Camino & World Champion Latte Artist at The Proxy Project

The report on the last 20 hours of food prowling.

Latte art by Hiroshi Sawada. Baked goods in background from Sandbox Bakery and Black Jet Bakery.

• 7:00pm Friday - It started Friday night at Oakland's Camino, which is easily among the best restaurants I have been to in years. Communal tables, open-flame cooking, unpretentious service, first-rate Californian cuisine. More at the end of this post.

• 10:00am Saturday - Ferry Building farmers' market for beans and eggs at Primavera's booth.  Then, a visit to the Farmhouse Culture stand, where I tried three kinds of sauerkraut: horseradish leek, apple fennel, and garlic dill pickle.  I took back a container filled with the first.  The salty-tartness and crunch of the sauerkraut pairs superbly with roasted beets!   

• 11:00am Saturday - Ritual Coffee at the The Proxy Project to see Hiroshi Sawada, THE master of latte art--the man who literally wrote the book on the subject.  He is also featured in this NY Times article from yesterday about Tokyo coffee.  

Hiroshi-san creating one of his ephemeral masterpieces.

As soon as I arrived at Ritual on this sun-drenched Saturday I began to envy everyone living in Hayes Valley (all the tail-wagging dogs and toddlers included).  Why? On the other side of Ritual is liquid nitrogen fueled Smitten Ice Cream; in front of it are two fashionable food trucks; and a stone's throw away are Blue Bottle, Absinthe, Miette, and probably many other awesome places that I would rather not know about. 

As I said, the day was bathing in sunshine and mildness for a winter day.

Smitten Ice Cream just upon opening. The Santa hat tells you it's December.

Attention carnivores!

Wha??  "Brighter Faster" is what the Proxy Project landmark says. Below is Casey's pizza truck,

This is why I sing "I left My Heart in San Francisco."

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More on Camino

Here is what three of us ordered (verbatim from the menu). My favorites are asterisked.

• Avocado, orange and rutabaga salad with pomegranate and walnuts *
• Wood oven-baked local oysters with absinthe, breadcrumbs and carrot salad
• Wood oven-roasted chanterelle mushrooms with pounded wild nettles and grilled flatbread
• Half a Dungeness crab grilled in the fireplace with radicchio salad and aioli*
• Grilled local ling cod, rockfish and artichokes with new onions, Yukon Gold potatoes and chile broth*
• For dessert: persimmon pudding (tasted like a milder version of pumpkin pie).  

Every dish had a "WOW!" factor. This means that every time I took a bite of a new dish, I interupted the table conversation or chewing silence to repeat (yet again that night), "Wow! That is good!"  Camino uses fireplaces and wood ovens rather than stoves to cook its food.  Also unlike the majority of kitchens, theirs is not made of stainless steel or plastic, but stone. The resulting look and feel of Camino is warmth--chestnuts-on-an-open fire lighting. (This is truer the closer you are to the kitchen, which we were.)

This gorgeous hearthy kitchen is also an open kitchen.   The colorful mis en place preens for onlookers.   Last week's Good Food show featured an interview with the chef, Russ Moore, a/k/a the "Gentle Griller." His kitchen is decidedly anti-macho--he said it himself! Here's to you Chef Russ!

My trip to Camino should have taken 45 minutes from Palo Alto, where I was coming from.  Instead, it took two dreadful hours, much of which was spent muttering obscenities, along with: I should have left earlier. Why am I doing this? I should have stayed home tonight!  Nothing like a good Friday evening traffic jam to soothe your nerves following an intense day at work.

But when I sat down and took my first taste of the avocado, orange and rutabaga salad,  all cares went POOF!  

Eleven Madison Park: Cloud Nine

Even the coffee is extraordinary here.

Lobster

Even at the finest New York City restaurants, coffee service is a relative after-thought that is hardly given the kind of attention granted to its entrees, desserts or cocktails.  Not so at the highly decorated Eleven Madison Park. This elegant restaurant, on the edge of verdant Madison Square Park, was recently minted with three Michelin stars. Moreover, it has won every James Beard award that it is eligible for, along with maximum starred-ratings from the New York Times and Forbes. Its coffee program, featuring the highest-end beans and siphon brewing, was started by James Betz, a bartender at the restaurant who enjoys brewing coffee at home.  (His uncle is Ken Nye of the New York coffee institution that is Ninth Street Espresso, but that’s strictly an aside.)

