Mike and I spent today in the city. (San Francisco for you folks with a different "City"). We got a new food book a few days ago while shopping at the Fatted Calf at the new Oxbow Market in Napa: Patricia Unterman's San Francisco Food Lover's Guide. (Go there just to check out the red, non-electric slicer-- it is a thing of beauty.) I flipped through it a bit yesterday and marked some potential stops, so today as we drove out through Carneros on our way to the Golden Gate Bridge and surf shops beyond, we looked for something interesting in the neighborhood we'd be visiting. Neighborhood, or "district" is key. Today's destination was the Sunset and Richmond Districts, to visit Mollusk, Wise, and Sunset surf shops. You see, Mike is in the market for a long board, about twelve feet long, to be exact, or at least 11". These are not easy to come by. He's been talking to the guys at Wise, but he is eager to get going, now that he has his wetsuit, so we were hoping to find one.
Anyway, that put us in the outer Sunset, so on the way, we flipped through the book to see what might sound good. I love that the book is organized by neighborhoods, so you can eat where you are. We picked Old Krakow cafe and had Polish food for lunch. I've never had Polish food, besides kielbasa, that I know of. Since I'm part Polish, it was a little exciting.
The borscht, a sublime scarlet broth (no pieces), was vinegary, savory and soothing, with little meat-filled dumplings in it. I have never tasted anything like it. My immediate feeling was that I would seriously crave it the next time I got sick. Total comfort food. Mike slurped it up. The mushroom soup I ordered was creamy and mushroomy, delicious but not mind-blowing. Next, we shared a cucumber salad with sour cream, dill and scallions. Then Mike had an entree called "Hunter's Stew" a mix of sauerkraut, potatoes, pork, kielbasa and mushrooms which he devoured and I thought was just ok, and I had the "Potato Dumplings" which came in a mushroom cream sauce, not unlike the soup. My mistake. Both dishes could have been hotter. Overall, the food was all tasty, though, and the service was quick and friendly. Mike's lunch beer was pretty high-octane, so I drove to the surf shops.
Mollusk is really warm and funky, and has tons of t-shirts, books and artwork, in addition to many boards so cool looking that you'd want to take up the sport immediately just to be that cool-- if it wasn't so cold and foggy in the Sunset. They were also friendly.
On the way home, we decided to look for the high-octane Polish beer we'd had at lunch, called Okicim Porter, at a Russian market behind Wise. Found it, and several others, which we brought home.
Next stop, a particularly rich corner in the Richmond, at Geary between 20th and 23rd, where we found a Polish sausage shop (all handmade), another Russian Market, and a Russian bakery, two thanks to the book, and one thanks to the nice Russian waiter at the Old Krakow. We brought home two varieties of Polish sausage, a small loaf of black bread, and some interesting pastries for dessert.
After about 6 thin slices of black bread with butter this evening, I made braised cabbage with leeks to go under the sausages when we heated them up. Yum. After dinner, we both polished off a strange and still yummy tapioca cream horn pastry that we didn't know the name of. It was an interesting and satisfying day, and a great food adventure. I wish a) that the sun had come out while we were there, b) that I had known about that sausage shop a long time ago, and c) that Mike had been able to find/order the surfboard of his dreams. Another day.
No comments:
Post a Comment