How’s that for covering all the major food groups?
For $20, the Quiver Bar inside Epic Roadhouse in San Francisco will serve up “3B” –a 1/2-pound Roasthouse Burger that’s ground daily, an ice-cold 12-ounce Budweiser, and a house-made brownie.
Chris Cosentino, the spiky-haired, take-no-prisoners chef of San Francisco’s acclaimed Incanto, is a man who enjoys extremes.
Particularly when it comes to sports, and cuts of meat.
A chef who designed stickers and T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan, “I Love Offal,” started his own salumi company last year, Boccalone, with Incanto’s owner Mark Pastore.
At Incanto, Cosentino is not shy about showcasing more unusual meat and seafood offerings, either. Bloater paste bruschetta, anyone? Get past the name to enjoy a luscious, creamy rich spread made from organ meats of a smoked fish. Wicked good.
Then, there’s the restaurant’s “Whole Beast Dinners” (starting at $55 per person, and you’ll need about 20 of your friends to enjoy it). Sit down to your choice of a whole roast suckling pig, lamb or goat carved tableside. Incanto sells two of those carnivore extravaganzas a month.
They’ve proven so popular that the restaurant just started offering a smaller version of that family-style meal: “Leg of Beast.” The four-course meal ($200 for 6-8 people) is centered around a whole leg of beef. Enjoy unctuous marrow bones (God’s butter, as Cosentino calls it); melty beef tendon stewed with cannelloni beans and sage; a platter of chicory tardivo tossed with zinfandel vinaigrette; and the piece de resistance, a whole braised beef shank — a nearly 20-pound leg of beef that’s been cooked at 200 degrees for 6 hours until it is spoonable-tender.
I had the chance to enjoy the debut of this meat madness at Incanto, and to sit down with Cosentino afterwards, just days before the 36-year-old chef would have surgery.
He quipped, “It’s for implants. C-cups.”
Not quite.
For Cosentino, who enjoys telemark skiing, and raced competitively in single-speed mountain-bike 24-hour ultra endurance races, this will be his third shoulder surgery — the first one on the left shoulder for this right-handed chef.
His body produces a large amount of elastin, he explains, a natural protein that gives elasticity to tissues and organs. In the case of his shoulder, though, the elastin has caused the connective tissues to become like overstretched rubber bands, and they need to be repaired.
Cosentino expects to be back in the kitchen shortly after the operation. But he won’t be able to move his left arm much for about six weeks.
Q: Maybe you should take up hiking instead?
A: That would be too boring.
Q: So which came first — your love for cooking or your love for cycling?
This is without a doubt one of the best stews ever.
Since it was published four years ago in Gourmet magazine, I’ve made this “Braised Pork with Orange and Fennel” at least annually, if not twice or thrice a winter. It’s the one stew I can’t wait to make once the weather turns the least bit chilly.
Moreover, it’s the stew that created a sensation when I wrote about it a year or so ago in the San Jose Mercury News Food section. Readers wrote to tell me how much they loved the flavors of orange zest, fresh ginger, soy sauce, cinnamon, and anise seeds. A friend even recalled that women friends at her gym were all gabbing non-stop about how divine the dish was.
Who can blame them? The pork shoulder cubes cook up tender alongside slices of fennel in a sauce that’s hauntingly part Asian and part Italian. Serve it over plain steamed rice or, as I do, over soft, spoonable polenta cooked with plenty of Parmigiana.
The presentation is pure rustic comfort. The taste is a savory sensation. It’s homey enough for family; chic enough for company. And it’s a straightforward recipe that cooks up mostly unattended, so it can be easily whipped together even on a weeknight if you find yourself with a little extra time on your hands.
I’ve already made it once this winter. Try it, and there’s no doubt, you’ll be making it again and again, too.
Braised Pork with Orange and Fennel
Why do all the cooking for your next soiree when you can have this baby parked in front of your house or office instead?
Sancho’s Taqueria, famous for its killer fish tacos, has debuted a new catering truck that will roll on over to your venue of choice to prepare all-you-can-eat tacos. Yes, that includes tacos filled with fish, al pastor, carne asada, choriza, pollo asado, and the like. Chips and salsa are included; drinks are extra. You need a minimum of 30 people to have the truck for 90 minutes. The cost for this feeding frenzy? $600.
Salivating already?
You’ll have to hold that hunger until 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 21 when Morton’s The Steakhouse hands out free mini prime sirloin burgers at all its locations nationwide, including San Francisco and San Jose.
It’s all to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Morton’s, which opened Dec. 21, 1978 in Chicago.