The Lazy Gourmet Specials: A New Series of Recipes with Minimal Effort and Maximal Flavor

Fettuccine Affumicato with Smoked Salmon, Goat Cheese & Grape Tomatoes

High quality ingredients cooked with very little effort make for very satisfying meals. These are the kind of meals I find myself making more and more of lately. In fact, the last few recipes I posted would definitely qualify as lazy gourmet meals so why not make it a regular feature of The Gourmet Chronicles.

Defining a "Lazy Gourmet" meal gets a little tricky because certain meals require minimal effort but a few hours of time (braises, large cuts of roasts etc.); other meals require minimal cook time but much more prep work and/or ingredients (stir frys, salads, tartares, etc.)

How to choose, how to choose?

I finally decided that a "lazy gourmet" entree must have the finest ingredients you can afford, not much more than a handful of them (10 max), minimal prep, minimal cookware and take no longer than 20 minutes from start to finish, the maximal amount of time a starving woman (or man) can bear to wait before sinking their teeth into their nearest and dearest.

My "Lazy Gourmet" premiere will be what I'll call a Fettuccine Affumicato: a light creamy pasta made with olive oil and goat cheese accented by smoked salmon, grape tomatoes & chives. It's a kind of dish that you could easily turn into bruschetta by substituting grilled ciabatta for the pasta; or a pizza, by using your favorite flatbread. You could also easily use eggs as a vehicle for the dish in an omelet or a scramble. They would all make excellent lazy gourmet substitutes. Obviously, bacon, pancetta or prosciutto could stand in for the smoked salmon without losing the smoky essence or too much of the ease of preparation for the dish.

The inspiration came from the contents of my pantry last night when I was hungry and a wee bit "enlightened" by a glass or two of '01 Marcassin chardonnay (a great wine match for the dish) which made me too lazy to cook the meal I had planned for the evening.

Fettuccine Affumicato with Smoked Salmon, Goat Cheese, & Grape Tomatoes

Note:
It took all of 15 minutes to make this dish including the time it took the pasta water to boil. (What force of nature makes a pot of water so hard to boil when you're hungry? Does anybody out there know?)
Cipriani fettuccine is a brand of very thin dried egg pasta I used for this dish that is worth seeking out. Cal-Mart, Cheese Plus as well as William Sonoma all sell it.

Scottish smoked salmon is my favorite which I rough chop and add to the pasta "sauce" along with some chives at the last minute. The salmon imparts its smokiness to the dish; the heat does change the texture of it but not in an unpleasant way.
Sugar plum grape tomatoes are cut in half, Purple Haze chevre from Cypress Grove is melted into warm Balzana extra-virgin olive oil which has been seasoned with a pinch of red chili flakes, herbes de Provence, salt & pepper; a dash of verjus is reduced into the sauce, followed by a tablespoon of creme fraiche and a little skim milk to thin it out slightly; a squeeze of Meyer Lemon, a dusting of Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Voila!
A pasta pot, pasta fork or tongs , a wooden spoon, sharp knife or sharp kitchen shears & a Microplane grater for the parmesan are your only necessary utensils.

The '01 Marcassin chardonnay is optional but highly recommended :-)

I'll formalize the recipe with quantities and instructions later.... I'm too lazy to do it now!

My apologies folks, the photos are horrendous. I'm afraid my hands were a bit wobbly from lack of food (or excess of wine) when I took the "beauty shots" rendering them little more than blurs with a little color. I'll replace them the next time I make the dish... whenever that is... I rarely make the exact same thing twice. It's really incredible how the professionals manage to repeat a dish over & over without losing their excitement for making and perfecting it. They are Gods! Look at this post from Le Bernardin Pastry whiz Michael Laiskonis to see what hard work, great intelligence and a little inspiration can do.

Oh, Fabio, Great Chef of the Future (and the Present), I Love You

I am in love again.

My last chef love affair was with French-born/Andorran-raised Eric Ripert, not only for his sexy self and exquisite food; but, also, because he is brilliant enough to love Puerto Rican cuisine; so much so that he married a Newyorican like me & snacks on her mom's fabulous pasteles! I don't care what kind of trash the Ripert-haters try to spread about him; no one will ever convince me he isn't a GOD!

