Tommaso's Italian Restaurant, North Beach, San Francisco

A slice of Clam Pizza at Tommaso's in North Beach.

My old friend Ed Ward has been visiting San Francisco this week, in part to see the Robert Rauschenberg show at SFMOMA, but also to do research for book projects. We had some unfinished business, since last time he was in town, when we tried to check out Tommaso's on Easter Sunday, 2015, and most restaurants in North Beach were closed.

Ed used to write for Rolling Stone when it was based in San Francisco, and also wrote for Francis Ford Coppola's City Magazine in the early 1970s. I met Ed in the late 80s when he was working for the Austin Chronicle, and I did a few freelance pieces here & there over the years, including a few restaurant reviews. Ed happened to be in Berlin when the Wall fell, and he moved out there shortly afterwards. After more than a decade in united Germany, he moved to the south of France. We'd see each other off and on through the intervening years, usually during South By Southwest, and usually over a nice meal, typically Texas BBQ or Mexican food. 

Just as Ed was about to move back to Austin, someone here in the Bay Area made me an offer I couldn't refuse. I was here within a week. However, it took some time for me to get my bearings and get up to speed with the vast culinary scene in the Bay Area. Thankfully, I met my beloved Robin a few months after arriving, and since she's a native, she's quite a pro when it comes to the epicurean scene. However, there was this one piece of unfinished business. And last night, I found out why Ed's been singing the praises of Tommaso's for years.

Pictured above: Toasted Peppers with Olive Oil & Lemon. Below: Zucchini a la Vinaigrette. Both outstanding salad dishes, especially the superb Zucchini, with the firm texture and hit of herbs with the vinaigrette, just absolutely heavenly. I've never had a dish quite like it.

So anyway, back in the early 1970s, as Ed tells it, the Pizza scene on the West Coast was just OK, especially to New Yorkers like him who could easily discern between the dialed-in versions, and the truly outstanding purveyors of this classic Italian-American cuisine. Apparently this joint was the first  Pizza place on the west coast when it opened in 1935, called Lupo's. Fast forward to the early 1970s with new owners and the new name Tommaso's, by this time the place wasn't as popular as it was around World War II. City Magazine was looking for the best Pizza in San Francisco for a profile, but the results were for the most part dissapointing. Then one day, Coppola brought in a stack of Pizzas from Tommaso's ("right under our noses"), and the rest is history. Ed and others wrote glowing reviews, and next thing you know, there were lines going down the street. 

Part of the deal is the new owners kept many of the old recipes on the menu, including the utterly fantastic Baked Fresh Coo-Coo Clams, pictured above. These are so fresh, so I'd guess they have a local source, most likely a fisherman who harvests the clams from Tomales Bay. The sauce seems pretty simply--Ed says it's only five ingredients, and I'd guess those are white wine or white wine vinegar, lemon juice, dried basil, shallots and extra virgin olive oil. Probably a guarded secret, but, as Ed's suggesting, and I think he's right, that the real secret is the process of cooking the sauce. I wouldn't be surprised if it's similar to making Beurre Blanc: saute herbs and garlic/shallots with lemon, white wine, and or some other light acidic liquid (possibly vinegar or other spirit) until the alium component has softened, then add the butter once the liquids are boiling, but take the pan off the heat, and stir in the butter. I'm guessing they're doing that with adding the olive oil at the end. It's both Science and Art. Surely somebody figured it out a long time ago, and made a sauce that's quite unique. Needless to say, perhaps, I'm sure the liquid from the Clams themselves is an important flavor component to this dish. It wouldn't taste like this at all if these were previously frozen clams. Here's another dish I've never encountered before, though I have had some slightly similar ones, using Mussels.

Here's the best Pizza I've ever had, so satisfying. Pictured above, Clam Pizza, each slice with a Clam in the shell on it, and more chopped up on the slice. Below: Mushrooms and Sliced Italian Sausage Pizza. The Sausage is sourced especially from a local butcher for Tommaso's, as in you can't go there and buy it. Though I can assure you if it's Little City or Molinari's or one of the other great local traditional Italian butcher shops, they'll have Italian sausage they've made on the premises that's as good if not better than any you've had before. Great flavor to the meat itself, not overwhelmed by too much salt, fennels, chiles, pepper or anything else. Same thing about the tomato sauce on the pies--perfect balance.

