Sweet & Savory

SF Dine About Town: Part II-A

So yes! Our internet at home is finally up and running. It's so good to be back. The internet really hasn't been around for very long and already it's so ingrained in my life that I felt WITHDRAWL symptoms!! Let us just say that I severely missed the internet and it's good to blog again. And now, onto more important matters... THE FOODS!!

Fringale is a beautiful restaurant with scattered soft-lit lights and filled with the low murmur of indistinguishable conversations. Interesting modern-ish arts adorn the warm "sponged egg-colored" walls. One entire wall was devoted to geometrically stacked cubby-holes of fine wines. A lovely cymbidium orchid and tulip arrangement sat at one end of the bar, greeting each hungry patron as they walked in. If the decor and atmosphere were any indication of the food, we were in for a fabulous evening of fine dining!

The meal started out with a rattan basket of sliced baquettes and a dish of sweet butter, a little something to tie us over until the entrées arrived. The bread was not warm but still light, fluffy and sweet.

As the bread and butter was winding down, our appetizers arrived. I had the arugula salad with ruby red grapefruit slices and small cubes of feta cheese lightly coated with olive oil and topped off a dusting of freshly ground pepper and minced chives. It was a delicious salad! The bite from the arugula went well with the sweet but slightly tart grapefruit and the mild-mannered feta. I'm normally not a fan of feta as some of the ones I've tasted can be described as "squeaky" and awfully pungent, but the one in the dish was very nice. In addition, the arugula, feta, and grapefruit all had different textures making for interesting bites.

My main course, the tender braised short ribs, arrived shortly after I devoured the salad. The delectable melt-in-your-mouth short ribs sat on a large dollop of creamy mashed potato and was accompanied with perfectly cooked and seasoned red chard. Yum!! I ate everything on the plate!

To finish our delicious meal, I chose the sorbet du jour, something light and refreshing after something so heavy as short ribs. The sorbet du jour was composed of a scoop each of coconut, raspberry, and passionfruit sorbets in a simple white bowl with a vanilla cigar cookie on top. What was particularly surprising was that out of the three flavors, my favorite was the coconut sorbet rather than the raspberry or passionfruit sorbets. It was delicate and sweet, rather than creamy, and the absence of pencil-shaving-like coconut shreds made it perfect. (Remind me to post about the coconut sorbet from E & O Trading Company sometime.)

In all, dining at Fringale is a very satisfying affair with beautiful decor and delicious food. My only gripe is that it's so far away! It take about 1 hour just to drive there. I wonder if they would be willing to consider moving south or at least start delivery service. :)