Picnic in the City/Summer Drinks
Picnic in the City
Forget the burgers and brats; we’re packing roast beef sushi
by Tamara Palmer
This is San Francisco, celebrated more for fog and damp than al fresco dining. While our true summerlike heat never really blooms until calendars have already declared the season kaput, the next few months promise to be a great time for a grab-and-go picnic, according to long-range weather forecasting Web site www.dryday.com.
When we get a day worth seizing in this multicultural, epicurean city, it’s ridiculously easy to put together a well-balanced picnic without spending long hours over a hot grill.
“I love the summer, because I use lots of fruit in everything, from salad to fish,” says Mari Takahashi, owner of Mari’s Catering. Takahashi’s small Bernal Heights kitchen creatively fuses Japanese and Californian ingredients in the style known as sozai, the Japanese take on small-portioned and healthful deli food.
Takahashi sells boxed items at various specialty grocery stores throughout San Francisco, for between $2 and $6 per portion. Your picnic basket will thank you for items ranging from the vegetable gyoza, grilled tofu-vegetable skewers and inari (rice balls in sweet tofu skin) to the truly stunning Treasure Box of unusual vegetarian nigiri, including brie with raspberry and lotus root offerings.
Whether or not your meal-to-go includes sozai, Takahashi advises that dishes containing lemon or vinegar stay fresh and tasty even if the weather turns as sour as those ingredients may be on their own.
Sozai on a slightly larger scale is available from Delica rf-1, a Japanese delicatessen located in the Ferry Building. The brainchild of a successful Japanese food company, it creates take-away dishes using fresh ingredients from its neighboring Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market growers and food companies for an intercontinental twist.
Artful pre-prepped bento boxes come in four- or five-item or vegetarian ($9.50) and a summer ($11) version. Or you can pick your own quantities of items like the wasabi garlic potato salad ($8 per pound) and roast beef sushi ($2 each). Go on Saturday to take advantage of all the summer produce at the Farmers’ Market, from luscious stone fruits and colorful heirloom tomatoes to nutty white asparagus and big brown bags of English shelling peas, to enhance any picnic theme.
Where to go
Actually, with all the seafood, poultry, meat, pastry, sandwich, and other pre-made meal choices and snacks housed on the premises, it’s never a bad option to have an impromptu picnic right there in Ferry Plaza with its compelling view of carefree sailboats and careless Bay Bridge construction. But there are lots of great picnic spots in town. Picking the right place is limited only by one’s imagination and tolerance for hills, dirt, or other people.
Picnics that are intimate (by virtue of group size or inclination toward romance) fit nicely in Walton Square. With its calming water sculpture, it’s a serene place to sup where maybe — just maybe — those famous wild parrots of Telegraph Hill will present themselves in all their green-and-red glory. Or check out Hayes Green, part of the Octavia Boulevard redesign that places a picnic right in the hustle and bustle of this new-energy neighborhood.
Sporty climbers can work up an appetite toting their food up the endless winding stairs leading up to the tiny treasure that is Grand View Park. It’s a no-frills spot hovering over the Sunset District that boasts a show-stopping view of the Pacific Ocean — which, despite conventional perceptions of the neighborhood, should not be entirely shrouded in fog all summer long.
Whether it’s by the ocean or the bay, eating near the water is likely a chilly and windy option, but it’s always fun for all ages. Hardy families might bring their meal to China Beach in order to appreciate the Golden Gate Bridge in a way that always escapes the tourists. Or they can bundle up and sidle on over to the wooden pier just east of the Fort Point parking lot for a real up-close-and-personal commune with our city’s enduring landmark.
Of course, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it: There’s a reason why people love such classic picnic spots as Dolores Park, Alamo Square, Crissy Field, Stern Grove, and Golden Gate Park. Those are the places where picnics can roam wide and free, with big blankets and boundless hampers of food. What one sacrifices in creativity and privacy, one receives in classic comfort and views. With a little planning you can get free music with that, too.
