Success!

I needed to post because we had a here-to-fore absolutely unheard of event occur. Are you ready? Ben uttered the words .... "I am a fan of this salad." Now, Ben is not one to praise any fruit or vegetable, and yet, here was unabashed enjoyment of several vegetables and one fruit. Again, normally it is a struggle to get this guy to eat anything that does not fall in the meat/potatoes/beer/cheese category and he complains if I make vegetarian anything. So as a public service to anyone out there in the same predicament, I offer this recipe for your enjoyment. It is a seriously good way to enjoy the summer produce and is all-around awesome.

Blackberry Vinaigrette Goat Cheese Salad

(serves 2 for meal or 4 as salad appetizer)

1 pint blackberries
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
1 T vanilla sugar (or plain white sugar)
Small handful of lettuce leaves (your variety choice), torn into bite size pieces
2 "baby" yellow crookneck squash, sliced into thin coins
¼ cup roasted pine nuts
3 oz of a semi-soft goat cheese
4 oz of grilled chicken, diced (optional)
2 medium size tomatoes, wedged into 8 pieces

Toss the blackberries with sugar and vinegar; let sit while the salad is prepared. Place lettuce in shallow salad dishes, sprinkle with squash coins, and dot with goat cheese. Place tomato wedges around the outer edge of the plate. Sprinkle pine nuts across the top of the salad. Add warm diced chicken. Use a slotted spoon to split the blackberries between the salads leaving a dozen in the bowl. Crush the remaining blackberries with the balsamic vinegar and split the mixture across the salads. Enjoy!

Going Greek

Just wanted to put in a good word about a new restaurant I went to this evening - Zavo's, the greek place across from the Family Wash. This space used to be a sketchy biker bar, but they have cleaned it all up and put in sleek modern decor. I have heard good things about this place and they were recommended in the Scene awhile back, and heck, it is like, a mile away. Mari-etta and I went and shared the Mediterranean platter, kafeteres, and a salad. The platter came with warm "pita" bread - actually a flat bread with more oil than your normal pita - but all the better to sop up the hummus, babaganoush, tzatiki, feta, and olives. The kafteres (or something like that) were banana peppers filled with melted goat cheese - spicy and different! And the salad was tomatoes, shallots, cucumber, feta, and olives, a perfect accompaniment to the other tastes. To finish - baklava, and a big piece too. Not to cloyingly sweet, nice and nutty. Yum!

Reasonably priced, and they have a special every day. The only downside is that there is no wine, but I did enjoy a Fat Tire and they do have all the Yazoos. Four stars (Ben, make that 4.25). We'll be back for sure :)

Una epifanía de los tacos - Mas Tacos Por Favor!

Holy crap! I was in the midst of a new San Francisco post, when I had una epifanía (an epiphany) regarding tacos (los tacos). As many who hang out in East Nashville know, there is a taco truck that parks at 5 Points most nights, in the midst of all the bars over here. (Perfect business plan...drunk hipsters + 11 PM + hungry = $$$)

The truck & business is called Mas Tacos and you can find out all about them on twitter & facebook (twitter.com/mastacos, etc.). They tweet/post the menu every night. I've been meaning to try it out for the last few months, but I'm never hungry or around when the truck is parked out on the street. Also, Dru thought the idea of food from a truck is totally sketchy, even though she (thoroughly) enjoyed the Silver Truck and Haven Bros. up in Providence.

Tonight I had a 9 PM hockey game, which makes for a hungry ben around 11...a perfect storm. I convinced Dru to get dressed and walk over with me. On the menu tonight:

• Chicken with grilled onions & roasted tomatillo salsa
• Fried tilapia with lime-marinated red onions and a spicy yogurt sauce
• Quinoa with roasted potatoes, grilled corn, red cabbage, cilantro, sour cream & roasted tomatillo salsa

After much hemming and hawing we decided to try one of each, on the condition that sweetie had to have a bite. The tilapia was perfectly spicy, with the creamy sauce mellowing and melding the flavors. The chicken was falling-apart soft, almost like pulled smoked chicken, and was delicious.

The quinoa though, was the best by far. For those who don't know, quinoa is a grain from South America and is pronounced "keen-wah." It is cooked and looks like couscous, and works as a substitute for that or for rice, but it has a rich, nutty flavor and is much more nutritious than the alternatives. Below, I've shamelessly ripped off a picture of cooked quinoa from a blog I found on the web. (The post is at http://mmm-yoso.typepad.com/mmmyoso/2007/12/quinoa-salad.html. Check it out, it is a food blog out of San Diego and they have some good recipes and reviews.) Anyways, the quinoa taco was sweet and spicy and smoky and was totally delicious...good for Mas Tacos for having a real vegetarian option.


So! I highly recommend and I think Dru is a convert too. Come over to East Nash some night to eat a taco and drink a beer.

San Francisco - Day 1 (and Day 0)

As you may have guessed from the creative title of this post, we took a vacation to San Francisco for the 4th of July weekend! Above, the canonical (that's for Gregg) SF picture. (Note: I'm going to write SF instead of the whole city name from now on...too many letters and C's that sound like S.) We spent three full days there, arriving very VERY late on Thursday and taking an 11 PM flight out on Sunday night. Getting there was a travail, as well as travel.