Siphon in the day.  Even more gorgeous at night.

It hardly takes a meal at this restaurant to see how attentive the staff is to details.  As soon as you walk in, you are cordially greeted, and taken in by the towering ceiling, cream colored roses, and linen covered tables.  This is a restaurant where every one of your servers—and there are several—are able to answer any questions you may have about where, exactly, the food is coming from and how it is prepared. If you show a particular interest in say the cakes of butter served with your bread, you will be presented with information about the farm it came from on a hand-written note on cardstock stationary.  If you step away from the table, you will find it in even nicer condition than you left it, with your napkin neatly folded, crumbs swept away.  The staff manages to accomplish all this without being a trace overbearing. And the food?  Almost too beautiful to eat, it is exceptionally delicious.

Jim explained his motivations to pitch the idea of a coffee program to the restaurant’s management.  “The pinnacle of coffee could only be found at coffee shops,” he said.  “I wanted to bring that kind of quality here. I thought it was possible, at a place like this, to do even more than what is done at a specialty coffee shop.”  On the first night of Eleven Madison Park’s coffee program, there were so many orders for siphon and Chemex (their other brewing offering) that Jim was on the phone to his supplier asking for all the specialized equipment he could possibly send over—pronto!

While Jim continues to manage the program, Eleven Madison Park has a barista on staff who, like Jim, the restaurant captains and sommeliers, has completed 14-16 hours of training in siphon brewing at the Intelligentsia lab across town.

So now an exquisite gastronomical experience at one of the most coveted restaurants in Manhattan can be finished off with some of the best java on the planet.

By the way, if I ever have the privilege of eating here again, I will never, ever take stealth photos  again.  It was like sacrilege.

Momofuku Noodlebar

Momofuku Noodlebar
163 1st Avenue
New York, NY 10003

(212) 500-0831

If I lived in Manhattan, I would be a regular at this place.

I was so jealous when the twenty-something guy next to us told us that he comes several times a week to eat here. We were inquiring about his bowl of stocky rice noodles, which we couldn't find on the menu.  (Note: the food is ten times better looking and far less yellow than these photos suggest.)

Tamale

What I love about Momofuku Ssam Bar, where I went last year and this place--Momofuku Noodlebar, is how understated they are. Both are situated in Lower East Side neighborhoods that don't often make tourists' lists.  Maybe it's because there is too much graffiti around or not enough glitter.  In any case, both restaurants are quite easy to walk past without noticing. Yet, the food is out of this world. 

Sitting at the bar at Momofuku Noodlebar, I felt very much at home, even though I had never been there before. It was so casual in a swanky New Yorker kind of way.  The pierced servers were in t-shirts and jeans--the most casually dressed people in the restaurant.  Yet they knew everything about the food they were serving as evidenced by their ability to make specific recommendations and have personal favorites for every section on the menu.   There was one server with glasses who looked more like a computer geek than a singer in garage band, but he knew his menu too, and was very pleasant.

Eggplant

During the trip, I also checked out the Momofuku Milk Bar, in Midtown.  Having flipped for Momofuku Ssam bar last year, I was embracing everything David Chang and was so taken by these milk bars.  But I am done with them now. The sweets are made from corn syrup and PHOs which I avoid, if I know they are in there.  The sweets are also cloyingly sweet for me. But, I do have to go back once more at least to try Crack Pie.

Famous pork bellydumplings

Very possibly I would run from the restaurants if I knew what the ingredients of those sauces and dressings were.  But Momofuku doesn't list ingredients, and I will happily suspend my puritan ways for experiences like the kind it offers.

Heirloom tomato salad

Well, as long as David Chang's empire in Manhattan continues to grow, there will be more trips I will have to make to the Big Apple. 

Contigo

One part Catalan, one part Californian. 100% delicious.

At last my sardine cravings have been satisfied at a place that will bring back memories of Barcelona for anyone who has been there.

