Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Eating Local (well, sort of)

Phil and I went to check out Fish & Farm last week. After one meal, it has become my local, got-o place for Cal-Med type food. The main feature of the place is that it is part of the "localvore" movement - eating food produced within 100 miles of where you live.
The vibe is relaxed and intimate and the service is pleasant. We stayed mostly on the farm side of the menu. So the fish side will need further exploring. We were given creamy celery-root and pear soup topped with snipped chives as delightful amuse bouche.

GRILLED MONTEREY SQUID, BRAISED BUTTER BEANS, HARISSA, PRESERVED LEMON - wonderful appetizer that was succulent and fresh
SLOW BRAISED LAMB SHOULDER, SMASHED RED POTATOES, MUSTARD GREENS, ROSEMARY LAMB JUS - tender, melt-in-your-mouth. Not gamey at all.
GRILLED BERKSHIRE PORK CHOP, FRESH CAVATELLI AND CHEESE, SMOKED BACON, BRUSSELL SPROUTS - such sweet juicy pork.
The thing about eating local is that... it's really hard. When we asked our server about the local-ness of the ingredients... well, the proteins and produce are procured more or less within 100 miles of SF. But the spices used were not. Our wines were not (as were most of the wines of the list). How does that fit in with a low carbon footprint (in terms of shipping foods) meal I am not sure as while we may not grow spices around here, we sure do have Sonoma and Napa within 100 miles.

1 comment:

Phil G said...

Victoria, that was a great and fair review. I just wanted to mention that the pork is prepared by default on the medium side. However, since I don't like my pork pink, I asked if they can cook it medium-well. So, although it was still succulent and juicy inside, the outside was slightly burnt.

Also notice how good the pictures turned out considering we used Vic's camera-phone with candle light as flash.