Category Archives: Restaurants

Afternoon Tea at Craftsman and Wolves, Boozy Otter Pops & More

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Not your ordinary afternoon tea at Craftsman and Wolves. (Photo by William Werner)

Craftsman & Wolves’ Spin on Afternoon Tea

When the very creative Pastry Chef William Werner decided to offer up a new afternoon tea at his Craftsman & Wolves patisserie in San Francisco, you knew it wasn’t going to be the usual staid cucumber sandwich affair.

Instead think apple gruyere scones, buckwheat crumpets, clotted cream and olive oil curd.

Not to mention beet root madelines and salt cod with brioche.

Choose either a pot of Naivetea’s oolong or tisane to go along with it all.

The menu will change with the seasons.

Afternoon tea, available Monday through Wednesday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., is $22 per person or $40 for two. Reservations are recommended by calling (415) 913-7713.

Some of the creative sweets and savories served with tea at Craftsman and Wolves. (Photo by William Werner)

Veteran San Francisco Chef Carlo Middione Hosts Two Special Dinners

Long-time Chef Carlo Middione and art connoisseur Daniel Friedlander are teaming up for two nights of wining and dining amid magnificent artwork in an 1908 landmark building in San Francisco, Oct. 18 and Oct. 20.

Middione who for decades owned the stellar Vivande and Vivande Porta Via, both in San Francisco, lost most of his senses of smell and taste four years ago following a car accident in which his small sedan was broadsided by another vehicle. Despite that, he’s still able to cook rather magnificently, as evidenced by the lunch he cooked for me when I profiled him two years ago for a story in the San Francisco Chronicle.

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A Taste of Burma at Betelnut in San Francisco

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Author Naomi Duguid and Chef Alex Ong conferring before the start of the Burmese dinner at Betelnut.

World traveler and global food writer, Naomi Duguid, calls her newest cookbook a “lucky miracle.”

Indeed, the timing couldn’t be more fortuitous than now for her “Burma: Rivers of Flavor” (Artisan), a book that’s been in the works for four years.

If the world’s collective eye wasn’t already drawn to this sovereign state in Southeast Asia, also known as Myanmar, it surely is now that it is transitioning after five decades of military rule. Its most famous democracy activist, Nobel Peace Prize-winning San Suu Kyi, finally freed in 2010 after 15 years of house arrest, was elected this year to a seat in that nation’s Parliament, as were 43 members of the National League for Democracy.

As Duguid told a dinner crowd of about 30 at Betelnut in San Francisco last week, she’s grateful to have experienced the country’s “before” and “after” transformation, having visited most recently late last year.

“It was the difference of people being afraid and then not being afraid any more,” she says. “You saw people chatting and arguing in the streets. It was normal, but it wasn’t normal. Now, they have to find their way to other progress.”

Duguid was the guest of honor at the dinner, hosted by the Asia Society, the global non-profit that supports educational, business, arts, culture and policy projects in Asia. Betelnut Chef Alex Ong, a board member of the Asia Society, did the honors in the kitchen, crafting a multi-course, family-style dinner of dishes featured in Duguid’s book.

Tomato and spinach salad strewn with fried shallots.

A fragrant fish soup with coriander.

Burma is bordered by India, Bangladesh, China, Laos and Thailand. Its cuisine reflects all those influences, too. Duguid put it best: “The flavors are layered rather than coming at you as one big wall.”

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At Bushido in Mountain View, There’s More than Meets the Eye

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Bushido's very clever sushi. Can you guess what it is?

Executive Chef Isamu Kanai is a very, very clever man.

When he impishly set a small plate of nigiri sushi before my husband and I one night when we were invited to dine as guests at his downtown Mountain View restaurant, Bushido, he asked us to guess what type of fish it was.

We scrutinized the fleshy white pieces that had been crosshatched, then brushed with a sweet soy sauce and placed atop mounds of rice. We took a bite. The texture was ever so chewy, much like raw cuttlefish which it resembled. But the taste was slightly sweet.

