The Corkdork - Wine and Food Musing

Corkdork in Cork (Ireland)

I know my postings have been scanty these days, but the last couple of weeks has been a mad dash to finish up school for the kids, pack them off to various camps, and then pack ourselves up for more than two weeks in Ireland. We're really here for a celebratory return to herself's roots on for a landmark birthday, and coincidentally a not-so-landmark birthday for me in Cork City.

Big thanks to Boo.com (a Euro-Yelp) for a couple of great eating suggestions, first in Dublin, then in Cork and Kinsale. A few recommendations I give at this point (Day 4 in Ireland): In Dublin, a great lunch or dinner (if you book enough advance) can be had at the Winding Stair, close to the famous Ha'penny bridge. The Winding Stair has a good bookstore on the ground level and some windy steps that bring you up to a cozy spot focused on the local and organic. I had two special things for lunch --a seafood terrine with incredible brown bread, caperberries, and light aoli. This was followed by local celeb smoker Sarah Barnes' smoked pollack poached in milk with onions and cheddar mash - excellent. Very good wine list as well. We had a nice Alsatian Pinot Blanc. Also try the lamb chops, which for Americans, are very mild and fine.

First pint in Dublin was actually not Guiness, but a "Plain" from Mssrs MacGuire's (Master Brewers). Fresher and lighter in body than any Guiness I've had and very delicious. Herself had the "Haus" pilsner which is in Czec style, racy and delicious.

Next off to Cork County. We started off for Issac's for my birthday dinner, but when the menu didn't look food-allergy safe, we stumbled in to an alley next door and a very special place: Greenes Bar & Restaurant
Entrance through
Cobblestone Arch
48 MacCurtain Street,
Cork.
T: 021 4552279 F: 021 4506355
E: greenes@isaacs.ie
www.isaacs.ie
The first thing that strikes you is the beauty of the waterfall outside in the courtyard where you can sit and have a drink and wait for your table. The iridescent rock was there for millennia but the waterfall is actually man-made and well lit so it dominates the view from inside the restaurant as well. The hostess was French as was much of the staff, and the food is surprisingly well executed. An amuse-bouche came out of beautiful chicken liver mousse over some onion confit and drops of special balsamic vinegar. Since it was a special occasion, I got something totally unexpected and decidedly non-native...kangaroo tenderloin with roasted zucchini for my appetizer whilst herself went local...Irish beef carpaccio. Then onto (maybe a tad too) ample entrees of Monkfish with potato gratin,  and Beef Filet with potato cake and chanterelles for me. Both were very nice indeed, though the Filet's chanterelles were odd and unlike any mushroom I've ever had . We had a memorable bottle of wine as well, 2005 Mercurey 1er Cru Champs Martin from Domaine Emile Juillot (Theulot Vineyards). Fresh bing cherries pop out of an earthy core. Well worth seeking out. (I plan to when I return to the States).

Today we were off to the quaint village of Kinsale to the south of Cork. Best find there was the small tables at the Fishy Fishy retail store where the place was hopping on a rainy day with people enjoying the excellent seafood chowder, oysters, and crabs. We liked it so much that we bought dinner to bring home and warm up --little aluminum coquille-st.-jacques shells filled with cod, smoked cod, and salmon, bound together with cream and potatoes and topped with delicious basil bread crumbs. This, with a loaf of there excellent homemade brown bread was a great simple supper.  A late night find? The Long Valley for a cool pint of Murphey's.

Best Breakfast in Anaheim

I've been traveling for the last week, first to Disneyland and LA for a few days with my kids, then to Las Vega$ for work. The trip to the land of Disney usually has no culinary treats whatsoever, but thanks to yelp, I did manage to get away from the park for one good meal: breakfast at the Original Pancake House in Anaheim.

This is one of those old fashioned SoCal places that I find charming and real - the antithesis of the land of Goofy and Mickey. One bite of the sourdough flap jacks will have you sold. They are using a home made starter and the result is a heady-yeasty-yielding wonder. If only they had real maple syrup...