Do-it-yourself sozai
Want to do more than just pick up picnic fixins? Mari Takahashi put together this Japanese summer picnic especially for SF Weekly’s Summer Guide. It’s healthy and simple to prepare in less than an hour, with an abundance of easily procured items, and packs well for outdoor enjoyment. Even the relatively “out there” ingredients such as agar-agar (a vegan substitute for gelatin) may be found on the shelves of many local stores.
Up for an even greater challenge? Beginning in July, Takahashi will resume teaching her small, specialized sushi classes. She will also add new courses for other Japanese foods (the schedule is available on www.marisfood.com). A creative, homemade sushi and bento box picnic could be within reach before the end of the summer.
Now that’s urban living, S.F.-style.
PICNIC RECIPES FROM MARI TAKAHASHI OF MARI’S CATERING
Makes four servings.
BAKED CHICKEN WITH WASABI AIOLI
4 pieces of chicken thigh
1/2 cup mayonnaise with 1 teaspoon of lemon juice added (if using Japanese brand of lemon juice; if using American brand, add an additional 1 tsp of rice vinegar and a pinch of sugar and salt)
1 tsp wasabi paste (or 2 tsps wasabi powder mixed with 1 tsp water)
1. Preheat oven to 425¡F.
2. Mix mayonnaise and wasabi well to make the aioli.
3. Place chicken onto baking sheet and bake, covered with foil, on middle rack for 10 minutes.
4. Take off the foil, put the wasabi aioli on top of the chicken, and bake for another 10 minutes until thoroughly cooked brown on the top.
OVEN-BAKED ASPARAGUS AND RED PEPPERS WITH SOY SAUCE BUTTER
1 lb asparagus
1 big red bell pepper
1 tsp butter or sesame oil
1 tsp soy sauce (Japanese brand such as Kikkoman or Yamasa)
1 tsp lemon juice
Pinch of salt
1. Cut asparagus diagonally into thirds.
2. Julienne the red pepper.
3. In a small bowl, mix together soy sauce, butter or sesame oil, and lemon juice.
4. Salt the asparagus and peppers lightly, wrap them with foil, and put into the oven. If you’re making the chicken dish above, the veggies go in when you take the foil off the chicken.
5. After 10 minutes, take veggie packet out of oven (when the chicken is done).
6. Brush veggies with soy sauce, butter or sesame oil, and lemon juice, then wrap them back up for travel, adding an additional foil layer if necessary.
GREEN SALAD WITH PONZU DRESSING
1/4 lb pre-packaged green salad mix or mixed greens
About 10 nasturtium edible flower buds
4 tsp ponzu (or 2 tsp soy sauce, 1 tsp lemon juice, 1 tsp grapefruit juice)
2 tsp sesame oil
1. Wash salad greens and nasturtium well and decorate them nicely in a bowl.
2. Mix ponzu and sesame oil together and put into a container.
3. Dress the salad just before serving.
PLUM WINE JELLY
Agar-agar jelly firms up without chilling and will not melt once it is set, making it a good weather-resistant picnic dessert.
1 stick of agar-agar
1 cup of Choya brand plum wine
1 1/2 cups of water
Sugar to taste
1. Soak agar-agar stick in 1 1/2 cups of water for 30 minutes.
2. Heat it up in a saucepan over medium heat until it completely melted.
3. Add plum wine and turn off the heat when it is mixed.
4. Add sugar if desired, making sure it melts.
5. When it cools down a bit, put it into the container you want to serve it in (could be a big square baking pan).
6. Place it into fridge or cooler with ice.
7. Cut into individual serving pieces.
(Originally published in SF Weekly on June 28, 2006.)
Summer Drinks
Thanks to global warming, S.F. summer is now hot. The season’s tipples don’t have to be.
By Tamara Palmer
Temperaturewise, we may live in one of the mildest places in the country from late June through early September, but the days when short sleeves reign seem to be on the rise. Of course, from time to time, the fog still comes in, but PG&E doesn’t seem to make as much money as it once did heating up our homes in July.
