Thursday, April 23, 2009
Back in the Saddle
I spent a week backpacking recently and it's been a while. So, instead of gourmet trail dinners, i opted for light weight dehydrated beans and instant brown rice one night and too wet pasta the others. it seems i have lost my touch for draining pasta without a colander. That didn't seem to bother my husband, or myself, we were both hungry from so much hiking. the highlight of that trip was probably the cheeses i picked up at the Cowgirl Creamery. One with truffles and my personal backpacking favorite: Midnight Moon that Cypress Grove imports from Holland.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Basque-ing in the Wind
I live in South City, home to a single listing in the Slow Food guidebook: The Basque Cultural Center. I convinced some friends to join me there last night for a review before I book it for an awards banquet. Word is the place has good, relatively inexpensive food. The question I was left with was, "what's Basque food like?". If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, it is most likely very French. Everything I know about Bay Area Basque culture I pretty much learned reading 2 articles and eating at the restaurant last night. Here it is largely French, in the rest of the American West, it is probably more Spanish.
The articles were right, you get lots of good food for not a lot of money. You also get quick, friendly service and free parking. Even if you don't opt for the nightly special family style meal with two entrees, you still get soup and salad with your meal. The soup was a hearty lentil that leaned towards split pea flavor. It was earthy and buttery. The quantities of butter were reminiscent of winter camping stews from my NOLS days. Although it was good, I wanted a small cup, not a giant bowl. Bring your apetite or offend the staff.
We all loved the salad and spent some time trying to figure out the flavoring components without luck. It's simply a generous portion of butter lettuce with dressing. My companions tried the fish specials, one salmon and the other a sea bass. Although both were good my favorite was the sea bass. The fish was cooked perfectly in all cases and came with a nice sauce and sides. I had the rabbit with requisite brown mushroomy carroty sauce, it was cooked well. Which is to say that it was not overcooked. I've paid much more for dry overcooked rabbit. Mine came with a tasty veg mix and rice.
After all that we split three desserts. I had read the frozen nougat was not to be missed and we threw in the Gateau Basque out of curiosity and the chocolate mousse to compare this standard with others we'd tried. The frozen nougat is not to be missed and was a surprisingly light ending to a really great meal. The GB seemed to be what amounted to a custard tart with a lid. A double crusted wonder like so many pan dulce neither whose flavor can I describe, nor can I stop with the plate to mouth motion with my fork. Almonds? I'll have to bring my super taster sister next time, this place is right up her alley. The mousse was forgetable as chocolate mousses go. I found it rather cocoa-ey, neither unpleasant nor exciting. Also, most bottles of wine are under twenty bucks so bring your designated driver or take the walk from BART.
The articles were right, you get lots of good food for not a lot of money. You also get quick, friendly service and free parking. Even if you don't opt for the nightly special family style meal with two entrees, you still get soup and salad with your meal. The soup was a hearty lentil that leaned towards split pea flavor. It was earthy and buttery. The quantities of butter were reminiscent of winter camping stews from my NOLS days. Although it was good, I wanted a small cup, not a giant bowl. Bring your apetite or offend the staff.
We all loved the salad and spent some time trying to figure out the flavoring components without luck. It's simply a generous portion of butter lettuce with dressing. My companions tried the fish specials, one salmon and the other a sea bass. Although both were good my favorite was the sea bass. The fish was cooked perfectly in all cases and came with a nice sauce and sides. I had the rabbit with requisite brown mushroomy carroty sauce, it was cooked well. Which is to say that it was not overcooked. I've paid much more for dry overcooked rabbit. Mine came with a tasty veg mix and rice.
After all that we split three desserts. I had read the frozen nougat was not to be missed and we threw in the Gateau Basque out of curiosity and the chocolate mousse to compare this standard with others we'd tried. The frozen nougat is not to be missed and was a surprisingly light ending to a really great meal. The GB seemed to be what amounted to a custard tart with a lid. A double crusted wonder like so many pan dulce neither whose flavor can I describe, nor can I stop with the plate to mouth motion with my fork. Almonds? I'll have to bring my super taster sister next time, this place is right up her alley. The mousse was forgetable as chocolate mousses go. I found it rather cocoa-ey, neither unpleasant nor exciting. Also, most bottles of wine are under twenty bucks so bring your designated driver or take the walk from BART.
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