Rose Cantine

From The Guardian UK, an indictment on women’s obsession with weight (i.e. the disappearing sort) by Mimi Spencer:

“She’s far too thin. Everybody says so. In those shrunken hot pants and skinny red vest she looked positively ravenous, like an urchin from Oliver Twist - albeit one with this season’s Prada handbag and hair extensions.

But just how skinny is Victoria Beckham? How would it feel if she sat on your lap? Would she be heavier than a kitten? If you hugged her would she break? We do know that she wears jeans with a minuscule 23-inch waist - the size, apparently, of a seven-year-old child (it is also, as it happens, the precise circumference of my head).

VB is not alone, of course, but merely the leading exponent of a New Look which has come to dominate our lives. Other exemplars include Lindsay Lohan, Mischa Barton, Nicole Richie, Kate Bosworth, Amy Winehouse - women relatively new on the celebrity radar who skitter across the pages of magazines, coat hangers furnished with tennis-ball boobs and expensive shoes, not a shred of fat to share among them. You might not give a tossed salad how much these bony birds weigh. You might even agree with Kate Hudson (who recently won a libel action against the UK National Enquirer magazine for implying she had an eating disorder) that it is none of our business. But it is. It matters because hyper-thin has somehow become today’s celebrity standard and, as a result - almost without us noticing - the goalposts have moved for us all.”

To read the rest, click here.

Ladies, my solution: read my restaurant reviews and my recipes and EAT!!

This weekend I went to the Farmers’ Market at the SF Ferry Building to meet Glen Bolosan and Gabriel Amaya, two San Francisco photographers whose Flickr photos got me thinking seriously about devoting more time to photography. I have been drooling over Glen’s and Gabe’s photos for sometime now and wanted to meet the people behind the camera.

You can find their beautiful photos at:

Glen: www.flickr.com/photos/mochiland/
Gabriel: www.flickr.com/photos/gabo/

Not only are they excellent photographers, they are also into good food and wine. They have a food-wine-photography blog called Crostini and Biscotti.

Check out this recipe for citrus cupcakes with a lemon grand marnier icing.

I’m on a roll here. Every restaurant I have been to over the past few weeks in San Francisco has been outstanding — thanks to recommendations from foodie friends (Carol Singh and Andy Abramson, in particular), who I am sure lived through the awful ones long enough to provide me with an edited version of what’s really good in the Bay Area.

Last night I went to Piperade with Paul Bragiel, founder of Meetro, “location-aware social messenger”. Piperade is located at the base of Telegraph Hill, close to the Embarcadero, and serves “West Coast Basque cuisine” - a lighter, more California version of traditional Basque food. Still, for purists, they have Basque classics like braised rabbit and sauteed calamari in ink sauce.

The restaurant is beautiful - lots of wood, subdued lighting (not too bright or too dark) - and it’s not noisy. The tables are not squished closely together so you can have private conversations and not have to shout or listen to the other diners. It’s a very civilised place to have dinner. And the food is absolutely fantastic!

What we had: warm sheep’s milk cheese and ham terrine; garlic soup with rock shrimp, bacon, bread and egg; marinated lamb chops with thyme and aged sherry vinegar (very tender and juicy, spices did not overwhelm the lamb); roasted pork tenderloin confit with braised cabbage and figs; apricot and almond tart with vanilla ice cream; gateau basque with mango coulis.

Portions are delightfully small. The flavors were all delicately balanced.

The scene: strictly foodies

Other observations: we had reservations for 21:30 and it seemed everyone was already attacking their dessert. By midnight, the restaurant was empty, except for Paul and me, enjoying the last of our coffee. I am still trying to find a good San Francisco restaurant that’s buzzing at midnight.

Piperade
1015 Battery Street
San Francisco
Phone: (415) 391-2555

Airlines have been threatening for some time now to enhance your inflight misery by allowing mobile phone calls in the air. Now it seems that one airline, Ryanair, is serious about this. Glenn Fleishman reports that Ryanair, a European budget airline, will equip 50 planes with mobile phone capability by the end of 2007.

So let’s see, in addition to screaming children, drunken English tourists going for bachelor party weekends to Amsterdam, rabid football fans and just LOUD people, now we get the business types yakking away on their mobile phones. I am amazed how much noise we tolerate, from blaring announcements in airports to adverts on TV and on the Internet. It seems people are afraid of silence. I know many who need to leave the TV on while doing chores at home.

Flying has never been a truly delightful experience, but it’s now getting to the point of being unbearable. From the dreadful security procedures in airports to the inedible airline food (a good time to go on a fast), video conferencing never looked better.

I am hoping other airlines do not follow Ryanair, which is now on my official list of airlines to AVOID.

Update: according to Glenn Fleishman who recently wrote an article for the Economist on this subject, mobile phone calling will become more and more accepted on airlines.

Located next to the Commodore Hotel on Sutter Street near downtown San Francisco, Canteen is one of the best places to eat in the city - very good food in a tiny space that looks like a diner. There are four booths that each seat four, and a long bar, also for dining. Given the tight space, it is nearly impossible to get a reservation but it’s worth the trouble.

What to order: the menu changes regularly. I love the ragout of wild mushrooms and the vanilla soufflé is the best I’ve ever tasted. The crêpe au chocolat is divine!

The scene: strictly foodies

Read the San Francisco Chronicle review here.

Canteen
817 Sutter St. (near Jones), San Francisco
Phone: (415) 928-8870

Vivande is an Italian trattoria on Fillmore Street in Pacific Heights. It’s my favorite Italian place in this part of town. It is not pretentious, the food is what I am used to eating in Italy, and the prices are reasonable.

What to order: the menu changes often and they have daily specials. If they have fagioli alla toscana (cannellini beans with pancetta, garlic and sage), you must get it. They make their own pasta and the cannelloni di pollo is wonderful. All of the desserts are divine. The pasta dishes are huge (I have not been able to finish any of them). They have a small but good wine list.

The scene: Pacific Heights crowd, very mellow

Vivande Porta Via
2125 Fillmore Street
San Francisco, CA 94115
Phone: +1 (415) 341 4430