Slow Food Can't Get Away

The Slow Food Nation festival is underway in San Francisco. Alex, Cass and I went to the Fort Mason Center this morning to attend a tasting of a variety of Slow Food-approved products.

They were grouped into a series of "taste pavilions." My favorites were the cheese and charcuterie, but the bread, chocolate, ice cream, beer, etc. were not far behind. Of course, we had to warm up with a "drop-in" event last night at The Cheese School!

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Tribu Grill

A report on our dinner last night at the Tribu Grill in San Bruno. A very nice spot - not at all fancy but a nice relaxed feel to the place and a lot of families with kids present. They have very limited parking - just three spots - but we were all able to park fairly nearby on El Camino.

I am afraid Miharu, Masumi (our client who had lived for a while in Manila) and I went a bit overboard on both overall quantity as well as the fried food ratio, but I thought everything was pretty good. Plus we all had some goodies to take home! We enjoyed:

~ Lumpia Shanghai (Fried Spring Rolls)
~ Chicharon Bulaklak (Pork Chitlins - slow roasted then quick fried; see photo above)
~ Kare-Kare (Ox Tail and Beef Brisket Stew in Peanut Sauce)
~ Crisp Pata (Leg of Pork - braised, slow roasted then deep-fried)
~ Ginataang Kalabasa and Sitaw (Squash, Longbeans and Shrimp in Coconut Sauce)
~ Binagoongan Fried Rice (Fried Rice with Pork Cooked in Fish Paste, Tomatoes, Scrambled Eggs and Chopped Mango)

With my fondness for the less-often used cuts, I particularly enjoyed the Chicharon Bulaklak. The Binagoongan Fried Rice was a wonderful combination of flavors pork, bagoong, tomatoes, scrambled eggs - even mangos - and a vivid presentation. Frankly that dish by itself may have been enough for the three of us!

Bottom line, I would certainly recommend the place and would like to return sometime. Continue Reading »