Roli Roti and other Ferry Building Market eats, SF

Roli Roti, it is seriously good food in a casual setup. It is about meat on sticks in a roasting truck and about a man dedicated to his craft of butchery and the art of a mobile rotisserie.





We staked out the place early. Jetlagged, wide awake and hungry, we got there as they were setting up and way before the line formed. We watched them set up the line and just watched as the roli(s) of porchetta rolled and roasted away at the back of the truck. It is a thing of beauty. Ok, I’d admit that sounded very geeky but it was really something to watch. The truck had been driving all morning to get to the market and during that roadtrip the porchetta had just been hanging out back there rolling in the deep. The rolls of pork were in different stages of brown – light, medium and ready to be eaten. We watched the skins blister, and we watched them turn brown and we watched the fat drip down onto the potatoes. It is a very clever and economical set up and it turns out utterly delicious porchetta sandwiches. The whole set up is clever. No fat is wasted, no juices are wasted. The bread is used to as a edible glove to hold down the piping hot rolls and then used to mop up the jus on the boards, nothing and no flavour is wasted. A little salt and herbage and volia! The guys were really nice too, as I was being an annoying food paparazzi, they offered me some crackling.

Other Ferry Market Building Eats



Blue Bottle Coffee

Craftsman and Wolves – The rebel within
Nothing gets me like a runny yolk.

Boccalone – tasty, salted pig parts.
I like tasty. I like salty. I like pig parts.

Swan Oyster Depot, SF – Timeless Eating

The mood here is tutti a tavolo a mangiare. It is a little like joining the family at the dining table, but a happy family. After all, a family that eats together stays together right? They joke, banter about meaningless things and talk about sports whilst shucking oysters and clams and serving customers.

oyster station

oysters - kumamoto, miyagi, blue point

There are more luxurious dining places, chairs and waiting in line is a real pain but the fresh seafood is undeniably good. The seafood here is what you see if what you get. The menu is either on the board or in front of you. We sat in front of the bivalves and watched them repeatedly shuck the oysters and clams and had some of those briny morsels for ourselves. It isn’t just pristine produce that sets this place apart; it is about the history and the family – the Sancimino family bonded by blood and also by a labour of love that they perform every day with a great sense of joy, and that little extra goes a long way.

We skipped the chowder having read mixed reviews about it and stuck to the fresh, raw and cured. With pints of ice-cold Anchor Steam, we picked through a platter of oysters, raw clams, house smoked salmon and some juicy shrimp.



house smoked salmon



house smoked salmon

cherry stone clams

seafood salad


Very unfortunately for us, there was no crab and crab fat (we were too early for the crab season) – there was a collective groan in the room when they announced that there was no crab for the day, and no uni. Nonetheless, it was just honest no bullshit good food.



shrimp and cocktail sauce

Swan Oyster Depot
1517 Polk Street
San Francisco

Saison, SF. Amazing.

This is definitely one of my favourite meals this year alongside the incredible sushi dinner at Sawada.

The aesthetics are modern minimalist but gorgeous. The cooking philosophy is the celebration of the return to roots of cooking by and around fire and respect purity of ingredients.

The food is phenomenally good. Chef Joshua Skenes is a very gifted chef. The kitchen puts out creative plates made with modern techniques and the old craft of fanning flames to achieve differing degrees and effects of fire - to roast, char and to fire-kiss.

There are Japanese sensibilities in the cooking and the plating. We were presented an striped jack kissed by a coal and the roasted bone gelee and a lamb tartare that looked but tasted nothing like pieces of sushi and a bowl of dehydrated mustard leaves with seaweed broth and mixed grains made me think of an ochazuke but a more powerfully flavoured version of it. This common theme carried on from the savoury to the sweet courses, buckwheat for dessert? Buckwheat soufflé, ice cream and roasted buckwheat tea, not too sweet, nutty and light, this dessert was right up my alley.