Wood Oven Roasted Montery Sarine and Avacado Toast (with onions atop)

I have been crazy about fresh sardines since I sampled them on toast at Fort Mason several years ago at one of those local/sustainable/organic SF food festivals. They were plump and meaty with a spunky, just-caught flavor.  

Jamon Iberico de Bellota

Since then I have discovered that it is hard to find fresh sardines in the US! But then Michael Bauer's article came to the rescue a few weeks ago with a list of restaurants serving them up around here. La Ciaccia was booked so we went to Contigo, a Catalan-Californian style place in Noe Valley.

Little Gem Salad (with beets and slices of toasted garlic)

Three of us went, lingering there for three hours over delicious wines (Corvo for me, a dry red and a white for my discriminating, superbly food-literate companions), plates of sardines, beet salad, black rice (with hefty chunks of octopus) and salmon over a summer corn salad.  We finished off the feast with plates of peach cake with basil gelato, and plum tart with almond-cardamom gelato. 

Local King Salmon Baked on a Fig Leaf. (The salmon was a bit more orange than it should be, but it was tasty, especially with the sweet corn salad.)

Calamas a la Planxa

EVERYTHING was fabulous.

Contigo's atmosphere is also lovely with the open kitchen, bar, wood-paneled dining room, and bright semi-outdoor area in the back, where we were seated. Along the wall  of the outdoorish dining room is a garden of chard, peppers, onions strawberries and squash. 

A warm peach cake with caramel, tangy peach sauce and almond gelato (and crushed almonds)

The only wrinkle about the place was the service, which was a little frosty.  Our server appeared to be stressed and not inviting of questions. Maybe a bad night for her.  Towards the end of the meal, she threw stares at our table, intimating, without actually telling us so, that the table was needed for another party.  Alas, this is not Europe where lingering is permitted, and Contigo is popular. But the cooks up front seemed relaxed and friendly even though the place was bulging at the seams with activity.

I definitely recommend this oasis of food and atmosphere. Another perk:  it is invisible to tourists in the middle of August!   

Looking for Barcelona in San Francisco

Since returning from my trip to Barcelona, I have been anxiously sniffing for signs of Catalan life in the Bay Area. I may have found it at B44, in the financial district in San Francisco.

Piquillo peppers stuffed with Dungeness crab

B44 is located in the middle of a tiny strip off Pine Street that is lined with other European bistros (eg Plouf, Cafe Bastille) with indistinguishable store fronts.

Mine was a quick dinner on a Saturday in mid-June to scope the place, see how authentic it was compared to my Catalan experience, and see how it might fare as a place to catch next season's Barcelona (Barça) football games.

Escalivada:  Grilled red peppers, yellow peppers, eggplant, and onion.

There was a TV at the end of the bar broadcasting a Mexican soccer game.  Check. I liked the warm glow of the place, and the high ceilings. Check. The tables outside on the narrow strip make the place look very European.  Check. And the food wasn't bad (check) though the only thing I could compare was the Catalan toast. B44's was made with sandwich bread and arrived cold. In Barcelona, it was served on much thicker, crustier bread...and  was warm. I was put off by the chilled toast.  But I had no problem finishing it. 

I had come for the grilled sardines but my waiter, Brad Pitt, asked the chef and the chef said they were out of season so I ordered the piquillo peppers stuffed with crab.  I have tasted fresher, meatier crab, but it was still pretty good.  

Catalan toast, after one piece was eaten.

Unfortunately, it didn't occur to me until after I paid the check that my cordial server, who looked like a very long-haired Brad Pitt (with blonder hair) might be Catalan. He spoke excellent English and was blond so I assumed he was American.  In my American accent, I asked him if the place broadcast Barça games.  "Barça?" he asked rolling his r:  Barrrrrgh-sa? 

With that, he game himself away. Had I known, I would have been interrogating him throughout the meal. 

I forget that some Catalans are not dark.  I know this.  I just...forget.  

In any case, B44 is on my list as a possible resource for Catalan life 6,000 miles away.  I have a list of Spanish eateries I want to try, but hardly any of them are Catalan which makes it less of a priority.  Next food adventure will probably be French since I am digging brunch right now and there are plenty of French restaurants  that are open during brunch hour on the weekends.  

