Bucatini alla Carbonara at 54 Mint

Restaurant: 54 Mint (San Francisco)
Food description: Durum grain pasta with pork cheek, egg, and parmesan
Food rating: 9 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

This is my new favorite pasta dish, hands down. Yes, I'm aware of the current love affair we all have with the pasta at Incanto, but the bucatini alla carbonara from Mint 54 has completely blown me away. It's one of the tastiest pasta dishes I've had in ages and screams perfection, a carbonara finally done right: tasty bits of pork cheek lardons-style with a touch of smokiness, that stays delightfully crispy until the last bite. Bucatini cooked perfectly al dente coated with a thick eggy-creamy-parmesany carbonara that binds everything together without being overly creamy while refreshingly salty (though some might disagree)--all in a perfectly sized portion. To make things even sweeter, everything else about my dining experience was almost equally impressive, from perfectly crafted focaccia, octopus carpaccio, homemade limonata, and chocolate cake to impeccable service. Ok, so I was slightly unimpressed with the gnocchi, but then again anything would suck next to the bucatini. I predict 54 Mint will go really far, and far exceeded my experience at their sister restaurant Il Buco in NYC. Nicely done, 54 Mint, see you again! See all photos

Calf's brains

Restaurant: Incanto (San Francisco)
Food description: Calf's brains with white chanterelle mushrooms, capers, and lemon
Food rating: 8.5 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

Sorry if brains gross anyone out, but I think it's fun to get a little avant-garde with my cuisine. I had all these bad brain jokes lined up for this post, but then I remembered I actually want to keep my readers. So for those of you who never had brains, here's your chance to live vicariously through mine (I couldn't resist). I've been dying to try them for a while but was advised against it by a chef friend of mine cuz of all the mad cow nonsense, not to mention my organ of choice has typically been sweetbreads, which I thought would be hard to beat. But dowse anything in chanterelles & gravy and it's tough to go wrong, no? Anyway, after first cutting into a brain, the inside was white and soft like silken tofu--no muscle fibers to speak of. The texture was incredibly smooth and basically melted in your mouth the same way uni does. It's extremely fatty and rich like pâté, but milkier and only a tad livery. With the wonderful chanterelle gravy and a little lemon and capers to cut the heaviness, it turned out fantastic! I'm sure there's places where you should and shouldn't order brains, but Incanto can definitely be trusted with a tricky dish like this. I encourage all you squeamish ones to try it just once here. Just close your eyes and you won't be disappointed!

Braised pork shoulder

Restaurant: Incanto (San Francisco)
Food description: Braised pork shoulder with grilled watermelon, tarragon, and onion
Food rating: 6 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

Pappardelle with faraona sugo

Restaurant: Incanto (San Francisco)
Food description: Pappardelle with faraona sugo (guinea hen), escarole, and grapes
Food rating: 8.5 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

Pasta too thick, hard to fork
Crispy skin awesome and stayed crunchy but very oily and rich (deep fried)
Hen was shredded, tender, but heavy, darker gamier meat but flavorful
Got boring after a while
grapes very sweet but couldn't overcome oilyness
No sauce, just juices from veggies and meat
endive crunchy and added nice flavor to meat
Overall very unique combo of ingredients, but left my mouth too oily

Chitarra al nero with braised octopus

Restaurant: Incanto (San Francisco)
Food description: Chitarra al nero (squid ink pasta) with braised octopus and cherry tomatoes
Food rating: 8.5 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

This dish was the star of the evening

Sauce was thick and just salty enough, seafoody, thick and hearty but light finish, ink not bitter, tomato added just right amount of acid to balance
Octopus tender and fatty (not oily) and copious, delicious!
Tomatoes a little awkward, pushed those aside

and for a nominal $16 bucks, who'd have thunk it?

Food review: Gnocchi bolognese pasta

Restaurant: Stelline (San Francisco)
Food description: Gnocchi (potato pasta) with bolognese meat sauce, pecorino cheese, and garlic bread
Food rating: 7 out of 10
Times ordered: 2