Of course, when I say love affair, I mean it culinarily (is that a word?). After all, I am a married woman who respects those sacred vows. I lusted only in my stomach.

But, sorry Eric, there's a new sheriff in town. Was watching the ever-annoying Martha Stewart while channel-surfing this afternoon during lunch and... ZING went the strings of my heart!

Just two words: Fabio Trabocchi.



His food looks intricate, intense, layered but honest and witty, with strong, clean flavor profiles... oh so ambrosial. So beautifully Italian!! With its in-your-face Sophia Loren beauty that makes no apologies for its voluptousness!!!

His demeanor is relaxed and assured. He actually made it through a cooking sequence with all of Martha's usual interruptions without bludgeoning her to death with one of her many Target Martha Stewart Collection pots. Instead, he was gracious & charming. He comes from the Adriatic Coast near Le Marche, Italy.

What can I say? The man is incredible!

Sweet sexy smile. Beautiful eyes. Fantastic laugh. Great hands & forearms, both extremely under-rated errogenous zones. The name of his restaurant means flame, ardor, passion.
"Just like Italians", he says to the hapless Martha. YES! YES!



Roll those sleeves up and Fiamma me, baby, I'm ready!

Fiamma Website
Three Stars from Bruni & a chef so cute! Can't wait to go to New York this spring.
Aspettame, Fabio, vengo presto!

(Click on the title to this post to go to the Martha Stewart "get the recipe" page & watch this hottie cook without killing Martha!
Che miracolo!)

Slow Roasted Salmon with Squid Ink Linguine, Sauteed Red Pepper & Baby Artichoke Nage: A Trip to the Market, An Open Mind = Dinner for 2

Sometimes you head out to the market with a strong idea of what you'd like to cook. You could even have a specific recipe complete with shopping list on your iPhone; all good to go.

Then you get to the market, all full of excitement & good intentions, only to find that the ahi you need for your ahi "pizza" ( a fave of my hubby's) looks slightly petrified and you need to quickly regroup, open your mind & see what's available to you.

It's a fantastic opportunity to try new foods or combinations. The final results can be stupendous or disgusting, if you get a little too experimental.

I'm sure my poor husband still shudders when he recalls the "chicken cakes" that I made because the confit of duck I wanted to use was unavailable for purchase. This was about 16 years ago when such things as duck legs were almost impossible to find and asking for duck confit only got you unpleasant looks from exasperated butchers. Back then, I didn't even consider making my own. I was a working stiff & lived in the Upper West Side of Manhattan and my local Key Food did not carry "exotic" items. They barely stocked fresh iceberg lettuce. Even the Fairway & Citerella didn't carry specialty meats then and, with my time constraints, the last thing I wanted to do was head all the way down to Chinatown for some roasted duck (which would have at least have been the same genus if not the same texture).

Unfortunately, I was stubbornly stuck in poultry mode, not wanting to make something as "mundane" as crabcakes, so I thought I could substitute chicken legs for duck confit. (What can say, I was young & idiotic)
After two hours of careful cooking & one bite, I decided to order in pizza.

The hubby didn't fare as well. He having valiantly eaten half of a chicken cake before I tasted mine. When I declared the meal inedible, he said, "Thank God!" and put down his fork in relief as he looked forward to the pizza delivery. Oh well, at least the sundried tomato beurre blanc I served alongside it tasted good.

Now, I realize not everyone has the inclination to thrilled by the prospect of improvising a new recipe; but, what can I say, I'm a food geek with a lot of time on her hands.

Today, after being disappointed by the ahi, I saw that the Loch Duart Salmon was pristinely fresh, so I switched gears & on my way to the register to pay for it, I spied a package of beautiful baby artichokes from Castroville, the first of the season & added them to the basket.

I was on Chestnut Street in the Marina, heading east, when I saw Lucca Delicatessen. Then it hit me, let's see what kind of imported pasta they have... Jackpot! In the very back of the store, near where they keep those humongous wheels of Parmigiano, I spotted the Campofilone Artisan Pasta in a large wicker basket. There were four varieties but it was the Linguine with Squid Ink Egg Pasta that caught my eye. I thought of how pretty the inky black pasta would look with the salmon which I wanted slow roasted & how tasty the lemony baby artichokes could be with it. Bought it & walked the last mile home jauntily. A quick look around the kitchen & I saw I had the makings for a luscious meal.