I Wanna go Back to B * Star

Last Sunday, Jane and I had brunch at B* Star, (no this is not a math problem) a few blocks from mothership, Burma Superstar (BS).

Lentil Ragu with two paoched eggs and whole wheat toast. Savory and filling.  East Indian-inspired.

She and I agree that B*Star is more sophisticated than BS.  B*Star's cozy interior is hipper, and its menu, while fusion, includes some of BS's most popular dishes, like the Samusa Soup and the Tea Leaf Salad, which is a bonus for those of us who enjoy both.  

Azuki Almond Banana French Toast - delicious, sweet..and rich.  

I LOVE B*Star's brunch menu. Endearingly, it reflects San Francisco's heavily Asian and Latino-American population. You will find items like jook, huevos rancheros, eggs benedict, ochazuke, pancakes, and hybrid dishes like the ones featured in the photos here.  But the thing is, it ain't just a cutesy menu: the food is really good!

Divergent textures abound in this chunky soup with a kick.

B*Star is potentially a superstar in my book. To find out, I'm returning for more East-West comfort food...and Strawberry Nutella French Toast.

Deconstructing Calafia's Veggie Burger

This is the California-esque, rainbow-colored Vegetable Soy Lentil Quinoa Burger from Calafia in Palo Alto. If it reads like a mouthful, that's because it is. In fact, it is laboriously more than a mouthful.

Stacked between the halved and dense multigrain bun (speckled with pumpkin seeds and other bird seeds) were:  a thick layer of guacamole, the veggie burger (the yellow slab in the center made from soy, green lentils, quinoa, and brown rice) and beet relish.  

The burger came with pickles, mayo, house ketchup and Dijon mustard.

I must say, this was a weird combination. I usually slather ketchup on my veggie burgers (assuming they are mimicking meat) but ketchup didn't work on this one.  Because the burger was so big, I ended up eating it the way I eat Oreos, which is by taking it apart and eating the layers separately.  However,  I did try to get the flavor of the burger as a whole by stuffing my mouth a few times.   

Each component of the burger was quite tasty on its own.  But together they seemed random, as if someone had come up with a list of stereotypically "Californian" ingredients (eg healthy/nutty/macrobiotic) and attempted to make a dish out of them. Unfortunately here, that person didn't think enough about how those ingredients would go together.   

The ketchup was fresh (making my bottled ketchup seem dull a flavorless) and would be delightful with scrambled eggs or meatloaf. The beet relish would be great on a hotdog with mustard. The guacamole delicious with chips. The burger would go well, I think with a more conventional, softer--even commercial--burger bun. 

Bottom line: for the Vegetable Soy Lentil Quinoa Burger to be memorable, its components need to split up and get together with other ingredients. 

St. Helena's Olive Oil Company

Products that say "I've been to Napa Valley!"

Extra virgin olive oil from 

Just north of Yountville on the St. Helena highway is the St. Helena Olive Oil Company.  I was told by a friendly young sales clerk that a) their products are sold no where else (except their two Napa stores) and that b) their olive oil is organic and sourced from local olives.  This was music to my ears. But if their olive oil is truly organic, it is not obvious from neither their website nor their signage in the store.

Salts (edible ones; bath salts also available)

I was willing to take this clerk's word for it. Especially since I made the trip out there, and I was impressed with the looks of the place, which is worth a visit if you like extra virgin olive oil, vinegars, honey, gourmet salts, and bath products (soaps, lotions, bath salts).  They also have items such as butternut squash pasta sauce, pesto, blended herbs, and examples of recipes combining vinegar and oil.  

Salt of the earth

They have quite a variety and all their products are hospitably laid out for easy and clean sampling.

Vinegar bar

At this writing a 375ml bottle of extra virgin lemon olive oil costs $24.

Cheese Sampling in Sonoma

The Girl & the Fig is a cute and convenient place to share and test out cheeses. This was their minimalist sampler, but they have all kinds of cow, sheep and goat cheeses from various regions, including France.

From left to right: Morbier (France), Joe Matos St. George (Santa Rosa), Tomme brulee (Aquitaine, France). That two of these chosen cheeses were from France rather than Napa Valley was a careless accident on my part.  

