I’m in LA (well, Burbank to be exact) to speak at LA Ruby Conf tomorrow.

Tonight I had the pleasure of having dinner at Granville Cafe with friends from Goldstar and Edgecase. Notably I had the chance to hang with my buddy @patmaddox, the BDDMF himself, as well as meet (in person) @gilesgoatboy.

The lighting sucked for the iPhone’s camera, but here’s a collage shot.

It was a nice place. Casual but with a good menu & beer selection. I opted for some Youngs Double Chocolate Stout. Damn, that’s good stuff. I had a “Southwest Burger” with sweet potato fries. I love the sweet potato fries occasionally. It was a burger, nicely done & tasty, but just a burger in the end. I did really like the bun, though. It had enough body and crust to it so as to hold up for the life of the burger, and not get all soggy like inferior buns tend to do.

As is often the case, the night is memorable more for the company than the food. After Granville, several of us went on to BJ’s for beer and conversation into the wee hours of the morning (yes… I’m backdating this post by a couple hours).

I had lunch at Twitter, hosted by @ladyfox14 (thanks!). I got the tour of the new digs, and they’re cool. Being that this is a food blog, I’ll keep discussion to lunch. Twitter provides breakfast and lunch to it’s employees (incidentally, employee 140 was hired recently, and being that that’s a significant number at Twitter there was a party). Lunch was great: salads, baked beans, and assemble yourself pulled pork sandwich (with a vegan alternative. It was tasty and nicely executed. Alas, I was too engrossed in conversation with old & new friends to think of taking pics.

I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered who ran their food operations: Gastronaut, and today owners Nate Keller and Mirit Cohen were there running the show. I know both Nate and Mirit from my days at Google.

I was also delighted to learn that a lot of employees are foodies, and that there are vibrant beer and coffee cultures. Apparently beer has been brewed in the office and the only coffee making device missing is a siphon brewer. Nice.

I had dinner tonight at Custom Burger with @stesla & @kagato. @stesla’s been trying to get me there for some time, and I almost made it a couple times, but had to bail. Custom Burger is brilliant! Truely a “build your own burger” experience.

@stelsa is a fan of their sweet potato fries. Rightfully so. Between the 3 of us we got 2 half & half baskets: a basket of fries, half white potato, and half sweet potato. Really nice… hot & fresh.

I can’t speak for the other two, but my burger was superb. Here’s how I had it:

• angus patty
• swiss cheese
• bacon
• sauteed mushrooms
• arugala
• chipotle ketchup
• multigrain bun

ZOMG Good!

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I stopped on the way home with @stesla at The Chieftain for a pint & light meal.

As soon as I stepped through the door I knew I’d love the place. It’s a simply brilliant little pub.

So, you’re in an Irish pub after work. What do you do? Why, order a Guinness, of course… unless you don’t like beer, in which case you order something else from their extensive drink menu.

The Guinness was exceptional and, other that @stesla’s slight run-in with basic physics, was consumed with gusto. We both ended up ordering the Guinness Stew (loaded with chunks of tender beef, carrots, potatoes, and onions, served with our brown bread). OMG this was good. Really good. the vegetables were soft enough to cut up with a spoon, and the beef was fall apart tender. Flavours were nicely balanced with a rich but not overwhelming broth. Plain, basic, hearty food that just works.

Cozy, subdued lighting (not the greatest place to take food pics), lots of drink options, and good food. To top it off, it’s between work and both BART and one of my MUNI alternatives home. I’ll be back, plenty.

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Suzanne and I spent part of Presidents Day wandering about the Financial District and Downtown. We started out by heading to the Ferry Building. I could spend some serious money there on ingredients. In fact, I expect I will.

After we tired of wandering we realized we were hungry and looked for a place to eat. Everything in the ferry building was packed, so we headed back into the financial district. “What do you want?” she asked. “Hmm.. Thai” I said. I was just whipping out my iPhone to check for nearby Thai restaurants when we looked across the street and saw Osha. Suzanne raves about the location in the Mission, and I was impressed with their SOMA location, so we went in.

Suzanne got a Palmtinni while I went with an Anchor Steam. What was of note was the mug:

Notice where the handle is. I’m calling this a case of bad design. It’s too high. With the mug full it’s awkward to tip it up to drink from.

We started with Thai Samosas (Potato, onion, carrot and yellow curry in a pot sticker wrapper served with fresh cucumber salad). These tasted fine but we both thought they were a bit too light & flakey. They came with 4 pieces but we’d started in before think to take a pic.

Next up was the Mango Salad (Streamed prawns, sliced mango, red onions, mint, cilantro, Kaffir lime leaf and cashew nuts in spicy lemongrass dressing). This was the star of the meal. Beautifully done. Crisp and refreshing, tart & nicely spicy. And it was garnished with lots of sliced cucumber. I like cucumber. Suzanne doesn’t. I ate all the cucumbers. Win-win.
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For the main entre we got Volcanic Beef (Wok-fried grilled premium flank steak with basil and black pepperin Lava sauce garnished with onion rings). While it was well presented and flavorful enough, it lacked heat. We ordered it “spicy” but it was bland with respect to chilis.

