Aix Restaurants to Check Out & Why

Yes, I know we have about 40 days to fill up with eating out but I want to make sure we don’t miss any of the typical Provençal dishes and not all the restaurants in Aix offer them.  

Having said that, my first restaurant, Le Saint Jean, isn’t particularly Provençal and is rather heavy on the meats, but we usually don’t do steaks at home and who wants to grill in an aparthotel?  Their steaks look cooked just right  and they come with French fries.  It’s a relatively new restaurant (2 years?) and offers an extensive menu of beef cuts and several choices for lamb, pork, veal, and poultry (magret de canard for instance).  There is also pasta and a good selection of fish dishes for those who cringe at the thought of eating red meat (yum!).  The mixed charcuterie and cheese board looks great but for two people it wouldn’t leave much room for the plat, much less the dessert. 

 But maybe we could just order that with a Salade Saint Jean:  Salade du marché, Jarret de Boeuf confit, pomme de terre, tomate, croutons à  l’ail, vinaigrette moutarde.

The second restaurant, La Brocherie, has a wood-burning hearth where they grill their meats and fish.  The ambiance is a little less sophisticated but it looks like a lot of fun.  Their menu offers two typical soups: soupe de poisson and soupe au pistou (roughly a fish soup and a minestrone) and they also offer a bouillabaise at a reasonable price (26€).    They also have classic French dishes like Magret de Canard, lamb chops, veal kidneys and andouillette. 

Camila and the boys might like it since they feature both pasta and fish. Lots of dessert choices and for Silas they have l’Assiette Gourmand with pavé au chocolat, crème brûlée à la lavande, glace verveine, glace calisson, soufflé glacé à l’anis, or variations thereof.

The third restaurant for this post is Les Galinas - La Table Provençale, a little more sophisticated and upscale than La Brocherie with a more limited menu and a more careful presentation of the food, even if they don’t have tablecloths and are trying to recreate grandmother’s provençal cooking.  It is a Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant so we can probably expect smaller portions and because the menu changes, one should probably check the menu before making a reservation, which is pretty much required for all these places.  Les Galinas always seem to have lamb tripe, sardines in oil, and oeufs mimosas on the menu and usually offer a meat dish, a pasta and a fish among their plats.  There are photos of an octopus appetizer, head cheese, and someone mentioned rabbit so it will be interesting to see what they have the day we go.

Until the next episode, Bon Appétit!

Restaurants for Camila and the Boys

 Since we’ll be in Aix-en-Provence for 6 weeks, when Camila and the boys are there, I’ll concentrate on restaurants with dishes they might like to eat rather than Pieds et Paquets, Agneau au Lait, and Magret de Canard.  However, I must admit that not one of the restaurants on my Google Map list was among Rick Steves’ recommendations, and not one of Rick’s recommendations was on my list.  Again however, the one recommendation of his for London that we went to was really horrid and many of his choices in Aix seem to be chosen for their al fresco ambiance.  Has he even been to them?  He says they « are carefully reviewed by my friends at Tastes of Provence food tours ».  Eh bien…  back to my list.

For Camila, there’s a little restaurant near the Adagio called Restaurant l’Envie that has creative and nicely presented dishes with lots of flowers but, surprisingly, no website.  Their desserts look particularly  attractive.  You can see photos of their dishes at The Fork, and make reservations too.

The boys should like Le Four Aixois (and us too) which specializes in wood-fired pizza.  The mushroom pizza looks good to me, even if it doesn’t have slices of truffle on top.  Hopefully the boys will order something besides cheese and pepperoni, maybe a moitié/moitié, which is half cheese and half anchovy.  Anchovies are big in the south of France.  Did you know that tapenade is traditionally made with anchovies and capers, not just olives?

And yes, I think we’ll be eating pizza more than once.  Some of the pizzerias serve their pizzas Italian style with part of the ingredients added après cuisson or after cooking.  Pizzeria Delices de Capoue is one of those and we should try this après cuisson style at least once, since they have some rather interesting compositions.  If we go to Marseilles, we might visit one of La Bonne Mère locations for pizza where they name them after Marcel Pagnol characters.  In Marseille the influence of Neapolitan immigrants is quite strong.

One of Rick Steves’ recommendations that I would like to try is La Fromagerie du Passage which I had saved in my food shop list but evidently they have a restaurant on the second floor and the roof where you can order a platter of 5 cheeses for 22€.  Rick says you get bread and a salad with that.  They also have a platter for 4 people with 25 different cheeses for 95€.  Do you think the boys would be interested?  I know Papi would be.  They also serve a hamburger.  Or boeuf tartare.

Les 25 Fromages Differents

There are also a couple of restaurants with the Michelin Bib Gourmand.  I don’t think we’d be able to afford a Michelin starred restaurant but these are supposed to be gourmet level and not too expensive.  One is Licandro le Bistro which has a formule for lunch that isn’t too expensive (34€).  Another is Vintrépide which also has a formule for lunch (complet 34€, entrée/plat or plat/dessert 28€).  Its inpiration of the week for lunch is lamb ravioli, cod with artichoke and cherry clafouti for dessert, which sounds pretty good to me.  A third Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant is Coté Cour but their prices are a bit higher.

Because Aix is a university town, there are a lot of international options including Moroccan, Thai, Japanese, and Korean.  There’s an upscale Thai restaurant, Phatsara, that has a large menu and nicely presented dishes.  There’s also a Breton creperie: Le P’tit Breton and an upscale Ethiopian restaurant, Chez Ama.  Upscale as opposed to a hole in the wall.  Mary Vallejo ate there and said it was very good.

