Notes from the Weekend: January 20

Notes from the Weekend is a feature that sees the members of Team Meal Ticket compiling all the food/drink highlights uncovered during prime eatin' time, Friday to Sunday. Adam took the weekend off so it's just caroline chiming in this week. We'd love to hear all about YOUR weekend eating adventures in the comments. Go for it! (View past NFTW installments at citypaper.net/notes.)

Adam Erace: AE

Caroline Russock: CR

If you follow me on Twitter (@adamerace) you know I spent most of this weekend in San Francisco, where I was working, which means eating. The Bay Area's vertiginous streets are packed with restaurants—some of the best in the country. Here's a look at some of the best things I ate there this weekend.—AE

Friday: This is kind of what dinner at State Bird Provisions, Bon Appetit's best restaurant of 2012, looks like. Chefs/owners Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski augment their short written menu with rolling carts wheeled through the snug dining room; you pick what you want dim sum-style. Highlights: crispy pork belly nuggets with fish sauce, jalapeños and Asian herbs; nori crackers topped with cubes of hamachi; Brussels sprouts with bonito; the signature fried quail; persimmon granita and matcha ice cream sandwiches.—AE

Friday: The must-order roast chicken for two at Zuni Cafe, a San Fran institution that's become even more of an icon since its godmotherly co-owner, Judy Rodgers, passed away last year. Get a load of that beautiful mustard green salad in the middle; you can't see the charred, oil-drenched hunks of bread beneath, buried like treasure.—AE

Dinner at Rosa Blanca for the third Friday night running dinner. This time we went with the churrasco, a mojo-marinated skirt steak, masitas de puerco (little chunks of fried pork shoulder over a bed of sweet cornmeal), queso frito, avocado and rice and beans plus some wonderful gin-Aperol-grapefruit cocktails, a few glasses of rose and a couple of Bohemias.—CR

I spent most of Saturday day catching up on season two of Mind of a Chef (everyone else id dying to drink beers with Sean Brock, right?) and snacking on leftovers from Percy Street Barbecue. That house made potato bread is no joke. Looking to mix it up a little on Saturday night, I set out on a New Jersey adventure which included an evening of standup at Casa Carollo Italian Grille (the headliner was "China's number one comedian") and a couple of beers at Jay's Elbow Room before heading back to the city to finish off the evening with too many High Lifes and questionable whiskies at Bonnie's Capistrano Bar.—CR

Saturday: Meet the Rebel Within, courtesy of Craftsmen & Wolves, a chic, sleek bakery in the Mission. It's a savory sausage muffin with a slow egg baked inside and it is absolutely as awesome as it looks. Pastries here (root veg/harissa croissant, grains of paradise morning bun) reminded me of High Street.—AE

Saturday: This is the lumaconi pasta dish at Tosca Cafe, a longtime San Fran bar that's been masterfully reborn by New Yorkers, Ken Friedman and April Bloomfield. Bitter puntarelle, rich prosciutto and crunchy lemon-enhanced breadcrumbs accented these al dente shells, which derive their name from the Italian for snail.—AE

Saturday: These smoked potatoes at Bar Tartine were one of the best things I have ever eaten—papery crisp skins cracking open to reveal soft, steamy insides suffused with  smokiness. Proclaimed my friend, "They transport you right to the edge of a campfire."—AE

On Sunday I headed back to Jersey for a suburban one-two of lunch at Chipotle and shopping at the bustling (read: crazy) Wegman's. Back at home I set out to recreate the guava and cheese pastelitos on the menu at Rosa Blanca. They turned out pretty damned good.—CR