Category Archives: Meat

Burger Buster

Posted on by 25 comments

Angus burger at Burger Bar in San Francisco.

Times were that chefs considered it downright unseemly and uncouth to feature a burger on their menus. These days, that old-school mentality has been ground up and reshaped into a super-sized burger bonanza. It’s practically gauche now if a beefy patty isn’t front and center everywhere you turn.

I should know. One day recently, I embarked on a challenge to eat at three different burger joints in one day. Yes, that’s nearly one burger per hour in a three-hour span with no breaks in between.

But I was on a mission for a story for San Francisco magazine about new burger restaurants in the city, which you can read in this month’s December issue. I, of course, took along my husband, aka Meat Boy, on this gut-busting experience.

Would you believe that Americans consume 14 billion burgers annually, with 41 percent of us chowing down on one at least once a week? In 2008, two market research firms found that 7 percent more restaurants, from quick service to fine dining, offered burgers on their menus than did two years ago. In fine dining establishments alone, burgers have enjoyed a 30 percent penetration growth in the past three years, according to Nation’s Restaurant News.

“People are tired of gastro obnoxiousness,” says Clark Wolf, a bi-coastal restaurant consultant. “The economy falling into the pits has made burgers just a good idea and a good meal.”

Mission Burger's astounding specimen.

Of the three places we tried, we agreed that our favorite was to be found at the most unusual Mission Burger in San Francisco, which is located inside the Duc Loi market on Mission Street.

Yes, walk into the bustling Asian-Latino supermarket, and make a sharp left to the butcher case, where Anthony Myint and Danny Bowien have rented a small space to turn out messy, drippy, heart attack-inducing ($8) burgers that will leave you speechless after one bite. They’re available only noon to 3 p.m., daily except for Thursdays.

Since they’re behind a butcher case, they grind the meat themselves from aged brisket, short rib and chuck. The meat is extruded, with the thick strands formed into a tight column that’s then sliced into thick patties, giving the burgers a very hearty texture.

The burgers are fried in beef fat (yeah, baby!), then topped with Jack, caramelized onions and house-made caper aioli. It’s a flavor powerhouse, and so rich I don’t think I could eat a whole one by myself. But Meat Boy sure can.

The fries, cooked to order, arrive piping hot and crisp as can be. They are fabulous. Order a mint lemonade and real mint leaves get muddled in your plastic cup.

Once you place your order, take your ticket to any of the grocery store check-out stands to pay, then come back to the butcher case to pick up your burger.

If you’re lucky, you can snag a spot on the old vinyl couch by the worn coffee table, which serves as seating. Otherwise, you have to take your order to go elsewhere, as it’s way too messy to eat while hoofing it around the neighborhood.

For good measure, one dollar from each burger sold is donated to the San Francisco Food Bank.

Cheeseburger at Acme Burgerhaus.

Addicting crinkle-cut sweet potato fries at Acme Burgerhaus.

Next stop, Acme Burgerhaus in San Francisco, where burgers run the gamut from beef to salmon to veggie.

We went bonkers for the crinkle-cut sweet potato fries ($3.95). The cheeseburger ($6.95) and lamb burger ($9.95) were cooked fine, but a little bland. Fortunately, the condiment bar is stocked with copious amounts of both artichoke lemon and pesto mayonnaise, and both hot and pickled peppers.

Read more

Putting On the LBs at LB Steak

Posted on by 17 comments

Crisp, airy pomme souffle.

It can’t be helped. Not when you’re at the swank LB Steak in San Jose’s Santana Row, where there are calories galore.

But Chef Roland Passot’s latest creation, run by Chef de Cuisine Chris Joslyn, is a place where you just have to dine with a devil-may-care attitude. All the better to enjoy the numerous meaty and rich offerings.

On a warm evening, the dark, striking restaurant throws open its front, floor-to-ceiling windows, so that you feel like you’re dining al fresco even if you’re seated inside underneath the glittering chandeliers.

The steaks are all USDA “prime.” But this is one steakhouse where you don’t have to indulge in red meat to have a good meal. There’s also an array of fish and pastas, and even a vegetarian burger of oats, bulgar, wheat, brown rice and crimini mushrooms.

I was invited in to dine recently. My companion that evening at LB Steak was — who else — Meat Boy (my husband). As if you think he’d let anyone else go in his place?

The waitstaff brought over an order of the pommes souffle ($9) — thinly sliced potatoes that puff up and get super crispy from being fried twice. Although a little oily, these were gossamer puffs that crackled when bitten. Eat them fast because they taste best while they’re still hot.

Escargot with bone marrow.

I couldn’t resist the dramatic starter of escargot in Pernod garlic butter piled inside a shank of bone with its marrow ($15). The tender snails were enveloped in richness. I don’t even want to know how many calories are in that dish. But it was a dish worth busting any diet for.

Read more

A Porky Time at San Francisco’s Ferry Building

Posted on by 25 comments

Lard caramels. Oh, yes!

