Growing up in a Chicago suburb, Patricia Unterman ate lox and bagels “every single Sunday” and her fair share of ethnic foods from the Old Country, such as borscht and what she calls — for lack of a better name — “chicken pancakes” made of ground chicken and egg.
“I learned to cook from my mother, who learned to cook from her mother-in-law,” says Unterman, a San Francisco resident and restaurant owner who is best-known in the Bay Area for her weekly restaurant reviews in the Chronicle and Examiner.
But it wasn’t her relative’s Jewish cooking that made the greatest impact on her. Rather, it was their drive for quality results. “They taught me principles about cooking — to use the best, freshest ingredients,” Unterman says. When her mother made chopped herring, for instance, “the herring had to be perfect, fresh.”
It’s not surprising, then, that in her newly released book, “San Francisco Food Lover’s Guide,” Unterman devotes a lot of ink to where and how to find not only the best fish in San Francisco, but the finest seasonal produce, the tastiest breads, the most proficient butchers, etc.
She also names her favorite places to get bagels and East Coast-style deli, and points out some of the small, Russian delicatessens that offer Old World favorites. In all, the guide covers 600 restaurants, bars, markets and takeout eateries. Most are in San Francisco, listed by neighborhood, with a smattering of entries from the East Bay, Marin and Wine Country as well.
This revised and updated third edition of her book was two years in the making “and it’s a labor of love, can I tell you,” Unterman says in one breath.
Written for both locals and tourists, Unterman’s first and second guidebooks to the Bay Area food scene came out in the ’90s. Having been a food critic with the San Francisco Chronicle for 16 years, as well as for the Hearst-owned Examiner and its current incarnation, Unterman says that first edition wasn’t all that difficult to put together.
Also the chef-owner of Hayes Street Grill (in her book she calls it a “fish house”) and the adjacent Vicolo Pizzeria in San Francisco, Unterman says she has a “finger on the pulse” of the local food scene. “Also I have sources I really trust; I follow chefs, I’m just in it.”
Updating the book this time was challenging. Since the last edition five years ago “there’s been kind of a volcanic shift” in the restaurant scene, she says, from boom to bust. Conversely, there’s been an explosion of “incredible sources of supply in the markets.” Keeping everything current proved time-consuming for someone who already works every morning at her restaurants and makes three shopping trips a week to the Ferry Plaza and Heart of the City farmers markets for ingredients.
So when asked if another book is in the works, she quickly replies: “I’m not even thinking about it! When I finished this book, I thought, ‘I’m never going to do it again…’
“It was torture, but [the book] is being very well-received.”
Besides being a successful food writer and chef-restaurateur, Unterman is a very discerning eater. “What I really am,” she writes in the book’s introduction, “is an eater, someone who loves food of every kind, but with an almost obsessive discrimination.”
So, her pick for best bagels? The Bagelry, 2139 Polk St., S.F. “They are chewy and carry some weight,” she writes. “They have a good, deep flavor and toast up fragrantly. Unlike the lite bagels being sold everywhere…the one main purpose of a Bagelry bagel is as a landing for cream cheese — and on flush days — smoked salmon…”
House of Bagels, 5030 Geary Blvd., also gets a rave. She writes: “Bagel lovers from all over the city converge on this Jewish bakery for authentic, chewy, substantial bagels.” The onion and sesame bagels are good, Unterman notes. “The House of Bagels product has soul.”
Where to go for matzah ball soup, pickled herring, chopped chicken liver or braised brisket? The “scrappy little” East Coast West Delicatessen, at 1725 Polk St., has it all, Unterman reports. “The two professionally trained San Francisco chef-owners apply the principles of good cooking to all these traditional East Coast Ashkenazi dishes, but understand their homey nature.” Besides giving high marks to the prepared foods, Unterman pays her respects to the pastrami sandwich. “East Coast West puts out a properly spicy, peppery, fat-laced hot pastrami sandwich accompanied with an ample portion of clean, sprightly coleslaw as well as a small new pickle.”
She uncovers some treasures in the Richmond District. At European Food, 3038 Clement, she finds “the familiar smells of smoked fish and garlic of the Jewish delis I grew up with…” Beyond that, there is an array of Eastern European products and Russian specialties to be tried.
And at Moscow and Tblisi Bakery, 5540 Geary, “few words of English are uttered by the counterwomen, who grab your delicious, amazingly light-textured black bread or tall, crusty-but-soft white (the rye is OK but not as wonderful as these two loaves) and slap them into plastic bags. Both loaves miraculously demonstrate that bread can have character, flavor and a real crust while still having a soft texture.”
Among a sprinkling of recipes, she includes Joyce Goldstein’s Pickled Salmon, which was offered at Goldstein’s former Square One restaurant every spring. “Actually, I first tasted it at a seder of restaurant people,” writes Unterman. “We each brought a dish, but this is the one that knocked me out.”