Keep in mind Tommaso's is closed on Mondays, and I've heard the lines can get really long on Fridays & Saturdays, and they aren't open for lunch.

Check them out here:

http://www.tommasos.com/home.html

Chopan Kabob, Afghan Halal Cuisine - Concord

Banjan Borani at Chopan Kabob in Concord.

We've been hearing about this highly-regarded Afghani Restaurant in Concord for some time now, and gave it a go last night (1/29/18). This first dish consists of fried eggplant with a house-made masala sauce, topped with yogurt and mint. All the constituent flavors and textures seemed familiar, and given the presence of the Silk Road, it makes sense that one would find elements in this cuisine east and west, and yet, the sum is greater than the parts. In this dish, and with the Aushak, I felt like I was eating Afghani Cuisine for the very first time. I wonder what elements are left out because they might be challenging to American tastes? Such as Goat meat and Goat milk products?

House-made naan.

Aushak: steamed dumplings filled with leeks, topped with vegetable sauce and garlicky yogurt sauce. Pronounced lemon flavor. Dumpling skins similar to Chinese rice flour dumplings, almost translucent. I've never tasted anything quite like this.

Chopan Kabob: Freshly grilled lamb chops in tandoori oven seasoned with herbs and spices. Served with rice, naan and a garden salad. Perfectly tender lamb chops.

Bite-size portion of the Aushak dumplings.

Baklava.

Highlights from a recent visit (7/21/18). Above: Aushak, below Eggplant.

Above: Lamb Karahi, below Pita.

Above: Rice & Salad, below: Spinach.

Above: Yogurt.

Michael Roman: Stenciled Visions of Love, Peace and Chaos, @ The Mission Cultural Center for Latino Art

Michael died 13 months ago today. A year ago we went to a memorial hosted by the Coltrane Church.   this is a fantastic selection of his work, many of these pieces I'd never seen before.

From the installation with Michael's silkscreens.

Frida Kahlo on a pizza box.

Hong Kong BBQ

Roast Duck at Hong Kong BBQ in San Francisco's Portola neighborhood.

Hong Kong BBQ is one of the first Chinese restaurants Robin turned me into nearly 4 years ago. It specializes in Hong Kong-style roast meats, and you can get a good, huge meal here for not very much money. If you come here, it would help to brush up on Cantonese.

Above & below: the complimentary house soup which they bring just before every meal. Every time I've been, it's been a different soup. This time: pork, carrots, soybeans and lotus root.

Roast Duck, served over white rice, with green cabbage sauteed in stock, and a bowl of pan drippings with Chinese five spice powder. Perfectly cooked meat. Plenty of variety meat selections like gizzards (they were out of my favorite, duck liver), and also sometimes they have harder to find meats, such as they had yesterday: House Special Squab.

Above and below: Roast Pork. I've had this before and the skin is borderline Lechon, luscious tender meat, with hints of the BBQ "red ring." Both these plates $6.

Hong Kong Restaurant

2728 San Bruno Ave, San Francisco, CA 94134

10AM–8PM

 (415) 468-1818

Pre Dawn Lights of San Francisco

Amrutha Aappakadai Indian Chettinad in Fair Oaks, CA

Above and below, our visit on July 27, 2019. Amrutha Aappakadai is still making Chettinad at the highest level, very nuanced curries, with surprises every time.

We had lunch today (8/23/18) at Amrutha Aappakadai Indian Chettinad in Fair Oaks, and once again, as always, we came away completely satisfied and most impressed by the cuisine here. 

