Posts Tagged ‘The Mill’
wonderful, pescadero, and the mill
t says: I’ve entered an interesting phase of my time here – one that has a substantial amount of down-time! Yay!! Exciting, right? I know that g and I are excited. So excited that we picked up the pace on our restaurant explorations – almost with the same oomph that we had in Philly when we first started this blog!! The difference, this time, is that we’d go “backwards” in our restaurants searches. In Philly, we’d just pull up eater or foobooz and see what was the latest hip place that we should check out. In SF, with the insane cornucopia of restaurants that grows by the week, we wouldn’t stand a chance. So instead we ask: “what do we want to eat tonight?” and go from there …
Here are some highlights:
This one looks less-than-flattering. I promise it tasted better than it looks. You see, it all started when g and I were really missing Philly’s Han Dynasty. We were reminded of Han after our Han-like experience at Kedai Makan in Seattle. So SF has to have something like that, right? Well, with a quick search, I found a place called “wonderful”. Located outside of the city, it made it to the top of our list for a quick “post-airport” dinner. And voila! When g returned from a recent trip, I picked her up from the airport, and, due to the stupid-traffic that occurs around 5-6pm heading back towards SF, we peeled off towards Millbrae for a stop at wonderful. As supposedly “the best Chinese food in the Bay Area” (pretty big words because what I think is a pretty legit Chinatown sitting right there within SF), wonderful kept us guessing as to what we should expect. We knew it was going to be different than the electric Szechuan of Han, rather, a Hunanese chile-spicy. Above you see the cilantro lamb, a nice upbeat take on a traditionally gamy cut of meat. Highly recommended. (And is a great addition to for homemade fried rice with leftovers the next day.)
We ordered a dish called “Godfather’s noodles”. Everyone raved about them so we were pretty much obligated to try. We were particularly excited because we saw a Dan Dan noodles on the menu and figured that this would clearly be different than Han’s trademark dish. But it wasn’t. It was pretty much the same damn thing (dare I say the same “Dan” thing?). It was very tasty and worth getting (spicy and porky the whole way), but then what the hell are the Dan Dan noodles on the menu? We have no idea … but we know what we’re getting next time …
Ah, yes, the green onion pancake. Beware – this sucker is HUGE. Like YOOOOJ. This, plus the cilantro lamb was the best sandwich ever. Now of course, that’s probably not traditional at all, but I was thinking it the entire time we were there. It was light and fluffy, more like a biscuit than a thousand-layer bread I’ve had at other restaurants – and definitely not anything like a Korean scallion pancake at all. Go ahead and order it, but unless you’ve got more than two people at a table, be prepared to bring some home. As for the restaurant itself, be prepared for a relatively small space, long lines, and slightly pushy service – it’s not as bad as House of Nanking, but it has some of the same spirit. This is not a four-star dining experience – go and eat and be full and happy and laugh all the way home with your leftovers …
On one of our splendid weekend road trips with k and cm, we hit up Harley Farms, a fun place to see some farm animals (and llamas) and buy some goat cheese … and goat soap … and pretty much every darn thing you can make out of goat’s milk. But more impressive was the above dinner table. As we walked around the upper floor of the barn, looking out at the farm below, with a gentle breeze whipping through, it was pretty much settled that if you want a barnyard-chic dinner party, this is the place to go. They also do farm dinners as well that you have can book a seat at ahead of time – if the food is as half as good as the ambience, it’s gotta be a great experience.
Tucked away in Pescadero, there’s a tiny gas station. And in this gas station, there is a counter. And at that counter, you can order some tacos. You MUST order some tacos. You will eat them off of paper plates … and you will love them. I know we did. Mercado & Taqueria De Amigos was phenomenal. It isn’t fancy. It isn’t artisanal. It’s just some really good tacos at a very reasonable price in a very unassuming location. Shrimp tacos for the win! We also sent g’s parents there and they came back with a resounding, “these were the best tacos we’ve ever had”. While you’re in Pescadero, be sure to visit the market in town that has awesome garlic-and-artichoke bread (buy two loaves, one for dinner later than night, and one for the car ride home) and, if you go early enough, “chocolate muffins” … which are more like chocolate cupcakes.
So this one required real planning. The Mill (Western Addition) has BYO Monday and Wednesday pizza nights. Now let me say right off the bat that “BYO” is misleading. It doesn’t mean “bring your own alcohol and pour yourself a glass”, rather, “bring your own alcohol and you can use the paper cups that we allow people to use for water … oh … and you’ll be pretty much the only ones there drinking alcohol … so enjoy being awkward”. So yea, that was a little bit disappointing. It was made up for, however, by the awesome pizza. Above, you see the eggplant pizza with white bbq sauce on some sort of whole grain crust – the toppings were fine, but that crust was ridiculous. Given the crust alone, I kind of regretted not having made it to the the Korean-themed pizza they had the following Wednesday. As I sit here writing this, I have to say that the pizza gets an overall “good”, but I don’t think it’s quite destination-worthy; go if you’re in the neighborhood (it’s kind of a pain in the butt to get to via MUNI), but be prepared for tight seating and the pseudo-BYO-ness. For convenience, g and I will stick it out with nearby Long Bridge for now.
