Simply Chaotic Cafe Fantastico - Parkside

Breakfast Board (10)

Poached Eggs & Beans (6)

Scrambled Eggs & Chicken (8)

As many of you know Fantastico is one of my personal favorites for it's commitment to working with great local food makers.  At the Parkside Victoria at 810 Humbolt, this location offers a breakfast menu that capitalizes on contemporary simplicity with neatly streamlined breakfast menu. Like it's other locations, it is tucked away humbly out-of-view  with a slightly smug confidence that their followers will take the time to visit.
The menu, on paper, is ideal in my mind, offering casual high quality ingredients such as local farm-fresh eggs, fresh artisan breads and cheeses and house made compotes.
Being relatively new, I'm going to cut them some slack as the set up is awkward and the service organization a bit adhoc. Two small rooms, one for the service counter and one for dining are connected by a narrow hallway, off of which the closet of a kitchen is housed. We sat down in the tiny but bright dining room and waited while we watched one service person buzz around in a state of busy confusion.  We searched for menus or some sign of the ordering process until we were informed that all orders were self serve at the counter.  After getting traffic jammed in the hallway, I found the main room  packed with people coming, going staying and ordering. It would be really simple for them to put in a POS system in the dining area and have a service person dedicated to running orders but for the time being that's just the way it's gonna be.
I wish I could say that the food was worth the minor frustration but it does need some work. The Breakfast Board ($10) was a bit sparse but offered  a nice local selection of meat, cheese and eggs. The Poached Eggs and Beans ($6) was a rustic country style presentation but somehow, while spiced, had an overpowering blandness to it that spicy-heavy beans sometimes do and was not calmed by the generous dose of hot sauce I treated it with. Chris had Scrambled Eggs with Chicken Confit and Potato Leek Gallette ($8) and it was intensely good but the presentation was a bit too simple bordering on diner-slanged eggs and over-fried hash.
Overall, it's worth a try but maybe give it a couple months to let them get used to the volume they are serving.  Further, with a menu that simple but with an orientation towards local fare I hope to see perhaps a bi-monthly feature come in with the Spring season.

And out of the mess...comes both bread and cheese!!!

So, last night at my bread making class at Cook Culture (2nd of a 3 part series on artisan bread making, with pastry chef and bread master, Brad Williams). We tackled the dough of baguette, focaccia, ciabatta, English muffins, crumpets and pizza. Sounds complicated but its all from a from the same dough that begins with a poolish or a pre-ferment. Not going to explain - most of you probably don't care either. The class was great...Brad us dinner out of the bread that was prepared and we had the best French toast i've ever had in my life (also learned that there are NO EGGS in french toast - just soak the toast in milk). Anyway, once again we took the dough home that we made. And once again...I ran out of time to get it into the oven ion the morning and it ended up on my baking tile at about 3:30. It turned out FANTASTIC!! I had intended on making a focaccia but it turned out to be an oiled ciabatta, I think. Whatever it looked like bread and tasted like bread. That victory, though, I have to count as bittersweet. I went through this last week...That first dough is made under supervisory council. Now its up to me to recreate the dough. I have no bakers scale which complicated matters further. And my kitchen, right now sucks (I should mention that I am in a different apartment than usual as my floors are getting redone...it's been a friggin disaster) - I have almost no counter space, galley style so no room for movement and has made my baking and cooking fiascoes that much more unmanageable. Anyway, the ciabatta turned out beautifully. I baked it with extra virgin olive oil, a chili-garlic mix and sweet onion. RAVE REVIEWS (for those of you who are reading this from afar - get closer...the spoils of the daily war I have with my kitchen go to my closest allies).

This particular post, I have decided is a two in one...I've backlogged some posts that need to ve aired to the public. Lets discuss Jill's Sink Cheese...
Yes, I made it at home and, yes my sink was involved but it's not as nearly as gross as it sounds.
So, Brad Williams briefed us on this last week and I thought I'd give it a shot...
-Take equal parts milk (fat percent doesn't really matter, I used 2%) and butter milk.
-Put them in a bowl and whisk together.
-Cover
-Put in your cupboard, where its warm and dry.
-Wait 3 days.
-Bring to a simmer on your stove
-strain through cheese cloth (someone said use nylons - don't - Cheese cloth can be found anywhere and is cheaper...try the Dollar store - DON'T GO HOBO IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO, is my motto)
-Let it drain (i drained over my sink...can be done anywhere you like (I DO NOT want to see any recipes out there called Toilet Cheese, please) - it will look like a feta with small curds but with a milder taste.
-Chill
-Eat!!

This was so easy to do and I ate it with a salad and with my oven-fresh ciabatta...amazing...

Really, my friends, if I can make fresh bread and cheese a success in my Ramen-ready, goof of a kitchen..so can you. That is all.