Foreign Cinema - Happy Birthday, BanYo!

Restaurant: Foreign Cinema
Address: 2534 Mission Street b/t 21st and 22nd, The Mission, SF
Cuisine: French, New American
Date Last Visited: January 15, 2008
Dining Partners: Ate Di, BanYo, and Miko

So my soul-sistah BanYo was celebrating his 24th birthday. Good Lord are we THAT old already? A week prior, BanYo, Ate Di, and I were on three-way (because us girls do that) to decide where we were going to eat for dinner. We literally went through every restaurant on the Dining About Town (DAT) website. Ate Di and I had always wanted to try out Foreign Cinema, and since Miko lives literally a block and a half away (you lucky man you), this was a great chance to.



Now let me tell you how excited Ate Di and I were when we made our way to the hostess. Love at first sight! It seriously reminds me of a movie theater: you have to walk down a long hallway to get to your movie, and that’s what you have to do here. The hostess table is almost like a ticket agent or ticket collector before you can go in. Very cute.



Our hostess explained that it would be a little while before we were to be seated since not all of the menus were printed out. It was fine with us, so we went to the bar for a drink. I love the décor with the candles lighting the way...So romantical.



While we walked to the bar, I kept saying, “I love it! I love it! I love it!” I just loved the big fireplace and vibe of the whole place. I was having a simultaneous mental and gastronomical orgasm.



BanYo got a glass of champagne and I got my usual b!tch drink, a midori sour. This has been my “usual” ever since My Sweety K introduced them to me back at our Ritz stay 4 years ago:



And a few minutes later, we were seated outside in the courtyard. C’mon, how can you NOT sit outside at Foreign Cinema? It was a bit chilly out in the streets, but good thing they had their heat lamps going.



They started the movie a few minutes after we sat down, but I forgot what it was. All I remember was that it was in Italian.


Then it was time to eat! We got some bread and butter. Tell me why we asked for this tow more times after we finished this one. Hey, we like bread! As far as ordering, I went for the DAT menu for 32 bucks. Everyone else ordered regular items. I’ll indicate which items are DAT items with the a la carte prices.


Sonoma foie gras torchon, tamarind onion chutney (Urban Picnic - $15). The only other time that I had had a bite of foie gras was in July of 2007 at Michael Mina. I’m not a liver-girl, but I found it quite tasty. Maybe it’s just cow liver that I am afraid of, but fat goose liver is all good. The sliced foie gras sat on very thin toasts and a tangy sauce was drizzled on top. Good Lord have mercy, was this foie gras rich! It was like eating a pat of butter, but not. =) I don’t know how else to describe it other than BUTTERY. The little salad in the middle went well with each bite. For me, I wouldn’t order it for myself, so sharing is okay because it’s just too rich for my tongue. I’m a simple gal. ;)


Grilled sea scallops, roasted potatoes, red curry sauce, pappadom, cilantro (Premieres - $12): this was a favorite. We ordered with the intention to share or to at least give each other a bite. Yeah, the bad part about this dish was that there were only two scallops, so we had half a scallop each. But damn was my scallop so sweet and succulent. They were cooked perfectly. Or should I say, “barely cooked perfectly.” The outside was charred from the grilling, but the inside was still a bit rare. So good. The roasted potatoes swam in the creamy and slightly spicy red curry sauce. That sauce was so good. We ended up dipping our bread in it to sop it up. This was good sauce, so there was no way we were going to put it to waste. That chip looking thing, the pappadom, that sat in the middle of the scallops was something we were unfamiliar with. I thought it tasted like a shrimp chip, but after further research after dinner (actually while I am typing this), I found out that it is an Indian flatbread that is typically made with lentils or chickpeas. I do not know what this particular wafer was made with, but it was okay. I’m not a huge fan of shrimp chips in the first place, so this was just okay. But overall, this is a dish we wished was bigger.


Warm duck breast salad, watercress, fennel sauce, sour cherries, rich pate toast (Premieres - $11). I am so jealous that Ate Di had this as her first course. I love duck, and again the last time that I had some really good duck was at Michael Mina. This was actually very similar to the course I had there. The duck breast was nice and fatty. I love that about duck. I liked how the tartness of the cherries cut through the slight gaminess of the duck meat. All in all, great dish. Yeah, I was feeling a little jealous. =) The duck also came with a pate toast. Yeah, I was reluctant to try it, and after a small bite I found it to be well, livery? Like I said, I’m not a liver girl, so the toast was alright.


Soup: escarole and onion with croutons, gruyere, & harissa (Premieres - $7.5 - DAT) My soup. All this week, I felt like crap because I came down with a cold, a really bad cough, and plain brain exhaustion from work. I haven’t worked in a while, so getting back in the money-chasing groove is still a little rough. It’s getting better each day, though. Anyway, I felt really under the weather, so I thought that soup would help warm me up. It’s a basic broth with the escarole and croutons swimming in it. It did remind me of a soup we have in Filipino cuisine called nilaga, so it was not mind-blowing like it was a soup I never had before. I thought that it was going to look like a French onion soup with the soup in a cup, with a piece of bread and melted cheese on top, but not so. It was just okay for me. By the time it got to me, the croutons were real soggy, but eh. Just okay.


Fried paprika-curry chicken: spiced cauliflower, caviar French lentils, kishmish (Features - $20 - DAT). Why did Ate Di make me so jealous all night? Her plate of chicken was huge. Two pieces of perfectly fried chicken with reconstituted raisins on top. They sat on some cauliflower and lentils and kishmish? What on Earth is kishmish? Turns out that kishmish are a fancy way of saying “raisins” which I already touched on. I got to sample the chicken and it was delicious. The coating was not greasy, perfectly crisp and scented with the paprika and curry. It was not too strong, which was fine. What I loved about the chicken was that it was so moist. You really are lucky when you find a fried chicken with moist meat and a crispy coating. This is a grand example. Ate Di! I wanted more, but I didn’t want to look like a baboy (pig). Ha!