OK, so in reference to the photo above, clockwise from 11: Garlic Naan, Tomato and Coconut Chutney, a bowl of Goat Soup, and my first plate from the buffet. From 12 noon going clockwise on the plate: the yellow rice is actually Chicken Biryani; right next to that is Chicken Chettinad, a dish I've never had before, basically a Chicken Curry with plenty of spices, but, as is the case with most Chettinad dishes I've experienced, at most medium spicy hot chile-wise; channa dal, a classic dish featuring garbanzos; a serving of another vegetarian selection, but I forget what's in that brown curry, but that dark green mass next to it? We were astounded by this dish! On the buffet line it was labelled "Okra Fry" but was nothing at all like the "Fried Okra" I know so well from my mother and grandmother's Southern American cooking--notice all the white strips? Those are julienned strips of coconut, raw, no sugar, they actually taste rather savory. This "Okra Fry" is mostly okra, curry leaves and coconut in a savory spice blend. Fantastic stuff. Ok, so next, is some Idly, then those puffy fried balls filled with mashed legumes (Aloo Bondi, I think), great for soaking up all the great sauces and curries, and finally next to the Biryani is Goat Curry, and a bright red little spot of Chili Chicken, an Indo-Chinese dish. Not something I'd ever order, but given that I've never tasted Indo-Chinese before, I thought it worth checking out. It was delicious anyway, but it can't hold a candle to most Chettinad dishes.

My second plate (above). More of the same as before, except for the yellow portion of Dal (Yellow Lentils, I think) lower right. This had who chile peppers and whole strips of cinnamon floating in it.

 I saved room for one more bowl of the incredibly rich Goat Soup, which I'm pretty sure was a goat bone broth--definitely had meaty pieces of bone in it, and whole spices, like anise, cardamom and cumin, though mostly it was the deeply rich Goat-Umami flavors. 

What better way to conclude our Memorial Day Weekend near Mount Shasta than to enjoy the lunch buffet at Amrutha Aappakadai? This is what we did yesterday (5/28/18), and some of the selections included Coconut Rice, Malabar Fish Curry, Goat Curry, Chicken Kabob, Vegetable Biryani, Coconut Curry, and Curd Chiles, in the foreground, which were very, very hot and spicy. My partner didn't dare try one, and when I ate them, I nearly had to order a Mango Lassi, but I was OK despite a red face and sweat streaming down for a few moments, followed by another round of that delicious Malabar Fish Curry and Coconut Rice, a classic combination I had never experienced until yesterday. For hours afterwards, I felt a warm buzz of spices and chiles all in my insides, the very expression of deep culinary contentment.

We're so delighted we were able to make it to Amrutha Aappakadai Indian Chettinad in Fair Oaks today (5/20/18), and on top of that, we tried some new dishes. Above and below is Gobi 65, fried cauliflower dusted with corn meal & flour, seasoned with chile powder, garam masala, garlic, ginger & other spices. Far and away the best cauliflower dish I've ever had.

Above: Lamb Saag, more of a North Indian dish by my reckoning, but one that stands out due to the robust spicing, succulent lamb, and fresh taste of the spinach.

Above: Okra Fry. Quite unlike other Indian Okra dishes I've had (Bhindi Masala comes most obviously to mind), in that the okra is chopped up and sauteed with lentils and coconut. Much closer to the Tamil Nadu Chettinad approach. Pretty sure there's chopped curry leaves in this dish, and/or methi (i.e. fenugreek leaves). Fantastic dish.

Above & below: Paratha with Goat Curry. I've profiled the rich Goat Curry they serve here at Amrutha, very rich and spicy, but the star of this dish is the Paratha unlike any I've ever experienced, Seriously flaky, a bit like eating cooked & crisp filo dough (as used in baklava) or a croissant. I'm guessing these were made with ghee, but whatever the case, I've never had paratha quite like this, almost delicate.

A shot of several dishes on the table.

We had this last time, and we couldn't resist ordering Aloo Bonda once again. Sauces are coconut and chile based. Sublime

Aloo Bonda at Amrutha Aappakadai Indian Chettinad in Fair Oaks, CA. Vegetarian appetizer.

Last night (2/17/2018) we had other errands to run in the Sacramento area, so we had dinner at our favorite Chettinad place. On Monday we went to the one in Santa Clara, which is quite excellent, but I think Amrutha Aappakadai is discernibly better, though Anjappar is serious competition.

This was my first time to taste Aloo Bonda (garbanzo flour deep fried with potato, served with coconut and another chutney). I doubt I'll encounter a better version. Below, you can see what they look like in the middle. Pretty sure that's a curry leaf.

