Dough

For those of you that think I only load up on fatty meats I want you to know that on Sunday I went out with my vegan friend, Diana. Actually, my excuse to come to San Francisco this time was to go to Diana's wedding. I really wanted to go because she was having it at 'Millenium' a very upscale vegan restaurant. Unfortunately, I thought it was the 13th but it's the 20th. I have to leave on the 16th. Just as well, she said because she'd be tide up with family.

So on Sunday we went to 'Herbivore' an inexpensive vegetarian/vegan cafe. I had some spicy lemongrass noodles with tofu. And hey, I loved every bite. So There!

Meanwhile back at the ranch and fatty meat. We went to 'Flour and Water' (www.flourandwater.com) last night. We started off with lamb tongue salad with a poached egg and salsa verde. Usually salsa verde is made with cilantro but this was made with mint. That was good but both Kathy and I thought the tongue had too much of a vinegar taste. We all loved the other appetizer: crispy pork and black truffle terrine with pickled red carrots.

Thank god I read 'Yelp' before we left or would have never thought to order the celery root tortelloni - melt in your mouth good. The beet chitarra (basically beet spaghetti) with braised octopus didn't fare as well. I make a fabulous beet gnocchi so I was pretty critical. There wasn't much of a beet taste and the octopus was too chewy.

The seared pheasant with the roasted pumpkin puree, quince and raisin- pine nut relish was the highlight of the meal. The pheasant was succulent. We fought over the last bites!

Quince is in season and like everything in season I eat as much as possible. I said the pheasant was the highlight, but the goat cheese torte with poached quince and candied Meyer lemon made this a memorable night. Oh the Italian wines were fairly priced and we each had a different glass to end the night, but Nick had brought a delicious Story Winery 2003 Picnic Hill old vines Zinfandel, which we started with.

Now I'm so depressed. I hate leaving San Francisco. If you don't hear from me it's because I've slit my throat.