San Francisco Blog

Jen Siska

Contigo

After scarfing pork-belly bocaditos and octopus salad at Contigo in Noe Valley, SF Weekly food critic Matthew Stafford gets all dreamy thinking about the vacay he took in Barcelona. Stafford thinks chef-owner Brett Emerson gets all the details right in this local simulacrum of the Catalan tapas bar. Drool over the full review later today at sfweekly.com. Meantime, here's a taste:

The similarities between the Bay Area and Catalonia are striking. Both regions have a fierce independent streak and derive much of their identity from the nearness of the sea. Both are dominated by cities renowned for their leafy, hilly charm and footloose sophistication. And both enjoy a proximal larder of seasonal produce, game, and seafood practically unmatched anywhere in the world ... and the wherewithal to enjoy them absolutely. Contigo, a new Catalan restaurant in Noe Valley, is a fine example of this duality in action. Here, specialties from Spain's northeastern reaches are prepared and served in an environment as lively and attractive as any Barcelona bodega, using foodstuffs sourced from Straus Family Creamery, Monterey Fish Market, Star Route Farm, and 42 other all-organic dairies, ranchers, and fisherfolk from our own back yard.

Chef Chris Cosentino of Incanto (1550 Church) has published the tentative menu for the restaurant's sixth annual Head to Tail dinners, coming up on Monday and Wednesday, March 23 & 25 ($75, reservations advised):

• Venison heart tartare, foie gras and ciccioli brioche
• Goose intestines with fava beans and artichokes
• Big brain, little brain with asparagus
• Cordedda (Sardinian lamb intestine) with peas, mint, and sheep's milk polenta
• Coffee and Doughnuts: pork liver, blood, chocolate, espresso

Chef Cosentino held an essay contest to select two cooks who would stage (intern, more or less) for the dinners. Read the winning entries here.

James Sanders

From Incanto's mailing list:

We are pleased to announce that this Sunday, February 8, we will begin offering a weekly Sunday Brunch at Incanto.

The menu will showcase the best of Incanto and will prominently feature Boccalone meats including all of Boccalone's fresh sausages, guanciale, pancetta, and sanguinaccio.

This Sunday's menu will include a black truffle mortadella panino with potato-leek salad, house-milled whole wheat polenta with poached farm egg, and a brunch version of our legendary handkerchief pasta.  We will also feature Incanto's award-winning Italian wine program and a not-to-be-missed Roman Bloody Maria.

Hours of service will be from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.  Reservations accepted only for parties of 6 or more persons -- we encourage you to stop by and pay us a visit!

Pure Grain Bakery's pumpernickel is one of the best German-style breads in these parts. Though it's 100% rye, the bread is lighter and less sour than most of this style, and it has a wonderful nuttiness that's accentuated by toasting. I first came across it several years ago in a bread basket at a German restaurant, and was so impressed that I asked where they got it. Unfortunately, it turned out that the bakery is in Vacaville, and at the time they had no retail outlets in SF.

Now they do. Lehr's German Specialties (1581 Church) carries both Pure Grain pumpernickel and a variety of German goodies that go well on top of it, such as apfelkraut (dark, not very sweet apple butter) and quark (soft German cream cheese), a classic breakfast combo, and various sorts of liverwurst. You can also get the bread at Rainbow Grocery (1745 Folsom).

At Omnivore Books on Food, our favorite new SF bookstore,a glamorous display of cocktail books both new (The Craft of the Cocktail, by Dale DeGroff, Classic Cocktails: A Modern Shake, by Mark Kingwell) and old (the 1948 Drink by Andre Simon, The Commonsense Book of Drinking, from 1960, by Leon D. Adams) reminded us that if you pair such a volume with a nice bottle of alcohol, hey presto! You've got an excellent themed gift. (A volume that neatly combines both old and new is the reprint edition of the excellent Savoy Cocktail Book.)

If you want to go the extra mile, muddlers, bar measures, and cocktail stirrers are available all over town, from such relatively posh locales as Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, and Crate and Barrel right down to your local hardware store. And if you really want to go the extra mile, Omnivore has in stock a rare first edition copy of the 1869 cocktail book Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks, which includes recipes for "Yankee Punch," "Elephant's Milk," and "Elixir de Violettes, and priced at only $500! --Meredith Brody