Intern's Guide to San Francisco - Part I Local Resources

Last Summer and fall I interned at Twitter on the search relevance team.  During my internship I lived in two locations: in the Castro and NOPA (north of panhandle) near UCSF.  Here are some notes from my experience for future interns.  First up is a short list of my favorite local SF resources. Knowing me, there is a strong focus on food resources.

Local Resources

7x7 - 'local' online paper
http://www.7x7.com/
- 7x7 is known for its lists.  For example, it has a new Big Eat 2012 List.
http://www.7x7.com/eat-drink/big-eat-2012-list

SF Fun Cheap

http://sf.funcheap.com/

- SF Fun cheap was my go-to guide for local events.  The "Most popular" events are often good indicators of what events are hot right now.

SF Weekly

http://www.sfweekly.com/

- Another good local magazine, which primarily focuses on entertainment: music, movies, events, art, and restaurants.  It has a good "Best of" section.  Their food section is pretty good.

Food section - http://blogs.sfweekly.com/foodie/

SF Gate (online SF Chronicle)

http://www.sfgate.com/

- The Chronicle is one of SFs big newspapers. It has an extensive coverage of major news.  I found the events and food sections particularly useful.

Events - http://events.sfgate.com/

Food section - http://www.sfgate.com/food/

Inside Scoop SF is a blog that focuses on restaurant news

http://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com/

Poor Taste Mag - SF section

http://www.poortastemag.com/category/places/san-francisco/

SF Eater

http://sf.eater.com/

SF Grub Street

http://sanfrancisco.grubstreet.com/

Annual Events

Start thinking about annual events in and around SF:

(You might start with this list and also another list of food and music festivals.)

Here are a few highlights:

SF Street Food Festival 

Outside Lands

SF Marathon

Tourist Club Sommerfest

Gilroy Garlic Festival

Pinot Days

Eat Real festival (September)

Short Edinburgh Guide to Food

I put all the food places on a map.  

http://g.co/maps/g9w3h

Things to see:

A list of things we told our wedding visitors to do a few years back:

http://krystleandjeff.com/thingstodo.php

Food

Be sure to have the old faithful cranachan (and sticky toffee pudding) for dessert, along with things like cullen skink, and haggis with neeps and tatties. 

The best restaurant in Edinburgh is The Kitchin. Worth the foodie trek, it's a splurge. but lunch is somewhat reasonably priced.  It's about a 8 GBP cab ride from town in Leith, which is a fine dining mecca.  (there is also a hot new fine dining place in the city: http://www.21212restaurant.co.uk/)

Urban Angel - Great for classic breakfast

One of my favorite places is the Guildford arms pub near the train station.  I also like the Doric Tavern not far from there.

I've heard good things about Monteiths (for the cranachan and other scottish food). 

Guide

First, don't take (just) my word for it.  You should read the local guides to the area:

The List - http://www.list.co.uk/  (In particular, their food and dining guide is "the" local guide) - It covers Edinburgh and Glasgow with parts of the surrounding areas.  The 2011 Eating & Drinking Guide.  
The Good Food Guide - http://www.thegoodfoodguide.co.uk/  -- "the" book to get for all of food reviews in the UK
CAMRA's Good Beer Guide 2011 - my favorite for good drinks.

Near the castle:

Ian Mellis Cheese shops - www.mellischeese.co.uk - One of the best cheese shops in the UK.  They have several locations in Edinburgh, one just off the royal mile.

The Whiskey Museum is a bity pricey, but worth it.  Save some tasting room for "The Whiskey Shop" just off the mile behind it which offers tasting and good value. My favorite is the Mcallan 18 yr.

Pub mini-crawl/walk

The Royal Mile Tavern, The Mitre, and the Whiski bar are all quite good (and adjacent).  In between is Dubh Prais, a very solid and traditional scottish restaurant.  A great concentration of gems on the east part of the royal mile.

La Garrigue, Edinburgh - My wife and I spent our honeymoon in Languedoc, so this is close to our hearts.  The chef was also recently featured on Gordon Ramay's "best restaurants" series.  

Valvona & Crolla - a popular italian cafe / restaurant

The Doric pub - A gastropub I visited once for dinner with a mate.  Good food, if a bit pricey for what it is, perhaps not what it used to be.

http://www.the-doric.com/

Other pubs: Bow Bar, The Malt Shovel, Albanach.

New Town

Most of these have been in old town, but there is some life in New Town.  

The Dome, the old standby JD Wetherspoon's chain pub is called the Standing Order which is super cheap with a good atmosphere.  There is the Harvey Nichol's store, including the food pavilion.

Further Afield

I've heard good things about the  L'Alba d'Oro for traditional fish and chips.  Oh and Atlantic Fast Food between Edinburgh and Glasgow was recently named the best fish and chip shop in the UK.

Glasgow Food Guide

I'm attending the CIKM 2011 conference in Glasgow.  Here's a quick guide to food in the area I compiled. The main focus of this guide is the West End, but other areas are covered to some degree.

All of these places and more are list on my Google maps guide.

Let's start with what you want: Beer. Lots of good Scottish real ale and grub to wash it down. Oh and maybe some whisky too.