Not everything points Japanese and not all the flavours are familiar. Some flavour combinations are out of this world. Toffee, bread, milk, beer – a duck liver toffee, caramelised white chocolate, beer foam and crunchy bread with about another 10 different elements is something that when the server announces doesn’t make sense but somehow in your mouth it does. I wondered out loud, I wonder how the chef managed to come up with this combination, imagination and smoking I believe was the response I got. And I believe them. Whatever it is, it works, Saison produces an amazing gastronomic experience.

The evening begins with a couple of drinks. We were welcomed with a glass of Krug, cheers to good start for a splendid dinner – we are here yay!! And then once seated, our palates were refreshed with a glass smoked sage soda, pineapple espuma and garnished with the tiniest coriander blossoms.

cheers with krug

soda, smoked pineapple, soda

And this was the rest of the meal -

custard, grilled turnip, sea urchin

reserve caviar, corn pudding, tomato gelee

striped jack, cherry blossom

live scallop, avocado, trumpet lily

king salmon, its roe, vichysoisse

king salmon, its roe, vichysoisse

abalone, roasted over the embers

tomato, sungold tomato, safflower oil, grilled tomatillo consommé

spot prawn, swarnadipa spices, yoghurt, mandarin

melon, melon soup, fermented melon skin, coconut, ham

melon, melon soup, fermented melon skin, coconut, ham

60 day lamb, slow grilled nightshades

brassicas, toasted grains, wild seaweed bouillon

toffee, bread, milk, beer

wood pigeon, boudin, warm spices, dates

raspberry, meyer lemon, basil buds

buckwheat, soufflé and ice cream

sesame cake with duche de leche and kinako

liquid molten vanilla bean truffle

chrysanthemum macaroons

a very good canele

Let’s get a few obvious questions out of the way.
Was it expensive? Yes. (eater did feature it as #7 in their list of most expensive tasting menus in American, Jan 2013)
Was the food good? Yes. It was very very good.
Was it worth it? Yes.
Will I go back again? Yes, absolutely.

Saison
178 Townsend Street
San Francisco

Bar Tartine, SF

Drawing influences from Eastern Europe and in particular Hungary, Chef Nick Balla assembles a Californian menu that is spiked paprika, sour cream, savoury seeds and pickles. This meal was interestingly different in a good way. We don’t get much of these Hungarian/Eastern European flavours in our part of the world, so this was a delectable introduction into this spectrum of flavours.

The dining is casual and communal. The plates are all meant to be shared and bread is meant to be enjoyed on its own, slathered with lard, tapenade, dipped and eaten with pickles.

We started with the roasted kale and rye seeds and yoghurt, which was a good start but were quickly distracted by the next dish, the potato flat bread. When you do come, you have to order the potato flat bread, it is ridiculously delicious – fried dough + fried potato, a crunch and squish, then spread some cool tang with sour cream, altogether is very good. The meal continued with pickles, more bread and we finished off the green chili fisherman stew that was surprisingly greener and lighter than I thought it would be and the very heavy handed paprika spiced tripe. All in all, some of the flavours were unfamiliar to me but it was all good in a new exciting way.

What we ordered:
Mangalica Lard with onion and paprika
Assortment of pickles – creamed beets with green horseradish, brine dill pickles, green beans with aspic and herbs

 

 

Potato flat bread with garlic and sour cream


Beef tartare on koji toast with bottarga


Smoked potatoes with ramp mayonnaise


Roasted kale with rye, seeds and yoghurt


Grilled tripe in paprika broth


Green chili fisherman’s stew with collards

Bar Tartine
561 Valencia Street
San Francisco, California

Mission District, San Francisco

The mission district, unlike the general hilly images of San Francisco, is relatively flat. Come hungry and in comfortable shoes to walk the streets to take in the artistic vibe of the area, its colourful murals and just keep repeating the process of walk, eat, walk, eat.
Stop 1: Four Barrel Coffee




Coffee was priority numero uno and so we kick started at Four Barrel Coffee.