I'm a real sucker for pasta, so I'm really glad that Stelline is next door to keep that steady flow of pasta comin'. They must have realized this and went and raised all the prices on me, humph!! The ossobuco is now $13! Now I have to go back and edit that blog post (a cruel maneuver indeed). Of course this whole price adjustment is simply going to make me more critical of the food, so it goes both ways. I typically order penne bolognese, but the last couple of weeks, I finally tried the gnocchi. Gnocchi is sometimes annoying to eat because it's so dense, the center stays burning hot forever and it's not like you can blow on it to cool it off. So if you wanna eat this dish, just be prepared to lose a layer of skin from your upper palate. I'd say it's probably worth it because it's one of the better pasta dishes that Stelline offers. The gnocchi is decent, but the secret's in the bolognese sauce. It's nice and meaty and thick, with a little cream thrown in to tame the tang. I love it when the pasta sauce isn't overly tangy or sweet. There's some yummy pecorino cheese in the sauce, which adds that finishing touch of cheesy saltiness. Although the sauce is quite good, it's also quite heavy. You can actually see an orange layer of grease oozing out of the sauce, that is, if you care. I know it sure didn't stop me from sopping up every last bit of sauce with my garlic bread! Other than that, the garlic bread is useless. It's all dried out and has no taste. Oh yeah, I almost forgot: the second time I tried this pasta, they garnished it with some raw chopped tomatoes. What were they thinking? I could care less if my pasta looks cute, I just want it to taste good. No tomatoes next time por favor. Other than that, it's a top menu choice for Stelline.

Food review: Nine hour bolognese

Restaurant: NOPA (San Francisco)
Food description: Bolognese sauce over creamy polenta with parmesan and wilted greens
Food rating: 9 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

I'm really bummed my picture didn't turn out that well. I really should have taken the time to take several artistic shots but frankly the smell of this dish was too delectable for me to do more than take a hasty snapshot and then dig in. NOPA is famed for their nine hour bolognese (featured in this recent SFGate article) so of course I had to try it when I finally got a reservation for dinner here. This is seriously one of the most delicious dishes I've ever eaten. It is the perfect embodiment of comfort food, the bolognese truly tastes like someone has slaved over it for nine hours. To create the sauce, different cuts of meat (it can be anything but at NOPA usually is beef, pork, lamb or pancetta) is first stewed in milk for three hours, then wine for another three hours and then tomatoes for the last three and then voila, bolognese sauce. And it only took nine hours! The result is delicious. The sauce was rich with flavor, at first you tasted the meat and then the tomatoes and then underneath it all the subtle hint of creaminess that comes from the meat being stewed in the milk. It's not often you get to experience such sublimely multi layered flavors in one dish. Heavenly. It's served with a creamy polenta which is a perfect complement to the robust sauce. I'm not the biggest fan of polenta but this one was cooked very well with a smooth not grainy texture and cooked to a creamy consistency. I could eat this every day for weeks and not get tired of it.

Food review: Lamb ossobuco

Restaurant: Stelline (San Francisco)
Food description: Braised lamb shank with ossobuco sauce over soft polenta, served with string beans and cauliflower
Food rating: 7.5 out of 10
Times ordered: 7

Though I'd rather not admit it, I've tried almost every single entree on the menu at Stelline, so I can say that the lamb ossobuco is one of their better dishes (along with the lasagna special). And for $11.50, you'll be hard pressed to find a better value, especially given the quality. Like the caprese, it's not authentic ossobuco, but it's a really good lamb shank. Traditional ossobuco (literally "hole of bone") is made with veal and the flavor comes from the bone marrow, which is eaten out of the bone and the primary flavor constituent of the dish. As you can tell from the photo, using lamb for ossobuco precludes the whole hole-in-bone concept, so there's not really much marrow to be had. If you can live with this and just think of the dish as a braised lamb shank, you'll love it. Though this time it was slightly overcooked, it's normally very tender, falling right off the bone with just a pluck of the fork. The lamb is nice and lean, no trimming necessary, and has tons of flavor on it's own. The sauce is more of a tomato sauce than ossobuco sauce (given no marrow), but when mixed with the polenta and lamb, it makes a tasty combo. Though the ossobuco is consistently good, the vegetables are consistently overcooked and too garlicky. They round out the meal, but could and should be improved. Other than that, the dish is delicious and a great value, but lacks the authenticity and flavor of traditional ossobuco.

Food review: Fusilli pasta

Restaurant: Stelline (San Francisco)
Food description: Fusilli with sun dried tomatoes, arugula, pine nuts, garlic, red pepper flakes, and ricotta cheese
Food rating: 6.5 out of 10
Times ordered: 2

I'll sum up this pasta in 3 words: simple, savory, and SPICY! And thankfully, it's not ridiculously spicy like the farfalle, but a good spicy where I can actually taste the other ingredients. This dish is so simple I could probably make it at home. though I'd still rather be lazy and have them make it for me. There's very little sauce, just a little olive oil and garlic, so the sun dried tomatoes and pine nuts make up the bulk of the flavor. Since I love pine nuts and sun dried tomatoes, this dish worked for me, though it was a little too simple for me. Something seemed missing (aside from the obvious meat), more ricotta? Another vegetable? More sauce? Just as there was nothing glaringly bad about this pasta, there was nothing memorable about it either, thus the 6.5 score. Without meat, it probably won't be enough food for a dinner entree. Though I enjoyed it and wouldn't mind ordering it again, the best things at Stelline are still the ossobuco, lasagna (special), and any pasta with bolognese sauce.

