#1 Roast chicken and bread salad at Zuni (2009 and 2010)

A few weeks ago, thanks to the largesse of our family friends S&T, we headed to Zuni Cafe. My mom has loved the cookbook for years, and I've had fond feelings for proprietress Judy Rodgers since finding out she is both a Stanford and Chez Panisse alum. True to the CP ethos, she uses beautiful, farm-sourced ingredients, often presented with minimal intervention.

The menu changes frequently, but one of the standards is the roast chicken and bread salad, which takes an hour (cooked to order) and serves two. S&T split it for dinner, but I'm counting it on the blog because B and I each had a drumstick that night, and we took home a little bit for leftovers. Honestly, the leftovers were my favorite part; I made a delicious chicken sandwich for lunch the next day! It's good chicken (though maybe not "good frikin chicken"), don't get me wrong, but it just seems a little silly to order roast chicken in a restaurant when it's so easy to make at home. I know that the bread salad is not as easy to replicate as the rest of the dish, but, surprisingly for this carbo kid, it actually wasn't my favorite part (though I loved the currants, pine nuts, and arugula that the bread was tossed with).

The rest of our meal was great: we started with some fritti misti (including a fried lemon slice—who knew how delicious that would be!) and an excellent Caesar. B's entree was lamb prepared four ways, and I had carne asada.

It's a little too spendy for frequent visits, but Zuni is a San Francisco institution, and we'll certainly be back. In the future, though, I'll plan to make my roast chicken at home.

#85 Pulled-pork sandwich at Roadside BBQ (2009 and 2010)

Two nights ago, I wasn't in the mood to make dinner. This was not related to a lack of ingredients in the house (I'd been to the grocery store, and we'd received our CSA box a few days before), but rather to laziness. Nothing more, nothing less. So, first I made a caprese salad with some fresh heirloom tomatoes and the lovely imported buffalo mozzarella from Costco, and then we scanned the list. We headed for #85 pulled-pork sandwich at Roadside BBQ.

How did we choose it? Well, the 2010 version has pictures of some of the greatest hits including this tasty-looking sandwich, plus A&K had been to Roadside BBQ not long before and enjoyed it, plus we read on the website that the proprietors also run one of B's frequent lunch stops, Pancho's. It seemed fated.

I ordered the pulled-pork sandwich, which arrived on a pleasantly firm ciabatta-style roll. I added extra Carolina vinegar sauce to the sandwich, and dug in. The pulled pork was quite good, but I wish the coleslaw, so prominent in the picture, had provided a little bit more texture instead of just color. B went for the brisket plate, which was also tender and tasty. Between those orders, we had three sides: the mac and cheese (disappointing, which I knew it would be, but B wanted to order it), the sweet potato fries (pretty good), and baked beans (delicious!). We were pretty happy that we had had a caprese app at home, because we needed some fresh veggies in our systems.

What stood out most was the service, especially for an order-at-the-counter-style restaurant. When deciding on sides, I asked what the potato salad was like (vinegar-y or mayonnaise-y), and was offered a taste. The "taste" was essentially a side serving!

All in all, I prefer Carolina pulled pork (really, who doesn't?), but Roadside BBQ is a moderately-priced San Francisco alternative.