With so much change occuring in my personal life this year, I look for a few things to anchor my life around. The gym is one. I tend to be a bit obsessive so I've been hitting the gym 7 days a week. At 52 years of age you tend to pick up physical baggage...little aches and pains that you carry and forget are actually there. The 7-day regimen has helped me realize how much better I feel now that I've flushed away all that baggage. I'm still sore most days but it's due to the workout itself.
My favorite workout is Saturday morning. I don't have to rush to work. I stop at the local Starbucks (I know, I know, but at 5:30am there's nothing else around) and grab a grande' coffee that I bring to the gym. I do my running/lifting/etc. for 60-90 minutes, head home to shower, collect K and head off to the Farmer's Market at the SF Ferry Building. SF doesn't get any more beautiful than it does on a day like yesterday. Bright sun, lapping water, crowds of shoppers and eaters, lots of infants and dogs...and the food. There are all kinds of fresh produce, fish, baked goods and fully prepared meals. Restaurants, good restaurants, and high-end food companies are well represented on the pier. Rose Pistola, Fatted Calf, Hayes Street Grill, Hog Island Oyster Company and Primavera are all serving up breakfast and lunch. Just inside the building you get some of SF's best established places like Charles Phan's Slanted Door. K and I frequently just grab a table, some pastries and watch the people. I sometimes run into folks I know here (JK last week). But...as good as breakfast was, dinner was even better.
As the dinner hour approached I headed over to Nopa (yes, I should own a piece of the place) for a quick cocktail. On the way over I called Lisa and firmed up a date for next weekend. We'd been playing phone tag all day and finally managed to connect. She's of Asian ancestry (not sure exactly) and loves to play tennis and golf. Looking forward to that. At Nopa I had my usual Belvedere martini and a chat with a group of four standing around me at the end of the bar. When they asked me about the menu I tried to steer them away from the pork chop and to the chicken. I then headed downtown hoping to get into Canteen.
Canteen (see Michael Bauer's review) is a small place that seats ~18 people. They do 3 seatings each evening (6pm, 7:30pm and 9:15pm). The menu changes often and I managed to walk into the only slot open (once again I'm dining alone) for the 7:30 seating and got the odd seat at the (seven seat) bar. They offer 4 appetizers, 4 entrees and 4 deserts. Before the dining service began we were served an Amuse-Bouche of octopus salad with pinoli and chunk of avocado. Very fresh and the avocado smoothed out the saltiness of the octopus. The pinoli offered the needed texture. Interesting and unexpected. The Appetizers on the menu tonight were: Sweet Corn Soup with spicy prawns, Lamb Shoulder Confit with chickpea puree, apricots and almonds, #1 Tuna marinated in lemon with cucumbers, dill and horseradish and finally Tartine of Figs with raw fennel, manchego, chicory and vinegar syrup. I went with the tuna.
Now I've had the ahi appetizers all over town. Michael Mina thinks highly of theirs. The ahi at Bacar is the best I've had this year so far but the plate at Canteen has them all beat. The fish is served in chunks mixed with long tendrils of shaved cucumber. Spectacular. Just the right amount of dill to complement the super fresh tuna and the barely tart lemon. A bit like a ceviche. Home run.
I ordered a glass of the Confuron Cote de Nuits Villages "Les Vignottes" 2003. Tonight the four entrees offered were: Porcini Mushromm Fricasse with smoky basmati rice and pea puree, White Bass with muharamma, stewed peppers and mint, New York Strip slow roasted with green tomato relish and new potatoes and finallly Pork Tenderloin poached in rosemary oil with wax beans and polenta. I went with the Bass. All diners seemed very happy with what they ordered including me. The bass was fresh and flaky. Unfussy. I was unfamiliar with muharamma (a pureed eggplant preparation) but loved it. It all worked together nicely. The portion was just about right and I left a forkful on the plate knowing my desert was coming next.
The four deserts offered tonight were: Chocolate Mousseline, a Raspberry-Boysenberry Trifle with mint cream, a Ginger Beer Float with nectarine sorbet and ginger ice cream and last but certainly not least the Vanilla Souffle (which had to be ordered with the entree of course). I went with the souffle. It arrived light as air. As i opened it with my spoon, my end of the counter took on the vanilla perfume fragrance and I basked in it. Just sweet enough, just light enough, just fragrant enough. I could only eat half of it. Needless to say, get to Canteen if you can...one of the coolest dinners in town.
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