Tag Archives: tomato

Italian sausage pizza – Firewood Cafe

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Italian sausage pizza Firewood Cafe

Mild Italian sausage, red and green bell peppers, Bermuda onions and homemade tomato sauce.  $10.75
Firewood Cafe, San Francisco

If you like THIN crust pizza, Firewood Cafe in the Castro is the place to go.  They have one of the thinnest crust around which is great for their mostly carb-conscious patrons, hehe!  I personally love thin crust so I often order pizza from here.  They have 5 different pizzas on their regualr menu and usually one daily special, and they’re all pretty good.  The pizzas aren’t the most creative, but they are tasty, decently sized, and very affordable.  Win, win if you ask me.  This Italian sausage pizza was delicious.  I like how the thin crust stayed crispy, and the vegetables did too.  Their homemade sauce isn’t particularly noteworthy, but it’s yummy enough and doesn’t detract from the toppings.  For $10.75, I’m sold!

Marinated olives Firewood Cafe

These marinated olives are complimentary with your order. The small dishes are lined up at the counter. I always want to take more than one! I can’t help it, I’m a sucker for olives…

Duck confit – Reform Club

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Duck confit Reform Club

Large leg and thigh served with succotash, corn, tomato, shelling beans and basil. $40 for 4-course dinner.
Reform Club @ Specchio, San Francisco

This dish was one of the highlights of this pop-up dinner, partly because it was a full sized portion.  The other courses were tiny!  OK, the duck was also delicious and it was beautifully plated.  I also loved the succotash.  The bright vegetables were a great counterpoint to the rich duck.  The skin on that duck was SO good  and crispy, noms!  One guy at our table contemplated ordering another portion.  He was a big fellow and he was starving, poor thing…

Eggplant caponatina – Beretta

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Eggplant caponatina Beretta

Fried Japanese eggplants with cherry tomatoes, celery, basil, capers, Sicilian green olives, toasted pine nuts, white balsamic vinegar, and topped with a generous portion of burrata cheese. $9
Beretta, San Francisco

Wow, Beretta doesn’t skimp on the burrata cheese for this dish!  I personally love buratta.  The cream filled fresh mozzarella cheese acquires such a creamy, luscious texture.  It’s absolutely divine.  I’ve never had eggplant caponata before this, but I really enjoyed it.  The dish was very flavorful and the fresh vegetables, basil and pine nuts helped to brighten the fried eggplants.  There’s a lot going on here, but they all work.  The buratta is additional, but I highly recommend ordering it.  I don’t think I would have enjoyed this dish half as much sans the buratta!

Carne asada burrito – El Farolito

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Carne asada burrito El Farolito

Super burrito with soft flour tortilla filled with grilled steak, rice, beans, fresh tomatoes, onions, cilantro, salsa, cheese, sour cream, and avocado. $6.25
El Farolito, San Franciso

Like most Mission burritos, this one from El Farolito is ginormous (and quite delicious if I may add)!  The carne asada was tender and flavorful, and the other ingredients are evenly portioned.  They don’t over-fill the burrito with rice like some other taquerias.  The salsa, however, was SO frickin’ salty!  It pretty much destroyed my taste buds and ruined several bites of the burrito.  I immediately stopped using more once I figured out that it was the salty offender, lol!  If you plan on tackling this huge burrito, save your appetite or stow half for later!

7×7 Magazine’s The Big Eat San Francisco: 100 Things to Eat + Drink Before You Die – 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

Wild boar sugo – BIN 38

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Wild boar sugo BIN 38

Served with pappardelle, summer greens, tomatoes, cheese, purple basil and a 63 degree egg. $19
BIN 38, San Francisco

Ever had a dish that looked amazing, but was sabotaged by one ingredient? Ding, ding, ding, ding! This dish was absolutely beautiful and tasty (I think), but the summer green (whatever it was, somekind of brassica) was overpoweringly bitter. I couldn’t taste anything else, and the bitter flavor continued to linger and intensify in my mouth as I ate more. The pasta was cooked perfectly, but I couldn’t really taste the wild boar sugo because (1) the aforementioned summer green killed my taste buds and (2) there was so LITTLE of it! For some positives, the 63 degree egg was amazing and flowed beautifully over the plate after it was broken and the colors from the tomatoes and purple basil were striking.

White sea bass – Bar Agricole

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White sea bass Bar Agricole

Tender white sea bass with summer squash, plum tomatoes, purslane(?), saffron and aioli. $29
Bar Agricole, San Francisco

The fish was cooked perfectly, but I must say that the broth stole the show. It was so flavorful and refined. The chunky cuts of plum tomatoes and squash were perfectly proportioned and provided great color. What I didn’t like was the purslane. It looked cool as a garnish, but it was too slimy and the fleshy texture was off-putting. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to eat it, lol!

Shiitake mushroom dumplings – Eos Restaurant

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Shiitake mushroom dumplings Eos Restaurant
Earthy shiitake mushroom dumplings with cherry tomatoes, garnished with scallions.
Eos Restaurnt & Wine Bar, San Francisco

Umami has to be my favorite flavor, and this dish delivers plenty of it! There is a lot of hype about these dumplings, particularly the sauce, and I must join in. You can’t go wrong with a sauce full of soy, butter, and MORE butter! We tried scooping up as much of it with eat bite. The dumplings themselves were cooked perfectly – not too mushy, with a bit of a bite to the pasta. Count me in on the bandwagon!

Escargot and mushroom – Bisou

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Escargot and mushroom Bisou
Snails in Belgian endive leaves with seasonal mushrooms, tomatoes and bacon cream sauce, topped with frisée.

Bisou, San Francisco

This appetizer has a great combination of light and rich elements.  The bright endive and frisée help to balance out the richer escargot and cream sauce.  I particularly enjoy the use of endives for appetizers.  They provide the perfect bite sized boat to stuff delicious ingredients into!