The Mango Salad was far and away the star of the meal. In fact it’s the only dish that I’d order again.

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This afternoon we discussed heading into downtown to pick up an Apple TV and grabbing dinner somewhere. “Oh wait,” said Suzanne, “It’s Valentine’s Day. Everything will be packed.” Having eschewed the occasion… really, pick one day to be nice to each other? Fuck, people, Bill & Ted had it right “be excellent to each other”. And that means all the time. Not just one arbitrary day a year picked by a greeting card company. Anyway, I digress. We decided to go out on Monday instead (see tomorrow’s post).

So that left us with dinner to make. Improvisation time. I knew there were anchovies left from a previous meal. And we had green olives (ok.. we had kalamatas as well.. unknown to me). And capers. Oh! @daksis gave me some Faro pasta to try. It’s starting to sound something like Linguine alla Puttanesca. No tomatoes. No problem: use some tomato paste. Garlic, onions.

So that’s what I did. Very close to a classic puttanesca:

We had guests for dinner tonight, and Suzanne made a stellar risotto. What was the star ingrediants, you might ask. Well… um… squash (hmm) and… kale (gulp).

You might correctly jump to the conclusion that I am not fan of either. You would be largely correct. At least until last night. I’ve never overly liked squash. I’ve tolerated it in some dishes (curries, for example), and mildly enjoyed it in others (notable a tex-mex style squash soup). Kale is another story entirely. I have actively despised it in any form.

So you can imagine that I was skeptical when Suzanne said she was making risotto (yum) with squash & kale (hrumph). But given other things she’d made, I was prepared to be pleasantly surprised. And that I was.

She started with a recipe at Epicurious: Risotto with Tuscan Kale and Toasted Pumpkin Seeds:

Ingrediants:

4 cups vegetable stock
2 cups water
1 bunch baby Tuscan kale, rib removed (also called cavolo nero or lacinato kale or dino kale)
4 cups butternut squash, coarsely chopped
4 medium leeks, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice (10 ounces)
1/3 cup dry white wine
grated Parmigiano-Reggiano to taste

Accompaniment:toasted pumpkin seeds

Method:

Make the risotto as usual, adding the squash after having added 2 cups of liquid. Add the kale after all the liquid has been added.

My buddy @stesla and I had some bro time tonight. Meeting up after work for a beer at 21st Amendment. We settled for a single glass each as we were on your way into the Mission for food.

I had the Imperial Jack (Big ESB. malty with a hoppy edge: 8.7% abv / 45 IBUs). This is one nice ESB.

@tesla had the Blind Lust (Belgian Strong w/oak aged framboise: 9.5% abv / 35 IBUs). I had this the other night. It has a lovely flavor and slightly amber color.

After beer we hopped the #12 into the Mission and dropped into Taqueria Guadalajara for a Super Carnitas Burrito. Seriously one of the tastiest Carnitas Burritos I’ve had in the Bay Area. I’ve been told the taco truck at our corner is good as well, but I have yet to check that.

Then it was over to Humphry Slocombe for ice cream where I had the Pepper-Mint and the Beer-week “Napa Smith Bon Fire Imperial Porter”. Unlike the beer ice cream I had on Sunday, I liked this one. It wasn’t noticably yeasty or hoppy, but was pleasantly malty.

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My (now ‘our’) February dinner party is starting to take shape. This month it will be an Italian meal. French might have been a stretch, but I’m largely in my element with Italian cooking.

The plan is to start with a spread of antipasti: roasted peppers, olives, cold meat, …

The plan is to have some pasta:

Not that much variety!

I’m thinking of making homemade fettuccini and gnocchi.

I’ll also make a selection of sauces.

A tomato based:

Of course, a pesto:

Add a salad, bread and some Italian wine.

And for desert: Tiramisu.

This part will be something new.

This is part 1 of a post… since I neglected to take pics today at lunch.

The Chaat Cafe is a regular lunch spot for the crew at Engine Yard, especially for @stesla and I. Generous portions of really good, North Indian food that’s reasonably priced. It’s a nice place, with bright colors abounding. Staff is always friendly. It’s very spare dining. You come in, order and pay. You get a number card to place at your table and food eventually shows up. Grab water, napkins and silverware on your way to a table. No seating… take what you can get. We’ve been aiming to have lunch about 11:30 so there are always seats.

Two of my favourites are the Paneer Vindaloo and Saag Paneer. @stesla is a man of habit and lately that habit has taken the form of Malai Kofta: Vegetarian dumplings made with a mixture of potatoes, carrots, paneer, and other vegetables, simmered in our tikka masala sauce. It’s looked and smelled so good the times he’s gotten it in the past that I had to try it today. And evidently tomorrow so I can get some pics.

So today I, did indeed, get the Malai Kofta. It was as good as anticipated. This really was no surprise as I’ve yet to be dissappointed by the food here. I’ll aim to have a more detailed review tomorrow, but if you ar ein the mood for some fine North Indian food and are in SOMA, head over to Chaat Cafe at 3rd & Folsom.

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