And of course, we can always cook in the apartment, can’t we?  And the markets also have takeout food, especially Middle Eastern.  I even found a rotisserie chicken takeout not too far away from the hotel.  I don’t think we’ll starve.  What would you like?

 

Cabillaud / artichaut

 

Clafoutis cerise 

The Castro, Mission District and Noe Valley

Camila responded to Penny's post but it doesn't seem to have been posted:

You should go check out the neighborhoods you never go to. Or maybe it’s just me that feels that I always go to the same places each time (union square, Chinatown, north beach, fisherman’s wharf). When i first wandered through the marina and the mission, I was like, oh, there’s so much more to see! Ha ha. I’d plan my day around where to eat...Tartine. Oh and that kenji Lopez alt guy has a “wursthaus” that he just opened but i think it’s in San Mateo...but right by BART it looks like.

http://www.wursthall.com/

Exploring the neighborhoods is fine with me, since we'll be staying in one: the Outer Sunset.  I've already suggested walking to the beach but I've also been intrigued by "Noe Valley", which is on the other side of Twin Peaks.  Unfortunately it takes about 50 minutes to get there by public transportation because you have to take 2 or 3 buses.  But we could combine it with the Mission District and The Castro, taking the Judah Streetcar (N) and walking down Noe Street and then left on Market to Castro Street.  On Noe Street we'll stumble across L'Ardoise, a French bistro, but it doesn't open until 5 or 5:30 pm.  There aren't many commercial establishments along the route but once we hit Market, there's Super Duper Burgers and across the street is Tacorgasmico.  It's hard to ignore the latter's name but the food and interior sound interesting.  Back on the other side is a seafood restaurant Catch but it seems somewhat pricey.

Turning down Castro Street at Harvey Milk Plaza, there's a Castro Ice Cream & Dessert that's really a tiny Turkish bakery with baked goods, tea, coffee, baklava, etc.  Looks good but no website, only yelp.

Quite a few clothing stores for men (underpants) but also Cliff's Variety Store.  Their website says they maintain a stock of hard-to-find hardware items so it definitely sounds like a place to browse or you can browse online at Pointy.  After this on Castro Street there really doesn't seem to be much more so we can walk east on 18th Street until we get to the Mission District.

About half a mile along 18th is Bi-Rite Creamery.  I wouldn't mind trying a few of their ice creams (black sesame and tcho chocolate?) or maybe one of their signature sundaes like Dainty Gentleman with honey lavender ice cream, hot fudge, blood orange olive oil & Maldon sea salt (which is from England, by the way).  Or we could make our own sundae for $8.50.

Then we'll roll out of the creamery and march on to Tartine Bakery on Guerrero Street where Fernando can inhale the sourdough aroma.   It opens early (7:30 am) so we can at least pick up some croissants but they say their bread doesn't come out until 4:30 pm and expect the loaves to cost $9-11.  Camila should be happy with this posting; it's all about food.

We are a couple of blocks southeast of Mission Dolores at 16th Street & Dolores.  I don't remember ever having visited it and how can we say we've been to the Mission District if we haven't been in the Mission?  There is both the old Mission Dolores and the new basilica (1918).  San Francisco Travel says:
"Most visitors head to Mission Dolores to get a glimpse of the oldest building in San Francisco, while those in the know go there to view rare art, listen to an acclaimed choir and see one of the most stunning rose gardens in San Francisco."
Unfortunately the choir sings on Sunday when we're in Berkeley but we can visit the cemetery and gardens and get a view of the city from Dolores Park, but that's back on 18th.

There is a Heath Ceramics tile factory several blocks east on 18th Street beyond Alabama which might be interesting because it has a retail store and a Tartine Manufactory for food.  I'm not sure how we fit this detour into our walk but at least we know it is there.

Now we must hurry to Mission Street or we'll never get to Noe Valley!  It appears that California foodies have taken over the food scene on Mission Street.  It used to be Mexican when we lived in Albany in the 70s but now it is "Gracias Madre" whose "mission is love" with "plant-based Mexican food" and which starts their lunch menu with a $9 Madre Green Smoothie (spinach, cilantro, mint, avocado, pineapple and sea salt), followed by a $15 Bowl Uno of tempeh chorizo, black beans, guacamole, brown rice and pico de gallo served on a bed of romaine and topped with nacho cashew cheese and pepitas.  You can't get more nutty Californian that that!  Where's the huitlacoche I'd like to know.

More famous is Mission Chinese Food,  offering dishes like Sichuan Carbonara, smashed cucumbers with tahini instead of garlic and chili oil, Kung Pao Pastrami and Chinese Giardianiera.  California is all into fusion food but I can borrow the Mission Chinese cookbook from the library.  There are lots of restaurants in the Mission District and we only have one meal to eat.  Perhaps we should save our appetite for Californios.  You can't get more cutting-edge Californian cuisine than that.  And then there's Foreign Cinema, specializing in oysters and Californian/Mediterranean dishes and located in a bright airy space where some amateur photos on Yelp have enough light to look good.

We already saw the Mission District murals the last time we were in San Francisco and there don't seem to be many museums in this area, except for the David Ireland House.  David Ireland was a "conceptual" artist.  (Is that the same as "installation art"?)  Hoodline has an article on the house: "Inside The David Ireland House, The Mission's Secret Art Museum."  I'm always looking for new decorating ideas, although I understand that his furnishings are rather sparse.

