Pieces of Pig

Pictures of Pork



1lb pork ribs ($8.99 per pound), 3lb pork butt ($3.99 per pound), one whole belly of pork ($3.99 per pound)



Pork bellies have to be pre-ordered.



You can't just get half a one. You have to buy the whole thing.



This pork belly was about 5lbs in weight.



You haven't forgotten, have you?



It is Slow Pig Weekend.



You can either guess what I made with this lot, or just wait and see.

Links, Resources and Further Reading

Bay Area Resources:
My Butcher | The Golden Gate Meat Company

Other Resources:
Fans of Fergus Blog | Going the Whole Hog
An American Cooking in France | Kate's French Kitchen
An American Cooking in Italy | Divina Cucina
Pork Cuts | Like You've Never Seen Them Before
A Chart | of Pork Cuts

Archive Alert! On this date in 2005, from New Orleans: Shrimp Remoulade.

Food | Eat Local | Butcher | San Francisco | Pork | Pig

Pieces of Pig

Ahead of the (LA) Times

New Recipe experiments that took place in the Becks & Posh Test Kitchen during February 2007

The first of my resolutions for 2007 was to "Try a new recipe every week, if possible.". In January I started keeping notes, to remind myself which recipes might grace my kitchen table again in the future, and which ones I might rather put out with the trash. I continue the series today...



Oh verrines! Back in January, when Amanda and I started talking about plans for the first in our series of epic dinner parties, I told her that the next big thing were going to be verrines. I had fallen in love after seeing them on French language food blogs and I wanted an English-speaking verrine of my own. I insisted we put a verrine on our inaugural dinner menu. So when the LA Times declared the week before last that verrines are "the hottest trend you've never heard of", remember that if you were sharp-eyed enough, you saw it here first.

We used the recipe for Roquefort Trifle with French Butter Pear Relish in Thomas Keller's The French Laundry Cookbook. Keller's book is often accused of being to difficult to cook from, but some recipes, such as this one, are easy. It just requires some organisation and patience as there are four stages to complete before you put the trifle verrine together. I would definitely make this recipe again or use it to inspire different combinations of fruit and cheese using the same basic structure. I used disposable, plastic shot glasses to present the verrines. It worked a treat, so I have since invested in a dozen glass ones. They are a steal at Ikea.



When following the Christine Manfield recipe for Honey & Sesame Beef with Rice Sticks from The Cook's Book edited by Jill Norman, I made a couple of bad judgement calls I would rectify if I were to make it again, which I might do - we enjoyed this dish, especially since we use Marin Sun Farms grass fed beef which was delicious. The recipe called for Thai chilies which I was unable to source so I used Serranos instead. The recipe said nothing about discarding the seeds so I kept them in and the end result was more spicy than it needed to be. I also cut the amount of (Marshall's) honey by half, scared it would be too sweet for our taste. It wasn't, and maybe more honey would have helped balance the heat a little better, so next time I should follow the instructions more carefully. I was unable to buy the required watercress at the market so I used rocket (arugula) from Star Route instead which was a successful substitute.



I have had been in love with Nigel Slater for almost a year, from the moment I first bought a book of his: Real Food. I can't tell you the number of times I've poured over the pages, salivated over the pictures and agreed with the sentiments he delivers. The book even brandishes one of my favourite food quotes of all time: "I want a sausage that is sticky outside and juicy within. I want its skin to be tight and deep brown, and to be coated in that savoury, Marmite-like goo that comes with slow cooking." Maybe you don't have the foggiest about what he means. I do, you see, and I feel like I am sharing a little secret with him. It makes me feel a little bit warm, a little bit special, a little bit fuzzy, a little bit hot. Yes let's face it. A man who could give you a perfectly sticky, juicy sausage would be ... well, phew, excuse me, I think I have to go and take a cold shower...

The foreplay between me and Nigel had really lasted too long. I needed to get down to the nitty gritty and do it with him. It wasn't hard to choose, I needed his pork.


Pork with Cashews, Lime and Mint. OK, this recipe sucked when I made it. It looked almost exactly like the tempting picture in the book, but the lime element totally overpowered the other ingredients. Here is a copy of the (unedited) notes I made at the time of cooking:
pork with cashew nits and lime from Nigel Slater
Disappoinitng - too much lime! fred loved it? did mise en place which really helped the organisation - don't like slater's suggest meanwhiele... (like chop all thos ingredients in the time it takes to cook the pork = < than 3 minuutes I dont think so) next time - less lime, more fish sauce, more nuts, more herbs, maybe extra herbs on top maybe by a ok or do it in the non-sick because it overcooked a bit on the bottome of the all-clad - all the other flavours were drowned out by the lime, check i read the recipe right - he said big juicy limes and CA limes really ARE fat and juicy
That was an apalling paragraph, I know, but it's about time you got to see what kind of material I have to work with here, seriously. You can't get the staff these days! When I was moaning about this recipe to a friend, she sensibly asked me "why didn't you taste it as you went along"? Normally I would, but because everything had to come together so quickly over high heat, I was far more organised than when I usually cook, getting everything ready in advance, mise en place. Less lime next time. I might give it another go with some heavy changes. After all, I couldn't say no to a second date with Nigel, could I now?



Pork Belly Medallions of Braised, Rolled Pork Belly
This was one of the most popular dishes from the dinner party we held in February. We found the recipes in [Englishman] Marcus Wareing's Meat section of The Cook's Book. Several people have asked me for the recipe. Since it is not my recipe to give, I recommend anyone who is interested should simply buy the book instead. You won't regret it. The fact that I have given away no less than nine copies of this book as gifts to friends and family in the past year should be enough to persuade you that I think this is a cook book definitely worth owning.

The recipe asks for an entire pork belly. Ask your butcher to trim if for you. We made two dozen medallions - which fed twelve people perfectly. It could even have been stretched to feed twice as many people. Once cooked, keeping the medallions warm in the oven until we were ready to eat them, simply made the fatty pieces of meaty even more gooey than they would have been had we served it straight after cooking. This is a fantastic recipe for entertaining crowds. We highly recommend it. But beware - you have to start it a day ahead of when you will need it.



Beef Stroganoff
By coincidence, not by design, Marcus Wareing was also responsible for me cooking this Beef Strogoanoff, also found in The Cook's Book. This is so easy to make, it hardly even needs a recipe. Making sure you only use top quality ingredients will ensure fantastic success. We used a Marin Sun Farms grass-fed filet tip which was the mutt's nuts, Bellwether Farms creme fraiche, mushrooms from Far West Fungi, butter from Straus and onions and parsley from Chue's Farm.



Pine nut rosemary tart from The Last Course by Claudia Fleming. I can't take too much credit for this tart because friend Amanda Berne made the filling. I just made the pastry - using my favourite pâte sucrée from, you guessed it, The Cook's Book.

Other February Recipe Experiments Already Posted on Becks & Posh
Three Citrus Bundt Cake
Wine Pancakes
The Sweet Kiss of Almond Oil



PS. Apologies for not having posted for a few days. This post was actually intended to go up for Friday, explaining that we would be away for a few days, and to tide readers over the weekend. But we had internet connection problems on Thursday night, before we left town, and so I simply had to scarper and leave the blog untended. We were staying somewhere that didn't even have cell phone connection. It was blissful and there are small food stories to be told - I hope to fill you in over the coming days.

