"you can't rise above your ingredients"

recently, my husband, r, was on what my children call a work vacation (more commonly known as a business trip) and sweetly brought me back some wonderful food gifts from the san francisco ferry terminal. that old haunt of mine, the one filled with marvelous food stuffs of all kinds like: broken rice from the slanted door (we are crazy for broken rice), french lentils, anson mills polenta and boulette's larder specially ground spice blend. this man obviously knows the direct route to my heart. through food finds.

which makes me think of my dear cooking school instructor, no longer with us, the wonderful peter kump. peter was founder of the james beard foundation and the cooking school that is now known as the institute of culinary education.  peter was also known for repeating this mantra "you can't rise above your ingredients," over and over to his students. often he would tell us a personal story, like the one about an impromptu dinner party at his manhattan apartment, how he ran out to buy a chicken to roast, accidently bought an old hen, only good for stewing, tried to roast it, failed. ordered chinese food had a lovely meal with his guests anyway. illustrating that even the great peter kump had his share of kitchen mishaps when the ingredients did not succeed despite his expertise. buy the best ingredients, he insisted, you won't be sorry. if all else fails, order out and above all, enjoy your evening, no matter what.

so this weekend i am loving having these special ingredients to work with in order to try to conjure up some food magic. i don't know what i'll make yet, but that will be the fun of it. have a great weekend. xo, g

a16

A 16 =  a restaurant that shares a name with the italian highway that runs from naples to puglia, located in san francisco's marina neighborhood.

finally made it. just like going to italy, really simple, unbelievably incredible fare. only with a fast moving, super professional, tatooed, urban, charming san francisco wait staff. really electric atmosphere, magnificent food, menu, near perfect experience. have just ordered the cookbook which is also supposed to be excellent. i can't wait for it to arrive. if i could learn to make their tomato sauce, i would really have accomplished something significant, it's sublime.

fun mysterious coincidence: we dined at 3 different restaurants in 3 different towns 3 nights in a row and we saw the same urban chic traveling couple, sometimes with their adorable baby, sometimes without, dining at each venue. we never spoke to them, but by the third night we all stared at each other jaws agape. a16 on saturday, murray circle in sausalito on sunday and ad hoc in yountville on monday. the food was so magical all the way through, this only added to the enchantment. and in any case, they have excellent taste in restaurants. happy weekend, xo g

fried oyster update - san francisco edition

the best oyster po boy i have ever tasted. there it is. 

a storied history behind this delicious sandwich. apparently, in louisiana, when husbands were in trouble with their wives, the one gift that always placated and soothed them was an oyster po boy sandwich, brought home after a late nite out. hence the name, you po boy.

i had to go back and taste this. remembering it too fondly from our years in sf. i am very happy to report it is as good or better than it ever was. no diminishment here. the sturdy homemade white bread, thinly sliced, grilled to perfection, the oysters barely covered in rustic ground cornmeal, then fried to perfection. the homemade mayonnaise or aioli, fresh, creamy and flavorful, thinned like a dressing almost. the greens, fresh and plentiful, the tomatoes, perfectly juicy. a sandwich so simple and so perfect. conveniently, patricia unterman's hayes street grill, the source of this perfection, has the booth right next to the hog island oyster company at the san francisco ferry terminal farmer's market now. i used to have to rush there early in the morning because sometimes they would run out. (the horror). no worries now.

what is this place the houses the stand that makes the finest oyster po boy in the land? the san francisco ferry terminal farmer's market. of course, it is not just for oyster sandwiches. the produce is dreamy, seemingly the best freshness and variety i can imagine, due to the climate, diversity and agricultural legacy of california. largely organic. purveyors like frog hollow farms. right now artichokes, lettuces, garlic, onions, eggplant, pluots, apricots, nectarines, berries, all to die for. open every tuesday, thursday from 10 to 2 and saturday from 8 to 2. read more about it here.

the sea breeze, sunshine, accessibility by ferry from sausalito, larkspur, oakland, vallejo, etc. the fantastic people watching: from way cool hipsters, tourists from all over the world, and colorful local californians, to trendy parents with kids, make this a great destination for the day. inside the terminal is a permanent show of food purveryors not unlike an all star list: cow girl creamery, mcevoy ranch olive oil, rechiutti an incredibly dear but terribly expensive chocolatier, sharffen berger chocolates (bought by hershey in 2005), boulette's larder, slanted door, blue bottle coffee, peets coffee, etc. etc. etc. plus sur la table, the gardener, book passages, all great shopping destinations in their own right. 

as recently as 10 years ago, none of this existed. the ferry terminal was a derelict space, little used, empty and kind of scary. san francisco did a great job at urban development here. opened as a gourmet marketplace in 2004-2005 and with the new giants baseball stadium, it has brought new life into the whole embarcadero area. gorgeous.

point reyes

it is not every day in san francisco in the month of june that you get a perfect day like yesterday. no fog. absolutely no fog. the coast was clear from south bay to north bay. we seized the day and headed for our favorite beach in these parts, about an hour north of the golden gate bridge. limantour beach in point reyes. some people will tell you they love the infamous stinson beach, a hippie surfer hangout that is always crowded and always buzzing with human activity and drama and pageantry, including great white shark attacks on teenagers every few years. which is all fine and good. well, all except for the shark attacks,of course.

i am a different sort of beach lover. the deserted, windswept craggy coast kind. limantour is the remote/gorgeous/majestic type, my cup of tea. shallows, warmer water, gentler pacific surf but pleasingly crashing waves. lots of dunes. a few cliffs. that there is fabulous food nearby in the town of point reyes station, (always a requirement with me, isn't it?) all the better. the original cow girl creamery (cheese makers, seriously have you tried red hawk or mount tam? nothing short of incredible. we are crazy for red hawk around here, available by mail order). whenever we serve red hawk to guests, they also go mad for it and ask a lot of questions about how to get some for themselves. 

it was an altogether great day. yes, we did go on an ambitious, yet beautiful, hike that took way longer than we thought and so we got to join the sunburn club. our day was not perfect, just fabulous. today the fog is back and it is a good thing. it feels wonderfully cool and refreshing on our bits of sunburn.  

where we are seduced by san francisco's charms

the weather is brilliant, the scenery gorgeous, the food incredible. as per usual in san francisco. have already consumed amazing fresh pea shoots with garlic, all manner of delicious dumplings like shrimp and chive, scallop and ginger, cabbage and pork, as well as roast duck and long beans, sesame balls and  custard tarts at dim sum, terrific wood fired pizza in larkspur, perused the very best of the san francisco ferry terminal farmer's market, sampled recchiuti chocolates, ciao bella gelato, peets coffee. we have played in gentle streams among the redwoods, crossed the golden gate bridge 4 times, been moved by great art at sf moma's gallery in fort mason, sampled a bit of greens restaurant take away, frolicked in the sun, stared at the boats in the bay, read books, sketched, played catch, shopped in mill valley, corte madera and san francisco, hung out in bookstores, kicked back. taken on and off our sweaters 100 times, all carefree and easily enjoyed. all just as delicious as we remembered. you are very charming san francisco, we've missed you since we moved back east.