Forklore

Dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, period, Bruno Viscovi’s wonderful Istrian place, Albona, with 4 others. For starters we had the Craffi (pan fried 3-cheese ravioli with pine nuts & raisins in cumin-sirloin tip sauce); chifiletti–pan fried, wonderfully fluffy gnocchi, and a mixed pepper salad. My main course was a heimish lamb dish, in a brown sauce with potatoes and stuffed mushrooms on the side. We drank an Alsatian Riesling and an Italian Pinot Bianco. I wasn’t going to order dessert, until Bruno insisted I have a fresh strawberry sorbet on the house.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/listi...enue?vid=181589

Dining solo at Pesce, a wonderful Venetian Ciccheteria (tapas bar) on Polk in Russian hill, where I’d been twice before with friends, I tried 2 new things–Zuppa di pesce (good, but not bowled over), and a very nice octopus salad, with potatoes. It’s a great place to go with a small group and sample a lot of stuff, mostly seafood.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/listings/...enue?vid=182135
http://sanfrancisco.about.com/od/et...nts/a/pesce.htm

Dim Sum at Ton Kiang, the best dim sum place in the U.S., in my experience. The most amazing thing is the hot mango custard dumplings–the custard comes inside a pan fried, chewy rice flour disc.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/listi...enue?vid=181542
http://www.tonkiang.net/

Lunch at Old Shanghai, on Geary & 16th. I had OK, but nothing special shao lon bao, and a very nice chive turnover that was filled with chives, egg & clear noodle inside what was like a big potsticker wrapping. Everybody else in the place was Chinese, and I think they were all speaking Mandarin, or maybe Shanghaiese, but nobody was speaking Cantonese.

Sunday afternoon-evening, I went to a barbecue at some friends’ house in Berkeley. Robert & Gail are psycho-foodies, and many of their friends are too. There were about 25-30 people there. I’ll try my best to remember what was there, or at least what I tasted: noodle kugel, Basque chicken salad pintxos, eggplant salad, 3 kinds of potato salad, bay shrimp kebabs, grilled prawns, kalbi (Korean marinated beef short ribs), steak, spicy dry rub baby back ribs, sweet & messy ribs, pork belly with star anise & cardamom, boudin blanc, Italian sausage, chocolate cookies with a hint of chili & ginger, grand marnier cookies, blueberry pie. I’m sure I’m forgetting a bunch.

An amazing Memorial Day lunch at Bistro Jeanty, in Yountville, in the Napa Valley. 3 of us made a meal of shared appetizers–Rabbit terrine with celery root/apple salad; Quenelles de brochet (pike dumplings in lobster cream sauce); lamb ! tongue & potato salad; beet salad with chevre & frisee (my least favorite, since I don’t care for chevre, and I’m not crazy about beets either); perfectly grilled asparagus with cream sauce; pommes frites done just right & a very nice bottle of local Sauvignon Blanc (Mason). For dessert I had Armagnac prunes with vanilla ice cream. The place is a low key gem, and not expensive, especially considering the quality.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/listings/...enue?vid=181660
http://www.bistrojeanty.com/