My Sony camera died so I took the last several shots with the iPhone, the results are not great (the colors are all off but they still communicate the general idea).

Fortunately, the meal itself was quite delicious. Slow roasting the salmon with herbs & olive oil give it a melting texture & a delicate perfume. The squid ink linguine is a great product. The pasta itself is toothsome despite being so thin & the flavor is slightly briny with a saffron-like smoky essence which may also have been imparted by the red peppers. Those baby artichokes retained their shape & added a lemony, grassy goodness. YUM! YUM!

Not a chicken cake in sight, and no pizza delivery required! Yaay!!!
We were happy.

Garlic & Thyme-infused Slow Roasted Loch Duart Salmon
Squid Ink Linguine with Sauteed Red Peppers, Baby Artichoke Nage

Before I write a more traditional recipe down, I'll illustrate some of the prep work & cooking involved (because it's a fun way to gather my thoughts):

Note: It's important to keep the oven very low while cooking (200 degrees), if you're impatient & turn up the heat you won't get that melting texture. Allow for 25 to 50 minutes for the salmon depending on how efficient your oven is, how thick your fillets are & your preferred degree of doneness. It will obviously take less time if your fillets are smaller & thinner and you enjoy your salmon rare to medium rare.
Here's where you need to be the judge: Don't just walk away from the oven & come back 40 minutes later. Touch , smell, feel the doneness. The center of the salmon should feel like pad of skin on your palm below your thumb & still have some translucency for medium to medium rare. The salmon should not be cooked until it flakes or is firm to the touch. It will taste dry & mealy if you overcook it. You'll have wasted your time and your money.

Be sure to thoroughly cover those sprigs of thyme & garlic in olive oil to keep them from drying out and to allow them through the vehicle of the oil to infuse the salmon with their perfume, the oil also assists in gently oven-poaching the salmon while keeping it moist.

Ingredients

For the Salmon:

• 2 salmon fillets with skin on (about 8oz. each & 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 inches thick)
• extra virgin olive oil, 2-3 Tablespoons (for drizzling over the thyme sprigs)
• 4 whole sprigs of fresh thyme
• 1 large or two small, finely minced
• 1 teaspoon of soy sauce
• freshly ground black pepper & sea salt to taste
• 1 Tablespoon Meyer Lemon oil (olive oil that has been infused with Meyer Lemon; available at Whole Foods, Bryan's, Cal-Mart or anywhere that gourmet foods are sold)

For the Squid Ink Linguine and Red Pepper, Artichoke Nage:

• 1 8.8oz. package of Campofilone Linguine with Squid Ink Egg Pasta
• 2 -3 cloves of garlic, removed from their skins without smashing, thinly sliced then julienned
• 8 cooked baby artichokes (tops & stems trimmed; tough spiny outer leaves removed, boiled for 10 minutes in a court bouillon of water, grapefruit juice, smashed garlic clove, bay leaf, salt & pepper; See the pictured section of this post for more explicit instructions)
• 1 Large Red Bell Pepper (with tops, ribs & seeds removed) thinly julienned into even lengths
• 1/8 teaspoon of cracked red pepper flakes
• 1/8 teaspoon of herbes de provence
• 1 sprig of fresh thyme, leaves stripped from the stem & chopped
• 5-6 basil leaves, finely chiffonade
• 6 stalks of chive, rough chopped
• extra-virgin olive oil, to cover bottom of pan plus more for emulsifying the sauce
• 1 cup of reserved cooking water for artichokes
• 1/2 cup of vegetable stock (I use Wolfgang Puck's Organic stock found at Whole Foods & Safeway)
• 1/2 cup of dry white wine
• the juice from 1 Meyer Lemon
  
• freshly ground sea salt & black pepper to taste

The baby artichokes, so cute in their grapefruit bath...