Archives
2006 | Sweet Napa
2005 | Eggbeater [Two Years of Bay Area Blogger of the Week!]

© 2007 Sam Breach at "Becks & Posh", becksposhnosh.blogspot.com This RSS Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, or at the aforementioned url, the site you are looking at might be guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact becks.posh.food.blog[AT]gmail[DOT]com to report any suspected violations. Thank you.

Ahead of the (LA) Times

An Adventure in French Cooking

My First Attempt at Making Pork Rillettes



What's a girl to do when The Fatted Calf is on vacation? Where is she supposed to find her charcuterie? Last weekend, when Taylor and Toponia were taking a well-earned rest from the Saturday market, and inspired by Slow Pig Weekend, I decided to take matters into my own hands and attempt to make some pork rillettes.

I don't have a book with a rillette recipe, but I had the internet to search and a French friend who has made rillettes on several occasions. Seeing as I have dinner with the SF French Mafia every Friday night, I took the opportunity to question them on every aspect of rillette making, in English of course. They suggested I use no other spices or herbs other than green and black peppercorns and bay leafs. They insisted I use a wine from Languedoc, the region from where rillettes originate. They suggested I put some bones (ribs) into the mix. They failed to impress upon me the importance of the salt. Pah!



So I bought 1lb pork ribs, 3lb pork butt and one whole 5lb belly of pork from The Golden Gate Meat Company situated in San Francisco's Ferry Building Market Plaza. Belly of pork has to be ordered the day before collection and is only available as a whole belly.



I chopped up the meat into little clubes, separating where I could, the meat and the fat from each other. This took blimmin' ages. Luckily my friend Katja popped by to deliver me some of the famous Voigt Family Secret Hot Mustard, a generous gift to me from one of her friends. So, as I chopped, we drank green tea from Keiko and ate cookies from Farmgirl and passed the time of day as I hacked away at the meat. It certainly made the monotonous task less lonely.

What I should have done at this stage, but only found out once it was too late, would have been to heavy salt the cubed meat and cure it for at least 12 hours. No I didn't do that - but next time I certainly shall. After the fact, I asked Toponia at The Fatted Calf, and that was just about the only thing they do differently to what I did, as far as I can tell.



Into the pan went the meat and the fat and 2 cups of white wine. (Shhh, pease don't tell the Frenchies, but I actually used Italian wine.) I went to the everso helpful Ferry Plaza Wine Merchants to find a "Languedoc wine without much personality", but there were none. All the French wines were too bold so I ended up, instead, with a bottle of Frascati that was pronounced to be perfect for cooking purposes.

I also added a couple of bay leaves, at least one hundred grinds of green and black pepper plus about 20 teaspoons of salt. Twenty not enough. Can you believe that?

The advantage of an electric stove is that you can set the burner at a really low heat. My French friend had suggested the secret of a good rillette is to par-cook it for a few hours on one day, leave it to rest overnight and then continue the cooking process the next day. As I was due to go out in the evening, this suited me perfectly. I cooked it very slowly for 3 hours (be careful - do not let it boil!) and then left it covered, at room temperature over night, before continuing the process the next morning, cooking the meat slowly for another 7 hours until it was meltingly tender.

Once cooked, I scooped all the rendered fat from the top of the pan into a large bowl. Then Fred and I carefully separated the remaining solid fat and the meat, using one of my favourite kitchen utensils, the Asian Skimmer as recommended to me by the lovely Restaurant Whore.

The solid fat was discarded whilst the meat was shredded, using a couple of forks, into a bowl. The meat was then packed into ramekins before being covered with a spoonful of the still-liquid rendered fat that had been reserved from the top of the cooking pan. As the fat cools it hardens into a solid pure lard that seals the rillettes and helps to preserve them.



This recipe made enough to fill 14 ramekins. Luckily it freezes well too. Leave the rillettes to mature a few days before eating or freezing. We serve it on toasted pain au levain from Acme. It has a delicious, creamy, meaty, fatty taste. Of course, with some Maille cornichons and a generous sprinkling of salt it tastes that much better!



PS. Read about my first ever tasting of rillettes here.

PPS. Happy Blog Birthday, today, Alder at Vinography.

Links, Resources and Further Reading

Bay Area Resources:
My Butcher | The Golden Gate Meat Company
Great Wine Advice | The Ferry Plaza Wine Merchants
Bay Area Masters of Charcuterie | The Fatted Calf
Market Place Grocer of Choice | Village Market
One of many local places to buy Maille Cornichons | Cheese Plus

Other Resources:
The Queens of Slow Pig Weekend | Kate and Diva
Fans of Fergus Blog | Going the Whole Hog
What are Rillettes? | Find out here
Rillettes and Rillons | from Anne Wilan
Check this out | The Potted Meat Museum
Salt gathered by women from the marshes of France | Fleur de Sel de Guerande
The Cornichons we buy | from Maille
Something I stumbled across today | Baby's Head Pudding
The Asian Skimmer | Can't Live without it by The Restaurant Whore
Chocolate Biscotti For Beginners | by Farmgirl at Gather

Blogging Rillettes:
The Five Pints | With Yorkshire Puddings
Obsession With Food | Salmon rillettes
I Heart Bacon | A Fundraising Dinner Menu

Archive Alert! On this date in 2005: The Chef's Market in Davis.

Food | Recipes | Meat | French | Pork | Pig

An Adventure in French Cooking

Cortez - Hotel Adagio - 550 Geary - San Francisco

My car is a nippy little thing. She redlines at a whopping 9000 revs and when I get on the freeway every morning I like to push her a little, hoping to get from 0-60mph in a sweet six seconds (thereby putting me fast out of danger from neighbouring snails vehicles co-negotiating the freeway on-ramp merge at the same time as me). I wish she'd drink tea so I could warm her up a little before we set out on our journey, but she says it's not her cuppa, so I have to take her to the road cold. I pop her in first gear, I put my foot down on the gas and off she goes like a rocket... and then... and then... darn it... she's complains about the early morning chill and whap! She cuts out on me and I have to slow down.

I encountered the same deceleration of enjoyment when I dined at Cortez last Saturday evening. Mixed bag that it was, the food that was not the main problem, it was the service. And although our waitress was endearing, it was clear she was overworked or over busy or overstretched and she kept forgetting to bring the wine pairing I had previously discussed with her for each course. I was in a festive, self-indulgent, party frame of mind. I was on my way to a grape-induced high. I wasn't in the mood for someone else putting a damper on my celebration by taking their foot off the gas and slamming it on the brake, but that, unfortunately, is exactly what happened.

This wasn't our first visit to Cortez. We first tried it out last year when husband-and-wife chef team, Quinn and Karen Hatfield, were still in charge of the ovens. Back then we were dining with a couple of friends of Fred whom I hadn't met before and although we loved the cocktails and the food, we weren't keen on the way they paced our meal. We all chose a couple of plates each and then the waiter informed us that the kitchen would send them out as they saw fit, progressing from light choices through heavy. He suggested we all share. All well and good, except not everyone likes sharing, especially people who have only just met. The guest who had only wanted to eat light suffered from both her dishes arriving first and everyone digging in because we didn't have our own preferences to keep us occupied. I was amused when the hamachi croque monsieur madame (?) arrived. None of the staff explained exactly how four people should go about sharing the diddly little fried quails egg that was perched on top of it. But as I have illustrated by effortlessly plucking that dish from my memory - at least the food from that visit made an impression. Indeed, the Hatfield's food still makes an impression at Cortez - it appears that every single one of the good reviews still lauded on the Cortez website date back to when this duo was still in charge. And they left almost a year ago.

