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ABOUT ME:

Name: Gutenberg

Location: Somewhere near the Golden Gate Bridge.

Occupation: BRPR (Bunrab public relations.)

 
the BUNRAB blog spot
 

Do you need to answer back? You can send me comments if you want to.

If I want to, I'll post 'em in this very blog.

-Gutenberg



 

August 24-31, 2009

 

go to next week's blogs

 

  Monday, August 31, 2009
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Chef Chris Whaley was pumping out pristine, petite plates at Picco where we dived into California halibut ($12.95) sashimi:

... with cucumber, radish, lime juice and a hint of jalapeno. Their raw fish dishes are always well done.

The sweet watermelon chunks ($8.95):

... tossed with goat feta, cukes, red onion, mint, olive oil and lime was a tangy, salty, crunchy and refreshing summer salad.

We shellfishly savored mini Dungeness crab sandwiches ($15.95):

... with clumps of fresh, well seasoned, sweet, side stepper pinched into top loading, buttered and griddled, East Coast style rolls. These crab rolls had several legs up on the competition.

Monterey Bay squid ($16.95):

... were perfectly grilled tender-cles engulfing a maize of kernels with bacon and an avenue of peppery sauce that accelerated the flavor of this purslane plate.

Bruce Hill’s bustling ant-itdote to hunger continues to serve up some of the best food in Marin.


Picco Restaurant

320 Magnolia Ave.
Larkspur, CA
415.924.0300





 

 

  Sunday, August 30, 2009
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The Eat Real Festival in Oakland’s Jack London Square was packed with punters of portable provisions.

This circling of the wagons drove Chef Tim Luym (of the Poleng Lounge) and his crew:

... to hop on board with Ramen.

They threw us a pork bone broth filled with top notch noodles ($4.00) along extras ($1.00 each) of marinated soft boiled egg and gyoza:

We savored this satisfying slurpable soup before scoping out some of the slow lanes.

The lines for the tempting paella:

... and the Seoul on Wheels truck:

... were too long so we opted for some chow that we had not yet sampled (with a shorter queue) at Jon’s Street Eats:

We waited for over 20 minutes as we watched a mass of what we thought was pizza dough, but was actually hand pulled mozzarella ($5.00):

... being dispensed in warm lumps beside hunks of heirloom tomato showered with olive oil, basil and salt. We enjoyed our dairy play doh alongside the flavorful fruit fragments.

I could have used extra lime juice in the ailoi to bondo in the dents between the kernels of the corn on the cob ($2.00):

... with parmesan and chili flakes while the eggplant parmesan roll ($5.00):

... was tuned up with ratatouille in a tender, top loaded, grilled bun which eggselled.

Customers also pedaled food:

... at this blending of street eats in Oakland. We would have made more purchases if it weren’t for the crushing crowds:

... but there were many who did not tire of treading like tortoises for a treat.

Eat Real Festival





 

 

  Saturday, August 29, 2009
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Today’s ridiculous heat gave way to the perfect evening weather for M&J’s nuptials.

This 50’s style soiree was fueled by nifty nibbles including bite sized skirt steak tacos:

... spicy tuna tartare, tomato crostini and a refined crudite by Carrie Dove Catering.

But of course, the stars of the evening were the newly espoused surrounded by characters who looked as though they were taken straight from the set of Mad Men.


-G




 

 

  Friday, August 28, 2009
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Cheesesteaks fall into the category of foods that contain your minimum daily allowance of contention. There are disagreements about the inventor, tradition and proper preparation that prejudice a palate pre-prandially. There are those who scoff at the use of Cheezewhiz while others consider it de rigoo, but whatever the specifications, they all seem to be suited for ravenous, lactose tolerant, carnivores.

Slices of ribeye were folded into the cheesesteak ($7.00) at Jersey Joe’s.

American cheese (not whiz) was tucked into these beefy sheets filling the pillow soft roll with grilled onions. While perfectly good, I would have liked more ‘merican to up the fromage factor.

Beer battered onion rings ($3.99):

... were o-ring-kay (but I prefer them crispier) circling alongside the massive meat melange.

This cheap and cheerful hoagie hut does a brisk business with meat-eating men (it ain’t Jersey Jane’s.)

I’m not sure we’ll return since our arteries are now only being held open by the structural circles of the onion rings, but we appreciate a place that has a grilled American cheese on white bread sandwich on the menu.


Jersey Joe’s
21 El Camino Real
San Carlos, CA
650.592.7317





 

 

  Thursday, August 27, 2009
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Horatius is a San Francisco “market gallery” named after an Italian poet.

