Posts Tagged ‘delfina restaurant’

Food, Glorious Food

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

I’m singing that title by the way,  Food, Glorious Food.  I’m just not computer savvy enough to add the musical notes to let you know that I’m singing- so let me spell it out for you.  San Francisco, as anyone who has been there knows, is a civilized and beautiful place to visit.  And, according to my son Oliver, to live.   People often say that S.F. reminds them of a European city.

For me, San Francisco is a serious food destination.  A real foodie’s paradise is the Ferry Building and this quick trip up here is my first experience.  I kept hearing about it from everyone so I made sure that in my less then 48 hour trip I go see what all the fuss is about.  It IS about something.  Food stalls are everywhere with major finds like the best bread or the best olive oil.  There were seafood restaurants with bar seating and I was hungry and almost jumped at the first sign of fresh seafood and an interesting menu.  But I kept hunting around and found the mother lode in a restaurant called b/l which I’m pretty sure stands for Boulette’s Larder.  I will tell you what I had and I will tell you a few things on the menu that day and I will be going back so fucking fast on my next trip up north.

Seafood egg scramble with tarragon ( halibut, whitefish and scallops ).  Perfect.

Served with a variety of the freshest bread from Acme bread company and yes they have their own stall here so you can buy what you want and yes I came home with a few loafs.  Some other things on the menu.

Celery Root Soup with walnut croutons

Sumac roasted chicken breast with black chickpea and fava flour fritters (little gem hearts, tahini, artichoke puree, hummus)

Arctic char filet (little new potatoes, asparagus, lemon verjus buerre blanc)

Writing this is making me so hungry it’s painful.

Another place I ate in my very short stay is where I must go each trip to S.F. and that is Delfina in the mission district on 18’th street.  It might be Italian because it does have pizza’s but it’s more of a Chez Panisse type restaurant with fresh produce from the local farmers markets in all the recipes.

I couldn’t resist one of my favorite dishes which is burrata on black olive crostini (refer to an earlier piece I wrote called amuse bouche to find a recipe)

We also ordered and loved Jewish-Style Artichokes with lemon and mint.

Some other dishes on the menu that looked great:

Grilled Fresh Calamari with warm white bean salad

Whole Petrale Sole in Acqua Pazza (marble potatoes, salt packed caperberries and Gaeta olives)

Five Dot Ranch Brisket (parslied potatoes and horseradish crème fraiche)

A quick note.  After watching the food network last night I realized the place that I blew off needs mentioning.  It’s called Hog Island Oyster Co. and it is meant to have the very best tasting oysters ever, according to the show Best Things I ever ate.

Amuse Bouche

Monday, January 18th, 2010

Tonight I really amused my bouche.  And, I hope I amused my husbands and even Domy’s bouche.  And yes I do love that it all sounds very naughty.  I’m glad to say it’s really G-rated, is French and literally means it entertains the mouth.  It is a small appetizer served at some great restaurants. When I am served an Amuse Bouche in a restaurant, I often get very greedy and ask for more.  Maybe it’s greedy AND rude, I’m never sure.  And yet, I still do it.  Just did it the other night at Fraiche in Santa Monica when they gave me one small bite of the best caesar salad I’ve ever had.  Ten of those amuse bouches could have made a nice little meal for me.

The appetizer I made for tonight was crostini served with an olive tapenade and burrata cheese.  How simple it is to make and how impressive it is to serve.

my amuse bouche

I totally copied from one of these restaurants, both served a version of this dish.  It was either Delfina Restaurant on 18’th street in the Mission district of San Francisco or Rustic Canyon Restaurant on Wilshire in Santa Monica, California.

Burrata cheese and olive Tapenade Crostini recipe

Cut slices of your favorite french bread

drizzle with olive oil and fresh garlic

toast lightly in oven, I do 400 degrees and turn it over after a few minutes, two minutes on each side is good

sorry but I buy my olive tapenade from a local gourmet market but I’m sure you can chop a bunch of black olives to make your own

I get Burrata cheese from the same market, Burrata, Italian meaning is buttered, it’s really mozzarella and cream so you can just use a very good mozzarella

put the olive tapenade on the crostini first and then burrata and blow everyone away