Trimmed the stems, cut off the spiny tops, removed the tough outer leaves & dropped each one directly in a large pot in water that was acidulated with grapefruit juice. I only had one Meyer lemon & didn't want to use it all up just to keep the exposed artichoke parts from turning brown. Grapefruit juice worked like a charm. When I was done trimming, I smashed a couple of garlic cloves and added them to the water, along with a bay leaf, coarse sea salt & coarsely ground black pepper. I put the pot over medium-high heat & allow the chokes to boil until just cooked but not soft (10 minutes or so, until they smell like cooked artichokes; an ephemeral instruction, for sure, but it's how I know they're done).

The Loch Duart Salmon, so luscious...

While the water heats up for the artichokes, I preheat the oven to 250 degrees. I prep the salmon by placing them skin side down in a foil lined cast iron skillet and rubbing the fillets with Meyer lemon infused olive oil, a tsp of soy sauce, minced garlic, coarse sea salt, coarsely ground pepper & a few sprigs of thyme. Then I drizzle plain high quality extra virgin olive oil over the top, making sure to coat the thyme branches well & set the pan on the middle rack of the oven. I lower the temperature to 200 degrees and slow roast the salmon fillets for anywhere from 40-50 minutes depending on thickness & desired doneness. My fillets were 8 oz each, 1-1/2" thick & I like my salmon medium to medium rare. Thinner, smaller salmon fillets will take less time (25-30 minutes per inch of thickness depending on desired doneness).



While the salmon & the baby chokes cook, I remove the ribs & seeds from a large red pepper & julienne it into uniformly sized pieces. The linguine is thin & I want to red pepper to echo the pasta's shape. I also thinly slice & julienne two large cloves of garlic without smashing them. I want the garlic to be nutty & fragrant but not overwhelming & bitter.



When the artichokes are done, I remove them from their court bouillon with tongs & set them cut side down on a kitchen towel to drain & cool. I reserve 1 cup of the artichoke water & discard the rest. While the artichokes are cooling, I set a 10 quart pasta pot filled with water to boil over medium high heat for the pasta.



When the artichokes are cool, I cut them into quarters, being sure to remove any tough leaves I may have missed during my initial preparation of them, and lay them on the cutting board with the julienned red peppers & garlic. I, also, chop a few large cherry tomatoes into small dice (not pictured). Then I place a 12", 5 quart braising pan over medium to medium-high heat & add enough olive oil (don't use your finest, first cold pressed olive oil yet we want something with a little higher smoking point) to coat the bottom of the pan. I add a grinding of salt and black pepper, a pinch of cracked red chili flakes and a pinch of herbes d'provence until fragrant.

I add the vegetables one at a time, starting with the red bell peppers until they soften slightly, followed by the artichokes, the garlic & when the kitchen is redolent with the garlic, the tomatoes until they cook down & coat the veggies. I, then, strip the leaves off a large sprig of thyme, give them a rough chop & add them to the pot with a quick stir.

At this point I add...

A little chef's nectar, which in this case was half a glass of the Kistler I was drinking which my hubby just purchased a couple of cases of. I'm always willing to sacrifice for my art! Any dry white wine will do as long as it's quaffable (BTW, the '04 Kistler Vine Hill Vineyard, definitely is that).

After that has cooked down a bit, you need to add a tablespoon or two of your best, fruitiest extra-virgin olive oil, stirring it in well, 1/2 cup of the artichoke water & 1/2 cup of vegetable stock (I used Wolfgang Puck's organic but you can make your own if you like) allowing it to reduce slightly but not too much (about 5-7 minutes). Remember you don't want it to dry out (the stock provides the sauce for the pasta), then lower heat to a bare simmer, add additional oil & stir until an emulsion forms. Stir in the fresh juice from 1 Meyer lemon. Taste for additional seasoning & adjust to your liking. Chiffonade 5 or 6 basil leaves. Rough chop 6 or 7 stalks of chive and add them to the pot; give them a quick stir in & lower heat to the lowest possible setting.

By this time, the pasta pot has been boiling away and your salmon is likely to be done; add a tablespoon of coarse sea salt into the pasta pot, and stir it in to dissolve the salt. Check your salmon for doneness. If it is done to your liking remove it from the oven, baste it with some of the olive oil that has collected in the pan & set aside in a warm spot. You want your salmon to be done before you cook the pasta. This particular brand of thin dry egg pasta only takes two-three minutes to cook. (You'll have to adjust your cooking time if you use another type of pasta.)