Next time you're down there, check it out.

1418 E. Lincoln
Anaheim, CA 92805
714-535-9815 Fax: 714-572-6638

Open 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily

Best Brunch Ever: Foreign Cinema

Another quick post. It was a busy eating weekend.

I took the family to Foreign Cinema for brunch on Saturday and was just blown away. First, a perfect black-peppery Bloody Mary, then some house "Pop Tarts" filled with huckleberries in one, and persimmon in another. My omelet was a revelation: Black truffle scented eggs, perfectly soft, with tiny bits of sautéed apple and chanterelles. Other things at the table were also a wonder: my son's fried eggs with balsamic and radicchio and potatoes (he ate every bite), and my daughter's eggnog-y French toast with dried fruit compote and mandarin orange butter was delicious. Do not skip the brown sugar roasted bacon - this is really tough to do at home without making sweet bacon jerky and here it's done to perfection.

I really doubt there any other brunch out there that is more amazing. Thanks, John & Gayle!

Full disclosure: my friends, John & Gayle are owner/chefs of Foreign Cinema, but that doesn't make it any less wonderful.

To My East Bay Loyals: Go to Maritime East!

Just a quick post. If you haven't tried the newest addition to the Berkeley eating scene, Maritime East, you owe it to yourself to give it a shot. The dungeness crab gratinée appetizer was worth the whole trip. I could have eaten 3 of them; perfect crab meat with coconut milk and apples --amazing. The octopus app was also amazing and unexpected. This has only  been open for a month since taking over the old Zax space, and it's still getting up to full steam in the kitchen. But, we need to spread the word!  Also, the Work Sauvignon Blanc was an excellent foil to the oysters and apps, and was very reasonable.

Alert!: $1 oysters after 10 p.m.  Holy cow.

Check it out.

2826 Telegraph Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94705

Heading to Point Reyes? Love Oysters? You must stop at the new Marshall Store

Yesterday, the family went off to the beach in Point Reyes National Seashore. We checked the webcam out there and it was almost as bad as right now. (See the fog zone to the right).  A little fog shouldn't stop you from visiting such an amazing place, and that webcam is out on the end of the point, so it's not necessarily the same as what you see on the beaches.  That was the case yesterday when we had perfect weather but looming fog on the point.

Traveling up Rt. 1 through Point Reyes Station, you need to turn to towards the Seashore, but if you continue on Rt. 1 instead, 8 miles past the town, you ramble into the little town of Marshall, population 50. Another mile or so on your left, is the tempting sign "yummy chowder". Park anywhere and head into the Marshall Store. Above photo©g.meyer.

There are perfect sandwiches on terrific local bread, and beautiful cheseses, but real insiders know that this is the place for the freshest Oysters in California. And the clam chowder, full of clams, thyme and smooth potatoes couldn't be truer to the yummy sign out front. We like our oysters raw with a little cocktail sauce or minionette, but you can also get them BBQ'd or Rockefeller'd.

Todd has been in the oyster business for years and is a top oyster supplier to many great restaurants and oyster distributors, and now he has an excellent outlet for his super fresh bivalves and gourmet food, with his family by his side. For now, you need to drink his small selection of Kermit Lynch wines and local beers at the tables by the road, but soon you should be able to have them on the simple, comfortable patio behind the building. This is a must stop for any foodie traveling to the area. Tell Todd, Kim, or Heidi that the Corkdork sent you.

As a full disclosure, I met the new owner of the Marshall Store, Todd, in 2005 at my house, when he came to the Taste of Ol' California with a gross of oysters and a pint of his excellent minionette in tow.

Tasting in Calaveras County Part 3: Lunch in Murphys

Just a quick post on my last day in the Sierra Foothills. Only a few of my readers probably know that I worked in the gourmet store business in NYC throughout my college years, so I'm a sucker for a really good one when I travel. I Yelped Murphys, expecting nothing, and up came this gem. The Alchemy Market and Wine Bar is right as you drive in to town on Main Street.

