Food Porn: San Francisco - Part 2

This is the third part in a three-part series showing off all the wonderful food I had the opportunity to eat while on vacation.

As I mentioned earlier this week, I couldn't pack all of the amazing food in San Francisco into just one post. So this post will cover the food I ate in a special San Francisco version of Sunday family dinner. But on a Tuesday. And without all of the usual suspects.

But first, since it is Halloween and I love a good pun, I present to you my alter ego, Ghoulia Child. Straight from the Castro District. An expert at knife play, but I've been a bit frightened to try too many of her recipes. Beef Bourguignon has been my only attempt...and it wasn't even her recipe. I digress. Happy Halloween to all. Now on to more food porn!

I've often blogged about my regular Sunday family dinners in DC and one of our core family members, the illustrious Jon Wright, recently moved to San Francisco. We decided to have our own family dinner while I was in town, opting to eat in the Mission District where I was staying. There were so many options, but we elected to try out a place called Grub. They had me at "build your own mac and cheese."

Most of our regular dinner parties include some sort of kale dish. Fried, baked, mixed with other vegetables, it's become a staple. So when we saw crispy kale with brown sugar on the menu, we had to try it.  Here is Jon partaking of these giant pieces of kale. They definitely held up to the name of "dinosaur kale." By far the T-Rex of kale chips.

For the main dish, we elected for the make-your-own mac and cheese, with truffle oil, bacon and caramelized onions. This was one of the more tame mix and match options. We could have gone crazy and opted for fennel with chipotle BBQ pork, or grilled corn with Maine lobster. The possibilities were endless.

We also ordered the braised lamb, which included mint couscous and caramelized root vegetables. I've become a recent fan of well cooked lamb dishes, something that I never really had much of in my formative years. But a well seasoned lamb shank medallion? Sign me up!

I know I've mentioned this before, but I'm not a big dessert person. But sometimes I'm surprised by my desire for something sweet. This was one of those occasions. And when I saw this description for one particular dessert, I just had to order it. And it was worth it. While I don't remember all of the gory details of what comprised this dish, it had pumpkin cheesecake with caramel, and pretzel brittle and I'm sure fairy dust or something magical because it was awesome. And here it is. A sweet ending to a trio of food porn posts.