Posts Tagged ‘Piccino’
A Few Quick Brunches
t says: Since moving on out here, g and I have done a lot of cooking at home, especially for dinner. I will say that the restaurant scene provides plenty of temptation (never have we lived in a city with so many different kinds and calibers of restaurant), but we have been careful to not exceed the usual “going out” quota we had in Philly (and choosing restaurants that were of a similar price-point). But if there’s one area where we are splurging, it’s for breakfast: we like waking up, walking around our neighborhood because the weather’s so nice, and get easily side-tracked by brunch. The problem is this: we keep going to the same places over and over!!
For instance, just when we thought Piccino couldn’t get any better, they went and did something like this:
It is a known fact that if you try and study something immediately before bedtime, then fall asleep, you will have less likelihood of remembering it in the morning than had you studied something, waited a while, and then fallen asleep. I think that this is a similar explanation to why I can’t remember what this dish was called. It hit the table, and I blacked out. When I came to, I had a smile on my face, an empty plate, and a scent of something chocolatey and hazlenutty in my nose. Was it chocolate bread pudding? Was it chocolate brioche french toast? Gawd – it’s really gone. Now, if you told me that I ate it all, I’d believe you, because that sounds like something I’d do. But if you told me that a ninja jumped out of nowhere, knocked me out, and stole my breakfast (as it was the last one they were serving that day), I’d believe you, too (it’d be worth it!). Piccino could still do no wrong (and g liked her omelette thing, too)
Speaking of wonderful brunches: it’s confirmed, we’re also addicted to Plow. I keep dragging g back (but it’s not like she’s putting up much of a fight). I just wanted to leave this reminder here: the lemon ricotta pancakes are wonderful, but the French toast are also a nice carb-loaded breakfast as well (you know, just in case you’ve exceeded your pancake quota for the month …).
Living in SF is rough indeed …
Revisiting with Family
t says: g’s mom visited in January, which was a ton of fun. In between all of the cooking we made her do (that’s right: meatballs, lasagna, chicken parm – all the classics) so she could stock our freezer, we also went out a few times. And when we have family in town, we like to deal with “known quantities” – no crazy-new adventures – just the greatest hits!
One of the first places we dragged g’s mom to was Nopalito. Oh. Em. Gee. It’s still just as good as it was years ago. Because I have such terrible grasp of Spanish, I cannot recall the names of any of the dishes – but I think that’s the point – you can do no wrong at Nopalito. Pork, veggies, beef, whatever – the only “loser” is the person who dares to try and be bashful while sharing plates family-style … I know the above pictures is under-whelming – I know that a and v back in Philly are probably thinking: “that doesn’t look that good” – but it is – we promise.
What is the only thing better than Bi-Rite’s creme brulee ice cream? Bi-Rite’s creme brulee ice cream with hot fudge. Once again: the picture sucks, but the food is insane. g’s mom fell for the salted caramel. I think g went for the roasted banana. Damn – I have to work out more if I’m going to eat like this …
One delightful morning, we took g’s mom to Plow in Potrero Hill. We knew we liked it once before, so why not try it again? So yea: the Plow potatoes and pancakes are still crazy-good, as was everything else. So why take a picture? To remind myself that they make their own sausage, and it, like the rest of the breakfast was precisely perfect. The more I think of it, the more I appreciate Plow’s reliability, even if they’re not redefining brunch as we know it.
We did venture out to one new eatery with g’s mom and that was a pizza spot in Sausalito. And while the town wasn’t exactly as she had remembered it, g’s mom was still happy to enjoy the clear skies, the small shops, the thin crust pizza at Sandrino. I felt that the crust was a little too thin to support the weight of the cheese/sauce, but I was happy with the additional shaved parmagiano reggiano they used. All in all, it was “pretty good”, but not as good as what we had but a few days later …
… when we hit up Piccino. After our pretty-darn-good previous meal there, we knew the key was to just order a bunch of courses and share. We started the meal off with some respectable spinach Arancini. It’s hard to go wrong with fried rice balls, though.
This was the star of the show. It was a sausage and red onion pizza. Sounds pretty easy, right? I was actually a little disinterested when g suggested it, but because I got to choose another one of the dishes for the table, I acquiesced to her choice of pizza. Boy am I glad I did!! It had just the right amount of onion-y punch and flavorful ?fennel?-piggy sausage, with a perfect crust. It totally killed the pizza we had in Sausalito.
So what was this black blob? It was perhaps the most unctuous piece of short rib I’ve ever had. I’m so glad we split it three ways because this beautifully braised, well-glazed piece of meat was super-rich. Served with a wine reduction, carrots, and celery root puree, it was the perfect way to crescendo towards the end of a meal (salad, pizza, meat). Wonderful.
