Labor Day Lunch with Herrick

Herrick and I get together for a meal at least twice a year, usually to celebrate our birthdays, but this year has been a little off-kilter, so we met on Labor Day for lunch in the Mission, at Taqueria Pancho Villa. This taqueria is not the fanciest in the Mission, but it is arguably the best. Everything is fresh and cooked to order.

There are house-made tortilla chips and salsa to keep the aroma of previous orders cooking from driving you insane with hunger.

Chips!

And then there's your meal! Herrick likes spicy food and ordered the Hot and Spicy Prawns. His meal arrived before mine, so I swiped a prawn. And regretted it. Do not order hot and spicy here unless you mean it!

HOT & SPICY PRAWNS al chile de arbol

I like my food spicy but not hot. I ordered the snapper dinner, which came with guacamole instead of avocado slices. I don't know about substitutions, but the slices are available as an extra.

HUACHINANGO SNAPPER a la plancha

As you can see, the portions are huge. The staff cheerfully provided a substantial container for the leftovers. The menu is extensive, so check it out before you go. You order at the register, pay for your meal, then sit down and a waiter will bring your order to your table. There's usually a line, which gives you a chance to peruse the menu on the wall, but it moves quickly.

Bistro Michel - Oakland Grand Lake

Heya, Adventurers!  This is J.K.'s friend Beth, back in the States and home to the Bay.  I had just had a birthday, so later in the week my friend and neighbor Kathy took me out to dinner and a movie, as we do every year.

There is a new restaurant on Lakeshore in the Grand Lake over here in Oakland.  It's a French bistro and pastis bar called Bistro Michel, and it's become wildly popular for brunch.  We were doing dinner however, and barely got in without a reservation (Kathy wasn't sure when she'd get off work).

Apparently they have three different Pastis/Pernod liquors, and it was Pastis in my Sazerac.  Kathy had a kind of lemon drop:  vodka, vanilla, lemon and mint.  Both were tasty.

Kathy had a hanger steak that was a lovely and decent sized piece of meat.  She found it tasty, but a little less hot than she'd hoped.  That was because you can't cook a hanger steak to medium well, which she would have preferred.

I had an interesting dish:  rabbit cassoulet with house-made sausage.  In addition to its containing rabbit rather than a duck leg and confit, it was nontraditional in other ways.  There were some greens on top, and skinny carrots and parsnips sticking out of it.  It was much heavier on the meat than the beans.

That is indeed a burlap bag of bread; it arrived with a garlic butter-olive tapenade thingy.

The cassoulet ... to die for.  I can't describe the flavors and I don't know what the soft grain-type topping was, but it was as thoroughly delicious as a birthday entree should be.  The rabbit was tender enough to flake with a fork.  The sausage chunks were a little chewier, in a good way.

And apparently they don't want to scare anybody off by stating on the menu that they're horse meat, but the waitress mentioned that when I raved about the dish.  It's a Provencal thing, don't worry about understanding.

I'm going back for brunch, and will definitely have the cassoulet again.

It's possible to hang at the bar and have bar bites, too.

Bistro Michel is toward the Mandana end of Lakeshore, about three storefronts past the ever-reliable Spettro.  3343 Lakeshore, near Trestle Glen but across the street from that.  http://michelbistro.com//.

Sho 'nuff boss chow, y'all!