Arriving at the Nashville airport, we heard that all of the United computers at Chicago O'Hare had gone down on Thursday morning, and that the agents there were issuing tickets by hand...big mess that we avoided by going through Denver, which made us very happy. However, we ended up stuck in a holding pattern over Colorado, which the pilot neglected to mention. He finally did come on the intercom (and I hadn't realized that we had been in the air so long), and opened with this:

"Good evening everyone, this is the pilot speaking. We have a fuel issue."

Big oops. That's how you start a panic, right there. He then proceeded to explain weather in Denver, holding pattern, blah blah blah, and oh, by the way, we're going to Omaha. So we proceeded the wrong direction across the country for an hour, landed, gassed up, and went on our merry way, only arriving about 3.5 hours late. United was kind enough to automatically rebook us on the next flight, which we missed, being in Omaha, and we ended up sneaking on the last flight to SFO much later that night. All in all, instead of landing at 8 PM and getting to enjoy a nice late evening meal, we landed at midnight and got to enjoy Quizno's in Denver. Bleh.

In SF, Finally

Ok, so we get there and check in. I booked us at the W Hotel near the convention center (swanky, eh?). If you are not familiar with the W, take an ultra-modern-looking hotel lobby, add techno music, a DJ (the good kind, not the wedding kind), and a bunch of expensive-looking twenty- and thirty-somethings. When the cab dropped us off, Dru had to ask to make sure we were entering the hotel with our suitcases, and not some club.

If you have never been to San Francisco, it is TOTALLY AWESOME. It is certainly the most liberal city in the US and probably the greenest as well. Every shop, restaurant, and museum has at least three waste cans: Recycling for plastic, glass, paper, etc., regular trash, and compost! Even the little plastic spoons that you get with your gelatto (more on that later) are bio-degradable! Plus, in the "awesome" column, they have good beer, better wine, and great food.

So, what did we do, already?

Well, we got up late and had breakfast at the hotel. We decided to take a long walk, so we went north, up through Chinatown and into North Beach, which is an Italian neighborhood. We walked up a giant hill (betcha didn't know they had those in SF) to a building of the SF Art Institute, where we heard they had a Diego Rivera mural, which they did. The building was a converted mission, with a tower, a gorgeous courtyard with fountain, and a great view over the city and of Alcatraz.

The mural was really neat. It filled the end wall of a vaulted room with high windows and big wooden beams...looked like it might have been the chapel back in the mission days. The rest of the room was a gallery with a half dozen pieces each by two artists (students?). You can check out a bad photo of the mural here.

Bring on the food!

By now, we had worked up an appetite, since it was at least 11:30 and we hadn't eaten since 9 AM. We had a few places on our list, and we started at a small chocolatier called XOX Truffles (www.xoxtruffles.com). Sweet! In a bitter way! The shop was itty-bitty, and basically sold chocolate and coffee. We got a sampling to try. On the left are Caramel, Earl Grey Tea, and Vin Rouge, and on the right are Matcha and Cinnamon. All of them were spectacular. Dru's favorite was (and I quote): "The caramel was really good. The green tea was really good. I don't really have a favorite. I want chocolate NOW." The matcha was probably my favorite...it was a truffle that is actually covered in matcha (powdered green tea), which made it super bitter but also rich and delicious. We had a conversation with the owner, who had been there for 13 years (!), making truffles with her husband. She made sure to mention that you could order them online, so check them out if you need a Valentine or Sweetie-I'm-Sorry gift.

Next, we tried to get lunch, at a little pizza joint called Cinecitta (cinema city). Unfortunately, it was noon and they didn't open until 12:30 (what??). So we dropped into the outpost of the Rogue Nation next door for a well-deserved beer (hey, it was like 3 minutes past noon at that point). At 12:30 we headed back and got served fantastic Roman-style pizza by a sassy Roman lady. Dru elected spinach, mascarpone, ricotta, and pancetta, and I went for homemade meatballs and mozzarella.

Finally, we headed down to get some gelatto as a second desert. In the picture, gelatto plus happy-Dru with gelatto:

We wrapped up the day with a visit to SFMOMA, the SF Museum of Modern Art, which was conveniently located next door to our hotel. In addition to a spectacular permanent collection and a new roof-top sculpture garden, they were running a joint show with Ansel Adams and Georgia O'Keefe, both of whose works we love.

The two were apparently life-long friends who impacted each-other's works. For example, after meeting Adams and several other photographers in Taos, O'Keefe began playing with viewpoints and angles, and even went to the length of creating lens effects with light...painted effects that you can only see through a lens, not by eye. We got an audio-guide for the show, which was fascinating, as it featured interviews with the artists, Adams' son, and historians. I wish we had some pictures to show, but photos were verbotten. Definitely worth a visit if you go to SF this summer.

Dinner Time

For dinner, the hotel concierge got a reservation for us at a new restaurant called Waterbar, with a seat by the window with a great view of the Bay Bridge. They focus on raw bar and seafood, was was delicious. We went for oysters and a selection of appetizers, tapas style: Hamachi ceviche with coconut milk and lime, Australian Kingfish sashimi with golden beet relish, shaved fennel and snap peas (pictured), and octopus with cucumber and paprika oil. Epitome of class: knowing that we were splitting the dishes, they actually split them and served two plates, instead of putting the whole serving in the middle of the table.

Dinner was accentuated by a bottle of sancerre and wrapped up with a brown butter cornmeal cake, served with roasted apricots and sabayon.

Whew! Days 0 and 1 were epic! Tune it tomorrow for fish, butterflies, and hippies.