As you near 24th Street on Mission, establishments appear to be a bit more Mexican but there is also a Wise Sons Jewish Delicatessen on 24th Street where Papi may be able to find that pastrami sandwich he's been looking for.  He can also get a spicy horseradish michelada, a breakfast burrito with pastrami, a pickle plate of vinegar and salt fermented vegetables, and a Chinese chicken salad.

We need to pick up our pace now or we'll never get to Noe Valley, which we should reach if we proceed West on 24th Street for about half a mile from Mission to Church Street (we can take the #48 Quintara/24th St. bus if it passes by).  There's the Mission Branch Library along the way on Bartlett Street, in case we need to make a pit stop, and half a block north on Valencia Street there is the Arizmendi Workers CoOp Bakery, if Fernando wants another inhalation.  Finally at Church Street, we begin to encounter the upscale restaurants, home-decor boutiques, and chic clothing shops that characterize Noe Valley.  They also say to watch out for aggressive strollers and packs of golden retrievers.    If we take another detour and walk 5 blocks south on Church Street we'll run into the Omnivore Book Shop on César Chavez whose new titles page features food magazines I haven't even heard of.   I'd be up for one of their events on Thursday, June 7.  Elizabeth Minchilli, the author of Eating My Way Through Italy: Heading Off the Main Roads to Discover the Hidden Treasures of the Italian Table  is talking from 6:30-7:30 p.m.  She has a blog on Rome.

And if we keep going south to 30th Street, we'll run into that Sardinian restaurant, La Ciccia.  It's not cheap, especially if you order a primo, secondo and contorno.  But it is well recommended and Zagat says to order the Octopus Stew and the Spaghetti with spicy oil & bottarga.  Like many upscale restaurants it is only open from Tuesday to Saturday from 5:30pm to 10.  If we're lucky we can take the J Church streetcar down Church Street from 24th and back up again.   Or by then we might be ready for an Uber Lyft.

Another recommended restaurant is Firefly on 24th Street for locally sourced food.  But I have troubles with a restaurant that serves "bits" with "yummy spread", "apps" with "nut alerts!", and "GF cornbread for the intolerant".  There's also Peasant Pies on 24th: "Inspired by a favorite meal of 19th century French villagers, Peasant Pies® are filled with fresh vegetables, poultry, beef or seafood and baked in a crisp bread crust."  Now here is something we could take home for dinner.  There's another location on Irving Street in the Inner Sunset.  And I forgot to mention Mission Pie on Mission south of 24th that specializes in sweet pies.  But how would we carry all these pies home?

This is enough for this district.  What neighborhoods should we visit next?

Where to Eat in San Francisco #1

Despite my desires to revisit old restaurants like Schroeder's, Grotto Number 9, Spenger's, and Yamato Sukiyaki, it doesn't work.  Most of them are not there anymore and the others aren't worth visiting.  Remember Foster's Cafeteria?  But go look at the menu at Schroeder's and you will see what I mean: smothered tots, schwings and fried pickles!  As in every other establishment that serves beer, they have to have hamburgers (I suppose they ARE German).  The old waiters we knew at Schroeder's must be turning in their graves when they see the rowdy young whipper snappers there these days.

So we have to start from square one:  browsing the neighborhood or searching on Yelp and Google Maps, hoping to find restaurants for old people.  I actually thought I had gotten farther in this post that I started weeks ago but evidently most of my restaurants are on my Google map of San Francisco.  I have browsed a bit along the Irving Street Corridor in the Inner Sunset and along Noriega Street near the apartment and so have added some restaurants there, in case we are hungry at night.  On Clement Street, there is a French restaurant, Chapeau! which has an early bird prix fixe menu from $40.00, available on Wednesday, Thursday & Sunday, from 5:00pm to 6:00pm but otherwise it looks a bit expensive, which is what appears to be the norm in San Francisco.  Perhaps I'm trying to relive the Hotel de France that we went to as kids when Daddy paid...

Perhaps we would be interested in visiting neighborhoods like Noe Valley.  There's a Sardinian restaurant there called La Ciccia which is "intimate" so there shouldn't be rowdy diners but will probably be expensive.  It was reviewed in the NY Times article,  My Go-To Places for Regional Italian Food in San Francisco in 2011.  In that same article they mention Perbacco, next to the Tadich Grill on California in the Financial District.  Both sound good if we are interested in Italian.   So does the Tadich Grill, but no prices on their menu.

But perhaps we are interested in something more foreign to us, although Penny can eat absolutely anything in New York City, unless we go with the totally weird fruits and nuts of California.

Should we find a replacement for Grotto #9 on Fisherman's Wharf?  The last time Fernando and I went to Grotto #9 we were the only diners there and we eventually walked out because no one was waiting on us.  There's Pacific Catch on 9th St near Irving below Golden Gate Park which advertises "sustainable salmon from the pristine shores of Chilean Patagonia".  Isn't that where farmed salmon is polluting the coasts?   It's very Californian with sushi, poke, rice bowls and tacos and not too expensive.

There's also Hog Island Oyster Co. whose special is oysters but they also have bowls of chowders and seafood stews.  However it is in the Ferry Building so is probably touristy and overpriced.  The same with Fog Harbor Fish House which is near the ferries on Pier 39.  Going inland there is the Woodhouse Fish Company with two locations, one on Fillmore Street and one on Market.  Woodhouse offers the classic dishes like clam chowder, iceberg Louie salad, steamed clams or mussels, fish and chips and cioppino.