Add the pasta to the pot, stirring it in as you add it to the pot to keep it from sticking together. Check it after 2 minutes to see if it is done & every minute after that if it isn't done enough for you. Remember a pasta like this goes from al dente to mush rapidly so be vigilant.

When it's done, remove the pot from the heat & carefully lift & drain the linguine over the pot using tongs to transfer it from the pasta pot into the artichoke mixture; mixing it in with the tongs as you go.



Add some of the squid ink linguine pasta water (or reserved artichoke water) as well as additional olive oil, if the pasta seems dry. Finish with a dusting of Parmigiano-Reggiano, stir it in & add another dusting to the pasta after plating it. Then remove your fillet of salmon from its skin by sliding a sturdy fish spatula beneath it & place over the linguine. Mangia!!!

What Every S.F. Restaurant Goer Should Know: Clean Scores.com

Good morning fellow restaurant eaters,

Here's a little website you should check before you log onto Opentable.com to make your reservations: Clean Scores.com.


It has all of the public health inspection violations records for restaurants in San Francisco & Los Angeles. Some of the revelations (like A16 having a severe rats/mice infestation) are really disquieting.

Thanks to the Yelp community I found this site & am now posting it here. Be sure to bookmark it for easy access to the site. Or you can always check this blog, I'm keeping a permanent link to it under my Food Sites & More column of links.

Oh well, it's just another reason to hone those cooking skills so you can eat safely at home where the only rats you'll see are the ones you invited!

Better safe than sorry!

Restaurant Review: A16... Should They Rename It?

A16, according to its website, transports the cuisine of Campania & the wood-fired pizzas of Naples to San Francisco's Marina neighborhood. While its pizzas are indeed inspired by the famed Neopolitan slices, it's food is hardly the classic Campanian.

Chef Nate Appleman & some pals

The truly popular cuisine of Campania (the "ankle" of Italy's thigh high "boot") is the coastal food that most people associate with Southern Italy: pizza, eggplants, tomatoes, mozzarella, calzone, lasagna. Food staples include dried pastas like spaghetti not the fresh egg pastas made further north; garlic, oregano, olives, olive oil, chilis, bread & vegetables are all widely used. Pork & beef are more scarce with mullusks, squid, scungilli, shrimp, local fish & to a lesser extent poultry being the proteins of choice. Limoncello is a drink proudly served in every home, each family with it's own secret recipe. You will not find these things at A16.

A16 Pizza Margherita, yummy

At A16, you will find Nate Appleman's salumi hailed far & wide by foodie critics all over this country and other foods not typical of most Campanian regions but they do serve Neopolitan style pizza. Of course, if you go further south to the Calabrian region (the "toe" of Italy) spicy sausages, sorpressata & other salamis made from beef & pork are staples, along with bottarga (preserved tuna roe), swordfish & tuna. But that's an entirely different region of the country. The difference culturally & geographically between Pennsylvania & Georgia.

To be honest, I'm not the "regional" police & don't usually care about the regional authenticity of a menu if the food and service are great. We're in California not Salerno. BUT....

Not my intent

I would not make a point of illustrating A 16's faults if it were not for how arrogantly the restaurant & its staff boasts of its authentic Southern Italian roots both in the press as well as in the dining room. So enamored is the staff of this dicta that it eschews the very hospitality that Italians are known for by ignoring the desires of its paying guests in the name of what they consider "authenticity".

A case in point was a very recent lunch when a party of three southern Italians from the Campania region sat next to me in the tightly compressed room; so close that our legs kept making contact during lunch (not wholly unpleasant).

Capisco l'italiano un poco, and, when I tell you that, like me, this Neopolitan group was unimpressed by the menu, the wine list & the staff, I am being very kind in my characterization of their feelings.

These Italians were in the wine industry & Ms. Lindgren, the wine director herself, attended them; bringing them selections she thought would favorably impress them instead of allowing them to peruse the wine list & perhaps, imagine it if you will, suggest to her what they would enjoy drinking.

Wine Director Shelley Lindgren

One of the party, the brother-in-law of the host, switched to beer (Birra Morreti) after the first sip & suggested his companions do the same. He originally asked for a Bloody Mary but was denied because A 16 does not offer a full bar service.

