Blogs

I guess it shouldn't be a surprise that there's an annual International Water Tasting competition, but somehow it still is. Even more shocking: the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which serves Los Angeles, tied for first place with Clearbrook, British Columbia in the Municipal Water category. Together they bested over 120 other waters from places as far-flung as New Zealand, Macedonia and Romania. Other categories in the 18th Annual Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting include Non-Carbonated Bottled Water and People's Choice for Package Design. Check out all the winners, past and present, here. USA Today gives a nice breakdown of how the waters are judged:

"Judges based their rankings on taste, odor, mouth feel, aftertaste — and checked to make sure nothing was floating in the water."

Yes, I guess having floaters in your water could present a problem.

While it's true that even the greatest restaurants and chefs aren't known for their tech savviness -- why should they be? -- in this day and age, having a serviceable, if not well-designed, website is important. You don't want all your potential web traffic going to Yelp, do you? There's nothing more frustrating than landing on some clunky, flash-heavy web parlor show parading as a website. We don't want entertainment, people, we just want to know how much dinner will cost. Bay Area Bites, for one, has finally had it with crap restaurant sites:

"Noise of clinking glasses or a dull roar or fancy music does not make us want to go to your restaurant more, it just tips off our employers that we are making dinner plans instead of filing our TPS reports. We don't want to sit through 30 second flash movies of how happy we'll be if we go to your restaurant."

They've done the honor of rooting through the best and -- of course -- the very worst local restaurant websites, god bless 'em.

Aww. Poor grapefruit. According to xkcd ("A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math and language"), the grapefruit is the single most difficult, untasty fruit around (see above diagram, charmingly entitled "Fuck Grapefruit"). Amazingly, it's been deemed only slightly less difficult to eat than pomegranate, which is really saying something because eating pomegranate is a truly Sisyphean torture.

I would propose that anyone who says the grapefruit doesn't taste good should head over to Range in the Mission, find a nice seat at the bar and order the cocktail known as the "Vin de Pamplemousse," which I can say with confidence is the best fruity cocktail I've ever had -- and the principal mixer is grapefruit. It also has Square One Vodka, Viognier, vanilla bean and lemon. Check it out, grapefruit haters. (via Serious Eats)

It is with a huge dollop of disbelief and a dash of righteous anger that Chron Food Critic Michael Bauer recently posted on his blog about a Wall Street Journal column that ran this past weekend calling San Francisco "a big white blank" on the "foodie map." Bauer rightly points out that Raymond Sokolov's column seems to come straight out of some bizarre time warp, perhaps 20 years ago. Aside from the excellent Ame -- opened in 2005 -- Sokolov's S.F. survey mentions only longtime institutions Aqua and Boulevard as worthy contenders for his "national standard of excellence." Without a doubt, all three restaurants are the bee's knees, but here are a few more of the fancier-schmancier places Sokolov would do well to visit (or visit again) before slamming San Francisco: Yoshi's SF, Range, and Gary Danko. But then, maybe his ultra-sophisticated East Coast palate is just too incredibly refined for San Francisco.

Not that I'm endorsing them necessarily, but word has it that McDonald's is giving out free McSkillet burritos during breakfast hours this Thursday and Friday, Feb. 28 and 29, with the purchase of a medium of large drink. As the fine print says: the aforementioned burrito offer only applies to the McSkillet burrito with sausage. Sorry veggies, not that most of you would be caught dead at a McDonald's anyway. (via Slashfood)

In the ongoing There Will Be Blood "I Drink Your Milkshake" phenom comes SNL's surprisingly funny addition in the form of a Food Network ("porn for fat people") Show in which Daniel Plainview -- in an uncanny rendition by Bill Hader -- is "on a country-wide quest for my second love: the perfect milkshake."

As usual, by the end of the sketch SNL just about kills the humor by heaping on one too many pop cultural references, with Fred Armisen showing up as the creepy Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men, and host Tina Fey putting in an appearance as Juno. Still, it's worth checking out for Hader's performance alone.

Around Town:
The recently opened Yoshi’s Jazz Club and Restaurant in San Francisco (1330 Fillmore at Eddy) has been grabbing the foodie spotlight lately with its daring Japanese fusion preparations, not to mention a musical roster chockfull of jazz notables. But here at the Dish, it’s all about the food, and restaurant manager Jenny Schwarz has a few unlikely favorites. “Personally, I love the lamb [chops served with fresh wasabi, garlic mousse, and tamari herb oil] and the chicken [half chicken, homemade teriyaki-glazed with rosemary jus],” she says. “I know as a restaurant professional it sounds boring, but the dishes are so delicious.” For more info, call 655-5600.