The take out section is in the Market area, with lots of great salads, soups (we had great, spicy Bloody-Mary Gazpacho), dips, cheeses, and sandwiches. They make their own "rustic roll"s, which are actually not all that rustic, but absolutely wonderful. These wide, flat, soft rolls, are probably made from a buttermilk sponge and make wonderful sandwiches. Because Murphys is close to Diestel, they feature Diestel Smoked Turkey and their mild-but-smokey ham. I absolutely recommend stopping there for lunch, either in their lovely patio if you have the time, or eating at the cafe tables inside the market.

Within the market, there is also a wide selection of good local wines, some of which I didn't find anywhere else, like the Tanner Melange de Mer, 2004 (only 100 cases produced). Definitely worth a stop.

Quince: Great meal and two great wines from DuJac and Vergari

My second visit to Quince was another top SF meal. Though the prices seemed to have gone up considerably since the last time I went there, we had a pretty spectacular meal. I started with the raw wild Amberjack with Persian cucumbers, chickpeas and lemon verbena which was a few choice morsels of sashimi (Aji in Japanese restaurants), with a light treatment. For this course, I picked the 2001 Dujac Meursault - flinty, blooming with honeysuckle and earthiness. This is a very full bodied Meursault, and is the work of a collective in the Cote d'Or. 

Next up was fresh Tagliolini with succulent fresh porcini mushrooms with a dusting of cheese.  After a stumble with the wine service, we were quickly delivered the star wine of the night, the 2004 Vergari "DuNah Vineyards" Sonoma Coast Pinot.  David Vergari makes this light but heavenly Pinot from grapes he somehow managed to talk Rick DuNah out of. Fans of DuNah's own wines would love this treatment as well. While lighter in body than most of the DuNah wines, it was in perfect form. This is the second time in the last couple of weeks that I was blown away by the quality of 2004 Sonoma Coast Pinots. (Fred Scherrer's 04 Sonoma Coast is also drinking wonderfully).  This was a great foil to my roasted Squab. It was tough to hold some wine back for the lovely (but microscopic in portion) cheese course.

Incanto San Francisco

On Friday night, I finally got to Incanto, tucked way in the mostly residential neighborhood at Church and 27th Street in the City. Incanto is known for organic and local produce and as the home of salumis and offal. You can find calf brains and porcini bruschetta, beef tendons with beans and sage, and tripe with tomato and sizzled egg.

We weren't in the most adventurous of moods, so we settled for more comfortable starters. The Cicerchia bean soup with borage was a must, as we grow borage and up 'til now had no idea how to cook it. The soup was tasty, especially the soft wilted borage leaves. Borage cooks down like sorrel without the sourness. The beans, however, hadn't quite crossed the line between comfortable bite and actually being done. I would have preferred them a little softer. The Ripini salad with San Remo olives and white anchovy was a revelation though. Ripini is usually mature and bitter, great tossed in pasta, but this was incredibly tender and bright raw leaves with no hint of bitterness. The perfect white alici anchovies were served in little boneless wads, as if they were passed under a fillet knife to bone them out and give them a creamier texture. Entrees were superb, the handkerchief pasta with rustic pork ragu was made with silky homemade pasta and the pork ragu was made in the lightest of styles. The majestic tile-maker's stew "Il Peposo", with grilled bread and mint was also spectacular. This is a deeply browned beef stew with winter vegetables served in a bowl atop a big piece of bruschetta with fresh mint on top. I've never had beef and mint together, but the combination is a wonder. The heat of the stew makes the mint aroma waft up when it's delivered --very inviting.