Fast forward to the present >>> Thankfully staff no longer dictate the order in which you should eat your meal at Cortez, but the unfortunately everything else seems to have taken a step downhill. Except for the complimentary amuse bouche: warm gougeres filled with hot, liquid goat cheese. They were totally amazing and if I ever go back, then it's just for a plate of those...

To start with, this time round, I chose the Chefs’ crudo inspired by the freshest fish and seasonal produce which happened to be hamachi with topped with hazlenuts. For the $17 I paid for these fresh slivers of flesh I would have expected the nuts to be as fresh as the fish. Sadly they weren't, they tasted stale. Toasting them might have helped balance their raw taste. It reminded me of finding a bag of old nuts at the back of my pantry. In my mind, as I ordered the dish, I was envisaging a replica of the perfect hazlenuts I've encountered at Zuni or the very fine version that have adorned my salads at Coco500. Cortez obviously don't have the nut thing going for them. I also had to add salt. I rarely add salt in a restaurant, only if the dish is screaming for it. My crudo were howling.

Cortez certainly start as they mean to go on when it comes to pacing the meal: They pretty much suck at it. The 2002 Alvarinho, Dorado, Vinho Verde that had been aptly recommended by our server to match my first course was nowhere to be seen. Luckily Fred had chosen a cold appetizer too - and so we were able to wait and attract the attention of our waitress and then wait even further for the wine to be collected and delivered to us before starting to eat.

She who was looking after us seemed to be more in the swing of things by the time she brought us the second course, some crispy sweetbreads accompanied by shaved apples and cider foam (my description, not theirs, which was more eloquent) along with a half glass of some other delicious white wine she had chosen for me. These were by far the best sweetbreads I have ever tasted and although I am normally not a huge fan of all those fancy foams and smears, this dish worked perfectly. I couldn't fault it. Foam that makes sense. At last.

The waitress's control of the stuation was short lived. I was really looking forward to a glass of pinot noir to accompany my sous-vide-cooked pork belly. The food arrived. I looked left, I looked right. I waited a minute, I didn't want to dig in without a glass at my side. I could see the steam dissipating as the meat cooled and our waitress was nowhere to be seen. I took a mouthful BECAUSE I COULDNT WAIT ANY LONGER, and then I looked left, I looked right, I saw our waitress attending other people and wearing her blinkers so she was oblivious to everything other than that which she was doing right then. I made a fruitless attempt to gain her attention. I took another bite, and then another and another and the belly was gone. My spirit was dampened. If I'd have been at Cafe Gratitude, my experience would have been named "I am disappointed".

I don't know what would have happened next if the manager hadn't have come over to ask us how we enjoyed our meals. I think he's a bit of an A-hole, only expecting people to smile sweetly and say "lovely" through grimaced smiles. I told him plain and clear" "The food was tasty but I never did receive the glass of wine I had requested to pair with my pork-belly". His face turned as black as a thunder cloud, he excused himself and off he stormed to reprimand our poor waitress. A few minutes later she returned to apolgize profusely and confess that everything was completely her fault. I think she would have taken responsibilty for George W Bush, Columbine and Paris Hilton too, if she could have done so at that point. She also mentioned she would comp my pork belly. Don't comp me my food, I think, bring me a friggin glass of wine. Pronto. Can't you see I need it? Can't you tell I want it? Right now! Alas...

The spell was broken, the promise of a magical night of food perfectly annointed with alcohol, did not materialize. I place the blame squarely with the sleazy manager guy, not the waitress. She may have slipped up a little but he behaved inexcusably infront of us. When I expressed my disappointment, the first thing he could have done would have been to rush me a complimetary glass of wine by way of an apology. Fred too if he was really smart. It was wine I was lacking, not the money to pay for my pork belly. He should have taken responsibility and shouldered the blame and then taken it up with the waitress after hours, in private. Instead he embarassed her and made her a scapegoat by putting her on the spot, during service, and making it clear that he considered all the problems to be totally her fault. Listen up wise-ass manager, maybe your customers are smarter than that. The reason you probably won't be seeing me at Cortez again is because of your lack of sensibility, not because of the waitress who fluffed up.

Btw - thanks for the sweet herbed popcorn that arrived with the check. It made me feel less bad about walking out on dessert, which I had been looking forward to before my enjoyment of the evening fizzled out like a damp squib. Never mind, I am sure it would never have been as good as Karen Hatfield's...

Cortez on Google Map

This review is "Back for Seconds" for me, and a third visit for Fred.

Archive:
2005 | Lovo Night at "Bula Re" in Savusavu

Food | Restaurants | San Francisco | Bay Area | 94102

Cortez - Hotel Adagio - 550 Geary - San Francisco

Scott Howard - San Francisco - Jackson Street

A Favourite Discovery of 2007


After initially being compelled to dine there against my will by some pals who hijacked my birthday plans this past June, a date which is now marked in my diary as a blissful blur of pork belly, beef cheeks, scallops and Brachetto, Scott Howard has fast become one of my favourite restaurants in San Francisco. I love the acute sense of transition I feel as I escape the busy sidewalks of lower North Beach, slipping past the heavy drapes at its doorway and crossing the threshold between outside and in. My eyes quickly adjust to the dark wood decor, the warmth of which is reflected by the always-genial welcome at the host stand. There is no ostentation in Scott Howard's design, save, perhaps, the unbelievably enormous arrangement of flowers that make a vivid impression in the middle of the room. The overall effect is timeless: Modern yet classy. In six visits, I haven't been sat at the same table twice and I still can't decide whether I prefer to eat centre-stage on the bustling, lowered main floor, or at one of the quieter two tops over-looking the street. There is one solitary booth with a rather awkward disposition in that it has its back turned against the action and not much of a view. Nevertheless, I think it is my favourite seat and if you prefer to focus on sharing plates and enjoying conversation, instead of bustle and people-watching, you will probably like the intimacy and relative quietness this particular table offers too. At peak hours, Scott Howard's noise levels can become lively, but the ceiling is smartly designed to bounce the acoustics around and lessen the blow. Although you could never quite describe it as hushed, it is bearable.

At the height of the Summer, just after our second visit, where my appreciation of Scott Howard's food reached dizzying heights during a plate-cleaning extravaganza that included succulent duck rillettes piled high on little toasts, crispy veal sweetbreads moistened by a smoky maderia jus and set on the smoothest of potato purées, a perfectly cooked piece of venison and fought-hard-for dibs on a side dish of their irresistible, sloppy, goaty, orzo mac'n'cheese, I thought I'd reached a new high. Easy, I thought, I'll use my self-imposed reviewing standards as an excuse to make a third visit, confirm that Scott Howard is the new dining nirvana, write a glowing appraisal, done and dusted, as simple as that.

