Resident Foodies say: We went for breakfast today at Mortar and Pestle in Lakeview. We had the vanilla pancakes typically served with orange and thyme Butter, maple syrup, and powdered sugar. Today, though, we went sans butter and sugar. The pancakes were very good, but nothing too special. The menu, though, is very eclectic, with plenty of items, such as foie gras with eggs or on French toast, that you probably can’t find elsewhere. They also serve chicken and waffles on the weekend.
Clay pot chicken
Vietnamese steamed pork ravioli
Resident Foodies say: We made it out to Simply It, a neighborhood Vietnamese restaurant near DePaul. It’s a cute little place on Lincoln Ave.
We tried the Clay Pot chicken (simmered with ginger and caramelized sauce in clay pot) as well as the Vietnamese steamed pork ravioli, a specialty of Northern Vietnam. Both were tasty dishes. The ravioli is reminiscent of the dim sum rice noodle rolls, given the use of the same style noodle. The flavor of the Vietnamese dish is more mild, but it has a nice combination of textures and flavors. The claypot chicken was tasty, but lacked the caramel sweetness of Slanted Door’s famous claypot chicken in San Francisco. The red peppers provided a nice contrast, but our dish could have use a few more peppers. For a neighborhood restaurant, though, Simply It is a pretty solid option, especially for lunch. Street parking was decent, too.
Resident Foodies say: Budlong Hot Chicken just opened up in Lakeview taking over the space from the short-lived Bunny bakery. Budlong serves Nashville hot chicken. It’s amazing! The skin is fried to thin perfection and the spices bring a nice heat in the classic chicken. Plus, KB’s biscuits are so delicious, topped with almond butter.
Resident Foodies say: It’s the two year anniversary of our first pilgrimage to Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry in Yountville, California, currently one of only two 3-Michelin starred restaurants in the Bay Area. To our chagrin, we found the food to be mediocre that weekend and the service even worse–after waiting for 1 hour after being seated to receiving one morsel of food or bread. C’mon, kitchen, it’s not that difficult. Click here for our 2010 review of French Laundry.
Later, someone on the inside advised us that the reason The French Laundry may have been so bad on that July 4th weekend was that Chef Corey Lee had left to start his new restaurant Benu. Lee was the former Chef de Cuisine at French Laundry, and his departure left the kitchen at The French Laundry in transition–read: utter disarray-at the time.
Well, this past weekend we decided to try out Chef Lee’s Benu in San Francisco on the 2 year anniversary of our dismal food weekend at French Laundry. Happily, the experience we had at Benu was fantastic. We all were blown away by the creativity and taste of the 18 plates in the food tasting. There’s no surprise that Food and Wine Magazine named Lee (35 years old) one of the best new chefs of the year.
Each plating was visually beautiful. And the flavors were amazing, with an unbelievable crescendo building up all the way through the dessert. After several wonderful dishes, we did not think Chef Lee could top the last dish, but Lee kept proving us wrong. Each dish in the 18 courses kept amazing us with the creativity and distinctive flavors. Based on a head to head comparison, we believe that the young upstart Benu is already better–in terms of plating, creativity, and taste–than the old vanguard The French Laundry. It will only be a matter of time before Benu claims its third Michelin star, and The French Laundry quite possibly loses one. Benu is on the cutting edge of culinary creativity. Chef Lee deserves all the accolades he is now receiving. Bravo, Benu!
18 Course Tasting at Benu
thousand year old quail egg, potage, ginger
oyster, pork belly, kimchi
potato salad with anchovy
monkfish liver, peach, daikon, brioche
brioche for dish above
wild salmon 2 ways: fillet, cherry, hot mustard, roe, eggplant chip, perilla
salmon second way
eel, feuille de brick, creme fraiche, lime
tofu, basil, xo sauce
mozzarella, basil, xo sauce
hearts of palm, shrimp, yellow chive, lovage
salt and pepper squid
foie gras ciao long bao
chicken velvet, abalone, abalone mushroom, chrysanthemum
sablefish, lobster, black bean, corn
duck, celery, scallion, Shaoxing wine, black truffle bun
beef rib, wood ear mushroom, lettuce, pine nut, fermented pepper
“shark’s fin” soup, dungeness crab, Jinhua ham, black truffle custard
raspberry, tonic, lavender, olive oil
spice cake, blueberry, yogurt, oatmeal ice cream
chocolates
Pollo gusto
Resident Foodies say: We tried out Pazzo! Italian Cafe in Naples, Florida (Facebook page), right in the heart of downtown Naples, Florida. The place has an extensive wine list, and a great selection of authentic Italian dishes. We were impressed.
The prices, which are not listed on the website menu, are fairly expensive, probably deserving of 3 dollar signs ($$$) on Yelp, not the 2 currently listed. But, if you go during happy hour (5 to 6), you can get 2 entrees for the price of $29 and a glass of wine is 50%. That’s a decent deal. We had the grilled chicken (pollo gusto, photo above), spaghetti with meatballs, and chicken parmagiano. All were tasty. The homemade bread was fantastic, too. We had two baskets-full!
Spaghetti with meatballs
Chicken parmigiano
Thomas Keller’s famous buttermilk fried chicken at Addendum
Resident Foodies say: Thomas Keller is known for his 3 Michelin-star restaurants The French Laundry and Per Se. But his buttermilk fried chicken (click here for the recipe) is just as famous. One of the highlights of our year was making a trip to Addendum in the parking lot of Keller’s Ad Hoc restaurant in Yountville. The buttermilk fried chicken is so tender and juicy, our mouths water just thinking of it. The coating has just the right crisp, which gives way to the tender white meat when you sink your teeth into it. The taste is perfection.