Food review: Insalata caprese

Restaurant: Stelline (San Francisco)
Food description: Salad of fresh tomato, mozzarella, and basil drizzled with extra virgin olive oil
Food rating: 6.5 out of 10
Times ordered: 10+

If I'm at an Italian restaurant, you can bet money that I'm ordering a caprese salad. It's also really easy to make yourself at home (try using buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes from Whole Foods). Since it's such a simple recipe, a successful caprese salad really depends on the quality of its ingredients. That being said, the caprese at Stelline is often good, but sometimes not so good. I order it every time I go to Stelline, which is pretty frequent, being only a block away. This time the caprese was having one of its not-so-good moments, but I'd say the good times still outweigh the bad times. I realize tomatoes are out of season, so they were a little bland this time. At it's best, the tomatoes are usually ripe, red, and sweet. Now the mozzarella: I'm pretty sure they don't use buffalo mozzarella because it doesn't have that certain bite to it, which is a shame (plus that's the traditional recipe). It's typically above average--creamy, flavorful, and soft. This time though, it was really bland, and needed quite a bit of salt to get it going. The texture of the basil was slightly tough but nothing to complain about because it was very tasty. The olive oil was fine, but nothing really noticeable about it. So although this caprese is not really authentic and the kind I make at home is 10x better, I still think it's tasty enough to continue ordering again (though maybe I'll wait until spring this time).

Food review: Manicotti pasta

Restaurant: Mondo Caffe (San Francisco)
Food description: Pasta tubes filled with ricotta cheese topped with mozarella and marinara sauce
Food rating: 6.5 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

I always order the same old panini sandwiches at Mondo Caffe (the bresaola is my fave), but today I was feeling experimental and noticed a little sign with "Manicotti" scribbled on it. Since it's an Italian cafe I figured they might be able to hold their own in terms of pasta. Well overall, the manicotti was just about as good as you can get for a busy lunch spot: nothing amazing, but it beats a sandwich any day. If you look at the photo, you notice that none of the pasta was left exposed for the oven to dry out--something I always watch out for in pasta. Who wants to break their teeth on burnt chewy pasta, you know? Anyway, the pasta ended up being a little overcooked and soft, but still tasted ok, especially with all that cheesy ricotta goodness. It was hearty and rich and just the right portion size. My only gripe was the canned tomato flavor in the sauce. Using canned tomatoes is fine as long as you add enough other stuff to make it work, which was not the case for this dish. This is the second time this week I've complained about this...sigh. If you factor out the tomatoes, there was nothing glaringly wrong with the manicotti, and I definitely enjoyed it more than the ole sandwich-4-lunch routine, so I can see myself ordering this again.

Food review: Prosciutto e pomodoro sandwich

Restaurant: A.G. Ferrari (Mission St, San Francisco)
Food description: Prosciutto di Parma, lettuce, tomato, and extra virgin olive oil on an Italian baguette
Food rating: 6 out of 10
Times ordered: 2

Updated 3/7/07
After having such a positive experience with this sandwich the first time, I ordered it again and was extremely disappointed with it the second time around. As a result, I'm adjusted its rating down to a 6 to reflect its average score. At this point I would not recommend this sandwich. What changed? The bread was going stale and was hard and crumbly on the outside instead of soft and chewy. The prosciutto was almost 50% fat, which I had to painstakingly remove from each slice. There were also stringy pieces throughout the prosciutto, which were impossible to chew and is an indication of lower grade meat. Very little of the sandwich was actually edible, and I was off to the vending machine for a Snickers bar and bag of Doritos 2 hours after lunch. Sigh...

Original post from 2/24/07
Prosciutto lovers need to try this sandwich at A.G. Ferrari. It's 100% authentic Italian prosciutto di Parma sliced razor thin and perfectly tender. This isn't your everyday cheapo prosciutto that's hard, stringy, and overly salty, so it's worth the $9 price tag. The sandwich keeps it simple and doesn't interfere with the flavor of the prosciutto: no cheese, just lettuce tomato and a drizzle of olive oil. The sandwich is served on an Italian baguette, which is chewy by nature, but I'm just not a big fan of the chewiness factor. It was so good, I wished there was even more prosciutto on the sandwich. It's light and not very filling, so you'll need a side of chips or something else to complete the meal.