St Lawrence Market: Toronto

 Made with lots of brown sugar and currants.

 This was the longest pasta I've ever seen!

I asked the guy at Rubes, this great bulk place if any of his flours were local.  He seemed really over the question, but managed to tell me that some of them were from Ontario... he just didn't know which ones.

The bulk selection at the market is amazing:  pasta, pasta and more pasta!  My favorite were these Maple Leaf shaped pasta...

You see Bonne Mama jam for sale every where in NYC, but I have never seen the compote.  The rhubarb looked particularly enticing!

Grocery Store Wars

Funny. Cuke Skywalker, Obi Wan Cannoli, Chew Broccoli?

Zero Zero And Limone

The Bar scene at Zero Zero.

I am blogging quickly today.  I have to run to Hamilton for a day with the family and have a wicked cold, so just a quickie with pictures today....

 Zero Zero is the hot new upscale Pizza place South of Market in San Francisco.  It was bustling the night I was there.  I sat at the bar, had a decent Caesar salad and pizza, was charmed by the bartender and ended up having a wonderful chat with the two gals sitting next to me.  I'd for sure go back, perhaps with a crowd so you could sample more.

 The open kitchen

 The Caesar Salad...

The brick oven Neapolitan style pizza...

My favorite Bloody Mary which had cumin and grains de tigre in it at Limone

A Peruvian fusion restaurant in the Mission where I had lunch/brunch one day.

Stylish and fun with great food and service.  I sat at the very busy bar and enjoyed watching the crowd.

While I devoured the Omelette de Pollo pictured below.

San Diego

Maybe it's cold eat coast envy, but it's so wonderful to see oranges, lemons and pomegranates growing on peoples front lawns!

 

The above picture is my Turkey Pot Pie that I ordered at Cafe On The Park.  When I ordered it I had no idea it would feed four and be presented in such an untraditional form.  It was flavorful, filled with chunks of white meat Turkey breast (some dark meat mixed in would be nice) and lots of vegetables: carrots, broccoli, spinach and potatoes swimming in a rich cream sauce.  The crust was crunchy and herb filled and was perfect for dipping into the sauce and scooping up veg. This place was one of many where I had perfectly fine food, but where I felt that San Diego restaurants had gone for quantity over quality.  Organic or seasonal never appeared on any menu I saw. Cafe on Park had an immense menu with some very unique items like: Captain Crunch and Blackberry Pancakes and Sugar Frosted Flakes and Banana Pancakes.   The breakfast menu is so big and diverse it really is hard to decide what to eat.  The menu ranges, so in addition to the trashy Captain Crunch pancakes they also have delicious sounding savory Corn Pancakes with jalapeno, cheddar and onion or Brown Rice Porridge with oatmeal, coconut, raisins, nuts and honey.

I did have some fine meals in San Diego:  some delicious and very cheap Vietnamese food at Pho on Fifth and a lovely Thai dinner my first night in town at Amarin.  The Thai food on the west coast is so much better as a rule then anything I get in NYC.  In general, my passing observation is that size is more important then quality, seasonality or originality.  I'd rather have less of better quality....It's nearly 8 pm but I ate lunch on an empty stomach and at 12 I'm still full!



I did see the word organic. Just not on a food menu...

It's hard to tell but that is a shiny fish in the peace sign hand sculpture.

Undercity

This is a brilliant video about this crazy guy Steven Duncan, shot by Andrew Wonder who does wild and daring things in the NYC transit system and on bridges.

Amazing stuff like visiting long abandoned subway stations and climbing the Williamsburg bridge for the view.


UNDERCITY from Andrew Wonder on Vimeo.

Colleen's Breakfast: Puerto Vallarta

I just posted about my amazing breakfast experience in San Francisco so it's only fair I should post about my favorite one in Puerto Vallarta:  Colleen's Breakfast Cafe.  Colleen is a gal from Edmonton who has moved to Mexico to escape the cold and set up a little breakfast cafe in a restaurant that at night is called The Swedes (a lovely 2 level affair, have drinks upstairs and dinner down, the focus is of course Swedish food, don't ask questions just go, it was one of the best meals of my trip).  Colleen won my heart the first time I met her when she went on a toot about how she hated raisins in her cinnamon rolls.  Neil has been telling me for the 24 years we have been together the same thing, so the first place I took Neil when he arrived was Colleen's where she makes amazing cinnamon roll french toast from her own house with no raisins.

 

Above is the room during the day.  It's one flight up in this cute little building on a hill.
We always sat by the window, leisurely sipping coffee and watching the street come alive as you finish off your last mouthful of banana bread french toast.  Also house made.  My favorite thing at Colleen's were the Chilaquiles.

Below are some not so great pictures taken in the same space at night when it is transformed into The Swedes, where a predominately gay male clientele packs the place.

Swedish Meatballs in Mexico? Try them, you'll like them!

Dotties: A San Francisco Breakfast Like No Other

 

The line up at Dottie's True Blue Cafe starts early, gets longer and only ends when the place closes.  I went early on a Monday morning (around 9) and was able to walk right in and get a place at the counter.  I had tried on Sunday around noon and gave up hope very quickly.  This place is a San Francisco tradition that is impossible not to love:  a quirky diner with big portions and a menu board filled daily with specials.  I had a lamb and fennel sausage omelet with tomatoes, garlic, spinach and goat cheese.  I asked for whole wheat toast that was so thick it equalled 4 regular slices of bread and came with several pats of butter and a big jar of strawberry jam that resides on every table - 2 on the counter!  It's impossible not to pig out at this place.  The service was friendly and fast and my cup of coffee was always full.

