146. Bay Area - Foreign Cinema Rolls Out the Red Carpet (SF: Mission)

Last month I spent about 10 days in the Bay Area seeing old friends, meeting new ones, and stuffing myself silly.  Once of the first restaurants I visited in San Francisco was Foreign Cinema.  Diana and I chose this popular culinary destination to experience their brunch menu.  Here is what we ordered.

Smoked salmon, ruby red grapefruit with creme fraiche and black tobiko.  Gorgeous.

Sea bass tartare with wasabi tobiko.  The lime juice combined with olive oil made for a light, fresh taste.

Poached eggs with proscuitto ragu.  The runny yolk made for glorious food porn.

Croque Madame with toasted ham, Gruyere and some of the best béchamel sauce I've ever had.


After starting off with some raw dishes, we worked our way to hot dishes that were centered around eggs.  Apparently the co-owners Gayle Pirie and John Clark love eggs and have written a cookbook featuring recipes using eggs called Country Egg, City Egg.  We also order some cocktails, Love in the Afternoon as recommended by Chef Gayle and a Bellini, to go with everything.  It isn't Sunday brunch if there aren't any drinks involved, right?

The excellent service made us feel like the red carpet was really rolled out for us.  The food was done well and presented beautifully.  We would definitely come back again... perhaps to experience the much talked about dinner service.

Check out the Tastemade video above for some mouthwatering shots of our brunch.  Also, see my Flickr set for some images from our meal.  Until next time, let's all get S.O.F.A.T.

Foreign Cinema
2534 Mission Street
Mission District
San Francisco, CA 94110
BART: 24th St Mission

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128. Portland - Pearl Bakery is a Treasured Jewel (Portland: Pearl District)

After tasting Pearl Bakery's brioche for breakfast at Bijou Café, I wanted to check out the shop for myself to see what other wondrous bread options they had.  I stumbled into the bakery on a Monday morning when plenty of people in the Pearl District were in a mad dash for caffeine.  I'm sure those who were waiting in line behind me didn't appreciate that I ordered the croissant... and then the other croissant... oh, and then a coffee too.  Anything else? A macaron too, please.

Of course I got the standard butter croissant.  But in an instant I longed for something savory too.  So I asked for the ham & gruyere croissant as well.  It had to be eaten.  And it had to be eaten with a coffee.  Black.  Always.  I took one bite of the butter croissant... it was flaky with just enough of that butter essence.  No margarine or shortening here.  Then I took a bite of the ham and cheese croissant.  A bit more firm.  Yesss, the cheese... oh, the cheese.  Good.  A sip of coffee.  My mind was darting here and there.  I ate the pastries the way I made my selections at the counter.  If only I could make my pastry decisions the way I make my decisions about my coffee...

The white, vanilla bean Parisian macarons were staring at me in the display case.  They really were.  They were staring at me with their little vanilla bean spots... and they were saying... you want me.  Eat me.  Now.  Please.  I could envision them blinking at me.  Yes, I wanted it.  I wanted to eat it.  Right away.  Yes, please.

So a single, lone macaron was bought.  And that single, lone macaron was eaten.  Mmm... fluffy and creamy and stretchy all at the same time.  These three little pastries were enough to make me believe that Pearl Bakery makes treasured jewels of their baked goods.  Yum, but my mind was darting again.  It was time for doughnuts.  Off we go! Until we meet again at the doughnut shop (in 10 minutes), let's all get S.O.F.A.T.

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