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The fish connoisseurs at Weird Fish (2199 Mission at 18th St.) are getting ready to spawn! The former Wang Fat Market next door is undergoing a transformation into what will soon be a wine bar and cafe called The Corner. The Dish caught up with Timothy Holt, Weird Fish's man with the plan, before he headed to Italy for a little research and development. "The cafe will be very influenced by my trip," says Holt, who expects The Corner to open at the end of summer. "We'll have a baker, small plates, cheeses. There's going to be music, outside seating."

"I want to have a kind of winebar feel," he continues. "I hate calling it that, but in terms of the crowd, in terms of making people feel comfortable... but I don't want to call it lowbrow either. It's going to be for everyone. The music is going to be there - something real mellow - the vibe is going to be there. The music and the nighttime are definitely going to be a huge part of it."

Join the godfather of contemporary Italian cuisine and American Iron Chef, Mario Batali, and local bookseller Book Passage for a luncheon at Il Fornaio (1265 Battery at Greenwich) this Monday, May 5. The superstar chef and author of Molto Italiano will be plugging Italian Grill, his newest creation, while participants tuck into a special meal with selections from Il Fornaio's menu. All guests also receive a copy of the book. The event kicks off at noon. $125 per person. For reservations, visit www.bookpassage.com.

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While I'm not much of a wine drinker myself, I do know one thing for sure: I like white wine, and among all the whites that I've flirted with, I like Sauvignon Blanc the best. Why, exactly, I couldn't tell you. Something about the crispness and the flavor of muscat -- to gauge just how much of a wine idiot I am, every time I drink a glass of Sauvignon Blanc, I can't help but crave those awesome Kasugai Muscat Gummy candies. If you like those, you'll probably like the wine. And, in turn, you'll probably like South Food + Wine Bar's upcoming ABC (anything but chardonnay) blanc party, this Sunday May 4 from 3:00 -- 6:00 p.m. It will be an afternoon chock full of white wines, including Riesling, Pinot Gris, Gewuztraminer and of course Sauvignon Blanc -- all of them hailing from South's home turf in Australia. Tickets run $35 a piece and include nibbles. RSVP to events@southfwb.com and don't forget to leave a contact number and drop "ABC" in the subject line.

-- Brian Bernbaum

Korean barbecue is a many splendored thing -- there's a lot to see and taste during any given meal -- and while much has been made about the lack of really great Korean BBQ in San Francisco (as opposed to our neighbors across the bay and beyond), there are a handful very good places to get your grill on -- most of them concentrated in the Richmond District. Perhaps the most popular of these are the duo known as Brother's Restaurant (4128 Geary) and Brother's Restaurant II (4014 Geary).

Aside from the food itself, there are two primary perks of the Brothers restaurants: First, they're open until 2:00 a.m., an ungodly and almost unheard of hour to be serving food in San Francisco -- perfect for bartime noshing. Second: unlike many Korean BBQ places who've upgraded to in-table gas grills, the Brother's franchise still do it the old-fashioned way with genuine red-hot coals. Dangerous and tasty! So without further ado, let the food porn begin ...

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Sometimes we get free food in the mail here at the Weekly's World Headquarters. This is one of those times. (Thank you, food people for keeping the starving writer in mind.) Anyway, the guys at Bay Area-based Diamond Foods sent along a plastic cannister filled to the brim with Emerald Cocoa Roast Almonds (a relatively new item that hit stores just this month) and wanted to know what we thought.

