Perbacco- Featured Publishers Dinner

I was very excited to try Perbacco last Thursday night. I have hear about it and I was also anxious to try a new restaurant, I feel like I have been frequenting the same ones over and over as opposed to venturing out to new establishments. The first thing I dove into was the bread sticks and herb dip/tapenade that they had one the table. Apparently the entire staff makes over a thousand of these crunchy snackers every day. At least that is what someone at my table said. I can imagine that it would take the entire staff to handroll all these sticks. But it is well worth it. They were not at all similar to the tough/brittle and tasteless breadsticks of my youth. The ones I particularly remember are from Perry's in Tiburon (now the Piatti space). We used to dip the sticks into the ramekin of saltless butter. I would always try to convince my parents to let me order a Roy Rodgers or a Shirley Temple as well, a rare treat for the ten year old me. Anyway, back to 2008.

After I had sufficiently demolished 4 too many breadsticks and the majority of the herb/olive oil mix in front of me (definitely eating more than my share!) we were served my new favorite dish. Raviolo all'uovo. This was incredible. A warm raviolo (ravioli is plural, since there was only one, it is a raviolo) stuffed with ricotta, spinach and a perfectly cooked egg. And I absolutely love a runny yolk. I should have taken a picture of it when I cut into it and the yolk drizzled out, but I was too busy consuming at that point. Oh, and it was topped with truffle oil. Mmmmm, hungry just thinking about it.

We were then served a roasted red and gold beet and arugula salad. It was served with a Castelmagno cheese, which is a semi hard cheese from the Piedmont region of Italy. It reminded me a bit of a ricotta salata, but it's been a few days, so maybe I am off on this. The salad was nice, nothing to rave about. But this could also be because I had just eaten one of the best appetizers ever, so anything would be a bit of a disappointment after that.

There were two options for the main course. A seafood risotto, which I did not choose, and a pan roasted chicken with mushroom jus and herb roasted gnocchi.

I had a bite of the risotto and I will admit, it looks a lot prettier than it tasted. I think if it had been executed properly perhaps my review might be different, but it was undercooked so it was a bit crunchy almost. Not the correct texture for risotto.

The chicken was lovely. It was moist and tender and the gnocchi was out of this world. I don't think that it was traditional gnocchi, more like soft pillows of flavor. Magnifique! I thought I wouldn't have any room for dessert, but somehow I managed to consume an entire piece of the peach raspberry crostata. It was well worth it. Besides feeling like I weighed 500 pounds for the rest of the evening and the next day, Perbacco was absolutely wonderful and I am looking forward to my return visit.

Picnic in Dolores Park- Orzo Salad

To celebrate Katie's birthday last night we went to a very windy Dolores Park for some wine, food, and fun. I made an orzo salad that was a huge hit! Here's my makeshift recipe. It fed an army!

1.5 boxes of orzo (cooked and cooled)
1 cup of dried cranberries (or cherries would be good too)
1 bag of washed and cleaned arugula
1/2 c toasted pine nuts
a block of ricotta salata
zest and juice of two lemons
red wine vinegar
olive oil
salt and pepper
chiffonade of basil

The salad was delish. It was even better after sitting in the fridge for a night and day. I didn't have any because I was trying to stick to my vegan guns, munched on bread and hummus, some chips and salsa etc. I had a little non-cheese bite. But we had a lovely picnic and HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE!!!

Brrr, it was really windy!