Posts Tagged ‘San Francisco’
Ubuntu – Philosophy to Food
 Fresh butter |
 Gazpacho soup |
 Steamed bun, stuffed w/ burrata and coated with crunchy corn |
 Mini rootbeer cupcakes |
Lunch:
Someone was bound to combine two of San Francisco bay area’s favorite pursuits – yoga and food. Ubuntu in California’s Wine Country bills itself as selling just this combination. We visited only the restaurant half of the strange amalgam, but did not fail to appreciate the lithe yogis and yoginis passing by the large bay windows.
I suppose once you have decided to combine a restaurant with a yoga studio, you cannot really serve up cow or pig or any of god’s tasty creatures. So you end up serving vegetarian/vegan food. Sort of. There was egg on the menu.
Vegetarian/vegan food is such a departure from mainstream American tastes and practices that I usually approach it with trepidation. I am always afraid that I will be served some prettily arranged steamed peas and tofu decorated with fresh herbs, and that I am going to do something really seriously nasty. Like write a blog post.
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Texas BBQ in San Francisco
Brisket from Snow's BBQ
We figured that getting barbecue flown from Texas to California would be significantly cheaper than flying us from California to Texas. Voted the best BBQ by Texas Monthly Magazine in 2008 and written about in New Yorker, Snow’s BBQ, has been on our radar for a little over an year. We decided to get their customer favorite slow cooked brisket.
The 5-6 lb brisket arrived perfectly frozen with heating instructions and a bottle of their sauce. The very first thing I did was to thaw it partially, divide the meat into meal size portions and wrap each portion separately to store. Top flight barbecue is so rare in the Bay Area that this treat needed careful planning to get the last bit of chewy, meaty enjoyment from it. For the first batch, I followed heating instructions to the letter. But then proceeded to use my own technique. First I brought the meat to room temperature, and trimmed the fatty bits at the edges. I froze these bits for a use that I will get to later. I brushed the meat liberally with the sauce and broiled it briefly until a light glistening crust formed. And voilà, it was ready to eat.
Sand, Sea and Moule Frites at Le Garage, Sausalito
Le Garage at Sausalito waterfront
A weekend lunch with my sweetheart, after a gorgeous drive over the Golden Gate bridge, to the beautiful seaside town of Sausalito… If Le Garage, the popular French bistro in Sausalito, gets any closer to the sea, it will have to be a floating restaurant.
Le Garage’s ambiance is perfect. The place is hip and causal, like a smartly dressed woman you want to be seen with. From the patio, the view of bobbing sail boats and flying sea gulls sets the mood. Our waiter at this particular lunch was a tall, dark and handsome young man, who got down on his knees by the table for our order – makes a girl feel special even if she is with her sweetheart. I was in a lovely mood this far. Our order – moule frite and squash blossoms stuffed with crab.
Fillmore: Jazz and Dosa
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Fillmore jazz festival is around the corner. There will be music, swing lessons, can’t forget the American Lindy Hop championships, and, inevitably, barbecue. Last year, I was at such a happy high after an hour of listening to swingin’ tunes from a time before my own that I forgot my usual wariness of San Francisco barbecue and bought a pulled pork sandwich from one of the food stalls lining the street. Even the thought of the pasty bread and the dry flavorless pork is probably killing a few neurons in the taste centers of my brain. But I have an alternative this time.
Perbacco, San Francisco
Financial District of San Francisco
In this the epicenter of all that is holy in foodie-land, it is not sufficient for a restaurant to call itself Italian if it is to lay claim upon the foodie’s attention. Sicilian? Yes. Piedmontese? Sure. Tuscan? So early 2009. It is hard to believe that there are many folks here who can tell a Tuscan meatball from a Piedmontese meatball. We most certainly cannot. So when we set out for Perbacco, it was just with the expectation of some good food. And boy, they did not disappoint.
We went to Perbacco for a weekday lunch. Lunch? Yes. You see, we were planning to go to Ad Hoc for dinner the same day. Playing hooky from work too. Now feel free to hate us.