So here's a start on food.  I've got to go plant some shrubs now but will be back when inclement weather strikes!

A Few More Dining Options in Punta Cana

Iberostar has 3 adjoining hotel complexes in Punta Cana and residents at one can also eat at the restaurants of the other two hotels.  So that increases our dining possibilities.  A helpful Trip Advisor review mentioned that you could only make 3 reservations at a time so you would have to come back the next day to make more.  He mentioned that they really liked the Great Seafood Stew special with Langoustines, mussels, scallops by the beach on Sunday.  Will we make that arriving on Sunday?  In any case, here are the dining options at the two other hotels.

Iberostar Dominicana and Iberostar Punta Cana
There are two buffet options: Higuey in the Dominicana lobby and Hispaniola in the Punta Cana lobby.  Neither require reservations and have the casual/formal dress code: "For gentlemen, shirts with sleeves at breakfast and lunch, Bermuda shorts and shoes or sandals at dinner. Ladies may wear shoes or sandals."  Higuey is open for breakfast 7-10 am; Lunch 12:30-3 pm; dinner 6:30-10 pm just like Los Haitises at Bávaro Suites.

Maria Bonita
This is a Mexican restaurant requiring reservations with 3 seatings for dinner: 6:30, 8:00 and 9:00.  Again there is a Dress Code: Casual/Formal. Gentlemen may wear Bermuda shorts and sandals. Ladies may wear shoes or sandals.

La Cana Steakhouse
On the beach with the same Dress Code and requiring reservations with 3 seatings at 7:00, 8:00 and 9:00.

La Sibila
Classic French gourmet cuisine in the lobby of the Dominicana requiring reservations with 3 seatings at 6:30, 8:00 and 9:30.  The Dress Code is stricter:  "Formal/Elegant. Long pants are required. Jacket and sleeved shirts or polo shirts, dress sandals or shoes for gentlemen. Ladies may [wear] shoes or dress sandals.​"  I'll need to bring a skirt and sandals dressier than the Keens.

La Marimba
Seafood in front of the beach by Punta Cana. 3 seatings requiring reservations: 7:00, 8:15 and 9:30. The dress code is Casual/Formal like Maria Bonita.

La Pagoda
Located in the Punta Cana lobby, La Pagoda offers food from China, Japan and Thailand with 3 seatings requiring reservations: 6:30, 8:00 and 9:30.  Casual/formal dress code.

There is also La Cana which is snacks on the beach requiring reservations and their no reservations Star Rock Café with American classics but we probably aren't interested in those.

Eating Foreign in London

I know, I know.  I should be concentrating on British food.  But London is closer to Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia than is the U.S., so it is closer to the source for foreign foods.  Here are a few restaurants that I have happened across that look interesting.

Little Georgia
As I was browsing around the Columbia Road Flower Market on Google maps, I ran across this little restaurant that serves food from Georgia (the country, not the state).  They have a location in Hackney (East End) and another larger one in Islington which is about a mile from the British Library.  On the menu is the traditional cheese bread Khachapuri and the meat dumplings Khinkali, as well as roasted red peppers, onions and eggplant.  The chef even has a cookbook called Supra that you can find on Amazon.

Mari Vanna
This is a small Russian restaurant with borsch, herring, pelmeni, stuffed cabbage and all those other typically Russian dishes, plus a few Georgian ones.  The interior is supposed to look like a 19th century Russian dacha but they also have a location in New York City which looks very expensive (herring under a fur coat is $16) and another one in Washington DC (Adjarski Khachapuri for $18).

Brasserie Zédel
In case we want to pretend we are in Paris, this is an underground restaurant in the art-deco style near Piccadilly Circus so much of the attraction is the atmosphere.

Pilpel
Remember the falafels at L'As du Fallafel in Paris?  Pilpel looks very similar and is very popular (4.8 out of 5 on Google) with 6 locations.
Antalya
This Turkish restaurant up near the British Museum has lots of lamb dishes, as well as eggplant.  Most of the reviews are very positive except for a few that are very negative saying the food was bland and overcooked.  Overcooked is ok if it is a lamb shank, just don't order chicken breast.  Because England is so proud of its lamb, middle eastern restaurants should be good here.

Mamie's Crêperie & Cidrothèque
If we want some Breton galettes for a quick lunch we can stop my Mamie's which isn't far from Temple Church and the Royal Opera House.  I don't think we ever got to a crêperie in Paris, did we?

Santa Maria Pizzeria
TimeOut considers their Neapolitan pizza some of the best in London and not too expensive.  They have a location in Fulham but that is west of the apartment, further from downtown London, and I'd prefer going east.  It's like flying to Charlotte to get to LA.

TimeOut's 100 Best Cheap Eats in London
As in the rest of European cities, you find the cheapest food in ethnic restaurants, be they Chinese, Indian, Thai, Mexican or Middle Eastern.  After a few days eating fish and chips, meat pies, and Sunday Roasts, we might be anxious for a shift in cuisine, plus we'll get more British food up in Yorkshire and the Lake District and we wouldn't want to spoil our appetites and jade our tastebuds.

In the end, of course, we'll just pop into a place we run across that looks good and is convenient and has seating for us.

Rome Restaurants to Try

I added so many dishes to the "Rome food to try" that I thought maybe it would be better to separate out the restaurants.  Frankly I find that, although I might do a lot of research on restaurants, we really don't end up at any of them but just drop by a place that looks good.  But it will give us something to think about and we can look at their menus (typically without prices) to give us time to translate the names of their dishes, so we'll know what we're ordering.  And please add your selections to this posting as well.

