Food, or a Way to Fight Sadness

Too many bad things have been happening lately, so instead of eating lots of food to combat it, I'm going to write about the meals I had in San Francisco and Napa Valley.

First up: Chez Panisse.

I can't say enough good things about Chez Panisse. Every meal I've had there has been fantastic and this time was no exception. From the salad with baked goat cheese to the chicken that tasted faintly of onions and was moist and delicious inside and crispy on the outside, to the cauliflower gratin and shoestring potatoes-it was all wonderful. I told D that I didn't know what the best thing on my plate was and it's true. Dessert was mint chocolate chip ice cream with bittersweet chocolate sauce and it was great from beginning to end. The thing is, the whole experience is good. The people who work there are really nice, the service is attentive without being intrusive, the food is pretty, but it's all about taste, not presentation.

Flour + Water.

Flour+Water is a new pizza place in the Mission-it didn't open up that long ago. It was very good, the crust was thin and tasty and the flavors were all good. My only quibble is that they should have cooked it a little longer-the crust was just a tad soggy. But we loved the casual, funky atmosphere-I would definitely go there again.

Jardiniere.

Would I go there again? Probably not. We went there because every Monday night there's a prie fixe menu, three courses with wine to match, and considering the prices on the regular menu, the prie fixe is a deal. The food was good but the atmosphere was STUFFY. Old San Francisco, opera-goers and the upper crust would really enjoy the Art Deco atmosphere, but it was clear they knew we were not any of those and treated us accordingly. Compare this to Chez Panisse, where D and I have gone without reservations and pleaded for a table (dressed very causally) and they not only squeezed us in, but you wouldn't have been able to tell we weren't regulars. It was annoying but the salad and fish and chips were tasty and I had an amazing cocktail there.

That Mexican place in Palo Alto. Costa Del Mar? Something like that. But it's all good there-really good Mexican food and great margaritas at pretty good prices. I like the carnitas, D gets the chicken soup if she's sick-it's all good.

Wednesday we went to Bistro Jeanty-and the problem was that I had a full-blown sore throat and felt crappy. But the tomato soup with a puff pastry crust was soooo good and the steak was cooked just right-luckily I never lost my taste buds.

Ad Hoc was Thursday. I wasn't happy to have steak two nights in a row, but it was another prie fixe and you don't get to pick. That said, the beet salad with chopped hard-boiled eggs was really good, the steak was cooked properly and the side of mushrooms and leeks with cheese was soooo good. The only sore point was that D and I decided to have champagne with dinner and she let the waiter choose. This was a MISTAKE. I will say that the very expensive champagne was excellent with dinner and was good from the first sip to the last-it went with everything. And the service was great-I really liked it except for the people who brought the screaming kid in-couldn't you have taken the child outside for bit until it quieted down?

Cafe Kati:

This is a Asian fusion place near Fillmore (convenient because we go shopping on Fillmore quite often). I have to say, there's not much fusion going on here, it's pretty straightforward Asian. That said, it was really good. The calamari was crisp, as was the tempura- I judge a restaurant on the quality of their tempura and sauce and they passed with flying colors. I had a great cocktail there as well-pomegranate sangria and their signature dragon rolls for dinner. It was all good.

A16.

A16 is a well-known place in SF-but we'd never been there. That said, their pizza was REALLY good. The best pizza I've ever had in in Grand Haven Michigan, at Fricano's Pizza, but this was second. The atmosphere was great, the service was good and friendly. It was a tad pretentious but I still liked it.

That's it-ohhhh. I'm hungry now.