Lamb Kothu Paratha

A Tamilnadu mix of Lamb, vegetables & spices, served with a deep lamb sauce and raita. First time I ever knowingly had a Paratha dish. Superb.

Baingan Bharta. I've loved every version of this Eggplant-based dish I've ever had, but boy, this one's very different. Yes, it has peas, onions and spices like all of them do, but there's something here that makes this version really stand out, probably because the chefs are from South India. It tastes acid, creamy and zingy like Sour Cream, but I'd guess it's lime mixed with either some sort of dairy, or maybe coconut milk. Robin thinks it could be dal & lime pickle

Goat Chettinadu. Slowly cooked tender goat with spices and coconut milk. Exactly the sort of dish I think of when I consider how much I appreciate Amrutha Aappakadai not asking how spicy I want my food. I want the very experienced chefs to decide.

A shot of the Lamb Kothu Paratha with the lamb sauce on top, on my plate. So glad we got leftovers!

Close-up of buffet selections at Amrutha Aappakadai Indian Chettinad in Fair Oaks, CA. 

Ever since our first visit to Amrutha Aappakadai a few weeks ago, we've been longing to return, especially for the weekend buffet, of which we've heard great things. Everything we tried today (12/30/17) was just as exalted and sublime as our first visit. I'll try to remember all the items I tried. Above, from 12 o'clock going clockwise: goat curry, tomato chutney, coconut chutney, mint chutney, fish curry, gobi manchurian (indo-chinese chili cauliflower), aloo bonda, yellow dal, channa masala, paneer curry, vegetable curry. On the inside goat biryani, fish curry, and a few I cannot identify, but I assure you were most delicious.

Here's Robin's plate mostly with the same stuff I got, but also some sublime Chicken Tandoori, which was so tender I'm sure it marinated in yogurt overnight. Pretty sure she was thinking about getting some of that Goat Soup to the left.

Sambar (l) and Goat Soup. Both outstanding. Sambar had pieces of turnip in it which I happily ate.

My second plate. Mostly the same, but that wheel is called a Fryem.

Now here's something I'd never had before, an Appam, a sort of pancake made with fermented rice batter and coconut milk that reminds me of Injera. It came with a bowl of coconut sauce, and I thought the interplay between the sour flavor of the fermented rice and natural sweet flavor of the coconut was quite compelling, something I could see eating for breakfast. Sure enough, apparently it is eaten for breakfast (& other meals) in Kerala, Tamil Nadu & Sri Lanka.

A couple of plain dosas which came in handy getting every bit of the excellent curries off the plate. This buffet is like no other, far surpassing other Indian buffets I've had. At $13.99 it's a real bargain.

Kerala Chemmeen Curry & Lamb Vindaloo at Amrutha Aappakadai Indian Chettinad, in Fair Oaks, CA, just outside Sacramento.

Our friend Dave, now living in Portland, but previously from Sacramento, recommended Amrutha Aappakadai to us. Dave has done quite a bit of travel around the world, including trekking around India on a motorbike. We took his recommendation seriously. Glad we did. I have never before experienced Indian cuisine of this calibre.

Kerala Chemmeen Curry, a coconut-based curry with prawns, exploding with a vivid array of spices and herbs, including curry leaves. Absolutely sublime.

Lamb Vindaloo. A Goan approach to a tangy, rich sauce, redolent of spices, big chunks of lamb and potato. A stunning, arresting earthy contrast to the ethereal Kerala Chemmeen Curry.

OK, this is just basmati rice and garlic naan (both perfectly executed), but I only included this because we were doubled over in laughter, so pleased we were that the bathrooms and hallway just outside was heavy with the pleasant aromas of Naan with Ghee.

And, to put an exclamation point on one of the best meals we've ever had, here's the Goat Biryani, with chunks of roasted goat on the bone, infusing the rice with deep umami richness, served with a spicy sauce and the yogurt raita that usually comes with Biryani, absolutely delicious and fresh.

Amrutha Aappakadai Indian Chettinad

8121 Madison Ave, Fair Oaks, CA 95628

(916) 967-1550

http://www.amruthaaappakadai.com/menu.php