This is the second time that I have listed my top 10 tastes for a year. The flavor highlight of this year was a three-week trip to Vietnam at the beginning of the year. Truth be told, I could easily list at least 10 tastes I had there that rocked my world. But in order to give a little balance to the list, I've chosen just two from that trip and the others from other travels and from my home city.

As with last year, these tastes are in chronological order.

Pepper Leaf Pork at a street vendor, Hanoi.
People often ask me about the best thing that I ate in Vietnam. I usually hedge on the answer because it's a difficult one. But often, my mind travels back to this bite. It was pork wrapped in a leaf -- pepper leaf or betel leaf, I don't remember -- and grilled. The whole package was then wrapped in lettuce with condiments.

Grilled Goat at the Boiled Goat Inn, Ho Chi Minh City.
It was a hot day in Saigon when my friend and I decided to try the Boiled Goat Inn. The menu had five items: boiled goat meat, fried goat meat, roasted goat meat, mixed sour goat meat and "goat meat boiled with Chinese medicine." We ordered the roasted goat meat which involved our cooking it at the table on small grills and then wrapping the goat meat in lettuce and dipping it. Fantastic.

Bun Cha Ca at Bodega Bistro, San Francisco.
I'd never eaten Bun Cha Ca until I had it at the most famous place to eat it in Hanoi. It was very good there, but I actually really love the Bodega Bistro rendition that I ate when I returned to San Francisco. Noodle Pie does a great job of describing this dish. It's basically white fish in oil with saffron, dill and peanuts. The large amount of dill and the side of rice noodles, salad wraps and herbs makes this a wonderfully fresh tasting dish.

Mushroom Pizza at Ken's Artisan Pizza, Portland.
I wrote about this when I first tasted it, and eight months later, I am still thinking about the delicious pizzas at Ken's. Like so many things on this list, part of the deliciousness of the taste was also wrapped up in the experience of the night: great friends, great wine, and a wonderful trip.

Lamb Popsicles at Vij's, Vancouver.
I spent a few days in Vancouver over Memorial Day weekend, and ate a delicious meal at Vij's, an upscale Indian restaurant that is world renowned for it's cuisine. The lamb popsicles are served with a fenugreek cream curry, heavily spiced and delicious.

Malted vanilla ice cream with peanut brittle and milk chocolate chunks at Bi-Rite Creamery, San Francisco.
As was evident when I posted this post outlining my ice cream forays for a week in July, I love this ice cream from Bi-Rite Creamery . I've had to force myself to try other flavors at the Creamery because every time the aforementioned ice cream is available, I gravitate straight to it.

Porchetta sandwich made with Roli Roti Porchetta, San Francisco.
One of the fun additions of the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market this year is that Thomas, the roaster at Roli Roti has started making a drop-dead amazing porchetta along with his rotisserie chickens. It's not always available, but when it is, Thomas offers it by the pound or in a sandwich. He sprinkles it with sea salt and rosemary. On the day that Jeanne and I canned tomatoes, we picked up some of the porchetta and made our own sandwiches at home with Della Fattoria ciabatta, Philippe's mustard, and a tomato. Heaven.

Fresh shelling beans with pork soffrito and the panino at SPQR, San Francisco.
I know that I should shut up about SPQR already, but I can't help myself. SPQR gets two tastes of my year. The shelling beans are offered as part of the small plates, and it's a bowl of soupy beans topped with crispy pork that is homey and comforting and I want to lick the bowl every time I have it. The panino is basically a grilled sweet dessert sandwich that has a dulce de leche style filling with pears and is topped with chocolate and fleur de sel. It's an "Oh my God" dish, as many people -- friends and strangers -- who I have made taste it exclaim that upon their first bite.

Bone marrow dumpling at the Schneider home, Oakland.
When I was invited to Derrick and Melissa's house for dinner in November, I knew that I was in for a treat. The best taste of the night was a crispy fried ball on top of the salad that was full of bone marrow. This bite epitomized perfect tastes -- it was just one small bite that left me wanting more and more.

I hope you had as many wonderful tastes in 2007, and wish you many more for 2008!

Labels: bodega bistro, hanoi, jennifer maiser, obsession with food, saigon, spqr, top 10 tastes

When two longtime friends decided to come to San Francisco for the weekend, the first thing I did was plan our meals. I had approximately a day and a half with them, and I wanted their food experiences to be memorable. I had an added benefit of knowing my audience very well and being able to customize the trip to their taste.

When I first heard they were coming, I made back-up dinner reservations at A16 and The Slanted Door. In the end, however, I ended up scrapping both of those reservations (and calling to cancel!) a few days before my friends came. The weekend came together very nicely and we went to the following places:

SPQR. My love for this new restaurant has already been documented, and I've been back three times since that initial report. This trip was fun, as I got to watch Anna as she tasted beets with ricotta, chanterelles and sunchokes, and the panino dessert -- which was groan-causingly good.

The Alembic. After dinner, we cabbed it over to The Alembic so that Anna could share in my love of this wonderful bar. I've been talking up the emphasis on amazing mixology that has been happening in San Francisco, and the Alembic is the perfect example of this. My fellow bloggers agree -- the Alembic is a destination bar.

Saturday morning, Amanda arrived and it was off to ... where else?

The Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market. A must stop for any visitor staying at my house. When we were through, we met up with a couple friends for wine. The Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant was busy, so we lounged in the Slanted Bar lounge very comfortably for a couple of hours. On Saturday afternoons, there is not table service in the lounge until 2 pm (though you can eat at the bar). No bother, we ordered bottles of wine at the bar and by the time table service arrived, we ordered some delicious SD snacks. My friends had a good time wandering the Ferry Building afterward. Anna bought a lot of cheese to take home with the help of our favorite cheese expert.

Then it was home to rest before heading off ...

To Bodega Bistro. This was the dinner originally planned as The Slanted Door. But the girls were insistent that they wanted to experience San Francisco the way that I usually live it. And the truth is that you are much more apt to find me at Bodega Bistro than The Slanted Door. Bodega is known for some of the best Vietnamese food in the city, and the Cha Ca Hanoi there -- a dish of fish with dill and spices and peanuts -- is more to my taste than the Cha Ca Hanoi that I ate in the most famous place in Hanoi.

Happily, the Bodega Bistro dinner went over very well and we went home full and sated. The weekend was a great mix of different bites, tastes and meals and both Anna and Amanda are talking about the trip weeks later.

Last month, Catherine posted her recommendation list for visitors which I will likely refer to in the future. And a while back, Michael posted his visitor list.

Labels: alembic, bodega bistro, ferry plaza farmers market, jennifer maiser, Slanted Door, spqr

"Thank you for ensuring that I never move out of my neighborhood," I quipped to the server at A16 the last time I went for dinner. I had just found out that the A16 crew was opening a new restaurant -- SPQR -- mere blocks from my house.

The restaurant opened about 10 days ago on Fillmore Street in Pacific Heights. Formerly the location for Pascal Rigo's Chez Nous, the restaurant is now sleeker, more spare, and with wine bottles climbing the high wall behind the wine bar.

The restaurant's name comes from "Senatus Populusque Romanus," a Latin term which was used to refer to the Roman Republic. The initials are still found on the streets of modern day Rome on city buildings, manhole covers, and other public projects.

SPQR's focus is on Roman-style Italian food. The menu features about 20 different antipasti, several housemade pastas, entrees, and desserts. The antipasti can be ordered as groups, $7 each, 3 for $18, or 5 for $28.

My first foray into SPQR's menu was on Sunday night when I sat at the Chef's counter with a friend. She and I arrived a couple of minutes before the restaurant opened for dinner and joined about 30 people waiting outside for the restaurant to open. We beelined for the Chef's counter -- it's my favorite place to sit at A16, and I thought it would be the place to watch all the action here as well. I was correct. The chefs at SPQR are working in an extremely small kitchen. Watching the process of preparing about 40 different dishes from a space about the size of my IBK was as fun as watching a great movie.

Together, we shared 3 antipasti dishes, a pasta, an entree and a dessert. The "fresh shelling beans with pork soffritto" were the highlight of the antipasti. The sweetness of the fresh beans really married with the salty deliciousness of the pork, and the broth that came with it was perfect for soaking up with bread. We also tasted the bay scallops with dried tomatoes and Tropea onions, and the suppli al telefono. All were excellent and I would have each dish again (though probably not until I work my way through a little more of the menu).

I knew that we were in for a treat with the pasta. Having lived in Italy for eight months, and traveled there for extended trips in the past few years, I am a bit judgmental about my pasta. We ordered a simple Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe, spaghetti tossed with Pecorino Romano while it's still hot so that it creates a creamy covering for the spaghetti strands, and tossed with pepper. I respect this dish for everything that it was: delicious, honest, and simple with a fantastic housemade al dente noodle. I also respect it for everything that it wasn't. A dish this simple is inevitably made more complicated in lesser kitchens, and chefs feel the need to add other ingredients.

We followed the pasta with an entree of local calamari with ceci beans, capers, rapini and onions that was delicious. By this time, the chef across the counter finally had a moment to look up and speak to us. He had been working hard from the moment that we walked in. "What are you having for dessert," he asked. "Have the panino." Neither of us take chef's recommendations lightly, so we did as we were told. The panino was essentially a grilled sweet sandwich with caramelized condensed milk between two slices of grilled white bread and topped with chocolate sprinkling and fleur de sel. We paired it with a delicious brachetto, and took a bite. "Oh wow," my friend exclaimed. "Can we have a few more of these," we joked.

Wine is a major focus at SPQR, with many of the wines available by the taste, glass, carafe or bottle. I found the wine prices to be reasonable, and enjoyed the comfort of going into a place where a rock star sommelier like Shelley Lindgren has had a hand in the wine list. I felt comfortable with any wine on the list, and it was fun to work our way through a few different glasses.

As an initial impression, SPQR is going to be a serious player in the San Francisco restaurant scene. Everything at this restaurant, from the service on up, is done with competence and skill. For another review of SPQR, check out Joy's blog post.

SPQR
1911 Fillmore Street (at Bush)
San Francisco
(415) 771-7779
no reservations
Dinner, 5.30 - 11p
Lunch (M-F), 11a - 3p
Brunch (S&S), 9a - 3p

Labels: jennifer maiser, shelley lindgren, spqr