Category Archives: Meat

Ramen Rama

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Tender pork rib ramen at Ajisen in Fremont.

San Francisco boasts some of the best eats in the Bay Area. And deservedly so.

But when it comes to bountiful bowls of authentic Japanese ramen, the South Bay and East Bay may just one-up the City by the Bay with its three noodle joints with bonafide roots in Japan.

Ringer Hut, which originated in Nagasaki in 1963, may operate more than 550 noodle restaurants in Japan, but it has only one outpost in the United States -– in San Jose. The restaurant, which just celebrated its 20th anniversary, is the champon champion. Champon means “blend’’ in Japanese, and that’s exactly what you get when you order the specialty “Nagasaki Champon’’ ($7 to $9.70, depending upon the size). Dig through the huge bowl of milky white broth with a subtle peppery kick to find cabbage, shrimp, fish cake and pork, as well as a mound of springy noodles slightly thicker than ramen ones.

The famous Nagasaki Champon at Ringer Hut.

Gomoku ramen (soy-based with seafood, cabbage, green onions) at Ringer Hut.

Both the champon and ramen noodles are exceptionally fresh, as they are made daily here from flour milled in Japan.

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Take Five with Chef Duskie Estes, On Competing On “The Next Iron Chef” Despite Never Watching the Food Network

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Tune in to watch Duskie Estes of Bovolo and Zazu restaurants in Sonoma County. (Photo courtesy of the Food Network)

When the third season of “The Next Iron Chef” premieres on Sunday, Oct. 3 at 9 p.m., 10 chefs will compete to win a chance to stand alongside Michael Symon and Jose Garces as the newest Iron Chefs on that smoke-billowing platform.

Among them will be Duskie Estes of Zazu Restaurant + Farm in Santa Rosa, the only Northern California chef in the competition, who is gunning to follow in Cat Cora’s footsteps to become the second female “Iron Chef.”

I had a chance this week to chat by phone with Estes, a former vegetarian who went over to the pork side, who feared she nearly blew the interview when she was first asked to do the show.

A believer in “snout to tail” cooking, the 42-year-old Estes, who grew up in San Francisco, is also chef-owner with her husband of Bovolo in Healdsburg and the Black Pig Meat Co., purveyor of salumi and bacon in Sonoma County. Estes has worked at such top restaurants as Al Forno in Rhode Island, Bay Wolf in Oakland, and Dahlia Lounge in Seattle. She and her husband, John Stewart, who studied salumi making with Mario Batali, met while working together at Etta’s Seafood and Palace Kitchen, both of which are Chef Tom Douglas’ restaurants in Seattle.

Cheer on Estes as she goes up against: Marco Canora (chef and owner of Hearth, Terrior, and Terroir TriBeca, in New York), Bryan Caswell (chef and owner of Reef, Stella Sola, and Little Bigs, in Houston), Maneet Chauhan (chef at Vermilion in Chicago and New York), Mary Dumont (executive chef at Harvest in Cambridge), , Marc Forgione (chef and owner of Marc Forgione in New York), Andrew Kirschner (executive chef of Wilshire in Santa Monica), Mario Pagin (chef and owner of Lemongrass in Puerto Rico), Celina Tio (chef and owner of Julian in Kansas City, MO), and Ming Tsai (chef and wwner of Blue Ginger in Wellesley, Mass.).

Q: You had an Easy-Bake oven when you were growing up. I’m so jealous, as my Mom never let me have one because she thought I’d burn down the house with it. Was this the start of your love for cooking?

A: I was 5 when I got mine. I have a photo of me baking a birthday cake for my grandfather with it. I was very proud of it.

I got one for my older daughter when she was 5. They have so many added safety features on it now. You can’t get in there and get the stuff. It’s less fun now. It was better when it was dangerous. (laughs) So, I let my older daughter, who’s 9 now, just use the real oven instead.

Q: Is Duskie a nickname or your given name?

A: It’s my given name. It’s a testament to my California hippie parents.

Q: Since you grew up in San Francisco, you must have had a pretty foodie household?

A: My father was a scientist, and scientists are all closet chefs. After my parents divorced, my Dad would take me out once a week to a restaurant in San Francisco. So, from the time I was 10, I had a great exposure to what great chefs like Alice Waters and Jeremiah Tower were doing.

I’m also the youngest in the family. Growing up, I was the one who cooked for the whole family. I loved it.

Q: You graduated from Brown University. How did you go from that to cooking professionally?

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Hatching Some Mighty Fine Ribs

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It takes longer to marinate these finger-licking-good, Asian-style ribs than to cook them.

My husband gets obsessed easily.

For months, he’s been incessantly researching the next car he should buy — in 2015.

He often contemplates where we should own a second home if we ever win the Lotto — even though we haven’t bought a ticket in four years.

And of course, with the nickname of Meat Boy, he is rather single-minded when it comes to meat, as in the more, the better.

His latest compulsion?

A Big Green Egg.

As you know, it’s a ceramic cooker that can grill and smoke foods. It also weighs 10,000 pounds. I exaggerate — but barely.

This behemoth looks like a cross between a giant landmine and a prehistoric egg.

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Spice Kit — A Sandwich Shop with Quite the Pedigree

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Eat one pork belly bun at Spice Kit, and you're sure to want another.

Spice Kit in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood is not your average sandwich joint.

Not with its state-of-the-art sous vide equipment in the kitchen.

And not with a founder, who used to work at the French Laundry in Yountville, and a chef, who hails from the celebrated Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco.

The duo, which opened Spice Kit two months ago, near the Hotel Vitale, is elevating the bold, irresistible flavors of Korean, Chinese and Vietnamese street food to a higher level with organic tofu, organic greens and high-quality meats. They even make their own paté in-house for the banh mi sammies.

Fred Tang, right, and Will Pacio, left, of Spice Kit.

Chef Fred Tang and Founder Will Pacio, who not only cooked at the French Laundry, but also Thomas Keller’s outpost in New York, Per Se, invited me in recently to try their offerings. (Full disclosure: Will is the brother of one of my former San Jose Mercury News colleagues, fashion writer Nerissa Pacio, who now does the stylish blog, NerissasNotebook.)

How could I refuse? Especially when French Laundry chef de cuisine alums, Corey Lee of the new, nearby Benu restaurant in San Francisco, and Ron Siegel of the Dining Room, have already been in for their fill? In fact, here’s a pic of Siegel placing his order at the counter.

The fast-casual spot offers salads, banh mi and ssams (Korean wraps) with your choice of five-spice chicken, beef short ribs, roasted pork or tofu. The prices are higher than your typical Mom-and-Pop Vietnamese cafe, but the most expensive item is only $7.95. And the caliber of ingredients and cooking really shines through.

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A Doggone Tasty Time at One Market

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San Francisco’s One Market restaurant — steps from the Hyatt Regency at the Embarcadero — can be a fancy-shmancy place that has hosted celebs such as David Beckham and his wife, Victoria (aka Posh), and featured such high-brow fare as prix fixe dinners centered entirely around a particular artisan-raised animal.

But it also knows how to have fun.

Just witness its newest addition to the menu — a foot-long hot dog. Technically, it’s a little over 12 inches. Served on a house-baked poppy-seed bun, this mouthful of a wiener comes with mustard, house-made sweet pickles, spiced tomato jam and sauerkraut. To wash it all down, you also get your choice of one of seven cold draught beers.

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