The Bitten Word

Our Favorite Meals and Restaurants in San Francisco

We love living in our nation's capital, but it's a fairly transient city. We frequently get asked, "Are you staying in DC? Moving away?"

We plan to stay put. Over the decade that we've been here, the city has just gotten better and better. We've made close friends, the city itself just keeps getting more beautiful and the food and restaurants improve every year. 

All that said, if we were going to move, it would likely be to San Francisco (or maybe, if we suddenly feel the need to drive a lot, Los Angeles). Is there anywhere better to eat than in San Francisco? Perhaps New York, but that's a debate for another time.

 

 

It had been a few years since we visited San Fran, but Zach recently had a work trip scheduled out there, and Clay tagged along. So we spent a long weekend wandering around the city's various neighborhoods, meeting up with friends for coffee and drinks, and desperately trying to work up enough of an appetite to justify our next meal. 

Here are our favorite meals, dishes and experience: 

Pizzas and Pastas at Flour + Water in the Mission.

This was one of our favorite meals of the trip. We went with our friends Mark & Michelle, showed up early expecting to have to wait a long time, but were immediately seated. We ordered a two pizzas, a pasta, and two "secondi." Everything we ate at Flour + Water was out of this world. 

Paleo Dinner: Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Grapes and Sage, plus Date Sandwich Cookies

Whole Living (October 2012)

We bet you know someone who's on the Paleo diet. 

It goes by other names -- caveman, primal, hunter-gatherer. It's a fad diet that first started in the 1970s, but has exploded in popularity in the past few years. The idea behind the Paleo diet is this: For millions of years, our cavemen ancestors ate a diet of lean meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, nuts, roots and fungi. Then, relatively recently, our ancestors began farming grains, potatoes and other refined starches. Evolutionarily speaking, our bodies haven't adapted to that change in diet. So we'd all be better off trying replicate the diet of Paleolithic man.

In other words, lean proteins and veggies are in. Carbohydrates, refined sugars, legumes and dairy are out.

Simple enough. And who can argue that modern-day humans couldn't stand to cut down their carb intake? Paleo is, at its most basic, high in protein and low in carbs. (In a lot of ways, Paleo seems like Atkins 2.0.)

We're a little torn on Paleo, to be honest. For one thing, it's always struck us as questionable to talk about "a Paleo diet" as if there was one single set of foods being consumed by cavemen the world over. We're no experts, but we're pretty sure the guys sitting around painting caves in Lascaux weren't slugging coconut water (a major part of the modern Paleo diet). And the guys who were sipping on coconut water probably didn't have access to, say, buffalo.

And we're not sure about the argument that "this is what cavemen ate so this is what's best for you." Cavemen ate whatever cavemen could find. That doesn't mean their diet is necessarily the healthiest mix of foods for human consumption.

Also, their lifestyles were so vastly different from our own that we wonder how much we should be comparing our diet to theirs. For instance, our ancestors needed as much protein as they could find. But modern humans don't "need" meat at all. In fact, a lot of nutritionists smarter than we are say we'd all be much better off eating no meat whatsoever.

We have a lot of friends who are going Paleo these days. We're not among them (as the croissants we ate in San Francisco will attest). But this is all a very, very long-winded way of saying that we're intrigued by the Paleo diet, but unconvinced about its merits.

But one night recently we hosted a Paleo dinner to see what all the fuss is about.

The 10 Essential Herbs for Cooking at Home

Last week we wrote about the 10 spices we consider essential in our pantry. We got tons of wonderful responses and comments from you guys!  You told us your own must-haves for your spice rack. You commiserated with us about having too many spices on hand.

Mostly, though, you asked: what about herbs? 

It's really interesting, actually. A lot of people think of herbs and spices as interchangable things. And it makes total sense. After all, spices are clearly just dried, powdered plants and herbs.

For whatever reason, though, we just think of herbs and spices and completely different things. Herbs are fresh plants you crush or chop yourself. Spices are dry powders in little jars. What we mean is, if we want to cook with, say, thyme, we'll either purchase fresh sprigs or do without. It just doesn't even usually occur to us to pick up dried thyme in the spice aisle. Shockingly, to us, we don't have any of the major dried herbs on hand. 

