We had some potatoes and lettuce left from a previous produce delivery, some eggs left from saturday’s brunch, some tuna from the fancy food show. And so, after a quick grocery run for a few things we were missing (like anchovies, nicoise olives, etc), Suzanne made Salade Niçoise tonight, loosely based on this Tyler Florence recipe from the Food Network.

The tuna we had was in oil with Jalapenos so it gave a slight heat to the salad. Unusual but nice. It turned out fabulously. Here it is in all it’s glory:

Salade Niçoise

Vinaigrette:

• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 1 teaspoons dried thyme
• Sel gris and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, including some from the tuna and anchovies
• jalapenos from the tuna, chopped

Salad:

• lettuce
• some small red new potatoes, scrubbed and halved, boiled
• 3 large eggs, boiled and quartered
• 1/2 pound haricots verts or French green beans, stems trimmed, steamed
• bottle of Tonnino tuna, with oil, chunked
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• Sel gris and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pint teardrop or cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 cup nicoise olives, chopped
• 4 anchovy fillets, chopped
• capers
• green onions, chopped

Today was a beautiful day in San Francisco! So, naturally, we went for a walk, this time around Potrero Hill. The last stop on the way home was Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream. This is San Francisco Beer Week, and Humphry Slocombe is doing 6 custom beer flavored ice creams every day. Todays was: Albino Python, Hop Stoopid, Wassail, Hairy Eyeball, Old Thunderpussy and Smokestack.

I tried the ‘Hairy Eyeball‘ (from Lagunitas). Beer ice cream… honestly I wasn’t that impressed. I felt somewhat let down.

However, I didn’t stop at that. I also had a scoop of the ‘Chocolate & Smoked Salt’. OMFG… incredible depth of flavor.

Suzanne opted for ‘Cinnamon Brittle’ and ‘Blue Bootle Vietnamese Coffee’. ‘Cinnamon Brittle’ was ok, but not as intense of a flavor as I prefer, especially for cinnamon. The ‘Blue Bootle Vietnamese Coffee’, on the other hand, was incredible. @stesla had previously made a similar comment, but WOW it was good.

We’d dropped in last week as well and had ‘Secret Breakfast’ (Bourbon and Cornflakes) and ‘Balsamic Caramel’. Both were over the top good. I especially loved the ‘Balsamic Caramel’.

I’ll be making a habit of dropping into Humphry Slocombe semi-regularly. The best (and maybe worst) thing is that it’s only 2 blocks from home!

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I made brunch for “the girls” again. Once again, scrambled eggs with toasted french bread.

We did a different take on crepes this morning: folded over a blend of mascarpone and crème fraiche with a touch of vanilla:

These were topped with a caramelized honeycrisp apple and raspberry mix:

I finished them with a dollop of crème fraiche.

And finally here’s an action shot:

Although I’ve been here repeatedly since @atmos introduced me to it, I’ve not written about it yet. Time to solve that as I actually sit here waiting to head over to 21st Amendment for dinner with @stesla and @xagile.

Unlike many of the cafes in San Francisco, Epicenter does not brew Bluebottle, Fourbarrel, or Ritual beans. They use they use beans from San Jose based Barefoot Coffee. Incidentally, Barefoot’s “The Boss” is my preferred beans for home use. So tasty I tend to have straight espresso rather than cappuccino.

Epicenter not only does a superlative job with the coffee, but is also has beer & wine, as well as a selection of food and pastries. The baristas here have mad skillz, their latte art creations are always impressive. For example:

The atmosphere is excellent for relaxing with a drink & snack, or having a meeting with potential biz partners. It’s a very startup-friendly spot. Free wifi (as expected), quiet background music and friendly staff.

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Suzanne and I went to the Exploratorium last night for their monthly After Dark event. What fun. Playing at a science center with no kids underfoot AND a cash bar. Total win.

In addition, this month’s theme was sex. Woohoo!

So, you’re thinking, WTF does any of this have to do with food?

Well, one of the attractions was all about bull testicles.

Including, the sampling of sauteed bull balls with onions.

Totally non food related, but in general the Exploratorium is just plain fun. We got passes for the after dark events so we’ll be back for more fun & learning.

On a further food related note, we stopped at Asa Sushi in the Marina for a late dinner. No pics but the food was tasty, the staff was great, and the sake was hot.

