Category Archives: Restaurants

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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Mmm, Mmoon Empanadas

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The Mmoon's ham and cheese empanada.

The Mmoon is rising in downtown San Jose.

That would be the Mmoon empanada cafe to be exact.

Two brothers from Argentina — one who worked in financial services, the other in business ventures — are opening their first restaurant Sept. 13 in what was the old Emma’s taqueria on W. Santa Clara St.

Yes, more empanadas, which seem to be popping up with such regularity in the Bay Area now, that they might soon give the cupcake craze a run for its money.

Flaky, pastry-like crusts with assorted fillings.

Mike Mendez, however, got the idea for this long ago. In fact, while he was still in college, he banged out the business plan for it — on a typewriter no less. Remember those?

It seemed a good idea to him back in 1980 and even more so in today’s long suffering economy. “It’s fast and affordable,” says Mendez, 52 of Los Altos. “People need something like that.”

Nine empanadas ($1.90 to $2.35 each, depending on the variety) will be offered at this fast, casual spot, where you order at the counter. Some are based on family recipes. Others are newfangled concoctions, such as the addicting “Banapple,” a half-moon pastry dusted with powdered sugar and filled with chunks of apples and bananas, sauteed in butter, brown sugar and maple syrup.

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Take Five with Chef Christopher Kostow, About Competing on Sunday’s “Iron Chef America”

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Chef Christopher Kostow of the Restaurant at Meadowood in the heat of things on "Iron Chef America.'' (Photo courtesy of the Food Network)

When I first started my Food Gal blog in 2008, Chef Christopher Kostow, who had just landed at the Restaurant at Meadowood resort in St. Helena as its executive chef, was gracious enough to be spotlighted in my first Take Five Q&A.

In that interview, the Michelin two-star chef who celebrates his 34th birthday this week, famously said he’d never want to be on a show like “Top Chef” because he couldn’t fathom he’d gain anything from it. That may be so, but this Sunday, Sept. 5, you can tune in to watch Kostow tackle another cooking competition show instead — “Iron Chef America“- when he goes up against Iron Chef Cat Cora.

Yesterday, I chatted with him by phone about why he decided to make the leap into this reality TV cooking arena, and how he coped with his lifelong personal aversion to this particular secret ingredient.

Q: So you remember what you said to me about ‘Top Chef,’ right? So, why go on ‘Iron Chef America’ then?

A: I still don’t have anything to gain from ‘Top Chef.’ But ‘Iron Chef’ is one day or just a few hours really. It’s good exposure, especially when you have a restaurant in Napa that’s off the beaten path. I didn’t miss any time in my kitchen, either, which was important to me.

Q: Are you a fan of these types of shows?

A: Not really. I don’t really watch much food TV. I don’t want to go home and watch people scrambling around, cooking food, because I see that when I’m at work.

I think TV is a double-edged sword. It has raised awareness among the populace about what we do. But there’s a false sense about it. People think we run around all day competing in the kitchen. In some ways, it demeans what we do. I take this all with a grain of salt. We’ve done a lot in this restaurant, but I find it amusing that this is the thing everyone wants to talk about. At the end of the day, that’s why chefs go on TV.

Q: When the Food Network came calling, you didn’t say ‘yes’ immediately?

A: I went back and forth about it. I’m not a chef shut-in by any means. I like talking to people. I like being in the dining room. But I didn’t want to present my food in a style that wasn’t me. In the end, we presented things on the show in a manner that we were comfortable with.

Q: Did you know Cat Cora already?

A: It was the first time I met her. It was filmed a year ago. And then last December, she was part of our ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ (when 12 renowned chefs pair with 12 Napa Valley vintners for a series of holiday feasts). It was fun. I enjoyed meeting her and her team.

Two California chefs duke it out in Kitchen Arena in Kostow vs. Cora. (Photo courtesy of the Food Network)

Q: What hint can you give us about the secret ingredient?

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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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Lafitte Shines After Dark

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Perhaps you remember my post last month about lunching at Lafitte, the rather spirited, nonconforming San Francisco restaurant, which had received a scathing one-and-a-half star review earlier by the mighty San Francisco Chronicle.

There were many things I enjoyed about that lunch. There were also a few things I thought definitely needed rethinking. All in all, it was a lunch that left me mostly satisfied, but also with the feeling that there had to be more to the place than what I had on the plate that afternoon.

Sure enough, there is. Dinner is where Chef Russell Jackson and his rebel crew truly shine. Lunch was like a band warming up — fun to listen to, but leaving you wanting something more polished and satisfying in the end. Dinner delivers that. It’s when the kitchen crew lets it rip with creativity and technique, leaving you rapt.

There’s no better seat to experience all that, too, than at the massive wood counter that fronts the open kitchen. As of  a week ago, when I was invited in for dinner as a guest of the restaurant, all the counter seats are  now reserved for a new prix fixe dining experience.

There’s little clue to what’s in store. Scan down the regular menu, and you’ll spot a tiny symbol of a flag with a skull and crossbones with “$125” next to it. That’s the symbol for the tasting menu and as much information as you’ll get about it.

Take a seat at the counter (aka, the “Chef’s Plank”)  in front of Chef Jackson, who will personally cook for you for the night. He’ll ask you if you have any allergies or vehement dislikes. But beyond that, you’re in his experienced hands.

With his wild mohawk, sturdy build and handle of “Dissident Chef,” he’s an imposing figure. But he puts you right at ease once he starts gabbing, and his goofball humor comes out.

As he builds the dishes in front of you, he’ll tell you how he came to name his restaurant, “Lafitte” instead of his originally intended “Lafayette,” because he’s admittedly not the best speller. So, when he tried to spell “Lafayette” in the Google search box, up popped up “Lafitte” instead, and he became enamored with the 18th Century pirate. When you ask about the upside-down red stick figure emroidered on the back of his chef’s jacket, he might just pull out his iPad to show you photos of himself, sky-diving.

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