If there’s anything positive to say about global warming, it’s that hot toddies and teas no longer have to be the beverages of choice during San Francisco’s summer season. Instead, pull up to one of the following chilled-out concoctions, crafted with local and seasonal ingredients where possible. These are real drinks for real people; as such they should serve not as strict recipes but as free-form suggestions that can be tailored to personal taste. Even so, it must be said: The small tropical umbrellas are not optional.
Those who haven’t tried the legendary avocado ice cream from Mitchell’s (688 San Jose Ave. at 29th Street) should know one thing: It tastes sufficiently sweeter and lighter than avocados and will appeal even to those who don’t like the green fruit. Make no mistake, this ain’t no guacamole shake.
1 pint Mitchell’s avocado ice cream
1/2 pint Mitchell’s vanilla ice cream
1 cup milk
2 spoonfuls honey
1 banana, sliced
Place ingredients in blender and pulse until smooth.
Thanks in large part to Eatwell Farms (which maintains a stand at the Saturday Farmers Market at the Ferry Building), lavender salt has become a beloved fixture of savory recipes. But lavender also makes a lovely accompaniment to sweeteners, and in this case is a perfect counterpoint to Meyer lemons, a sweet breed of the sour standby.
3 cups water
1 cup Meyer lemon juice
For syrup:
1 sprig lavender
Cheesecloth
Twine
1 cup water
2 cups sugar
Use twine to tie the sprig of lavender in cheesecloth. Bring water and sugar to a boil, stirring frequently. Reduce heat and continue to stir until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat, add lavender, and let cool for 1 hour. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve in case any of the lavender has fallen into the syrup.
Mix syrup with 1 cup of Meyer lemon juice (if you have an electric juicer, you’re golden; if not, break out the old-school juicer because it’s still worth it) and 3 cups of water. Serve over ice.
Pan-Asian appreciators that we are, San Franciscans were early American adopters of cocktails made with soju, a Korean liquor distilled from rice, and available at restaurants such as RoHan Lounge in the Richmond District. For this recipe, soju content can be increased or decreased, depending on alcohol tolerance. At the recipe’s levels, the drink seems potent to me. But I’m a lightweight who rarely drinks (except when this libation is on offer).
1 cup strawberries, sliced
1 cup watermelon, cubed
3 shots soju
1/2 cup ice
Place ingredients in blender and whip until smooth. Serve in small teacups
(Originally published in SF Weekly on June 29, 2005.)
SF Weekly’s Best of SF 2008
TASTIEST WALKING TOUR
The San Francisco Gourmet Chocolate Tour
312-1119
http://www.gourmetwalks.com
Three hours of purposeful walking around the Embarcadero, Financial District, and Union Square while inhaling a gluttonous amount of candy confections is precisely our idea of getting fit and happy. Some fabulous highlights of the Bay Area chocolate boom that has taken off over the past few years may be found in these areas, from the transcendent bonbons of Recchiuti in the Ferry Building and the exciting start-up Tcho (which makes chocolate from bean to bar) to the otherworldly, obsessive international selection of rare treats at Fog City News — all of which are among the stops on this tour. The tours typically cost $48, and all the yummy tastings are included in the price. “Real” athletes beware: This may not exactly be the strenuous physical workout you crave, because the San Francisco Gourmet Chocolate Tour has a motto that states, “Exercise is a dirty word. Every time I hear it, I wash my mouth out with chocolate.”
SF Weekly’s Best of SF 2007
BEST CREAM PUFF
Beard Papa’s, 99 Yerba Buena (at Third St.), 203-5607
http://www.beardpapa.com
A lovely little franchised gift that originated from the tropical shores of Hawaii, Beard Papa’s makes puffs that are as addictive as Krispy Kreme original glazed donuts, McDonald’s fries, and, well, crack, but without the over-processed chemical haze that these other vices have been known to induce. Standard flavors like vanilla bean and chocolate are fixtures on the menu, while other specialized tastes of the week like pumpkin, caramel, and green tea really should be. The flavor of choice is injected right into the puff while you wait, to maximize freshness. Many swear that these delights must be consumed immediately, or forget about it. Our analysis is that this directive might actually be a cover-up for gluttony. Truth is, they are best eaten quickly, but they taste pretty darned scrumptious later on as well. Beard Papa’s gets bonus points for its slogan, “Who’s your puff Daddy?”