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Suzanne and I went for Thai tonight before popping into Wicked Grounds (a review of which is forthcoming).

We started with the curry puffs (crispy pastries filled with curried diced duck & sweet potatoes), of which I have no picture as we started into them before thinking to snap a picture.  They were good  Duck… yum.

We then moved on to the larb gai (minced chicken tossed in lime, chili and parched rice). This stuff was *good*.

Next it was on to the main course.

First tamarind prawns (light battered prawns wok tossed in spicy tamarind with crisp shallots and garlic). These were nice.  The prawns were nicely done, although we found the sauce to be more sweet & sour than tamarind. The crisp shallots were especially tasty, though.

The other main course dish was kang kua gai (tangy red curry of julienned chicken breast and pumpkin).  This was tasty enough, and the pumpkin was nice. However, the chicken was on the dry side.

Overall, dinner was great.  The restaurant itself was nice enough, and the service was spectacular. Worth a visit, I’d say.

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I recently (and I now forget how) discovered Stove Monkeys and their foodie t-shirts. From their site:

Stove Monkeys offers chef inspired t-shirts for culinary professionals, students, and food-lovers.

For now they just have t-shirts, but the site promises an entire line of foodie/chef clothing is in the works.

It must be said, I love their graphic style, and I’ll be adding some of their offerings to my wardrobe.

They also have some information on flavor tripping. Hmm… might make for an interesting dinner party.

Anyway, check these guys out, and keep an eye on them as they add more products. They have some fun t-shirts, and some cool info.

stovemonkeys.com

I had some business in Mountain View today, so on the way I stopped in Palo Alto to grab some lunch at Calafia.  As usual, I resisted ordering something I’d had before and enjoyed, and got something completely different.

Today I went with the soup of the day: Potato, beer, and smoked gouda.  I’m not usually a fan of potato-based soups, but this was their soup of the day, so I figured I’d try it.  With chefs (pro or amateur), once I am confident in their ability I’ll try anything they prepare.  The upshot was that I loved it.  Creamy and smokey. Yum!

For a main course, I eschewed my “vegetarian until dinner” habit to try the burger.  Not the lamb burger, although I lingered over it on the menu.  I decided on the Queen Calafia Cheese burger with cheddar, applewood smoked bacon, and the usual accoutrements (including house-made pickles). On the side I had some mayo and ketchup.  No ordinary ketchup, this.  House-made, as are all their sauces, and OMFG it is tasty.  As is their hot sauce which I also had a sample of.  The burger was quite nice as burgers go.  No Spotted Pig burger, but very fine.

Once again, I left pleased with the food and service.

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I ran across this recipe a couple of months ago while trying to find something quick and easy. The dish itself only takes about 5 minutes of prep work, and about 7 minutes to cook.  It’s one of those dishes that tastes ridiculously amazing, despite being very easy to make.

Jamie Oliver’s website has both the instructions and a great video of how to make it, so in an effort to keep the internet DRY, I’ll let you look at those there. I will say this though, the directions in the recipe are different than in the video. I’ve found the video instructions to be better.

Besides that, I wanted to share a couple of tips to help make this dish awesome:

• Use Prosciutto

  You need to use prosciutto for this. Other salted hams just don’t crisp up the same. Wimpy, limp ham drastically brings down the quality of the dish.

• Lemon Zest

  This really makes the dish awesome, but it’s a balancing act. It doesn’t take a lot to overpower the other flavors, but it’s important there is enough of it to meld properly with the cheese. It may take a time or two before you learn how much to add. Also, I think this goes without saying, but use fresh zest.

• Organic Chicken

  Besides the health and environmental reasons, organic chicken is just easier to work with. The standard, non-organic chicken breasts are freakishly huge compared to their organic counterparts. That makes pounding them flat nearly impossible, which is a must for this dish to turn out proper.

Enjoy!

The girls are interviewing and auditioning cleaning help today, and I made brunch with two goals:

1. make, serve, and have a kick ass brunch with two hot chicks, and
2. make a big mess in the kitchen for candidates to practice on

Brunch consisted of:

• Mimosas
• Scrambled eggs, Gordon Ramsey style with aged gouda
• Sautéed mushrooms
• Toasted baguette
• Avocado
• Crêpes Suzette

Brunch was enjoyed by all, and there was a nice mess to be cleaned up.