Does that make us herb snobs? We hope not! All we're saying is that if we want basil, for example, we're going to find fresh basil or use no basil at all. Perhaps it's a sympton of growing a lot of herbs from spring to fall. 

Anyway, the upshot is that we've been thinking over the past week about the 10 herbs we would consider essential in our kitchen. Now, obviously, since we're talking about fresh herbs, it wouldn't make much sense to keep all of these on hand all the time. They'd go bad.

But we think this list of 10 essential herbs would supply anyone with a great arsenal for cooking at home.

Moroccan Vegetable Soup

Martha Stewart Living (January 2013)

We're just back from California, where we ate everything in sight in San Francisco. More on that trip within the week, but in the meantime, it's time for us to get back to a bit of sane eating. 

Sanity, in this case, begins with a Moroccan Vegetable Soup. 

It's quick and surprisingly flavorful, just the sort of thing for a cold winter day.  

Your Questions: The 10 Essential Spices for Stocking Your Pantry

Our spice rack overfloweth. Between gifts we've received, one-off spices we've purchased and impulse-buy spice rubs (yes, there is such a thing, at least around The Bitten Word household), we've got more spices than we could use in a month of dinners.

Rogan josh, whole juniper berries, urfa biber, ras el hanout -- suffice it to say that when the Apocalypse comes and you need to spice up the scraps of food you've scavenged, come on by our place.

So we loved getting this email:

Hi there Bitten Word!

I just moved 3000 miles. During the process I decided to ditch all seasonings from the pantry and start fresh, except for some pricey carribean specialty spice blends that I was given as a gift. What do you think are the top 10 or 15 most important seasonings to have on hand (besides salt and pepper). I think a list like this would be beneficial to share with my sister who is about to be on her own as a college student as well. I love your website and columns! Thank you for your time.

Sincerely and with great taste,

Erin

Excellent question, Erin!

Here are our thoughts on the Top 10 spices everyone should have in their pantry.

Red Quinoa with Pistachios

Bon Appétit (January 2013)

Are we on a diet? Are you?

'Tis the season, we guess -- New Year's resolutions are still ringing in everyone's ears. We're not band-waggoners, but the truth is, yes, we are on a diet of sorts. It's not an OMG-let's-only-eat-cayenne-pepper-and-maple-syrup-for-a-month sort of endeavor. It's more just been two weeks at the beginning of the year of "let's eat right and eat more at home."

We're eating a lot of protein and vegetables, packing lunch for work, no alcohol for Clay/less alcohol for Zach, less carbs, and just bringing an overall sanity to our diet. 

(Spoiler alert: These two weeks of clean living are about to be wrecked because we're heading to California later this week for what will no doubt be a mad dash of stuffing food in our faces every chance we get.) 

Bon Appetit has the same idea (the sanity, not the mad dash, though we suspect they'd be supportive of that, too). Here at the beginning of the year, as they've done before, the magazine is featuring the "Food Lover's Cleanse," two weeks of lighter but satisfying fare.

We're not doing the Cleanse, but we did happen to make one of the dishes from the January issue, Red Quinoa with Pistachios. 

Tofu Scramble

Bon Appétit (January 2013)

Back in July, we spent a wonderful July 4th week at the beach in Provincetown, Mass. As it turned out, we knew tons of other people vacationing in P-town that week, too. (The gays like to travel in herds, you know.)

Anyway, we spent the week biking to the beach, meeting friends for lunch and hopping around various house parties. It was all super fun.

One afternoon while we were there, our friends Sean and Nathan texted to invite us over for brunch the next day. "Sounds great!" we texted back. "See you then!"

Then the horror hit us: Sean and Nathan are vegans.

A vegan brunch? On vacation at the beach?

Were we being punished?

Making and Using Spice-Infused Milk

Martha Stewart Living (December 2012)

In the front of each issue of Martha Stewart Living, there's always a section called "Good Things." It's just a collection of all sorts of ideas for food, crafting, home decor, organization, repurposing a old car muffler as a festive centerpiece -- you know, typical Martha stuff. 

