Pork charcuterie, I believe it was rillettes, from Flour + Water in SF.
Flour + Water is a modern Italian pasta and pizza place in San Francisco’s Mission district, and since I’ve moved to the Bay area, it’s been recommended to me constantly. I figured it was time to see what all the fuss is about.
If you like food, food or food, I think you might like this post. If you don’t, you probably found this page by searching “big ass hoes”, the most commonly used search term that leads to my blog (no joke). Welcome. I knew my love of swearing would come back to bite me in the ass eventually, but hey, while you’re here, how about some food porn?
Flour + Water change their menu daily, and I had had a few too many glasses of red wine to remember to grab a menu before leaving, so I’ll do my best to remember what all these wonderful dishes were.
This was like a white fish crudo. It had seabeans, which look and taste like tiny, salty asparagus, and I haven't seen those since Australia! This was a great appetizer, really refreshing with a hint of tarragon.
This was a salad that probably had a really fancy name that would have made you hungry. And here I am, calling it salad.
Another fish appetizer, I believe this was another white, mild fish served with artichoke hearts
The best dish of the night, hands down. I believe these were homemade agnolotti stuffed with smoked pork belly, and topped with a light sauce that had peas and tarragon in it. I really enjoyed how they paired a rich, smoked meat with the light sauce. SO good, this dish.
Homemade pasta with porchini mushrooms. This was a good dish, but I had eaten the pork belly first, which was a mistake, because all other pasta dishes lacked in flavor compared to it (which is my fault, not the chef's). I should have started with this one!
Another pasta dish, this one was more like a light lasagna with a tomato-y sauce and sausage, I think pork. I really enjoyed this one. You can totally tell they make their pastas fresh daily.
The osso pizza at Flour + Water: roasted bone marrow, fontina, rabe leaves & fresh horseradish. While others at the table loved this, I thought it tasted like a pizza coated in a rich brown sauce, and nothing else. I really felt like the pizza needed some acid or something to cut through the rich bone marrow.
The carbonara pizza at Flour + Water: bacon, hen of the woods mushrooms, spinach & egg emulsion. There is nothing I don't like in that list, and yet...this pizza was not good. The bacon was rich, the egg emulsion tasted like a rich hollandaise, and like the osso pizza, there was nothing to cut through the richness. Plus, their pizzas are all charred on the bottom, which is how they do it, but it tasted overwhelming on the bottom of an unbalanced pizza. By far, the pizzas were my least favorite.
The sea bass secondi with stuffed squash blossom, basil squash purée, romano beans & chili. This was okay. My only complaint? How can you charge more for this dish than the appetizer fish, which is essentially the same portion? The menu was meant to be shared, but this was small and really hard to share, especially as a secondi. You sort of expect more.
Macerated strawberries with a celery seed cake and olive oil ice cream.
The chocolate budino, a super rich pudding topped with espresso caramel cream and sea salt. This was great, small, but so rich, there was plenty to go around the table.
In the end, after one meal there, I would recommend Flour + Water for a group meal if you had the apps, homemade pasta and dessert, but skip the pizza.
~LTG!
************
Flour + Water Restaurant
2401 Harrison Street
San Francisco, CA
415.826.7000