Four Barrel Coffee is a cool joint. Cool tables, artwork on the walls, inked baristas and their own roasting operation at the back of the shop.

After our cup of coffee here, we had concluded that unlike the coffee that is generally roasted, brewed and served to us in Hong Kong, the blends in San Francisco tend to be more acidic and sour. In foods I love acid, I love sour but in coffee, not so much even though it is probably a superior product. With coffee, I’m not too much of a purist either, I sometimes put varied amounts of milk in my cuppa, so with too much acid or sourness, once hit with some milk – the thought of sour milk doesn’t sound too delicious to me. But that’s just me.
 


Stop 2: La Taqueria

You can’t go to the mission district and not have a taco or a burrito. That’s just silly.



La Taqueria is self proclaimed "Best Taqueria in the World". I don’t have too many points of comparison but I had good tacos here.  It isn’t fancy but it is busy and churning out scrumptious fresh fast food.

We ordered a bunch of tacos – chicken, tongue, chorizo, pork – and they recommended that we get them with guacamole and lined with crispy tacos. The tacos were good but not equally good. The chicken was probably the least interesting but the pork and tongue tacos were yummy. Tasty meats topped with fresh bright salsa and guacamole and lined with a soft and crispy taco, together the taste and textures all work.

Stop 3: Humphry Slocombe





The sun was shining down on us and so it was a perfect day for ice cream. I actually love ice cream in all weather, so in fact even if it was raining I would have still tracked down this ice cream shop with their interesting sweet savoury, savoury but sweet flavours.

Ok, I know this sounds weird but the ice creams taste as they sound. The exception is probably secret breakfast, since it is relatively hard to decipher what it is simply from its name. But for the straightforward names like peanut butter curry (my favourite of the lot!) it tasted like peanut butter with curry flavour in an ice cream form. That’s a good thing! It tasted natural and non-synthetic, just favours as they are and as they should be.



Stop 4: Mission Chinese

This was an unplanned stop and I had my reservations about eating here – amped up Americanised Sichuan influenced food in a dive environment as opposed to a local mom and pop Sichuan food joint in Hong Kong where deco is dismal, food is excellent and rude service is complimentary. Can it be better in a different way? But much have been said about this restaurant, Bon Appétit named it one of the 20 Most Important Restaurants in America and even James Beard has weighed in, so since we were in the neighbourhood and were still a little peckish, we decided to drop in to share a few plates.

We placed our name on the waitlist but then decided to takeout instead since there were about 15 people before us. But as luck would have it, just as we had finished placing our orders, a steady stream of people started to pour out of the restaurant, so we decided to stay to eat at the restaurant from our takeout tubs and to order one more plate.


Ma Po Tofu


Kung Pao Pastrami


Salt Cod Fried Rice

Erm. I don’t get hype about this place. Let’s just say I have yet to fall in love with Americanised Chinese food and we’ll leave it at that.

Stop 5: Tartine Bakery

 

If you have heard about Tartine, you have probably heard about the line that would snake out of the shop and maybe around the block. The original plan was to get here early to pick up breakfast pastries (and to get our hand on those morning buns) but that got scrapped and so here we were. Since we got here in the late afternoon, it is probably no surprise that we still had to stand in line for a bit and by the time we got to the counter … a few items that we wanted were already sold out. Oh well.



For the croissants that we did get our hands on, they were rich and airy and very flaky crispy. What was even better was the pain au chocolate (I love pain au chocolate, so I am biased) also rich, airy, not as crispy (which I prefer) but a good dark chocolate rolled into it.

And that’s all we really had time for.

Mission District Eats...

Four Barrel Coffee
375 Valencia Street

La Taqueria
2889 Mission Street

Humphry Slocombe
2790 Harrison Street

Mission Chinese Food
2234 Mission Street

Tartine Bakery
600 Guerrero Street