via yfrog

​So as we posted yesterday, No Reservations star Anthony Bourdain is in town, tasting some local fare, barhopping, and tweeting about it for our enjoyment.

Yesterday, after finishing up a photo shoot, his No Reservations director of photography, Zach Zamboni, had the huge, delicious-looking sandwich in the photo, but we can't figure out where it's from! Anyone have any ideas? (You can examine a bigger photo here.)

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via Flickr

Anthony Bourdain -- he's here.

​Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain of No Reservations fame is visiting San Francisco, according to his Twitter feed. And where does a famous chef choose to eat his lunch?

via yfrog

Secret TV star seafood stew?

​Bourdain just posted this photo on Twitter, and SF Weekly's resident food experts have determined it was probably taken at the Swan Oyster Depot. Looks like he's having some seafood stew -- maybe it's the off-the-menu TV-superstar special we heard about last month.

But that's not all he's been up to.

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J. Birdsall

Stone Korean Kitchen's soon dubu, i.e. tofu soup.

​Tues., March 30, 2010

Stone's soon dubu chigae is one of the restaurant's best dishes. Its slabs of tofu: soft and custardy. The gochujang-orange broth: warmth and salt, without straying into tongue-searing. Its miscellany of pork belly, squid and other seafood, and vegetables: well, not bad, considering you're spooning them into your mouth in the Embarcadero, and not somewhere out in the Avenues. That's worth something, isn't it?

Stone Korean Kitchen 4 Embarcadero Center, 839-4070

J. Birdsall

Radius' duck confit salad with blue cheese and walnuts.

​Mon., March 29, 2010

As Radius readies its sit-down restaurant, the casual café is open and buzzing. The shtick: Ingredients (well, most of them) sourced within a 100-mile radius. That's not as hard in San Francisco as it would be in Chicago, but it turns out proximity is pricey. Take the salad of duck confit with blue cheese and walnuts that might or might not be on today's menu: slick, dark-tasting lumps of meat, at the edge of a drift of cheese-and-nut-studded salad mix, plastic ramekin of red wine vinaigrette on the side. Will it be the most satisfying lunch dish you've ever spent $13 on? It will not. But what's there should be tasty, and you can take comfort knowing that it's $13 of something that tastes like this side of Lodi.

Radius Café 1123 Folsom (at Langton), 525-3676

M. Ladd

Chowder with the requisite richness.

​Fri., March 26, 2010

The four-year-old Castro location of Woodhouse Fish Company is a neighborhood bright spot, if only for its steady rotation of fresh seafood. It's a formula eatery (fish-house standards with pretty good attention to detail) that works: seafood Louis salad, lobster roll, fish and chips. But it's the New England white chowder we think makes a fine lunch. WFC's version has the necessary sweet and creamy richness, with bites of supple, slightly chewy clams that avoid the sins of grit and rubber. The potatoes have cooked down to soft, warm orbs ― an optional sprinkle of salty oyster crackers offer crunchy contrast. And if you time your chowder for the midday rush, the Castro views (both boys and girls) are killer.

Woodhouse Fish Company 2073 Market (at 14th St.); also 1914 Fillmore (at Wilmot); phone for both is 437-2722

Thurs., Mar. 25

T. Palmer

Double-pie action: Don't judge us, just try it.

​Dessert first is always a good rule of thumb, but if you stop into Chile Pies (& Ice Cream), the Green Chile Kitchen offshoot that opened its doors in the old GCK space yesterday, there's one (and only one) savory item there that will strategically foil the whole plan with a foil-encased packet of pleasure. More specifically, New Mexico-style Frito pie, served in a split bag with (or, for veggies, without) Niman Ranch ground beef and organic pintos and dressed with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, New Mexican red chiles, and sour cream. You're likely to scarf down most of it in record time, push it away wearily in defeat, and then slowly creep the bowl back to you for shame of even thinking of wasting anything.

T. Palmer

​It's filling and will valiantly try to throw you off your original goal, but persist to proceed to the sweet ending with the signature green chile apple pie, covered in crunchy walnut streusel, the thin slices of fruit cleaving to a flaky crust baked through with spots of cheddar cheese. Toss in a couple of extra bucks to get it à la mode, with red chile-honey drizzle. The apples mask the chile buzz, but only for the duration of eating it, so you'll leave pleasantly heated.

Hey, if the only meal of your day turns out to be a two-pie one, so be it. You've earned it, with ice cream on top.

Chile Pies (& Ice Cream) 601 Baker (at Fulton), 614-9411; cash only

J. Birdsall

Tartine Bakery's gougères turn Gruyère all ethereal.

​Weds., March 24, 2010

Maybe Tartine's pressed sandwiches are brilliant, but maybe, on some days, the thought of facing one has the same dodgy appeal as scarfing an entire pizza. That's why we like the gougères ― technically breakfast pastries here, but just as appealing at lunch. The texture of the cheese-fortified choux pastry is pleasantly clammy, a craggy, eggy structure, essentially, around irregular air pockets. It succeeds at turning the nutty, borderline funky taste of Gruyère into a kind of volatile fragrance. Very nice, especially paired with a little side salad.

Tartine Bakery 600 Guerrero (at 18th St.), 487-2600

J. Birdsall

Better than a turkey sandwich. Always.

​Tues., March 23, 2010

Do not go to Whole Foods to buy pozole. But say it's lunchtime, and you find yourself in the SOMA store, facing the deli wall of murky soups in their plastic containers. In that case, the chicken pozole is a find: toothy hominy corns, hunks of dark meat that don't suck, and an orangey-red broth with the warm-tobacco taste of ancho chile. Of course, setting aside microwave button-pressing, the whole interactive element of pozole will be lacking ― no customizing at table with toasted oregano, shredded cabbage, onion, lime ― something, arguably, that's pozole's greatest pleasure. But consider it axiomatic: tasty, less-than-perfect pozole > deli case baguette sandwich. Every time.

Whole Foods SOMA 399 Fourth St. (at Harrison), 618-0066

stu spivack/Flickr

Best effing dog joint ever? Your call.

​Mon., March 22, 2010

It's not surprising how many customers at Zog's Dogs, which just named itself the greatest fucking hot dog stand ever, order their hot dogs deep-fried. Giving people the "option" of having their food deep-fried is like giving them the "option" of taking a $20 bill. It takes more work to say no than to heed the call of the id.

You'll have better-tasting results by substituting another food the id can't resist: bacon. Start with Zog's Mexico frank ($5.50), rolled up in bacon and grilled until the pork shrinks into a crisp spiral. The Mexico already comes with caramelized onions and mild jalapeños; have the cooks thatch the top with kraut, too. Squeeze a fat rail of spicy brown German mustard over top. We're not ready to call it the greatest fucking hot dog ever, but you may.

J. Birdsall

Little Saigon Deli's porky Classic Combo ($4.75).

​Fri., March 19, 2010

The itty-bitty spin-off of Saigon Deli Express has one huge advantage over its sibling at Embarcadero 4: A sidewalk takeout window, where necktie guys en route to Perry's or Mexico DF have to make slight detours around the queue. The Vietnamese sandwiches are decent, despite rolls more Boudin than banh mi (they lack the proper rice-flour lightness), with tasty dual porks in the Classic Combo, Maggi-breathing pâté, and nicely tangy crunchy stuff. The pandan-extract smell of the green coconut waffles will totally get you to drop an additional $2. Make sure the counterperson cooks it past the point of gluey, and you're good.

Little Saigon Deli 131 Steuart (at Mission), #101, 284-7375