Hang fire. Not so simple as I first thought. The third visit, at the beginning of August, threw me through a hoop. Everything had changed. No more appetizers and main courses. No more side dishes, No more portions of orzo mac'n'cheese. Previous menu replaced by small, "multi-course tasting selections".

I am actually one of those people, despised by many, who actually prefers small plates, but Scott Howard's food had been so wonderful until that point, I'd been sending even my large entree plates back to the kitchen, cleaner than when they'd left the dishwasher. Not one drip of sauce, not one speck of oil, not any crumb of bread, in fact a complete lack of evidence that was itself the clue to my high level of satisfaction with every dish that had been put before me.

I took a deep breath and determined that although things were looking bleak in terms of my blog's content, I'd just have to invest in another three visits before I could write a fair account of the menu. Try as I might, with Scott Howard involved, I couldn't muster any feelings of hardship at the thought of the task, especially when smaller plates would mean more plates and more plates would mean additional new things to try. I accepted my new fate with gusto.

And gusto also happens to be the precise word to describe my attitude to Scott Howard's excellent bread basket which hits the table fresh from the oven, the treasures inside wrapped in a heavy linen to keep them toasty. If you are lucky, and according to my calculations luck is only on my side about 66.66% of the time, a batch of piping hot, little cheese biscuits will be tucked amongst the breads. If you cave in and taste one, preferably after splitting and spreading it with a cool pat of butter, you will covet these morsels for ever more, so much so that you might suffer anxiety attacks if you ever arrive to find that they have run out for the night. It happens, but by nature, life seems to balance itself out. On the flip side, the staff once surprised me with a take-out box packed full of them, when I'd simply enquired if I might be able to take home the couple of leftovers in our basket. If you are ever bowled over by a similar gesture, please be smart and don't then leave them in a taxi.

Lest you completely fill yourself up on those delicious complimentary baked goods, I'll suggest you move on to the Ahi Tuna Tartare and before you yawn and turn away, tired of this most ubiquitous of raw menu items, know that the Scott Howard version is nothing short of startling. Tiny hand-cut cubes of the ruby red fish top a circular bed of creamy avocado surrounded by petite piles of finely crumbed chorizo, espelette and piperade which you are expected to fold into the tuna yourself just like you would do with a traditional tartare. What is less expected is the faceless presence of vanilla bean oil which, like a gentle, sweet kiss, adds an unexpected but subtle nuance to every mouthful. So seduced were we, the first time we tried it, we had to order a second, immediately. The popularity of Scott Howard's Tartare is so assured you might have to be an early bird to catch it. On our last two visits they had already run out. If this happens your server will try and persuade you to choose the Japanese Hamachi instead, imploring that it is equally as fine. Don't fall for the ruse - the two thick, buttery slices of yellowtail, served with pickled cucumbers and beech mushrooms, fennel pollen and citrus ponzu are overwhelmed by the harsh acidity of the vinegar used in its preparation. A much better choice, if your nerves can handle sea urchin, would be to go with the tender scallop sashimi, dressed with splashes of yuzu and almond and then draped with a glistening and gorgeous selection of the freshest uni which imparts creaminess, nuttiness and essence of the ocean into every bite. Oysters are another mainstay of the raw menu where, in contrast to the other smaller, more delicate crudos, strong flavours, like ginger, chili and especially onion are delivered with a brute force that is satisfying if you are in the mood to kick off your evening with something feistier and more generous.

Soups are next up and Scott Howard's Carrot Broth, a stalwart on an otherwise oft changing menu, is apparently so beloved by its customers, that the recipe for it is handed out with every bill along with the instructions "try this at home". You really do have to adore carrots (I don't) to love this soup, because even though it contains a significant amount of cream, the intensity of carrot is at its fore. At the end of the summer an exquisite cold corn soup on the menu was at once creamy and refreshing and had us smacking our lips with delight. More recently, reflecting the change in seasons, a salty-sweet, creamy, tomato soup drizzled with olive oil brought warmth to the menu. It is perhaps less stunning, but its familiarity signals comfort, something that the onset of Autumn requires.

Salads at Scott Howard are not necessarily inspired, but can offer confidently executed versions of classic combinations, be that Mozzarella with heirloom tomatoes or greens with Parmesan, sherry vinegar and black mission figs. From time to time a superstar salad will drop by to liven up the selection, like a wonderful bowl of grainy mustard-dressed frisee leaves intertwined with juicy slivers of viscid Duck Confit, matsutake mushrooms and bacon, all sitting under the shade of a medium-rare poached egg. Never ever pass up on something you think you would like to try at Scott Howard, imagining you'll save it until next time, because the next time you visit it might no longer be there.

The consolation for missing things that previously thrilled you is the constant promise of fresh experience and the chance to discover new favourites each time you stop by. In August a beautifully fanned, small but juicy breast of duck lying atop a bed of sweet pea puree dotted with maitake mushrooms made me go mmmm. The same month exquisitely fashioned squash blossoms had been stuffed with goat cheese and then set sail on a light, smoky tomato and saffron sauce that had been given an artful touch of tapenade where the tiniest little cubes of olive had each been hand positioned to look like miniature pebbles set on the edge of a pond. Their perfectly-executed crispy poussin is a tender little bird with succulent meat and lively flavors in both its jus and the goat cheese polenta cake it is paired with. Scott Howard's chefs have a deft hand with Foie Gras, either sprinkling large grains of salt on thick, creamy, cool, torchon-style slabs of the liver for an intensely savoury experience or at the sweeter end of the spectrum, serving it freshly seared on toasted brioche with licorice greens and a huckleberry Meyer lemon gastrique. The latter preparation, where the lobe had been cooked just enough to impart a golden crust on the the liver without diminishing any of the fat-oozing, tender, custard-like offal at its centre, caused barely muffled groans of pleasure to escape from everyone who let it pass their lips.

That some of Scott Howard's dishes are so utterly fantastic, means that there will be others that can't quite deliver the same levels of ecstasy. The sometimes stunning sweetbreads are at their best when they are served with a crispier coating that contrasts with the cushiony cloud of potato on which they lie. But when the glands are cooked in softer style, the juxtaposition between elements is less marked and the dish loses its edge. On one visit a tomato jam and pickled cucumber had taken the place of potato next to the sweetbreads which sounded intriguing, but taste wise was all over the shop and with no clear direction. Scott Howard's cooked scallops would be improved by an introduction to the Maillard effect since in a plain dish where they were paired with scallops corn and mushrooms, I found them to be insipid and pale. Monkfish with roasted tomatoes and cockle broth was a simple, clean-looking dish and the fish was perfectly tender but the end result was similarly unperky due to the watery broth. On my very first visit I enjoyed a pork belly, and I would probably still be ordering it to this day if, on the second tasting, it hadn't been a disaster - presented as a lump of wobbly white fat with no meat and not enough cooking time to make the fat anywhere near palatable. Thankfully the wait staff, who are mostly smart, savvy and extremely professional, noticed the problem and took the item off the bill without any fuss.

