SF Weekly critic Jonathan Kauffman compares 2011 in S.F. to “the settling-in period that inevitably follows a new romance,” after the whirlwind food affair that was 2010. But nonetheless he recalls a quintet of comforting, satisfying dishes that he names as his five favorites of the year. They are, in descending order, Bar Tartine’s smoked mullet roe on buckwheat toast, off a menu of “some of the most personal and innovative food around”; Piccino’s semolina gnocchi with roast summer squash, olives, and a farm egg; the clay pot rice with Chinese bacon and spareribs at Ma’s Dim Sum Café in Chinatown (one of the stops in his “Rice Plate Journal”); apricot-cherry pie from Butter Love Bakeshop; and the veal tongue salad with celery and olives at Locanda. [SF Weekly]