I’ll have to call it a night for now, but I guarantee we have more coming – some ramen, some soondooboo. Good times had by all.
finishing in Napa and killing it in SF
t says: I have to say that up until this point, g and I were pretty successful in attaining wine in Napa (Quintessa, Sinskey, Massican, Larkmead) … BUT … we were a little disappointed that we hadn’t found something “new” or “exciting”. For example, last time, we “found” Larkmead, we “found” Tor, we “found” Massican (i.e. they were around for a while and it was our first time tasting them, so I am saying that we “found” them), but this time, nothing really shocked us … (well, except for how mediocre Maisonry and Napa Vintner’s Collective were). (g cuts in: hey – Newton’s Puzzle was delicious – I’m shocked that you didn’t buy any!). Be that as it may – our last day in Napa started off with 750wines. This “wine concierge” service is now our new favorite place in Napa. It’s totally NOT for newbies, but basically you email them, you arrange an appointment, you fill out a questionnaire where they ask you about your price point and wine preferences, and they take it from there with a free tasting. I’m not sure why it’s free – maybe they have that much faith that they’ll find something that you’ll buy? No idea. But It. Was. Awesome. First off, the host, Monica, is fabulous. She knows her wine, and she knows how to talk to people – very refreshing and surprisingly not commonplace in the Valley (for example, we went to one place shopping for “a crowd-pleasing, fruit-forward, super-smooth red” and all we got in response is, “we don’t stock those here” – are you for real? Are we still in California?). She also knows how to put together a tasting, and took it upon herself to “push us” a little, making 3 of 6 wines well outside our “comfort zone” in terms of what we typically drink (e.g. she included some chardonnay, some Italian stuff, some pseudo-Spanish stuff) – we would have never tasted these wines otherwise! And you know what – they were more impressive than the ones that we would have predicted we would have liked (i.e. your standard cabs and sauv blancs). Furthermore, she was willing to improvise some, pulling out a 7th wine because our conversations happen to meander some, inspiring her to show us yet another unique bottling that we would have never found. Actually – if memory serves me correct, 6 of the 7 wines only had around 300 cases produced, so this was some low production stuff. So yes, it was a great tasting, and although we only left with two bottles, if we had to join one wine club in Napa Valley, this would be it for sure! We have that much faith in her ability to find wines that would appeal to us! Oh, and she also gave us a tip about MacDonald Vineyards and their first ever release this year, which we hope will be the next big name in Napa.
We followed up 750wines with a return to Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen. My duck burger was probably the best burger I’ve had in the past year (I only wish it tasted a little more ducky) and chicken-topped salad put a smile on g’s face. This was our last meal in Napa … except for the Kara’s cupcakes we bought on the way back to SF …
Now, SF featured a lot of relaxing and catching up with k and kp, so we’ll be vague about the activities. But the food … now that is some adsz-worth stuff, so we will try our best to shock and awe with picture upon picture … starting with our first dinner of SF … which was SPQR! (PS – these are only SOME of the pictures we took)
g had a weird dish called “sweet carrot and lentil salad, medjool date, and vadouvan curry crema”. What actually came out was an assortment of like 37 different root vegetables and a few blobs of random textures … and g liked it! i was also impressed – it was like something that we could have found at a casual version of Vedge.
because we brought a red wine (i.e. because kp brought a red wine), i started off with a wagyu beef appetizer … which was interesting because the broth and greens were fabulous, and the dancing bonito was a sight to behold (i took a movie on my iPhone, but for some reason can’t post it to this blog – you’ll just have to trust us) … However, this was probably the weakest of the appetizers as the beef preparation was less-than-superbly executed (the three slabs weren’t super-tender, lacked seasoning, and was somewhere in the medium-medium-well range). consequently, this dish was kind of a fail.
buckwheat tagliatelle with bacon-braised suckling pig. now this dish should be, in v’s terms, “all bait”. But to be honest, it was a little underwhelming, as the pasta’s graininess was sadface-inducing – I would have taken a plain ‘ol barilla pasta because without the textural distraction of the buckwheat, I could have focused on the splendid oink-oinkiness of the rest of the dish … which was indeed everything that a pig-based pasta dish could be (i.e. heaven).
now g’s pasta, on the other hand (mustard cappellini, guinea hen ragu, savoy cabbage, mimolette cheese), was so ridiculously addictive that i think i had more of it than she had! and to further blow your mind – it was not even the “best” dish of the evening – that would be kp’s (not pictured). He had this lasagnette (which, when served, looked like a boring folded over crepe) and meatballs that were in-sane. It hit you in the face with memories of 5-year-old you, the first time you ever had your own meatball to yourself on a fork, with wide eyes and a cheesy grin with your tongue trying to reach the corners of your tomato-sauce-covered face. in-sane.
for this dinner, kp reached deep into his cellar, past the santa margherita everyday “date wine”, and over to the “special wine” row to find this beauty. This 2002 Revana was “tots cray”, with a nose of “man” (leather, tobacco, musk), but then palate of plush dark fruits that slid smoothly across the palate to make you pause and savor. What’s the secret to this wine? Is it the terroir? The deep “family” wine-making heritage? …
… nope! It was the ringer that the proprieter hired to make his wine: Heidi Peterson Barrett, the “first lady of wine” who gave us a 2002 that far outclassed the Dominus 2002 we had a few years ago. How great! In retrospect, while the food was delightful at SPQR, it was the wine (and company) that made it truly remarkable.
