Culinary Muse

Recipes: Hot Chocolate for One

This is the hot chocolate of tearooms in Paris on cold winter afternoons - the kind of hot chocolate that a spoon stands up in. Some might even call it pudding. The first time that I had the sublime pleasure of this version of hot chocolate was at Angelina in the first arrondisement. It had been raining all day and Paris was the grayest place this California girl had ever seen. As I was wandering down the rue de Rivoli trying to figure out how it was possible to get so depressed in such an amazing city, I remembered the list of 'tearooms' that a friend had given me. Her only note next to the entry for Angelina was 'hot chocolate'. Sounded good to me. I was ushered into a very proper looking dining room, filled with well dressed ladies sipping hot chocolate and nibbling on lovely French patisserie. The hot chocolate arrived in a white porcelain 'hot chocolate' pot with a small bowl of whipped heavy cream on the side. And a pitcher of water. One sip and I knew that this was the cure for my blues.

Restaurants: Burgers at Bill's Place

H is my favorite eating buddy.  While other friends will raise an eyebrow when I request the dessert menu and then say ‘why don’t we share one dessert?’, I can always count on H to say ‘let’s order all three!”.  H and her father have a standing ‘Burger Date’.  When they get together it is always over a burger – good burgers, not so good burgers, bad burgers.  Expensive burgers, cheap burgers, good neighborhoods, borderline neighborhoods and neighborhoods I have never even heard of (sorry, Outer Clement).  So when D and I craved a burger last week, I got on my cell phone, called H and within five minutes we were parking in front of Bill’s Place on a part of Clement street I had no idea existed.

It is the kind of place my mother would describe as ‘tidy’.  I’m not sure how to characterize a burger joint that boasts crystal chandeliers, indoor-outdoor carpeting, red white and blue tile accents, a collection of limited edition U.S. President’s China Plates (Franklin Mint?) and burgers named after San Francisco celebrities (most dead, some obscure) including Carol Doda, Herb Caen and Al ‘Jazz Beaux’ Collins.  When we walked in at noon it was empty.  “Uh, oh” I thought.  Within ten minutes eight more customers had been seated.  Not a crowd but clearly all regulars. 

The Neighborhoods: Martinis on Nob Hill

World’s smallest martini? Or just a very proper serving? Can a martini be too big? Or too small? Has our culture of ‘super-size me’ altered my perception of what the appropriate size of a martini should be? Or have I turned into a lush? Last night’s martini at The Big Four’s cocktail lounge on Nob Hill tasted fine – Bombay up with a twist – but it was served in the smallest martini glass I have ever seen – almost doll size. (Like what you might see if HASBRO had, in addition to the Suzy Homemaker Kitchen produced a Suzy Homemaker Bar complete with shakers, strainers, and swizzle sticks.) None of this should have been too surprising as The Big Four is all about what is appropriate and proper and gracious. I was the heathen at the gate with my 21st Century lush sensibilities. They, however, are all about dining in a dark, clubby atmosphere where ladies wear mink coats, men wear suits with ties and the bartender knows what your ‘usual’ is. If you want a feeling for what San Francisco was like during the filming of the movie ‘VERTIGO’, this is the place. Will I go back? Absolutely.

The Neighborhoods: Tartine Bakery in The Mission

It doesn’t matter what time of day you walk into Tartine Bakery it is packed. But if you get into line with the optimism of an eight year old, as I did last week with my young friend Izzy, you will be able to snag a table by the time your cappuccino is made. It is always busy at Tartine because it appeals to the eight year old in all of us.  Chocolate chip cookies are huge, banana cream and coconut cream tarts sit under a tall drift of whipped cream, rose petals are scattered over puffy cake tops, deep, dark chocolate éclairs glisten, creamy bread pudding murmurs comfort.   

When go I alone early in the morning I get the ‘morning bun’, a spiral of flaky (croissant?) dough baked to a deep brown and tossed, hot out of the oven, into a bowl of orange scented sugar.  Or at least that is my best guess at how they create these AMAZING buns.  A line forms the minute they appear. I once saw this line of low key, cool, tattooed, Range Rover driving folks almost turn into an angry mob when the first woman in line ordered two dozen.  ‘Will there be any left for me?’ we all seemed to be thinking.  I tried to quell my own anxiety by repeating that these were just morning buns and this was not a line at a failing bank in 1929.  With my new found Zen-like calm I reminded myself that if the mbs were gone I could drown my sorrow with the almond croissant, straight out of a Parisian patisserie-boulangerie.  continue......

Recipe: Chocolate, Sea Salt and the Knitters of Nob Hill

I promise not to bore you with the details of my new obsession: knitting.  Suffice it to say that the quiet, meditative hobby of knitting gives one plenty of time to think about food.  And when you get a group of knitters together, at least my Knitters of Nob Hill, we love to eat, especially all things chocolate.  I once thought that I would suggest everyone knit with only brown yarn when we meet so that the tell tale crumbs of brownies and cookies and the spills of hot chocolate would not be quite so noticeable.

This is our cookie. The little grains of salt get stuck in your molars and slowly melt after the initial hit of chocolate slips past your tongue, an amazing sensation.  I wanted a cookie with a little more texture.  While the following recipe will work with any fleur de sel, I recommend Maldon Sea Salt, from Maldon, Essex, England.  This particular sea salt's soft, flaky, pyramid shaped crystals add just the right amount of texture to the top.

The Neighborhoods: Chinatown Cheap Eats

I was walking home through Chinatown today at lunchtime.  I didn’t feel like sitting down in a restaurant.  I just wanted something fast, to get home before it started to pour rain.  A comforting rice noodle dish that I would eat right out of the carton while  standing over the kitchen sink.

Like a trout who sees a shiny lure, I am drawn to ‘Grand Opening’ banners and there was one waving in front of MON KIANG. Well, why not? My experience with new restaurants with linoleum floors is that they are at the least very clean and at the worst just boring.  This new restaurant had the standard issue steam table on one side and a couple tables and chairs on the other and lots of eager staff behind the counter.  I always feel slow and ponderous in a Chinese Take Out shop. It seems, rightly so, that everyone else is in a terrible hurry, knows exactly what he or she wants and I am in the way.  Coming to my rescue, one of the staff behind the counter called out to me “Lunch Special.  Three Items.  $2.95.”  Oh, sure, I thought, she must mean per item.  So I repeated what she had said to me.  She nodded yes.  Okay, I was just going to jump right in here.  How bad could it be? With any luck it would be edible. If not, I could eat just the white rice. 

The Neighborhoods: Boulette's Larder at the Ferry Building Marketplace

BOULETTE'S LARDER

It has been raining almost everyday since Christmas.  But that hasn’t stopped the brave and hungry among us to go forth and find even more wonderful things to eat.  The day after Christmas we discovered Boulette's Larder in the Ferry Building Marketplace.  A larder?  In the 21^st Century?  This is what we found:  a wood burning fireplace warming up the room, a communal table with a huge bouquet of deep red amaryllis and two people enjoying freshly made beignets, chefs chopping, mixing, sautéing, shelves filled with glass jars right out of a medieval apothecary containing ingredients like black limes, shaved bonito and dried tangerine peel, the glass window of the walk in refrigerator revealing bowls over flowing with tangerines, mandarin oranges, limes, clementines and a pomelo.