We always read these with great interest, though we seldom put any of them to use. But who knows! Perhaps someday soon we'll find ourselves wanting to make our own bath sachets or turn a steamer basket into storage for sewing supplies. You never know!

But we loved the idea of this Spice-Infused Milk as soon as we saw it in "Good Things." It screams "DRINK ME THIS WINTER ON A SNOWY DAY!" No? You can't hear it?

Anyhow, we decided to get our spiced milk on....

2013 Culinary Resolutions -- Plus a Look at our Resolutions from Last Year

There's the kind of cook you are, and there's the kind of cook you want to be. 

For each of the past four years, we've kicked off the calendar by making Culinary Resolutions, a list of the things we'd like to eat, or try, or, in some cases, see. 

We think this is a good way to start the year, because it's not a "no" list of things we're giving up. Rather, it's a list of things we're going to embrace as we endeavor to be better cooks and share our experience with you. 

We wager that if you're reading this blog, there are things you'd like for yourself in 2013, too. We'd especially love to hear about them, so please leave them here in the comments and tell us about your own Culinary Resolutions for 2013. 

In the meantime, here's what's on our list, followed by an update on our 2012 Culinary Resolutions:

10 Favorite Food Magazine Recipes of 2012

Plus Two Other Favorite Recipes

Happy New Year!

Before we get started looking forward, we thought we'd take a moment to look back at the past year of everything we cooked. It was a doozy of a year here at The Bitten Word and we did a lot of things that we're really proud of, from the Cupboard Cleanout to The Super Awesome Cover-to-Cover Challenge. And we took you along everywhere from our junk drawer to a wacky island in the Chesapeake and even all the way to China.

And in between we cooked and shared a lot of dishes that we just really loved. It was hard work narrowing it down to only 10 dishes. (If you want more, there's always the Recipe Index, which is fully updated as of today.) But narrow it down we did. Here are our 10 Favorite Food Magazine Recipes of 2012, followed by a bit about each recipe -- plus two bonus dishes, 'cause like we said, narrowing is hard..  

 

[click images to visit the original posts and get the recipes]

Black Eyed Pea Salad from Saveur -- If you didn't get your black eyed peas for good luck yesterday, atone by making this spicy fresh salad. 

Spiced Lentils and Poached Eggs from Cooking Light -- Simple, soulful and satisfying. 

Spicy Korean Grilled Pork from Food & Wine -- It's all about the sauce, which we'd slather it on just about anything. 

Quinoa Salad with Asparagus, Edamame and Radish from Fine Cooking -- This dish inspired a hundred other quinoa salads at our house this year. 

Sweet Potatoes with Bourbon and Maple from Bon Appétit -- These potatoes rocked Thanksgiving, and they've already shown up a couple other times at our house. 

Grilled Okra with Red Curry-Lime Dressing from Food & Wine -- Forget about fried okra. We're addicted to this simple grilled okra tossed with red curry. 

Moroccan Carrot Salad with Spicy Lemon Dressing from Food & Wine -- We'll never look at carrots the same way again. 

Post-Grill Marinated Grilled Skirt Steak from Cook's Country -- It's more about the technique than the dish, but we fell hard for the idea of marinating meats after they've been cooked. 

New England-Style Baked Beans from Saveur -- Sometimes a pot of beans hit the spot like nothing else. And this is a great pot of beans. 

Creamy Cauliflower Soup with Greens from Martha Stewart Living -- Want to feel virtuous? Make this soup. 

 

And here are two additional recipes that we just couldn't stand to leave off the list. 

 

Chinese Style Eggplant -- We picked up this recipe in China. The eggplant lives up to the memory every time we make it. 

Salty Caramel Ice Cream from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams -- Jeni is the queen of ice cream, and we worship at her throne. 

 

That's it -- a dozen delicious tastes from 2012. Do you have a favorite recipe of the last year that you picked up somewhere? Let us know in the comments. 

 

Other Favorite Recipes:

10 Favorite Food Magazine Recipes of 2010

11 Favorite Food Magazine Recipes of 2011