Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Craftsman and Wolves' Crafty Creation

How best to describe the desserts at Craftsman and Wolves? Well, besides the fact that they are truly eye candy, they're also packed with complementary and contrasting flavors that set the Valencia patisserie apart from any other in the city. 

This cool creation was a vanilla bomb of creamy goodness, filled with an apple puree, sitting atop a springy graham crust.

The coconut slivers, fennel fronds, kumquat and apple slices added personality to the diminutive dish.

And how fun that when you cut into the white sphere, it was like you were tucking into a soft-boiled egg. Craftsman and Wolves gets bonus points for finding humor in their creativity.

Monday, February 24, 2014

Bratwurst on a Bun at Pig & Pie

Pig & Pie in the outer Mission has two of my favorite things though I have yet to try the latter. Maybe next time I'll make room for a slice of one of their daily specials (Wow, today's line-up includes Mississippi Mud, Pear Blueberry, Chocolate Cheesecake, Lemon Shaker and Apple ... mouth is salivating).

On this visit, I settled on the bratwurst on a bun, which came with a healthy helping of crunchy sauerkraut and a tasty squeeze of spicy beer mustard.

A bit on the pricy side at $8.50 (Really? For a hot dog?). But considering everything's made from scratch, and all of their porky pig comes from a "consortium of small family farms in Texas, hormone and antibiotic free," I figured it was worth the "splurge."

Indeed it was. After all, who doesn't love a good brat? 

And now for that pie ...