Moroccan pork tenderloin, couscous, braised turnips, fig sauce, mint, pistachios (Features - $25 - DAT). Speaking of baboy…this was my pork tenderloin. I wanted to get this because 1) it was one of the choices for the DAT and 2) I haven’t had Moroccan in a while. The meat was tender and cooked flawlessly. Sometimes pork can get rubbery and tough when you treat it bad, but the chef has done right here. I liked the little salad on top, but the couscous was a bit off to me. I don’t know what was about it, but it tasted putrid to me. I know that it’s a horrible thing to say, but I had only two bites and ignored it for the remainder of the meal. Ate Di and BanYo said they liked it, I was not a fan. Aside from that, the Moroccan flavors really came through. There was sweetness from the fig sauce and a freshness of the mint. The pistachios added earthiness and crunch. I was not really into the braised turnips either, but other than that this dish was good.


Tolenas Farm’s quail w/ quinoa stuffing: apple-celery root puree, red endive, foie gras butter (Features - $25). This was BanYo’s quail. This was only the second time I have had it, but I would have it again because of this version. He gave me two little drumsticks and they were so tasty. I loved the caramalized skin and the tenderness of the meat. He gave me his endive because he’s doesn’t roll with endive, but I found them delicious. We should have traded: my couscous for his endive. I tried the apple-celery root puree (which I thought were potato mashers), and it was not as starchy as I thought it would be. Not bad, though. Talk about decadence with the foie gras butter! I should have stolen that from him. Good choice, BanYo!


Grilled bavette steak, hedgehog mushrooms, roasted sun chokes, fingerlings, cilantro salsa (Features - $28). This was Miko’s steak. Yeah, I was jealous of this one, too. CILANTRO SALSA? Betchabygollywow! I love cilantro and how verdant it is. I love how pink the steak was. Miko and I like it pink. (And Ate Di likes raw meat more than gay guys. Inside joke during dinner. Haha! Not meant to be offensive.) Miko, great choice. You really can’t go wrong with a medium rare steak with potatoes and cilantro. Are you kidding me? If Miko wasn’t there, I probably would have ganked that.


Dessert time! Gateau au chocolat, peanut butter truffle, huckleberry sauce, walnut praline (Desserts - $7.75). Miko’s dessert was so good. Gateau au chocolat means chocolate cake, so I thought a hunk of birthday sheet cake would come out, but NOOO, never at Foreign Cinema. It was smooth, more like a mousse cake. Chocoholic alert! You should jump on this cake if you get a chance.


Chocolate pot de crème with crincle cookie (Desserts - $6.5). This was my choice because it was the first on the dessert menu and it sounded way too good. I appreciated the whipped cream on top and the chewy, fudgey cookie on the side, but I found the chocolate pot de crème to be a bit too “dark.” I’m more of a white chocolate/cream girl, but good thing Ate Di is a dark chocolate girl, so we traded.


Chamomile citrus crème brulee with shortbread cookie (Desserts - $7). This was her crème brulee which I traded my pot de crème for. She said she wasn’t too crazy about it, but I liked it more than my own dessert, so it worked out. There was a sugar shell, of course, but I found the layer to be too thick and burnt-tasting. But underneath that was a luscious custard with a floral taste and tangy bite. Hey, why didn’t I get this in the first place? I wasn’t thinking. The shortbread cookie was just that. A shortbread cookie. Interesting take on the traditional crème brulee. Don’t you love the little Foreign Cinema tag underneath? It’s there just in case you forget where you were. I needed it because it was almost hard to believe that were in the middle of the Mission.


Happy 24th Birthday, BanYo!


Affogato: mocha ice cream with cardamom, mint, and a shot of espresso (Desserts - $6) I had a small spoonful of this and the mocha ice cream was really good, but I thought that the espresso was a bit too strong for me. Hey! Disclaimer: I am a white-chocolate-mocha-frap-double-blended-with-whip-and-caramel-on-top type of a girl. I have a MAJOR sweet tooth, so the espresso is probably perfect for espresso aficionados.


Now let me tell you about our server Jennifer. She was AWESOME. She brought out BanYo’s dessert with the candle and starting singing “Happy Birthday” without us having to tell her. She was very engaging, helpful with the menu, and so very sweet. She gave us these CD’s as parting gifts. Do they do this for everyone or were we truly special? She also gave us this:



The night’s menu signed by Chef John Clark himself. C’mon, you have to admit that’s pretty awesome. Jennifer didn’t have to do it, but when I asked her if was able to keep one of the menus, she went back to the kitchen and had a few of them signed for my partners and I. Mahalo Jennifer!

In conclusion, I would like to say that I am so happy that I celebrated with my best friends here. I find myself so lucky to have friends with the same food interests as I do. As far as the bill went, it was just over $225 for the four of us, excluding tax and tip. Though I ordered from the DAT selections, I was charged full price. I guess the entire table has to do DAT to get the savings. Eh, it’s okay. By the end of the meal, I was so tickled that I really didn’t even care. Foreign Cinema is like an oasis in a wasteland called The Mission Desert. I forgot where I was for a few minutes. The Mission? Miko, who lives two blocks down, said that he could hardly believe it himself. We have to give the Mission some credit though. I have eaten some of the best food I have ever tasted here (Farina, Bi-Rite, Tartine, etc.) and I am so pleased that it is incredibly rich with culinary diversity. That is why I am so jealous of Miko. Walking down the street back to his apartment and passing the bacon-hot-dog vendors on the corner, I told him that I wished I lived here. Call me crazy, but it’s the truth!