The restaurant has worn hardwood floors and convivial mustard colored paint on its wood-trimmed walls.  The iconic place has gone commercial (you can buy t-shirts, totebags and compotes, and nuts there) which is a turn-off for me, but I still think it has a desirable atmosphere.  Reasonable prices.  

A salad of greens dressed in vinaigrette, with toasted walnuts and slivers of  pears. 

On the eve of the Sonoma Jazz Festival.

We found parking right on the street here, right before noon on a Friday. However, watch your time because the parking police tracks the amount of time you are parked.  

Yountville, CA - Unrealville

Following lunch at Etiole on Thursday, we headed straight to Bouchon Bakery, about a mile away in downtown Yountville.   There converged all the other travelers in town too, in that tiny little space. But this tourist magnet is equipped with a friendly army of young, trim servers (who clearly do not make a habit of eating the bakery's products).  Though tiny, the place is densely packed with gorgeous sweets (cookies, muffins, coffee cakes, granola, puddings), breads and sandwiches.  It also has a basic coffee menu, and the iced coffee is strong and excellent. 

A rare occasion when no customers were blocking the counter!

French macaroons: hazelnut and pistachio (the latter is a best seller).

The first time I had these macaroons were at the Bouchon Bakery in New York. My culinary-trained friend highly recommended them.  I am glad I don't have to go to New York to get these!  By the way, at $3 a piece, these are some of the biggest macaroons I have seen. With pressure, they crack on the surface. On the inside they are chewy, and almost raw-tasting (imagine the consistency of cookie dough).  The center is like buttah.  

This was my first visit to Yountville.  The tiny town is spotless. Imagine a Walk of Fame of restaurants and tasting rooms--Washington Street has them lined up one after the other.  In terms of pure looks, the town did not appeal to me as I prefer buildings that look like they took blood, sweat and tears to build...or are a little worn around the edges.  At many points, I felt as if I were in a scene from a Jim Carrey movie, where everything is so perfect that it's creepy.  On this day, the sky was robin's egg blue, the temps were in the mid-70s, and there was a breeze.  

Yet another one of Thomas Keller's eaties...

Oh but that will not keep me away. I want to try Bouchon (the restaurant) for sure, which has a lovely French feel to it (I poked my head in)...and I want consumate my fantasies of eating at French Laundry.

There are also Redd, Ad Hoc, Bistro Jeanty, Bottega...

Ah, someday.

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Etoile, Yountville, CA

The about-to-be leek and green garlic soup...

For a belated Mother's Day lunch, my mom and I went to Etoile, on the edge of Yountville, where we enjoyed the leek and green garlic soup, tuna tartare, and muscat-scented sparkling wine from Etoile's vineyards (Domain Chandon).  It is not difficult to understand how Etoile was awarded a Michelin-star this year. The food was not only superb, but so beautiful that we had to admire it for a while before digging in.

The pour...

The tuna tartar had a light touch in flavor.  But the fish was so fresh that it would have been a shame to cover it up.  It was adorned with fuzzy green almonds (that is what the server called those three oval green and white slivers) and a touch of olive tapenade (the brown beneath those round pearl-like things--which were cucumber).  

Creativity, artistry and exceptional taste quotient surely go into Etoile's excellent ratings.  Service was attentive but perhaps overly so as we were asked at least three times if we were still working on our soups when one of us was.  The place does need to be renovated, however. It has a nice patio, and many tables inside have a nice view of it.   But the restaurant is clearly worn down from age (just look at it's carpet and soiled chairs--not so bad that you can't ignore it but still...).  On this Thursday afternoon at around noon, large parties of diners filled tables outside, but many inside were open, giving my mom and me a lovely view with privacy.  

The dessert menu looked sinfully good.  But since we were just at the start of our Wine Country eating marathon, with Bouchon Bakery on tap, we decided to skip it.

In short, Etoile certainly shines but could be even more brilliant.

Tartine--je t'aime.

San Francisco Food Review
Their desserts...they could be called crack.  I love Tartine.  It makes all cares vanish, if only for the few minutes it takes to finish one of its desserts. 