This is a good place to add Revealed Rome's Eleven Etiquette Mistakes (Not) to Make at an Italian Meal. We already know about the coffee one but "the bread is there as an accompaniment to your primi and secondi, especially to dip into leftover sauces, not as a way to fill you up pre-dinner."  Are you listening, Fernando??

Revealed Rome also lists her "Three No-Fail Rome Restaurants".   These are Flavio al Velavevodetto in Testaccio (see below), Da Danilo, and L'Asino d'Oro (also below).

al Velavevodetto

al Velavevodetto

Flavio al Velavevodetto

Flavio al Velavevodetto

On Serious Eats is a recent (July 2014) posting by Katie Parla: 8 Must-Visit Restaurants in Rome.   One is an Eat and Go (Mordi e Vai) stand in the Testacchio mercato that offers 3 euro panini and is also written up in Rome Digest.

And on Eating Italy's June 2014 post, Tavole Romane lists her current favorite restaurants, one of which is by a Colombian: Metamorfosi, but it is a bit beyond our budget.  Anyway, I want traditional Roman food, not cutting edge food.

Agustarello
We might as well start alphabetically.  This is a trattoria in Testaccio that is famous for its offal, including coratella and rigatoni con pajata, but these are only available in spring.   It was one of Katie Parla's 10 Best Trattorias in 2011.

L'Asino d'Oro
Another of Parla's Top 10, this one is located in Monti and has a facebook page with photos of its dishes which look too exquisite for us.  But it is relatively close to Via Napoli.  Here is its menu on Menuale but it changes daily.  Revealed Rome liked it a lot and mentioned the weekday lunches: €12 for an antipasto, primo, secondo, glass of wine, and water. She said the dishes weren't as inventive as at dinner and smaller but she had pumpkin soup, ravioli with ricotta, and lamb stewed with artichokes, which sound awfully nice to me.  It is also one of Bread, Cakes and Ale's two favorite Rome restaurants, which says the price in October of 2013 was €13.

Flavio al Velavevodetto
Located on Monte Testaccio, this little trattoria is a favorite of Katie Parla and Revealed Rome, and Carlo Petrini.  RR recommends their amatriciana and their fritto misto vegetale.  Elizabeth Minchilli like it too, especially the view of the broken amphorae.  They also have a new location Piazza dei Quiriti 5 near Vatican City.

Il Pinsere
Remember Tony's Pizza Napoletana in San Francisco?  Maybe this one will be like that since it is near the apartment on Via Flavia.  It is a takeout pizzeria that is only open M-F from 9:00-14:00 and it is extremely popular on Trip Advisor although I had originally heard about it from someplace else.  Actually, what they serve isn't exactly pizza but pinse, an oval Roman flatbread with toppings, according to the Rome Digest.  The only drawback is that I'm not sure if we will be in that vicinity during its open hours.

Nonna Betta
Remember the falafels in Paris?  Here's a Kosher restaurant in the Jewish ghetto that serves falafels and only 5 euros apiece!  It's a minor item on the menu but the rest looks very Roman except that they add a vegetable to those Roman pasta dishes so that you get a carbonara di zucchine and a tagliolini cacio, pepe e cicoria.  The bucatini all'amatriciana del ghetto is on the meat menu but what do they use instead of guanciale and pecorino romano?  It must be hard to be kosher in Rome and never eat the pork products or mix the meat with the pecorino romano.  Or is it possible to eat the primo piato as a milk dish and the secondo as a meat?    Are eggs meat or dairy?  Nonna Betta does have abbacchio al forno con patate and abbacchio al scottadito but their menu also says that some things are only served in season.  I hope that carciofi are in season all year.

Eat Rome

I bit the bullet and bought the Elizabeth Minchilli app called Eat Rome, even though it didn't have any ratings.  Few of the other Rome guides had ratings either so I guess that isn't unusual.  I'm using Eat Rome to explore the area around the apartment on Via Napoli and then I'll go further afield.  Here are a couple of reviews that sounded interesting.

Castroni is a gourmet food store that has both Italian and international products.  They have a store at Via Nazionale 71 but that particular one doesn't have a website.  The largest one is supposed to be at Via Cola di Rienzo 196/198 which is located near the Vatican, not too close to us.  However they are supposed to have a nice selection of teas so maybe I can get that double strong English tea that I picked up in Paris.

Open Colonna is the less expensive eatery of Antonello Colonna, one of Italy's best loved chefs.  It is located on top of the Palazzo degli Esposizioni on Via Milano near Via Nazionale.  Eat Rome says they have a fixed priced lunch for 15 euros but a 2014 posting on Spotted by Locals says: "There aren’t many people that know that from Tuesday to Friday there is a promotion called City Lunch only at lunch time. During City Lunch for only 16 euros (beverages not included water is € 2.50) it’s possible to eat exquisite dishes of great quality, sitting in a beautiful modern structure made of glass, but if the weather is nice there is also a balcony."  The restaurant's website is quite uninformative and I haven't run across any Italian restaurant website that lists prices.  And Minchilli's app is equally vague:  almost all the restaurants she mentions are marked with 2 or 3 euros but I can't find the price range of those ratings.  I haven't run across a 1 euro listing yet.