And so, the night ended and we went to bed with full stomaches and a smile … especially because I knew what was going down the next morning:
Day 2 in SF started off with a trip to revisit Brenda’s French Soul Food Kitchen – we were back for the beignets! And they were exactly like last time: one chocolate, one apple, one plain (that k demolished later with Blue Bottle coffee), and one crawfish. And just like last time, it continues to completely ruin any other non-filled beignet ever, including those in NOLA.
the shrimp-n-grits was similarly fabulous. Now grit-for-cheesy-grit, kp’s are superior, however, that bacon-tomato jam is crazy-addictive and should be sold in jars so I could put it on anything and everything.
After a day of shopping and parking (that’s a gerund for a new verb “to park”, which means “to relax in a park”), we went to a place called Ice Cream Bar – a cute little shop with frequent visits by cute little kids eating cute gigantic ice cream cones. g and k got things like soup and sandwich or something boring like that. But not me – oh no – what you see above is a pb&j&b, where the second “b” is “bacon” (the waitress was totally unphased by my inquiry to add bacon to the sandwich).
That night, we went to Tsunami Sushi, which had some of the best fish we’ve had in a while. While chirashi typically includes boring cuts of fish, Tsunami did it right with quite a variety, as you can see above. I think my only criticism was that the rice (actually, the sushi rice used in all the sushi there, not just the chirashi) was a little mushier than I come to expect from a Japanese eatery. But that’s ok – becuase after sipping on the Taketsuru 12-year, I didn’t care anymore – it was just as fabulous as it was in NOLA at Cochon (which reminds me: I have got to get me some of that! Either that or splurge on the 17-year). What are the drawbacks of the place? Maybe the music is too loud for this aged 31-year-old’s ears.
Our last day in SF started at “The Mill”. I have to confess that g and I are not cool enough to eat here (ok, g is, but I’m not). Their main dish is “toast”. No really – it’s “toast”. And it’s toast that takes 10 minutes to prepare. Like if you had someone brew a cup of coffee (like hipster-style, poor-through-a-chemex) versus someone making a slice of toast (e.g. above is “country” toast, with honey, salt, peanut butter, and apple butter), the toast would take longer to construct. And yea – it’s some darned good toast – but come on people – it’s toast!
After a day of some full-contact, no-holds-barred shopping (g and I tore it up in the Mission and on Hayes Street), we went for some lunch. After failing to get Mission Chinese (closed on Wed) and Ken Ken Ramen (for some reason not offering lunch), we went for the safe lunch at Absinthe on Hayes Street. Great “pasta of the day” and a refreshing salad. And, even better was that wine shop next door … which was the only source of Massican Sauvignon Blanc in the entire US (seriously – why the hell is it so hard to find?).
Now, I want to say that dinner at Bar Tartine, like the rest of our dinners, was also crazy-good. But, I have no pictures! We relied on kp for pictures and the flash makes them look a bit weird, so I’m not going to include them here. Let’s just say that the menu looks boring-as-all-hell, with what seems to be an assortment of bread-related spreads, an assortment of pickles, and then a lot-lot-lot of vegetables. Well let me tell you that despite the snooze-ville of a menu, these dishes were crazy. Like the above was the “blue cheese and beet salad”: it was 95% blue cheese, 4% beet (two kinds!), and three leaves of lettuce – and it was off the hook. Other highlights included a smoked salmon with cucumber and serrano chile jam that blew all of our minds, another dish that looked like ice cream in chocolate sauce but was actually smoked potatoes in barbecue sauce, and a green chile seafood stew that tugged at your heartstrings like an old-fashioned ciopino but had such a fresh zing to knock you on your ass. Amaze-balls.
yea, we had some chocolate “salami” (almonds and cherries were the specks) and a currant-apple gelee (best petite four ever!), but really, by then we were so impressed with the rest of the food that we tuned out the sweets. There was, however, a more savory dessert course with carob (n.b. no matter what the server said, it does not taste anything like chocolate), goat cheese, walnuts, and 18 other components, that when put together, hit the sweet, salty and savory much like that gruyere “s’more” at DiBruno brothers. Bravo. Did not see that oen coming.
this was our “find” of the trip – a bottle of 2012 Annia signed by the man Dan Petroski himself. g did her “booyah” dance four times as we were exiting the store, as we were charged not a dime on top of the standard price (we have a crush on Dan Petroski … bigtime).
after dinner sneeze 