Well, we know that the whole point of the product was to bake the almonds in dark chocolate flavoring to reduce the calorie count, but there's nothing like a nut dipped in some quality chocolate. These things are terribly addicting though they're not the most natural combination - think almonds dunked in grainy Swiss Miss hot chocolate powder. So thanks guys, but next time send us something interesting...like your Wasabi peanuts. --Janine Kahn

Ben & Jerry's celebrates its 30th birthday with another free ice cream celebration tomorrow. Too bad the summer weather won't hold but you can find the free licks (and long lines) near you by visiting their website. -- Jennifer Maerz

It's no secret that the mixologists at Alembic Bar (1725 Haight at Cole) take their booze seriously. So seriously, in fact, that they're willing to test their mettle against the drinking public. That's where famous 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book comes in. One of the first bartender's bibles published after the repeal of prohibition, the book contains roughly 750 drink recipes ranging from familiar to absolutely unheard of. The idea of the Savoy Cocktail Night (held the last Tuesday of the month -- tomorrow night) is simple: drinkers belly up to the bar and try to confound the barkeeps by choosing the craziest drink they can find from book's pages, which the Alembic folks have been busy recreating behind the scenes. You may end up lapping at a cocktail full of bitters, sweet vermouth, or egg whites, but at least you didn't end up with another vodka tonic.

-- Brian Bernbaum

For all the remiss Jews out there who didn't celebrate Passover this year: first of all, your mother would be ashamed of you. Second, there is a way to allay some of that soul-rending guilt and eat great food in the bargain: tonight is the last night of the special Passover-inspired menu at Delfina (3621 18th Street). It's no seder. Hell, it isn't even kosher, but the local Italian spot has been dishing up an ala carte menu of seasonal Passover-ish dishes all week. It's a rotating cast, but you can bet on a nice hot bowl of matzoh ball soup ($8) and at least one (maybe more) of the following dishes, in addition to their regular menu: Jewish-style artichokes with lemon and mint ($10), and Niman Ranch beef brisket with horseradish creme fraiche ($24). Call 552-4055 for reservations. I know what you're thinking: eight bucks for a bowl of soup? You call that a good price?

-- Brian Bernbaum

I wrote about chilis and bones at Incanto at few days ago and as fortune would have it, Chef Chris Cosentino's annual Head to Tail and Sicilian Mattanza dinners are both quickly approaching. Head to Tail consists of five courses of expertly prepared offal -- the parts of an animal you've never eaten, and probably never even considered eating. As Cosentino himself explains in the clip above: "If you're willing to kill it you should shut the fuck up and eat it all." Fair enough, but only if it's coming out of Cosentino's own kitchen. The Fifth Annual Head to Tail (check a sample menu) will be held Monday June 9 and Wednesday June 11. $75 per person. Then on Monday, June 14, Incanto is hosting its tribute to the ancient art of Sicilian bluefin tuna hunting, the Mattanza Dinner: four courses, tons of tuna, Sicilian, enough said. It's going to be awesome. $65 per person. For reservations call 641-4500.

-- Brian Bernbaum

Purveyors of the Korean-style Chinese specialty comfort food known as za zang myun, Zazang (2340 Geary at Baker) is a tiny but charming restaurant plunked down on an indiscriminate block of Geary lorded over by the Kaiser Permanente medical complex. Za zang myun could not-too-imprecisely be called the spaghetti of the east, consisting of a pile of chewy, hand-pulled wheat noodles served swimming in an sturdy, ink-black sauce made from beef broth, black bean paste (hence the color), vegetables and either pork or -- in the popular seafood version -- squid and shrimp. While the color can be off-putting, the sauce is very mellow, which is where, I suspect, the correlation to comfort food comes in. In fact, I usually require a nice big squirt of cock sauce (heh) to amp up the heat level. Also, the price is right: at $4.95, a steaming bowl of za zang myun is one of the better lunch deals in town. And while many Koreans would probably call me crazy for saying this, while I really, really love the namesake dish, it isn't the real reason I go to places like Zazang ... follow the jump to find out the shocking truth!