Unfortunately Minchilli doesn't list much near the apartment and when she gets towards Termini station she talks about stumbling over drunks to reach the door of a Chinese restaurant called Food & Beverage.  She does have some interesting listings in other parts of the city, like Chiostro del Bramante, a 15th century cloister near the Piazza Navona that has a caffeteria, although Spotted by Locals calls it a Tea Room.  The Cloisters contain a painting of the Sybils by Rafael whom we perhaps should call by his Italian name: Raffaello.

As I keep referring back to Spotted by Locals, I notice that they have an app as well.  It covers 50+ cities and is free.  Oh wait, it's not.  Just the index of the 50+ cities is!!  The Spotted by Locals Rome Guide is $3.99, just like Eat Rome was, so I'll think about it.  Most of the restaurants will probably seem expensive to us so if I can find some good places to buy cheese and bread and fruit, I'll be happy.

Nuovo Mercato Esquilino is the market by the Termini station that caters to the immigrant population, especially Indians and east Asians.  Minchilli says there are few Italian vendors here but the prices of the fresh produce can't be beat.  Spotted by Locals also has an article on it but calls it Mercato Vittorio and places it at Via Principe Amedeo, 285, instead of 184.  Is it the same one?  It sure sounds like it!  This posting from Minchilli's blog explains the reason behind the two names, Piazza Vittorio being the previous location for it.  Now the market is indoors in a large hall which perhaps extends from #184 to #285...  It's open from 6:00 to 14:00 so we should be able to get some early grocery shopping in before we go see the sights.  On the other hand, Minchilli in her app says 7 am to 3 pm but on her blog (2011) says 5 am to 3 pm.  The Rome Digest says 7:30 am to 2 pm...

La Nebbia, Nebby and Neblina

Ah, these nebby words.

Another San Francisco restaurant review on La Nebbia, a prosciutto bar way out in Noe Valley run by a Sardinian couple that also run La Ciccia around the corner  Immediately I asked myself "Is this where Pittsburgh gets its word nebby,  since it has so many Italians?"  But la nebbia is the same as the Spanish neblina, meaning fog or mist.  Nebby in Pittsburghese means nosey so I am hard put to find how it could have been derived from nebbia, but it is also hard for a Pittsburgher to see the word La Nebbia and not think of being nebby.  Prosciutto isn't my favorite meat but I do remember eating a serrano ham in Toulon, France that was particularly good.

Crab Tostadas

There's also a Jaliscan-Californian restaurant called Loló in the Mission District that offers dishes that Fernando might like: octopus tiradito, oxtail empanadas, squid in black ink, gambas bravas, lamb sliders, beef tongue mini tortas...  It has Fernando written all over it, even in the mezcal bar.  However it is a tapas place with loud Latin music and reservations are recommended well in advance, which makes me feel that it is too trendy for us.   Hm.  I wonder if AARP has a restaurant guide to San Francisco...

San Francisco Eater has a Heat Map that lets you know "what's new, what's hot, which favorite chef just launched a sophomore effort, where to sip the cocktail of the moment".  One of the hot new restaurants is Verbena (which I mentioned in my last post) that SF Eater calls "another nice addition to the suddenly hot restaurant scene in Russian Hill."  Isn't it exciting to be staying in the midst of a suddenly hot restaurant scene?  Maybe we should just eat close to home!  Although I think most of this hot restaurant scene is on the west side of Russian Hill so we'd have to hike up and over or take the bus.

We could splurge and go to La Folie which has one Michelin Star and hosted President Francois Hollande for lunch recently.  They have a Menu Jardiniere for $95 but the photos of their meat dishes will easily dissuade you from going vegetarian.  For dinner they offer a 3 course menu for $85, a four course for $95 and a 5 course for $105.  Obviously the 5-course menu is the best deal and we wouldn't have to eat at all the following day.  Let's see.  What would I order?

1. Dungeness Crab Salad, Green Apple and Fennel Panna Cotta, Blood Lime Vinaigrette
2. Goat Cheese Tatin, with Roasted Eggplant, Artichokes, Tomato Confit, Portobello Mushroom, and Sauce Vièrge
3. Lobster and Mushroom Risotto, with Leeks and Lobster Broth
4. Roasted Emigh Farm Lamb Chop with Butter Beans, Lamb Bacon, Curry Carrot-Date Puree
5. Fuji Apple Tart Tatin, Crunchy Puff Pastry, Kabocha Crème Caramel, Maker’s Mark Ice Cream,  Pomegranate

As you can see, there's lots of preparation that goes into these dishes so it is probably worth the $105.  However they probably expect us to dress up and we are on vacation...

Hard Water and Wooden Pickles

Here I thought they were talking about that calcium-rich Fillmore water and instead they mean Bourbon.   The San Francisco Chronicle was reviewing another restaurant from Charles Phan (of the Slanted Door, Out the Door, etc) -- although Charlie Phan is easier to say -- called Hard Water.  It specializes in Southern cuisine, like gumbo, fried chicken, and muffaletta.  Appropriately they offer collard greens, black eyed peas, macaroni and cheese, and grits as sides but I don't see any chitlins on their menus, although they do offer boiled peanuts.  These are all a foil for his American Whiskey, which is the point of the place -- you can order flights of different kinds.  After a few whiskeys I suppose you would eat anything, so maybe they will eventually try chitlins...  I must admit that those pieces of fried chicken look mighty tasty and the cocktails look intriguing but they are $11 apiece (like at La Mar) so perhaps that is the going price for cocktails in San Francisco, at least when they have a view.  They offer one called the "Presbyterian" with Wild Turkey 101 bourbon, lemon, ginger, and soda which is evidently a spicier version of a common cocktail.  Maybe I should frequent bars more often so I'd know.   Ooooh.  I wonder if they have happy hour with half-price drinks.  THAT would make it affordable.