The glasses of wine kept coming even as it was apparent to this observer that these guests were not enjoying them. The brother-in-law kept suggesting that his companions tell the sommelier that they hated her wine choices; but, somehow, both, the servers & Ms. Lindgren remained oblivious to their customers' dissatisfaction and the other two members of the luncheon party were too polite to complain. The glasses remained virtually untouched. Che peccato!

If the sommelier had more graciousness than hubris, she would have asked these Italian oenophiles for their recommendations of her wine list since it was more than obvious to all but the most deluded, they weren't enjoying her selections.

When the most outspoken member of the party asked for tabasco, HP sauce (an English steak sauce), then balsamic vinegar to season what he considered bland prosciutto, meatballs & pizza, he, a native of Campania, was told very snidely by an A16 server that the kitchen contained no condiments that were not southern Italian in origin.
Che cazzo?

Sorry, my Italian paisans, I know that's a naughty phrase but, really, what's happened to the hospitality industry? Attempting to belittle the customer's requests is no way to win their patronage.

When you consider that a lot of the staff is Mexican & over half of the menu could be from Northern Italy, you have to wonder whether little Miss Food Snoot was being entirely honest when she said that they only stock southern Italian foods. We do know she was being smug & obnoxious. It was both unnecessary and inhospitable.

Look, the staff really needs better training. I know this is not L'Atelier de Joel Robouchon but despite the fact that our server couldn't even tell me what type of water they sold, she behaved as though she did and tried with great hauteur to make us feel as though we were silly for asking and should gratefully accept whatever was offered. Bad start to the meal.

The servers are just laboring under misapprehensions & it's time some public-spirited person taught them the truth. I know Nate Appleman is a James Beard Award nominee. I know Shelly Lindgren is considered a fine sommelier by some her industry. These facts do not make the cuisine any tastier nor does it make the dining experience any better.

On the contrary, the food (no matter what its provenance) has suffered while the chef has collected his plaudits & opened another restaurant, SPQR. Maybe he's spending most of his time there.

While the dinner menu is user-friendly and offers a variety of food with an abundance of small plates; the lunch menu is a bit spartan leaving those with a little yen for some pesce or other lighter fare out of luck.

Here's the most "remarkable" of what was tried in three visits:

Looks good, taste is disappointing

Pork meatballs, the special on Meatball Monday nights were tough, mealy, oversalted & lacking flavor. They could have easily hailed from Amici's Pizzeria (just down the road) in a tomato ragu that was flat & tinny. My husband thinks Amici's meatballs are better & he's not fond of the Amici's version. I still have Christopher Hille's original recipe and have had great success repeating it, I found it hard to believe that the meatballs my husband ate that Monday night descended from that wonderful recipe. We waited a week to eat there that night. Per che?

Ditto for a simple romaine & chickory salad offered at lunch that was so unbalanced & vinegary, I was afraid that the chef was seeking to add a new bit of salumi to the menu, "Lori's Pickled Tongue". Beet and radicchio salad with fennel, black olives & a salty housemade ricotta salad fared much better; balancing the fat & acidity with more success.

Another lunch's Mozzarella burrata with olive oil, sea salt & crostini offered crostini that were so crisped they could have easily been used as briquettes for a charcoal grill. They were useless as a vehicle for the burrata. Thank heaven, I had some bread on my table. Although, the sourdough served as the house bread did overwhelm the delicate creamy cheese's interior. At $11 for a slice of burrata, I was disappointed that it was not the beautiful, more nuanced (& expensive) Italian buffalo milk version but, instead, a cows milk burrata, probably from Gioia in Southern California. So much for the server's comment that A16 only serve foods from Southern Italy.

Escarole and sunchoke salad with shavings of pecorino canestrano was light on the sunchoke & the escarole but the slices of "fried" almonds were crisp & sweetly nutty giving this salad some much needed punch.

The pizzas & their toppings are still the way to go here with Bianca, Margherita or the spicy Salsiccia with rapini while not rapturous are never disappointing. I happen to like my pizza a little thinner and crisper, less weighed down with heavy ingredients (more alla Romana) but I still enjoy the wood-fired crust.

