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BART Testing Wifi?

We had just opened our laptop this evening on our ride back across the Bay when a dialog popped up: "None of your usual wireless networks could be found. Do you want

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

SFist in the Kitchen: Celery Root

The fruit and vegetable world overflows with deceptive names, from English's lemongrass—there's no lemon in it—to French's pommes de terre—they'r'e

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

SFist in the Kitchen: Parsnips

Given the odd carrot colors on display at the country's most upscale market, you'd be forgiven for thinking that parsnips are nothing more than beige carrots. They are cousins,

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

SFist in the Kitchen: Cheese Fondue

When was the last time you dunked bread cubes into a simmering soup of liquid cheese? Fondue went out of fashion in the 1980s, but only after it had been in fashion so

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

SFist in the Kitchen: Onions

But in the cold snap of winter, root vegetables come to the front. Gone are the vibrant, ripe tastes of summer produce; gone are the warm, mellow flavors of fall. The intense, peppery

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

SFist in the Kitchen: Risotto

We remember the late 90's when every food magazine offered the definitive risotto technique. Writers trudged to Italian villages to learn how rural matrons made this popular dish. Even as newbie

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

SFist in the Kitchen: Chestnuts

Peeling techniques and dish suggestions after the jump. Photos by Melissa Schneider

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

SFist in the Kitchen: Jujubes

We're not sure why Chinese dates, as they're also called, haven't made more inroads into Western cuisine, though some historians think that Homer's lotus-eaters

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

SFist in the Kitchen: Lettuce

These days, it's not easy being greens. No sooner had newspapers tired of the spinach-borne onslaught than another Salinas company issued a voluntary recall on its lettuce. Photo by Melissa

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

SFist in the Kitchen: Pan Sauces 101

Every cook wants their guests to swoon over the food, and few things induce fainting spells like a velvety, savory sauce. A good sauce transforms a dish from simple to elegant, but few

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

SFist in the Kitchen: Summer Sorbets

You can buy sorbet, but a little effort will give you the chance to try bold new flavor combinations. We recently made white peach-ginger sorbet, and friend of SFist meriko told us

Arts & Entertainment

SFist Plays Perplex City

We found the Rubik's Cube behind some puzzle books, led there by clues around the Main branch of the library. Once solved (by taking it apart and reassembling it; we'

Arts & Entertainment

Perplex City Hunt Clue

We're not just announcing today's live Perplex City event, we're also one of the destinations on the citywide scavenger hunt. Solvers today will find some puzzle that

Arts & Entertainment

Caution: Puzzle Solver Crossing

Keep an eye out for groups of people doing weird things all over the City on Saturday. No, no. Different weird things. The company behind Perplex City has organized a major live event

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

SFist in the Kitchen: Tomato Taste Test

We used tomatoes from the Grand Lake Farmer's Market and stored them at room temperature overnight to keep their flavor at its peak. We sliced them just before the tasting, since

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

SFist in the Kitchen: Garlic

But there are 200 or more strains of the famous aromatic, and each tastes different from its cousins. Some have more heat, some have less. Layers of taste can suggest spices or herbs.

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

SFist in the Kitchen: Simple Summer Supper

Great ingredients make great food, and all you have to do is get out of their way. Here's a casual summer meal we assembled for the test kitchen staff. This weekend,

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

SFist in the Kitchen: Dinner Parties

Not anymore. We've conquered our entertaining woes. And we want to help you pull off your own special dinners for friends or loved ones, because we're sure they'

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

SFist in the Kitchen: Pairing Wine and Food

We thought we'd share some of our wine-pairing tricks to help you decide what to drink with your next meal. There's no great mystery. Use a couple guidelines

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

SFist in the Kitchen: Garlic Scapes and Others

Thin garlic scapes bend into graceful arcs as they emerge from the soil, creating a striking vegetable. The center becomes wooden as the garlic ages (hence the hard neck in hardneck garlic), so

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

SFist in the Kitchen: Sorrel

The tapered point of a bright green sorrel leaf stands out at the market, but that leaf's tartnessfrom high levels of oxalic acidstands out on the plate. Take a

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

SFist in the Kitchen: Goat Cheese

Of course, we weren't alone in those dark, pre-goat cheese days. Thirty years ago, few Americans knew anything about this French staple. A woman named Laura Chenel went to France

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

SFist in the Kitchen: Beets

But even beet skeptics often cave when they taste roasted beets. The roots lose water in the long cooking time, leaving behind rich mixtures of sugars and flavor compounds. The technique is easy

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

SFist in the Kitchen: <i>On Food and Cooking</i>

The SFist test kitchen staff has a tiny list of essential food books. At the top you'll find Harold McGee's . Our copy's tattered cover and stained pages

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

SFist in the Kitchen: Kumquats

Winter is on its way outyou can tell by the storms and hailbut before you bid adieu to citrus, hunt down some oh-so-cute kumquats at your local market. The