Pour Coi

Before I start to forget all of the precious details of my 3-and-a-half hour odyssey through the 11-course repast at oh-so-classy Coi, nestled among North Beach's strip clubs and cheesy stores peddling all manner of sex paraphernalia, I'm getting it "down on paper"—though I'll rely on the images to tell most of the story.


cracker with fennel seeds accompanied by some very nice bubbly


a delicate beet rose with yogurt and shaved rose ice


geoduck, manila clams and seaweed salad


one of my faves: fromage blanc with wheat grass emulsion, a crispety wheat cracker and other goodies


pea soup ... not your mother's kind


asparagus with seaweed dust and a lemon sabayon


super moist, super tender duck tongue and crunchy abalone salad


morels with popcorn, popcorn sauce and roasted potatoes


Prather ranch beef tenderloin with bone marrow


carrots and coffee with yogurt and candied nuts


strawberries with sorrel ice cream and buttermilk foam


Muscovado cake and crisps


chocolate paper

Pickling Party

Koreans love pickles ... all kinds of pickles. Something about that sour-y, vinegary, sweet, tingly, tangy, fermented, fill-in-the-blank quality to the pickled vegetable or fruit tickles our fancy.

Happily, I got to attend a pickling party at J&J's not too long ago, where we canned several pounds of cucumbers, cherries and rhubarbs one lazy afternoon. OK, so the cherries weren't put into any kind of vinegar solution, but rather one favoring brandy and cognac. But since they were made specifically for Manhattans, which are meant to get a person pickled, we figured the shoe fit.