Smoked Wagyu Picanha Pho @ Shank & Bone

A lazy but appropriate description of pho would be “a far more interesting chicken noodle soup.” Shank & Bone owner Han Tran’s family has been involved with Vietnamese restaurants for years. For S&B, she merely cranked up the investment in food—such as using Snake River Farms meat and doubling the amount of bones that steep in the broth in their pho. Bones are the life force of soup. And so S&B’s Smoked Wagyu Picanha Pho is luscious with flavor and collagen, which apparently (according to Instagram) prevents your face from falling off.

The Vaquero @ Barrio Dogg

Calling this a hot dog is like calling chilaquiles “chips.” What an obscene and glorious gesture Barrio Dogg has thrown at the world: Start with hot dogs (good ones, 100 percent Brandt Angus beef) and then just unload a quinceañera buffet on them. They’re full Mexican feasts, with dogs of significant size shouldering the load. I drive there occasionally to stave off the pandemic sads, and the other night The Vaquero was everything the cold, rainy night called for: chile con carne, crisp melted cheese, jalapeño bits, red onion, salsa verde, sour cream, Cotija cheese, crunchy garlic, and cilantro. Get a fork ready.

Panang Curry @ Saffron Thai

Some people have religious texts. One of mine is The Elements of Life, the cookbook from Su-Mei Yu, founder and chef of Saffron. And the one recipe that I’ve cooked so much—and is so good that it’s keeping my family from begging me not to cook—is her panang curry. Coconut simmered with a bloom of ground ingredients like galangal, lemongrass, garlic, Thai chiles, coriander, cumin, you name it. A master and her dish.

Pink Sauce Pasta @ Bencotto Italian Kitchen

Good restaurants can flash moments of divinity—a dish here, a dessert there. Great restaurants are those that are consistently excellent over a long stretch of time. When it comes to Italian in San Diego, that’s Bencotto. Chef Fabrizio Cavallini and his team make the pasta fresh every single day, and the pink sauce pasta is their catnip. Tomatoes and cream and—the difference maker—ground pork belly, which is fattier and more luscious and good for your chakras no matter how misaligned or bent.

Clam Chowder @ Blue Water Seafood

If you know anything about the Braun brothers, who own Blue Water Grill, you know they were born and raised by parents, yes, but also by the sea. The top fishermen in Ocean Beach were their extended family. So hyper-fresh, high-quality fish was, and is, the whole idea behind their shop. So, get the sashimi. Order local tuna by the pound and grill it at home. But also, as the brutal 50-degree San Diego winter chills us to our super-sensitive bones, order a big cup of their clam chowder. Take it to the sea wall 100 feet from the shop and stare out at the gray ocean, moodily and contented.

Clam Chowder

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The post 5 Hot Dishes for the Brutal San Diego Winter appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

On June 4, San Diego gets a new force in Vietnamese food. Michelin-awarded, James Beard “Tastemaker” Michael Bao Huynh heads up Sovereign Kitchen + Bar, a concept from Asian restaurateur Alex Thao (Rama, Lucky Liu’s). Sovereign takes over the marquee corner spot at 5th and Island Streets in the Gaslamp (formerly Royal Thai). It’ll be the first and only Vietnamese restaurant in Downtown (outside of pho noodle joints), located right next to the incoming $100 million Pendry Hotel.

Huynh grew up in Saigon and learned to cook at the side of his mother. The family fled Vietnam by boat in 1982 and were rescued from open waters by the USS Midway, now stationed in San Diego. Once landed in New York, he changed his name to Michael (in homage to Michael Jackson), and eventually opened a series of restaurants in New York—OBAO, Baoguette, Bao 111, Mai House, Bia, Pho Sure, etc.—becoming one of the city’s top names in Vietnamese food.

New York Magazine once named Huynh the city’s “Best New Chef,” and Michelin twice gave him a Bib Award for OBAO. In 2013, he returned to Vietnam and coached the nation’s team for the 2014 Asia Pacific Bocuse d’Or.

Thao and Huynh also operate the to-go concept next door called Food Shop (already open), which serves banh mis, pho, etc. Sovereign’s menu will include rolls (crispy fried crab, grilled pork meatball, etc.), salads (spicy grilled hangar steak), meats and poultry (wok-seared garlic beef bo luc lac, stir-fried lemongrass, crispy pork belly, coconut-curry chicken, etc.), noodles (pho, mi quang, bbq pork vermicelli, etc.) and rice options (crab-and-lobster fried rice, roasted duck fried rice, etc.)

It’s scheduled to open to the public June 4. For now, please enjoy the first known photos in the universe of Sovereign Kitchen + Bar. If the art looks familiar, it’s the same intense gal that graced the walls at the recently shuttered Gang Kitchen.

FIRST LOOK: Sovereign Kitchen

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