The featured wines on the reverse of the menu are where you should start unless you have your heart set on a particular bottle on the main list. Here you'll find several inviting flights, tastes, full glasses, and 1/2 litre carafs of some great wines. They deliver all the wines by the glass with paper stemware slips with your chosen wine on it, which is a really nice touch. I found the Falkenstein Riesling 2003 to go with the soup and it was a delicious choice. Not much of a classic reisling nose to it, as it's young and Italian, but it was viscous and juicy with subtle apple/pear citrus notes. The Marisa Cuomo Ravello Bianco 2005  was fresh and lightly fruity --another full-bodied white that was very food friendly.

The highlight for me though, was the Cascina Morassino Barbaresco 2000 that we had in carafe. This Nebbiolo is like the refined daughter of a domineering mother. Despite her beauty and intoxicating perfume, she can't help being a little bit bossy herself. While modern wine-making techniques have begun to lessen the blow of the mighty tannins in Nebbiolo, it's a part of its heritage. Ten years ago, I wouldn't have been able to get past the grip on a six-year old Barbaresco. This one however revealed the layers of richness and dark pruny goodness but retained a brightness of youth. The tannins give this wine some firmness, but no pucker. I'm already plotting to buy some of this.

I'm going to do what I can to get back here soon, if only for the wine flights. The food, however is not to be missed.

Paternoster Del Vulture Synthesi 2003 at A16

I've been to A16 on Chestnut Street a couple of times before, but only to sample the amazing Italian selections by the glass and enjoy the Marina scene. Last night, I finally dined there and had some good dishes and one excellent value Aglianico that I thought I should share.

Admittedly, my knowledge of Italian wines is pretty limited, but repeat visits to A16 surely will help. They specialize in real Southern Italian foods from Campania and Napoli and have lots of Southern Italian wines to match. The highlight of the evening was the sausage pizza from the wood-fired oven and the chanterelle pasta.

I got there a bit early and had a glass of the Paternoster Del Vulture Synthesi 2003 from Bottega del Vulture and it was so delicious that I ordered a bottle when my friend arrived for dinner.

The Synthesi is the least expensive of the Paternoster offerings, and I will try to find some of the higher-end bottles because this one was so tasty.

Color: Deep and dark, like an Amarone
Nose: Prunes, fig, woody mushrooms, with a pleasant oaky-mossy-lilypad kind of thing going on.
Taste: Dried cherries and orange peel, chocolate. Chewy and tannic, but not too gripping. Has a lot of old oak on it.
Repeat buy? Absolutely. This is probably around $20 retail.

SF Restaurant Wine Secrets

Did you know that many San Francisco restaurants have wine specials on certain days? I didn't either until I bought the excellent wine edition of San Francisco Magazine yesterday. Here are some secrets to getting a great value at a number of excellent restaurants around town. You may want to call them ahead and make sure it's still happening.

Bacar
448 Brannan St. SF 415-904-4100
One night a month they offer select bottles for 1/2 price. Next one up is next week, on June 5, 2006 for a choice of whites with their Solstice Menu.

Jack Falstaff
568 Second Street, SF 415-836-9239
BYOB on Sunday nights for no corkage.

Maverick
3316-17th Street. SF 415-863-3061
Monday Nights have every bottle 40% off.  I'm running to this, as Maverick's new American menu is one of the nicest finds in the Mission. Scott, the chef/owner revised this number from the 50% I posted earlier.

Millennium
580 Geary Street, SF 415-345-3900
Wine Geek Tuesdays have select bottles of their bio-wine picks at half price, or BYOB for no corkage.

Plumpjack Cafe
3127 Fillmore St. SF 415-563-4755
Screwcap bottles have no tariff on Monday Nights.  Also, the first bottle of any wine, when bought at Plumpjack Wine shop, has no markup. This is a yummy place, and the wine store has lots of my favs, including an amazing half-bottle selection.

Tablespoon
2209 Polk Street, SF 415-268-0140
First Monday of the month has no corkage. I have looked at the menu here, and it's on my list to try. I think it'll be on a Monday!

Zuppa
564 Fourth Street, SF415-777-5900
BYOB on any Monday night when corkage is free. This is an excellent spot. Don't miss the salumi plate and the home-made pasta.