Desserts have possibilities but always fall just shy of wonderful. A rich chocolate budino tart that needs to be shared had great promise served with sea salt & fruity olive oil on a crisp shortbread crust but the quenelle of chocolate mousse served on top was overkill. The biscotti & cookies are a nice simple way to end along with a cup of Blue Bottle coffee. Gelato & sorbetto are offered in 1, 2 or 3 scoops. Cheeses of good & varied selections served with housemade breads are available for the sweets-averse.

Overall, the good choices are fairly limited.
It really is a grazer's menu with the best options being the small vegetarian plates & that's fine if you happen to wander in off the street to sit at the bar (and many of the food cognoscenti do); but when you reserve a table a week or more in advance you want something more substantial than pizzas & cicchetti.

I wonder how many people go to A 16 for its great reputation, go away disappointed, never returning but remain silent because they don't want to seem like unsophisticated, untutored diners in the face of all the raves in the press this restaurant has garnered.

I can tell you those three Italian diners after a while were laughing at the wait staff & the number of times the servers came over to ask how they were enjoying their meals; especially since the staff was so pompous about it.
The Italians started with a curt, "It's ok' and progressed to louder exclamations because the staff seemed so disappointed with these diners lack of reaction until the more outspoken guy in the group said very sarcastically with eyes rolling around in their spheres,
"It's GORGEOUS!, ok ?"

I mean, A16 people, get real. You serve pizza, meatballs, prosciutto & salads not ambrosia, and you serve this pedestrian fare with a major attitude.

No one who has eaten at truly stellar dining establishments is going to ooooh & aaaahhh orgasmically over that food. I suggest that if the staff of A16 wants to step it up a notch, they should go to Acquerello, Quince, Incanto, Perbacco or even Antica Trattoria and see what great food & hospitality is all about.

Hell, you may even hope that a place that brings Campania to San Francisco might offer more food from the Campanian coastal region other than just pizza & maccaronara. How about a few small plates of Mozzarella En Carrozza, Scungilli Salad, Caprese Salad, Calzone, Eggplant & dare I ask, Lasagna? Seafood is fairly abundant in the Campania Region which includes the dramatic Amalfi Coast, how about some fish dishes and a little limoncello to wash them down with (for the more intrepid quaffer of alcoholic beverages). These are not sexy cutting edge foods, I grant you; but, they are a large part of the Campanian culinary vernacular.

There are geographical purists and A16 restaurant advocates who have pointed out to me that the A16 road leads from Naples to the more isolated sparsely populated mountainous regions of Campania and that A16 restaurant is faithful to that cuisine. Bravo! Very true.

Although other reviews in the press have incorrectly reported that A16 is the road from Rome to Naples or the road from Naples to points south, Autostrada 16 (the Autostrada dei Due Mari) traverses the interior countryside of Campania from the east in Naples to Canosa Puglia to the west. It's cuisine is very unique in the region with some influences from as far flung as Albania (there is an ethnic Albanian population in the region). It's food with its hazelnuts, chestnuts, egg pastas, game & cured meats resembles more the cuisine of its Northern Italian neighbors than its Southern regional paisans.

However that does not change the fact that the majority of the 5.8 million Campanians live in the densely populated coastal towns & villages. The coastal foods are the foods widely associated with the region and are vastly underrepresented by a restaurant who boldly claims to bring Campania to the San Francisco Marina.

Why do I care? Honestly, I don't.

Obviously, the chef & owners are entitled to do what they like with their restaurant. They are under no obligation to represent all the food of an entire region. I wouldn't really care if they called it Atlantis and were serving hot dogs & hamburgers; as long as the food was delicious and the staff was pleasant and efficient.

I am not in the restaurant business nor am I only a seeker of culinary truth. I just like eating where there is good food & a convivial atmosphere.

My "bone" of contention is that this restaurant breaches its promise to the public. It's not some small pizza joint trying to eke out a living. It's received accolade after accolade for its allegedly excellent regional Italian food and has a responsibility to maintain that excellence.

But it fails on that count, with a culinary experience that has steadily deteriorated since the departure of Christopher Hille who manned the helm at A16's inception. His restaurant was fine casual dining at it most relaxed and transcendent. That was then, this is now.

The truth is eating at a casual dining establishment like A16 with mediocre food and arrogant staff is like dating an unattractive man who is both abusive and penniless: you can't help feeling that you might do better elsewhere.