Targeting the historian-atarian demographic from a Kansas Street shop may seem like a square peg in a pie hole, but we had to see if there was any d-yum to carpe at this artisanal food store, bistro and teaching facility.

Juicy nectarines were were pitted against grilled white gulf prawns, crunchy shaved fennel, espelette peppers, toybox heirloom tomatoes and greens in this virtuous salad ($14.00):

... to counteract the cheeseburger ($12.50):

... which arrived perfectly cooked with a smoky, well seasoned patty engulfed in Manchego on a brioche bun. Red onions, butter lettuce, tomatoes and aioli augmented this Manch-wich. The pickles were on the sweet side for my taste and the fries could have used crisper shells, but it was a fine Roman meal.


Horatius

350 Kansas St.
San Francisco, CA
415.252.3500

 

 

Mark your Calendar

Starting September 15th you can take your own intermission at Jardiniere during ‘Curtain Time “Mid”-Night special.’

The J Lounge will be serving $8 cocktails and appetizers for $8 or less from 8 p.m.- 10 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. So if you are leaving the opera dressed to the nines, the cost of these menu specials will fall below the numerical descriptor of your attire.


Jardiniere Restaurant
300 Grove St.
San Francisco, CA
415.861.5555




 

 

  Wednesday, August 26, 2009
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Constellation Prize

We knew that Starbelly threw a good party, but it was time to scope out their ordinary operation for a sit down meal.

Chicken liver pate ($9.00):

... was a smooth, melodic organ grinder with toasted, rustic bread as a crunchy lunching pad for this savory monkey on my back. We got seconds of this labor of loaffal since we transplanted the original order without any signs of rejection.

The porchetta sandwich ($8.00) had was strewn with peppery salsas to trot in step with this fine swinewich.

Chef Timney’s house cured bacon topped both the fresh spaghetti ($11.00):

... with roasted tomato sauce and a kick of jalapeno as well as the Neapolitan style pizza ($13.00):

... with peppers and tomato over a celestial crust.

Our stomachs were sated with at this welcoming, well-priced center of stellar sustenance. We’ll definitely keep this constellation in our orbit.


Starbelly
3583 16th St.
San Francisco, CA
415.252.7500


 




 

 

  Tuesday, August 25, 2009
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It took us a while to figure out our order at Gussie’s Chicken & Waffles. Obviously we had to have the poultry and puckered pancake, but we waffled on the other half of our order until making the grit-uitous selection of catfish ($11.59):

... with overeasy eggs and grits. The cornmeal coated fish was deepfried to a crusty crusted crunch with a moist interior. Runny yolks lived in hominy with the mush and we cat-egorized the fish as comfort food.

They ran out of cornbread and subbed out their vegan version:

... (which wasn’t our thing.) The waiter was kind enough to swap it with biscuits:

... filled with animal products.

Our Downtown ($7.79):

... came with a juicy thigh with a crunchy, well seasoned skin. We bypassed the syrup and just went with the carbo-circle as a bready backboard to this fine piece of fowl.

I get the feeling that if you order anything that comes out of Gussie’s deep fryer, you’ll get some good chow.



Gussie’s Chicken & Waffles
1521 Eddy St.
San Francisco, CA






 

 

  Monday, August 24, 2009
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Mission Burger

Anthony Myint of Mission Street Food has launched Mission Burger - and these aren’t any ordinary burgers, they are based on Heston Blumenthal’s “granulation” process which involves creating big meaty cylinders and slicing them into discs before searing them in beef fat.

This brisket, short rib and chuck puck ($8.00):

... is wonderfully coarse, juicy, salty and tender. They cleverly clip the Acme buns (creating a superior surface area for griddling as well as a balanced bread to meat ratio) before stuffing them with caramelized onions and caper aioli. Monterey Jack gilds this splash zone of a sandwich.

The vegan burger ($7.00):

... is not something we would ordinarily consider, but we ended up loving this square patty of mushrooms, kale, soy, fava and garbanzo beans. Avocado and miso in a seaweed emulsion lined the bun of this cravable creation.

Fries ($2.00):

... were crisp shelled, starchy bellied, spud-tacularness.

Oatmeal cookies ($1.50):

... with a cinnamon kick sent us on our way.

Mission Burger is located in the corner of the Duc Loi Supermarket:

... where they took over a deli case and cooking area:

After you place your order, you can swing by the market’s beverage case before paying for your lunch at the register. Milk crate seating was the perfect way to enjoy this yummy chow.

They open at noon everyday except for Thursday and donate a buck a burger to the SF Food Bank. This new venture is definitely worth a detour for these superior sandwiches.


Mission Burger

inside the Duc Loi Supermarket
2200 Mission St.
San Francisco, CA





 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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