BEST MEAT MARKET
Bristol Farms
845 Market (at Powell), 979-0106
http://www.bristolfarms.com
Not even in the hands of top Hollywood food stylists have cold cuts and fruits of the sea looked so alluring. Bristol Farms, a small chain of high-end grocery stores based in Southern California, opened last fall in the massive yuppeteria known as the Westfield Centre to the appreciative aahs of voyeuristic foodies who know that the eyes are indelibly connected to the stomach. The bakery is filled with visually beautiful morsels of sugar, but it’s the meat and fish counters that are truly a sight to behold and, at the end of the day, are most tantalizing. Shrimp are meticulously arranged in circular patterns, while game hens lie in drill-team formation. Warning: The most majestic creation of all, a massive pig’s head carefully crafted out of pork chorizo, is not for the faint-of-heart vegetarians among us. Prepare to shell out a pretty penny for some of this stuff, but most of what we’ve sampled tastes as good as it looks.
BEST RAW FOOD
Alive!
1972 Lombard (at Webster), 923-1052,
http://www.aliveveggie.com
Chef/owner Leland Jung first nurtured a love of cooking while watching his father make dim sum dumplings at his Chinese restaurant. For his own venture, however, Jung eschews not only all meat, but all animal products, dairy, honey, wheat, and grains. Oh, and cooking. Raw cuisine is often accused of lacking in actual substance what it offers in visual style, but Jung’s creations have both to spare. With his artisanal approach, some of the dishes on the menu take up to four days to prepare. Some of the most popular items, such as the candycap mushroom cheesecake, also make biweekly appearances at the Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market. But it’s worth journeying to this small dinner-only restaurant to enjoy dining al fresco in the lovely Zen garden or to order some of Jung’s touted raw food for dogs. Only in San Francisco.
BEST FISH AND CHIPS
Piccadilly Fish & Chips
1348 Polk (at Pine), 771-6477
Piccadilly is a top choice of local British ex-pats looking for their favorite homeland fix outside of late-night curries and Guinness. You know Piccadilly means business right when you walk in the door and get a peep at the deep fryer. Massive and curiously adorned with a lovely stained-glass inlay recalling its native Wales, it’s like the Cadillac of crispers, offering up beautifully gilded fish and chips on plastic platters and paper. The rest of the joint is very no-frills by comparison to this expert piece of machinery, but the food is so delicious that it reduces the importance of ambience. They happen to fry up a lot of other stuff, too, like chicken, oysters, and crab. But, sadly, not Twinkies or Snickers.
BEST WEEKEND RESTAURANT
Cajun Pacific
4542 Irving (at 47th Ave.), 504-6652
http://www.cajunpacific.com
Thanks to global warming and a small crop of interesting food choices from the relatively young establishments that now line the last few blocks of Judah Street, visiting the Sunset District side of Ocean Beach is a lot more pleasant these days for natives and transplanted locals, and it’s a worthwhile area to bring guests. Stumbling distance from the beach is Cajun Pacific, an intimate spot open for dinner from Thursday to Sunday. It is a reduction from its former six-day operating schedule, and the change all but necessitates reservations for a happy experience. But the food is the better for it, with a menu that changes weekly and has been honed down in favor of the restaurant’s more individualized fare. These days, for example, it’s easier to find crawfish beignets rather than the po’ boy options of yore. S.F. may be lean on Cajun options, but that doesn’t mean we want only the most standard fare all of the time.