Scott Howard's linguine pasta with Saffron, the dish which sparked off a lively discussion about salt and pepper availability in restaurants, is the menu's token failure. They just don't seem to be able to get right. With the namesake spice barely discernible, the pasta dishes, whose ingredients vary on each visit, was initially recommended to me as a must have because "heirloom tomatoes won't be in season much longer". I usually find Scott Howard's seasoning levels to be spot on so I was disappointed to find the pasta was totally bland and that the tomatoes had been turned in to a flavourless mush. In the second attempt, with a chanterelle and leek stew, the vegetables were similarly lackluster but this time they were, at least salted. Third time, not lucky, presented us with an oversalted chanterelle, mint and olive combination that resulted in the least desirable of an already bad bunch of unpalatable noodles.

I was a little turned off Scott Howard's dessert menu when I was told on my first visit that they use artificially flavoured chips to make their butterscotch pudding. I have had the Brioche French toast a couple of times which, with its star anise and caramelised banana, is an exotic but filling treat. I have noticed that waiters generally pick this dessert as the one that they try and tempt customers with - so it must be popular - and it is always on the menu. Myself, I prefer to end the meal, instead, with a glass of Brachetto, although I wish they weren't so stingy with the pour.

Service has mostly been excellent at Scott Howard. On one visit, when they were thirty minutes late showing us to our table, we were all given complimentary glasses of J Cuvée 20 as an apology for the wait. I am guessing that Scott Howard probably track customers via Opentable because when we made two visits in as many days, the first thing they did was offer us a free round of drinks at the bar which I read as a thank you for our regular custom. One huge brownie point goes to the waiters who always ask if a drink is finished before removing the glass, but one brownie point is lost because they keep the wine and water bottles away from the table, not giving customers the chance to make their own pours which we would prefer. On the last visit, when our waitress was absent and our glasses lacking, I retrieved our bottle of wine from its hideaway on the table behind us and passed it to a friend to do the honours. The waitress spotted us and without warning, came up behind him, grabbed the bottle from his hand as he was midst-fillup and took over his action, spilling red wine on both his food and white shirt. The waitress in question doesn't do justice to the reputation of the other, excellent, servers, all of whom I think would have handled the situation differently. Since this happened I have decided to make it clear whenever I dine out, that I prefer to be in control of my own wine pours and I plan to test out some assertiveness, on my next visit to delicious Scott Howard.

Six visits were made to Scott Howard between June and October 2007 before this review was written.

Some Great Things About Scott Howard
The chef loves mushrooms and so do I. They are all over the menu and I am not complaining.
They show an appreciation of regulars.
Bargain - From 5.30-6.30 and 9.30pm - 10pm they offer a bargain prix fixe menu offering 3 courses for just $32 per person.
If you book a 9.30pm table on Opentable you get a bonus 10,000 1,000 points

Some Not So Great Things About Scott Howard
Wine bottles not left on the table
Up sale of water, also not left on the table, over-zealous refills by bussers
No salt and pepper readily available.
Menu-muddle - they let me order no less than two items (same main ingredient but different preparations) from an out of date menu causing two wrong dishes to end up on the table in front of me. They apologised and comped us a couple of drinks.
Incorrect information given by the person manning the phones. (She told us that menus would not change in the current month, when in fact they change constantly, causing us to cancel a booking because we didn't want to eat the exact same thing as she led us to believe we would do.)

Scott Howard

500 Jackson St. (at Montgomery St.)

San Francisco , CA 94133

(415) 956-7040

Local Resources
Scott Howard Website
Scott Howard Dinner Menu
Scott Howard reviews on BlogSoop
Scott Howard by See Us Eat
Scott Howard by Tablehopper
Scott Howard by Foodhoe's Foraging
Scott Howard by Tomato Soup
Scott Howard by One Day I'll be a better person
Scott Howard by Is it Edible?
Scott Howard by Cooking with the Single Guy
Scott Howard by Sibilous
Scott Howard by Pengrin Eats
Scott Howard by Cooking With Amy
Scott Howard by Wine Edge
Scott Howard by Paul Reidinger
Scott Howard by Michael Bauer
Scott Howard by Patricia Unterman
Scott Howard on Savory San Francisco
Scott Howard on Yelp
Scott Howard's Carrot Soup Recipe

Archives
2005 | Travel Plans
2004 | My First Ever Food Bloggers Meet-up

© 2007 Sam Breach

Scott Howard - San Francisco - Jackson Street

OK - So I Cheated...

Three Years Old, One Thousandth Post, Today!

Last week I spotted a mad person celebrating her blog's second birthday. It caused me to remember that my own blog was born in May so I went to check out my stats and find the exact date of its birth. It was only then that I realised that not only were there just four days until my blog's third birthday but that in four posts time Becks & Posh would hit its 1000th post. So, because I was a little too busy to contrive get the four posts out by the 13th May, I cheated to make it so.

In May 2004, the number of people who read my blog could be counted on one hand finger. (Thanks mum.) And a huge thanks to everyone else I've picked up along the way.

I really can't imagine what my life might or would have been like without all of this. As one of my oldest friends, Penny, said to me last night. "You would probably be a totally different person today, if you'd never started your blog". (Did she mean I might have stayed thin?) Either way, she's right. Que sera, sera. This is the way it is now. Three years that have changed a lifetime and I'm not complaining. Thanks to every one of you out there who has joined me on this roller coaster ride.



Some Announcements:


Tanya Steel, editor-in-chief of Epicurious.com, who I met last year and can vouch is fabulous, and chefs Mark Franz, Jan Birnbaum, and Parke Ulrich are hosting a dinner at San Francisco's Farallon to benefit America's Second Harvest. The evening's special menu will feature dishes personally created by each chef, including diver scallop carpaccio, crispy maple pork belly, and roasted strawberry turnovers. Cocktails and Dinner $100 Buy tickets here

Dining Out for Life: Interim Results:
A note from the organisers: We are well on our way to exceeding this year's goal for our 6th Annual Dining Out for Life event. The raffle alone raised $63,000! That's over $18,000 more than last year. That along with the sponsorship/matching grant total of $53,500 brings us to just over $116,500. And that's before any of the restaurants have been factored in. We will be spending the next few weeks inputing all of the raffle and restaurant data information we have received. Due to the overwhelming generosity, it will take a few weeks to enter all the donations from the event. The winning raffle tickets will be drawn once that is completed and the list of the winners will be announced. We are shooting for the last week of May as our announcement date, if things change, we will keep you posted.

Sam Breach, Amanda Berne, and Nikki Wong: Acme Chop House $1,290 in donations plus $770 in online donation for a total of $2060.00

Thanks so much every one who helped us raise funds!

Archives
2006 | Like McDonalds for Dessert: Beard Papa Cream Puffs
2005 | The First Year of Becks & Posh
2004 | Sushi Groove South


© 2007 Sam Breach at "Becks & Posh", becksposhnosh.blogspot.com This RSS Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, or at the aforementioned url, the site you are looking at might be guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact becks.posh.food.blog[AT]gmail[DOT]com to report any suspected violations. Thank you.

OK - So I Cheated...