I found this place quite by accident, I was in Starbucks getting a coffee and asked the Barista if he knew of a place to go for breakfast.  The Union Square/Tenderloin area where I was staying isn't much of a food destination. Most of the places tend toward upscale touristy places, so you can imagine my joy and delight to find Dottie's just two blocks away from my hotel.

My breakfast.  It was $12.95 and I didn't need to eat again until dinner at 9. The lamb sausage goat cheese combo was to die for.

There are only two men working the stoves.  It's amazing to watch how fast and precise they are; it would give most people a nervous breakdown in 5 minutes. The picture above is a bit blurry, but the entire back half of that griddle is home fries just getting crunchier and more delicious.  Damn, were they ever delicious and the portion as I've mentioned were enough for 2 people.

Salt and Pepper shakers. 

 

Not because I needed to, but I was heading off to the airport and wanted something to have on my flight if I got peckish.  All of the muffins are homemade on premises and the selection is overwhelming.  I got Coconut chocolate chip.  Breakfast was so filling I didn't actually need to eat again until late afternoon, but boy oh boy was I glad I go that muffin.

The decor is mostly dive with a nod of the hat to great, bygone ladies of song and stage. If you double click the picture of the fridge below you'll get a better look.

Check out this episode of: Diners, Drivers and Dives:

Vegan Tuna Melt: In San Francsico Anything is Possible

I'm not sure how you can make a Tuna melt without the Tuna, but I'm glad someone is trying.  That's the thing about San Francisco:  when it comes to food it's all here.  From Vegan Tuna Melts to Nicaraguan Seafood places...

Hell, they even have unicorns (but thankfully not on the menu).

My very first trip to San Francisco was in December of 1986.  I was in Los Angeles working on a play at the Mark Taper Forum.  It was Christmas and we had some time off, so I bought a ticket and took a Greyhound bus north to see the fabled city of San Francisco.  One of the amazing things about San Francisco is that as much as it changes it stays the same.  The diner just around the corner from the Castro that I went to is still there and so is Castro Village Wine where I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to pick out two bottles of wine for the director and playwright I was working for.  I knew nothing about wine; all I knew was how much I was able to spend and that I wanted my dollar to get the best bottle I could find.  Years later Neil started coming to San Francisco for work and remembered my story about this wine shop and now every time he visits he buys a bottle to bring home.  For years now he has been buying T Vine, a small vineyard that has wonderful wine labels that over the years have documented the life not only of the wine but of the wine makers.  It's nearly impossible to find in NYC so the next time you are in SF go to the Castro and visit Castro Village Wine Company. 

Today I arrived in San Diego (the first time I've ever been here) and hope that in the next couple of days I will be able to get caught up on San Francisco and yet still more on Puerto Vallarta.

Brunch at Luna Park

My chilaquiles obsession continues unabated.  My first meal in SF was at Luna Park, a lively friendly restaurant on Valencia Street in the heart of the Mission district. First off the waitress was a hoot and alerted me to the 2 for 1 Bloody Mary brunch special (at $9 it's hardly much of a special) but damn this Bloody Mary could be Brunch!  Pickled onion, a huge green olive, a wedge of lime and a huge stalk of celery.  I had no problem slurping down two of them and they were the perfect accompaniment to my equally huge plate of chilaquiles ($11.95) which has the nice addition of cooked spinach and pinto beans tossed into the mix along with the usual scrambled eggs and tortilla chips.

The room is a good size with a big bar, several big communal tables and some really fun booths tucked into the hallway as you go to the bathrooms.

Luna Park is the kind of easy-to-love restaurant with good basic food that makes you want to become a regular.  I can so easily see if I lived in SF that I would eat here every week!

Happy 2011!

How did things get so crazy?  I flew to San Francisco last night after only  4 days back in NYC and now here I am on another journey.  The flight was fine, but then I got here I had a bit of a meltdown:  Citibank's systems were down so my debit card was declined and then the Internet in my room went out and well after two hours of dealing with shit I finally crawled into the very comfortable bed in my very quiet room here at the Serrano Hotel and slept like a baby.

Today I had several ideas about what I wanted to do but the two at the top of my list were both closed (Bar Tartine and Kabuki Springs), which in the end was just fine.  I had a great wander around the Mission and a great lunch at Luna Park (more on that later).

From the Mission I went over to Castro Street where I saw the possibly NSFW window in someone's apartment.  It was actually several windows, but I thought I should just post the PG one.

Any year that starts with New Years in San Francisco has to be good. There is still more I want to write about Puerto Vallarta which I'm hopeful that I will get to in the next few days.... but San Francisco is so distracting! I'm off to Oakland tonight for the first time to explore the food scene a little bit (whatever is open!) and hopefully have pizza at Boot and Show Service.

Hope you all had a happy, safe, fun and delicious New Year!  Thanks again for reading Urbanfoodguy.  I have a feeling this is going to be the best year so far.