Last week, I ended up on a most porky mission.

Yes, foraging for all things pleasingly porcine at San Francisco’s Ferry Building Marketplace.

And what a very piggish day it turned out to be for moi.

After all, as I ducked into Boccalone Salumeria, I was happy to discover that the charcuterie store had just received its first batch of the new Humphry Slocombe lard caramels. Yes, you read that correctly:

Lard. In. Caramels.

Humphry Slocombe, the crazy good San Francisco ice cream store, has started making caramel candies using Boccalone’s lard.

These babies are outrageous. The second you unwrap the wax paper wrapper, you’ll notice the sheen of grease on it. These have got to be the richest caramels ever. Sweet, sticky, and with an almost bacony, fatty lushness to them, these candies just coat your entire mouth like biting into a juicy piece of pork belly would.

A package of four is $3.20.

Lard shortbread cookies.

Of course, I also had to buy a package of the Humphy Slocombe shortbread cookies, made with Boccalone lard, as well as butter. Trust me, don’t think about the consequences. Just eat them.

They come four to a package.

The cookies (a package of four for $3.20) are very crisp, with a crumbly texture, and the subtle taste of sea salt. Again, there’s a long finish to them because of all the F-A-T. But again, don’t dwell on that. Just chew.

Boccalone now also sells jars of pork ragu, made with ground pork, bits of its Boccalone salumi, red wine, and fennel.

Read more

Tradition Reigns at Neto’s Market & Grill

Posted on by 20 comments

Neto's "burger,'' a thick sausage patty in a sub.

People have endured a lot to get their Neto’s sausage fix.

My husband, Meat Boy, included.

At its tiny, hidden away, former location at The Alameda and Harrison Street in Santa Clara, the third-generation Neto Sausage Company would sell its grilled Portuguese sausages at lunch-time to a hungry crowd in need of hefty sub sandwiches.

But the sandwiches were only offered on Tuesdays and Fridays. And only weather permitting — since the sausages were grilled outdoors.

Good luck to those who weren’t familiar with the “system,” too. You’d get in one line at the grill to pick your cooked meat, then carry it in an aluminum tray inside the store to get into another line. You would hand your meat to the counter-person, who’d ask you what kind of bread, condiments, and chips you wanted. Next, you’d wander over to the cooler to pick a beverage, then get into yet another line to pay for your lunch and to pick it up. Whew, got all that? This game of musical lines happened in a very narrow, very cramped space, too.

Even with all that, the ever-present line out the door was a testament to just how good the sausages are. Of course, there was never a place to sit once you got your sandwich; the place was just too teeny to have tables and chairs.

Earlier this year, though, Neto’s Market & Grill opened at 1313 Franklin St. in the old VFW building in what could be considered palatial in comparison to the old location. Plenty of tables and chairs here in what’s more than four times the size of the old place. Grilled sausage sandwiches are available every day now. Plus a whole lot more — fried calamari ($10.99), penne and sausage ($10.99), and even cioppino $16.95).

There’s even a sizable deli/market in the front, where you’ll find everything from dried beans, frozen raviolis, quince paste, canned sardines, air-dried beef from Uruguay, and even a frozen coiled-up octopus. A decent selection of cheeses, hot dogs, and of course, sausages of all manner, also are available by the pound to tote home to cook.

Meat Boy and I were there for the sandwiches, though, which we took home to eat.

Read more

Bruce Aidells On the Finer Points of Cured Pork

Posted on by 20 comments

Meaty Duroc ham.

Less is more when it comes to curing pork and bacon.

Indeed, it’s what you don’t put into them that matters most, says Bay Area meat guru, Bruce Aidells.

It’s been years since Aidells has been associated with Aidells Sausage Company, which he founded and which still bears his name. But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been busy with all things meaty. In fall 2010, the veteran cookbook author will publish a new comprehensive meat book that will include information on grass-fed beef, buffalo, goat, venison, sustainability, pasture-raised, and the importance of buying local.

Moreover, for the past three years, he’s been working with Vande Rose Farms in Iowa, helping its pig farmers cure bacon and ham, and find distributors for these artisan products. You’ll now find Vande Rose featured at restaurants such as BarBersQ in Napa, and sold at stores such as Andronico’s and  Mollie Stone’s in the Bay Area, Central Market in Texas, and Balducci’s nationwide. The products also are available on the Vande Rose Farms Web site.

Aidells’ ham and bacon cure is essentially just salt, pepper, brown sugar, and nitrates. No water is added, which is key.

The term, “ham,” means no water added, he explains. In contrast, “ham with natural juices,” means that water has been added. So much so that after cooking, the latter will weigh 10 percent less than it did when you bought it.

“True ‘hams’ are very hard to find,” he says. “Not many people sell them, and not many people can tell the difference between them. But ‘hams’ are more expensive.”

It’s not hard to guess which type Aidells prefers.

Read more

« Older Entries Recent Entries »