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Are our burritos better than the ones on every corner in Santa Ana? The Mexican has more than a mouthful to say about that. --Janine Kahn

If you can secure passage across the Golden Gate, do your soul a favor (though not necessarily your arteries) and get out to Poggio's Trattoria (777 Bridgeway) in Sausalito for the first annual Allo Spiedo Festa. Through Saturday, May 3, Chef Peter McNee will be rolling out the spit and the carrello -- a heated tableside cart -- where all manner of unfortunate but delicious four-legged friends will be roasted up over an oak fire for your carnivorous pleasure. The spectacle includes coniglio (rabbit), maialina (baby pig), capretto (goat), pernice (partridge), faraona (guinea hen), and fagiano (pheasant). The meats will be served alongside contorni of polenta and Tuscan-style fagioli all'uccelletto (white beans with tomato, olive oil and sage), which is cooked underneath the roasting meats to catch all the hot, dripping goodness -- and that's your Italian lesson for the day. $19 per person. Make reservations by calling 332-7771 or visit www.poggiotrattoria.com

-- Brian Bernbaum

Around Town:

Mission rock 'n' roll watering hole The Knockout (3223 Mission at Valencia) has been garnering attention from foodie quarters with its Wednesday night Godzuki Sushi Happy Hour. Ichi Catering's Erin Neeley and Tim Archuleta, formerly of Tokyo Go Go, sling fresh, simple specials to the friendly, local crowd. Take your pick from a variety of $3 rolls, $4 nigiri, and the highly sought-after fried yuzu chicken wings, and wash them all down with a few rounds of happy hour drinks, including Kirin on tap. "What we're doing is all really basic, and we tend to draw people who are into traditional sushi rather than all the crazy rolls that are popular," Archuleta explains. "I'm not busting out the blowtorch and smearing spicy mayonnaise on everything." The Ichi team also hawks its wares during a new Tuesday Raw Bar night at the Knockout: Stop in for oysters, sashimi, and shrimp cocktail. Both nights run 6:00-9:00 p.m.

This week, SF Weekly's Meredith Brody takes a culinary tour of one of San Francisco's richest dining neighborhoods: the two blocks of Larkin between Eddy and O'Farrell known as Little Saigon. Going well beyond the infamously delicious and inexpensive banh mi Vietnamese sandwiches made to order at Saigon Sandwiches (560 Larkin at Eddy), she tested the mettle of three other Vietnamese eateries, with mouth-watering results. Recommendations include the bo 7 mon, aka seven flavors beef ($16), at Pagolac (655 Larkin at Ellis), which combines fun, theater, and good eating; and the spicy banana-blossom baby clam salad ($7.95) at Mangosteen (601 Larkin at Eddy). Read Brody's full rundown in the latest issue of SF Weekly, on newsstands today.

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The 7th Annual Dining Out for Life is this Thursday, so make your reservation at one of these fine establishments. A grand 25% of your bill will go to the STOP AIDS project.

Too busy but still want to contribute? Join the raffle. --Janine Kahn

After reading and writing about the offal exploits of Incanto Chef Chris Cosentino for so long, it was with astronomically high expectations and a dash of apprehension that I finally sat down for dinner at the famed Noe Valley restaurant. Indeed, any man who gets off on serving raw venison liver is a force to be reckoned with. On the other hand, I didn't trudge all the way up Church Street's particularly heart-breaking hill to eat pasta. With that in mind, I present chilis and bones (pictured above), by far the most delicious surprise of the night. According to our server, it's a dish usually served as part of Cosentino's annual Head to Tail Dinner. But lest you think that being a food blogger scores any special treatment, my dining companion is, as they say, "in the business." Like the name suggests, the dish consists of roughly foot-long lengths of meaty tuna spine grilled with a ton of chili, garlic, peppers, capers and mint. "The chef suggests eating them like ribs," our server said, laying down extra napkins. And so we did. We gnawed on those spicy bones like a couple of starving wild dogs.

After the jump: Pig trotters, roasted lamb neck, and more ...

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Sharpen your knives and spike up your faux-hawk because Top Chef 5 is coming to town! The open casting call is happening until 2:00 p.m. today at Postrio (545 Post). Just think, if chosen you too could be the subject of ridiculous commercial break insta-polls. So which chef will you be? The villian? The sweet but tough underdog? The nerdy molecular gastronomist? Don't let the fear of being the first contestant thrown off the show stop you! Get over there and give good TV.

-- Brian Bernbaum