meats and We Olive, respectively.

We eventually arrived at A16, still with a few minutes to spare. After checking in with the maître d’ we took seats at the bar and ordered some WIne. A nice sparkling white for Suzanne and a Sardinian red for myself. Both were very pleasant. Or table was ready and we took our glasses and proceeded to be seated. We decided to continue with our wine choices, and I ordered a carafe of the red I was drinking. As Suzanne was drinking a sparkling she proceeded on a glass by glass basis, with me telling our waitress to “keep it from getting empty”.

I have to add that our waitress was superb. We both thought she was strikingly attractive, but beyond that she did an exemplary job. Knowledgable, and completely on top of the situation. One small thing that must be noted is that during our entrée (lamb, see below) Suzanne switched to drinking my red. She simply poured some into her glass from the carafe. Almost immediately, our waitress was there with the appropriate glass and deftly replaced the one Suzanne had had for her white wine.

We chose the daily special appetizer to start with: Roasted Padrón Peppers. OMG these were Good.

We had tried some pasta last time we were there, so this time we wanted to try A16′s pizza (although Suzanne thinks we had some pizza last time). Without discussion we agreed on the Funghi – (roasted mushrooms, smoked mozzarella, grana, garlic, oregano, wild arugula, olive oil). Very nice, and we had some the next day … just as good.

For an entrée, we decided on the special: lamb (description requested). I’m still developing a taste for lamb and was somewhat hesitant about the idea. But Suzanne was enthusiastic about it and I was impressed enough with A16 that I was confident it would be good, even if not to my liking. When the dish arrived, it contained two reasonably sized pieces of lamb (along with some wonderfully roasted eggplant). I opted for the smaller of the two pieces. A choice I later regretted. This was mouth watering delicious. Not very pungent & gamy at all. I savored every bite. Both pieces were bone-in and so we had a nice gift for our pooch at home the next day.

The lamb came with a side, and we chose the cannellini beans (with garlic and oregano). Very tasty, mashed but not pureed with a nice, course texture.

A16 is pricey, but the food is good and the service is excellent. Maybe not an everyday stop, but great for a special meal.

I’ve heard of Pizzeria Delfino for some time. We’ve often passed by on our way home from Delores Park. Suzanne has been there before, but I hadn’t yet. So one day recently, when I had a pizza craving around lunch, it seemed like the opportune time. It was a Thursday, about 1:30 so we figured we shouldn’t have much trouble getting a seat.

When we got there, there were people waiting outside. We got worried for a minute, but when we checked in we were asked if we’d like to sit at the bar. When we said that would be fine, we were shown to two seats at the end of the bar, at the back of the restaurant. It couldn’t have been more perfect, with two seats looking into the kitchen.

Oh, did I mention this place does pizza?

There were all kinds of homey little touches that we could see from our seats. The plethora of pizza boxes shown above. Various bowls of ingredients, such as this big bowl of mushrooms on the shelf between the bar & the kitchen.

You know how pizza places have peppers and grated parmesan in shakers? Those boring, functional, and ubiquitous things full of dried out grated cheese and chili flakes:

Pizzeria Delfino, however, does a classy take on this: Fresh shredded parmesan, fresh twigs of oregano, and nice course gound chilis.

So on to the meal. For wine, we got a bottle of Grillo from Moziese, Sicilia. Now, as a rule, I don’t like whites. But as with any rule, there are exceptions. This is one. Very enjoyable.

We started with “Crazy Melon” (w/chili, mint, extra virgin olive oil & feta). This was insanely good. Sweet melon, spicy chili, and mint. All bathed in a butterly, mild olive oil.

We decided to try two pizzas (we had leftovers later, they were great cold as well). The first was “Cherry Pie” (Marinated Cherry Tomatoes, Basil, Ricotta Salata). Lovely fresh cherry tomatoes, perfect time of year for it. The pie was light, with an over the top fresh tomato taste.

The second pie was a “Napoletana” (Tomato, anchovies, capers, hot peppers, olives and oregano). This is one of my favorite pizzas. I first had a Napoletana on a trip to Alghero (on Sardinia). The combinations of flavors is one I just love: earthy and robust. Similarly, I love puttenesca and arrabbiata.

I’m obviously quite taken with Pizzeria Delfino. I look forward to our next visit.