Jammed if you do, Jammed if you don't

I'll be Jammed, We'll All be Jammed



I bet I am not the only one. I have too much jam in my fridge. I don't know what to do with it all. I would love to compile a list of 101 things you can do with jams, jellies, marmalades and preserves. Can anybody out there help me with suggestions? Sweet, savoury, cocktails, easy, intriguing, unusual, daring, anything-at-all-to-use-up-jam recipes. If you feel so inspired, please leave any ideas in the comments and in a couple of weeks I'll post the results with full credits (and links where applicable) to the authors of every idea. If your recipe idea is longer than a comment then post it on your own blog, let me know and I'll make a link to it when I prepare the ultimate list of things to do with jam.

Example #1: Rub a piece of pork belly with salt and pepper and plenty of Chili Jam. Douse with a slug of Chipotle vodka and roast for just 30 minutes at 425F to crisp the edges then turn the oven down to 350F for another hour or so until the meat is cooked through.

Example #2: Make a classic Victoria Sandwich.

Example #3: Crown your favourite oozy melty cheese with a dab of jam you like, wrap in puff pastry, seal well and bake until golden. Serve hot - but remember jam can burn your tongue!

Only 98 more to go, Thank you for any more ideas, Jam-I-Am!

© 2007 Sam Breach

Jammed if you do, Jammed if you don't

WD50 - 50 Clinton Street - New York City

on Manhattan's Lower East Side

Flash Slideshow

click on any individual picture to stop the slideshow and read more details about it.

I don't think I could have come to New York without satisfying my curiosity about chef, Wylie Dufresne's WD50. It was fun. Sam Mason works magic as a pastry chef. The desserts (well, at least two of the three we tried), were a smash hit. I was seriously considering ordering second helpings of both the Manchego cheesecake, foamed pineapple, thyme and the Soft chocolate, sesame ice cream, ancho caramel, peanut powder. I think I would have done had I not worried about other members of my family, thinking me a glutton.

The service was great. The waiter reommended to me a glass of the Riesling 'Hattenheimer' Kabinett Von Simmern 2003 to pair with my pork belly. The whole family loved the taster I gave them of it, so we ended up ordering a bottle to share. It was decanted and beautifully presented. I am generally a red wide drinker but I think that this Riesling might signal a change in my future drinking habits.

Links, Resources and Further Reading

Much has previously been blogged about WD50.
As I mainly gave you just pictures, here are the words of some others:

The Finicky Lawyer
Exculina
The Girl Who Ate Everything
Gastronomie
Obsession With Food
The Hungry Hedonist
Foodite: A Tasting for the Eyes

Food | New York | WD50 | Restaurant | Dining

WD50 - 50 Clinton Street - New York City

Bay Area Blogger(s) of the Week # 27

Food Blogging Excellence in Our Bay Area Community



I was delighted, when I perused the list of finalists for the 2005 Food Blogging Awards, to see so many local favourites among the nominees. Without further ado here are the other local food bloggers who made the cut:

Eggbeater's Shuna Lydon, for Best Food Blog by a Chef and Best Post.
Knife's Edge's Haddock for Best Food Blog by a Chef.
Group Blog Bay Area Bites for Best City Blog.
Gastronome, for Best Group Blog.
Alder at Vinography, for Best Blog Covering Wine, Beer or Spirits.
Guy Prince, of Meathenge and Tana of Small Farms for Best Theme.
Heidi, of 101 Cookbooks, for Best Recipes and Best Photography.
Pim from Chez Pim for Best Post.

Good luck everyone! You can VOTE HERE! Make sure you check out all the options carefully before making your final decisions.

Did you notice that the Bay Area was totally unpresented in the Best Humour category? Maybe we all need to loosen up a little and stop taking our food so seriously. I'll make a toast to more fun with food in 2006! Personally, I thought it was a great shame not to see the excellent Restaurant Whore and Ms Food Musings in the Best Restaurant Reviews category and I think Brett, of In Praise of Sardines, would have been a deserving nominee in the Best New Blog Category too. There were so many brilliant food blogs, new and old, that didn't quite squeeze into the finals but are deserving of being read. I think I heard someone quote that there were over 700 nominees. When you have a spare day or two, check them all out from this link.

My prediction for Blog Success of 2006 goes to Monkey Gland at Jam Faced. He has a totally dedicated small following (that means that Cookie Crumb and myself are furiously battling each other for his affections.) He recently changed the focus of his blog to concentrate on eating in London. I think it is a great idea, which I imagine will be successful, although he has to be careful not to make me so homesick that I'll jump on the next plane back to Blighty.



It doesn't end there. Two more things and then I'll be off to the farmer's market to pick up my pre-ordered 5lb pork belly. Squeals of excitement can be heard across San Francisco and they are coming from the direction of Jeanne at World on a Plate who has a chance of winning a trip to the Culinary Institute in New York if you vote for her Black & Tans in Gourmet Magazine's "Cook the Cover" competition. (Another prediction for 2006 is that this challenge will from now on be overrun by food bloggers!)

Last but not least, Olivia over at All In, Just Like Life, picked up on a fascinating article called Food Slut by novelist and freelance food writer Ann Bauer published on Salon.com. Olivia attracted a response from the author of the piece which might interest you.




PS. Enough already. No PS today.

Previously Featured Bay Area Food & Drink Bloggers: Chez Pim | The Blue Bottle Clown College | The Novato Experiment | Amuse Bouche | Feeding Fashionistas | All In | Dr Five Pints | SF Gourmet | Small Farms | In Praise of Sardines | Life Begins @ 30 | Gastronomie | Confessions of a Restaurant Whore | Bunny Foot | Sweet & Savory | I'm Mad and I Eat | Yummy Chow | Nosheteria | Vivi's Wine Journal | Epicurian Debauchery | Food Musings | Pfiff | Marga's Food Blog | Where the Wild Things Are | Eggbeater

Food | Blogging | Bay Area | San Francisco | Food blog

Bay Area Blogger(s) of the Week # 27

Jack Falstaff - Second Street - San Francisco - CA

This is a copy of my latest article for SFist in which I eat my way around the Bay Area in alphabetical order and then write about it in SFist style using the 'royal we. This week we are on the letter J.'

Sfist has a little crush on James Ormsby. No less than three times in seven months, we have been drawn back to his swanky Gavin-endorsed restaurant in SoMa, Jack Falstaff.

We are not even quite sure what the allure of Jack Falstaff is. We'll call it the 'James Ormsby Je ne sais quoi factor'. The attraction is certainly not the look of the space, hidden behind a sleek, industrial doorway. The interior is modern but ordinary, dressed in velvetines and sagemint greens that could have jumped straight from the pages of a West Elm catalogue. The ambience fares well from the low, highly-polished dark wooden ceiling that subdues the sound allowing a dinner conversation to flow with ease, thereby helping to keep the dining experience a relaxing affair.

We start with a drink at the bar. The Pear Green Tea Martini is exceptional, displaying all the aroma and ittybittiness of fresh pear. Floating on the top is a pear crisp, so sweet and delectable you might wonder why anyone ever bothered making chips from potatoes.

'Jack Snacks' are small $2 servings (created with the nearby SBC Park crowd in mind and packaged for takeaway), perfect for nibbling on whilst you peruse the menu. We tried the spicy crispy sage leaves and spicy Serrano ham chips, which only lasted long enough to work up a thirst.