SF Weekly’s Best of SF 2006
BEST ENERGY DRINK
Hyphy
www.hyphyjuice.com
New from Oakland’s It’s Good Beverage Co. (helmed by Clyde Carson of up-and-coming rap group the Team), Hyphy is sure to give popular energy drinks like Red Bull and Rockstar a serious run for their money when it comes to taste and power punch. The name comes from a very current and very energetic Bay Area youth culture that’s on the edge of exploding nationwide, a scene that’s ripe for bottling (or, in this case, canning). Hyphy advertises itself as having the flavor of “grapple” — a grape/apple hybrid — but it goes down like a less-sweet green apple Jolly Rancher, with the electric green color to match. We can say with some authority that Hyphy is as stimulating as some illegal substances, only more flavorful — and easier to recommend in good conscience.
BEST PLACE TO BUY FROGS
Sunset Super
2425 Irving (at 25th Avenue), 566-6504
San Francisco’s sizeable Asian population ensures that the city stays stocked with creatures not particularly indigenous to the American diet, including live frogs and turtles. Frogs are a notable inclusion in Sunset Super’s vast selection of meat in a department that ranges from giant, wiggly conches to (thankfully dead) pork intestines. Last we checked, the amphibious treats could be yours for $2.99/pound. But if the idea of eating frogs is horrifying, and you can’t bear the sight of them looking up at you from their box prison like sad, sluggish puppies, the price is affordable enough to buy a few to liberate from possible stews and fricassees. Oh, and those short on recipe ideas for Kermit’s cousins can check the menu at the nearby Go-Go Cafe & Restaurant (1830 Irving at 19th Ave.; 661-4289), which features frog dishes among both its appetizer and entree offerings.
BEST TONIC
Signs & Wonders Peanut Milk
KK Cafe, 252 Divisadero (at Haight), 626-6188
www.peanutmilk.net
Forget those bitter and expensive (not to mention seasonal) pomegranates: Peanuts also have great antioxidant powers. Get your fill with Signs & Wonders Peanut Milk, the creation of KK Cafe owners Jack and Margaret Chang. The Changs bottle their original, chocolate, and strawberry varieties and sell them in various area stores, but it’s worth stopping in to their joint to have a peanut milk smoothie blended with apple and banana, or just to plunk some of the creamy tonic into your coffee. After much anecdotal evidence about the healing powers of their products, they’re conducting preclinical studies on the milk’s helpful benefits for those with ailments from arthritis to eczema. We haven’t fixed any of our major physical problems just yet (we’d swear about our bum knee, except that the company is “managed according to Christian principles”), but we do know that Signs & Wonders gives us energy, makes us feel good, and tastes delish.
BEST VEGAN SUNDAE
Banana split at MaggieMudd
903 Cortland (at Gates), 641-5291
www.maggiemudd.com
Vegans have come close to perfecting many animal-free recipes that can pass in taste and texture for their meat-filled originals, but praise is not always so forthcoming about their advancements in making edible, dairy-free frozen treats. One of several sundae options at this Bernal Heights parlor, the banana split features three flavor options, plus a waffle cone, whipped cream, and a choice of toppings and sauces — all mind-bogglingly vegan. The creams are made of soy or coconut milk and range from the tame (toasted almond) to the adventurous (chocolate cardamom). Since MaggieMudd also offers a full range of real ice cream flavors, soy snobs can come along and have an old-fashioned dairy bomb of goodness. But wouldn’t it be more fun to fool your favorite carnivores into trying some of that cotton-pickin’ hippie food without their knowledge?