Scottish Real Ale & Whisky
Three Judges - Pub with classic real ale
The Bon Accord - Another award winning CAMRA pub
BlackFriars - A real ale pub in Merchant City serving good food.
BrewDog - an American style micro-brewery serving west-coast style hopped "punk beer".  
Ben Nevis - Whisky bar 
Dram - a fantastic whisky and beer pub 

Seek sustenance:
Lebowski's - Normal every day tavern with decent pub grub.
Mother India Cafe - Indian small plates to share
Tinderbox Coffee - A great coffee shop on Byres road serving espresso drinks and homemade pastries
Ubiquitous Chip - A higher end dining experience
Stravaigin - Both locations have great food and service.  The Haggis with neeps 'n tatties is great here.
The 78 - An organic vegetarian restaurant, reggae on Thursday nights (thanks Kyle)
The Pelican - An upcoming bar-restaurant with an emphasis on wine.
Number 16 - An interesting looking restaurant on Byres Road 

Gourmet Food Shops:
George Mewes - A fantastic cheesemonger
DehmiJohn - Liquid gold by the 100ml, whisky, oils, liquers, and vinegars
Kember & Jones - a Gourmet food store which sells Tablet, and other great savory items 

Don't take my word for it.  Check out The List Food and Drink Guide.

Top 11 items for the new Modernist kitchen

The heck with the usual college/kitchen gear.  Get the new kitchen started off right with the latest in modernist cooking gear.

1) Liquid Nitrogen Dewar (or anti-griddle)

2) CookTek Induction burner (pans are optional)

3) Pressure Cooker - to pressure cook that sh*t

4) Polyscience Immersion Circulator - for all your sous vide cooking

5) Set of digital scales (small and large)

6) Thermometers - Ultra-tip therma-pen and Laser thermo-gun

7) iSi Hot/Cold ThermoWhip foam gun

8) RotoVap - rotary evaporator

9) Paco-jet

10) Combi-oven - temperature and humidity controlled oven

11) Selection of Crucialware serviceware (used in Alinea)

Knives, cutting boards, pans, peeler, microplane, and all that other stuff, optional.

And don't forget a selection of powders and chemicals WillPowder (and other equipment from WillEquiped).  

Nathan Myhrvold Modernist Cuisine TED talk

A new TED talk by Nathan Myhrvold on science and cooking, including how pickling works.

Watch me Compete on MasterChef Season 2 TONIGHT

Set your DVRs and tune in to the premier of Fox's MasterChef today, Monday, at 8pm. I am competing to be America's next MasterChef! For more on my cooking, read my modernist cooking blog, CookingPhD. Masterchef is cooking meets American Idol for amateur cooks. I was selected as one of 100 final contestants flown to LA out of 40,000 people that auditioned for the show. Watch me cook my signature dish for Gordon Ramsay, Graham Elliot, and Joe Bastianich. Here is quick promo video, with me searing my signature smoked duck at 2:11:

A bunch of the cast will be tweeting on #masterchef. The second part of the premier will air tomorrow, Tuesday at 8pm! (The episodes should also be on Hulu at some future date) Jeff, aka @cookingphd

Best Agave Mezcal Margarita for Cinco de Mayo

These are the best margarita's ever!  What makes them special is a homemade sweet-sour-smokey agave and mezcal vinegar.  

Mezcal is a relative of tequila made from distilled agave.  It is roasted over a fire, giving it a smokey and complex flavor.  It is made in small batches, mostly in Oaxaca.  It is usually drunk straight on the rocks, like a scotch.  So have a shot first!

For today, I am mixing up a less than traditional cocktail.  The base is the Perfect Margarita from chow, which is a simple classic.  Not too sweet, the drink highlights the mezcal or tequila and lime.  

Instead of the traditional cointreau, this recipe uses a small quantity of precious elixir: Lou Bank's homemade Agave Nectar Mezcal Raspberry Vinegar.  Lou honed his skills as the first distiller for Rogue.  His homemade vinegars are out of this world.  

Ingredients

1/2 oz Lou Bank Agave Nectar Mezcal Raspberry Vinegar (or Cointreau)

1 1/2 ounces traditional Mezcal, like Real Minero (or 100 percent agave blanco tequila) 

1 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice

Directions

Mix all ingredients.  Add a bit of simple syrup for sweetness if desired. A dash of angostura bitters can also add a bit of spice. 

For a salty edge, dip the rim of the glass into a shallow bowl of mezcal, drip off excess.  Then dip

the rim in a coarse salt to coat.  The alcohol evaporates more quickly than water, leaving the salt crispy and not too sticky.

For the version in the picture I served it over maple sap ice cubes left over from my maple syrup experiments.  It provides just a hint of sweetness.

Enjoy Cinco de Mayo!  Be sure to tune in to watch Masterchef on June 6th!

Watch me on Fox's MasterChef USA Season 2

I one of the 100 contestants chosen for the new season of MasterChef!  

Read the Fox press release announcing the 100 contestants.  I am one of the 11 contestants chosen from Massachusetts.  From the PR release:

"Jeff Dalton, PhD Student, Northampton"

The Boston Herald picked up the news, be sure to check out the post on their blog and pick up a copy of today's paper!

Tune in on June 6th and 7th for the premier on Fox at 8pm (7 central) to see who will be America's next MasterChef!