Kay's Cooking Corner
October 3-9, 2016
Eating San Francisco style
By Kay Bona
Don and I have been in San Francisco for the last week on a short vacation, and we have been trying to enjoy everything San Francisco has to offer! We haven’t done half bad, either.
We have spent two days in the city, just walking around and exploring all the little shops and restaurants. Fisherman’s Wharf is a whole other world, along with The Market, and Ghirardelli’s Chocolate … um, village. I don’t know how many stores are located in that complex, and each one full of chocolate. It was a dream come true for me!
I walked away with several different chocolate items, including some replicas of the San Francisco Trolley car Christmas tree ornaments, stuffed full of chocolate for the grandkids!
We also visited the famous Boudin’s Sourdough Bakery located on Fisherman’s Wharf. If you have never heard of it, you can liken it to the beignets and chicory coffee found at Café Du Monde in New Orleans. If you come to San Francisco, you are missing out if you don’t wander down to Fisherman’s Wharf and grab a few loaves of sourdough bread, Boudin’s claim to fame.
There are tours of both Ghirardelli’s and Boudins that you can take, and see how they make chocolate and sourdough bread, which by the way, Boudin’s says their bakers make bread with a recipe they have nurtured since 1849. That’s hard to imagine.
I had to order some and have it shipped to the house, which you can do online any time at all; but going down to the Wharf and eating some, and then having it shipped is different, I guess. There is the enticing ambiance and delicious aroma of the bakery, which you can smell two blocks away. That alone makes you hungry, which, if you are in San Francisco for vacation, is highly unlikely. Eating is one of the things you do most while vacationing there.
Every other establishment is an eat place offering mussels, crabs, clams, oysters, or lobster. Then there are sandwich places, chowder houses, coffee houses, bar and grills, China Town, so many restaurants.
We ate a few times at John’s Grill and Steakhouse, just around the corner from where we were staying. This historic restaurant is one of the city’s oldest and most famous establishments. It is a favorite of locals and famous people, many of whom have their signed pictures hanging on the walls. It is also where a scene from The Maltese Falcon was filmed, so it was quite interesting.
We also ate at another historic grill, Tadich Grill on California Street. Their claim to fame is that they are the original Cold Day Grill. It also has a colorful history. Seems that in 1849, during the California Gold Rush, three Croatian immigrants began a business, which later became known as the Tadich Grill. Their coffee stand in a little tent-like structure on the edge of Long Wharf (now Commercial Street) served merchants and sailors coming off the square-rigged vessels docked in Yerba Buena harbor. It has moved twice since then.
In 1882, the infamous and arrogant county assessor, Alexander Badlam, Jr., ran for re-election and his campaign slogan, “It’s A Cold Day When I Get Left,” so infuriated his opponent and SF voters, that he was miserably defeated. Badlam and his cronies sought refuge at the grill, and it quickly became known as “The Cold Day Grill.” And I thought it meant when it is cold outside, it is warm and cozy in the grill. You just never know!
So, out of all the things I ate, I think I liked the Salmon I ate at The Waterfront Restaurant on the Wharf the best: however, I could not locate a recipe for it. I also love crab cakes, so here is a recipe from Alioto’s Waterside Café.
Crab Cakes
2 whole Dungeness crab (10-12 ounces crabmeat)
3 oz. fresh scallops
4 ounces heavy cream
1 egg yolk, slightly stirred
2 tsp. Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon champagne vinegar
1/2 teaspoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
Crack and clean the whole crab, removing all the shells and keeping only the meat. Place the crabmeat into a mixing bowl and keep refrigerated. A two-pound crab should yield approximately 10-12 ounces of cleaned crabmeat.
Place the scallops into a blender with the 1/2-teaspoon of salt and a pinch of fresh ground white pepper.
Turn on the blender and slowly add the heavy cream in a steady stream. Stop the blender and scrape down the sides of the blender with a rubber spatula, blend the mixture one more time to make sure the scallop mousse is a nice homogeneous mixture. Set aside.
In the mixing bowl with the crab, add the egg yolk, Dijon mustard and the cilantro and toss lightly. Next, add the scallop mousse; mix lightly as to not break up the crab, but you want the mousse to be evenly mixed through out the crab. Taste the mixture and season to taste with sea salt, white pepper and a pinch of cayenne.
Form the cakes into a free form shape about 1 oz. each and place on a lightly oiled baking dish. They can be made up to this stage several hours in advance and kept in the refrigerator.
Before serving, turn the broiler on high and allow it to heat up. Lightly brush the tops of the crab cakes with grape seed oil and place under the broiler for 3-5 minutes until they begin to lightly brown on the top and are heated through.
Serve with Meyer Lemon Aioli.
Kay Bona is a staff writer for the Daily Record and an award-winning columnist and photographer. Contact her at kay@dailydata.com.