SF Weekly’s Best of SF 2005
BEST FREE FOOD TOUR
Scharffen Berger
914 Heinz (at Eighth Street), Berkeley, (510) 981-4066, www.scharffenberger.com
The Bay Area boasts a holy trinity of chocolatiers (Ghirardelli, Joseph Schmidt, and Scharffen Berger), which proffer their exceptional morsels of delight to decaying teeth all over the world. Ghirardelli is an obvious tourist attraction, and you might have to know Mr. Schmidt himself to get in on one of the special private tours there, but Scharffen Berger offers free factory tours every day. On this journey through the production process, those interested in the intricacies can learn about the functions of the winnower (a fancy bean cracker/sifter) and the melangeur (a mixer/grinder), while those simply waiting to scarf the Scharffen can partake. If you’re aching for more sweets after the free tastes on the tour, the attached Cafe Cacao offers full meals plus a host of decadent chocolate desserts (such as a bittersweet chocolate rum tart and chocolate-cardamom soufflé)
BEST FREE TASTING
Yum
1750 Market (at Gough), 626-9866, www.yumfoods.com
Tastes vary widely in our gastronomic metropolis, but most refrigerators have something in common: They tend to have overcrowded top shelves, home to those various ingenious accents that can turn a plain cut of meat or a raw vegetable into something spectacular. This affliction ensures that even if the rest of the fridge doesn’t contain a lot of food, it still holds jars of sun-dried tomato walnut pesto and cucumber lime marinade. At Yum, such condiments are properly revered. This food emporium offers tastes of a cross-section of its oils, schmears, marinades, and sauces, not to mention pretzels, chips, crostinis, and other decadent munchables. How fortuitous if a packet of dipping crackers just happens to be in your bag when you stop in to sample the in-store delights.
SF Weekly’s Best of SF 2004
BEST ERITREAN FOOD
New Eritrea Restaurant
907 Irving (at 10th Avenue), 681-1288
The physical border between Ethiopia and Eritrea has historically been contentious; indeed, the two countries argue its location in the U.N. to this day. But the nations’ local cuisines live in harmony at a charming Inner Sunset restaurant (because, when it comes right down to it, there’s little difference between them anyway). New Eritrea offers enough of the appropriate décor to represent its namesake without overwhelming patrons in cascades of beads and frills. Put yourself in the hands of the capable waitstaff and order a mixed meat or vegetarian family-style serving and soak it all up with a glass of tej (honey wine) and the addictive injera, a flat Eritrean bread that doubles as your platter.
BEST VEGAN CHOCOLATE CAKE
Ananda Fuara
1298 Market (at Larkin), 621-1994
Vegan desserts get a bad rap in general for being dry, flavorless, and a bit overly nutty or grainy. But those who have their doubts about being able to find dairy-free dessert options that actually taste sinful instead of sawdusty have yet to try the chocolate cake at Ananda Fuara (translation: “fountain of delight”). Rich, fudgy frosting tops the surprisingly moist cake, making for a treat that mimics traditional dairy-filled recipes so well in texture and overall appearance that it is fairly easy to fool a room full of meat eaters with it.
(The following are unfortunately now out of business, but are fun to read about anyway)
BEST CHOCOLATE-FLAVORED LIBATION
Chocolate Cake Shot at The Top DJ Bar
The Top
424 Haight (at Webster), 864-7386
Forget the chocolate martini — that’s sooo yuppie. Lower Haight bar the Top, which hosts DJs nightly for its various house, drum ‘n’ bass, and downtempo parties, favors the Chocolate Cake Shot. It seems an impossible bit of science that a mix of vodka and hazelnut liqueur chased down by a sugared lemon slice can end up tasting like chocolate cake, but just mix ‘em together and voilà! You’ve just shot the alcoholic equivalent of a Yoo-Hoo, a wonderfully childish offering that teases and confuses the senses almost as much as the eclectic beats that blare out of the bar’s speakers.
BEST USE OF CACTUS
Agave Wine Cocktails at Movida Lounge
Movida Lounge
200 Fillmore (at Waller), 934-8637
Best Use of Cactus
From California cactus salads to spicy Southwestern cactus jellies, the family Cactaceae is quickly turning into the Swiss army knife of the plant world. But we think that cactus is a drink best served cold, preferably with chunks of yummy seasonal fruit, as in the agave wine margaritas and sangrias at the Movida Lounge in the Lower Haight. This joint cleverly gets around being just another beer-and-wine bar with its creative cocktails, which include fierce sake Mojitos and Cosmopolitans. “But does agave really stack up to its more potent cousin tequila?” you query. Ask us again after you’ve had three of these things. That is, if you can still talk.