We choose a very French tasting 2003 Chinon Vielles Vignes at $38 a bottle. The wine list at Jack Falstaff features wine producers who are "getting back to the land" either through organic or biodynamic viticulture which is explained here in Amy's recent interview with Gillian Ballance, Wine Director and Sommelier for PlumpJack Group.

When it comes to the food, he's knocked us around a bit has James, we've been all over the scale at Jack Falstaff. Mr Ormsby has the ability to make us weep for joy one minute and then render us almost speechless with confusion the next.

We were enchanted with the first taste of a duck-liver creme caramel that has been on the menu since the restaurant opened. But by our third visit, the novelty of Mr Ormsby's efforts to fabricate a plausible replacement for foie gras, in advance of the Californian law that will eventually ban it, has worn off.

As Falstaff virgins we were totally seduced by a twice-cooked Niman Ranch pork belly appetizer. This dish, in various guises, has also retained its menu position and is apparently so popular it is likely to run out, as it did for us, seconds before we attempted to order it. Oh, James, James, James, this is so cruel. Are you treating us bad on purpose so we'll be begging to come back for more.

And even if we do return for a fourth adventure, the Sonoma Goat cheesecake that rendered us almost delirious on our first and second visits is now nothing more than a distant memory. Likewise, his pot de feu was the stuff dreams are made of . We hope James returns a version of it to the menu next Winter.

Whilst we hanker after the stellar dishes we've had the pleasure of eating at Jack Falstaff, equally there are things we would never want to revisit. Pasta made from faro may be healthy, but it doesn't have the makings of an out-to-dinner treat. A duck confit from his first menu was over-sweetened (he comped us for that), and a trio of Pacific Fish crudo we once tried, with the exception of the tuna, was unexciting.

But what about the current state of play at Jack Falstaff? On our most recent cheesecake-free visit, our waitress is a real gem. Professional, extremely knowledgeable about both the wine and the food, as well as being sporty enough to keep the cheekier elements of our party in check with humour and grace.

We have an enjoyable meal. Among the starters, a Thai-style beef carpaccio roll rocking with the fresh flavours of mint and peanuts is the dish that makes those of us, who failed to order it, as green as the mint with envy. A skillet filled with simply roasted and salted padron peppers is an interesting and brave choice, but only for diners who have the capacity to accept such simply prepared, unadorned vegetables in a restaurant setting. Tuna tartare is nothing extraordinary.

Three of our party of four order the steak. Although, technically, it can't be faulted, it fails to really wow any of us. It's just plain boring. The $22 plate of succulent fried chicken with its crunchy garlicky crust is more tasty, but not something we'd usually rush to order. When it comes to the entrees, we actually prefer the sides. This is where James really pulls some stunners. Creamed corn with lime was incredible. Seriously, we would be more than happy with a bowl of this for dinner and nothing else. Can you send us the recipe, James, pretty please?

Consistently good sides, always based on the best of the Farmers' Market, is an area in which Mr Ormsby seems to excel. In the past we have been equally impressed with his Cauliflower Couscous and Curry Butter, lentil dishes and Buttermilk Mashed Red Skin Potatoes.

After the creamed corn high, the only direction available to us is back down hill again. If only dessert these days was as good as the Goat Cheesecake nirvana of yore. We order a pavolova that comes with meringue so rock solid and hard we would have been better off with pneumatic drill than a spoon. Pavlova is a dessert inspired by a ballerina. It goes without saying it should be lighter than air. The accompanying fruits including a stunning combination of the freshest cherries and nuttiest of almonds surrounded by smooth whipped cream are deliriously good. He knows how to source his ingredients, that's for sure. They could have stood up perfectly well by themselves, as a dessert in their own right, without some sugary over-cooked egg white as a prop.

James, dear James, we love some of the things you do, you are refreshingly experimental and often inspired but we think you need to increase the ratio of hits to misses. We can see you are trying very hard, we admire your food philosophy and we'd like to dine with you again, in theory. We're just not sure if we can afford to ride the rough edges when there are so many other hot-sounding rivals opening up in town this Summer...

Jack Falstaff
598 Second Street (at Brannan)
San Francisco, CA 94107
415-836-9239



PS. This review was Tried & Tested

Other bloggers review local restaurants beginning with the letter J: J & J Hawaiian Barbecue - cafe Jacqueline - Jai Yun - Japanese Grill Hattoriya - Jasmine's Cafe - Jerusalem's Organic Kitchen - Jitlada - Joe's Cable Car - Just for you

Other reviews of Jack Falstaff: SF-survey - Yelp - Food Musings - Where the Wild Things Are - Michael Bauer - Meredith Brody - CitySearch - Chowhound

Tagged in Food Restaurants Review San Francisco Tried & Tested

Jack Falstaff - Second Street - San Francisco - CA

Orson - 4th Street - SoMa - San Francisco

One Enchanted, Magical, Evening: An Early First Impression
*Including 12 Bonus Tips for Successful Dining at Orson

Serendipity came into play when I was pondering on which restaurant a friend and I should choose to meet at last week. Browsing through sf.eater.com news that Orson was about to open caught my eye and my mind was set. That this particular friend and I had enjoyed our first ever meal together at Elizabeth Falkner's other restaurant, Citizen Cake, three years ago and also in February, sealed the deal. I called and secured a reservation for Wednesday, their second night of opening.

Courtesy of a Caltrain that was running on time, I arrived at Orson a good ten minutes early for our 7pm rendezvous and was immediately offered the choice of waiting at the bar or at the table. (Hallelujah!) I opted to head straight to our two-top and I was happy to be shown to a quiet enclave from where I had a great opportunity to soak up the scene around me.

Orson is large and lofty. A mezzanine level with suspended walkways overlook the ground floor which is dominated by a large, oval bar. The wait and bar staff wear slightly dandy, distinctive uniforms marked by officer-like stripes around the arm and a jaunty tie whilst the hostesses were all beautifully dressed in what I guessed must be highlights from their own very attractive wardrobes. (Think adorable, short baby-blue dress paired with darling little white ankle boots: Very cute indeed!)

My waiter came over to help me choose a cocktail and talk to me about the menu whilst I was waiting for my companion who was having problem finding a taxi. I was lucky that the rest of his section was empty as it meant he had the time to fully (and enthusiastically) walk me through the drink options many of which included unusual spirits and ingredients about which I found I needed an education: Osmanthus, batavia-arak, rhum clement creole shrubb, veloce? It was difficult to pin down my choice and I jokingly told the waiter that I might have to try one of everything. Little did I know at that point...

To cut an intriguing, tasty, four-hour-long story short, our evening at Orson was only a whisker short of perfect. Really! I can't help thinking about the meal five days later and smiling about how lucky we were to be able to experience Orson in what, surely, must have been a somewhat unique way. Either, they simply hadn't picked up enough business by the time of our visit, or they had limited the number of reservations to keep things manageable as it was only their second night. How often is someone who arrives at a restaurant before 7pm encouraged to stay until closing time? We weren't rushed, it wasn't over crowded, the pacing was leisurely which just happened to fit exactly with our own relaxed mood that evening, there were no delays that we noticed, neither were we made to feel like we, ourselves, were being too slow. We just went with the flow. We ordered cocktails, we ordered some snacks, more cocktails, more savoury food, a bottle of wine, a few more things to eat. Then desserts? Why not - and then how about a night cap to conclude and a little gift (surprisingly delicious chocolate-coated foie gras, sprinkled with coarse salt) sent out from the kitchen?