Lemon meringue cake.  The bouffant topping has hints of burnt caramel.  

Besides producing eats with illicit drug-like, hallucinatory side effects, here are some other perks about this bakery-nirvana:

• It's in the Mission
• It's next to Delfina (out-of-this-world thin-crust pizza)
• It's a stone's throw from Bi-Rite
• It's unpretentious and approachable, with a gritty edge
• It's hybrid French-California (everything is made with tons of butter and cream but with mostly organic and local ingredients!)
• The chocolate in their pain au chocolat is super dark and superfine
• Their yogurt is made from whole milk (this is not optimal for health, of course, but it is for taste buds)
• Their muesli is chunky and chewy and wholesome
• Everything is SO FRESH

Some selections tried today on this Bay-to-Breakers Sunday:

Meringue. This is light as a feather.  It doesn't break off since it is fresh, so you have to pull it gently to get a piece of it,  and when you do, it crumbles a little.  With slivered almonds and tiny chocolate nibs.

Chocolate croissant (or pain au chocolat). In my review of Tartine two years ago, I raved about this king of croissants.   Superflakey, super buttery, with hundreds of layers and dark, dark chocolate. This is perfection.  Plus, it's beautiful to look at.

And here it is, broken apart.  

Bread pudding - like flan in bread form!

The bread pudding has hunks of strawberries and is topped with a light caramel syrup which ends up getting divinely absorbed by the bread.  It really tastes like flan with a slightly firmer texture! This stuff is impossible to eat this without wearing an expression of glee, or Zen-like calm.  

Confession: I would not order the lemon meringue cake again.  While lemony and gorgeous, it was a bit cloying.  However, any of these other treats mentioned I would order again and again, and expect I would say the same of the other dozens of offerings from Tartine that I have not yet tried.

The "problem" with Tartine of course, is that it can be habit-forming...and if you eat too many of their breads and pastries as I did on this day, you will start to resemble like them.  Whatever. This place is a blessing. 

Flowers and Sardines for Lunch at Comerç 24, Barcelona

I experienced a touch of edible luxury at Comerç 24, started by a former El Bulli chef.

The salad entree at Comerç

Prix fixe lunch was 76€ ($110). Instead, I opted for à la carte since, unfortunately, I don't eat some of the items that were on the menu. How tragic it seemed that I don't eat squid, octopus, and pig parts since they are specialties in Barcelona.  Good thing for me that cod and sardines are also delicacies.                                                                             

First came bread with four types of olive oil.  Then came a fat cigarette-shaped roll, delicately fried. When I bit into it, a creamy cheese, light as foam and scented with lemon, gushed out inside my mouth.

Next came small bowl of clear fluid, the color of lemon juice, with an edible foam-like puff inside--a refreshing palate cleanser.  With these two mini-starters, I felt like I was indeed eating at the restaurant of an El Bulli alumnus.

Then came the sardines, with skinned orange slices and, supposedly, wasabi. I did not taste the wasabi.  But it did not matter. This was an exceptional dish.  Raw sardines, enhanced with a splash of citrus! Now I was living! Now I was in Barcelona! 

Sardines in a meadow of greens and slivers of orange

I could not leave having tried just one dish here and was very curious about the 26€ salad.  What did a $38 (US) salad look like?  Was it flecked with gold? Did it promise eternal youth? So I ordered it.  

With pinenuts, petites fraises, asparagus, peeled cherry tomatoes and edible flowers, it was certainly the most beautiful salad I have had, delicately bitter, sweet and tangy at once.  


I can get salad mixes with gorgeous edible flowers from the farmers' markets here.  But to recreate the salad from Comerç24 would require considerably more skill.  How do you make a dressing that does not overpower the flavors of the greens and fruit, yet has a distinct flavor of its own?  Apply just the right amount of dressing so as to gently coat rather than drench the salad? Prepare the tomatoes, pinenuts and asparagus so their textures and flavors complement rather than dominate the rest of the salad? All these minute details were taken care of by Comerçe24.  

Alas superfine details are the difference between places like Comerç and the rest.  

Eating the gorgeous food here, I felt for a moment like a queen.  Just for a moment...which is what a higher-end food experience can do.