Speaking of Japanese food, the newly revamped Hotel Kabuki’s O Izakaya Lounge (1625 Post at Laguna) and the Marina’s Hime (2353 Lombard at Scott) are both capturing local tastebuds with their elegant, Californian-inspired small plates. And although the eternal search for San Francisco’s perfect burger would seem a very far cry from modern Japanese, O Izakaya’s eight-ounce Meyer burger on a potato black-pepper bun is garnering high praise, in part because of its scrumptious topping options: try maitake mushrooms, charred negi onion, shishito pepper, or a fried egg. O Izakaya Lounge: call 614-5431; Hime: call 931-7900.

Weekly Planner:
Capping the end of a busy Strong Beer Month in San Francisco comes the perfect opportunity for that last hangover in the form of the Slow Beer Festival at the County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park (Ninth Ave. at Lincoln) on Saturday, March 1, from noon to 4:00 p.m. Presented by Slow Food San Francisco and the San Francisco Brewers Guild, the beery blowout features more than 25 local brews from the likes of Magnolia Pub & Brewery, 21st Amendment, and Gordon Biersch, as well as tastings of artisanal edibles from Fatted Calf, Hog Island Oyster Co., and Harley Farms Goat Dairy, because, after all, man cannot live by beer alone. Tickets are $50; the $75 VIP ticket includes a goodie bag and local brewery tour. For more info, call 650-873-6060.

Alas, science has yet to figure out how we can be in two places simultaneously, because this Saturday is also the Sixth Annual Celebrity Crab Festival at Union Square from noon to 3:00 p.m. Get your fill of Dungeness alongside local chefs and members of the 49ers at this benefit for the San Francisco 49ers Foundation. A noon crab-cracking competition kicks things off, followed by a crab-cleaning and eating contest. The Wine and Beer Garden will provide libations to get things off on the right foot. Admission is free; tickets for food and the beer and wine tastings are $5, or 6 for $25. For more info, call 781-7880.

Date Night:
Mission District’s Foreign Cinema (2534 Mission at 21st St.) takes the concept of dinner and a movie to another level by combining its acclaimed Californian-Mediterranean cuisine with screenings of classic, independent, and foreign films every evening at dusk in the industrial chic ambience of its candlelit courtyard. This week, sip a nice glass of Sauvignon Blanc, slurp some raw oysters, and catch the 1957 Federico Fellini classic Nights of Cabiria, which follows the tragicomic travails of a Roman prostitute, played by the director’s wife, Giulietta Masina. For more info, call 648-7600.

Night Cap:
This Thursday, Feb. 28, grab a few cold ones at 12 Galaxies (2565 Mission at 22nd St.), where all the cool kids in the Mission hang out. Open your ears for the Noise Pop Festival’s Rebel Reading Series, which celebrates the creative intersection between musicians turned writers and vice versa, featuring local literary heavyweight Beth Lisick and Frank Portman of Berkeley’s own punk-rock originals the Mr. T Experience, among others. 7:00 p.m., $5. For more info, call 375-3370.

Coming Soon:
It's time again to make the rounds of new joints, starting in Hayes Valley at Christopher Elbow Artisanal Chocolates (401 Hayes at Gough), the distinctively artistic chocolatiers straight out of Kansas City. For more info, call 355-1105. Sticking with the sweet theme this week, grab a fro-yo double-scoop at Outer Sunset newbie TuttiMelon(2150 Irving at 22nd Ave.)

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Oh, so that's why: a new Cornell study seems to answer the eternal question over why the French, despite their notoriously rich butter-and-cream-heavy cuisine, are able to maintain their trim figures while Americans continue to balloon to ever-widening proportions:

"Because they use internal cues -- such as no longer feeling hungry -- to stop eating ... Americans, on the other hand, tend to use external cues -- such as whether their plate is clean, they have run out of their beverage or the TV show they're watching is over."

In short, trust your gut, folks. (via Boing Boing)

-- Brian Bernbaum

Ethicurean is offering a free Ethicurean t-shirt and a year's subscription to Edible San Francisco to the person who most cleverly captions the above photo. Submit snarky captions in their comments section and don't forget to use a valid email address! It's worth noting the self-depreciating crack Ethicurean took at themselves in explaining why they couldn't come up with their own caption:

"We worked on writing a caption for it, but got worn out after discussing the source of the paper, the type of ink, whether the printers were fairly paid, and what they should have eaten for lunch."

