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Fri, 02 Dec 2005

Chow turns ten

The "chow" conference on The Well is, needless to say, my favorite. Chow is devoted to the singular and unilateral pursuit of food and drink, disregarding all obstacles and distractions. It was founded on November 30, 1995, by Well user <kayo>, meaning that November 30, 2005 was a good night for a tenth-anniverary party, hosted by <kayo> and chow's inner circle.

We met at Medjool, a contemporary Mediterranean bar and restaurant in San Francisco's Mission district. It's a pretty snappy place, with a large, high-ceilinged main floor with a large bar, and a wraparound mezzanine with a satellite bar and good sight lines. We took over the mezzanine bar and its environs, which is a great place for a party.

The menu circles the Med, with sections focusing on North African, Southern European, and Middle Eastern dishes. We started with some of the cold plates -- crisp pitas with a yogurt dip; soft pitas with hummus, baba ghanoush, and tabbouleh; and plates of cured olives. The tabbouleh was easily the best I've had. It's something I usually turn my nose up at, having been associated in my college years with whole-wheat granola hippie food from my co-op house's alternative (i.e., vegetarian) kitchen. But this stuff was pretty serious, with lots of olive oil and garlic, and you can't go wrong there. (I've always liked hummus and baba ghanoush, and these were good examples.) The olives were sublime. They marinate them in-house, and in addition to the usual flavours I detected notes of anise, sumac, and cinnamon. It was hard not to just gobble up the whole dish, but I wanted to Play Well With Others.

Our little table ordered two dishes to share -- everything at Medjool is "small plates" oriented and suitable for sharing -- and both were hits. The fried sumac-dusted calamari, red onions & lemons with aioli went pretty quickly. (I'd never had a deep-fried lemon slice before.) This was followed by brined pork tenderloin on a bed of chorizo white beans, which was a stand-out. The pork was grilled just short of medium with the exterior having just the right amount of char. It was sliced and presently beautifully on top of the bean-chorizo mixture, which itself was superb, as the white beans soaked up the juices.

This was all washed down, in my case, with a very dry Spanish cava, Segura Viudas Brut Riserva Heredad, which comes in a bottle adorned with what looked like devotional jewelry from Madonna's early career, but was very tasty. That was followed by a Norwegian artesian spring water called VOSS, in the cylindrical glass bottle.

To top the evening off, I was even able to find a convenient parking space on Mission Street. Anxiously awaiting chow's 20th!

Posted at 17:59 | permanent link

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