If the staff was accommodating & the food was inexpensive & mediocre, I wouldn't complain. I wouldn't go back but I wouldn't complain.

If the food were fantastic & the staff was obnoxious, I'd enjoy my food & move on. I wouldn't go back but at least I had a good meal so again, no complaints.

However, when a restaurant has enjoyed a well-established reputation for excellence, and both the service and the food are now well below par, I feel like an injustice has been done to the public. (Especially when reserving a table at a reasonable hour requires them calling at least a week in advance.) Be assured, I will complain.

About everything. Things both large & small.

Large things like major public health inspection violations (rodent infestation in the 10/07 inspection report according to Clean Scores.com).

Small things like selling the Neopolitan vibe while practically restricting the menu to Irpinian cuisine, an incredibly elegant yet simple style of Italian food from one of the least populous areas of Campania that, unfortunately, the cooks at A16 don't always do justice to either with food that is often unbalanced in flavor and disappointing in texture.

Chefs far & wide admire the cuisine of Irpinia, ex-executive chef Christopher Hille and Oliveto's ex chief Paul Bertolli studied there under Chef Antonio Pisaniello. Rocco Di Spirito brought the man to his failed reality T.V. restaurant; maybe A-16 should send its line cooks to cook with him, too.

To most Americans, rightly or wrongly, the food of Campania means Naples, Capri, Sorrento, the Amalfi Coast. The name A16 throws no light on the real focus of the cuisine because most Americans can never understand the tangled spaghetti that are the roads in Italy nor seemingly do most critics in the press.

Maybe A 16 should just change their name to "Mesali", a word in the local dialect of Avellino as well as an organization of restaurants in Avellino dedicated to Irpinian cuisine, to better reflect the intent of their menu. Mesali literally means "tablecloths", a way of indicating hospitality. Perhaps then, the staff at A16 will show some and their guests will all eat happily ever after.

Ya think?

The Campania Region

Ovo-lacto vegetarians will be fine here but vegans beware this is an Italian place after all, cheese is king! I saw several couples with babies here. This is really not a child friendly atmosphere. The noise level is high, the conditions are cramped. Lots of people are imbibing. Take the kids to Za's, Giorgio's or Amici's. They'll be happier & so will everyone else.

The prices are not at all exorbitant but the small plates can add up quickly. Pizza's are $15 & can be easily shared. The wine list proffers selections almost exclusively from the south of Italy, not particularly revered for its winemaking; but, California selections are also available as well as beer. Many wines are available by the glass & the sommeliers take particular pride in directing you to various selections. A 16 does not have a hard liquor license, so no pomegranatini's, kiddies.

A 16
2355 Chestnut Street
between Scott & Divisadero Street
(415) 771-2216
Website

Lunch
Wednesday - Friday 11:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Dinner
Sunday - Thursday 5:00 - 10:00 p.m.
Friday & Saturday 5:00 - 11:00 p.m.

A Jug of Wine, A Loaf of Bread & ... Smoked Salmon

Sometimes the simplest foods are the most pleasurable.

It's late Sunday morning, the hubby is out for a hike in the Presidio & I find myself alone and in need of sustenance. We plan to have a late lunch out somewhere to enjoy San Francisco's unseasonably warm & sunny weather, so I need a snack that's light but still satisfying. We've spent the past few days eating out with our out of town visitors, so it feels good to just kick back, curl up with the paper & relax. I take a look to see what I've got in the pantry & fridge...

And I :

• cut a slice off of Friday's Acme sourdough round purchased at the Ferry Building while touring with visitors
  
• toast it
• slather on a tablespoon of creme fraiche
• snip a few chives
• add a forkful of capers
• top it off with a slice of Scottish smoked salmon
• add a layer of sliced cherry tomatoes
• grind a little black pepper over it
• anoint it with a splash of Meyer lemon infused olive oil
• garnish with a few more chives

And voila...

Smoked Salmon Tartine

A snack fit for a queen. Add a glass of 2002 Dauvissat "Vaillons" Chablis, a few mixed greens tossed with olive oil & balsamic vinegar & you won't need to go out to brunch.

Try it, you'll like it.