Nearby Eats
t says: Mission Bay, where we live, isn’t exactly a hotbed of restaurants. As a result, we were super-excited to find that on Wednesdays, there’s a farmer’s market that pops up right outside our apartment! Sure, there are fruits and vegetables, but there are also things like nuts, fresh pressed juices, a Lebanese food stand, a fresh bread stand and then the requisite vegan stand, gluten-free stand, etc … As we visit more of the stands, we’ll report back. For now, the one stand I bought prepared food from was this one:
Sure, the menu was a little bit more “fusion” than I was hoping (the Lebanese stand looked more authentic, and I would have gone there, but there was a huge line for this one, so I figured I wanted to see what all the rage was about …)
I got a banh mi with lettuce instead of cucumber (they ran out of cucumber – insert sadface here) – and I have to say that it was a disappointing. And it’s not just “disappointing”, rather “disappointing” in the same tone that you would use to try and guilt-trip a child into realizing that his/her behavior was unacceptable (i.e. new age parenting). The bread wasn’t crusty. The meat didn’t have enough caramelization. The cilantro was too subtle. For the full experience, imagine a “bad” cheesesteak (like if you were visiting Bismarck and ordered a “Philly Cheesesteak”) … and now make it worse by swapping the onions for weakly pickled carrots, the cheese for lettuce, and the beef for bland pork. Ok – so I guess there really wasn’t much use in starting off with a “bad cheesesteak” at all because I just changed every component, but I at least think that this adequately captures my disappointment. I’m not sure why everyone was lining up waiting for like 15 minutes for these sandwiches! They weren’t particularly cheap, they weren’t particularly unique. *sighs* I really miss the chicken banh mi from Rotisseur … Strike 1 for the Mission Bay Farmer’s Market!!
g and I did venture into Dogpatch for a restaurant called Piccino. Now this place was pretty cool. Upon reading the menu, we were expecting something like Barbuzzo – they had a tasty-sounding burrata on the menu, a few pastas, a few pizzas, a few secondi; the prices were reasonable. But we found that they were a step less casual than Barbuzzo. The space was open and free, with nicely manicured wooden tables and modern-looking black chairs, with shiny silverware and good-sized wine glasses. The food was similarly grown-up, For instance, the burrata wasn’t a decadent cheese-and-bread course, rather, a very nicely composed salad as you see above. At first, I was a little disappointed (salad? who the hell wants salad?), but at first bite, I turned that frown upside down. The California-fresh greens were dressed lightly, but with quite a zippy, mouth puckering dressing. And the cheese was gooey and rich – almost like butter. Did I still wish for grilled bread? A little … but it wasn’t a deal-breaker. I do think, however, that it was a smidge over-priced. g and I did share it, but it could have been an app for one if opposite a hungry enough stomach.
We went for the plain white pizza, which was done up with a thin crust and lots of sliced garlic – it was simple but oh-so-right. Sure, there were fancier toppings on the menu, but we opted to keep the pizza simple and have it accompanied by a few sides, like …
… meatballs! If you’re going to call yourself Italian, you better bring it with the meatballs. Now keep in mind that we are tough critics here, having grown accustomed to NJ-Italian-mom meatballs-and-sauce. Barbuzzo’s meatballs probably hold the title for best restaurant meatball we’ve encountered thus far, but I’d still only venture a “very good” rating for them because of sauce dissatisfaction. These meatballs are just a hair underneath those. Not being stuffed with cheese, these rely on the meat itself, which had a very nice flavor (beef and pork) but could have benefitted from better caramelization on the outside; the sauce was just still a little off for my taste – a bit thin and separating on the plate to reveal an oil phase. Don’t get me wrong – I took the last remaining meatball home and pwned in the following day – still delicious!
But man those Brussels sprouts never stood a chance at making it to our home fridge. Not relying on a pork crutch (no ham, no bacon, no sausage, no pancetta), I’m not sure what the extra flavor was (g was guessing it was some kind of fish sauce), but they were spectacular. Totally worth ordering.
Piccino gets an A- from the sneeze, but with potential for the full A for sure – we need to do some more “testing”. And the cafe next door as well as the wine store two doors down (Dig), which we think are associated with Piccino (we can’t tell if they’re associated, or if they just share the same building) show a lot of promise as well. Rest assured that we will be back! And when we have visitors, I’m sure we’ll bring them with us – we just have to prep them ahead of time: this isn’t Barbuzzo … but it’s still really good!
And here’s a bonus pic! I didn’t order wine at Piccino (trying to keep living costs down), but we did pre-game and ?post-game? with this guy, my latest find from K&L. Having first had Picpoul de Pinet in London, when I found a few bottlings at K&L, I knew it would hit just the right spot for weekday drinking (i.e. cheap, quaffable). And just like my London experience, this delivered that palate-cleansing, mouth-watering, petrol-peach smack to the face that I love. If you want a short-and-snappy, seafood-pairing (or summer-drinking) white without breaking the bank, Picpoul should be the way to go. Even the PLCB has one online!.
after dinner sneeze 