Thursday, February 25, 2010

Farmer in the Tenderloin

As I was taking photos of farmerbrown (25 Mason Street, San Francisco), a homeless woman asked me for money.
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farmerbrown's interior bears no resemblance to its neighborhood. Dark but warm and inviting. A healthy clamor.

I met volenti and EastSideFluffy for the first time here, and, yes, I brought my camera.
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I took pictures only of food. Sorry. I know what they look like, and you don't.

Complimentary warm corn muffins and strawberry butter.
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Like dessert for an appetizer. Oh, yeah.

El Caballo Loco ($9). Vodka, fresh muddled kiwi and cilantro, shaken.
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Tartastic. Tartablous. Tartful. Really enjoyed this even though I had no idea what made it a crazy horse.

Bring the Beet Back ($9). Beet gin, homemade kumquat marmalade, fresh berry nectar.
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volenti sipped this happily. The swig I had was sweet and delish.

Seafood jambalaya with red snapper, mussels, and prawns ($19.95).
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My nibble of volenti's dish was pleasant. Ok, it wasn't just a nibble. I swiped a full shrimp.

Rocky Range fried chicken, hamhock greens, macaroni and Tillamook cheese ($16.95).
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I had high hopes for my pick. Perhaps my hopes were too high. The chicken was ok. I wish the skin had been crunchier. The mac 'n' cheese was so very sad. The shredded cheese on top wouldn't melt, no matter how much I asked it to. Oddly, the greens were probably the best thing on the plate, and I don't even like collard greens that much -- proof positive that pig makes everything better.

Crispy cornmeal catfish, hush puppies, candied yams, pickled onions, garlic yellow beans, homemade remoulade ($17.95).
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Winner, winner, catfish dinner! EastSideFluffy triumphed with her meal. The fish was crisp and tender, and the yams were sugary nuggets of joy. Easily the best entree on the table.

Lemon cheesecake with kumquat jelly ($7).
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Rich, dense, heavy, creamy. Kumquats provided a nice contrast. The three of us didn't even make it through half. Weaksauce.

Real deal red velvet cake ($7).
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Moist and sexy. Yes, this cake was sexy. We couldn't handle the sexy. We only got through less than half of the sexy. I mean, did you see what we ate before this? Not sexy.

farmerbrown needs some tweaking. I had to salt my mac 'n' cheese. That's a problem.

Thankfully, neither EastSideFluffy nor volenti needs any tweaking. Each is enjoyably salty on her own.

24 comments:

  1. everything *looks* so delicious, though... it's sad when mac and cheese goes wrong. :(

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  2. pig makes everything better....agree 100%.

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  3. You're such a tease! And that looks like a great spot, even if it requires tweaking.

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  4. Well at least you had some good company :)

    I agree, collards with pork (or even smoked turkey) are delicious.

    The beet drink looks interesting. Hmmm.

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  5. I have only been to Sanfo (wink) a few times but I have visited farmer browns before. I enjoyed the cocktails immensely.

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  6. Great summary of the evening! It was so fun to meet you! :D

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  7. strawberry butter! that sounds so delicious. as long as there weren't chunks in it.

    you already know how jealousE i am of your GTG :) but i'm glad volenti didn't turn out to be a 47-year-old bald man. hahahahahahahaha!!

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  8. Apparently they forgot to taste before it left the kitchen? Gordon would be appalled. Glad to hear ESF and Volenti were appropriately salty!

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  9. Lucky! I've always wanted to meet volenti and ESF. And weezermonkey.

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  10. Ugh. Sorry the mac and cheese and friend chicken wasn't so good. It looks delicious from the picture.

    I guess ESF and Volenti aren't cool enough to post pictures of your meetup on the interwebs like we are. :)

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  11. 17 bucks for a not-so-tasty fried chicken dinner is a travesty. This should never happen. I'm glad you had good company to comfort you during your loss.

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  12. I should have extended my visit to SF last weekend just so I could have crashed this dinner.

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  13. You're so brave! The hubs won't let me near the tenderloin in the daytime, let alone at night. Although, to be fair, I wouldn't let him explore Alphabet City when we were in NYC.

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  14. Not only did you meet them but you shared food too? Jelly!! And wow, I've never had beet gin, sounds interesting.

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  15. Your pictures have always been good, but now they are super duper good (:

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  16. hey, at least dessert didn't disappoint? fun that you were able to meet up with some lovely ladies!

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  17. So fun (and I'm jelly)! Holler for blog comments.

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  18. I came just to see V's cleavage and even though it's blurry, it did not dissapoint. j/k

    The drinks look so delicious. The Crazy Horse one especially.

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  19. corn muffins & strawberry butter and crispy catfish sounds like a great combo to me!! And kumquat with cheesecake? That sounds like a tasty combo.

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  20. So, did you give the homeless man any money? Or maybe you gave him your half eaten desserts on the way out?

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  21. I kept looking at the glasses for reflections. Okay, not really. But dinner looked like, I don't know, something you could get here for $5.99? :)

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  22. What a great dinner - the food and the company. :)

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  23. i need to go to SF again while i can still stay at that fab penthouse AND have income so i can eat well.

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