Oh, oh, I just read that they share a public restroom outside...??

Instead maybe we should try another new restaurant that opened in December and that is located in our neighborhood on Russian Hill: Verbena.  According to the San Francisco Chronicle, they celebrate  vegetables (not necessarily vegetarian) and they have an "illuminated wooden pickle wall" -- sort of like Hard Water's bourbon wall, but wooden pickles?  what fun is that?  I wonder what other food walls we can find in San Francisco.  Oh my gosh they use Garum with their beef rib, and also pumpkin milk, lovage, beet sauerkraut, nettles and chickweed.  Are we ready for this??

What is this???  It looks like a dish didn't agree with a customer...

Our SF Neighborhood

So, what is around 856 Green Street?  One thing for literary fans is Macondray Lane, the street that Barbary Lane in Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City books is modeled after.  I read the first Tales of the City years ago and remember being struck by the fact that Winnemucca, Nevada, was featured in it.  I connected right away...

The original Swensen's Ice Cream shop is on the corner of Union and Hyde and was founded in 1948 and so is the same age I am.   Unfortunately they don't seem to carry "Bittersweet Chocolate" as a flavor any more.  It was my favorite at the El Cerrito shop when we lived in Albany because it was wonderfully dark and rich and was absolutely decadent in a milk shake.

Another nearby attraction is the San Francisco Art Institute, with its Diego Rivera mural,  about 6 blocks away, and the twisty Lombard Street, another 6 blocks away.  Equally distant is Coit Tower, the one with the WPA murals that is closed for renovation.

In a San Francisco Chronicle article, "In heart of S.F., food and pleasure long linked," the author chooses a square mile that defines the city and that square mile is bordered by Fisherman's Wharf and the Embarcadero on the north, Hyde Street on the West, Sansome on the East and Clay Street on the south.  856 Green Street is within that definitive square mile so we should be able to eat authentically.  Of course when we visited as kids we stayed on Union Square and so were outside of that square and pretty much ate outside of that square (except for Grotto #9 at Fisherman's Wharf) and we did fine.  That "square" cuts out a lot of Chinatown.  Where was Tao Tao, the Chinese restaurant where we had bird's nest soup the first time we were there?  And Yamato Sukiyaki  was on California at Grant.  And the Tadich Grill is on California outside of that grid.  And the Ritz Old Poodle Dog was on Post, again outside of the grid.  Did you know that the Ritz Old Poodle Dog started out in 1849 as "Le Poulet d' Or" but the Americans mispronounced it as the "Poodle Dog" restaurant.  Jim Smith has a website with the history of the Poodle Dog restaurant, in case anyone is interested.

Back to the Bargain Bites

I've gotten past the "dumpling" category in SF Gate's 100 Bargain Bites, learning in the process that there is a "Heart of the City" Farmer's Market at the UN Plaza above the Civic Center BART station on Sundays 7 am to 5 pm.  Maybe we can brave the winos in the tenderloin and visit this and Little Saigon at the same time.  I don't suppose the nearby main branch of the San Francisco Public Library would be open on Sunday morning...

Now we are on to the "Ramen" category in the Bargain Bites and halfway through the list.  Hapa Ramen is at the Ferry Building's Farmers Market every Tuesday and Thursday from 10 am to 2 pm.  Unfortunately the other Ramen places are outside San Francisco which doesn't help us!

On to Thai to the Amphawa Thai Noodle House out on Geary just beyond Park Presidio Boulevard in the Richmond.  It looks pretty good in the Bargain Bite article.  How many Thai restaurants do we have listed?

Oh, oh, now we seem to be hitting a lot of holes in the wall that are in other cities in the Bay Area.  There is, however, a King of Falafel who says it has the best falafel and then shows a picture of gyro meat on a spit!  There's also the Pica Pica Maize Kitchen, a Venezuelan restaurant specializing in arepas located in the Castro, but I'm not sure I want to pay $10.75 for an arepa.

Now we are in the sausage categories and I'm always a sucker for those.  They mention a Hungarian restaurant, Paprika, in the Mission District on 24th Street, offering German sausages, Czech beers and Hungarian dishes.  And then there is Pig and Pie, also on 24th Street in the Mission, which has its menu on a blackboard, always a charming touch, and Fernando could have tongue.  And also on 24th is a 3rd sausage place: Rosamunde Sausage Grill with 26 craft beers on tap.

Hm.  Did they have a Mexican food category?  Did I miss it?

PS: The Mexican restaurants were in Boyes Hot Springs, Larkspur, Oakland, and Redwood City so I didn't look them up.  I guess SF is too expensive for Mexicans to set up shop.

SF Gate's Top 100 Restaurants and Top Bargain Bites

Now this list from the San Francisco Chronicle should keep us busy.  Fortunately we can narrow it down just to San Francisco and they provide a map so we can look for nearby restaurants.  On the other hand, do we really want to go to the "top" restaurants?  They will be overpriced and we will be dissatisfied when we go home.  Plus there seem to be a dearth of them right around the apartment, except for Park Tavern and who wants to pay $12 for parsnip and kohlrabi soup, $9 for brussels sprouts chips and $14 for braised lamb "tounge".