Could it be some other type of cuttlefish we’d never had before?

We couldn’t have been more wrong.

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SPQR’s Smoked Linguini with Clams, Cherry Tomatoes and Basil Pesto

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Smoked linguini with clams, pesto and peeled cherry tomatoes -- all from scratch.

SPQR’s Executive Chef Matthew Accarrino made me peel tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes. A whole cup and a half of them.

He also made me smoke durum flour in a stove-top smoker to make my own linguine noodles.

At this rate, you’d think I was a sous chef at his San Francisco restaurant.

But nope, I was just making a recipe from his new cookbook with SPQR Proprietor Shelly Lindgren, “SPQR: Modern Italian Food and Wine” (Ten Speed Press), of which I recently received a review copy.

“Smoked Linguini with Clams, Cherry Tomatoes and Basil Pesto” was a triumph of a dish, even if it did take a couple of hours for my husband and I to make. Nothing is necessarily complicated; it’s just a dish where every component needs careful attention. If you have a few hours on a lazy Sunday evening like we did, it’s a project well worth doing, not only for the experience, but for the taste of it all at the end.

The cookbook is like an Italian travelogue that takes you through the artisanal wines and handcrafted dishes of central and northern Italy that make their way onto the tables at SPQR in San Francisco.

The recipes range from dried biscotti and nut biscotti with sweet wine granita, and bolognese with egg noodles to the more challenging bone marrow sformato with stuffed baby artichokes.

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SPQR — Where the Chef Has His Hands in Just About Everything

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Veal tongue that tastes like your favorite pastrami -- at SPQR.

At San Francisco’s SPQR, Executive Chef Matthew Accarrino is known for his extraordinary, house-made pastas.

But what about the lovely desserts there? Yeah, he makes those, too.

And the whimsical torched marshmallows and molded chocolates with runny caramel centers accented by a plethora of different sea salts that arrive at the end of the meal? Yup, those also are his handiwork.

Not to mention, he and owner Shelly Lindgren just came out with their new “SPQR: Modern Italian Food and Wine” cookbook (Ten Speed Press).

It makes you wonder not only if this Matt-of-all-trades ever sleeps, but how he manages to do all of this in a kitchen that is smaller than a starlet’s walk-in-closet.

Three years ago, when he first took over the helm at this San Francisco restaurant, whose name is an acronym for Senatus Populesque Romanus or “The Senate and People of Rome,” his food was quite good. Now, it’s a revelation, as evidenced by a recent dinner my husband and I splurged on there.

It’s rustic-refined. It’s all bold flavors and great ingredients fashioned with real finesse by this chef who has cooked with the likes of Chefs Charlie Palmer, Todd English, Rick Moonen, Tom Colicchio and Thomas Keller.

At this always-crowded, long, narrow restaurant, menu prices are moderate, with appetizers running $12-$19, pastas $18-$20, and mains about $28. Accarrino volunteered to just cook for my husband and I, fashioning a personalized tasting menu of a multitude of dishes off the regular menu but in smaller portions.

Strawberry-tomato gazpacho with fried bread and dehydrated strawberries.

It began with an amuse of creamy tomato-strawberry gazpacho garnished with dehydrated strawberries that added a crisp-chewy texture.

I can never resist Hawaiian Kona Kampachi, an oil-rich, silky fish served crudo-style — its raw slices accented with creamy avocado, crunchy sea beans and clever “caviar” fashioned from summery cantaloupe juice.

Kona Kampachi crudo with cantaloupe "caviar.''

Seared albacore with the brightness of capers and citrus.

Albacore was served barely cooked, its meaty texture playing off the softness of eggplant. Golden raisins and capers added big bursts of Italian flavor.

Next, the supremely clever and absolutely fabulous veal tongue pastrami with onion jam and caraway. The tongue, sliced thinly, had all the peppery taste of pastrami, but a silkier texture from the veal.

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