At the end of our evening, when the check was brought to us, I honestly had absolutely no idea that a full four hours had passed since I first sat down. Proof, if any were needed, that time really does fly when you are having fun.

My only worry, now, is, that any subsequent visit will not live up to this first one. C'mon - what restaurant is going to let you stay for 4 hours when they need to turn two tables a night? On the other hand - the way Orson's menu is presented - as we experienced it, after a few teasers you are encouraged to order lots of explore plates (two to three per person) and share to get the full experience. That novel way of dining - which I can only describe as a kind of tasting menu of your own choosing, is probably better not hurried. When we were there, only half the menu was in place, even. Had there been the full choice available I suspect we may have even tried a few more dishes and stayed a little longer still. I am left wondering, do Orson plan to turn two tables per night - and if so - where does that leave the kind of wonderful dining experience myself and Fatemeh were able to take pleasure in - where the experience naturally developed at its own leisurely pace?

* 12 Tips for Enjoying Dinner at Orson:
1) Don't complain that the one dish you ordered didn't fill you up after the waiter recommended you should order at least two or three per person.
2) Don't go to Orson if quantity is your benchmark.
3) Don't go to to Orson if you are not open-minded about food.
4) Don't take a fussy eater to Orson.
5) Don't go to Orson if you think molecular gastronomy is totally stupid before you've even tried it.
7) Don't hold back - over the course of the evening we ordered no less than 12 dishes between the two of us and we weren't the slightest bit stuffed.
6) Do go to Orson with someone who has the same level of passion and interest and intrigue about food as you do.
7) Do make sure you order the light smoked fish, black rice, keffir lime, bacon which was the star dish of our evening.
8) Do have fun - it can be found in the Parmegiano Pudding. (Think grown-up pop rocks.) The Pigwich and Pork Buns are fun dishes too.
9) Don't miss out on the cocktails - we tasted no less than 5 different ones and they were all absolutely superb. (I'm no wimp so the catch 22 was my personal favorite)
10) Don't go to Orson if you are on a tight budget. To do Orson right, it's going to cost you some. If you are worried about the size of the bill, head somewhere cheaper, fretting about money will only serve to dampen the pleasure of dinner.
11) Only go to Orson with people who are happy to share their food.
12) Don't be embarrassed about ordering several desserts: After all, the owner is a famous pastry chef! (Cheesecake crema is very good.)
13) What are you waiting for?



Orson: 508 4th Street, San Francisco, CA 9410, 415 777-1508 Reserve Online

This review was a first impression written after just one visit in the first week of opening and as such our experience may not be a typical representation of dining at Orson. Date of visit: Wednesday February 27th 2008.

Wednesday March 12 Update: Headed back to Orson to try out some more cocktails at the bar. A few new favourites worth mentioning: House cured ham, grilled garlic-tomato rubbed bread was really fabulous. They started aging this ham 18 months ago, people! Don't miss it. Also this Campari-lover loved the strawberry blonde Negroni. At the end of the evening, as the bar quietened, we got chatting to Jacqueline Patterson, the mixologist. She is one smart lady. When I mentioned to her, in all that I've got left of my English accent, "I've been before and my favourite was the Catch 22", she immediately said "You don't have a blog, do you, called Becks & Posh?" How astute is that? Although I don't care to have my anonymity blown, if someone is going to blow it, I can't think of a more engaging mixologist to do so. Jackie made my friend Brian a "Brian Special", with Domaine de Canton Ginger & Cognac Liqueur. It was so good, I had to have a glass of Brian all to myself. My original Orson dining-mate couldn't stay away from Orson either, she's already made a second visit too.

Third visit March 27th 2008:
Sat at the bar with Brian and let Jackie look after us. Since she's a Master of Mixology I don't remember a great deal about the evening, except that the cocktails were strong and the smoked fish was great.

Fourth visit May 24th 2008:
Took Fred and Hans for dinner. On a Saturday night, Orson wasn't too crowded. We arrived early so that we could sit at the bar and have Jackie make us a cocktail or two. I had a Catch 22 and the boys had the manly cucumber gimlets. For Fred's second drink Jackie made him something special, based on the fact he doesn't like sweet drinks. He was really happy when she delivered some sort of fresh mint concoction. Hans was complaining he was bored with life but when we sat down to dinner and the parmigiano pudding with the pop rocks arrived he brightened up. We had a fun night. I loved the new dish on the menu: porcini, anchovies, scarlet turnip, sherry vinaigrette. Hans liked the pigwich so much he had to order a second.

Fifth visit July 2008:
Hic!

Sixth visit August 13th 2008:
It's hard to remember a night at Orson, so strong are the cocktails. However, I can recall a crispy pork belly dish that was served with tiny tomatoes and a lot of feisty spice. Sardines with bitter beans were great too, but the charred hamachi tartare was pedestrian in comparison. That can't be said of the desserts which were all great. We did the taster. But it was the pluots with honey ice and olive oil ice creams that stole the show. Or you could argue that Jackie stole the show with her cocktails again. Either way, it's all good.

Seventh visit August 28th 2008:
Arrived for dessert and cocktails. Was disappointed that old favourites like the "Pigwich" and the "Parmigian Pudding" were off the menu. Drank one of Jacqueline Patterson's delicious inventions, the 'Chocolini': scarlet ibis rum, vanilla syrup, house chocolate liquor. Asked after her but she'd already left for the night. A week later read the news she'd been let go for good. This makes me so sad. To me, Jackie was the main draw of Orson. Can't wait to hear where she ends up because I am so following her there. Jackie - if you read this - please do let me know.

Eighth & Probably Final visit, September 30th 2008:
Fatemeh wanted a celery gimlet. We got there at 10.30 pm it was SO SAD. We had to ask if they were still open - it was empty save two tables near the window, (each filled with four older guys just finishing up). So we sat at the bar. To my right the bar surface was all covered in crumbs and spills. They didn't clean it up the whole time we were was there. There was an industrial sized saran(sp?) wrap [aka as 'cling film in UK], an ugly plastic scoop, a dirty old rag of a towel and a shoddy looking plastic container just sitting on the bar. It looked ugly - like we were in a sandwich shop at the end of lunch service. Aside from the gimlet, there were three other cocktails on the menu which were just pedestrian. I had the rather sweet negroni. I feel like its come full circle. I dined so well there with Fatemeh on the first week of their opeining, and now I feel that six months later together we have just witnessed their swan song. Btw, if you are interested, Jackie will be starting at Zinnia, opening October 22nd in the old Scott Howard space.



?Does the thought of Orson turn you on or turn you cold?

Local Resources
My Orson Dining partner, Fatemeh asks of San Francisco "Interesting Food -- Are You Ready For It?"
Cocktails at Orson by my friend Anita
We spotted Paul H from Chowhound dining at the bar on the same evening as us. I tend to agree with his statement that Orson "is certainly one of the most interesting new restaurants to open in the city for a long time"
Orson by Optic


Archives
2005 | Pizzetta 211 - 211 23rd Ave - San Francisco


© 2008 Sam Breach

Orson - 4th Street - SoMa - San Francisco