They do list Piperade which is modern Basque cuisine by Gerald Hirigoyen, who has written some cookbooks that I've perused.  It isn't cheap with a la carte Basque Classics at $29, $38 for it as a 3 course dinner.  But it might be better than a run of the mill shepherder's Basque restaurant.  Hirigoyen also has a "tapas" restaurant on Montgomery called Bocadillos that's even open for breakfast!!  He must be catering to the financial market.  Of course his website says it is open Monday through Friday from 7 am to 10 am.  But that must be a typo...  He serves those boca sandwiches we got in Barcelona, but at a higher price, of course.   Poor Fernando, I think his Basque Hotel type restaurants have bitten the dust.  He'll have to wait for Noriega in Bakersfield.  Maybe we can revisit it with Vibe.

This morning I thought I would go peruse the San Francisco Chronicle to get myself up-to-date on things happening in San Francisco.  Unfortunately it is one of those publications that require a digital subscription to keep reading beyond the first paragraph!  Perhaps the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is still free because its subscribers are print people who don't do everything online.  The Chronicle article I wanted to read was about the SF MUNI pulling the cable cars and streetcars out of service for the 49ers playoff game on Sunday.  A lot of tourists are going to be disappointed!

And then the second article was on Onigilly, a fast food restaurant on Kearny Street which serves onigiri - Japanese-style seaweed-wrapped rice balls with savory cooked fillings, "Japanese Gourmet Rice Balls".  It appears you can get around the subscription requirement for the article if you come in through the backdoor via the Onigilly Twitter feed.  Onigilly also has a food truck at the Embarcadero for a "Samurai Snack".  That's some "cutting edge" food I could go for, although maybe not stand in line for; the three of us are too old for that.  The idea is similar to Sushi Fuku here in Pittsburgh except the rice is in triangles instead of rolls.


Now I'm looking at SF Gate's (the Chronicle) Bargain Bites.  There are 100 of those as well: the top 5 in 20 (!) categories, beginning with Bar Food (you have to be drunk to eat it).  Oh my gosh!!  Giordano Bros was inspired by Primanti's famous Pittsburgh sandwich!!  although the photo they show in this article is wings, not a sandwich...   Here's more on Giordano Bros with the appropriate photo.  It was started by a Pittsburgh couple and has a location in North Beach, not that we need to eat there. 

And HOORAY!  Bargain Bites even lists Tommy's Joynt, Daddy's absolute favorite (cheap and a large selection of beers).  I don't often get a pastrami sandwich, although Fernando still remembers a  little Jewish delicatessen out in the Russian district in the Richmond where we had a great lean pastrami sandwich a day or so before Willy was born.  He'll want me to ferret out that place or one like it.

One of the top 5 pizza places is Tony's Coal-Fired Pizza which is evidently the same as Tony's Pizza Napoletana except the first is a "slice house" and the second a full service restaurant.  And what is all this fascination with "coal-fired" pizza?

Bargain Bites lists 3 Vietnamese restaurants in Little Saigon (Ellis near Larkin in the Tenderloin) and the Lers Ros Thai restaurant is in that area as well.  Maybe a walk around (during daylight hours) would be interesting, if we can ignore the other tenderloin residents (Juan did not like them).  They also list Banh Mi sandwich shops.

One of the Chinese restaurants on the Bargain Bites list is the "House of Pancakes", Chinese savory pancakes that is.  It sounds interesting but it is way out in the Sunset District.  Then there is a Xi'an restaurant: Xi'an Gourmet in the Richmond, which won out over House of Xi'an Dumpling, a "typical dumpling/noodle house" on Kearny in Chinatown.  They do takeout but what fun is that when you have to do dishes afterwards?

Oh Golly.  In addition to "Chinese" the Bargain Bites has a "dumpling" category.   The Kingdom of Dumpling is also on Taraval Street out in the Sunset and its website starts out in Chinese and you have to choose English to read it!  Now that should be an indication of authenticity, right?

OK.  Got to finish packing up for the painters.

Eating Out in SF continued

The last 9 of the 38 Essential San Francisco Restaurants.

Yank Sing's Goldfish Dumplings

I'm not sure about these cutting edge restaurants like Outerlands (a "surfer-chic" place located in the Outer Sunset) where they burn and char the ingredients, although I do like most of the vegetables they work with.  Lonely Planet says Outlands is worth making a detour for but for us it would probably only make sense if we were in the Outer Sunset already.

Now the Zuni Cafe has been around a while.  Do you think their chicken for two would serve three??  But it's out on Market beyond Van Ness.  Maybe it's not as far to Van Ness (and Tommy's Joynt) as it seemed when we were kids.

Izakaya Sozai:  I always wanted to go to an Izakaya but I don't know if I'm brave enough to go without Juan and Mandy along.

State Bird Provisions is another one of those wait and see restaurants that take courage.  Do I really want octopus with my lamb?

Yank Sing offers Deem Sum a la cart, literally.  They have loads of dumplings, one of the best things about Cantonese food.

OK.  I think these are the most interesting to me.  Now I have to go find another list from another publication.

 The Guardian has a list of the Top 10 Restaurants in San Francisco and 7 of eater.com's 38 are included: Bar Tartine, Aziza, Ichi Sushi, Mission Chinese Food, Namu Gaji, Nopalito, and State Bird Provisions.  The other 3 are Frances, Rich Table, and SPQR.

Oh shoot!  I see that Eater.com has a January 2014 version of the top 38 out.  One could go crazy looking at these reviews!