Nick Balla's 2011 Find: Great Skewers and a New (Old) Herb

Chad Robertson

Nick Balla of Bar Tartine.

​SFoodie is calling up food types around the city to ask them about their favorite discovery of the past year, whether it's new or ancient, an ingredient or a person. We'll be running their responses over the course of the next 10 days.

This year, Nick Balla switched directions, culinarily speaking, leaving his position as chef of Nombe Izakaya to cook Californian-Hungarian food at Bar Tartine. Here's what he had to say about his 2011 finds:

"I just had a chance to check out Izakaya Yuzuki (on Guerrero and 18th St.)," he says. "I was blown away. It's a mellow place, with more of a family feel, not as wild as a lot of izakayas with booze. The chef, Takashi, worked at Ame for a long time.

"From crab sunomono and yakitori (skewers) marinated in a house-cultured koji -- the grilled wings and tsukune (meatballs) are excellent -- to nuka pickles, shiokara (squid guts), braised beef tendon, and grilled squid, everything is prepared at a level you would find at a top-quality izakaya in Japan. They use few processed ingredients, unlike most American Japanese restaurants do. This is the real deal."

Anise hyssop.

​"The other discovery of 2011," Balla continues, "was anise hyssop. We use a lot of fennel and anise seed at Bar Tartine. The discovery of a large garden of hyssop plants at Bob Cannard's farm in Sonoma led to us process many pounds of the flowers for herbal teas, and transform the leaves into a bright green powder that we use for a variety of preparations. We currently are serving a homemade goat cheese dusted with hyssop and served with charred sesame bread and sea laver."