I guess it just goes to show that just because they're ethical doesn't mean they don't have a sense of humor.

-- Brian Bernbaum

Yes, there's been a lot of hubub about the burger phone that appeared in Juno, but let's face facts: it's a little played out by now, so if you don't already have one, then perhaps this weirdly-realistic looking (peanut butter and jelly?) sandwich phone is more de rigueur. (via Gizmodo)

Unless you've been living in a bubble the last two months, you've probably noticed that just about everybody in the country has been hit with the monster flu bug this season. And needless to say, cooking is probably the last thing any flu sufferer is up to, much less getting out of bed. But if you've got a sweetly devoted and/or guilt-ridden significant other, like Thy Tran over at Bay Area Bites, there is an answer to the flu blues in the form of the traditional Vietnamese rice-noodle soup called Pho Ga:

"Now, lest you think that I'm married to a kitchen wizard, let me just say that during the five years he lived alone, the only meat he ever bought was bacon and he never, ever, not once, turned on his oven. Fortunately, the best foods for the soul are always the simplest."

Call it Jewish Penicillin, Vietnamese style. Check out her Half-Conscious Notes on Making Pho Ga for the recipe. And if you can't find somebody to cook for you, there are plenty of great places in town to get Pho, as the SF Weekly's own Meredith Brody found out recently.

Image courtesy/leporello87 on Flickr

-- Brian Bernbaum

Reading both Chronicle scribe Michael Bauer's and Tablehopper's recent mouth-watering reviews of Yoshi's San Francisco reminded me of my all-time favorite Japanese dish: chawan mushi, a traditional Japanese savory egg custard dish made with dashi and usually filled with all kinds of delectable extras like mushrooms and kamaboko (fish cake). While I've had excellent chawan mushi at many a Japanese joint, especially in New York City, the only one I've had here in the Bay Area is at Ame, which does it up just the way I like: smoky, hot, and smooth as silk, with Dungeness crab, shimeji mushrooms, yuzu and mizuna sauce ($17) But with the addition of foie gras -- the ultimate in culinary decadence -- Yoshi's version ($15) is an absolute must have for Japanese cuisine hounds. Here are the vitals: is comes with spiny lobster, uni, foie gras and mushroom dashi ankake. I gots ta have it.

— Brian Bernbaum

Longtime Village Voice restaurant critic Robert Sietsema's exposé accusing Iron Chef America of being, well basically, a sham, (Iron Chef Boyardee) has been met with a predictable mixture of schadenfreude, mildly surprised disappointment ('Duh! It's TV!') and, at least for Serious Eats founder Ed Levine -- who has been a judge on the show -- a dollop of defense for Iron Chef.

After giving due props to Sietsema as a writer and critic, Levine says that while the revelations in the piece are all true (body doubles for Iron Chefs not taking part, competing chefs aren't completely in the dark about the secret ingredient), he still doesn't think it all adds up to a sham:

" It doesn't take anything away from how insanely difficult it is to produce five dishes in an hour in that kind of pressured environment. I have judged Mario Batali, Bobby Flay, and Cat Cora in action, and though they clearly know the drill, I can tell you they still sweat bullets and work their asses off because it is, in fact, a real competition and they don't want to be embarrassed in front of their peers."

At least nobody's questioning the integrity of the only truly great Iron Chef show -- the original Japanese version. I just don't think I could handle that.

-- Brian Bernbaum

Beware beer drinkers: We are in the midst of a worldwide hops shortage, and microbrews are expected to be hit hardest. The confluence of bad weather in Europe and slowing production stateside has pushed up the price of hops between 20 and 80 percent. Although NPR reported on the upcoming shortage back in November, I was alerted to the news after coming across Samuel Adams' announcement of their Hop Sharing Program, which allows smaller craft brewers to buy 20,000 pounds of surplus hops at well below market value:

"The purpose of doing this is to get some hops to the brewers who really need them. So if you don’t really need them, please don’t order them. And don’t order them just because we’re making them available at a price way below market. Order them because you need these hops to make your beer. We're not asking questions, so let your conscience be your guide."

Image courtesy/Oregon State University

-- Brian Bernbaum

If there's anything we learn from this charming but confusing Chinese recipe diagram posted on Virtual China concerning cooking chicken with beer it's that adding salt is a big no-no. (via Boing Boing)