Cooking
Like some other recent food trends (nouvelle cuisine comes to mind) fusion has gotten a bad rap. On the surface, the idea of combining two cuisines to come up with something new sounds positively dreadful. Does anyone really want Chinese-Italian food? Current food trends in vogue are more about a pure and simple respect for high quality ingredients and authenticity than new-fangled mish mash. Does anyone remember the wraps fad? Yet there are some great examples of classic fusion cooking out there. Tex-Mex is fusion. Hawaiian food is often a fusion of Pacific Islander ingredients with Chinese, Japanese, Pilipino and Korean recipes.
Yesterday Lee and I finally tried Saigon Sandwich on Larkin Street in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco. I had read about it for some time, so I won't claim that I "discovered" it by any means. A storefront shop with room for just two women working furiously behind the counter, the place offers only about five items on the menu--a barbequed chicken sandwich, a roast pork sandwich, a meatball sandwich, a liverwurst sandwich and some kind of a combo plate I think. It also features cars double parked and a line out the door at lunch time.
Vietnamese sandwiches (or banh mi) are a perfect example of fusion, in my mind. The bread used is a classic Vietnamese type of baguette, crunchy thin crust on the outside and soft on the inside, dressed with a nuoc cham (Vietnamese dipping sauce) spiked mayonnaise. But then piled high are warm thin slices of melt-in-your-mouth sweet and slightly smoky roast pork (similar to a Chinese cha siu, roast pork) on top of that are lightly pickled slivered carrots, fresh cilantro and optional crunchy slices of jalapeno pepper. While I have yet to try the other versions, the roast pork has got to be one of the best sandwiches I've ever eaten. To top it off, Saigon Sandwiches charges a whopping $2 for each of the sandwiches with the exception of the bbq chicken which is $2.25. Proof positive that politics aside, the French influence on Vietnamese cuisine was a very good thing.
Saigon Sandwich is a tiny storefront that offers no seating; take out only. Located at 560 Larkin St. at Eddy and you can call ahead to order your sandwich 415-474-5698
- Pack A Lunch! Cookbooks
It’s back to school and that means bag lunches. Or maybe like me, you don’t have school age kids, but still want to start packing lunch to take to work. It’s easy to get in a rut, but these three cookbooks offer many ways to jazz up your lunchbox. ...
- Grilled Cheese, Pear & Smoked Turkey Sandwich Recipe
Recently I've been having some fun in the kitchen creating recipes using products from Dulcet Cuisine including my favorite, the Madras Curry Mustard. I'm not the only one to have fallen in love with it, it was chosen the grand champion at the...
-
Here are three posts that caught my attention this week. They are written by that rare species, the male food blogger. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did. First off at Jamfaced, a British blogger blogs about a crusade, a call to arms, what...
- Tommy's Joynt:restaurant
If you've ever driven down Van Ness avenue in San Francisco you've probably spotted Tommy's Joynt. It's a hofbrau style restaurant, decorated wildly with memorabilia of all types and packed with red-checked tables. Inside it looks a bit...
- Avocado, Chipotle & Smoked Turkey Salad Sandwiches
Some friends were having a small potluck-style get-together over the weekend, and we were stumped; what to bring? Finally, I came up with these yummy sandwiches. Diced avocado, celery, scallion, smoked turkey breast, mayonnaise and freshly-ground chipotles,...
Cooking
Saigon Sandwich Restaurant
Like some other recent food trends (nouvelle cuisine comes to mind) fusion has gotten a bad rap. On the surface, the idea of combining two cuisines to come up with something new sounds positively dreadful. Does anyone really want Chinese-Italian food? Current food trends in vogue are more about a pure and simple respect for high quality ingredients and authenticity than new-fangled mish mash. Does anyone remember the wraps fad? Yet there are some great examples of classic fusion cooking out there. Tex-Mex is fusion. Hawaiian food is often a fusion of Pacific Islander ingredients with Chinese, Japanese, Pilipino and Korean recipes.
Yesterday Lee and I finally tried Saigon Sandwich on Larkin Street in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco. I had read about it for some time, so I won't claim that I "discovered" it by any means. A storefront shop with room for just two women working furiously behind the counter, the place offers only about five items on the menu--a barbequed chicken sandwich, a roast pork sandwich, a meatball sandwich, a liverwurst sandwich and some kind of a combo plate I think. It also features cars double parked and a line out the door at lunch time.
Vietnamese sandwiches (or banh mi) are a perfect example of fusion, in my mind. The bread used is a classic Vietnamese type of baguette, crunchy thin crust on the outside and soft on the inside, dressed with a nuoc cham (Vietnamese dipping sauce) spiked mayonnaise. But then piled high are warm thin slices of melt-in-your-mouth sweet and slightly smoky roast pork (similar to a Chinese cha siu, roast pork) on top of that are lightly pickled slivered carrots, fresh cilantro and optional crunchy slices of jalapeno pepper. While I have yet to try the other versions, the roast pork has got to be one of the best sandwiches I've ever eaten. To top it off, Saigon Sandwiches charges a whopping $2 for each of the sandwiches with the exception of the bbq chicken which is $2.25. Proof positive that politics aside, the French influence on Vietnamese cuisine was a very good thing.
Saigon Sandwich is a tiny storefront that offers no seating; take out only. Located at 560 Larkin St. at Eddy and you can call ahead to order your sandwich 415-474-5698
- Pack A Lunch! Cookbooks
It’s back to school and that means bag lunches. Or maybe like me, you don’t have school age kids, but still want to start packing lunch to take to work. It’s easy to get in a rut, but these three cookbooks offer many ways to jazz up your lunchbox. ...
- Grilled Cheese, Pear & Smoked Turkey Sandwich Recipe
Recently I've been having some fun in the kitchen creating recipes using products from Dulcet Cuisine including my favorite, the Madras Curry Mustard. I'm not the only one to have fallen in love with it, it was chosen the grand champion at the...
-
Here are three posts that caught my attention this week. They are written by that rare species, the male food blogger. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did. First off at Jamfaced, a British blogger blogs about a crusade, a call to arms, what...
- Tommy's Joynt:restaurant
If you've ever driven down Van Ness avenue in San Francisco you've probably spotted Tommy's Joynt. It's a hofbrau style restaurant, decorated wildly with memorabilia of all types and packed with red-checked tables. Inside it looks a bit...
- Avocado, Chipotle & Smoked Turkey Salad Sandwiches
Some friends were having a small potluck-style get-together over the weekend, and we were stumped; what to bring? Finally, I came up with these yummy sandwiches. Diced avocado, celery, scallion, smoked turkey breast, mayonnaise and freshly-ground chipotles,...